My Page: John Yewell
Jews Cautious
Mormon Proxy Baptism Issue In LimboJewish leaders left Salt Lake City yesterday with half a loaf. Mormon leaders understand better Jewish sensitivities about "proxy baptisms," and Jewish leaders have a clearer view of the enormity of the task in stopping the practice. Still unexplained: As patriarchal and controlling as the LDS church is, why should we believe the church is unable to slam the breaks on this offensive practice? [more]
LDS Church Influence
Mormon Power: The Players In D.C.For the faithful and conspiracy theorists alike, The Salt Lake Tribune published two lengthy pieces Sunday explaining how members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have their hands on the levers of power. One is a narrative on how that power moves. The second, entitled "The Players," gives you a list. Very interesting reading.
Grossed Out In Utah County
Freedom Kissing: A Provo No-NoRecently we told you about a speech at Brigham Young University by Sheri Dew, CEO of Deseret Books, laying blame for the decline of Western Civilization at the feet of licentious women (of whose numbers our esteemed managing editor Courtney Lowery counts herself a member, I gather). Today, Ms. Marian Morgan of Provo, home to BYU, tells us how it all begins: French kissing -- or Freedom kissing to you jingoists. Here’s her letter to the Deseret Morning News: [more]
Hanta, West Nile, Plague
Wet Weather Brings Disease, Fire, Bee ThreatsMontana may envy Utah all the snow it's gotten, but there's a downside. The increased moisture brings with it the threat of all kinds of Biblical-sounding plagues -- including the plague. From wild fires to Africanized bees to hanta virus, Utah and the Southwest will have it's share of problems over the next six months. Drought won't be one of them. [more]
Before Lake Powell Returns
The Once (and Future?) Glen CanyonYou definitely have to check out local writer and editor Tom Price’s piece in today’s New York Times on Glen Canyon. Terrifically well-written and with great photos. Here in Zion we’ve been aware of the bottoming out of Lake Powell for months, but just as the spring runoff appears set to begin refilling the reservoir, Price’s piece reminds us of what we had regained, for a fleeting time, and are about to lose once again.
LDS Church Accused
More Posthumous Baptism of Jews?A decade-long controversy has flared again. The Associated Press reports that Ernest Michel, chairman of the New York-based World Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, is accusing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of continuing to posthumously baptize Jews. [more]
More Nuke News
DOE Wants Moab Tailings MovedThere was no shortage of news on the nuclear waste front today in Utah. At the top of the waste heap was the announcement that the Department of Energy was recommending that the uranium tailings pile near Moab be moved. There was also more to report on the controversy over the proposed Skull Valley waste disposal site. Then Envirocare weighed in with its own request to double the size of its facility. (Won't that company ever shut up?) And finally, those wacky San Juan County Commissioners are at it again, trying to despoil their own backyard with a proposal to bring nuclear waste to the county. If there is a term for the opposite of NIMBY, these guys are it. [more]
Not Exactly Water World
Nevada, Utah Skirmish Over AquiferWhen Mark Twain said "Whiskey’s for drinkin’ water’s for fightin’ over," he had Nevada in mind. So it’s not surprising that folks in the two driest states in the country, Utah and Nevada, get nervous when one of them starts talking about "developing" groundwater common to both. [more]
Downwinders Miffed
Calls for CDC Study to Be RenewedUtah senators Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch have called on the Centers for Disease Control to find the funding to continue a University of Utah study looking for links between fallout from above-ground nuclear tests and thyroid cancer in residents of southern Utah. The CDC cancelled the "downwinder" study two weeks ago, claiming it had run out of money. In an editorial entitled "Pattern of Willful Ignorance?" the Deseret Morning News editorial board also weighed in today on the issue.
Provo Vice
Women to Blame for Moral Decline?Deseret Morning News reporter Tad Walch checks in from the Morals Beat in Utah County with a couple of doozies. The common thread: Since America is in moral decline, women must be responsible. Here's the kicker quote, from Deseret Book president and chief executive officer Sheri Dew: "We talk often about how women have unusual power to build families. What we don't often talk about is that women have unusual power to destroy families." And it gets better: "I think the reason we are having such a moral decay is because more and more women have abandoned living the law of chastity." [more]
