Some say that there are no real new ideas in politics, that old ones just get recycled, updated a bit.

Could that be true of politicians, too?

It seems like we are, after 20 years, again recycling moralist debates in the Utah Legislature.

The latest idea comes from Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan: Passing a new law requiring the teaching of "intelligent design" in Utah public schools as a counterweight, if you will, to teaching evolution.

Last session it was Rep. Peggy Wallace, R-West Jordan, who wanted to repeal Utah's no-fault divorce law, hoping that making divorce more difficult would result in fewer divorces, as couples reflected more seriously on what they were doing.

I'm no expert on what "intelligent design" means, but it sounds like the teaching of a philosophy that no matter what science may tell us, there is a supreme being that oversees that science.

While the philosophy may be catching on among the Christian right across the country, my point here is that it's been awhile since the Utah Legislature had these kinds of debates. Yes, we have abortion debates, or gun control debates. I'm talking here of moral debates like the old days.

It reminds me of Sen. Verl Asay, Rep. Frances Hatch Merrill and a few other "moralists" whose bills or resolutions captivated the media and public in the 1980s.

Asay, who has since passed away, almost yearly came up with some bill that would grab headlines and take hours of controversial floor debate.

Editorial cartoonists had a field day.

I remember one press conference Asay called to talk about a bill that would exempt parents from the then-Harmful Materials to Minors Act.

Asay and his conservative supporters asked if a non-relative could be criminally prosecuted for giving a child material, like Playboy or Penthouse magazines a judge or jury deemed harmful to a child, why a parent or step-parent should be exempt from doing the same.

One TV reporter badgered Asay, demanding to know if under his bill a dad could be sent to jail for leaving his Penthouse magazine out on the table where his 15-year-old son looked at it.

I recall a harried Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, who is still in the Legislature, being chased down a Capitol hallway by one of Asay's anti-smut supporters waving a Penthouse magazine at Hillyard, demanding that he look at the pictures.

Merrill introduced a bill once on subliminal advertising. At the bill's first hearing she said the request came from one of her constituents, a part-time ballroom dance instructor (I am not making this up) who said he had studied print and video advertising for years and documented all kinds of naked male and female body parts hidden in pictures, catch phrases in ad copy and so on, all aimed at getting people to buy things for the wrong reasons.