A Horse of a Different Color

April 28, 2017

The animated movie, “Spirit: The Stallion of the Cimarron,” has entertained a generation of children. It is the story of a courageous wild horse that gets captured by the Cavalry, then by an Indian, and later by a nasty railroad – all of whom fail to tame him. Such wild horse stories have been popular […]

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Will Reason Yet Prevail?

April 21, 2017

Just when you think a lost battle is consigned to the history books, there may yet be an opportunity. It has been a decade since Colorado lost the battle against the “threatened” listing of a sub-species called “Preble’s meadow jumping mouse,” but there is suddenly a new chance for reason to win out. This little […]

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The Hotel California for Wildlife

April 14, 2017

Sometimes in speeches, I have compared the endangered species list to the Hotel California, where “you can check out but you can never leave.” It is a short way of explaining the problem of a system that adds hundreds of species to the endangered list, but never takes any off. When it comes to recovering […]

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They’re Not Listening Still

April 7, 2017

An oft-quoted line in the Simon and Garfunkel classic “The Sound of Silence” laments “people hearing without listening.” The same idea concludes Don McLean’s classic tribute to Vincent Van Gough, with the line “They would not listen, they’re not listening still – perhaps they never will.” People not hearing, or not listening, is a frequent […]

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By Any Other Name

March 30, 2017

Are they lying, or just being economical with the truth? Did that fall off the back of a truck, or was it stolen? Does he need more time with the family, or was he fired? Was the animal put to sleep, or killed? We commonly use such euphemisms to make our point without being crass. […]

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Stop Me If You’ve Heard This

March 24, 2017

Here is a headline we could have written any time during the past twenty years, and probably any time in the next twenty: Washington Monument Closed Again. Closing the landmark to pressure Congress into giving the Park Service more money is so common that it has a name in the dictionary: The Washington Monument Syndrome. […]

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Of Billy Goats and Gruff Trolls

March 15, 2017

When I was little, our family had an old tattered copy of the children’s classic, “The Three Billy Goats Gruff.” It’s an old Norwegian folk tale about three goats trying to cross a bridge under which lived a hideous troll, who tried to eat them. As they crossed, though, starting with the smallest, they convinced […]

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A Promise Made is a Promise Kept

March 10, 2017

President Trump this week kept a campaign promise, one especially important to the West, ordering the EPA to withdraw its controversial “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) regulation. It is a welcome decision, though a great deal of work must be done now. That’s because Trump’s order temporarily reverts to the previous uncertainty, with constant […]

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We’ll Do Anything to Help – Except That

February 27, 2017

For years, politicians have waged war on coal, stifled oil and gas production, and advocated carbon taxes and other extreme measures to reduce carbon dioxide, while ignoring one of the most important things they could do to help. It reminds me of my own lifelong battle with weight and the associated health issues. I get […]

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I’m Not Doing This for You

February 22, 2017

It has been said that capitalism works for a very simple reason – people can be counted on to do what is in their own interest. That has been the basis of human interaction since the beginning of time. One villager would catch fish and sell them to others, which helped the fisherman succeed, but […]

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