Thoughts and Rants

There have been a couple of news articles this week that I felt like I wanted to comment on. They cover politicians thinking they know about education, religion, and politics in general, so this won’t be a terribly cheery post. You have been fair warned.

The Deseret News reported on Monday at that Utah has once again been ranked lowest for per student spending in the nation. And they don’t seem to have much of a problem with it, which is a large problem if you ask me. Yet they are patting themselves on the back because some how Utah still manages to come out okay on standardized tests. Utah must be very efficient to get such results with hardly any funding. Big whoop! Just imagine what they could do if they actually funded education! It boggles the mind. That’s politicians for you though.

The Deseret News had another article on Monday that I have a few thoughts on. This article was reporting on an agreement of the LDS leaders to meet with a group of homosexuals. I don’t see what their problem is. They have the same laws and commandments as everyone else. They aren’t being held to a different standard than anyone else. I like men too. But I’d be in just as much trouble if I acted on those impulses as anyone else who wasn’t married would. Celibacy is expected of those who aren’t married, regardless of who you feel like you’d like to be married to. Why they think the laws of God are different for them, I’ll never know.

The article says that they are looking for a change in the BYU honor code that results in the expulsion for sexually active gay students. Except the exact same rules apply to any non-married sexually active students as well. I appreciate that the article specified that as well. There’s no different in treatment. I don’t understand what the big deal is on that one.

The third article that caught my attention already this week is one about the Olympic torch going around the world right now and the protests it is encountering in different cities. It is in San Francisco today. Yesterday it was extinguished in London by protesters.

I love the Olympics. I love the amazing sports feats, the pageantry of the opening and closing ceremonies, the world coming together for two weeks. But with the issues with Tibet and human rights issues in China, I’m torn on whether or not I want to watch the Olympics this Summer. I hate the idea of so many athletes missing the Olympics if there is a boycott. For so many of them, they would be past their peak in another four years and would miss their chance. It’s not their fault that the Olympics are in China this year and that there are so many problems there. But I have to wonder about the world celebrating just part of the country, and ignoring the problems with the rest of it. I’ll figure out what I’ll do about it by August.