Opinion

Republicans are exposing justices for what they are

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Do you remember reading The Emperor’s New Clothes in grade school? It was about a vain emperor who gets exposed to his subjects.

Addition of Congressional seat brings back memories of seat lost 30 years ago

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Thirty years ago, Montana lost one of the seats in the U.S. House of Representatives we had held for 80 years. The mathematical formula that was used to determine the distribution of Representatives after Census counts had worked against us. The result was that Montana lost half our representation in the U.S. House while other states with many members, actually gained representatives.

Life is very short and meant to be lived with integrity

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The fact that we’ve been living in a kind of bubble the past year was apparent to me the other day. The isolation of Covid and a broken bone has given me the privacy that comes with being alone. Of course we need people (or as my mother used to say, “Without people, we get funny in the head”). But after a little time has gone by I find myself focusing more easily and I am able to see something “more” or “deeper” in my quiet surroundings. So there are some pluses to all that has happened.

Difficult days, opportunities ahead for DCC

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Buccaneer Country, we have a problem!

Beware of prophets of ‘synthetic alternatives’

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Shortly after America’s largest private farmland owners, Microsoft billionaires Bill and Melinda Gates, acknowledged their pending divorce, some wag on Twitter wondered what might be the appropriate time to wait before he approached the soon-to-beformer missus to ask about renting some of her farmland.

The federal bureau of cyber ninjas

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A few months back the Republican controlled Arizona State Senate ordered a recount of all 2.1 million votes cast for President and Senate in Maricopa County, Arizona, which includes the city of Phoenix. The recount will not be conducted by public employees who work for the taxpayer, but by private contractors who have been given access to all election information, something that I believe has never been done before. In March Senate President Karen Fann signed an agreement with a Florida firm called Cyber Ninjas to oversee the operation. The operation does not seem to be well received:

Montana has a supreme problem

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Our Supreme Court justices must think they are the executive branch and the legislative branch all rolled into one! They may even believe they are the new oligarchy in charge of Montana. Whatever their problem, it is manifesting itself in executive and legislative authority being usurped by Montana’s Supreme Court.

The more peace in us, the more peace in the world

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The major religions of human kind are Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. These three came out of the Middle East, have one God, and Abraham is basic to the history of each one. The other two are Buddhism and Hinduism which come out of the subcontinent of India. Buddhism is not recognized as much in India but has moved on to be major in Southeast Asia and Japan and actually a great deal of Western Society.

Ag groups make a united, hollow call on meatpackers to play nice

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On May 17, six farm groups joined voices to call on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Congress, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to ensure a “more financially sustainable situation for cattle feeders and cow-calf producers.”

And to think it all began with pizza

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In the mid-1960s, my dad served on the school board in Cortez, in rural southern Colorado. He recalled that at one meeting he said something a little too liberal because a fellow board member invited him to “step outside.”

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