Well, once again, there are just too many issues to shake your head at.
A Utah legislator who proposes a bill that he has a vested interest in? Shocking! Someone builds their new fancy home within spitting distance of a gravel pit and then expects it to fold up shop and move away? Shocking.
Someone in Utah is complaining about the holes in the conflict of interest laws? I wonder if they are a member of the predominant religion. The one that feels free to express either support or resistance to a particular bill and then 95 percent of the Legislature that belongs to that group is allowed to vote on it. And you wonder why there are such gaping holes in the conflict of interest statutes.
How about the individuals with the sweetheart deal on the soon-to-be-vacated state prison. I wonder if they are voicing any support for closing the gravel pit?
I bought my home within a block of a junior high school in Salt Lake City. (And you think a gravel pit is a health hazard.) And yet I have never petitioned to have it closed.
You see, I knew it was there when I bought the house. So I just do my best Clint Eastwood impersonation as the parents speed up and down my 25 mph street (heaven forbid one of the little darlings walk to school) so I can growl, "Get off my lawn!”
And then I wonder why my neck gets so stiff, even though I have so many opportunities to exercise it shaking it back and forth.
Bob Barr, Salt Lake City
