Fourth of July Fire Sale! Yes, indeed, all the fire you want, and more! Free! The Colorado wildfires have been particularly nasty:

Red Zone: Colorado’s Growing Wildfire Danger | I-News Network.

One of the many untoward consequences involved conservative commentator Michelle Malkin having to listen to government orders to evacuate her Colorado home in one of the danger areas. She seemed, though, to have recovered from the trauma of socialist (or is it fascist?) intervention in time to take the opportunity to reiterate the message that this had nothing to do with that mythical global warming, the climate is just fine thank you, and please pay no attention to the dead, dry trees and the melting asphalt in your street. I’ve been waiting to see Grover Norquist and all the politicians who signed on to drown the government in the bathtub lined up in the streets blockading the firefighters so that they don’t spend any more government money helping homeless people (or really-soon-to-be homeless people). After all, aren’t people free to live wherever they can afford to build (whatever the downstream costs born by the rest of us)? And build they are. According to an analysis of housing records by I-News in the link above, in the past 20 years, a quarter-million people moved into one of Colorado’s red zones, areas at highest risk for the most dangerous wildfires. That means there are now over 1/2 million homes with over 1 million people in the red zones. Just to compound the problem, Colorado is having more wildfires. In the 1960s, Colorado averaged about 460 fires/yr, burning about 8000 acres. In the last 10 years, they’ve averaged about 2500 fires/yr, burning about 100,000 acres. In some areas, the fire season is 2 months longer than it used to be. Why? Warmer. Dryer. Climate change. (ooh, I said a bad word).