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Opinion

The Opinion section of Western Montana News is where ideas take center stage. Featuring editorials, columns, op-eds, and letters, this space highlights diverse perspectives on local and national issues. From in-depth analysis to passionate viewpoints, we encourage open and thoughtful discussion.

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The End of the World… and TikTok

This op-ed was originally published at Poor Roger’s Almanac. Against my advice and counsel, Greg Gianforte, the governor of the State of Montana, signed the TikTok bill sent to him a few weeks ago by the Montana legislature. TikTok is now officially verboten within the boundaries of the state and as of Jan. 01, 2024, any app…

The Target for Today: Missoula County, Montana

I titled this article like the 8th Air Force in the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II would introduce the bomber crews to their mission for the day.  Most Montanans and Missoula County residents don’t understand that we are engaged in a war with an Evil Empire of globalists that have the destruction of…

Flex the Tenth

When Restore Liberty first began to organize in early 2020, we started advertising to people that the solutions necessary to Restore Liberty in America would not be found in Washington D.C. We constantly skim the swamp water off the top in hopes that we made a difference while the Marxists, fascists, socialists, et al. continue…

Montana Human Rights Network’s Attempts to Hijack and Silence Conservative Media

This op-ed was originally published at Casey Whalen’s Substack. Flathead County, Montana is a very important area for radical Marxist organizations nationally, but none more so than the Montana Human Rights Network (MHRN) based in Helena. The organization was founded in 1991 by Christine Kaufmann and Ken Toole, both of whom would later become Montana State Legislators. The mission of…

Predicting How America Falls

Historians are averse to using the study of history to be predictive about the future, and journalism tends to talk about what happened with a little bit of why mixed in if those funding them demand they blame something or somebody for the results.  Usually, the wrong something or somebody. This is an article about…

The Red Challenge Flag Has Been Thrown

Stealing from college and professional football, a figurative red challenge flag has been thrown down to challenge American Christian churches, and, to me, that includes all American Christian churches from the southernmost point in South America, Cape Horn, to the northernmost point in North America, Cape Columbia. Western civilization was founded on the Judeo-Christian values…

Military Readiness—Seen Thru the Lens of Army Aviation

I spent a career in the US Army’s Aviation branch with many fond memories of flying helicopters all over the world. I also have tough memories of losing crewmembers, which is inevitable when spending two decades in a specialty where people are paid extra because of the danger that comes with the job. After I…

A Stranger in a Strange Land

I was born in the first year of the Baby Boomer Generation. My contemporaries started popping out of the womb around May 1946, nine months after the end of World War II. Marxism, socialism, and communism in the American government were un-recognized and confined to the left-overs from the Roosevelt administration. However, we now know…

Eyewitness: Montana’s Transurrection

This report was originally published in Darin Gaub’s Substack. Whenever a veteran recounts a war story from their military days they often start with the phrase, “So there I was.” Though I am retired from the military and back home in Montana there are still times when I feel the need to start a story…

Truth

You have heard it said by now that we should each ‘speak our own truth’ and ‘speak truth to power.’ Very few people can tell you what that means because there is a lack of understanding of truth across much of America today. We as individuals are not the arbiters about what is and is…

Did Kalispell Public Schools Board and Employees Violate Montana Code of Ethics?

This op-ed was originally published at Casey Whalen’s Substack. A recent exposé of emails and text messages show that the upcoming May 2nd Kalispell Public School Board Trustee election has been corrupted by possible violations of the Montana Code of Ethics for public employees. The communications show school district officials and the teachers union President…

Montana: The New State of Censorship

This op-ed was originally published at Poor Roger’s Almanac. For years, I have tried to make my actions consistent with what I believe to be true. Sometimes this has required a course change, occasionally abrupt. There have been times in which I have had to eat my words. I have also tried to encourage others…

God Has a Wonderful Plan for Your Life

If you have ever been in church circles or hung out with people of faith long enough you have probably heard the phrase, “God has a wonderful plan for your life.” Last week, I authored an article titled The Romans Road, and in it showed how God’s plan for salvation is laid out in the…

The Romans Road

The Romans were good at a lot of things. While touring Europe, I was able to see much of the work they left behind that sometimes looks in better condition than the roads in my hometown of Helena, Montana. But there is a far more important road that winds through the biblical book of Romans.…

The Other Side of the Montana Constitution

For some time now I’ve watched the popular efforts of Montanans to improve their state constitution, and the anguished opposition by figures in Montana’s former political establishment. The response amounts to a sanctimonious “How dare they?” One example: Former Governor Marc Racicot’s Feb. 1 capitol speech, in which he equated reform efforts with attacks on…

What is the Problem with the GOP?

The once Grand Old Party has a major self-inflicted wound. As an institution, it is failing its constituency miserably. A recent Monmouth University poll demonstrates that 61% of the GOP’s Republican voters do not believe the 2020 Presidential election was a valid, fraud-free election. Yet the Republican Party political machine keeps insisting that election was…

No More Nuclear Sponges

Growing up in Montana during the Cold War, I often found myself under a school desk as we went through frequent nuclear fallout drills. Montana is a state known as being a part of the “nuclear sponge,” where it is universally known that Russia targets our nuclear missile facilities, and we would absorb any large-scale…

Former Missoula Councilor Vindicated After “Sleepy Inn” Pandemic Boondoggle

From the Missoula Current in 2020, “Council member Jesse Ramos led the opposition [to the purchase of the Sleepy Inn Motel] by disputing the recommendations of trained health officials, saying the shelter wasn’t necessary, was too expensive, and the pandemic would soon pass. At the end of the night, he tipped his hat to his…