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The Week Ahead
We say goodbye to the oppressively hot and fiery month of July this week, when fire, flood and drought again reminded us of Mother Nature’s supremacy. August is still as summery as it gets, but within a few weeks we’ll be lamenting how summer is slipping away. Footballs will start flying, and in the high country evenings will begin to feel extra crisp.
The Legislature’s subcommittee on government competition and privatization will discuss local option taxes and convention centers on Tuesday (see agenda) and the International Trade Commission will hear reports from legislators who traveled to China (see agenda). For all the week’s political events, see the UtahPolicy.com calendar.
Monday Musing
But Are We Happier?
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan notes that we are “living in the second great Gilded Age, a time of startling personal wealth.” She writes about the very wealthy, but I would argue that today’s middle class is also far more affluent than the middle class I grew up in during the ‘50s and ‘60s.
Today’s middle-class is much more affluent and mobile. Houses are bigger, cars are far nicer. Middle class people travel far more frequently, and they have a lot more toys.
I am middle-class, as are my children and their spouses, as they marry and start careers. But I am amazed at the amount of travel my children do, the nice homes and cars they are buying, and the opportunities they have. I barely traveled out of Utah growing up, and I didn’t get out of the country until I was 19 and leaving for two years of church service.
One thing I’m not sure about: In all of our affluence, mobility and opportunity, are we any happier? The highlights of my life as a kid were piling into the old Studebaker station wagon the Friday before the opening of fishing, and driving to Black Canyon on the East Fork of the Sevier River, for a weekend of fishing. I looked forward to those excursions for weeks in advance, preparing my fishing tackle and anticipating the strike of a fat brown trout in those big holes behind the boulders.
An even bigger deal was the deer hunt, which I anticipated for months, a week of sheer joy spent in the mountains. When I was 11 or 12, my idea of a really great time was riding my old one-speed bike four or five miles to the Provo Board Harbor for some catfish fishing. Later, there was nothing better than tromping through winter fields with a shotgun over my shoulder, hunting crows. Those days spent fishing, hunting, camping and hiking, were simply magic.
Do my children and grandchildren today feel the same magic going to Disneyland? Or the beaches at San Diego or Florida? Or Kauai? (All fairly recent vacation spots.)
I’m afraid I’m partly to blame for some of the changes. Too busy with work, I’ve let the outdoors trips slip. When the children were young, we got out fairly frequently. As they got into their teenage years, it became harder. Today, we seldom camp. Instead we go to a comfortable cabin. Fishing has become infrequent and hunting has disappeared.
But there’s still opportunity with the next generation, the grandkids. I’m vowing to compete with Disneyland, to help them learn to appreciate some of the simple joys of life.
Washington Watch
Hatch: Overturn Shipment Ban
The House passes a farm bill that includes provisions of Sen. Orrin Hatch's New Markets for State-Inspected Meat and Poultry Act of 2007, which "would overturn a more than 30-year-old ban on interstate shipment of state-inspected meat, giving national and international consumers access to various meat products produced by ranchers and smaller meat packing plants in Utah and other states" (see press release).
Bennett: More Border $$
Sen. Bob Bennett calls for a $3 billion increase in funding for border security (see press release).
Cannon: Change Funding Dates
Rep. Chris Cannon introduces legislation to amend the Agriculture Adjustment Act of 2007 to change the dates funds would be available to ranchers and cattleman due to loses from wildfires (see press release).
Bishop Provision Approved
The House approves an eminent domain provision filed by Rep. Rob Bishop that would protect private property rights near public lands (see press release).
Today in Political History
July 30, 1945: the USS Indianapolis, which had just delivered key components of the Hiroshima atomic bomb to the Pacific island of Tinian, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. Only 316 out of 1,196 men survived the sinking and shark-infested waters. (New York Times)
July 30, 1956: US national motto, "In God We Trust", is authorized. (Source: Perspicuity)
July 30, 1965: Medicare is signed into law by Pres. Lyndon B Johnson. (Source: NBC5)
Wise Words
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.
-- G.B. Shaw, Mrs. Warren's Profession, 1893 (Source: Quote Garden)
Leadership Tip
Gen. Colin Powell on Leadership
Organization doesn't really accomplish anything. Plans don't accomplish anything, either. Theories of management don't much matter. Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people involved. Only by attracting the best people will you accomplish great deeds.
In a brain-based economy, your best assets are people. We've heard this expression so often that it's become trite. But how many leaders really "walk the talk" with this stuff? Too often, people are assumed to be empty chess pieces to be moved around by grand viziers, which may explain why so many top managers immerse their calendar time in deal making, restructuring and the latest management fad. How many immerse themselves in the goal of creating an environment where the best, the brightest, the most creative are attracted, retained and, most importantly, unleashed? (More Colin Powell tips at CoachThee.com)
National Politics
Best Stories From . . .
-- Los Angeles Times: "It's easy to tell the difference between the two parties on foreign policy in this presidential campaign. The Democrats all want to talk about getting out of Iraq, but not so much about Al Qaeda or terrorism. The Republicans all want to talk about terrorism, but not so much about Iraq. ... The problem each party faces, polls show, is that most Americans want answers to both questions, not just one or the other."
-- New York Times: Letters Hillary Clinton wrote to a friend in the '60s provide "a rare unfiltered look into the head and heart of a future first lady and senator and would-be president."
-- Washington Post: "Although [Barack] Obama (Ill.) has forged a path as the first African American with a serious chance of becoming president, his rise coincides with the emergence of a whole cohort of black politicians who share similar résumés and ideology. Raised in the post-civil rights era, they attended elite schools, built coalitions of white and black supporters, and cast themselves as agents of change, even if they were running to succeed other African Americans."
-- Chicago Tribune: "In an escalating conflict between Congress and President Bush over the privileges and prerogatives of the presidency, the two sides could be headed for a court battle that outlasts Bush's term in office, pushing the outcome of any congressional investigation over the firings of federal prosecutors into the next administration."
Blog Watch
-- Tim Beagley says: "Get ready for a whole new level of absurdity. The funding system for Utah Public Education is about to get even more complicated and convoluted. It is hard to believe the monster could actually get scarier but it will. In a futile attempt to appease the critics of school district splits, the legislature is poised to 'equalize' the funding of school construction. ... The problem isn't that they are trying to help rapidly growing areas fund their buildings. The problem is that they are doing it within the framework of a funding system that is antiquated, flabby, indecipherable and dysfunctional."
-- At Out of Context, Steve Gehrke reports: "Perhaps no one had a tougher week than Bluffdale Mayor Claudia Anderson. And perhaps no one is taking it better -- at least on the surface. On July 20, her city lost about 40 percent of its land to developers. For a mayor whom many residents in this rural community saw as the anti-development candidate in 2005, the move should have been devastating. But Anderson brushed it off, focusing instead on the victory in maintaining the city's small-town feel and rural values when she said, 'Bluffdale has always been a small city, and now it will be even smaller.' Three days later, Anderson shrugged off another potentially devastating lost: The recent citywide vote that stripped her powers and gave them to a city manager. '(I have) no sour grapes whatsoever, now that the people have voted,' she said. 'But I have nothing to do. And that's OK with me.' Still, she proceeded to drill the Legislature's Local Issues Task Force on the confusion that followed her city's form-of-government change. She told lawmakers to make it known when a mayor isn't in charge. 'Don't call me about the roads,' she said. 'Call my manager, because it isn't my job.'"
Lighter Side
"You can be the happiest man on earth by falling in love with yourself. You won't have a single rival."
-- Source unknown (Salt Lake Tribune Cryproquote) |
