At least one government agency is refusing to publicly display the South Salt Lake Police Department's Christmas card in its office because the card might be scary to children.

The card features a picture of the police SWAT team -- dressed in battle gear, complete with helmets, and pointing their assault weapons -- looking as if they are ready to take down Santa Claus.

Perhaps the idea is that they are protecting Santa, who is standing in the doorway of an armored vehicle. But the card gives the impression that the Jolly Old Elf is about to get blown away.

The Utah Legislature might want to borrow that picture, though, and recommend it for future promotions of the Beehive State, demonstrating our strong defense of the Second Amendment.

Heeeeee's back? Sen. Chris Buttars, who disdains happy holidays, dark ugly things and disobedient judges, may once again become chairman of the Senate Judicial Confirmation Committee under the reign of new Senate President Michael Waddoups.

Buttars was demoted from that job by former President John Valentine after revelations that he wrote a threatening letter to a judge who had ruled against his buddy in a land dispute.

Waddoups said Buttars is one of two senators already selected for the five-member committee by virtue of a statute requiring that the chairman of the Judiciary Committee be on that panel. The other is Sen. John Greiner because he is Senate chair of the Executive Offices and Criminal Justice Appropriations Committee, which also gets an automatic seat on the committee. Waddoups said one of those two traditionally is named chairman. Three other members are yet to be appointed.

That may be a bone for Buttars, who reportedly was disappointed that he didn't get the Rules Committee chairmanship.

Offending the Offender? Utahn Todd Ouzts was so disgusted by the plethora of ads for penis enlargement pills and vibrators for women during "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," broadcast on the American Movie Classics channel Saturday, that he wrote an e-mail to AMC's customer service site to complain.

His e-mail was bounced back to him with the explanation: "Your message was not accepted because it may have been identified by our spam filters as possibly containing inappropriate language. The filter picked up the following: Offending word: penis."

prolly@sltrib.com