Christmas is slowly closing in, and some of us have not yet finished our shopping.  (no comment).  Let the Independence Institute help you.  My first suggestion was to purchase a great t-shirt from our awesome cartoonist Ben Hummel.

My second suggestion is for your gift-less friends and family members who have the most potential.  We’ve all got friends and family who have done some amazing things.  But really, who’s interested in that?  I’m talking about your friends and family who haven’t yet accomplished something great, but who probably will in the future.  Once you can identify those destined to be great, you might want to consider getting them our “Noble” Prize for Future Accomplishments for Christmas.

Just look how beautiful that is! For only $25 you can purchase one of those puppies. But remember, in order for this gift to make sense, the special someone cannot be guilty of having done something great already. They must be on the verge of greatness.

***(Quantities are EXTREMELY limited, so order now before it’s too late!!)***

Our unbelievable cartoonist Ben Hummel has been cranking out great work for us for almost two years now. Unlike my days as a cartoonist drawing my strip called B Street, Ben can actually draw, spell, and be funny. It’s almost like Ben is the Kyle Orton to my Jay Cutler. Anyway, he’s produced some fantastic t-shirts with perhaps his most well-known ‘toon “Political Correctness” as the centerpiece. If you are still searching for that perfect gift for your own politically incorrect family member, friend, or co-worker, pick up a shirt from Ben here.

A note on shipping from Ben:

Shipping is standard USPS, slow boat, if you will, at $4.50 per shirt. If orders are made (I know that this is cutting it close) by December 17th, I can at least have the shirts produced by Christmas. Denver area customers may have to pick up the orders by hand, as USPS probably won’t get it there on time.

The wife of one of the greatest economists the world has ever known died today of heart failure.  Rose Friedman, who happened to be a damn good economist in her own right, was believed to have been 98 years young. I’ll never forget the day when I met both Rose and Milton Friedman – I walking into an elevator as they were walking out. The elevator doors opened and I couldn’t help but blurt out, “Has anyone ever told you you guys look just like Rose and Milton Friedman?!” To which they replied, “Well, that’s because we are!” And so we went and ate breakfast together. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I mean, it’s on the same level for me as getting to hang out with Pete Townshend. Doesn’t get much better than that. Rest in peace Rose, you and Milton will be truly missed.

In honor of both Rose and Milton, I urge you to watch the series Free to Choose, available in its entirety online here.

This fall it will be eight years since I lost my one-year-old daughter, Parker, to cancer.  She was our only child at the time.  I try not to talk about it as often as I’d like, for fear of it overtaking me.  Needless to say there is a hole in heart, in my soul, that has never healed and is as painful as the day she died.  She is as much of my life as ever.

Many great friends kept me alive during some dark, dark days.  And many great friends keep her memory alive.  One such friend is Tracy Smith, our graphic artist and web designer extraordinaire.

Tracy is riding the Courage Classic to raise money for the Children’s Hospital.  She does so in the memory of Parker.

Children’s Hospital was where I learned Parker was going to die.  For a long time, for me, it was the ugliest place on earth.  My Mother’s Day column may give you a taste.  Parker’s cancer was untreatable, but they treated her with all the love and respect in the world.

I would have lost another child if not for Children’s.  My son, Chance, suffers from Down Syndrome.  With a gaping hole in his heart he was saved with open-heart surgery at only one-month old.  Because of his condition we are “frequent fliers” at Children’s still.  I never much thought about it until reality forced me to,but all of us with kids are blessed to have Children’s Hospital.

I am asking you, on behalf of Parker, please support Tracy as she peddles over the Rockies to help kids like mine, and hopefully never yours.  Her goal is to raise $2000.  We can make that happen.

Thank you Tracy.  Donate here.

My wife blurts out the word “shoot!” So then my six-year-old daughter says, “Mommy, you shouldn’t use that word, it’s a naughty word.” To which my wife says, “oh no honey, ’shoot’ isn’t a bad word at all, it is the other word that’s a bad word, and we shouldn’t say that one.” So my precious little girl then innocently responds, “Oh, you mean ‘fuck’?” NEVER been so proud.

***With Obama-care seemingly around the corner and an at-large clamoring for our health care system to more closely resemble the “free” Euro kind, Health Care Policy Center director Linda Gorman co-authored this piece to dissect the issue: when it comes to health care policy, do other countries have the answers?

***It seems like every time I turn around, Jessica Corry is on some big media outlet… WITHOUT ME! First Mike Rosen, then this: take a look at her latest outing on the Fox News Channel’s “Fox Box.”

***Speaking of Jessica, she just finished up our latest Issue Paper taking on property rights, titled From New London to Telluride and Beyond: Legal Developments Surrounding Eminent Domain in Colorado from 2004-2009.

***Head on over to iVoices.org. We’ve got a few new podcasts on several topics, including charter schools and labor unions.

***It’s no surprise that nearly every underage college student is in favor of lowering the drinking age. (isn’t that what college is all about?) But this particular student happens to be an intern of ours, and also happens to have an argument that goes a lot further than, “drinking rules.” Under the guidance of Mike Krause, intern Joe Carr makes the case for lowering the drinking age in the Colorado Daily, where it was – surprise! surprise! – very warmly received.

***And finally, my campaign for governor is so secret, even I didn’t know about it.

Colorado Media Matters, run by Tim Gill play-thing Bill Menezes, is no longer.  Here is the entire news reporting of its quiet death by the Denver Post,

One of Colorado’s liberal watchdogs has ceased to bark.

Colorado Media Matters on Monday closed its doors as its parent organization in Washington, D.C., plans more efficient expansions into more states, state editorial director Bill Menezes told The Denver Post.

A new model “will allow us to launch this in other states where they were clamoring for it,” he said.

Media Matters officials in Washington did not return calls seeking comment Wednesday.

The group’s Colorado office, home to five employees at its closure, spent three years red-flagging “misinformation and conservative information not labeled as such” in newspapers and on television and radio, Menezes said.

One of the website’s most frequent targets was libertarian think-tank leader Jon Caldara, president of the Independence Institute in Golden and host of a radio talk show.

Caldara said he was “absolutely heartbroken.”

He quipped that the Colorado Media Matters staff made up half his audience.

“I feel like I’m losing a stalker girlfriend,” Caldara said.

Colorado Media Matters was the only state affiliate of the national Media Matters, which I’ve gotta tell you was pretty damn flattering.  Their goal was to “Imus” a conservative broadcaster, like me, out of a job. Starting with 12 full-time employees, which apparently dwindled down to five, they were never able to do it in their three years trying.  What was impressive about the whole operation was the out-sourcing of the politics of personal destruction by the Tim Gill machine to leftist organizations.

Of course the most entertaining part of it, and what we will all miss so very much, is the hyper-oversensitivity and the constant state of outrage that Bill Menenzes would have to fake.  And personally I will miss the love-notes that Bill emails me.  A lonely man like me appreciates the attention of, well, anyone.  I was flattered, and yes, a  little curious.  I have never had anyone with such a man-crush on me before, and likely never will again.  So goes love.  (sniff)  Goodbye Bill.  We’ll always have Denver.

Our good friend and former deputy editorial page editor of the Rocky Mountain News, Rick Henderson, will be taking over as managing editor of the John Locke Foundation’s Carolina Journal. (John Locke is one of our sister SPN think tanks).  Which is great news for Rick, who just happens to be a former UNC Tarheel.  Now he has the opportunity to uproot from Jeffco and move back east to his home state.  Congrats Rick, we’ll miss you!

Be sure to take a look at Rick’s blog, the Deregulator. It’s good stuff.

As I have mentioned before, Tim Gill’s plaything Bill Menezes, of the paid-to-be-hyper-sensitive Media Matters, sends me the oddest little nasty personal emails.  I can only come to one conclusion – he’s got a man-crush on me.  I’m flattered and suppose I understand a bit.  I had the same feelings once for John Entwhistle, bass player for The Who, after I saw him play live.  Nothing gay.  I just fantasized that we would hang-out, throw back some beers, watch the big game, and jam a little.  It’s a guy thing.  How else would you explain Bill’s last nasty-gram:

The fact you are so ignorant on a gun issue is quite entertaining:

KOA’s Caldara supported false claim that Mexican Cartels’ assault weapons are “not comin’ from us”

Call the local ATF office and see what they have to say about the subject.

Oh, and keep crying; given your steep slide into irrelevance, I suppose there’s not much more you can do.

I stand by what I said on the radio program.  Assault weapons are not going to Mexico via the US.  The problem might be that the left doesn’t like to use the definition of “assault weapon,” which is a select-fire, intermediate caliber gun capable of automatic firing, like a machine gun.  These guns are, for the most part, already illegal in the US.  But again, accuracy isn’t what Tim Gill pays Media Matters for.

As far as my “steep slide into irrelevance,” Bill, when the hell was I ever relevant?

Although given all the attention you pour on me how can I not feel, well, special.  I am finally starting to get the man-crush signals you’ve been throwing my way.  You wrote an entire column about me in the Denver Daily News, comparing me to Archie Bunker (who like me once proudly proclaimed, “My job ain’t got nothing to do with thinking, and I’m very good at it”).

I am sorry Bill.  As flattered as I am, I don’t want you for my Edith. After my heartbreak over John Entwhistle, I am just not ready for a bro-mance right now.

The Independence Institute, one of the original state-based think tanks, is almost 25 years old.  This effective little organization was the brain child of a young Mr. John Andrews. I am greatly indebted to this man.  Not only has he been a strong friend when times seemed bleak, a fine mentor and a fellow freedom fighter, but quite simply, if he didn’t create Independence back then, I’d likely be flipping hamburgers now. You see, and I know this doesn’t come as any surprise to you, but I have absolutely no employable skills. How I backed into this gig is anyone’s guess.  But if John didn’t create Independence back then, the only thing I’d be saying into a microphone now is “would you like fries with that?”

Well now the former Colorado Senate President is going back to his roots as the director of the Centennial Institute, a new think tank being created by Colorado Christian University. Centennial will work to enhance public understanding of the issues relating to “faith, family and freedom.”  They couldn’t have chosen a better man to lead it.  And, in pure self-interest, this gives me possibility of another job in about 15 years.