My wife and I got new computers for Christmas, hers a tangerine, mine a blueberry iMac. Our only real decisions involved color. Thanks to Microsoft, we are sure to buy Macs-even though we’re not fond of their maker, Apple Computer, Inc. What explains this irony? First, unlike tractors, trucks, and chainsaws, I really don’t like […]

BOZEMAN, Mont.–At the beginning of a century, it’s tempting to assess one’s place in the era just passed. For me and most Americans the evaluation is clear, compelling and unambiguous: We hold a winning lottery ticket. America is not utopia. No place ever is. However, we are fortunate to live in the most successful large […]

I recently returned from New York. At a dinner party I was introduced as a guy who lives on a ranch near Manhattan–Manhattan, Montana that is. Chuckling, a man to my left said, “Montana, I hear that’s a wild and woolly place. You must have a lot of car jackings”. “Car jackings?” “You know,” he […]

I have lectured at Hillsdale College, the once great conservative college success story. The school was a striking anomaly, a self proclaimed exemplar of traditional values and independence from government. Hillsdale refused to accept federal aid. Nearly bankrupt in the late 60s, in 1971 it hired a 35 year old president, historian George Roche III. […]

Fear of climate change, and of-ill conceived policies to halt it, are well founded. Climate change may have catastrophic consequences and prevention is critical. Alternatively, changes might be small, or even beneficial. Or, natural forces could overwhelm human impacts so nothing we can do will matter. Whichever position is correct, the costs of error are […]

The fall colors have peaked and the elk are bulging in nearby Yellowstone National Park. About 3 million people a year visit Yellowstone. The end of this tourist season gives a reprieve to the park’s crumbling infrastructure. This spring ground water penetrated leaky sewage lines and threatened to overflow a treatment pond. Park crews pumped […]

Gallatin County is in the midst of growth as dramatic as the original settlement. Land prices have increased rapidly and the value of house lots near Bozeman now trumps that of hayfields by a factor of ten. This, coupled with the general weakening of the agricultural economy, is responsible for the rapid subdivision of ag-lands […]

Today’s wilderness preservation movement exemplifies a remarkable convergence of radically different ideas. Here¹s an example, one of many. It features the ideas of libertarian economists and green activists. Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman is the champion of those who envision a minimalist government. Among his radical proposals is to sell the National Forests. His 1962 […]

BOZEMAN, Mont. — The American bison, down to a few hundred remnant animals in Teddy Roosevelt’s day, is making a great comeback. Today there are more than 250,000 buffalo, and the number is steadily increasing. Bison ranchers are doing very well indeed — alas, partly at taxpayer expense. In contrast, cattle ranchers are having a […]

The recovery of the gray wolf may stand as the pinnacle of the Endangered Species Act’s (ESA) success. This summer the wolf will probably be “delisted” as endangered in Minnesota. At a meeting on June 2 called by U.S. Senator Conrad Burns, Republican from Montana, Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator of the U.S. Fish and […]