BackboneAmerica

Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver
To listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com
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Wow, lately you can’t open the paper without reading about how Ward Churchill’s students adore him or how white students at CU should feel ashamed of themselves. I’m not exaggerating; click the links.

And if you were looking for quick results in President Hank Brown’s effort to end the race hustle up at Boulder, temper your hopes. Jessica Corry, part of his task force, has filed a sobering combat report (verbal combat, anyway) for this blog.

So if you’re ready to hear the other side for a change, join me this weekend for a conversation with filmmaker Evan Maloney. His full-length documentary Brainwashing 101 is just one of many Maloney projects revealing how the campus left stifles intellectual diversity. This is gonna be fun. (more…)

By Brian Ochsner baochsner@aol.com

House Speaker Andrew Romanoff recently showed his real opinion about folks who were opposed to Referendum C and bigger government, folks like me and most of you reading this. It happened the other day when he was interviewed on the Gunny Bob Newman show on KOA.

The Gunny first torpedoed the Speaker’s arguments about why Referendum C was positive for the state of Colorado. Then, after Romanoff ran out of intellectual ammo to counter Bob’s logic, he counter-attacked with the usual leftist strategy of an ad hominem attack — going after the person, instead of the issue. (more…)

By Jessica Corry jessicapeckcorry@yahoo.com

Editor’s Note: You wouldn’t know it from press accounts like the one last Sunday or the latest one today, or from the feel-guilty spin by columnist Jim Spencer. But that “diversity commission” named by CU President Hank Brown to ensure a tolerant campus is already (just since getting started Jan. 21) giving off the usual intolerant vibes. Jessica Corry, who has tracked these issues for me at the Claremont Institute and for Jon Caldara at the Independence Institute, filed this report after last Saturday’s opening session. — John Andrews

I was the only conservative out of more than 50 commissioners (they ultimately allowed for about a dozen “student commissioners” who monopolized the entire day’s discussions with their victim creed and outspoken support for Churchill and the Ethnic Studies department). The highlight of the day came when the associate vice chancellor for diversity verbally attacked me in the Glenn Miller Ballroom, in front of the hundreds of people in attendance. (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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Executive Powers in the Constitution…
Harvey Mansfield in Weekly Standard
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A Colorado Mercy Killing…
The Dylan Walborn story in Denver Post.
Plus this site all about little Dylan rest his soul.
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Now that Judge Samuel Alito is nearly certain of confirmation to the US Supreme Court, let’s talk about the hot topic of courts and judges in American self-government today. Alexander Hamilton, writing in Federalist No. 78, predicted the judicial branch would be the “least dangerous” to our rights in a free society. Why hasn’t it turned out that way? (more…)

(John Andrews in the Denver Post, Jan. 15) You’ve heard of the Battle of Britain. The country most identified with Western civilization and human freedom through the centuries, our mother country, stood alone in 1940 against Hitler and the forces of darkness. Had Britain not narrowly prevailed, the world would be unrecognizable today.

This column, aiming not to cheer but to arouse you, will argue that our country in 2006 is locked in a struggle every bit as grave, against an enemy every bit as dangerous. I call it the Battle of America. Unless the United States prevails, our world will be unrecognizable very soon. (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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“Resolved, this house refuses under any circumstances to fight for king and country.” When that debate proposition carried at Oxford in the 1930s, Hitler knew Britain could be had.

How much fight there is in American hearts today, remains to be seen. Yes, after 9/11 we took out the Taliban, then toppled Saddam. But national self-doubt seems to be rising now. Can we outlast the Islamofascist enemy? Can we even control our own borders? (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 January series this week. Andrews praised President Bush for his aggressive monitoring of Al Qaeda, under what he called inherent constitutional powers of the executive. Other topics this month include the Abramoff lobbying scandal in Congress, the Colorado legislative outlook and governor’s race, and a possible ballot issue decriminalizing marijuana possession. (more…)

Denver, Jan. 7 — Backbone America Citizens Alliance, a conservative action group, started the clock yesterday on a proposed ballot issue to term-limit the Colorado Supreme Court and court of appeals.

“Voters have repeatedly signaled their desire for greater accountability in public officials through term limits,” said John Andrews, alliance chairman and former President of the Colordo Senate. “It’s just common sense to limit the terms of these powerful judges in the same way as we already do for the executive and legislative branches of state government.” (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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Doug Gresham, CS Lewis’s stepson, talks with me about Narnia. See below
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Jared Polis and Michael Bennet, elusive educrats, still haven’t surfaced. Details here.
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Republicans feuding in Colorado? Republicans corrupt in Washington? Conservatives to blame, wherever you look? None of these story lines is accurate, but oh, what fun the mainstream media are having with them so far in 2006. (more…)

By Krista Kafer krista555@msn.com

Colorado’s public education system got a C+ rating the other day from Education Week, the nation’s premier trade journal for schools. Education Week is a solid paper. It’s a little left of center but generally fair. When I lived in Washington, DC, it was one of my must-reads. (more…)

(John Andrews in the Denver Post, Jan. 1) Times Square? Overrated. You haven’t really done New Year’s Eve until you’ve done it in Backbone, Colorado, my imaginary hometown. Up at the head of Cottonwood Creek in Chaffee County, close to timberline in the shadow of the divide, we don’t get TV or the Web and don’t miss them. Rockin’ Dick Clark can go fish, we say.

In Backbone on the last night of the year, things start at sundown with a potluck at the church. Families from town and the nearby gulches all gather, and the unattached folks of whatever description are made to feel like family. Later there’s ice skating on the pond, with a bonfire for s’mores and hot cider, plus the appropriate adult beverages. Yarns from the Old Prospector are in demand at the fireside. (more…)

By Brian Ochsner baochsner@aol.com

Well, what do you know. I just talked to a guy, my uncle’s brother, who went to the World’s Fair held in Chicago back in 1933 and got to see a prototype of a television set – about 20 years before they were mass produced. You learn that kind of thing over the holidays, and this recent Christmas was one of the best ever. Gifts and food were in abundance, and it was good to spend time reconnecting with family and friends. Along with the witness to prehistoric TV, I also discovered a cousin of mine has been on an outdoors program on ESPN. Ryan’s an avid fly fisherman and conservationist (not an environmental wacko). He’s also a skilled talker, and likes to argue his point to anyone who will debate him. The folks at Senator Conrad Burns’ office (R-MT) thought he argued a little too forcefully, and threw him out. (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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Gift copy of West’s constitutional government essay, email backboneradio@aol.com
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Milk carton alert: Jared Polis and Michael Bennet are missing! Details at bottom
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Here comes the New Year, ready or not. One way to get ready, if you are principled and patriotic as most Backbone Radio listeners are, is to reload on Day 1 with intellectual ammunition for defending America as it was meant to be — America as our Founders intended it. In that vein, I’m betting that if Thomas Jefferson of Monticello could recommend one political scientist we should heed right now, he would pick Thomas West of Claremont. West was my guest on the radio and on platforms several times in 2005. Now he’ll be the subject of our first show in 2006. (more…)