Cowering Donkeys

Utah Democrats demonstrate their primary skill: acquiescence. Resolutions carry pretty much no practical weight, yet they can offer the chance to deliver strong rhetorical punches. Running them is a strategy that Republican legislators, especially those struggling to distinguish themselves, embrace annually. Democrats, however, flail helplessly to get completely innocuous resolutions pass, and then let most [...]

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Cow Farts Create Hot (Legislative) Air

Global warming claims get legislators hot and bothered. Climate change happens, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. What is not happening, however, is a definitive reason attributable to man. People, put down the pitchforks, at least the ones pointed at me. That’s not my argument, that’s the argument made by Rep. Kerry [...]

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Hits & Misses: Rainwater, Senior Slackers, Democratic Revolt

Blooming Legislation Capturing rainwater is an easy “green” renovation for homeowners. It’s also illegal in Utah, something Senate Majority Leader Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City, wants to change. On Feb. 1, the Senate approved his bill with a 25-2 vote, which would allow property owners to collect up to 2,500 gallons of rainwater on their property [...]

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Nixing Nicotine

The e-cigarette is touted as the healthier alternative to smoking cigarettes, at least if the marketing is to believed. For at least some current e-cig users, the marketing is not a lie. Brian Anderson told the House Health and Human Services Committee Tuesday morning that the e-cigs, which are essentially inhaled shots of nicotine, have [...]

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Persecuted Mormons

Two front-page stories in Salt Lake City’s daily newspapers on a speech by LDS elder Dallin Oaks provides a stark example of the failures of the Deseret News as a news organization. In the Trib’s story, they zero in (appropriately) on a comparison that Oaks made to the backlash against Mormons for the anti-gay rights positions [...]

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Herbert’s Huntsman

Soon-to-be Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, a noted conservative, tabbed a well-respected moderate, Sen. Greg Bell, as his lieutenant governor Wednesday.  The selection will help Herbert is he gets to the 2010 general election, because of Bell’s support of such conservatively-reviled issues as gay rights.  Bell does not support gay marriage, but he does support at [...]

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Bolo ties and rifles

Democrats in Republican-dominated states such as Idaho or Utah are eternal optimists.  After every election trouncing, they still find things to raise their spirits.  Maybe they cheer the fact that they had a candidate in every single “important” race, or that they had repeat candidates who, even if they had lost multiple times, are getting name [...]

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