Save money by doing research locally
As I took a break from preparing my tax returns last night and read the Missoulian online, I saw that yet again the city is hiring an out-of-town entity to help it do its job (Missoulian, March 12).Boy, that raised my hackles. But when I read that it was for a phone survey to gauge our reception to a local gas tax, my anger subsided because I was laughing so hard.
I’ll be at work and not available to pick up the phone, so I thought I’d offer my opinion here.
Instead, it might be time to tighten the belt a little downtown. One way would be to cease this constant hiring of out-of-town “experts” to do the jobs I expect city staff to do on their own.
Chris Holliday, Missoula
Stand up, speak out against war
How would you like it if an Islamic country came over here and forced in your neighbor’s door, threw in a hand grenade and killed the man, his wife and two children? He suspected the neighbor of collaborating against his country but had no proof.How would you like to see the children in our community with their legs and arms blown off because when they were playing they hit a mine planted by another country? You used to have running water in your house and electricity available 24 hours a day. Now you have to walk over a mile to get good drinking water and you don’t know when the electricity, which is available four hours a day, will come on?
You live in fear. There are bombs that come to completely destroy public buildings and individual homes. Would you respect the country that did the above or would you want to retaliate and do the same to them? Our country is doing the same at the present time and with our money!
It is not unpatriotic to be against this war - it is patriotic. We must stand up against what is wrong. Our troops must come home. We can’t solve the problems they have struggled to solve for hundreds of years.
Audrey M. Lawrence, Hamilton
Schweitzer right for disliking program
An open letter to Gov. Schweitzer:I want to thank you and compliment you, governor, on your stand against the Real ID that is being crammed down the throats of U.S. citizens.
You are not going to win the standoff because those back in D.C. will threaten to stop highway funds or something to do with agriculture. But thank you anyway. It is time that state governors stand up and be counted.
William E. Normile, Missoula
Time to roll back gun regulations
As if on cue the Democrats have rolled out their retired union friends in law enforcement to forecast murder, mayhem, doom and gloom when national park visitors are allowed to carry firearms in the parks.We heard the same drumbeat before “shall-issue” concealed weapon permits were authorized in each of the 40-plus states. Law enforcement told us that at every fender-bender we could expect to see gun fights that would kill not only the participants but also innocent bystanders. None of that happened. Instead, what we saw was a graphic illustration of the old axiom “an armed society is a polite society,” and crime rates dropped.
As our college and school campuses keep demonstrating, wherever guns are banned, only the criminal element will have guns. Gun-free zones are kill zones for the misfits and psychopaths of our society. The dirty little secret is that some law enforcement organizations are nothing more than fronts for those who want to seize our firearms. After all, if we cannot protect ourselves, we will truly need our government and law enforcement to protect us. That means higher taxes, bigger government and bigger law enforcement agencies.
Visitors to our national parks carried firearms for 60-plus years with few problems. It is true that we had fewer visitors to our parks, but we also had a smaller number of park rangers. Rules that forbid visitors from carrying firearms did not prevent poaching. One of the most notorious cases of poaching was accomplished over a period of many years in Yellowstone Park by an archer.
The constant creation of gun-free zones does nothing more than further endanger the population.
Now is the time to roll back the government’s insane regulations that prohibit law-abiding citizens from carrying firearms in our national parks.
Norm Johnson, Polson
Candidate has lots of experience
I used to admire all women ... until I see their opinions of other women.Take the (March 2) letter from Barbara Parker about Hillary Clinton, for example. She states she admires her for standing by her man, but then goes on to say that Hillary Clinton has no political experience, when in fact, she does have lots of it.
Hillary has travelled on many, many international junkets to defend and promote women’s and children’s issues, like health care, fighting for all people’s equal rights, as in economies and education. All Parker can focus on is Hillary Clinton’s role as a “wife” of a former president? What gives?
Give me a break. Women still, as the ’60s saying goes, “have to work twice as hard as men to appear half as good” because of our culture of hating women with any substance at all.
Celia Grohmann, Stevensville
U.S. curriculum needs an overhaul
A (March 7) guest column calling for an update on U.S. math curriculum deserves to be seconded and extended.My specialty was highly multidisciplinary, geochemical engineering. Never did my professional work need fractions, but ratios are immensely common and useful: feet/second, miles/gallon and a zillion more for engineering and chemical calculations. I never saw them in high school - how about now?
How quickly can math be taught? Example: When I started my first college calculus course the prof asked, “Who has not had trigonometry?” About half the class raised their hands, me among them, whereupon prof said, “Not to worry. I will teach you all the trig you need to know in two days.” That was two 50-minute periods. He succeeded. It empowered my surveying course and early employment as well as calculus and differential equations.
A short report in Science/AAAS last year concerned whether the sequence of science courses had any cognitive significance. In college, students do better in those subjects they took in high school. But what classes operate in a cross-fertilization way? According to the science article, high-school students who took advanced placement math did better in college chemistry, physics and biology than those students who did not have AP math. Importantly, there was no cross-fertilization among courses in physics, chemistry and biology. So, students with motivation toward any of the sciences are advised to take plenty of math.
The logic structure and utility of math apply broadly in one’s professional and personal life. This includes finding bargains in purchases where interest will be paid and avoiding getting hornswoggled by scoundrels who are better calculators than the people they prey on.
Don Michels, Missoula
Mood didn’t change minds on company
In the Missoulian article (March 5) announcing his intention to seek re-election to the Public Service Commission, Doug Mood (R-Seeley Lake) claims his business background helped him persuade other commissioners to vote against the sale of Northwestern Energy to the Australian company BBI.This sounds like wishful thinking at best, and pure fabrication at worst. The vote was unanimous, and knowing the other members of the PSC, they independently reached their decisions based on the evidence and arguments of people who testified for and against the sale.
It is gratifying that Mood and the other Republican commissioner, who both voted for deregulation as legislators in 1997, which resulted in sky-high utility bills for Montana consumers, agreed with the three Democratic commissioners on this: Montana’s gas and electric utility should not be sold to a company from Australia. Pennsylvania Power and Light is far enough away.
In another example of Mood’s weak support for Montana consumers, the commission overturned his ruling against a permit for Green Taxi to operate in Missoula. It appears Mood believes the free market system is good for deregulating electricity, but not so great for transportation.
Tom Platt, Missoula
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)