Latest
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Thinking of Jess Unruh
In my undergraduate days – the late sixties and early seventies – California politician Jess Unruh was probably the most cynical professional politician I could quote. He probably still is, but his one-liners aren’t so easy to find online as many lesser people. Lyndon Johnson once described him as “probably the most selfish man I have met in politics.” His run for governor of California was stopped by Ronald Reagan’s successful campaign. Anyway, here’s a bit of the world, as seen by California’s Speaker of the State Assembly and later State Treasurer: Ecology has become the political substitute for the…
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There are differences between the Democrats and the Republicans. Dims like illegal immigrants, Repugnants don’t. There is a long list of disagreement between the two groups. But they stand together in spending money the nation doesn’t have, to build a huge present and future problem. In general, we elect likable people – whether dims or…
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I’m a sociologist. Long ago I quit counting how many times people explained that majoring in sociology was a really bad idea – and then they would tell me how dismal the employment opportunities were. At times they seemed correct – I am also a pretty good engineering technician and surveyor – skills that made…
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Mallard Fillmore has a cartoon that illustrates the problem of argument: Somewhere along the line, I’ve learned that the statement “Don’t confuse me with facts.” applies to a lot of the opinions people hold. I was more in the habit of pointing out the statistics and facts to folks who hold a Ph.D. It still…
local
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We started the Mountain Ear (both times) because we wanted better coverage of local news. There are so many board meetings, and all of them are important. The Tobacco Valley News faces the same problem we do- not enough people and too many meetings, and their focus is on a larger area. So we started…
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An emergency meeting of the Trego school board was called again on May 4 at 4 PM to update the community on the methamphetamine contamination of the school grounds.. Although the meeting was poorly noticed, there were nearly 40 community members in attendance, these included parents, teachers, former students and teachers and interested community members.…
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Earlier this week, a meeting was held to formalize the existing long-term relationship between the TFS Community Hall and the TFS Fire Department. Tables were set to form a circle, and the meeting began with introductions. It was a joint meeting meant to prevent future problems, without any reason to expect them. The issue: an…
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An emergency school board meeting was held at the TFS Community Hall, Saturday at noon (which coincidentally is the time the Rendezvous Parade in Eureka began). The board acknowledged that they failed to provide adequate (48 hours notice) on the meeting, and cited the requisite MCA code allowing it in the event of an unforseen…
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When I went to get some repair work done, the person I was consulting advised fixing the structural issues and then putting the same ancient dilapidated siding back on the building. The rational? Property taxes. Last summer, we joked about how much the nice flowers my mother had on their porch raised their taxes. They…
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I spent most of a year away from the school after I finished my term. I attended a couple of board meetings because I was asked – on one hand, there was, at the least, the appearance of an unlawful board meeting . . . unlawful because it appeared to violate Montana’s open meeting law.…
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Historically, independent voters, and voters for minor third parties, do not get a large percentage of votes. Often, they’re considered “spoiler” candidates, who lose the election for someone by dra4wing critical support away during a close race. Or their thought of as simply “protest candidates” with no chance of winning. In Montana, for the presidential…
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Not many years ago, if you were faced with a cluster of unacceptable clowns on your ballot, you could write a name in and cast a protest vote. Hell, I guess you still can – the thing is, your write-in protest vote won’t be counted or reported. With the elimination of subsection 7 last year,…