"As a Thief in the Night" - The Utah Theocracy Regains Power

For 4.25 years Utah enjoyed some progressive thought. Under Governor Jon M. Huntsman we saw a relaxing of our liquor laws and support for civil unions. If it weren't for his economic policies and the idea that the government could be run like a business....he would look like a Utah Democrat. Now by definition and actions a Utah Democrat looks like a Moderate Republican in any other state.

Huntsman's legacy was marred when he resigned to take the Ambassadorship in China and he left the state to Gary Herbert. Herbert, a not very smart mean spirited ultra conservative voice and lackey of the Eagle Forum. I know this sounds harsh but under Huntsman Gayle Ruzicka and the Eagle Forum had significantly reduced influence. However, Herbert, who would not have ever been elected governor, needs her support to win the special election this year.

Unfortunately, the rise of power for Herbert also means a rise to power for Gayle Ruzicka. Now you might think that the curmudgeon has lost his mind or that I am subscribing to conspiracy theories...Take a look at this video posted by Chino Blanco on his Youtube Channel:



I am not sure if the significance of this video occurred to Chino Blanco when he posted it but I watched with a knot in my stomach as I saw the obvious work of the Knitting Needle Mafia. My instincts were confirmed at 1:11 into the video when the evil Empress Darth Ruzicka approached the chair and was greeted with a two handed clasp or honor.

Okay, it is true that Utah's STD rates are lower than the national average but the current trend is a near doubling of cases or STD's over the last five years. It is so concerning that pediatricians and primary care physicians are speaking out. According to the Utah CDC teens are more likely to get chlamydia than the seasonal flu. Girls are infected at 2:1 ratio over boys. If we don't have educational intervention with measurable outcomes we will soon be chasing the trend.

According to Paul Rolly of the Salt Lake Tribune the whole sorted affair went down like this:

Ruzicka pulled out all stops last weekend to muster her Eagle Forum forces to pressure legislators to slam the door on Urquhart's sex education bill before it could ever rise to the level of public debate on its merits.

Thanks to Ruzicka's Eagle Forum, the bill died in the Senate Education Committee on Monday. Ruzicka and her minions didn't need persuasive argument to kill the bill. They didn't need facts. They didn't even need to be on the right side of the issue. All they needed was a tool to dig a grave in which to bury the bill. And the perfect tool they found was Sen. Curtis Bramble, R-Provo, chairman of the Education Committee.

Gayle Ruzicka is the mother of 12 children all of which were educated at home. I don't understand why she feels she has an obligation to tell me or any other parent how we can choose to have our children educated. Her track record as a parent is not spotless. She is not the shinning example of benevolence and love that we might look to for our leadership. The fact is she is a bigot who counts as her friends Senator Chris Buttars and Senator Curtis Bramble. None of which have ever been burdened with the facts, logic, critical thinking or a real desire to serve the interest of the Great State of Utah.

I am a believer that it is time to start standing up for reason. That is why I believe that more than complaining about topic on my blog it is time for a call to action. I encourage those who are ill-served by Senator Bramble to call for his resignation. I also suggest local formation of phone trees to get combat the knitting needle mafia and email's to your local representatives to let them know where you stand. Gayle Ruzicka has shown that a minority interest can get a disproportionate share of the influence by being the squeaky wheel. I am willing to stand up, to lobby, to support candidates who are willing to vote for issues based upon the facts not ideology. It is time for disciples of reason to come out of the shadows and take control from theologues in the legislature. This is not an event....it is a process...one if delayed represents further harm to our children and our citizens.

We cannot depend on humans to do the right thing when they think god wants them to do something else!

In a recent interview with KUED our new neo-con governor Gary Herbert said the following:

We don't have to have a rule for everybody to do the right thing. We ought to do
the right thing because it's the right thing to do," Herbert said. "Where do you
stop? That's the problem going down that slippery road. Pretty soon we're going
to have a special law for blue-eyed blondes."

This is a ridiculous argument. We have laws and “rules” because we cannot depend on humans to do the right thing. He is implying that we will just not discriminate because it is wrong. He is wrong. Humans do not do the right thing because it is right when they can find a self serving loophole. In Utah god is that scapegoat.

Nationally we have become more accepting of the fact that homosexuality may have a genetic component and that someone who is gay may be normal in that sense. That means they are not an abomination as the mean-spirited Sen. Chris Buttars alleges. I have written at length about my journey in this realization and believe that we have to start asking ourselves:

• Does this hurt anyone?
• Am I being forced to participate?
• How would I feel if I was treated similarly?

What about the threat to marriage? Marriage is often defined as the fabric of our society or the cornerstone of our society. It probably will not surprise most of the readers here that I disagree. I am of the opinion that marriage is the function of claiming property. In the beginning marriage was a tribal way to define a man’s property. Women were chattel to be assigned and controlled by men in the same way livestock and crops were divided and controlled. In today’s society marriage is still a way of making claim to another but with a few modern refinements and a little more equality for women. Civilly it is also the way we divide the property in the marriage when the relationship falls apart. Why cannot gays engage in these civil contracts?

This issue is not about marriage it is about civil rights. It is about not discriminating against a vulnerable minority of our population; a minority that contributes to the success of our state and our nation. I challenge anyone to take god out of the argument here and defend on a secular level why the government should not provide this group with the same protections you and I receive through our majority status.