Mount Virtus

"Happy to come back to Michigan, but I miss the mountains!"

Ben on Social Media

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • About Ben
  • Mount Virtus?
  • Writer / Editor For Hire
  • What I’m Thankful For
  • Colorado Ballot Reviews
    • Colorado Ballot 2008
    • Colorado Ballot 2010
    • Colorado Ballot 2012
  • Archives
  • Passion and Purpose:
    The Rise & Fall of Al Gansee
  • Mary and Jacob: From the Forgotten Dust
  • The Westfield Gardener
Home Archives for Ben

2/7/2026 By Ben Leave a Comment

Can’t Blame Tax Day

Tax Day. The Ides of April. The anniversaries of two epic tragedies: the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the sinking of the Titanic. Monday / Tuesday. All very compelling reasons - but none actually bear the responsibility - for the sparse blogging in the last day or so. I hope to get a substantive post or two up tonight. We'll see. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: blogging, General, My Life, Random and Miscellaneous

2/7/2026 By Ben Leave a Comment

Affirmative Action for Complaints Against Colorado Civil Rights Initiative?

Face The State is onto another big story, uncovering facts about complaints filed against the Colorado Civil Rights Initiative - which recently qualified for the November statewide ballot. Face The State's report has uncovered serious issues with two of the major complaints, issues neglected in the drive-by media coverage. Here's the first:On February 26, Chloe Johnson filed a complaint with Secretary of State Mike Coffman's office alleging that she was tricked into supporting Amendment 46, also known as the Colorado Civil Rights Initiative, a ballot effort designed to end race and gender preferences in government hiring, education, and contracting. The complaint was formally dismissed by the state's Office of Administrative Courts … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Colorado Politics, Cultural Conservatism, General Tagged With: affirmative action, Amendment 46, Chloe Johnson, Colorado Civil Rights initiative, Dara Burwell, Face the State, Secretary of State Mike Coffman

2/7/2026 By Ben Leave a Comment

Government Waste, Toledo-Style

Colorado center-right bloggers take notice: One of the sharp and ambitious bloggers I met at Samsphere in Chicago a couple weeks ago - Maggie Thurber - shows the power of doing a little original research to expose government waste on public swimming pools in her Toledo backyard:For sake of argument, let's estimate that individuals likely to use the pool facilities will do so five times during the season. This seems a reasonable estimate considering the number of days the pools are open. Using this assumption, the pools had about 5,000 unique visitors. The 2006 Census data shows that there are 74,896 children (under 18 years of age) in Toledo. Even if every visitor to the pools was a child, we would be serving less than 7% of the kids in … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General

2/7/2026 By Ben Leave a Comment

Tackling Colorado Socialized Medicine

Every once in awhile I step back and realize that I should bring my readers' attention to people with important ideas who they may not have heard. In that spirit, one of Colorado's brightest and most articulate writers challenging the effort to socialize medicine is Brian Schwartz, who introduced a free market proposal to the state's blue ribbon commission on health care reform (since the proposal advocated for more freedom, it was unsurprisingly rejected). Besides blogging regularly at wakalix, Brian also is quite prolific in penning published columns. His latest, assailing the arguments behind "universal health care," appears in the Pueblo Chieftain (H/T We Stand Firm). If you are interested in health care reform, make sure you … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Colorado Politics, General, Health Care Tagged With: Brian Schwartz, Pueblo Chieftain, universal health care, wakalix, We Stand Firm

2/7/2026 By Ben Leave a Comment

Typically White Merchandise

If you're like me, you may identify closely with the famous Barack Obama phrase: "typical white person." But I was never moved by the entrepreneurial spirit like a couple friends of mine who created the Typically White website, where you can go to order "Typically White" shirts and bags. Who knows? You might find a great present to one of your conservative - or any typically white - friend or family member. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General, My Life, National Politics, Random and Miscellaneous Tagged With: Barack Obama, Typically White

2/7/2026 By Ben Leave a Comment

Local GOP Blogger Declares Candidacy for State Legislature

One of my longest, most consistent friends in the blogging world has decided to throw his hat in the ring. Republican Joshua Sharf has declared his candidacy for House District 6. Since the district is a heavily Democrat enclave, the campaign is much less about personal ambition than principle. Having exposed frontrunning Republican candidate Rima Barakat Sinclair for her anti-Israel Islamist agenda and other suspect credentials, Joshua has decided to petition on the primary ballot to ensure she does not carry the Republican Party banner in the fall. Apparently, a Republican candidate for Congress learned about Ms. Sinclair's history and decided to reject her $500 contribution to his heated primary campaign. That's a strong message, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Colorado Politics, General Tagged With: House District 6, Joshua Sharf, Republican Party, Rima Barakat Sinclair, View from a Height

2/7/2026 By Ben Leave a Comment

Hillary and Health Care: Sweet Irony

Have I been too easy on Hillary? Not much has seemed worthy of any sort of fresh attention here, but there is something about the combination of Clintons, Leftist ideas, and irony that's hard to ignore. According to a detailed report at Politico, paying campaign staffers' health insurance premiums is not really a priority for Senator Hillary Clinton: nearly $292,000 in unpaid bills, while her opponent Republican Senator John McCain is all paid up. She must think her prescription for government-provided single payer health care has already kicked in. Thankfully it has not, and hopefully it will not. Meanwhile, Scott Ott at Scrappleface takes the irony to another humorous level:Ending weeks of speculation, Sen. Hillary Clinton today … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General, Health Care, National Politics Tagged With: Democratic presidential primary, Hillary Clinton, Prozac, Scrappleface, universal health care, unpaid debt

2/7/2026 By Ben 1 Comment

Obama Gutters Altoona

Saturday was a bad day at the bowling alley in Altoona, Pa., for Barack Obama, who rolled an improbably bad 37:"My economic plan is better than my bowling," Obama told fellow bowlers Saturday. "It has to be," a man called out. Obama let everyone know he hadn't bowled since Jimmy Carter was president -- and finished with a score of 37.... Somewhere in all that, I think Obama or the reporter got the facts mixed up. I think his economic plan is reminiscent of Jimmy Carter. I'm not even sure where the bowling fits in exactly. But as one who spent two years of my life in central Pennsylvania - I even attended a minor league Altoona Curve baseball game once - I can tell you that such abject failure at the lanes is not liable to win … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General, National Politics, Random and Miscellaneous, Sports and Leisure Tagged With: Altoona, Barack Obama, bowling, Byron York, Democratic presidential primary, Real Debate Wisconsin

2/7/2026 By Ben Leave a Comment

Big Labor Unleashes More Big Guns to Aim at Right-to-Work Initiative

The Denver Post reports today that Big Labor has escalated its political battle with the business community by introducing new proposals for Colorado's fall ballot:The five ballot initiatives filed by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 7 include measures that would: • Deny tax breaks and incentives to companies that relocate jobs outside Colorado. • Require businesses to pay more in property taxes. • Allow injured workers to sue employers outside the workers' compensation system. Along with ballot proposals backed by other unions, Monday's filings further set the stage for a fiery showdown between business and labor in November. Big Labor has pulled out the big guns to try to shoot down one … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Colorado Politics, General, Labor Tagged With: Big Labor, Gov. Bill Ritter, right-to-work, United Food and Commercial Workers

2/7/2026 By Ben Leave a Comment

Democrats Use Your Money to Defend Ritter Taking Your Money without Asking

Democrats in the state legislature are pushing a line item in the state budget that would give $150,000 in taxpayer funds to pay Gov. Bill Ritter's legal costs. For what, you ask? To defend a policy Ritter promoted and signed that levies a property tax increase on thousands of Colorado homeowners and business owners without a vote of the people, in violation of the state constitution. So let's get this straight: Bill Ritter thumbs his nose at the state constitution, choosing to force through a widespread property tax hike. Then he gets sued by taxpayers because he didn't get their permission as the state constitution requires. Now his Democrat allies are working to make sure the very people hit by the tax hike will foot the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Colorado Politics, Fiscal Policy, General Tagged With: Democrat arrogance, Gov. Bill Ritter, property tax hike, state legislature

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 156
  • 157
  • 158
  • 159
  • 160
  • …
  • 256
  • Next Page »

Inside

  • About Ben
  • Archives
  • Colorado Ballot Reviews
    • Colorado Ballot 2008
    • Colorado Ballot 2010
    • Colorado Ballot 2012
    • Colorado Ballot 2014
  • Mary and Jacob: From the Forgotten Dust
  • Mount Virtus?
  • Passion and Purpose:
    The Rise & Fall of Al Gansee
  • The Westfield Gardener
  • What I’m Thankful For
  • Writer / Editor For Hire

About Me

Ben DeGrow
Grateful and growing Christian, devoted husband and father of 3, public policy analyst, returned to Michigan by way of Colorado, conservative writer, lifelong learner, Detroit Tigers fan.

Recent Posts

  • AI-Enhanced Cyberbullying: The Dark Side of Teen Innovation
  • My Baker’s Dozen of Top 2023 Reads
  • Common Learning Disabilities in Children
  • Tips to Teach Kids to Set and Achieve Goals
  • The Christmas Music Countdown You’ve Been Looking For: 2022 Edition

Colorado News

  • Colorado Senate News
  • Complete Colorado
  • Independence Institute
  • Loveland Politics
  • The Colorado Observer

National News and Politics

  • Drudge Report
  • Hot Air
  • National Review
  • Politico
  • Real Clear Politics
  • Reason
  • The Washington Times
  • TownHall
  • Wall Street Journal
  • Weekly Standard
  • World Magazine

Blogs Extraordinaire

  • American Thinker
  • David Harsanyi’s Blog
  • E!! The True Conservative Story
  • EIA Intercepts
  • Evangelical Outpost
  • Hugh Hewitt
  • Instapundit
  • LaShawn Barber
  • Lileks
  • Little Green Footballs
  • Michelle Malkin
  • NRO's The Corner
  • Power Line
  • Red State

Completing the Blogroll

  • Alarming News
  • Black Five
  • Blogs of War
  • Eduwonk
  • Flypaper
  • Fraters Libertas
  • Historical Conversations
  • IMAO
  • Jay P. Greene
  • Mike Anderson
  • Mullings
  • Professor Bainbridge
  • Right Thinking
  • Right Wing News
  • Right Wing Nuthouse
  • Shot in the Dark
  • Talking Points Memo
  • Virginia Postrel
  • Volokh Conspiracy

Christian Commentary et al.

  • Kevin Pierpont
  • Sharper Iron

Conservative and GOP Sites

  • Backbone America
  • Cal Thomas
  • Colorado Republican Party
  • Colorado Republican Study Committee
  • Dennis Prager
  • Denver Metro Young Republicans
  • Free Republic
  • Heritage Foundation
  • Jefferson County Republican Party
  • Mackinac Center for Public Policy
  • Mark Steyn
  • Michael Medved
  • Rush Limbaugh

Colorado Blogs

  • American Kestrel
  • Bob Agard
  • Colorado Charter Schools
  • Colorado Peak Politics
  • Colorado Pols
  • Colorado Right
  • Conservative Libertarian Outpost
  • Coyote Gulch
  • Ed Is Watching
  • Free Colorado
  • Jeff Crank Show
  • Mark Hillman
  • Patient Power
  • PirateBallerina
  • Protein Wisdom
  • Reagan Girl
  • Rocky Mountain Alliance 1.0 (Archive)
  • Rocky Mountain Alliance 2.0 (Archive)
  • Rossputin
  • Stop the ACLU Blog
  • The Spot (Denver Post)
  • We Stand Firm

Other Sites

  • Technorati
  • Word Press

Rocky Mountain Alliance 2.0

  • Reclaim the Blue
  • The Business Word
  • The Daily Blogster
  • View from a Height

To Contact Me:
bendegrow-at-gmail.com

Copyright © 2026 RSS Feed · WordPress · Log in