As is so often the case, there are several interesting news items I’d like to bring to your attention and then comment upon. Unfortunately, my editor refuses to extend my columns to book length for some reason, so bear with me as we move through some quite interesting and odd news of the day.

In previous columns, I’ve written about the ongoing and absolutely bizarre battle within the Colorado GOP about the state party chair, Dave Williams. Last week a group of just under 200 Republican party central committee members got together at a church (separation of church and state? Not so much for the GOP) to vote on whether or not to formally remove Williams as the GOP state party chair. The vote was overwhelming, with about 88% voting to remove Williams and his lackeys, I mean lieutenants, from their state roles. That is far above the 60% needed to kick someone out of their party office.

Well, Williams appears to be in fine MAGA form, and he has simply denied that the group that met was a legitimate group and insists that group had no authority to remove him from his role. Judges have been involved, and the situation is a mess. Williams called the meeting “fraudulent” and claimed a “fringe” element of the Republicans was behind everything. If you are looking for even more evidence of the cult-like nature of today’s GOP, you need look no farther than the recent behaviors of the Colorado Republicans and their leader, or rather their former leader, who might just still be the leader? It gets confusing. Somewhere Ken Buck is just shaking his head and likely very much enjoying being gone from that GOP nonsense and self-implosion. Our next vice president was correct, the GOPers these days are, well, weird.

I also want to talk about one of my favorite Colorado Politics sections, the Out West Roundup. We should keep up to date on what’s going on in our region, and this week’s edition notes in Arizona voters will, after all, get to decide on whether to add a right to an abortion to the state constitution. Now, I have long agreed with the phrase, often attributed first to Bill Clinton, abortion should be safe, legal and rare. Enshrining a woman’s right to choose in state constitutions is the best way to secure that right until national action can be taken to overturn the radical activist Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe. I’m glad Arizona voters will get a chance to firm things up for women in the Grand Canyon State.

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Seemingly heading back in time, CoPo reports Utah has banned 13 books in the first wave of what is expected to be several book bannings. Under a new Beehive state law, if only three of the state’s 41 school boards assert a book contains pornographic or indecent material, the whole state must ban the book. Oh, and school libraries can’t sell or give those banned books away, because the law says they can’t. Perhaps regular Friday night book burnings in the town square is the way forward for Utah?

I cannot believe in the 21st century we are still talking about banning books. The cure for any “bad” idea is not to ban any discussion thereof, but rather more speech and more discussion. School should challenge the way kids think about things and help them become critical thinkers. Oh, and let’s not forget if, say, three Utah school boards happened to be taken over by “liberals,” such a group might ban, I dunno, “The Book of Mormon” and the Bible? Have you read the Song of Solomon? Authoritarian governments throughout history have held book burnings and banned the reading of materials they think might turn the people against them. And allowing roughly 7% of school boards to make book baring decisions for an entire state is, well, weird.

And finally, I’m betting most of you missed the Gazette story, whose title caught my eye: “Air Force Academy restricted all cadets to base as classes started, leading to meat shortages.”

Having taught at USAFA for 15 years, let me give you some context” When classes kick off in the first week of August, the various cadet year groups, or classes, have different levels of privileges. The brand-new freshmen, called Four Degrees, are the most restricted, with lots of marching and saluting until roughly mid-March, when they will be “recognized” as full wing members, and the rough treatment stops. The seniors, also known as Firsties for being first degree-ers, have the most privileges, usually including having cars and being able to leave base more often.

The academy has three general officers, a 3-star Superintendent, the big boss, then a 1-star Dean, to oversee academics, and a 1-star Commandant, to oversee the military training side of things. During my many USAFA years, I often saw new comms, as they are called, trying to make their mark at the beginning of their own academy tour. This is often demonstrated by changing previous policies and ordering new behaviors, such as marching to breakfast, or not marching to breakfast if the previous comm had the wing doing that. This year’s new Comm apparently wants to lay down the law and get serious, as he has ordered the cadets to be restricted to the academy grounds until things shaped up, in terms of appearances and cleanliness.

Often, the upper couple of classes would leave the academy regularly for meals off base. With this new rule, that option was eliminated, and some anonymous cadets reported a resulting meat shortage in the dining hall. Yup, “where’s the beef” was a legitimate question. Weird, right?

Happily, as reported, the cadets apparently shaped up enough to impress the new Comm, who lifted the restrictions, and that’s good news. While the four degrees are still getting yelled at, and will be for months, at least there is meat at mealtime.

As always, stay tuned.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.