Which Church

Front page headline, right in the middle of the page, November 24, 2008, Salt Lake Tribune "Vandalism & the church". The article goes on to question whether the recent rash of incidents at LDS churches are tied to their support of Prop 8 in California.

The point I am making is that the editor of the Tribune fell victim to the same bias that pervades most everything we do in this valley. When we say "the church" we obviously mean the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I think its OK for us to use that shorthand in conversation but I believe it is sloppy to assume we all understand the reference when it is presented on the front page of the newspaper.
The people at the Tribune should be more careful. Of course this is just another in a long line of poor editing choices we continually see in the Tribune. I can't wait for my Christmas gifts from Eastern relatives so I can read the New York Times or Boston Globe articles they've stuffed in the boxes as wrapping.

Kitchen Items as Jewlery

I glanced over this headline this morning in the Salt Lake Tribune "Man allegedly slashed victim's face with meat cleaver" without a thought, just another example of fury meets (no pun intended) opportunity. Then I read the first sentence - "A Salt Lake City man is accused of slashing another man's face with a meat cleaver he was wearing as a necklace - What????


Is this a new trend? Kitchen items as jewelry, are we going to see someone with a spatula, a frying pan or a cuisinart as an accessory? What bad Saturday Night Live skit did this guy get the idea from? And didn't the victim think not to enrage Tu Pac when he saw a meat cleaver just below his chin? Ah well, I guess I am just out of touch with things today when I would think a guy with a meat cleaver around his neck was out of the ordinary.

-Pedro

First post

Now that gas is getting affordable again there is the temptation to go back to our old habits. We start driving more, we take the larger car because it is more comfortable and we think about our next road trip. It'll be fun again.

But before we lapse back into cheap gas paralysis we should look at what we have accomplished. We actually began to consider how much gas we were using in our daily lives. Some of us even took public transportation or drove less or took the car that used the least gas or asked others to join us so we could increase the miles per person per gallon if we had to drive. This was good for us temporarily, it eased our wallet pinch, but it also was good for us longterm.

We actually may have started changing our thinking. We talked about going green, wind farms, alternative energy sources, our oil dependence and how we can reduce the impact of our gas addiction on our planet.

So let's keep it going. Let's do it so we can continue to reduce our dependence on oil, so we can begin to heal the planet and so we can keep some change in our pockets. We can also send a message to the oil companies that we can kick our habit. We don't need a full fix anymore and maybe we can get on methadone and get clean.

So even as the price of oil continues to drop, keep thinking about our impact on the environment and how to reduce our oil consumption. Ask yourself if you need to run that errand, if you can take public transportation or if you can go as a group. We will be shaping our future, it will help us be independent and it will put more money in our pockets. It can also be fun to see the basic economic theory of supply and demand bemuse the oil companies as they try to figure out why we are still using less oil even though the price is going down.
Drink less - live more.
-Pedro