Dropped under the Bus

I took RTD to a meeting in south Denver on the same day as our recent snowstorm.

The plan: avoid the stress of driving on snowy roads, gain time for paperwork and reading, pay less than for gas, and take only a few minutes longer than driving.

It turns out that RTD sometimes cancels express buses when the weather is bad, leaving fewer, slower, more crowded buses. Plus, missing a connection by one minute means waiting 15 or 30 minutes for the next (or longer if it's running late).

No matter. I was 30 minutes late, but I could have been just as late if I'd driven. Public transit is often a viable option, with its own set of advantages and disadvantages.

One of those disadvantages is the farebox.


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No Longer Polar Opposites

As a child I liked to dig deep holes straight down, on the theory that I'd eventually make it to China.

It turns out that if I'd kept going and survived the 10,000 degrees at the earth's core, I would have popped up in the Indian Ocean off Australia. China is exactly opposite us in longitude, but at the same latitude.

It's probably for the best that I didn't make it. At the time, China was in the hands of Mao. Mao was never called Emperor, but he acted as one, perhaps one of the cruelest in China's history. Tens of millions died under his rule, and the souls of many more were crushed.

On his recent trip to the U.S., Chinese President Hu made waves saying that while his country has "made enormous progress," "a lot has to be done in China in terms of human rights."

He is right.


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Talking the Talk

A few months ago, I wrote that Sarah Palin and other Tea Party darlings were fanning dangerous flames with their violent imagery, but that they were within their First Amendment rights to do so.

I also predicted the public would lose its sympathy for Tea Partiers after an event like Tucson's assassination attempt.

It's too soon to say whether my prediction will come true. However, it is clear there's been a backlash, in the form of calls for "civility." I'm opposed to those calls.

It's not that I'm opposed to civility. I'm not. Civility is greatly underrated.

But the principle of free speech is a foundation of this country. The way to protect against speech you don't like is not to tell people to shut up. It's to make a convincing argument why they are wrong.


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