This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Here's something from the right-hand-doesn't-know-what-the-left-hand-is-doing department.
I wrote in Wednesday's column about the LDS Church-owned Deseret News' refusal to run a Signature Books ad promoting two of its books on polygamy, "In Sacred Loneliness" by Todd Compton and "Mormon Polygamy" by the late Richard Van Wagoner. Signature's marketing director, Tom Kimball, was told that polygamy was just too hot of a topic.
That's funny.
The Huffington Post ran a story Nov. 26 by Carol Kuruvilla about the history of polygamy in the Mormon church.
Kuruvilla wrote that church officials could not provide her with a comprehensive list of LDS Church founder Joseph Smith's wives, but the church's public affairs department directed her to Todd Compton (yes, that Todd Compton) author of "In Sacred Loneliness," the book the Deseret News thought was too controversial to advertise.
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Greetings from afar • The Orem City Council, by law, is required to advertise its public meetings in a general publication, listing the agenda for that meeting.
The meeting coming up Tuesday has some controversial items on the agenda. One is to amend the city's sign ordinance to close a loophole that allows billboard companies to blanket the city with their boards. Another is to give a developer's trucks unlimited access, 24 hours a day, to a mixed-use mall where the developer is building a high rise.
Those issues already have generated much excitement among the public.
So it's interesting that the public notices of the meetings were posted in The Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News, both Salt Lake City-based newspapers that have limited circulation in Orem. The home-town paper with the most circulation in Orem, the Daily Herald, was not used by the council to publicize its meeting.
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Self-flagellation? • The Utah Republican Party, as you know, is suing the state over the law passed by the Legislature last March that changes the way political candidates are nominated by their respective parties.
The bill, SB54, allows for an alternative path to the primary election ballot as well as the traditional caucus/convention path.
And apparently, Republican Party officials want as much moral support as they can get.
The party's executive director, Julian Babbit, recently sent an email to state legislators asking them to sign a letter of support for the lawsuit.
"We have reviewed the complaint recently filed by the Utah Republican Party in federal court challenging SB54. Without intending to comment on the ultimate outcome of the lawsuit, we recognize that the Party has a right to seek legal action to determine the constitutionality of SB54," the letter says. "We also recognize that SB54 has a substantial impact on the Party and the manner in which the Party selects its nominees for office."
So, since the Legislature is the institution that passed the bill that makes changes to the nominating system the lawsuit is challenging, the Republican Party is basically asking the Legislature to endorse suing itself.
Sounds like Tea Party logic to me.
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We're in good company • The New York Post ran an article listing, through its own research, the five places around the globe where women should not spend their tourist dollars because of discrimination.
The first is Turkey, with the Post quoting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying women and men cannot be put in equal positions because of women's "delicate nature." The next taboo place is Indonesia, where women must undergo "virginity tests" before they can be accepted as national police officers. Next is El Salvador, where women have been sent to prison for "aggravated homicide" when they have had a miscarriage or stillbirth. Then there is Saudi Arabia, where numerous restaurants ban single women from entering because they "smoke, flirt and speak on their cellphones."
And the fifth-worst place … drum roll please … is Utah.
Quoting the online research organization, wallethub.com, the story said Utah is one of the worst states in the U.S. when it comes to income inequality, upward mobility opportunities and government leadership participation.
Also, according to wallethub findings, Utah has the biggest education attainment gap and is second to last in workplace equality.
"So maybe you should think twice before booking that ski weekend in Party City," the Post story concludes.