Serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis. © James Conner.
The National Weather Service issued a high wind warning for later today, when an Alberta Clipper will roar in with snow, cold, and tree breaking winds, so I’ve been battening down the hatches instead of blogging this weekend. But it’s time for a cuppa java and a few brief comments. Update at 1510 MDT: the Clipper’s arrived, blowing 33–41 mph at the airport, half that at FM’s HQ near Kalispell.
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John Walsh, candidate for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator, will speak to the Flathead Democratic Women at their meeting in Kalispell tomorrow. Follow the FDW link for details. I hope Walsh will address foreign policy. He should, given the Senate’s constitutional obligations on treaties. He’s earned a demerit for not yet having a full campaign website, but earned a commendation for his timely criticism of Rep. Daines reprehensible contributions to the government shutdown.
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Kalispell City Council candidate and city airport expansion opponent Chad Hanson went way out on a limb earlier this month when he rhetorically wondered whether fraud was behind far too high estimates of airport operations (takeoffs and landings). The short answer: questionable assumptions, not fraud, lead to the way-too-high estimates. I’ll post the longer answer Monday or Tuesday. Meanwhile, Hanson needs to cool his rhetoric.
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Updated. Apparently, no one told President Obama that the United States has been eavesdropping on friendly foreign governments such as Germany’s. Now he’s embarrassed, personally apologizing to those leaders, and looking weak. Possibly, the eavesdroppers — almost certainly working for the National Security Agency — thought they were protecting the President by keeping him ignorant of their activities. If so, they weren’t thinking. Obama needs to fire some high ranking officials, and to fire them right now, both as punishment for what they did and to prove he’s in charge.
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Can we make war on pain, and not on painkillers? The Montana Meth Project is back, declaring war on “prescription drug abuse,” and others, reports the Missoulian, are marching with it. By prescription drugs, they primarily mean opioids such as hydrocodone and oxycontin. I understand their concern, but I think their reaction and methods verge on hysteria and will result in people in severe pain not receiving medications strong enough to provide relief. The MMP and its fellow crusaders will dispute that, of course, but such demurrals are pro forma and ought to be discounted. In certain respects, incidentally, the MMP falls in the moderate camp. Some war on painkillers people seem to think that pain is God’s will, and that those in pain should seek relief from prayer, not pills.