Ken Buck is in studio with me for a one-on-one discussion about his candidacy for U.S. Senate. He talks about the differences between himself and his opponent Jane Norton on the Republican side, and why he is the candidate that will the Democrats in November. We even make a foray into a variety of different issues from health care repeal, to unfunded liabilities, to Gov. Bill Ritter as the best man. Catch Devil’s Advocate on this Friday night at 8:30PM on KBDI Channel12; repeated the following Monday afternoon at 1:00PM.

I prefer reading books on paper (“pagebooks” in 23d century parlance). So I initially thought that Kindle (and similar products from other companies) was an interesting novelty, but not greatly important. However, some ancillary aspects of Kindle are making me reconsider. To wit:

1. Text to speech. Only a very small percentage of books are so popular that it makes economic sense to create a special audio edition. Kindle’s text-to-speech feature makes every book into an audio book, unless the publisher refuses to grant the rights. As a result, the number of available audio books is vastly increased. The Kindle reader is not excellent, but it’s pretty good. The “reader” has little sense of English, and often puts the accent on the wrong syllable. But the listening experience is no worse than listening to a very clear speaker whose native language is not English, and who therefore incorrectly accents “Wisconsin.” Kindle is incompetent at numerals of three digits of greater. “1990s” will be read as “eye-gee-gee-oss” or “nineteen-goes” or some other bizarre variant. But overall, Kindle creates a reasonably functional audiobook out of every pagebook, with no marginal production cost. Pretty nifty for those of us who might want to listen to a policy book that sold 3,000 copies in 1996.

2. Text resizing. Not a big deal for me now, but gigantically significant for older people like my dad, whose eyesight is not as sharp as it used to be. With Kindle, every book is instantly a large-type edition. As with audio, a special feature that once was available only for big sellers is now available for everything.

3. Newspapers! Daily subscriptions to the Irish Times, the Daily Telegraph, Spain’s ABC, and other great newspapers for a small fraction of what a print subscription would cost. And, for my dad, a large-print (via text resizing) version of the Denver Post and NY Times. I realize that all this is available for free on the web, but it’s nice to be able to read a newspaper while sitting in the garden, instead of sitting in the home office at the computer monitor.

4. Instant delivery. Back in the days when I wrote a bi-weekly column for the Rocky Mountain News, there were plenty of times when I was writing a column Tuesday night which was due Wednesday afternoon, and I discovered that the column would be improved by examining a book to verify a particular fact. Sometimes I was able to get what I needed via Amazon’s preview feature. But even better would have been instant delivery of the book itself. Only a tiny percentage of readers have an important need to have a book now, as opposed to 12 or 72 hours from now. For those readers who do need instant delivery, Kindle is fantastic.

As Wonder Woman might have said, the Amazonians are building the bridge to the future.

Over the course of the last year or so, we’ve had the opportunity to hear Dave Kopel speak several times about the soon to be decided McDonald v. Chicago Supreme Court case. (To listen to Dave speak on this massively important gun rights issue, listen here, here, here, or here).

In a nutshell, the case will decide whether the Second Amendment is incorporated into the 14th Amendment, and therefore enforceable against state and local governments. For example, the Heller decision stated that the Federal government cannot ban handguns in the District of Columbia – where the Feds have jurisdiction. But what about the city of Chicago in the state of Illinois? Can a city ban handguns? That important decision will be coming down shortly from the Supreme Court in the McDonald case.

Yesterday, Dave discussed the issue of incorporation via the 14th Amendment at his other day job at the Cato Institute. Fair warning: this podcast is chock full of heavy duty legal jargon and constitution-speak. You might need to dust off that old legal textbook you still have laying around to get through it.

A new piece from the Family Research Council blasts Grover Norquist (President of Americans for Tax Reform; Member of the Board of Directors of the National Rifle Association) for joining the board of GOProud, an organization of conservative gay Republicans. Among the alleged sins on the GOProud agenda :

Equalize “concealed carry reciprocity” amendment with gay rights via state rights. Support guns being carried and recognized across state lines, in order to further the agenda that gay marriages legal in only a few states be recognized legally in all. (July 2009)

To FRC’s credit, they link to the endorsement article written by GOProud chairman Christopher Barron. The article says nothing about using national handgun carry license reciprocity as a tool to force states to recognize gay marriage licenses issued in other states. To the contrary, Barron’s article makes the obvious point that national handgun carry will helps gays protect themselves from violent crimes, including gay-bashing.

The FRC article would have been better if it had not made an unsupported claim about Barron’s supposed motive. Rather, the FRC could have more plausibly made the slippery slope argument that, regardless of supporters’  intent, national carry reciprocity might set a precedent for mandatory federal recognition of marriage licenses. I don’t see a strong slippery slope possibility here, but the FRC is free to have its own risk assessment.

And obviously the FRC is free to organize is policy preferences any way it wants. Personally, though, I think that federal legislation which directly protects the Second Amendment rights of all Americans is far more important than whatever tiny effect the bill might have on gay marriage.   (HT: Snowflakes.)

Independence Institute president Jon Caldara’s efforts to put his “Right To Health Care Choice” citizens amendment on Colorado’s November ballot got a boost this week from the Colorado Supreme Court, which heard a challenge to the initiative’s title.  From Law Week Colorado:

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday that proposed initiative 45, which would prohibit state law from requiring people to buy health insurance, meets the state’s single subject requirement for ballot initiatives.

The court, in its 5-2 decision, also held that the proposed initiative’s title, “Right to health care choice,” is neither misleading nor an impermissible slogan.

This follows closely behind another significant legal victory for Caldara’s initiative, this one in federal court.  From the Denver Post:

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Friday [June 11] that bars the Colorado secretary of state from enforcing rules that would have prohibited petition circulators for ballot initiatives from being paid by the signature.

A recent state law had banned pay-per-signature initiatives because legislators believe the practice invites fraud.

But citizen-initiative groups, including the pro-marijuana group SAFER and the Independence Institute, a free-market think tank, sued the secretary of state in challenging the rules. The groups asked U.S. District Judge Philip Brimmer for a preliminary injunction barring the rules until the end of trial.

It’s been a good month for citizens’ ability to petition their government.

The Independence Institute will be sponsoring its eighth annual Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) Sporting Clay Shoot on Saturday, July 17, at the Kiowa Creek Sporting Club in Bennett, Colo. Click Here for a Map of the Area.

This is the most fun, most politically incorrect event of the year, where attendees of all skill levels get the opportunity to hone their shooting abilities and celebrate those liberties – smoking, shooting and drinking – that most irritate nannyists.

The award-winning event features a PETA-friendly clay pigeon shoot followed by a clubhouse luncheon complete with whiskey and cigars in one of the last places available to smokers – the outside.

“The thought of responsible adults enjoying these pastimes just drives the liberal meddlers nuts,” said Institute president Jon Caldara. “I can’t think of a better use of my time or yours for that matter.”

The $150 fee to participate in the ATF event also includes 100 sporting clays, ammunition, lunch, libations, cigars and lunch time entertainment. Past lunch speakers include Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, Steve Moore of the Wall Street Journal, Weekly Standard Executive Editor Fred Barnes  and internationally renowned columnist Christopher Hitchens.

This year we are honored to have Nick Gillespie, Editor of Reason.com and Reason.tv as our featured speaker.

Caldara describes the event as “a smashing success and a liberal’s nightmare, and the nightmare grows each year,” referring to the 2007 Westword’s “the best place to see a drunk conservative” award. “Few awards have meant more to me than this one,” boasts Caldara.

T-shirts commemorating this year’s ATF Shoot will be available for $15 and figure to be the most sought after fashion item for the well-dressed, politically-incorrect crowd.

With space limited for attendees, reservations for the July 17th event are filling up fast. The Independence Institute is an equal-opportunity host. “While this is a celebration of individual rights and personal freedoms, we want it clear that uptight nannyists are also welcome,” says Caldara.

RSVP here.

For more information, please call Mary MacFarlane at 303-279-6536 or e-mail mary@i2i.org.

That’s the topic I discuss in a new Cato Institute Daily Podcast. (9 1/2 minutes). I also discussed related topics with Cam Edwards on NRA News (June 21 show, last segment of the show, 22 minutes).

The Denver Post has a fantastic article today on how the state Department of Revenue is having problems doling out tax refunds and handling a boatload of complaints.  Funny thing is, our investigate reporter Todd Shepherd published nearly the exact same report 6 weeks ago.  On Tuesday, May 4th, Todd published “Complaints Continue to Bubble up Against Department of Revenue,” via our Independence Investigates page.  Once again proving that we at the Independence Institute are ahead of the curve… we’ve been handling a massive amount of complaints and criticism for way longer than the Dept. of Revenue has!