Whatever your view on the Iraq war, you surely want to help our wounded warriors. Fortunately, we have many opportunities, notably, the Bozeman based Warriors and Quiet Waters (WQW), a 501 c-3 foundation. Clearly, there are compelling needs for such good deeds. Senator Tester recently held meetings with veterans at the Museum of the Rockies. […]

I’ve become interested in Bozeman’s concern with “bad grass.” Several letters to the Chronicle have condemned large bluegrass lawns, the kind that looks so good when luxuriating in ample moisture. They urge public condemnation, regulation, and a move toward xeriscape lawns that have low water requirements. Some recommend mandating small lawn areas with drought-tolerant grasses […]

Transaction costs. Externalities. Pareto superiority. Sound daunting? Imagine a young woman, just months out of university and having spent the last four years wandering, wide-eyed, through the worlds of Dostoevsky, Steinbeck, Voltaire, and Gide. Suddenly she finds herself in beautiful Bozeman, Montana, plunging headfirst (with no helmet) into the classics of political economy, amongst a […]

The Annual Energy Forum recently hosted by MSU outlined the challenges of keeping carbon out of the atmosphere while supplying the energy people demand at prices they’re willing to pay. I came away convinced that geoengineering, i.e., the deliberate modification of the Earth’s environment, will receive ever more attention as the steep and unavoidable costs […]