Arm the teachers, they said, nothing could possibly go wrong, they said ...

This is the Second Week in a Row that an American Teacher Accidentally Shot Themselves at School | NationofChange: 

Image via (apparent wackadoodle) Pat Dollard

Sixth grade teacher Michelle Ferguson-Montgomery was injured Thursday morning when she accidentally fired her gun in her Utah elementary school bathroom. Authorities believe the bullet accidentally struck a toilet that exploded, causing fragments of the toilet and the bullet to strike her leg and injure her ... But she’s not the only teacher to accidentally fire her gun at school, just since this school year started.

BYU dismisses Brandon Davies from the basketball team ... because he had pre-marital sex.

BYU’s Brandon Davies apologizes to teammates | The Salt Lake Tribune: 

Brandon Davies, Fornicator! (Image via Salt Lake Tribune)

On Tuesday, the school owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced Davies had been dismissed from the team but was being allowed to remain in school while his situation was under review by the Honor Code Office.

BYU's "Honor Code" instructs students to live a "chaste and virtuous life." Well, maybe he can get back on the team by demonstrating "virtuous" behavior like becoming rabidly homophobic and donating his time and money to hate groups that seek to persecute gays.

Utah Camping Diary, Days 3-4

The pictures pretty much say it all ... here are our shots from Cathedral Valley.

Likewise, these are the photos from Bryce Canyon.

Utah Camping Diary, Day 1

Tif and I are in Utah this week. We're leaving to go camping at Fish Lake -- about a five hour drive south of Salt Lake City -- bright and early tomorrow. Took a cab to the airport this morning ... the driver was hilarious. Nice enough guy, but not all there. First, there was the debate over the price of stamps he was involved in with his dispatcher and another cabbie. We set them straight on that. Not worried at this point, I mean, stamps are always going up two or three cents at a time. I wouldn't have guessed twenty-five cents, but hey, maybe he pays all his bills online, right? Next, he asked where we were going. Utah, we told him. "U-Haul?" he says, perplexed. No, Utah. "Yoo-hah," he says, "where's that? Nebraska?" Not exactly, Utah: U-T-A-H. "Oh, that's not in Nebraska is it?" No, we're going to the state. "Hunph," he says. I don't think he could imagine why anyone would want to go to Yoo-hah, NE this time of year. On the highway, he points out the sun for us. It's about an hour after sunrise at this point. "Look at that sun," he points, "it's sure orange." Yep, it is. We lose it behind the buildings of downtown Providence and the northbound lane of 95 for a while. He's craning his neck, bolt upright in his seat looking for it. When it's back, he points it out again. Gotcha, Chief. I'm getting a little nervous about how much he's looking at the sun, I mean, directly at the sun in relation to how much time he's spending looking at the freakin' road. I'm about to caution him about the possible eye damage you can get from staring DIRECTLY AT THE GODDAMN SUN FOR MORE THAN 30 SECONDS when he changes subjects. There's a new gas station chain, Valero, that has started advertising in our area and a few of the older run down gas stations have been remodeled to Valeros. He's way up on this. "How about those Vaheebos everywhere?" Vaheebos? "Y'know, the new Vanteebos ... V-A-L-E-E-R-I-O," thanks for spelling it, I'm regretting now that we clarified Utah for him. "The old lady likes the Vroom Vrooms in the commercials." I'm sure she does. The whole drive he was on one topic after another, making little to no sense on any of them. Spelling stuff randomly at irregular intervals. When we got to the airport, he thought he saw a plane with a new company name on it. I dunno, maybe he did, but I just wanted him to stop trying to crane his neck and jump up in his seat to to try and get another look at it over the Jersey Barriers. "You see that? What was that? A-T-W... something?"

Next update when we get back...

Utah Vacation

This Is Where I Was Earlier Today

My first words upon stepping outside of the terminal at Logan: "What is this f*cking humidity about? I hate it here. I want to go back." Utah is goregous. The weather while we were there was amazing. Nate was a brilliant host and tour guide. That was the best vacation I think I've ever had. My buddy Nhan and I arrived in Salt Lake City about 2pm or so and Nate had us on the golf course by 2:30. We played nine holes at Wingepointe watching planes fly in with the Wasatch mountains towering over SLC as a backdrop. From there we went into the city and toured the Temple Square, drove up into the mountains to get the lay of the land, then went out for dinner. Sunday we played a round at Oakridge Country Club, though it was hard to focus on anything other than the view of the mountains. I blooped my drive off the first tee over a line of trees into the driving range area and put my driver away for the rest of the trip. We crashed for a few hours that afternoon, then did some more sightseeing and went out to Nate's dad's place out in the country. Monday morning I was up at 6am, so I went out and sat in the front yard to read until the other guys woke up. The view of the mountains to the west was simply incredible. As the sun came up, I watched it light up the mountains from the top down. That half hour or so alone would've made the trip worthwhile. From 9am to about 5pm we were out on Nate's brother's boat learning how to wakeboard. I'm still sore today, but it was a freaking blast. Tuesday we changed venues and went out to Park City where we did the alpine slide and hung out on Main St. for a while before hitting the Mountain Course at Wasatch State Park. The other courses we played had great views of the mountains, this one was on a mountain. I was blown away by the scenery on the other courses and this took it to another level entirely. ( And, it only cost $34 with the cart! I played 45 holes of golf while I was out there and spent less than $60. That's one round at a decent course around here.) Today, we drove out the resort areas at Alta and took the tram up to the top of Snowbird (elevation 11,000 feet, with snow on the ground). I really hope the pictures come out. I'm too tired to really give a good idea of what the trip was like beyond "there were lots of mountains, we golfed a lot, and it was really cool," for which I'm sorry because it doesn't give credit to Nate and his family for being such gracious hosts and hostesses. I never would've been able to take a trip like that and do all that we did if they hadn't been kind enough to let us stay in their homes and plunder their cabinets for cereal and bagels, if Scott hadn't taken time off from work to drag us around behind his boat, if Chuck hadn't gotten us onto Oakridge on his tab, if John and Angie hadn't fed us like kings ... it goes on and on and I'm extremely grateful to all those guys for being so kind and gracious.