Opinion

That old rural-urban farm bill coalition has moved to the city

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One of the perennial certainties of any election season is how pundits chew over the politics of losing campaigns rather than discuss the policy implications of winning campaigns.

Is western water on its way to being a demand managed commodity?

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There’s a concept called “demand management” in the news in Colorado, and here’s a simple definition: Landowners get paid to temporarily stop irrigating, and that water gets sent downstream to hang out in Lake Powell.

Marijuana in Montana: The people have smoken

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With the passage in Montana of I-190 we have joined California, Washington, Oregon, and a few other “Liberal” states in making the purchase and use of marijuana jail time free. It has been about 100 years since its use became a social stigma, then illegal in the United States. Marijuana use was blamed for everything from mild insanity to the insatiable urge to massacre hundreds of people at one time. How could something that was once in common use become so bad and then good again? I’d like to say it was common sense that caused many people to realize that people peddling the horror stories of marijuana were just blowing so much smoke, but for a long, long time in America and the world a lot of people suffered from the most serious effects of marijuana use, namely jail time, and sometimes lots of it.

What exactly is China buying on its US shopping spree?

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As political winners joust over election spoils, many Americans are tickled pink (or purple) to leave the costliest, most bitter campaign season behind and return to their lives of family, work, and dreams.

Looking forward to Thanksgiving

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As I write this article, I would like to point out that I have calculated 2020 to be precisely 84.15% complete. I know this because I stare at the calendar every day, straddling a line between wishing the year to be over, and being morbidly interested in just how much worse it’s going to get. We have mass rioting, COVID-19; the murder hornets are still out there somewhere, plotting; there’s been a hotly contested Presidential election; and 2020 even killed Sean Connery. What could possibly happen next? Part of me wants to know, and part of me wants to run screaming away.

Listening is more work than we think

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“Truly listening to someone requires a lot more work than you probably think. Most of the time, we are spending our time thinking of what to say back to the person and inserting our opinion rather than listening to what they’re actually saying. Step back and listen for two things: what the other person is feeling and what the other person needs. Give them a chance to express those feelings and needs, and repeat back what they’ve said so they understand you are hearing them. Give them your full attention and be present in the moment. This will give you the ability to actually understand where they are fully coming from instead of only understanding half of the story (your own).” (Adapted from Megan Bailey at beliefnet.com (From Soundbites Ministry))

Wyoming needs to bite the bullet

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Faced with COVID-19 and the collapse of Wyoming’s coal industry, Republican Gov. Mark Gordon said recently that the state might have to start abandoning small towns because there’s not enough money to maintain their sewers and streets.

Abstractions, distractions, and subtraction

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The difference between arithmetic and mathematics is roughly the difference between beef stew and boeuf bourguignon. The former satisfies an appetite; the latter feeds the soul.

Living with evacuation, smoke, fire and helicopters

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I live on a county road near the evacuation perimeter of what is now Colorado’s largest wildfire. Yesterday, the sheriff’s deputy was outside, his lights flashing red-blue-red, giving my house a strobe light effect. He was directing traffic as people fled the mountain with trailers filled with cattle and horses and goats and belongings.

Same destination

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We are living in a tumultuous time, and my bet is it will become even more tumultuous after the election. Who ever wins, the supporters of the losing candidate will be angry. There is talk of not accepting the results of the election, something that has never happened in our history. The Right is worried about retribution from the Left, win or lose, and the Left fears vigilante “justice” from the self-appointed “guardians of freedom” of the Right. It could be a mess. It doesn’t have to be, but avoiding it will require leadership and graciousness from the influential people of the Left and Right. A good example was set recently by the Democratic and Republican candidates for the governorship of Utah. They cut an ad together, standing side by side, saying, in essence, we disagree about which of us should be governor of Utah, but we strongly agree that we will treat each other and each other’s supporters with the respect and dignity we all deserve. Those are not their exact words, but it is their exact sentiment. They are leaders. Perhaps better leaders than we deserve and probably better than those we will get.

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