BlogNetNews.com » Montana

NewWest.Net Missoula: Dear Who: I Think Your Time Machine's Busted

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:10:32 -0500

I know we're at least two news cycles past the Super Bowl, but I'm just now coming out of my shock over the horrific halftime spectacle. The Who? Really? What's the matter, were Bill Haley and the Comets already booked up? Way to keep it fresh, halftime producers. Do you [...]

Electric City Weblog: Chart Of The Day

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:04:09 -0500

From Calculated Risk.

This graph shows U.S. average weekly rail carloads. It is important to note that excluding coal, traffic is up 11.3% from January 2009, and traffic increased in 13 of the 19 major commodity categories.

I don’t know if the uptick in the other commodities [...]

Electric City Weblog: The Benefits Of Trade

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:58:47 -0500

Russ Robert’s new EconTalk podcast is a long soliloquy which traverses the benefits of trade from Adam Smith and David Ricardo. He then adds his own thinking on how Ricardo may have been wrong in certain assumptions.

For those of you who don’t have a solid understanding of the theories [...]

City Lights: 70 years later...

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:00:00 -0500

In a City Lights column that appeared Jan. 31, I wrote about how the Yellowstone County Commission voted to spend $5,000 to replace the "temporary" tin markers on paupers' graves in Riverside Cemetery with granite headstones. ' [...]

Left in the West: The Theory of the Second Best

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:25:05 -0500

One of the more helpful but underutilized concepts to come out of economics is the theory of the second best -- namely that the conditions necessary for optimal outcomes are often impossible, but we should not necessarily rely on near-optimal conditions to produce near-optimal outcomes.

I think that basic idea would [...]

Left in the West: Abandon all hope!

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:09:45 -0500

I haven't talked much about Sarah Palin largely because I think she's not very relevant right now. She's the Paris Hilton of politics, famous for being famous, not for actually doing anything.

That said, Steven Colbert's commentary on her recent Tea Bag convention is hilarious...
' [...]

Government News for Montana: Montana General Fund Revenue Update

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:25:00 -0500

From the Missoulian: "The state's general fund budget will be in the red by mid-2011, a new revenue forecast predicted Monday.

"The Montana Legislature's chief revenue forecaster, Terry Johnson, estimated the state would face a $62.5 million general fund budget deficit by June 30, 2011, as tax collections [...]

Electric City Weblog: Things a Chief Justice oughtn’t be doing

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:11:50 -0500

Number of comments: 10

Pitching a voter initiative qualifies in my book.

[...]

4&20 blackbirds: 417 Reasons to Hate on the Lady Ann Magee II

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:24:04 -0500

Number of comments: 1
by JC I guess, what, the payroll for a year or two of Smurfit-Stone terminated employees is about equivalent to a $68 million dollar yacht? Maybe Sir Michael Smurfit, the “Monaco-based tax exile” can treat all of them to a good time severance leisure cruise for their sacrifice, or a game [...]

GreaterFalls: New & Improved

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:15:13 -0500

I’m not kidding – Electric City Weblog got a facelift, and it’s awesome. Great job, gang. I’m so impressed with how ECW has developed over the years, and finally has a unique theme and style to reflect same.

[...]

prairiemary: "SEARCHING FOR GOD IN THE SIXTIES": A Review

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:43:00 -0500

Number of comments: 1

The most lively and theological of correspondents in the earlier and more frisky online days of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment was “Doctor Dave,” an irreverent scholar teaching at George Mason University. His field is early theological and literary history (which are [...]

Big Sky Blog: Scorn On The Cob

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:17:47 -0500

New Montana blogger Jason King is off to a great start – he’s an illustrating genius, and topical to boot! And how could you not love the title of his blog, Scorn On The Cob?! Check out his “condolence card” to Conan O’Brien:

[...]

NewWest.Net Missoula: A Fresh Perspective From the Intermountain West

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:41:59 -0500

I knew I'd like this guy from the moment we were introduced. Underneath the "Hello! My Name Is" on his paper name tag, he'd scrawled "NONE OF YOUR GODDAMN BUSINESS." A man after my own heart. Clarence Worly (he took his nom de guerre from Christian Slater's character in 'True Romance') [...]

Electric City Weblog: Not so Guaranteed

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:13:51 -0500

Number of comments: 10

My family and I were taken in by the hype about the “new” Domino’s pizza. We’ve never cared much for Domino’s, preferring our local Howard’s or even Pizza Hut instead. I saw the ads, though, so I convinced my wife and kids to try it.

Yuck. It was actually worse than [...]

Electric City Weblog: Miss me yet?

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:48:41 -0500

Number of comments: 10

A new billboard:

[...]

Piece Of Mind: How we each remarkably think for ourselves and think alike

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:46:27 -0500

Number of comments: 1
This could end up being a very bad post. If you are not reading it, it is because I thought twice and took it down. There’s a phrase for people like me – many, actually, but the one most often used is conspiracy theorist. There is truth in it – [...]

Left in the West: Palin's Post Tea Party Interview: 'Oh yeah. And that, too.'

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:21:52 -0500

And to think this woman could have been one heartbeat await from the Presidency.

One itchy finger read to fire on Iran.

Ready to take democracy to any country that wasn't nice to the US.

Read it and weep.
' [...]

Electric City Weblog: Corporate Participation

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:07:26 -0500

Number of comments: 4

The executive director of the National Institute on Money in State Politics calls corporate money a “dominant force” in state politics, citing the fact that “in Montana’s 2004 ballot measure fight over open-pit cyanide leach mining practices, Canyon Resources alone contributed more than $3.78 million to protect its interests.”

However, [...]