Salt City Sinner

Posted on 3/18/2014 by the Salt City Sinner Salutations, brothers and sisters! As you may have heard , Mia Love has officially filed her papers to run for Utah's Fourth Congressional District in a bid to replace Jim Matheson, who will not be seeking re-election to an eighth ( ! ) term. Love is the former mayor of Saratoga Springs, and rose to national attention when she tossed some red meat to the good folks at the 2012 Republican National Convention. That same year, she ran against Matheson for his seat in the 4th and narrowly lost. In the past, Salt City Sinner has outlined her thoughtful and very sane budget plan, and even endorsed her for Salt Mine Grand Vizier, so it was not entirely a surprise when one of Love's staffers – writing under the nomme de faux MakerNotTaker1776 – leaked an advance copy of four action items Love intends to immediately pursue upon election (in appreciation for this HOT HOT HOT tip, Salt City Sinner has buried a payment of US $1,000 – in ...

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 4/2/2013 by CrazyPoliticos Imagine if you will, that someone threw a huge gala and celebration with entertainment and speakers, including the Governor, and no one came. I know, right? But this is “almost” what happened to Suzanne and Alan Osmond, who hosted the Celebration of Marriage Rally at the Utah State Capitol last Tuesday evening (March 26, 2013). Governor Gary R. Herbert spoke, the Osmond grandchildren performed and there were even party favors. To wit: a Certificate of Marriage which stated: "Marriage is the union of a man and woman whose marital privileges are based upon their commitment to protect and nurture the children that may be created as a part of their union,” which could then be signed by attendees.  (One wonders if these "privileges" extend to heterosexual couples who are infertile.) Like I said it almost happened that no one came. Okay, so imagine another scenario. You throw a big celebration and while only a few of the invit...

posted 4/1/2013 by the Salt City Sinner "don't worry, folks, your climate is safe with me" Chris Stewart is an upstanding Utahn -- as Utahns measure such things. He's a businessman, a veteran, a New York Times bestselling author with a book that has been   endorsed  by no less an intellectual titan than Glenn Beck, and as of 2012, a Congressman, representing Utah's 2nd congressional district. As a freshman Congressman, Stewart had the good fortune to recently become appointed the chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology's Subcommittee on Environment -- not too shabby for a scrappy kid from the Great State of Deseret. The only problem with this scenario is that Utah's proud new head of a subcommittee devoted to science is a climate change denier. Just as one might expect from a man who earned the Glenn Beck Solid Gold Seal of Approval, Stewart earned his seat the "conservative grassroots" way: he bought it wit...

posted 3/21/2013 by the Salt City Sinner Photo: AP Paul Mero has a freedom problem. And not a freedom problem in the sense that an alcoholic has a drinking problem. Modern conservatives have made out like bandits by exploiting metaphors and ideas that are deeply embedded in American culture -- concepts like freedom, liberty, personal responsibility, and individualism. During the Bush years, these linguistic tics took on a grim, ironic quality. Increasingly, they were deployed alongside other, older conservative idioms regarding patriotism, faith, and family as a smokescreen to cover concepts somewhat at odds with freedom: indefinite detention, warrantless wiretapping, and torture (proud new American traditions that continue under President Obama to this day). I've   written before  about how an ideology -- any ideology -- is like a room in which conceptual furniture must be arranged. That's not my metaphor (although I wish I had thought of it first); I cribbed it...

posted 9/19/2012 by the Salt City Sinner There's an old golf joke that my dad busts out occasionally that still cracks me up: "I hit two good balls today...I stepped on a rake!" Mitt Romney has made it something of a personal philosophical commitment, his recent rake-stepping. There was the RNC's baffling piece of performance art in which the Romney Campaign sagely decided to let an 82-year-old man ramble through over twice his allotted time in an unscripted, unvetted "speech" (read: cranked-out bitching at an imaginary man in an empty chair). There was Romney's attempt to smirk his way ... ... through a cheap, political "gotcha" moment regarding the tragic deaths of U.S. diplomats - again, wham!, right in the runts. And now, in a surgical political strike by Mother Jones magazine (a previously relatively little known and scrappy publication that has now earned a MAJOR chunk of attention), Romney's words from months ago h...

posted 9/4/2012 by the Salt City Sinner Mia Love has become quite the interesting Republican as of late. Recently elected Mayor of Sarasota Springs, Utah, she gave an enthusiastically received speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, FL. Go ahead and watch the whole thing: What makes Love worthy of attention in this, Your Journal of Note, is that she is both the first black female mayor in Utah's history, a noted wingnut, and a figure we're likely to see quite a bit of in Utah's future. Let's break that down. First black female Mayor in Utah's history - that's solid. A noted wingnut? In a mailer that my parents got from Jason Chaffetz AND Mia Love (bonus!) looking for funds, Chaffetz headlined his letter "Dear Fellow Conservatives,..." while Mia courageously titled her follow-up "Dear Patriots,..." Ms. Love went on to assail President Obama as the "Food Stamp President," which is (forgive the phrase) p...

We've all heard the stories- friends, neighbors, co-workers, or family members who have fallen victim to identity theft.  The newest victims out there are our children.  State Representative, Eric Hutchings of Kearns, Utah helped to create and launch a new program to help protect our children's identity.  The Children's Identity Protection program (CIP) is the result of Rep. Hutchings' brain child, as he explained to one of the districts during the GOP Caucus meeting 3/15/12 at Kearns High School.  After the birth of his last child he was required to fill out the application for social security number for the baby.  Reluctantly he obliged and was immediately concerned about the security of his newborn child's identity.  With the help of TransUnion Credit Bureau and the Attorney General they have launched CIP which locks the child's identity until their seventeenth birthday.  At that time the child may contact all three credit bureaus and have a "...