CO's new poet laureate. What do you think about apartment fees? Golly, why would WY want a law to shield wolf hunters? Maybe to keep them from being pilloried in liberal news outlets?
Our state's poet laureate
Gov Polis recently named Andrea Gibson as our state's poet laureate.
I don't know much of her work, but I did look up some and a sample is below.
It's decent (not a huge fan of spoken-word and/or slam poetry frankly),and it certainly meets Polis' criteria of making sure a diversity of voices are extant here in Colorado. See also the Sun profile linked second.
I don't know if you like poetry, but if not, let me share a tip from someone who didn't really like it much either (when I was younger).
The tip is this: turn your brain off. Poetry, like painting, like writing, like music is not something you have to "figure out". There is no one single theme or key that you have to get.
You just have to shut off your brain and listen.
Want to know what hit me while listening to this poem, well besides the theme that we're all equal in our mortality?
Two things.
Why on earth wouldn't you turn and start a conversation with your fellow human instead of assuming a bunch of things about him or her?
Wouldn't your assuming something about the other person put you in the same boat with them in terms of the personality characteristics you impute to them?
https://coloradosun.com/2023/09/14/colorado-poet-laureate-andrea-gibson/
Related:
The short video below is a group of Pennsylvania Democrats describing the causes behind political division.
I put this here and it is related because there is a tendency in human beings to see the "other" as being less rational. To see their beliefs and actions as being motivated not by reason but by fear, stupidity, etc.
Quite evident here. Also, before you even think it, yes, conservatives see liberals the same way.
What do you think about apartment fees?
I don't know if you're old enough to remember a time when dinosaurs roamed the earth and banks (and other companies) didn't nickel and dime you to death with "fees" and charges.
I am. I remember once a while back, when a friend (who had switched to a giant corporate bank from the one I still bank at) told me that she couldn't call and do much banking over the phone because the bank charged her to talk to a human.
Yes, you read that right. She got charged to speak to a human at the institution she put her money in so that they could make YET MORE money off her.
I was thinking of that while I read the op ed below and thought I'd toss it out there for you to look at and/or comment. Your thoughts on it are welcome if you're interested in piping up.
Let's be clear. I do not, at all, endorse or agree with everything the author says in the below. This guy's so far left he makes Ho Chi Minh look like Rush Limbaugh.
But we do overlap on a couple things.
Excess fees, the kind that exist outside of genuine costs to a landlord are not okay. If you want more money, put the rent higher.
They are particularly not okay if they're not disclosed in the lease and someone is not aware of them when they sign up to rent.
Not doing so is not fair in my book. I join the author in calling for an modification to law and an end to what I regard as abusive.
There was one that I'm kind of lukewarm on. This would be another thing I'd toss out to you to think over or comment on. What about unpaid fees being added to a rationale to evict?
I'm leaning toward being okay with it, but with the proviso that my two points above hold: any fees used in this manner should again be tied to something and be disclosed up front.
What do you think?
https://coloradosun.com/2023/08/24/rent-extra-fees-colorado-housing-landlords-tenants-eviction-opinion/
Why would they need a law like that in Wyoming?
The article below, besides being a wonderful example of press bias, is at heart about how wolves that may stray up into Wyoming are allegedly (this is part of the bias, little to no real evidence outside of someone who knows someone who knows someone) being killed by ranchers and others.**
Adding shock to scandal here is the fact that Wyoming will not release data on the number of wolves killed or who does the killing, except in aggregate, due to a law up there that prevents the identity of anyone killing a wolf from being revealed.
Looking around the room at the Sun and at the reporter who wrote this article and seeing no hands up, I'll be brave here and ask the question that neither thought to address.
Why on earth, do you suppose, would Wyoming have a law like that?
Why on earth would they have deemed it necessary to make a law in Wyoming to shield the identity of people who LEGALLY kill wolves?
Could it be from left-leaning papers and rabid environmentalists who would probably love nothing better than to be able to publicly pillory the nasty, brutish types who would do such a thing?
**There are regions of Wyoming where it is legal to kill wolves.
https://coloradosun.com/2023/09/12/wyoming-is-killing-colorados-wolves-again-and-the-states-keeping-it-secret/
Related:
Colorado ranchers (see the link below) have the green light to kill wolves that are attacking livestock.
This is a result of 10(j) rule designation of wolves as an "experimental population" which came down much faster than at least I expected it to and which, to give the devil his due, Gov Polis hinted would happen when he vetoed the bill that would have required that the state not introduce wolves until such a designation was handed down.
Still would have preferred it be in law that we wait, but I'll take whatever little crumb I can get re. wolves and ranchers.
https://coloradosun.com/2023/09/15/wolf-reintroduction-colorado-federal-rule/