For What It's Worth

There was some discussion a couple of weeks back at an AMB meeting about how to define a Montana blog. It's harder than one may think. The same holds for describing a typical Montanan, if there indeed even exists such a critter. I don't know that it can be done. I wouldn't even want to try. Occasional small incidents and experiences point to a certain spirit shared by many of us though. One pops into my mind quite often and for what it's worth I'll pass it along here.

Three years ago, right at the end of July, my daughter was returning home after spending a month at her aunt's place in Minneapolis. I, along with Grandma and my older step-son who had just returned to Missoula after living for a year in New York agreed to meet them about half-way, in the Black Hills, and decided to make a short vacation of it.

We left the Black Hills to return home on a Sunday morning and set out to drive across Wyoming and to take a side trip through Yellowstone because Grandma had never been there and I wanted my daughter to see it. We left the park in the evening and drove up the highway through Big Sky to catch I-90 near Bozeman, and stopped at the truck stop there, can't remember what it's called, to fill my thermos and to put some gas in the car.

It was already about midnight and the gas station apparently had recently started the policy of paying in advance at night, so after a little confusion we finally got the car gassed up and were preparing to make the last leg of the trip back to Missoula. Just as I was getting into the car a pickup pulled up by me, a guy got out, stretched a little, and proceeded to take the gas nozzle off the hook to fill up his truck. Of course nothing happened. He hung it up and tried again, and again nothing. A voice came over the intercom and said "sir, you need to pay in advance." He looked around with a puzzled look on his face and looked up at the canopy and said pay in advance? Then he froze, his eyes doubled in size and his jaw dropped. He looked around again and then hollered out in a voice that probably carried all the way into Bozeman, "Pay in advance?! This is fucking Montana!"

"Yessir, this is Montana, and dammit I wouldn't want to be anywhere else." That's what I was thinking all the way home that night. The look of shocked surprise and indignation on that guy's face had me grinning to myself all the way, and along with a thermos of coffee made the long drive back to Missoula much more bearable.

So to my unknown fellow Montanan wherever you are, here's a belated thanks for helping me get through a long drive on a hot summer's night three years ago.

An Interesting Development

Here's an interesting idea.

Our sun delivers a lot of energy to this planet of ours every single day. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 6000 times what we actually can use. Every day.

Ultimately the sun will prove to be the only reliable long-term energy source we have. Will we ever figure that out?

Oh Those Montana Bloggers

I love taking my daily trip through the blogs here in Montana. Sometimes I'll stop and leave a brief comment, sometimes not. Sometimes I'll leave laughing at a particularly clever bit of wit or humor, sometimes I'll leave seething at what I see as the depths of idiocy. Sometimes I'll return to a post two or three times to try to wrap my few remaining brain cells around an especially though-provoking post. Sometimes I just leaves.

Those of us who blog here in Montana are a diverse bunch and pretty hard to pin down. We have our liberal-leaning blogs and our conservative-leaning blogs. We have our blogs that don't lean in any direction and just speak about life here in our home state. We have writers that are sharply analytical and thought-provoking, that rival many of the well known national blogs. We have writers who are funny and those who are combative and those who are mellow and easy-going. We have bloggers, like yours truly, who mostly just like to sound off and poke a stick down a hole now and then just to see what comes out snapping and snarling.

Anyway, I've mentioned this before, but Colby from Rebels Are We! has decided to try to corral us unruly bloggers into a cohesive group called the Association of Montana Bloggers. He must be a brute for punishment, but by god he's on to something here. Never mind that trying to get a wild bunch of pesky bloggers together is probably about like trying to organize a convention of hermits, he's onto something and I urge all of you -- whether you be a fan of blogs, or if you yourself blog from Montana or write about this great state of ours to check it out. This could be good.

So Long Doug Marlette

I love good cartoons, and I admire good cartoonists. Doug Marlette was one that I particularly respected and enjoyed. I've spent so much time poring over his material with my own pencil and paper in hand, trying to grasp that elusive something that he had, that I almost feel like he was a personal friend. He took on racism. He took on war. He was a brilliant critic of our society. He wasn't afraid to take controversial positions. He won a Pulitzer, as well as numerous other awards. Hey, he called himself an Equal Opportunity Offender. My kind of guy. He's going to be missed.

Doug Marlette was killed in a car crash last night in Mississippi. He was 57 years old. If you're not familiar with his work it's well worth checking out.

So long Marlette -- long live your work.

I Just Go Berserk

When I read something like this, about an old supposedly repealed Civil War era law, RS2477, that the Bush administration, industry lobbyists, and off-road groups are interpreting to mean that old wagon trails and hiking trails and cow trails and whatever kinds of trails they can find are indeed considered highways and thus are open to motorized traffic whether they be in roadless areas or National Parks or private property or wherever, and when I read about the antics of the jackasses who ride their trail bikes and four-wheelers and other forms of road lice wherever they damn well please and think they have a god-given right to do so, well, I just go berserk.


(sounds of breaking glass crashing furniture screaming neighbors wailing sirens cursing and scuffling and the clicking of handcuffs. Then, silence...)


There. I feel much better now.


Update: A federal judge ruled on Friday that in order for off-road groups in two southern Utah counties to claim highway right-of-way under RS2477 they must establish that such right-of-way previously existed. Good sense may yet prevail.

Are We Seeing The Future?

Ever since early this year violent clashes of hot and cold air have triggered extreme storm conditions over much of this country. Fires have burned already this year from Georgia and Florida and California north through Minnesota and Montana, and all the way to Alaska. And there's no relief in sight.

Extreme drought and record heat is setting off explosive fires throughout the west, and the weather pattern is expected to continue for some time to come. Hell, it was even too hot to fish here in parts of Montana. Is this what we, not to mention our kids and grandkids, have to look forward to for the foreseeable future?

What Will It Take?

Let's face it. As a society we are far too comfortable, far too insulated in our cocoons to really be in touch with the wild. Our lives, our living environments, our working environments, all of it, are largely artificial. Hence the gradual destruction of our natural home, our native habitat. We're losing touch with what's at stake.

It's nothing new. It's been going on for countless generations now. For most of us -- and before you howl too loudly I said most, not all -- our only contact with the wild anymore is through calendar photos and TV documentaries. That's like looking at a picture of a meal on the menu instead of actually eating one. It's not the real thing. We've largely come to passively accept the degradation of our wild nature with little more than an occasional whimper and maybe an occasional contribution to our favorite environmental group thinking we've done our part. That's not said to belittle enviro groups and peoples' generous contributions. Not at all. But it's going to take more than that. Much more.

What will it really take to protect wildness? Well, passion and anger and outrage for starters. We humans need to rear up on our hind legs, look around, and realize that we need to protect our natural home from the greedheads and the shitheads and all those who will take advantage of our silence to profit greatly. To stand by quietly and let it happen is to condone it. We've done that for long enough. For too long. We need to defend our wilds as ferociously and passionately as we would protect our homes against intruders who would break in and do harm to us and our families. Whether we have it in us to do that remains to be seen.

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