I still remember the replies when I told people I was going to the Sweden Stockholm Mission:

“Oh, that’s a hard mission!  I’ve heard everyone is a socialist there!”

“Isn’t that the country that has universal healthcare?  I’ve heard from my friends that it’s absolutely horrible.”

“Oh, I’ve heard that’s a really hard mission.  Will you be speaking German?”

A little over a year ago, President Uchtdorf met with other faith leaders at the White House to discuss immigration reform with President Obama. Today he attended a similar meeting and again made headlines.

Photo courtesy of lds.org

Last March, President Uchtdorf was quoted in the Salt Lake Tribune as saying,

"[President Obama] was talking about his principles and what he said was totally in line with our values."

The Supreme Court of the United States struck down aggregate campaign limits for individuals in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission. This, combined with their decision in Citizens United v FEC, represents what some have suggested is a bit of a problem. But why should we care? What is so bad about people being able to give money to the candidates and causes they believe in?

I hope to explore, if not answer, these questions in this post. As has been well documented in previous posts, Mormonism is a faith especially attuned to issues of the negative social and spiritual effects of income inequality. Mormon scriptures routinely decry income inequality and preach about the importance of fighting against it. And when big money is allowed to not only participate in, but dominate, the system of creating laws and regulations in this country, there is little doubt whose interests will be served by those laws and regulations.

This is a bit dated, but I think it is still relevant.

Note: Although my comments relate to President Obama’s 2014 State of the Union, I could do something similar for every president. Politically speaking, I think President Obama hit a home run.

The State of the Union, in my opinion, highlights some of the worst aspects about American politics. Over the course of my 25 years of existence on earth, the world has witnessed the birth of several breakthroughs in communication. The growth of the internet, mobile phones, consumer video conferencing, and tablets have completely changed the way most live. To give you some perspective, using a basic high speed internet connection, I just downloaded the entire Wikipedia database onto my computer...in just over 20 minutes. Never has communication been more instant.

First posted at McAffee's Machinations.

It has been almost two years since I reviewed a book by tea party constitutional guru, Cleon Skousen, The Five Thousand Year Leap:  28 Great Ideas That Changed the World (Ann. Ed. 2009).  See Cleon Skousen, the Tea Party, and Equal Rights Before the Law, April 12, 2012, in McAffee Machinations.  In that book Professor Skousen referred approvingly to the founding era’s harsh penalties for “the crime of ‘homosexuality,’” considering that it was—appropriately—viewed as a crime “against ‘the whole people,” virtually the equivalent of treason, cowardice, and desertion.

The Mozilla CEO just stepped down. Here's the Economist on what happened:

MOZILLA, the outfit behind the Firefox web browser and other software, has just lost its chief executive, Brendan Eich (pictured), who resigned on April 3rd after spending little more than a week in the job. His departure raises thorny questions about where lines should be drawn between leaders’ personal beliefs and their corporate roles. Mr Eich quit after a controversy blew up about his views on gay marriage.

Since the crisis in Ukraine took center stage in the news a little over a month ago, we could have added to the list of death and taxes another absolute certainty of life: that Republicans would blame the whole thing on Obama.

This interview is part of a series of interviews of Democrat candidates across the state from varying religious backgrounds. LDS Dems-Idaho recently interviewed Travis Manning about his current run for Idaho House of Representatives Seat 10A. We encourage you to learn more about him at www.votetravismanning.com.

This interview was conducted by Jon Young, an LDS Democrat living in Boise, ID.

When I marched down to the city office building in Brigham City to change my party affiliation, I couldn't help reflect on how much I had changed in twenty years. How is it that someone goes from being a Rush Limbaugh listening, fourth generation Republican, to becoming a member of the Democratic Party?

I think it’s safe to say I am very politically active in large part because of my upbringing in the Mormon Faith. My own father, who is a constitutional law professor, probably took as much interest in the Constitution as he did because of the importance placed on the document in our faith.

It is an interesting time for the Mormon Church to speak up about citizenship in a recent statement released to the public. I found the emphasis on religious freedom particularly timely. It’s an issue gripping and dividing our nation as we speak. While the Church takes no position on any individual bill right now, particularly the Arizona Bill vetoed by Governor Jan Brewer, this statement goes to lengths to emphasize the importance of not only religious freedom, but also for the need of the people of this nation to be a religious people to maintain freedom itself. No doubt Ayn Rand would totally disagree… but I digress.