Review by Dave Skinner
History – October 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
A Wilderness So Immense – The Louisiana Purchase and the Destiny of America
by Jon Kukla
Published in 2003 by Alfred Knopf/Borzoi Books
ISBN 0-375-40812-6
Dave Skinner
Public enterprise hasn’t worked
Letter from Dave Skinner
Political economy – April 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
George Sibley’s approach in “On the Ground” seems to be to socialize everything possible. As a “libertarian Republican,” I’ll try to refute him without resorting to “religious ideology.” To begin, one word explains why airline nationalization is wrong: AEROFLOT.
More regulation?
Letter from Dave Skinner
Transportation – January 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
With United’s debt mess making the headlines, I had to go back and re-read George Sibley’s “let’s federalize everything” piece about the Gunnison airport subsidy.
What struck me THIS time, however, was George’s incidental whine about track conditions. Sibley obviously hasn’t been around railroads much lately, otherwise he’d have gotten an eyeful of Union Pacific’s three-track main in Nebraska, the Powder River main in Wyoming, the GN main up here, and just about every railroad that hasn’t been tore up.
Flattered by the opposition
Letter from Dave Skinner
Conservation easements – November 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
Ed and Martha:
Gee, I wish I HAD gotten that letter from Mark Weston.
There are a couple of things Mark doesn’t mention, actually a bunch.
Conservation Easements put money in wrong pockets
Essay by Dave Skinner
Land Use – June 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
LIKE NEARLY EVERYONE, I am concerned with the gradual, and sometimes not-so-gradual replacement of our wide-open West with housing. I’ve seen more than a few of my favorite hunting and fishing spots, and my favorite neighbors, disappear forever.
It’s a bad situation, made worse by conservation easements.
Perhaps the airliner should be “Adventure Travel,” too
Letter from Dave Skinner
Transportation – January 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
George Sibley’s column on airlines and subsidies (December, 2001) took me straight back to Steamboat Springs. About eight years ago, “we” got all this groovy Federal loot for a new airport terminal, $5.2 million.
Yes, I scammed my share of the Davis-Bacon money. It’s a heck of a nice terminal, and I’m kind of proud I helped build it.
It won’t be hard to christen a jackass
Letter from Dave Skinner
Motorized Recreation – September 2000 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
As usual, the August edition of Colorado Central was a cover-to-cover. As an ex-railroader, I was surprised and impressed with Sharon Chickering’s report on the Leadville Mineral Belt.
In stark contrast, however, Marcia Darnell’s fey little item on the land-use forum in Monte Vista was an insult, not only to readers, but to the participants. That Darnell had to trot out the “UN blackhelicopteritis” angle to make her point was careless and lazy.