The following article originally was published December 21 by Grand Junction’s Free Press.
Ralph Carr shows politicians can stand for liberty
by Linn and Ari Armstrong
If you still have last-minute Christmas shopping to do, we have a suggestion. Adam Schrager, the thoughtful 9News reporter, wrote a book called The Principled Politician: [...]
What is extraordinary about my lifetime is that I will have witnessed the birth of the home computer industry and (if things go well) the complete conversion of all relevant media forms to digital formats separate from any particular physical “carrier” medium.
In recent days I have written about the still-problematic [...]
As I wrote last month, I’ve stopped doing business with Redbox, the DVD kiosk service, because that company initiated antitrust actions against film companies.
Last week I learned that NCR has acquired DVDPlay and plans to convert those “kiosks to its BLOCKBUSTER Express brand.” It turns out that, in [...]
As I recently noted, Liberty In the Books, which I co-moderate, reviewed Alex Epstein’s essay, “Vindicating Capitalism: The Real History of the Standard Oil Company.”
I strongly recommend that free-market activists join a reading group in their area — or start a new one. See my notes for [...]
In the comments to my recent post about Dan Maes, “Mike” reminded me about a proposal to expand military lands around Piñon Canyon.
Lynn Bartels writes for the December 10 Denver Post, “Republicans opposed to the military’s Piñon Canyon expansion project are disappointed that property rights weren’t addressed when [...]
With Amanda Teresi I co-moderate Denver’s Liberty In the Books, a monthly reading group that discusses free-market literature.
I strongly recommend that others around the country start up their own free-market discussion groups. I believe that our nation is at a crossroads and that advocates of liberty need to step forward [...]
I liked the Tea Parties better when they were about issues, not partisan politics.
Yesterday I received the following e-mail:
Defend the Republic Rally
Saturday, December 12th from 1:00 to 2:00pm
Colorado State Capital Building - West Steps
Colfax & Lincoln
Denver, CO 80203
Northern Colorado Tea Party is encouraging all supporters to attend [...]
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has imposed unjust new rules — “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising” — that take effect today.
Eric Robinson summarizes the nature of the rules:
[The FTC's rules] suggest that bloggers or other consumers who “endorse” a product or service online [...]
Dan Maes doesn’t have a chance in hell of becoming the next governor of Colorado. This is a guy who lists under his “public service” qualifications: “Boy Scout Leadership as a teen and in his early 20’s.” Scott McInnis, on the other hand, served in the state legislature before [...]
Westword’s Michael Roberts reports that “Dean Singleton… plans to start charging readers for lotsa online content at select MediaNews papers in California and Pennsylvania beginning in 2010.” This is relevant to us in Colorado because Singleton also publishes the Denver Post. Are fees for the online Post in our [...]
The following article originally was published November 23 by Grand Junction’s Free Press.
People vote for freedom with their feet and effort
by Linn and Ari Armstrong
“Why are they all running to Colorado? What have they got down there that we haven’t got?” So asks a villain in Ayn Rand’s Atlas [...]
Today’s Colorado Springs Gazette published my op-ed, “Environmentalist clowns threatening human life,” reviewing a November 18 talk by Keith Lockitch. (The online version is dated November 20, while the print date is November 21.)
I write, “People need industrial energy to live and flourish, Lockitch emphasized. Indeed, modern energy enables [...]
P. J. O’Rourke offered a perfectly delightful address at the Independence Institute’s 25th Anniversary Banquet, held in Denver on November 19. He mostly blasted leftist policies but saved some of his best lines for Republicans. For example, he said that building a wall between us and Mexico would be [...]
As environmentalists dressed as clowns protested coal-fired electric plants in Denver — see the reports from the Denver Daily News and Denver Post — Keith Lockitch prepared to give a talk at the Auraria campus that evening explaining the profound human need for industrial energy. (More on [...]
Earlier this year, I criticized a new law that allows police to take DNA samples from people they arrest for a felony, absent any criminal conviction. As the Denver Post summarized, “The bill was amended to allow police to take DNA tests upon arrest but for the sample [...]
The following article was originally published online by the Denver Post under the title, “Why we should keep selling low-priced books.”
Outlawing low-priced books robs your wallet and freedom
by Ari Armstrong
Some stores sell popular books to willing customers at low prices, and they must be stopped! At least that’s what [...]
A number of my friends are upset that Josh Penry has withdrawn from the Colorado governor’s race, leaving Scott McInnis as the clear Republican frontrunner.
The word is that a political attack group threatened to hammer Penry if he stayed in the race. Welcome to politics. Such strong-arm tactics are [...]
The following article originally was published November 9 by Grand Junction’s Free Press.
If planet did warm, low-cost tech could cool it
by Linn and Ari Armstrong
In our last column we expressed skepticism that human-caused global warming will ever amount to much. We have little trust in the politically subsidized computer [...]
I just upgraded my Netflix account, and I’ll no longer use Redbox, the DVD vending service that I’ve used at the local McDonalds.*
A few days ago I learned about “Redbox’s antitrust case against several major studios.” Redbox is seeking to force the terms by which studios sell videos, and [...]
At last month’s media panel, somebody (I believe Adrienne Russell) mentioned the idea of micropayments for online media content. Such payments might help save the newspaper industry as well as help fund better bloggers.
The idea is that readers would pay a small fee — say a quarter or fifty [...]
Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner certainly don’t need my help defending their new book SuperFreakonomics. They’re doing a great job of it themselves. However, I do want to draw my readers’ attention to the debate surrounding the book and recommend the book itself.
The first thing to note about the book [...]
Some readers may have noticed that my blog posts feed into the People’s Press Collective. How this process works is a mystery to me, and I’m not even sure whether my posts automatically feed into it or whether they must pass through a human gatekeeper. At any rate, I [...]
The following article originally was published October 26 by Grand Junction’s Free Press.
Radical environmentalists undermine human progress
by Linn and Ari Armstrong
The documentary Not Evil, Just Wrong apparently draws its title from an interview with an advocate of DDT, the pesticide sprayed in the U.S. decades ago to wipe out [...]
The Colorado Supreme Court is totally out of control. As Clear the Bench details, the court’s latest outrage is to allow a legal suit to force taxpayers to send more of their hard-earned money to government schools.
As Vincent Carroll summarizes, the suit would “undermine democracy and the separation [...]
I led an “Activism and LTE Workshop” October 6 (thank to the Independence Institute for lending me the space). Here are my modified notes.
The type of activism we should pursue is Intellectual Activism, marked by presenting reasonable arguments based on logic and evidence to the public. The goal is [...]
A few hours ago Ryan Frazier, candidate for U.S. Senate, commented on his Twitter feed: “Hi everyone, I’m going to be making a big announcement this week. Stay tuned for more details.”
Ben DeGrow writes: “My guess? Fundraising numbers for the third quarter were less than stellar, and higher-ups [...]
Want to know what “public option” health insurance would look like? Just imagine trying to fly “Government Air,” the new Health Care Reform video from the Independence Institute encourages. The results are perhaps somewhat different than what NPR had in mind.
Does Ryan Frazier support genuinely free markets or not? I had been under the vague impression that he does, but reports of a recent interview suggest that Frazier supports Keynesian “stimulus” spending and public-private partnerships, which violate economic liberty. So what is the straight scoop?
Ben DeGrow pointed out an [...]
The following article originally was published October 12, 2009, by Grand Junction’s Free Press.
James Warner shares light of liberty
by Linn and Ari Armstrong
The Hanoi Hilton. That’s what we called the Prisoners of War camps in Vietnam. Thankfully, though your elder author Linn served in that war, he never got [...]
The Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition hosted a media panel September 24 at the Tattered Cover in Denver. Previously I transcribed my opening comments and added a quick answer to a participant who asked whether she should enter journalism. Here I continue my review of the discussion.
First, though, [...]
Jennifer Burns, a history professor with the University of Virginia, has a new book out called Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right. I don’t have time to review the entire book at this time, so for now I’ll merely make a few notes about Burns’s introduction.
The [...]
The following article originally was published October 1 by Colorado Daily and October 2 by the Denver Daily News.
What was the total cost of your last doctor’s visit? If you’re like most Americans, you have no idea, because somebody else is paying most of the bill.
Patients directly pay [...]
I joined a media panel September 24 at Tattered Cover in downtown Denver. There were a few sparks. I sat right next to fellow panelist Greg Moore, which was a great position to heap abuse on the Denver Post (which Moore edits). One guy treated the question period as his [...]
Last night I joined a media panel attended by Greg Moore and others. I recorded the event and took notes, so I’ll have much more to say about it. Here, I wanted to reply to a question somebody asked that I did not answer last night.
A student said that [...]
Right now my wife and I pay $148 per month for high-deductible health insurance through Assurant. Our rate is locked in for three years.
I was just talking with an insurance broker in Boulder, and he mentioned that a three-year policy is actually unusually long. Usually one must renew every single [...]
Today’s Colorado Springs Gazette published my op-ed, “Republican plans for health care reform similar to Obamacare.” (The print date is later than the online date of September 18).
I point out that the three core tenets of Obama’s plan — mandatory insurance, forcing insurers to ignore pre-existing conditions (and meet [...]
Dude. Can a bald, edgy lawyer from Crested Butte win the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate? I wouldn’t bet the odds in Vegas. My early prediction is that Andrew Romanoff will take the Democratic nomination from Senator Bennet, then lose narrowly to Jane Norton in the general. But I’ve been [...]
The following article originally was published September 14 by Grand Junction’s Free Press.
Restore free market to address pre-existing conditions
by Linn and Ari Armstrong
Barack Obama’s most compelling examples of problems in health care involve insurers dropping coverage of people once they develop health problems. A related issue is the [...]
The following article originally was published September 14, 2009, in the Longmont Times-Call.
Atlas Shrugged relevant for modern times
by Ari Armstrong
“Who is John Galt?” Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand’s novel first published in 1957, is more relevant than ever. Modern political interventions from the bailouts to health controls mirror events of [...]
In my speech at the Denver 9/12 rally, I discussed the fundamental moral and political choices our nation faces. To illustrate these themes I described how the problem of pre-existing health conditions, and the resulting difficulties of buying insurance, is primarily a product of political controls, starting with tax-driven, non-portable, [...]
Back on February 26, 2008, Barack Obama criticized Hillary Clinton for offering the same health insurance mandate that he endorsed just two days ago. (Thanks to Adam Eidelberg for looking up the transcript of the primary debate.)
Obama was right to question the mandate when Clinton proposed it. I’ve written [...]
Rather than “hope and change,” Barack Obama offers a warmed-over Republican policy — Romneycare — that has already failed in Massachusetts. The core of Obama’s fake reform (described most recently in his address to Congress) is not, as many conservatives suggest, the “public option.” It is instead the proposal [...]
NPR reporter Jeff Brady watched Barack Obama’s health address to Congress with members of the Denver Tech Liberty on the Rocks. He interviewed numerous participants and quoted three in his report.
Amanda Teresi, founder of Liberty On the Rocks, explained why forcing insurers to ignore pre-existing conditions runs contrary to [...]
I watched Barack Obama’s address on health policy tonight on television at Liberty On the Rocks at the Denver Tech Center. Both NPR and Fox 31 sent reporters to cover the speech and the free-market response to it. I’ll have more to say about the speech in coming [...]
Tonight President Obama will renew his pitch for more political control of medicine. One important part of the debate is how the U.S. compares to other nations. Recently the Denver Post republished an article from the Washington Post by T. R. Reid on the matter.
As my dad and I [...]
Should health insurance companies charge people with pre-existing conditions or known health risks more?
Lawrence Jones of Conifer wrote a thoughtful letter for the August 25 Denver Post arguing that higher rates are unfair for conditions beyond one’s control. I thought Jones’s letter deserved a full reply.
Jones writes:
Letter-writer William Hinckley [...]
“Republicans suck.” I had heard that Jon Caldara began his July talk to the Denver Metro Young Republicans (DMYR) with that line, so I figured I’d repeat it when I addressed the group on August 25 about health policy.
I really like the DMYRs. It is a vibrant and passionate group [...]
