Lawyers, Lawyering

 Firearm Wrongs in Colorado

A long discussion of this state’s firearm laws as relating to the many ongoing court challenges.

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Our Attorney General, and likely next Governor, uses this one line in the Heller decision to justify all the state’s restrictions.

. “The Constitution leaves the District of Columbia a variety of tools for combating that problem, including some measures regulating handguns

Whiskey is for Drinking, Water is for Fighting

The fight goes on over the Colorado River water. California and Nevada have done little to improve their infrastructure while demanding more water, counting on political clout to get their way.

Seems they have bet wrong.

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No Dog in the Fight

As someone who lived on Colorado’s Western Slope I’ve always been aware of the skiing business. With some amusement, the angst of skiers sitting for hours on I-70 so they can max out their credit cards warms my evil heart.

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Followed by this.

Blue Colorado Blues

A 28 minute video on the financial woes of ten Colorado trust fund snot’s favorite towns isn’t good news for (P)regressives. What it means for the state political climate remains to be seen but all ten vote for, and support financially, Democrats.

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Last winter’s scant snowfall will only make the town’s problems worse.

Both Sisty and I are Ski Town USA (Steamboat Springs) High School graduates. She was a far better skier than me.

Several relatives are buried in the Breckenridge Cemetery. It has little maintenance which, to me, is a sign the current area residents have no ties to the community or the area. There are twenty year old trees growing among the graves.

As the carpetbaggers, idle rich and ultra wealthy move on to despoil Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming these towns will once again fade away.

The Train won’t Keep Rolling, Taxes Will

Progress! We have a new way to increase taxes and neuter TABOR. This will guarantee full employment for many lawyers. Oh, WSF, you are soooo cynical! Bite me!

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Car Story

In the 1970’s I owned several Cornbinders aka International Pickups and Travelalls.  They were terrible for rusting from road salt. One jewel was held together with Bondo and paint but still looked good. (I bought it in that condition knowing what I was getting)The spouse wanted something smaller and I traded it in on a used 1967 Mustang plus cash. Nice, V-8, automatic with cold A/C. After exchanging titles and cash I was leaving when the dealer’s lot attendant backed the Travelall into a spot too fast and hit a post. Most of the exterior door panels separated below the windowsills and landed on the ground.

 While the dealer took in the scene with his hands alongside his head, I carefully exited the lot and never looked back.

 As always, YMMV

 

The Dog Ate My Homework

 

I hit the wrong key and wiped out the blog I was working on. As a Latter Day Luddite I’m not smart enough to recover it. Instead you get another car story.

A multipart story involving a lazy cop, a stereo thief, a medical emergency, and a rare car.

One year I managed a two man pot lot off Washington Avenue in Thornton, CO just North of 88^th Avenue. From the street there was a ten foot section of gravel then a sidewalk. There was one entrance and a 600 sq/ft office halfway to the rear of the lot.

I ran the lot and the owner roamed around buying cars. All car lots in Colorado are closed on Sunday and we closed at 6 pm.  By pot lot, I mean older vehicles purchased for cash, no bank financing and no buy/here pay here.

A Thornton motorcycle cop motorcycle cop with his laser speed gun liked to sit on our NE corner next to an older gas station. While neither the owner nor myself liked it, we didn’t feel like getting into a pissing contest with the local PD.

I’m a proponent of frequently moving inventory around. Often when your lot is chaotic you will get customers coming in. Why, I can’t define but it happened so often I’m a believer. Other benefits are finding vehicles with dead batteries and giving the lot a new look.

Want to start in a sales hole? Have a vehicle you need to jump start in front of a prospective customer.

We had a very rare vehicle, a Mitsubishi Galant with a five speed manual transmission. Mitsubishi only imported a few thousand each year. That setup was wicked fast and so innocuous it didn’t attract attention.

One afternoon while I was moving cars around, the Mitsubishi was parked directly behind the motorcycle cop. All keys were on the hoods. A customer came in and I spent ten minutes with them. When I came back to the lot the Mitsubishi was gone. I ran up to the cop and he told me to call 911! Which I did and in another ten minutes three patrol cars were on the lot. The other Thornton officers were clearly embarrassed. We never got the Mitsubishi back and I paid the $500 insurance deductible.

The next day when I spied the motorcycle cop setting up, I told him in clear and forceful words to never set foot on our lot unless he was a customer. And, he never did.

The owner bought a small forklift. It was unpowered but had an electric motor to operate the lift. Why he bought it mystified me but, oh well, sell the damn thing. I would park a few vehicles on the gravel strip out front and that was where I would push that damned heavy anchor every morning. One day a driver in a Dodge Dakota had a seizure going southbound on Washington. I watched as his vehicle drifted across the street and slammed into the forklift pushing it into a convertible LeBaron (K car version). He was flopping around but held in place by his seatbelt. I called 911 then monitored his condition from outside the Dakota until the EMTs arrived. (of course, he had no insurance or driver license, just saying). Best case, the damned forklift was damaged beyond repair.

The owner bought a “customized” Chevy pickup. Lowered, 6 cyl short bed, painted bright yellow with a red velvet interior. It did have an elaborate stereo/speakers set up you could hear a block away. I had it parked on the side street of the lot that was visible from Washington. One evening I returned to the lot about an hour after closing and found the passenger door open and an individual standing beside the truck partially inside. When he heard me he pulled back but not fast enough and I closed the door trapping his right hand in the door and causing him some discomfort. His wallet was in his pocket so I removed it, removed his driver license and tossed his wallet into the street.

After informing him I now knew who he was, where he lived, and the consequences that would befall him if anything happened to our lot in the future I opened the door and he took off.

When I reconnected with Little Hitler aka Steve Lance, I left the pot lot. While it wasn’t it wasn’t going to make me rich, it was fun and the owner and I remained on good terms.

As always, YMMV

Medical Advice You Can Trust

 

Doctor YouTube

The biggest frustration in my life right now is belly fat. Diet and exercise are fine, I’m stronger, but the weight doesn’t go away.

A theme on Facebook and YouTube currently is a “fatty liver” and stored cortisol in the liver. Remedies are offered, for a price.

Every year when I visit the VA to prove I’m still alive, they run fifty tests on me.  Living in a building with retired nurses, I ask their opinion. The only concerns they see is slightly elevated glucose. At my age that isn’t a big deal.

The liver function tests are dead normal. My morning diet includes flax seed, chia seeds, and walnuts; all are recommended for a healthy liver.

Titanic Menu Planner

Denver’s Major.

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By many measures, Denver is a crime ridden failing city. Solution? Showcase you are doing something by going after a trivial problem with zero chance of winning. Blue city playbook

Way back Machine

Recently we old farts were talking about the gas crisis 55 mph speed limit. At the time I was working for a prefab/modular builder in Ogden, UT. My primary responsibility was a sales representative for a territory including Wyoming, Western Colorado, Southern Utah and Eastern Nevada. I would average eight quality face to face calls per week. When 55 mph came in that dropped to five per week. That was the start of a nearly ten year kick in the nation’s financial nuts. My income didn’t drop but my time at home with my family was greatly diminished. 

Do you care to speculate how much the 100 kilometer speed limit in Canada is costing them?

Who is old enough to have owned a Fuzzbuster?

 Car Story

My fair advantage at the car lot. (yes, I’m an asshole)

Fresh inventory arrives and there is a gem! You have one or two hot prospects for that car but so do other salesmen.

Technique  #1.  “Lose” the keys.

Technique #2.   Bury it in the storage area so deep it is hard to find. Or, do both #1 and #2.

Technique #3.    The pro move. Loosen a spark plug wire just enough to make the engine run rough. Being older than dirt, my selling days were when there were still distributor caps which I preferred. Slipping something loose in the fuel injection system was an option.

Technique #4.   Keep a selection of blown fuses to install as needed. Most starter systems take a 30 amp. Works best when the car is buried out back.

Confess. “Folks, every salesperson on this lot are trying to sell this car and I wanted it to be here for you. Don’t worry about the misfire. Let’s take it for a test drive and it will be running perfectly before we get back”.

The downside to these methods was the occasional intense conversations with others after the customer drove off with the happy tag in the rear window. Salesmen and/or managers would make ugly accusations. Who me?

As always, YMMV

 

Snapy Click Bait Title

 

The Blue State Way

Submit, Proletariat

Here is another way for heavy handed blue state functionaries to put a boot to the neck of the productive citizen, being shared state to state.

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Key line;

The bill also created another appointed bureaucracy via the “statewide recycling advisory board.”

School Resource Officer?

On the surface, this seems like a good idea. Is it practical?

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 Wolves

The sad saga of wolf introduction in Colorado continues.

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Tone Deaf or Up Yours?

Emperor Polis paid homage to Colorado’s 150 year statehood with a Howdy Doody getup. Is he so politically tone deaf he didn’t realize he pissed off every conservative in Colorado? Or, is it his way of saving fuck you, you rural hicks? Either way term limits are showing him the door. Expect to see him try for the Donkey President nomination.

Handsome Grandson

He looks as mischievous as his late father. 5^th generation soldier (National  Guard).

Car Story

Kind of, sort of.

First. This

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Maybell, CO the first weekend of May is the Sombrero horse drive. 

You are a trucker with an oversizedload. You are eastbound on US 40 on Sunday. The road is virtually empty, as you had planned. You hit Maybell and you are in the middle of 200-500 horses moving up the road. You wait a minimum of one hour. On the plus side you are at the volunteer fire department and they are selling homemade burritos.

As always, YMMV

Here Kitty Kitty

 

Mountain Lion Encounter

LL’s recent VM post about a maundering lion sparked a memory of my encounter in a very unlikely place.  Near Brighton, CO is Barr Lake State Park. The water is owned by farmers and the lake is often drawn down to a puddle. Around the lake is an eight mile hiking trail.

Much of the trail is an elevated walkway. It is very much in an urban area.

Circa 2008 I was hiking the trail and was on a long elevated section with no exits when I heard something running in my direction. My thought was a dog. Around the corner 20’ away was a mountain lion running at full speed. I had nowhere to go. The lion went past me brushing my legs while giving me a quick look. The lion didn’t slow and continued up the elevated walkway.

It took a few moments to regain my composure. My intended direction was in the direction the lion came from. Deciding I didn’t want to find out what caused the lion to run, I reversed course and followed the lion. At the first opportunity I got off the walkway and followed the canal back to my car.

You second guess yourself after an event. I was armed but didn’t think to draw my revolver. I could have jumped off the walkway into the muck below. What I did was stand stock still.

California High Speed Rail – Hold My Beer

There is a vocal persistent group that wants high speed rail along the Front Range.

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If there was a profit to be made, the Union Pacific or BNSF would already offer passenger service. If we must have it, pay the railroads to provide it. They own the rails already and have a modicum of expertise in making trains run on time.

Oh no, WSF, that would curtail cushy jobs for the well connected Gender Studies elites who are reliable Democrat activists and voters.

Data Centers

The ad Microsoft is running in Wyoming.

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Bullshit at World Cup Level

According the U.S. News & World Report, Colorado is rated #1 in the nation for education. What is their criteria? Wokeism and New World Order?

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My guess is Colorado schools have lower standards, allowing for more participation trophies, than other states.

Union Pacific 4014 Big Boy

Taken 7/27/2026 at 711 O Street, Greeley CO

They were returning home to Cheyenne after a long trip back East. I picked this spot because the engine would be working hard climbing a grade. Instead, they were stopped for about 30 minutes.

 The UP has a reputation for squeezing every dime to make a nickel. There is rolling stock to be moved and a caboose to be moved to storage. Why not use the steamer? After all, it is going to Cheyenne anyway.

This handsome gentleman is my good friend Santa Clause, aka Paul Schindeldecker.  He is a professional Santa Clause during the season.

Painful Listening II

My neighbor is back. Toes amputated, IC for three days as his heart isn’t strong, and now has been diagnosed with MRSA.

Another resident’s son is a lay minister. Tonight he spent about an hour with my neighbor.

My neighbor has a Spyder. I advised him to get out and ride it as much as possible. Having to focus on the machine will break the cycle of brooding. Jesse, you must keep moving!

Many of us have seen a person just give up and wait to die. Problem is, death’s schedule is so unpredictable you may wallow in misery for years. In the days ahead he will have his neighbors support. We can hope that will left his spirits and he will fight on.

Thank You. I won’t be able to attend 

They will likely welcome all who show upMORE

Car Story

A retired long haul trucker, chronic drunk with cognitive decline resident of our senior apartment building, owns a Green 1999 Ford F-150. Currently not drivable due to a bad transmission, local church members are fixing it for him. Misplaced compassion, IMO.

The man is manipulator. The truck isn’t licensed, isn’t insured and likely won’t be when returned to him. When it was running he had two or three minor accidents. He escaped consequences by leaving the scene. He was using counterfeit temporary tags. I understand you can buy these on line but have never looked into it.  I doubt he is smart enough to do it himself so is getting help from someone.

Several residents, including myself, are prepared to call the local police the moment we see him driving off the property. Are we vigilantes?

As always, YMMV