The Pursuit of Happiness – Mine, not Yours

February 17, 2017

A multi-millionaire named Roxanne Quimby spent years promoting a new national monument in Maine, which was finally established by President Obama over the objections of the State’s Governor and Senators. He also appointed Quimby to the National Park Foundation to honor her public-spirited donation of the land. She can certainly afford it, and I don’t […]

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If I Had a Billion Dollars

February 10, 2017

If you had $1.2 billion to spend, what would you do with it? Before you answer, there are some strings attached. First, you are required to invest in electric vehicle technology, electric vehicle infrastructure, or something that would result in “zero emissions” vehicles. Now what would you do with all that cash? Answer: whatever the […]

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Oh, What a Tangled Web

February 3, 2017

As a child I used to bug adults with silly jokes, and I still remember several about spiders (when something makes them mad, it drives them up the wall, etc.). There have always been jokes about spiders, presumably because they are among nature’s most fascinating creatures, interesting and beautiful to some people, scary to many […]

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Does the Red Fern Grow?

January 24, 2017

At the risk of repeating myself (this is a recurring theme), there are many examples of major environmental controversies that aren’t really about the environment. Far too often, adversaries face each other across courtrooms arguing not about environmental protection, but about power, control, and money. Especially money. Another case came to national attention this week […]

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How to Repeal an Executive Order

January 20, 2017

I am willing to bet that you have never heard of Executive Order 13497. There is no reason you should have, except that it is enormously important to the process of governing America. The simple reason most people never heard about it is that President Obama signed it less than a week after his inauguration. […]

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Army, Navy, Air Force, EPA!

January 6, 2017

From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of – Federal Triangle? If sending Marines, Navy Seals, and Delta force to the world’s trouble spots doesn’t work, we could also send the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), or the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). Both agencies have military equipment, weapons, SWAT teams, drones, and […]

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Green, Greener, of Greenest

December 30, 2016

“No animal says America like the bald eagle,” says Dan Ashe, Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in a new statement calling recovery of the bald eagle “one of our greatest national conservation achievements.” He is right about the importance of the bald eagle to Americans. It was adopted as our national emblem […]

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See You in Court!

December 23, 2016

A Cornell study of litigation in America a few years ago tracked some 260,000 civil lawsuits by type and disposition, showing an alarming expansion of Americans suing each other. The total number of such lawsuits had increased about nine percent between 1987 and 2000, but lawsuits related to environmental matters during the same period had […]

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The Many Uses for a Live Cat

December 13, 2016

In 1981 the illustrator Simon Bond published “101 Uses for a Dead Cat,” a collection of cartoons showing dead cats being used for various purposes: door stops, boat anchors, wine bottle holders, and others. It was funny in a sort-of Far Side way, was on the best seller list for 27 weeks, and spawned at […]

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Institutionalizing Economic Failure

December 12, 2016

British Prime Minister Edward Heath called protectionism “the institutionalization of economic failure.” Thriving businesses, he reasoned, do not need subsidies, tariffs, or any other protection against competition. That theory has underlain economic policy debates from the beginning of our republic. Even in this year’s campaign, foreign trade agreements became central issues – protectionism v. free […]

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