Click here for the complete "Con Games with Michael Conniff" for Monday April 21, 2008.
When presumptive Presidential candidate John McCain impugned the patriotism of Barack Obama, it was the last straw for the Con Man in what he calls one of his most important shows.
Add comment April 22nd, 2008
The party of ideas has descended into potty-mouth Purgatory this primary season—but not to worry.
No matter how wrong or wrong-headed conservatives can be, they never ever take the hit for just being wrong. Being a conservative, in fact, means never having to say you’re sorry whether you’re sorry or not. Mistakes or missteps? They’re for liberals, silly, the movement so ashamed of themselves they duck the word “liberal” like a miscreant priest at Confession.
Continue Reading 4 comments April 22nd, 2008
I continue to hear the arguement that not supporting some idiotic war is unpatriotic -- that somehow such dissent is being against the country. 57,000 dead Americans in Viet Nam (forget the 5million dead Vietnamese) was beneficial. This is a statement that the modern fraudulent incarnations of patriotism expect me to believe and recapitulate. Sorry it will never happen; I am not Winston Smith. Just in case ANY CONSERVATIVE thinks they can, I challenge any of them or anyone else to show me on any map, since 1975 the benefits of that war. Show me.
Continue Reading Add comment April 21st, 2008
President Bush brags, “They do the jobs that American citizens won’t do.”
He neglects to say, “Oh, and by the way, for slave wages, social security fraud, identity theft, drunk driving, trashing our schools, hospitals and, oh, I shouldn’t leave out—crime!”
Illegal alien migration into the United States costs American taxpayers $346 billion annually as reported by the National Research Council. While employers of illegal aliens rake-in billions of dollars, the US citizens subsidize what might be called organized “Slavery in 21st Century America.”
Continue Reading Add comment April 21st, 2008
Belly Up, Monday, April 21st at 7:00 pm:
Shelby Lynne:
David McMillin:
Add comment April 20th, 2008
We post staffers were looking for something the mighty Jimbo might say to Michael to close out the fourth year of Con Games, something like "It's great to be a part of something so good that's lasted so long," but we found something even better:
(embedding disabled by request)
2 comments April 19th, 2008
The more people we add to Colorado the more we destroy the beauty and majesty of our mountain state. Who benefits from destruction of our wild rivers? What final purpose to such growth? Who wants more lanes added to I-70 when it will not solve the congestion? Who wants to dam more rivers when it won’t solve our water shortages? Who wants more population when it will create more problems?
Humans must be the most arrogant species on the planet and the dumbest!
The Denver Post’s Michael Booth and RMN’s Jerd Smith wrote sobering reports on the destruction of the Cache la Poudre River. They interviewed water managers like Brian Werner who said, “It’s a working river…won’t take away the need for the [dam] project.”
Continue Reading Add comment April 18th, 2008
When I saw the book “Print Is Dead: Books In Our Digital Age,” my great fear was that Jeff Gomez had found out the great secret I have been carrying around for fifteen years in hopes that nobody would find me out.
Fortunately for me, Gomez—an Internet marketing executive for a book company—made his way through his fascinating dissertation with many compelling observations of his own, though without coming close to my conclusion about the future.
My secret is safe for a few paragraphs more.
Continue Reading 6 comments April 17th, 2008
Ah the reverend Wright and Ayers (I think that is how it is spelled) along with the good old Weather Underground my my. Poor Obama, what an association. I guess one can imagine Washington, Jefferson, Henry, Paine, Franklin and Adams wanting to have tea instead of throwing a tea party in our world of greatly reduced expectations for the vision of America. Sometimes saying the truth certainly in a venomous way shouldn't be done (Wright). Obviously, doing the things that our founding fathers did in the name of truth justice and the American way shouldn't be done either (Weather Underground using some very rough tactics going against a morally bankrupt government over Viet Nam and civil rights). Examining the veracity of what was said (not all wrong but wrongly said) and why what was done (bombings to stop the Viet Nam War where 57,000+ Americans and 5million Vietnamese died for some idiot reason) is horrifying is beyond reason unless the Nuremburg defense of taking orders suffices. I mean can anyone tell me, point to a map or something or anything to show what was gained in Viet Nam??
Continue Reading Add comment April 17th, 2008
What the heck is this? I brought it up about a month ago. Some have defend the concept and clearly embrace the idea without reservation. I seek to address those who would not see this as an ideal.
Certainly we are Smiths and Joneses and we are also assigned blackness and whiteness, men and women, old and young. Credit your parents, for you have done nothing to get these labels.
In the not too distant past some people were able to get a special social status -- a social entitlement. This is still true but to a lessor degree. John Stuart Mill concluded in On the Subjugation of Women that no country will be able to ignore the intellectual contributions of women and remain competitive. A cursory examination of such places where women are under subjugation and oppressed reveals a shocking backwardness and lack of competitiveness in value added products, many are in the Middle East.
Extrapolating this to the human condition, especially in recent history, shows that wherever subjugation happens and I go further to include oppression by demographic set, a lack of competitiveness exists. Our South is still recovering from slavery and Jim Crow, and our nation is still hobbled by the legacy of barrios, ghettoes and reservations.
Should anyone be a victim of their birth? Not in a civil government of the people by the people and for the people.
Should government allow oppression? Not if there are expectations of contributing to the moral fiber of a social contract.
If life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are worthy of Our Declaration of Independence, are not we worthy of access to betterment? We are, unless those are words that ring of falsehoods.
It is easy to compromise potential for political expediency. Look around you.
Can responsibility be defined as making sure some people can't contribute through systematic social, legal and financial means, when faced with a dire economic need to compete with the ascendant might of other countries? Surely then in the competitive global economy, impediments to meritorious contributions must be considered anathema to American success. We simply cannot fail by not giving everyone access to being the best they can be and then having them succeed at their highest level of excellence and vocation, not mere competence.
Adam Smith's world ruthlessly eliminates inefficiencies, just as the modern incarnation of Confucianism elevates abilities. There are countries combining the two. Woe unto us if we do not do the same.
Add comment April 17th, 2008
