This is my fifth trip to the Holy Land – the one place outside of the United States I most feel at home. Although I am not Jewish, Israel is nonetheless the birthplace of my Savior, who was. I can relate to my Jewish cousins, past and present, who long for the land of their inheritance. Away from Israel, the words of a Twelfth Century Spanish Jew beckon . . .[I'll spare you the rest.]

If you thought Irvine was boring, try setting foot in Provo. Don’t get me wrong, Provo has its own culture, one that revolves around morals and religious beliefs. However as an outsider, it is very difficult to say the city is exciting.

Almost everything closes at 8 p.m. on the weekdays, and ironically enough, even earlier on weekends. We didn’t cross any coffee shops in Provo, and only one bar was open past 1 a.m. And let me tell you, that bar was weird.

“Lame,” however, is subjective. Sure, if we come to Provo expecting our type of fun we will find almost anywhere else lame. You have to put yourself in their shoes, accept and enjoy their activities. Without the help of flashy entertainment and alcohol, Utahans really get creative.

Was that the issue on the most beautiful people or the most influential people?

Mitt maintains it wasn't a swipe and if you watch the segment, it's obviously a self-depreciating quip that bombed.

But Rush Limbaugh, de facto head of the GOP, stirred the pot, saying Romney and other would-be Republican leaders, “despise Sarah Palin."

They fear Sarah Palin. According to them, she’s embarrassing.

Remember, it was the base that rejected Mitt because of his switch on pro-life, from pro-choice to pro-life. It was the base that rejected Mitt because it had issues with Mormonism. It was the base that rejected Mitt because they thought he was back and forth and waffling . . .

To counter the administration's attempt to bury this tax increase in our utility bills, The left obviously does not want taxpayers to know the real cost of the tax-and-trade scheme even though sound tax policy dictates that taxes should be visible to taxpayers and not buried in the cost of the items we purchase.

When . . .you're on the floor of the House, and you say things as fundamental as, ‘It's not the government's money, it's the people's money' that that is a concept that does not necessarily resonate with most people in that body. That is a new and different concept. I would venture to say most people do not agree with that statement.

Nobody in Utah will badmouth old Butch, who was seen as hitting only the rich institutions, while helping "ord'nary folk" whenever he could. As for the Sundance Kid, his name lives on at Sundance Resort, an environmentally-friendly bolthole set up by the film's star Robert Redford. . . . He doesn't dwell on it, but Redford's ex-wife was a Mormon from just down the road.

No one seems prickly or over-sensitive about [polygamy], with one beer advert even reading: "Polygamy Porter - Why have just one?" You can get a drink in hotels and restaurants, and even in the one where you couldn't - the exquisite Roof Restaurant in the Joseph Smith Centre in Salt Lake City - it was no big deal. The food, ambience and superb views of the city and mountains are sufficiently intoxicating.

The latest sage to weigh in is aged actress, model and former Miss Teenage Memphis Cybill Shepherd, who uncovered that the Mormons and Catholics were behind the passage of Prop 8:

Most of the money came from Utah, it’s very unfortunate.

Cybill goes on to explains the cosmos:

I’m a Christian-Pagan-Buddhist-Goddess worshiper, but I’m also a feminist. I think the ultimate glass ceiling is God. . . . I really think that probably God is a woman. That helped me to break through that celestial glass ceiling.

Sounds as coherent to me as any worldwide theology out there.

Opposing gay marriage, you've got Miss California USA Carrie Prejean, who says she does not think gay marriage is a good idea — at least not as good as getting someone to buy you breast implants two weeks before the Miss USA pageant.

Of course, thoughtful, measured debate was inevitable. And Carrie got it from gossip blogger Perez Hilton and Village Voice columnist Michael Musto, who opined:

She's dumb and twisted. She's sort of like a human Klaus Barbie doll … This is the kind of girl who sits on the TV and watches the sofa. You know, she thinks innuendo is an Italian suppository.

Sheesh. Why not kick a puppy?

It's about upholding the moral standards of society, which is also up to interpretation. How I define 'decency' is promoting anything that promotes strong family values or speaking out against profanity, violence, indecency, pornography. Anything in the media that pulls down society's values is what I want to speak out against."

• Community leaders "will learn how to declare decency."
• Schools throughout the state will celebrate White Ribbons Against Pornography week.
• City councils will adopt community-standards resolutions.
• People individually will stop talking about fostering decency and do something.

Is it any surprise that Mormons, who lean Republican by a wide margin, would have the lowest approval of Obama? What’s remarkable about the Gallup results isn’t that ‘only’ 45 percent of Mormons approve of Obama, but rather that an overwhelmingly right-leaning bloc gives him a net positive approval rating.

It’s possible that his exemplary family has won over a few who see him as a potential role model.

A draft report by the office does not call for prosecuting those lawyers, . . . but is likely to ask state bar associations to consider disciplinary action. We believe it must do so in unequivocal language. Bar association disciplinary committees . . . have no excuse not to use documentary evidence from the report to proceed.

Remember the Rule of Law? In the late 1990s, it was all the rage in conservative circles. Having maneuvered Bill Clinton into a position where he could either lie under oath or suffer massive personal and political embarrassment, conservatives reasoned that Clinton must be held accountable for perjury or the basic underpinnings of democracy would be shattered. . . .

Today, the administration malfeasance consists of illegal torture, a crime no less serious than lying under oath about fellatio. Yet Republicans now believe that the Rule of Law is not only consistent with letting administration crimes go unpunished but actually requires it. To prosecute the departed administration would make us a "banana republic"—the premise being that banana republics are defined not by their use of torture but by their overly zealous enforcement of anti-torture laws.

I’d like to hear from him if he thinks he made the right decision interpreting the law and doing the job as he saw it defined. But I also will not hesitate to make it clear to him that I absolutely disagree with his interpretation.

The United States is not a country of torture.

The former governor is in the process of opening up the Lake Winnipesaukee house this month and "will be spending more time on the East Coast."

I have no announcements to make on residency. He just recently closed on selling his Belmont house and, as of now, he's still registered to vote in Massachusetts.

Hundreds of off-road vehicle riders are vowing to invade the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument to protest the Bureau of Land Management's intention to enforce rules against riding in the Paria River streambed. But Susan Hand of Kanab is organizing a "picnic with a purpose" to head them off at the pass.

Hand's low-impact counterprotest will include an offer to the opposition for chit-chat:

We want to show the world that local people care about protecting our land from illegal and irresponsible use. We will not be confrontational, inflammatory, aggressive or hostile. It's hard to yell at someone who is calmly sitting in a lawn chair, munching a muffin and sipping tea.

The disbarred Florida lawyer wrote a video-game bill that was overwhelmingly approved by Utah's Legislature, but vetoed by Gov. Jon Huntman. When the Lege didn't attempt to override the veto, an enraged Thompson emailed animated porno to Senate President Mike Waddoups and every other lawmaker. Waddoups threatened to have the Utah Attorney General's Office prosecute Thompson if he didn't cut it out.

Now, the Louisiana State House may get to experience the wrath of Jack. Don't lawmakers ever use Google?

In another part of the video-game cosmos, Congressman Jason Chaffetz, who got wiped by Stephen Cobert in Rock Band, admits:

I suck at Rock Band. Best if I stick to Halo.

Says Game Poltics:

It's reassuring to know that at least one member of Congress enjoys a round of Halo now and again.

I doubt Jack Thompson would agree.

Brigham Young man,
there's no need to feel down . . .

The many citizens who would like to see sanctions, if not criminal charges, brought against these architects of torture — particularly in light of the show trials of grunts who carried out their orders — are in for disappointment. A lawyer practically has to kill someone (such as a judge) with his/her bare hands to get disciplined by their bar association. And that censure usually amounts to a secret, confidential scolding never released to the public. Usually bars refuse to acknowledge even if a member is under scrutiny. According the Washington Post:

Law professors and legal practitioners who have handled such cases said the difficulty of gathering witnesses and evidence could present "nearly insurmountable challenges" for state investigators who may wish to pursue a case against the lawyers, John C. Yoo and Jay S. Bybee.

Bybee's 46-page memo is a painstakingly detailed treatise on how to skirt the laws and treaties that bound previous administrations from engaging in interrogation techniques that ape the torture methods used by the communist Chinese government against captured U.S. GIs during the Korean War, and for which the U.S. and its allies prosecuted Japanese and Nazi interrogators following World War II.

Huntsman gets national love.

Because so many Republican primary voters don't care for gay people, and because these Republicans are more important to the make-up of the GOP primary electorate than, say, activist liberals are to the Democratic electorate, the political gadfly's first instinct is to dismiss the Huntsman case outright.

How in the heck can he possibly compete in Iowa?

How can you not have at least a tiny, tiny bit of love for a Republican Governor of UTAH who stands in front of a podium and comes out strongly for civil unions? And still manages to pull approval numbers in excess of 75 percent?

The world's leading health organizations confirm that we are not at risk of contracting H1N1 virus by eating pork. Continuing to call it swine flu perpetuates a misconception about pork and the virus.

I realize that in communications the simple approach is often best, but in this case accuracy should trump simplicity for the sake of good journalism.

Imagine him naked, talking like Jesus.

• The "Mormon Mafia," that was pivotal in sanctioning and designing the U.S. torture program is a national story — never explored by the DNews/MormonTimes.

• DN/MM fails to note a local actor who is nominated for a Tony for his nude "Hair" Broadway performance. Will Swenson is also the official voice of Jesus at Temple Square, for gosh sakes!

• DN/MM buries its re-written release from LDS HQ on the baptism-in-death of Obama's Mama. Riveting headline: "LDS Church Reiterates Proxy-Baptism Policy."

• DN/MM ignores latest Marie Osmond bombshells: She has a lesbian daughter and supports gay marriage and other basic civil rights for gays.

Gossip monger Perez Hilton gives Marie major props.

One of the things that we have to be careful of is that we don't create hate. Because people believe certain things and we can’t make everyone become homogenized.

Everybody has a right to believe what they believe. But I do think everyone has a right to have civil rights.

I believe everyone should have the right to share homes and finances with somebody that they care about. You know, on those types of things, I am very supportive. When it comes to marriage, you know, I think civil rights need to be for all.

Huntsman is the one to watch.

It's just that he is one of the few GOPers out there who seem to realize you can't thrive and win elections appealing to the 25 percent of people who still think Bush was a good president," said Plouffe. "In DC, they seem to have no concern about the middle of the electorate. At least he appears to.

Sure, everything the Lakers do is self-serving, but this was classy. In Salt Lake City, only a "Hot Rod ... Thanks for the memories" sign held by longtime fan Richard Anderson that was shown on the video screen, followed by a cut to Hundley at his broadcast position, served to commemorate his last home game.

The Jazz alledge that Hundley will be honored with a major send off at a later date.

I think there are a lot more influential Republicans than that would suggest. But was that the issue on the most beautiful people or the most influential people? I'm not sure. If it's the most beautiful, I understand. We're not real cute.

There is almost a sense of exasperation among many party elites over the media coverage the two polarizing figures get – attention which, in Palin’s case, is widely seen as a product largely of her good looks and tabloid-fodder family troubles.

It's a reflection of the economy more than anything else. We are not immune.

I think he's really out there and speaking a lot of truth about the direction of the party.

Huntsman has positioned himself in a great place right now because he is the only presidential candidate really running in the middle right now.

But to succeed, such a faction will have to represent something legitimately new in right-of-center politics. It can’t sound like Rush Limbaugh — but it can’t sound like Arlen Specter either.

With Frank Rich in his camp as well, Huntsman's just one prominent Democrat away from running away with the wrong primary.

I just want [council members] to be as good of elected officials as they can be.

Ferrell preyed on the young and hip in Salt Lake City, New York and Philadelphia who were charmed by her frank sexuality, bon mots and claims of music-scene contacts. When that failed, she told them she was dying of cancer.

She became a cult anti-hero nationwide, spawning legends, satirical fiction and even a hipster-grifter foldable icon, above.

Here's the recent headline in two columns in The Salt Lake Tribune: "On opposite poles: two Mormons on torture" and "LDS lawyers, psychologists had a hand in torture policies." The Huffington Post follows up with a column by a retired colonel: "Two Mormons, Two ethics on torture" and a New York Times blog quoting Vanity Fair about the "Mormon Mafia." So was the faith of either (now) Judge Jay Bybee and Alyssa Peterson necessary for telling the story? If it was, why does "Mormon" belong in the headline? It is a requirement for faiths to take public stands on torture?

And with all of this ink spilt on the Mormon-interrogation ties, there has yet to be a balanced report from an investigative journalist sorting out the facts related to the legality of Bybee's decisions and the implications of religious affliation.

The more often you go to church, the more you approve of torture. This is a troubling finding of a new survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Shouldn't it be the opposite? After all, who would Jesus torture? Since Jesus wouldn't even let Peter use a sword and defend him from arrest, it would seem that those who follow Jesus would strenuously oppose the violence of torture. But, not so in America today.

During the interim what we're doing is studying issues, gathering information, rather than making policy and passing bills. We're just studying. Senator Buttars has a sharp mind* and is experienced. I think he'll be a benefit and a help there.

• Made in the state
• Kept within the state's borders.

What is important for the [GOP] party is that we engage in a meritocracy of ideas and let a thousand ideas bloom.

Regardless of law, marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down, so it can be replaced with a government that will respect and support marriage, and help me raise my children in a society where they will expect to marry in their turn. Biological imperatives trump laws. American government cannot fight against marriage and hope to endure. If the Constitution is defined in such a way as to destroy the privileged position of marriage, it is that insane Constitution, not marriage, that will die.

It is one thing for a science fiction writer to have such views, but it's something much different for a national organization like the NOM to endorse those views by giving Card such a prominent position on its board. We call on the NOM to categorically reject Card's radical statements.