Salt City Sinner

  A WISE INVESTMENT! Business owners! Do they ever shut the fuck up?

posted on 7/30/2019 by the Salt City Sinner If you live in Salt Lake City, you’ve already received your ballot to vote by mail in the August 13 primary election for mayor (if you haven’t, you can vote in person – if you need to register to vote , you can do that too). It’s a crowded field, full of highly qualified, intelligent, and likeable people from diverse backgrounds, and it’s not exactly a hot take to say that almost any one of them would make an outstanding mayor. If you’d like to hear what the candidates have to say on a variety of issues, the Salt Lake Tribune has one fairly exhaustive guide and the Deseret News has another . The Let’s Go Eat Show, a podcast from Radio from Hell’s Bill Allred, has a fantastic series of longer-form conversations with many of the candidates as well (here are part one , part two, and part three ). Whomever we choose to head city government, she or he is going to have a lot on their plate: air quality and the inland port, home...

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 8/12/2015 by the Salt City Sinner I moved from Utah to the American South as a teenager, and pretty quickly learned that if you hail from the Beehive State, there are a series of extremely dumb questions you will be asked when people first meet you that would not be asked of someone from, say, South Dakota or Maine.  “Are you Mormon?” is obviously the first one – and a pretty reasonable question, all things considered. That is usually followed up with some sort of question about polygamy, however, which is lazy and ignorant and gets old remarkably quickly. Sometimes I would be asked if one can buy alcohol in Utah. This is, again, a not entirely unreasonable thing to ask, especially since many of these interactions took place back in the days of private clubs and membership cards – but it did strike me as a little silly given that I was often asked about Utah and booze while going to college in Conway, Arkansas, which is a town located in a dry county where sales ...

posted on 7/19/2015 by the Salt City Sinner If you are registered to vote in Salt Lake City, and if you haven’t been paying much attention to local politics, you are forgiven for being a little perplexed to find a mysterious piece of mail from the powers that be at City Hall in your mailbox. There’s a chance that it might be a big lucky chunk of unclaimed property, or an exciting notice that you are being sued by somebody (whether those types of mail actually originate at City Hall I am far too lazy to find out), but most likely it is your ballot for Salt Lake City’s 2015 mayoral primary election, which is being conducted entirely by mail. If you’re looking for advice, I’d say ‘for the love of god, do not read my blog for advice.’ Then, however, I’d say ‘ vote for Luke Garrott , City Councilman, Professor of Political Science, and All-Around Stud’ (full disclosure: Dr. Garrott is a friend and former mentor, which you should in no way hold against him). There have already been m...

A Photo Blog- Posted  by: ViewFinder 5.27.13 March 25,2013 at 12:00 several hundred Salt Lake citizens gathered together in solidarity against Monsanto and the law just passed and signed by President Obama-  H.R. 933: Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013 Apparently Monsanto has a very LONG ... DARK past, one that includes the chemical manufacturing of PCBs (Polychlorinated bipheryls)- which led to a $600,000,000 payout to residents of Anniston, Alabama.  During the early 1960's Monsanto was one of the producers of the toxic herbicide Agent Orange widely known for the death and disability brought to the people of Vietnam and the U.S. Soldiers who were also affected. After a little research I believe that Monsanto does not own Academi (Formerly Blackwater, also formerly XE).  However from 2008 to 2010 Monsanto has reportedly  admitted in email  that their relationship existed.  Reportedly it w...

posted on 4/14/2013 by the Salt City Sinner Yesterday marked the third annual Salt Lake SlutWalk, a   rally and protest  devoted to women’s issues in Utah – particularly, issues pertaining to sexual violence. The first SlutWalk started in Toronto in 2011 in response to a particularly ass-headed police officer's suggestion that women avoid rape by not dressing like "sluts," and the events have merrily metastasized over our humble continent and elsewhere since then. The event draws its name from both the practice of slut-shaming (best   defined  here for brevity’s sake as disparaging a woman for being sexually active) and for the all-too-commonplace occurrence of people excusing away rape by claiming that a woman’s “provocative” clothing or actions means that she “was asking for it.” Violence against women in Utah is a serious   thing : one third of the homicides committed in 2011 were domestic-violence-related, and almost half of separated or divorced...

Posted by: ViewFinder 11/18/2012 Photography by:  Melodía Gutiérrez As Thanksgiving Day rapidly approaches many Salt Lake families are struggling financially more so than in recent years past.  These families are now faced with not having the means to purchase the traditional Turkey for their Thanksgiving feast. For 13 years now a Salt Lake resident, Frank Cordova has organized within the Latino and Salt Lake community to gather thousands of turkeys to benefit families in need.   This year a call was put out in desperation pleading with the community to assist in the efforts of this amazing project "Annual Latinio Turkey Drive".  Because Mr. Frank Cordova (pictured above on the far right) has been quite ill and his focus has been a battle for his health as of late- it seemed as though the project would not reap the multitude of donations as in years past.  "Since I began this drive twelve years ago, every year I've been excited to see the community c...

A Photo Blog Posted by: ViewFinder 9/2/2012 On a "fun family adventure" this afternoon we wandered in the entrance of the Tracy Aviary found on the South West side of Liberty Park in Salt Lake City.  The foliage and the fowl were all stunningly beautiful... the human predator... NOT SO LOVELY!  Despite my MULTIPLE attempts to get this young boys attention he refused to discontinue his harrassment of this beautiful bird.  After yelling  at him a minimum of three times, (once screaming at him to "put the stick down RIGHT NOW!") I finally asked the other boys he was with, where their parents were.  Around the corner enjoying the site of vulturs tearing apart their pre-killed mice, were the parents of this young predator.  As I approached I asked the woman if the boy in the blue shirt was her son... jokingly she responded... "depends on what he has done".  I did not find the humor and explained he was stalking, chasing, and threateni...

Posted by: ViewFinder 8/26/12 While walking through Liberty Park on Sunday afternoon I came across Cindy Putnam.  I watched from a distance as she passed out colored fliers with information about her son who has been missing now for six weeks.  Robin Putnam was living in California, maintaining a normal life, had a job at a small coffee shop- then one day experienced a significant panic/anxiety episode. Video Interview with Cindy Putnam Robin was spotted on the train from California to Utah, and then again spotted in Murray and Sandy Utah about a week ago.  Robin was also spotted at Liberty Park, in Salt Lake City, UT on Sunday 8/19/12.  It is believed that Robin exited the train in Salt Lake during a lay over and never made it back on the train before it left.  Robin left all his belongings behind, including his identification.   Those that have seen him say that he is not asking for help from anyone but people are offering him help...

posted 7/27/2012 by the Salt City Sinner Willard "Mitt" "Mittens" Romney is in Great Britain right now, where the 2012 Olympic Games are what we in the character assassination / blog game call "a big deal." Such trips are part of the checklist for anyone running for president in the United States - a quick tour of various foreign lands of major or minor significance is a way for candidates to shore up their foreign policy bona fides, extend a friendly handshake to US allies - it's basically a debutante ball for American politicians stepping onto (or at least trying to step onto) the world stage. It was with some dyspeptic amusement, then, that I watched Willard attempt to step onto stage, and then instead step into  a big, steaming pile of controversy and negative press. Willard was giving your standard trip-abroad interview to Pers Morgan, when he said the following : "There were a few things that were disconcerting, the stories abo...

Posted 7/16/12 by ViewFinder Really Really Free Market: Bring what you don't need, take what you do. A new black velvet jacket, someone no longer needed, but this lovely young tourist was thrilled to have a jacket to wear on the plane ride home! With so much consumption all around us, there must be piles of clothing, books, housewares and other goods that we no longer need- RECYCLE through the Really Really Free Market!  Give to those who DO need, and take what YOU need. Do you have a skill that you can share with others?  Here one of the local participants gifts his talent of making balloon animals.  This child was so patient.  I watched as his eyes lit up watching as his special creation was forming before his very eyes, moments of sheer joy flooded his face- I almost cried watching this beautiful moment. Liberty Park was a great place for Really Really Free Market.  Two participants rode bikes around the park tell...