Promoting democracy in Utah one pint at a time.
Promoting democracy in Utah one pint at a time.
Laura has been doing a great job of getting interesting speakers for Drinking Liberally, and last nights’ speaker was a good example. Laura invited Missy Bird, the executive director of the Planned Parenthood Action Council. Missy talked about the proposed sex education bill and the discussion it’s already gotten despite not being an actual bill yet. The Salt Lake Tribune has a good article that talks about some of what’s already been going on, like Senator Chris Buttars flying out an “expert” to try and discredit groups like Planned Parenthood and comprehensive sex education.
Missy also had some interesting statistics that illustrated the need for comprehensive sex education, like:
A group calling themselves “America Forever” pulled a full-page ad in the Sunday Salt Lake papers warning Utahns of the “homosexual movement”. In the Tribune it’s on page D12, and I’m sure that it’s in the Deseret News too. The ad is full of lies and fear tactics and it’s scary that there are people that believe this. My first instinct was to laugh because it seems like it should be bad satire, but this group seems legit.
In case you don’t get the paper and you need a laugh you can see the ad by clicking the photos below:
A full page of hate in the Salt Lake Tribune
A full page of hate in the Salt Lake Tribune
When Governor Huntsman suggested the state should do away with the antiquated private club law, I figured it would get some resistance from the legislature. I’ve been watching the debate play out, cheering for Dave Morris – one of the most vocal leaders in opposition to the current law and the owner of the Piper Down where Drinking Liberally meets – and the Utah Hospitality Association.
What I didn’t expect was for the new clown of a Senate President Michael Waddoups to try to make our laws even more regressive. Despite his previous waffling on the issue, Waddoups has recently stated that he wants to start collecting information about drinkers in the state, recording where they go (and in his dream world how much they drink, no doubt) into a central database of sinners. And not just for bar patrons – he also wants to record everyone who has a glass of wine with their dinner in a restaurant. Privacy? Who needs privacy? What’s next, a Ministry of Information?
The Republican party claims to be the party of limited government, don’t they? How is creating a large database of your citizen’s social habits not an intrusion of government? And is this something the state should be spending money on?
To create a database of drinkers is to presume guilt before innocence; assumes the majority of drinkers are reckless and irresponsible. In my experience this is the opposite of reality. Don’t treat us all as potential criminals, Sen. Waddoups.
Just in cased you missed it, here is the link to listen to Heather and Jeremiah’s apperance on Radioactive last Tuesday.
Those crazy liberalls were all like “yo Drinking Liberally is cool!”
Hey, Folks! · Might we suggest this as your apropos theme music ’til January 2009..?
Simple Answers to Simple Questions
possibly the greatest single blog post of all time.
(Add a rave about it in the comments; I did.)
A conservative friend of mine caught Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment last night, and was so impressed he had make sure I saw it.
The first place I turn, of course, is One Good Move. Sure, Crooks and Liars probably has it, but I like to keep it local.
Pete Ashdown sent an e-mail to his Politech list today that I really liked:
This week, Representative Brad Daw(2) wrote House Bill 139(3) which will effectively put an end to public XMission Free Wireless. Sourcing from a legislator who describes himself as being in favor of “limited government”, this bill introduces civil penalties if a minor is able to access pornography over public wireless Internet. With XMission wireless never earning one red cent in profit, the potential of a civil suit hanging over its operation immediately makes it not viable. The moment this bill is signed into law, I will shut down all XMission free wireless and cease expansion of this service.
Some may accuse me of packing up my “toys”(4) and refusing to cooperate. When this plan surfaced last year(5), I had a long conversation with Representative Daw expressing my concerns of such legislation. In reading the text of this bill, I see those concerns were flatly ignored. XMission has provided free Internet filters longer than any other provider in the state, but I can never guarantee that a minor can not access pornography over an Internet connection. Nor do I believe government or business is the best parent of my children or anyone else’s.
I’m not a Democrat, and since reading “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”, I see candidates less as Democrats or Republicans or Greens, etc. and more as pro-human or pro-business. I essentially have the same views as Jen at Jen’s Green Journal, and her post on progressive independence was a heartening read for me.
Then my favorite progressive magazine, Mother Jones, has a blog post about the futility of voting for a third party candidate. Admittedly, MoJo has had some strange blog posts and articles recently, and I guess they’ve got a new editor – something I wasn’t aware of. But what do you think? Is it unreasonable to vote for the candidate that most closely aligns with your beliefs, knowing full well that it might help the lesser candidate win?
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Welcome to Drinking Liberally Salt Lake City. We meet at 6:00 p.m. every Friday in the back room of Piper Down [Map] and go to 9:00. All are welcome.
