Two words: digital learning.

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There’s a lot we could talk about here, but let’s just focus on a couple of things.

First, it’s not surprising that subscribers to Reader’s Digest would choose Hollywood actors, especially these four actors. America lives a Hollywood culture. Entertainment is America’s No. 1 pastime. We watch way too much television. We get way too many cultural cues from gossip magazines about celebrities. And, for the most part, average Americans really do believe that Hollywood actors are more intelligent and more informed than them.

Only people my age and older would remember a time when Jack Klugman, a popular television star who once played a medical examiner named “Quincy,” was actually asked by a congressional committee in the early 1980s to testify on an orphan drug bill. By the way, that bill was being blocked by Utah’s own Orrin Hatch who eventually was swayed by the actor to vote for the bill. Klugman’s experience also was no doubt responsible for the popular expression, today spun by the Holiday Inn chain, “I’m not a real doctor, I just play one on TV.”

People believe Hollywood actors. But why shouldn’t they? Actors are acting. They get paid for us to believe them! And that leads us to a second point. It’s not a coincidence that Americans chose Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep as their most trusted Americans – these are four fine actors. Maybe the best Hollywood now has to offer. I watched Denzel in his movie “The Book of Eli,” about a blind post-apocalyptic survivor. Only you didn’t know he was blind until the end of the movie. That’s how good of an actor Denzel is. And that’s why Hollywood actors are enlisted for all sorts of serious and trendy political causes.

Would you believe Tom Hanks about space flight? The National Space Society does. Hanks is a member of its National Governing Board – all because he made a movie about Apollo 13. I’m not saying he doesn’t know about space flight. In fact, making “Apollo 13” had to be a fascinating learning experience. All I’m saying is that if I want to know about space flight, I’ll probably take the word of someone who’s actually flown in space, not an actor who plays an astronaut in a movie.

So let me ask you: Who is the most trusted person in your life? If that most trusted person is someone you’ve never met, you might want to get yourself a reality check. For me, my most trusted person is my wife, Sally. I have work colleagues I trust implicitly with my life. I also have a couple of neighbors whose judgment and care I trust unequivocally. And, like most Americans, there’s those one or two old friends that I haven’t seen in years who, if I needed them today, would be right there to care for me.

Then again, I never met Ronald Reagan and I’d say I trusted him with our country. In light of that, you might be wondering where America’s politicians fell on the Reader’s Digest poll? The first one to appear is Michelle Obama at No. 19. Former President Jimmy Carter came in at No. 24. Hillary Clinton ranked No. 51. And President Barack Obama is the 65^th most trusted American.

For Sutherland Institute, I’m Paul Mero. Thanks for listening.

The above post is a transcript of a 4-minute weekly radio commentary aired on several Utah radio stations.

Receive the Mero Moment each week directly to your iTunes by clicking here.

To see the chart and read the post on Sutherland Daily, click here.

The Blaze reported on an article from Chief Executive magazine listing the “Best and Worst States for Business.”

The top states are:

1. Texas
2. Florida
3. North Carolina
4. Tennessee
5. Indiana

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If you don’t know the answers, then click here to read the post and see the tax maps at Sutherland Daily.

Unlike the lawyer-dominated Philadelphia Convention, the top occupation of Utah delegates was farming, though lawyers were certainly represented. The president of the convention was John Henry Smith, and prominent delegates included Thomas F. Kearns, who would later be a U.S. senator and owner of The Salt Lake Tribune (and donor of the Governor’s Mansion), and Orson F. Whitney, who would later be a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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The Boy Scouts of America is scheduled to vote later this month on its proposed nondiscrimination policy on sexual orientation for its youth. I was asked by a BSA official to provide some thoughts on the subject in a letter and here are some of those thoughts. I wrote,

Sutherland Institute is sure of a few facts and consequences, if the policy is approved.

First, BSA is not being challenged legally on this issue. … In other words, this debate, as much as it has been unnecessarily contentious, is a self-inflicted wound for BSA.

Second, the proposed policy is a solution looking for a problem. The fact is that no one knows how many youth not in Scouting, but who would like to be, self-identify with a homosexual orientation. What everyone does know is that that number is unremarkably few….

Third, homosexuality, whether imagined or enacted, is incompatible with Scouting. … For a Scouter to think homosexual thoughts or to act on those attractions is not being one’s better self.

And, fourth, there is the issue of psychological and emotional abuse of a child. For BSA to passively accept the idea that a 10-year old has some irreversible homosexual “orientation” that seals his sexual fate for the rest of his life is psychological and emotional abuse of a child….

The consequences for BSA in passing the proposed policy are clear and obvious.

• On January 1, 2014, the unremarkably few youth who self-identify as homosexual are allowed into Scouting.
• On January 2, 2014, “gay rights” advocates will file a federal lawsuit claiming that the new Scout policy violates the “Equal Protection” clause of the U.S. Constitution by prohibiting “gay” adult leaders.*
• By January 3, 2014, media throughout the nation will exaggerate and over-report on the relatively few “gay” youth who sign up for Scouts – for a significant moment in time the new face of Scouting will be homosexuality.
• By January 4, 2014, media throughout the nation will underreport on the significant exodus of faithful Scouters and their families from the Scouting program.
• By January 5, 2014, in just one week, BSA will realize it just burned down the house to fry a piece of bacon in implementing the new policy.
• By the summer of 2014, a federal court will rule that BSA’s policy prohibiting “gay” adult Scout leaders is irrational and based on animus, ordering BSA to immediately reverse its historic policy and thereby trigger another grueling, costly and protracted lawsuit.
• And, at some point in 2014, everyone who has ever cherished Scouting will realize that it no longer represents what it once stood for nor can it possibly meet its historic purpose and mission to serve America’s youth….

BSA is a private organization. Sutherland Institute is concerned about public policy. As a significant institution of private culture, BSA’s decisions have enormous public impact. If it’s a concern at all, please know that BSA’s decision will spill over into public policy and influence generations of law and policies to come.

That’s what I wrote to the Boy Scouts.

For Sutherland Institute, I’m Paul Mero. Thanks for listening.

* BSA has a federal charter.

The above post is a transcript of a 4-minute weekly radio commentary aired on several Utah radio stations.

Receive the Mero Moment each week directly to your iTunes by clicking here.

Large majorities of young voters and self-described liberal voters (who in some cases, but not all, are the same people) voted for “cool” and understanding rather than good jobs … and it seems today that they are getting exactly what they voted for.

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In short, they are providing tools that help to educate children just as well as, if not better than, traditional methods, but for a much lower cost.

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This budget, according to White House budget projections, adds nearly $5.3 trillion to the national debt between 2014 and 2023 and creates annual deficits ranging from $439 billion to $744 billion over that time period. For perspective, adding $5.3 trillion to the national debt is the equivalent of adding nearly $17,000 in debt for every man, woman and child in America in 2012. And this, to America’s liberal political leaders, is what “living with in our means” looks like.

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