Colorado Luis

And what do we do with witches?

I have not been too concerned about the religious right's stated desire to take over the federal courts, because as everyone knows the courts already have a majority of Republican appointed judges and yet those are the same judges who are writing the decisions the religious right decries as "anti-Christian."  The new religious right jurisprudence just isn't accepted even in the conservative legal mainstream.  But now I'm rethinking my position after learning about the decision of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that allowed a Virginia county to ban a Wiccan practitioner (a self-described witch) from giving the invocation at Board of Supervisors meetings.

The decision (which can be read here in pdf format) seems to rest on a couple of contradictory points.  First, that because the county didn't identify a particular sect as its favored sect (the court felt it important to emphasize that the county allowed Muslims and "Spanish-speaking Protestants" to deliver the invocation), they hadn't established a religion.  Second, the court interpreted some testimony from the plaintiff as indicating that she was a polytheist (even though she described herself as a "monotheistic witch") and ruled that it is OK for a county to determine that polytheistic religions are out of bounds for public prayer, evidently because those religions are not part of the "American civil religion," whatever that is supposed to mean.

Seems to me that either the county is favoring some religions over others, or they aren't.  It's a pretty narrow view of the Establishment Clause to say that all that is prohibited is the endorsement of a particular brand of Christianity over other brands.  And in view of the religious right talking point that conservative Protestants and Catholics alike are part of a "community of faith," the potential for mischief from this idea is pretty obvious.

Oh, and the opinion is written by J. Harvie Wilkinson, III, who is widely mentioned as a possible Bush appointee the next time a Supreme Court seat becomes available, which could be as early as this summer.  Could this opinion be part of an audition for the expected vacancy?

This issue isn't going to go away either.  Wicca (or neo-paganism in general) is the fastest growing religion in the United States, and it looks to me like Denver is one of the more Wiccan-friendly communities around.  (Or maybe that's just the people I hang out with.)  There is a certain tradition of keeping witchcraft in the closet, but with so many more people becoming Wiccans, and with religion in general being allowed such a strong, visible role in government these days, battles over Wiccan inclusion are bound to continue.  And that isn't necessarily a good thing.  Like the bumper sticker says, the last time we mixed politics and religion, people got burned at the stake.

Saturday Beer Blogging 04.30.05

National Homebrewing Day is next Saturday, May 7.  And that means it is time to get ready for Big Brew, when homebrewers around the country get together at noon Mountain time to brew the same recipes.  This year's recipes are a Rye IPA and a porter.  Organizers have helpfully included both all-grain and extract-based versions.  Usually you can participate at your local homebrew shop if you don't know someone who is so into it that they have registered their home as a Big Brew location.

I might actually brew on National Homebrewing Day, assuming I don't get to it this weekend.  But it won't be either of those recipes, as enticing as the Rye IPA sounds.  I've got ESB ingredients that have been sitting around for a couple of weeks and really need to get used.  If nothing else, I'll celebrate National Homebrewing Day with a couple of cold ones!

What's The Matter With Vatican City?

I should probably mention that I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of the Roman Catholic Church, so when I write about the death of Pope John Paul II I'm coming at it from a purely secular, political perspective.

I'm old enough to remember the last couple of papal selections (one right after the other), and I remember the selection of Karol Wojtyla to be Pope was viewed (among other things) as a strike against the Communist rulers of his native Poland.  The Pope definitely lived up to that billing -- he probably had more influence than any other single person is bringing about the fall of the various Communist regimes in Eastern Europe and later the USSR itself.  Definitely more influence that Ronald Reagan.

You might expect the Pope would have also had a thing or two to say about the other Cold War superpower.  But last year it looked to me that at best the Vatican stood by as American bishops pretty openly took the side of George Bush against John Kerry in the presidential campaign, and Pete Coors over Ken Salazar in the Colorado Senate campaign, based solely on the issue of reproductive choice.  Certainly the GOP leadership views the Catholic hierarchy as part of its governing coalition.

That doesn't strike me as something inevitable, and I definitely don't get why the Catholic leadership has allowed itself to become part of the modern GOP political apparatus when it is obvious that the GOP supports a lot of things that are in opposition to Catholic principles.  Certainly that pro-GOP tilt doesn't seem to match up with the Pope's public statements, particularly his vocal stand against Bush's invasion of Iraq.  Perhaps Vatican bureaucrats took advantage of the Pope's illness to push the Church closer to the Republican Party, and a new, hale and hearty Pope will put a halt to that.

As a non-Catholic American, I really hope the College of Cardinals does not pick a new Pope who will selectively prioritize a few hot button cultural warfare issues, while ignoring a lot of other values I thought the Church was supposed to support, like opposition to war and support for efforts to help the poor.  All I really can ask is that the new Pope not allow the Church to wade into American politics in the selective, pro-Republican partisan way it did in 2004.

The Golden Age of DU Hockey?

Is this the golden age of DU Pioneer hockey?  Well, no, considering they won the NCAA championship back to back in 1960 and '61 and again in '68 and '69.  But having a chance to win the championship back to back again this year, after their stunning victory over Maine last year, is definitely up there.  And to get to the championship game by beating their rival Colorado College in the national semifinal game has to be especially sweet.

Saturday night at 5:00 p.m. Mountain time will be the championship game, with DU facing the boys from Ed Schultz country, the University of North Dakota.  (As a matter of principle I root against all teams with offensive Indian team names, and having one face the DU Pioneers is especially problematic.)  With the NHL lockout in full effect, look for ESPN to break out the high tech track cameras for the game.  Heck, I even made a Barry Melrose sighting yesterday.  Really, as a hockey fix during the lockout it doesn't get any better than this.

Update:  DU 4, North Dakota 1.  Congratulations to the Pioneers!

Libertarian Lite?

I'll be the first to admit that Ken Salazar has gotten off to a crappy start as a Senator, with his vote against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge the only highlight so far.  Well, OK, not the first -- I'd have several e-mails in my in-box telling me how crappy he is the moment I fired up the computer.

But anyway . . . now we are finally seeing the Ken Salazar I thought we'd get when we elected him -- cosponsoring, along with Sens. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), Larry Craig (R-Id.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the SAFE Act, which would roll back a number of the most noxious provisions of the so-called USA PATRIOT Act.  (Link via Ralph.)  TalkLeft calls the bill a "great beginning" toward fixing the problems with the PATRIOT Act.

The SAFE Act is endorsed by the ACLU and the Gun Owners of America, and they've got a Western Republican as a co-sponsor.  That's why I see this sponsorship as the Salazar I thought we would get -- not as liberal as me, maybe needing a Republican on his side to give him some bipartisan cover, but actually doing some good work.  Really, with the PATRIOT Act as unpopular as it is, and not just among liberals, I'm surprised there aren't more co-sponsors on this thing.  I guess joining forces with gun rights advocates and civil libertarians to roll back the Bush Administration's supposed anti-terrorism powers isn't such an obviously smart move elsewhere as it is in Colorado.

Anyway, here's hoping this is the moment Ken Salazar finds his footing as a U.S. Senator.

Update:  Ken also ditches the DLC.  Running with the pack?  Well sure, but still it is a good move.

Blizzard of 2005

You have got to love Colorado -- yesterday I was driving around with the sunroof open in gorgeous spring sunshine, today we've got blizzard conditions in the metro area with a foot of snow in Denver possible.  I went to the Nuggets-Sonics game last night and I was kind of amazed at all the people who were wearing shorts and/or sandals.  Didn't they hear we could possibly get a storm as big as the one in March 2003?  They ended up being fine -- it was still dry (though cloudy and windy) after the game.  In fact, at late as 4:30 in the morning the rain hadn't changed into snow.  But now, about four hours later, we've got four inches on our balcony.

For all you out of staters, it is actually quite normal for us here in the Front Range to get our biggest snowstorms in September, October, March or April, when there is enough water in the air to make a big storm (as I explained here).

I have to drive down to Littleton today, but other than that I think it will be a day to stay indoors.  Our wireless internet connection is working fine (obviously), so I may live blog this storm a bit more.

Update 12:40 p.m.: We made it to Littleton and back safely.  Now we've got about ten inches here in east central Denver.  There was a lot of drifting down in the south suburbs and a few wrecks on the road.

Update 3:15 pm.:  The snow seems to be lighter now but the crosswinds are still pretty strong.  I think we have twelve inches on the ground here, and it is the wet stuff.  Pictures below below the jump.

Continue reading "Blizzard of 2005"

Denver Three Update

Colorado's Congressional Democrats (all four of them -- heh) are keeping the pressure on about the expulsion of three Social Security supporters from Bush's pro-privatization rally on March 21 in Denver.  And they have gotten two Republicans to join in the criticism.  Bob Beauprez's criticism -- and protestations that his office, which for some reason was tapped to handle ticket distribution for an event that was actually held in Rep. Diane DeGette's district, did not impose a pro-Bush purity test -- is not surprising, because he evidently wants to run for governor and being linked to this fiasco can't help.  More surprising is that Marilyn Musgrave has joined the chorus of criticism.  The rest of Colorado's delegation in Washington (Allard, Hefley and Tancredo) are keeping their mouths shut.  That's exactly zero congresspeople defending Bush on this one.

The episode, and ones like it in North Dakota and now New Jersey too, have really taken the shine off Bush's claim to be holding a dialogue with Americans about the fate of Social Security.  So even if the episode doesn't lead to a damaging lawsuit against the GOP (although they probably are working on it) it has already hurt the privatization plan.

Saturday Beer Blogging 04.02.05

I went to the Chinook Tavern and tried a pretty different (and expensive) beer -- Fuller's Vintage 2004, a limited edition beer in a numbered bottle (mine was something like 90034) that comes in a box to help keep light away from the hops.  It's bottle conditioned, like a homebrew, meaning it is allowed to keep fermenting and naturally carbonate in the bottle.  Only 95,000 bottles were made (so Chinook Tavern has some of the last, evidently), and the brewer suggests that this beer can be stored and aged like a wine.  Definitely different from your normal ale, which is ready to drink sooner than a lager would be.

Well, obviously I didn't wait a few years to see how the beer matured in the bottle.  I thought it was very smooth from the aging, with a mild spiciness from the hops I don't usually expect from an English strong ale.  But I didn't think it was incredibly better than a homebrewed English ale.  If I want to try a seriously aged ale, I figure I'll just try something someone has brewed at home and kept around for a few years.