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The Cannon Chronology

December 2000 – March 2001

After years of hibernation I decided to get active in the freedom movement again. Didn't know what to do so I started writing letters-to-the-editor. Between December 2000 and March 2001 the Fort Worth Star-Telegram published three and the Dallas Morning News published two. You can read them all in Letters-to-the-editor.

April 2001 to July 2001

Stumbled across a website called NewsGuy.com advertising for "Feature Writers." I pitched them on a column idea called "The Loose Cannon Libertarian." They hired me to write two articles a month. After my second article I was their number one columnist. After my sixth article they began changing their business and shutting down writers. They no longer run articles on their website. You can read those old articles in NewsGuy. (Note the little cannon and "L" graphic they used for my logo on their site.)

September 2001 to December 2007

By the time my NewsGuy gig ended I was having way too much fun to quit writing. So I borrowed a friend's manual on how to set up a website using Microsoft FrontPage 2000 and began posting my own articles twice a month, every month, except for May 2002 when my hard drive experienced a tragic, early demise. You can read all my articles in my Online Archive. (And being no great webweenie I'm still using FrontPage 2000!)

December 2001

A sanitized version of my online article, Freedom Riders, appeared as an op-ed in the Star-Telegram under the headline "Got an idea on transit? Let it ride." My first article in a mainstream newspaper. You can read it in Loose Cannon Op-Eds.

March 2004

I became a member of the Star-Telegram's first-ever "Community Columnist" panel when they advertised for people in the community to write articles throughout the year. Thirteen of us beat out a field of over 200 applicants. You can read these articles in Star-Telegram Commentaries.

June 2005

A lightly edited version of my online article, Cartoon Libertarians, appeared in the print edition of the Libertarian Party News under the severely awkward title, "Libertarians aren't 'Democrats and Republicans, with a twist.'" You can read it in Loose Cannon Op-Eds.

February 2006

An edited version of my online article America Needs Gun Control ... for Bureaucrats was published in the Star-Telegram under the meaningless header (apparently they were skittish about questioning bureaucracy's right to go armed) "There are a million stories in the big city ..." You can read it in Loose Cannon Op-Eds.

November 2007

Time to try something different. Maybe I can self-syndicate my articles to some of the over 130 alternative newsweeklies published in every small to major city in the country. Developed a plan, a mailing list, and a pitch. Started contacting editors. One bit, the River Cities Reader of the Quad Cities, Iowa and Illinois. They ran four articles on consecutive weeks, beginning Wednesday, November 28, 2007, as a "Guest writer" to evaluate reader response.

January 2008

The River Cities Reader hired me as a fulltime weekly columnist and began publishing my articles in print and online (under the sobriquet "Guest Commentary"). These articles are written expressly for them (and any future buyers), and they receive a one-week exclusive in their market area. These articles appear on my website one week later in my archives. While I hope you read them in the original publication in support of my publisher, you can read all of these articles in my Print Archive.

Today

The Loose Cannon Libertarian website no longer posts my original articles twice a month on the main page as it did for over six years. It now serves in a backup function for the always-ongoing efforts to syndicate my weekly libertarian columns to other newspapers and websites.

Fun&Freedom

Garry Reed

The Loose Cannon Libertarian