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LOST is back on air!
I can't overstate my excitement for this. LOST has got to be the best show on TV. I love it and I must say that I'm an addict. Last year after each episode I would go through withdrawal. Waiting just one week for another episode seemed unbearable. You can imagine what it has been like waiting for the new season. The premier aired today but I haven't seen it yet. I'll watch it online tomorrow on ABC's website. I'm hoping for good things.
Namaste!

In Memory

Today I have a few thoughts about President Gordon B. Hinckley who died this Sunday. President Hinckley was the leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a prophet of God.
President Hinckley will be missed by me. He was a very great man. I particularly remember his outreach to the youth. When I was a young man he held a meeting just for the youth and pronounced his prophetic blessing on us. This is just one of the many things he did to help the youth be connected to the church.
I'll also always remember his optimism and humor. Life was obviously fun for him and his example let you know that the righteous can be truly happy. He was very comfortable with the media and helped people overcome prejudices and misconceptions about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
President Hinckley was a great man and I'll miss him. To read more about him go here.

The Golden Rule

I was reading the Deseret News a day or two ago and glanced at the reader's forum. This is the part of the newspaper where readers can write in and give opinions. Well someone wrote in about the golden rule. They said that because Mexico is so aggressive with immigration (deporting and giving jail time to those illegally in Mexico) that we (the U.S.) should follow the golden rule and act equally aggressive towards illegal immigrants here. I wondered if the writer realized that what they were describing was close to the Law of Moses and not the golden rule.
The golden rule is that you should treat others the way you want to be treated. It is a rule designed to let your example influence others and thus cannot be applied in the reverse way - to treat others the way they treat you. That is the Law of Moses provision of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It works by making people fear the retaliation they will receive if they wrong you. I must state, though, that this particular comment wasn't even strictly Law of Moses, although I'm not going to elaborate why unless someone really can't figure that out.
I really don't mind if the U.S. enforces its immigration laws and gets more tough in this area, but if we do this let's at least not call it the golden rule and lets not do it as some odd punishment to Mexico.

The Real Salt Lake Fiasco

I have serious issues with the decision to build a stadium for the soccer team Real Salt Lake (RSL). Today I read that the new stadium will seat 21,000 fewer fans than Rice Eccles Stadium where they currently play. This means they built a stadium that is half the capacity of their current stadium. Why? When the team was trying to get taxpayers to pay for the stadium it seamed like they needed the stadium (presumably for overcrowding). As the stadium was obviously not filled then it seemed silly to build a new one. What possibly could the need be that required taxpayer dollars?

I really don't care if you like soccer or not. It isn't all that popular in America, even now, yet for some reason Salt Lake needs a soccer team? We don't even have a football team and football is way more popular! Now by all this I'm not stating that we shouldn't have a team, just not a tax dollar supported team.

I guess that's all beside the point. My real objections to the stadium run much deeper. The team originally asked Salt Lake County for money for the stadium. The county did an economic study to look at the risks for the plan. This is wise to do as it prevents tax dollars from being wasted. Well the county came back and said the stadium was a bad economic investment and it couldn't justify spending tax dollars on such a risky investment. What did the team (owner) do? They (He) complained and said the investment was fine! I bet that wasn't biased at all.

The story gets even worse. RSL then went to the governor to get the decision overturned. Governor Huntsman (go here to send angry e-mails) called the legislature together and had them change Utah law so that the money the county wouldn't give to RSL became under the State's control! The governor and the legislature forced the county to spend county tax dollars in a way the county didn't want to! This is crazy. It is a violation of county rights in my opinion. Republicans talk about state rights and avoiding federal government intrusion; apparently counties don't have the same rights in their relation to states. Remember, what makes this all worse is that the county had turned the project down for being a risky and irresponsible use of tax dollars.

Real Salt Lake of coarse would prefer to sweep these little facts under the rug. Their PR team began talking about how the tax dollars are hotel tax dollars so its just people from out of the state (or county) that pay that tax anyways. This is a clever lie. True the money comes from hotels largely used by non-residents. The problem is, now that this tax money is being used on the stadium, the county must divert tax money from residents (property, sales, etc.) to cover whatever services the county wanted to spend that money on. SO IT IS THE SAME AS SPENDING RESIDENT'S TAX CONTRIBUTIONS!

I forgot to mention that several times Dave Checketts, the RSL owner, threw fits when cities in Salt Lake County turned down the stadium plan because it was too risky. The county wasn't the first to come to this conclusion. Checketts would threaten to move the team from the county among other things. Yet the legislature and governor had to bow to his wishes and force the county to spend tax dollars. Have none of these people ever dealt with a whining child before? Oh you didn't get your third box of cookies and are now crying incessantly? Poor thing, here are some cookies and heck, here is a case of candy bars too.

I am disgusted by the recklessness of the governor and legislature of Utah and of RSL. We really should vote these people out of office.

Random Images

Yeah, so I will often put seemingly random images next to my blog posts. They will almost always have some connection to the post, although it may be an inside joke, word play or something very subtle. So don't get dismayed if you can't figure out why it is there. The last entry had a picture from the game portal and is related to the comment "massive sarcasm quotes" which is in the last level of the game.

As for this entry - the picture really is random.

Did Steve Tell You That Perchance? Steve!

So my brother Stephen was talking to me today and said that my twin sister won't comment on my blog because she doesn't like political commentary. I was of course deeply offended by this. I mean my blog is more than just political commentary, it is an exploration of the human experience. Some may even call it cultural poetry. It is a great pilgrimage to the holy city within each of us. How could someone not like it?

Steve gives great comments and even gave me some editing tips. So bones to Steve.

For those who couldn't tell, when I said I was deeply offended the "deeply offended" was in massive sarcasm quotes. I mean, I could care less what Brittany thinks. She doesn't even vote.

But I am going to make this blog entry a little more down to earth and understandable for commoners such as my dear twin.

Here I go. So how 'bout that McDonalds? I heard that you can get a hamburger there and they will cut up the onions and smear them all over the bun even when you specifically ask not to have onions on your hamburger. They do have good ice cream though and they keep our teenage population off the streets where they might otherwise harass humanity with their acne and whatnot. Still, I much prefer Burger King.

Speaking of food, I always thought it would be cool to make misfortune cookies. That would be hilarious! I think something like, "Your dog will turn on you" or "Get ready to get shivved - you're going to prison" would be good.

Anyways, as much fun as this little venture into comedy has been, I think I'll blog about whatever I want from now on.

One Issue

I read an article today by Sean McKenzie criticizing Mitt Romney as having un-Christian political practices. The article is careful not to relate this to mormonism and even states, "One of the most godly men I know is Mormon, and I owe him a debt of gratitude for seeing me through one of the most difficult times of my life in a Christian manner. 'Be the man God wants you to be,' he admonished." I state this so that no one will think I am accusing McKenzie of Mormon bashing. He goes out of his way to make it clear that he has no issue with Mormons, just Romney. The issue I have with this article is that the author uses one issue, illegal immigration (although the author curiously leaves the word illegal out of the description), to prove his point. No other evidence is used to show Romney's policies as un-Christian and against his religion. I find this to really be lacking. One issue which is controversial and finds no consensus even among religious leaders of Christians is used to call his policies un-Christian? I would have hoped for more. Frankly there are probably not any candidates out there who's views line up perfectly with anyone else's or with every concept of Christian action.

The issue of illegal immigration deserves a little more attention since McKenzie brought it up. He uses the scripture that says to welcome the stranger as his main proof as well as a scripture to love the alien among you as yourself. I argue that one can be opposed to illegal immigration while still loving his neighbor (or alien) as himself and welcoming strangers. Jesus taught us to "love [our] enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;" (Matt 5:44 KJV). He taught forgiveness. Yet I don't know many people who would argue that all prisoners should be set free regardless of crime. It is still possibly to love and forgive while upholding laws.

I suspect McKenzie knows that his argument is weak. My reason is because he used the term immigration to describe illegal immigration. If your argument is good then there is no need to cut out the word illegal to make it. The fact is McKenzie probably left the word out because it is much easier to make his point with the word left out. Then there isn't the awkwardness of using the term "illegal alien" next to "alien" in the scriptural proofs.

Many Christians have issues with illegal immigration. Does that mean we hate illegal immigrants? I certainly don't. Desiring an orderly immigration process is not bad and wanting laws enforced is not bad. Just because Christ tells the people not to stone the woman taken in adultery doesn't mean that we should legalize prostitution (despite what Ron Paul thinks).

McKenzie argues that enforcing immigration laws will tear immigrant families apart. This deserves scrutiny. It will not tear legal immigrant families apart. It will reunite many illegal immigrants with families they are supporting in other countries. It will also encourage legal immigration which will help families. The only families it will tear apart are those composed of an illegal immigrant and a legal immigrant. In these cases it will only tear them apart if the legal immigrant is unwilling to return to their country. I'll admit that there may be some other minor cases of families being affected. I must point out that sending a drug dealer, murderer or rapist to prison often tears families apart. Of course I'm not suggesting that illegal immigrants have committed crimes of the same level as these, but being deported allows the family to follow if they choose, something prison doesn't allow in the same way.

I find the persecution arguments lacking. I also don't find the arguments about civil rights leaders breaking the law to be compelling.

There's more I could say, but I'll save it for another time.

Prepare for Unforeseen Consequences

The picture is sort of a joke. It comes from Half Life 2 episode 2. The picture is important only because of the phrase "Prepare for unforeseen consequences," in the scene it came from.

I read an article in the Salt Lake Tribune about unexpected consequences of NAFTA. It turns out that because North American free trade is being extended through the abolition of agricultural tariffs, Mexican farmers will probably be harmed as U.S. crops will be able to freely flood the Mexican market. The author argues that unless the Mexican government does something to help the situation, the Mexican agricultural industry will be ruined leading to even more illegal immigrants coming to the U.S. and "A stronger agricultural industry could be taking over Mexican farming: marijuana and cocaine production."

This isn't the only U.S. agricultural policy currently affecting Mexico. A few months ago I read another article, this one in the Deseret News, about consequences of our current push for ethanol fuel made from corn. It reads in part:

"There is another problem with relying on a food-based biofuel, such as corn ethanol, as the poor of Mexico can attest. In recent months, soaring corn prices, sparked by demand from ethanol plants, have doubled the price of tortillas, a staple food. Tens of thousands of Mexico City's poor recently protested this 'ethanol tax' in the streets."

Too often politicians and bureaucrats fail to think of the unforeseen consequences of their actions. We definitely need to reconsider some of the policies I've discussed here.

Now by all this I don't mean for us to abandon free trade, just see that it is conducted wisely. I also don't think we should abandon biofuels. In fact I read a recent article that said grass can be used to make ethanol and is a lot more efficient than corn so there are options out there without the same negative consequences. The fact is that if we paid a lot more attention to what our actions might unintentionally cause then this world would be a better place.

Well I now have a blog. I've been thinking of making one for a while now. Now I just need to come up with things to write. I have a few ideas. While reading the newspaper I frequently have comments that I want to make (especially about editorials) and I'll probably put a lot of those comments here.