Now that the weather has warmed a bit, we’re starting to organize more lunches. For the Provo crowd, it seems that the Novell cafeteria is a good options since there are lots of food options available. We’re now setting up a regular schedule of every first Friday of the month, at noon, in the Novell cafeteria. We’re also looking for others who want to start organizing lunches in the SLC area so that people up there can have a location to congregate. If anybody is interested, let us know.

Jordy has set up a Utah Liberty calendar to track Liberty Lunches and other related events:

URL: – http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=ddr3vnjvc107llapic90lqcji4%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/Denver
iCal: – http://www.google.com/calendar/ical/ddr3vnjvc107llapic90lqcji4%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics
Feed: – http://www.google.com/calendar/feeds/ddr3vnjvc107llapic90lqcji4%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic

We’ve changed the format of the lunches: starting today we’ll break them into Provo and Salt Lake, alternating every two weeks. Today’s lunch was in Provo (thanks to all those who came, we had a good discussion), so two weeks from now we’ll shoot for one in downtown SLC.

Today’s discussion focused on the bailout bill that was passed just as we sat down to eat. Much was said about the issue, and we had lots of great perspective added on the situation from those that attended. Who knows what will be the hot topic in two weeks? Given how quickly things are deteriorating, it’s anybody’s best guess!

Today’s Liberty Lunch focused primarily upon same-sex marriage, especially as it relates to the proper role of government. Arguments were made on both sides, and analyzed according to the moral authority of government to intervene in personal and private affairs, and regulate the marital contracts of free citizens.

We also discussed the nature of agency, and how it is affected by choice and morality.

We streamed the discussion live at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/liberty-lunch-broadcast and will do so again in the future.

Books/websites mentioned in today’s discussion:

• Two Treatises of Government, by John Locke
• Original Intent: The Courts, the Constitution, and Religion, by David Barton

I’ve created an email list for discussion amongst “Liberty Lunchers”. Feel free to sign up and invite others!

http://libertylunch.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion_libertylunch.org

We had eight people at today’s lunch; a few others couldn’t make it. We had a good time getting to know one another better, and some fun conversation topics.

Among other things, the following items were mentioned during the lunch hour, and I post them here for reference:

1. Newquist group/breakfast: http://newquist.org/
2. Newquist book (read online here, purchase here)
3. Another voice of warning online form: http://www.ldsavow.com
4. “Mormon version of Lew Rockwell” (LDS Freemen): http://www.ldsfreemen.com
5. Liberty Lunch website: http://www.libertylunch.org
6. Roger K. Young’s “As a Thief in the Night”: As a Thief in the Night (Roger K. Young)
7. “Prophetic Political Silence” blog post: http://connorboyack.com/blog/prophetic-political-silence
8. Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty: http://www.campaignforliberty.org
9. Supreme Court decision regarding Guantanamo (PDF): Boumediene v. Bush

And special thanks to Jody for the seven layered dip.

The first official Liberty Lunch will be held this coming Friday, the 13th of June. Be sure to bring your lunch and ideas for good conversation!