KNFO News: Man In Vail Caught With Pants Down

Click here for the latest KNFO News with David Bach--the newscast that has won awards from both Associated Press and The Colorado Broadcasters Association.

Continue Reading 4 comments April 7th, 2008

Uneasy Chair

I’ve had this easy chair since about 1995.

I have no particular fondness for this chair. It’s comfortable. It’s warm. It’s proven durable. But it’s a freaking chair.

It’s leather, with low back, and an ottoman. It used to be brown, but now it’s more of a beige. It’s got two holes in it, one in the seat and one in the left arm—skier’s left, that is. My wife has wanted to replace this chair for months now. In itself, that is fine with me. What’s troubling is that my wife shared her desire to replace this piece of furniture with my mother.

You know the saying, “two heads are better than one”? This is Balderdash. Hooey. Piffle.

Continue Reading Add comment April 5th, 2008

A Self-Evident Truth

I have been studying separatism as a kind of background exercise in what I regard a troubling association between Senator Barack Obama and Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.

Separatism is based on an idea that ethnic minorities cannot advance in a society dominated by an ethnic majority.

Separatism is an idea that is not without precedent in the writings of the U.S. founding fathers. Thomas Jefferson, who penned what I regard the central premise of the United States when he wrote “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” also wrote this:

Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate, than that these people [blacks] are to be free; nor is it less certain that the two races, equally free, cannot live in the same government. Nature, habit, opinion have drawn indelible lines of distinction between them.
~Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, 1821

Continue Reading 26 comments March 30th, 2008

CON GAMES: The Graying Of The Green Thing

In the midst of one of the panels here at the Aspen Environment Forum, a wizened professor from the University of Alaska took the microphone proffered for questions from the environmental cognoscenti and said that a bear had just been shot and killed at Fort Yukon, Alaska, 250 miles from the shore. He said to his knowledge no bear had ever before been killed that far inland in that part of Alaska.

If I were making this up, I would say there was an audible murmur or perhaps even an angry hum as the choir in Aspen, brought together by the Aspen Institute and National Geographic magazine, ingested the significance of this single environmental tragedy. Not so: there were no murmurs, no guttural evidence of existential angst anywhere to be seen or heard in the audience at the Aspen Environment Forum.

The choir absorbed the news—one more damning fact about climate change—and continued on with the session. Were they oblivious to the news? Not at all…but they did know there was not a damn thing they could do about it. The bear was out of the barn.

And there, in a microcosm, is the graying of the macro world of environmental activism. In the panel “How Much Time to Act on Climate Change?” the conclusion was (a) there is no time; (b) no one has really figured out what to do about it; and (c) about 40 percent of people in the United States—the tipping point of the populace—is dazed and confused about the issue at best.

Continue Reading 4 comments March 30th, 2008

CON GAMES 24/7: Sue Gray Roars

Sue Gray--AKA reckless G--appears on "Con Games" to promote the Roaring Fork Peace Coalition and her controversial views on Israel and Palestine.

Continue Reading 4 comments March 24th, 2008

My Father And Me

There was a time there, oh, along about 1980, when my Dad and I were just bachelors. My mom took off with some rich doctor to Florida, never to be heard of again until 12 years later (another story.) My dad and I were close, very close. We hunted and fished and played football and baseball, drove trucks and tractors and worked cattle, etc., etc. He wasn't even my real Dad. I'd find that fact out about six years later.

Continue Reading 1 comment March 24th, 2008

The CSU Concert Choir performs tonight in Glenwood Springs

CSU Choir Blog Day 1

It is amazing how one group of college students can enter one’s heart so quickly and easily. That is what they did for everyone with whom they performed yesterday. We started at Aspen Elementary School for an all-school assembly. After lunch, the choir worked with the Aspen High School choir who recently performed at Carnegie Hall in February. I felt very emotional as the two choirs blended, side by side to work on a new piece. The same was true working with the Glenwood Springs Varsity choir. Sitting between the two choirs, I was overwhelmed by a wall of beautiful voices singing together.

Since these are college students I though it would be interesting to hear some of their thoughts....

Continue Reading Add comment March 11th, 2008

Religious extremism threatens Israel's security

Last week’s tragic murder of Jewish seminary students in Israel demands a closer look, considering that the school was targeted because of its support for Israeli settlement expansion, and Prime Minister Olmert has just approved the construction of 750 new homes to expand a settlement in the Palestinian West Bank.

Every year, ten thousand Palestinians lose their homes and farms to settlement expansion. In an elaborate apartheid system, Arab farmers are cut off from their fields and their fruit trees have been bulldozed to make way for Jewish only settlements and roads. The Palestinian people are forced to endure long lines at checkpoints just to get to work, school, and even to the hospital. Whenever an Israeli dies at the hands of a Palestinian gunman or suicide bomber, it’s in response to the harsh conditions imposed by Israel’s military occupation of their land.

Continue Reading 3 comments March 10th, 2008

Economic Insanity

."WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President George W. Bush signed a two-year, 168-billion-dollar economic stimulus package on Wednesday, hoping it would deliver "a booster shot" to an ailing American economy." You would never run your household this way.

Continue Reading Add comment February 13th, 2008

Politicians, In A Nutshell

The politician, taking advantage of a great photo-op to show his dedication to federal funding of education, stood in front of the 5th grade class he was addressing.

Continue Reading Add comment February 13th, 2008