Is the ‘penumbra of privacy’ going, going, gone in Colorado? | Hal Bidlack
Is the ‘penumbra of privacy’ going, going, gone in Colorado? | Hal Bidlack
Publish Date: 2026-05-26 03:11:00
Source Domain: www.coloradopolitics.com
Once again, there are too many things in Colorado Politics that are newsworthy and should be written about. Unless my kindly editor will allow me to write a book-length column this week? (Ed: not so much…)
First up, I’d like to comment on the recent West Point graduation speech given by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (sorry, only Congress can change the title, he’s not the “Secretary of War” no matter how many times he pins new gold letters on doors). In that rather horrifying speech, Hegseth railed on about the changes he has made to the U.S. military, changes to make it “more lethal” and such. He decried efforts to make West Point a “woke Princeton” and attacked “foolish and feckless leaders” who had the audacity of being inclusive.
Back when I was a professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy, teaching about American government, I always argued the opposite side of whatever point a cadet might make, compelling that student to think through and defend his or her issue position. Such teaching, Hegseth declared, means I was teaching an “un-American ideology,” and such professors were all being fired. I guess I’m glad to be retired.
He further seemed to be telling the graduates they don’t really need to worry much about ethics in battle, assuring them, “Lawyers don’t run battalions, commanders do.” He guaranteed that, in battle, their hands are now “untied,” which certainly would seem to suggest that the rules of war don’t apply if they are inconvenient. He boasted about firing most of the Army’s lawyers in his “ruthless, no-excuses” overhaul of the military’s legal structure. He claimed the lawyers that insisted on following national and international law had been “roadblocks to orders” from the president. You know, those illegal orders the lawyers said shouldn’t be followed? Well, from now on, I guess, not so much.
The Fox news opinion guy now in…
