Fox, Elway and Bowlen, Listen Up: Keep Tim Tebow

AP Photo

I am thrilled to see home-educated Tim Tebow continues to be a light. He is one example of a properly sheltered child now thriving as an adult in a hostile environment. I pray for him, because the NFL is not without it's temptations, and all of mankind is very frail when it comes to resisting them.

There are rumors--and that's usually the case--that the Broncos could trade Tebow. I'm not sure I could continue to be a Bronco fan--even after 35 years!--if they traded him. I would be that disenfranchised with the organization. Lockout or no lockout, Tebow is a leader. Tebow is the future and he will change the nature of the game if he's given enough flexibility. Denver needs this guy. They really do.

Is football eternal? I know that if we have nothing better to do in heaven, there's been enough saints in the game football will be an awesome game. I'll be a great lineman or linebacker for a team. It is battle and strategy. It is conquest and struggle. Those are things that God has placed in this man's heart, as he has in others. If there is not a battle to be fought against the dragon, football would be an excellent way to express God's gifts inside us. I love Him and what He has made inside me.

Salvation from God through the blood of the Lamb is the message that Tim's life is devoted to spreading. From his position, if he makes God his refuge, he can't lose. The Broncos and the NFL are not eternal, but the people hearing Tebow's message will live forever if they put their faith in the Gospel.



PS: Here's a great part of that long CBS article I linked above:

"When you go to the Pro Bowl, those guys are typically not only the greatest players but the ones that work the hardest. But Tim is a little different, from what I've heard," said John Lynch, a future Hall of Fame safety who invited Tebow and Miller to address the crowd at his annual foundation luncheon, which honors Denver-area youth who excel academically, in sports and the community.

"He's my neighbor so I see him," Lynch continued. "He's out on a mountain bike going by and it looks like he never has a down moment. We were having dinner one night at some folks' house and the lady was a great tennis player. Next thing you know they break into a ping-pong match. Tim's sweating. And she beat him the first game. He was going to stay until he won. I mean, he would not leave."

That's not to say Lynch, an analyst for FOX Sports these days, doesn't recognize the "serious legitimate questions" about Tebow's ability to smooth over his mechanical flaws on the field and break free of the spread-offense tendencies the former Heisman Trophy winner learned in college.

"There are a lot of things he has to prove," Lynch admitted. "But there's an aura. He's got that aura, for whatever that's worth. And that means something to me."

It means something to me too. Go Broncos! Go Tebow!
 

Logic Applied To Glowing Monkeys

I am not a scientist. I do not earn money for working in research. Yet even I can spot that there's something logically wrong with this article, given to me by a friend.

The issue is within only four sentences, which, oddly enough, are all together. Here they are:

Three monkeys were successfully altered in this way, but only ANDi survived.
The jellyfish gene was used, Schatten said, because it is known to be harmless and because it is easily detectable.
ANDi appears normal so far - he does not glow the way a jellyfish does. But the two other monkeys who got the gene did exhibit florescence.

Okay. The first sentence says three monkeys were genetically altered before conception, with two dying and one named ANDi surviving. The logic starts fine there, but the next sentence throws a curve. It says that a gene from a jellyfish was used because it is harmless and detectable. Harmless? Two of three died, although we don't know if it was the gene. Yet, the third and fourth sentences point in that direction pretty conclusively. It says ANDi doesn't glow like the other two did.

If the gene was detectable by making the monkeys glow, and ANDi doesn't glow, under the conditions set by the scientists, it should mean that the gene didn't take with ANDi and he's normal. Further, if the gene did take with the other two, and they died, wouldn't that point in the direction of the cause of their death? Regardless, if a drug killed two-thirds of its patients, I don't think the FDA would classify that as harmless.

Taking a step back from the internal logic of the article, I have a problem with the research described--but especially if it's pursued and embraced by the same illogical thinking that's in the article. History shows that eugenics were all the rage in the first half of the twentieth century, but Nazi Germany's attempts at producing the master race raised the moral and ethical questions needed. Was it right to sterilize, imprison, or kill a human being because they were somehow undesirable? Was it acceptable to breed humans the same way as animals to reduce some characteristics while enhancing other characteristics? What of the societal implications? Wouldn't genetic modification create two classes of humanity, regular, dull, dim-witted, scrawny, four-eyed freaks and new, improved, genius-level, brawny, clear-sighted humans? Many such questions still apply to the genetic research happening today.

Will we, as a society, someday be forced to live a Gattaca-like existence instead of the life we choose? Would there even be room in such a world for the disabled, the wounded, or the born imperfect? Man will always have a choice, but mankind will also be forced live with the consequences of the choices made. I know that eliminating genetic weaknesses toward disease feels right, but all the years we could buy--even the world itself--will seem hollow if the price is our conscience.

The Two Christmases of 2010

When I was in retail, it always amazed me how the last quarter of the calendar year seemed to hang in the minds of the store managers and owners. From October through December, they could expect to equal or exceed the preceding three quarters, essentially doubling their profits for the entire year. I'm not sure that this holds true across the industry, but if Christmas didn't happen for our store, we'd close our doors.

Higher Heating Bills For Colorado Guaranteed By Ritter And HB 1365

Rarely do I cross-post between blogs because my personal blog is, well, personal. This time, the issues intersect both blogs. Colorado's Governor Bill Ritter will sign H.B. 1365. This bill  not only will cause the loss of railroad jobs, but it will cause a jump in our home utility bills.

Did the Democrats fail economics? This bill eludes common sense! If the population has less money to spend as a result of just trying to stay warm, it tends to make a recession worse, not better. What's worse, businesses considering adding jobs have to consider that their facility costs are way up, which means they might not expand in Colorado like they might elsewhere.

Ritter has indicated that he will sign this bill. I think Coloradoans need to look at who are the winners and losers on this bill and then drop Governor Ritter a line.

Spring, Sprang, Sprung

Oh, man! Was it a tough winter or what? I can't believe how much of a problem it's been to my condition. Weather-sensitive chronic pain is for the birds!

I have been looking forward to spring like you could never imagine! Yet, even in this, I'm skeptical. Spring is volatile in Colorado. As a foretaste, last week on a day where the high was 64 degrees, the weather service issued a Winter Storm Warning! That evening, though, I could have told you it was a doozy of a storm. It just knocked me down for the ten-count! Until the storm actually arrived, I was miserable! Once it started snowing, I started feeling better.

Then the House passed the medical bill. Well, I was feeling better. Forget spring (and summer). I"m looking forward to November!

Haitian Orphans Come Home to Colorado

They're home! They're home! They're home!

Letters from the Field: Obamavilles And The Fruits Of Repentance

Dear Friends,

How are you? How was your Christmas? Mine was incredible! A family stepped forward and offered to help with our Christmas gifts this year, buying nearly everything we wanted and everything we needed. They are a family that dearly wants to hear God's voice in their lives and it excites me to see it.

Have you heard about Obamaville?

The name of the town reminds me of a classic Jimmy Buffet tune, a favorite of my cousin's. This is a real sign of America's Second Great Depression. Iconic pictures of the 1930s tent cities, in some cases called "Hoovervilles," dot the news. Like the early years of the last depression, economic measures designed to slow or even reverse the decline may not be all that helpful and in some cases may actually hurt the economy.

I am no expert, but having a blog means having a point of view. My great friend, Andrew, shares similar circumstances as my own, unable to work because of his physical condition. He told me on New Year's Eve what I had instinctively known and remembered from high school economics. The numerous bailouts the government has engaged in is against the fundamental rule of capitalism. If AIG, et. al, truly failed financially, the government should have let it fail and go into bankruptcy. That's the reason for bankruptcy courts. Procedures exist for failures like that, procedures that might have better served the American people. Instead, the executives are bailed out by the one entity that should have put them in court to defend their actions. This is corruption, plain and simple.

In times like these, it is not enough for us to simply pray that God help the needy and suffering. Nor is it enough to fast, to humble ourselves before God and expect Him to hear us. It requires a fundamental heart change. It requires individual and corporate repentance. It requires what God lays out in Isaiah 58.

Isaiah 58:1-8

(the Message paraphrase)

Tell my people what's wrong with their lives,
     face my family Jacob with their sins!
They're busy, busy, busy at worship,
      and love studying all about me.
To all appearances they're a nation of right-living people—
     law-abiding, God-honoring.
They ask me, 'What's the right thing to do?'
     and love having me on their side.
But they also complain,
     'Why do we fast and you don't look our way?
     Why do we humble ourselves and you don't even notice?'

"Well, here's why:
"The bottom line on your 'fast days' is profit.
You drive your employees much too hard.
You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight.
You fast, but you swing a mean fist.
The kind of fasting you do
     won't get your prayers off the ground.
Do you think this is the kind of fast day I'm after:
     a day to show off humility?
To put on a pious long face
     and parade around solemnly in black?
Do you call that fasting,
     a fast day that I, God, would like?

"This is the kind of fast day I'm after:

• to break the chains of injustice,
• get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
• free the oppressed,
• cancel debts.

What I'm interested in seeing you do is:

• sharing your food with the hungry,
• inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
• putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
• being available to your own families.

Do this and the lights will turn on,
     and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
You'll call out for help and I'll say, 'Here I am.'

If you want to see a change you can believe in, if you want to see God answer prayers, don't just fast and hope that He blesses you. Don't just hunger after God. Model your heart and actions after Him! Engage those around you and work to ease their suffering. If you see injustice, work to end it! If you see your employees hard pressed, stop work until they catch their breath. God does not saddle you with a heavy burden, does he? He does not bicker and fight with you, does he? Can you honestly say you follow Him when you live in ignorance of His most fundamental motives? We may claim to love the Lord God with all our passion and prayer and intelligence and energy, but until we love others as well as we love ourselves, we cannot honestly claim the title Christian, literally "Christ follower."

This is heavy stuff, but God does not pull any punches when we've missed something this elementary. Christians in business cannot place profit above and beyond the humanity and charity God commands from us all. As Marley lamented in A Christmas Carol, "Business! Mankind [should have been] my businesss!" Indeed, Scrooge himself walked in repentance by placing a very human interest in his employee Bob Cratchit and his family. The complaints that socialism and fascism brought against capitalism were very similar to the complaints that the three spirits of Christmas brought to Scrooge, that men in capitalism only enrich themselves by exploiting the working poor. The very reason America was successful in the first place was that men lived by the morality of their faith, putting into practice the charity and kindness that their faith professed. Alexis DeToqueville, in Democracy in America, put it this way,

Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot. How is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie is not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed? And what can be done with a people who are their own masters if they are not submissive to the Deity?

If we profess freedom, and we do, then we must live by God's morality. Instead of seeking what we can get out of our employees, our "human resources," should we not treat them as good or better than ourselves? This change must start in our hearts, work into our minds, and out through our hands. Obamaville may be a ghost town in years to come, but only if we get the message.

A brother from a different mother,

Steve

There Goes the Sesame Street Neighborhood

My wife came up and told me that Sesame Street had done another spoof. This time it was a skit called "Desperate Horse-wives." I got a groan when I asked if the characters were less than neigh-borly.

In all seriousness, I'm not that thrilled with how the folks at Sesame Street parody network TV shows. While I am sure that the creators mean simple and innocent fun with their skits, I believe it also sends the message that the shows they represent are normal and acceptable in normal households. I'm not sure how normal we are, but Desperate Housewives is a show that we do not let in our house. My children know that when Extreme Makeover Home Edition is over and they hear, "Previously on Desperate Housewives..." power to the television is to be immediately terminated. It's almost comical how they scramble to turn it off, as if they were diving on a live grenade.

While it may not be a grenade, many TV shows are painfully difficult for us to watch these days. Some of the shows are so corrosive, I wonder how anyone can possibly watch them. Consequently, some nights we simply don't turn on the television set. Instead, we will read a good book or play a game together, if we don't split up to do separate things. We avoid the shows not because we like feeling superior or cerebral, but because we've found that these shows actively interfere with our hearts and minds.  

^8-9Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies. (Philippians 4:8, The Message)

I can't come out with a list of TV shows that I think are bad or good. The verse above should be more than enough for the average Christian, especially when it's paired with the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Each person is responsible only to God for decisions like these. However, Jesus did give us a special charge with children.

"And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck. Mark 9:42 (NIV)

To me this verse means that God takes the destruction of children's innocence very seriously. This is why the Sesame Street skits irritate me. It feels like they're playing with fire. Look smart all you want, but I would prefer if they would just stick with "C is for cookie," and the yip-yip monsters.

What? You've never heard of the yip-yip monsters?

Yip Yip

| MySpace Video Thanks Jodi!

Eden Will Bloom

I am proud to say that I know this lady. The video really grabs hold about halfway through.



If you want to hear more of Tamra Hayden's music, visit her ReverbNation site for a full preview of her album, A Day At the Fair.

Training Parrots Or Educating Minds

This article, which was part of an HSLDA e-mail, makes a great case for educating children by helping them think on their own rather than training them to spit up answers to questions on command. We need students to think logically and consistently. Indoctrinating them with a conservative mindset without getting them to think through the reasons supporting both perspectives can cripple them when they assume their adult roles.

When my kids ask me what a specific person believes, I am under the obligation to tell them why that person probably believes what they do. For example, why is Barrack Hussein Obama pro-abortion rather than pro-life? How do we know that he believes that? What does this say about his values of human life? What implications does this have toward the current issue of medical care? Would Obama favor abortion on demand or possibly euthanasia? Taking them forward in these steps is more than asking questions and getting them to answer? It is patterning their minds to take the next logical steps. It applies as much to what they watch on TV as well as it does to understanding politics. Do the people on this show exhibit honor and value towards each other? Do we want to emulate them? What reasons do we have to watch it?

Walking through life asking such questions will change what you do, but it will also shape minds to live by the light of reason, and not just follow their appetites, which leads to sin. On the other hand, walking with reason leads to wise choices, which leads to life, full of happiness and hope. I owe at least that much to my children.

The 86th Percentile - What Does It Mean?

As a follow-up to my last post, here are the latest figures for standardized performance.

I think it's important to understand what those statistics mean. First, the 50th percentile is always average. It's the peak of the "bell curve," the result of the total of all scores divided by the number of tests taken. If a person's score places in the 51st percentile, it is slightly better than average. Likewise, if the score places in the 49th percentile, it is slightly worse than average. It does not mean that all of the students scored 50%. The 86th percentile means that if you took one homeschooled student's test score at random and compared it with a sample from public schools, the homeschooled test score likely would be better than 86% of the other students.

All it means is that homeschooling students typically perform better than public schooled students when it comes to standardized academic achievement tests. It should weigh into anyone's decision on educating their child, but it cannot and should not be the sole factor in choosing homeschooling. Education should be prepare a child for their future, and unless their future is taking standardized tests with No.2 pencils, this decision takes a little more thought.

What Was I Saying?

I read this quote today in PluggedInOnline.com's newsletter:

"[Adolescents live in] an institutionalized culture of interruption, where our time and attention is being fragmented by a never-ending stream of phone calls, e-mails, instant messages, text messages and tweets." —Maggie Jackson, author of Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age [usatoday.com, 6/23/09]

I'm not sure what's worse, this news or the dark prediction of her book title.

Homeschooling in Canon City

Nifty article on a family homeschooling in Canon City, Colorado. The beauty of it all is captured in this quote toward the end,

“It can affect your family. For us, our life before homeschooling was harried,” she said. “We were always rushing here and rushing there. Now, we’re still busy, of course, but we have a lot more quality of life. We’re busy, but we’re not trying to squeeze” in sports, homework and other activities.

Life is not about fitting everything in. It's about doing what's important, and not necessarily what's urgent.

Freedom To Homeschool Listed As Factor In Survey Of Freedoms

Folks who know me know that I love my home state of Colorado. I love its flag, its history, and its geography. More importantly, I love the freedom we have to homeschool our kids, which showed up in a university's survey of freedoms, going state by state. According to this article from the Grand Junction Sentinel, Colorado is "in a virtual tie with New Hampshire and South Dakota to be the most free state in the union." Not to do too much patting on the back here, but that's one thing I am very proud of. It's also one thing we have to guard very closely. The defense of freedom starts with words in print and words in speech and eventually ends with words in action.

Stem Cells: The Source Matters

Like Michael J. Fox, who suffers from Parkinsons, I also have been hoping that stem cell research will yield new hope in finding cures for chronic diseases, including my own. Unlike him, however, I have steadfastly opposed using embryonic stem cells, the cells obtained from destroying living human embryos. President Obama recinded Bush's ban on Federal funding of the research, proving to me that he could care less about destroying human life in the name of research.

Fox is on a book tour, but on his stop at Oprah, Dr. Oz offered some great news that would surprise this "optimist" of embryonic stem cell research.



Thanks to Dr. Oz for clearing the air on this. Hopefully, more people will open their eyes to the benefits of adult stem cell research.

A Father's Words To His Son

Yesterday evening, I made a mistake. I flat out sinned. I let my anger about my disability boil over and I yelled at my 10 year-old son, who didn't feel like helping out with an extra chore before bed. Whatever he did, he did not deserve the angry words that I let out of my mouth. The moment they were out, I wanted them back. Watching my brave boy fighting the tears, my anger crumbled and I could see that I had just wounded my son's heart. Anything else quickly faded away as I realized that I must immediately reverse course and begin to rebuild my connection to my son.

I reached out by saying, "Oh son, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean that." That was a beginning, but he needed much more. "What I said was wrong. That's not my heart towards you! I love you and I treasure you!" I said. Addressing the spiritual component, I prayed in repentance, "God, please forgive me for hurting your son," --he and I are both kid brothers of Jesus Christ-- "and for wounding his heart. Please bring healing and help me not to do that again." Hot tears flowed and slowly we were on the mend.

This is all to say that I am another human failing and in need of a "Successor," and that any wisdom I've shown is God working through me, not me being some kind of an uber-dad. The above also tempers the following, which is an open letter to my son that I read to him about a week ago. Dads, please feel free to take this letter as a basis for your own to pass on to your sons and daughters.*

Dear [son],

Every day of my time with you, I have tried to live my life as an example of the man I hope you will be someday. While one letter won’t make a huge difference in this, I hope it does pass on some of the stuff I might have missed saying to you, some of the things we just don’t talk about from day to day. In this letter, I hope to go over the things I’ve learned through experience, and maybe some of the stuff I knew but didn’t fully realize how important that stuff really was.

For example, I didn’t realize that a person’s life is shaped by the little choices they make every day as much as it is by the big decisions like what you will do for a career, where you will live, and so on. The little choices that you make, the mundane and overlooked ones, such as what you’ll have for lunch today, what you’ll buy, or how you treat your friend, will have a cumulative effect, one so powerful that it can limit or even eliminate your options in a big decision you want to make.

Speaking of big decisions, there is none greater than who you will marry. You can be successful in every other area of your life, and it can all be poisoned by a difficult marriage. How will you know who to marry? We will go over a lot of that together in the next few years, as well as making you ready for your future wife. However, I know of one test that will help you know for sure if she is the one. The people who know you best, the people who can be honest, will know if she is the one for you. These people will have known you for several years and they will need to get to know her. Trust their advice! On the other hand, if you don’t have any of these people in your life, maybe you are too detached to be thinking about getting married. If that’s the case, it’s better to slow things down, put down some roots, and start rebuilding friendships you can rely on.

I’ve told you often that relationships are what life is all about. If your relationships are good, then everything else in your life can go wrong, and you will still be okay. Having the right people on your team truly is make-or-break. Here are some good qualities to find in friends: wisdom, honesty, loyalty, godliness, graciousness, patience, and compassion. A lot of these are found in 1 Corinthians 13. If God blesses you, you may have maybe three or four friends over your lifetime that embody all of these traits. Hold onto them! If you’re having trouble finding friends like this, make sure you are already showing these traits in your own life. Be a friend to gain a friend. It’s true that “birds of a feather flock together,” and people will be naturally attracted to others with the same traits.

Be careful about friendships with the opposite sex. I am not saying that you shouldn’t have them, but I am saying they require extra care. What may exist in your mind as a perfectly legitimate friendship may be entirely different on her side. Do not be careless with other people’s hearts.

Perhaps the biggest risk I have taken in raising you is that I have intentionally avoided things which might have scarred or put blisters and calluses on your heart. Because of that, I have some specific advice for you. The world runs on rules that, even if we don’t live by them, we have to be mindful of. The first of which is that the material world in which we live functions on money. Everything you see, hear, taste, smell, or feel, everything is related to money. The ground you walk on, the air you breathe, and the food you eat are all for sale. And, they can all be purchased by someone other than you. Everything material has a price tag. Despite all of this, do not let the material things replace the immaterial things, such as love, respect and the human heart.

On your birthday, I was the first to hold you besides the doctors and nurses. I consider that a great honor. When you hold your own child, you will become a father, and there is something mystical, wonderful and miraculous that goes on in your heart that day. It switches from “my wife and I,” to “we.” Your fatherly instincts kick in, and you know you would move heaven and earth if they were in the way of your little child. A father will do anything he can to preserve his child from harm. This instinct is something you must experience to fully understand.

Remember that this world is broken. It was broken more than 5000 years ago. It will still be broken when we die. The only thing that will change all that is the “in the flesh” return of Jesus Christ. Only God can repair all the damage that sin has done to this world. When He does, the only things that we will have left are the relationships around us. The Kingdom of Heaven is all about relationships. Live in that reality!

Son, there will likely be other letters, other times when we will talk, just like we did recently. I want to give you these tools and tricks of the trade of Fatherhood, just like I would hand you my tool box someday and let you go out into the world. Put these things in your own children’s toolboxes, and you could be as happy and content as I am today.

Finally, Son, if it’s not apparent by now, I want you to know that I truly love you as my son. There is nothing you can do to change that fact, and I promise I will continue to love you as long as I live and for eternity. You are my son, and I couldn’t be prouder of you.

Sincerely,

Your Dad

There it is. That's my open letter. I promised it over a month ago and yes! I actually delivered! Thanks, God.

This post is incredibly long, but let me close out with this. If there are any fathers (or sons) who want prayer for their relationship to be healed or restored, please leave a comment. I know that there are others with me on this blog who would be willing to pray for you.












*Please note that this offer does not release rights to the letter, in whole or in part, for any other kind of redistribution including publication. All copyrights still apply.

Life And Death

In case you missed your memo from the ACLU, tomorrow, March 10th, is National Thank Your Abortion Provider Day. I'm not kidding. One week before the celebration of St. Patrick's Day, a Catholic saint, we have a celebration of death and destruction.

I'm trying to keep from being physically sick here.

If we're really going to celebrate death, why not a Jack Kevorkian day, or a 6 day long celebration of the Jewish Holocaust, one for every million people that Hitler killed? If we were to get really Malthusian about it, we could even give money to people that succeed in committing suicide during those days. That might seem too close to Muslim extremism, though. Wait a minute! Those guys kill lots of people. Like abortionists, these guys should have their own day too.

Forgive my sarcasm. This isn't about rights, people. It's about lives being cut apart and dismantled inside a mother's womb. What should be the safest place on earth is the most dangerous. Tell me that Satan isn't pleased by this twisted corrupting of creation. It should be mourned in the extreme, not celebrated.

God said to us long ago, "I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live." Choose Life. It's such a simple and natural directive. How long will we choose death and thank the executioner? How long?

More information and help:

• Silent No More USA
• SNMAC's effort to turn March 10th on it's head
• Heartbeat International - pro-life pregnancy centers

And some original artwork with a point:

I Am A Newspaper Guy Without My Newspaper

My newspaper died today.

The Rocky Mountain News started daily publication in 1860, a full year before the "War Between the States." If you look at the front page of the very first issue, it says Cherry Creek, K. T. That K.T. stands for Kansas Territory because Colorado wasn't a state until 16 years later in 1876. After 149 years of the daily Rocky Mountain News, Denver will wake up tomorrow to find that she's gone, terminated by a guy in a suit, as Littwin says. Instead of soldiering on and keeping jobs in the deepening economic turmoil, Scripps shafted the paper.

Nearly as long as there has been a Denver, there has been a Rocky Mountain News. My grandmother was a typesetter for them long ago. She worked many years as a single mom to my mother. Years later, she received a gift from them commemorating the 125th anniversary of the paper and she was so tickled that they remembered her. They remembered her because the Rocky had heart. Unlike that broadsheet abomination, the Rocky was a family.

More importantly, my grandmother gained some satisfaction that she was a part of something that was making a difference in the lives of people. When you got the paper, you had news of all sorts that mattered. It came in length of details that was ruled more by the cost of ink than by the time it took someone to regurgitate the facts to a camera. Am I a newspaper guy? You better believe it. The newspapers gave enough information to form an opinion about something. The nightly news shows jump from story to story, never giving you the opportunity to look deeper.

But the nightly news didn't kill the Rocky. Was it the Internet instead? No, the net has been popular for 15 years or nearly that. The Rocky adapted, and put out a superior product online. People still bought the paper, though, because it's tough to bring your computer with you to the park, the cafe, or the bathroom. No, the Internet may have wounded circulation, but it didn't kill it. What killed my Rocky is the tightening purse strings in Denver and beyond. People, it seems, like to eat, and if the choice comes down to paper or food, people find the food more useful. The Rocky, which survived the Great Depression of the 1930s, will not survive the depression we now find ourselves in.

So if there's any consolation in the final edition of a great newspaper, it's that her passing is neither unnoticed nor unmourned. Reading the Rocky as a kid helped me understand the world around me in a way that no other medium could do. It trained my mind to ask good questions and to expect good answers. It showed me what good journalism, what good writing will do for people. My first letters to the editor were published in the Rocky. It will always be my newspaper, and today was its final day.

Little 5 Year-old Calls 911, Saves Dad's Life

This little bit of homeschooling paid the boy's dad back in spades. This is just another part of the curricula for us.



Good job, Tyler.

Tiger Balm, Tolkien and Taking A Little Off The Top

I know. I know I haven't published anything in close to 10 days (10!) but I've been writing--oh, I've been writing! In my mind, more than anything, actually, because I can't sit at the keys. Something about this weather lately has been kicking me back and forth from the bed to the bathroom to the den, right past the keys, and straight underneath warm blankets that smell of Tiger Balm, Ben Gay and Green Tea, much like I do, I'm afraid.

I have been reading Tolkien again, and like a chameleon, I take on the voice of the author in my thoughts and my writing. Terrible thing, really. Talking in half sentences like this. Dangling participles over capricious phrases, writing like this can be a chore.

Why am I reading Tolkien? Well, I made the kids a promise. Sarah (12) and Bubba (9) are approaching the age where their peers are asking them "You haven't seen The Lord of the Rings?" Like they're asking them if they still suck their thumbs. So, I turned to them one evening and told them, "If you can read through the books, you're ready to watch the movies." Ha! I thought, This will be fun. Bubba will bog down in the Council of Elrond. Everyone does. He'll get discouraged and pick it up again when he's ready.

He's on page 210 of the Two Towers, far outpacing his sister! Aigh!

As a result, we just watched the first hour of the Special, Extended, Super-Colossal, And-You-Thought-The-Books-Were-Long Edition DVD of the Fellowship of the Ring. They are eating it up! And this even after I showed them the long segments on Tolkien and how they adapted the book to the movie, which are really helpful for people who read the books. It seems they're the ones that get steamed about Tom Bombadil only showing up on milk cartons--"Have you seen me?"--on Hobbit first-breakfast tables.

Anyway, I've been writing. I have an open letter to my son that I plan to put up soon, if I can get around to editing it. It's all about relationships, but I won't tip my hand too much. I also have something about skiing, but I don't want to drag anyone through that's not willing, so I'll give fair warning in the title. Nothing like getting snow in you keyboard from an errant skier.

So I'll close with a quick observation in a field I am mostly inexperienced at analyzing, politics. Never has our fair Republic been in greater danger of falling to the wolves. The center of political power in America, Congress has already purchased--ipso facto--the banks of our nation with their bailout. They are now calling their erstwhile managers to account for the money. Does anyone else think this a little... well, what's the word... incredible? Here we have an entity so incapable of fiscal responsibility, it took them years to discover that the House checking accounts were a little overdrawn. There's only one thing worse than Congress ousting the Golden Circle of Bank Presidents and their cadre, and that is Congress letting them stay in power. So where's the danger? If things get worse under a liberal President and a liberal Congress, the state of our societal morals tells me that we will have a French Revolution, not an American one, looking us straight in the eyes.

Small-time Observation: The thing about history is that you have so many years to think about other people's mistakes and the thing about the present is that you have so little time to fix your own.