tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78331979112396141952008-05-09T14:31:37.149-06:00Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17740793237376032860noreply@blogger.comBlogger126125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833197911239614195.post-4716268156850149292008-05-09T13:45:00.004-06:002008-05-09T14:31:37.293-06:00

Yesterday Colorado suffered a sad loss. I had seen the photos on the newspapers' web pages, but I didn't put it together until, by coincidence, I called Sheriff Bill Masters today, and he told me that the victim of yesterday's plane crash near Boulder was Barry Maggert, long an activist with the Libertarian Party, with which I was once involved. Masters heard the news from Richard Lamping, with

Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17740793237376032860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833197911239614195.post-70735524954550198672008-05-09T10:22:00.002-06:002008-05-09T10:40:29.699-06:00

Oh, boy: Never-before-seen video of "space aliens" - footage that will be revealed to the public in a few weeks - convinced Jeff Peckman that extraterrestrials exist. ... If Peckman has his way, Denver voters will have a chance to say whether they, too, believe that there is intelligent life outside Earth and whether the city should prepare for close encounters of the alien kind. Peckman is

Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17740793237376032860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833197911239614195.post-63483980495988888002008-05-07T10:22:00.005-06:002008-05-07T10:45:40.766-06:00

Lest we need a reminder that angels do not administer the laws, the Gazette reports (via the Rocky Mountain News): "Fourth Judicial District Attorney John Newsome has been caught on tape drinking and then driving his county-owned vehicle, KOAA reported Tuesday. ...In all, Newsome was shown drinking about 134 ounces of beer in five hours." True, the drinking didn't start till after 4:00 p.m., and

Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17740793237376032860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833197911239614195.post-77545400853690266952008-05-06T12:35:00.004-06:002008-05-06T12:48:43.775-06:00

As Brian Schwartz has reported, State Senator Bob Hagedorn said that "to load up mandates" into his bill 217 would be its "kiss of death." Unfortunately, while the bill deserves death, bad legislation has a way of rising from the dead to stalk citizens. Schwartz points to a May 2 article from the Denver Business Journal by Bob Mook that reports the following: [Representative Anne] McGihon

Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17740793237376032860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833197911239614195.post-14914474186650716862008-05-05T10:48:00.003-06:002008-05-05T11:22:55.670-06:00

Families USA is a "non-partisan" outfit that is a partisan fighting for government-controlled health care. It advocates policies that would harm families and that run contrary to the USA's heritage of liberty. The organization is built on deception and it uses bogus claims to advance its agenda. Back in February, Linda Gorman and I pointed out that a Families USA "study" regarding the magnitude

Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17740793237376032860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833197911239614195.post-60325152435156783122008-05-04T10:50:00.003-06:002008-05-04T11:28:00.553-06:00

Michael Booth and Kevin Simpson have written a surprisingly balanced article about gun ownership for The Denver Post, not a paper to which readers usually look for balance regarding such issues. Unfortunately, the authors do get some points wrong. My criticisms should not be interpreted as a blanket condemnation of the article, but as a corrective to an article that's largely good. The authors

Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17740793237376032860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833197911239614195.post-7975385296371852902008-05-03T14:00:00.000-06:002008-05-03T14:01:02.719-06:00

Mike Krause, a Senior Fellow with the Independence Institute, has started the blog "Regime Watch" to track "Beijing's world-wide thuggery." So far, I've learned of China's role in the Sudan and in Zimbabwe. Mostly I track state policy, and even there I must be selective in what I follow. I devote less attention to foreign affairs, and China gets only a fraction of that time (what with all the

Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17740793237376032860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833197911239614195.post-31107723685056412342008-05-01T06:06:00.002-06:002008-05-01T06:10:41.336-06:00

The following article originally was published by the Independence Institute on April 30, 2008. For Better Health, Repeal Political Controls By Ari Armstrong My wife and I pay $132 per month total for high-deductible health insurance, hundreds of dollars less than we would pay for comprehensive insurance. Our goal is to never need to make an insurance claim. We pay for all of our routine

Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17740793237376032860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833197911239614195.post-51484418221759421012008-04-30T11:12:00.006-06:002008-04-30T15:27:45.241-06:00

The Denver Post's online polls often are silly, but one from April 28 is especially ridiculous: Did you observe Earth Day? Absolutely - Every day is Earth Day Yes - Took part, vowed to live greener Sort of - Accidentally got involved this year No - Meant to, but didn't Never - Don't believe in climate change Of the five responses, the first four imply support for the motives and political goals

Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17740793237376032860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833197911239614195.post-29434517253353377242008-04-29T11:11:00.003-06:002008-04-29T12:00:45.106-06:00

We allow local politicians to arbitrarily redefine property use, and then we wonder why this causes problems. Daniel J. Chacon writes for the Rocky Mountain News: After a nearly 10-hour meeting that ended just after 3 a.m. today, the City Council approved a rezoning that will prevent the construction of duplexes and other multifamily dwellings in two northwest Denver neighborhoods. The council

Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17740793237376032860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833197911239614195.post-86154308115230383742008-04-28T08:26:00.002-06:002008-04-28T08:32:37.574-06:00

The following article originally appeared in Grand Junction's Free Press. April 28, 2008 Fruita rec center another zero-sum game by Linn and Ari Armstrong In our last article, we discussed Barack Obama's confusion about zero-sum games, situations in which one person's gain comes at another's loss. Michelle Obama perfectly summarizes the zero-sum mentality (as reported by Neal Boortz[via

Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17740793237376032860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833197911239614195.post-79043784790493417742008-04-25T01:00:00.003-06:002008-04-25T01:18:59.012-06:00

Ronald Bailey recently made some interesting comparisons between environmentalism and evangelical Christianity: Environmentalism arose as a movement just a few years before the Moral Majority, with an end-of-the-world undercurrent that harked back to the millenarian sects of the Second Great Awakening. Green millenarians do not expect a wrathful God to end the corrupt world in a rain of fire;

Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17740793237376032860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833197911239614195.post-13933053934876453482008-04-24T10:20:00.002-06:002008-04-24T10:43:07.650-06:00

Hooray! Brian Schwartz has started a blog called Patient Power, "brought to you by the Independence Institute." Within a minute of viewing Schwartz's blog, I learned something new about State Senator Bob Hagedorn's Bill 217, which raises the possibility of new controls and a mandate to force people to buy politician-approved insurance. Schwartz writes: The Bill Summary for Colorado Senate Bill

Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17740793237376032860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833197911239614195.post-84227129668163832842008-04-23T13:11:00.004-06:002008-04-23T13:33:06.289-06:00

Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute wrote an article for today's Rocky Mountain News that criticizes a recent study by Families USA. That study, Tanner summarizes, claims " that 360 Colorado residents die each year because they lack health insurance." Tanner notes that, "all things being equal, it is better to be insured than uninsured," but Families USA misstates the actual problem. Tanner

Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17740793237376032860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833197911239614195.post-27741976257407161772008-04-22T00:02:00.002-06:002008-04-22T00:14:53.177-06:00

As a long-time advocate of open immigration, I'm as annoyed as anyone by Douglas Bruce's comments about the "5,000 more illiterate peasants in the state of Colorado" should Marsha Looper's guest-worker bill pass. While I have not read the details of the bill in question, I support the general idea. I first met Looper before she joined the legislature when she was working for property rights, and

Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17740793237376032860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833197911239614195.post-16758307292441086822008-04-21T12:34:00.002-06:002008-04-21T12:48:29.245-06:00

As the environmentalist frenzy heightens, even Al Gore finds himself targeted for his un-green ways. A story from Fox reports: Look out, Al Gore... People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says you are refusing to face one very "inconvenient truth." On Monday, the animal rights organization launched the campaign offsetalgore.com (conveniently timed for Earth Day) in an attempt to counter the

Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17740793237376032860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833197911239614195.post-32257720073584970142008-04-20T10:41:00.003-06:002008-04-20T11:17:25.280-06:00

Environmentalism continues to harm and kill people, especially the world's poor. The corn-gas laws have become a significant contributor to higher food prices and a widespread food shortage. Steven Milloy writes: "When millions of people are going hungry, it’s a crime against humanity that food should be diverted to biofuels," an Indian government official told the Wall Street Journal. Turkey’s

Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17740793237376032860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833197911239614195.post-19424619448559701362008-04-19T14:48:00.002-06:002008-04-19T14:54:23.624-06:00

Recently I mentioned an "empty holster" protest planned for the University of Colorado, Boulder. Diana Hsieh argues in The Gazette that faculty should be allowed to harry concealed handguns: I'm a graduate student instructor at CU Boulder. Since 2001 I've been licensed to carry a concealed firearm in Colorado. Every time I hear of a new school shooting, I worry that some psychopath might

Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17740793237376032860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833197911239614195.post-8279626484358987042008-04-18T09:53:00.002-06:002008-04-18T10:17:27.841-06:00

As some prepare to celebrate Earth Day on April 22, I look forward to celebrating People Day. Yes, the earth is valuable -- for people. I love the earth -- because I get to live here. Two great writers recently have taken on environmentalist hysteria. The first is Vincent Carroll, a major reason why the Rocky Mountain News is the best newspaper in the region. Carroll writes: In the global

Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17740793237376032860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833197911239614195.post-214550409365829872008-04-17T11:37:00.001-06:002008-04-17T11:37:59.256-06:00

Tax season is now behind us. But it's not. Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute points out in an article for Forbes that, with 66,000 pages of tax code controlling our lives, tax day is every day. After offering numerous examples of the way that the tax code skews incentives, Brook summarizes: Tax policy works by attaching financial incentives to a long list of values deemed morally worthy. If

Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17740793237376032860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833197911239614195.post-41239172484647851332008-04-16T00:30:00.003-06:002008-04-16T00:39:50.958-06:00

The following article originally was published by Grand Junction's Free Press on April 14, 2008. Presidential candidates play zero-sum games by Linn and Ari Armstrong When you walk into any store and trade your money for a product, often both you and the clerk will say, "Thank you." The reason for this is that, in a voluntary exchange, both parties benefit. The same is true at your job.

Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17740793237376032860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833197911239614195.post-63405005091293711712008-04-15T15:28:00.003-06:002008-04-15T15:46:47.973-06:00

Earlier in the month, I wrote about claims that petition circulators for an initiative to end racial discrimination (including affirmative action) at the state level used deceit to collect signatures. I quoted from the complaint sent by Chloe Johnson to the Secretary of State: "... I was approached by a petition circulator who asked me to sign a petition that would end discrimination in

Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17740793237376032860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833197911239614195.post-91463739562831775952008-04-14T14:01:00.003-06:002008-04-18T10:37:26.823-06:00

Starting July 1, Coloradans will be able to purchase liquor in stores on Sundays. The Rocky Mountain News reports: With the stroke of a pen, Gov. Bill Ritter today signed into law a bill that makes Colorado the 35th state to permit liquor stores to open Sunday. “This is a law whose time has finally come,” Ritter said in a statement. “The ban on Sunday sales was an antiquated law that long ago

Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17740793237376032860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833197911239614195.post-30767262611164769242008-04-14T11:06:00.002-06:002008-04-14T11:25:38.462-06:00

The Denver Post reports: John Davis, a 30-year-old University of Colorado at Colorado Springs senior and a member of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, said students at CU-Colorado Springs and CU-Boulder will join a national demonstration April 22-25 in which students will wear empty gun holsters. Davis said the display symbolizes that students are "basically defenseless" at school. The

Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17740793237376032860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7833197911239614195.post-25624683153600042702008-04-13T11:04:00.002-06:002008-04-13T11:39:39.820-06:00

I've been writing about Senate Bill 217, which seeks to impose Massachusetts-style health controls in Colorado, so I thought it was a good time to pull a few quotes from the bill itself. Colorado's legislative bills can be downloaded at the state legislature's web page. Click on "All Versions," and download the confusingly labeled "Preamended" version. This version of the bill states, "This

Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17740793237376032860noreply@blogger.com