Rocky Mountain News Opinion

Isn't it nice that we don't have power transfers like so many third-world nations that would just erupt into military revolts and rioting in the streets...

SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION BETWEEN KEVIN BACON AND HIS MONEY: The actor is one of Ponzi specialist Bernard Madoff's victims, but so were many average Joes, including 80-something journalist Tom Tugend...

This morning, the Rocky ran a story about gun sales shooting through the roof in anticipation of the Obama presidency -- no, not because someone necessarily wants to shoot him, but because many gun owners fear he'll restrict 2nd Amendment rights...

BENNET, THE MONDAY AFTER: I don't even need to link to a specific post over at ColoradoPols, because they're all over the surprising pick of "The Unknown Aristocrat." On the other side of the political fence, Mount Virtus notes that the GOP shouldn't take Bennet lightly when it comes to 2010...

YOU CAN'T TELL A COW TO HOLD IT IN: The Libertarian Party of Colorado sounds off on a proposal to tax ranchers for the methane that their animals produce. I mean, what next? Chinchilla toots?WHAT HE SAID: TChris on Chip Saltsman going down with the "Barack the Magic Negro" ship...

A British TV station decided to carry this as the response (rebuttal? huh?) to the queen's annual Christmas message. Thankfully, some people are annoyed at the broadcast of a Christmas message by a Holocaust denier...

They're flashy! They're dashing! They're what every Somali kid now wants to be -- a greedy goon in a rickety speedboat taking hostages and using ransom to buy flashy toys and lure women...

This photo of Um Sa'aad, a sister of Iraqi shoe-tossing journalist Muntadar al-Zeidi, is just awesome on so many points. Remember how the flock in "Life of Brian" removed one shoe and followed him? That's basically most of the Mideast right now...

THAT'S WHAT I WANT TO KNOW, TOO: ColoradoPols, posting on the appointment of Ken Salazar as Interior secretary, asks, "But will he wear the hat to Cabinet meetings?" Perhaps I'll ask him that when he drops by the edit board here this week.A BAD CHOICE FOR NATIVE AMERICANS?: Steven Nielson is...

NOTE TO SCANDAL-PRONE DETROIT POLITICOS: If you're going to do something bad, do it on a Monday. That way nobody will get the news on their front porch on Tuesday. Because nobody in Detroit will get papers. Ahh, the beauty of JOAs.....

As my peeps at Investors Business Daily pointed out today:"In Libya, Muammar Qaddafi's daughter announced an 'order of courage' award for al-Zaidi. But would he have had the courage to throw his shoes at Saddam Hussein...

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "Did you know ... that if Pres. George W...

"Saturday Night Live" has made fun of the way Sarah Palin talks, the amount of McDonald's cuisine consumed by Bill Clinton, and everything else about Sarah Palin. This weekend, though, the crew goofed on New York Gov...

OK, let's face it: what the Iraqi TV correspondent did was assault. He intended to hit Bush with his shoes, and his disparaging words toward the president accompanied the show of force. Of course they'd arrest the guy...

Barack Obama, he of the cheesy podium placard, has officially named Tom Daschle, he of the big health bureaucracy, to not only be secretary of Health and Human Services, but lord and overseer of the new White House Office of Health Reform.The parade of moderate appointees is officially over...

This was the scene in the Lakewood Wal-Mart at 5 a.m. on Black Friday, where shoppers went nuts but, thankfully, nobody died, unlike in the New York store where stampeding shoppers killed a temp employee...

So here in the U.S., we're rightly horrified when a biploar college student committed suicide with a drug overdose -- live, by webcam, as some users egged him on.Yet in the UK, suicide is primetime TV: In a documentary that was set to be aired tonight on Sky...

BEST HEADLINE OF THE DAY: "Don't smoke the Kristol Meth," by Sean Paige, who counters the NYT token conservative's assertion that the GOP needs to stop thinking so small-government. (The American Contrarian)$8.5 TRILLION AND COUNTING: Julian Dunraven itemizes and adds up the bailout total...

This Blagojevich story is sure giving a shot in the arm to the transitional period normally saturated by just news of presidential appointments (and presidential-appointment cardboard cutout groping), isn't it? Jesse Jackson Jr...

It's a universal truth that those of promising political careers tend to ruin everything by being, well, complete dunderheads. So apparently goes the case of Illinois Gov...

AH, THE WHAT-IFS: GayPatriot wonders how Nov. 4 would have played out if the Blago indictment had come down before Election Day...

INDEPENDENCE INSTITUTE PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Michael Alcorn of Best Destiny fame - a real live public school teacher - explains via video how CEA members can get their political refunds before the December 15 deadline...

... this morning, here's the accompanying video:

THAT NOT-PROGRESSIVE-ENOUGH FOREIGN POLICY TEAM: Rossputin offers his thoughts on Obama not exactly kowtowing to the pacifist dreams of the Netroots.POLANSKI SICK OF HIS ROMAN HOLIDAY: So he wants the case against him dropped so he can return to the U.S. from Exileland in Paris...

Recently, a group of Colorado auto dealers visited the Rocky editorial board to discuss their views in light of economic woes and the Big Three automakers' request for a $34 billion helping hand from the federal government...

Last night while at mecca Nordstrom, a salesperson told me in hushed tones that workers at Saks Fifth Avenue had said the company was going into bankruptcy, and that hence there were amazing markdowns in the store. Of course, I had to go investigate...

WHO WILL CHALLENGE KEN SALAZAR IN 2010?: Face the State speculates, but I think that either the Daily Kos or Square State will run against Ken as retribution for backing Joe Lieberman's chairmanship.NO 'CHANGE' IN THEIR AD CAMPAIGN: Iranian Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami declares that unless Obama does a...

On Monday, Ernesto Caravantes, author of the controversial book "Clipping Their Own Wings: The Incompatibility Between Latino Culture and American Education," stopped by the Rocky editorial board, along with former Gov...

Few things capture the horror of the Mumbai attacks better than the face of 2-year-old Moshe Holtzberg, who sat crying in the blood of his parents, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivkah, until rescued by his Indian nanny (the brave Sandra Samuel, who first slammed a door in a terrorist's...

THE SMART AND DUMB OF IT: Sean Paige muses about the Daily Camera proclaiming that Forbes christened it America's smartest town...

This morning while driving to the Rocky, I received a tragic phone call: My grandmother had passed away at about 3 a.m. She had recently taken a fall and broken her hip, and while attempting to recover from the resulting surgery she acquired a MRSA drug-resistant infection...

RABBI, WIFE KILLED IN TERRORIST ATTACKS: News wires aren't reporting any names of the deceased found inside Mumbai's Chabad-Lubavitch center, but the Chabad Web site just put up an obituary for Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg...

During his mid-month visit to Denver, Yossi Klein Halevi also dropped by the Rocky to meet with the editorial board...

I ALWAYS CONSIDERED 'DEXTER' THE BEST TELLY SHOW: But this season of "True Blood," with the finale last night, sure made for awesome guilty-pleasure watching...

Today we wrote about the impending replay of Rwanda, 1994, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: not enough peacekeepers, foot-dragging on approving more peacekeepers, no one volunteering more peacekeepers, and, yes, the U.N. peacekeepers suck to begin with...

Here's a copy of the 63rd edition of Tu Do Ngon Luan, an underground magazine in Vietnam that translates to "Free Speech." Which, of course, they don't have in Vietnam. In fact, the amazing part about this Nov...

COLORADO SECRETARY OF STATE APPLICANTS: Are in, and include the usual suspects, including Wonder Boy Romanoff. But where are Mary Carey and Gary Coleman? Face the State, meanwhile, is conducting a poll on your next SOS pick.GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER?: Last night, Andrew Breitbart (No...

So last time I wrote about Boulder, it was in defense of naked pumpkin-headed people running down the Pearl Street Mall...

HOW YOU CAN TELL I DIDN'T PARTICIPATE IN THIS POLL: And John Hawkins has asked me before to participate in these. This time it was Right-of-Center Bloggers Select Their Favorite People on the Right. The winner? The moose hunter. The runner-up? Rush Limbaugh. My faves...

OK, Obama, you've won the election. You're not electioneering anymore. You can freely admit that Joe Biden is the Antichange. It's like pulling off a Band-Aid to lighten up on the rhetoric and just reveal the real you, good or bad, instead of the campaign trail cult of personality...

And what did I forget to buy? Not my superfresh Bridgestone Blizzak LM-25s! Nope -- an ice scraper. My hand had to suffice.

DENVER RALLY AGAINST CALI'S PROP. 8: This Saturday. Square State has the details. I have total faith that you guys can keep it nicer than the Palm Springs brouhaha. Hence the promotional shout-out.OUR FIRST FEMALE FOUR-STAR GENERAL: How cool is this?? I like what Gen...

Last night the Golden City Council nixed Rabbi Levi Brackman's request for a menorah to be included alongside a Christmas tree (come get me, you "holiday tree" P.C. police!) in the city's holiday-season display. But jolly St. Nick is fine, because he has historical significance...

A NOD TO THE JUBILANT: If you've been to the Heidi's Deli in our building, you've likely seen the highly skilled sandwich maker (chicken parmesan today is yummm) who always wore Obama buttons on her uniform (and is still wearing one)...

TEEHEEHEEHEE: Remember when Tim Robbins was turned away from his polling place on Election Day, and when asked to fill out a provisional ballot he whined and cried about being disenfranchised? Turns out that he went to the wrong polling place...

So was the economic meltdown, so were the debate performances, so was the Obama campaign keeping a short leash on foot-in-mouth maestro Joe Biden, so was John McCain's transformation from maverick moderate at the beginning of campaign season into whatever he is today, so was the markedly favorable...