Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind brings the author’s Moral Foundations Theory to America’s political discussion, arguing that our political debates are often intractable because our political views are associated with six areas of taste developed over such a long period of time that there is little we can do to change the mind of our political opponents.
Last weekend, I attended my first party convention. I signed up because it was time to stand up and defeat Barak Obama for reelection and elect a conservative majority to both houses of the state legislature. I expected conservatives to band together and ready themselves for the fight. What I got was Occupy Ron Paul, a bunch of Paulians acting like democrats.
Alaska House Rules Chair Craig Johnson reacted with shock and disgust today upon hearing allegations made by Alaska Senate Rules Chair Johnny Ellis that the House made a deal with the Senate on end-of-session bills and that the House broke the mythical deal.
Late Monday the Mayor, flanked by City Attorney Dennis Wheeler and Police Chief Mark Mew, held a press conference to announce an independent investigation into Anchorage Police Department (APD) policies and procedures.
The election of 2012 will go down as one of the most famous in the city’s history. The unprecedented mismanagement of the election itself, as well as the strategies employed by some of the candidates, provide us with several important lessons for next time. Because this week there were too many honey badgers to count, we offer these key takeaways.
As we fully expected, the Anchorage Daily News came out on their editorial page in support of Prop. 5. What took us a bit back was this small statement at the bottom of the editorial. It was titled simply "A dissent" and it was written by Frank Gerjevic, the Editorial Page Editor for our State's largest and most "progressive" newspaper.
This week the public debate over voter proposition 5 took a turn for the worse. Coward, bigot, anti-semite, sexist, racist, dummy; all of these were used to describe anyone who has the audacity to oppose prop 5.
Alaskans in over 100 communities participated in Choose Respect marches yesterday. These marches are part of Governor Parnell’s plan to ‘end the epidemic of domestic violence and sexual assault.’ The gatherings raised awareness and provided opportunity for community members to show support for neighbors who have or who are currently in abusive relationships.
I am a 57 year old man who “came out of the closet” at age 39. I spent the next several years living the gay lifestyle, including being involved with the Imperial Court of All Alaska (ICOAA), the Alaska chapter of an international GLBT support and service organization.
It is fundamentally unjust to have a law in place that grants legal protections to a group of people on the basis of their religion while simultaneously excluding sexual orientation as a protected category.
In Anchorage, homosexual rights advocates are attempting to rally support for a proposed homosexual and transgender nondiscrimination law by comparing their effort to the historic civil rights struggles of African-Americans. So far, the comparison has met with resistance from local African-American pastors.
The hoarding of unneeded school buildings by the Anchorage School District is undermining taxpayer confidence. Our overcapacity of elementary schools in particular, is beginning to look like Imelda Marcos's shoe closet. Until the ASD effectively deals with excess school capacity, they will continue to have big problems garnering voter trust for new school bonds.
I'm not reflecting on a plastic Fisher-Price toy set --- I'm talking creative signs, Gadsden flags flying high, patriotic music and bad hot dogs. Held in Wasilla, naturally.
Here's what I love about being a right-winger, at our best moments. We have solutions.
Alaskans in over 100 communities participated in Choose Respect marches yesterday. These marches are part of Governor Parnell’s plan to ‘end the epidemic of domestic violence and sexual assault.’ The gatherings raised awareness and provided opportunity for community members to show support for neighbors who have or who are currently in abusive relationships.
While much could be written about the political challenge this book presents, we submit that the beginning of addressing the challenge comes with a clear eyed view of the political philosophy we consider ourselves to have adopted. Armed with the knowledge of the history and principles of conservatism outlined by Kirk, Alaska voters will be started on the right path.
