State of Utah Practices Institutional Discrimination against Handicapped

Discrimination is treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing is perceived to belong to rather than on individual merit.  This includes treatment of an individual or group based on their actual or perceived membership in a certain group or social category, "in a way that is worse than the way people are usually treated".  It involves the group's initial reaction or interaction going on to influence the individual's actual behavior towards the group leader or the group, restricting members of one group from opportunities or privileges that are available to another group, leading to the exclusion of the individual or entities based on logical or irrational decision making.

The State of Utah routinely discriminates against drivers with disabilities by subjecting them to unnecessary road tests and medical exams, and imposing arbitrary restrictions on their driving.

The Utah Drivers License Division applies its Medical Evaluation Program – meant to identify drivers with medical problems that might cause them to crash – to punish drivers who are capable and safe, but have a physical disability. The practice is based on stereotypes about people with disabilities, and it serves as a punitive imposition on those drivers, who must spend extra time and money proving they don’t pose a risk.

Presumed guilt unless and until they can prove innocence to the satisfaction of the State of Utah.

The State of Utah Drivers License Division presumes to interpret every possible evidence by their own privately held and arbitrary set of special rules. The propriety of their management of such concerns is not in question. The problem is a presumptive overreach that extends far beyond any reasonable measures. Such abusive bullying is clearly a violation of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act.

Obviously, disabled people over the years have endured being subjected to this institutional prejudicial discriminatory attitude. Though the State treats them capriciously, and bullies them into fearful submission, almost all fear to complain, as the State routinely threatens to restrict or revoke their licenses in reprisal.

The State commonly cites medical conditions affecting a person’s ability to drive as the cause of automobile accidents. But there is no evidence to substantiate the claim that drivers with orthopedic impairments, or who use adaptive hand controls, present any increased accident risk.

The State of Utah mandates that health care providers report when patients in their care are treated for any of the health conditions iterated on their list of politically-incorrect conditions. Once a driver is forced into the Drivers License “medical review” program, he or she remains there forever, without hope of reprieve. While in the program, drivers are routinely required to undergo special medical testing, and forced to provide documentation from doctors and therapists disclosing personal medical information that is otherwise supposed to be protected from such government prying. Handicapped people are routinely subject to a set of totally arbitrary special restrictions placed on their licenses. The State is not required to justify or substantiate, and generally gives the impression that there is no possible appeal from their permanent punitive measures.

Among the unjustified restrictions imposed against me personally by the State:

• Limit maximum operating speed to roads with speed limit of 40 mph or less
• Distance from home I am permitted to travel must be within a radius of 15 miles
• Restricted to daytime driving
• Prohibited from travel on freeways and interstates
• Prohibited from travel in areas with higher speed limits
• Restricted to operation of my own vehicles only when accompanied by a fully licensed “normal” driver

The State of Utah has already revoked my driving license, so there is really nothing they can do to impose further additional punitive measures or implement additional arbitrary restrictions. They have to be satisfied with fabricating results from the “driving test” that fail to qualify for their standard of drivers license renewal. I suspect they enjoy the feeling of smug moral superiority that derives from such abuse of the public trust.

A good place to address this problem would be to put a stop to the routine discrimination against drivers with disabilities based wholly on speculation, stereotypes and generalizations. The State of Utah is not entitled to act based on their suspicion that a particular driver MIGHT be dangerous. Either I am, or I am not. Prove it.

Since the State of Utah Drivers License Division has demonstrated an ingrained, institutional predisposition to such behavior, it would be fair and appropriate for their records to be regularly subjected to routine audit by an outside independent and objective auditing agent. This auditing must needs be conducted at random intervals selected by the auditor and unannounced to the management, so that the Drivers License Division is unable to easily falsify or sequester appropriate documentation.

It might also be effective for the State to intervene with at least temporary qualified independent management oversight, since the abuse of public trust is apparently found through all levels of this bureaucratic institution. These discriminatory practices are obviously not the fault of any one particular individual, although I have met certain people who exhibit the greatest enthusiasm for pursuing the job of punishing handicapped people. Perhaps some of them fully believe that they are just doing their duty. And that is probably the most unfortunate aspect of all these problems.

The State of Utah publishes an elaborate and comprehensive summary showing numerous charts and statistics regarding all motor vehicle accidents.  There are no graphics or statistics to substantiate the prejudice against handicapped drivers, though there are other circumstances which are clearly related to the incidence of traffic accidents.

Apparently they don't really bother to read their own reports.

Overall, a general attitude seems to prevail in  the State of Utah Drivers License Division that is so aptly and succinctly characterized by one of their recent public service ad campaigns.

In my case there is an implied comma after the injunction.

They seem to be saying, we automatically assume a priori that the people we work for are stupid, and treat them accordingly.  And of course, that prejudice goes double for handicapped individuals.  The contemptuous and parochial posturing apparently informs this attitude and the institutional policy that formalizes it

More about the driving test results...

Anarchy is Not Freedom - for Anyone

Is this how we assert our rights?  Is this how we protect freedom?  There just has to be a better way.  In the Bundy Ranch conflict, everyone seems to see their own favorite cause represented.

What I saw depicted in the popular media was a confrontation provoked by acting out, anger, and threats of violence from both sides.  It would have been difficult to tell, judging by which side was doing more screaming and threats, which represents traditional values of justice and freedom and which was just a screaming mob.

Why must the proponents of "freedom" engage in a violent shouting and shoving match?  Some of the scenes bore uncanny resemblance to two playground bullies striving against each other to assert their dominance.  The frenzy of uncontrolled rage was the most obvious characteristic of the "militia", who in many photos and videos of the incident appeared to be bristling with fierce looking weapons, many with the substantial bulges of personal body armor.

In the scenes I witnessed, there were no black helicopters from embattled government forces hovering overhead.  No sharpshooting snipers appeared to be zeroing in on their assassination targets.  Many of the BLM guys appeared to be intimidated and unprepared to confront the screaming mob, their six-shooters holstered against the threat of facing many wielding semiautomatics and high-power hunting rifles.  I heard one member of the Bundy family promise that they had a shotgun, and knew how to use it.  It looks like the BLM "thugs" were outnumbered by the screaming protesters, and were most anxious to get the heck out of dodge.

Witnessing the prudent retreat, many of the protesters were apparently emboldened, screaming dire imprecations and making derisive and rude gestures at the government "thugs" as they sped away.

If that is the appearance of freedom vanquishing tyranny, I'm pretty sure I'm not favorably impressed.  I'm trying to grasp how all this reconciles with counsel from General LDS Church leaders.

Our whole society really rests on the capacity of its citizens to give 'obedience to the unenforceable.' (Elder Neal A. Maxwell)

Citizens are not free to choose which laws they consider themselves not subject to, and which they opt to obey.  This rationale to justify disobedience to the laws of the land is not far removed from justification for disobeying the laws of God.  (Elder Dallin H. Oaks)

I don't really care to argue further about "liberty" and "freedom".  Those who have appropriated this event as some sort of symbolic cause, fine for them.  Believe whatever you please.  But I think I am pretty clear on the relation between land and money.

Like most western cattle ranchers, I understand that the Bundy Ranch has title to holdings of just over 100 acres.  This is what traces back to family tradition.  All of the rest of the more than 7000 acres being claimed for grazing land has always been owned by the state.

Bundy has no title or deed of ownership for this extensive area.  But like many others, the Bundy Ranch happens to be a strategic location that controls most of the available water in the area.   With range cattle, this is the primary difference that controls whether the land can support the big herd of cattle, or is just more burning sands.

Snopes comments about the Chinese conspiracy theory and other such misinformation. Both sides of this controversy have tossed in so much irrelevant information now, it is impossible to separate.  It makes me uncomfortable to see so little difference in methods used by either side.  I think they're both losing.

LDS Liberty? I don't think so...

 Here is another sample of LDS Liberty.  I think it captures their core tenets.

Christopher Hansen says:

July 22, 2012 at 9:33 pm

Romney is a Socialist. He proved it with his record in Massachusetts. Romney supports the 2nd, 5th and 10th planks of the Communist Manifesto. The man is just another twin evil Republican. The USA is done for. Put a fork in it. The members are apostate because over 90% are practicing Socialists today. The member apostasy predicted in the Book of Mormon has been well underway.
Members were repeatedly told they could not be faithful and socialists at the same time. They rejected this warning and have embraced the voluntary slavery of Socialist Security and Income taxes and paper money. Name a Mormon that does not voluntarily have a Socialist Security Number and voluntarily file and pay income taxes without even knowing the definition of the word “Dollar” or using the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to free himself/herself from voluntary slavery.
Put a fork in the Elders of Israel. They don’t even read the Constitution let alone know how to save it.
Romney will not change a thing. He was and will remain a Socialist and a puppet of the One Worlders just like most Mormons. Benson was right in Not Commanded in All Things. McKLay was right too.
“Next to being one in worshiping God, there is nothing in this world in which this Church should be more united than in upholding and defending the Constitution of the Unite States. If members of the Melchizedek Priesthood allow the U.S. Constitution to be destroyed, they not only forfeit their rights to the Priesthood, but to a place in this highest degree of glory as well.”
(David O. McKay, The Instructor, Feb. 1956, p.34)
By this statement most so-called Priesthood holders have lost their priesthood and forfeited their right to the Celestial Glory.

One of their popular mottoes - Disobedience to tyranny is obedience to God.  These guys are comparing their rebellion to Daniel in the Lion's Den.  To think that I was arguing with one of them the other day about whether Mitt Romney was narcissistic.

Saddam is dead

I think it is gratifying to know that Saddam is dead. It is an indication that at least some positive progress is being made by Iraqi government. I had serious doubts that the Iraqi legal system could actually accomplish due process in this case.

My only regret is that his demise attracted such a public following. Better shot and abandoned like a mongrel dog, for vermin to feed on his carcase, in one of the torn and ravaged wastelands he helped create. How unfortunate that his remains could not be left, anonymous and unmourned, in one of the many nameless mass graves of Iraq populated through his campaign of genocide.

I guess I am just filled with brutal sentiments. Just imagine, I approve of warfare for the sake of establishing justice and peace and combating evil. And I support the death penalty as punishment for appropriate crimes. As far as I can tell, Saddam's fate represented the best course for justice and mercy.

The world is measurably better today than it was with him in it.
I believe justice and peace cannot coexist with evil tyranny. We will never establish peace by compromising with the devil, or by attempting to make treaties with those who aim to destroy us.

In my view, surrendering Iraq to whatever anarchy rushes in to fill the vacuum is not warranted to benefit anyone. Not Iraqis, not Americans, not Europeans -- it will not settle anything or prevent further loss of life or treasure. The way to realize the greatest benefit for everyone is to press on with whatever it takes to defeat the evil forces that oppose individual freedom and interfere with the promotion of democratic government.