Monson’s first year with the mantle

The Trib has a pretty good article on the seventeenth President of the LDS Church:

Hinckley was commanding, insiders say, and Monson is collaborative. Hinckley had a passion for organizational behavior, while Monson emphasizes individual needs. Monson has initiated no new programs, but has continued Hinckley’s temple-building push, his openness in historical matters and efforts to retain new members.

The article then moves to Proposition 8:

“The Proposition 8 issue has been extremely divisive throughout the church,” Hangen said. “It has created deep anguish for members on both sides, partly because we were forced to take sides over an issue we are still struggling with as a people, an issue that remains unresolved among the LDS people. We grapple doctrinally, we grapple procedurally, we grapple on many levels. That piece of legislation opened up very difficult conversations within Mormonism, and very ugly confrontations with some outsiders.”

It is not clear whether that political involvement suggests a new emphasis for Monson or a one-time attempt.

What is obvious is that Monson, at least so far, has not strayed much from the broad outlines set by his predecessor.

Filed under: Utah News, Utah Politics

Post-Prop 8 Creepy Factor

Sullivan weighs in on the barrage of creepy ways to see who donated to prop 8:

The second anyone does anything inappropriate with this information Dreher has a right to complain. Until then, it’s public information. And Prop 8 donors and anti-Prop 8 donors knew that before they donated.

Though the fact that people have put this information on Google Earth is bizarre and unseemly, I agree with you that there is nothing illegal about it. Whenever you make a political donation, you must disclose it.

Nonetheless, there is a problem with this system. Whenever I work with a PAC to get donations, I make sure I inform people of the fact that their donation will be made public. However, not every volunteer with whom I have worked has done this, or even known it was the law. I believe many people who make political donations are unaware that these donations will be made public; this is especially true of Prop 8, whose financiers (on both sides) included many people who generally pay little attention to politics. The people who made the Prop 8 Google Earth app did nothing illegal, but the fact that people seem to think they did shows me that most of the public is ill-informed regarding campaign finance laws, regardless of political activity level or affiliation. Campaign volunteers need to be more open, honest, and informed.

Filed under: Utah News, Utah Politics, campaign finance, Google Earth, prop 8

Sundance

I am buying tickets for Sundance this year for God knows why. Believe it or not, it is still somewhat possible for penniless college students to snag a few of the tickets left behind by the jet-setting coastal elites who couldn’t give a damn about cinema. Prepare for stories of how much it, like Robert Redford himself, has sold out, during the next week and a half.

I will be going to as many films as I can afford with the change I received after buying this semester’s textbooks. Feel free to comment with any suggestions for movies that:

• do not suck;
• are not just the meaningless, pseudo-surrealistic masturbations of some rich kid from New York or L.A.;
• feature mountains, deserts, rocky coasts, or other badass nature-related symbols of strength and honor;
• do not feature entirely unnecessary, poorly executed sex scenes (college students get enough of those in real life);
• use semicolons correctly.

Thank you for your time!!

Filed under: Utah News, Sundance, Sundance Film Festival