Salt City Sinner

Of the many issues facing Utahns, and of the many controversies percolating regarding the apparent conflict between the development of "nontraditional energy resources" and even the most basic attention to environmental quality, perhaps no recent development is more disturbing than the plan to open portions of Utah's wilderness to tar sand extraction. To their credit, the Salt Lake Tribune has provided some decent coverage of the ongoing public hearings on this subject. Also, local environmental daredevils Peaceful Uprising* are on this issue with a vengeance (hellraiser extraordinaire Ashley Anderson, who has written about this issue, is a guy worth following on Twitter - if you're into that kind of thing, follow him for some quality tweets - as a matter of fact, go ahead and follow Peaceful Uprising while you're at it). From PeaceUp's website : The UK’s Guardian called tar sands mining in Alberta, Canada the most destructive project on Earth. The United

I have absolutely no idea what exactly to make of this, but as a follow-up to this morning's shenanigans , this serves as a reminder that rumors, suspicions, and the madness of crowds can pretty much be discounted as so much nervous flailing, rather than a well-articulated belief one way or the other:

There's an ongoing debate among both people who voted for Obama and people who loathe Obama as to how cagey our president is. When Obama does something that boggles one group or the other, the question is often addressed in shorthand using the phrase "four dimensional chess:" as in, is Obama actually five steps ahead of his opponents strategically? Or is he flying by the seat of his pants? This question has been bothering me all morning, as Obama has apparently been goaded by professional jackass Donald Trump into addressing the Birthers by providing a long form birth certificate. As I write this, Trump is live on CNN gloating about his role in the release of Obama's documentation. The fact that the initial Birther response seems to be "well why didn't he release this sooner? What is he hiding, HMMMMM?!" is both obnoxious and predictable. Will this satisfy the Birthers? Oh my good God no. At WND, also known as Crazy Corsi's House of Clinically Insan

First off, apologies as I haven't kept up on this blog as I'd like to, but that's going to change right now. So, Glenn Beck, favorite punching bag of callow liberals like myself, is out on his ass at Fox News. Well, to be fair, Mercury Radio Arts (Beck's company, named in honor of Orson Welles) apparently still has a contract to produce content for Fox: According to GlennBeck.com, Beck’s production company, Mercury Radio Arts, will continue to work with Fox News on a new partnership where Beck will assist with development and production of a variety of television show productions for Fox News as well as other digital media holdings. No details were given on what the partnership might look like for Glenn Beck or Fox News. This is not even close to the end of Beck. My passion for horror cinema has given me a pretty apt simile to use here: Beck is like Jason the first time a teenage would-be victim lights him on fire or shoots him or drops him off a bridge. You just know