Jay Evensen - Opinions

Regular folks, not politicians, will solve our problems

7/12/2017

Few news stories are as inspiring as the one that broke Tuesday about 80 or so strangers along the Florida coast who quickly organized a human chain to rescue an entire family caught in a dangerous riptide.

Now imagine this: What if, when that family began screaming for help, the only people on the beach had been members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats on a beach excursion?

Would they have formed a bipartisan human chain, or would whichever party thought of that solution have faced instant opposition from the other side?

I hope they would have acted much like the diverse group of beach-goers in Panama City, who didn’t bother to ask about each other’s views before acting.

Are we 'prime(d)' for changes in how we shop?

7/11/2017

My shopping experience last Saturday, for good or ill, turned out to be a sign of how the world is changing in the early 21st century.

I wanted a new pair of shoes, so I did what people have done for more than a century. I went to a store — a large local mall, which shall remain nameless because it could have been any one of them.

I had a particular brand in mind. The first store I visited had a limited selection, and the sales staff

Why let people play with fire in the desert in July?

7/5/2017

Firefighters called this year’s July 4 holiday a perfect storm for fire danger. If so, perfection is rarely so easy to predict.

A good portion of the state near Panguitch had been on fire for days. A wet spring had left plenty of growth everywhere that hot, dry days had transformed into kindling.

And then the population, almost in unison, played with fire. What were we expecting?

Why does Trump want your driver license number?

7/3/2017

Only four years ago, Americans were outraged that the National Security Agency was secretly gathering information on American’s phone calls and emails, in a broad data sweep we were told would make anti-terrorism efforts more effective.

Ah, the good old days.

Now it is the White House that is looking for

What to do about politicians who no longer can govern?

6/28/2017

The heart-wrenching case of Salt Lake County Recorder Gary Ott could be worse. He could be a judge.

A few years ago, at a federal court in New York, attorneys were astounded when an 84-year-old judge asked someone to explain the concept of email.

Voters aren't qualified to legalize medicinal marijuana

6/27/2017

When was the last time Utah voters were asked to decide whether a particular substance or compound should be considered medicine and approved for prescription use?

Perhaps a better question is, should such a thing ever be left to a democratic process? Don’t we usually allow qualified researchers to study potential drugs to know whether they work and how they should be prescribed?

Economic principles still work, even in Seattle

6/26/2017

In 1987, the New York Times editorial board, of all people, said the best minimum wage would be $0.

“The idea of using a minimum wage to overcome poverty is old, honorable - and fundamentally flawed,” it said. “It's time to put this hoary debate behind us, and find a better way to improve the lives of people who work very hard for very little.”

Can we handle the truth about election hacking?

6/21/2017

The subject may have been Senate Republicans and the secret health care bill some of them were working on, but Arizona Sen. John McCain tapped a different nerve Tuesday.

The bill, he said, was so secret that he hadn’t seen it, “nor have I met any American that has.” Then he added this, “I’m sure the Russians have been able to hack in and gotten most of it.”

Well, of course. “The Russians already know about

Did we learn anything from the Great Recession?

6/20/2017

The first thing I noticed about China, where I spent the last two weeks on vacation, is that the economy is almost exclusively cash-based.

Whip out a credit card at a fast-food restaurant and watch the puzzled looks on the faces of cashiers. It will almost match the puzzled look on yours when you realize “combo meal” means you get shrimp and egg custard with your order. A popular credit card slogan asks what’s in your wallet, but you had better have cold-hard Yuan in yours if you want to eat in Beijing.

Will your candidate body slam a reporter?

5/31/2017

Would you like to know before you cast your ballot whether your favorite candidate is the kind who would body slam a reporter?

Careful — I’m not asking whether you support or oppose body slamming reporters, just whether you would like to know this before voting. (But please, let me put on a bike helmet and strap a pillow to my back first, if you don’t mind.)

Montana’s recent special election kerfuffle, in which a last-minute bit of bad behavior may have been negated by ballots already in the mail, has made even ardent vote-by-mail advocates swallow hard.

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