So Gary Herbert, our governor, who regularly slams fedreal government overreach and excess and so on and so forth, now blames the fed because it didn’t lean on Chevron enough to keep its pipelines from leaking oil all over the Bear River Bird Refuge, which Herbert would probably like to take away from the feds because the feds are just evil.

All in this story (click) which Gary finds the continual leaks from Chevron pipelines “unacceptable.” Really glad to see he’s bringing out the oratorical big guns on this one. “Unacceptable” is right up there with “icky” and “naughty” in the lexicon of politicians who want to express rage without offending a potential campaign donor.

I wish Gary would make up his mind. Is the fed evil, or good? Or is it only evil when it is owning land in Utah, but it’s good when it is giving Utah money?

As Wallace Stegner said, the classic attitude of westerners everywhere is “Get that gol-darned federal government off my back and hurry up with my crop subsidy check!”

So we know that Gary is a true westerner, anyway. And, apparently, an angry one, at last.

You red state Tea Party GOP “cut federal spending now!” fanatics yelled and screamed and hollered and moaned and demanded cuts in federal spending, but were so opposed to any reasonable discussion or compromise on the issue that you pretty much guaranteed the worst possible type of cuts, which is the current sequester.

This requires federal agencies to slice large percentages of what remains of this year’s budgets off the top. The military is furloughing people and delaying maintenance, the White House is closing off tours, the House of Representatives is doing nothing because the GOP in charge there says all the visible cuts are just for show, and federal programs for the poor everywhere are facing cuts.

And Ogden is losing its airport tower, (click) courtesy of the FAA.

There will be the usual moaning and groaning. Republicans in other states, guys who screamed loud and long for federal spending cuts, are now working hard to get exemptions to save the towers in their districts, and I’m sure Utah’s will do the same.

Others will say that the Obama administration is just doing this to make people think the sequester is some horrible thing, that it could really cut $85 billion in ways that wouldn’t harm a flea, probably by cutting out all the free housing, food, medical care and schooling that illegal immigrants are lapping up.

They aren’t lapping it up. It is illegal for illegals to get any of that aid beyond basic emergency room help, food bank food and other charity, but that won’t stop some from claiming the entire $85 billion could be found that way anyway. Such are the power of delusion and lies.

But, seriously, this is a real cut, it’s going down, deal with it.

This is particularly sad because Ogden has worked for decades to maintain an active and commercially viable airport to serve local businesses and, now, even commercial passenger flights. An airport is a huge asset to a growing community, something Weber officials have worked to maintain since the 1940s.

And now the tower, a critical part of that, is going to shut down, courtesy of massive demands by Utah’s red state Tea Party government spending hawks for federal spending cuts.

Well folks who wanted this, you “we built that ourselves without the federal government” types who think the government is do darn bad, you got it, and you can all get together, pool your funds, and hire yourself some air traffic controllers to take over the airport.

They make about $100,000 or so a year, the tower probably uses three or four, plus overhead. Probably a million or so a year will handle it.

You guys who all hate the federal government so much, who say you did it yourself? Well now you can.

Happy now?

This was one of my favorite columns to do, practically ever. It ran in 2000:

Although, who knows? The local constabulary has already shot up two vehicles officers thought contained the suspect. They didn’t, and now the Sheriff is buying at least one person a new pickup truck and, presumably, paying their medical bills.

Those issues aside, I was wondering, where is the militia in all this?

If the LA Sheriff is as good as most sheriff’s in Utah, he is a firm believer in the 2nd Amendment which safeguards the right of everyone in America to keep a gun handy so they can, at the needed time, form into a militia.  I’d say having a rogue cop wandering around shooting folks qualifies. We don’t need troops, just good guys with guns to hunt him down.

Plus, there’s a million dollar reward. I am amazed those good guys with guns aren’t mobbing the place.

It would be interesting if they did. The guy took to the hills, so there would be some slogging around mountains and valleys and woods and dales. There’s snow on the ground so we know it’s cold.

But that shouldn’t matter. These are rough tough defenders of the US and apple pie and girls they left behind. I’m sure the sheriff would welcome them to his ranks, too.

More realistically, it would be a good reality check for those guys — it’s one thing to buy a gun to defend home and hearth, quite another to go out and actually do it. That’s why the military actually trains. Given the general lack of fitness of the average American male, not to mention weight issues, it would be interesting to see how many of our erstwhile militiamen made it out alive.

Or even have gone.  But there is precedent. The Whiskey Rebellion in 1794 (click) was put down by federalized militia called up by President Washington (and led by him too) — but there was considerable resistance, few volunteered and a draft caused riots. When the militia marched into some towns the residents raised liberty poles, a sign of rebellion and opposition to the federal government left over from the Revolutionary War.

How good were they in combat? We’ll never know. The rebels ran away. In this case, it looks as if the cops have the guy surrounded.

Still, it’s one thing to say people need to keep guns to defend their homes, but it’s quite another to get them to actually do it.

The group is Mormons Building Bridges, the ad hoc group that wanted to put half a dozen marchers in last year’s Gay Pride Parade in Salt Lake City. When word got out what they were up to there was a spontaneous rising of support among other LDS families and they ended up with more than 300 people.

The group now has several thousand members. Exclusion of gay youth is the leading cause of teen suicide and homelessness, not to mention incredible family discord and unhappiness. The group has had zero opposition from the LDS Church in its work, too.

Because, really, isn’t loving our children — all of our children — one of those family values things we all talk about?

Anyway, the group’s facebook page (click) is full of testimony supporting doing away with the ban as well as ways to tell the BSA what they want done. A few extracts:

– We had lunch with a very devout family last Sunday. They said learning that same-sex attraction is not a choice was really eye-opening for them and has completely changed how they feel about this topic.

This concept alone ought to lead to a huge change in how our gay members are treated.

 

I also had the opportunity to dispel the myth that someone who identifies as gay is choosing to pursue a same-sex relationship. A single sister who also joined us for lunch talked about the devotion and sacrifice required to remain in the church as a single member, and she sung praises about how valiant and dedicated celibate gay members are.

We also talked about welcoming gay couples to church and pondered what things may look like in the future when more and more legally married same-sex couples and families desire to attend church.

– Please support the policy change to allow gay youth and leaders to participate. I am a leader in my LDS ward’s troop. I work with the 16-18 year old boys in our priests quorum. My son is 15 years old and working toward his Life rank advancement. The BSA policy needs to change to be better in line with LDS church policy. There is a boy [details removed to protect identity. I told him about a boy I know who is very spiritual and popular, who has some tendencies that make me think he may come out someday]. If he comes out of the closet at some point, I can not imagine telling him he can’t participate. It would be a huge loss. How ridiculous would it be to tell him “The church loves you. We want you to participate. You can hold a temple recommend and we can take you to do baptisms at the temple. We just can’t take you to scout camp because the boy scouts of america don’t agree with our church policy.”

Thank you for the work you do. I know this change is not popular among a lot of people in Utah, but it is the right change to make. Sometimes standing up for what is right means standing up to our friends.

– Former Bishop Bob Bradley and Eagle Scout Taylor Bradley welcomed their out gay former Scoutmaster and former First Counselor to the Mt. Airy ward this Sunday. Other scouts from troop 551 joined in, too. It has been 8 years since I left. It was great to come back as an honest man knowing I was probably the first person to come out in a Sunday School and Elders’ quorum meeting in the Mt. Airy Ward. I perjured myself for 30 years to accept callings as Ward Mission Leader, Scoutmaster, First Counselor and other callings.

After 8 years I returned to my ward in Mt. airy, NC where I had served as Ward Mission Leader, chorister, Elders Quorum Teacher, first councelor and Scoutmaster for almost 30 years. I explained that I was participating in Mormons Building Bridges / Sit with me Sunday and asked if they would mind my posting pictures with their out gay Scoutmaster. Since I had come out to a former bishop after the SLC Affirmation Conference …several years ago, I hoped I would not have to tell my story again. We shook hands again and again, hugged and hugged again; yes I was welcome and would I like to attend the next Eagle Scout ceremony? My former Scouts now dwarf me and have taken their rightful posts in church leadership. After Sacrament I had opportunity to speak briefly in Sunday school and Elders Quorum…”in my true identity.” I don’t know if these brothers and sisters realize that I had to live a lie in order to serve them, which I did with all my heart. How wonderful it would be to think that that quarter century of my life might not have ended in the defeat of an outcast, but might serve as an example to welcome other LGBT youth to an opportunity for acceptance and self realization within the Mormon fold. Certainly they cannot know how deep the wounds, how bitter the griefs I gave buried nor how long it will take to dismantle the walls of self defense I have built in order to survive. In fact, I have been forced to move on and find sanctuary within. The simple truth is that I loved them first, knowingly and believe that they cannot be made perfect until they can accept and cherish all of God’s children as I know He does. At least my brothers and sisters tried to convince me today.

Researchers and archaeologists there have positively identified the body (click)  of King Richard III, found underneath a parking lot. The link is to the BBC story on the discovery — my apologies to our own web site — because the BBC has the best interactive photo-study of the discovery.

Why do we care?

Wander through the discussion boards on various news sites, you will see a lot of debate over whether Richard III was a good king or a bad one, whether Shakespeare depicted him accurately, or whether The Bard was influenced by the Tudor monarchs under whom he labored. This is critical because Richard III was succeeded by people who didn’t have as good a claim to the crown as he did, and the Brits take their royal succession seriously.

The New York Times chat list on this story has a lot of discussion about religion — the Britons say they will re-bury Richard III in the local Anglican cathedral near where his body ws found, but a lot of folks are noting that Richard III was Roman Catholic. The Anglican church didn’t exist until one of his successors, Henry VIII, created it so he could grant himself a divorce.

What I found interesting was the evidence, on the skeleton, that Richard III really did die in battle, as Shakespeare depicts him, perhaps not really crying “A horse! A horse! My Kingdom for a horse!” but certainly losing his job in the most extremely prejudicial and permanent way possible.

Back then when a king was deposed he didn’t retire to the south of France, he got his head chopped off, if he was lucky. William Wallace, of Scotland, had his guts pulled out and displayed where he could see them before they cut off his head.

You can see that same sort of personal courage in the story of the Hunley — men going out in an untried machine to do single combat with a ship of an enemy navy and dieing in the process.

The men had the kind of guts we rarely see today — they knew they were likely to die. They were the third crew of the sub, the first two crews having died horrible deaths as their iron experiment sunk with them in it.

And yet the third crew got in and gave it a go.

When is the last time we saw an actual king, or president, or prime minister, do that? They just don’t go into battle at the head of their troops any more. It is said that old men want to wage war, but it is young men who fight. Richard fought his own battles in an era when leaders were expected to lead.

Fighting then was also very personal. You saw the guy who killed you. Richard III was cut down by a halberd (a lance with a type of ax head on the top) and then hacked at with daggers and swords after he was left alone on the battlefield by his allies.

I don’t doubt that our soldiers today have the sort of guts it took for that third crew to get into the Hunley and set off after the USS Houstatonic, but I can’t help but think the War in Afghanistan and Iraq would have been a lot shorter if President George W. Bush had to go point on patrols when he sent our young men and women into battle.

And, yes, that includes Obama — he’s kept the war in Afghanistan going, why should he get a pass?

If taking his turn dodging land mines and sniper fire in a war that just seems to grind on and on to no purpose inspires him to end that war a couple dozen casualties sooner, I’m all for sending him over.

 ps.  I was wandering around slate’s web site and found this. While Abraham Lincoln was too old for the draft, and was not eligible anyway since he was already Commander in Chief, he hired someone (click)  to take his place in the Army during the Civil War anyway.

It was an interesting practice — if you had the money, you paid someone else to take your place in the draft. The moral implications are mind-boggling.

Obama has made no such effort, nor is he stupid enough to try. Even so, this missive accuses him of issuing “Executive Orders” to silence debate (which were not all orders and, obviously, haven’t silenced anything) and implies heavily that obama will send his goons to take everyone’s favorite gun.

Key section:  “No federal official will be permitted to descend upon our constituents and take from them what the Bill of Rights—in particular Amendment II—has given them. We, like you, swore a solemn oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and we are prepared to trade our lives for the preservation of its traditional interpretation.”

There’s a couple of ways to look at this:

– Who says these guys are competent to interpret the Constitution? Obviously, they know very little about it.

This talks about “traditional” interpretation, but anyone with five minutes can dig up enough legal cases on interpretation of the Constitution to fill a bus. The Constitution hasn’t had a “traditional” interpretation since Marbury Vs. Madison, and never will, nor any single part of it. Yes, that includes the 2nd Amendment.

So the idea of Sheriffs in Utah deciding what’s Constitutional is laughable.

– Second, in the impossible event that “federal” officials are going to come to Utah and do unconstitutional deeds, who do you think the feds are going to send?

There are several million guns just in Utah, in hundreds of thousands of households. A roundup like that would overwhelm the US Marshall’s Sherice and require the feds to deputize every federal employee in Utah.

That is, unless your paranoid fantasies extend to the idea that this is all a UN plot in which case I guess that division of UN Peacekeeping troops from Bangladesh hiding in Canada will be moving in.

What’s sad is what this statement really is: An attempt by the Sheriff’s Association to make political hay out of tragedy.

They know that looking tough against the big bad federal government — Utah’s largest employer, by the way — is a way to get votes. So they’re using  the deaths of a bunch of children in Connecticut to set up a big straw man — gun seizures — and then staunchly defend us against that.

Saying citizens must be armed is a tasit admission that they’re aren’t doing a very good job of keeping us safe. Maybe they should spend less time pondering the Constitution, and more time chasing crooks.

Oh well, my snowshoes will keep.

But for how long will I have to keep them?

All experts are careful to say that one winter does not prove or disprove climate change, but a series of winters does when the model for climate change is not necessarily just warmer winters, but more extreme winters and summers,  with the same snow overall but packed into one or two whopper storms.

What if they’re right about that? That’s what we’ve had of late.

Not just Utah. This story (click) looks at it nationwide. Everywhere it’s the same — less snow, warmer temps, snow melting after it falls in lower elevations, and this is the long-term trend.

Utah’s legislature, years ago, approved a tax break for ski resorts that costs Utah a chunk of money but was intended to boost the economy. Now those same resorts face another threat, which will also hurt Utah’s economy, and the threat sure as heck seems to be the weather.

It will be interesting to see what they come up with next. They could work for cleaner air, fuel conservation, fewer carbon emissions overall and a generally cleaner Utah, which would benefit everyone who breathes. More than 95 percent of all climate scientists say that human activity is causing climate change, after all, but even if they’re all wrong, hey, we end up with a nicer place to live?

Or they could do nothing. This is the same Legislature that annually passes resolutions condemning climate change as a myth, or a scam, of course. Pols voting for those resolutions all get large campaign donations from auto-related interests, but who am I to draw a conclusion?

This is also about money. Those guys don’t know beans about weather or science, but they do know how to count  money.

Maybe we should point out to them that a clean environment will help attract some new recreation businesses after the ski resorts go bust because there’s no snow any more.

Yeah, right, dude. Good luck.

These come up every few years. What happens is, the day it comes up for debate in the legislature, motorcyclists clog the capitol with bald heads, leather and chains and so on — all very big and very loud.

It’s fun to watch the Lawmakers’ spines turn to Jell-O (green?) when they see that mob, and that’s the end of that until another go-round.

Mr. Weiler’s argument is that people who get injured on motorcycles often end up on government assistance — and he’s right. But not just that — I’ve long argued that motorcyclists cost us all money if they get hurt because they don’t have a helmet even if they have medical insurance — who do you think pays the money that pays those medical bills?

The rest of the insurance company’s rate payers, that’s who.

This leaves us with a number of options:

– Allow cyclists to ride with no helmets, but say that they can’t have any medical insurance cover them if they get hurt, and say that they won’t qualify for Medicaid. If their motto is “My head, my risk” then they have to accept the full responsibility for that risk.

– Allow them to ride without a helmet, but require mandatory insurance in a “high risk” pool, which is what other people have to pay if they get medical insurance despite a pre-existing condition. Wanting to ride an inherently dangerous vehicle in an admittedly dangerous manner is a pre-existing condition if I ever saw one, so this should work.

– Require all motorcyclists to wear a tag on their bike that says “I have chosen to ride this machine without proper protective gear of my own free will. I acknowledge that it is dangerous. If I get in a wreck I request that I be left to sort things out for myself and no ambulance or medical care be called.”

– Do nothing.

This is what will actually happen, of course. Bikers will point out - correctly - that theirs is only one of many sports that are self-endangering and go unregulated, so why pick on bikers? They will appeal to ideals of freedom and independence and the American way.

And they’ll show up, en masse, at the Legislature and scare the living crud out of that gang of idiots who get real tough with pregnant women, but shrivel at the sight of a 6 foot 6 tall dude in leather and chains, wearing an old World War II helmet if any at all.

I’ve seen those guys crowd in the Legislature and they’re very persuasive.

State employees haven’t had any pay raise in 3  years, maybe 4.

None, Zero. Bupkis.

And the governor should get a 37 percent raise?

I love this: They want the pay to be high enough so that the governor doesn’t have to be independently wealthy to hold his job.

Hey how about this: PAY STATE EMPLOYEES ENOUGH SO THEY DON’T HAVE TO BE INDEPENDENTLY WEALTHY TO HOLD THEIR JOBS!!!

I am guessing this did not occure to them.

Final point: It is a maxim in the military that  the commander should be willing to do anything his troops will be asked to do. That’s called leadership.

So, I expect Gov. Herbert to issue a statement today denying any consideration of this pay hike for him or anyone else in his administration until a pay raise of equal amount is approved for all state employees, including school teachers.

Admission of conflict of interest: My wife works for the state. Neither she nor I  have had a pay raise in 3 years. If Gov. Herbert gets one, so should the rest of us.

If you agree, feel free to call the governor’s office and say so 801-538-1000 and ask for “the gov.”

Other contact info:

Utah Governor’s Office

Utah State Capitol Complex
350 North State Street, Suite 200
PO Box 142220
Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-2220
Phone: 801-538-1000
Toll Free: 800-705-2464