Former Woods Cross Citizen

As some of you may already know, I'm no longer a Woods Cross Citizen. I moved my family to Riverton to have a bigger house and be closer to work. I'm still trying to decide what to do with this blog. Should I convert it to Riverton Citizen? I own the woodscrosscitizen.com domain through the middle of next year. If you are reading this and you are a Woods Cross citizen and would like to take over this domain, let me know and we can discuss details. As for those of you who used to read this blog regularly, I apologize that I haven't done a better job of posting regularly lately.
Since I was raised in Woods Cross, I will always consider that my home town. I'm doing my best to fit in with my new community, even though it is a much larger community than Woods Cross. Farewell Woods Cross. I'll always hold a fond place for you in my heart.

Municipal Elections in Woods Cross

This year in Woods Cross, the mayor and two council seats are up for re-election. The filing period ended yesterday. The Deseret News is reporting (see here) that Mayor Parry was the only person to file for the mayor's seat. The News is also reporting that the following people have filed for the council positions:
John Hadlow - incumbent
Tamara Daley - incumbent
Leo Beecher
Ryan Westergard
Al DeBarros
Andy Marsden Leger

Anonymity online

I have written in the past (see here) about posting anonymously to blogs and forums. Well, now a judge in Texas has ruled that the First Amendment doesn't offer the right to libel someone, anonymously or otherwise. Tarrant County District Court Judge Dana Womack served a subpoena to Topix.com to turn over any potentially identifying information it has on 178 people. The people had anonymously posted allegedly defamatory comments on the site about two individuals involved in a sexual assault case. See Computerworld's article about the case here.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

My Grandpa Van Ry would have turned 98 today. He came to America from Holland when he was 12 years old. He didn't speak English at the time, but, learned to speak it fluently before he was 20 years old. I learned many things from grandpa including the value of hard work. He worked hard his whole life to provide for his wife and 4 children. He didn't expect a handout from anyone. He was proud of his Dutch heritage, but, considered the USA his country. He died March 20, 2001. I love and miss you, grandpa! Happy Birthday!

Here's an idea, let the parents decide!

Rep. Laura Black (D) of Sandy is sponsoring a bill (HB 242) that would change the date of the cutoff for Kindergarten from September to be in July. In a Salt Lake Tribune article (see here) about the bill, Rep. Black is quoted as saying, "It doesn't sound like very much when you're an adult, but two months in the life of a child can be huge in terms of what their development is."

I've got a better idea, let the parents of the child decide if their child is ready for Kindergarten. My wife and I have done this for everyone of our children. Our oldest child, whose birthday is in June, could have started Kindergarten the year he turned five. My wife and I decided he was not ready for Kindergarten that year and waited a year before enrolling him in Kindergarten. Do parents really need the government to tell them that their child is or isn't ready for Kindergarten?

Dan Liljenquist didn't resign

On September 19th, in comments to this site, (see here) George said that he would treat me to lunch at my favorite place if Dan Liljenquist were elected and didn't resign. Well, George, Dan Liljenquist was elected and is currently participating in the 2009 Utah Legislative session. Time to pay up?

Representative Roger Barrus wants our opinion

I received a mailer last week from my Representative, Roger Barrus. On the mailer he said that he wanted the opinion of his constituents. You can help give him your opinion by taking his survey at his website at http://www.rogerbarrus.com/involved.htm. The current survey will close next Monday, so go make your opinion known.

Don't delay DTV switch

The US Senate approved a measure yesterday to delay the switch to DTV by 4 months. (see here) The US House must now pass the measure for the delay to actually happen. I am very much against delaying the switch for a couple of reasons.

First, I believe that the majority of those who will not be ready for the switch on February 17th will still not be ready for the switch in June. It's not like there hasn't been plenty of time to get ready for the switch. There has also been several ad campaigns to let people know about the switch. In the interest of full disclosure, I subscribe to cable TV, so the removal of the analog signal will not affect me.

The other thing that I have a problem with is the fact that a converter box retails for between $50 and $70. The converter box has a circuit board in it. It contains no moving parts (except for a small fan in some models). A DVD player on the other hand contains a circuit board as well as the DVD drive itself. One would think based on this that a DVD player would be more expensive than a converter box, however, a DVD player can be had for less than $30. Why the discrepancy? I believe it's because of the government coupons (subsidy). If there weren't any government coupons, I believe that these converter boxes would retail for less than $20. Let the coupon program go away so that we will know the true price of the converter boxes. Remember that selling price is based on supply and demand. I doubt there is any demand for a converter box at the full retail price of $50.

He used a Bible!

To dispel any rumors that were floating around the internet about President Obama not using a Bible while taking the oath of office, I'm posting a picture that shows the "Lincoln Inaugural Bible" being held by Michelle Obama while her husband places his hand on it to take the presidential oath of office. I didn't vote for Barack Obama, but, I am hopeful for his presidency.

2009, Year of Municipal Elections

Since it is an odd numbered year, it means that municipal elections are to be held this year in Utah. In Woods Cross, we will have two council member seats up for re-election as well as the mayor's seat. The two council members who are up for re-election this year are Jon Hadlow and Tamra Dayley.

I haven't heard yet if any of the incumbents have decided to run for re-election. It should be a very interesting election season. Our fees have gone up significantly over the last two years. It will be interesting to see if any challenging candidates decide to capitalize on this.

Fortunately, we won't have to worry about campaigns to start up until much later this year.

It's on the Internet, so it must be true...

I've been browsing the Wild Wild Web World Wide Web since about the time the first Mosaic Netscape browser was released in late 1994. I even had my own domain name (see here) as early as 1996. Why do I mention all this? To show that I've been around these parts long enough to feel at home on the Internet. I've come to learn that you can find absolutely anything that you are looking for on the Internet. This isn't always a good thing. I find that I have to take EVERYTHING I read on the Internet with a grain of salt. I question absolutely anything that anybody says they read on the Internet.

So what is out here?

Religion? You can find people on the Internet that will gladly tell you all about Joseph Smith talking about tall people who live on the moon. Want to know what goes on in the LDS Temple Ceremony? How about the Masonic Temple Ceremony? Want to find anti-(fill in almost any religion name here) material? You can find all that out there in Internet Land.

Politics? You can find more than your fair share of political stories. Think the attacks of 9/11 were done by foreign terrorists? There are numerous sites that agree with you. Think those same attacks were a conspiracy by the federal government? There are also numerous sites that agree with you.

Hey Thad, what are you getting at with this post? What I'm trying to say is that there seems to be many people that believe anything that they read, as long as it's on a Website, without checking the facts of what they are reading. Would you do the same thing if something showed up in your mailbox or on your doorstep? Say I mailed you a letter with no return address and no way of knowing who the letter is from. I tell you in this letter that McDonalds is offering a free BigMac to anyone as long as you send a copy of the letter to 10 of your friends. All you have to do is make 10 copies of this letter and mail them to your friends. Would you do it? I bet very few people would do this, due to the cost involved. At the very least, I'd expect that most people would do a little checking to see if it's true before spending the money to mail out 10 copies. So how come so many people are willing to forward e-mails with very similar offers or even outlandish stories without checking to see if the things they are forwarding or spreading are true? I bet it's because it doesn't hit them directly in the pocket book each time they do.

The bottom line? (I think I learned this in Kindergarten.) Don't believe everything you read or hear. Check the facts. Is it true? Maybe it is, maybe it isn't.

My favorite place to check to see if something is true or not is http://www.snopes.com. And yes, you can find people on the Internet who claim (see here) that Snopes isn't a reliable site to check for facts.

Happy New Year!

To all my friends and family, here's wishing you and yours a Happy and Prosperous 2009!

2008 Highlights from Woods Cross Citizen

This past year has been a great one here at the Woods Cross Citizen blog. This post will be my 108th post for the year. Some highlights of my posts over the past year:

• In January I said goodbye to a great leader, President Gordon B. Hinckley of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I also posted about www.crimereports.com which still doesn't appear to have data from Woods Cross, but, does have data from Bountiful and North Salt Lake City. I also speculated about how much a City Council seat is worth to some people.
  
• In February I answered the question of why I blog.
• March brought the announcement that our Mayor had filed to run for the Utah State Senate. I also postulated on the propriety of City Council Members forwarding their own agenda.
• During April I crossed two items off my bucket list and commented about curbside recycling beginning in Woods Cross. I also talked about our decision to purchase a vehicle from Murdock Chevrolet.
• In May I sent questions to the Senate Candidates for Utah State Senate District 23.
• June brought my 15th wedding anniversary as well as a meeting with Dan Liljenquist and my first ever lunch with a Democratic Candidate.
• In July I received answers to my questions from the Senate District 23 candidates.
• August began my series of posts giving the answers that I received from those candidates. Also in August, Dan Liljenquist survived a plane crash.
• The only posts during September were more answers in my series of posts that began in August.
• In October I announced that my job location would be changing. I also shared my position on California's Proposition 8, the Davis County Commission race, and the State Senate District 23 race.
• At the end of November, I declared that I was happy to see the Utes go 12-0.
• December started off by me saying goodbye to a great University of Utah fan. It ended with a wonderful Christmas.

Blu-ray = Betamax?

Will Blu-ray survive? I came across a column today at ZDNet (see here) that makes some great arguments about why Blu-ray could be dead soon. (Cue Monty Python's "I'm not dead yet" skit.)

For Christmas, we got a 42" Plasma HDTV. Prior to getting this TV, I used to think that the whole HD craze was just a lot of hype. I've discovered that watching non-HD broadcasts on the new TV is painful. We opted for the lower-priced 720p version of the TV. Our original DVD's still look ok on this TV. With time, I suspect we'll purchase an up-converting DVD player. I don't have the desire to purchase a Blu-ray player anytime soon though. If an up-converting DVD player makes all my original DVDs look nice on the TV, why would I want to pay more for a Blu-ray player as well as more for each Blu-ray disc? Switching to Blu-ray just doesn't make financial sense to me.

Book Review - Hometown Weekly by Bruce Lindsay

About two months ago, I started to read the book, Hometown Weekly by Bruce Lindsay. I only read two chapters of this book and I couldn't stand it. I felt like the author was almost insulting my intelligence. While reading this book I felt like I was listening to an 80 something year old grandma who has a touch of dementia telling these stories. The stories make no sense and the way they are told is even more annoying to me. I didn't care for the book and ended up returning it to the store without reading anymore than two chapters.

You can listen to a story at the books website and see if you like the way it's told before you spend your money on the book. Go over to http://www.thehometownweekly.com to listen and let me know what you think.

Merry Christmas!

To all my friends and family (and anyone else who reads this blog), Merry Christmas! I hope this Christmas finds you all happy and healthy! (The picture above was taken this past Sunday.)

Keeping Christmas

This is taken from "The Spirit of Christmas" by Henry Van Dyke:

It is a good thing to observe Christmas day. The mere marking of times and seasons, when men agree to stop work and make merry together, is a wise and wholesome custom. It helps one to feel the supremacy of the common life over the individual life. It reminds a man to set his own little watch, now and then, by the great clock of humanity which runs on sun time.

But there is a better thing than the observance of Christmas day, and that is, keeping Christmas.

Are you willing to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what other people have done for you; to ignore what the world owes you, and to think what you owe the world; to put your rights in the background, and your duties in the middle distance, and your chances to do a little more than your duty in the foreground; to see that your fellow-men are just as real as you are, and try to look
behind their faces to their hearts, hungry for joy; to own that probably the only good reason for your existence is not what you are going to get out of life, but what you are going to give to life; to close your book of complaints against the management of the universe, and look around you for a place where you can sow a few seeds of happiness--are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.

Are you willing to stoop down and consider the needs and the desires of little children; to remember the weakness and loneliness of people who are growing old; to stop asking how much your friends love you, and ask yourself whether you love them enough; to bear in mind the things that other people have to bear on their hearts; to try to understand what those who live in the same house with you really
want, without waiting for them to tell you; to trim your lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke, and to carry it in front so that your shadow will fall behind you; to make a grave for your ugly thoughts, and a garden for your kindly feelings, with the gate open--are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.

Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest thing in the world--stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death--and that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem nineteen hundred years ago is the image and brightness of the Eternal Love? Then you can keep Christmas.

And if you keep it for a day, why not always?

But you can never keep it alone.

The world has lost another great man.

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, passed away around 11:30 p.m. last night. I will miss his talks that almost always included some sports story.

Boycott the Kurt Bestor Christmas Concert?

Kurt Bestor has his annual Christmas Concert coming up at Abravanel Hall from December 10th through the 13th. With the recent boycotts called for (by the anti-Proposition 8 crowd) of those who gave money to pass Proposition 8, (see here) I thought, why not do the same to some of those who opposed Proposition 8? Mr. Kurt Bestor has profited for many years from the LDS Church and it's members. He has written musical scores used in many LDS Church films. I would bet that LDS members who are glad Proposition 8 passed have been a majority of his past audiences of his annual Christmas Concert.

Recently, Mr. Bestor said of the LDS Church's involvement in Proposition 8, "The fact that the LDS Church, ... would rise up as they did is disappointing to me. It doesn’t have anything to do with them. I don’t understand and I’m pissed off." (see here, quote is at the bottom of the page)

Well, Mr. Bestor, I suspect there are many LDS members who are "pissed off" that there has been vandalism to sacred church properties, such as the LDS Temple in Los Angeles. Maybe it's time for these "pissed off" LDS members to boycott Mr. Bestor's annual Christmas Concert.

Racism is not a one-way street

This says it perfectly.