Cars equal personal mobility. Smart Growth hates it and them.

What Smart Growth dictates is centrally planned housing and transportation. A normal person wants to live in a single family home and drive his or her own car, individualist housing, individualist transport. Planners want social housing policies and mass transit. The dissonance pits social provision of services against the personal autonomy. Smart Growth is mass [...]

Constitutions and Environmental Values

Montana’s constitution strives to guarantee, “the right to a clean and healthful environment”. This promise is hard to keep. What is clean? What is healthful? Lack of clear definitions breeds confusion. No wood stoves in neighborhoods would satisfy some. No walking on forest lands would satisfy others. No automobile pollution, hence no automobile use, might [...]

Anne Frank’s story made me think

Last night my wife and I watched a docu-drama about Anne Frank. It was poignant. The sufferings of the Jews at the hands of the Germans was quite moving. Especially moving was the depiction of the depth of feeling family members have for each other when being forcibly separated. I need to express my love [...]

What is the Tea Party?

What is the Tea Party? More a sentiment than an organization, it represents people of all ages, professions, and political affiliations demanding a return to limited government and fiscal responsibility. It advocates for property rights, individual liberty,and free markets. It abhors bailouts, take-overs, special favors, and reckless deficit spending. It organizes rallies, influences office-holders and [...]

Liberal Democrats Abjure Tea Parties

This quote from the LA Times is an understatement: Across the country, tea party groups that had focused on planning rallies are educating members on how to run for GOP precinct representative positions. The representatives help elect county party leaders, who write the platform and, in some places, determine endorsements. Glass’ group and others say [...]

A New Revolution

With founding principles under attack, and the United States sliding toward a funk like Greece’s, what we do not need is another revolution. What we do not need is secession, civil breakup. Texas should not split away. Nor should any other state. What is needed is a re-affirmation of the original principles, a restoration of [...]

Ten Commandments About Money

Ten Commandments About Money Does your life feel like an action movie? Are you constantly getting shot at, figuratively, careening in high speed chases, falling off cliffs into raging rivers, and facing down roaring monsters? Is your financial life a wreck? Do accidents seem to follow you around? Ten Commandments about Money 1. Pay your [...]

Surrogacy

Surrogacy I had a conversation with a friend last week. She found surrogacy unobjectionable in the case of a sister offering to carry a baby for her sister. She opposes it for hire. She said she would certainly do it, “I would just be an oven.” She wouldn’t sell her eggs or advise her daughter [...]

Choctaw Indians’ Casinos

Just some quick math here. The Choctaws have two casinos, the Silver Star and the Golden Moon. The Sivler Star has 3,000 slot machines. Each one probably profits $150 per day, or $54,000 per year. 3,000 x $54,000 equals $162 million profit per year. Divide that by the 2,300 residents of the reservation for a [...]

Avatar: Cowboys and Indians

I have seen the movie Avatar. It didn’t take me long to realize this was not a story about bioethics or about biotechnology. It was a morality tale. Evil modernism destroys natural sacredness. The subjugation of native peoples by European invaders. Custer’s last stand. Indigineous peoples are portrayed as serene, cultured, civilized, loving, and, above [...]