"This is an issue that in 20 years or less people are going to look back and say, 'Why was this an issue?' " Ferrandino said.

Some of us already do. Seriously, what are these yahoos doing in the state capitol, wasting time and money dancing around what is essentially a non-issue. This country, this state, ought to support any and all civil liberties that have no affect on others.

Does the state recognize heterosexual civil unions? Then it ought to recognize homosexual ones as well. Does the state offer benefits to heterosexual married couples beyond those of civil unions? Then the same ought to be extended to any couple.

Full stop.

Anything else is a side issue.

Yeah, you're right. I mean in that comment alone, there's not much derision in it. I'm thinking more along the lines that Freetheweird seems to use every chance he/she can get to go make things aggressively political.

But it would be nice, for once, if people would set aside their other political differences for just a minute, an hour, a day, and show some solidarity on an issue that most people (though not all - anti-gay marriage/union people, none of this is directed at you, since rationality isn't really your strong point) can agree on.

But hey, whatever, by now, we're making a bigger deal about his/her comment than should be. Mountains out of molehills and what-not.

Going back to the original comment - I agree. People ought to give those representatives a call/email and let them know what's up.

I get where you're coming from, but where does Romney fit into the Colorado legislature's failure to properly address (ie - pass) this issue?

I think Romney is a dolt (some might call that being a natural-born politician), and I agree that he just goes along with whoever pushes him the hardest and most recent. And his back-and-forth, and generally negative, attitude towards homosexuals' civil liberties is disappointing.

But this isn't the time for that. We're talking about state-level politicians. And, ideally, they are supposed to be much more responsive and level-headed than bureaucrats on the federal stage. This is where we should focus the discussion, disappointment, and indignation.

The presidential candidates and their positions are tangential to this, so why even go there - especially with the snarky implication behind Freetheweird's message? My point is that it's both inflammatory and sidetracks from what is actually going on here.

Why are you so divisive?

I'm all for civil unions - actually, I'm all for gay marriage. I'm all for most any progressive personal liberty out there, especially if it's a) not hurting anyone else and b) none of my business anyway. I'm also fed up with petulant politicians playing games instead of doing the job they're paid to do.

The first part of your post: awesome. You're right, make your voice heard. Thanks for taking the time to post the links. Very thoughtful.

But why do you have to take every chance to put others down while you're at it? Not every occasion calls for a soapbox.

What if there is a Romney supporter - for whatever reason you may disagree with - who also wants this to pass? Why do you have to alienate other people who may, in fact, share opinions with you, just because they're not as fervently one-sided as you make yourself out to be when it comes to the two main parties.

In my opinion, attitudes like that just increase the widening gap of potential dialogue between rational people nowadays. Come off it, son.

(then again, this is a free local newspaper forum on the internet, so perhaps I shouldn't expect much)

Do you happen to have a source link to that and/or the police report?

The only thing I've ever seen is a comment on a DC article from a few years ago (the one DonDraper cited above), from the Colorado Springs Gazette, I believe.

I imagine I could go to the library and dig through the archives for the actual story (since I don't plan on subscribing to the Gazette online...), but if you happen to know a link, it'd be appreciated.

I don't watch Tosh.0, but if it had that on it, it wouldn't make much sense.
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/scumbag-steve

You don't have 10,000 people (majority of whom are not students) standing in a field in the middle of campus while classes are going on taking shots of vodka to "protest" (aka feel cool, take pics, send your friends, update your twitter)

I take it you've never been to a college football game? Minus "while classes are going on", and substituting "beer" for "vodka", you've described it spot on.

Well, I'm not sure that's really a fair comparison.

Pearl St. has performers/buskers, while Westport has beer festivals. I'd probably liken Pearl St. to the Plaza before Westport, I think, it being the touristy walkabout stretch of town with novelty shops selling overpriced goods.

And I'm sure I've seen more people setting up playing music on the Plaza than I have in Westport (where there's plenty of music shows, but they're indoors).

Or maybe there just isn't a good comparison at all.

The on-off cycling that happened might've been due to a recloser on the line - it's like a circuit breaker, except that it tries to clear temporary faults and come back without having to go totally offline. And they have a sequence that they follow. So you might get a short loss of power or two, and then a longer one (multiple seconds) or two, and then totally off.

But I don't know where/what caused last night's outage, so I'm not really sure.

As others pointed out, that one, coupled with the one a few days ago, is a bit out of the ordinary since Xcel's reliability numbers are usually pretty high this side of town.

Got any facts or numbers to support that claim?