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I can’t help myself. Sometimes I scream at the TV. Sure I do that on all the usual occasions-when the referee makes a bad call (in my opinion), when the killer is sneaking up behind the clueless co-ed; or when they switch to a commercial during a crucial scene. But I have to tell you I screamed so loud the other night our dog headed for cover.

It was on Tuesday night when the Waldo Canyon fire decided it wasn’t going to behave and almost immediately affected the lives of 1000’s. Governor Hickenlooper had flown from Denver to Colorado Springs as a sign of support for the community. He and the Colorado Springs Mayor and Fire Chief were fielding questions from the media when it happened.

A reporter asked, ”Why weren’t we better prepared for this? What can we do in the future to prevent this from happening?” Then he wouldn’t let it go. So I screamed at him. ”Don’t let people build houses in the trees!” I followed this with a second thought, “Cut all the trees down!”

The idea that there is anything that could prevent natural disasters is absurd. The thought that government, at any level, could effectively engineer the prevention is even more absurd. If you don’t want your house to be in danger of fire, don’t build in a forest. If you don’t want your house to be in a tornado, don’t build on the plains. If you don’t want your house to suffer a hurricane, don’t build within several hundred miles of the coast. If you don’t want your house to be in danger of an earthquake, don’t build near a fault line. If you never want to risk losing your home – rent!

I am not immune to the pain and devastation of the people affected by the fire. I have close friends in Colorado Springs who agonized over whether their home would survive or not. It is a very real threat for each of us. We live in an area where fire can destroy our homes. We chose to live in that area and the idea that any government agency from the president on down can prevent my house from some day being destroyed is crazy.

What has happened to the self reliance of the American people? Which Fourth of July did we decide that government could prevent fire, flood, famine, hurricane, etc? Funny, in a very sad sort of way.

Unfortunately that wasn’t the “funniest” thing I saw this week. While coming out of Valley Market on Sunday, I noticed a vehicle with a pair of bumper stickers side by side. The first one said “I vote the Constitution." The second one said “Obama 2012”. As Larry the Cable guy would say, “Now that’s funny, and I don’t care who you are.”

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I have never read a paper that is so biased. It is like this newspaper is a personal message board for the owners to give there opinions about everything. There is never a counter view point, it is just angry stuff about the president. I don't think those two bumper stickers are funny, and I think Larry the Cable Guy is just another person who is trying to dumb us down with simple humor. But I guess people who make up things about the president, who say things that have been disproven as fact, would like Larry the Cable Guy because they are trying to dumb me and the rest of this community down. I think this paper should just come out and admit that they don't like the fact that we have a black president. At least it would be a little truth, instead of making up things why not to like him. A Harvard law school grad doesn't understand the constitution, I myself would always go to a small town biased newspaper owner for facts on the constitution instead of a law school grad. Please. Posted by: shaggy28 - 7/11/2012 6:07:37 PM 0 current warnings - 0 warnings this post - 0 warnings total

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