Our modest ranch lies near the mouth of Gallatin Canyon. It’s 10 miles from Bozeman — an easy 40-minute bike ride — and 27 miles north of the Big Sky turnoff. A mile and a half of the West Gallatin Canal winds through it, and Wortman Creek cuts through the pasture just south of our […]
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Each summer Eagle Mount’s Camp Braveheart program brings 10 to 20 kids from throughout the nation to the Bozeman area. All of them are stricken by cancer and many come from families of modest means. While here, they revel in Montana delights: horseback riding, camping, canoeing, etc. FREE and Curmudgeon friends sponsor a day at […]
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Each spring, the mainstream media — fueled by a single advocacy group — accuse FREE of promoting corporate interests, pursuing anti-environmental policies, and conducting boondoggle seminars for federal judges and law professors. Solid evidence refutes these claims. It would be less disturbing if these printed accounts appeared on opinion pages, but these biases underlie Associated […]
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I recently read that the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC), a free-market environmental group in Bozeman, will celebrate its 25th anniversary on June 4th. Please join me in offering congratulations. PERC has done a great deal to improve America’s understanding of the institutions that promote and foster environmental quality, as well as those that […]
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Bozeman is home to close to fifty nonprofits. Together, they contribute to our social and economic well-being and offer an arena for civic involvement. Nonprofits offer public goods free from the constraints of the market or government regulation. Nonprofit organizations produce incalculable benefits. Bridger Bowl is one such example. Yet, I am concerned about the […]
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America is the most successful and prosperous nation in history. Personal tragedies aside, our afflictions are trivial. But not all good things go together. With wealth well distributed among our friends, we face the problem of finding gifts for those who want for little. The parents of my generation suffered through the Great Depression and […]
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Many of us who love our region consider Wallace Stegner our most perceptive and insightful observer and constructive critic. He chastised a political economy and culture that fostered “boomers,” folks who high-graded, exploited, then bailed out. He admonished us to create a society worthy of our scenery and urged us to foster “nesters,” individuals who […]
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The Bush administration has authored a proposal that will, for the first time, give Western governors authority to formally propose development in our wildest public lands. This overturns President Clinton’s decision to set aside 40 million acres of National Forest as roadless areas. Although the initiative was criticized as part of the Clinton administration’s “War […]
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The term “entrepreneur” usually invokes images of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, or Bill Gates. Such individuals mobilize ideas and arrange resources to bring new products to market. They have clearly made huge contributions to our wealth and well-being. They have, in fact, democratized luxury. However, the commercial sector has no monopoly on entrepreneurial talent. Consider […]
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Most folks care about their less fortunate neighbors. Americans have long formed voluntary associations and civic groups to address such problems. Habitat for Humanity and the Salvation Army are two successful examples. But since FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society, which harnessed government to cure social problems, the federal government has claimed the dominant […]
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