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
Red Mountain View

Mount Virtus?

Every day is seeking to rise to the challenge, 'neath the shadow of the mighty Rockies.

Colorado Capitol

Colorado Ballot Reviews

Sometimes the choices are daunting or confusing, sometimes they're as clear as a Mile High view.

Writer / Editor For Hire

If I had five more writers just like him, I think my job would be the easiest in journalism....

2/7/2026 By Ben Leave a Comment

10 Straight Wins – Go Rox!

Colorado baseball fans have stood up and taken notice at the amazing, unexpected run made by our Rockies down the regular season homestretch. Ten straight wins in September? Coming back from the brink to the thick of playoff contention? One game back in the wildcard with a chance to win the NL West Division? It's a feel-good story for a young ball club that is gelling a season sooner than this amateur pundit expected. Clutch hitting, quality starts and fine work from the bullpen have anchored this underdog team. Michael, a fan with a longer history of Rockies loyalty than myself (Colorado is my favorite National League squad, but all bets are off when they face my Detroit Tigers), has blogged his enthusiasm. Now I'm just waiting for … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General, Sports and Leisure

2/7/2026 By Ben Leave a Comment

Gang of Four: Spencer vs. Sharf

If you're a Colorado political junkie but not a regular reader of the Denver Post's Gang of Four group blog, you really should be. Head over there now and catch up on the debate stemming from MoveOn.org's attacks against General Petraeus, between guest bloggers Jim Spencer on the Left and our buddy Joshua Sharf on the Right. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Colorado Politics, General, National Politics

2/7/2026 By Ben 3 Comments

Boulder Student Socialists Demand “God”-less Pledge

Update 2 (move to top): Michelle Malkin has picked up the story: Diversity worship? Check. Enviro-worship? Check. “Choice?” The kind that Planned Parenthood supports, no doubt, and not educational vouchers, I’m sure. File under: Reason number 10,000,000 to homeschool your children. Couldn't have said it better myself. Though we're left to wonder why the word "comrade" was omitted from the Student Worker pledge. Update: The latest version of the Rocky story contains a photo from this morning with the student club's banner showing a large red star - an unmistakable symbol. It's sad, these kids seem to have no idea what great evil was done and human misery caused in service to this symbol. You can also read their absurd … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Education, General

2/7/2026 By Ben Leave a Comment

Lt. Col (Rep.) Rice off to Iraq

Godspeed to Lt. Col. (and state representative) Joe Rice, who will be deployed to Baghdad for a three-month stint starting in October, as reported today in the Denver Post's Politics West: Rice, who has three young children, said he looks forward to getting the “feel of the street” in Baghdad. “Unless you are out there on the street, you just don’t get it,” he said. As an operations analyst, Rice will look for the best practices among reconstruction teams. He plans to spend a lot of time with the Iraqi police force. Rice, who has been in the Army for 23 years, said he didn’t think about asking for a special deployment exemption because he is a state lawmaker. I am honored to have met Rep. Rice in May 2006, before he … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Colorado Politics, General, World Events

2/7/2026 By Ben Leave a Comment

What is Ritter Hiding?

As the Rocky's editors bring home today ... In crafting a policy that will have an impact on state employees and the entire state budget, Gov. Bill Ritter is withholding documents the public deserve to see. The question remains: What is Ritter trying to hide? … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Colorado Politics, General

2/7/2026 By Ben Leave a Comment

Lesson in Journalistic Ethics for CSU Student Paper

The story of the juvenile, obscene editorial in the Colorado State University newspaper has prompted the Independence Institute's Jessica Corry and Ryan Olivett (a current CSU student) to fire back with a sharp reminder in journalistic ethics: Like a child howling in a candy store to get what he wants, the Collegian substituted a four letter word for genuine political discourse. All for attention. If only McSwane had stepped back for a moment to acknowledge not just his freedoms as an American—but also his ethical obligations as a newspaper editor. According to the code of ethics espoused by the Society of Professional Journalists, "gathering and reporting information may cause harm or discomfort," but this doesn't mean the "pursuit … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Colorado Politics, Education, General

2/7/2026 By Ben Leave a Comment

Labor Leader Twists Facts in Anti-Initiative Campaign

In today's Face the State report, at least one Colorado labor union leader is twisting numbers to recruit allies in their attack on a proposal that would "protect a worker’s right to choose whether or not to join or pay fees to a union as a condition of employment." This kind of statistical manipulation would make Media Matters proud. The rightness of Aurora city councilperson Ryan Frazier's cause is one thing, but the realities of deep union coffers suggest that passing a statewide Right-to-Work ballot initiative in 2008 figures to be an uphill battle. The question is whether defenders of freedom will let the truth become victimized in the political arena. I hope not. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Colorado Politics, General

2/7/2026 By Ben Leave a Comment

Devoid of Argument: Campos Attacks with Bizarre Analogy

Update: I'm clearly not the only one with this take on the Campos column. Check out Drunkablog's snide comments, as well. I've been mulling over what phraseology to use to describe this morning's Paul Campos column in the Rocky Mountain News - screed, armchair psychological fantasy, scurrilous personal attack. (My sympathy for my unnamed friend, who is a law student in Prof. Campos' class, only grows and grows.) Please note the absence of any shred of evidence or cogent argument: But how respectable is [Bill] Kristol, really? Anyone who pays the least attention to him soon discovers that the ruling passion of Kristol's life is to involve the United States in as many wars as possible, with as many enemies as he can find or create. In … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General

2/7/2026 By Ben 1 Comment

“Allow” vs. “Require”

Facile, inaccurate comparisons are common fare among the Left in Colorado these days. Case in point: Diarist GoBlue on the Dead Governors site, convinced by the fact he has the ultimate "gotcha," publishes a post that compares a Republican proposal that would allow small businesses to pool together to negotiate health insurance policies with a Democrat proposal that would require state and local governments to accept binding negotiated agreements. Memo to GoBlue: There is a vast difference between allow and require. There is no Colorado law, nor should there be, preventing voluntary associations of public employees to meet, express their interests, and air their grievances. Such arrangements already exist. Besides, if Governor Bill … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Colorado Politics, General

2/7/2026 By Ben Leave a Comment

Harsanyi to Hawk Book at Tattered Cover Tomorrow

Everybody's favorite libertarian columnist at the Denver Post, David Harsanyi, is unveiling his long-awaited book Nanny State at an event tomorrow (Tuesday) evening at the Denver LoDo Tattered Cover store. The 300-page skewering of "food fascists, teetotaling do-gooders, priggish moralists, and other boneheaded bureaucrats" should be a provocative, page-turning read - sure to tick off people from across the political spectrum (for me, it would be any pro-Yankee stories). If you're in the Denver area and looking for something to do tomorrow evening, why not stop in the Tattered Cover, say hey to David, and maybe pick up a copy or two of Nanny State? … [Read more...]

Filed Under: General

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 189
  • 190
  • 191
  • 192
  • 193
  • …
  • 267
  • 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