The Democrat Party's impulse to fence off our world from the benefits of competition has become their modus operandis. This ideology of theirs has turned our public schools into shrines to that noncompete doctrine. Neither the schools, their teachers, their unions nor their administrators may ever be exposed to competition, even when viable competitors, who offer a better education, have little resources with which to compete against them, such as the financially strapped Catholic schools. The party and teachers' unions have even spent millions of your tax dollars to thwart alternative pilot programs. It has gotten so bad that even the Democratic mayor of Washington, D.C., broke ranks to support a pro-choice plan (meaning a solution that relies on competition to solve a very bad problem) for the district's collapsing school system. Naturally, the no-compete crowd has vilified him for it.

The mayor's support for competition, through a voucher system, along with that of many black D.C. parents suggest there are still people smart enough to know that the anti-competition malarkey of the now extreme leftist Democratic Party is getting dangerous and must be stopped.

Still more gratitude is due Will Sands for keeping the spotlight on this burgeoning monstrosity looming in our midst. Recent revelations regarding the lack of funding for power lines to this behemoth sparked a glimmer in these jaded eyes of mine, as I read the news and slurped my morning repast. Glancing up from the paper, my attention was captured by an illustration on the carton of my preferred soy beverage, proudly proclaiming that this oh-so-green product was produced with wind-generated electricity. In a flash, a vision of rapturously renewable beauty unfolded in my headspace: where once had been protected nature reserve, sacrificed to create a fake lake, now sprouted a forest of windmills, busily churning out the juice to pump precious water out of the Animas and onto whatever fate the water-lawyers litigate for it. No additional fossil fuels need burn to fulfill the misguided compacts binding our wealth, financial and aqueous.

A resource untapped, harnessed to haul a nearly tapped-out one. The elegance of such an arrangement sings out to be implemented. What better crop for the high, dry foothills than pure, home-grown kilowatts? Possibilities proliferate - Got water? Got electricity? Any schoolkid should know the combo gives hydrolysis, yielding oxygen and hydrogen, the wonder fuel of the Golden Age To Come. Sure, I'll confess to a fondness for idealistic Big Think, but, shucks, it beats invading quasi-colonial autocracies in the name of national security. (Try multinational, corporate security: BP, Halliburton, Bechtel, etc.)

Now's the time, before bids (and the fix) are in, to shape the future toward a slightly more local, more sustainable model. I've done my share of whining about what's wrong with the status quo. My resolution is to speak more to solutions than problems, to think further out in time and technology, to point and laugh whenever the Emperor has no clothes. I will pay attention to the Man Behind the Curtain. All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is that the good do nothing.

My family and I have been visiting Durango for years, and we belong to a large spiritual congregation. One week ago, an individual stole my poor little dog and traumatized her and me both. I am thoroughly disgusted with the way a certain officer of the animal control office is stalking and stealing people's dogs. She is a nonviolent animal and had no problem being untied and led to the jailer's wagon by this thief. He recklessly endangered her health and well being by placing her into the potentially contaminated cage on wheels.

There she was, minding her own business and tied up to a tree completely out of the path of any people over at the library. All she did was wait quietly and took a nap while dad visited the books in the library. I was so upset by the actions of this supposed servant of the people after noticing him stalking my dog in the park earlier as we were playing her stick games. I didn't give it much thought after going into the world of books there. He then actually stalked us over to the library and waited for me to go into the library, and in less than five minutes, he stole her! And just to be clear here, when you take something without permission, you are stealing it. This was exactly equal to someone stealing your child when it comes to the emotional suffrage. I am still absolutely tattooed with the fear of ever taking her downtown anymore from this terrible experience.

And who knows what he does when he drives all over town with your dog in his cruel and inhumane cage. I have heard stories of guys like this that inject animals with toxins and all sorts of un-godly poisons. She is pedigree breeder Dingo stock, and I will hold him financially, and punitively liable if she even has a sniffle or ANYTHING turns up wrong with her.

This was absolutely wicked treatment of a poor doggie girl visiting from out of town. He said of my little girl, "Your dog has been impounded' and will be at the Humane Society by the Wal-Mart" and he left the note duct-taped to the tree she was tied to and sleeping peacefully by. It was the most shocking thing her and I both have ever been a victim of. Just imagine finding out your child has been stolen from the library! What the heck is so "humane" about that? And you know what, he lied and did not show up for close to an hour later. His dispatcher kept calling him, and he did not return right away. I waited, panicked with the fears of what he might be doing to her.

This kind of action is equal to real TERRORISM, and this is a good case for the newly enacted Patriot Act II that was passed secretly this past Saturday to prosecute! You coin the term "unattended." Well do you believe in God? If you do, you also know that God is omnipowerful and omniscient and ever present in all things material and spiritual. What makes you think the omnipresent God wasn't "attending" my little girl? It is a sad society here when you mentally convince yourselves that "running at large" is defined as "secured by leash, cord or chains" or even tied to a tree. Has this town fallen to the knees of the "Devil" when 2+2 is 5?

This is a very excellent community-dividing tactic at a time when more and more people need to be better neighbors in these harrowing days. The two basic principles of religion are love thy god, and love thy neighbor. What part of this action was love? And is anyone's poor animal now subject to this theft and money-generating scam? I am not going downtown with any of my family if I can't tie up my girl to go shop there anymore. I will do business in a community that has a little more love than this one. I hear Bayfield has more real Christian people there, and it's an expanding community.

Beware La Plata County pet owners, anyone's poor animal is subject to this theft and money-generating scam, so watch out. It's a typical Soviet style snatch and grab.