The common good is generally defined as that which benefits society as a whole, as opposed to the personal good of individuals or selected sections of society.
So, what would you pack if all you could keep had to fit into a laundry basket?
Everyone’s favorite Henny Penny is at it again.
In the wake of another series of shootings in the United States, my heart literally hurts. I continue to seek understanding — what is happening in our country? According to Mass Shooting Tracker, 93 people died from gun violence in August of this year.
So I was pulled over today on Highway 89. There were a few Highway Patrol cars catching people in a speed trap. For those who don’t know, this is where the speed limit has recently changed, in this case, from 75 mph on the freeway to 55 mph on the highway, making for easy pickings for office…
It took awhile, but I’ve finally decided what I want to be when I grow up.
The headline of an Aug. 4, 2019 article in the Standard-Examiner declared, “The rate of women pursuing STEM in Utah colleges hasn’t changed.” While I will be the first to admit it has not changed enough or fast enough, there has been change. With some notable efforts, for example, Weber Stat…
The cups in the parking lot set me off.
It’s back-to-school time, and we are being inundated with a flood of news articles about whether or not a college degree is “worth it.” Do you need one to get a good job? Are there better options such as trade schools or online certifications? What about apprenticeships? It seems as if every…
Well, you know what they say. Sixty is the new 40.
It’s almost back-to-school time. For the most part, Utah’s corps of thinly compensated, but well-trained, professional and dedicated educators will soon welcome our youth, and for the next nine months, will spend approximately half their weekdays’ time with them. But what about the other hal…
The best part of a family reunion is spending time with your kids’ kids. We just finished a week-long reunion with all of our families — some local, some out of state. It’s what families do in August when they see back-to-school looming ahead.
Man, did I ever need this story right now.
Nine years ago, I took a group of approximately 50 students to tour Topaz, the Japanese internment camp, located in Delta, Utah. Opened in 1942, the camp forced internees to complete construction, including raising the barbed wire fence along the perimeter of the camp — the same fence that w…
Words matter. And some of the most important words you’ll use will be the ones to guard your money, data and privacy. Choosing a set of strong passwords is probably more important than you realize.
Pet dogs don’t belong in stores.
In more than one TV show I have heard generic advice somewhere along the lines of, “Find the biggest guy in there, and pick a fight with him to gain respect.” This might happen in jail, but it just doesn’t in prison. While I was only in the Davis County jail for six months before going to pr…
Well, you know what they say. Ask a stupid question …
This Saturday is the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, NASA’s first mission to land people on the moon.
“I’ll bet no pioneer mother ever had to tell her daughter to get her clothes back on.” The thought ran through my head as I stared back at the defiant teen in front of me and said, “No, you can’t wear a tank top on this trek. Pioneer women didn’t wear tank tops. They knew that walking uncove…
Keeping up with the Joneses just got three times as difficult.
An unlikely candidate for president of the United States, Marianne Williamson, recently announced that in our current tumultuous political climate, her goal would be to fight hate with love. The pundits made fun of her. I wonder why. Have we as a society become so cynical that idealism is a …
Contrary to Bill Murray’s Peter Venkman character in “Ghostbusters” — who at one point in the movie admits he’s “fuzzy on the whole good-bad thing” — I believe the concept is actually quite simple.
As a nation stumbling toward humanity, we recognize change is often slow to come and even slower to be accepted. Fifty-five years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, preventing employment discrimination due to race, color, sex, religion or national origin. T…
So how did people celebrate the Fourth of July when fireworks weren’t available, all wrapped up in fancy packages and sold by the box loads in parking lot tents?
I get the feeling that every once in awhile the government misses the whole point of issuing a product recall.
I know I like to pretend that I’m this crotchety old Luddite who hates all the newfangled technology that the younger generations are embracing. (“Hey you punk kids, get off my VHS format!”)
Summer finds me in my garden, pulling crab grass. I’ve tried everything to get rid of it, but it comes down to sifting through the dirt, pulling out one root at a time, which allows room for reflection as my mind searches for something to occupy it.
The kids can spy only so many bridges, or search for a Hawaiian license plate only so long before it’s time to move on to another game during those long summer road trips. Many families will test the strength of their relationships this summer by spending hours, maybe even days, seated next …
How did I completely miss out on the latest riveting episode of “So You Think You’re Patriotic Enough to Call Yourself an American?”
It’s true. The American public is losing faith in its traditional news sources. A 2018 Gallup survey of the public’s confidence in U.S. institutions put newspapers and television news near the bottom. Forty percent of respondents reported little or no faith in the printed media, and 45% shar…
June is shaping up to be a particularly tough month for white, heterosexual, Christian males.
Life has a curious way of reminding you who is the boss. Most recently, I’ve been out of commission due to a spine surgery that I delayed because of an intense desire to get one more thing done. And, get it done I did. But now, I am taking time to heal, not because I necessarily want to, but…
A recent news article shared the story of a baby girl born at 23 ½ weeks weighing just under 9 ounces — about the weight of an apple. Her parents were told they’d have maybe an hour with her before she died. But she didn’t. In fact, thanks to intensive neonatal care, she not only survived, b…
My family volunteered to help with Ogden’s Golden Spike Sesquicentennial, the celebration of a century and a half since the completion of the first North American transcontinental railway. What a great party. Of course, as Standard-Examiner columnist Mark Saal noted, given all the hype and c…
How big is too big?
I visited NASA in New York City last week. I know folks don’t associate NASA with the bustle of Manhattan, usually thinking of Texas or Florida or possibly the Moon, but the Goddard Institute of Space Science (GISS) is there, right next to that diner from Seinfeld.
A somber monument etched with thousands of names stands on the southeast corner of Library Square at 300 East 500 South in Salt Lake City. It’s a long, serpentine stretch of glass panels that extend along the east side of the block, edged with a quiet landscape of flowers, trees and grass. T…
So, is everybody completely choo-chooed out by now?
Some years ago, as a United States Peace Corps volunteer in the Thar Desert, also known as the Great Indian Desert, my Indian government counterpart, Narpat, and I took a bus to a conference. It was a long, tiring ride, and the temperature was at least 120 F. All the windows were open wide. …
“Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.”
Weber Basin Water Conservancy District is Northern Utah’s regional water supplier for treated municipal water, wholesale irrigation water, retail secondary irrigation water, untreated industrial water, and groundwater replacement water.
Two years ago, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 substantially overhauled the Internal Revenue Code. Previous reform of this magnitude last occurred with the Tax Reform Act of 1986. The circumstances surrounding the enactment of these two pieces of legislation present a case study for contra…
Mothers Day — or the annual mom’s guilt trip as some moms call it — is next Sunday. Moms have the toughest job in the world. Seriously, coal miners at least get to go home every day. Moms are on the job 24/7, and the paycheck is internally generated satisfaction and fulfillment — emotions th…
In May, Silicon Valley will host the Augmented World Expo (AWE). There, entrepreneurs will showcase devices — from headsets to holosuits — that promise to produce awe by creating virtual and augmented reality. Yet the awe these devices produce differs from the awe earlier generations of Amer…
For decades, the small Wyoming town of Evanston meant just one thing to many of us in Northern Utah.
East of Hyde Park, (a tiny community in upper Northern Utah), is a small hill named Round Hill because, well, it’s round. It hasn’t changed much beyond a slowly growing lacework of motorbike trails adding to a foot path that was once its only mark.
“April showers,” they say, “bring May flowers.”
By now you have probably heard about the astounding observations of the black hole at the center of the galaxy designated M87 and christened Powehi, a Hawaiian phrase referring to an “embellished dark source of unending creation.” This monster of an object, six billion times as massive as ou…
Think about the most unexpected plot twists of the last half-century.
I recently attended an address by a revered community and religious leader who pulled up several images of well-known sports heroes with the aim of inspiring the young people in the audience to set and achieve goals of their own.
