All Categories - Jay Evensen

Should there be an age limit for public service?

9/28/2026

The recent image of Sen. Mitch McConnell returning to the Senate in a wheelchair, frail and mostly expressionless after a three-month absence was a symbol, of sorts, of early 21st century politics in the United States.
First, we are a nation that loves conspiracy theories, and because of the 84-year-old McConnell, the past three months were full of these.
He was dead, some said, and his staff was keeping this information secret so they didn’t lose their jobs. If he wasn’t dead, he surely was incapacitated, went another narrative. When his office released a photo of the senator alongside his wife, Elaine Chao, it only fanned the flames. This was an old photo, some said, alleging it was from 2023. Others said it was generated by AI, the modern catch-all explanation for all things suspicious.

A GoFundMe to pay for the national debt?

9/28/2026

Some of you are incredibly generous – to a fault, even.
Seriously, a few of you (I’m guessing very few) are making me think I should start a GoFundMe just for the sake of fattening my savings account.
About a year ago, I noted that the federal government has a website devoted entirely to accepting voluntary contributions intended for paying down the national debt which, by the way, just passed the $40 trillion mark. It’s true. Just go to pay.gov, navigate to click “Make a donation or contribution” near the bottom of the page, then scroll down to “Gifts to reduce the public debt.” The rest is easy. Uncle Sam even takes Venmo.
The Treasury provides a month-by-month tally of these contributions, going back to 1997. In July of this year, people donated a combined $23,143.83. In September of 2025, the total was a whopping $173,710.42.

Where have all the criminals gone?

9/28/2026

Where did all the criminals go?
And, perhaps more importantly, did you notice they were missing?
Jeff Asher, a crime statistics guru who co-founded the data firm AH Datalytics, told the National Council of State Legislatures that people tend to judge the crime rate by anecdotal evidence — what a neighbor told them happened to an acquaintance or something they heard happened nearby. Worse, they listen to politicians or judge that the political party they oppose has made a practice of either coddling criminals or abusing them.
And official statistics lag far behind current reality, as if many people paid attention to official statistics, anyway.

Why is everyone suddenly against data centers?

9/18/2026

Americans are finally uniting for a cause. From Bernie Sanders to a newly converted Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, everyone, it seems, is against the construction and operation of computer data centers.
But is this a true grass-roots movement, or are foreign bots stirring things up?
Utah has 48 operating data centers, and most of them popped up without much attention. That all changed during this summer when the Stratos Project was introduced in Box Elder County, near the expanding shores of the water-starved Great Salt Lake. The public rose up in opposition. Politicians ran for their political lives. Utah’s long-time Senate president Stuart Adams lost his primary election at least in part, presumably, because of his support for the center.

Is time running out on Social Security reform?

9/8/2026

As an old saying goes, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.
But when it comes to Social Security reform, the time is quickly coming when “now” won’t even be the second best time to plant a solution.
And while the Wall Street Journal struck a hopeful note last weekend with a report headlined, “Congress is finally talking about saving Social Security,” it’s worth noting that we’re in the middle of a heated midterm election season and the public isn’t exactly clamoring to fix the floundering retirement supplement.
Politicians are keen to react to issues that occupy voters’ minds. It is somewhat comforting, then, to know at least some of them understand that if a crisis is looming, it’s best not to ignore it.

What kids in 1976 predicted about today

9/8/2026

Sometimes, predicting the future can take an ironic twist.
Fifty years ago, United Airlines President Richard J. Ferris gave a speech in which he predicted air fares would rise to staggering levels by the year 2026. A flight from Chicago to New York, for instance, would cost $430, he said, according to a Chicago Tribune story I found on newspapers.com.
Turns out he was pretty close on that prediction, but by the time we all got here, $430 was the equivalent of only $74 in 1976, which is hardly staggering at all. If you use any reputable flight-comparison web site — something few people in 1976 predicted we would have by now, or ever — you can find fares for about half that.

What an old checkbook teaches about the cost of living

8/28/2026

Among the unlikely treasurers that have fallen into my possession through the years is my late father’s checkbook from 1962.
It’s a time-capsule of sorts, much more illuminating than what people normally stuff in those things. Among other expenses I found from that pre credit-card-for-every-purchase era was a check for 50 cents, written on July 5 to something called Ice Treats Inc. Given that we lived in Phoenix, that made a lot of sense, and I’m sure I enjoyed it, being 3 at the time.
But there were a lot of serious bills to be paid, as well. Without going into monetary details, I was able to calculate that our family spent about 19% of its disposable income on housing costs, not counting utilities that averaged about $15 a month.

Gambling's toll on the American people

7/23/2026

One of the sad ironies of the day is that, despite an explosion of legal gambling from coast to coast, no one in Washington is studying what this is doing to the nation.
Yes, Utah Rep. Blake Moore is, together with New York Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman, sponsoring the “gambling disorder health study act,” which a press release said would use 10% of a federal excise tax Washington imposes on state gambling to study the “causes, development and long-term effects of gambling disorder,” and would look at ways to prevent and treat the problem.

Why we need to meet a real space alien

7/23/2026

As usual, nothing in the latest tranche of UAP materials in Washington gives us what we really want (the acronym UFO went out with multi-colored COVID masks, in case you didn’t notice.)
What we want is the smiling face of a genuine alien. Even a frowny face would do, although that would likely raise concerns to a whole new level.
Frankly, with the national debt, a war in Iran and the never-ending fixit job on the Washington Mall’s reflecting pool, we just can’t afford to ramp up a space war with another planet right now. Don’t expect China or Russia to be much help in that funding problem, either, no matter how many spaceship phasers are pointed at them.

Another twist in the Daylight Saving drama

7/23/2026

An old adage says, “The best time to fix the hole in the roof against rain is when the sun is shining.”
Fifty-two years ago, that wisdom was quoted by Pennsylvania’s Republican Rep. George A. Goodling. It was late June of 1974, only a few months after the last time Congress and the president decided to make daylight saving time permanent.
I’ll explain how the analogy applies in a minute. For now, it’s important to understand that the United States already experimented with year-round daylight saving time. The current effort in Washington is not plowing new ground.

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