Salt Lake Crawler

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In the fevered brains of Utah's wingnuts, things can get confused: sanctity of life and states' rights, for example. As a result you get lunatics like Rep. Chris Herrod, who wants to relax requirements that children be restrained in car booster seats. Herrod introduced a bill that would allow the parents of  5- to 8-year-olds to forgo booster seats when they drive less than four miles. (The usual distance to a ward house, I assume.) Herrod says its about individual rights and stuff:

"I get frustrated with do-gooders that try to tell parents what to do. If they're out to protect kids, they should go after alcohol."

Let's get this straight: Until the feds pass more restrictive alcohol laws, Herrod would put innocents in jeopardy? If you feel overwhelming loathing toward Herrod and the Eagle Forum, you're not alone. Charles Pruitt, the medical director for child advocacy at Primary Children's Medical Center, is clearly right there with you:

"I am, frankly, angry and sick and tired of seeing dead children come into my emergency room because they were restrained improperly."

Update . . .

Reader Dan Garfield alerted me to a video starring famous counter-intuitive economist Steven Levitt (Freakonomics) that debunks the belief that booster seats make a difference in safety over good-ol' seatbelts for children 2 and older. Levitt says he

... found no evidence that the expensive and complicated solution [booster seats] worked any better cheap and simple solution [conventional seat belts].

 

Utah's First Lady Jeanette Herbert has joined the ranks of First Lady Michelle Obama and Her Royal Hotness of France Carla Bruni-Sarkozy as an involuntary PETA anti-fur poster girl. PETA's Dan Mathews is thrilled:

Utah might be known for its harsh winters, but one thing you'll never catch first lady Jeanette Herbert in is a real fur coat, no matter how far the mercury drops. PETA recently sent surveys to first ladies across the country ... "Do you wear fur?" . . . A representative for the governor's wife confirmed that "Mrs. Herbert does not wear fur."

I guess Jeanette won't be accepting that floor-length coyote-fur cape that Sen. Allen Christensen is working on. The governor's office did not immediately respond to a request for a comment on the PETA news.

Gay-rights summit — Growing division in the LGBT community over the one-year moratorium on gay-rights legislation has led to a  forum being scheduled for Thursday at the UofU student union to discuss what the hell happened to the momentum following the LDS Church's endorsement of Salt Lake's anti-discrimination ordinances. Valerie Larabee, executive director of the Utah Pride Center wants to clear the air and move forward: "We want to create a space that encourages thoughtful questions and respectful commentary during a time when there are many questions about what's next for the LGBT community here in Utah."

All power to the Legislature — In another spasm of states-rights fervor, state Sen. Howard Stephenson wants the Legislature to regain some control over Utah's U.S. senators. Originally, senators were selected by the state legislatures, as God intended, and not by popular vote. The blessed and inspired Founders (who invented tea parties) considered grass-roots movements like popular vote tantamount to mob rule. Go figure. Under Stephenson's bill state lawmakers would grade the performance of Utah's U.S. senators. Even if it passes, Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett don't have much to worry about because it will take at least a  generation for state lawmakers to grow enough backbone to say anything critical.

 

Gay rights supporters on Facebook heatedly debated the Legislature's recent "compromised compromise" that imposed a one-year moratorium on gay rights bills. Charles Lynn Frost (aka "Sister Dottie") kicked off the discussion with a dead-serious op-ed piece in The Salt Lake Tribune that negatively compared Utah's gay-rights struggle to the Civil Rights movement.

I only wish our LGBT and straight-supportive legislators as well as the entire Utah LGBT culture could muster such organization, fearlessness, bravery and courage.

It was excruciating to watch State Rep. Christine Johnson's pathetic YouTube excuse video for illogically taking the easy road. Shame on her, shame on Equality Utah for advocating such a tragic strategy.

Some say this is going to be a big year for us, the LGBT community. Perhaps a big year to deal and dance with the devils even longer, allowing them to find ways to legitimize our inequalities. One more year to swallow the bitter (Buttars) pills. All of this because of fear and a need to quiet those queers.

The Facebook page of former Utah senator and still gay Scott McCoy lit up after McCoy zapped Frost:

OK. Those who are upset with Our gay leaders and Equality Utah, instead of sitting back and criticizing, what's your plan? We're all ears. Lead us to the promised land. I just hope it's more than equality through drag "theater".

Martha Amundsen replied:

Call their bluff and drag the bigots out of the closet. If their anti-LGBT bills are passed so what? We have almost nothing to lose. This is going to have to happen on a federal level and we can do our part to expose why it is so greatly needed. Also, that "Drag Theater" did a lot more to promote equality in Utah than what's happening in the legislature this year - which is nothing.

Before it was over, even Rep. Christine Johnson, who talked Democrats into holding off on gay-rights bills, jumped in:

From the Hill . . .

Sen. Allen Christensen's bill to manage Utah's wolves — if the state ever gets any — is generating sympathy for wolves nationwide and contributions to environmental groups.

Gov. Gary Herbert's office received 17,000 emails and phone calls from supporters of wolves, Herbert's Natural Resource Czar Ted Wilson tells me. Many of the messages where form responses orchestrated by the Defenders of Wildlife:

"I am writing to urge you to oppose senator Allen Christensen's effort to enact a proposal that would require state wildlife officials to capture or kill any wild wolf that wander into Utah ..."

Christensen has re-written his bill to a less draconian form that would request federal agents, not state, to remove or kill wolves that enter Utah. But the letter writers, many on the east coast, appear to be unaware of the change.

Christensen's bill is headed for the House floor.

In response to word that Utah's preemptive attack on wolves has caused a jump in contributions to national envirnomental groups, Wilson joked:

"Maybe the Defenders of Wildlife will write Allen [Christensen] a [campaign contribution] check."

 

From the Hill...

Rep. Jason Chafettz tells the Utah Senate that he recently chatted with Supreme Court Justice Scalia. Chafettz asked the justice "what's it going to take" for the feds to recognize states' 10th Amendment rights?

Scalia said:

"Stop taking their money."

Chafettz passed the bad news on:

"That carrot is going to be something you [state officials] are going to have to deal with."