A few minutes before two last Thursday afternoon, the city council chambers were almost vacant. A graying, portly middle-aged man sat alone at a desk facing the council dais, surrounded by stacks of legal documents. It was Douglas Bruce, waiting patiently for the title-setting board to rule on his latest proposed charter amendment. Shuffling his [...]
Continue reading …“Messieurs, Mesdames, faites vos jeux. Les Jeux sont faits. Rien ne va plus.” — Croupier in Monte Carlo, c. 1907 It’s difficult to imagine that any sane person would sit down and read the recently-released Powers Corridor Environmental Assessment for pleasure. It’s a quintessential government document; prepared by planners, engineers and bureaucrats to be read [...]
Continue reading …Let us consider the following press release from state Treasurer Cary Kennedy concerning the Public Employees Retirement Association, the state pension plan. “It is wrong for PERA to pay out bonuses to employees on the one hand, and on the other, ask retirees to give up cost of living increases in years when the market [...]
Continue reading …It was hard not to feel sorry for the politicians, former politicians, wannabe politicians and hopeful candidates sweltering in the sun’s merciless glare last Thursday. There they were on the lawn of the county courthouse, uncomfortably besuited, declaring their fealty to GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis. Speeches were made and applauded, endorsements were announced, press [...]
Continue reading …Let’s see whether I understand this. We have a city-owned municipal utility which has invested billions of in the construction of systems which divert, store, transport and distribute water from many sources to Colorado Springs. We have one of the greatest park systems of any city in America, including landscaped medians, neighborhood parks, major parks, [...]
Continue reading …What do you do when you run out of gas in the middle of the desert? You could be out of luck, especially if you’re out of cell-phone range. With a bit of fortune, a kindly motorist will stop, give you a lift to the next gas station, and you’ll find your way back to [...]
Continue reading …For financially challenged homeowners on the west side, April is the kindest month. Winter is for gas bills, summer is for water bills. April, May, September and October give brief respite from the unrelenting demands of Colorado Springs Utilities. Last winter was expensive. Ours is a drafty 1898 Victorian house, which seems to shrug off [...]
Continue reading …More than 50 years ago I took off for Mexico with my best buddy for a summer’s worth of adventure. Light-hearted, naïve teenagers in a 1943 war surplus Jeep that lacked both a top and a windshield, we left Colorado Springs in June of ‘57 and headed south. After three days (the Jeep’s top speed [...]
Continue reading …“Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” — Dr. Samuel Johnson The corollary to Dr. Johnson’s oft-quoted maxim may be that, absent such knowledge, one’s mind is regrettably dispersed — so here’s a week’s worth of unrelated but interesting stuff. Forty-two [...]
Continue reading …Imagine you’re a private in the military. You’re one of nine soldiers in your infantry squad, led by a sergeant. You’re in some godforsaken part of an unfortunate Middle Eastern country, trying your best to control an Al Qaeda-based insurgency. Rank doesn’t matter. You endure the same dangers, eat the same food, and look out [...]
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