smed's Comments (30)

“Mr Hutchinson,

Great article.

One thing that seems to be missing from the health care conversation is TORT REFORM. This is a major component that is missing if we are going to be able to have true reform.

While I fully agree that health insurance companies can never have their clients best interests at heart when they are answering to the bottom line and stockholders, we need to remember that part of the reason that costs are rising so rapidly is due to exorbitant lawsuits.

While it is important to be able to claim restitution for a bad decision that causes major harm to a patient, our juries are all to willing to treat any case as a winning lottery ticket for the plaintiff. This must stop. Fair restitution, fine, but "winning the lottery" because of a minor issue that caused some mild grief and pain...”

“beautiful -- i would love to see that - go picket some mosques.”

“Very well said hoopesaz. Frank S - the author of this diatribe is grasping for straws here on obscure journals or the typical paraphrasing and taking things out of context that is so common amongst haters of Mormons.”

“True Colleen, "they are 'self described' fundamentalist Mormons" -

- but just because Vanilla Ice had a few hits doesn't mean he's a "rapper". :)

The lifestyle is "tolerated" as you said.... probably because for the most part they keep to themselves and live in very small towns or compounds off the beaten path --- has anyone ever heard of Colorado City, AZ, or Hilldale, UT before Warren Jeffs? They do not try to influence others outside of their circle - they just try to keep that circle closed very tightly.

The idea that the polygamist lifestyle is "tacitly encouraged" is laughable. Please tell us your source.”

“Anytime one talks about Polygamy and Mormons, it is difficult to select the right language. As a Mormon myself, I sometimes struggle with it. As you know, Mormons (of which there are more than 12 million) do not practice polygamy. As another reader mentioned - anyone who does so is formally excommunicated from the church. That means they are no longer listed as members of the church.

That being said, the way you make your case on the "Mormon Polygamists" uses a lot of language that is misleading and serves to promote stereotypes and misinformation. I realize that this is probably not your intent, however, it is misleading in the same way that people attempt to make insinuations that all Muslims are terrorists.

Instead of your header "The Mormon Polygamists", you might consider something like "Splinter Group Mormons" or "Small Groups of Radical Mormons" or similar. Neither of these is perfect because of course, technically, these folks are not Mormons, but because they are break offs of the mainstream, they will probably always be referred to as Mormons in some way by the general public. But, we need to be careful about lumping these break off groups in with the main body of the church.

As was illustrated by the Warren Jeffs case, they typically live in remote compounds or very small remote towns and try to stay clear of mainstream society. I'm not sure about this, but I wouldn't be surprised if most of them did not even vote.”

“As a society - we should try to stop this terror! Peter, thank you for posting this article.

VikingQuest - I think we can do both.”

“sorry sweetie pie -- your facts are wrong. the mormon church did not pay $25 M.
its members did. big difference.”

“I know I'm oversimplifying with this example, but the principle - I think - is accurate. The economy is stronger when the middle class has more money to spend. The Republican theory of giving more tax breaks to the top 5% and wealth trickling down to the rest of us has proven disastrous. It has only proven that those at the top are greedy and engage in practices that have caused our economy to spiral out of control downward. And now Johnny boy wants to give those wealthiest of Americans $86 billion in tax cuts while giving the middle class peanuts. Yeah, that sounds like a brilliant idea.”

“Let me explain it this way, a wealthy person walks into a Best Buy, picks out the largest, most expensive HD TV he can find and buys it. Chances are, he has what he needs and will buy no more. If his taxes go up, so what? He can still afford his TV, and he'll buy it anyway. On the other hand, twenty middle class people walk into Best Buy and want to buy an HD TV. A couple of them have saved for a while, and now have enough to buy a modest HD TV. A few more have room on their credit cards to splurge, and the rest are "just browsing" because there is absolutely no way they can afford that TV. Now the rich guy is going to buy his TV if he wants to regardless of his tax rate. He's ok. But wouldn't be better for our economy if all twenty of the middle class people had a tax cut and could have bought a TV as well? Best Buy gets more business and income, the TV manufacturers make more money from selling twenty one TVs rather than four or five, and can now afford to hire more employees or give higher wages or give better benefits.”

“A friend sent this to me recently and it rang very true:

Perhaps I'm just naive, but it seems to me that there are only so many really wealthy people, but there are a whole lot more in the middle class. Wealthy people can buy whatever they want when they want, and once they've bought so much, they're not going to buy anymore. On the other hand, there are a lot of middle class who don't have things they might want to buy.”

“Same here.”

“try checking out www.republicansforobama.org”

“LOVED THE ROLLING STONE ARTICLE -- if you haven't read it check it out for sure!”

“Ha ha ha!
If you haven't noticed ACORN and Ayers are already yesterday's news.”

“Yes, thank you, thank you!

Now, wold be amazing if you and some of your Hollywood buddies put together some ads with a shortened all of you saying parts of this editorial or similar -- play over and over in swing states.

Would work really cool against a black background with the occasional picture of some kind of travesty caused by Bush/Cheney for emphasis. End with something patriotic and upbeat -- a flag, the song I'm proud to be an American, the national Anthem, a picture of Obama or a combo of some or all layered over one another.”

“I agree -- I hated Hillary. But I'm over it now. We need to win and Biden is great, but he is not drawing any attention. We need to win this thing. Biden would be a great Cabinet member for sure. Hillary would have to come with many "conditions" == one being that she can't be a "back seat driver". But she could definitely help put this ticket over the top and cut McCain and Palin at their knees.”

“Ha ha CricketsMom! Try to keep up -- haven't you heard of www.factcheck.org ?”

“Good point Jenoah,

There need to be some ads with clear numbers.

A number of studies have been done that show Obama's economic plan is superior and endorsed by independent research.

A number of studies have shown that more people have jobs under dem presidents.

Let's start by branding TAX CUTS for the Middle class for the dems. Republicans have kept this as part of their brand far too long. Most of my uniformed GOP friends (that make less than $150K a year) still think that Obama will raise their taxes. (Insert ARRGGGGGHHHH!! In Charlie Brown voice)”

“He wrote it as a flurry of thoughts that Barack could be thinking...
I enjoyed it.”

“Yes, we do want our country back. At least half of us do. The other half are not stupid, they are just deceived.”

“I never saw Biden's comment on that, but it sounds like an awfully nice response.

Unfortunately (as I learned in HS) -- nice guys usually finish last.”

“Good point Wendynyc.

Obama has already proven he has the intellect -- and for the most part, the better educated of the country supports him. Now he needs to appeal to the emotion/heartstrings of the less educated middle class masses that have been brainwashed by the GOP emotional ploy.

They need to be able to answer the question -- What's in it for me?
How will Obama help me live the American Dream??? - He needs to articulate this more clearly and simply for them.”

“No more Mr. Nice Guy -- Barrack - you need to go for their throat!!!

They are scumsucking liars and manipulators and need to be exposed as such.

Put together an ad with all of McCains lies, and his smirky face...”

“KATLRS -- you are right on!

"Sarah Palin doesn't scare me, but what she represents - well, that is truly terrifying. Her face is the face of ignorance, narrow-mindedness, and militant anti-intellectualism all mixed up with a heavy dose of power-lust."

Reminds me of a "dumb jock" that gets elected prom king. The masses fall for the looks, and forget the character.”

“So they didn't like each other..... big deal.

McSame voted with Bush 90% of the time.
NINETY PERCENT% The DNA is the same, just the face is different.”