Avs get swept out of the playoffs after great season
The Colorado Avalanche, after being the best team in the NHL this season, ran into a better team during the playoffs. The Vegas Golden Knights played an absolutely stifling defense and made the Avs look ordinary. Nate MacKinnon (who had a career-best 53 goals in the regular season) had zero goals and only two assists in the series. Same for Martin Necas who had 100 points in the regular season. The Avs did not score a goal in the 2nd period of any game in the series and their only goal in last night's game (which ended the series 4-0) came with 2 minutes left and an empty net. The Knights goalie played at a different level from the Avs goalies (who weren't bad but weren't what's needed to win a Stanley Cup.) The Avs were tremendously hurt by missing their best defensive player (and maybe best player overall) in Cale Makar who missed the first two games with an injury, allowing the Knights to win the first two games of the series in Denver. Just want to say thanks to the Avs for a great season and congrats for getting as far as they did even though I know that not getting to (and winning) the Cup must feel very disappointing today. They certainly have the pieces to make another run at it next year.
Just One Thing: Are we (Americans) getting religion?
There's a claim that's been bouncing around Fox News and other conservative media for maybe a couple of years and I heard it on another network a few days ago, too: That Americans are getting more religious? As far as I can tell, the data is inconclusive except that young men seem to be claiming that they are going to church more. That doesn't seem to be true of any other group. Is it even true of young men? Maybe. After all, a LOT of them moved toward Donald Trump in recent years and Trump, despite being a man who only pretends to care about religion or believe in God, is nevertheless part of the vanguard for a certain Hegseth-ian or Vance-ian part of the conservative right. It often feels more cultish than devout but then maybe as a not-very-religious Jew I just misinterpret what's going on there.
Anyway, my point today is that I wonder if it's true that at least some subset of Americans is getting more religious. (And if you think that's good then you'd want it to be younger people rather than older people.)
Which is it?
Rise in Young Men's Religiosity Realigns Gender Gaps
There's also an interesting political angle regarding the longer-term decline in American religiosity that I hadn't considered:
Campaigns pay the price for America's secular shift
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Today's Guests
Phil Washington, the CEO of Denver International Airport, joins the show to tell us where all the lizard people will go if the airport goes ahead with this project. I mean, where are all the environmentalists who always seem to care so much about the preservation of habitat? DIA will create walkway to all concourses using underground tunnel
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Congresswoman Lauren Boebert joins the show at 8:04 AM. We have lots to talk about, including how she feels about President Trump verbally attacking her after she supported Rep Thomas Massie.
Lauren Boebert labels Donald Trump 'my president' after Thomas Massie loss
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Texas election news
Texas Primary Election Results 2026 : NPR
In Texas runoff elections, state AG Ken Paxton who cheats in marriage, politics, and business, crushed incumbent Senator John Cornyn thanks in large part to President Trump (who must recognize a lot of himself in Paxton) endorsing the morally and politically corrupt AG. Paxton is still a modest favorite to beat Democrat James Tallarico in November but the race will likely cost the GOP at least $100 million that they could have spent elsewhere had Cornyn been the nominee.
Raging anti-Semite Maureen Galindo, who came in first in the first round of the primary, got crushed by a normal person in the runoff. Galindo, whom Republicans had contributed to because she's so egregiously horrible -- she makes Ilhan Omar look like someone you'd find making friends at a synagogue -- said she wanted to turn ICE detention centers into places to castrate Zionists. OMG. I kinda wish she had won the primary.
And elsewhere in Texas, do you remember Al Green? He'll be out of Congress next year. His district was redrawn in a way that probably would have meant he'd lose the general election to a Republican so he challenged a young incumbent Democrat in another district (that is solidly blue) and got crushed. Good riddance.
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Yep, let's have some good news. Bruce Mehlman: Six-Chart Sunday – And Now for the Good News
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There should be some serious penalties here, criminal, not just civil: Colfax smoke shop license suspended after allegedly selling to minors
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The lack of reaction so far is interesting but maybe it's just that people don't know. Or maybe it's that people actually kinda understand and kinda support small nuclear reactors. (They should, but I suspect the former is the more likely explanation at this time.) How one company plans to put a nuclear microreactor at Buckley - Axios Denver
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Data centers can use a lot of water, but maybe less than you think: Tapped: Is water a problem for data centers in Colorado? - Colorado Politics
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Of course this happens in every administration and surely happened under Biden, such as in the overly aggressive prosecution of marginal figures who were at the Jan 6 riots (and I say that as someone who thinks they were a disgrace and who refused to consider voting for Trump because of that day). Regardless of party, this kind of corruption of the justice system is unacceptable and there should be significant penalties (like disbarment) for government attorneys who cheat.
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Redistricting news:
In SC, Dems have gotten 40% of the vote or more in every presidential election since 1992. I think the comments of the governor of South Carolina that he thinks there should be zero Democrats from SC in Congress are un-American and disgusting. Clyburn’s seat survives for now as South Carolina Republicans buck Trump on redistricting - POLITICO
Dems tend to get between 34% and 39% of the presidential vote in Alabama for the past 20 years. Two of the three judges in this ruling are Trump appointees: Federal court blocks Alabama’s midterm gerrymandering plan, a blow for Republicans - POLITICO
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This one is tricky when you read the details and doesn't represent the final answer in the challenge to this map. Dems have gotten between 34% and 42% in presidential elections over last 20 years and the new map would potentially create 100% GOP representation Tennessee mid-decade redistricting survives first legal challenge | WPLN News
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Nerd out with me for a moment: Faith and folly - by Marvin Barth - Seriously, Marvin?! (I mean, read the initial question about the red and black marbles...I wonder if your immediate answer will be different from mine.)
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The pope apologizes for slavery: Pope apologizes for Vatican's role in legitimizing slavery | AP News
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Almost seems worth it to go to medical school: This is the highest-paying job in Colorado, according to federal data
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A couple of topics I think are important that I didn't get to yesterday:
It's NUTS that Algore got a Nobel Prize for utter nonsense, and then got rich by buying into the "green" energy nonsense and pushing government to spend billions in contracts and subsidies. The inconvenient truth about Al Gore’s climate alarmism
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A little more about AI that I didn't get to yesterday: Slowing Things Down. - by John Ellis and Tom Smith
Fascinating take from a big player in AI...who was invited to speak at the presentation of the Encyclical: Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah's remarks on Pope Leo XIV's encyclical "Magnifica humanitas" \ Anthropic
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Add this to the list of why I won't vote for JD Vance: The New Big Labor GOP - WSJ
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Trying to get kids interested in Star Wars again. My kid saw it and said it was very good. And Baby Yoda is a good vehicle for toys and other stuff to sell to kids. (And a certain kind of adult.)
‘Mandalorian and Grogu’ Tops Box Office as Disney Bets on ‘Star Wars’ Revival - The New York Times
Mandalorian & Grogu Box Office: Star Wars Movie Opens to $100 Million
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Today's Videos
This is a thing I've heard of that this dude thinks is very important and I've gone almost my entire life almost never using.
I've always loved Ferraris and would love to own one someday, but even if I were really rich I don't think I'd consider this. I don't think the outside looks good enough (although the interior looks amazing) and it looks like less than 300 miles range (which might be fine, really, for a car that you'd probably never take on a road trip, but still...range anxiety!) Clearly I'm not alon
Ferrari Launches $640,000, Jony Ive-Designed, Glass-Clad Electric Speedster - WSJ