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Letters to the Editor, June 21

Published June 21, 2006 at midnight

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'A million ecological morons' in mountains

The June 10 Rocky Mountain News featured an article on "Leaving high-risk homes to flames." The story on the Jed Clampetts of the world did not go far enough.

Call them hillbillies or berry pickers or just plain dumb, we now have an alleged million ecological morons living in sensitive mountain environments. These are the people who want to live "the good life," but complain about the lions, bears, mosquitoes, skunks, coyotes, elk, farm smells, and slow snow removal.

Colorado berry pickers have a choice: They can leave the trees standing up against their houses and burn or they can cut the trees and watch their houses disappear in the next mudslide.

Smart people would not have given these people building permits in the first place, but then the building industry lobby has been out of control for years! Denying a berry picker the right to be stupid would have been met with cries of "Who are you to deny someone the freedom to build their dream home?"

The families of dead firefighters have the right to deny hillbillies a building permit. So do the taxpayers who have to spend millions of dollars on roads and schools in rural areas not adapted to sudden population influxes. And how many millions of gallons of fuel will berry pickers waste this year while commuting to Denver, and jamming up our roads, because they did not live on a bus line?

The ranchers whose land has been overassessed, and cannot make a living raising food, have a right to protest. Hunters, fisherman and outfitters have a right to protest as well, because they bring billions of dollars to our state. The homeowners who found their houses built on land with no water rights could complain. But the big problem here is that all of these interests can't compete with a building industry that is ruled by greed, and is out of its ecological mind.

Jim Bauer

Aurora

Term limits for judges appeal to gun owners

It was most disappointing to once again see the Colorado Supreme Court fumble a clear opportunity to adhere to constitutional mandates and eschew judicial activism, this time in addressing the Denver District Court ruling striking down the General Assembly's pre-emption of local firearms restrictions that exceed state law ("Denver gun laws stand, but issue left unresolved," June 6).

Although it appears that three justices of the court clearly backed adherence to more than 30 years of legal precedent in respecting supreme sovereignty of the state in matters of exclusive state or mixed state/local concern, it was extremely frustrating to find that three other justices were willing to ignore clearly established law, including our constitutions, to protect the political agenda of a big city.

Despite speculation that a court including recently retired Justice Rebecca Love Kourlis (a consistently reliable vote to follow rather than make the law) would have resulted in a ruling upholding state sovereignty and legal precedent, it is nonetheless a sad commentary to see yet again an appreciable segment of our own state Supreme Court abandon precedent and our constitutions when it comes to protecting the firearms rights of Coloradans.

Given the proclivity of this court to abandon state sovereignty and our constitutions when it comes to firearms rights, John Andrews' term-limits initiatives for judges are looking more and more attractive to Colorado shooters and gun owners with each new ruling.

Anthony J. Fabian

President, Colorado State Shooting Association

 Aurora

What's the issue over concealed weapons?

After reading "Concealed weapons permits tapering off" (May 29), I don't understand the "controversy." Since the 2003 law was adopted, the only lethal use of a legally concealed weapon was declared to be warranted self-defense. But in any case, instead of just looking at the body count, more important is: How many times did someone avoid an assault by just displaying the weapon? (I have heard of a couple of these incidents.) Or fired the weapon at a would-be assailant and missed, but scared them away? Or, just as important, how many single mothers who have to work the night shift and walk alone back to their apartment feel slightly more comfortable because they have the ability to defend themselves?

There are no negatives to legal concealed carry. Criminals already carry guns, and people so near the edge they are ready to shoot someone over road rage also already carry guns; the new law only allows law-abiding citizens to defend themselves and gives no advantage to anyone else.

Why are level-headed, upright, trained citizens carrying firearms considered a value to society when they carry badges but some kind of ticking time bomb when they don't? If you were sitting in a restaurant when a mad killer walked in and began shooting people, wouldn't you prefer there be a law-abiding armed person there trained to fight back, even if he didn't have a badge?

Steve Wright

Littleton

Hippies have done enough harm to U.S.

Brett Rosenberg, in his letter of June 1, wonders where all the hippies of the '60s have gone. He writes, "Their voices changed the social consciousness of the free world regarding racism, sexism, religion . . . their actions stopped [the Vietnam War] . . . they have been dormant, quiet, reticent, content in their corporate glass houses and suburban homes."

I too worry about where the hippies might be today. Yes, didn't they have a positive influence on sexism with stands on free love and sex with multiple partners? And wasn't their insistence that drugs don't hurt you ultimately beneficial? And while millions were being slaughtered under communism, they were at least able to stop the Vietnam War, weren't they?

I can only hope and pray that the hippies Rosenberg mourns have led prosperous and productive lives in the corporate world instead of begging for quarters on the Pearl Streets of America.

For me, I hope the answer to his question of where the hippies have gone is, "Far away." His hippies have done enough damage here in my country.

Darrell Mudd

Littleton

Misleading comments rife in Rosen column

Mike Rosen's column of June 9, "Hot air from Al Gore," might be the most fundamentally dishonest column that I've ever read. The list of errors and fallacies is too long to fit into a single letter.

Among the many misleading comments are Rosen's statements about the change in mean global surface temperature being greater before than after 1940 (a straw man argument, since no one is claiming that climate changes are solely due to human activities), the amount of natural vs. anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions (a red herring, since natural emissions are balanced by natural absorption), and the effects of CO2 vs. water vapor (another red herring, since the amount of water vapor has been fairly constant).

Only a small percentage of the 17,000 who signed Dr. Arthur Robinson's petition have scientific credentials of any kind and few, if any, work in a climate-related field. At least two of the experts Rosen cites as allies (Bjorn Lomborg and Roy Spencer) actually believe that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are contributing to global warming.

Jeff Smith

Denver

Holtzman leaning to the left with campaign

Marc Holtzman has lost his credibility as a conservative Republican with his efforts to have the courts legislate from the bench.

The state of Colorado has laws that clearly outline the regulations and procedures for potential candidates. The current election law does not benefit Holtzman and he is hoping that an activist judge will sidestep the established laws.

Many, including myself, would agree that the regulation requiring signatures from Colorado's districts should be modified to reflect the recent changes in balloting, but the task of changing the regulation has been assigned in the constitution to the legislature and not the courts.

Holtzman's actions are reflective of liberal tendencies, not Republican values that stand for clear separation of powers. Legislating from the bench should be left to the liberals and Holtzman should stop his legal activities or leave the Republican Party.

J. Scott Lewis

Fort Collins

Holtzman's hauteur

In his Colorado Politics column of June 7, "Holtzman still scrapping," Peter Blake said of that gubernatorial hopeful: " . . . nothing would make the Democrats happier than having (Marc) Holtzman wage war against (Bob) Beauprez all summer."

I recall from having received a blizzard of Holtzman campaign material, and as a survivor of that awful state assembly in Colorado Springs, that Marc has based fully half his campaign on continually dropping Ronald Reagan's name and claiming, as he put it in one mailing, that he "is reigniting the Reagan Revolution in Colorado."

To be true to Reagan's legacy as a Republican party-builder I believe that Holtzman should step back and ask himself with regard to his current tactics: "What would Ronald Reagan do?"

Bob Tonsing

Littleton

Arctic plant life likely carried there by drift

The June 1 Associated Press story regarding subtropical plant life in Arctic Ocean cores attributes this to a subtropical climate and a huge freshwater lake in the Arctic Circle ("Florida-like North Pole uncorked by scientists").

This is likely incorrect. It is more probable that the cores containing subtropical foliage were transported from a subtropical climate to the polar regions. Such south to north movement of the continents and sea floor are well-documented.

In this case, the best look-alike is the Challenger seamount chain in the Pacific. From Midway Island to the point where the oldest end of the chain dives under the Asian plate there has been a shift north of approximately 2,700 kilometers in 20 million years.

Since the cores referred to in the News article are dated at 55 million years, enough is said.

Sherod A. Harris

Westminster

Money not well-spent

Am I missing something here? Gay marriage seems to be one issue on which everyone holds an opinion. Yet the Gill Foundation and Focus on the Family are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising to restate their viewpoints.

Meanwhile, women and children, youth and the mentally ill are homeless and hungry in Denver.

Maybe that money could be better spent in a more humane and less confrontational fashion.

Kathie Reinhardt

Englewood

Justices are served

To get rid of four justices on the same court (" 'We're not giving up,' initiative activist says," June 13) - does it take four ballot initiatives or will one do the job?

Jack Phinney

Denver

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