Southern Colorado has had very few smoke-free days since the outbreak of the Arizona and Purgatoire fires in May. The more recent Las Conchas at Los Alamos is blazing a hundred miles away from La Veta so once again all things with lungs are suffering.

Concerned that this might be part of a worrisome trend -- we've had no moisture for months down here -- I rushed to Google our local state representative, Scott Tipton. To my great relief Tipton and his patrons, Wichita's "Americans for Prosperity", were able to reassure me that our drought has no scientific basis and has nothing whatever to do with climate change. He then promised that he would rain on us from Washington.