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.

Cornered in a House hallway after the hearing, the man tried to explain to reporters and onlookers how the curve of a liquor bottle in a print ad was really a nude woman, subliminally enticing a male viewer to buy the booze.

One TV reporter grabbed the ad away from the obviously befuddled man, held it up to the camera and said something like: "Funny, I don't see a naked woman in that." It made for great TV.

Asay, Merrill and other legislators who may have run similar bills over the years were all good people trying to protect Utah's kids, or lifestyle, or culture, from what to them was the constant attack by degrading, unhealthy societal change.

Buttars, of course, is aiming at public school curriculum — how tax dollars are spent.

He got support this past week when President Bush said he likes the idea of intelligent design.

"I love it," Buttars told Deseret Morning News' Jennifer Toomer-Cook about Bush's statement. "I believe (Bush) believes exactly as I do. I believe he believes in God, and the story found in the scriptures: We are children of God and created in his image. We didn't wait for some ape to evolve."

Certainly most Utahns likely accept the Bible's account of the creation. But I'm guessing most also believe there is provable evolutionary science. And science is taught in the public schools, say state Board of Education officials.

We may be in for a new round of moralistic bills in the Utah Legislature, 20 years after some of the flamboyant debates of the 1980s.

A lot has changed since then. But the politics seem to recycle.

Few Utahns saw the old debates for themselves. Today you can watch live Utah House and Senate floor action over the Internet.

If Buttars does indeed introduce an intelligent design bill in the 2006 Legislature, and it makes it to the chamber floors for debate, you just may want to tune in and see a recycled moralist debate for yourself.

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Deseret Morning News political editor Bob Bernick Jr. may be reached by e-mail at bbjr@desnews.com