Deregulator: Alive since '85!

Next: A Levi's commercial featuring "Big Bottom"? A couple of LA blogs say this commercial was first aired on news radio, but now it's on TV: An American Express commercial using "Gimme Some Money" as incidental music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLYk0CgxQbM At last, the royalties will allow the Thamesmen to retire in comfort. Meantime, here's a photo I took today near the casa. Merry Christmas.

I'm baaaack For awhile, anyway. It's been a fun and interesting year, and more on that later. Now, though, just a note to let anyone who's interested know that blizzards are beautiful and quiet and really suck. It started snowing here at about 5 Wednesday morning. The forecasts were for anywhere from 3 inches to 2 feet in the metro area, depending on where the storm settled. I took my normal route to work -- drive to a side street near the downtown Littleton light rail station, take the train downtown, walk to work. (More on the Rocky's amazing new digs later.) Snow picked up during the day and the newsroom made arrangements for workers who might be stranded to stay in a hotel. Most of my colleagues and I decided to head home, figuring that we could take the train or a bus this morning. (You are wrong , mass transit breath!) The Regional Transit District announced that buses would stop running at 7 p.m. and trains would operate on a limited service -- meaning fewer trip...

Vegas showdown Interesting though incomplete L.A. Times story about the "merger" of the two dailies in Las Vegas, including my former employer, the Review-Journal . Incomplete, because to get the whole story, read the take of my friend Steve Sebelius, who worked at both papers and now edits the alt-weekly in town. The Greenspuns' naked (and insufficiently disclosed) self-promotion is beyond belief.

Crunchy or soggy? My first bylined story for the Rocky: a contrary view of Rod Dreher's Crunchy Cons , a book that asks how people with conservative political view can also live more "organic" lives. (The short version of my view -- they can, and they don't have to renounce the free market to do so.) Rod's "point" is here . My "counterpoint" is here . I actually let Rod off with a stern warning, compared with the treatment he gets from his friend and former colleague Jonah Goldberg here . Then again, Jonah's writing for the congregation, not a more-general audience. Still, I'm with him. If you're interested in the "movement," which Jonah calls a journalistic invention, NRO has established a blog for crunchies and their critics. All I can say is, if you're having doctrinal disputes over whether it's OK to buy gourmet coffee beans that aren't locally roasted, you're really not comfortable discussing Adam Smi...

First sports post in awhile I've been quiet, particularly about the Tar Heels because a) I'm just superstitious enough to not want to jinx them and 2) I have a fractured wrist, dammit. Anywho, if Roy Williams is not selected national coach of the year, I'd hate to be one of the no voters. Imagine the e-mails. From my understanding, no D1 team has ever lost its entire starting five (let alone those guys and its top two bench players), and yet the defending nationl champs have been ranked 10 of the past 12 weeks and could finish second in the ACC. This, on a team that starts two freshmen and two former walk-ons, and plays a 6'-6" guy at power forward ... and is getting nearly 9 more rebounds than their opponents per game. They turn the ball over too much, they can get smoked by teams with super-quick guards, and some games they can't hit jump shots. Even so, Roy has been more than us life-member alums could have asked for as a coach, recruiter, teacher, and stew...

Update I have a plate and several screws in my left wrist. The pain has been negligible, thanks to rest, ice, elevation and excellent meds. The test comes Monday, when I return to work. I'll have to type with one hand for a week. But if all's well, on the 28th I will be fitted with a removable splint and will regain limited use of my dominant hand -- with full recovery expected in five or six weeks. High marks to everyone involved in this procedure. Speaking of high marks ... check out the weekly column by Rocky Mountain News Publisher John Temple on reaction to our decision to publish a host of offensive cartoons last Sunday, along with a pro/con about the role of the press. (Check the Islamic cartoons link here .) The encouraging news: Most readers cheered the move. Meantime, The Washington Post gives Danish editor Flemming Rose his say . Tom Paine and Patrick Henry would be proud.

The iceman falleth ... and breaketh his wrist. I've been too busy soaking in the Front Range to discuss the future of the blog with my bosses (and having too much fun working and writing again to make this a priority). But, long story short, Denver is wonderful. Except ... I slipped on ice Friday night and broke my left wrist. I'll find out Tuesday whether surgery is in my future. The fall was painful. So was everything until I was splinted. Top ratings, though, to the folks at Highlands Ranch Urgent Care and the ER at Littleton Hospital. They took great care of me, sent me home relatively comfortable and with adequate pain drugs. Tuesday I see the orthopaedist again ... The good news? He wants me to keep my left fingers active, so I'll be writing throughout my recovery. Whatever happens, I'll spend the next couple of months becoming a right-hander.

What's in a name? How has every network news show and most mainstream reporting and commentary labeled Bush's NSA surveillance program? Domestic spying. Except it may involve few if any calls that took place in the United States at all. How do we know? Just read James Risen. That's right, the New York Times reporter who broke the story in advance of his book State of War . Excerpting the book, lawprof Orin Kerr at the Volokh Conspiracy suggests strongly that "most of the new surveillance program was not about domestic surveillance at all; most of it was about the surveillance of entirely international calls and e-mails that just happened to be routed through U.S. networks in the course of delivery." Kerr is hardly a Bush apologist. In this follow-up post , Kerr says he still can't decide whether the program violates the law. (I'm with him, and with today's editorial in the Rocky Mountain News -- I don't work there yet -- which suggests that if th...

Confused cons Check out the back-and-forth at The Corner between (mainly) Rod Dreher and Jonah Goldberg over "crunchy conservatism," Dreher's formulation that a growing number on the right have grown dismayed with a mindless worship of market capitalism and are willing to burn the blazers, wear Birkenstocks, and shop at Whole Foods. No, seriously. This is an emerging movement! Dreher's Sunday Times essay promoting his forthcoming book launched the back-and-forth at NR. Goldberg's criticism of Dreher (which dates from 2002 ) is golden. His main points: Only a handful of inconsequential libertarians (or hidebound Objectivists) pretend that market economics is an all-encompassing philosophy of life; Friedman and Hayek never attempted to explain beauty or spirituality on purely economic grounds. Dreher and his crunchy mates are in fact promoting a 21st century version of Yuppie-style consumerism -- show your class consciousness: eat organic food! This debate began m...