Commentary
Montana doesn’t have nor want a state police
In Montana we do not have to worry about a knock at the door at night after which we are confronted with a gruff voice declaring, “This is the state police, and we want to talk to you.” Every four years when we Montanans vote we have the opportunity to select our county sheriff, the […]
Recycling: The solution to pollution or part of the problem?
I was recently on a cross-country trip to visit some family. In their kitchen for dinner one evening, I noticed they trash their empty aluminum cans. Knowing their political leanings and the fact they don’t believe humans impact global climate change, I wasn’t particularly surprised. However, as one often does around relatives, I decided to […]
This is how we know the vaccine is safe for children
Back in June, with the prospect of my 8-year-old daughter returning to full-time, in-person schooling fast approaching, I took the opportunity to enroll her in the pediatric Pfizer vaccine trial. While there was only a 50% chance of her receiving the vaccine vs. a placebo, I figured that 50% was better than nothing. As a […]
It’s essential for Montana to stand up for VA hospitals, access to healthcare
Our health care system has been pushed to the brink during the last year and a half. From the height of COVID in 2020 when hospital beds were full across the country and non-emergency treatment was being postponed nationwide, to where we are now with vaccines widely available and the most serious impacts of this […]
Critical race theory fury is just the next thing to rile an already upset base
Among the odder creatures in the grove of academe are theories. Useful to scholars as thought strategies, and helpful as shorthand among their students, these theories are little known – and even less understood – to folks beyond the cognoscenti. Take string theory, for example. A paradigm of great use to physicists, it is “a […]
The pitfalls of collaboration strike again
Oh the wailing and gnashing of teeth by the cluster of collaborators who supposedly spent 15 years sitting around “kitchen tables” hammering out the Blackfoot-Clearwater Stewardship Act now introduced by Sen. Jon Tester. And why are they so upset? Well, because Montana’s other U.S. Senator, Steve Daines, has decided the bill isn’t going anywhere unless […]
Missed messages: Arntzen’s statements overshadowed by shooting joke
In the understandable furor over Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen’s participation in a forum in which a lawyer jokingly suggested the remedy for any superintendent who advocated vaccination or mask mandates was to “shoot ‘em,” it was easy to miss some equally shocking rhetoric that wasn’t said as a joke. You may recall […]
The proud and mournful duty of honoring those who made the ultimate sacrifice
Some 76 ½ years ago, my grandmother followed the news accounts of the Battle of Iwo Jima warily. She knew from the newspapers that the first day of the invasion alone ended in 2,312 casualties, a figure that made even President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gasp. She knew, too, that Mount Surabachi had been captured on […]
We can’t leave medical training up to WWAMI
Thanks to the Wyoming-Washington-Alaska-Montana-Idaho medical training program and Dr. Meyers for his commentary on new medical schools in Montana. To be sure, it is a thing of beauty when a senior physician spends time with a newly-minted one. Two scientists learning and re-learning, debunking previously held dispositions and passing on what experience has found really […]
Sportsmen and women, wake up! Your hunting and access is being stolen by your leaders
I am a 68-year-old, retired farmer, fourth-generation Montanan, and a lifelong avid hunter, angler and conservationist with a degree in wildlife biology and research experience on large predators. I started farming in 1977. Now I own Circle S Ranch in eastern Montana and pay property taxes in five counties. I have always shared the bounty […]
There’s precedent for that
Lawyers know about precedent–defined as, something that precedes or comes before. For example, a court decision that serves as authority for deciding subsequent cases involving similar facts or legal issues, or other precedents which serve as guides for administrative conduct and decisions. Precedents provide consistency; they are the rules of the rule of law. That […]
Return to work bonuses were always a scam
After a disappointing jobs report in April, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte announced, “Montana is open for business again, but I hear from too many employers throughout our state who can’t find workers.” He subsequently withdrew Montana from the enhanced unemployment insurance program, which had previously added $300 a week to unemployed workers’ paychecks. This was replaced with […]