Culture, Community, and Civility: Code of the (New) West Living here is a great blessing for Ramona and me. We greatly appreciate the wonderful natural, cultural, and prosperous environment of the Gallatin Valley. Even these stellar qualities are sometimes trumped by seeing people care for one another. Our community has culture of civility and caring–even […]
Read MoreTo stop mass killers, we should let people like off-duty police and security guards carry concealed weapons. The recent senseless killings in Isla Vista, California of six college students at the hands of an obviously troubled 22-year-old Elliot Rodger, who then killed himself before he could be apprehended by the police, has provoked another […]
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Minorities suffer abuses when their rights to property and person are violated. We examined historical situations involving Jews and Mormons in two recent FREE Insights (May 7 and 14). The underlying logic is clear: If people’s property is not given legal protection, then it is cheap and easy to violate their persons and strip their […]
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This is the second of two essays on the contributions of property rights to peace and prosperity. The first examined the horrific problems of the Jews. Most were caused, permitted, or exacerbated by failures to recognize their property rights. This week I consider the current grazing conflict in Nevada. I am joined by FREE research […]
Read MoreThis is the first of two essays on the contributions of property rights to peace and prosperity. It’s hard to imagine a sane person who doesn’t value peace and prosperity. Yet, these are illusive, oft fleeting qualities; few people understand how well defined and defended property rights contribute to both peace and prosperity. When property […]
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Federal bureaucracy gets in the way of complex ongoing relationships that serve civil society. If you want to see the case for limited government, consider that there’s a siege happening in some dusty corner of Nevada over tortoise welfare. Cliven Bundy, a Nevada rancher currently engaged in a standoff with the federal government over grazing […]
Read MoreOne of the great benefits of living here is the remarkable array of talented and interesting people one meets in the Bozeman area. For example, I’ve met three individuals who have recently worked in Antarctica. No surprise, such encounters are common here. Last Friday, Ramona and I were skiing in the Big Sky area and […]
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Monday, Oct. 7, will mark the 100th anniversary of the opening of Henry Ford’s moving assembly line for producing the Model T. This innovative production system allowed Ford to double worker pay while cutting the price of his cars in half, making it possible, for the first time, for auto workers to buy the cars […]
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Introduction by John Baden, Chairman, FREE In last week’s FREE Insight Mary Roloff wrote of her family farm and the culture in which it is embedded. “My grandfather … carried a gun to protect himself from those that would do him harm, take what didn’t belong to them, hurt his family, or to kill […]
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Introduction by John Baden, Chairman, FREE There are many dimensions along which Americans view their politics and society. Here is one with which I resonate. It is by Mary Roloff, one of the colleagues I most respect in some 50 years of university, foundation, and think-tank work. In this FREE Insight Mary writes of […]
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