United States | News & Politics

Disney is just a company

And that's essentially how religions work as well. The difference is that companies tend to be more involved in politics than religions. If you'll notice, the church in Utah doesn't get involved all that often in local politics, only when something it really cares about is contentious.

I'm not saying it's right, I'm saying that Utah isn't as special as many detractors like to claim. Look at any state dominated by one industry and you'll find a lot of the same issues.

I never see a seminary building for any other religion

Then perhaps that should be more common.

The LDS seminary is much like a Bible study that many of my classmates would go to after school. It's much more than a worship session, there are tests, homework, and other aspects of a formal education, but the subject matter is religious texts, not secular texts. But the same goals apply: teaching students how to learn for themselves.

In college, I took a class on The Divine Comedy where we went in depth into a single volume. That's the secular equivalent of what we did in seminary, just with different subject matter.

I would love it if there were Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist centers near secular schools where kids could choose to take a class as a break from secular education (without compromising their secular education). I think it's really valuable to thoroughly understand the religion you profess to follow, and most people don't seem to get that far.

"This is a restaurant not a bar"

Yeah, that's part of the stupid alcohol laws. Add the Zion curtain to that list, which was fortunately repealed IIRC.

But I thought you could order whatever you wanted? Maybe it's just a request, and they'll only order it if enough people request it, but I've heard the state liquor stores here have a pretty good selection, aside from the glaring fact that you don't have any options outside of them (and they're not open on Sundays or holidays).

I don't drink, but if I could snap my fingers and change some laws, the alcohol laws would be near the top of that list. For a state with a large tourism industry, we do a bad job of actually catering to tourists.

Utah is joining the book banning wave

Yeah, it's pretty dumb. However, I have heard that some of the LGBT books have gotten a pass where a heterosexual book wouldn't have been allowed for being too graphic, so maybe there's an argument here. However, they've likely gone too far (I haven't been keeping track of what the rules actually are).

I agree that religious texts probably shouldn't be in elementary school libraries. Kids just aren't mature enough to really understand that many of them are not historical stories, but allegories, and many stories are incredibly graphic. My 9yo is pretty bright (reads at a 6th grade level or so) and still has some issues distinguishing fiction and real life (even in obviously fictional stories like Harry Potter), and adding religion and history into the mix is a recipe for failure.

So either we should just let school libraries make the call, or we heavily curate what is available based on objective standards. I lean toward the former, but as long as there's consistency, I don't mind too much, provided the restrictions only apply to school libraries (i.e. my local city library is free to have whatever books patrons want). But upper grade levels should have no such limits.

and the ability for people to be heard when they vote

The same thing happens elsewhere though. As long as there's a simple majority for a given party, minority interests won't get much attention. I think the whole notion of geographical voting systems screws everything up because whatever party that's in power gets to rig the system.

I'm interested in exploring proportional representation, especially in smaller states like Utah where it's really easy to completely lock out minority parties. That would also help even out state legislatures so things like ballot initiatives would be less likely to be corrupted.

But AFAIK, no state has implemented proportional representation, and few have effective controls against gerrymandering.

The thing that bothers me more than most of this though is the stupid legislation that age gates porn and social media, which is a huge privacy violation that's just going to end in breaches. I think it's incredibly short-sighted, and it might be enough to get me to run for office. I'm incredibly lazy though (and I have young kids, so time is limited too), but if that doesn't get overturned in the courts, I'll probably run against my state house rep (who had been unopposed since I moved to this district).