Party-Selected Legislators: News Miner 91
Illegitimate party powers, property taxes, Hirsi Ali's new religion, bigotry, Hamas at college, anti-trans activism, NIMBYism, gun waiting periods, leaky dams, and more.
Party-Selected Legislators: I begin my new article for Complete Colorado: “Party insiders picking legislative replacements is a shameful affront to republican democracy, and especially anyone who with a straight face calls him or herself a Democrat or a Republican should work to promptly remedy this grotesque perversion of government ‘by the people.’ The existing setup encourages legislators to retire early so that party elites can confer unearned incumbent advantage on their preferred replacements.” Read the entire piece.
Property Taxes: Now that voters have rejected Prop. HH and Polis has called a special session to deal with property taxes, I again propose that “we” simply eliminate property taxes in Colorado and (if we must) raise income taxes in a revenue-neutral way. Property taxes basically mean that we never really own our homes; we always have to pay off the government to keep them. Plus the administration of property taxes creates an new layer of bureaucracy.
Hirsi Ali’s Religious Conversion: If you haven’t already seen them, I refer you to my posts over at Self in Society: “Ayaan Hirsi Ali Finds Jesus,” “Roundup on Hirsi Ali’s Religious Conversion,” and “Cowen on Hirsi Ali’s Religious Conversion.” Along these lines, see also my new book, Getting Over Jesus: Finding Meaning and Morals without God.
Hate: Newsline: “Colorado has seen increased incidents of hate against both Jewish and Palestinian communities over the last month since the escalation of the Israel-Hamas conflict.” Some of this involves things like anti-Semitic calls to synagogues. Some of it is even more serious: “[A] Palestinian family business in Denver received multiple death threats, and a gunman shot through the family’s home in Greenwood Village.”
Anti-Semitism: Here is what an Imam preached at the Colorado Muslims Community Center in Aurora on October 22: “The Israelites were sent many, many messengers and prophets. They killed some of them. They even tried to kill Jesus. What did Allah do to them [Jewish fishermen who cast nets over the sabbath] as a punishment? Yes? Yes. He made them into monkeys. Literal physical monkeys. Monkeys. Does this sound like a people you want to do business with?” Disgusting. This is from David Flomberg. It is worth pointing out that more-radical strains of Islam, many “democratic socialists,” and neo-Nazis all align in their hatred of Jews and of Israel.
Silverman on Hamas: Craig Silverman summarizes: “Hamas’ well-documented geo-political approach is to eliminate Jews from that predominantly Muslim region. Hamas propaganda parrots deadly Russian-invented conspiracy theories, which was then borrowed by Hitler. Hamas terrorists sacrifice their lives for the perverted pleasure, and prestige, of slaughtering Jewish families.” Silverman also discusses the college response to the terrorist attack.
Gaza: A Grand Junction doctor endured weeks of the brutal war in Gaza.
Anti-Trans Activist Poses as Girl: Suzie Glassman has quite the story: “Lori Gimelshteyn, the leader of a right-wing organization targeting school diversity policies [the Colorado Parent Advocacy Network], admitted in a radio interview and on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday that she posed as a nine-year-old Cherry Creek student questioning her gender identity in a text to a crisis line.” See also (if you must) the Fox spin.
Godwin’s Politics: Someone posted a sign referring to a Broomfield councilor as Hitler. Come on, people.
Niceta: Max Levy: “Robin Niceta found guilty of fabricating child sex abuse allegation against Aurora council member.”
Super NIMBY: Greeley Tribune as summarized by Colorado Sun: “Gary Winters, 55, faces felony criminal mischief charges for allegedly dumping screws and nails in driveways and on country roads ‘every other day’ for months as part of a harassment campaign against the new owners of nearby property.”
Housing: Government (especially local governments) have largely blocked the development of new housing. Surprise, surprise: many people cannot afford housing.
YIMBY Bill: Shaun Boyd: “When State Rep. Judy Amabile built a small apartment above her detached garage in Boulder, she knew it wasn’t legal. But she was desperate to give her son—who couldn’t live safely in her home—a place to stay. Six months after he moved in, she says, the city kicked him out. . . . That experience is part of what drove Amabile to draft a bill giving most homeowners in the state the right to have an accessory dwelling unit or ADU if they want one.” Good.
Government Housing: The obvious solution to the housing crisis is to fully legalize the development and use of housing. So of course most politicians do not want to do that. Instead, various politicians want government to build more housing, even if with people accused of creating “micro-communities” that are “living hell.” But Mayor Mike Johnson is facing pushback over city-planned “micro-communities.”
Government Meddling: Rather than solve the politician-creating housing crisis by repealing anti-housing laws, many politicians wish to instead scapegoat others, such as owners of short-term rentals. Here’s a John Frank headline: “Colorado Airbnb owners fight back as governor pushes higher taxes.” Here’s an idea: How about politicians respect people’s property rights?
Gun Laws: Jesse Paul: “Federal judge denies effort to block enforcement of Colorado’s new law imposing 3-day waiting period on gun purchases.” I’m not sure why this is in federal court at this point; the statute very obviously violates Colorado’s constitution (even if some judges pretend not to be able to understand plain English). Judge John Kane found that the waiting period would reduce suicides and homicides, writes Paul. But they also prevent some people who urgently need a gun for self-defense from buying one. Rather than operate on a sort of collective-guilt premise, government should take a finer-grained approach by, for example, better-enforcing Red Flag laws and taking seriously threats of harm.
Elephants: Uh, how do you “train” an elephant “for semen collection”?
Evanson Piece Republished: Thank you to the Colorado Times Recorder for republishing my recent article on school board candidate Barbara Evanson, under the title, “Can We Stop Pretending that Religious Conservatives Care About Parental Rights?”
Ketner Dam: Recently I walked around Ketner Reservoir in Westminster. The dam had a broken valve, spilling water through the open space and into the street below. I’m not sure what fraction of water the lake lost, but a lot, as this photo indicates. I hope they’re taking better care of the much larger Standley Lake dam, a major regional source of household water!