Utah cities and counties, pondering whether they should follow Salt Lake City’s lead on protecting gay and transgender residents from discrimination, could get a green light from an unexpected source: Sen. Chris Buttars.
Buttars, a West Jordan Republican and fiery opponent of gay rights, said Wednesday he “very well might” sponsor legislation in 2010 that would allow local governments to adopt such anti-discrimination measures for housing and employment — but forbid them from going any further on gay rights.
Buttars is an asshat, but you have to admit making the Eagle lay an egg is amusing. Just this is a trojan horse intended to limit civil rights advances, not further them. He’s trying to bail water from the canoe, not get to shore.
Apparently the Mormon church set an official spokesperson to a public hearing on a non-discrimination ordinance that would protect LGBT people from housing and job discrimination. In a nutshell,
The Church supports this ordinance because it is fair and reasonable and does not do violence to the institution of marriage. It is also entirely consistent with the Church’s prior position on these matters. The Church remains unequivocally committed to defending the bedrock foundation of marriage between a man and a woman.(Deseret News
Oh, gee, thanks. In other words, we’ll let the gays live and work as long as their presence doesn’t threaten our “standards.” We still oppose society officially recognizing their relationships, we can still call them sick and mentally disturbed any time we feel like it and we can still kick them out of BYU if the mood takes us, so it doesn’t matter. Oh, and (bonus!) we have just upped the ante on our victim role because: See how nice we really are?
Oh, and Michael Otterson? The Managing Director of the LDS Church’s Public Affairs? In other words a hired PR gun. Where was Monson? Packer? Anyone from the Twelve? Well, except Oaks. I’ll bet you won’t see him in the public spotlight again any time soon. Hell, even someone from the warm and fuzzy arm of the church, The General Relief Society Presidency, would have been better than Otterson. By sending Otterson the Church was making another statement. “This is just policy. This doesn’t carry the weight of doctrine, so you can ignore it if you want.” What do you bet most True Believing Mormons do exactly that?
Case in point: This isn’t anything they haven’t said before. The Mormon church said essentially the same thing during the Prop8 stupidity as well, but when it came time to actually pass legislation on the Hill in Utah, did Utah Legislators take statements of PR arm of the church as evidence that passing non-discrimination and equal protection laws was the right thing to do? Nope. Did the Mormon church send an spokesperson to the Hill to give legislators permission encourage legislators to enact said laws? Nope.
Hatch asserted that the health bills, which he believes represent a “step-by-step approach to socialized medicine,” will lead to Americans’ dependence on Democrats for their health and other issues. “And if they get there, of course, you’re going to have a very rough time having a two-party system in this country, because almost everybody’s going to say, ‘All we ever were, all we ever are, all we ever hope to be depends on the Democratic Party,’ ” Hatch said. . . .(TheHill.com)
It boggles the mind that he can say that with a straight face. If I had time, I’ll bet I could find at least a dozen similar quotes regarding the New Deal. Well, 70 years later we’re still not a socialist state and we still have a two-party system. True to conservative form, if facts aren’t on your side, try hysteria.
From a new project in Utah. Looks counterintuitive to me, but I’ve been told they’re wonderful. Being night blind…I don’t know. Anyone have experience with these?
A national biological society has diverted its annual meeting to Salt Lake
City, snubbing New Orleans because of Louisiana's recent embrace of a law
widely panned as anti-science.
The Louisiana Science Education Act -- similar to a measure Utah lawmakers
rejected three years ago -- allows local school boards to introduce
creationist materials into the classroom under the guise of promoting
"critical thinking" toward the theory of evolution, critics say.
"This law undermines the integrity of science and science education in
Louisiana," wrote Richard Satterlie, president of the Society for
Integrative and Comparative Biology, in Feb. 5 letter to Gov. Bobby Jindal,
who signed the controversial bill into law last June.
"Utah, in contrast, passed a resolution that states that evolution is
central to any science curriculum," the letter continued. "As scientists it
is our responsibility to oppose anti-science initiatives."
As a transplanted Utahn, last night’s beat down of Alabama in the 2008 Sugar Bowl was a joy to behold, even though I didn’t graduate from the University of Utah.
It does highlight, again, what a crock of shit the BCS is and how if is an utter fail in selecting a “champion”.
Salt Lake County just turned a shade bluer. After completing the final canvass of votes cast in the general election Nov. 4, President-elect Barack Obama can claim another battleground victory — he out-polled Sen. John McCain in Salt Lake County by a margin of 296 votes.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration said the mine was “destined to fail” because the mining company made critical miscalculations and didn’t report early warning signs. But MSHA itself also was faulted by its parent agency, both for lax oversight before the collapse and for its handling of a haphazard rescue effort that left three more people dead.
Regulators acknowledge the rescue tunneling should never have been attempted because it only made the mine more unstable.
Relatives say they now know both the mine company and federal regulators failed the miners.
Kudos to SUU. Go team! Not that I’m biased or anything, I just did my undergrad here….
The Princeton Review has once again designated Southern Utah University as part of the “Best in the West” among colleges and universities throughout the western United States based on scores from student surveys.
I’m pleased to report that Utah settled with Jared Massey, who became an unwitting internet celebrity after video showing him being wrongly tasered was viewed by over 1.7 million people.
A stubborn motorist who became an Internet celebrity after video of him being stunned with a Taser by a Utah Highway Patrolman appeared on YouTube will receive $40,000 as part of a lawsuit settlement with the state, the Utah attorney general’s office said Monday.
Jared Massey claimed in civil lawsuit filed in January that his civil rights were violated because Trooper Jon Gardner fired his Taser before telling him Massey was under arrest.
The confrontation was widely viewed on the Internet after Massey obtained a copy of a video taken by the cruiser’s dashboard camera.
The video has been viewed on YouTube at least 1.7 million times and shows Gardner drawing his stun gun after the 28-year-old Massey – outside his vehicle to proclaim his innocence – refused to accept a speeding ticket.
Massey’s attorney, Bob Sykes, said he’s pleased with the settlement offer.
“They made what we consider to be a very fair offer of a significant amount of money,” he said.
Good. Police in general have become much too taser happy of late. Let’s hope this is the first of many successful attempts to rein in excessive force.
It’s worth noting that wanker in chief Chris Buttars’ response to the controversy is to make it impossible for the public to have access to the police videos – a disservice in terms of protecting both the public and the police. Not, mind you, that we expect reality to interfere with any typical Buttars proposal.
