THE WEATHER MAY DO IN THE ROCKIES GAME so I may have a show at some point. Either way, I'm ready!
YES, IT'S APRIL FOOLS DAY And no I won't be pulling any sort of gag. You're welcome. Here's a quick history on April Fool's Day if you're interested.
DENVER TRIES TO SEND MIGRANTS SOMEWHERE ELSE Oh my goodness, watch this.
This is what being a welcoming sanctuary city gets you. I wonder where I heard someone saying this back when we were rolling out the red carpet for illegal immigrants? Oh wait, that was me. We shall discuss.
WE'RE FINALLY FOCUSING ON ADDICTION AND MENTAL ILLNESS IN DENVER The Mayor is finally focusing his attention on the addiction crisis in Denver. He's now trying to move 200 homeless people into addiction or mental health care facilities this year, which is great, but I'm afraid barely a drop in the bucket. The issue here is that intensive, in patient care for addictions of mental illness are very expensive, whereas shoving them all into a dangerous old hotel where people can die out of the public eye is much cheaper. I don't blame the mayor for that, but I do blame him for wasting millions of dollars on the Trouble Tree or Meth Western instead of doing this FIRST. The big issue I see in this article is that they are not going to mandate treatment, something idiotic Denver City Councilwoman Sarah Parady is strictly against because she apparently believes that a person whacked on on fentanyl walking around bent over talking to the voices in their heads is going to make good choices. Read this part:
“I am really happy to see us move into this space,” Parady said, “because it’s incredibly fragmented and not an area we have focused on a lot at the local level — despite it being a crisis that interlocks so directly with our homelessness crisis, how youth are doing in our city, and lots and lots of other issues.”
At the Harm Reduction Action Center in central Denver, executive director Lisa Raville remains skeptical.
The center holds one of the city’s contracts to operate a needle exchange program. It also offers drug testing strips, overdose reversal medication and other services focused on reducing drug-related deaths.
Raville said Roads to Recovery had captured her attention, since city officials are talking about an approach that would move away from criminalization and incarceration as central tools for combating addiction and mental health challenges. Still, she said, a diversion program that presents someone with the choice of either going to jail or entering treatment would rely, at least in part, on the threat of consequences.
“I am concerned they are talking about mandatory treatment, which I do not support. It’s human rights abuse and it doesn’t work,” Raville said. “What is their substance use treatment vision?”
No offense to the woman who makes her living making drug use easier and cleaner, but shut the blank up, lady. The reality is that mandated sobriety is JUST as effective as voluntary treatment when it comes to five year outcomes. From the Wall Street Journal:
These and other studies show that people who are mandated to undergo addiction treatment fare at least as well as those who volunteer. In the 2000s, a group of Stanford researchers compared a group of patients required by a court attend drug treatment with others who entered care voluntarily. At one year and five years following enrollment, the mandated and voluntary patients made similar improvements in areas such as drug use, criminal activity and employment status. Notably, the groups were equally satisfied with their treatment experience.
Unless and until we get tough on addicts we will never solve this problem. We won't be able to save all of them, but dang it we can save some of them, which allowing them to wallow in their addictions while handing them new needles is NOT doing. If THAT worked we wouldn't have so many addicts in Denver right now.
IF YOU'RE GOING TO KAYAK ON A HIGH WIND DAY Please wear some sort of flotation device. A man is dead after falling from his kayak in Chatfield Reservoir yesterday when it was windy as hell. The details are sketchy but one man swam to shore while the other went under. Very sad.
ANOTHER ELECTRIC CAR BLEW UP IN A GARAGE IN BOULDER And thankfully didn't burn the house down but destroyed the car and caused a bunch of smoke damage to the home. Of course no one knows why the car blew up but we're all supposed to want these in our garages anyway.
OUR FAKE LIBERTARIAN GOVERNOR IS BALLOONING THE SIZE OF GOVERNMENT Again, this time with the help of the Democrat controlled Legislature and their budget which adds even more government workers and gives out generous raises. The Denver Gazette Editorial board writes about it here.
IF CRIME IS DOWN WHY DON'T WE FEEL SAFER? That's the question asked by this editorial where they give us all the glowing statistics of how crime has gone down before reminding us that it's down way less than it has gone up since 2019. Do you feel safer?
PARENTS NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING IN SCHOOLS RIGHT NOW And you can watch this for more on why you need to pay attention.
THE 303 CREATIVE CASE IS TRULY OVER Plaintiff Lorie Smith, who will not create a wedding cake for a gay wedding because of her religious beliefs, was awarded attorney's fees and more by a district judge after the Supreme Court remanded the case back down to lower courts. It is also forbidden to enforce the Colorado's Anti-Discrimination Act against her, which really renders it meaningless in the grand scheme of things. The defendants were all state actors including Attorney General Phil Weiser. The First Amendment won here, as I thought it would.
TATTERED COVER IS UP FOR SALE And what I find most remarkable is apparently they have a potential buyer. They are trying to push back bankruptcy proceedings in order to give themselves time to get the deal done. I hope they can pull it off.
KENT THIRY IT TRYING TO CHANGE OUT ELECTIONS And I'm not opposed to any of this but would like to see more data before committing to any of these proposals. I would urge you to read this column to find out more about what he's cooking up.
HARD TO ARGUE THIS ABORTION DIDN'T KILL A BABY Because the mother most definitely wanted to continue her pregnancy but was robbed of that chance when she was "accidentally" given an abortion instead. I bet that was a baby to her.
SOMEONE PRODUCER IS GOING TO GET CANNED Before you book a guest you better have a good idea of what they are going to say. Maybe not verbatim, but philosophically at least. One television producer didn't know they were supposed to find a "Warmie" and got a reasonable astrophysicist instead.
A
WEIGHT LOSS DRUGS DON'T WORK FOR EVERYONE And that is something that everyone needs to know. In addition to people regaining weight after stopping the drugs, and some users experiencing horrible side effects, there are bunch of people who just don't lose very much weight while taking them.
EASTER DOESN'T NEED TO BE INCLUSIVE The most Holy of holidays in the Christian faith is Easter. It's when Jesus went from man to God through the Resurrection and no matter how you spin it, that is why we have Easter. But don't tell that to a candy shop in the UK who decided to sell Cadbury "gesture eggs" instead of Easter eggs. Or the bakery who replaced the traditional cross hatch on the top of their hot cross buns with a tick mark. Or the President of the United States who sent out a special proclamation for the Trans Day of Visibility on Good Friday. And good grief, do we really need another day for the LGBTQWhatever crowd? This column does a great job showing how stupid all this is.
OF COURSE PRO HAMAS FOLKS DISRUPTED EASTER. OF COURSE. I can only imagine if they tried to disrupt a religious service in the West Bank doing this and demanding the release of hostages. I'm sure that would go well. This is St. Patrick's cathedral in New York City.
SMALL MONEY DONORS HAVE DRIED UP FOR TRUMP And I don't think it's a lack of support, but a lack of money for many people struggling to get by in Biden's economy. This is a good warning about going to the well too often though. Read it here.
LARRY DAVID ISN'T APPRECIATIVE OF CHRIS WALLACE'S QUESTIONS This is an interesting interview.
l
TWO MINUTE DRILL! Assuming we have a 2pm hour, of course
PRESIDENT OF TURKEY GETS OUSTED And he seems to be taking the loss pretty well so far. He says he'll be back for the next election but this is a thunderbolt in Turkey for sure. High inflation and the federal bank raising the prime interest rate for borrowing to 50% is the reason he got ousted.
FLORIDA IS NOT THE DREAM DESTINATION SOME THOUGHT And they have seen a pretty healthy exodus of people moving from the state after relocating there from somewhere else. Why are they leaving? High home insurance costs, hurricanes, traffic and the damn heat, along with a dose of politics they don't like. All of these things are accurate issues, though the politics part just means a bunch of progressives are leaving so that's good.
DOES HIGH ELEVATION MAKE ALLERGIES WORSE? The answer is yes and no, in that high altitude can make things like asthma worse. I was diagnosed with exercise induced asthma when I got here, something I've not ever had before. Read more about our allergy season, which is underway, here.
HERE'S A POLL FOR ROCKIES FANS And I'd love for you to take it if you're a fan. Find it here.
7-11 ANNOUNCES HOT DOG FLAVORED FIZZY WATER And I have no idea why but here's hoping this is an April Fool's joke.
ELDORA EXTENDS SKI SEASON BY A WEEK until April 21st, which makes it the longest ski season they've ever had.
HERE HAVE BEEN A BUNCH OF AVALANCHES THIS WEEK And conditions are still good for them to happen so be careful and prepared if you are planning on doing any backcountry skiing.
POWERBALL IS $975 MILLON As no one has won in forever. Now's your chance to win big!