Salt City Sinner

posted on 4/28/2018 by the Salt City Sinner Jim Dabakis, former State Senator and co-founder of the Utah Pride Center and Equality Utah, is running for Salt Lake City mayor. He’s got plenty of company; there’s a whole baseball team ’s worth of candidates running. I was very interested to read the following from Jim recently, via his Facebook page : I Am So Sorry, I Must Return Your Generous Campaign Contribution…  Dear XXXXXXX, I am returning your generous campaign contribution. With thanks. You have done nothing illegal or immoral. As a matter of fact, recently on an airport inspection visit, I was dazzled by the great work and progress being made by you and so many others who are building Salt Lake's future. However, I have made it a habit in my years of public service to not knowingly take money from people or companies where there might be future conflicts.  Sincerely, Jim Dabakis  (The contribution came from an out of state major contractor con...

posted on 4/24/2019 by the Salt City Sinner Because of my unconventional religious beliefs, I expect to be misrepresented and unfairly pilloried. Anyone who stakes out a controversial position that pushes the envelope of free speech or the free exercise of religion can expect some pushback, whether their cause be just (as is the case with the Satanic Temple or ACLU), unjust (conservative Evangelicals writ large, trolls like Roger Stone), or legally-protected but unconscionable (the alt-right, the Westboro Baptist Church). When right wing figures squawk, whine, and weep about how persecuted they are when people quite predictably hate what they have to say, I don’t think it’s the least bit in good faith, because as a Satanist – and, thus, someone whose speech is also often unpopular – I expect to have to deal with the social consequences of my beliefs. Now, on the other hand, the correction of lies and misrepresentations – I think that’s both fair and a productive use of ...

posted on 4/7/2019 by the Salt City Sinner Based on the content of Joseph Farah’s columns, repeated entreaties for donations from readers, weird and shifting business models, and the scuttlebutt in their comments section, I’ve had my suspicions about WND and Joseph Farah for some time now. The Washington Post doesn’t need to speculate or imply or have suspicions, though. Saturnalia arrived early this year in the form of a lengthy article , based on on-the-record information from former WND staff and internal emails. It establishes that WND is in dire straits indeed: “[Farah’s] realm is being sucked into a tornado of unpaid bills, pink-slipped employees, chaotic accounting, declining revenue and diminishing readership, according to interviews with more than 25 former employees, shareholders, company insiders and authors associated with the firm's flailing publishing units, as well as a review of hundreds of internal documents, including emails and financial stateme...