Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, DenverTo listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Executive Powers in the Constitution... Harvey Mansfield in Weekly Standard ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Colorado Mercy Killing... The Dylan Walborn story in Denver Post ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now that Judge Samuel Alito is nearly certain of confirmation to the US Supreme Court, let's talk about the hot topic of courts and judges in American self-government today. Alexander Hamilton, writing in Federalist No. 78, predicted the judicial branch would be the "least dangerous" to our rights in a free society. Why hasn't it turned out that way?

Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, DenverTo listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Resolved, this house refuses under any circumstances to fight for king and country." When that debate proposition carried at Oxford in the 1930s, Hitler knew Britain could be had.

How much fight there is in American hearts today, remains to be seen. Yes, after 9/11 we took out the Taliban, then toppled Saddam. But national self-doubt seems to be rising now. Can we outlast the Islamofascist enemy? Can we even control our own borders?<!--

Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, DenverTo listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Doug Gresham, CS Lewis's stepson, talks with me about Narnia. See below ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jared Polis and Michael Bennet, elusive educrats, still haven't surfaced. Details here. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Republicans feuding in Colorado? Republicans corrupt in Washington? Conservatives to blame, wherever you look? None of these story lines is accurate, but oh, what fun the mainstream media are having with them so far in 2006.

Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, DenverTo listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gift copy of West's constitutional government essay, email backboneradio@aol.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Milk carton alert: Jared Polis and Michael Bennet are missing! Details at bottom ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here comes the New Year, ready or not. One way to get ready, if you are principled and patriotic as most Backbone Radio listeners are, is to reload on Day 1 with intellectual ammunition for defending America as it was meant to be -- America as our Founders intended it. In that vein, I'm betting that if Thomas Jefferson of Monticello could recommend one political scientist we should heed right now, he would pick Thomas West of Claremont. West was my guest on the radio and on platforms several times in 2005. Now he'll be the subject of our first show in 2006.

Join us on radio every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, DenverTo listen online from anywhere, click 710knus.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This Sunday is Christmas Day, climax of the season that Charles Dickens called "a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time." I will be with my family that evening, not in the radio studio as on other Sunday nights, and I hope you will be with yours.

But if your activities lend themselves to having the radio on, please join us for a special edition of Backbone Radio with me and my daughter Tina giving a full-length dramatic reading (recorded earlier) of that beloved Dickens classic, "A Christmas Carol."