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

Out on PBS Denver twelve. In fact, I'll be on today's Friday. I'll be on this evening eight o'clock on Channel twelve. It's a little TV, a little radio. Also teach a little write, a little edit, a little so a little Yeah. I even like grow stuff and sell it. I guess that makes me a farmer, maybe like a micro farmer. You've heard of micro businesses. I guess I've got a micro farm. And it's even more micro thanks

to twhawks, that one hog, two walks. I took out two of my chickens, and you know, I get it. I like chicken too, but miss those gals. I'm down to two hens to fix that later on Raise ups and new Chicks so I can have fresh eggs text line five six six N I know, got some fun topics for the show today, Christmas perspective, favorite Christmas movies,

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

Street Journal article that I read today. I text line five six six nine. Know also you can you can if you do Twitter. Still. I know it's called X. I think that is the dumbest name ever, so you'll never hear me call it X. But Twitter at CHRISTA. Kaefer's that's where you can tweet to me. And here's the deal you're going to put up with, not only public policy, but I like animal videos, so I post some of those and I don't fight. So if you want to like send nasty things my way, I just

I'll just mute you. And then occasionally I feel in a little bit ornery and I will give a donation on your behalf to an organization that you probably won't like. So tweet wisely, that's all I'm going to say. So perspective. I just thought this was kind of interesting as we move into kind of a little Christmas, a little New Year's topics. And that is an article from the Wall Street Journal. It said it's called Mary Baum Free Christmas.

Just a little perspective. Whether you're happy or not, whether you had a good Christmas or not, we're pretty darn safe here. And I pointed out the fact in this article that you know Nigeria, if you're a Christian, chances are, depending on where you live, you could be within range of someone who wants to kill you. Sixty Christians killed earlier this year by Islamists. And if you're in Nicaragua under Daniel Ortega, he just decided that he didn't like

particular Jesuit Order Catholic nuns. And I don't know if it was Jesuit. It was some order didn't like the nuns. Jesuits are usually teachers, but whatever this order of nuns was, he wouldn't fan, so he expelled them from the country. Also, China cracking down on Christians and Muslims. Putin of course, bombed one hundred churches in Ukraine. And if you're a Syrian Christian, life's a little bit better now that a Sad is gone, but it's a little precarious. The thought

was a very very evil man. It's been a rough ten years, not from Asad particularly, but from some of the Islamist factions. I've decided to persecute Christians, take their fury out on them. And so for them to be able to openly not do something for Christmas, celebrate their religion, they feel like they're freer than ever. Right now. The new leadership, the majority reigning faction is saying, hey, we're all going to be about helping people to let them

practice their religion, whatever that religion may be. We're going to be you know, we're going to be a very tolerant new nation or nation reborn. Rather, if I was a Christian Syrian, I'd be a little nervous I'd be very happy with the current majority is like the majority factions like, yeah, we'll protect you. But it's that same majority faction decides that it wants to get the radical Islamists on board, they may no longer protect those Christians.

So just a little perspective. I hate to start to show off a little on the dark side, but if you practice your religion, if you don't even have a religion, if you just did a secular Christmas or no Christmas, or if you did hanukkah, uh, if you're you know, whatever you're into, if you did it freely yesterday, be a little grateful, a little grateful because in some parts of the world, Uh, people are pretty darn miserable. Speaking of Christmas, that's the dark side. Let's talk a little

bit about best Christmas movies. I don't know if you watched Christmas movies. Probably didn't watch them yesterday, but if you probably watched them up up until the season started. I did get was it the new Uh? The Rock wasn't a new one. I don't know. I don't know if you watched that, Zach It's Dwayne red one red one. Did you watch it?

Maybe ZECH can answer it. There are two Christmas movies, so think all the way back, you know, black and white Christmas movies all the way up to read one kind of the newest Christmas movie two that I can think of, in which a character reads part of the Biblical Christmas story. There's only two that I can think of.

The shows are very different from one another. You're gonna answer five six to six, and I know I would love to think you think it would be something like, you know, an old fashioned in to both one movie

two two thousands, the other's nineteen sixties. You may know what they are seem to get any answers yet, not yet, but if you want to text me five sixty six and I know two Christmas movies shown to wide audiences that actually read a little bit of the Christian story, that the biblical story from the Christian tradition, and the first one you probably have guessed, so I'll give you the first one. The first one is Charlie Brown Christmas. Charlie Brown Christmas. You've obviously seen it.

a lot of people prompts laughter. That's why it's used. It also had a jazz musician that scored it, which is kind of interesting. So it's some interesting angles and that what in addition to sort of breaking those rules no laugh track, kind of a cool score? Is it simplicity? You know, it's it's a bunch of kids. One of them is feeling kind of down. He doesn't know what the meaning of Christmas is. He's looking around for it,

he's yearning for it. And then by the kind of towards the end, Linus lineus a fascinating character and that he's kind of a philosopher, but he still carries his blanket, which is I don't know, kind of endearing, right, sweet kid, but definitely the philosopher of the bunch. And he sort of steps up and he reads a little bit of the Christmas story and I thought it was interesting. Well, at the time that it was written, the founder of Peanuts, Schaltz,

he uh, you know, you put it together. They put it together pretty fast, got it over to the studio. The studio watched it and they were like, ah, I don't know, guys, it's an unusual it's kind of simple. It's a little you know, this kid's kind of feeling down. There's no there's no Yettis, there's no Santa Claus, there's none of that stuff. And then you, you know, you

bust out some some bible. I'm not sure we can do this, and it was too late to rewrite it, so they went ahead and aired it, and when they aired it, it became an instant success. So Charlie Brown, Christmas one of the one of the two that I can think of, and maybe you can think of more than I can. This person says, a Little Drummer Boy, Oh, yes, there. I guess there was a movie Little Drummer Boy, so maybe there. I haven't seen it. Another person says, it's

a Wonderful Life. This would be Dan in Northern Colorado, and actually you would, they so, but it's not in there, and I've watched It's a Wonderful Life a number of times. It's actually on my list of faves. I absolutely love it. I also love trading Places. And I know some people don't think that die Hard is a Christmas movie. Very clearly is a Christmas movie. Thoughts on that, Zach, I'm with you. I'm with you.

not for younger viewers. You will see some people that you recognize in it, Bernie Mack and John Ritter, John Riders last movie. Billy Bob Thornton plays the main character, the Bad Santa. And I'm not going to give away the plot here, but I will say that you start off with truly one of the worst human beings you can possibly imagine. And I want to say, one of the worst human beings. I'm not talking like you know, Hitler,

Stalin Polepot, League of mass murders. I'm talking run of the mill, horrible, drunk, dissipated, womanizing, selfish, the botched, actually kind of gross. The kind of person that would drink so much you would pee himself in public and not mind like that kind of gross. He's a gross human being. He's a thief and every Christmas, he and his associate they rob a grot, they rob a department store. What happens in the course of the film, and why it's

my favorite, is that it's a redemption story. You have this grotesque, horrible human being who becomes a better human being. That does he become mother Teresa. No, that becomes a better human being by the end of the movie. And he does that because of the unmerited love of a child. The unmerited love of a child causes him to go from this self loathing, despicable person to a better person

by the end of the film. And that, my friends, if you're of the Christian tradition, you know that is the Christian message that you know, God breaks into the world to redeem human beings who can be despicable, every one of us, and that it is the unmerited love of a child that can cause people to go from being pretty bad to being better. Not you know, I'm no mother Teresa, but it's something I've experienced at myself.

So yes, if you're gonna go on a watch Bad Santa it is, you could watch it with a teen Do not watch it with kids. Maybe watch it alone if you're you know, I don't know of any kind of edited version. I'm not sure you could edit it, just because there are so many F bombs in it. The dialogue would be at a little thin, some other sort of ryebald scenes in it. But it does have a redemptive theme, and that's my favorite story. I love

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

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

again with a caveat. If you're a person who is sensitive to things that are a little ribaled, naughty and a lot of swearing, it's not the film for you, But if you know you're willing to overlook that for some other merits, it's also absolutely hilarious. And speaking of hilarious, I just finished Deadpool and Wolverine. I know a Rod would like that at Zach. Have you seen it as well? I have. I have.

there's some Christmas themes and now granted evil monsters. I mean they kill a lot of people, basically ruined their Christmas, but it's still still good. Let's see this person says, Christmas Chronicles one and two, and I guess star animated Star not ones. I've seen a person who also likes Bad Santa at Rocks. And this person says, have you ever noticed that Billy Popler in play almost the exact same character in every movie. He's almost always a drunk,

cigarette smoking, divorced man. Yeah, pretty much. He does seem to have He does seem to have that. I think some characters, some actors out there are most comfortable when they can step into the same role in every movie. You know a lot of people like to, you know, diss Tom Cruise, but I think you know when he plays the character that he is best at, which is you know, badass dude, maybe he does okay. I think the Rock plays the same guy every time and he

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

I'm a sucker for the ones that I like. I loved Lady Killers, which is actually they re redid a film from the sixties on that one, but it's got Tom Hanks in it. And if you watch Lady Killers, watch two things. Watch what the cat is doing and watch what the portrait is doing. There's a portrait of her husband's is the good character in it. There's a portrait of her husband, and that portrait changes over the course of the movie. It is a funny, fun beautiful film,

True Grit, the remake, awesome Coen Brothers. Oh brother Where art tho? It's beautiful film, funny, witty moments, sort of deep. It kind of tracks, like I say, loosely tracks. I believe the Odyssey. It is a coming home kind of movie. You even have sort of the Cyclops character in it. Great scene, absolutely great scene. So, uh I am I am a sucker for a Redemption movie. I am a sucker for a Coen Brothers movie. And uh yeah, what can I say? Let's see a couple other films that

came in. Oh, that's nice of you. Let's see while you were sleeping. Yes, that's a good one, very good Sandra Bullock when she was young. Christmas movie obviously total classic. And uh, Crampis. I had not seen Crampis, Crampus being the sort of dark side of like Santa's. I don't know if they're brothers. They are in Red One. I think adopted brothers. I'm not sure that they're well because

they don't they don't really look alike Grampa's though. So Santa Claus gives gifts to kids on the the good list, and the Crampish meets out punishment to the bad kids on the list. And so you might want to know what which list you're on when are coming in to Christmas. Just to modify your expectations, happy to have a few other Christmas movies also, Well, let's do a little bit of a year in room. A year in room? Can

I get through the sentence? A year in review kind of top things that you think happened over over the last year. Twenty twenty four. I'm not going to say it was a good it was not a good year for me. Twenty twenty five has got to be a little bit better. With that, Let's let's go ahead and take a break. This is Christa Kafer sitting in for Mandy Connell. You're listening to eight fifty koa like I srot on the shallow end of the pool and then

just sort of drift into the deep end. So we started off with I just started off with like a kind of a heavier, you know, foreign policy Christmas perspective, but then we moved into the shallow in we've been doing best to Christmas movies. I confessed Bad Santa is my favorite. It's my top watched every year. Yes, it is a little raunchy. I don't know, maybe a little more than a little. I had a little bad language in it, but I just I'm such a sucker for

a redemption movie that I gotta love it. I actually gotta love it. And it's really well acted and it's it's absolutely hilarious. Somebody just texted in and said, I saw Bad Santa on MTV on Tuesday and the cuss words were all bleeped out. Wow, it can be done. I would assume the film would be like beep beep, dialogue, beep beep, beep beep. I don't know, but it, Yeah, I feel like overused, Like people are really over using the F word, and it's kind of ruining it for me.

You know, it's taken all of the kind of spiciness out of it. It's like if you put cayenne pepper, and I love me some cayenne, but if you put it on everything, after a while you'd be like, I don't know, this is just not that spicy. I just feel like people have ruined it. You know, it's just taking all the joy out of the word. And I uh,

I hate that, I absolutely hate. I mean, you know, it's like in all these little videos on you know, I watched videos on Facebook or whatever, and you know they're funny, but you just cut back on the f wort. They just ruined it. It really bothers me. I hardly want to use it anymore. It's just becomes so common. A couple other movies carry on on Netflix. I'm about halfway through that. I almost never watch a movie in one sitting, like, watch it, then I stop and I

watch it some more. It's pretty good though, and Baits who we know, Jason Bates, who's almost always a good guy and a little easy on the eyes. You and I are about the same age, and but he's very bad, I mean very bad. So enjoying that it's a that's good to kind of. I was looking at the basic kind of like you know, human stories. You know, there's the redemption story, there's the quest, there's rags to riches, these trading places might be that I don't know, but

carry on, you know, kind of conquering a monster. That's actually a theme. It's like a story theme. So it's kind of a story theme there. But it's good, it's suspenseful, it's set on Christmas Eve, somebody like the original Family Stone. I haven't seen it, but I'll take your word for it. Also, Emmett Otters Jug Band Christmas. Haven't seen it, but will take your word for that as well. Let's see. Yeah, keep it coming. We've been talking a little bit about

best movies. Talked a little bit in the beginning about how kind of special that Charlie Brown Christmas was for the time nineteen sixty five. Actually, it's kind of a simple theme, the real meaning of Christmas. You also get the Bible story in there, which was very controversial, and if there have been time to rewrite it, chances are the executives CBS executives would have made Schultz rewrite it, but there wasn't time, so it was aired and it

has been beloved ever since. And I brought them up, both At and Bad Santa, because they are the only two movies I can think of that actually have a little bit of scripture in them, which is interesting. And I'm not one of these people that goes I don't I'm not really into like religious movies. I am a person of faith, but I really need some action I need. I mean, if you could do like a religious movie

with zombies, I could probably get behind that. I like action, I like humor, like car crashes, and I mean, if you could mix the two, maybe maybe I could be down with that, but not really just into the religious movie. I've never actually sat through a Hallmark movie. I can't do it now. Maybe maybe if I don't know, if I was tied down, I just can't see under what circumstance. Okay, I can think of the circumscs. This is pretty tragic.

So there's this guy. He's in a some of the a head injury in which he was people thought he was a vegetable. So they prop him up and they make him watch hour after hour, day after day of Barney, that horrible dinosaur pre kindergarten show. The thing, the guy's not lucid, that he's just kind of a vegetable, so they just sort of prop him up in bed, they

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

I could think like I could think like normal. I was myself trapped in this immobile body, and you prop me up, and day after day I have to watch Barney. I'm surprised he didn't come out of that vegetative state and become a mass killed, because it would be understandable, not good. I'm not saying that would be good, but it would be semi justifiable if you had to watch Barney twelve hours a day, three hundred and sixty five

days a year. I'm not saying I would want harm to come to those caregivers, but I would understand it. Those are really the only circumstances in which I can see myself watching a holiday one of those Hallmark holiday movies. Is that I'm in a coma or in a vegetative state. Somebody props me up in bed and says she's a woman, she probably likes Hallmark movies, And then they would force me to watch those that's really the only circumstances in which I can see myself watching a holiday a Hallmark

holiday show. I loathe It's terrible. I kind of loathe them. I need humor, I need action. If we could if we could mix, like, you know, some zombies in there, if we could mix a car crash, maybe some espionage into the plot, because they all have the same plots, Like, you know, executive male or female goes to a small town for some reason, falls in love with the town, the charm, you know, the little bakery that person's come to shut down because corporate has decided to build a Starbucks.

But in the moment, the Christmas spirit reaches their hardened city heart and they become a good guy. Like if you could add like a zombie apocalypse into that, I could watch it. That would be that would be watchable for me. But as is, and thing goes for like you know, anything that's sort of touchy feely, you know, I just yeah, I need something a little more, a little a little more. We'll just go with that. We'll just go with that other favorite movies, see what folks

are saying. Yeah, because we're coming to the end of that mee where I guess that idea is, let's go ahead and wade on into the deeper end of the pool. Promise there's no zombies there. Let's talk about like top events of twenty twenty four. I know this is something I can guarantee. Man, he's going to hit on this

next week. So you got great ideas. You can hit him here first, you know, sample him out, and then when you want to go, go go with the real host, you could go, you know, you could do a repeat it. It's I think it's a good idea to visit the year. I didn't. I can't say I had a particularly good year. It mostly sucked, but I have I've got a good

feeling about twenty twenty five. You know, worldwide, it wasn't It wasn't a horrible year unless you're you know, in Ukraine or Gaza or some other places where people are being killed. Here in America, I think it was okay. And we didn't even get hit by a lot of smoke. I mean, I was thinking about what was absent, I mean, not just what happened over this last year, but we actually could breathe relatively well here in Colorado. We didn't have the massive influx of smoke and that was nice.

I don't think we had here in America any earthquakes. We had a you know, it's a it was a bad hurricane season, a very bad hurricane season for the South, really really tore up South Carolina and North Carolina, and you know between the mud slides and the you know, everything that happened there, it was terrible for those communities. But here in Colorado, I don't want to jinx it. For all I know, tornado will pop up today and uh they'll be like, yeah, I know why that tornado came.

Ca Fir said it was a really great a great year for weather. Well, I'll tell you what, five six six, and I know, if you've got it could be a big thing that happened in Colorado, a big event, or it could be a big event nationally, a big event internationally, you know, like a sad fleeing Syria. That's pretty big. So yeah, let me know, five six six, And I know this is Christa Kaefer. I'm sitting in for Mandy Connell and it's Kale fifty. It was almost a perfect

outro A fifty Kowa. I'm going to give my favorite books and the reason I thought about this is that Mandy Connell talked about how much she loves a bookstore. I also love books, and I had a goal to read fifty two books this year. I missed it by about twenty. I'm less than twenty, but still, yeah, I didn't hit it. But my favorites. Just in case you're looking for a book recommendation, I really liked Material World

by Ed Conway. Talks about kind of the main like the main materials that create the modern world, everything from steel to silicon to lithium. And it's it's easy to read, it's not technical, but it's a lot of really good information. It's it's a it's a good book. It's worth reading. Also, you want to read something dark, yeah, a little dark. Hitler's People by Richard Evans is a stunning book. It's a biography of of Adolf Hitler and then all of

the horrific people around him. And it will surprise you. It will surprise you in the sense that some had families, some a lot of them like played instruments and did art. Like Yeah, when they weren't killing people or ordering the deaths of others, they they were they were pretty uniformly ambitious, wanting to get ahead. All of them were anti Semitic, as you could imagine, all of them were really smitten with Hitler, but they also had someone, you know, the

fact that they they liked art. Hitler himself did some art. You know, some of them were really educated. Yeah, it was really Uh, it was just interesting to see how, i mean, how evil can come in a kind of ordinary package. It was interesting putt on the dark side though. Also, like Jane Harper's mystery series. I think she's written five books. I read them all pretty darn fast because they were that good, just really good books. So yeah, those were

my best books. Okay, the book that I thought was the like the one I don't recommend, although if you read my substack, I have a substack. Just go to Christa k for substack, so you could publish stuff. I did write a little review on it because there's good stuff in it, but I do not recommend Reinhold Nieber's Moral Man and in Moral Society. It's got some brilliant insights, but the book is brutal to get through. Think in Manual Kant only maybe worse, No, nothing is worse than Kant.

Bad just I mean, and no amount of like you know, there's just there's really it's really hard to get through, but has insights. So I don't know, but you know, buyer beware if you're just thinking about reading the book, I don't know why you'd be thinking about it. But anyway, we're going to hit a break in about two minutes and then we come back. We're going to talk about events of the year, good, bad, just big things that happened.

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

dominated headlines for obvious reasons. It was a big election and thinking back, but I'm not going to talk about it too much. But who picks joy as a campaign slogan? I mean, I know it kind of worked for President Obama. He did hope and change and people are like, yeah, we love an airy meaningless slogan, you know, and if it's for the most part, they all are. I mean, like normalcy that was what was that? Hardings? You know, they all have, they all had. All those slogans are

pretty bad. Although I liked warning in America that was Ronald Reagan's. I mean, occasionally there's one in there that's kind of nice, but they're all kind of airy. So you basically take whatever you think and feel and you can just put it in there yourself, like it's just this sort of airy nothing that you can imagine whatever you want. But joy number one, I don't think i'd go with a one word slogan and not one that's that dumb. Nobody feels joyous about it an election, I don't.

I mean, unless you're a consultant making a lot of money, you're making six figures off of the election. Yeah, there's some joy there, but otherwise I'm not sure how joyful it is until it's over and the bowse that won these slim majority, they get their joy on, but I wouldn't say it's joyous during And as far as airy meaningless campaign slogans go, I'm thinking it might be the worst. This is Christy k Fer. I'm sitting in for Mandy

Connell and you're listening to eight fifty k away. This is Christy kay for sitting in and should be back next week, so never hear and know she's having a terrific just a terrific Christmas with her family, so and her big lovely dog and yeah, they're they're having a good time. So anyway, thanks for hanging with the sub. My text line is five six six, And I know we're moving into kind of a year in review, you know, big things that happen here in Colorado, maybe around the country, Hey,

how about around the world. Just yeah, I can't believe the Russians shot down a nazerbe Aji Azerbaijani sorry as a Bajan was a flight And that's a it's a it's a little country, a little oil rich country that is next to Armenia and Russia kind of within that orbit and kind of a kind of an ally I think, not an ally of Russia, but I think is a good relationship with that with Russia. Nothing can really, shall we say, a strain of friendship more than shooting down

someone's plane and killing their people. So I'm thinking that's not going to work out so well. And uh yeah, Russia has is already a bit of an international pariah, given that it likes to bite off other people's or other countries territory. And when they don't just you know, bit off a piece of Georgia, Georgia was like, okay, you could, you can have that part, which is what most countries do when he takes a bite. In case of Ukraine, Ukraine was like, no, you're not You're not

taking that, and that's why they've been at war. So kudos to obviously Ukraine and the fighting spirit to say no, you can't just take part of our land and our people and our resources because you want them. And so right now Russia's God is. Russia's got a couple of friends. You know, they're kind of similar birds of a feather.

North Korea just sent them some troops to help out, because you know, they're going through people like you know, they're soldiers, get they're not well trained, they end up dead. They keep they keep taking recruiting men from their eastern territories. You know out there in the pardon me, out there in Siberia, people who are desperate for money and their families coming, bringing those soldiers, bringing those men forward to be soldiers, and maybe they're running out. I don't think

they're running out. There's still a lot of people. But North Korea graciously say here, have a couple thousand of our guys. And you know, China, Russian and China getting along pretty well too. So there's I'm guessing probably Venezuela has it been on the supportive side as well. So, but yeah, I don't think the shooting down of a neighbor's airplane is going to help them help them in the region anyway, just on the side. Talking Also a little bit about the word of the year. Now, Oxford

Dictionary does a word of the year. Other people do a word of the year. As we enter into our review of twenty twenty four, the Oxford sorry not Oxford Dictionary, Oxford University Press named brain rot as it's twenty twenty four word of the year. It's to find as the supposed deterior of a person's mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of over consumption of material considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Now, I really like animal videos,

dog videos, dog and cat videos. I like some comedians, and yeah, I probably watched too much. Maybe that explains the brain rot. I don't know. It seems to me that we all consume a little bit of that stuff. How much is too much? How much is too much? So brain rot? That is well, certainally two words, but that is their word of the year, and you can't think I get a word of the year. They probably should hyphenate it just so it really is one word.

But anyway, a couple words that I heard recently that I had not heard that I think kind of go with twenty twenty four. One of amost trauma bragging. I heard that on Deadpool versus Overeeing, which I watched last night. But trauma bragging, that is, and I think it was. I think it was a reference to gen Z and trauma bragging, which is, you know, how much worse can my life be than yours? That kind of thing, or how much have I been traumatized compared to you? I

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

don't know they're out in the town. She's in this dress and somebody mentioned on this on Twitter that she had tiger face syndrome. So if you look at her face. It's obvious that a lot of money's gone into it. I'm not I don't have a problem with people getting work done. I personally like botox a lot, but this had a lot done and so definitely a lot of lip filler. I don't know, when you when it looks like you could pop your lip like a you know,

like a balloon, it's a little much. I mean, I just as a guideline if you're getting lip filler, just be like, if it looks like somebody could pop it with a pin, it's a it's a little much. So she's definitely had a lot of lip filler. I'm thinking possibly a nose job, definitely a brow lift. There's probably some cheek filler, and uh definitely the boobs. Those are all uh all of the purchase what I think might be the purchase products. And it does make for kind

of a tiger face. I got admit, whoever put this this comment on a on a tweet that I saw it. I don't know if it's an official tiger face syndrome. But when you have a brow lift, cheek filler, you get your nose made a little pointier, you get your lips done big. It does give you kind of a tiger face. And again, I don't have a problem people getting work done. I just think a light touch is better.

If your lips look like they could be popped like a balloon, probably a bit much when you look like you are always super super super awake and possibly have drank fifty Starbucks coffees. Maybe the brow lift was a bit overdone. And I guess the popping thing might also go for boobs as well. It's pretty clear these are fake, far too large for her frame. And you know you

don't keep a Lamborghini in the garage. I get that, and so that's why I think she's showing these things after The degree that she do is it's one of those dresses where you have to use some kind of a glue or an adhesive otherwise you will fall out. Now I've never worn a dress like this. I've never experienced the falling out. But some of these women were addressed up so low cut, and you know, the girls are so far out there that if it was not sort of glued on, they would bust out entirely. And

I know that's the look she's going for. Maybe I'm being a little caddy and pointing it out. But I have a hunch, and you know, people have to get reconstruction done. I get that. I have friends that have had reconstruction and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that is a good choice for people. But if you go for just the voluntary, Hey, I want to size up to something extremely large because my wealthy boyfriend will pay for it, there is kind of a line that you cross over

that line. I don't think it's that attractive, and I'm not sure big hard and round. I don't know. I'm not a dude. I don't know. I'm got a hunch that maybe some guys prefer the actual look. I am going to move on from this topic because it's it's a little edgy, but I'm going to get Zach being a dude that kind of that kind of super artificial aesthetic. Do you find it attractive? No, I think it becomes

I agree with what you're saying. I think there's a lot of celebrities that have some work done here there. It works fine, and that's fine that it probably is worth what they're paying for it.

me be kind of like hugging a mannequin. I don't know, sex with sex nodding, Yeah, I definitely have gone along the edge of what is tasteful for talk radio. So I will be walking myself back from the ledge here. So those are the two terms that I've heard, tiger face syndrome and trauma bragging as being two words I just learned. I also was substitute teaching in junior high this year. I learned a lot of dumb words that I wish I didn't learn and know of these aren't

swear words. It's like skibbety and different things like that. If you are the parent or a teacher of a middle schooler, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Guillocht, there's a bunch of them. I like make a mental note when I'm subbing for the damn like, how many times are I going to hear that today? And maybe that's the number of drinks I have when I get home. I'm kidding, there'd be a lot of drinks. So talking about twenty twenty four, I will not bring up Bezos's

girlfriend again. Is Yeah, so what was one of the big things that happened this year? Got a couple of interesting things coming in. This person says, let's see, I had to put on my reading glasses. How sad is that that's what twenty twenty four did to me? Yeah? Okay, so this person says, uh. This person says, I'm glad that that we shut down the quote unquote school choice measure. Colorado is smarter than most I'm thankful for that this year.

Those are my words. That's somebody who texted in, and you know, I did vote for that tech because I like school choice. Most over half of the states have some kind of a voucher program or tax credit for education. We have other school choice things here. We don't have those, but we've got charter schools, We've got open enrollment for public schools, so we've got some things going for us. I'd like to see like the full roster of choices

for families. I've seen how good it is for people to pick the school that best meets their kids needs. There was I think the reason that went down isn't just because the unions hated it. I think part of the reason that went down is there were some in the homeschooling community that we're a little nervous about the wording, and so that's why they didn't vote for it. And I personally absolutely hate the initiative process. I've been pretty

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

months of work. But we pay them to do these things, and yet we are We've got this initiative process that allows millionaires and their friends and some of these are good people, not saying they're not good people, to come in and push a measure, using their substantial resources, and try to get to the public to adopt it. And we end up with some really bad ideas. And the school choice idea would have been would have been I

really wouldn't have done much. And I think the homeschoolers were right to probably worry about some of the wording, don't. I don't think it was a prudent measure to put forward for that reason, even though I do support school choice. But I don't know what your reasons are. But you, obviously, I say you, this is the person that just wrote in obviously you didn't like it. This person said they would have guessed that joy to be the word of

the year. Thanks Dan. Yeah, I was saying in before we went to this hour, I can't think of a worse campaign slogan than joy. I don't know though that was her official campaign slogan, but it's about as bad as picking Tim Walls as as her running mate. Yeah, there was some definitely some errors made in that campaign.

And I think joy about the dumbest campaign slogan I have, I think I've ever heard, and I think it could be it could be a word of the year, right, And this person says they I can't read that on the air, but I did get a kick out of it. You know who you are. It has to do with Jeff's his girlfriend and the artificial the artificial body. Yeah, all right, moving on, so the top kind of top things that happen in twenty twenty four, let's start with Colorado.

I'll start with Colorado here just because obviously we live here. My column The Sunday is about one are some big things that happen in Colorado. I focus mainly obviously on politics. I write about politics, and I thought it was kind of cool that during the primary, the really far right in the far left lost out. I say this as a moderate, I'm really glad. I'm glad that Epps and Hernandez, the too farthest left leaning Democrats in the Collbright House representatives.

They got primaried out. They're gone. Good Old Hernandez is going to have to find a job. He's got the barist to look. I think that'll work for him. Epps, I don't know, some kind of angry nonprofit where she can channel the rage. I think that would that'd be a good call for her. Also, the Dave Williams slate of far right candidates, most of them lost in the primary, couple of them lost in the general. I think maybe

one one of that slate made it. Everybody else lost, which is good because the mainstream republic and alternatives did. Some of them did pretty darn well. We ended up with very solid picks in the third and the eighth congressional districts. I'm talking about Gabe Evans and Gabe Evans and also Jeff Hurd, really solid candidates. I think they're

going to serve of Colorado very very well. Also, the House of the House, State House, that is at the General Assembly, the House picked up three Republicans, so there's no longer a Democrat supermajority in that chamber. And my hat's off to Rose Puglucy. Apologies if I just I feel like I just mispronounced her name, but anyway, super sharp. She is the minority leader there, raised the money, got it done, brought some more Republicans and a little more

balanced to that chamber. I am a registered Republican. I am kind of offbeat Republican independent, I guess contrarian perhaps, I don't know, but I am happy to see more Republicans in that chamber. Really stoked about Hurd and Evans. I think they're going to do a really great job there. So that was kind of the subjects of my of my calm looking at to sort of elect you know,

election changes. They're getting rid of a lot of the far left and the far right in the primary coming into the general, and some really nice pickups by Republicans, and so we'll see, we'll see what that does. Big things that happened in Colorado, big things that happened around the country. If if you've got a thought, I would uh, I'd love to I'd love to read it for you. Let's see. This person says, oh, it's kind of an interesting comment. So this is again about that school choice deal.

This person says, I'm sick of the school choice nonsense. Teachers need a certificate in four years of higher education. We have some parents who barely passed high school thinking they can do the job. They haven't met a single homeschool kid that was thankful for it. I got a hunch it was just a hunch that maybe that's the same person that wrote the first comment, But I will address it here. I know a lot of very successful homeschool kids that were happy with the experience. They were

super involved in a whole bunch of other stuff. They're quite happy. Now is every homeschool kid happy. Probably not, I mean not probably. No, that you're going to find some discontents. You're also going to find some bad homeschooling parents. Frankly, having been around education politics, I also teach both in public schools. I've been a teacher in a Royal substitute teacher for years in K twelve schools public schools for

Jeff Coo. I also teach higher ed occasionally. I do adult you know in Richmond classes that adult for adults. So I guess, but I guess k through. I don't know, Senior. I've thought a lot of large range of kids, a large range of learners. I should say, as somebody who loves to learn and loves to teach, and I would say that you can find bad public schools, bad public school teachers. You can find good public schools, some great public school teachers. I've met some awesome teachers in early

difficult challenge schools. Also you can find great private schools, bad private schools, bad private you know, bad homeschooling parents, good home schooling parents. I think the difference is is that because private schools have to parents have to have some skin in the game. Even in states where they're a voucher programs, parents still have to put in some of their own money. Kids got to be there and

do the hard work. Private schools, not all of them, but most of them have to be a cut above because otherwise people are going to take their money and leave private school or I say, homeschooling. Same thing. You've got to make a sacrifice to do it so that some people who would really suck at it aren't going to make that sacrifice. And then with public schools and lesson school is really wretched, it is not going to get closed. And I hate to say this, that's true

for a lot of charter schools as well. Charter schools can be closed for bad performance but they don't always get closed for bad performance. So I would just say to this person, hey, look around. There are a lot of good people doing a lot of good stuff. You can always find you can find bad everywhere, but you can also find a lot of good everywhere. And I've met some really miserable public school teachers that don't want

to be there. I've also met some amazing public school teachers that want to be there and are doing a great job. I would say this, and then we're going to take a break. If you love kids and you love your subject matter, that's the two most important things. The rest is technique, and that technique can be learned, doesn't have to be learned with a teaching degree. It can be learned outside of that. I say, this is somebody who substitute teach and actually likes doing it, which

is freaking weird. I know this is Christy Kaefer. I'm sitting in for Mandy Connell and you're listening to eight fifty KOA nice compliments. It says, where should you get that voice? I could listen to you for hours. I wanted to say thank you. That was really sweet, and yeah, it's kind of a smooth jazz voice. I could definitely do NPR. I just be a little more like a little more monotone that I had to be like. And welcome back to NPR. Sleepier, Yeah, a little sleepier and

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

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

a boat, a big boat, but a boat. Nonetheless, that was not in my that was not on my being my being go card, like I. You know, you expect a certain amount of damaged done to the country, be it from a hurricane, maybe an earthquake, at tornado, something along those lines. But I didn't expect a boat to take out one of the nation's iconic bridges. That was not on my BINGO card. Yeah. Also, I haven't said the most disturbing category of twenty twenty four is. I

gonna have to say it's the WTF category. I don't understand how people behave this way, and I guess I don't think I don't have not fully hit peak peak cynicism yet. I'm close. I'm really close, But every year I'm reminded that I'm not quite there. I could get just a tiny bit more cynical, just a tiny bit. So there's just as there's there's room to grow, I should say. So you have the murder of the United Healthcare CEO, Brian Thompson. I'm going to give the victims

name here. The father, fifty year old, father of two husband, success story kind of a you know, modest, humble origin, you know, worked really hard, ended up becoming the CEO of United health Care. I don't have United right now I have in the past, and is murdered by this

child of privilege. This horrible human being, this grinning, murdering piece of you know what who murders this man whose wife and kids spent yesterday Christmas Day without him and are probably still in grief shock that he was torn from them recently. And I guess what. The fact that evil people murder people doesn't shock me. I mean, that's not shocking. What is shocking to me is that there was a subset of Americans that thought that was good. Now,

I'm lucky. I don't know any of those people. I'm not one of those people who unfriends people on social media very easily, not on Twitter, not on Facebook. If I was actually on one of the cooler ones, I wouldn't do it. I don't. I just you know, if you got weird opinions, I don't have to agree with you to like you. If anyone's going to get unfriended, it's probably me, you know, as far as I people. I had friends that didn't like the fact that I

didn't wear a mask during COVID. They unfriended me whatever. Generally speaking, though I figure you're different, you don't I don't agree. It's fine, I don't care. But if I had if I had a friend on social media who said I'm so glad that this person, this innocent person was murdered because I don't like my healthcare and they

probably wouldn't have put it exactly that way. But if I had ever gotten a whiff of that, that's an instant unfriend and I don't do it that often, and I know unfriending's kind of dumb anyway, but I don't want to know people who think it's okay to kill people they don't agree with. I just don't. I don't care. I mean, you had that, you had someone tried to kill President Trump or former President Trump soon to be President Trump, someone you know, took a shot at him.

I think that guy may have been crazy. I don't know. It didn't matter anyone who thought that was a good thing, anyone who tweeted out, you know, something nasty about that that somebody was almost murdered, Whether it was somebody who was murdered, the CEO of United Healthcare or the former president, A lot of people don't care for him. I don't, But you don't get to murder people, innocent people because you disagree with them. That is absolutely horrific that anyone

would cheer either of those incidents this year. Now I know it's a minority. I know it's an minority because I have by a thousand Facebook friends, a couple thousand. Maybe I don't know Twitter follow people who follow me because I don't follow all of them. I guess I follow around five hundred. Nobody tweeted. I didn't catch any of that on my own social media feed. I know it's a small sample size, so I'm not saying it's representative,

but I didn't come across it. But I knew it was out there because I had friends who said they knew people that we're talking normal people like suburban housewife or something, because housewives kind of an old fashioned term, people who live in suburbia. Who cheered the murder of Brian Thompson. I have no doubt there were liberals that

cheered the attempted assassination of President Trump. Either way, if you're cheering the uh, you know, murder or almost murder of a person you don't agree with, I'm thinking first you need to go to confession. Maybe that, and then maybe call up a counselor just do you know one, Maybe confess to God. If you're Catholic, maybe go to confession and then when you get back just call up with a therapists and be like, you know, fo myself the other day cheering on an assassin. I think that's

a moral, spiritual, mental issue. Can I get in for a little chair of time. I'm just saying that is not that's not normal. That's not normal. So that would be in my WTF column of twenty twenty four of who who praises a murder or an almost murderer? Don't get that at all. It's very mystifying to me in my column of good stuff. And I'll get to some of your comments. Is I was really happy to see the there's a reporter for the Wall Street Journal. I'm

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

not the time to be visiting Russia. I know it's got a lot of like cool architectural stuff, cool history. It's a cool language. Russian's a pretty language. I'm sure. I'm sure there's lots of nice people there. People are not the same thing as their leader. It would be

cool to go. I've always wanted to go there, but this is not the time because what happens is they basically take Americans that are there, hold them on some specious charge saying that they're spies, throw them in prison, and then use them as a bargaining chip so they can get their spies out of our prisons. So you know, there's other places you can go there. You can get the Slavic experience. Poland is fantastic. I wish you could go to Ukraine. I've been to Ukraine. It's a fantastic place.

Odessa's beautiful city. It's where my family came from about a one hundred and twenty years ago. Also, you want to go somewhere that's just ideal. You're thinking maybe honeymoon, something like that. I go to Croatia. Croatia is rgeous and Serbia is a lot of fun. So there's there's some really fun, cool countries where you can hear those beautiful languages, you can see some cool stuff, get some history, see how countries have recuperated from a treacherous era of communism.

But I'd avoid Russia just in case you're making twenty twenty five vague Eachian plans. That would be my advice. So we're going to hit a break here, we get back more comments on what you thought were the top weirdest, best, biggest, gravest, most horrible, most awesome things that happened in twenty twenty four. This is Krista Kayfer sitting in for Mandy Connell, and you're listening to a fifty koa and we're talking about

the biggest, kind of the biggest events of the year. Obviously, the election was kind of took a lot of air out of the room. Was definitely dominated things, but there was other stuff that happened. And I went off a little bit in the last segment about the murder. It was late in the year of the United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson by this horrible, horrible person, and my dismay

over the fact that some people cheered that on. It's sickening, just as it's sickening that somebody cheered on the fact that somebody tried to kill President Trump. You don't you don't get to kill people that you don't agree with, and you don't get to cheer when somebody else does.

It's sickening, and it's I think maybe if you're feeling that right now, like yay, an innocent person died that I didn't agree with, you do go to confession, maybe get a counselor that is not the way to be Other things that happened besides the election is you know, it's kind of the elephant in the room that was interesting. At the key Bridge collapsed. Interesting, It's sad. It's a cool bridge, but not something that I kind of predicted.

What about those campus protests, and I actually think that they helped Republicans because nobody likes that. I mean, they did like a million dollars worth of damage to the Araria campus. And I'm an area campus alum. I've got both my bassaords and my Masters at CU Denver and and I've taught there. I you don't get to rip up stuff because you're upset, and they did terrible damage to to the campus, to the d I think they had to resawed the entire area they were camping out.

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

normal people, including kids, and that's tragic. If that is, if that's upsetting to you to the point where you want to do a protest, why not channel that into giving some money to a relief organization or talking to friends about getting some relief dollars over there, medicine, blankets, tents, you know, things like that. Put your money there, put your energy there. You don't need to go to a

campus and rip stuff up. You also, I think, have to acknowledge that Gaza, as tragic as it is and the human suffering that's going on, you got to acknowledge that Hamas started it. If Hamas hadn't killed well over one thousand innocent Jewish people, murdered them, raped them, and kidnapped them. War wouldn't be going on. That isn't decid You can't feel deep compassion and pain for those who are suffering in that war, and it's at something you

feel passionate about. Rather than rip up the sad at your local university, raise some money to get some help to these folks. I'm just saying it's a little common sense. The reason I think it did help Republicans though, is that people don't like that. It's kind of like the sixty eight protests and riots. It didn't help Democrats that election season, was it, Hubert Humphrey? I think yeah, he went down. He went down in part because of all

those protests. People don't like it when people go out and rip stuff up and spray graffiti and break stuff and cost taxpayers money. Come on, it's a little common sense there. And I remember what it was like to be young. I remember, but I never went to those kind of protests. I would go to like peaceful pro life protests where we walked around and you know, didn't litter or yell. I guess I'm just I don't know. I guess I'm just not into breaking stuff. That I

don't own. If you got a thought three zero, well I almost I almost give the number. I actually prefer the text slife you gotta talk, go to five, six, six, nine, oh and let me know what you think. We're talking and we're gonna keep talking about this going into the next hour. Big stuff that happened in twenty twenty four can be stupid stuff, it can be fun stuff. It can be big stuff, small stuff, collabad of stuff, international,

national stuff. Also, if you have a New Year's resolution that you want to share and you know, as long as it's not right, it are, I will share it on the air way to make sure that you're committed. Right. We'll talk a little bit about New Year's resolutions in the next hour as well. This is Christa Kafer. I'm sitting in for Mandy Connell and you're listening to eight fifty koa A ring Ton on my phone and spin this way. For as long as I've had a cell phone, almost is back in Black by ac DC, So I

guess that could be my theme song. I've also been I've always liked Peter Gunn, that little, you know, fun set of jazz riff. I'm not sure what that is, but yeah, probably back in Black. I always loved that song. I always love that song. We're talking a little bit about big things that happened in twenty twenty four. If this little key voice is new to you. Normally, I'm in print. I'm a Denver Post columnist and I pop up on Sundays the Denver Post and in the Perspective section.

I am a commentator, like to you know, people, I mean in journalism, but I'm not a journalist. I'm not out there like you know, writing breaking news. I may comment cracks me up when I'll I'll post something on Twitter at Achris de Kafer. People be like, your journalism is a reporter? You suck. I'm like, yeah, as a reporter, I do suck. And that's because I'm not a reporter.

I'm a commentator. I'm an opinion person. And in fact, tonight you actually if you want to see what I look like, I will be on the Channel twelve PBS. Channel twelve does a really cool program called Colorado Inside Out. Kyle Dyer and I'll be on the panel tonight. We're talking about our year in review, and it's a lot of fun. It's a fun show and fun to do. So yeah, I do TV, I do some radio, do some some some print stuff, and I've got a sub stack if you want to check out my print stuff.

I actually republish my columns there after the fact, and we get some other stuff up there too. Probably gonna be writing more. It's one of my New Year's resolutions is to get a little bit more out there. And anyway, that's who I am happy to have you on if you've got a thought. Five six six nine ozer. We're doing a year in review and also talking a little

bit about New Year's resolutions. I know we're still a few days out from the new year, but because I will not be here, you know, those days leading up, I'm just here today. If if you got a New Year's resolution and you'd like me to air it, I can read it on the year. Man, you're committed means that you know a lot of people have heard you

make that commitment. So yeah, you could definitely text me at five six six and I know either what you think were the big the big deals, the big things that happen in twenty twenty four or New Year's resolutions. Not everybody said them. I didn't, I didn't set one for last year, which is probably good or this year. I should say twenty twenty four because it was not a good year. It was not a good year medically primarily was my issue. But I'm thinking twenty twenty five

is going to be a great year. I've got some get some irons in the fire. Let's see what things turn out. I'm also going to get another dog. Those of you who have heard me sub in for man, do you know that my beautiful dog died last year. Bacon died after almost thirteen years. I got her when she was about six seven weeks old. She was from Lifeline Puppy Rescue, which is in Brighton, Colorado. They go around they take puppies basically from high kill shelters in

the the Rocky Mountain region. Probably hit Okay, I know. My dog came from New Mexico and she was a German shepherd chow chow. And she was my best friend. And she was the best dog I've I've ever had, and we had lots of adventures together. We hiked, we went snowshoeting. I was wearing snowshoes. She was not. She's it is anything fluffy, golden colored, German shepherds, which she looked like. And we yeah, we went swimming together, we went hiking together. We would do snowshoeing. We would do

all just all kinds of fun stuff. She was always up for fun. And when she could no longer walk, I uh, I said goodbye, and I think cancer took her down. I guess in the end, heart disease or cancer gets all of us if we live long enough. And she wasn't senior dog, but she even that January. I lost her in June. That January, she went snowshoeing with me. She she loves snow. And one of my fondest memories was I used to take her up to

this park. She couldn't go to the dog park. She was a little bit of a brawler, but I would take her up to this area where there was like eight soccer fields and we'd just go and she would run and run and run. We go late at night when nobody was around, and snowing. She loves the snow. So she maybe a year or two before she died, she just plopped down on her back and started making dog snow angels. So I was like, you know, that's

a good idea. So I did the same, and yeah, all right, before I start to cry, I will go back to my New Year's resolution. One of them is to adopt a dog. It'll be two years come June, and I'm ready. I'm almost there. I will have financial wherewithal come midyear to to get a dog, because you know they're expensive now, like you can't get out of the vet without dropping a grand, so you know you gotta you gotta have money in set of side. Cats are no big deal. I have some cats. I guess

I'm jd Vance's catwoman. I got my two cats. I am really more of a dog person though, dogs and horses, although I love cats too. But I'm gonna be riding more this year hopefully. Love horses, love love dogs. And did do a little wrangling last year. I like to wrangling cattle. I think it's a lot of fun. I got to do that. I got to do some pretty pretty hardcore mountain riding. Really great great quarter horse really handled that well. But some more riding and definitely a

dog and it's interesting. An article in this week's Denver Post talking about just how many pets are at the shelter now. Now it's not the peak. Twenty twenty three was the peak here. I think some a holes out there, not them all were a holes somewhere though. Adopted a dog because they thought it would be super cute during COVID and then we're like, I don't want this dog now they went back to work. Now. I know, emergencies happen. There are times when people have to take a dog

to the pound. You know, there's a death in the family, something happens where it's an emergency. You cannot find another home for that animal. The pound is your only option. I get it. Bad things happen. But there were also some really irresponsible people out there who were like, I would just love a puppy, and you know what, I think I'll get a sporting breed. I think I'll get a big dog that requires a ton of exercise even

though I don't leave the house. And so they got things like German shepherds and you know hunting dogs, Like if you don't hunt, owning a pointer is not really a good If you're a daily runner, you run every day. Pointers a great dog for you take that dog with you on a run. If you are a sit in front of the TV kind of guy or gal Maltese is good, be Shaun is good, miniature poodle is good, Basset hound like, there are some dogs for you. Pointers

not one of them. And I know the puppies are super cute, but people went out and adopted these big breeds that require a lot of exercise at a yard. COVID was over, they went back to work and they put that animal on the pound. And do you know what happens to animals at the pound that don't get adopted. They die. I used to volunteer at a dog pound and it's crazy how many animals have to be put down, including healthy animals, just to make room for more animals.

So all these these pounds all around town talking about pounds. I also could be like Dumb Friends League and others that don't have the word pound in them. A lot of animals that need to be adopted. So come summer, I'm going to be looking at adoption. And if you're going to make a resolution and you've got room in your heart for a dog, you've got the lifestyle that allows you to, you know, take that dog on a walk, do what you need to do. Pick the right breed

for you, be honest with yourself. You're not a big hiker, snowshoe runner, whatever, They'll get a pointer, get the right dog for you. But do consider going to the pound or the Dumb Friends League or Max Fund or whatever and find a pet there. Also. I guess BLM, this is not Black Lives Matter, but this is Bureau of Land Management. They could use your help as well. So when we get back, I'll talk a little bit about that. Then bust into some other New Year's resolutions and a

couple of highlights from twenty twenty four. It's Chris Kafer sitting in for Manny Connell. You're listening to a fifty koa and started talking about New Year's resolutions, and then I started talking about the fact that there's a lot of dogs and cats and animals out there generally that need to be adopted. Not the peak twenty twenty three

was actually the peak here. But still a lot of animals in these shelters, and they, you know, they do their best to accommodate as many animals as possible, but ultimately, some animals, you know, they get put down. When I worked at I used to volunteer a day. It's probably the worst dog pounds This is about twenty years ago, and it was in the heart of Washington, d C. In the hood, this shelter that was just overrun with animals,

and I had not seen animals that abused before. The animals with collars grown into their skin where somebody just you know, left the collar on, didn't take care of the animal, animals that had been used as bait dogs for fighting animals. One of the most despicable thing I saw was where a lot of dogs have naturally downward ears, like not like German shepherd, you know, triangle ears, but they got the floppy ears. Well, you can have your dog medically changed like a lot of times, well people

will do it with Doberman. They'll have the ears medically changed to have up ears. But what I saw was diy versions of that in which pit bulls or mastiffs or other dogs somebody taken a pair of scissors to their ears. Saw a lot of really ugly things, and saw a lot of animals put down because in that particular shelter, in that particular city, I should say, pit bulls were illegal, and so pitbulls were summarily put down.

And that used to be the case here in Denver, that has changed things to changes in the law, changes in hearts and minds. Even so, as this writer writes in shelters are full of pit bulls and pit bull mixes, and pipples are wonderful breed. They're not a breed for everybody. Some pipples do well at the dog park, some pipples do well with other dogs. Generally speaking, pit bulls do well with humans, though when they were bred for fighting, they were bred to be aggressive towards other dogs, but

very pliable with people. And that's because if you were fighting dogs, you would need to reach into the pit where the animals were being fought and pull out an injured dog with your hands without getting bits. So they were actually bred to be docile to people, but to be ferocious to dogs. And it's something that you want to keep in mind if you get a pipples that they may not be dog friendly, and some of them are. They're usually very people friendly and usually really good with kids.

Like you know, there are outliers with any breed. You do hear of situations where children are injured. Some dogs can't really be around young kids. So I used to have a fantastic German shepherd chow Chow awesome, awesome dog like a I think German shepherd Teddy Bear like a fluffy German shepherd. And I had to put a lot of training into her to be able to be with kids, to be trusted in that situation. But I did not take her to the dog parks. She liked a brawl.

She was good at it too, sun dogs. A lot of dogs cannot go to the dog park. They fight a lot of dogs. I mean you had to. You know, the extroverted Golden Retriever who's like, hey, this wanna be friends with everybody, min But you also have a lot of dogs they're like, hey, I just want to hang with my friends. You put me with a dog I don't know, and we might have words and so just you know, go into the breed knowing what to expect. But if you've got space in your heart and your home,

I would consider a pibble. Learn about it, learn about the animal. Usually these these that's true for any dog or dog breed. But learn about the breed, learn about what's to expect. But as this person said, the shelters are full of pit bulls and pit bull of mixes. Open your heart if you can, this breed can make a really wonderful, wonderful companion. Another person said that they recently adopted a mutt from the Denver dumbfriendsly wonderful place.

It was because this person was a great experience. My Dutch shepherd isn't so sure about the whole thing dut shepherds. There's like four different kinds of Dutch shepherds. Melani was probably the best known. And these are smart dogs and tense dogs. But apparently the Dutch shepherds still trying to figure out what to do about the new guy. But you know, dogs they know introduced him right. I'll give you one little tip though, if you've got one dog

and you're getting another one, bitches can be bitchy. Two male dogs are more likely to get along. A male and a female dog can get along. Two females might have to fight a little bit to figure out who's the boss. And if they can't figure out out, they will fight all the time. Just a thought you have. You know, my sister has two femaline dogs that love each other. It's not always the case, but sometimes, uh yeah, sometimes bitches can be bitchy. What can I say this

acristic kaeper and we're hitting into another break. I'm sitting in for Mandy Connell and you're listening to a fifty koa. My friend Drew Bollen did me a little favor. He's like, Kafer, did you know today's Thursday not Friday? Oddly enough, I did not know. Gets in my mind. I was thinking it's Friday. Yeah yeah, I uh yeah. Anyway, it's Thursday. I yeah. The whole holiday thing, I don't know. I don't know. Anyway. I'm talking a little bit about dogs actually,

because the shelters are full and need your help. If you've got room in your life for a dog or cat or as I said, I think before the break, maybe it was the last break or the break before that. Bureau of Land Management is actually looking for folks to adopt some of these horses. So if you've got pasture land, maybe you're looking for a horse. Maybe you think I got a little room, I've got pasture, I could take a mustang. The reason for this is that we've got

feral horses roaming different parts of the state. These animals, both the burrows and the horses, will overpopulate those lands in pretty quick order. I believe a horse American have a probably have a baby a year. You get these these these animals reproduced pretty quickly, and they end up overgrazing, end up others, busies end up suffering because antelope, obviously, deer,

elk and others rely on vegetation as well. And so they have to go in and call these herds and they're gonta do something with the horses because they're not allowed to slaughter them, so they put them in holding pins. They get acclimated to people. Very often they'll be in holding pens on prison land, and people who are in prison will work with these animals. Sometimes they can get trained. Mustang makes for a very hearty horse because they've you know,

they've lived on the range. And you've got space in your life for a horse or a burrow. You've got the land. The Bureau of Land Management is looking to rehome about eleven thousand horses and burrows in the next five years. And so, yeah, so there's there's room. If you've got room in your heart and your and your household for a large animal, consider that. But if you got a little room for something smaller, the horse or a horse, dog or a cat, or a small small

animal like a guinea pig is. It's a great addition. And I'm a big, a big proponent of adopt, don't shop. I'm not against shopping. I'm not against ethical breeding. Keeps these, you know, particularly keeps breeds around, because there are people who are breeding specific breeds. But ethical breeders, I think, do a good thing. But if you've got you know, if you're not picky, adopt. And I like shepherd mixes, so that's what I'm going to be going for. Talked

a little bit about pit bulls. This is a cute story. This person had a pit bull follow them and their pit bull home from the park because the animal was alone, scared, possibly abandoned, walked all the way to the house and ended up spending the night. So this person took this stray dog in because the shelter was closed. He stayed the night. He's a really good dog, really sweet dog, and then the owners were able to find him through social media. It's a lovely story. And you know, animals

do get lost. My mom lives in South Carolina and in the country, and I don't know if it's a Southern thing a country thing. I don't I mean, I love the South, but very often people will just dump animals like, oh, yeah, my cat or dog can just live off the land. Really yeah, in the middle of the country. Yeah, I mean a cat can survive in a city, probably because there's enough rodents. Dogs don't really do well. Uh. And and cats that don't hunt, like the kitten that I took home. Uh, that cat would

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

they're great dogs too. But just you know, if you want a powerful breed, have the lifestyle and the ability to train that animal to give them the life that they need. If you're kind of sedentary, just be honest, be like, hey, I'm a sit and watch sports guy. Get a dog companion that can fit that lifestyle. Don't don't go ahead and get a pointer. All right? Public service message over is over. I promise if I do have to read this, this person says, because it's just beautiful.

My friend gave me his whole life. I gave him all of my life that overlapped with his. I owe him that seventeen years wasn't nearly long enough. And that's that's how I felt about my dog's I honestly think one of God's greatest gifts is a dog. I don't know that we would have conquered the world if it hadn't been for them and dogs. Unlike other domesticated creatures, most domesticated creatures have been with us less than less than about six seven thousand years. I think pigs and

sheep were the first. Then you get cattle, later you get chickens. Cats eventually sort of domesticated themselves and they were just like hanging out and then they were like, yeah, i'll snuggle. But dogs may have been domesticated upwards of thirty thousand years ago. They and like modern man is about fifty thousand years and you've got you know, human beings go back much farther than that. Then you've got

archaic human like beings as well. But in terms of like you know, people like us that had language, and you know, granted they were like hunter gatherers fifty thousand years and about maybe thirty thousand years with dogs that helped us to hunt, that protected us that now you know guide dogs. They're just an amazing animal. So that's my little, my little tribute to dogs. I think they're I think they're just a great gift and to the

person who lost your dog after seventeen years. When I think about my dog, what I imagine is that she's up in heaven with my dad. I really miss my dad. I had a really fantastic dad, and she's up there with him and they're doing stuff, and at some point I'll join them and it will be a great, a great, a great meeting. You think about how dogs are like stoked to see you after like you've been you went, you went to the seven eleven, you were gone five minutes.

In their mind you were gone, you know, five hours, five days, whatever. They're super stoked to see you, Like he came back. It's been I wrought five minutes. Imagine imagine that, you know that set that greeting after all this time, They're going to be so stoked to see you. And I'm going to be so stoked to see her. So I'm talking having to pivot back to New Year's resolutions. If you got one, I'll read it out loud, mean

it can be read a lot on air. And also, you know anything that you thought was like a big deal that happened this year that you want me to mention on air. I definitely hit a couple of those earlier in the show. I tak it an interesting text saim, do you think we will have a peaceful transfer of power? And it's to kind of pivot back to a little public policy. Yes, I do. I do. Biden is he's done. Not only do I trust that he will leave power. I don't see how he could try not to. He's

definitely ready for retirement. And here's the interesting thing. If he had had the humility back in spring to say I'm not going to run again, if he had had that humility to say, I really, I'm on the back end of you know, I need to retire. I'm slowing down, I'm tired, I'm not all there, which is going to happen to all of us before you make fun of somebody for getting that old. If you have the uh, the blessing of a long life, you too will be

that old. And you know, when I'm eighty, I'm going to be like that too, probably, although I know some super sharp eighty year old people that I that I think would be fine. You know, there's a good chance that I'm going to be like you know, I'm going to nap and you know, watch TV or whatever and garden and I think that's that's basically what he's heading forward.

And he's got grandkids. But if he had had the humility back in spring to say I did my four years and proud of what I did, moving on, he would have put his replacement or the person who's going to run next in a better position to win that race. And people wouldn't have known just how kind of elderly he had become. I mean, it basically had been kept

kind of secret by AIDS and Pip Boss. You know, a little collusion on the part of the press had not really made the situation as you know, situation if his sort of mental decline as obvious as it had become. But he probably could have retired with grace if he had had the humility to say, I'm not running again, but now he's not gonna be running again, I do think we will have a peaceful transfer of power. I think we're gonna have an interesting next four years when

I sub again. Of course we can comment on those things. I have really no comment worth sharing right now. On Eric's episode, I think that RFK has got to go. The guy is a quack. And I'm really happy that Matt Gates is bowed out, not only bowed out of being Attorney General, which was an absurd nomination, but also he's not in Congress anymore. And you know, the report was made, the report was put out there, you know, prostitutes and drugs and sex with an underage girl. Creepy stuff.

And I mean he looks like Eddie Munster grown up. I guess you got you know, you got a mug like that. Maybe you have to pay for it. I don't know, maybe I don't know. And then so and this kind of ties back if if you're going to get some some plastic surgery, not gonna judge it. You know, probably by the time I'm sixty, maybe I'll go into the knife. Who knows, but go lat push it go like if you go early. It's not a good look. Think Meg Ryan just a little too much surgery a

little too early. Same goes for Matt Gates. I mean, and and botox isn't permanent. I get botox, it wears off. I think some other stuff has been done there that wasn't good. I don't know if it was a brow lift something, because he went from being like Eddie Munster, grown up, but you're not a not a good mug to something that doesn't look quite right. Yeah, it doesn't look quite right. So I guess maybe he felt he

had to pay for it. I don't know, but you know, between prostitutes, drug use, and sex with underage, that guy had no business being in Congress. And I am happy for the lovely state of Florida that he is. Out a couple other people I'd probably put on that list of people that maybe should be better off, you know, back in the private sector, but that we would get

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

up becoming lobbyists. So maybe he'll be like a lobbyist, but a lobbyist for what, you know, I drug legalization, prostitute legalization. I don't know who knows, who knows, So that that's my only comment about the peaceful transfer of power. My hope is that we have separation of powers for a reason. If you look back at the you know, federalist papers and other documents, people who put our constitution

together wanted there to be tension. Wanted there to be a tension between the executive, the judiciary, and the legislature, and that tension is supposed to keep power from a massing in one place. So it really is really important that the Senate take all of those nominees, vet them seriously, keep the good ones. I'm the governor from North Dakota.

He seems like a decent pick. A couple of the other governors that have been picked for stuff, they have experience governing, you know, they probably will do a decent job. Some of the other people don't have the experience or they're crazy and have no business being anywhere near power. I want to see that the Senate do its due diligence. I'm not a big fan of people who just cow

tow to power. I think they need to take their own power seriously, give those a good vetting, pick the ones that that are the best, shoot down the rest, and then other ones will be nominated in their place. So I do ex I do expect. I'm just getting back to this person's question. Yes, there will be a peaceful transfer of power. I think the first couple of months will be interesting in terms of the nominees, what

goes on in the Senate. And I think it's going to be a really interesting year as I, Uh, somebody has said to somebody, you know, I guess elections anymore are kind of the you know, f around and find out, and I think that's pretty much, uh what's going to happen. It's going to be interesting. So uh, let's see a couple of interesting places or interesting places, interesting texts that have come in and uh, let's get to a couple of them before uh. I again, about eight more minutes.

So if you want to text me, I'm five six six and I know. This person says Gates looks like a butt head. Yes, as in Beavis and butt Head. It looks like butt heead, not a butt heead. Sorry, he looks like butt hit. But Beavis and butt Heead. I was more of a ren and stimpy girl back in the day. But I did watch Beavis and butthead, and he does look exactly like butt heead, does he not? Zach?

to be. You don't know if you're going to be like that super sharp guy or gal that dies from you know, heart issues or cancer, because that's statistically what happens. And you may go into that, you know, go into that good night with with your faculties. Or you might be that person who's got a healthy body and the brain's gone. It could happen. Could you know, nobody knows. You live long enough, one of those things will probably happen. Nobody nobody gets out of here alive. I hate to

say it, nobody does. Let's see this person, because he's actually running the country. Yeah, I think his advisor's probably his wife took over that. And you know, this has happened before. Woodrow Wilson, he was a president around the time of World War One. In fact, one of the reasons that we got into World War One and kind of one of the reasons that we ended up with World War two because it is handling of that. Not

a good president, big time racist, segregated, resegregated the federal government. Yeah, he had some serious health issues, was really on his way out and by his way, by way out, I mean way out of the office, I mean way out of this life, and his wife and his advisors pretty much made it seem like he was still president for the months that he was on his on his on desk's door. So this has happened before. I don't want it to happen to anybody. It's just the way life is.

You either lose your mind, lose your body, or lose them both. But in the end we all we all go that route if we live long enough. I mean, you could die earlier than that too. Let's see this person says, have you been to Dog Mountain in Vermont? Absolutely sweet place? That is a church for dogs that passed. Oh I like that. I like that. I still had my dog's ashes. I'm not sure I want to bury him. I don't know. Oh, this is gonna sound sick. They're in my nightstand, you know I would. I don't know

what to do with them. Maybe take her to someplace like that. I don't know. I don't know. Anyway, we're heading towards the end of the show, just say, hey, thanks a lot. It has been an absolute pleasure to be the guest host. If you're like, you know, I could use a little more of that K for action, I am. I'm on Colorado Inside Out tonight at eight o'clock on PBS Channel twelve. You can also find you can find it on I think, YouTube, Spotify. There are other ways to listen into that show. It's a lot

of fun. If you like a talk show where you people give their honest opinion but they don't actually talk over one another and they like each other even when they disagree, that would be Colorado Win. Sign up and Kyle Dyer super nice. You probably recognize the name from Channel nine. She's to be on Channel nine now she's our host and super super nice. It's a great show and just you get you get a good sort of taste of public policy in a half hour without without

the yelling. Now, if you like the yelling, it may not be the show for you. If you like people yell at each other, yell over each other and genuinely dislike each other, this would not be the show for you. But you can catch that at eight o'clock. Also, I've got a substack. I do some writing there. Who knows I might be doing a podcast next year. I don't know. I don't know what. I don't know what's in store,

I honestly don't. But I also have my Denver Post column, and I'm on Twitter every now and again I say something clever. Who knows I did? I did have a tweet go viral. Two of them go viral this year. Yeah, I know, big deal. Yeah it's not a big deal, but I did do I did a this year. Was this thing or that Barbie Barbie came out that came out this year? Was that last year?

Thanks for being the fabulous producer today.