I met Hunter S. Thompson on a cold April night in 2004. The moon was full, though muted, shining as a flashlight would through dense fog as we drove the long winding road, navigating ice and an occasional elk on our way to Thompson’s home in Woody Creek, Colorado, a fortified compound infamously known as the Owl Farm.
Continue Reading Add comment May 31st, 2008
America squirms toward an unprecedented juncture in 2008 with the coming change of leadership in the White House. As citizens, our civilization cannot survive another presidency led by reaction, retort or inept responses. We cannot continue without a “National Strategic Plan” for our future.
Continue Reading 4 comments May 30th, 2008
Barry Schochet, the ultimate Washington insider, returns to "Con Games with Michael Conniff" in a heated discussion about former Bush press secretary Scott McClellan, John McCain's medical records, and what happens when the clock strikes midnight in the Democratic race. Also: the Con Man closes with his weekly sermon on why what we have in common is far more powerful than what drives us apart.
Click here for the complete "Con Games with Michael Conniff" for Friday May 30, 2008.
7 comments May 29th, 2008
Higher than average snowpack has emergency management officials in Pitkin County, the city of Aspen and the towns of Snowmass and Basalt gearing up for possible flooding this runoff season.
Continue Reading Add comment May 29th, 2008
In a land of plenty, the worst thing you can become is that guy—that nerdy guy who runs around turning off lights and (worse) telling everyone he knows to turn off the damn lights or the air conditioner or the sauna or whatever.
I’ve become that guy.
Pleased to meet you.
What does it mean to be that guy? One of the good things about being that guy is that we love questions like that because it gives us the chance to spout off about peak oil and electric cars and solar power. The bad thing is that everyone ends up hating you, because you have become that guy who rags on everybody who things energy is still el cheapo.
Continue Reading 17 comments May 29th, 2008
The Con Man uses the revelations from Presidential spokesperson to go Orwellian on us in a discussion of the many perversions of language in politics.
Click here for "Con Games with Michael Conniff" for Wednesday May 28, 2008.
4 comments May 28th, 2008
I’ve got to write about this before it becomes a distant target of REM sleep.
Continue Reading 2 comments May 27th, 2008
The Con Man takes issue with a reader who believes his piece on Aspen Gay Ski Week--"Why Gay Ski Week Creeps Me Out--And That's A Good Thing"--a piece that decried his own prejudice as a way of getting past it.
Click here for the complete "Con Games with Michael Conniff" for Tuesday May 27, 2008.
2 comments May 27th, 2008
Re: “America is richer for Ted Kennedy’s service” Denver Post /5/25/08
Instead of a rich legacy bequeathed upon the United States by forever U.S. Senator Teddy Kennedy, the oft-intoxicated, blubbery fourth brother of the Kennedy clan—four decades ago--drunkenly drove over a bridge that caused the death of Mary Jo Kopechne and lied about what happened.
But his worst and most destructive legacy for the United States stems from his authorship of the 1965 “Immigration Reform Act” that added the bulk of our additional 100 million people into America within 40 years. It jumped legal immigration from 170,000 annually to 1.1 million annually. Added to that disastrous environmental legacy, his actions provoked a complete ethnic change of our stable society into a fractured civilization. How? He provided for entrance of immigrants from cultures totally incompatible with U.S. culture. He downgraded citizenship by not enforcing our laws or maintaining educational standards.
Continue Reading Add comment May 27th, 2008
The Con Man gets a visit from Lt. Colonel Dick Merrit and Seaman Dan Glidden, two retired veterans who stand for all that's good about those who have served the country. Also: a bit of a rant of flag lapel pins and taking back the lapel flag pin--and the flags--from those who desecrate it with faux patriotism.
Click here for the complete "Con Games with Michael Conniff" for Memorial Day May 28, 2008.
1 comment May 26th, 2008
