Craig Westover

• Now Posting at ...

  I am now posting at the Minnesota Free Market Institute and True North. I am still taking comments via email at westover4@yahoo.com. Thanks for stopping by. [...]
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  Posted: March 09, 2009, 3:55pm EDT
  

• Bonding Bill: From the taxpayer's side of the looking glass

  How doth the loyal St. Paul repImprove her bonding tale,And pour on language full of pepTo try to make the sale!How righteously she speaks her piece,How neatly spreads her viewThat general welfare will increaseWith taxes paid by you.— With apologies to the Rev. Charles Dodgson.Better known as "Lewis Carroll," Charles [...]
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  Posted: April 09, 2008, 10:27am EDT
  

• Eliot Spitzer: This is just too easy.

  ABU DHABI (AFP) - The crown prince of the United Arab Emirates of Dubai has bought a female camel for a record 2.72 million dollars, an organiser at a camel beauty pageant said on Monday. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashed al-Maktoum "bought camels... worth 16.5 million dirhams (4.49 million" [...]
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  Posted: April 08, 2008, 8:27am EDT
  

• Render onto Caesar ...

  Interesting email from AM 950 KTNF this morning that highlights the difference in the way the political right and left look at religion. The email promotes the Progressive Faith Conference, "Voting Justice, Voting Hope." It reads in part:Get Ready to Change the Way You Think About Faith and Politics at [...]
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  Posted: April 07, 2008, 9:49am EDT
  

• Bonding Bill: "Essential" or not, period

  Back in the days when grammar, not global warming, was taught in public schools, we learned that some adjectives can't be modified. "Unique," for example. Either something's unique — that is, one of a kind — or it isn't."Essential" is another. Rep. Alice Hausman, DFL-St. Paul, the chief House sponsor' [...]
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  Posted: April 04, 2008, 4:33pm EDT
  

• Transportation: Fighting over the spoils

  So the vandals have sacked Rome, and now they are fighting over the spoils. Ripped from the Pioneer Press headlines, 'Fight erupts over new sales taxes for transit. At issue: whether money should be used to bail out Met Council.' Wow. Even I thought the transit kids would play nice [...]
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  Posted: March 28, 2008, 10:54am EDT
  

• Tacking into the Wind: Another argument for choice in education

  The Star Tribune is reporting today that Forest Lake Area High School Students abruptly canceled the appearance of the National Heroes Tour, featuring decorated veteran from the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.Steve Massey, the school principal, said the decision to cancel was prompted by concerns that the event was becoming [...]
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  Posted: March 25, 2008, 11:49am EDT
  

• Minnesota Health Care Transformation Task Force: A sow's ear of corporate socialism

  Driven by cost reduction, the recommendations of the Governor's Health Care Transformation Task Force, many of which are rapidly moving through the Legislature in health care reform bills, are, as I discussed in Wednesday's column, a fundamentally flawed approach to health care reform.The Legislature charged the Transformation Task Force with [...]
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  Posted: March 20, 2008, 12:01pm EDT
  

• Minnesota Health Care Transformation Task Force: The devil's not in the details, but sitting in plain sight

  Among the pressing issues facing the Minnesota Legislature this session are some very real problems with the health care system: Health insurance premiums are rising, and many employers are reducing or dropping health care coverage.Individuals without employer coverage are finding it difficult to obtain health insurance. Increased costs and reduced [...]
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  Posted: March 19, 2008, 7:46am EDT
  

• Rejecting party and principle alike

  The "Override Six" have been alternately flogged and fawned over as "traitors" to the GOP and "courageous" legislators who put "principle over party." As you'll recall, the six — Reps. Neil Peterson, Jim Abler, Kathy Tingelstad, Bud Heidgerken, Ron Erhardt and Rod Hamilton — voted with Democrats to override Gov. [...]
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  Posted: March 14, 2008, 12:17pm EDT
  

• The Essence of the Race Issue

  We can't talk about it. [...]
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  Posted: March 12, 2008, 6:26pm EDT
  

• Channeling Karl Rove

  In case your neural implants were down and you didn't get Karl Rove's talking points last month, in the February Issue of Townhall Magazine Rove responds to a question from Mary Katherine Ham about the 3 things a Republican nominee must do to beat Hillary. The question may already be [...]
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  Posted: March 11, 2008, 10:07am EDT
  

• The Play's the Thing

  If you liked "The Moffitt" you may like "The Play's the Thing," the "Community Voices" piece in today's MinnPost.The Play's the ThingScene – A local bar where patrons are staging a "play" to exploit a loophole in the state smoking ban. An author of the ban Sen. Kathy Sheran peers' [...]
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  Posted: March 10, 2008, 1:15pm EDT
  

• Star Tribune: One road, 22 lines helped override a veto

  Excellent piece by Mike Kaszuba in the Star Tribune on the behind the scene dealings that went into securing Republican Rod Hamilton’s vote for the Transportation Bill. It also makes note of Democrat-Farmer-Labor Rep. Bernie Lieder’s sanding off the truth when it comes to “earmarks.”I definitely don't like earmarks, that's [...]
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  Posted: March 10, 2008, 12:32pm EDT
  

• COLUMN: Drama, promises and DFL duplicity

  There are promises, and there are political promises, which, lacking the maintenance of sincerity, crumble faster than a rural road in a Minnesota winter. Seems the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party is busy sanding off the truth around the promises it made in exchange for support of the $6.6 billion tax increase, nee [...]
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  Posted: March 07, 2008, 10:12am EST
  

• COLUMN -- On the necessary tension between moral concerns and individual freedom

  Wednesday, May 03, 2007I'd read quite a bit about the Supreme Court opinion in Gonzales v. Carhart - the "partial-birth" abortion case - but finally sat down last weekend and read for myself Justice Anthony Kennedy's opinion and Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsberg's dissent. Viscerally and philosophically, Kennedy's opinion is pretty upsetting [...]
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  Posted: May 03, 2007, 9:11am EDT
  by Craig Westover

• COLUMN -- Fine, Imus the bigot is gone. What about Imus the activist?

  Friday, April 20, 2007I have to admit mixed emotions over the firing of Don Imus. On one hand, Imus' banishment from medialand is vindication of the value of free speech. Speech may be free, but it has consequences. Offend people's sensibilities, and you pay the price. The tribe has spoken. [...]
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  Posted: April 20, 2007, 9:05am EDT
  by Craig Westover

• COLUMN -- Head-shaking won't do it; engaging in market-principled government might

  Wednesday, April 4, 2007It was a week where the Minnesota DFL taxed even our patience with proposals for tax increases on just about everything else. The time seems right for a good old-fashioned rant on the arrogance, self-serving politics and downright socialist propensity of the DFL (motto: "Willing to force" [...]
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  Posted: April 04, 2007, 6:18pm EDT
  by Craig Westover

• COLUMN -- charter schools should be seen as complements, not threats

  Thursday, March 29, 2007A scribe writing for the venture-capital asset across the river took recent delight in goring the "sacred cow" of charter schools. The Minnesota Senate's education budget bill, which caps public charter schools at 150 (the current level plus those scheduled to open in the fall), logically makes' [...]
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  Posted: March 30, 2007, 9:52am EDT
  by Craig Westover

• COLUMN -- Treating too many divorced dads like deadbeat dads

  Wednesday March 14, 2007Molly Olson, volunteer executive director of the Center for Parental Responsibility, has hammered away for seven years at reforming family law policy and divorce practice that discourages both parents from being fully involved in the lives of their children. Most often, she is on the side of [...]
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  Posted: March 14, 2007, 10:25am EDT
  by Craig Westover

• COLUMN -- Get rational about when the state should pre-empt local decisions

  Thursday March 1, 2007Pre-emption — a legislative clause prohibiting communities from passing ordinances that are stricter than state law — has been ricocheting through committee hearings on the statewide smoking ban like a bounding football. Rule of law, as opposed to whim of men, demands a consistent application of pre-emption. [...]
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  Posted: March 01, 2007, 7:42am EST
  by Craig Westover

• Think outside the pump

  I'm interested in reaction to the talked about VMT system and the proposals in this PiPress editorial. Thanks.Think outside the pumpIn his budget proposal, Gov. Tim Pawlenty set aside $5 million to study technologies that could move Minnesota off a per-gallon gas tax and onto a "vehicle-miles-traveled" (VMT) tax —' [...]
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  Posted: February 27, 2007, 4:08pm EST
  by Craig Westover

• COLUMN -- Adopt a state senator

  Thursday, February 22, 2007Like most Minnesotans, I have lain awake nights tossing and turning over the plight of our state senators who suffer under the burden of an expense allowance of but $66 a day. How would you like to feed yourself on just $66 a day? And now, like [...]
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  Posted: February 23, 2007, 8:30am EST
  by Craig Westover

• COLUMN -- Embarrassed by Bachmann's votes for conservative values? Hardly

  Friday, February 17, 2007Choosing a topic for a weekly column is sometimes like picking a puppy in a pet store. Ideas are constantly barking for attention, but you've got to choose just one. Do you go with the playful idea and have fun with it? Or do you play to' [...]
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  Posted: February 16, 2007, 11:30am EST
  by Craig Westover

• Test results add up to a good case for vouchers

  A good commentary from Mitch Pearlstein --An urban, low-cost private school did a lot to reduce the achievement gap for blacks.As Gov. Tim Pawlenty and legislators consider how to improve urban education, they may want to ponder research findings like these:Citing data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), [...]
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  Posted: February 12, 2007, 10:25am EST
  by Craig Westover

• Yes, separated at birth -- sort of

  Perhaps you’ve noticed a slight resemblance between Survivor Fiji contestant Gary Stritesky, from Ramsey, Minnesota --And Captain Fishsticks.It is not mere coincidence. We share the same great-great grandfather.Go Gary! (If he wins the million, I'll have to add him to the Christmas card list.) [...]
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  Posted: February 11, 2007, 5:00pm EST
  by Craig Westover

• Mercury-free flu shots are still available

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  Posted: February 10, 2007, 8:17pm EST
  by Craig Westover

• A Muslim Perspective

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  Posted: February 09, 2007, 10:30am EST
  by Craig Westover

• Chldren's Health Security Act

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  Posted: February 08, 2007, 3:16pm EST
  by Craig Westover

• COLUMN -- Stubborn facts — and a stubborn defense of principle to go with them

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  Posted: February 08, 2007, 7:48am EST
  by Craig Westover

• Now if you want to criticize Michele Bachmann . . .

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  Posted: January 31, 2007, 2:32pm EST
  by Craig Westover

• COLUMN -- Can a monolithic school system serve the common good?

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  Posted: January 31, 2007, 11:50am EST
  by Craig Westover

• President Bush's health care proposal is the right way to go

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  Posted: January 24, 2007, 3:55pm EST
  by Craig Westover

• COLUMN -- Catcalls And Conversation: Seizing opportunities to amplify principles and re-evaluate positions

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  Posted: January 24, 2007, 9:50am EST
  by Craig Westover

• COLUMN -- State of the State fell short on real education reform

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  Posted: January 23, 2007, 1:57pm EST
  by Craig Westover

• Jeffer's over/under number looks pretty good

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  Posted: January 22, 2007, 7:13pm EST
  by Craig Westover

• Democrats being Democrats on oil subsidies issue

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  Posted: January 18, 2007, 1:51pm EST
  by Craig Westover

• Selective smoking ban enforcement

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  Posted: January 18, 2007, 12:03pm EST
  by Craig Westover

• COLUMN -- Liberty is at risk: Blame the right — and the left

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  Posted: January 17, 2007, 6:31am EST
  by Craig Westover

• More on Smoking Bans

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  Posted: January 14, 2007, 11:10am EST
  by Craig Westover

• COLUMN -- Absent exaggeration, scientific case for smoking ban is weak

  Following my Pioneer Press column is a column that appeared Monday in the St. Paul Legal Ledger. Taken together, the columns make the case that regardless of the outcome on the statewide smoking ban, the state ought to define limits to it's authority to make individual health issues "public health [...]
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  Posted: January 10, 2007, 7:30am EST
  by Craig Westover