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Why Thanksgiving is the most important holiday

11/27/2013

I can’t remember what labyrinth of clicks and links led me there, but after a few moments of chasing what promised to be an interesting sports story on the Internet last week I found myself knee-deep in the verbal quicksand of a comment section.

The Deseret News monitors its reader comments. The source that published this story does not, and readers seemed to be channeling some raging inner inferno that bypassed their brains on the way to a keyboard.

By the time the comment thread exhausted itself, one side, represented by someone identified only through initials, expressed the opinion that the other posters were “racist bigots” who watched “kiddie porn and animal abuse videos.”

If you want to know how society has changed, just

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Mandatory prison sentences serve no purpose

11/21/2013

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It’s hard to imagine too many causes that would bring together conservatives such as former Utah Gov. Norm Bangerter and former Utah Sen. Jake Garn and liberal activists such as singer-song writer Bonnie Raitt and Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame.

But when that happens, it’s probably good to pay attention.

All four were among 114 people who signed an appeal to President Barack Obama in recent days

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What JFK, others, can teach us about 'black Friday' creep

11/13/2013

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In a few days, the nation will be awash in nostalgic reminiscences of the day a half-century ago when a president was assassinated. While I, too, count that as one of the most riveting memories of my young life at the time, there will be little news to report on the subject.

For something a bit more relevant, study the proclamation President John F. Kennedy signed that year for Thanksgiving — a day he never lived to see.

It’s relevant only because in recent days Wal-Mart, the world’s king of retail, announced it plans to begin its black-Friday Christmas sales this year at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving.

This is the latest one-up in the relentless encroachment on what was, from the start, a purely religious holiday.

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Banning trans fats won't be in the end of freedom

11/11/2013

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Ever wonder what people eat at the FDA? I mean, what sort of stuff do they look for at lunchtime? What can the average FDA employee find in the vending machines in down the hall?

I ask this because some people are reacting to the FDA’s decision to ban trans fats as the first step toward outlawing sugar, salt, cigarettes, pizza or anything else that would ruin Super Bowl Sunday for Americans.

Frankly, the inclusion of cigarettes in that list ought to tell you something. There are few products in America that are more genuinely considered culturally inappropriate in public. If the government hasn’t found a way yet to outlaw them completely, I think the other stuff is fairly safe for a while.

But my point about the FDA lunchroom is that, hard as it may be to believe, the folks who work there are human beings. They must be motivated by the same things that motivate the rest of us, even if they might

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Lesson to cash-strapped governments - don't ask too much

11/6/2013

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“One fine mornin’, I'm gonna reach up and grab me a handfulla stars…” — Samuel Allen, poet.

The Jordan School District, in retrospect, would have been better off just trying to grab one or two stars.

Voters last week couldn’t have been clearer if they had stormed schools with pitchforks. They liked the proposed $495 million bond issue about as much as Utahns liked Michael Jordan’s last-second shots in the NBA finals of ’97 and ’98.

They defeated it, 67-33 percent. Even Democrats do better in some parts of this state.

One state over, residents of Colorado defeated Amendment 66 by a similar margin, despite a campaign of more than $10 million by school advocates. That one would have taken $1 billion more per year out of the economy for a variety of

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Blackface and Klan outfits — do we never learn?

11/5/2013

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If you’ve ever known someone who survived World War II in Europe, you know they don’t always find humor in jokes about Hitler or the holocaust or anything to do with Nazis. I am familiar with one such person who refused to watch Hogan’s Heroes for that reason.

That attitude is understandable. My mother survived years of Nazi occupation in Norway as a teenager, and she didn’t find anything particularly funny about any of it.

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Are you voting Tuesday? Local elections affect you the most

11/4/2013

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Are you voting Tuesday or, alternatively, did you already vote early in your municipal elections?

If the answer is no, and you also spend a lot of time obsessing over national politics, you either are ignorant or a hypocrite.

No government affects you as much as your local city, school board or other neighborhood taxing entity. A city government decides how to zone your community, meaning it can effectively decide where you live and whether your neighbor down the street is a convenience store,

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Why Thanksgiving is the most important holiday

Mandatory prison sentences serve no purpose

What JFK, others, can teach us about 'black Friday' creep

Banning trans fats won't be in the end of freedom

Lesson to cash-strapped governments - don't ask too much

Blackface and Klan outfits — do we never learn?

Are you voting Tuesday? Local elections affect you the most

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