The Archive

January 31, 2026

Getting Elected, Governing, or Ruling?

To some, it is enough to get elected. Others have the higher challenge of governing – which usually includes making life a bit better for their constituents. Still others are elected and decide they have a mandate to rule.

Nationally, we had the advantage of beginning with George Washington, who started our list of presidents into the governing rather than ruling. In general, libertarians agree with the concept “The government governs best that governs least.” I think the anarchists may just cut that down even further. We go from that belief in minimal government to the near total control shown by the Nazis and Soviets (I don’t see a whole lot of difference between national socialism and international socialism).

I recall the television interviews when Barack Obama was elected – and how it really grabbed my attention when a young black woman responded to the interviewer with “Now we’re gonna rule.” It’s been a long time since even a British monarch ruled – but she probably didn’t take Problems of American Democracy where and when I did. There actually was a group (at the time the Constitution was being written) that believed our government should be a monarchy – and, since Bonnie Prince Charlie wasn’t otherwise occupied the position should be offered to him. I suspect his supporters in Philadelphia, as at Culloden, were largely Jacobite Scots.

In Iran, if I follow definitions, the government should probably be described as a fascist theocracy – a combination of the two worst forms of government that I recognize. They bloody well rule. I prefer governments that govern lightly – but we’re not seeing that.

One of the greatest weaknesses of representative democracy is that the uninformed voter counts just as much as the voter who has educated himself or herself on the issues. Representative democracy depends on educated voters to select the representatives who can do the best job. All too often, ignorant voters select pleasant, likable representatives who do not understand what it is like to govern well. As I have often written, I usually vote for the least bad candidate.

So we’re looking at a government shutdown of sorts – and it is motivated by a couple of protesters in Minneapolis getting shot. Unfortunate, and I don’t like people getting killed. I kind of like police who go through a long career without ever shooting anyone. Still, we’re looking at a government shutdown because people went to stupid places, with stupid people, and behaved stupidly. The shutdown idea is because half the politicians figure they can win the next election by tough enforcement of immigration laws and the other half figure they’ll win by opposing ICE. We need voters that are better informed, voting for better candidates.

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January 30, 2026

Failures in Leadership – Schrodinger’s Government

This column is dedicated to our elected leaders who couldn’t lead a fraternity party to a free kegger. People who couldn’t lead a liberty party from the gangplank to the nearest saloon. People who are elected to a position and decide that gives them the power to insist on their own chosen illegalities.

They range from school board members to the President of these United States. If you like Trump, then take a moment to remember the four years of Joe Biden “leadership.” Even if you don’t like Trump, think back on Slow Joe. The man kept being elected by Delaware – 2 years on the county council, then 36 years in the US Senate, 8 years as Vice-President, culminating in a 4 year debacle as President. He epitomized the Peter Principle – he spent 48 years in elected offices that were above his level of competence. Being elected so many times, with so little ability, is a testimony to his drive for power and personality.

While Biden found that the small state of Delaware matched his limited talents and boundless ego, we have other spots that match irresponsible voters with incompetent or unmotivated candidates. In some cases, we limit the candidate pool – I’ll mention the County School Superintendent position, only because I spent 5 years with the Soup’s office next to mine. There were varying degrees of competence in the three that I knew from our proximity and the two I worked with as a board member. Those five examples are enough to give me some ideas.

I’ve seen a new phrase – “Schrodinger’s Government” that describes a system caught between competence and incompetence, between legitimate and illegitimate, between authoritative and incompetent. Those that are in power support “Schrodinger’s Government” as representative and democratic. Those who are out of power see moral flaws and illegitimacy that deserve only protest and resistance. The term “Schrodinger’s Government” is a takeoff on Schrodinger’s Cat – a quantum physics experiment where the cat has an equal probability of being alive or dead until the box that contains it is opened.

Back to the County Soup – the position requires a teaching certificate and three years experience teaching public schools. That requirement leads to a shallow pool of candidates – much like Delaware where the state is a little over half the size of Lincoln County. Limiting the candidate pool limits the potential for excellence, and leads to “Schrodinger’s Government.” There are some damn poor teachers who have three years experience and a license.

Minneapolis has been a case study in “Schrodinger’s Government,” showing the man who was the candidate for VP just 15 months ago crossing political swords with the man who was duly elected President. Thing is, Minneapolis is more the norm than the exception – let me describe “Schrodinger’s Government” in Lincoln County, where it has existed for years.

First, let’s look at the county’s geography: when Lincoln County was carved out of Flathead County, the idea was to develop a geographically connected county – where all of the communities were in the same (Kootenai) watershed, and all save two were served by the railroad (and those two had some creative school district boundaries that allowed them some railroad tax base). But good and equitable ideas only last so long as our elected representatives vote to maintain them. And Libby Dam came along to play hell with the county’s planned geographic integrity.

If we look at Lincoln County’s three largest towns (and high schools) we see that the Libby area has almost half the population but about a third of the tax base. Small wonder why the north county folks, with nearly half the tax base but only a third of the population view Libby much like Alberta’s separatist movement sees Ottawa. Our founding fathers were bothered by taxation without representation – here we see the problems of taxation by the representatives from a more populous area, compounded with the fact that the location of the county seat means most of the elected officials live in that district. It’s a geographically smaller version of the “Game of Thrones.” Schrodinger’s Government.

In the north county, the County High School was located in Eureka. Eureka’s elementary board saw that, by unifying the high school district with their own elementary district they would be able to tax an area that they had no intention of serving. In 1988, the Eureka and Rexford school districts voted to unify the districts. They were unified, and the County Superintendent told them to change the name of Lincoln County High School (and she left the office and the county, with no successor who would enforce that). They didn’t change the name, but they did take over the high school district – and added taxable land (mostly railroad) that they had no intention of serving. Schrodinger’s Government by design. To be in keeping with the laws, they could have named it Eureka Unified, or even Lincoln Not a County High School. I suppose they figure that they stole it fair and square. With the County Soup absent, they created Schrodinger’s Government.

Iran shows Schrodinger’s Government at work. 47 years ago, 98 percent of the population voted to have an Islamic Republic. Now, that Islamic Republic has lost nearly all connection with the Iranian people – well over half of the mosques have been burned, some of the vocal Iranians are calling themselves Persians and calling for a return to Zoroastrianism. And their Supreme Leader is announcing the protestors as “Enemies of God.” Schrodinger’s Government. I give thanks that I have never lived under a theocracy. Even if the regime is overthrown, Iran will have decades of quiet murders as old scores are settled under a new regime.

To our north – Alberta and Quebec both have separatist movements that, if successful, will scuttle Canada. You don’t get secessionist movements this visible without Schrodinger’s Government.

One of my grad students enjoyed telling me that libertarians should never be elected because they believe that government doesn’t work. That may have been an indictment for seeing things as they are.

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January 29, 2026

The Atlantic on Trump’s Supporters

There’s an article in the Atlantic that analyzes four types of Trump supporters – written by Daniel Yudkin and Steven Hawkins describes the fourth type as: “Finally, we have the “Rel2uctant Right”(20 percent). Members of this group, unlike the other three, are not necessarily part of Trump’s base; they voted for him, but have ambivalent feelings toward him. Only half identify as Republicans, and many picked Trump because he seemed “less bad” than the alternative.” (emphasis added) “Voted for him, have ambivalent feelings, picked because he was “less bad” than the alternative.”

Reading that description was like looking in the mirror. I can’t say I was wrong in voting for the least bad candidate. Back in 2016, I knew what Hilary Clinton would bring to the White House. The “Libertarian” party fielded a candidate (Gary Johnson) was a statist who wanted to legalize marijuana. As I read the situation, I didn’t even have an acceptable third party candidate for a protest vote. So I voted for Trump, hoping he was telling the truth about supporting the Second amendment. It turned out he was – and his appointments to the Supreme Court have the Second in the strongest position it has been in my lifetime. I recall buying black powder revolvers after the Gun Control Act of 1968 left them as the only non-regulated repeaters.

Now if Yudkin and Hawkins are right – that 20% of Trump’s voters support him as strongly as I do – the Dems big mistake has been running candidates that didn’t have much appeal to the middle. They ran Biden as a moderate, then governed from the left. Nothing personal toward the people who believed Biden – but my greatest appreciation of Dukakis was that he took Slow Joe out of the running for President back in 1988. Still, Biden did prove that he could come back after being decisively taken out.

But back to the fourth type of Trump supporters – the twenty percent that support Trump only because his opponents have been so bad – that such a group is instrumental in electing the President shows how bad the alternatives have been. The problem is that both major parties have moved to selecting candidates that ideally appeal to 50% +1 of the electorate.

I’m thinking back to when the John Birch Society (not to be confused with the Birch John Society – a group favoring wooden restrooms) were putting up billboards that said “Impeach Earl Warren!” Warren was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court at the time – and I read up on him. In 1938, running for California’s Attorney General slot, Warren won the Republican, Progressive and Democrat primaries. I can’t say that I liked his actions against Japanese Americans, in favor of forced sterilizations, etc – but we do need candidates who are less despised by the voters.

Trump, in his three elections, has been “less bad” than the alternative – to me. Elections for Senate, House and Governor have been the same – I vote for the lesser evil. As Cecil Storm frequently reminded me, “The lesser evil is still evil. And I vote for the lesser evil while recognizing that. I’d like to be able to vote for the good.

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January 28, 2026

The Right to Bear Arms and Protest

The Second Amendment defines our right to keep and bear arms: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” It’s a pretty easy phrase to understand – and nowhere does it say “the right disappears if you’re demonstrating against the state.” Still, I wouldn’t go to a demonstration heeled. The fact that I have the right to do something stupid doesn’t mean I should do something stupid.

I recall a speeding stop a few years back – I had missed seeing the 35 mph sign, and the deputy wanted my proof of insurance and license documents – something that he had the authority to request. I leaned toward the jockey box and remembered I had a 38 laying on top of those documents. I explained that, and offered to step away from the car while he rummaged through my documents, receipts and revolver. His compromise was to take my word for their existence and write the ticket for the data I gave him. No problem – I had the right to have the 38, but it would have been bloody stupid not to offer a solution.

I tend to vote Second amendment – if a politician doesn’t trust me armed, I don’t trust him/her/it making laws that govern my life. All to often, we can agree on the Second and still have serious reasons to disagree. But along with the Right to Bear Arms comes the Responsibility Not To Do Something Stupid.

Places where police are making a bust are places best left without my presence. The cops generally don’t need me, and most of the time I don’t need them. You might say we have an identical, mutual expectation.

The FBI Director has stated that you don’t have a right to carry a gun to a demonstration. So far as the text goes, I thin he’s wrong. I also think he would agree with my conclusion that there is a responsibility not to do something stupid. I’m not going to be surprised if the investigations of the Minneapolis shooting come up with stupid contributions to the incidents from both demonstrators and police. Nothing says demonstrators are selected for high IQ – and there is court precedent that says it’s OK to discriminate against higher IQ candidates when hiring police. Plus the fact that being intelligent doesn’t keep you from doing something really, really stupid.

I have freedom of speech – and I have found times when keeping my mouth shut was a sensible decision. Likewise, there are times when not wearing a 1911 makes sense. Statistically, based on past incidences, I’m a lot more likely to run across a griz in my backyard than the average Minnesotan is. Still, the 1911 is heavy, gets in my way when I’m sitting in a car – though its dark colors and reddish grips do turn it into a heck of a fashion accessory.

I have the right to free speech. I have the right to peacefully assemble. I have the right to bear arms. I also have the responsibility to not do something stupid.

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January 27, 2026

Mojados in Kalispell?

I went to Kalispell on Friday – doctor appointment after the hernia repair surgery. With the ability to combine activities, Renata gave me a shopping list for Wal-Mart. I have a 15 pound lifting/exertion limit until mid-February (I tried to find a loophole, but the Doc was adamant). All told, it was a good trip – there is nothing like trying to get every item on a single page, two column shopping list that makes you understand the complexity and strenuous activity she does in shopping. The aisles were cluttered with store employees shopping for folks who call in their orders. While they are definitely obstructions to traveling the shopping lanes, these people are definitely tops at telling you where to find things. I failed only in getting smoked peppers.

As I went from the groceries toward the north, to find copy paper and sharpies, I pushed my cart past three young men – not dressed quite right for the area, and as I went past, speaking the rapid Spanish that you hear south of the border. Fortunately, I’m not connected with ‘la migra’, so I could smile and go past. They may have been legal – but chances are that they aren’t. Seeing them brought me to the realization that I see different levels of illegal within the term illegal immigrants. These were Mexicans – neighbors. Maybe it’s an age thing. Maybe it’s spending time in the southwest. Maybe it’s being an aggie – being accustomed to a system that, in extremes saw a rural ranching job split between three Mexican nationals, each working 4 months, making a year’s worth of Mexican pay, then going home to their families for the next 8 months. Kind of like a non-governmental deployment.

I needed that brief exposure in Wal-Mart to bring clarity to my thinking. Somehow, the Mexican illegals hold a different status in my mind. I think it’s because they’re neighbors whose homeland is not so nice as ours, does not offer as much – and I’ve known several who were north of the Rio just to make a living for themselves and families, then return home. I guess I tend to put the Mexican illegals in the category of good non-citizens. They’re here. They’re illegal. But it isn’t like Minneapolis. And I wonder how much George W. Bush attempts at developing a better immigration policy ran aground because of Al Quaeda, the twin towers, and 9/11?

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January 26, 2026

Lawyer Explains ICE and Illegal Immigration

I watched the whole thing – he makes a good presentation.

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January 25, 2026

Thinking On Iran

I was young when the ayatollahs took Iran from the Shah. He was a sick man, and he ruled through the secret police – Savak, I think they were called, though I don’t recall what the word meant or the letters stood for. I’ve been surprised that his son, Reza Pahlavi (the second, or junior, or whatever way they have of telling father from son when they share the same name in Iran) has managed to become a contender for the throne. The Savak dudes were pretty rough, and there’s a long association between the Savak and the Pahlavi family. The other contender is Maryam Rajavi and the People’s Mujahedin. Since neither Reza nor Maryam is an ayatollah or a mullah, I figure that so long as the Islamic Republic fails, the successor should be an improvement. Rajavi’s past 70, and was one of the student leaders who worked to remove the shah.

I’m thinking that Pahlavi might be the better of the two – but either way, we would be looking at an Iran that would probably step out of being the world’s largest financier of terror operations. Definitely a chance for a better world.

It’s interesting to note that two-thirds of Iran’s mosques are empty after 47 years as an Islamic Republic, and how many have been torched in the past month or so. It looks to me as if an educated population becomes more secular after they have lived under a theocracy.

So hopefully the mullahs will go down, and some more moderate muslim rulers will step on stage. The mullahs have pretty well bankrupt and dewatered the country, so whoever takes over is going to have his or her hands full fixing the country.

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January 25, 2026

21st Century Inflation

It could be worse. Before 2012, I was giving Zimbabwe million dollar bills as gag gifts at retirement parties – everyone should retire a millionaire, an less than ten bucks bought a million Zim dollars

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January 24, 2026

A Nation of Immigrants

The thing that makes a nation of immigrants successful is getting high quality immigrants. I recall a quotation without an author – “The coward never started, the weak died on the way, only the strong survived.” When I hunted an author, I found only a recent book – so I’ll stay with author unknown. In a very real, but incomplete way, it describes immigration to America.

My mother-in-law came to the US from Germany – and went to Germany in WWII as a Soviet physician (specifically a psychiatrist). She came in fairly broke – but with paperwork attesting to her education and experience. Von Braun came in with some questionable associations with the Nazis, but he was one of the world’s top rocket men (admittedly, the Soviets got the best guys on rocket fuel). The idea at the time was to pick very well qualified immigrants. Einstein was a German-born Jew of Ashkenazi heritage. Enrico Fermi, born in Rome, a naturalized American citizen. I still have a screwdriver that belonged to Stanislaus, and a statue from his wife – Polish peasants, they brought skills in welding, machining and sewing with them through Ellis Island. The US gave extra points for coming from the right hand side of the bell curve.

And immigration changed our ethnicity – by 1820, the majority of immigrants from Britain were Irish. With the potato famine, America became more Irish – then by the end of the 19th Century, increasing numbers from the region we know as Germany. The concept of the melting pot. Those early Irish immigrants came with strong backs and a work ethic. They may not have been the most intellectually gifted – but their work ethic placed them on the right hand side of the bell curve.

There’s an irony in looking at the side of the bell curve on which the immigrant starts – the standard bell curve is always shown with the lower numbers (below average) on the left and the higher numbers on the right. When we had limited numbers of immigrants, we gave preference to immigrants from the far right side of the bell curve.

I don’t like the Right/Left descriptors of political stances, largely because I see little difference between Hitler’s management and Stalin’s. Yet when I look at immigration policies that will improve or harm the makeup of our country, the extreme right of the bell curve – be it intelligence, education, professional qualifications, health – was the spot that got the prospective immigrant points for entry.

It was in the southwest where I encountered an immigrant who had crossed the river during the Villa days, about 75 years before I met him. He was there for his great-granddaughter’s graduation with an associate of applied sciences in Civil Tech. I had coached her through Statics and Dynamics, and she insisted that I was the reason she graduated. This little old man – barely five feet, and in his nineties explained to me how wonderful the United States is: “Here, my granddaughter is a college graduate. That would never have happened if I had stayed in Mexico.” We don’t think often enough of how the opportunities for success are so much greater in the US than most other countries.

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January 23, 2026

Voting Yourself In

After the shah was overthrown, the Iranians had a choice. They could vote for a monarchy or they could vote for an Islamic republic. The vote came out for an Islamic Republic, and it’s on the 47th year.

We’re seeing some major demonstrations as the Iranians work at getting out of the Islamic Republic. The problem is probably written larger there – the 75 cent word to describe the Islamic Republic is theocracy. We’ve heard the Ayatollah denouncing the protesters as ‘Enemies of God.’ In our British history, King James (yep-him of the King James Version) was the last Brit King who totally believed that he ruled by divine right.

One of the problems of democracy is that you can vote yourself into something you have to shoot your way out of. Forget the dangling preposition – I really don’t know a way to say it better and more grammatically correct. The problem with shooting your way out is that authoritative regimes try to keep a monopoly on the guns. The Iranians – people whose parents and grandparents voted them into the Islamic Republic – want out. The government has the guns.

We are not always offered clear, good choices in an election. The record shows that 98% of the voting Iranians chose the Islamic Republic. Then they knew of the problems with the Shah. Now they know the problems associated with the Islamic Republic. They’re trying to demonstrate their way out because they can’t vote or shoot their way out. Their choice, though they did not realize it, was between a crap salad and a crap sandwich.

We can’t sneer at their 1979 choice – out past three elections have only been a choice of the lesser evil. I voted against Hilary Clinton. I voted against Joe Biden. At the bottom, my decision was made on the second amendment – push comes to shove, our founding fathers wrote the ability to shoot your way out into our constitution. The people we see demonstrating and dying in Iran don’t have that right. Few nations do.

Should the Iranian people be successful, I have a hunch we will see a return to Zoroastrianism. Two thirds of Iran’s mosques are closed. The experience of living in an Islamic Republic seems to have turned off the appeal of Islam. Before the Iranians took to the streets, they quit going to the mosques and answering the call to prayer.

You can vote yourself into a government that forces you to shoot your way out. James Madison is credited with writing the second amendment. So far we haven’t needed it – but we’ve seen a lot of attempts (and some of them successful) to infringe on the right to bear arms. The second amendment is now the strongest it has been in my lifetime – because of a man who received my vote but not my support in 2016 and the people he appointed to the Supreme Court.

Thinking about the Iranians, again I remember Terence McSwiney and hope his view is correct:

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