First, Let’s Define Our Terms

August 2, 2024

Years ago as a high school and college debater, I was trained to begin making my case by defining key terms. A debate gets incoherent if the two sides don’t agree on what the topic is, or what is being proposed. Voltaire famously wrote, “Define your terms… or we shall never understand one another.” The […]

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Save Dolores Canyons, Wink Wink, Nudge Nudge

July 26, 2024

In a famous 1969 sketch from Monte Python’s Flying Circus, Eric Idle approaches a stranger in a pub with a series of cryptic relationship questions, ending each with “wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more.” The skit was so popular it was repeated in the 1971 film, “And Now For Something Completely Different,” the 1982 […]

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Not Persuaded by a Million-Mile Car

July 19, 2024

Atlantic writer Mateo Wong gushes about “a group of people in a red Tesla driving through the Moroccan desert,” when one exclaims, “Two million, Hans!” Apparently, the 2014 Model S became the first electric car to drive 2 million kilometers, or 1.24 million miles. It turns out that to achieve that milestone, the car needed […]

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Who Gets to Decide?

July 12, 2024

At a recent Cato Institute conference, Elon Musk spoke about “regulatory gridlock,” and a system in which “It’s basically illegal to build big projects.” He called for sunsetting numerous (unspecified) regulations, then concluded with this gem: “Every regulation should be accompanied by the name of the person primarily responsible for it.” It reminded me of […]

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We’ve Had Giant Batteries All Along

July 5, 2024

At the end of the classic, “The Wizard of Oz,” when Dorothy asks Glinda for help getting home, the good witch of the north says, “You don’t need to be helped any longer. You’ve always had the power.” This week I participated in the Colorado Energy Summit in Montrose. Experts made presentations on diverse issues […]

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New Study Proves What We Already Knew

July 2, 2024

Most people are happier on weekends. We know that because a government study proved it. Without such studies, you may not know that people drive poorly when talking on a cellphone, or that the elderly cherish happy memories more than sad ones. A Journal of Neurology study found that mixing drinking and drugs is worse […]

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How Innovation and Technology Cleared the Air

June 21, 2024

In 2006 Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking said, “Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as sudden global warming…” and suggested colonizing other planets to ensure the survival of the human species. Some advocates suggested Mars, because it has plenty of carbon dioxide. That’s ironic, since EPA […]

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What Happens in California Should stay in California

June 14, 2024

California recently adopted a zero-emission requirement for all railroad locomotives in the state by 2030, which many critics are saying could cripple the nation’s freight rail network. That’s because California doesn’t have its own separate fleet of locomotives. So to keep the trains running, the rule effectively forces nationwide compliance with one state’s policy. California […]

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U.S. is Leading, But No One is Following

June 7, 2024

British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) famously said, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” No fan of academic studies, he had learned how statistics can be used to make almost any point the researcher wants to make. My Grandma often quoted the 1880s version, “Figures don’t lie, but liars do […]

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Preserving Antiquities, or Regulating Economics?

May 31, 2024

Our obsession with the study of antiquities goes back centuries, at least since Renaissance poet Petrarch wrote, “Among the many subjects which interested me, I dwelt especially upon antiquity, for our own age has always repelled me.” But what exactly is antiquity? It is relevant this year because several western leaders are calling for a […]

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