 | At least Utahns haven’t taken to setting electric scooters on fire, throwing them in trashcans or vandalizing them with dog poop, the way people have in some California cities. Not yet, anyway. They haven’t taken to throwing them in rivers by the thousands, the way folks are doing in parts of China — not that the Jordan River hasn’t had some interesting deposits over the years. |
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Is it illegal to shout “Fire!” in a crowded theater?
I haven’t done a scientific analysis, but I’d be willing to wager most people think it is. A week or so ago, Democrats and anti-gun activists were outraged when Utah Sen. Mike Lee opposed a bill that would have prohibited the publishing of blueprints for plastic guns. A common complaint was that allowing the publication would be like yelling “Fire!” in a theater. And yet, yelling “Fire!” in a theater is perfectly legal, although perhaps not advisable. But then, a lot of speech is legal but not advisable. Quick, can you recite some of the tax breaks your local government gave to new businesses over the past several years, and do you know whether the promises those businesses made to get that money came true?
I thought so. Apparently, Americans approach children the way they approach weight loss — great idea, but just not right now, thank you.
A Gallup poll released last month uncovered an interesting trend. As a whole, 41 percent of Americans believe three or more children per family is ideal, up from 38 percent in 2013 and 34 percent in 2011. Exactly half say up to two children is best. Only 1 percent told pollsters zero children was ideal. Sometimes, the best way to spend a warm summer afternoon is to lie on the grass and contemplate the passing scene. The second best way is to do it from an office chair. Here’s what I see as August begins.
Inland port: So now opponents of Utah’s new port seem to be hanging their hopes on an obscure line in the state constitution that says the state can’t give municipal powers to any special commission. If he were still alive, how would Herbert Hoover advise President Trump on trade?
That’s a tough question. At 144 years old, he might have accumulated more wisdom than the rest of us. Whether he would be able to articulate it is another matter. Robert Litan, a senior fellow in economic studies for the Brookings Institute, has an idea what Hoover, the king of misguided protectionism, would say. In a recent paper titled, “History won’t be kind to politicians who stay silent on Trump’s trade war,” he wrote, “having recognized his huge mistake of pushing similar policies that stirred the trade war in the 1930s and then deepened what would become the Great Depression, he (Hoover) surely would tell the administration to stop this madness.” The president may not have a grasp on the extent to which Russian and other outside forces are trying to meddle in U.S. elections, but the people in charge of running elections in each of the 50 states certainly do.
They met this week in Philadelphia for a convention of the National Association of Secretaries of State. Utah is one of only three states without someone with the title of secretary of state, an office that typically oversees elections. But Utah’s Elections Director Justin Lee, who answers to Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, attended. I spoke to him by phone as he was waiting to board his flight home. MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google’s sprawling campus fills the landscape like some sort of indigenous ground cover, almost fading into the background of a surrounding community in which it has a mammoth presence.
As I learned during a visit to see my son, who is interning here for the summer, the low-rise buildings belie a mighty force of thousands of workers — mostly young and from far-flung places — who seem happy to ride the company’s free and colorful bicycles between buildings. Of all the things that may be said about the dramatic rescue of a soccer team trapped in a cave in Thailand, one may have escaped attention. It was a compelling and ultimately satisfying event to cheer, pray for and watch with rapt attention here in the United States in part because every aspect of it was beyond the grasp of partisan politics.
Didn’t that feel nice for a change? I was on my customary late-evening bike ride Monday when a bottle rocket went airborne on a lawn a few feet away.
In retrospect, I probably should have noticed the warning signs — the giggling sounds of adult voices, the people running for safety after successfully lighting the fuse. Nothing bad happened, other than I was given a momentary scare as I felt the heat and heard the whooshing sound. They didn’t intend to scare me. Even at my customary slow pace, I had surprised them as much as they surprised me. |
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The author
Jay Evensen is the Senior Editorial Columnist of the Deseret News. He has 32 years experience as a reporter, editor and editorial writer in Oklahoma, New York City, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. He also has been an adjunct journalism professor at Brigham Young and Weber State universities. Archives
August 2018
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