I heard among some of my acquaintances loud harrumphs and tut tuts about how the Edward Kennedy funeral mass was just a huge excuse for excessive personality adulation and leftist political posturing.
Well yes.
As if we have never seen that sort of thing at every other funeral in Mormondom kulchur.
Kennedy’s funeral mass, broadcast live from Roxbury Massachusetts, reminds us that God commands all to worship him and that the publicans and the harlots will enter the Celestial Kingdom before the supposed believers —
providing the harlots and publicans believe in and use the atonement more than the supposed believers believe in and use the atonement.
The organ music at the end of the mass, the organ music heard on TV as the honor guard and pallbearers carried the Senator’s body from the basilica may be the greatest organ musical I have ever heard on live TV.
As to Kennedy himself, his Senate history is a mass of contradictions and ironies.
On the one hand, I really think he should have resigned the Senate when Mary Jo died in his car.
If the people of Massachusetts really did want to elect him Senator, then he should have stayed at most three terms. Massachusetts contains plenty of people who could serve brilliantly in the Senate. Somewhere in Massachusetts live other men or women who could strike deals and make the peace maybe as well as Kennedy did.
Kennedy should have resigned his senate seat last year so that Massachusetts and the United States Senate had a senator in place for the tumultuous days ahead.
On the other hand, the great come once in a lifetime. Someone told Ted that he and Daniel Webster were the two greatest senators in history, and Ted said without no irony, “What did Daniel do?”
Indeed. Webster spoke brilliantly, but the United States was a tiny place in those days. The Senate did not do much or even meet much by today’s standards of activity. How great is a great man in a tiny institution??
Perhaps maybe The Great do have a responsibility to stay on and service us on and on and on.
Daniel Webster.
Henry Clay.
John Calhoun. '
Robert LaFollette, senior and junior.
Hiram Johnson.
Edward Kennedy.
Goodbye sweet prince. Thank you for your service.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
IN MEMORIAM EDWARD KENNEDY 1932 -- 2009
Edward Kennedy has been around for so long and has been so visible for so long that when he died on Tuesday, I for one felt as if someone in my family had died.
Edward was The Great Kennedy. His father was something of a political shark, a political blathersnake with the moral compass of a tank. His brother John’s public career spanned a short period of 1947 to 1963. His brother Robert’s career spanned an even shorter period of 1961 to 1968. Edward Kennedy served in public life from 1962 to 2009 -- and there are not many of that vintage still around. Only Robert Byrd now comes to mind.
Conventional wisdom, which is usually neither, holds that Kennedy was a slacker of a senator until around 1970 - 1972, and then transformed into The Great Legislator after his presidential campaign of 1980 failed. There might be a kernel of truth to that, but not a lot. Kennedy had good legislative instincts even as a youngster.
Most people cannot give you the names of a half dozen senators, but Kennedy was instantly recognizable, the great superstar senator of our time. He was also easy to parody with his weatherbeaten Irish look and sound and the most famous head of hair in political life. The "mayor of Springfield" in The Simpsons was a particularly funny parody of him. After the 1991 Anita Hill – Clarence Thomas confrontation before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Murphy Brown did a particularly memorable satire of the committee. Both Murphy and Corky Sherwood had to testify before a sitcom Judiciary Committee of caricatures; the Kennedy caricature could not say anything that wasn’t a sexual double entendre. "Senator Batson D Belfry" in the comic strip Shoe was another obvious caricature that had elements of both Tip O’Neill and Edward Kennedy. When Belfry ran for the presidency in 1984, he noted wryly: “I have a voter identity problem. Too damn many people know who I am.” “A Verb senator, we need a verb,” a reporter in the comic strip Doonesbury once yelled at Gary Trudeau’s version of Kennedy.
I found Kennedy a particularly appealing political figure. He cut a princely figure on Capitol Hill. He held an entire constellation of instantly recognizable political ideals and he lived his ideals. He spoke clearly and brilliantly; just like his famous orator-brother Jack. He contained the most rock solid integrity of any senator of that period. You knew where he stood on the issues of the day.
Conservatives always referred to him as the great hiss and a byword of his generation, but it was Kennedy who mastered bipartisan Senate work. Orrin Hatch was not the only Republican that liked him and worked with him.
Some conservative Utahns never forgave Orrin Hatch for befriending Kennedy, and others couldn’t understand that they liked each other – but they don't understand the emotional workings of friendship. The friendship of Ted and Orrin was completely understandable and followed several predictable patterns. Kennedy had lots of charm and Hatch lots of character. It was a friendship made in heaven – a classic example of opposites attracting – the Wally and Eddie of Capitol Hill. Conservatives on principle and liberals on principle have more in common with each other than they have in common with the apolitical and all the moderates around them. Most senators had no more moral sense than a cat and came and went without influencing Kennedy and Hatch in the slightest.
John Kennedy liked Utah enough to visit Utah several times both as a senator and president. He gave a major address in the Salt Lake Tabernacle a few weeks before he died. Robert Kennedy visited Utah as well and actually spoke at Brigham Young University. Even though most political Utahns abhorred him, Edward Kennedy visited Utah on many occasions. In 1974, he visited Spencer W. Kimball at which visit President Kimball told him with a completely straight face that Catholics make great Mormons.
Ronald Reagan used to hold up Kennedy as the poster boy of tax and spend, but the fact remains Kennedy on occasion supported Reagan’s political initiatives just as he supported some of Nixon’s and some of Bushs’ initiatives. Ronald and Nancy liked Ted and Vickie on a personal level.
Peggy Noonan tells an interesting story that in the days when she served on the Great Communicator’s Speech Writing Staff she got the opportunity to write a speech for Reagan that he gave at a fund raiser for the Kennedy Library. Reagan speaking in behalf of money raising for the Kennedy library was not out of character. Both Reagan and Kennedy were great cold warriors, brilliant speakers, and basically moderate in political instincts at heart. “Typical of Ronnie,” Noonan noted without a shred of irony, “that he willingly showed up and spoke at his competitors’ blood drive.” Reagan’s talk that night was a big hit: he was warm and witty and Jacqueline thought he had captured the essence of her husband. Edward wrote him a gracious letter of thanks for that memorable speech.
Politics in the middle of the Twentieth Century was full of chance both good and bad, and the Kennedys sat at the heart of the political crap game.
Would Joseph Junior have won in politics had he lived to see the peace?
Would Robert or Edward have won the presidency had Jack died as a youngster or in battle in the War of the Pacific?
If Oswald had not assassinated Jack, would he have gotten embroiled in the Vietnam War? If Oswald had not killed Jack, would Jack have died of his diseases in office?
Would Edward or Robert have gotten embroiled in the Vietnam War if either one of them had been elected president in 1960 or 1964 or 1968?
If Nixon had been elected president in 1960, would he have gotten swallowed up the Vietnam Mess?
If Edward had not allowed Mary Jo to drown in his car, if Edward had actually taken some initiative to try and save her, would Edward have been elected president?
If he had been elected president, would he have been any good? -- given that his personality was more senatorial than executive.
John Kennedy, Peggy Noonan wrote for Ronald Reagan to say at that library fundraiser, was a man of the most interesting contradictions. That is a good way to characterize Edward Kennedy. His was the most spectacular senate career of the era, but it should not have happened.
He should have resigned his senate seat after Mary Jo died in his car.
'
He shouldn’t have held onto his senate seat like the papacy either. Three terms top.
Massachusetts has plenty of interesting political possibilities. Heaven only knows who could have been a great senator from the Land of the Bean and the Cod but couldn’t get in because Kennedy and most of the other senators of the twentieth century held their seats more or less forever. Lodges. Saltensall. Kerry. Kennedy. Double digits.
The Kennedys were not the greatest political family of the age. That distinction belongs mostly for bad to the Bush Family. The Kennedys were not the greatest political family of Massachusetts either. That honor still belongs to the Adams Family. Edward Kennedy, however, was a great senator for good and bad. We will miss him, if only because we won’t have him to kick around anymore.
AND REMEMBER:
Any senator can be a bipartisan workhorse if he or she works at it.
Edward was The Great Kennedy. His father was something of a political shark, a political blathersnake with the moral compass of a tank. His brother John’s public career spanned a short period of 1947 to 1963. His brother Robert’s career spanned an even shorter period of 1961 to 1968. Edward Kennedy served in public life from 1962 to 2009 -- and there are not many of that vintage still around. Only Robert Byrd now comes to mind.
Conventional wisdom, which is usually neither, holds that Kennedy was a slacker of a senator until around 1970 - 1972, and then transformed into The Great Legislator after his presidential campaign of 1980 failed. There might be a kernel of truth to that, but not a lot. Kennedy had good legislative instincts even as a youngster.
Most people cannot give you the names of a half dozen senators, but Kennedy was instantly recognizable, the great superstar senator of our time. He was also easy to parody with his weatherbeaten Irish look and sound and the most famous head of hair in political life. The "mayor of Springfield" in The Simpsons was a particularly funny parody of him. After the 1991 Anita Hill – Clarence Thomas confrontation before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Murphy Brown did a particularly memorable satire of the committee. Both Murphy and Corky Sherwood had to testify before a sitcom Judiciary Committee of caricatures; the Kennedy caricature could not say anything that wasn’t a sexual double entendre. "Senator Batson D Belfry" in the comic strip Shoe was another obvious caricature that had elements of both Tip O’Neill and Edward Kennedy. When Belfry ran for the presidency in 1984, he noted wryly: “I have a voter identity problem. Too damn many people know who I am.” “A Verb senator, we need a verb,” a reporter in the comic strip Doonesbury once yelled at Gary Trudeau’s version of Kennedy.
I found Kennedy a particularly appealing political figure. He cut a princely figure on Capitol Hill. He held an entire constellation of instantly recognizable political ideals and he lived his ideals. He spoke clearly and brilliantly; just like his famous orator-brother Jack. He contained the most rock solid integrity of any senator of that period. You knew where he stood on the issues of the day.
Conservatives always referred to him as the great hiss and a byword of his generation, but it was Kennedy who mastered bipartisan Senate work. Orrin Hatch was not the only Republican that liked him and worked with him.
Some conservative Utahns never forgave Orrin Hatch for befriending Kennedy, and others couldn’t understand that they liked each other – but they don't understand the emotional workings of friendship. The friendship of Ted and Orrin was completely understandable and followed several predictable patterns. Kennedy had lots of charm and Hatch lots of character. It was a friendship made in heaven – a classic example of opposites attracting – the Wally and Eddie of Capitol Hill. Conservatives on principle and liberals on principle have more in common with each other than they have in common with the apolitical and all the moderates around them. Most senators had no more moral sense than a cat and came and went without influencing Kennedy and Hatch in the slightest.
John Kennedy liked Utah enough to visit Utah several times both as a senator and president. He gave a major address in the Salt Lake Tabernacle a few weeks before he died. Robert Kennedy visited Utah as well and actually spoke at Brigham Young University. Even though most political Utahns abhorred him, Edward Kennedy visited Utah on many occasions. In 1974, he visited Spencer W. Kimball at which visit President Kimball told him with a completely straight face that Catholics make great Mormons.
Ronald Reagan used to hold up Kennedy as the poster boy of tax and spend, but the fact remains Kennedy on occasion supported Reagan’s political initiatives just as he supported some of Nixon’s and some of Bushs’ initiatives. Ronald and Nancy liked Ted and Vickie on a personal level.
Peggy Noonan tells an interesting story that in the days when she served on the Great Communicator’s Speech Writing Staff she got the opportunity to write a speech for Reagan that he gave at a fund raiser for the Kennedy Library. Reagan speaking in behalf of money raising for the Kennedy library was not out of character. Both Reagan and Kennedy were great cold warriors, brilliant speakers, and basically moderate in political instincts at heart. “Typical of Ronnie,” Noonan noted without a shred of irony, “that he willingly showed up and spoke at his competitors’ blood drive.” Reagan’s talk that night was a big hit: he was warm and witty and Jacqueline thought he had captured the essence of her husband. Edward wrote him a gracious letter of thanks for that memorable speech.
Politics in the middle of the Twentieth Century was full of chance both good and bad, and the Kennedys sat at the heart of the political crap game.
Would Joseph Junior have won in politics had he lived to see the peace?
Would Robert or Edward have won the presidency had Jack died as a youngster or in battle in the War of the Pacific?
If Oswald had not assassinated Jack, would he have gotten embroiled in the Vietnam War? If Oswald had not killed Jack, would Jack have died of his diseases in office?
Would Edward or Robert have gotten embroiled in the Vietnam War if either one of them had been elected president in 1960 or 1964 or 1968?
If Nixon had been elected president in 1960, would he have gotten swallowed up the Vietnam Mess?
If Edward had not allowed Mary Jo to drown in his car, if Edward had actually taken some initiative to try and save her, would Edward have been elected president?
If he had been elected president, would he have been any good? -- given that his personality was more senatorial than executive.
John Kennedy, Peggy Noonan wrote for Ronald Reagan to say at that library fundraiser, was a man of the most interesting contradictions. That is a good way to characterize Edward Kennedy. His was the most spectacular senate career of the era, but it should not have happened.
He should have resigned his senate seat after Mary Jo died in his car.
'
He shouldn’t have held onto his senate seat like the papacy either. Three terms top.
Massachusetts has plenty of interesting political possibilities. Heaven only knows who could have been a great senator from the Land of the Bean and the Cod but couldn’t get in because Kennedy and most of the other senators of the twentieth century held their seats more or less forever. Lodges. Saltensall. Kerry. Kennedy. Double digits.
The Kennedys were not the greatest political family of the age. That distinction belongs mostly for bad to the Bush Family. The Kennedys were not the greatest political family of Massachusetts either. That honor still belongs to the Adams Family. Edward Kennedy, however, was a great senator for good and bad. We will miss him, if only because we won’t have him to kick around anymore.
AND REMEMBER:
Any senator can be a bipartisan workhorse if he or she works at it.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
GIVE UTAH BACK PLEASE -- FRANK TALK ABOUT EXPLOITING OUR RESOURCES
So when liberals gather up an unruly crowd it is "community organizing" and when conservatives gather up an unruly crowd it is a "mob?"
This is America -- he who gathers the biggest crowd wins.
The participants in 8 August’s Take Back Utah demonstration should understand for an average west coast or eastern Senator or Representative, voting to turn Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming into a wilderness rates as the sure-fire way to appear environmentally friendly without actually doing something that harms the economic interests of those region.
Concerning mining Utah's coal leases and drilling Utah's oil leases: It is true the proponents of biofuels have mislead the public. We need all the ground we can get to feed earthlings — not grow luxury fuels. It is also true that hydrogen cannot fuel our needs: we can’t store it safely and hydrogen take too much energy to produce. So we need coal and gas for the foreseeable future.
That said
both coal and oil are 19th century fuel technologies, if not earlier. Soon we will find replacements that work. We do not want Utah to be the 21st century West Virginia. Therefore, we should be careful not to tear up Utah’s gorgeous scenery for the short term profit of nineteenth century technology.
This is America -- he who gathers the biggest crowd wins.
The participants in 8 August’s Take Back Utah demonstration should understand for an average west coast or eastern Senator or Representative, voting to turn Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming into a wilderness rates as the sure-fire way to appear environmentally friendly without actually doing something that harms the economic interests of those region.
Concerning mining Utah's coal leases and drilling Utah's oil leases: It is true the proponents of biofuels have mislead the public. We need all the ground we can get to feed earthlings — not grow luxury fuels. It is also true that hydrogen cannot fuel our needs: we can’t store it safely and hydrogen take too much energy to produce. So we need coal and gas for the foreseeable future.
That said
both coal and oil are 19th century fuel technologies, if not earlier. Soon we will find replacements that work. We do not want Utah to be the 21st century West Virginia. Therefore, we should be careful not to tear up Utah’s gorgeous scenery for the short term profit of nineteenth century technology.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
HATCH, SOTOMAYOR AND THE SENATE CAMPAIGN OF 2012
Here is a copy of my letter to the public forum in the Salt Lake Tribune, which some comments:
Latina instead of Hatch
Public Forum Letter
Updated: 07/30/2009 05:07:13 PM MDT
Sen. Orrin Hatch will not vote for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor ("Hatch explains Sotomayor vote," Tribune , July 28). He voted yea for the Supreme Court nominations of Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, and it is hard to imagine how Sotomayor can possibly evolve into a justice more liberal than they.
Sotomayor has years of experience in law and in the courts. She certainly comes with more experience than Justice Clarence Thomas had in 1991, not to mention Justice Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts. Hatch enthusiastically voted in favor of all of them.
Hatch complains that Sotomayor is soft on the Second Amendment. How useful is that amendment? Yet all one has to say is [ a candidate does ] not support the right to kill and that ends the nomination discussion. Never mind her other qualifications.
[ Conservatives complained about her comment that a wise experienced Latina would make sounder decisions than your typical white professional male. ] The time has come for Utah voters to find a good, wise, experienced, Latina woman and elect her to the Senate in 2012 instead of Orrin Hatch.
Latina instead of Hatch
Public Forum Letter
Updated: 07/30/2009 05:07:13 PM MDT
Sen. Orrin Hatch will not vote for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor ("Hatch explains Sotomayor vote," Tribune , July 28). He voted yea for the Supreme Court nominations of Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, and it is hard to imagine how Sotomayor can possibly evolve into a justice more liberal than they.
Sotomayor has years of experience in law and in the courts. She certainly comes with more experience than Justice Clarence Thomas had in 1991, not to mention Justice Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts. Hatch enthusiastically voted in favor of all of them.
Hatch complains that Sotomayor is soft on the Second Amendment. How useful is that amendment? Yet all one has to say is [ a candidate does ] not support the right to kill and that ends the nomination discussion. Never mind her other qualifications.
[ Conservatives complained about her comment that a wise experienced Latina would make sounder decisions than your typical white professional male. ] The time has come for Utah voters to find a good, wise, experienced, Latina woman and elect her to the Senate in 2012 instead of Orrin Hatch.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
QUO VADIS PALINI: or GET THEE BEHIND ME SARAH
26 July -- Sarah Palin resigns as governor of Alaska and gives the thankless job to Sean Parnell, who certainly has his work cut out for him post-Palin.
The question remains as to just exactly how many real friends this woman has, and if she can find any of them in her family. If I were Bristol Palin, I would be so ticked at her mama. Thanks to the way her mother handled Bristol's situation, people will tend to remember Bristol now as the most famous poster girl for unwed redneck mothers -- ever. And the father left her to fend for herself as well. Smart boy. I doubt that her family like her much after all the horrors she required them to endure for the sake of her political ego.
If I were Palin, I would not in the long view count John McCain as a real friend. He took her from Juneau up to the mountain top and showed her the Kingdoms of the World, not really out of friendship but as some sort of political stunt. Many vice presidential candidates have started as stunts and wound up as vice presidents – but not Palin.
As a stunt, she takes herself way too seriously as a conservative commodity. Unfortunately for Alaska, her experience as a campaign star ruined her as a governor. The minutia of governing a place as big and tedious and dull (from a sophisticate point of view) as Northern Exposure obviously bored her after November 2008.
The history of the American presidency is a long history of sweet-talking, charismatic wise-guys with sharp tongues and the gift of gab convincing the yokels to elect him President of the United States after a couple of years of political experience, usually in California or New York. I find it hard to take Palin seriously as the latest incarnation of this model of leader,
For starters she ran – badly – a state that has less people than a third of the counties of California. I will admit for the sake of fairness that she does not need to shoulder all the responsibility for her dismal leadership record. Any governor finds Alaska hard to lead or even manage. The feds situated the capital in the south east corner of the state: the dullest corner, too. Imagine the entire Confederacy as one state with its capitol in Hialeah. However, other governors have done splendidly under the circumstances and did not bail before the end of the term.
Next, her performances as a politician leaves much to be desired. She entertains if not convinces the converted, but who else exactly takes her seriously for more than a minute and a half at a stretch? Compare her to the Roosevelts (all three of them) or Thatcher or Reagan. They could articulate themselves well enough to attract converts among people who may not have actually liked them. Palin cannot claim Inexperience as an excuse. Reagan could persuade even in his younger years – he served as a successful influential union president, corporate spokesman, and political commentator when young. Furthermore, all those presidents and presidential candidates who ran after one term or part of a term as governor of New York or California did not resign because of boredom and bad karma. Someone should tell Sarah if you ain’t for bad karma, you ain’t for American politics.
Since Palin got to see much of the lower forty eight last year, I suspect that she will move somewhere on the mainland soon. Some place with warmth, no glaciers, palm trees --- and a big base of electoral college votes.
The question remains as to just exactly how many real friends this woman has, and if she can find any of them in her family. If I were Bristol Palin, I would be so ticked at her mama. Thanks to the way her mother handled Bristol's situation, people will tend to remember Bristol now as the most famous poster girl for unwed redneck mothers -- ever. And the father left her to fend for herself as well. Smart boy. I doubt that her family like her much after all the horrors she required them to endure for the sake of her political ego.
If I were Palin, I would not in the long view count John McCain as a real friend. He took her from Juneau up to the mountain top and showed her the Kingdoms of the World, not really out of friendship but as some sort of political stunt. Many vice presidential candidates have started as stunts and wound up as vice presidents – but not Palin.
As a stunt, she takes herself way too seriously as a conservative commodity. Unfortunately for Alaska, her experience as a campaign star ruined her as a governor. The minutia of governing a place as big and tedious and dull (from a sophisticate point of view) as Northern Exposure obviously bored her after November 2008.
The history of the American presidency is a long history of sweet-talking, charismatic wise-guys with sharp tongues and the gift of gab convincing the yokels to elect him President of the United States after a couple of years of political experience, usually in California or New York. I find it hard to take Palin seriously as the latest incarnation of this model of leader,
For starters she ran – badly – a state that has less people than a third of the counties of California. I will admit for the sake of fairness that she does not need to shoulder all the responsibility for her dismal leadership record. Any governor finds Alaska hard to lead or even manage. The feds situated the capital in the south east corner of the state: the dullest corner, too. Imagine the entire Confederacy as one state with its capitol in Hialeah. However, other governors have done splendidly under the circumstances and did not bail before the end of the term.
Next, her performances as a politician leaves much to be desired. She entertains if not convinces the converted, but who else exactly takes her seriously for more than a minute and a half at a stretch? Compare her to the Roosevelts (all three of them) or Thatcher or Reagan. They could articulate themselves well enough to attract converts among people who may not have actually liked them. Palin cannot claim Inexperience as an excuse. Reagan could persuade even in his younger years – he served as a successful influential union president, corporate spokesman, and political commentator when young. Furthermore, all those presidents and presidential candidates who ran after one term or part of a term as governor of New York or California did not resign because of boredom and bad karma. Someone should tell Sarah if you ain’t for bad karma, you ain’t for American politics.
Since Palin got to see much of the lower forty eight last year, I suspect that she will move somewhere on the mainland soon. Some place with warmth, no glaciers, palm trees --- and a big base of electoral college votes.
BYU SOBER: BINGE CULTURE AT THE UNIVERSITIES
BYU is soberest in nation — again
Make it an even dozen.
For the 12th year in a row, Brigham Young University has claimed the title of the most stone-cold sober school in the nation.
No other school has come close to that kind of dominating performance in any category, said Rob Franek, editorial director for the Princeton Review's annual survey of the nation's universities, this year titled "The Best 371 Colleges: 2010 edition," which goes on sale Tuesday.
The rankings are based on a survey of 122,000 students at the 371 colleges.
"Brigham Young has had such exceptional longevity on this list and other lists," Franek said. "There has been no other school with this kind of longevity."
BYU spokesman Michael Smart, with tongue in cheek, said the university doesn't intend to rest on its laurels.
"I'll borrow from the world's football coaches and say that we are happy but we are not satisfied," he said. "This year, like very other year, we will take it one day at a time and hopefully this time next year we'll be talking about number 13."
In fact, BYU ranked first in five of the 62 different categories in this year's survey, including "Don't Inhale," a ranking of low marijuana use, and "Future Rotarians and Daughters of the American Revolution,"
BYU ranked second in "Most Religious Students," behind Thomas Aquinas College, a Catholic liberal arts school in Santa Paula, Calif., fourth in "Most Conservative Students" and seventh in low acceptance of gay students.
BYU's Harold B. Lee Library was ranked 16th among college libraries, and the university is ranked 20th for student participation in intramural sports. Notre Dame ranked first.
Two other Utah schools made the rankings.
Westminster College ranked 12th for "Best Quality of Life," and the University of Utah ranked 20th for "Most Religious Students."
Penn State University earned the distinction of "Top Party School" and Bennington College in Vermont was ranked "Least Religious Students."
Franek said the lists are designed to help potential college students pick out the university that best fits their personality.
"The ranking lists should be information to students, family and guidance counselors," he said.
Other student survey-based ranking lists in the book reveal the schools at which students most highly rated their administrators, campus career centers, and athletic facilities.
The ratings for both stone-cold sober and party schools are based on students' answers to the same questions about the use of alcohol and drugs, the number of hours they study each day outside of class, and the popularity of fraternities/sororities at their school. BYU has no fraternities or sororities.
RIGHT ASCENSION COMMENTARY
Over the years, a number of my neighbors served as bishops in BYU Singles Wards, so I have heard their stories about how much alcohol the boys and girls consume under cover of orthodox respectability. I have taught for ages at what is now Utah Valley University, so I know that its reputation as a party school is widely exaggerated -- especially compared to the exalted standards of sophistication found in State College, Gainesville and Oxford.
The report relays inaccurate about BYU's not having sororities and fraternities. It has Relief Society and the Priesthood.
It must be an awful shock to the U of U to make the top 20 in religious students. The secular humanists have let their guards down!
Universities and colleges have always promoted unhealthy environments, and despite all the pretensions toward health centers and wellness clinics, colleges still have unhealthy climates.
Start with all those students many of whom have the hygiene habits of dogs and toads.
Next universities overload their students with fat curriculums and work, and then try to cram it all down the students in 4 years.
College life revolves around binging –
Binge studying.
Binge eating.
Binge sleeping after binge studying.
Binge sex when you can get it.
Binge drug use – over the counter, supplements, prescriptions, illegals, designers.
Intense binge drinking with the goal of falling down unconsciousness quick.
Entirely too many students do not think of beer as drug abuse because it supposedly goes so well with pizza. But drug abuse it is.
RIGHT ASCENSION RAISES THE GLASS OF CANADA DRY.
Congratulations to BYU for showing the way to square and cool.
Monday, July 27, 2009
IF UTAH DOES NOT WANT A FEDERAL HEALTH INSURANCE, THEN THE LEGISLATURE SHOULD ACT INSTEAD OF TALK
We hear Utahns complain all around us that they do not want a federal government health care program. Utah’s government leaders have so far distributed their own weight in words on the subject.
Utah’s government should stop talking and act to bring the force of law into health care reformation.
RIGHT ASCENSION'S CALL TO ACTION
I urge the legislature to pass laws mandating that insurance companies doing business in Utah must pay for
1. Mental health treatments. The brain is just another organ in the body and should get equal access to health care.
2. Allopathic, Ayurvedic, Chinese, Chiropractic, and Osteopathic medicines. If it works for patients, then insurance should pay the doctors.
3. dental treatments
4. preventative health care treatments.
5. the design of one standardized set of forms for all insurance companies doing business in Utah.
I urge the legislature to pass laws mandating insurance companies cannot --
6. make profits. They should pay for health care and employee salaries where the highest salaries can only range 20 times higher than the slowest salaries.
7. cancel a policy except for any deliberate lie on the application form.
Utah’s government should stop talking and act to bring the force of law into health care reformation.
RIGHT ASCENSION'S CALL TO ACTION
I urge the legislature to pass laws mandating that insurance companies doing business in Utah must pay for
1. Mental health treatments. The brain is just another organ in the body and should get equal access to health care.
2. Allopathic, Ayurvedic, Chinese, Chiropractic, and Osteopathic medicines. If it works for patients, then insurance should pay the doctors.
3. dental treatments
4. preventative health care treatments.
5. the design of one standardized set of forms for all insurance companies doing business in Utah.
I urge the legislature to pass laws mandating insurance companies cannot --
6. make profits. They should pay for health care and employee salaries where the highest salaries can only range 20 times higher than the slowest salaries.
7. cancel a policy except for any deliberate lie on the application form.
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