"They'll be comin' 'round the mountain when they come. . ."Two prominent back-room politicians from Denver, Frederico Pena and Governor Roy Romer, are sitting high in the Clinton Administration saddle. Watch 'em close and carefully--like trail dust in the distance.Romer, who never met a developer's dollar he didn't like, is supposed to clean up DNC campaign financing? Hey. . .Romer's the KING of gaming the system! He'll show 'em how it's done.
Frederico Pena was a questionably qualified Denver Mayor, and such an ineffectual head of the Department of Transportation many thought he would be fired for his incompetence. After making a mess of the DOT, Pena has just been appointed head of (ta-daaa!) The Department of Energy! No matter how poorly he performs he keeps falling up!
Pena and Romer were responsible for the multi-billion dollar boondoggle DIA, The Denver International Airport. The airport that we didn't need, that ran late, ate suitcases, had inconvenient parking, a scarcity of "sit-down" restaurants and satisfied only the fly-by-night contractors and shady dealers who raked in the taxpayers' cash building the faulty parts of it. (Oh, and the law firms and politicians who arranged the deals.)
Whistleblower Mary Schiavo, former DOT inspector general thought her job was to protect the flying public. She discovered instead that her office's reports of serious problems fell into a "black hole at the FAA" never to be heard from again. The FAA was regulating the same industry it was charged with promoting. Schiavo writes about it in her new book, "Flying Blind, Flying Safe." I wonder if you'll see this book at airport gift shops and newsstands?
I bought a copy of "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen W. Hawking to have on my coffee table so people would think I 'd read it. Oh I tried on numerous occasions, but ended up just staring at the cool pictures hoping my brain would grok automatically.
Hawking is a modern-day Einstein and a treasure. He has a great sense of humor too, flying in the face of his challenge: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease).
Sadly great thinkers have their detractors. Whenever one seeks to explain the cosmos, they risk running into the wall of religion.
Other than Hawking's body language and facial expressions, devices and computers are the sole means of communication with the world around him. With the help of custom-configured equipment he is now surfing the web. You want to dive in over your head? Check out Stephen's favorite site.
Marijuana gives hemp a bad name. Hemp is good for all sorts of things other than a Phish concert. We aren't talking about the smoking kind here folks, so calm down.
Did you know that hemp can be used as fuel? Some nut running for governor in Kentucky used to drive a station wagon filled with hemp "gas" around the state claiming that replacing Kentucky's tobacco crop with hemp would not only save the state's sagging economy but make people happy. He REALLY should have left out that "happy" part because he had some good points to make.
Were you aware that hemp can be used to produce plastic? It contains cellulose and might be a safer alternative to petroleum-based products like the PVC under your house. You could have your pipe and smoke it too! (Just kidding.)
Hemp can be used in fibre board building materials, and hemp oil was a main ingredient in paint and varnish prior to DuPont inventing a petrochemical alternative in 1935. (Do you think it behooved DuPont to support criminalization of a cheaper, safer substitute to it's brand new fossil fuel depleting patent? Hmmmm?)
And it's not just for brownies anymore. Hemp is a healthy snack food product as well. (Why are you looking at me funny?)
Of course we all know the Constitution of the United States was written on a piece of hemp paper, and we all know that hemp can outproduce trees acre-for-acre in paper production. People want to save the trees but they've been scared away from hemp by overzealous anti-drug forces and sinister industrial concerns.
It's just a fibre folks, and all it will give you is a headache if you try to torch it up. Hemp cultivation could allow tobacco farmers to direct their energies toward a crop that conserves energy--not one that consumes human lives.
The screaming headline in the Denver Post this weekend was: "Immigrants Flood State." (No kidding.) Rutilio Martinez, director of the NAFTA Business Center at the University of Northern Colorado calls illegal immigration a "game" that is seeing record numbers of scofflaws invading our state. If they're caught, there is no real penalty and they are released. Colorado taxpayers are losing this ridiculous cat and mouse "game."
More disturbing is the ease with which illegals (or, if you're National Public Radio, "Undocumented Guest Workers") can obtain "official" papers. Case in point: last week an illegal alien from Mexico was discovered sexually assaulting an 88-year-old female Alzheimer's patient in a Colorado nursing home bathtub with a high-powered water hose. This sick bastard had a forged green card; a California I.D., a Social Security card and a nurse assistant's certificate from the California Health Department--all fake.
Congressional critics of our sadly lacking INS describe the agency's process as "virtually broken down." Like any lazy Government employees would, INS officials blame the system. "If there were no jobs, they wouldn't come. . . Americans won't take these jobs. . . washing dishes and cleaning out toilets." Why should they? Lazy American citizens can probably clear a better check watching soaps on welfare so why bother? Have another kid!
I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when a web search of "immigration +Colorado" turned up a bunch of lawyers. Lawyers who know how to play the game above and below the table.
It had to happen sooner or later, the hapless engineer becoming a cultural icon You have your choice between Bill Gates and Dilbert.
For me, Bill Gates is The Devil and Dilbert filled a void. Like The Beatles after President Kennedy's passing, Dilbert was there when Calvin and Hobbes temporarily stepped aside.
There are similarities: Calvin was usually the target of Hobbes' cosmopolitan scorn (a civilized wild beast). Dogbert (a sophisticated mutt; nay, future Ruler of the Universe) can barely tolerate Dilbert's pedestrian revelations.. But Dogbert, like Hobbes, occasionally needs a good scratch on the belly, so the shortcomings of the resident human are occasionally overlooked.
Dilbert's author, Scott Adams spews his withering wit all over corporate inanity. Adams' scenarios are based on his own years of cubicle-dwelling. He had the foresight, unabashed openness and online savvy to canvas his fans for strip ideas through email submissions.
Like Sherman and The Professor, Charlie Brown and Snoopy, Calvin and Hobbes and Dilbert and Dogbert, I'm glad I have a pet.
Don and Mac.