Showing posts with label denver post. Show all posts
Showing posts with label denver post. Show all posts

Monday, February 21, 2011

An Incident at Circle K and Denver Post Memories

Stopped at my local Circle K for some stuff and while waiting in line was asked if I wanted to enter a drawing for $250 shopping spree.  (There is always a line at this store, primarily the result of kids hanging, smoking, meeting and probably dealing something illegal. At least that is what was going on when I was kid.  I laughed about it then and still laugh about it.)  I said where is the shopping spree?  The gentlemen answered, Kings and we just need your first name and phone number.  So I gave them to him.  He then asked, do you subscribe to the Denver Post?  I replied, not anymore.  I was a subscriber for over 30 years (I was incorrect, closer to 26), but I stopped.  I then turned to the counter and made my purchase.
As I was leaving the gentlemen said, Dark and Bloody, why did you stop subscribing?  I am a manager there and I want you to subscribe.  Now I could have said, it is a silly liberal rag (the next day I saw the first page and lower right hand was a headline: Global Warming is Changing Forests.  Geez, where to start?  There is no proven global warming.  There is climate change on the normal small scale and while human activities may affect it, there has always been climate change and human activities have always affected the climate.  Forests are always changing.  There is a well documented cycle in the Rockies of fire, Aspen, Limber, Douglas and Firs and fire. What has changed is man has stopped the fire and more or less frozen the current state.  The climate change furor is a classic example of authoritarians trying to stop the tides (in order to control your actions) combined with the simple minded viewing the current state as normal.  Where we are today is only normal in that it is changing. Change is normal.  Think otherwise?  Then ask the Anazazi’s or the English grape farmers of the 12th century. Or at least read about them.  Enough.) .
I could have said, it is boring.  I could have said, the columnists seem ignorant or stupid or both.  Or I could have told him about the email exchange regarding the death of the Coors murderer.  Instead of that, I said, “Red Fenwick died. (He was born in Kentucky btw.)  Kisling died.  You fired Thomas (of the San Luis Valley) and Tomas left.  Then one day at breakfast I realized I was reading about some problem or another some homosexual was having for the fourth time that week and it made me sick.  Look, a person is gay, that is their business, but I decided I wasn’t going to read about them or it or their so called problems anymore. They are human and they have human problems. That’s why.”
He looked at me with an open mouth.  I left grinning. 

Friday, January 21, 2011

I Picked a Fight Last Sunday

Don't know why I did it.  I know what sparked it, but why did I let the spark catch?  Must have been frustration with the media over the Tuscon shooting or maybe the lack of realistic coverage of the real issues facing the US.
Here is what happened:
Was reading an article in the Denver Post about the death of man who was convicted of murder in 1961.  This fellow murdered a member of the Coors family and served only 19 years before being released in 1980.  I remember the controversy about his release, but apparently the decision was reasonably sound since the convicted murderer lived in in relative anonymity in SW Denver from 1980 until his death in 2010.  In the article I learned that this man had previously been convicted of murder in California in the 1950's and simply walked away from his prison and moved to Colorado.
Wow, two murder convictions and you serve only 19 years or so.. The fight started over a sentence the DP writer wrote.  It began, If his murder conviction was valid....
If I thought. IF! He was convicted and by definition it was valid.  It could have been unjust, but it was valid.    I'm not happy about what I wrote, but, here it is:

You write:
If his conviction was valid, Corbett took any firsthand knowledge of Coors' abduction and death to his grave.

What a stupid statement.  He was was found guilty.  That makes his conviction valid.  He was never pardoned nor was the conviction overturned. That some have speculated over the years about his innocence and that a few have written good articles about it, does not change that he was found guilty and convicted.  Personally, I am still bothered that he was ever released from prison.  You want to go soft headed about this, think about what Mr. Coors might have accomplished if he had lived.

Best,

D&B


Stupid?

OK, then, innocent people are never found guilty. Got it. No one has ever been exonerated after conviction. Sure.

Tell that to Tim Masters, or any of the nearly 300 other people who have been freed by DNA in teh last 10 years.

Have a good day.

DP Writer

Yawn.  That is not an argument. 
Best,
D&B


No, it's not.


DP Writer

Ok, I didn't do that good of a job explaining why it was a stupid statement and why reciting facts about overturned convictions has nothing to do with the point I made.  Oh, well.  I will do better next time, but how many times have you seen the media introduce doubt or equivocation or on one hand and on the other hand into a discussion where there isn't any doubt.  From now on out, I call them on it.  How about you?