12-26-24 FULL SHOW - Guest Host Krista Kafer

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In a while, hasn't it. Anyway, a little bit about
me in case you've I don't know you haven't heard
this voice for but this voice before it sounds like
I have got like a smooth jazz voice. Then welcome
back to smooth jazz. Yeah, Zach behind the glass helping
out today. He's nodding. He's like, yeah, she does sound
a little smooth jazzy. And uh, yeah, that's me. I'm

(00:22):
smooth jazz Cafer. So anyway, in my real life, I'm
a Denver Post columnist. I'm off and on Colorado inside
Out on PBS Denver twelve. In fact, I'll be on
today's Friday. I'll be on this evening eight o'clock on
Channel twelve. It's a little TV, a little radio. Also
teach a little write, a little edit, a little so

(00:45):
a little Yeah. I even like grow stuff and sell it.
I guess that makes me a farmer, maybe like a
micro farmer. You've heard of micro businesses. I guess I've
got a micro farm. And it's even more micro thanks
to twhawks, that one hog, two walks. I took out
two of my chickens, and you know, I get it.

(01:05):
I like chicken too, but miss those gals. I'm down
to two hens to fix that later on Raise ups
and new Chicks so I can have fresh eggs text
line five six six N I know, got some fun
topics for the show today, Christmas perspective, favorite Christmas movies,
events of twenty twenty four, and New Year's resolutions. I figure, hey,

(01:28):
we're kind of in that, like that weird period between
Christmas and New Year's and I'm only going to sub today,
so I got to pack in what I would probably
normally do over a couple of days, which is, hey,
let's review the year. Then we're going to review, you know,
kind of what we hope for for next year, and
so we'll get to all of that, but I want
to give a little perspective first. This is a Wall

(01:50):
Street Journal article that I read today. I text line
five six six nine. Know also you can you can
if you do Twitter. Still. I know it's called X.
I think that is the dumbest name ever, so you'll
never hear me call it X. But Twitter at CHRISTA.
Kaefer's that's where you can tweet to me. And here's
the deal you're going to put up with, not only
public policy, but I like animal videos, so I post

(02:13):
some of those and I don't fight. So if you
want to like send nasty things my way, I just
I'll just mute you. And then occasionally I feel in
a little bit ornery and I will give a donation
on your behalf to an organization that you probably won't like.
So tweet wisely, that's all I'm going to say. So perspective.
I just thought this was kind of interesting as we

(02:33):
move into kind of a little Christmas, a little New
Year's topics. And that is an article from the Wall
Street Journal. It said it's called Mary Baum Free Christmas.
Just a little perspective. Whether you're happy or not, whether
you had a good Christmas or not, we're pretty darn
safe here. And I pointed out the fact in this
article that you know Nigeria, if you're a Christian, chances are,

(02:57):
depending on where you live, you could be within range
of someone who wants to kill you. Sixty Christians killed
earlier this year by Islamists. And if you're in Nicaragua
under Daniel Ortega, he just decided that he didn't like
particular Jesuit Order Catholic nuns. And I don't know if
it was Jesuit. It was some order didn't like the nuns.

(03:20):
Jesuits are usually teachers, but whatever this order of nuns was,
he wouldn't fan, so he expelled them from the country. Also,
China cracking down on Christians and Muslims. Putin of course,
bombed one hundred churches in Ukraine. And if you're a
Syrian Christian, life's a little bit better now that a
Sad is gone, but it's a little precarious. The thought

(03:46):
was a very very evil man. It's been a rough
ten years, not from Asad particularly, but from some of
the Islamist factions. I've decided to persecute Christians, take their
fury out on them. And so for them to be
able to openly not do something for Christmas, celebrate their religion,

(04:07):
they feel like they're freer than ever. Right now. The
new leadership, the majority reigning faction is saying, hey, we're
all going to be about helping people to let them
practice their religion, whatever that religion may be. We're going
to be you know, we're going to be a very
tolerant new nation or nation reborn. Rather, if I was

(04:29):
a Christian Syrian, I'd be a little nervous I'd be
very happy with the current majority is like the majority
factions like, yeah, we'll protect you. But it's that same
majority faction decides that it wants to get the radical
Islamists on board, they may no longer protect those Christians.
So just a little perspective. I hate to start to

(04:50):
show off a little on the dark side, but if
you practice your religion, if you don't even have a religion,
if you just did a secular Christmas or no Christmas,
or if you did hanukkah, uh, if you're you know,
whatever you're into, if you did it freely yesterday, be
a little grateful, a little grateful because in some parts

(05:12):
of the world, Uh, people are pretty darn miserable. Speaking
of Christmas, that's the dark side. Let's talk a little
bit about best Christmas movies. I don't know if you
watched Christmas movies. Probably didn't watch them yesterday, but if
you probably watched them up up until the season started.
I did get was it the new Uh? The Rock

(05:35):
wasn't a new one. I don't know. I don't know
if you watched that, Zach It's Dwayne red one red one.
Did you watch it?

Speaker 2 (05:43):
I actually did, I did gearing up for the season.
I thought it was super cute.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
You know, it's it's kind of you if you're if
you got kids that are sort of junior high end
up or late elementary. You know, there's I think there's
a little language in it that's about it. It's cute,
it's fun, it's mild.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
And I I liked how they depict it the Santa
hitting you know, eight billion houses in twelve hours or whatever.

Speaker 3 (06:06):
I thought that was.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Something I hadn't seen in a Christmas movie before, and
they did it, and I think it really like magical
way that I felt kids would enjoy.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
Yeah, it's magical, but you know they just you know,
Santa's got a lot of helpers, let's put it that way.
I thought it was pretty cute. So I'm gonna tell
this question out there eight six sixth and I know
is our text line, and no one answers that I'll answer.
Maybe ZECH can answer it. There are two Christmas movies,
so think all the way back, you know, black and
white Christmas movies all the way up to read one
kind of the newest Christmas movie two that I can

(06:36):
think of, in which a character reads part of the
Biblical Christmas story. There's only two that I can think of.
The shows are very different from one another. You're gonna
answer five six to six, and I know I would
love to think you think it would be something like,
you know, an old fashioned in to both one movie

(06:59):
two two thousands, the other's nineteen sixties. You may know
what they are seem to get any answers yet, not yet,
but if you want to text me five sixty six
and I know two Christmas movies shown to wide audiences
that actually read a little bit of the Christian story,

(07:20):
that the biblical story from the Christian tradition, and the
first one you probably have guessed, so I'll give you
the first one. The first one is Charlie Brown Christmas.
Charlie Brown Christmas. You've obviously seen it.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
Of course, one of the classics.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
It's a classic. Nineteen sixty five what I thought was interesting.
Denver Post had a piece about it, talking about the
controversy behind it when it aired, and I just thought
it was pretty pretty interesting. So nineteen sixty five, the
twenty five minute show of a couple of things that
were unique about it. No laugh track, No laugh track.

(07:55):
I hate laugh tracks personally. There's a laugh track on
a show. I won't watch it, but a lot of people,
a lot of people prompts laughter. That's why it's used.
It also had a jazz musician that scored it, which
is kind of interesting. So it's some interesting angles and
that what in addition to sort of breaking those rules
no laugh track, kind of a cool score? Is it simplicity?

(08:20):
You know, it's it's a bunch of kids. One of
them is feeling kind of down. He doesn't know what
the meaning of Christmas is. He's looking around for it,
he's yearning for it. And then by the kind of
towards the end, Linus lineus a fascinating character and that
he's kind of a philosopher, but he still carries his blanket,
which is I don't know, kind of endearing, right, sweet kid,

(08:42):
but definitely the philosopher of the bunch. And he sort
of steps up and he reads a little bit of
the Christmas story and I thought it was interesting. Well,
at the time that it was written, the founder of Peanuts, Schaltz,
he uh, you know, you put it together. They put
it together pretty fast, got it over to the studio.

(09:05):
The studio watched it and they were like, ah, I
don't know, guys, it's an unusual it's kind of simple.
It's a little you know, this kid's kind of feeling down.
There's no there's no Yettis, there's no Santa Claus, there's
none of that stuff. And then you, you know, you
bust out some some bible. I'm not sure we can

(09:26):
do this, and it was too late to rewrite it,
so they went ahead and aired it, and when they
aired it, it became an instant success. So Charlie Brown,
Christmas one of the one of the two that I
can think of, and maybe you can think of more
than I can. This person says, a Little Drummer Boy, Oh, yes, there.

(09:49):
I guess there was a movie Little Drummer Boy, so
maybe there. I haven't seen it. Another person says, it's
a Wonderful Life. This would be Dan in Northern Colorado,
and actually you would, they so, but it's not in there,
and I've watched It's a Wonderful Life a number of times.
It's actually on my list of faves. I absolutely love it.
I also love trading Places. And I know some people

(10:10):
don't think that die Hard is a Christmas movie. Very
clearly is a Christmas movie. Thoughts on that, Zach, I'm
with you. I'm with you.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
It's the idea of Christmas themes versus Christmas setting. The
Christmas setting applies only to Christmas. The Christmas themes are
year round. If a movie doesn't have those themes but
has the setting, I think it's a Christmas movie.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
Yeah, I think you're right. And hence, I mean Trading
Places also has and he he's dressed up as the
Santa Claus. He so completely wasted dan Ackroyd, and he
goes to the and he's like shoving the food down
his shirt because he's starving, and he's he's drunk. So
it features a Santa of sorts, a sort of sad Santa.

(10:51):
And I love Trading Places. You've seen that one to
your nodding, for sure.

Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
And the themes of like, you know, being grateful for
what you have and all those things present all throughout
that movie. Comedy classic and definitely a Christmas movie.

Speaker 1 (11:03):
Definitely a Christmas movie. Well, okay, so I'm gonna let
you guess what is the second film that has a
little bit of the Bible story in it?

Speaker 3 (11:12):
Okay, this is a long shot.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
I was thinking Home alone because there's that scene where
they go to the church and I know there's choir singers,
but I was thinking maybe there's a passage in the background.

Speaker 3 (11:21):
But now it's a long shot.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
What is it. It's Bad Santa.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
Oh, that's funny. I guess it kind of makes sense.
But I would have never guessed that.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
Yeah, a lot of people would never guess. So two
thousand and three it is my favorite all time Christmas movie.
I watch it every year sometimes. Usually I got my
decorations up, I turn on the oh the twinkling lights,
I light some candles, and I watch Bad Santa. Now
before you run out and get Bad Santa. They're like, okay,
Caper recommended it. We got to watch this. Do not
watch it with kids. It is an incredibly raunchy movie,

(11:52):
and that's not all it is, but it definitely is
not for younger viewers. You will see some people that
you recognize in it, Bernie Mack and John Ritter, John
Riders last movie. Billy Bob Thornton plays the main character,
the Bad Santa. And I'm not going to give away
the plot here, but I will say that you start
off with truly one of the worst human beings you

(12:13):
can possibly imagine. And I want to say, one of
the worst human beings. I'm not talking like you know, Hitler,
Stalin Polepot, League of mass murders. I'm talking run of
the mill, horrible, drunk, dissipated, womanizing, selfish, the botched, actually
kind of gross. The kind of person that would drink

(12:33):
so much you would pee himself in public and not
mind like that kind of gross. He's a gross human being.
He's a thief and every Christmas, he and his associate
they rob a grot, they rob a department store. What
happens in the course of the film, and why it's
my favorite, is that it's a redemption story. You have

(12:56):
this grotesque, horrible human being who becomes a better human being.
That does he become mother Teresa. No, that becomes a
better human being by the end of the movie. And
he does that because of the unmerited love of a child.
The unmerited love of a child causes him to go
from this self loathing, despicable person to a better person

(13:22):
by the end of the film. And that, my friends,
if you're of the Christian tradition, you know that is
the Christian message that you know, God breaks into the
world to redeem human beings who can be despicable, every
one of us, and that it is the unmerited love

(13:45):
of a child that can cause people to go from
being pretty bad to being better. Not you know, I'm
no mother Teresa, but it's something I've experienced at myself.
So yes, if you're gonna go on a watch Bad
Santa it is, you could watch it with a teen
Do not watch it with kids. Maybe watch it alone

(14:06):
if you're you know, I don't know of any kind
of edited version. I'm not sure you could edit it,
just because there are so many F bombs in it.
The dialogue would be at a little thin, some other
sort of ryebald scenes in it. But it does have
a redemptive theme, and that's my favorite story. I love

(14:28):
Road to Perdition. Like if you were to like have
me list my ten favorite films, a lot of those
would fall into the redemption category. I just I'm stunned
by those kinds of films where you start off with something,
you know, somebody who's a bit of a hot mess,
and by the end they're somewhat redeemed, or a story
bad relationship that becomes better by the end of the movie.

(14:49):
I'm a sucker for that. I'm a sucker for like
quest type shows as well. People. You know, I guess
you could say that the Charlie Bounce Brown Special falls
into the quest category of, you know, searching for something
and finding it. You know, I'm kind of a sucker
for those as well, and hence the reason I love
Aad Santa and I recommend it, but I recommend it

(15:10):
again with a caveat. If you're a person who is
sensitive to things that are a little ribaled, naughty and
a lot of swearing, it's not the film for you,
But if you know you're willing to overlook that for
some other merits, it's also absolutely hilarious. And speaking of hilarious,

(15:33):
I just finished Deadpool and Wolverine. I know a Rod
would like that at Zach. Have you seen it as well?
I have. I have.

Speaker 3 (15:43):
I thought that was a fun one.

Speaker 1 (15:44):
It was fun. Now it is a little bit patchy
on the I think the plot is not great, but
I thought the movie itself was a laugh riot.

Speaker 3 (15:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
Yeah, the plot is more an excuse to, I don't know,
get all these characters together and get them to interact
and whatnot, and all the fourth wall stuff. And you know,
for how messy it could have been, I think they
did a pretty good job executing that.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
I think so too. I mean it thin on plot,
but pretty fun and a lot of hilarious jokes, and
it got a couple of texts coming in here. All.
This person says, Yage has these sexy, brilliant Christmas back Ah.
You know, I'm a sucker for flattery. Thank you, thank
you very much. And let's see Christmas movie also brilliant.

(16:31):
Gremlins definitely a Christmas movie. Takes place during Christmas, but
there's some Christmas themes and now granted evil monsters. I
mean they kill a lot of people, basically ruined their Christmas,
but it's still still good. Let's see this person says,
Christmas Chronicles one and two, and I guess star animated
Star not ones. I've seen a person who also likes

(16:54):
Bad Santa at Rocks. And this person says, have you
ever noticed that Billy Popler in play almost the exact
same character in every movie. He's almost always a drunk,
cigarette smoking, divorced man. Yeah, pretty much. He does seem
to have He does seem to have that. I think
some characters, some actors out there are most comfortable when

(17:17):
they can step into the same role in every movie.
You know a lot of people like to, you know,
diss Tom Cruise, but I think you know when he
plays the character that he is best at, which is
you know, badass dude, maybe he does okay. I think
the Rock plays the same guy every time and he

(17:38):
does great. So you know, no, you're not everyone's built
to be like a Shakespeare actor. Some people want to
play the same role and you know what, they do
a darn fine job at it. The thoughts about Christmas
movies I'm totally open for at five, six, six, nine
to zero. Do you know that bad Son is a
Cohen Brothers movie. Yeah, they were executive producers. Weren't writers

(18:00):
on it, but they were executive producers. And I got
to say, I haven't seen every Coen Brothers movie, but
I'm a sucker for the ones that I like. I
loved Lady Killers, which is actually they re redid a
film from the sixties on that one, but it's got
Tom Hanks in it. And if you watch Lady Killers,
watch two things. Watch what the cat is doing and

(18:22):
watch what the portrait is doing. There's a portrait of
her husband's is the good character in it. There's a
portrait of her husband, and that portrait changes over the
course of the movie. It is a funny, fun beautiful film,
True Grit, the remake, awesome Coen Brothers. Oh brother Where
art tho? It's beautiful film, funny, witty moments, sort of deep.

(18:47):
It kind of tracks, like I say, loosely tracks. I
believe the Odyssey. It is a coming home kind of movie.
You even have sort of the Cyclops character in it.
Great scene, absolutely great scene. So, uh I am I
am a sucker for a Redemption movie. I am a
sucker for a Coen Brothers movie. And uh yeah, what

(19:09):
can I say? Let's see a couple other films that
came in. Oh, that's nice of you. Let's see while
you were sleeping. Yes, that's a good one, very good
Sandra Bullock when she was young. Christmas movie obviously total classic.
And uh, Crampis. I had not seen Crampis, Crampus being

(19:32):
the sort of dark side of like Santa's. I don't
know if they're brothers. They are in Red One. I
think adopted brothers. I'm not sure that they're well because
they don't they don't really look alike Grampa's though. So
Santa Claus gives gifts to kids on the the good list,
and the Crampish meets out punishment to the bad kids

(19:56):
on the list. And so you might want to know
what which list you're on when are coming in to Christmas.
Just to modify your expectations, happy to have a few
other Christmas movies also, Well, let's do a little bit
of a year in room. A year in room? Can
I get through the sentence? A year in review kind

(20:16):
of top things that you think happened over over the
last year. Twenty twenty four. I'm not going to say
it was a good it was not a good year
for me. Twenty twenty five has got to be a
little bit better. With that, Let's let's go ahead and
take a break. This is Christa Kafer sitting in for
Mandy Connell. You're listening to eight fifty koa like I

(20:41):
srot on the shallow end of the pool and then
just sort of drift into the deep end. So we
started off with I just started off with like a
kind of a heavier, you know, foreign policy Christmas perspective,
but then we moved into the shallow in we've been
doing best to Christmas movies. I confessed Bad Santa is
my favorite. It's my top watched every year. Yes, it

(21:02):
is a little raunchy. I don't know, maybe a little
more than a little. I had a little bad language
in it, but I just I'm such a sucker for
a redemption movie that I gotta love it. I actually
gotta love it. And it's really well acted and it's
it's absolutely hilarious. Somebody just texted in and said, I
saw Bad Santa on MTV on Tuesday and the cuss

(21:24):
words were all bleeped out. Wow, it can be done.
I would assume the film would be like beep beep, dialogue,
beep beep, beep beep. I don't know, but it, Yeah,
I feel like overused, Like people are really over using
the F word, and it's kind of ruining it for me.
You know, it's taken all of the kind of spiciness
out of it. It's like if you put cayenne pepper,

(21:46):
and I love me some cayenne, but if you put
it on everything, after a while you'd be like, I
don't know, this is just not that spicy. I just
feel like people have ruined it. You know, it's just
taking all the joy out of the word. And I uh,
I hate that, I absolutely hate. I mean, you know,
it's like in all these little videos on you know,
I watched videos on Facebook or whatever, and you know

(22:08):
they're funny, but you just cut back on the f wort.
They just ruined it. It really bothers me. I hardly
want to use it anymore. It's just becomes so common.
A couple other movies carry on on Netflix. I'm about
halfway through that. I almost never watch a movie in
one sitting, like, watch it, then I stop and I
watch it some more. It's pretty good though, and Baits

(22:30):
who we know, Jason Bates, who's almost always a good
guy and a little easy on the eyes. You and
I are about the same age, and but he's very bad,
I mean very bad. So enjoying that it's a that's
good to kind of. I was looking at the basic
kind of like you know, human stories. You know, there's

(22:50):
the redemption story, there's the quest, there's rags to riches,
these trading places might be that I don't know, but
carry on, you know, kind of conquering a monster. That's
actually a theme. It's like a story theme. So it's
kind of a story theme there. But it's good, it's suspenseful,
it's set on Christmas Eve, somebody like the original Family Stone.

(23:14):
I haven't seen it, but I'll take your word for it. Also,
Emmett Otters Jug Band Christmas. Haven't seen it, but will
take your word for that as well. Let's see. Yeah,
keep it coming. We've been talking a little bit about
best movies. Talked a little bit in the beginning about
how kind of special that Charlie Brown Christmas was for

(23:38):
the time nineteen sixty five. Actually, it's kind of a
simple theme, the real meaning of Christmas. You also get
the Bible story in there, which was very controversial, and
if there have been time to rewrite it, chances are
the executives CBS executives would have made Schultz rewrite it,

(23:58):
but there wasn't time, so it was aired and it
has been beloved ever since. And I brought them up,
both At and Bad Santa, because they are the only
two movies I can think of that actually have a
little bit of scripture in them, which is interesting. And
I'm not one of these people that goes I don't
I'm not really into like religious movies. I am a

(24:19):
person of faith, but I really need some action I need.
I mean, if you could do like a religious movie
with zombies, I could probably get behind that. I like action,
I like humor, like car crashes, and I mean, if
you could mix the two, maybe maybe I could be
down with that, but not really just into the religious movie.

(24:41):
I've never actually sat through a Hallmark movie. I can't
do it now. Maybe maybe if I don't know, if
I was tied down, I just can't see under what circumstance. Okay,
I can think of the circumscs. This is pretty tragic.
So there's this guy. He's in a some of the
a head injury in which he was people thought he

(25:03):
was a vegetable. So they prop him up and they
make him watch hour after hour, day after day of Barney,
that horrible dinosaur pre kindergarten show. The thing, the guy's
not lucid, that he's just kind of a vegetable, so
they just sort of prop him up in bed, they
make him watch this. He's like that for years. Sometime

(25:24):
in his late teens, he regains the ability to function,
as you know, He's able to like move his body again.
He's able to talk, and he's in a wheelchair, but
he's substantially recovered from being in this vegetative state. And
I think the first thing he tells his caregivers is,
why did you torture me? I was totally I could

(25:46):
I could think like I could think like normal. I
was myself trapped in this immobile body, and you prop
me up, and day after day I have to watch Barney.
I'm surprised he didn't come out of that vegetative state
and become a mass killed, because it would be understandable,
not good. I'm not saying that would be good, but

(26:06):
it would be semi justifiable if you had to watch
Barney twelve hours a day, three hundred and sixty five
days a year. I'm not saying I would want harm
to come to those caregivers, but I would understand it.
Those are really the only circumstances in which I can
see myself watching a holiday one of those Hallmark holiday movies.

(26:28):
Is that I'm in a coma or in a vegetative state.
Somebody props me up in bed and says she's a woman,
she probably likes Hallmark movies, And then they would force
me to watch those that's really the only circumstances in
which I can see myself watching a holiday a Hallmark
holiday show. I loathe It's terrible. I kind of loathe them.

(26:56):
I need humor, I need action. If we could if
we could mix, like, you know, some zombies in there,
if we could mix a car crash, maybe some espionage
into the plot, because they all have the same plots, Like,
you know, executive male or female goes to a small

(27:16):
town for some reason, falls in love with the town,
the charm, you know, the little bakery that person's come
to shut down because corporate has decided to build a Starbucks.
But in the moment, the Christmas spirit reaches their hardened
city heart and they become a good guy. Like if

(27:37):
you could add like a zombie apocalypse into that, I
could watch it. That would be that would be watchable
for me. But as is, and thing goes for like
you know, anything that's sort of touchy feely, you know,
I just yeah, I need something a little more, a
little a little more. We'll just go with that. We'll

(27:57):
just go with that other favorite movies, see what folks
are saying. Yeah, because we're coming to the end of
that mee where I guess that idea is, let's go
ahead and wade on into the deeper end of the pool.
Promise there's no zombies there. Let's talk about like top
events of twenty twenty four. I know this is something

(28:18):
I can guarantee. Man, he's going to hit on this
next week. So you got great ideas. You can hit
him here first, you know, sample him out, and then
when you want to go, go go with the real host,
you could go, you know, you could do a repeat it.
It's I think it's a good idea to visit the year.
I didn't. I can't say I had a particularly good year.

(28:40):
It mostly sucked, but I have I've got a good
feeling about twenty twenty five. You know, worldwide, it wasn't
It wasn't a horrible year unless you're you know, in
Ukraine or Gaza or some other places where people are
being killed. Here in America, I think it was okay.
And we didn't even get hit by a lot of smoke.

(29:02):
I mean, I was thinking about what was absent, I mean,
not just what happened over this last year, but we
actually could breathe relatively well here in Colorado. We didn't
have the massive influx of smoke and that was nice.
I don't think we had here in America any earthquakes.
We had a you know, it's a it was a
bad hurricane season, a very bad hurricane season for the South,

(29:25):
really really tore up South Carolina and North Carolina, and
you know between the mud slides and the you know,
everything that happened there, it was terrible for those communities.
But here in Colorado, I don't want to jinx it.
For all I know, tornado will pop up today and
uh they'll be like, yeah, I know why that tornado came.

(29:45):
Ca Fir said it was a really great a great
year for weather. Well, I'll tell you what, five six six,
and I know, if you've got it could be a
big thing that happened in Colorado, a big event, or
it could be a big event nationally, a big event internationally,
you know, like a sad fleeing Syria. That's pretty big.
So yeah, let me know, five six six, And I

(30:05):
know this is Christa Kaefer. I'm sitting in for Mandy
Connell and it's Kale fifty. It was almost a perfect
outro A fifty Kowa. I'm going to give my favorite
books and the reason I thought about this is that
Mandy Connell talked about how much she loves a bookstore.

(30:25):
I also love books, and I had a goal to
read fifty two books this year. I missed it by
about twenty. I'm less than twenty, but still, yeah, I
didn't hit it. But my favorites. Just in case you're
looking for a book recommendation, I really liked Material World
by Ed Conway. Talks about kind of the main like

(30:47):
the main materials that create the modern world, everything from
steel to silicon to lithium. And it's it's easy to read,
it's not technical, but it's a lot of really good information.
It's it's a it's a good book. It's worth reading. Also,
you want to read something dark, yeah, a little dark.
Hitler's People by Richard Evans is a stunning book. It's

(31:11):
a biography of of Adolf Hitler and then all of
the horrific people around him. And it will surprise you.
It will surprise you in the sense that some had families,
some a lot of them like played instruments and did art.
Like Yeah, when they weren't killing people or ordering the

(31:32):
deaths of others, they they were they were pretty uniformly ambitious,
wanting to get ahead. All of them were anti Semitic,
as you could imagine, all of them were really smitten
with Hitler, but they also had someone, you know, the
fact that they they liked art. Hitler himself did some art.

(31:53):
You know, some of them were really educated. Yeah, it
was really Uh, it was just interesting to see how,
i mean, how evil can come in a kind of
ordinary package. It was interesting putt on the dark side though. Also,
like Jane Harper's mystery series. I think she's written five books.

(32:15):
I read them all pretty darn fast because they were
that good, just really good books. So yeah, those were
my best books. Okay, the book that I thought was
the like the one I don't recommend, although if you
read my substack, I have a substack. Just go to
Christa k for substack, so you could publish stuff. I
did write a little review on it because there's good

(32:35):
stuff in it, but I do not recommend Reinhold Nieber's
Moral Man and in Moral Society. It's got some brilliant insights,
but the book is brutal to get through. Think in
Manual Kant only maybe worse, No, nothing is worse than Kant.
Bad just I mean, and no amount of like you know,

(32:56):
there's just there's really it's really hard to get through,
but has insights. So I don't know, but you know,
buyer beware if you're just thinking about reading the book,
I don't know why you'd be thinking about it. But anyway,
we're going to hit a break in about two minutes
and then we come back. We're going to talk about
events of the year, good, bad, just big things that happened.

(33:18):
It is the subject of my Denver Post column on Sunday,
looking just at Colorado, some things that I was kind
of tracking over the year that I thought were interesting.
I do not mention anything that was of national because
I was just focused on Colorado. But if you if
you want to go on away in five six to six,
and I know, big things that happened nationally, internationally or

(33:40):
here in Colorado. Obviously, the election I kind of dominated
dominated headlines for obvious reasons. It was a big election
and thinking back, but I'm not going to talk about
it too much. But who picks joy as a campaign slogan?
I mean, I know it kind of worked for President Obama.
He did hope and change and people are like, yeah,

(34:03):
we love an airy meaningless slogan, you know, and if
it's for the most part, they all are. I mean,
like normalcy that was what was that? Hardings? You know,
they all have, they all had. All those slogans are
pretty bad. Although I liked warning in America that was
Ronald Reagan's. I mean, occasionally there's one in there that's

(34:23):
kind of nice, but they're all kind of airy. So
you basically take whatever you think and feel and you
can just put it in there yourself, like it's just
this sort of airy nothing that you can imagine whatever
you want. But joy number one, I don't think i'd
go with a one word slogan and not one that's
that dumb. Nobody feels joyous about it an election, I don't.

(34:48):
I mean, unless you're a consultant making a lot of money,
you're making six figures off of the election. Yeah, there's
some joy there, but otherwise I'm not sure how joyful
it is until it's over and the bowse that won
these slim majority, they get their joy on, but I
wouldn't say it's joyous during And as far as airy

(35:10):
meaningless campaign slogans go, I'm thinking it might be the worst.
This is Christy k Fer. I'm sitting in for Mandy
Connell and you're listening to eight fifty k away. This
is Christy kay for sitting in and should be back

(35:31):
next week, so never hear and know she's having a
terrific just a terrific Christmas with her family, so and
her big lovely dog and yeah, they're they're having a
good time. So anyway, thanks for hanging with the sub.
My text line is five six six, And I know
we're moving into kind of a year in review, you know,
big things that happen here in Colorado, maybe around the country, Hey,

(35:54):
how about around the world. Just yeah, I can't believe
the Russians shot down a nazerbe Aji Azerbaijani sorry as
a Bajan was a flight And that's a it's a
it's a little country, a little oil rich country that
is next to Armenia and Russia kind of within that

(36:14):
orbit and kind of a kind of an ally I think,
not an ally of Russia, but I think is a
good relationship with that with Russia. Nothing can really, shall
we say, a strain of friendship more than shooting down
someone's plane and killing their people. So I'm thinking that's
not going to work out so well. And uh yeah,

(36:37):
Russia has is already a bit of an international pariah,
given that it likes to bite off other people's or
other countries territory. And when they don't just you know,
bit off a piece of Georgia, Georgia was like, okay,
you could, you can have that part, which is what
most countries do when he takes a bite. In case

(36:59):
of Ukraine, Ukraine was like, no, you're not You're not
taking that, and that's why they've been at war. So
kudos to obviously Ukraine and the fighting spirit to say no,
you can't just take part of our land and our
people and our resources because you want them. And so

(37:20):
right now Russia's God is. Russia's got a couple of friends.
You know, they're kind of similar birds of a feather.
North Korea just sent them some troops to help out,
because you know, they're going through people like you know,
they're soldiers, get they're not well trained, they end up dead.
They keep they keep taking recruiting men from their eastern territories.

(37:45):
You know out there in the pardon me, out there
in Siberia, people who are desperate for money and their
families coming, bringing those soldiers, bringing those men forward to
be soldiers, and maybe they're running out. I don't think
they're running out. There's still a lot of people. But
North Korea graciously say here, have a couple thousand of
our guys. And you know, China, Russian and China getting

(38:10):
along pretty well too. So there's I'm guessing probably Venezuela
has it been on the supportive side as well. So,
but yeah, I don't think the shooting down of a
neighbor's airplane is going to help them help them in
the region anyway, just on the side. Talking Also a

(38:31):
little bit about the word of the year. Now, Oxford
Dictionary does a word of the year. Other people do
a word of the year. As we enter into our
review of twenty twenty four, the Oxford sorry not Oxford Dictionary,
Oxford University Press named brain rot as it's twenty twenty

(38:55):
four word of the year. It's to find as the
supposed deterior of a person's mental or intellectual state, especially
viewed as the result of over consumption of material considered
to be trivial or unchallenging. Now, I really like animal videos,

(39:16):
dog videos, dog and cat videos. I like some comedians,
and yeah, I probably watched too much. Maybe that explains
the brain rot. I don't know. It seems to me
that we all consume a little bit of that stuff.
How much is too much? How much is too much?
So brain rot? That is well, certainally two words, but

(39:39):
that is their word of the year, and you can't
think I get a word of the year. They probably
should hyphenate it just so it really is one word.
But anyway, a couple words that I heard recently that
I had not heard that I think kind of go
with twenty twenty four. One of amost trauma bragging. I

(40:00):
heard that on Deadpool versus Overeeing, which I watched last night.
But trauma bragging, that is, and I think it was.
I think it was a reference to gen Z and
trauma bragging, which is, you know, how much worse can
my life be than yours? That kind of thing, or
how much have I been traumatized compared to you? I

(40:21):
thought it was pretty fair. I'm not going to like
dismiss an entire generation. I think gen Zs are just
about the cutest, nicest group of young people. If all
I know Zach behind the glasses, gen Z are you
a gen Z guy, I.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
Am, but I can handle our well learned criticism.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
Okay, well, you know, I teach some I teach a
couple of universities, and I happen to really like gen
Z because of just the niceness. I'm a big you know,
I got young people thank me when they leave the
classroom like that's I never thank a professor that it's awesome.
So I like and Zach being a very fine example

(41:01):
of gen Z.

Speaker 3 (41:03):
Well, thank you. I'll take it.

Speaker 1 (41:04):
Yeah, way to represent appreciate it. So, yeah, I heard
trauma bragging. I thought that was pretty good. And then
tiger face syndrome. Just just pick this one up. Its
sound a little caddy, but so Jeff Bezos leaves his
wife for his girlfriend, and I don't know if you
financed all of the I'll just call it work done

(41:28):
on this woman's face and torso maybe she's got independent money,
I don't know, but he's showing her off the way
one might show off. I don't know a car, I
don't know they're out in the town. She's in this
dress and somebody mentioned on this on Twitter that she

(41:48):
had tiger face syndrome. So if you look at her face.
It's obvious that a lot of money's gone into it.
I'm not I don't have a problem with people getting
work done. I personally like botox a lot, but this
had a lot done and so definitely a lot of
lip filler. I don't know, when you when it looks
like you could pop your lip like a you know,

(42:10):
like a balloon, it's a little much. I mean, I
just as a guideline if you're getting lip filler, just
be like, if it looks like somebody could pop it
with a pin, it's a it's a little much. So
she's definitely had a lot of lip filler. I'm thinking
possibly a nose job, definitely a brow lift. There's probably

(42:32):
some cheek filler, and uh definitely the boobs. Those are
all uh all of the purchase what I think might
be the purchase products. And it does make for kind
of a tiger face. I got admit, whoever put this
this comment on a on a tweet that I saw it.
I don't know if it's an official tiger face syndrome.
But when you have a brow lift, cheek filler, you

(42:55):
get your nose made a little pointier, you get your
lips done big. It does give you kind of a
tiger face. And again, I don't have a problem people
getting work done. I just think a light touch is better.
If your lips look like they could be popped like
a balloon, probably a bit much when you look like

(43:15):
you are always super super super awake and possibly have
drank fifty Starbucks coffees. Maybe the brow lift was a
bit overdone. And I guess the popping thing might also
go for boobs as well. It's pretty clear these are fake,

(43:36):
far too large for her frame. And you know you
don't keep a Lamborghini in the garage. I get that,
and so that's why I think she's showing these things
after The degree that she do is it's one of
those dresses where you have to use some kind of
a glue or an adhesive otherwise you will fall out.
Now I've never worn a dress like this. I've never

(43:56):
experienced the falling out. But some of these women were
addressed up so low cut, and you know, the girls
are so far out there that if it was not
sort of glued on, they would bust out entirely. And
I know that's the look she's going for. Maybe I'm
being a little caddy and pointing it out. But I

(44:18):
have a hunch, and you know, people have to get
reconstruction done. I get that. I have friends that have
had reconstruction and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that is
a good choice for people. But if you go for
just the voluntary, Hey, I want to size up to
something extremely large because my wealthy boyfriend will pay for it,

(44:42):
there is kind of a line that you cross over
that line. I don't think it's that attractive, and I'm
not sure big hard and round. I don't know. I'm
not a dude. I don't know. I'm got a hunch
that maybe some guys prefer the actual look. I am
going to move on from this topic because it's it's

(45:03):
a little edgy, but I'm going to get Zach being
a dude that kind of that kind of super artificial aesthetic.
Do you find it attractive? No, I think it becomes
I agree with what you're saying. I think there's a
lot of celebrities that have some work done here there.
It works fine, and that's fine that it probably is
worth what they're paying for it.

Speaker 2 (45:23):
You know, it works out for them. I think a
lot of times, though, there's what you're talking about where
it's a little duck fakesh or facish or tiger facesh
or yeah. And then you get the ones that are
like absolute boulders in the shirt and that's a little
I don't know, that's not appealing to me personally.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
Yeah, I just don't find it. And I can't imagine
that hugging that person. That just doesn't strike me as
I don't know my friends who are chesty. When you
hug them, they're just soft and you know, bzz of
me and he's a good person to hug. It makes
sound like I'm not gay. I'm just saying, you know,
you hug somebody and they're just, you know, a lovely hug,

(46:01):
that's fine. But when somebody's like that artificial, I give
me be kind of like hugging a mannequin. I don't know,
sex with sex nodding, Yeah, I definitely have gone along
the edge of what is tasteful for talk radio. So
I will be walking myself back from the ledge here.
So those are the two terms that I've heard, tiger
face syndrome and trauma bragging as being two words I

(46:25):
just learned. I also was substitute teaching in junior high
this year. I learned a lot of dumb words that
I wish I didn't learn and know of these aren't
swear words. It's like skibbety and different things like that.
If you are the parent or a teacher of a
middle schooler, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Guillocht,
there's a bunch of them. I like make a mental

(46:47):
note when I'm subbing for the damn like, how many
times are I going to hear that today? And maybe
that's the number of drinks I have when I get home.
I'm kidding, there'd be a lot of drinks. So talking
about twenty twenty four, I will not bring up Bezos's
girlfriend again. Is Yeah, so what was one of the

(47:09):
big things that happened this year? Got a couple of
interesting things coming in. This person says, let's see, I
had to put on my reading glasses. How sad is
that that's what twenty twenty four did to me? Yeah? Okay,
so this person says, uh. This person says, I'm glad
that that we shut down the quote unquote school choice measure.

(47:29):
Colorado is smarter than most I'm thankful for that this year.
Those are my words. That's somebody who texted in, and
you know, I did vote for that tech because I
like school choice. Most over half of the states have
some kind of a voucher program or tax credit for education.
We have other school choice things here. We don't have those,

(47:50):
but we've got charter schools, We've got open enrollment for
public schools, so we've got some things going for us.
I'd like to see like the full roster of choices
for families. I've seen how good it is for people
to pick the school that best meets their kids needs.
There was I think the reason that went down isn't
just because the unions hated it. I think part of

(48:12):
the reason that went down is there were some in
the homeschooling community that we're a little nervous about the wording,
and so that's why they didn't vote for it. And
I personally absolutely hate the initiative process. I've been pretty
open about this. I know that's a contraran viewpoint. Most

(48:33):
people think it's super but you know, we hire legislators
to do the work, so why are we legislating. I mean,
as guys make like vifty forty two thousand dollars a
year for when do they work three months. Okay, that's
good work if you can find it. I'd like forty
two thousand dollars for you know, I think it's four

(48:56):
months of work. But we pay them to do these things,
and yet we are We've got this initiative process that
allows millionaires and their friends and some of these are
good people, not saying they're not good people, to come
in and push a measure, using their substantial resources, and

(49:16):
try to get to the public to adopt it. And
we end up with some really bad ideas. And the
school choice idea would have been would have been I
really wouldn't have done much. And I think the homeschoolers
were right to probably worry about some of the wording, don't.
I don't think it was a prudent measure to put
forward for that reason, even though I do support school choice.

(49:38):
But I don't know what your reasons are. But you, obviously,
I say you, this is the person that just wrote
in obviously you didn't like it. This person said they
would have guessed that joy to be the word of
the year. Thanks Dan. Yeah, I was saying in before
we went to this hour, I can't think of a
worse campaign slogan than joy. I don't know though that

(50:00):
was her official campaign slogan, but it's about as bad
as picking Tim Walls as as her running mate. Yeah,
there was some definitely some errors made in that campaign.
And I think joy about the dumbest campaign slogan I have,

(50:21):
I think I've ever heard, and I think it could
be it could be a word of the year, right,
And this person says they I can't read that on
the air, but I did get a kick out of it.
You know who you are. It has to do with
Jeff's his girlfriend and the artificial the artificial body. Yeah,

(50:46):
all right, moving on, so the top kind of top
things that happen in twenty twenty four, let's start with Colorado.
I'll start with Colorado here just because obviously we live here.
My column The Sunday is about one are some big
things that happen in Colorado. I focus mainly obviously on politics.
I write about politics, and I thought it was kind
of cool that during the primary, the really far right

(51:10):
in the far left lost out. I say this as
a moderate, I'm really glad. I'm glad that Epps and Hernandez,
the too farthest left leaning Democrats in the Collbright House representatives.
They got primaried out. They're gone. Good Old Hernandez is
going to have to find a job. He's got the

(51:31):
barist to look. I think that'll work for him. Epps,
I don't know, some kind of angry nonprofit where she
can channel the rage. I think that would that'd be
a good call for her. Also, the Dave Williams slate
of far right candidates, most of them lost in the primary,

(51:51):
couple of them lost in the general. I think maybe
one one of that slate made it. Everybody else lost,
which is good because the mainstream republic and alternatives did.
Some of them did pretty darn well. We ended up
with very solid picks in the third and the eighth

(52:11):
congressional districts. I'm talking about Gabe Evans and Gabe Evans
and also Jeff Hurd, really solid candidates. I think they're
going to serve of Colorado very very well. Also, the
House of the House, State House, that is at the
General Assembly, the House picked up three Republicans, so there's

(52:32):
no longer a Democrat supermajority in that chamber. And my
hat's off to Rose Puglucy. Apologies if I just I
feel like I just mispronounced her name, but anyway, super sharp.
She is the minority leader there, raised the money, got
it done, brought some more Republicans and a little more
balanced to that chamber. I am a registered Republican. I

(52:55):
am kind of offbeat Republican independent, I guess contrarian perhaps,
I don't know, but I am happy to see more
Republicans in that chamber. Really stoked about Hurd and Evans.
I think they're going to do a really great job there.
So that was kind of the subjects of my of

(53:15):
my calm looking at to sort of elect you know,
election changes. They're getting rid of a lot of the
far left and the far right in the primary coming
into the general, and some really nice pickups by Republicans,
and so we'll see, we'll see what that does. Big
things that happened in Colorado, big things that happened around
the country. If if you've got a thought, I would uh,

(53:40):
I'd love to I'd love to read it for you.
Let's see. This person says, oh, it's kind of an
interesting comment. So this is again about that school choice deal.
This person says, I'm sick of the school choice nonsense.
Teachers need a certificate in four years of higher education.
We have some parents who barely passed high school thinking
they can do the job. They haven't met a single

(54:02):
homeschool kid that was thankful for it. I got a
hunch it was just a hunch that maybe that's the
same person that wrote the first comment, But I will
address it here. I know a lot of very successful
homeschool kids that were happy with the experience. They were
super involved in a whole bunch of other stuff. They're
quite happy. Now is every homeschool kid happy. Probably not,

(54:26):
I mean not probably. No, that you're going to find
some discontents. You're also going to find some bad homeschooling parents. Frankly,
having been around education politics, I also teach both in
public schools. I've been a teacher in a Royal substitute
teacher for years in K twelve schools public schools for

(54:47):
Jeff Coo. I also teach higher ed occasionally. I do
adult you know in Richmond classes that adult for adults.
So I guess, but I guess k through. I don't know, Senior.
I've thought a lot of large range of kids, a
large range of learners. I should say, as somebody who

(55:07):
loves to learn and loves to teach, and I would
say that you can find bad public schools, bad public
school teachers. You can find good public schools, some great
public school teachers. I've met some awesome teachers in early
difficult challenge schools. Also you can find great private schools,
bad private schools, bad private you know, bad homeschooling parents,

(55:30):
good home schooling parents. I think the difference is is
that because private schools have to parents have to have
some skin in the game. Even in states where they're
a voucher programs, parents still have to put in some
of their own money. Kids got to be there and
do the hard work. Private schools, not all of them,

(55:52):
but most of them have to be a cut above
because otherwise people are going to take their money and
leave private school or I say, homeschooling. Same thing. You've
got to make a sacrifice to do it so that
some people who would really suck at it aren't going
to make that sacrifice. And then with public schools and
lesson school is really wretched, it is not going to

(56:14):
get closed. And I hate to say this, that's true
for a lot of charter schools as well. Charter schools
can be closed for bad performance but they don't always
get closed for bad performance. So I would just say
to this person, hey, look around. There are a lot
of good people doing a lot of good stuff. You
can always find you can find bad everywhere, but you

(56:35):
can also find a lot of good everywhere. And I've
met some really miserable public school teachers that don't want
to be there. I've also met some amazing public school
teachers that want to be there and are doing a
great job. I would say this, and then we're going
to take a break. If you love kids and you
love your subject matter, that's the two most important things.

(56:58):
The rest is technique, and that technique can be learned,
doesn't have to be learned with a teaching degree. It
can be learned outside of that. I say, this is
somebody who substitute teach and actually likes doing it, which
is freaking weird. I know this is Christy Kaefer. I'm
sitting in for Mandy Connell and you're listening to eight
fifty KOA nice compliments. It says, where should you get

(57:26):
that voice? I could listen to you for hours. I
wanted to say thank you. That was really sweet, and yeah,
it's kind of a smooth jazz voice. I could definitely
do NPR. I just be a little more like a
little more monotone that I had to be like. And
welcome back to NPR. Sleepier, Yeah, a little sleepier and
welcome and welcome back to smooth jazz. And welcome back

(57:48):
to NPR. You're listening to Christa Kaefer or I could do,
And welcome back to the BBC. Welcome to Russian television.
We are real good to tell, all right, all right,
back to something serious. We're talking about the most serious
things that happened this year, the or the weirdest things,
or the lamest things, like whateverever you want to characterize it.

(58:11):
We're talking about a year in review. The thing that
wasn't on my bingo card for the year was the
bridge collapse in Baltimore. That was the Key Bridge, named
after Francis Scott Key, the guy who wrote our national
anthem during the World of eighteen twelve. And yeah, that
is an elegant bridge. And then it got hit by

(58:32):
a boat, a big boat, but a boat. Nonetheless, that
was not in my that was not on my being
my being go card, like I. You know, you expect
a certain amount of damaged done to the country, be
it from a hurricane, maybe an earthquake, at tornado, something
along those lines. But I didn't expect a boat to

(58:52):
take out one of the nation's iconic bridges. That was
not on my BINGO card. Yeah. Also, I haven't said
the most disturbing category of twenty twenty four is. I
gonna have to say it's the WTF category. I don't
understand how people behave this way, and I guess I

(59:13):
don't think I don't have not fully hit peak peak
cynicism yet. I'm close. I'm really close, But every year
I'm reminded that I'm not quite there. I could get
just a tiny bit more cynical, just a tiny bit.
So there's just as there's there's room to grow, I
should say. So you have the murder of the United

(59:34):
Healthcare CEO, Brian Thompson. I'm going to give the victims
name here. The father, fifty year old, father of two husband,
success story kind of a you know, modest, humble origin,
you know, worked really hard, ended up becoming the CEO
of United health Care. I don't have United right now
I have in the past, and is murdered by this

(59:59):
child of privilege. This horrible human being, this grinning, murdering
piece of you know what who murders this man whose
wife and kids spent yesterday Christmas Day without him and
are probably still in grief shock that he was torn

(01:00:23):
from them recently. And I guess what. The fact that
evil people murder people doesn't shock me. I mean, that's
not shocking. What is shocking to me is that there
was a subset of Americans that thought that was good. Now,
I'm lucky. I don't know any of those people. I'm
not one of those people who unfriends people on social
media very easily, not on Twitter, not on Facebook. If

(01:00:47):
I was actually on one of the cooler ones, I
wouldn't do it. I don't. I just you know, if
you got weird opinions, I don't have to agree with
you to like you. If anyone's going to get unfriended,
it's probably me, you know, as far as I people.
I had friends that didn't like the fact that I
didn't wear a mask during COVID. They unfriended me whatever.
Generally speaking, though I figure you're different, you don't I

(01:01:09):
don't agree. It's fine, I don't care. But if I
had if I had a friend on social media who
said I'm so glad that this person, this innocent person
was murdered because I don't like my healthcare and they
probably wouldn't have put it exactly that way. But if
I had ever gotten a whiff of that, that's an
instant unfriend and I don't do it that often, and

(01:01:31):
I know unfriending's kind of dumb anyway, but I don't
want to know people who think it's okay to kill
people they don't agree with. I just don't. I don't care.
I mean, you had that, you had someone tried to
kill President Trump or former President Trump soon to be
President Trump, someone you know, took a shot at him.
I think that guy may have been crazy. I don't know.

(01:01:54):
It didn't matter anyone who thought that was a good thing,
anyone who tweeted out, you know, something nasty about that
that somebody was almost murdered, Whether it was somebody who
was murdered, the CEO of United Healthcare or the former president,
A lot of people don't care for him. I don't,

(01:02:15):
But you don't get to murder people, innocent people because
you disagree with them. That is absolutely horrific that anyone
would cheer either of those incidents this year. Now I
know it's a minority. I know it's an minority because
I have by a thousand Facebook friends, a couple thousand.
Maybe I don't know Twitter follow people who follow me

(01:02:38):
because I don't follow all of them. I guess I
follow around five hundred. Nobody tweeted. I didn't catch any
of that on my own social media feed. I know
it's a small sample size, so I'm not saying it's representative,
but I didn't come across it. But I knew it
was out there because I had friends who said they
knew people that we're talking normal people like suburban housewife

(01:03:00):
or something, because housewives kind of an old fashioned term,
people who live in suburbia. Who cheered the murder of
Brian Thompson. I have no doubt there were liberals that
cheered the attempted assassination of President Trump. Either way, if
you're cheering the uh, you know, murder or almost murder

(01:03:24):
of a person you don't agree with, I'm thinking first
you need to go to confession. Maybe that, and then
maybe call up a counselor just do you know one,
Maybe confess to God. If you're Catholic, maybe go to
confession and then when you get back just call up
with a therapists and be like, you know, fo myself

(01:03:47):
the other day cheering on an assassin. I think that's
a moral, spiritual, mental issue. Can I get in for
a little chair of time. I'm just saying that is
not that's not normal. That's not normal. So that would
be in my WTF column of twenty twenty four of

(01:04:09):
who who praises a murder or an almost murderer? Don't
get that at all. It's very mystifying to me in
my column of good stuff. And I'll get to some
of your comments. Is I was really happy to see
the there's a reporter for the Wall Street Journal. I'm

(01:04:33):
going to mess up his name. It's like Gerskovich Evan.
I just kind of knew him as Evan, not that
I know him, but what I prayed for him. I
just prayed for Evan because I can't I can't pronounce
the last name. But guy spent like a year in
a Russian prison. I can't even imagine what that must
have been like. So I'm really happy to see a
couple of Americans released from from Russian prisons. This is

(01:04:57):
not the time to be visiting Russia. I know it's
got a lot of like cool architectural stuff, cool history.
It's a cool language. Russian's a pretty language. I'm sure.
I'm sure there's lots of nice people there. People are
not the same thing as their leader. It would be
cool to go. I've always wanted to go there, but
this is not the time because what happens is they

(01:05:20):
basically take Americans that are there, hold them on some
specious charge saying that they're spies, throw them in prison,
and then use them as a bargaining chip so they
can get their spies out of our prisons. So you know,
there's other places you can go there. You can get
the Slavic experience. Poland is fantastic. I wish you could

(01:05:42):
go to Ukraine. I've been to Ukraine. It's a fantastic place.
Odessa's beautiful city. It's where my family came from about
a one hundred and twenty years ago. Also, you want
to go somewhere that's just ideal. You're thinking maybe honeymoon,
something like that. I go to Croatia. Croatia is rgeous
and Serbia is a lot of fun. So there's there's

(01:06:04):
some really fun, cool countries where you can hear those
beautiful languages, you can see some cool stuff, get some history,
see how countries have recuperated from a treacherous era of communism.
But I'd avoid Russia just in case you're making twenty
twenty five vague Eachian plans. That would be my advice.

(01:06:24):
So we're going to hit a break here, we get
back more comments on what you thought were the top weirdest, best, biggest, gravest,
most horrible, most awesome things that happened in twenty twenty four.
This is Krista Kayfer sitting in for Mandy Connell, and
you're listening to a fifty koa and we're talking about

(01:06:51):
the biggest, kind of the biggest events of the year. Obviously,
the election was kind of took a lot of air
out of the room. Was definitely dominated things, but there
was other stuff that happened. And I went off a
little bit in the last segment about the murder. It
was late in the year of the United Healthcare CEO

(01:07:14):
Brian Thompson by this horrible, horrible person, and my dismay
over the fact that some people cheered that on. It's sickening,
just as it's sickening that somebody cheered on the fact
that somebody tried to kill President Trump. You don't you
don't get to kill people that you don't agree with,
and you don't get to cheer when somebody else does.

(01:07:34):
It's sickening, and it's I think maybe if you're feeling
that right now, like yay, an innocent person died that
I didn't agree with, you do go to confession, maybe
get a counselor that is not the way to be
Other things that happened besides the election is you know,
it's kind of the elephant in the room that was interesting.

(01:07:57):
At the key Bridge collapsed. Interesting, It's sad. It's a
cool bridge, but not something that I kind of predicted.
What about those campus protests, and I actually think that
they helped Republicans because nobody likes that. I mean, they
did like a million dollars worth of damage to the
Araria campus. And I'm an area campus alum. I've got

(01:08:22):
both my bassaords and my Masters at CU Denver and
and I've taught there. I you don't get to rip
up stuff because you're upset, and they did terrible damage
to to the campus, to the d I think they
had to resawed the entire area they were camping out.
I don't know where they were going to the bathroom,

(01:08:44):
but you know, grass can only take so much of
that stuff. So I again, you don't have to You
can be upset about stuff. There are ways to channel
that if you are. If you despair over the fact
that I think it's like four forty six thousand gozens
died and this war. Some of those were militants, some

(01:09:05):
of those were terrorists, but a lot of those were
normal people, including kids, and that's tragic. If that is,
if that's upsetting to you to the point where you
want to do a protest, why not channel that into
giving some money to a relief organization or talking to
friends about getting some relief dollars over there, medicine, blankets, tents,

(01:09:31):
you know, things like that. Put your money there, put
your energy there. You don't need to go to a
campus and rip stuff up. You also, I think, have
to acknowledge that Gaza, as tragic as it is and
the human suffering that's going on, you got to acknowledge
that Hamas started it. If Hamas hadn't killed well over

(01:09:53):
one thousand innocent Jewish people, murdered them, raped them, and
kidnapped them. War wouldn't be going on. That isn't decid
You can't feel deep compassion and pain for those who
are suffering in that war, and it's at something you
feel passionate about. Rather than rip up the sad at
your local university, raise some money to get some help

(01:10:15):
to these folks. I'm just saying it's a little common sense.
The reason I think it did help Republicans though, is
that people don't like that. It's kind of like the
sixty eight protests and riots. It didn't help Democrats that
election season, was it, Hubert Humphrey? I think yeah, he
went down. He went down in part because of all
those protests. People don't like it when people go out

(01:10:38):
and rip stuff up and spray graffiti and break stuff
and cost taxpayers money. Come on, it's a little common
sense there. And I remember what it was like to
be young. I remember, but I never went to those
kind of protests. I would go to like peaceful pro
life protests where we walked around and you know, didn't

(01:10:59):
litter or yell. I guess I'm just I don't know.
I guess I'm just not into breaking stuff. That I
don't own. If you got a thought three zero, well
I almost I almost give the number. I actually prefer
the text slife you gotta talk, go to five, six, six, nine,
oh and let me know what you think. We're talking
and we're gonna keep talking about this going into the

(01:11:20):
next hour. Big stuff that happened in twenty twenty four
can be stupid stuff, it can be fun stuff. It
can be big stuff, small stuff, collabad of stuff, international,
national stuff. Also, if you have a New Year's resolution
that you want to share and you know, as long
as it's not right, it are, I will share it
on the air way to make sure that you're committed. Right.

(01:11:44):
We'll talk a little bit about New Year's resolutions in
the next hour as well. This is Christa Kafer. I'm
sitting in for Mandy Connell and you're listening to eight
fifty koa A ring Ton on my phone and spin
this way. For as long as I've had a cell phone,
almost is back in Black by ac DC, So I

(01:12:05):
guess that could be my theme song. I've also been
I've always liked Peter Gunn, that little, you know, fun
set of jazz riff. I'm not sure what that is,
but yeah, probably back in Black. I always loved that song.
I always love that song. We're talking a little bit
about big things that happened in twenty twenty four. If

(01:12:26):
this little key voice is new to you. Normally, I'm
in print. I'm a Denver Post columnist and I pop
up on Sundays the Denver Post and in the Perspective section.
I am a commentator, like to you know, people, I
mean in journalism, but I'm not a journalist. I'm not
out there like you know, writing breaking news. I may

(01:12:47):
comment cracks me up when I'll I'll post something on
Twitter at Achris de Kafer. People be like, your journalism
is a reporter? You suck. I'm like, yeah, as a reporter,
I do suck. And that's because I'm not a reporter.
I'm a commentator. I'm an opinion person. And in fact,
tonight you actually if you want to see what I
look like, I will be on the Channel twelve PBS.

(01:13:10):
Channel twelve does a really cool program called Colorado Inside Out.
Kyle Dyer and I'll be on the panel tonight. We're
talking about our year in review, and it's a lot
of fun. It's a fun show and fun to do.
So yeah, I do TV, I do some radio, do
some some some print stuff, and I've got a sub

(01:13:30):
stack if you want to check out my print stuff.
I actually republish my columns there after the fact, and
we get some other stuff up there too. Probably gonna
be writing more. It's one of my New Year's resolutions
is to get a little bit more out there. And anyway,
that's who I am happy to have you on if
you've got a thought. Five six six nine ozer. We're

(01:13:50):
doing a year in review and also talking a little
bit about New Year's resolutions. I know we're still a
few days out from the new year, but because I
will not be here, you know, those days leading up,
I'm just here today. If if you got a New
Year's resolution and you'd like me to air it, I
can read it on the year. Man, you're committed means

(01:14:11):
that you know a lot of people have heard you
make that commitment. So yeah, you could definitely text me
at five six six and I know either what you
think were the big the big deals, the big things
that happen in twenty twenty four or New Year's resolutions.
Not everybody said them. I didn't, I didn't set one
for last year, which is probably good or this year.

(01:14:31):
I should say twenty twenty four because it was not
a good year. It was not a good year medically
primarily was my issue. But I'm thinking twenty twenty five
is going to be a great year. I've got some
get some irons in the fire. Let's see what things
turn out. I'm also going to get another dog. Those
of you who have heard me sub in for man,

(01:14:53):
do you know that my beautiful dog died last year.
Bacon died after almost thirteen years. I got her when
she was about six seven weeks old. She was from
Lifeline Puppy Rescue, which is in Brighton, Colorado. They go
around they take puppies basically from high kill shelters in
the the Rocky Mountain region. Probably hit Okay, I know.

(01:15:19):
My dog came from New Mexico and she was a
German shepherd chow chow. And she was my best friend.
And she was the best dog I've I've ever had,
and we had lots of adventures together. We hiked, we
went snowshoeting. I was wearing snowshoes. She was not. She's
it is anything fluffy, golden colored, German shepherds, which she

(01:15:39):
looked like. And we yeah, we went swimming together, we
went hiking together. We would do snowshoeing. We would do
all just all kinds of fun stuff. She was always
up for fun. And when she could no longer walk,
I uh, I said goodbye, and I think cancer took

(01:16:01):
her down. I guess in the end, heart disease or
cancer gets all of us if we live long enough.
And she wasn't senior dog, but she even that January.
I lost her in June. That January, she went snowshoeing
with me. She she loves snow. And one of my
fondest memories was I used to take her up to

(01:16:22):
this park. She couldn't go to the dog park. She
was a little bit of a brawler, but I would
take her up to this area where there was like
eight soccer fields and we'd just go and she would
run and run and run. We go late at night
when nobody was around, and snowing. She loves the snow.
So she maybe a year or two before she died,

(01:16:44):
she just plopped down on her back and started making
dog snow angels. So I was like, you know, that's
a good idea. So I did the same, and yeah,
all right, before I start to cry, I will go
back to my New Year's resolution. One of them is
to adopt a dog. It'll be two years come June,
and I'm ready. I'm almost there. I will have financial

(01:17:05):
wherewithal come midyear to to get a dog, because you
know they're expensive now, like you can't get out of
the vet without dropping a grand, so you know you
gotta you gotta have money in set of side. Cats
are no big deal. I have some cats. I guess
I'm jd Vance's catwoman. I got my two cats. I
am really more of a dog person though, dogs and horses,
although I love cats too. But I'm gonna be riding

(01:17:28):
more this year hopefully. Love horses, love love dogs. And
did do a little wrangling last year. I like to
wrangling cattle. I think it's a lot of fun. I
got to do that. I got to do some pretty
pretty hardcore mountain riding. Really great great quarter horse really
handled that well. But some more riding and definitely a

(01:17:51):
dog and it's interesting. An article in this week's Denver
Post talking about just how many pets are at the
shelter now. Now it's not the peak. Twenty twenty three
was the peak here. I think some a holes out there,
not them all were a holes somewhere though. Adopted a
dog because they thought it would be super cute during

(01:18:11):
COVID and then we're like, I don't want this dog
now they went back to work. Now. I know, emergencies happen.
There are times when people have to take a dog
to the pound. You know, there's a death in the family,
something happens where it's an emergency. You cannot find another
home for that animal. The pound is your only option.

(01:18:32):
I get it. Bad things happen. But there were also
some really irresponsible people out there who were like, I
would just love a puppy, and you know what, I
think I'll get a sporting breed. I think I'll get
a big dog that requires a ton of exercise even
though I don't leave the house. And so they got
things like German shepherds and you know hunting dogs, Like

(01:18:54):
if you don't hunt, owning a pointer is not really
a good If you're a daily runner, you run every day.
Pointers a great dog for you take that dog with
you on a run. If you are a sit in
front of the TV kind of guy or gal Maltese
is good, be Shaun is good, miniature poodle is good,
Basset hound like, there are some dogs for you. Pointers

(01:19:17):
not one of them. And I know the puppies are
super cute, but people went out and adopted these big
breeds that require a lot of exercise at a yard.
COVID was over, they went back to work and they
put that animal on the pound. And do you know
what happens to animals at the pound that don't get adopted.
They die. I used to volunteer at a dog pound

(01:19:39):
and it's crazy how many animals have to be put down,
including healthy animals, just to make room for more animals.
So all these these pounds all around town talking about pounds.
I also could be like Dumb Friends League and others
that don't have the word pound in them. A lot

(01:19:59):
of animals that need to be adopted. So come summer,
I'm going to be looking at adoption. And if you're
going to make a resolution and you've got room in
your heart for a dog, you've got the lifestyle that
allows you to, you know, take that dog on a walk,
do what you need to do. Pick the right breed
for you, be honest with yourself. You're not a big hiker,

(01:20:21):
snowshoe runner, whatever, They'll get a pointer, get the right
dog for you. But do consider going to the pound
or the Dumb Friends League or Max Fund or whatever
and find a pet there. Also. I guess BLM, this
is not Black Lives Matter, but this is Bureau of

(01:20:42):
Land Management. They could use your help as well. So
when we get back, I'll talk a little bit about that.
Then bust into some other New Year's resolutions and a
couple of highlights from twenty twenty four. It's Chris Kafer
sitting in for Manny Connell. You're listening to a fifty
koa and started talking about New Year's resolutions, and then

(01:21:05):
I started talking about the fact that there's a lot
of dogs and cats and animals out there generally that
need to be adopted. Not the peak twenty twenty three
was actually the peak here. But still a lot of
animals in these shelters, and they, you know, they do
their best to accommodate as many animals as possible, but ultimately,

(01:21:26):
some animals, you know, they get put down. When I
worked at I used to volunteer a day. It's probably
the worst dog pounds This is about twenty years ago,
and it was in the heart of Washington, d C.
In the hood, this shelter that was just overrun with animals,

(01:21:46):
and I had not seen animals that abused before. The
animals with collars grown into their skin where somebody just
you know, left the collar on, didn't take care of
the animal, animals that had been used as bait dogs
for fighting animals. One of the most despicable thing I

(01:22:07):
saw was where a lot of dogs have naturally downward ears,
like not like German shepherd, you know, triangle ears, but
they got the floppy ears. Well, you can have your
dog medically changed like a lot of times, well people
will do it with Doberman. They'll have the ears medically
changed to have up ears. But what I saw was

(01:22:27):
diy versions of that in which pit bulls or mastiffs
or other dogs somebody taken a pair of scissors to
their ears. Saw a lot of really ugly things, and
saw a lot of animals put down because in that
particular shelter, in that particular city, I should say, pit
bulls were illegal, and so pitbulls were summarily put down.
And that used to be the case here in Denver,

(01:22:49):
that has changed things to changes in the law, changes
in hearts and minds. Even so, as this writer writes
in shelters are full of pit bulls and pit bull mixes,
and pipples are wonderful breed. They're not a breed for everybody.
Some pipples do well at the dog park, some pipples
do well with other dogs. Generally speaking, pit bulls do

(01:23:12):
well with humans, though when they were bred for fighting,
they were bred to be aggressive towards other dogs, but
very pliable with people. And that's because if you were
fighting dogs, you would need to reach into the pit
where the animals were being fought and pull out an
injured dog with your hands without getting bits. So they
were actually bred to be docile to people, but to

(01:23:36):
be ferocious to dogs. And it's something that you want
to keep in mind if you get a pipples that
they may not be dog friendly, and some of them are.
They're usually very people friendly and usually really good with kids.
Like you know, there are outliers with any breed. You
do hear of situations where children are injured. Some dogs

(01:23:56):
can't really be around young kids. So I used to
have a fantastic German shepherd chow Chow awesome, awesome dog
like a I think German shepherd Teddy Bear like a
fluffy German shepherd. And I had to put a lot
of training into her to be able to be with kids,
to be trusted in that situation. But I did not

(01:24:17):
take her to the dog parks. She liked a brawl.
She was good at it too, sun dogs. A lot
of dogs cannot go to the dog park. They fight
a lot of dogs. I mean you had to. You know,
the extroverted Golden Retriever who's like, hey, this wanna be
friends with everybody, min But you also have a lot
of dogs they're like, hey, I just want to hang
with my friends. You put me with a dog I

(01:24:38):
don't know, and we might have words and so just
you know, go into the breed knowing what to expect.
But if you've got space in your heart and your home,
I would consider a pibble. Learn about it, learn about
the animal. Usually these these that's true for any dog
or dog breed. But learn about the breed, learn about

(01:24:59):
what's to expect. But as this person said, the shelters
are full of pit bulls and pit bull of mixes.
Open your heart if you can, this breed can make
a really wonderful, wonderful companion. Another person said that they
recently adopted a mutt from the Denver dumbfriendsly wonderful place.

(01:25:19):
It was because this person was a great experience. My
Dutch shepherd isn't so sure about the whole thing dut shepherds.
There's like four different kinds of Dutch shepherds. Melani was
probably the best known. And these are smart dogs and
tense dogs. But apparently the Dutch shepherds still trying to
figure out what to do about the new guy. But

(01:25:40):
you know, dogs they know introduced him right. I'll give
you one little tip though, if you've got one dog
and you're getting another one, bitches can be bitchy. Two
male dogs are more likely to get along. A male
and a female dog can get along. Two females might
have to fight a little bit to figure out who's
the boss. And if they can't figure out out, they

(01:26:00):
will fight all the time. Just a thought you have.
You know, my sister has two femaline dogs that love
each other. It's not always the case, but sometimes, uh yeah,
sometimes bitches can be bitchy. What can I say this
acristic kaeper and we're hitting into another break. I'm sitting
in for Mandy Connell and you're listening to a fifty koa.

(01:26:27):
My friend Drew Bollen did me a little favor. He's like, Kafer,
did you know today's Thursday not Friday? Oddly enough, I
did not know. Gets in my mind. I was thinking
it's Friday. Yeah yeah, I uh yeah. Anyway, it's Thursday.

(01:26:47):
I yeah. The whole holiday thing, I don't know. I
don't know. Anyway. I'm talking a little bit about dogs actually,
because the shelters are full and need your help. If
you've got room in your life for a dog or
cat or as I said, I think before the break,
maybe it was the last break or the break before that.
Bureau of Land Management is actually looking for folks to

(01:27:10):
adopt some of these horses. So if you've got pasture land,
maybe you're looking for a horse. Maybe you think I
got a little room, I've got pasture, I could take
a mustang. The reason for this is that we've got
feral horses roaming different parts of the state. These animals,
both the burrows and the horses, will overpopulate those lands

(01:27:34):
in pretty quick order. I believe a horse American have
a probably have a baby a year. You get these
these these animals reproduced pretty quickly, and they end up overgrazing,
end up others, busies end up suffering because antelope, obviously, deer,

(01:27:56):
elk and others rely on vegetation as well. And so
they have to go in and call these herds and
they're gonta do something with the horses because they're not
allowed to slaughter them, so they put them in holding pins.
They get acclimated to people. Very often they'll be in
holding pens on prison land, and people who are in
prison will work with these animals. Sometimes they can get trained.

(01:28:18):
Mustang makes for a very hearty horse because they've you know,
they've lived on the range. And you've got space in
your life for a horse or a burrow. You've got
the land. The Bureau of Land Management is looking to
rehome about eleven thousand horses and burrows in the next
five years. And so, yeah, so there's there's room. If

(01:28:42):
you've got room in your heart and your and your
household for a large animal, consider that. But if you
got a little room for something smaller, the horse or
a horse, dog or a cat, or a small small
animal like a guinea pig is. It's a great addition.
And I'm a big, a big proponent of adopt, don't shop.

(01:29:03):
I'm not against shopping. I'm not against ethical breeding. Keeps these,
you know, particularly keeps breeds around, because there are people
who are breeding specific breeds. But ethical breeders, I think,
do a good thing. But if you've got you know,
if you're not picky, adopt. And I like shepherd mixes,

(01:29:24):
so that's what I'm going to be going for. Talked
a little bit about pit bulls. This is a cute story.
This person had a pit bull follow them and their
pit bull home from the park because the animal was alone, scared,
possibly abandoned, walked all the way to the house and
ended up spending the night. So this person took this
stray dog in because the shelter was closed. He stayed

(01:29:46):
the night. He's a really good dog, really sweet dog,
and then the owners were able to find him through
social media. It's a lovely story. And you know, animals
do get lost. My mom lives in South Carolina and
in the country, and I don't know if it's a
Southern thing a country thing. I don't I mean, I
love the South, but very often people will just dump

(01:30:09):
animals like, oh, yeah, my cat or dog can just
live off the land. Really yeah, in the middle of
the country. Yeah, I mean a cat can survive in
a city, probably because there's enough rodents. Dogs don't really
do well. Uh. And and cats that don't hunt, like
the kitten that I took home. Uh, that cat would

(01:30:32):
have died. One of my cats I brought back from
South Carolina. Some just dumped this kitten like, yeah, she'll
just hunt. Okay, I find this cat's got you know,
basically this kitten skin and bones, and took her home.
So that's how I helped. How I got a second cat,
And I'll be adopting a dog this summer. And I

(01:30:54):
like I like shepherd mixes, I like pipples. I think
they're great dogs too. But just you know, if you
want a powerful breed, have the lifestyle and the ability
to train that animal to give them the life that
they need. If you're kind of sedentary, just be honest,
be like, hey, I'm a sit and watch sports guy.
Get a dog companion that can fit that lifestyle. Don't

(01:31:18):
don't go ahead and get a pointer. All right? Public
service message over is over. I promise if I do
have to read this, this person says, because it's just beautiful.
My friend gave me his whole life. I gave him
all of my life that overlapped with his. I owe
him that seventeen years wasn't nearly long enough. And that's

(01:31:38):
that's how I felt about my dog's I honestly think
one of God's greatest gifts is a dog. I don't
know that we would have conquered the world if it
hadn't been for them and dogs. Unlike other domesticated creatures,
most domesticated creatures have been with us less than less

(01:31:58):
than about six seven thousand years. I think pigs and
sheep were the first. Then you get cattle, later you
get chickens. Cats eventually sort of domesticated themselves and they
were just like hanging out and then they were like, yeah,
i'll snuggle. But dogs may have been domesticated upwards of

(01:32:18):
thirty thousand years ago. They and like modern man is
about fifty thousand years and you've got you know, human
beings go back much farther than that. Then you've got
archaic human like beings as well. But in terms of
like you know, people like us that had language, and
you know, granted they were like hunter gatherers fifty thousand

(01:32:42):
years and about maybe thirty thousand years with dogs that
helped us to hunt, that protected us that now you
know guide dogs. They're just an amazing animal. So that's
my little, my little tribute to dogs. I think they're
I think they're just a great gift and to the
person who lost your dog after seventeen years. When I

(01:33:05):
think about my dog, what I imagine is that she's up
in heaven with my dad. I really miss my dad.
I had a really fantastic dad, and she's up there
with him and they're doing stuff, and at some point
I'll join them and it will be a great, a great,
a great meeting. You think about how dogs are like

(01:33:26):
stoked to see you after like you've been you went,
you went to the seven eleven, you were gone five minutes.
In their mind you were gone, you know, five hours,
five days, whatever. They're super stoked to see you, Like
he came back. It's been I wrought five minutes. Imagine
imagine that, you know that set that greeting after all

(01:33:47):
this time, They're going to be so stoked to see you.
And I'm going to be so stoked to see her.
So I'm talking having to pivot back to New Year's resolutions.
If you got one, I'll read it out loud, mean
it can be read a lot on air. And also,
you know anything that you thought was like a big
deal that happened this year that you want me to

(01:34:08):
mention on air. I definitely hit a couple of those
earlier in the show. I tak it an interesting text saim,
do you think we will have a peaceful transfer of power?
And it's to kind of pivot back to a little
public policy. Yes, I do. I do. Biden is he's done.
Not only do I trust that he will leave power.

(01:34:30):
I don't see how he could try not to. He's
definitely ready for retirement. And here's the interesting thing. If
he had had the humility back in spring to say
I'm not going to run again, if he had had
that humility to say, I really, I'm on the back
end of you know, I need to retire. I'm slowing down,

(01:34:50):
I'm tired, I'm not all there, which is going to
happen to all of us before you make fun of
somebody for getting that old. If you have the uh,
the blessing of a long life, you too will be
that old. And you know, when I'm eighty, I'm going
to be like that too, probably, although I know some
super sharp eighty year old people that I that I
think would be fine. You know, there's a good chance

(01:35:10):
that I'm going to be like you know, I'm going
to nap and you know, watch TV or whatever and
garden and I think that's that's basically what he's heading forward.
And he's got grandkids. But if he had had the
humility back in spring to say I did my four
years and proud of what I did, moving on, he
would have put his replacement or the person who's going

(01:35:34):
to run next in a better position to win that race.
And people wouldn't have known just how kind of elderly
he had become. I mean, it basically had been kept
kind of secret by AIDS and Pip Boss. You know,
a little collusion on the part of the press had

(01:35:54):
not really made the situation as you know, situation if
his sort of mental decline as obvious as it had become.
But he probably could have retired with grace if he
had had the humility to say, I'm not running again,
but now he's not gonna be running again, I do
think we will have a peaceful transfer of power. I

(01:36:16):
think we're gonna have an interesting next four years when
I sub again. Of course we can comment on those things.
I have really no comment worth sharing right now. On
Eric's episode, I think that RFK has got to go.
The guy is a quack. And I'm really happy that
Matt Gates is bowed out, not only bowed out of

(01:36:38):
being Attorney General, which was an absurd nomination, but also
he's not in Congress anymore. And you know, the report
was made, the report was put out there, you know,
prostitutes and drugs and sex with an underage girl. Creepy stuff.
And I mean he looks like Eddie Munster grown up.

(01:36:59):
I guess you got you know, you got a mug
like that. Maybe you have to pay for it. I
don't know, maybe I don't know. And then so and
this kind of ties back if if you're going to
get some some plastic surgery, not gonna judge it. You know,
probably by the time I'm sixty, maybe I'll go into
the knife. Who knows, but go lat push it go

(01:37:22):
like if you go early. It's not a good look.
Think Meg Ryan just a little too much surgery a
little too early. Same goes for Matt Gates. I mean,
and and botox isn't permanent. I get botox, it wears off.
I think some other stuff has been done there that
wasn't good. I don't know if it was a brow

(01:37:42):
lift something, because he went from being like Eddie Munster,
grown up, but you're not a not a good mug
to something that doesn't look quite right. Yeah, it doesn't
look quite right. So I guess maybe he felt he
had to pay for it. I don't know, but you know,

(01:38:03):
between prostitutes, drug use, and sex with underage, that guy
had no business being in Congress. And I am happy
for the lovely state of Florida that he is. Out
a couple other people I'd probably put on that list
of people that maybe should be better off, you know,
back in the private sector, but that we would get

(01:38:27):
to another day. I'm just glad that he's And you
gotta wonder what is he going to do now that
Congress of people they make I think one hundred and
forty hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, assuming he
didn't blow all of that on prostitutes, he probably has
some money in the bank, and he can, you know,
figure out what he wants to do. I just don't
know who hires a guy like that. They always end
up becoming lobbyists. So maybe he'll be like a lobbyist,

(01:38:48):
but a lobbyist for what, you know, I drug legalization,
prostitute legalization. I don't know who knows, who knows, So
that that's my only comment about the peaceful transfer of power.
My hope is that we have separation of powers for
a reason. If you look back at the you know,

(01:39:08):
federalist papers and other documents, people who put our constitution
together wanted there to be tension. Wanted there to be
a tension between the executive, the judiciary, and the legislature,
and that tension is supposed to keep power from a
massing in one place. So it really is really important

(01:39:32):
that the Senate take all of those nominees, vet them seriously,
keep the good ones. I'm the governor from North Dakota.
He seems like a decent pick. A couple of the
other governors that have been picked for stuff, they have
experience governing, you know, they probably will do a decent job.

(01:39:52):
Some of the other people don't have the experience or
they're crazy and have no business being anywhere near power.
I want to see that the Senate do its due diligence.
I'm not a big fan of people who just cow
tow to power. I think they need to take their
own power seriously, give those a good vetting, pick the

(01:40:14):
ones that that are the best, shoot down the rest,
and then other ones will be nominated in their place.
So I do ex I do expect. I'm just getting
back to this person's question. Yes, there will be a
peaceful transfer of power. I think the first couple of
months will be interesting in terms of the nominees, what
goes on in the Senate. And I think it's going

(01:40:35):
to be a really interesting year as I, Uh, somebody
has said to somebody, you know, I guess elections anymore
are kind of the you know, f around and find out,
and I think that's pretty much, uh what's going to happen.
It's going to be interesting. So uh, let's see a

(01:40:55):
couple of interesting places or interesting places, interesting texts that
have come in and uh, let's get to a couple
of them before uh. I again, about eight more minutes.
So if you want to text me, I'm five six
six and I know. This person says Gates looks like
a butt head. Yes, as in Beavis and butt Head.

(01:41:17):
It looks like butt heead, not a butt heead. Sorry,
he looks like butt hit. But Beavis and butt Heead.
I was more of a ren and stimpy girl back
in the day. But I did watch Beavis and butthead,
and he does look exactly like butt heead, does he not? Zach?

Speaker 2 (01:41:31):
He looks like he's got the eyes. He's got the eyes.
Eyes are dead ringers for each other, and.

Speaker 1 (01:41:36):
Roughly the intelligence level, I think it's a it's kind
of a good match. It is a good match. This
person says he was mentally incompetent four years ago. I
think he's probably been in decline at least that long.
And I say this is somebody who will probably be
in decline at some point myself. You know, you got
kind of two choices. Your body can go or your
brain can go. Person will be must go at the

(01:41:58):
same time, and you don't know what one is going
to be. You don't know if you're going to be
like that super sharp guy or gal that dies from
you know, heart issues or cancer, because that's statistically what happens.
And you may go into that, you know, go into
that good night with with your faculties. Or you might

(01:42:20):
be that person who's got a healthy body and the
brain's gone. It could happen. Could you know, nobody knows.
You live long enough, one of those things will probably happen.
Nobody nobody gets out of here alive. I hate to
say it, nobody does. Let's see this person, because he's
actually running the country. Yeah, I think his advisor's probably

(01:42:42):
his wife took over that. And you know, this has
happened before. Woodrow Wilson, he was a president around the
time of World War One. In fact, one of the
reasons that we got into World War One and kind
of one of the reasons that we ended up with
World War two because it is handling of that. Not
a good president, big time racist, segregated, resegregated the federal government. Yeah,

(01:43:07):
he had some serious health issues, was really on his
way out and by his way, by way out, I
mean way out of the office, I mean way out
of this life, and his wife and his advisors pretty
much made it seem like he was still president for
the months that he was on his on his on
desk's door. So this has happened before. I don't want

(01:43:30):
it to happen to anybody. It's just the way life is.
You either lose your mind, lose your body, or lose
them both. But in the end we all we all
go that route if we live long enough. I mean,
you could die earlier than that too. Let's see this
person says, have you been to Dog Mountain in Vermont?
Absolutely sweet place? That is a church for dogs that passed.

(01:43:52):
Oh I like that. I like that. I still had
my dog's ashes. I'm not sure I want to bury him.
I don't know. Oh, this is gonna sound sick. They're
in my nightstand, you know I would. I don't know
what to do with them. Maybe take her to someplace

(01:44:12):
like that. I don't know. I don't know. Anyway, we're
heading towards the end of the show, just say, hey,
thanks a lot. It has been an absolute pleasure to
be the guest host. If you're like, you know, I
could use a little more of that K for action,
I am. I'm on Colorado Inside Out tonight at eight
o'clock on PBS Channel twelve. You can also find you

(01:44:32):
can find it on I think, YouTube, Spotify. There are
other ways to listen into that show. It's a lot
of fun. If you like a talk show where you
people give their honest opinion but they don't actually talk
over one another and they like each other even when
they disagree, that would be Colorado Win. Sign up and
Kyle Dyer super nice. You probably recognize the name from
Channel nine. She's to be on Channel nine now she's

(01:44:54):
our host and super super nice. It's a great show
and just you get you get a good sort of
taste of public policy in a half hour without without
the yelling. Now, if you like the yelling, it may
not be the show for you. If you like people
yell at each other, yell over each other and genuinely

(01:45:15):
dislike each other, this would not be the show for you.
But you can catch that at eight o'clock. Also, I've
got a substack. I do some writing there. Who knows
I might be doing a podcast next year. I don't know.
I don't know what. I don't know what's in store,
I honestly don't. But I also have my Denver Post column,
and I'm on Twitter every now and again I say

(01:45:35):
something clever. Who knows I did? I did have a
tweet go viral. Two of them go viral this year. Yeah,
I know, big deal. Yeah it's not a big deal,
but I did do I did a this year. Was
this thing or that Barbie Barbie came out that came
out this year? Was that last year?

Speaker 3 (01:45:54):
That was last year? The whole Barbenheimer craze?

Speaker 1 (01:45:57):
Yeah, yeah, it was two years ago that one. I
did a Barbie Bingo card and Ben Shapiro retweeted it,
so I got a little I had my two point
five seconds of fame with that. That's the worst movie,
Oh good grief, was it terrible. I would like to
mix it with a zombie movie in which Barbie Barbie

(01:46:20):
becomes a zombie and eats people's brains. I could probably
go for that, but as it stands, that movie is
definitely on my most avoid list. Zach, You've been fantastic.
Thanks for being the fabulous producer today.

Speaker 3 (01:46:34):
Thank you so much for having me. It was a
pleasure doing this with you.

Speaker 1 (01:46:36):
Thanks. Well, you know what, even the best host has
to take a day off from time to dime. So
when Mandy takes another day off, I will be back tomorrow.
Tomorrow is Friday, and John Caldero will be standing in
and then you know, what I assume. Mandy will be
back next week. She is a fantastic host. Thanks for
hanging with the sub. This has been Christa Kaefer sitting

(01:46:59):
in for Mandy Kln on eight fifty Kowa