Archive for the ‘public policy’ Category

Health bill: Markey & DeGette on fence, tell them to vote “No.”

Friday, March 5th, 2010

Do you live in either Betsy Markey's district (4th, map) or Diana DeGette's district (1st, map)? If so, contact them (see end of post) and tell them to vote "no" on the Senate health "reform" bill or any scaled down version of it.  This reform is terrible from both moral ...

Contact your Congressmen: no on health “reform” & reconciliation

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

Tim Phillips at Americans for Prosperity summarizes the situation and has links to quick ways to contact your Senator and Representatives.  An excerpt: President Obama finally made it official yesterday:  he wants Congress to ignore Senate rules - and the American people - and use a parliamentary trick called ...

No (Tenured) Teacher Left Behind

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

From the Wall Street Journal: School reformers generally agree that the most important education resource is the teacher. But one of the biggest obstacles to putting a good instructor in every classroom is a tenure system that forces principals to hire and retain teachers based on seniority instead ...

RTD’s “FasTracks” on the wrong track

Monday, February 15th, 2010

The Daily Camera (Boulder) asked its Editorial Advisory Board members their views of different sales tax schemes for funding RTD's "FasTracks." My reply was published on Saturday, February 13: Adaptable commuter transit routes, reducing traffic congestion with demand-sensitive road pricing, and minimizing both free-riders and forced funding. These goals should guide ...

“You’re too stupid for free speech”

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

Linn  and Ari Armstrong make some great points about the recent Supreme Court decision, Citizens United v. FEC in a recent article in the Grand Junction Free Press: Regarding this case, the left is perfectly consistent with its Marxist roots. Marx wrote, “The mode of production of material life conditions the ...

Why we’re “crazy” about health care choice

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

Originally published in the Aurora Daily Sentinel, January 29th, 2010.  This version has links to references. Why we’re “crazy” about health care choice By Brian T. Schwartz and Linda Gorman Sentinel Editor Dave Perry dismisses the Colorado Right to Health Care Choice Initiative as “crazy” and says its supporters “clearly have lost” their ...

Daily Camera article: Health insurers’ “sins” don’t justify “reform”

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

The Daily Camera (Boulder) published a shorter version of my Pajamas Media article from a earlier this month: With so-called health care "reform" in limbo after the Republican Senate victory in Massachusetts, it's worth examining a popular sentiment behind it: animosity toward insurance companies. Namely, insurers` profits, denial of claims, and ...

A case for privatizing airline security

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

Arnold Kling and Nick Schulz have a very good article on the subject at USA Today.  It begins: After the underwear bomber's attempted mass murder, Americans are losing patience with the airline security system. It is bad enough that our screening process makes innocent people work far too hard to prove ...

Proposed Boulder plastic bag ban: authoritarian environmentalism that suffocates freedom & creativity

Sunday, January 17th, 2010

Background from Daily Camera: Shopping in Boulder could get greener if some local students have their way. Inspired in part by a ban that passed in San Francisco in 2007, New Vista High and University of Colorado students are drafting an ordinance that would prohibit businesses -- such as grocery stores ...

Fornication in public parks

Friday, January 1st, 2010

Earlier this week I finished reading Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement by Brian Doherty, a senior editor at Reason magazine.  It's a great read for anyone interested in the history of the free-market activism in the United States.  Here's one of my favorite ...