Kowtowing to the Blue-nose Puritans

Cowardly commission decisions inalterably made behind closed doors

By Curmudgeon

There is a fine editorial in the Standard-Examiner this morning, taking the Weber County Commission to task for its secret [in violation of the open meetings law?] back room decision to ban cage fighting from the fair because some of Ogden's resident bluenose puritans [who didn't attend and won't attend] called up to demand that other people not be allowed to attend. Of a piece with the bluenose local Cotton Mathers [e.g. Hizzonah, Mayor Matthew Godfrey] running the Ogden Summer Fest out of business because [gasp!] there was arm wrasslin' and beer drinkin' and such like sinnin' right out there in front of god and everybody!

And the Std-Ex editorial picked up on Commissioner Dearden's contemptuous "the public be damned" announcement that "he would make nixing the mixed-martial art event an agenda item at a public Commission meeting [if he was forced to]. 'It doesn't matter to me. The decision won't change.'"

But then, he is ... in fact all the commissioners are... Republican. [Strange, but the Std-Ex editorial somehow managed not to mention that.] Contempt for open meetings and for the public that elected them is what we've come to expect from elected Republican bluenoses here in Zion.

And the beat goes on....