One Utah

Barack Obama promised “change,” and he has delivered on that promise. We wanted Obama to change Washington, and instead he’s inexplicably changing his policy positions to accommodate the Bush administration and the far right. The most immediate problem: a proposal to make unconstitutional changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
Senator […]

Wazzup? Last month, Barack Obama suddenly switched his position on illegal warrantless surveillance– now he’s for it. In an interview with Fortune, he embraced NAFTA.
The Wall Street Journal says:
We’re beginning to understand why Barack Obama keeps protesting so vigorously against the prospect of “George Bush’s third term.” Maybe he’s worried that someone will […]

Yet another article in the Trib about problems with Planning:
At a meeting Wednesday, past community council Chairman Michael Hughes presented the board’s concerns to a group of about 50 Avenues residents. He complained of preferential treatment for builders, a tendency to push projects through without public notice and slow and incomplete responses to public records […]

According to the latest CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey, only 35 percent of Americans believe a terrorist attack somewhere in the United States is likely over the next several weeks. While this level of fear is still way out of proportion with the actual risk, it’s the lowest in a CNN poll since the 9/11 […]

Last night after the gym, I got sucked into Bravo’s Flipping Out. If you haven’t seen it: it’s a reality show that follows Jeff, a real estate investor who buys houses, fixes them up and sales them - i.e. flips them. Jeff is, to put it mildly, a lunatic. He insists, for […]

Greg Mitchell reminds us that it appeared in The New York Times five years ago today. One of the most irresponsible remarks ever by a U.S. President:
“Anybody who wants to harm American troops will be found and brought to justice,” Bush said. “There are some that feel like if they attack us that we […]

Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of the Tunguska explosion.
A great round up of all things Tunguska here.

The BYU Museum of Art has a photographic exhibition on Dismantling Geneva Steel. The photos are striking. Many visitors left comments expressing fond memories of Geneva Steel. It provided good jobs and a useful product. Nevertheless the photos could not help but remind me of Blake’s phrase:
And was Jerusalem […]

The Los Angeles Times recently had an insightful article about what $200-a-barrel oil and $7 a gallon gasoline would do to America.

With every penny hike in the price of gas costing American consumers about $1 billion a year, sharply higher pump prices would lead to “significant bankruptcies and store closings,” said Scott Hoyt, director of […]

The bottom line: We live in a complex society that requires intelligent planning, foresight and effective government to mediate between competing private interests and to organize and manage the infrastructure. The basic infrastructure needed to operate a modern city is mind-bogglingly complex - a series of interconnected systems that require constant maintenance, upgrades changes […]

It’s easy to be impressed by the bible if you’ve never read Shakespeare or Milton. It’s easy to be impressed by the bible if you’ve never read Spenser or Whitman. Hell, compare the majority of the Psalms to Dickinson or Shelley or Tennyson and you can’t help but wonder why God was such […]

On June 26th the Supreme Court upheld the personal right to keep and bear arms. What are the consequences, if any, for Utah and the rest of the country?

Thursday, channel 501 showed the 1984 film The Killing Fields. For those who haven’t seen it, it’s based on the experiences of NY Times reporter Sydney Schanberg and Cambodian reporter Dith Pran in Cambodia in the 1970s; Pran was captured by the Khmer Rouge and spent years living and laboring in their camps before […]

The northern city of Mosul is the second-largest in Iraq (Basra is a close third). Despite the scarcity of news from Iraq lately, you may have heard about the launching of a long-delayed offensive last month to regain control of the ruined city of nearly 2 million people for Nouri al-Maliki’s Green Zone government. […]

Only 15 senators voted to block the FISA bill: Biden (D-DE) - Boxer (D-CA) - Brown (D-OH) - Cantwell (D-WA) - Dodd (D-CT) - Durbin (D-IL) - Feingold (D-WI) - Harkin (D-IA) - Kerry (D-MA) - Lautenberg (D-NJ) - Leahy (D-VT) - Menendez (D-NJ) - Sanders (I-VT) - Schumer (D-NY) - Wyden (D-OR). Senators Clinton, […]

From the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen:
“In the last six or seven months, we have a put a tremendous amount of focus on Afghanistan, and I think rightfully so,” he said. “It is an economy-of-force campaign, and by definition, that means we don’t have enough forces […]

Friends, let us suppose you are in the employ of a very wealthy and very successful investor. Think Warren Buffett or the late John Beresford Tipton. Further suppose that you are asked by your employer to design a new investment fund that will be and will be seen to be socially useful. […]

Hi Folks,
I’m off to a remote island in the Atlantic without power (or Internet) for 10 days. Larry, I’ve made you an admin too.
In my absence please try to maintain a level of antagonism and indignation commensurate with the high crimes, many misdemeanors and treason toward the administration and the few sick people who […]

In the last week, I’ve started and deleted about a dozen posts on a wide array of topics. The problem isn’t a paucity of topics but a wealth of them. There is simply so much to be addressed.
In Marc Hauser’s book Moral Minds he explores a series of moral dilemnas around the concept […]

Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee, has announced his support of H.R. 6304, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 that passed the House of Representatives yesterday.
Obama has caved on an important constitutional issue and has given us a window into his governance as President, i.e. triangulation. Back in September, Obama vowed to […]