“We do not need more material development, we need more spiritual development, we do not need more intellectual power, we need more moral power. We do not need more knowledge, we need more character. We do not need more government, we need more culture. We do not need more laws, we need more religion. We do not need more of the things that are seen, we need more of the things that are unseen.” - Cal Coolidge

About @lynn_bartels Colorado’s political decline seems to correspond with the decline of local news coverage. #copolitics I won’t go so far as to suggest causation, but there’s certainly a correlation between the fall of local news and the fall of Colorado’s freedoms and economy. We used to have an army of local political reporters. The kind who knew where the bodies were buried because they helped dig them up. They had experience, dogged determination, and a professional hatred of getting scooped by the competition. They understood that the real political intrigue wasn’t in Washington, D.C; it was in the thousands of governments scattered across Colorado. Lynn Bartels was their field general. She was the ace political reporter for the Rocky Mountain News until its collapse and then she moved to The Denver Post before it morphed into a newsletter. (The Post is so skinny these days, I don’t know how many copies to buy to line a birdcage.) Bartels reported on me off and on for decades, and she could be rough. It wasn’t personal. It was her job to go after anyone involved in politics. We became friends. How could we not? She never took herself too seriously, always took her reporting seriously, and laughed at my adolescent jokes. She claimed she turned me into a star by reporting on me during my days on the RTD Board in the 1990s. I claimed I turned her into a star reporter by creating so much RTD dysfunction for her to write about. And thus began a decades-long friendship built largely on insulting each other and laughing. Get this: both newspapers had full-time reporters assigned exclusively to the RTD beat, covering one of the largest and most wasteful governments in Colorado. The longest laugh I ever got from her came when she was complaining about a drought in her sex life. “What are you complaining about?” I asked. “You f— someone every time your name is on a byline.” I would also tease her that reporters are genetically incapable of performing simple math. I even gave her a yellow traffic sign that read: “CAUTION: Journalists Doing Math.” She hung it proudly in her cubicle and would occasionally call me to double-check the numbers in a story. She was one of the army of great people there for me when my daughter, Parker, died. While the “CAUTION: Journalists Doing Math” eventually came down from her cubicle, Parker’s picture never did. But in her soul, Lynn is a political reporter. There was nothing she loved more than catching politicians in their hypocrisy. When she retired, you could almost feel the collective relief from the elected class. Lynn is one uppity, stubborn lady and a genuine piece of Colorado history. She has never been intimidated by a politician, special interest group, or industry. She is unshakable. All of which means she has the skills to stare down the cancer she has been battling for some time. And like all of us who watch helplessly as someone we care about fights for life and dignity, I don’t really know what to do to help. When my daughter Parker was fighting a ravenous cancer, Lynn wrote about it with compassion. She made me feel a little less alone. People who never met Parker got to know her, at least a little. So that’s why I’m telling you about Lynn. She spent a career making sure the rest of us weren’t alone when government lied, cheated, wasted money, or abused power. Now it’s our turn. Lynn, you are not alone. (Note the picture of the most beautiful little girl on Lynn's cubicle.)

Elon created $1 trillion of value. Congress created $39 trillion of debt. Elon’s wealth is not the problem…

If you haven’t seen this, take a minute and listen to this. This is the best percussion performance I have seen maybe ever but it’s been a long time. Thank you rush.

Random Song of the Day Amie Pure Prairie League live -1978

Rn

This is oddly nostalgic

The Tug Hill region of NYS very likely gets the third-most snowfall of any region on earth at the elevations of 800' to 1500'. Only Valdez AK and Niigata Japan get more, though some years, the Tug Hill has likely beat them. Yet in spite of its superlative snowfall status, the Tug Hill is almost unknown nationally. Few know that Worth NY got 324" this past year -- that's 27 feet of snow -- or that in 1976, Montague got 466", (38 feet of snow). It's like an alien world up there when winter's in full swing.

Love this

“It was one of the most monumentally unselfish things one group of people did for another.” -#DDay veteran Andy Rooney on the young 🇺🇸 🇨🇦 🇬🇧 soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy 82 years ago. Required watching for every young person today!

Got a visitor tonight

Rn

Oh fuck yes

Some classic Chevy Chase lines from Fletch, which is 41 today. Under the laughs, it’s a tight, well-built detective story: drug trafficking, murder-for-hire, and a film-noir backbone; just brighter, with punchy one-liners. Might rent it tonight. I’ll charge it to the Underhills.

This is a funny picture if you look closely

Maggie is feelin Friday night

Claude Lemieux’s death, and the cause, is so deeply sad. He and his family and friends are in my prayers. He is one of my favorite hockey players of all time, for his ferocity on the ice and his kindness off ice. While he was with the Avs, he happened to stop in at a 7-11. My frail mother-in-law was buying something, and a shady dude was clearly making her fearful. After she paid, Claude left his items on the counter and escorted her to her car. She didn’t recognize him until he was closing her car door. That moment of chivalry and kindness to an old lady made her feel safe and important, and she told that story often until the day she died, always seeking to defend his honor to those who wrote him off as a goon.

WSJ article rightly (if not sadly) calls Denver "America's Emptiest Downtown". Migration patterns tell the story: in-migration fell dramatically after 2020.

Oh I do love this time of year.