Blog Archives - Jay Evensen

Forest Service seems bent on controlling the message

9/30/2014

Forest Service officials are acting all surprised, like they can’t imagine why in the world the media and the public would jump to such awful conclusions.

Those conclusions, outlined in news stories earlier this month, were that anyone who wanted to take a photo in a federal wilderness area — even with a cell phone — would need a permit first if a proposed set of rules was put into effect. If caught without a permit, they would have to pay $1,000.

War on poverty has failed; why not try these ideas instead?

9/24/2014

Fifty years after Lyndon Johnson first declared it, the American war on poverty seems to be dominated by two extremes.

On one side are those who see the war as a success because public spending has led to the poor having relatively decent living conditions. What we need, they would say, is much more federal spending.

Which, even if it were a good idea (it’s not), wouldn’t stand a snowball’s chance in an ISIS compound of getting through Congress.

On the other side is the private sector, which has set up a thriving payday lending industry that is quick to tout its ability to loan poor people just enough to make it to their next meager paycheck. If they can’t repay the loan at interest rates of 500 percent or more, they can always borrow more.

Surely, there must be a third way.

Of course there is.

Millennials have the wisdom of the Depression generation

9/23/2014

We’re living life in the breach these days, as in the Home Depot credit card breach, the Target breach and the Neiman Marcus breach, etc.

You may even have heard some old-fashioned thinking around the water cooler lately, stuff like, “The best thing may be to just pay cash.”

Of course, this is usually followed by a bit of self-conscious laughter. I mean, everyone knows that’s impossible, right? Who carries cash these days?

Well, Millennials do, apparently, and it eventually could screw up the entire economy.

Or not.

Think you have young people figured out? Let’s take a test. What percentage of Millennials, the roughly 18-29 age category, would you guess does not own a credit card?

NFL and domestic violence -- let's get real

9/18/2014

Anheuser-Busch, one of the NFL’s most lucrative sponsors, couldn’t tsk-tsk enough this week, issuing a statement saying it was “increasingly concerned” with the way the league is treating domestic violence.

Such things, the statement said, “clearly go against our own company culture and moral code.”

It was enough to make you forget that what the company peddles is often at least a factor in crimes, domestic or otherwise, misty-eyed tributes to heroes, majestic horses and cute puppy dogs notwithstanding.

It was enough to make you forget about recent studies that accuse the beer and alcohol industries of directing advertising to teenagers.

It also was enough to put you in awe of the power of marketing.

Why a free U2 album makes us freak out

9/17/2014

As one Twitter user put it recently, there is a “big difference between giving out free cheese vs. sneaking into houses to feed sleeping people Cheese Whiz intravenously.”

Twitter can occasionally come up with pearls of wisdom, leading to hope for the thesis that a building full of monkeys at typewriters might at some point produce Shakespeare.

A lot of us apparently feel as if we woke up recently with Cheese Whiz coming out of our noses.

A week or so ago I opened a credit card bill to discover three charges to iTunes, each for about $10. This was odd, since I hadn’t bought anything

Are taxes fair? It depends who you ask

9/15/2014

We’ve heard a lot lately about the unfairness of the nation’s corporate tax structure. Burger King’s talk of merging with Canada’s Tim Horton, part of a strategy to move the burger corporation away from high taxes in the United States, initiated some of that discussion.

Whether or not that deal ever goes through, the talk likely will continue as elections heat up. The Tax Foundation issued a report this week showing that, in terms of international competitiveness in tax structure, the United States ranks 32nd out of the 34 nations in the Organization for Economic

Home Depot's scandal once again makes us feel vulnerable

9/12/2014

If millions of customers were robbed at gunpoint every time they entered a particular store, people would stay away. Even if a place got a reputation as a hangout for pickpockets, it wouldn’t last long.

But today we have the equivalent of a situation in which thieves secretly gain the ability to steal from customers who enter a business, then decide much later which ones will become victims. Somehow, the economy keeps moving, but it’s getting scary out there.

Postmaster General is optimistic despite many challenges

9/10/2014

I can think of only a few jobs in this world I wouldn’t want under any circumstances. Doing public relations for the tobacco industry is one. Being Kim Jong-Un’s barber? No thanks, although whoever does it now could use some help.

And while I love health care workers, blood makes me squeamish.

But high on the list also is the job of United States Postmaster General. There is a lot of bleeding involved with that one, too.

Last month, the Postal Service announced it ended the June 30 quarter with a $2 billion net loss. That

'Swatting' demonstrates the Internet's vulnerabilities

9/2/2014

The raid could have gone so wrong.

When a Bluffdale man, who has asked to remain anonymous, figured out that someone had pulled a prank on his video-game-playing wife by summoning a SWAT team to their home, he decided to come outside with his hands up, hoping to explain everything.

Freeze that image in your mind, then put yourself in the shoes of the officers in full protective gear, guns drawn. The call was from someone claiming to have killed his mother and to be holding others hostage.

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