My web monkey just finished posting Randal’s fantastic presentation called “Mobility vs. Gridlock: Colorado’s Transportation Future” on YouTube in a playlist format. In the presentation, Randal points to the overwhelming evidence that rail transit in general, and FasTracks in particular, is a dead end in solving congestion, safety, and mobility issues. Instead, Randal offers a couple of his own solutions to these pressing problems.

Randal tackles these issues more in-depth in his book, “Gridlock: Why We’re Stuck in Traffic and What to Do About It.”

I alerted the econ nerds out there last week to this Hayek vs. Keynes rap video. Here’s a little something extra to enjoy in between your readings of Friedman and Mises: Resident PhD economist Paul Prentice appeared on the Jim Pfaff Show last October to discuss the moral basis for free market capitalism. You can find the whole program’s audio file here.

Additionally, Paul’s appearance is a good baseline for what our Free People, Free Markets class is all about – the philosophical, moral, and political principles of the free market system. If Paul’s interview piques your interest, please contact Mary by email or phone (303.279.6536) to sign up for our next class.

Adam Schrager from 9News sat down with me the other day to discuss our initiative to opt Colorado out of Obama Care. In addition to answering his questions, I also had the opportunity to answer questions from viewers. Watch the video, courtesy of Channel 9 here.

You might remember that we boiled Canadian Cheryl Baxter’s story down to just a few minutes on YouTube.  Cheryl was one of several Canadians we met up with in Vancouver who got a raw deal from their “public option.”  And by raw deal, I mean waiting years to get a new hip, then finally escaping to the U.S. to receive treatment.  The question still remains: if we go all Canada on our health care system, where will the Canadians escape to?

Reason Magazine came along on our trip and put together this video highlighting Cheryl’s story and some great insight from the Fraser Institute.

As promised from my web monkey, here are the rest of the 25th Annual Founders Night pictures. The ones you have not seen yet are at the end, about the last half of them.

Our good friend and loyal supporter Ari Armstrong was one of many of you who had the honor of attending our 25th Annual Founders Night celebration.  Before sitting down to great food and a keynote address by none other than P.J. O’Rourke, Ari conducted interviews with some key figures in the Independence Institute’s 25 year history.  Please enjoy these two videos filmed, edited, and posted by Ari Armstrong of FreeColorado.com.

My web monkey told me that due to size constraints, we have to wait until Dec. 1st for the next batch of pictures. (Flickr size rules).

Our recent trip to Canada in search of real people with real stories of Canada’s version of Obama Care inspired Reason Magazine. So much so, this new Reason.tv video on Obama Care gives a special thanks shout out to us. It shows that the profit motive is the main reason we (and the rest of the world) enjoy the medical innovation that saves so many lives. Cancer drugs, CT scans, MRI’s, etc are all a result of that evil word “profit.” Take a few minutes and watch this great video, and pay extra special attention to the Independence Institute shout out at the end.

Let’s see, the Denver Post endorsed Amendment 23, which I campaigned against.  It busted the state budget.  The Post endorsed and worked double time for the RTD Fastracks 67% tax increase, which I campaigned against.  Fastracks is so over-budget RTD needs to double the tax just to get close to what they promised.  The Post endorsed and worked triple-sooper-dooper time to pass Referendum C (including a front-page editorial), which I campaigned against.  My prediction that its cost would double came true within two years.

I’ve been waiting for the Post to admit they were wrong on any of these crushing failures of big government growth they advocated.  I finally got it today!  Well not from the Post but from a Post letter writer, but I’ll take what little I can get:

Turns out Jon Caldara was right about light rail

by DP Opinion on September 17, 2009

Re: “RTD to rework forecast of costs,” Sept. 13 news story.

Credit where credit is due. I believe Jon Caldara of the Independence Institute was correct in asserting that FasTracks was a huge tax hike, and that it would not be built for the amount on the ballot. While light rail is a viable option in a perfect world, what a waste of time and resources — all that money spent by the bonding companies, law firms and construction companies to convince voters to build it. Now we have no money to build what the voters approved, and fighting between the various jurisdictions. Hindsight is 20/20, I suppose.

Dave Sprecace, Denver

Dave Sprecace, I have no idea who you are but thanks!  Could you maybe talk to the Pest editorial board and ask them to just listen to me for ten minutes before blindly follow the Denver Chamber of Commerce and carry the water for the next tax increase.

Thanks to Ari Armstrong for filming and putting this on YouTube.