This is a “feel-good” column, written to share. Please join me in appreciating our home territory. The Gallatin Valley Bicycle Club sponsored an English (100 miles) and metric (100K) ride last Saturday. Both left from the Belgrade town park, around 8:00 AM. No precise time was given, for these were pleasure rides, not races. My […]

Montana State University is poised to become a nationally recognized school of excellence. Success is highly probable if MSU leaders capitalize on becoming the University of the Yellowstone. Such advancement would reflect the diffusion of quality throughout American higher education. (The U of M enjoys a similar opportunity, but success will be more difficult there.) […]

It’s trendy to hate Wal-Mart. Critics note: Wal-Mart is a monopoly and hence, is intrinsically bad. Further, Wal-Mart destroys small businesses, ruining towns’ culture. It sells poor-quality, homogenous products in unattractive superstores. And finally, Wal-Mart is an unfair employer, paying low wages and failing to provide benefits. Each disparagement contains a grain of truth; Wal-Mart […]

Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world. It employs 1.8 million, more than any other American institution besides the federal government. Its 2006 revenues surpassed $315 billion. But statistics serve only to reinforce what most Americans already know: Wal-Mart is big business. Wal-Mart often shares its success. The Walton family has donated over $1 […]

Go see Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. It raises awareness about global warming and motivates searches for constructive policies. Unfortunately, the film also polarizes proposed “solutions.” Many urge CO2 emissions caps. Others, fearful of economic repercussions, seek delay. Nobel Laureate and FREE’s 2003 Summer Scholar Thomas Schelling rejects the polarization: “It is not economic growth […]

The rising price of gas and the Montanans in combat with our armed forces remind us daily of the dangers we face from our Islamic enemies. If the situation worsens, the economic effects could hit real estate prices and hurt the local construction boom. So what is this “war” we are in? It is a […]