This will be my only mention of the 2008 elections til the end of summer…I promise.
NoSurfGirl has my favorite rundown of the current candidates for presidential office in 2008. I like it better than any other I’ve read because it is coming from the most politically moderate person I’ve met online. I think she has a great read on what is important to that all important undecided voter…and I like her pro-con analysis of each candidate.
Caution: Her site is not friendly to non-IE browsers.
I like Jim Hansen and think very highly of him as a former officeholder, great citizen and former dependable hometeacher of my parent’s family when I was growing up. That said, I think anyone who lobbies local government this vigorously for a large monument to himself in the city cemetery is a little sad. Maybe I’ll feel differently about it when I’m a little closer to needing a final place to plant my bones.
Here is a short summary of George W. Bush’s anti-conservative policies while in office. I blog this mostly for personal future use next time someone tries to claim Republican leaders are actually conservative.
Davis County Health Director Lewis Garrett received two mentions on the front page of yesterday’s Davis County Clipper for his work as Davis County’s number one personal behavior cop.
Garrett wants to make it illegal to light up in public throughout Davis County.
Elected officials, and the public in general, are pretty receptive to the idea of a smoking ban in public parks and other outdoor venues, Davis County Health Director Lewis Garrett told members of the board of health Tuesday morning,
A committee of health department staff and board members have worked on putting together an ordinance which would ban smoking in public outdoor areas in Davis County.
Garrett will now take a draft ordinance back to the mayors and other elected officials making up COG (the Davis County Council of Governments) before the board of health votes on it.
Emphasis mine.
This is a stupid idea. Second hand smoke has never been scientifically proven to be a health risk in the first place but to ban smoking outside in a public place can’t possibly be justified by fears for public health. What harm occurs when we allow smoking outside? Why do we need the police cracking down on yet another personal vice which doesn’t hurt anyone other than the smoker?
For Garrett the regulation of personal behavior is old hat. He’s the joker behind the rules in Davis County which state that a kid can’t go to a tanning salon unless their parents are with them. Since his rules took affect tanning salon owners throughout Davis County have complained that they have lost business to neighboring counties which haven’t adopted such silly regulations.
Davis County director of health Lewis Garrett is conceding that forcing parents to come in every time their teen uses a tanning salon won’t work until the regulations in all counties are consistent.
So, the Board of Health is backing off and allowing parents to consent to a number of sessions before they must reauthorize their approval.
“It’s a small price to pay to set the standard,” Garrett told board members on Tuesday.
Emphasis mine again.
Perfect. Davis County enacts draconian regulations on our personal behavior and when the negative repercussions quickly show up Garrett says “its a small price to pay to set the standard”. I’d argue that it isn’t a small price to pay. I don’t want Davis County to be the standard setter for restrictive nanny-state government in Utah.
Why has this man taken it upon himself to regulate personal behavior to the point where parents are being hasseled because their teenagers want to fake bake and smokers can’t go outside by themselves for a toke? People like Garrett only have a job because we fall for their scare tactics. Our governments need to relax a bit and cool down their desires to regulate our behavior…even when citizens are smoking or fake baking. Whatever happened to live and let live?
Ugly government regulation of personal appetites and behaviors is part and parcel with Republican domination of government. Hopefully Davis County residents will do something about it.
UPDATE 3/19/2007:
This morning’s Deseret News contains an article about Garrett’s “non-controversial” proposal.
Notices will be placed in local newspapers and in public places, and the health department will take written and verbal comment for two weeks, Garrett said. But he doesn’t know if many people will comment.
“It’s not a controversial issue,” he said.
Sadly Garrett is probably correct. Most smokers in this state have been shamed into thinking that their behavior is not only harmful to themselves but sinful. In an environment like that there probably won’t be many willing to make a public comment against this type of lunacy.
I’m not a trekkie. I’ve seen every episode of the Original Star Trek and most of the Star Trek NG episodes too…and all the movies…but I’m still no trekkie. Ok…maybe a little…
I think this movie will be cool. The casting sounds impressive anyway! Gary Sinise as McCoy is inspired.
A petition is circulating calling for a Referendum on the voucher legislation passed in the recent session of Utah’s legislature. I’ll likely be signing it. I haven’t commented that much on vouchers on this blog lately. I guess I’m just not that passionate about them either way. I support publicly financed school choice for parents in areas where it is clearly needed but I think vouchers are a very messy way of obtaining that goal.
I first heard about the voucher concept when I was in Middle school (about 20 years ago?) when I read the copy of Free To Choose my mom gave me. I thought the idea was great and always planned on starting up my own private school when I grew up. I figured that if vouchers were available it wouldn’t be that hard to get a profitable school going in Utah where there will always be plentiful supply of kids. Now that I’m a little older and understand the economics I’m not as excited about the idea.
My problem with the current voucher bill in Utah is three-fold. (more…)
