Welcome to the season when Utahns prove their patriotism by setting fire to their neighborhoods.
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This year, the Legislature made it harder for cities to outlaw fireworks, just in case someone gets the subversive notion to protect the public.
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You just know one person was cheering the Supreme Court for making all those controversial decisions last week — Edward Snowden. Once the court ruled on the Defense of Marriage Act, he could have walked right down Pennsylvania Avenue without attracting attention.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said Snowden is in the transit zone at Moscow’s airport. No word on whether he has endless free vouchers for the food court.
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If he does, he could earn money by making a sequel to “Supersize me.” U.S. authorities should let him stay there awhile, then they could more easily track him through satellites.
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Putin said Russia never worked with Snowden and isn’t planning to work with him. I’m guessing a lot depends on your definition of work. Emptying your pockets of secret information isn’t exactly something you can charge for by the hour.
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If Snowden’s reward for leaking sensitive government information is to spend the rest of his life in an airport, don’t expect to see a lot of whistle blowers at the NSA any time soon.
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That’s not to say Adam Zimmerman wasn’t grateful, as well, to be taken from the front page, at least momentarily. Given America’s short attention span, lots of people already are saying, “Wait, isn’t he that guy from Men’s Wearhouse?”
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President Obama was also grateful, as hardly anyone noticed when he gave environmentalists a summertime Christmas present by imposing energy measures through executive order.
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Speaking of Christmas, it apparently would be ironic to give the president a lump of coal in his stocking this year.
Jay Evensen is the associate editor of the Deseret News editorial page. Follow him on Twitter @jayevensen.