It isn’t the function of government to take money from bad people and give it to good people, but if that’s how things happen to turn out, why complain? Yet some Americans do. (more…) Continue Reading →
Note to politicians: Keep the money
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Opinion
Recent Posts
Opinion: Faith traditions call for welcoming immigrants
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Nearly all of the world’s faith traditions call their faithful to protect and offer hospitality to immigrants. Judeo Christian scriptures urge adherents time and again to welcome the stranger and offer special care for widows and orphans. (more…) Continue Reading →
Filed under: Opinion, Department of Homeland Security, Immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Fagg argues for God-inspired Constitution
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I have tried without much success to take an interest in the parboiled debate over Judge Russell Fagg’s so-called shadow campaign for the U.S. Senate. But my dutiful slog through Fagg’s defense of his actions in the Oct. 8 Billings Gazette screeched to a halt when I encountered this sentence: “Our constitution, divinely inspired, gives everyone the right to express their opinions.” (more…) Continue Reading →
Filed under: Opinion, Ben Franklin, George Washington, James Madison, Russell Fagg
Montana Viewpoint: Working together, the impossible dream
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Imagine how things could play out if two political enemies, after years of stalemate and a foreseeable future of more of the same, realized that half a loaf now was better than a whole loaf never and decided to sit down together and say, “Look, let’s take half of what you want and half of what we want and call it good.” (more…) Continue Reading →
Filed under: Opinion, Congress, Donald Trump, Jeff Flake, presidency
For Daines, ideology trumps evidence
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U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., has a history of making dubious claims. Perhaps none was more dubious than his response to the Las Vegas massacre: “History shows us that more gun laws do not make our society safer.” (more…) Continue Reading →
Filed under: Opinion, Greg Gianforte, Jon Tester, Steve Daines
Sharing a cell with Czech mate
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Trying to understand America, I found myself in a prison cell in Czechoslovakia in 1978. (more…) Continue Reading →
Filed under: Opinion, Donald Trump, Ken Burns, Vaclav Havel, Vietnam
Montana Viewpoint: One-size fire suppression doesn’t work
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“For every complex problem there is a simple solution … which is wrong.”
I learned long ago that there are as many expert opinions about an issue as there are people thinking about it. Every year, or every bad fire year, there are numerous opinions regarding what should be done to minimize the economic costs of fire, from loss of timber to loss of homes. (more…) Continue Reading →
Filed under: Opinion, Jim Elliott, U.S. Forest Service, urban-wildlands interface, wildfires
Opinion: Special session needed to deal with shortfall
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My legislative email is blowing up with desperate messages from Montanans pleading for a special legislative session to save our essential public services. (more…) Continue Reading →
Filed under: Opinion, budget, Mary Ann Dunwell, Montana Legislature
Common Read follows history of protest
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Thanks to the president’s ongoing commitment to bring us together by uniting the National Football League against him, the timing of Rocky Mountain College’s Common Read couldn’t be better. (more…) Continue Reading →
Filed under: Opinion, Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Vardam Shalamov, Ben Stewart, Bertolt Brecht, Fyodor Dostoevsky
Opinion: Gianforte and his PR team must do better
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After 18 years as a journalist working across Montana and Wyoming, there aren’t too many times where I can say that something happened for the first time. Sometimes it feels like I’ve seen or heard it all before. But a new first came on Tuesday, when I got word that U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., was in Missoula. A trusted reader said she had spotted him at lunch at Finn and Porter, a local restaurant, right around noon. (more…) Continue Reading →
