Happy New Year
Best wishes from the Antiplanner to all my faithful friends and loyal opponents. I hope you had a good year this year and that 2011 turns out to be even better. I know I’ve featured my late friend, Chip, here three times already this year, but I’m going to indulge myself and do so just […]
Yes! Forest Plans Make Decisions!
A recent decision by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has upended years of forest planning that were based on a Supreme Court decision made back in 1998. The Supreme Court had ruled that forest plans didn’t really make decisions, so even though the Forest Service spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year writing […]
Washington Voters Rein in Big Gov’t
by Barry Poulson In the November election, Washington citizens approved Initiative I-1053 by a more than 64 percent margin, requiring that “Legislative actions raising taxes must be approved by two thirds legislative majorities or receive voter approval.” In other words, Washingtonians have elected to reign in their legislature’s ability to further tax them through a […]
Movie Review: North by Northwest
The somewhat tongue-in-cheek movie review earlier this week reminds me of one of my favorite movies. Not many people realize that North by Northwest was actually based on a true story, though of course Hitchcock changed many of the details to make his action/adventure movie. As cinemaphiles will remember, Cary Grant plays Roger O Thornhill, […]
Welcome to the Blogosphere
Martin Engel is a typical northern Californian who says he is “not a Libertarian or absolute free market idealist.” But he has become skeptical of high-speed rail, and through his email list has kept people up-to-date on the various shenanigans at the California High-Speed Rail Authority. Now he has started a blog, High-Speed Train Talk, […]
Movie Review: Road House
The Antiplanner doesn’t ordinarily review movies, but then, not many movies cover the dark side of urban renewal. Someone once called Road House, featuring the late Patrick Swayze, the “cheesiest movie ever made,” but they must not have been aware of the political subtext. In the movie, Brad Wesley (played by Ben Gazzara) is the […]
Seasons’ Greetings
The Antiplanner is taking tomorrow off for the holiday. So today I wish a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, fabulous Festivus, or whatever is your holiday of choice to all my faithful allies and loyal opponents. We have a lot of snow here this year and I took this photo at nearby Lake Creek last Sunday. […]
Antiplanner Presentation
On December 11, the Antiplanner gave a presentation to the Elbert County Conservative Breakfast Association, a Tea-Party-like group in Colorado, and one of the members of the audience posted it on line. The introduction is by Tom Peterson, who also happens to be the director of the Colorado Asphalt Pavement Association, to which the Antiplanner […]
Norfolk Light Rail Scandal
When the light-rail line in Norfolk, Virginia, went nearly 50 percent over its projected cost, the general manager of Hampton Roads Transit resigned in disgrace–but they gave him $300,000 in severance pay. Now documents have come to light that agency officials knew the line was going to cost more than their published projections but kept […]
The Dream of the ’90s Is Alive
Portland — the place where people are content to be unambitious; an alternative universe, Gore won, the Bush administration never happened; where you can put a bird on something and call it art! No wonder the media love Portland. This is apparently the teaser for Portlandia, a series to begin on IFC in January. Jack […]
The Citizens’ Budget on TV
This episode of Jon Caldara’s TV show the Devils Advocate first appeared on Colorado Public Television – Channel 12 on Friday, December 17th, 2010. It features a 30 minute discussion about the Citizens’ Budget and features Independence Institute Fiscal Policy Center director Penn Pfiffner – director of the Citizens’ Budget project.
Federal Pay Freeze Should Precede a Larger Fiscal Conversation
by Barry Fagin As a long-time, hard-working federal employee who gives up a lot to work where he does, I have just one thing to say about the proposed federal employee pay freeze. I think it’s a terrific idea. Well, maybe not exactly terrific, particularly if you think about how little difference it would actually […]
