Spy technology or just pie in the sky?
Re: “AFA researcher: Space lens may refocus spy technology,” Oct. 23 news brief.
While researcher Geoff Andersen’s “photon sieve” ideas may look promising in the lab, it’s worthwhile to point out five remaining hurdles to its imaging newsprint from orbit. To focus newsprint, his telescope would have to be 250 meters tall, wide and deep – bigger than the international space station. It would have to be pointed with an accuracy of 60 one-billionths of 1 degree. The slightest vibration would render it useless. Its natural tendency to focus diverse wavelengths to widely diverse locations would have to be beaten into submission. Finally, the ever-present churning of the Earth’s atmosphere would have to take a holiday. It might be easier to just subscribe to that newspaper.
R.J. Smith, Boulder
Out-of-town critics of Denver Art Museum
Re: “Museum hopes shellacking won’t stick,” Oct. 18 news story.
It is with a sense of sadness that I read The Post’s article. I, for one, am deeply appreciative of the Denver voters who passed the original bond issue, the dozens of funders and art collectors who have donated their money and precious artwork so we could have a first-class museum in this region. I find the Libeskind building exciting, mysterious and evocative, and the collection inside equally so.
I hope that the biased and jaded comments of some critics will be discounted and the potential visitors will not be discouraged from coming to judge for themselves the success and quality of this newest addition to Denver’s cultural scene. Kudos to everyone who has had a hand in bringing this fabulous opportunity to us.
Jacquie Kitzelman, Littleton
…
The addition to the Denver Art Museum cost about $100 million. Then, in front of the addition was built an ugly parking garage and then some condominiums, effectively obstructing a good view of the addition from the main focal point, which is the view looking west. The parking garage should have been built underground and the condos, if they had to be built at all, should have been placed somewhere else in an adjacent block.
Maybe now we should have our planners build a parking garage in front of the Capitol and city hall – and the Louvre in Paris and the Prado in Madrid. Whether or not people like the art museum addition is beside the point, but the planning was terrible.
Robert Rose, Denver
Beauprez, Ritter and the NCIC database
Let me get this straight: The Beauprez campaign gets some so- called “dirt” on Bill Ritter, and puts it in an ad. When the media tries to verify the information, there is evidence that it is from confidential sources. Further investigation reveals that it was probably provided by a federal agent who may have improperly accessed the information and then provided it to unauthorized people.
It’s possible that the Beauprez camp did not know that the information was improperly obtained, but I am disturbed by Bob Beauprez’s unwillingness to condemn the methods used to get the information and, worse, by his making the agent out as a hero.
Not only was the information most likely improperly obtained, but by using such sources, the Beauprez campaign made it impossible for the media and voting public to verify its truth.
If it is determined that he provided the confidential information, the agent is not a hero, but a criminal.
Bob Falcone, Colorado Springs
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In recent days, the parties involved in the campaign for ex-Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter have become hysterical about the release of arrest information concerning criminals who should still be in jail. It seems to me that the media, both print and talk radio, have chimed in to shoot the messenger on this issue.
Ritter has done all the tap dancing he can to deflect what is really the issue here. Why were these men allowed to plead from felony charges to a charge that a district attorney would have had to scour a book of statutes to find? I was a police officer in metro Denver for 27 years and never heard of a charge of “agricultural trespass.”
Ritter has not said too much about his office shirking its duty in prosecuting these offenders under existing Colorado state law and has only whined about what the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency could and could not do.
What is the penalty for releasing 152 dangerous felons into the population? I think we are finding that out already.
Jim Weber, Denver
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The person who is alleged to have illegally accessed a federal criminal database to benefit the campaign of Bob Beauprez is a “whistleblower” who performed a “great act of courage.” Sure. And freedom is slavery. War is peace. Ignorance is strength.
So Beauprez, who asks us to hold him accountable if elected governor of Colorado, thinks it’s OK to break the law as long as it benefits his political interests. Spinning a politically motivated crime as “courageous” is breathtaking both in its arrogance and in its disregard for democracy.
I think voters need to hold Beauprez accountable on Nov. 7, before he ever gets a chance to become governor.
Eric Johnson, Boulder
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Re: “Beauprez co-sponsored bill on national crime database,” Oct. 23 news story.
Monday’s newspapers tipped me to Bob Beauprez as a legislator. He had co-sponsored legislation without really knowing what it meant. The National Crime Information Center database is news to him. If he is not merely practicing prevarication, he is a throwback to the politicians that ultra-conservatives wanted in Congress some years back.
This is the kind of “public servant” who goes to D.C., then sits on his hands for his term of office. Get in the way, drag your feet and do nothing too significant.
Apparently, in this congressman’s first two years, he had to sign a few things. Too bad he can’t remember what they were.
Ray Ehrenstein, Denver
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As attorneys, we question Bob Beauprez’s statement last week that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who obtained a National Crime Information Center report to support of Beauprez’s campaign was a “whistleblower.”
One would think that Congressman Beauprez, a former banker, would have a working knowledge of whistleblower protection. The term “whistleblower” is defined as “an employee who reports employer wrongdoing to a governmental or law enforcement agency” (Black’s Law Dictionary). The crime of bank fraud is often investigated as a result of information provided to law enforcement by whistleblowers.
A person who commits a crime and then reports his crime to a political campaign is not a whistleblower in any sense of the word. But under the law of misprision, anyone who has knowledge of the commission of a felony and conceals the crime and does not report it is guilty of a federal felony. If Congressman Beauprez, or a member of his staff, knew that the ICE agent wrongfully obtained the NCIC report and failed to report that wrongdoing, Beauprez or his staff member could be charged with misprision.
Paula M. Ray, Denver
Ralph G. Torres, Denver
Effects of mental illness
Re: “Growing up with mental illness,” Oct. 22 news story.
Thank you for printing this article. The Abaspour family’s experience read like a checklist of my own family’s experience with my children’s brain disorders or mental illnesses. It impacts and strains every aspect of life. What the article left out was what is at stake for both parents and children. Mental illness in children has an extremely high fatality by suicide rate. Trying to meet the medical needs of a child with mental illness is nothing short of a life-or-death proposition.
Anne Byrne, Littleton
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