Salt City Sinner

Because my days do not already start with enough bile, black coffee and dread, I subscribe to the "Hatch Dispatch" (catchy!) to get my blood pressure pumped up. Senator Orrin Hatch's e-newsletter's most recent edition was entitled "Hatch Dispatch: Religious Freedom Under Attack." What has Orrin stirred up? Unfortunately the White House sharpened it's attacks on religion this week. The Obama Administration ruled that it was going to mandate preventative services, including birth control and emergency contraception, for health insurance plans, including those purchased by religious institutions to proving preventative services. An "attack on religion," Senator Hatch? Because of public health policy regarding women and their well-being? You ought to know what an "attack on religion" looks like, being a prominent member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - which, if I am not mistaken, was literally driven out of...

On Friday, Kristen Moulton from the Salt Lake Tribune wrote " Should kids who are legal immigrants wait for health care? " Of course, the obvious answer from both an ethical and public health perspective is "obviously not." No one  should have to wait for health care, since waiting reduces the chances of preventative care and always makes whatever incipient health problem may be present worse. While research on cost-effectiveness of preventative care indicates that it only saves money in some situations (research on that from the New England Journal of Medicine can be found   here  ), at least basic health treatment  in case of illness - let alone for children - is a basic human right, and should be considered part of any sane conception of a social safety net. From the Trib: On their tenth attempt, Vitalina and Harold Lazarus finally won the immigration lottery to come to the United States from Ukraine.  They and their three children landed in Salt Lak...

Captain America! An opportunity for community members to help their kids! Life is pretty sweet, sometimes. Captain America, whether you prefer the original flavor or the spicy new update , is a pretty impressive guy. Please, if you have children and spare time, come and experience something legendary. Captain America is nothing to sneeze at: Look at him. Manly, stately, representative of all that is best regarding "Patriotism." And yet, what is this? If you have youngsters, pack them into the minivan and get your hindquarters to the South Towne Expo Center on Saturday the 25th so they can learn to be safe, but more importantly - so they know for sure that superheroes are real, and that Captain America is there to prove it.

38 days! We are only 38 days into the year, and already the Utah Legislature is off to the races, goofy-footed and earnest-eyed, bristling with handfuls of painfully crayon-scrawled legislation for our delectation. The Salt Lake Tribune chimes in on the latest from Representative Wayne Harper (R - West Jordan): [Rep. Harper] told the House Business and Labor committee that HB104 was a way to stop Salt Lake City's [anti-idling] ordinance, which he said was anti-business and put a strain on local police charged with enforcing the measure.  But his bill had an added complication that Rep. Todd Kiser, R-Sandy, was struggling with -- the addition in the bill that sought to eliminate Salt Lake City's requirement that taxicabs and limousine companies replace vehicles with more than 350,000 miles on them or that are more than seven years old in an attempt to reduce pollution. I spent a good 20 minutes looking for a photo where Harper DOESN'T look like a smug dick; I didn...

Actually, I prefer the term "Vermontaineer." Vermont is the Green Mountain State, and is occupied by formerly majestic mountains that have since been worn down to adorable nubbins. Despite the cute state of these eroded monoliths, the topography of Vermont has lead to an easy and dismissive label for those unaccustomed to mountain life: "flatlander." I am pleased to be hailing from this beautiful state, I am certainly not a flatlander, and I hope to have much to offer our readers seeking for legal explanation for the crazy cult of Utah politics. As the learned CR Bernard noted this week , Representative Ken Sumsion (R – American Fork) has introduced a bill funding an action to end federal jurisdiction over federal public lands in the great state of Utah. For our readers’ knowledge, I did perform a quick check—Utah appears to still in fact be a member of the Union. Mr. Sumsion’s misguided attempt to shrug off the mantle of federalism is in keeping with such Tent...

As of tomorrow (probably) the lovely and brilliant Nicole will be joining us here at Salt City Sinner. She is a former Alaskan! Also a former Utahn, and a current Vermonter (Vermonteer? that honestly sounds cooler). Most importantly, her sharp and delightful mind is steeped in THE LAW. Nicole will be bringing some legal analysis to our rantings and ramblings here at Salt City Sinner. P Please, tomorrow, as you battle your gorge to keep your coffee down and try to accept that Donald Trump is actually a real human being with real power... ...and influence but  also at the same time a professional clown who wears funny makeup on TV - as you try to wrap your head around this like a greasy newspaper around a stale fish, take some time to welcome Nicole.

Yesterday morning, I was a little iffy about hauling my proverbial oats (and the proverbial oats of some guests) down I-15 to Provo to attend the anti-NDAA and anti-EEA protest there. A few people had canceled on carpooling, and the early morning was clear and bitter cold, with a sharp breeze floating through the Avenues. I shouldn't have worried. I wound up driving Greg Lambert of Crazypoliticos , my friend Jessica Lee (Twitter feed   here  , Flickr   here  ), and Jessica's friend, a polite gentleman named Tim. The trip down to Provo went very quickly, and we parked right in front of the Provo Courthouse. The day had warmed up beautifully, and there was already a small but very high-energy crowd gathered (this crowd grew in size as the afternoon progressed). A few quick words about the anti-NDAA/EEA protest. First off, "What," you may ask, "the hell are NDAA and/or EEA?" Glad you asked! A decent summary of NDAA  can be found right here . In brief...

Kudos to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, scourge of Governor Herbert's most fevered, sweat-drenched dreams. The BLM sent Herbert a love letter , and listen to Herbert whine and sputter: "This nonsensical, bass-ackwards, peekaboo policy is nothing more than political posturing by overreaching federal bureaucrats. With no science and no data [Oh, really, Governer? - Ed.], and with a wave of their federal bureaucratic magic wand, they can just take the bulk of the acreage off the market, stifle innovation, and demonstrate, yet again, that this administration is patently hostile toward even the possible development of much-needed resources." I've included that gem in its entirety for two reasons: first, it amuses me when a shovel-faced, colorless goblin like Herbert loses his temper, because it's invariably both quite a sight and prompted by the oddest things. Is Utah faced with an epidemic of sick kids due to air pollution by Rio Tinto? Herbert probably hums...

One of Utah's greatest assets is political cartoonist Pat Bagley , who has perfected the fine art of skewering Utah's idiotic legislature as the orgy of mutant dinguses that it is. One cartoon from earlier this year is proving particularly prescient: Right on cue, a passel of wrong-headed and hideous time-wasters are cropping up. Let's take a brief tour of how our lawmakers spend their time, shall we? First on the docket is Sen Aaron Osmond (R - South Jordan) and his mysterious, sneaky "file," which is apparently the first step on the journey to legislating human life as originating at conception (actually earlier than conception if they decide to Go Full Mormon and swing for the fences). Osmond has yet to touch match to gasoline, but according to the Salt Lake Tribune : [Osmond] hasn't decided if he will need a constitutional amendment to define when life begins. But he has opened a file for a resolution, which could simply state the sense of the ...