Author: Vince Bzdek
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Should autonomous weapons be allowed to kill?
The pros and cons of automating war By Vince Bzdek The practice of war entered a whole new era last week when the U.S. Navy used an autonomous Corsair sea drone to find and rescue two soldiers after their helicopter crashed in the Straight of Hormuz. It is the first publicly known instance of an…
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A tale of two debates | Vince Bzdek
Ballots go out Monday as the June 30 state primary elections bear down on us. As a result, it is suddenly the season of proliferating political debates, and there have been some doozies already. I had the chance to see two very different debates in the last week, and comparing and contrasting them speaks volumes about the…
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Founding documents reconnect us to our shared American roots – and rebelliousness | Vince Bzdek
When you first lay eyes on the actual founding documents of our country that, for the first time in history, have traveled together from their gilded cages in Washington to visit us out here in the hinterlands, you’re struck not by their brilliance but their humanness. The original copy of the Bill of Rights brought…
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Be The People campaign hopes to reignite American spirit | Vince Bzdek
“If we want to be We the People, then we need to Be the People.” That’s the battle cry of a collection of more than 50 of the most prominent philanthropic organizations and donors in the country, who are launching a new national campaign this summer to revitalize citizenship. The campaign is called Be The…
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Band of tech entrepreneurs sounds alarm on Colorado’s business climate | Vince Bzdek
By Vince Bzdek It’s really not a headline you want to see in the national press: “Entrepreneurs Flocked to Colorado. Now Red Tape Is Driving Some Away” warned a recent Wall Street Journal article. “A vocal band of Colorado software engineers and venture capitalists,” wrote the author, “are increasingly grumbling that their tech haven in…
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There’s a radical new trend in pop culture: wholesomeness | Vince Bzdek
By Vince Bzdek I’m seeing a lot of signs lately of a real unhappiness with our national unhappiness, of a hunger for a return to a little wholesomeness. Take pop culture for instance, always a good barometer of the nation’s mood. My wife and I went and saw comedian Nate Bargatze during a recent stop…
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Why is secretary of state dragging her feet on probe of charitable gaming? | Vince Bzdek
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The Gazette’s David Migoya was recently recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists for his investigative reporting on Colorado’s $110 million charitable gaming industry. “Fascinating report on a loosely regulated industry, well-researched and investigated,” said the judge of Migoya’s story. Migoya found that a number of charities receive very little if any of the proceeds…
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Fifty years on, A River still Runs Through It | Vince Bzdek
By Vince Bzdek Fifty years ago this month, a 72-year-old first-time novelist published what may be the best-written, truest book about the West ever penned. If there is one novel every Westerner should read, I’d say “A River Runs Through It” by Norman Maclean might be it. It was shunned by all the East Coast…
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How important is military service in race for 5th Congressional District?
By Vince Bzdek Colorado’s 5th Congressional District has one of the highest concentrations of military facilities in the country — Peterson Space Force Base, Schriever Space Force Base, Fort Carson, Air Force Academy, NORAD, the headquarters of Northern Command, Space Force and Space Command. Yet, ironically, the district has not been represented by someone with…
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Montrose citizens’ assembly puts the ‘We’ back in ‘We the People’ | Vince Bzdek
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By Vince Bzdek It started with a completely random encounter in a buffet line. Harry Gottlieb, founder of a national civic organization called Unify America, and his president, Michelle Sobel, were at a Chicago fundraising conference, talking about trying to find a good U.S. city for a pilot project called a “citizens’ assembly.” A citizens’…