By at least one measure, life in Utah is getting steadily worse.

When Gallup and Healthways started the Well-Being Index in 2008, Utah ruled. The Beehive State finished first. The index is an attempt to measure in categories from physical health, to access to quality care, work environment and how people feel about their lives. Fifty-five measures are evaluated, including whether people learn new and interesting things daily.

Then came 2009 and Utah fell to second. No big deal. Hawaii, the second place winner in ’08, had moved to No. 1.There are worse things in life than taking turns with Hawaii.

You may have noticed that things looking just like cigarette commercials have begun showing up on your television screen. You may even have said to yourself, “What in the name of the dearly departed Marlboro Man is going on here? Have I passed through a wrinkle in the space-time continuum?”

And, “Is an e-cigarette something I can download on the Internet?”

Good questions, all.

E-cigarettes have begun showing up everywhere from convenience stores to grocers. People can be seen using them on train platforms and other places where traditional smoking is prohibited. And in Utah, teenagers are using them to a larger extent than elsewhere in the nation.

Today, the forecast in Sochi, Russia is for a high of 57 with possible rain. More slush; little snow.

Way over here, in Park City, the forecast high is 57 with partly cloudy skies.

Coincidence? Maybe not, but I chalk it up as another reason why we should all take a deep breath before deciding to host another worldwide winter dance party.

I know I am in the minority here, and a pretty small minority, at that. Especially in the hours after another Winter Olympics has ended, folks around here are riding high in their enthusiasm to bring the Olympics back to Utah. KSL-TV just reported the largest share of viewing audience for the Sochi Games of any NBC affiliate in the nation. Utahns still have the fever.

And I can’t blame you. Even I was up at 4:30 a.m. Sunday to

Dutch speed skating coach Jillert Anema is getting a lot of Internet traction after his comments to CNBC about why the U.S. didn’t win any medals in long-track at Sochi while his country pretty much swept the field.

Simply put, we Americans waste too much time on our football, at which we are the best because no one else in the world plays the game, he said.

Oh yes, and we Americans think we ought to expect to win everything because … well, that’s just how we are.

Anema seems to be having a jolly, humorous time with his interviewers while giving American cable TV the outrageous and combative tone it craves. The Dutch people I’ve met have wonderful senses of humor, and he seems to know how to play his audience well while never losing his smile.

If you live in Utah and have several children, do you get an education “entitlement” from the government because each child is a tax deduction?

Or, put a different way, are you burdening the rest of society?

Like swallows returning to Capistrano, these notions seem to show up every year during the annual Utah legislative session. It’s time to debunk them.

It was fitting, in a way, that Utahns entered the Presidents Day weekend — set aside in part to honor Abraham Lincoln — with a stark reminder that slavery still exists, even here.

Are you surprised?

At a press conference in front of the Salt Lake County Jail on Friday, authorities announced the arrest of 42-year-old Victor Manuel Rax, a Guatemalan who allegedly was using teenage boys from undocumented families against their will both for sex and for selling illegal drugs.

Rax may not bring to mind the stereotypical 19th century Southern plantation owner who employed bosses to watch slaves and whip them if they got out of line, but his reported methods were similar.

Can we have a serious talk about sexual morality?

Apparently not.

All of you who think society has progressed since the 1950s, consider this: Back then any mention of certain topics in a public setting would be met with uncomfortable giggles. We were, the more enlightened people told us, repressed, and this was not good. But today, repression runs in a different direction. Anyone

In some ways, 1951 seems about as distant as the flickering shadows of an old movie. In other ways, such as when it comes to discussing whether to move the Utah state prison, it can seem as current as the most recent legislative hearing.

Which means we probably ought to pay attention to what happened back then.

If you were to guess, off the top of your head, which government programs would get the kind of bipartisan support needed to pass a deeply divided Congress, would a tax to promote live Christmas tree sales make the list?

Well, grandma may or not have been run over by a reindeer, but you just got smacked by another special interest.

And at a time when government seems to be increasingly hostile to religion — even trying to force the Little Sisters of the Poor to sign a paper consenting to their workers receiving contraception coverage — isn’t it a bit ironic that Washington finds it in government’s best interest to urge you to put a real tree in your house to celebrate the birth of Christ? And you thought folks in Washington had forgotten how to pronounce the word “Christmas.”

It turns out TSA agents really are sitting in a private room somewhere laughing at how you look naked on a full-body scanner, your feet spread slightly and your hands over your head.

Tell me you’re not surprised.

Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz isn’t. When I got him on the phone, he was at an airport, of all places, waiting for a flight from Washington to Salt Lake City. He refrained from saying, “I told you so,” but he was happy to point out the obvious. “Now we find the allegations to be true. The TSA always insisted they don’t capture that image of you. Well, yeah, they do, and they’re laughing at you,” he said.

Late last week, former TSA agent Jason Edward Harrington