Salt Lake Crawler

Congressman Jason Chaffetz is worried about the privacy issues behind a security screening technology that combines a Nintendo Wii video game balancing device with thermal, ocular, respiratory, and cardiac monitors.

The scanners would be used to spot bad guys at airports, public events, and border crossings.

Chaffetz, famous for protecting his naughty bits from TSA's prying eyes, says the new scanners could be an invasion of privacy, worse than the full-body ogles at the airports.

“It’s crazy what you have to do to get on an airplane. I’m on an airplane every three or four days. I want the airplane to be as secure as possible, but oh my goodness, you get treated like a criminal.”

Please tell me our congressman did not say, "oh my goodness."

Atom Bob — Sen. Bob Bennett checked out Oak Ridge Nuclear Lab in Tennessee and reportedly spent his time discussing  nuclear fuel reprocessing. Is Bob burnishing his conservative cred by considering N-power for Utah?

Incoming! — Speaking of Utah's bright atomic future, EnergySolutions signed a $24 million contract with Exelon Nuclear to haul off obsolete materials and equipment from several of the utilities' power plants. That refuse will be dumped at ES's facility near Clive, Utah.

LDS Church sued — Three California brothers are suing the Mormon Church and the Boy Scouts, claiming they were sexually abused as children in the late 70s and 80s. Their lawyer says a church Boy Scout leader used his position to approach the boys and their divorced mother: "... he's a big wig in the local church... he played a profound role in these kids' lives... at some point he began dating their mother... some significant time after the abuse began is when he married their mother."

Got that? — Social conservatives around the country are laboring to make it perfectly clear that the LDS Church's support of SLCs anti-discrimination ordinances, isn't the same as endorsing gay lifestyles. "You know, in case that wasn't blatantly clear already," says Queerty. Queerty is a gay blog, you know, in case that wasn't blatantly clear already.

Gary who? — Former Gov. Jon Huntsman's immense popularity did not transfer to his successor Gary Herbert.  About a quarter of those surveyed by The Salt Lake Tribune had no opinion at all (probably because they had no idea they had recently gotten a new governor).

Provo ranks among the top 40 cities for purchasing its share of the nearly 5 million copies of Call of Duty:  Modern Warfare 2 sold in the U.S. and Britain. The capital of conservative America dropped from No. 9 to No. 16 to No. 36 over the last few days — so get out there and buy more violent video games, Utah County!

Also making COD:MW2's Top 40 was Salt Lake City at No. 34.

This is amusing, of course, because Utah County is also the home to Eagle Forum's Gayle Ruzicka who finds a sucker at the Legislature every session to push an anti-violent video game ban. Last year, if you recall, the push led by Sen. Chris Buttars and hapless Rep. Mike Morely blew up when Ruzicka ally anti-video game crusader Jack Thompson sent lawmakers lurid video clips of strippers in Grand Theft Auto.

Morely had to jump on the ol' grenade and apologize to the entire Legislature for the virtually sexy emails.

Squeamish Ogden Standard-Examiner readers are complaining about a report on a man who hung himself by hooks in his flesh. Before you get all worked up — the grisly public stunt was an act of love to raise money for a grave marker for a friend. Doesn't that make it more acceptable?

Dan Christensen, who already has had 45 body piercings over the years, says he was a bit nervous about going through with the public "hook suspension" at first, but thought about his friend for strength.

"I thought, 'This is this time. I'm really going to do this.' "

The best part of Carlos Mayorga's story is the reaction of health department bureaucrats:

Officials with the Weber-Morgan Health Department say this is the first commercial display of flesh hook suspension in the area that they know of.

They didn't know what to think when Christensen contacted them recently to announce his plans.

The department sent a licensed environmental health scientist to the event to make sure the procedure was carried out safely.

"There's no ordinance that governs these sort of things that we know of," said spokeswoman Lori Buttars. "We just encouraged him to have the hooks inserted at a reputable place that's been inspected and found clean."

Here's a lovely slide show of the event by S-E photojournalist Djamila Grossman.

Small Lake City disclosure: Carlos interned at The Tribune, where he cut his teeth on "skulls found in attic" stories. Buttars is also a Trib alum.

I'm all for ignorance, machismo and flat-out stupidity, it's the basis of adventure stories and about half of all American humor. But don't make the rest of us pay for it when you decide to do your Edmund Hillary thing.

Two twenty-something hikers got themselves stuck on a ledge in Little Cottonwood Canyon last night. Now, not only are thousands of dollars in public safety money being spent to extricate them, but helicopter crews are flying rescuers into the notoriously squirrelly canyon weather.

It may be time to require weekend adventurers post a bond, buy backcountry save-my-bacon insurance or a sign a "consider-me-a-cougar-snack" release form.