Marx Goes Full Oltmann: Kyle Clark: "GOP Gov nominee Victor Marx appeared Thursday [October 8] on the podcast of Joe Oltmann, who has called for the execution by hanging of Marx's opponent, Phil Weiser. Oltmann says Weiser is part of a 'Synagogue of Satan Jews' who run Colorado. Oltmann just endorsed Marx for governor." For Marx to align himself with Oltmann is disgusting and completely disqualifying. Especially given this, anyone knowing this who now votes for Marx is morally corrupt. I listened to the entire Oltmann-Marx interview (which also included the lieutenant governor candidate) and there is nothing redeeming about it. This is as bad a failure of judgment by a prominent state-level candidate as I've ever witnessed.

No Debate for You: Colorado Sun: "Victor Marx skips debate." Kyle Clark and CPR: At the candidates' one and only joint meeting, before the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, the candidates got all the questions in advance, and Marx read his prepared "answers." What an embarrassment for the Chamber, for the Republican Party, and for Colorado voters.

A Missed Opportunity: Love or hate Barb Kirkmeyer, she would have been an extremely tough debate opponent for Weiser. It's a shame Colorado voters cannot hear a real debate from candidates for the most important office in the state.

Marx's 'Unusual' Spending: CPR: "His expenditures show that he . . . relied on a trusted group of friends, family and previous associates with little to no experience in elections."

Domestic Violence Claims: John Frank claims, "Marx demanded that Weiser, the state's attorney general, apologize for accusing him of domestic violence in recent weeks" (link in original). Frank's claim is inaccurate in that Weiser never (directly) accused Marx of domestic violence. The link that Frank provides goes to a post, not by Weiser, but by the Colorado Democratic Party. True, video there juxtaposes Marx talking about slamming his wife into a door and making her cry with Weiser condemning domestic violence. But if you look at the original video, Weiser does not directly reference the Marx quote in question; rather he talks about domestic violence in the abstract. Further, although Frank claims Weiser "doubled down" during the Chamber of Commerce discussion in "accusing" Marx of domestic violence, that is simply not what Weiser said at all. Instead, Weiser said, "I want to be very clear. I have never said and won't talk about anything about your [Marx's] marriage, your family. I made a comment about the following statement. The statement was, this is verbatim, 'More girls and women wouldn't be abused by men if they were content with where God has them.' . . . . That statement says to victims of domestic violence that somehow it's their fault. My response about domestic violence is to survivors out there, it's not your fault." You can watch the abbreviated clip of Marx at 9News. Marx released the longer clip (see next item). I'll leave it to readers to evaluate the legal and moral status of Marx's behavior, as he described it, toward his wife and young child.

My Apology to Marx: Previously I said that Marx's "content" comment reflected "straight-up misogyny." That was inaccurate. Marx released the longer clip, and it's clear in context that Marx was talking about potential "singleness" (a woman being single) here. So Marx clearly is not saying that a woman should be "content" in a bad relationship so that she isn't abused; he's saying that a woman should be content to be single rather than enter an abusive relationship. Initially, based on the shorter clip, I misinterpreted Marx's meaning, and I apologize to Marx and to my readers for that. Weiser should publicly acknowledge that, like me, he got this one wrong. (Marx is still a terrible candidate and no one should vote for him!) Arguably Marx still is laying the blame for abuse at the feet of women; on the other hand, he says, "No guy should lay his hands on you physically or abuse you verbally."

Election Watch

CoCo Oopsie: Some 800,000 ballots improperly include the passenger rail measure limited to a geographic region. This is a major screw-up. Kyle Clark says it wasn't Jena Griswold's fault. Wayne Laugesen is not so forgiving.

Fentanyl Measure: Get More Smarter: "Debunking the damned lies around Prop 132 with CCJRC's Kyle Giddings."

Trafficking Measure: Jamie O'Rourke: "'Not Victim-Centered At All:' Trafficking Survivors Slam Anti-LGBTQ Group’s Ballot Measure as Harmful to Victims." As I have discussed, the measure is dangerously poorly written.

Trans Surgeries: S. Baum: "Colorado's Top Medical Groups Formally Oppose Anti-Trans Ballot Prop. 135."

Weiser on Socialism: CPR: "I'm not a socialist. I believe in the free market system. I believe in responsible regulation."

Crank and the Epstein Files: Lindsey Toomer and Wayne Laugesen offer very different perspectives.

Quick Takes

Peters and Trump Conspire on Elections: Kyle Clark: Felon Tina Peters met with Trump. Reportedly they discussed the possibility of seizing ballots. Meanwhile, Peters's attorney, speaking with Joe Oltmann, publicly said, "Donald Trump is not going to relinquish control again" in case of potential impeachment and removal. The attorney also teased the possibility of civil war with Trump declaring martial law and controlling the nation's weapons. Jared Polis, who once called Atlas Shrugged a great book, today is learning its lesson, "In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit." Polis has said proposals to interfere with the elections are "dangerous." More from Lindsey Toomer and Steve Rabey.

CSU Rape Allegations: Hannah Metzger: "CSU fraternity brothers colluded to drug, rape woman, lawsuit claims."

Some in Colorado Colleges Embrace AI: CPR: "The AI Engaged Campus Designation gives a nod to schools that are getting out ahead of the brave new AI world with intentional policies and training for staff and faculty on how to use it ethically." Chalkbeat: "CU Denver's AI Hub aims to teach students and faculty about the technology."

School Racism Allegations: KRDO: "Sand Creek parent wants accountability a week after alleged racism from Lutheran High School at football game." KDVR: "Air Academy to forfeit homecoming football game to Lutheran High School." Good for Air Academy.

Flock You: Daily Sentinel: "Denver woman sues police, Flock Safety after being falsely accused of stealing package from porch."

Erin Lee's Daughter: Last year she said she was "embarrassed" that she previously identified as transgender and said she was "really, really confused" at the time.

Terms of Use | Copyright © 2026 by Ari Armstrong. Originally published at https://ariarmstrong.com/miner-153.html.

Yet hope springs eternal, so I thought I’d take advantage of this election season by reminding people what’s not on the ballot but should be. Maybe some legislator out there will take an interest in something here for the next legislative session.

Here I’ll focus on two of my ideas: expand the size of the legislature and exempt low-level sellers from the sales tax. Republicans, Democrats, and everyone else should be able to get on board with these proposals.

I’ve also written extensively about separating party and state, which means not giving political parties any special government privileges, but I won’t review that matter here.

Expand the legislature

Yes, it would cost money to expand the size of the state legislature. But prudent conservatives do not just say cut government spending no matter what. They call on prudential spending for essential functions. Democratic representation is an essential function. The legislature is too small to effectively represent the people.

As I pointed out last year, the number of people represented by each house member has gone up from around 4,000 to over 90,000. I guess that most Coloradans have never met and could not name their state representative.

State representatives in Colorado represent more than double the number of people relative to the national median. In five states, including Wyoming, each lower-house legislator represents fewer than 10,000 people. Wyoming has 62 representatives for around 590,000 people.

Only nine states do worse than Colorado in terms of providing effective numerical representation, according to calculations provided by ChatGPT. California is by far the worst offender in this regard, with 80 members of the assembly representing over 39 million people.

A few years ago Daniel Christopher Bowen wrote a paper suggesting, unsurprisingly, that when a representative has fewer constituents, a constituent is more likely to know about and make contact with their representative.

I am not suggesting that the number of legislators should grow strictly with the population. If we still had the representation we had at the beginning of statehood, that would create a house of over a thousand members. Way too many! So what’s the right size today?

In 1972, Rein Taagepera suggested something like a cubed-root model for ideal legislative size. If we take the simple cubed root of Colorado’s population, that’s 182. I suggest an adaptation of the 1972 model. At every census, take the cubed root of the population, round that number up to the nearest number evenly divisible by four, and then make that the size of the total legislature. Then say the house is three times as large as the senate, and, importantly, nest three house districts within the geographic borders of one senate district.

So at this point, Colorado would have 184 legislators, with 138 representatives and 46 senators. This is an elegant plan to make Colorado’s legislature far more practically democratic.

Exempt low-scale sellers from sales taxes

Phil Weiser rails against monopoly power in some contexts, but to date to my knowledge he hasn’t lifted a finger to help solve a problem plaguing small-scale sellers in Colorado: the high costs of sales-tax compliance.

I’ve written four books, but I cannot practically sell my own books directly in Colorado because sales-tax compliance is so onerous. Therefore, I sell my books only through Amazon. (You can also read my books for free via my website.)

As state form DR 0154 makes clear, even someone “who makes an occasional or isolated sale of tangible personal property” must “remit sales tax on these isolated and occasional sales” come April. True, low-level sellers within these rules need not get a sales-tax license, which is a whole other level of bureaucracy, but they do have to file the tax paperwork, still a major hassle.

Most people just ignore the law here. Have you ever seen someone collect sales tax at a yard sale or for a CraigsList sale? I haven’t. Likewise, people often sell “merch” at events without collecting or remitting sales taxes. Keeping a widely applicable yet widely flouted law on the books is dangerous and wrong.

The reform is obvious and modest: Exempt people from collecting or remitting sales taxes at all levels of government if they sell less than, say, $5,000 in a calendar year worth of goods, indexed to inflation.

Notably, the legislature has addressed this problem for nonprofits. In 2019 the legislature passed, and the governor signed, House Bill 1323, which exempts $45,000 of sales from sales-tax compliance and eases the rules in other ways. That’s great. However, as the Department of Revenue points out, the exemptions do not extend to city and county sales taxes, unless those governments adopt the same rules.

The legislature also has made some headway in making sales-tax compliance slightly easier for sellers. But especially for small-scale sellers the compliance hassles remain enormous.

Also, especially because government now requires out-of-state sellers to collect and remit sales taxes, the legislature should just repeal the use-tax laws. The idea with use-tax laws is that, if sales taxes weren’t collected for some sale, the purchaser is supposed to pay the equivalent tax. Again, that law is widely ignored and a stupid hassle. Get rid of it.

There’s a lot we should do to reform our legal and political systems. But expanding the size of the legislature and giving sales-tax relief to small-time sellers would be great places to start.

Terms of Use | Copyright © 2026 by Ari Armstrong. Originally published by Complete Colorado.

Third-Country Deportations: This is abhorrent behavior by the U.S. government: ACLU: "The Trump administration has deported over 23,000 people over the last year and a half to countries they have no relationship with, where they may not speak the language, and where they generally have no legal status. Sometimes, it deports people to conflict zones or countries where they are likely to face persecution or even torture." Reuters, September 24: "President Donald Trump's administration ​will ask the US Supreme Court to allow it to continue to swiftly deport migrants to countries ‌other than their own without offering them the chance to raise any safety concerns about their destination, US Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Thursday." This policy is morally evil, and honest people will publicly say so. See also Linda Chavez's report. Also: "They kept us like animals." Greg Sargent: "Stephen Miller Is Paying Monstrous Dictators to Admit Expelled Immigrants."

Traumatizing Children: CNN: "Migrant children as young as 2 are showing up at immigration courts nationwide, many without attorneys, to make their case to stay in the US and avoid deportation."

Detention Abuses: Owen Swallow: "The press conference and protest focused on copies of complaints alleging civil rights violations, medical neglect, and lack of access to adequate nutrition by people who were held at the Aurora immigration detention facility in northwest Aurora."

ICE Abuses: Amnesty International: "The Trump administration has committed a host of human rights abuses, including unlawful killings, some of which may amount to extrajudicial executions; arbitrary and discriminatory incommunicado detentions, including possible enforced disappearances, in some cases in conditions of confinement that may violate the prohibition on torture; violent repression of peaceful protests, and more."

ICE Assaults Citizen: Hill: "ICE leaves US citizen injured on ground in mistaken identity incident." These are the jack-booted thugs conservatives once warned us about.

ICE Violence: Seth Klamann: "A federal judge in Denver says immigration agents involved in the violent arrest of an 18-year-old should be punished for violating a court order, and the federal government should release the teenager and pay his medical bills." More Seth Klamann: "During his time locked up at the Aurora immigration detention facility, [a man] said he witnessed violence and abuse, grew weak from hunger and was, eventually, brutally beaten by guards while handcuffed and suffering a panic attack."

Renée Good's Mom: Via Eric Boehm: "I voted for President Trump, under the impression that these agents were here to protect the citizens of the United States—innocents like our family and the others here—against terrorists, certainly not to accuse those here of being terrorists and take precious lives." Good's family is suing.

Risking Lives: Michael Karlik: "The Denver-based federal appeals court concluded last month that the government’s immigration appellate body was wrong to order a man deported to Mexico after two immigration judges in Colorado concluded the likelihood of torture should prevent his removal there."

Caging Humans Like Animals: This is immoral.

Trump Watch

Applebaum: "MAGA Is Making the World Safe for Corruption. See also her podcast episode with Sam Harris.

U.S.S. Lincoln: NYT: "8 Sailors in U.S.S. Lincoln Strike Group Attempted Suicide, Navy Says."

AI Updates

Reed and AI Use: I have not independently verified The Needle's claims about Erin Reed's purported use of AI in her work. Here I want to reply only to a slice of that article. I think the framing is off in important respects. Yes, I think it's important to disclose when text is written by AI. What I object to is the implication that cut-and-paste from AI is in the same bucket as using AI to "research" articles. Bluntly, if a journalist is not using AI at this point to help research articles, they're missing the boat. I use LLMs to help research practically all of my articles at this point. The key is to prompt well and check out the citations. This is not much different from using, say, the Google search function to help research an article. (Indeed, Google now integrates newer AI into its searches.) Here's one example. I used Chat to help dig up some obscure decades-old documents about Colorado tax policy. I frankly probably never would have found all those sources otherwise, although maybe Google plus hours of hunting eventually would have gotten me there. I make no apologies for spending five minutes to find an important source with Chat that otherwise might take me five hours to find (or five days using paper archives). This isn't somehow cheating; it's using the available tools to do the work. LLMs are powerful data processors, so for journalists not to (intelligently and transparently) use them I think is a waste. Every tool can be used well or poorly.

Machine Intelligence: AI, or, as Tyler Cowen prefers, Machine Intelligence, is much in the news of late. I use ChatGPT nearly every day, mainly as a research engine, secondarily as a sounding board for questions involving music, literature, medicine, and more. Although I have not gotten much into "agentic" use, I do have it set up to conduct a daily search for me and return results. To take a few examples, recently ChatGPT has helped me learn about potential drilling techniques on Mars, translate image-based comments in legal documents, evaluate a novel I was thinking of buying, and convert pdf files into epubs.

AI Face-Off: I've used ChatGPT enough to see with my own eyes how it basically grew from a toddler that couldn't do simple math to a college graduate. The developments have been extraordinary. Now you can watch AI-generated music videos arguing that AI is revolutionary and AI development faces inherent barriers. Either way, the fact that humans used AI systems to produce these videos is a sign of these extraordinary times.

Education Updates

Khan as Mentor: Matt Barnum: "In a recent interview with me, Khan revisited [his] origin story. In hindsight, he now says, it was not just that he was good at explaining tricky math by video or otherwise. It was that he had a relationship with his cousins that encouraged them to work hard. 'The real power of the one-on-one is the accountability and the pushing,' Khan said. That cannot easily be done by video or AI chatbot."

Online Escape from Bullying: Matt Barnum: "University of Chicago researcher Chris Campos pointed me to a recent study of his. . . . Using data from Los Angeles, Campos and colleagues show that students report lower rates of bullying after opting into online education. But Campos’ paper, like many others, also finds that most students learn less in online schools. 'Some families appear willing to forego short-run achievement gains in exchange for guaranteed improvements in bullying-related outcomes,' the study says."

Federal Tax Credits: There are a lot of unknowns here. What's clear is that accessing the funds will involve considerable bureaucracy and paperwork. Here's one line from the AP: "Scholarship recipients could use their funding to pay for religious or private school tuition, homeschooling costs, tutoring and special education therapies, books, computers and other expenses connected to enrollment or attendance." Notice what this does: It incentivizes recipients to come up with creative ways to spend all the funds they can access. What it does not do is let a parent pay for regular household expenses so a parent can cut down work hours and spend more time homeschooling or working with a child outside of school hours. I'm still not convinced this should be a federal program; the Constitution does not authorize the federal government to become involved in education. And, by the way, this will only increase pressure on the national debt. That said, at a certain point, we have to live within the rules defined, and I intend to take advantage of this program if I reasonably can.

"Illustrative" Algebra: I'm deeply skeptical of the claim that "math instruction should prioritize open-ended problem solving and student discussion rather than more rote methods." The former devolves to bullshit sessions and not actually teaching kids how to do math. The proper alternative is not "rote memorization" but deep conceptual understanding. Matthew Yglesias argues for "explicit instruction."

Art Updates

Tomorrow Ever After: I absolutely loved this 2017 film by Ela Thier. The set-up is that Shaina (Thier) has accidentally traveled back hundreds of years to 2015, and she has a very hard time fitting in to that New York culture. People in her time refer to our era as the Great Despair. In some ways the film feels like a socialist utopia, with people of the future living in communes and picking "real food" off of trees, but maybe that also can be interpreted as techno-optimism if we think the plants are genetically modified. Shaina also has an "implement" that's like a super-thin and unobtrusive iPad. I have a fascination with films that are very-low-budget but also high quality, where the acting of necessity must carry the film, as it certainly does here. I'm instantly a Thier fanboy.

Widow's Bane: Happy Halloween! Here's the video of the creepy and amazing song, "Don't Be Afraid; It's Only Death." See also an alternate live performance. The main guy subsequently started up Gasoline Lollipops band.

Phenomenon: I rewatched this 1998 film and loved it as much as I did originally. As others have noted, it's something of a Christ story, with a man gaining wisdom and special abilities, scaring some around him, and eventually helping to transform people. I think what I love about it is its benevolence and sense of calm confidence. Obviously it's inspired by Flowers for Algernon, a considerably darker story.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry: In this lovely film, a man (Jim Broadbent) goes on a cross-country walk to visit his sick friend. In the process he meets some interesting people and learns a lot about himself.

Foo Astley: Somehow I'd missed (or forgotten) Rick Astley performing with Foo Fighters in 2017.

Quick Takes

Thompson on Gay Marriage: C. Bradley Thompson has continued his ridiculous attack on gay marriage. Thankfully, I had ChatGPT summarize and analyze the series so I don't have to waste any more time with it.

Thiel on AI and Democracy: Interview in Berlin. HT Cowen. My take: he's right to fear the democratic socialists, but he's foolish to underplay the dangers of Trump and Vance. I was thinking about this: a liberal and capitalist society relies on "creative destruction." Those who pay too little attention to the creative side of that become nihilists. I worry that Thiel is too welcoming of disruption. I also think that Thiel, in his fear of leftist authoritarianism, has blinded himself to the obvious authoritarian leanings of Trump. Maybe obsessive fear of the "antichrist" can help bring it about? See also Thiel's 2024 conversation with Cowen. A key line: "There's always a risk that the katechon becomes the Antichrist." Notice how Trump imposes (aspects of) authoritarianism and socialism in the name of fighting socialism.

Why Matter: I very much enjoyed the Ayn Rand Institute's discussion of Rebecca Newberger Goldstein's The Mattering Instinct. The basic idea, as I take it, is that people should strive to be on the side of life, which in the negative can be described as anti-entropic (in that living things strive to keep themselves organized). Greg Salmieri's main objection seems to be that Goldstein confuses an external, intrinsic standard for objectivity, also that Goldstein doesn't always seem to tightly tie mattering to a pro-life project. See also Goldstein's "The Mattering Map."

Botched Execution: See the AP's report about a case in Tennessee. Government killing people is bad, and this case illustrates why.

Homecoming Queen: Apparently a Georgia school will not allow a trans girl to run for homecoming queen. There is an easy fix for this people! Just stop calling it "king" and "queen" and make it a nongendered "homecoming court" competition.

FCC Licensure as Censorship: ARI: "The FCC's underlying licensing authority [and] the employment mandates . . . violate freedom of association. . . . The only real solution is privatizing the spectrum."

War on Gifted Education: John Stossel: It's real, and it's bad.

Smithsonian: Josh Blackman: "If the Smithsonian truly seeks actual independence, there is only one path forward: formal separation from the federal government."

Terms of Use | Copyright © 2026 by Ari Armstrong. Originally published at https://ariarmstrong.com/roundup-76.html.

Montana's Progressive Income Tax: Rob Natelson says Montana's experiments with a progressive tax were a disaster.

Fentanyl Penalties: Logan Davis calls Prop. 132 "an effort to re-increase the fentanyl overdose rate."

Trans Surgeries for Minors: Jon Caldara makes a case for voting to ban trans surgeries for minors. I'm still voting no for reasons explained; I think older teens do have substantial ability to reason and make their own decisions, and I have no standing to interfere with the decisions of a teen, their parents, and their doctors.

Trans Kids in Sports: These are just kids. Universally keeping trans kids out of sports is wrong. Of course, as I have long argued, leagues should not be organized around genitalia anyway. There's no good reason why a not-especially-athletic trans girl or a small boy shouldn't be allowed to play with girls. Organize leagues by relevant physical characteristics. Jamie O'Rourke: It's not at all clear how the ballot measure would be enforced, but obviously it would require some sort of sex testing. My prediction: The most frequent impact of the measure will be for officials and certain parents to harass masculine-looking girls suspected of being trans, especially if those girls are disliked by the Mean Girls. The measure is practically a plea for government-sanctioned ugly behavior. See also Hannah Metzger.

Boulder 2J: Derek Draplin: Boulder wants to impose an excise "tax of at least $4,000 per year on 'vacant' residential properties, defined as 'homes that are occupied for 183 days or less per year.'" This is scapegoating wealthier people for the housing shortage caused by government policies. Also, how is this enforced? Notice how the "civil liberties" left all of a sudden doesn't care about civil liberties when it comes to surveilling people's housing occupation.

Marx Watch

Marx's Violent Rhetoric: Victor Marx once told a story of how he slammed his wife into a door and made her cry. Marx said that was to illustrate the value of training, and his wife says it wasn't abuse. Daily Beast has details, or see the Dems' post or the follow-up by Kyle Clark. Or see the 9 News video of Marx saying, "More girls and women would not be abused by men if they were content with who they are and where God has them." That's about as repulsive a comment as I can imagine a candidate making, just straight-up misogyny. Colorado Republicans, you could have had regular ol' boringly competent Barb Kirkmeyer. At this point, every decent Republican will demand that Marx drop out. Anyone who continues to endorse Marx, having heard those comments, is morally corrupt.

Running from Debate: Victor Marx will not debate Phil Weiser. True, Marx has made a proposal to debate that he knew Weiser would reject out of hand and that any candidate would reject, to debate Marx without a moderator at Marx's home studio run by Marx's team. This is not a serious proposal by Marx; it is a sham invitation intended to trick his gullible followers. The reality is that Marx is afraid to debate Weiser, and with good reason. Marx knows practically nothing about how state government functions, and his politics appeal only to a small slice of the Colorado electorate. Here are the facts. Marx refused to debate at the Pikes Peak Center. He refused to debate at Club 20. He backed out of a debate moderated by Aaron Harber. Marx's actions do not make any sense from the perspective of someone trying to win political office. They make more sense from the perspective of someone trying to increase a donor base.

NYT on Marx: Read it here.

Campaign Finance Violations: Kyle Clark: Marx has racked up record fines.

AI Crowd: Hannah Metzger: The Marx campaign shared an image with an AI-generated crowd. Sheesh. Amateur hour.

Candidate Watch

Vote D Mostly: I've already explained why people should vote no on all the ballot measures. Regarding the statewide and congressional races, I think people should vote Democrat across the board, except for Jena Griswold and Melat Kiros, because Republicans need to learn the lesson that Trump- and Marx-style politics are unacceptable. For state legislature and other seats, judge race by race; maybe there are some good Republicans out there.

Killin It: Wayne Laugesen has found a tangential connection between porn interests and Jessica Killin. Yawn.

CTR Cranks It Up: The left-leaning Colorado Times Recorder (which nevertheless publishes a column of mine) has out a series on Rep. Jeff Crank. Jamie O'Rourke: Crank has a history of anti-gay positions. Jason Salzman: In 2019 Crank called human-caused global warming "the greatest hoax of our time." Salzman again: Crank opposed ObamaCare (as did I). Erik Maulbetsch: Crank engaged in conspiracy mongering about the 2020 presidential election.

Trash-Talking Zokaie: Rep. Yara Zokaie released audio of someone associated with a Republican fundraiser saying horrible, personal things about her. No one in or out of politics deserves to be talked about like that. This is shameful.

Weiser Campaign Donations: Center Square reports Phil Weiser took some contributions over the legal limit, necessitating refunds. Unlike Victor Marx's campaign finance violations, this is a nothing-burger.

Deep Singh Bhadesha on "Democratic" Socialism

Bhadesha defends Democratic Socialism on Mandy Connell's show.

He says he used to be a Hayek-quoting libertarian who railed against corporatism, such as bank bailouts. He referenced a poll saying that socialism is more popular than capitalism in Denver. I believe that's a Colorado Polling Institute survey, which says, "Nearly 1-in-5 voters (17%) now identify as socialist" in Denver, and "Denver voters maintain slightly more favorable views of socialism (55%) compared to capitalism (47%)." That's mass-insanity.

Bhadesha said Bernie Sanders appealed to him over universal healthcare, concerns about college costs, and problems with housing costs. My read: Those are three areas where government obviously screwed things up. As I recently told a friend, "Health care after ObamaCare is exactly as fucked up as I predicted it would be" (not that it was great before that). Interestingly, Bhadesha seemed to agree with that, only his "solution" is yet more government control. The underlying story is exactly the one told by Mises and Rand: Ill-conceived government regulations in the economy cause distortions, leading to calls for more government intervention. In other words, socialist (directional) policies are responsible for the ills over which Bhadesha calls for more socialism.

Bhadesha also throws around the term "capitalism" to describe obvious uses of force, such as colonial violence, which are the antithesis of free-market capitalism. Capitalism does not mean any attempt to acquire wealth; then it would describe the Mafia as much as the corner shop. Capitalism means a system of voluntary exchange.

Bhadesha lets slip the mask when he talks about seizing the means of production (maybe he was partly joking, but I don't think so). Socialism is force, it is violence. "Democratic" socialism is force with a popular veneer. Bhadesha specifically says (quoting the Democratic Socialists) that "food, education, energy, medicine, and transportation" should be government-run. Another detail here: Bhadesha complains that private equity firms have bought up a lot of small medical offices, but he ignores that government regulations largely drove this trend.

Nevertheless, Bhadesha and I agree on various things, such as the need to roll back zoning regulations to increase the supply of housing. And I'm very glad that Connell invited on Bhadesha, especially given Connell's recent article lamenting the loss of civility in our society.

In related news, various Democratic candidates have openly promoted socialist or socialist-adjacent policies. Claire Valdez said “we need to nationalize the airline industry.” Melat Kiros called for “publicly owned, mixed-income social housing." Darializa Avila Chevalier once said she wants to "seize the means of production.” Abdul El-Sayed has called for substantial government ownership of AI companies. Jackson Franklin wants to "nationalize the pharmaceutical industry."

Kirk Johnson Joins Denver Museum of Nature and Science

This is huge and (for me) unexpected news. Kirk Johnson is leaving the Smithsonian to head the Denver museum. The museum is signaling it intends to be taken seriously as a world-class institution.

The museum's media release notes "Johnson spent more than two decades" here "before leaving in 2012." He helped open the Deep Time exhibit and helped lead the huge mammoth dig.

The Smithsonian notes, "Johnson has overseen one of the world's preeminent centers of natural history research, whose scientists published more than 11,000 peer-reviewed papers and named over 4,000 species during his tenure. . . . Since becoming director, he has raised over $300 million for the museum and grown its endowment by 450% percent—from $82.7 million to nearly $380 million."

Johnson is a world-renowned paleontologist and a proven institutional leader.

In related news, Team DMNS helped find important T-rex footprints in North Dakota. See Axios, the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, and DMNS. And the museum is returning to Snowmass next summer to unearth more fossils.

Quick Takes

Progress Now: I was frankly stunned when I opened a September 10 email from Progress Now Colorado and saw my article against the natural-gas ballot measure featured. That organization and I haven't always exactly seen eye to eye. I guess Progress Now decided it's okay to let me carry water for them sometimes. Although I have some big disagreements with Progress Now, we also agree on quite a few issues. Generally, I'm happy to find common cause with different people and groups where possible. Then, on September 24, Progress Now surprised me again by linking to my Times Recorder article on the Elizabeth suppression of The Kite Runner. I'm quite proud of both of the linked articles. By the way, Progress Now's daily news digest is one of the best sources of Colorado news; I read it every day. Btw Corey Hutchins also linked to my piece on Kite Runner.

Krause on Madagascar Fossils: David Krause gave a talk last year on Madagascar fossils and the Ankizy Fund that is a version of the talk that inspired my child to raise funds for Ankizy.

Housing for Me Not for Thee: Denver edition.

Aurora Breaks Up Sex Trafficking: Whether or not the reported numbers ultimately hold up, Aurora police reportedly has made some major arrests related to sex trafficking; at least one person has pleaded guilty to serious crimes.

Homeschool Enrichment: Anne Schimke: "Colorado officials plan to seek third-party audits" of ERBOCES and Colorado Homeschool Enrichment. These groups already have been pushed out, so it's unclear to me what is the purpose of the audit. Partly, I think, it's part of a PR campaign against homeschool enrichment funding. A September 11 release from the Colorado Department of Education says one proposed rule would "increase the minimum instructional hours for part-time funding from 90 to 180 hours." In other words, enrichment programs would have to double their hours for the same funding, which simply means that most enrichment programs would close down. Again, there are a lot of problems with directing tax dollars this way; I'd far rather homeschool families just be able to keep the funds they are now forced to pay into public education. But that approach is not on the table.

Protecting Pollinators: Polis signed an order.

Remembering Racial Terror in Denver: White domestic terrorists pushed a black family out of the City Park area in the 1920s.

Election Integrity: Hannah Metzger: A lawsuit by United Sovereign Americans concerning voter rolls was tossed as "completely devoid of factual allegations."

Hospital Tampering: Someone shut off oxygen at UCHealth, apparently on purpose. Terrible.

Fire-Resistant Houses: Turns out that if you build houses with less-flammable materials they tend not to burn as easily. Go figure.

Colorado Commies: That's the title of Wayne Laugesen's new book. What I really love about Wayne is his subtlety and nuance. See also Wayne's take on enrichment funding.

Terms of Use | Copyright © 2026 by Ari Armstrong. Originally published at https://ariarmstrong.com/miner-152.html.

Colorado Sun: “Boulder Valley School District will close 4 schools as enrollment declines.” The “decision outraged parents.”

Coloradoan: Poudre School District “eying closures of 12 schools.”

Denver Post: “Adams 12 district recommends closing 6 schools to save $5 million.”

Denver7: “JeffCo school district says selling 21 closed schools would only cover half of one year of maintenance.”

CBS: “Douglas County School District parents, kids adjust to school consolidation.”

9News: “School closures are becoming a bigger issue across metro Denver.”

So what is the pied piper of Colorado? The term “pied” is helpful here, as it means multi-colored, as with a magpie. There isn’t just one reason for the losses.

Lower fertility

Brian Eschbacher, an “enrollment consultant” (and I didn’t even know that was a thing), told 9News the obvious: “Many school districts have fewer children living in them now than they had a decade or more ago.” But why? 9News paraphrases, “He said fewer births, housing costs and changing migration patterns are leaving many communities with fewer school-age children.”

People generally are having fewer kids. Last year the United Nations said fertility rates were in “unprecedented decline,” BBC reported.

Colorado’s Demography Office says Colorado’s total population went up between 2023 and 2024 and is expected to go up more to about 6.2 million people by 2030. The number of people ages 0 to 17, by contrast, fell and is expected to keep falling.

Last year, the Common Sense Institute noted that school closures are “primarily the result of falling birth and fertility rates.” CSI adds, “Colorado’s birth rate has been declining since 2005 and has fallen at a faster pace than the national average since 2011.”

So, for the most part, the problem is not something luring away families with kids; it is that fewer kids are born. But the moving part is still important.

Moving around and out of Colorado

Earlier this year, Erica Breunlin put together an informative article for the Sun, noting that, even with “overall enrollment in public schools plummeting,” “46 of the state’s 178 districts gained students this year, primarily in suburban and rural districts.” So part of what’s going on is families are moving to different districts.

Colorado also is losing some families to other states. The Demography Office reported in March that “some counties lost populations to other states or counties.” “High housing cost counties” were among those hit especially hard. Some counties also have lost migrants.

This leads to the completely unsurprising conclusion: Families that can’t afford to live in Colorado, or in certain parts of Colorado, will leave.

Private educational alternatives

Although, as the Colorado Department of Education notes, enrollment numbers in private schools are not well-reported, there’s some indication that private schools grew somewhat, at least as of a few years ago.

Likewise, there’s some indication that homeschooling numbers are up, although most people who say they “homeschool” actually are enrolled in private “umbrella” schools, so they’re not counted in the official homeschool stats.

It’s plausible, then, that a slice of the explanation is that more people are leaving the public schools, but, even if that’s the case, those numbers are dwarfed by demographic changes.

Regardless, if you’re tired of the academic mediocrity, the bullying, or the pedagogic and political fads, you might think about leaving too. As the father of a thriving homeschooled sixth grader, I can confidently say (depending on a family’s context), come on in, the water’s fine.

A problem of costs

Although the legislature has made some progress toward deregulating the housing market, the builders of housing continue to face costly regulatory and bureaucratic hurdles to increasing the supply. This raises prices and drives out families.

Government also continues to suppress the supply of child care through badly implemented regulations. Last year, the legislature passed SB26-020, concerning licensure. This bill created the “child care licensure task force . . . to study and report on recommendations for a streamlined child care licensure system in the state” (per the summary). The report is due next year.

We need some safeguards, but my sense is that the costs of regulatory burdens are unnecessarily high. I wish an investigative reporter would interview a few dozen childcare providers about bureaucratic burdens and evaluate the regulatory landscape. I’m not saying that over-regulation explains all of the problem, but I suspect it does tamp down supply.

Wage controls ensure that grandma can watch the kids for free, if she’s available, but she cannot watch them for $10 per hour, even if that arrangement would benefit both her and the parents, because that would violate the minimum-wage laws. This again drives up costs for some young working families.

It also would help if families could more-easily hire immigrants to provide live-in care, but that would require federal reforms, and again wage-control laws would suppress many mutually advantageous relationships. Government needs to watch out for genuine exploitation, but to a large degree government now forcibly prevents “capitalist acts among consenting adults.”

Given the fertility crisis, soon enough our country will be begging for immigrants and competing to get them.

If you want to personally do something to encourage parenthood, give away copies of Bryan Caplan’s book, “Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids,” to your young-adult friends.

It is cliché to say our children are our future. It is also true. We jeopardize our prosperous future insofar as dumb government policies drive up the costs of living, push out families, and discourage parenthood. What helps families is what helps us all: economic liberty. Play that tune, and the children will begin to return.

Terms of Use | Copyright © 2026 by Ari Armstrong. Originally published by Complete Colorado.

Calling someone evil, on the other hand, tends to bypass argument and justify, or rationalize, more extreme forms of opposition. That is why Marx is wrong to call his political opponents wicked and to associate them with demons, and that is why Marx is dangerous.

He is not very dangerous, though, given that polling shows him losing badly, that many within the Republican Party despise him, and that Greg Lopez is running a fairly strong independent campaign that will split the Republican vote. Still, insofar as Marx encourages others on the right to demonize their political opponents, he remains dangerous. (I mean “dangerous” in the sense of having bad ideas that would lead to harmful consequences, not in the sense that Marx explicitly embraces.)

>The Danger of Scapegoating

We who live in the aftermath of the Holocaust should need little reminding of the potential horrors of scapegoating. Yet it continues to go on all around us, as it went on in the past, as with “witch” murders and various religious conflicts. Here are a few extreme examples:

• Scapegoating is behind much of the horrific ethnic violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

• “Anti-Rohingya hate speech” accompanied mass violence in Myanmar.

• “Vigilantes in South Africa have carried out violent xenophobic attacks targeting African and Asian foreign nationals.”

• “At least 207 people were killed on the orders of the leader of a Haitian gang, who accused the victims of using witchcraft to kill his son.”

I’m not saying that scapegoating rhetoric necessarily leads to violent actions; I’m saying that scapegoating often inspires and helps motivate violence. Yet, despite the obvious dangers of scapegoating, Marx continues to demonize his political opponents.

>How Marx Demonizes Others

On September 15, the Marx campaign released a video in which Eileen Marx, Victor’s wife, said, “As we get closer to the election, I’m sensing that God is wanting his people, who were called by his name, to a fast, starting September 21 through October 11. We understand clearly that this is not just an election, but this is a spiritual battle against the forces of wickedness.”

Eileen Marx appeared in the video with Lou Engle, who endorsed the fast with prayer, suggested that Victor Marx is “greatly beloved” by God, and predicted that “a miracle could take place in Colorado” in Marx’s political favor. (See also news stories by Peter Montgomery and Kyle Clark.)

Engle, who called the election “a spiritual battle,” has done more than his share of scapegoating. In 2024, reports Montgomery, Engle organized a “Million Women” event in Washington, D.C., timed, as with the Marx fast, to align with Yom Kippur. There, speakers blamed a “demonic principality” for the existence of transgender people and said that Kamala Harris was a “Jezebel,” who in the Bible worshipped false gods, persecuted the righteous, and eventually was fed to the dogs. One speaker said, “We are the light and we will eradicate the darkness that’s on the face of the Earth.” Elsewhere, Engle has said abortion results in “national blood guilt.”

Marx similarly has said demons are behind transgender self-identification. In 2023, Marx said we’re “in a battle between good and evil, demonic, the devil, God and his angels,” and demons can “lie in a person’s mind enough where a kid saying, ‘I think I am a girl.'” And Marx has described abortion as “occultic.” In general, as 9News reports, fighting alleged demons has been at the center of Marx’s religious career. 

That said, Marx does not always talk about transgender self-identification in terms of demons. During a radio show with Ross Kaminsky, Marx said that he once struck up a friendly conversation with Caitlyn Jenner and continued a friendly relationship with Jenner, whom he called “he” throughout the radio interview, and he described gender dysphoria as a “mental health issue.” Marx said, “We have to love the person, whoever they are.” So, although Marx hardly is accepting of transgender people as transgender, he tends to describe them as victims of demonic forces. Although still crazy, that’s far less dangerous than casting transgender people as willing participants in demonic plots.

As I’ve pointed out, others in Colorado have used more incendiary language.

Although she did not name Phil Weiser, Marx’s Democratic opponent, in the video, in saying that Marx is running against the “forces of wickedness,” Eileen Marx strongly implied that Weiser is the face of Marx’s wicked opposition.

We must take Eileen Marx’s remark in the aftermath of Sean Pond’s portrayal of Weiser, who is Jewish, with devil horns. Although Pond said he hadn’t even realized Weiser was Jewish, the Anti-Defamation League condemned the imagery as antisemitic. Marx, far from condemning such imagery, replied to Pond’s post on X by saying Republicans must be united against Weiser.

>Christianity’s Criticism of Scapegoating

Obviously, strains of Christian doctrine, even if considered misinterpretations, can inspire scapegoating, as with the murders of “witches.”

But Christian theology can also be taken as a powerful argument against scapegoating. René Girard argues that the murder of Jesus was the consequence of “contagious violence” and the ultimate repudiation of such scapegoating. And Jesus’s admonition to “love one another” straightforwardly warns against scapegoating.

Regarding transgender identities and abortion, two key political issues for Marx and Engle, the religious-right position is not grounded in Christian scripture anyway. As I’ve argued, “The Christian Bible does not say anything clearly ruling out a transgender identity.” Likewise, the Bible never directly addresses abortion. (Note: Even if it were the case, counterfactually, that the Bible clearly ruled out transgender identities or abortion, that would not imply that a modern nonsectarian society should base its policies in ancient mythological books.)

The more convincing explanation of some right-wing Christians’ obsession with issues such as transgender identities and abortion is that those issues help organize conservative social and political movements. Waging war against “wicked” enemies can be a lot more motivational than arguing for incremental policy changes. The podcast episode on abortion from “Things Fell Apart” reviews how Francis Schaeffer’s son Frank, through his cinematic ambitions, helped spur the Protestant political movement against abortion; Frank later regretted promoting that movement.

If you call your political opponents “wicked” and say they’re driven by demons, you don’t have to actually make arguments for the merits of your position. You don’t have to try to explain why the psychological dimensions of gender supposedly always must match genitalia in the usual way. You don’t have to justify banning abortion even before a fetus has the capacity for consciousness, even in cases of incest and rape, even at risk to the mother’s health. Wicked, demon-driven people don’t deserve arguments.

Marx and other Colorado Christians of a similar mindset should take a lesson from their own best religious traditions and stop scapegoating people.

Terms of Use | Copyright © 2026 by Ari Armstrong. Originally published by Complete Times Recorder.

Actually fears of new technologies go back much further. In 1818 Mary Shelley thrilled the world with her tale of Frankenstein’s monster, jolted to life by a half-crazed scientist. Around the same time Luddites smashed newfangled textile machines.

Now we have AI. Is the fear over AI warranted or just an echo of the Luddites? This is a time for a measured response, not panic; sensible action, not hysteria.

Coloradans react to AI

I knew something was up when, on September 12, Alex Tabarrok posted to the AI-friendly Marginal Revolution blog, “Dario Calls for a Pause.” This was a reference to the essay of Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, “We Must Pace the Frontier.” What followed was a blizzard of news articles and opinion pieces on the topic.

With impeccable timing, Magellan Strategies released its “Colorado AI and Data Center Opinion Survey” on September 13. Following are some of the results, with my comments.

“Sixty-six percent of voters have an unfavorable opinion of artificial intelligence.” Interestingly, even among the 60% who “have used an AI tool in the past 12 months,” only 43% have a favorable view of AI.

What is the concern? Magellan: “Jobs are the sharpest AI worry, and it cuts across every group: Seventy-seven percent of voters expect AI to eliminate jobs, with 52% saying it definitely will, and only 8% expect it to create jobs.”

Here Ned Ludd rears his head. AI certainly will eliminate some jobs, just as the automobile eliminated jobs of building and maintaining covered wagons. Change is the cost of technological advance. AI also will create new jobs.

Remember, at the time of the founding of the United States, around nine in ten people were farmers. Now, with technological advances, fewer than 2 in ten people work in agriculture. Yes, farming tech eliminated many agricultural jobs. This freed up people’s energies for entirely new kinds of jobs.

Will AI bring economic disruption? Yes, although less than what many people fear. But the notion that AI will put us all out of work is a reflection of ignorance of economics and of history.

What about data centers? “Eighty-six percent of voters oppose a data center near their neighborhood, 81% strongly, and opposition stays at 82% in their city or town, 77% in their county, and 75% elsewhere in the state.”

This is mass hysteria. A data center is just a big building with a bunch of computers in it. Yes, we need to watch water use and possible pollutants and build data centers in appropriate areas. These are manageable problems.

As I mentioned last time, one possibility is to power remote data centers with solar panels used in conjunction with agriculture.

The outright rejection of data centers is akin to the rejection of power plants or automobiles. But, look, data centers are going to happen somewhere, and Coloradans either can take economic advantage of them or else lose out to others who are not so idiotic. You can bury your head in the sand but that won’t hold back the future.

Benefits of AI

We have three big reasons to place our bets with AI.

First, AI promises to facilitate monumental breakthroughs in health technologies, drugs, diagnoses, and management. Come with AI if you want to live longer and healthier. Similarly, with its ability to crunch through mountains of data, AI will help bring advances in other fields as well.

Second, whatever harm people can do using AI, people also can guard against using AI. If AI can be used for hacking, it also can be used for cyber-security. If AI can be used to help engineer nasty pathogens, it also can be used to help track disease spread and develop new drugs and vaccines. That said, obviously there is a role for governments to track and disrupt malicious users, just as today government tracks arms suppliers.

Third, for the United States to unilaterally tamp down its AI technologies while China presses ahead could be catastrophic economically and militarily. Even if China agrees to international rules, do you trust China to follow them?

None of this is a case against all AI regulations. Generally, government has a responsibility to protect people’s rights. We reasonably can think that government should regulate the sale and possession of dynamite while acknowledging that dynamite has very-important uses. We can restrict pollutants without destroying electricity generation and transportation networks.

But thoughtlessly rushing into badly conceived and badly implemented controls could cost us our prosperous future.

Cass Sunstein has a fairly sensible take: “If, for example, domestic regulation, designed to reduce the risk that AI will launch cybersecurity attacks, also stifles AI innovation that would improve AI capabilities in fending off cybersecurity attacks—well, that might be very bad.”

Here is an analogy. Many people have for decades been extremely freaked out by nuclear power. The resulting restrictions basically shut down advances. We already could have achieved a world of zero-carbon, super-abundant electricity. Instead we remain stuck burning fossil fuels. We’re just now beginning to catch up with cheaper solar panels and some advances in nuclear technologies.

The lesson is that stupidly blocking technologies can cost us dearly.

Colorado headlines about AI

Here are a few related news stories to give you the flavor of the current political moment, not including the many stories about the Magellan survey.

September 15, Westword: “Aurora residents say new data center regulations aren’t enough.”

September 16: Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman announced he would introduce a “prohibition on giving tax incentives for data centers.” I approve, mainly because ultimately I don’t think there should be tax incentives for anything and everyone should pay the same low rate without discrimination.

September 16, Gazette: “Gabe Evans-backed measure to shift data center power costs from ratepayers clears House.” Offhand this idea seems reasonable, although I’m not convinced it should be a federal matter.

September 16, KREX: “Data center moratorium proposal discussed by Grand Junction City Council.”

September 16, KRCC: “Colorado Springs may approve its first AI data center.”

September 17, Axios: “Colorado lawmakers seek new AI safeguards.”

You can Google more. The point is that this is a big moment in the cultural and political impact of AI.

New technologies always bring disruption. The automobile replaced wagons and horses for transport. Farm tech replaced a great deal of manual labor and revolutionized the economy. The steam engine, then the internal combustion engine and electric motors, revolutionized production and transportation. AI will be no less disruptive.

Fear of the future won’t stop change, but hysterical reactions could exacerbate the bad and slow the good. AI can help us achieve a much better future if we embrace it intelligently.

Note: I did not use any AI system to write this article (unless you count Google’s search engine), but I do regularly use ChatGPT, and sometimes Claude, to research columns.

Terms of Use | Copyright © 2026 by Ari Armstrong. Originally published by Complete Colorado.

But the more I learned about the ‘reasons’ for the book’s suppression, the angrier I became. Some complaints about the book were fabrications, and the district used double standards to suppress the book.

I am reading all twenty books embroiled in the Elizabeth controversy, including the eighteen pulled from school library shelves. In my previous column on the topic, I discussed two wonderful books, “You Should See Me in a Crown” and “Redwood and Ponytail,” challenged because they feature gay characters, and another book, “Speak,” challenged despite its high literary value and strong anti-rape message.

True, “The Kite Runner” includes some disturbing scenes of rape, violence, and attempted suicide and is not appropriate for young children. Even some older teens and adults may wish to avoid the book, especially if they have suffered trauma of which the book may remind them. The novel depicts horrible acts in order to condemn such acts, on the implicit premise that we cannot make the world a better place by ignoring its problems.

In the first pages of the novel, we find an American immigrant remembering his past in Afghanistan, reflecting on his “unatoned sins,” and wondering “if there is a way to be good again.” What follows is a story of a child coming of age, a country falling apart, and a man returning to his childhood home on a desperate mission to make right what had gone so wrong.

There is a reason why the book has sold more than 12 million copies in over 40 languages. Despite its specific setting, it speaks to universal human concerns of friendship, betrayal, social collapse, moral growth, and redemption.

Why, then, did the Elizabeth School District pull it from shelves?

The Nonsense Basis of the Book’s Suppression

The ACLU, which is suing the district over its suppression of books, includes among its memos Document 9-13, of which page 14 contains the only listed complaint of “The Kite Runner.” Following is the entire complaint from “Laura,” who recommended that the book be “removed from the library collection” rather than “listed on the sensitive topic list:”

Very adult sexual content, not appropriate for teens. Very racially divisive, again not appropriate for teens. LGBTQ themes that do not belong in school. The references to abortion again are not appropriate for teens. Additionally, I do not want my teen reading a book that criticizes Christianity. This book is for adults, not teens and should not be available in a school library.

The complaint is ridiculous. I read the book cover-to-cover. There is no reference to abortion. There is no criticism of Christianity. Those are just outright fabrications.

Let us pause, before returning to other allegations, to explore the origins of these claims. How did a Colorado parent get the idea that “The Kite Runner” talks about abortion and disparages Christians, among other alleged offenses? The most likely theory is that Laura misinterpreted an ambiguous news story from 2022 or a derivative text.

Here’s what Florida’s News6 reported on May 11, 2022:

The Brevard chapter of Moms for Liberty has submitted a fourth list of library books deemed inappropriate for minors, this time calling out instances of “racially divisive” rhetoric, LGBTQ themes, references to abortion and criticism of Christianity in addition to the explicit sex scenes that dominated the first lists.

Sound familiar? The language from this ambiguous report fed into subsequent reports. Notice that the report lists “The Kite Runner” as a contested book but does not actually say that all of the specific complaints apply to that book. Apparently Laura did not pick up on that nuance.

The alleged problems listed in the ambiguous 2022 report also were repeated elsewhere. For example, on January 26, 2024, Pen America reported:

Roughly 40 books are still awaiting formal review in the district [Brevard County], including Bible Stories for Little Angels. The Brevard chapter of Moms for Liberty submitted an objection to The Kite Runner and other books in 2022, saying the books included sexual content, “racially divisive” rhetoric, LGBTQ themes, references to abortion, and criticism of Christianity.

Apparently Laura, who obviously never had read the book herself, was in effect playing a game of telephone, leading to her gross distortions of the novel’s contents.

Returning to the complaints: The book does discuss Islam, and the main character ends up being a devout Muslim, while the Taliban are portrayed as betraying their religion.

There are no “LGBTQ themes” in the book. There is mature sexual content, and this involves male-on-male rape, but the implication that male-on-male rape, a vicious crime committed to display dominance and act out hatred, somehow is an “LGBTQ theme,” is just ludicrous. Are prisons also “LGBTQ themed” due to the prevalence of prison rape? The complaint, if even seriously intended, stems from a stupid category error.

(Note: Some spoilers follow and are unavoidable here to fully explain the novel in light of the criticisms of it.)

Hosseini includes acts of male-on-male rape to illustrate how horrible they are, to illustrate how ethnic hatreds can spill over into violence, and to advance the story toward the eventual confrontation of the protagonist and the primary villain, a rapist and mass-murderer.

Yes, this is rough stuff. It is also the sort of thing that often happens in the real world especially in times of war and turmoil (as in Sudan). We do not help our children prepare for the real world by keeping them ignorant of its problems.

Regarding the phrase “not appropriate for teens,” is it not obvious that an 18 or 19-year-old likely will be more mature than a 13-year-old? Legally, an 18-year-old is an adult, and a substantial number of high school students are over 18. I do think that even some younger teens are mature enough to read the novel, though.

So the question, then, is whether mature teens should read books such as “The Kite Runner.” The answer, with few exceptions, if we actually want our children to grow into capable and thoughtful adults, is, absolutely.

Notably, documents published by the ACLU (Exhibit 18) indicate that board members suppressed the book based only on its sexual content.

The claim that the novel is “very racially divisive” also is ludicrous. The novel describes ethnic tensions and ethnic violence in order to criticize ethnic hierarchies and condemn ethnic violence. Compare: Is any mention of slavery in the U.S. also “racially divisive?” The novel thus seeks to heal ethnic divisions, not further divide people.

Specifically, the novel deals with the way that Hazaras often faced discrimination and even violence in Afghanistan. The protagonist, Amir, sometimes treats his friend, Hassan, as an inferior and only a servant. Beautifully, the novel reveals that Amir and Hassan actually are half-brothers.

True, some Afghans criticized the novel for its portrayal of ethnic conflict. But, as Hosseini replied, the complaints seemed to stem from not wanting to say embarrassing yet true things about Afghanistan. That said, it would be a mistake to describe the Pashtuns only as oppressors and Hazaras only as oppressed; different groups committed atrocities when they had the power to do so. As “The Kite Runner” illustrates, different people in Afghanistan either overcame or else nursed ethnic bigotries to varying degrees. The novel very clearly endorses the healing of divisions.

I strongly suspect that, had the protagonist of the novel been Christian rather than Muslim, the book never would have been challenged. This is especially so given that the main character heroically rescues a child from sexual slavery, the sort of story that in other contexts Christian activists celebrate — see, as examples, the political campaign of Republican Victor Marx and the 2023 film by the faith-based Angel Studios, “Sound of Freedom.”

Elizabeth’s Absurd Double-Standards

Bearing in mind that the Elizabeth School District pulled “The Kite Runner” because of its violent sexual content, let’s see what the district actually has students read.

As of September 8, Elizabeth High School listed the following books as included in its high school curriculum. Note that I’m not listing all the books, just ones with substantial violence. Certainly I am not saying these books should be removed or not be taught or anything like that; my aim here is just to compare violent content.

9th Grade: The “Odyssey.” This work contains extraordinary amounts of violence, including the sacking of cities, the taking of women as sexual conquests, assassinations, matricide, suicide, dismemberment, smashed skulls, cannibalism, and people carried away for food. After the cyclops dashes men against the floor, “the wet ground steamed with blood and brain.” The high school links to an older version of the epic translated by Philip Stanhope Worsley, and the volume ends with Book XII. At the end of the full epic, in which some of the suitors raped some of the maids, Odysseus slaughters all of the suitors, hangs the offending maids, and dismembers Melanthius before feeding him to the dogs.

9th Grade: “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.” This work also describes extreme violence, including the whipping of a slave “till she was literally covered with blood” and the murder of a slave girl by a woman who “seized an oak stick of wood by the fireplace, and with it broke the girl’s nose and breastbone.”

9th Grade: “The Outsiders,” by S. E. Hinton. This book about gang violence includes a murder by stabbing and a suicide-by-cop.

9th Grade, “Of Mice and Men,” by John Steinbeck. Lennie accidentally kills a puppy, then accidentally breaks a woman’s neck, then George kills Lennie to prevent a lynch mob from killing him. (Side note: I too read this book in school and absolutely loathed it.)

10th Grade: “Lord of the Flies.” In this work, a group of boys beat another boy to death.

10th Grade: “Oedipus Rex,” by Sophocles. In this play, Oedipus kills his own father (without knowing his identity) and marries his own mother, who kills herself, after which Oedipus gouges out his eyes.

10th Grade: “Fahrenheit 451.” This dystopia depicts suicide by burning, a man being burned alive by a flamethrower, and the annihilation of an entire city (although there are some survivors). Apparently the district did not consider the irony of suppressing books while at the same time assigning “Fahrenheit 451.”

10th Grade, “Julius Caesar.” This depicts a bloody assassination, other murders, and suicides.

11th Grade, “1984.” Ironically, Elizabeth placed this book on its list of sensitive books due to its “graphic violence.”

12th Grade, “Brave New World.” This is another book the district marked at “sensitive,” this time for “sexual content.” The novel depicts self-flagellation, an orgy, and a suicide.

12th Grade, “The Jungle.” This work depicts coercive rape, violence, and death due to brutal conditions.

12th Grade, “We,” by Yevgeny Zamyatin. This dark dystopia ends with forced surgery, torture, and murder.

12th Grade, “The Crucible.” This is about the murder of “witches.”

12th Grade, “Hamlet.” This play depicts murder by poison, murder by stabbing, murder by arranged executions, and a possible suicide.

12th Grade, “The Road.” This dystopia depicts cannibalism, including a newborn infant roasting on a spit, and extreme violence.

We also can turn to the list of books that the district marked “sensitive” but did not pull from shelves. Notably, this includes “A Clockwork Orange,” which coins the term “ultraviolence” and depicts violence in gruesome detail.

Also included on this list are “Ender’s Game,” in which a young boy nearly destroys an entire species; “The Hunger Games,” in which children murder each other to entertain the governing elite; and the Bible, which, as I’ve mentioned, graphically depicts prostitution, rape, dismemberment, and mass-murder.

Obviously, the Elizabeth School District did not suppress “The Kite Runner” because some people within the district read it and found it especially offensive. Rather, someone who did not read it misinterpreted reporting about it, and the district imposed completely arbitrary standards, suppressing some books and allowing others for no good reason. That the protagonist is Muslim probably didn’t help.

Hosseini Explains the Value of Reading Books

On January 23, 2023, Hosseini wrote an open letter to the Brevard County School Board concerning efforts to suppress his book there. Following is part of what he wrote:

Inside a drawer in my office desk sits a stash of manilla envelopes. Inside each are some of the writings I have collected. . . . They have come to me from high school students from all across the U.S. In these writings, the students share with me often quite poignantly what impact reading The Kite Runner has had on their lives. For some, the book is a clarion call to stand up to bullies, to defy intolerance. … Yet others — perhaps inspired by the book’s de facto tagline, there is a way to be good again — speak of the desire to volunteer, learn more, be more tolerant of others, mend broken ties, muster the courage to do the right and just thing, no matter how difficult.

For many students, both those who write me and the many I have met at high schools across the country, The Kite Runner is their first window into Afghan culture. …

I am a parent myself. I understand the parental impulse to safeguard our children from harm. But banning books like The Kite Runner doesn’t “protect” students at all. It betrays them. It robs them of the chance that we as parents and instructors owe them, the chance to broaden their human community, to let them walk the world in another’s shoes for a while, to foster empathy for others, to be challenged by the experience and perhaps take a small step toward becoming fuller, richer versions of themselves.

Hopefully the efforts of the Elizabeth School District to suppress “The Kite Runner” will have a silver lining of encouraging more people to read the novel. The novel changed the way I see Afghanistan, gave me plenty to think about in terms of atonement for past misdeeds, and forever planted with me the image of Hassan as a young boy, smiling and pure of heart, when I see children flying kites.

This is Part Three of a multi-part series on the books suppressed by Elizabeth School District. Read Part One here. Read Part Two here.

Terms of Use | Copyright © 2026 by Ari Armstrong. Originally published by Colorado Times Recorder.

At the same time, progressives relentlessly strive to expand the power of government at the expense of the rights of the citizens.

We should not wish a pox on both their houses, because the pox is horrible, and we should strive to disagree without being hateful (extreme cases aside). But we (people who care about liberty and good governance) definitely clearly should exclaim that we're tired both of tax hikes and of culture-war nonsense. Those of you who disagree on this or that hopefully still will find my analysis insightful. With that, let's go through the ballot measure for measure.

Amendment 81—Immigration Notification

This measure seeks to require law enforcement to "notify the federal Department of Homeland Security" if someone is charged with a crime who is in the country illegally or if the legal status is unknown. What's wrong with this?

This does not belong in the constitution. Indeed, the measure manifests contempt for the very idea of a constitution, which is supposed to embody fundamental law.

The language explicitly references a federal department that came into existence after 9/11. It's wrong to make a state's constitution contingent on the existence of a federal agency which could be dissolved or reorganized.

The federal government actively has interfered with criminal prosecutions in Colorado. A CPR headline states, "Scores of criminal cases disrupted by ICE deportations have cheated victims and made Colorado less safe, [some] district attorneys say."

Amendment 82—Natural Gas

This stupidly written measure guarantees, again in the state constitution, a consumer "right to purchase natural gas," irrespective of the rights of property owners and sellers. It's very possible that, in the not-too-distant future, we'll move to carbon-free electricity generation with solar and nuclear technologies. Developers have a right, which this measure violates, to build electric-only developments if they want. See also my op-ed for the Aurora Sentinel.

Amendment 83—Hunting

This measure establishes a "right" to hunt and fish. This language does not belong in the state constitution. The language about "the use of traditional methods" is ambiguous and so subject to legal wrangling. There could be (and I believe are) good reasons to ban certain types of inhumane "traditional methods." We can debate whether this is proper policy, but, in fact, wildlife currently is considered collective property, and therefore necessarily controlled by government. In general, hunting simply is not under threat. It's an important part of Colorado's tourism and recreation industry, so no politician would challenge it. What this measure is really about is the hunting of wild cats with dogs, which only a tiny fraction of hunters do, and which is reasonably debated as a matter of statutory and bureaucratic policy.

Amendment 84—Voter ID

This is yet more language that does not belong in the state constitution. Please, do not call yourself a constitutionalist if you aim to bloat the state constitution with language that belongs in statute. And it is a solution in search of a problem. Colorado's voting systems already have robust checks. Krista Kafer, who favors the measure, concedes that existing safeguards already catch the tiny number of cheats. We have to look at both sides: keeping out cheats, and letting qualified voters cast a vote. If we block one cheat at the cost of initially mucking the ballots of 100 qualified voters who, say, transpose ID digits, that is not a win for democracy. I'm not sure what the exact trade-off is, but we have every reason to think this measure will disenfranchise qualified voters far more often than it catches additional cheats, beyond what existing safeguards catch.

Amendment 85—Dumbed-Down Language

This measure aims to make ballot titles be written at an eighth-grade level or below. The basic problem with this seemingly simple language, which, again, does not belong in the state constitution, is that there is no clear or universal standard for what counts as an eighth-grade reading level. See also my op-ed at Complete Colorado.

Amendment 86—Congressional Redistricting

Let's be blunt here: Republicans want to gerrymander where it gives them the advantage and not gerrymander where it would give Democrats the advantage. In Colorado, Republicans enjoy a congressional advantage relative to statewide voter totals. In this case, the measure seeks to replace existing constitutional language (which I did not favor in the first place) with slightly revised constitutional language, making it harder to change congressional maps. I'm going to vote no just because I don't think this is needed, but I don't think it's unreasonable to vote yes. One reasonably could go either way.

Amendment 87—Progressive Income Tax

I have nothing in principle against a progressive income tax with low rates, assuming we have to have income taxes. But this measure also is an immediate net tax hike, its top brackets are punishingly high, and the brackets are not tied to inflation, meaning it's a long-term "tax creep." This is all bad from the perspective of economic liberty. See also my op-ed at Complete Colorado.

Proposition NN—Net Tax Hike for Education

This is another net tax hike via the seizure of TABOR refunds. It's supposedly for education, but money is fungible and the education requirements expire anyway. Insofar as the measure would make new funding available for schools, the funds are not well-tied to performance outcomes. The basic problem with public education is not funding, it is poor incentives and bad pedagogy, which this measure will not fix.

Proposition 132—Fentanyl Penalties

This measure would felonize any possession of fentanyl, impose extreme overpunishment for low-level distribution, and discourage the seeking of medical assistance. See CCJRC.

Proposition 133—Human Trafficking

This badly written measure creates the following absurdity: A 17-year-old and an 18-year-old legally can have sex, but, if the 18-year-old offers, say, a candy bar as an inducement for sex, the 18-year-old then is subject to life in prison. Don't pretend you are a friend of the rule of just law if you support such a legal monstrosity. See also my op-ed at Complete Colorado.

Proposition 134—Trans Kids in Sports

This is another solution in search of a problem. I agree there are certain contexts in which trans girls and women should not compete against cys girls and women, owing to physiological advantages (on average) of the former. But the absolutist language of this measure is not the answer. The language potentially applies to private groups in violation of their rights of association. Another problem: The measure defines a "female" as "a person whose biological reproductive system is organized around the production of ova." In a tiny fraction of cases, someone is born with physiological mismatch between external genitalia and internal reproductive systems. However, the language potentially is not as far-reaching as it seems, because schools can just start "coeducational or mixed" teams and leagues. As I've long argued, sports should be organized around relevant physiological characteristics (such as weight and muscle mass), not genitalia.

Proposition 135—Trans Surgeries for Minors

If I were the parent of a transgender minor child, I would not consent to any trans-related surgery. At the same time, if the child as an older teen, the parents, and the relevant medical professionals all agree to such a surgery, who am I to interfere? Remember tort action remains on the table. Let's be blunt here: This measure is born of anti-trans prejudice and hysteria. See also my op-ed at Complete Colorado.

Proposition 136—Cap Income Tax

I don't have any big objection to this, but basically it's a poison-pill measure meant to interfere with the progressive tax proposal. I don't see the need for it.

Proposition 137—Sales Tax Designation

Voters should not try to micromanage the budget.

Ballot Issue 7A—Taxes for Rail

This measure, limited in geographic scope, calls for a tax hike for passenger rail. Look, we're on the cusp of self-driving electric cars. Privatize RDT and the railways. If you're worried about poor people having access to transportation, just give them more cash or travel vouchers or whatever.

Terms of Use | Copyright © 2026 by Ari Armstrong. Originally published at https://ariarmstrong.com/ballot-26.html.

Decades ago, I sketched out a plan for retractable covers that could protect orchards from frosts as well as hail. My grandmother appreciated the idea but thought it would be too costly to implement.

But I was not the only one to have that idea. Now, Talbott Farms has installed rotatable solar panels over a patch of orchard that can not only generate electricity but help protect crops from freezes, hail, heat, and water loss.

Recently my family watched the 2025 film Save the Farm, Save the Future, and it opens with an aerial shot of fruit orchards near Palisade’s iconic Mt. Garfield. The film proposes that raised solar panels, adapted for the particulars of the project, can at the same time give farmers a new revenue stream from the electricity generated and provide ancillary benefits to crops and grazing animals.

Agrivoltaics around Colorado

The film discusses six such projects from around Colorado, including the one involving peach orchards. Here is a brief summary of the others:

* Jack’s Solar Garden in Longmont raises various crops under raised solar panels. A video produced by the company and posted on its website quotes Jordan Macknick of the National Renewable Energy Lab: “We are seeing a mutually beneficial relationship between the solar panels and the vegetation. As temperatures get too hot, many plants shut down their photosynthetic activities throughout the middle part of the day. The partial shade from the panels allows that photosynthesis to continue occurring throughout the growing day.”

The shade also reduces evaporative water loss, and the crops, by reducing the immediate temperature, improve solar-panel efficiency.

* The Garnet Mesa Solar project in Delta County plans to allow sheep grazing beneath existing panels “when forage is sufficiently established,” according to the website. As Mark Jaffe’s 2022 article from the Colorado Sun relates, the county originally rejected the solar project and accepted it only once it became ag-friendly. Obviously this sort of heavy-handed government distresses my libertarian sensibilities.

* Huwa Enterprises in Keenesburg applies the grazing idea to cattle that, like sheep, also appreciate the extra shade of solar panels. As Mallory Tope reported last year for the Center for Rural Affairs, Huwa set up a test site in 2023 and subsequently “completed three successful utility-scale projects with cattle grazing and is now helping new and existing solar projects integrate livestock.”

* Thistle Whistle Community Solar in Hotchkiss “is building a 1 MW solar array that produces energy while farming continues underneath it,” according to its website. The site adds, “Beyond the energy benefit, the project is designed as a research and demonstration site for exploring crop performance under partial shade created by the panels in a hot, arid climate like ours.”

* Longboard Power, working with Pfaltzgraff Farms out east in Haxton, has the idea of installing solar panels for use as wind breaks. The farm site explains, “Shelterbelts are vital in windblown areas to protect crops, but living shelterbelts require water and nutrients which compete with crops for these limited resources. Join Tibor Hegedus, designer of the one-of-a-kind dynamic agrivoltaic shelterbelt that produces renewable energy, protects crops, promotes soil moisture retention, and enhances plant water use efficiency.” One idea expressed in the film is that remote solar arrays could power data centers built near them.

Enterprising ag producers

I don’t have a good sense of the economics of such projects, but it does seem obvious that raised solar panels can improve the quality of the land underneath for agricultural and even recreational purposes.

On the other hand, on land that’s now basically dirt and scrub brush, such as you can see driving past Grand Junction on I-70, there’s probably not much point in spending more to raise the panels.

Global warming feeds into the conversation from two angles. Whatever you think about the state mandates, those mandates do propel the state toward more solar-generated electricity. But the trend is not all driven by government. As Our World in Data shows, the costs of solar panels have come down dramatically, from $132 per watt in 1975 (inflation adjusted) to $0.27 in 2024.

On the other side, the use of raised solar panels potentially can help farmers and ranchers adapt to climate change by providing helpful shade and reducing water loss.

As the film conveys, government policies, specifically regarding wage controls and labor regulations, also have caused greater stresses for already-struggling farmers. In general, the film offers insights into various agricultural enterprises in Colorado, whatever you think of the solar angle.

I believe that, even as we continue to burn natural gas and petrol as bridge technologies, eventually we are headed for a world in which some combination of nuclear power, solar, and maybe geothermal and other technologies provide us with abundant energy. It seems like agrivoltaics could play a meaningful role in that future.

Terms of Use | Copyright © 2026 by Ari Armstrong. Originally published by Complete Colorado.

Note: This fictional book depicts the rape of a minor, violence, and murder.

The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini
Riverhead Books, 2013 (originally published 2003), 10th Anniversary Edition

The Khaled Hosseini Foundation assists vulnerable Afghans.

Reading Notes

I did not know what to expect getting into The Kite Runner. I soon found myself enmeshed in a story of friendship and betrayal, a story of coming of age, a story of civilizational collapse, ultimately a story of redemption.

This is great fiction, powerful and meaningful story-telling. That the Elizabeth School District pulled this book from high school library shelves is ridiculous. I'll have more to say about that elsewhere.

In his 2013 foreword, Hosseini describes the many letters he's received from readers: "In these letters, I see the unique ability fiction has to connect people, and I see how universal some human experiences are: shame, guilt, regret, friendship, love, forgiveness, atonement."

The book remains extremely relevant both in its portrayal of Afghan history and in its depictions of the horrors of war and social strife.

Regarding rape as a tool of war, The U.N. has out a recent report about the use of rape in Sudan to "terrorize and traumatize civilians."

Afghanistan lost its relative stability when the United States withdrew its troops in 2021. Following are some recent reports about the current state of the country:

NPR: The U.N. cites "at least 1,110 flogging cases last year" for things like adultery and dress-code violations. The story also notes there is a "ban on secondary education for females."

NPR: "The Taliban's restrictions on girls and women have been sweeping and severe, barring girls from secondary schools and women from universities and robbing millions of any formal path to education. . . . Boys are still allowed to attend school, but many say the education being offered inside the classroom has changed so sharply that it no longer prepares them for the future."

CBS describes "a secret school where teen girls dare to continue their education in defiance of a draconian Taliban regime—girls who want their voices to be heard. The students, aged 14 to 16, surprised our team by asking us to share deeply personal messages each had written by hand, begging the world outside to help them escape conditions that have grown unfathomably worse in the five years since the Taliban retook power."

New York Times: Taliban leaders have asked the U.S. "to reopen its embassy and invest in the country."

Nilofar Ayoubi alleges that, while waging "war on women," various Taliban leaders flout their own rules, enrolling their daughters in schools, engaging in "the opium and methamphetamine trade," and enriching themselves with mining deals with China.

Washington Post: "Al-Qaeda is again operating training camps in Afghanistan."

By the way, Colorado students are doing horribly in social studies, judging from the most-recent CMAS scores, so serious educators can only wish that students would read books such as The Kite Runner to learn more about the world around them.

Questions for Discussion and Review

These questions contain significant spoilers. The 10th Anniversary Edition also has its own set of discussion questions at the end.

1. The book begins in 2001, with Amir reflecting back on his youth and thinking, "There is a way to be good again" (p. 2). Soon we learn about Amir's frequent meanness toward Hassan, his lack of action as Hassan is abused by Assef, and his dishonesty that leads to Hassan leaving his household. Yet Rahim Khan also tells Amir, "You've always been too hard on yourself" (p. 222). To what degree does Amir earn the guilt he carries? To what degree is he too hard on himself for the misdeeds of youth?

2. More broadly, to what degree and in what ways should people seek to atone for past sins, and to what degree is that really possible?

3. Amir thinks, "The past claws its way out" (p. 1). What does this say about guilt and the way that actions have consequences?

4. Hassan and his father work as servants in Amir's household, and Amir uncritically accepts these roles. How do prejudices interact with economic conditions to create social hierarchies, in Afghanistan, the United States, and elsewhere?

5. Amir reflects, "Baba saw the world in black and white" (p. 15). How did that tendency shape Baba's personality, choices, and life? In what ways was the tendency good and in what ways not so good?

6. Baba tells Amir, "I see you've confused what you're learning in school with actual education" (p. 16). What does he mean, and how might his remark apply in other contexts?

7. Baba tells Amir, "There is only one sin. . . . and that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft" (p. 17). What does he mean? Is he right? How could he believe this and "steal" the honor of Hassan's father (p. 225)? How do Baba's misdeeds compare with Amir's?

8. "I hadn't turned out like him," Amir reflects about his father (p. 19). How did this dynamic influence Amir's development and his relationship with his father and others?

9. "A boy who won't stand up for himself becomes a man who won't stand up for anything," Baba tells Rahim Khan (p. 22). Is he right or does he ask too much of children and even adults? When is it moral and prudent to stand up for yourself?

10. "I never thought of Hassan and me as friends," Amir reflects (p. 25). What does that say about Amir and about the society in which he grew up?

11. Amir reads from Shahnameh and writes his own stories. What role to stories and myth play in the novel? Why does Hosseini make Amir a novelist?

12. What role do kites play in the development of the story and the characters? What is the function of the repeated line, associated with kites, "For you, a thousand times over" (pp. 67, 371)?

13. "Better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie," Baba tells Amir (p. 58). Is he right? Why is he unable fully to live up to his own principles?

14. Why does Amir pummel Hassan with pomegranates? Why does Hassan take the abuse? (pp. 92–93) Is Hassan's loyalty virtuous or excessive?

15. How does Amir bring himself to do something so terrible as to set up Hassan? Is that psychologically realistic?

16. Baba tells a Russian soldier, "War doesn't negate decency. It demands it, even more than in times of peace" (p. 115). Is he right? Why do so many people in the book and in real life fail to act that way?

17. Why does Baba love "the idea of America" more than the actual experience? What about America does Baba find appealing? (p. 125)

18. What does Soraya's social shame say about her culture's mores? Would Amir have seen beyond her past had it not been for his own past mistakes?

19. Amir moves from doubting the existence of God (p. 154) to being quite religious by the end. What explains the shift?

20. How does Hosseini portray the Taliban, and how does the novel account for the cruelty of men such as Assef?

21. How is Amir finally able to convince himself to go on a dangerous mission to save Hassan's son?

22. What does the rest of the world owe to war-torn or distressed regions such as Afghanistan? Research question: Did the U.S. make a mistake by withdrawing troops in 2021, or was that the right move?

23. Rahim Khan writes to Amir, "A man who has no conscience, no goodness, does not suffer" (p. 301), and "good . . . was born out of your father's remorse" (p. 302). How well do these insights hold up?

24. Hosseini could have written a happier ending. Why does he have Sohrab attempt suicide and have such a rough time making a new home in America?

Terms of Use | Copyright © 2026 by Ari Armstrong. Originally published at https://ariarmstrong.com/elizabeth-kite-runner.html.

These days, though, some conservatives pretend there’s something ominous about children learning the basics of human anatomy. Even as many conservatives worry about sexual abuse of children (and some even spin wild conspiracies about alleged abuse), some conservatives undermine the very sorts of sexuality programs that are proven to help children avoid sexual abuse.

On August 11, the Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter to Roaring Fork Schools, which “serves over 5,300 students across 14 schools in the communities of Glenwood Springs, Carbondale, and Basalt,” complaining about sex ed materials there. But, in making its threat to pursue potential “legal action,” the letter rips quotes out of context to feed alarmism.

Quality Sexuality Education Helps Prevent Abuse

The evidence is clear and compelling: Quality sexuality education gives children the tools they may need to recognize sexual abuse, take actions to potentially avoid it, and report it where it does occur. Conservatives who actually care about curbing sexual abuse of children, rather than fighting culture wars for political ends, will support such programs, not try to undermine them.

A 2021 metastudy found “that school-based child abuse prevention programs are effective in increasing child abuse-related knowledge and self-protection skills of children.” The study “found that several program components and techniques were associated with greater program effectiveness, including increasing social–emotional skills of children, avoiding self-blame, using puppets, and using games or quizzes.”

The study described examples of “essential components” of effective programs such as “teaching children how to identify and resist inappropriate touching, reassuring children that abuse is not their fault, and learning the proper names of their genitals.”

Why specifically does learning the names of genitals help? Children who see such language as taboo or embarrassing may be less likely to report sexual abuse. A 2023 paper suggests that children may not be willing or able to clearly report abuse and may instead (when they do report) resort to “unclear terms” out of “embarrassment” or “ignorance.” An older DOJ report finds that “children may not report sexual abuse” because (among other things) they lack “knowledge of terms to describe event(s)” and “may be embarrassed of the terminology used in describing sexual acts.”

ADF’s Alarmist Letter

ADF, the conservative and explicitly religious Arizona-based legal nonprofit, has involved itself in various other Colorado matters, including the Masterpiece Cakeshop, 303 Creative, and Chiles cases. As I recently wrote, ADF also has involved itself in the Elizabeth School District’s efforts to suppress various books, including some portraying gay relationships and one, “Speak,” with an explicitly anti-rape theme.

Part of ADF’s complaint is that parental opt-out information was not consistently sent, nor were opt-out requests consistently honored. Because those claims depend on reports from “several” parents in the area (presumably a tiny minority), I can directly neither confirm nor disconfirm them. The letter describes specific complaints. I agree with ADF that parents should be able to opt-out of controversial sex-related lessons. If it’s true the district is not adequately allowing that, it should change its practices (and I suspect already has done so if necessary).

What I can review are ADF’s claims about the materials in light of publicly available documents. On review, it becomes obvious that ADF took quotes out of context to substantially distort the meaning of the original documents. Thus, to a substantial degree, ADF’s letter is about fear-mongering rather than making measured recommendations based on the facts.

As ADF reviews, “In May 2023, Roaring Fork Schools adopted the 3Rs (Rights, Respect, and Responsibility) curriculum,” a “free curriculum created by Advocates for Youth.”

In its letter, ADF complains about the contents of the material, not just the opt-out processes. It describes “graphic visuals and ideologically driven content” as an “offense.” ADF does not merely ask for better opt-out policies. The letter demands “that Roaring Fork remedy them [constitutional deficiencies] by abandoning the 3Rs curriculum altogether,” or “at minimum,” implement opt-in policies rather than opt-out policies.

What that would mean, in practice, is that any child whose parents simply neglected the paperwork would be pulled from class — an administrative nightmare. But, ADF unreasonably asserts, “Anything less perpetuates Roaring Fork’s parental-rights violations.”

ADF accurately states, “In kindergarten, children learn to identify “at least three body parts of the female namely the nipples, vulva and anus,” along with identifying the “nipples, penis and anus” for the male anatomy.” And… so what? Why would anyone want a child to remain ignorant of the names of visible body parts?

At one point, ADF mischaracterizes what the materials say. ADF: “Roaring Fork recognizes that these [Kindergarten] slides are ‘controversial,’ yet the lesson plan directs teachers to show even ‘more detailed anatomical drawings’ from a book called ‘Not the Stork’— when ‘possible.’ Parents never see that book.”

But the materials do not call the slides in question “controversial;” they say “providing more detail might be controversial at this grade level.”

The materials suggest that teachers use the “It’s Not the Stork” book “if you are in a setting where using more detailed anatomical drawings is possible for kindergarten.” By the way, my family has “It’s Not the Stork” on our bookshelf; our child has read it, and it’s a great resource.

There is a line from this kindergarten-level guide for teachers that seems overly detailed for this level. Strangely, ADF did not complain about it. However, the line is put in this context: “It is up to each teacher to determine the amount and detail of information to share with their students in ways that are age appropriate. This sheet is for the teacher’s use only, and is not to be distributed to students.” Here is the line: “The vagina has great elasticity, and can adjust to the size of a penis or allow a fully developed fetus pass from the uterus out of the body.”

ADF substantially misrepresents, through misleading juxtaposition, the materials when it writes: “Along with these graphic illustrations, the children learn that there are ‘some body parts that mostly just girls have and some body parts that mostly just boys have.’ And teachers are expected to help their students figure out ‘how they like to be touched.'”

ADF’s paragraph erroneously suggests, but does not outright state, that the line “how they like to be touched” pertains to sex-related genitalia. But that’s not remotely the right context. The line in question instead pertains to snuggling, wrestling, kissing (such as a kiss from “relative”), tickling, and holding hands.

By taking the line out of context, ADF makes it seem like perfectly sensible discussions about boundaries somehow are about sexual contact. You’d think a Christian organization would take seriously the Bible’s exhortation against bearing false witness.

A bit later, ADF claims, “As is common throughout the 3Rs, the second-grade lesson plan cautions against a ‘binary construct of gender.'” What the lesson plan for teachers actually says is that it does use a “binary construct” for sake of simplicity. The materials state: “You will notice that this lesson refers to ‘girls’ and ‘boys’ when identifying body parts. The use of a binary construct of gender as well as using gender (boys and girls) rather than the more accurate biological sex (male and female) is purposeful given the developmental stage of students.”

The materials do allude to exceptions. Here again, ADF quotes the materials out of context to make them sound more controversial than they actually are.

Next ADF says, “The 3Rs has third graders create a ‘family pride flag’ in a lesson that celebrates same-gender parents.” True, the materials mention the existence of “same” and “different gender parents,” as well as the possibility of “living with grandparents, foster families,” etc. And … so what? The “family pride flag,” an “optional homework” assignment, just asks students to “represent pride in who their family is.” The lesson does also explicitly mention the “rainbow flag” associated with “gay and lesbian people” (and, again, so what?).

After correctly noting accurate information that the fourth-grade materials convey about puberty, ADF returns to its fear-mongering: “Fourth graders … also learn that most abusers are men whom the child knows, a message that could plant distrust towards male family members in the minds of nine-year-olds, again without parental consent or involvement.”

The materials do correctly say that, of “the people who sexually abuse others,” “most are men.” That’s just an unassailable fact. As the U.S. government confirms, at least as far as criminal sentencing is concerned, “93.6% of sexual abuse offenders were men.”

But then the materials explicitly suggest that teachers say the following: “I want to say again that just because most sexual abusers are men, that does NOT mean that ALL men are or will be sexual abusers. It’s really important that you don’t walk away scared of the men in your life.” Here, the nature of the materials is the opposite of what ADF suggests.

The materials do have an error, though, that ADF does not mention. They correctly say that, among “people who sexually abuse others, “most are people the child knows, not strangers.” But then the materials also claim “most have jobs where they can spend time around kids.” That’s just not true, unless it’s trivially true in the sense that nearly all jobs involve some contact with children.

Then ADF summarizes various materials that are friendly to LGBTQ people. I have no problem with the materials here, although I recognize that parents who are bigoted against LGBTQ people may wish to irrationally shield their children from such discussions.

ADF claims, “High schoolers . . . are also told that they should not use words like ‘homosexual’ or ‘straight.'” Not quite. The lesson does “yellow flag” various terms, with a yellow flag indicating “probe for ‘caution.'”

The lesson recommends the terms “gay or lesbian” rather than “homosexual,” yet says “homosexual … is also an accurate category of sexual orientation that some people still use.” It favors “heterosexual” over “straight” because “the opposite of ‘straight’ is ‘bent’ or ‘crooked,'” which “can imply that there is something wrong with someone who is not heterosexual.” I agree this is stupid language policing. Other antonyms of “straight” are “curved” and “wavy.” Hassling people because they say “straight” is not doing LGBTQ people any favors. GLAAD uses the term “straight.”

ADF’s claims that the materials are “highly sexualized” and “vulgar” are just ridiculous, obviously intended to inflame passions rather than illuminate facts.

I agree that parents deserve clear opt-out policies. But basic sexuality education, including clear language about genitals, is important for preparing children for adulthood and for helping them understand and seek to avoid sexual assault. The 3Rs materials are pretty good along those lines (although they could be improved), and ADF’s misleading claims about the materials do not help improve sexuality education.

Terms of Use | Copyright © 2026 by Ari Armstrong. Originally published by the Colorado Times Recorder.