Columns
Explore Daily Inter Lake Columns featuring local sports commentary, outdoor adventure stories, lifestyle tips, and community perspectives from Northwest Montana.
Giving Together: Turning Tax Season into Opportunities for Students
On a spring morning in Kalispell, a group of elementary students huddle around a table, testing a small robot they…
Peace on Earth found in the quiet moments
When I think back to Christmases past, it’s not big celebrations that first come to mind. The memories I cherish are those slivers of quiet time, slipped in at the end of the night on Christmas Eve or at dawn on C…
New Deal? Many did dare call it socialism
Perhaps the most important lesson of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal is what it reveals to us about the sweep and scope of history — and how easy it is to bury truth under the winds of change.
Was U.S. shuffled into socialism by New Deal?
Last week, I explored the notion that perhaps — just perhaps — Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal was part of a larger plan to detour the United States into socialism.
There's snow place like home
You can sing along to the tune of that popular Christmas song as I say to my chagrin that “It’s beginning to look a lot like ... the winter of 1996-97.”
Obama, FDR and the myth of 'permanent plenty'
A few readers took umbrage to my column last week in which I quoted some newspaper articles from the 1960s that found fault with Social Security.
The modern-day battle for independence
In my research for the past three columns, I have accrued quite a wealth of information on the American battle for independence. No, not the battle against England at the end of the 18th century, but the battle aga…
Longtime Red Cross volunteer left quite a legacy
It’s not often an organization gets a volunteer who commits 70 years of service to that cause. That’s an extraordinary effort.
Freedom of choice: Just another thing we've lost?
I’ve been musing on some historical trends for the past few weeks in an effort to explain how America went from a country that fought communism to one that embraced socialism in the course of about 50 years.
How America got lost: A look back at the past 50 years
How did we get here?”
Honor veterans on Thursday and all year long
It was George Washington who acknowledged during America’s infancy that “if we desire to secure peace ... it must be known that we are at all times ready for war.”
A word to the wise: The fight is not over
Now that the conservative movement has prevailed at the ballot box, it’s worth taking note of the movement’s goals and aspirations, which seem so reasonable to some and so wild-eyed to others.
Scary stuff - and it's not even Election Day yet
It’s scary out there, and not just because today is Halloween. Face it — depending on your point of view, the country is either going to hell in a hand basket or is already there.
Flathead's generosity changed one family's life forever
A thank-you note I got in the mail this week spoke volumes about the goodness of Flathead Valley residents.
Your choice, your country, our problem
Election Day is fast approaching, and there is a tendency among some pundits to think that it can solve everything.
Congress to us: Damn the Constitution, full spending ahead ...
Hardly a day goes by when I don’t get a press release dropped in my in-box from someone announcing that the federal government is kindly spending another $50,000, $100,000, $1 million, or $10 million in Montana.