I was once a skeptic when it came to politics. Sure, I voted, but I never thought that it made much difference. Once politicians got to Washington, they were all dragged into the middle anyway and ended up virtually indistinguishable from one another. So why bother? The first months of the Bush administration had a […]
The Bush legacy: It’s not all bad
Posted inGoat
That dam economy again?
There may be no direct connection, but it’s hard not to speculate that the dismal state of the economy (and the massive sums the government has spent to shore it back up again) played a role in the feds’ decision this week to kill a reservoir proposed for Washington state’s fertile Yakima Valley. In 2003, […]
Posted inGoat
A tale of two press releases
Yet another last minute rule change has come down from the Bush administration. It hasn’t hit the mainstream press yet — the only information that’s been published about it comes from the BLM itself and from a coalition of environmental groups. The press releases describe the BLM’s recent revisions to a manual that tells land […]
Posted inGoat
Oregon sees huge rise in food stamp recipients
A record half a million Oregonians are struggling to feed their families, and the state’s unemployment figure reached 8 percent in November, the highest in five years. Jackson and Josephine counties saw increases of 19 percent, and the Bend area’s food-stamp recipients rose by 28 percent over last year. More than half of the 21,850 […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2008: What a mess
John Daniel: A good animal, too
Ourselves When the throaty calls of sandhill cranesecho across the valley, when the rimrock flaresincandescent red, and the junipersare flames of green on the shortgrass hills, in that moment of last clear lightwhen the world seems ready to speak its name,meet me in the field alongside the pond.Without careers for once, without things to do, […]
Posted inArticles
A word in favor of rootlessness
The joys and perhaps necessary virtues of not settling down.
Posted inGoat
Copper death spiral
A mining boom. A mining bust. All summed up quite elegantly in one little chart:
Posted inDecember 22, 2008: What a mess
Dodged bullets
How the Bush administration shot — and missed — on some Western issues
Posted inDecember 22, 2008: What a mess
Up in smoke
Obama administration will inherit a beleaguered Forest Service
Posted inGoat
Bailout comes to the West
Turns out Washington is bailing out more than just Wall Street. Federal help is also coming to the streets and cul de sacs of Western suburbia, from Phoenix to Las Vegas. Arizona, California and Nevada will all get big chunks of cash (from $72 million to $530 million) from the U.S. Department of Housing’s Neighborhood […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2008: What a mess
Down on the farm
Valley (HCN, 12/8/08). When I climb to the top of our pasture and look towards the Blue Ridge mountains, I cannot see even one new house built after we moved here 30 years ago. Remarkable reprieve! Cropland, pastures and small forested patches still dot the sloping hillsides. Julene Bair’s poignant writing reminds me of the […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2008: What a mess
Sticks and stones
As the mother of biracial children who chooses to live in the “redder” places, I have a simple solution that has worked — learn to not be offended by racial remarks and jokes (HCN, 12/8/08). If met without anger, bigotry has a way of melting under patient persistence. At least most change their outlook, and […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2008: What a mess
Bowling for westerners
Where did the paranoia come from among some hunters and “gun rights advocates” that their right to own guns is seriously threatened (HCN, 10/27/08)? The NRA and its sympathizers make gun ownership an issue of such centrality that they spend millions of dollars on a wild campaign to ensure that any attempt to enable a […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2008: What a mess
Banish bigotry
I read “The persistence of bigotry, Western-style” with a chill crawling up my spine, and I don’t think it was the flu virus I’m battling (HCN, 12/8/08). I’m left with the strange feeling that some regional socialization patterns stopped evolving sometime around the 1950s. I doubt the children and parents telling those “jokes” have been […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2008: What a mess
Hal’s red herring
Hal Herring’s “Why we all need the Democrats to abandon gun control” deserves our derision (HCN, 10/27/08). Herring may share some values with most Democratic voters, but proselytizing for gun addicts of the Palinesque variety is not one of them. I learned as a boy on a western Montana ranch that the thoughtful and competent […]
Posted inWotr
The perfect imperfect Christmas tree
I love going into the woods to cut my own Christmas tree. It’s not that I want to snub the Boy Scouts, who host a tree lot in town. I’ve spent a lot of time in those urbanized groves, searching for the perfect conical tree, and sampling hot chocolate. But a backcountry tree hunt is […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2008: What a mess
Midnight cowboying
As the Bush administration prepares to step out the back door of history, it’s following a time-honored tradition — shoving through hundreds of last-minute rule changes. Outgoing President Clinton slammed out 26,000 pages of new rules, many of them meant to protect land or public health. But President Bush’s “midnight regulations” are mostly gifts to […]
Posted inDecember 22, 2008: What a mess
Not so dead on arrival
The unlikely success of the Clinton Roadless Rule
Posted inHeard Around the West
Dinosaur dance steps — maybe
Did a bunch of dinosaurs really hang out together 190 million years ago, leaving their many footprints behind? When a University of Utah geologist announced that a “dinosaur dance floor” had been found within what’s known as the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument in northern Arizona, it made big news. But four Western scientists — including […]