Chiquita Canyon Alice’s Restaurant Massacree

April 11, 2025

No folk music collection is complete without the all-time classic 1967 LP, Arlo Guthrie’s debut, the entire first side of which was the 18-minute opus called Alice’s Restaurant Massacree. It was a sarcastic and irreverent narrative protesting the Vietnam-era draft, beginning with an innocent attempt to help his friend Alice by hauling her large pile of […]

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Tariffs, Toys, & Tourism: Colorado’s Plastic Economy

April 4, 2025

In the 1967 classic, “The Graduate,” Dustin Hoffman gets pulled aside for the ultimate one-word advice about his future: “Plastics.” It was a prophetic view of the entire nation’s economic future. In President Trump’s speech to Congress on March 4th, he did not shy away from talking about his tariff plan. Tariffs are controversial, pitting […]

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The Most Powerful Fish That Never Lived

March 28, 2025

A tiny fish that averages only 2.5 inches long derailed political careers, delayed construction of a massive dam and reservoir, caused a U.S. Supreme Court landmark case, and prompted legislation that remained controversial for decades. They now call it the ultimate David-and-Goliath story, the little snail darter against the mighty Tellico Dam, the New Deal […]

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Squirrels Killed by the Forest Service, or the Courts?

March 19, 2025

In 2017 the Arizona Game and Fish Department estimated that there were only 252 Mount Graham red squirrels left. They only inhabited a few hundred acres in the 10,000-foot Pinaleño Mountains, not equipped to survive the heat of the surrounding deserts. Then, a lightning strike started a 48,000-acre fire in that section of the Coronado […]

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Can the Switch Be Turned Back On?

March 11, 2025

It is ironic to see preservationists lobbying to save power plants with smokestacks, but that is the strange case of the Zuni power plant in Denver. The coal-fired steam plant was built in 1901 and provided electricity to a growing metropolis until decommissioned by Excel Energy in 2021. Excel doesn’t want it anymore, having switched […]

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Zombies That Can Never Be Killed

March 4, 2025

In Haitian folklore a zombie is a dead body reanimated through Vodou magic. The modern concept of zombies as flesh-eating creatures from the cemetery evolved more recently, from the 1968 comedy/horror film, “Night of the Living Dead,” and sequels like “Dawn of the Dead,” “Day of the Dead,” and “Return of the Living Dead.” Some call […]

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Paying For What Ought To Be Free

February 24, 2025

If I offered you a thousand dollars not to steal my car, would you be any less likely to steal it? What if I offered you a million? If you’re like most people, you would answer that you weren’t planning to steal it anyway. You’re not a thief so the discussion is pointless. Although if […]

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Fixing the Budget Process by Breaking It

February 21, 2025

A popular blogger called Taylor Cone gave some great advice for budding inventors, discussing the process of prototyping: build it, then break it, then fix it. That’s a strategy Congress ought to try. The House Appropriations Committee, Congress’s most powerful panel, has 63 members, only 8 of whom have ever voted to do what the […]

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How Many Border Guards Do We Need?

February 14, 2025

Police have an unflattering nickname, “Permit Patty,” for someone who calls police over frivolous complaints. It originated when a woman called the police on a little girl selling lemonade at a streetside stand – as generations of kids have done – without a permit. It illustrates a commonsense truth, namely that not everything in life […]

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Let’s Use What We Already Have

February 7, 2025

In planning the nation’s 1976 bicentennial celebration, Congress made one of its dumbest-ever boondoggle decisions. Recognizing the near death of railroad passenger service since the 1950’s, Congress decided to spend millions turning the aging and crumbling Union Station into the National Visitor Center. But they missed the obvious red flag – the millions of visitors […]

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