BackboneAmerica

By Brian Ochsner baochsner@aol.com

I just got back into town Tuesday night, after spending an additional two days in the western Kansas community where I grew up, due to the blizzard. It was pretty good – two more days of home-cooked food, catching up on rest, and additional exercise on spur-of-the-moment cattle drives. It was also a good opportunity to clear my head and reflect on the differences between rural and big city living. (more…)

By Krista Kafer krista555@msn.com

From the Good… If you’re starved for happy news check out this article in the Rocky Mountain News about Ricardo Caldera, honored Monday for heroism at his elementary school. The nine-year-old shielded his younger brother from armed robbers who attacked his family’s Montbello home. The robbers fired into the basement window as they fled, hitting little Ricardo in the back. (more…)

(John Andrews reflects) Today and yesterday we observe the birthday of three heroic men of letters, one of them also a great world statesman, another a great witness of the American spirit, and another a great Christian apologist. (more…)

Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver
To listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com
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What lessons exist for conservatives, hoping to retake the Colorado majority and refocus the Republican Congress, in that famous 1994 agenda known as the Contract with America? We’ll talk about it this Sunday with the man who authored the Contract with America, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. His new book offers a 21st-century update on the contract, and there are hints of a 2008 presidential run on his website at Newt.org.

What’s the standard of political citizenship for people of faith who take seriously the Scripture that they are “citizens of God’s household”? We’ll explore that question with Jerry Nelson, veteran pastor of Southern Gables Church in Lakewood, who was one of our guest chaplains at the state Senate during my time there. (more…)

John Andrews warns against GOP dissension) The debate over taxes, spending, debt, and TABOR is an important one for Republicans. Our party focuses more on what government might do to you than on what it can supposedly do for you. So we advocate limitations on ever-larger government. But how strict should the limits be? That’s where reasonable people can differ. Yet even when Republicans find ourselves divided over taxes, there are still many strong beliefs that should unify us as a party – and stiffen our backbone against the opposition party. (more…)

By Krista Kafer krista555@msn.com

If you’re hitting the malls on Friday for the big post-Thanksgiving Day shopping spree, you may get a “Merry Christmas” with your purchase, but then again you may not. Some stores, it seems, insist their employees use the colorless phrase “Happy Holidays” instead.

And at school, if you’re looking forward to hearing those sweet young voices sing age-old songs at your child’s annual pageant, you may not hear the word Christmas at all. You’ll wait patiently through a string of vapid mid-19th Century jingles and a few songs about Kwanzaa and Hanukkah, and then you’ll head home mystified and a little hollow. What holiday is this? (more…)

By Brian Ochsner baochsner@aol.com

This question may sound like heresy to teachers and parents today. However, the more I think about the answer, the more it isn’t “yes.” (more…)

(John Andrews reflects) America’s Thanksgiving Day is about faith, family, and freedom. That’s been our tradition for almost four centuries now. Feasting, football, and a four-day weekend are traditional too, but if that’s all there is to the occasion, we risk the sin of ingratitude — dishonoring our Creator and endangering ourselves. (more…)

Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver
To listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com
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Job opening for Claremont Colorado office assistant. Half time, full speed.
Email resume to andrewsjk@aol.com
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William J. Bennett, writing in “Our Sacred Honor,” his anthology of Americana, notes that Thanksgiving originated in our early history as “a day of thanks and prayer and supplication and request for divine blessing.” He then adds pointedly: “A few helpings of those would go nicely and wouldn’t hurt with the stuffing and gravy of today.”

Bill Bennett will be one of my guests this Sunday on “Backbone Radio with John Andrews.” I’ll talk with him about how Thanksgiving has turned from a sacred into a largely secular holiday, and what that says about our country today. And we’ll get his thoughts about the gathering storm over President Bush’s policy in Iraq. (more…)

(John Andrews in the Denver Post, Nov. 20) When I voted in Colorado’s 2005 tax referendum and the Centennial local election, it had deeper meaning for me than any vote since my first one almost 40 years ago. In 1966 I was just out of college, engaged and headed for the Navy. I patriotically cast my ballot for Republican candidates committed to America’s struggle against world communism and skeptical of Lyndon Johnson’s welfare state.

I’m now a grandfather and politically battle-scarred. Yet this November I felt a brand-new sense of gratitude for our privilege to exercise “the consent of the governed.” It came from spending part of October in Macedonia and Serbia, where the icy grip of communism denied such consent until very recently. (more…)

By Krista Kafer

“Dead bodies don’t look like they do in the movies,” Marjorie Lindholm told the Rocky Mountain News. A survivor of the Columbine tragedy, Marjorie and her mother Peggy have published a book, A Columbine Survivor’s Story, about the grisly experience of that day.

A sophomore with dreams of one day becoming a doctor, Marjorie was taking a science class when shots erupted. By the time SWAT lead them out, the killers had executed their plan, a year in the making, leaving 13 students dead, many more wounded, and a community crushed by shock and grief. (more…)

The “Head On” debate between former state Sen. John Andrews (R) and former Denver councilwoman Susan Barnes-Gelt (D), seen daily on Colorado Public Television since 1997, began its November series this week. Topics include the Libby indictment, state and national election analysis, the Alito Supreme Court nomination. (more…)

Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver
To listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com

(Update, Nov. 13) Here is the contact information for Mike Coffman over in Fallujah, Iraq, as provided by his wife Cynthia after their joint appearance on the show this evening.

Email: coffmanmh@yahoo.com
Website: www.mikecoffman.com
US Mail: Major Mike Coffman
II MEF (fwd) MHG
Unit 73920
FPO AE 09509-3920

(Original post, Nov. 11) This is Veterans’ Day, the anniversary of allied victory in World War I, now observed in honor of all those Americans who have fought or currently fight to defend our country and our liberties in wartime. Please pause for a moment today, 11/11, to send them a grateful thought and a prayer for God’s favor.

One veteran known to many of us in Colorado, and who recently went back on active duty in the combat zone in Iraq, is Marine Major Mike Coffman, on leave from his elected post as State Treasurer. Major Coffman will be my guest by phone this Sunday on “Backbone Radio with John Andrews.” And Mike’s wife, Cynthia Honssinger, will be with me in the KNUS studio. Don’t miss this interview! (more…)

(News release, Nov. 9) Principle in next year’s legislature and victory in next year’s elections — not recriminations over this year’s ballot issues — must be top priority for Republicans now that the C & D debate is settled, according to a resolution passed Tuesday night by the Arapahoe County Republican Executive Committee. (more…)

By Dave Crater crater@wilberforcecenter.org

Another Colorado election is past, and the state GOP has taken another couple steps downward with the skinny victory of the state’s central tax-and-spend ballot measure, Referendum C, and the skinny loss of C’s sister D. D could easily have won as well. Dismaying to say the least. (more…)