:: walterindenver ::

:: Tuesday, January 07, 2003 ::

Matthew Edgar

...has one of the best blogs you've never read. He says he's going to post more often in the new year. Go offer him some encouragement.

:: Walter 8:02 PM [+] ::
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Charity Begins at Home

Diane Carman's Sunday column explains how Denver area voters are better than others in Colorado because we steal more from our neighbors.

Sunday, January 05, 2003 - This past week, Colorado achieved yet another dubious distinction as the worst state in America for public support of the arts. We spend 26 cents a year per capita on the arts. And that's before the legislature meets to hack another $80 million from the overall budget.
We also rank near the bottom in support for higher education, elementary and secondary education, libraries, indigent health care, mental health programs and a whole range of public institutions.
As a state, we aim low. Then we start cutting.
But not all of Colorado has been so miserly. For 15 years, voters in the Denver area have consistently supported public investment to enhance our quality of life, improve the state's economy and attract private investment.
Without us, Colorado would be a much different place. Picture Alabama with snow.

Heh, nice dig at Alabama.

Of course, Colorado residents support the arts financially at a rate much higher than 26 cents a head. Either that or I paid for 120 years worth last time I went to the symphony. In Carman's world, private money doesn't count. Denver's public arts funding supports a very expensive Center for Performing Arts that serves as a playground for the well heeled in the metro area. A subsidy for the entertainment of the wealthy, if you please. Colorado state government is in a budget crunch, and cuts have to be made somewhere. This seems a good place to start.

:: Walter 8:41 AM [+] ::
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Durn Lib'ruls

On said blog:

Well I finally went and done it. I added a link to Instapundit. Even though the Professor of Knox Vegas is an unrepentant right-winger,...

That's not all. There's also a new link to this blog. These two, mine and Instapundit, make up a catagory by themselves according to Durn Lib'ruls. I hope that doesn't mean they think I'm a right winger. Egads.

UPDATE: Lib'ruls has a created a new link category for libertarians titled 'Paul Revere.' Walter in Denver makes the cut. Cool.

:: Walter 11:28 AM [+] ::
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Guns and Golf

Occasionally I write about a subject I actually know something about. Readers may speculate how this would set me apart from the rest of the blogosphere, but I won't join them in that speculation. So, when David Kopel mentions golf in his bi-weekly Rocky Mountain News column that would be my cue.

A short item on the front page of the Dec. 24 News sports section announced that handgun manufacturer Smith & Wesson is introducing logo-branded golf clubs. The News claimed that "Marketing analysts said the move may carry risks," and supported this claim with a quote from a single marketing consultant who compared the program to "Philip Morris putting its brand on cheese."

That was indeed a silly piece of commentary on the part of the News writer. Golfers tend to be a rather conservative lot. (No kidding?) I doubt many of them will be put off by seeing a gun maker's logo on golf clubs. What the writer probably wouldn't know is that Browning was in the clubmaking business in the 1980's. They produced an innovative and popular line of clubs which sold well, but they got out of the business after a few years.(Golf club manufacturers have notoriously small profit margins.) It seems natural that a gun manufacturer could make golf clubs. They would have the necessary metallurgical knowledge in-house and access to the foundries needed for actual production.
My first set of new clubs were Browning 500's, bought in 1985. Good luck to Smith & Wesson.

:: Walter 9:57 AM [+] ::
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I Have Won A Major Award

OK, not exactly. Beanless Chili (chile!) wins the award. Still, I can hope for one of these.

:: Walter 7:45 PM [+] ::
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About Time

South Dakota Governor Bill Janklow has pardoned libertarian and AIM activist Russell Means. From the Sioux Falls Argus Leader:

The Means pardon deals with a felony conviction for riot to obstruct justice. The law was repealed by the Legislature in the late '70s, but with no retroactive provision for those convicted, Means said.
He recalls the incident in the Sioux Falls courtroom.
"I refused to stand up for Judge Joe Bottum. There is no crime for not standing up for a judge, but it is a polite show of respect. So he sent in the riot police to deal with us, and we (Means' supporters - W.) beat up the riot police," Means said. "I did my time, one year, three days, 22 hours in the Sioux Falls penitentiary."

Means probably committed other felonies in his younger days - his autobiography is full of sordid tales. The charge for which he was actually imprisoned is bogus. Federal and local authorities pulled out all the stops to try to convict Means of something, anything, but that was the only charge that stuck.

:: Walter 9:41 PM [+] ::
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