Letters to the editor June 17
Miscellaneous thoughts
With apologies to Thomas Sowell, here are some miscellaneous thoughts on the passing scene:
Governor Bullock just proved that even people in flyover country fly over Montana. After he announced that he wants to be president, two residents of D.C. were overheard saying, “Who? From where?”
Our governor has an advantage over at least one of his fellow candidates. He won’t have to spend any campaign money telling us how to pronounce his name.
If just a few more ppm’s of CO2 are guaranteed to incinerate the planet, why didn’t it happen when all that coal in the ground was green above it? Geologists tell us that we are in a CO2-starved state.
The Catholic church has been discussing allowing priests to marry. The Bible tells us that it’s not optional. Church leaders are required to be married men in the process of raising a family. “For if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how can he take care of the church of God?” See 1 Timothy 3:1-13 and Titus 1:6-9.
Error, no matter how long perpetuated, never becomes truth.
If carbon sequestration is good, why is fracking bad? Same process.
All climate conferences should be held outdoors during a tree-planting party. Trees are the best carbon sequesters. Volunteers are readily available, whereas CO2-injection pipelines require highly-skilled workers who insist on being paid.
Why is The National Bison Range called a wildlife refuge? The bison are herded, fenced, and even have their own Medicare program.
Keystone pipeline is news again. From 2005 to 2009 transport of oil by road had incident rates of 19.95 per billion-ton miles. The rate for pipelines was 0.58. And I haven’t heard of anyone being killed by an oil spill.
—Dale P. Ferguson, Polson
Muhlfeld deserves another term
We have many reasons to be grateful for living in and around Whitefish. Among those reasons for me is having an extraordinary leader of our city government. John Muhlfeld is an outstanding mayor, and our community is fortunate that he is willing to serve another term of office.
John approaches all issues and points of view with equanimity and a profound sense of fairness. He places the best interests of Whitefish and its citizens at the forefront of all his guidance and decision making. He is a keen listener and fully considerate of every point of view and opinion. His preparation on a vast set of demanding issues facing our city is second to none.
Few of us agree with every decision made by the city. But every matter that comes before our mayor is given thorough analysis and due appraisal.
John is co-owner operator of a very successful company and has deep respect for, and understanding and appreciation of our business community. He is a hydrologist by profession and an avid outdoorsman. He has a profound understanding of the value of our surrounding environment and its direct impact on the prosperity of our city.
His clarity of judgment will help us to effectively meet the complex challenges of balancing robust growth and tourism with the preservation of the character of Whitefish and the way of life we all cherish.
Whitefish is very fortunate indeed to have John Muhlfeld as mayor. Let’s reelect him resoundingly.
—Steve Lull, Whitefish
Proposed fishing regulation changes
For more than 100 years my family have fished the Flathead River and not just for sport. Subsistence fishing made up a good portion of the food my family relied on. Now Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks wants to change the fishing regulations.
Requiring that fishermen and women use one hook sounds like they want to change the regulations to favor fishing guides and their clients rather than the average Joe.
Even fly fishing purists often rely on a second smaller fly referred to as a dropper and tied behind the larger main fly.
The regulations already favor catch-and-release. I enjoy catching fish to dine upon.
Perhaps we need to amend the regulations so that guides can only guide Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Three days a week. No weekends.
I know this has been successfully employed on the Beaverhead River near Dillon.
Maybe we need look into it too.
—Rick Funk, Kalispell