by Byron Schlomach | Dec 11, 2019 | Blog
How surprising was it that MAPS 4 in Oklahoma City passed? It was a hard-fought, noisy campaign, with debaters “FOR” and “AGAINST” duking it out in public forums, polls showing a race that was neck-and-neck, hard feelings on both… Oh wait. Nope. We were thinking of...
by Byron Schlomach | Dec 11, 2019 | Blog
When I was a young child, I remember speculating with my school classmates about how close a nuclear bomb blast might occur if there were all-out nuclear war with the Soviet Union. I grew up about 25 miles from Sheppard Air Force Base, which we all assumed was a...
by Byron Schlomach | Dec 9, 2019 | Blog
I once met a highly decorated retired Air Force colonel only because he wanted to learn how to teach his grandson to read. This was not because the grandson was being homeschooled. The boy was attending public school in a generally decent middle-class school district...
by Mike Davis | Dec 4, 2019 | Blog
Why does accepting payment for a service make an otherwise-benign activity suddenly illegal? Accepting money is what distinguishes cutting a friend’s hair for free from a criminal mastermind who takes money for illegally performing cosmetology or barbering without a...
by Benjamin Lepak | Dec 2, 2019 | Blog
As I have been writing and speaking about the need to reform Oklahoma’s judiciary, I have been asked several times to explain what it is, exactly, that we should be looking for in a judge. More specifically, what should we look for in a state supreme court justice?...
by Byron Schlomach | Nov 27, 2019 | Blog
What follows is a true story – actually, two true stories, or the same story that occurred in two different places in very different times and circumstances. Read on to find out where. They had been discussing amongst themselves in pairs and small groups for months,...
by Mike Davis | Nov 25, 2019 | Blog
We at the 1889 Institute spend a lot of time critiquing government. I mean a lot. It’s what we do: we want to make government the best it can be, and that starts with identifying its flaws. But it is important, from time to time, to acknowledge that on the whole,...
by Mike Davis | Nov 22, 2019 | Research
Fully Loaded: Oklahoma’s Car Dealer Licensing Cartel Author Mike Davis Abstract This paper describes why “(t)here may not be a clearer example of naked protectionism in the laws of Oklahoma than the protection afforded to car dealers.” The law puts car...
by Byron Schlomach | Nov 20, 2019 | Blog
The Americans at the table, negotiating a business deal, ask one of their number, “You can speak Dutch?” He replies, “I’m OK.” With his fellow Americans looking doubtful, he proceeds to mistranslate what they want him to say to their Dutch counterparts. The “OK”...
by Benjamin Lepak | Nov 18, 2019 | Blog
One of the most routine things any court does is to publish its “docket.” This public calendar announces the cases the court will hear and when they will be heard. The docket doesn’t just keep the court on schedule and notify the parties in litigation when to show up...
