Imagine that well-armed newcomers to your country decide that you can no longer live in your home (and your country) and that the only reason you are prevented from exercising your legal right to return is that you belong to the wrong religion and ethnic group.

I’m delighted to report that installation of traffic lights is nearly completed at one of the more dangerous intersections I’ve observed anywhere — N. Broadway & U.S. 36 here in Boulder County, just outside the city limits.

Boulder Valley doesn’t need any more programs for gifted students. Yes, there are thousands of gifted and talented students within our public school system, but there are also more than enough classrooms, programs and schools to help them achieve excellence.

A message to non-right-wingers ONLY: I wish that writers like Clay Evans and others would lay off the criticisms of Sarah Palin. On the last two Thanksgivings, I first gave thanks for Sarah’s candidacy in 2008.

This Thanksgiving while eating breakfast in my home next to a bike path, I witnessed two dog fights. The first involved 3 dogs all were off leash and with their owners. While the dogs snapped and snarled at each other, their owners lamely shouted at them to “stop it” until they were able to grab their pet and haul them away from the other loose dogs. The second happened in a similar manner and involved just two dogs.

The criticisms about sending Boulder city officials to Copenhagen for an environmental conference are misguided, on two fronts.

Friday was the last CU football game of my tenure as a student here. It was bittersweet, because I got to yell my lungs out at the Huskers, but (as expected) we ended up losing, capping off a 3-9 season.

Why no Wi-Fi?
Believe it or not, the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse lacks a Wi-Fi network, yet Internet-savvy Boulder helped Dushanbe establish its Dushanbe Cyber Café. Shall we seek assistance from Dushanbe?

I want to thank all supporting Boulder’s sesquicentennial events and activites during our 150th year drawing to a close this Dec. 5 and 6 week-end . Sesquicentennial volunteers will once again participate in the Parade of Lights as well as on Sunday sponsor a special afternoon of local musicians and dancers while participating in the Millennium Harvest House Hotel ’s 50th anniversary celebration.

I had only heard of Michael Bennet casually when the grumblings over his appointment to the senate by Governor Ritter happened. I too, was one of those people who thought the governor should have chosen Andrew Romanoff for the position, but since the governor was the person I supported and voted for, I felt that this decision was his to make.

It was with utmost dismay that I read Nicholas Riccardi’s article in Saturdays Camera about the case against Sam Robinson, filed by Renee Legro, concerning the attack Legro sustained by Robinson’s sheep dogs.

Although surely not the intended message, the Sherffius cartoon re Health Care Reform (Camera, Nov. 29) carries a powerful reminder of the fallacies of liberalism. The two social entitlement programs referenced, Social Security and Medicare, are both essentially bankrupt, vastly underfunded and unable to keep their promises despite assurances from the enacting politicians that they were financially well conceived.

Sheep grazing is allowed on public lands. Whether this is desirable or not is another issue. If the federal government issues grazing allotments, sheep ranchers should be able to protect their herds from predation. Guard animals are a much more ecologically appropriate means of controlling predation than poisons or aerial gunning. Guard dogs are, by nature aggressive animals, bred to protect sheep from coyotes and other carnivores.

David Brooks is a most thought-provoking writer. I never fail to read his editorials and usually agree with him but his piece, The Values Question, (Nov., 26) has to be answered.

As its first net-zero energy development, Springleaf is a handsome and wonderful contribution to the extraordinary green building scene in Boulder (First Zero-Energy Takes Root in Boulder, Sat. 11/28). Nevertheless I would like to straighten out some misinformation in the article. The article makes it seem as if between the time that the “tinkerers” worked on their homes to make them net-zero energy a few years ago, and the very high end $600-$800/SF net-zero energy homes built more recently, nothing was done. The NZE House, of which I am the architect and homeowner, was completed almost a year ago.

Last week significant facts turned up on the hacked climate research on the CRU web site. The Camera ran one small article on it. The current Camera editors have given zero coverage according to a simple search on its own web. Just the discussion on how persons interfered in the FOIA process should have lit off the fuses by the press. But the press has its minds made up and does not intend to let facts interfere with their opinion.

In response to Sheriff Ted Mink’s Guest Commentary of November 26, I must also respond.
Why is it that Hwy. 93 is not on CDOT’s planning board? Many of us have watched as improvements were made to other, much less traveled roads and wondered as the here again, gone again, an extra lane appears and disappears on Hwy 93. It is dangerous at mid-day, hazardous at rush hour, and a terror after dark or during snow storms.

David Brooks leads us astray in the health care debate in his 11/26 column. I disagree with his claim that the choice is between the values of “vitality and security”. He thinks that if we pass this reform “America would be a less youthful, ragged and unforgiving nation, and a more middle-aged, civilized and sedate one.”

On Nov. 11th, ABC News asked Obama on television if he would give up his current health care plan to go under the ones being pushed through Congress. He refused to answer the question. Not so mute, however, are those House and Senate Bills (creating 111 new administrative groups).

Criminal Scientists?
I’m confused. After reading numerous comments like one proclaiming that local Nobel laureates “have some explaining to do,” I guess I need to reevaluate some things. Computer hackers who have illegally accessed emails and documents at a British research facility are hero vigilanties. Climate scientists who have devoted their entire careers to study and find solutions to one of the biggest issues of the century should divert all their attention to phony claims of conspiracy and defend themselves in the court of public opinion. This is quite a paradigm shift.