Valley Views

valley views Cacophony of chatter, chaos and beauty

The birds outside my bedroom window go crazy every morning. I love it.

They wake up – sometimes one by one, other times as groups - all with something so say, something to contribute. Perhaps they are calling out to friends or family; perhaps they are marking their territory or chasing squirrels from their nest; perhaps they simply like to hear themselves sing. It doesn’t matter to me. I just like the music – and or – noise they make.

Because when they all chirp and tweet and whistle and trill and screech and caw and hoot and peck and squawk it often doesn’t sound much like music. It’s almost like they each are trying to outdo the other and that comes across as a rather cacophony of chaos.

I did not come up with that term on my own. I heard it and knew I loved it and knew it was the makings of a column.

And then I thought of the birds in the morning, and I knew where the cacophony would land.

The bird calls are a cacophony of chaos. They compete with each other and contribute to the overall symphony of noise. It is music and chaos all at the same time.

Birds creating musical chaos: I thought that was the end of it.

Until I found myself sitting by the edge of a pool in the afternoon. I was in love with the sunshine.

Then the children entered. Sometimes one by one, but mostly in groups, accompanied by their adult counterparts. They splashed their way into the water, and it was obvious from the start that everyone had something to contribute. They began calling out to sisters and brothers – dunking and diving and squealing and giggling – each claiming their own spot in the pool. Some demanded the attention of grown-ups to see them do a water trick. Others rejoiced loudly as they practiced swim strokes or dives. They added to their noise by splashing and laughing.

They were, in a word, loud. It was almost as they were all trying to outdo one another.

It didn’t matter me.

I love the sound of children playing: their chatter, their squeals, their screams and their laughter. None of them seems to be listening to the other because they often aren’t, and I thoroughly enjoy tuning to their own fun and glee. It’s almost like they are each trying to speak over the other and that comes across as a second cacophony of chaos.

Another one! Who would have thought this cacophony could happen more than once in nature?

Got me to thinking.

Maybe cacophony isn’t so much of an accident. Maybe chaos is planned.

Perhaps chaos is more common than we think. Birds in the back yard. Children at the pool. A family gathering. The dynamics of a workplace. A baseball, basketball or soccer game. A group of friends from high school or college. A book club. A golfing group. A classroom. A neighborhood. A church. A school.

Perhaps we are all part of the cacophony of chaos. Wouldn’t that be lovely?

I think maybe it would be. Maybe it already is Because lately I’ve come to the conclusion that maybe chaos is beautiful – if we allow it to be.

Appreciate your chaos.

Slices of Life Jill Pertler Syndicated columnist

The state of oil

As the Ukraine invasion enters another week, our gas and diesel prices now eclipse the old record set in 2008. Mindless partisan haranguing on causation and solution play out with hackneyed ‘Trump did it better’ and ‘Biden has the vision.’ Our energy conundrum is best addressed by an educated populace, not political platitudes.

Republican candidates and law makers have chortled for 14 years, “We need to build the Keystone.” Anyone still using this is admitting they have no idea what they are talking about. “We” is not us. Trans-Canada (TC) is who would build it and “we” can’t make them. When President Biden withdrew the on, off, on again, off again permit TC lost millions of USD. The tar sand oil crude was to be refined by two refineries on the Texas Gulf set up to handle the abrasive crude. One is owned by the House of Saud and the other by the Royal Dutch Family. The crude was to be turned into diesel then shipped to Central America. Bakken crude put in the pipeline in Baker would have been shipped out of country as well.

Talk radio pendants daily lament that we purchased oil from Russia thus financing the invasion, and now buy it from Venezuela. This gets blamed on Biden for pausing drilling on federal lands. In fact we bought the oil from Venezuela until we slapped sanctions on them for human rights violations. Then refiners turned to Russia to supply the requisite minimum .5% sulphur content. We also import the requisite .5% from Canada and Mexico to augment what we produce in the U.S. We got 3% of this needed crude to make diesel and heating fuel from Russia. The recent decision to not buy from Russia plays into a long-standing shortage and thus cost.

It will get worse. Mexico has announced they will no longer export

Down the Middle Brad Molnar State Senator

Jill Pertler is an award-winning syndicated columnist, published playwright and author. Don’t miss a slice; follow the Slices of Life page on Facebook.

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Mexican Maya .5% grade starting in 2023. Iranian crude is also coveted for this purpose, but we embargoed Iranian crude in 2018 thus driving much of European market to Russia for supplies.

America is still awash in oil. But refineries are built to refine express products. To refine/produce a different formula is very expensive and can take years. Biden has promised to shutter the oil fields and the refineries. An expensive modification to an existing refinery, or an expensive increase in oil exploration, is a tough sale in the board room when you are targeted for extinction. This is a legitimate complaint against Biden.

In June of 2007 the Big Sky Sun highlighted how the push for bio-fuels was causing refiners to cancel plans for upgrades and expansions. Investors prefer to buy back stocks with profits instead of build new capacity and find new supplies when faced with a hostile business environment. When a smiling politician says that he supports “all of the above” for energy supplies know they are part of the problem. Biden is not alone. Clinton, Obama and Trump share in the blame if the rear view is your preference.

Investment firms like BlackRock offer “sustainability funds” based on a malleable ESG (environmental, social, and governance) rating derived by polling. This and government flip flopping on energy policies to “invigorate their base” reduces needed investment in our needed energy infrastructure.

December of 2015 then-President Obama signed legislation allowing the export of crude oil. February of 2016 we added natural gas to the exportable list. Now we do not have enough natural gas to make enough fertilizer which creates significant problems. Since December of 2015 our refineries receive 10% to 20% crude below capacity. This keeps the price up. During the same time, we greatly increased exports.

We have plenty of oil in America to meet our demand with reasonable prices, but the actions of 2015 put us on the world market index. Biden once said we should consider exporting less. No one has said it since. Perhaps we should fill our refineries first, and not at world price indexes. For sure we should not replace discerning discussion with name calling and partisan talking points.

Author is State Senator Brad Molnar. He studied International Energy for eight years as a Public Service Commissioner. vj

Regulations stand in the way of attainable housing

We are five of the youngest lawmakers in the Montana Legislature. At 20, 21, 24, 29, and 31 years old, we are in various stages of renting and home ownership, and all of us are concerned about the housing crisis facing Montana. In every one of our communities—Billings, Belgrade, Columbia Falls, and even Malta—housing is rapidly becoming more expensive and harder to find.

Many of the factors causing the housing crisis, such as migration, supply costs, and the labor shortage, are largely outside of Montana’s control. But a recent analysis by the Frontier Institute highlights one of the biggest problems, and it’s one that’s fully within our power to address: government regulations.

Montana needs more housing to meet the massive demand and keep prices within reach for average hardworking people, but building isn’t cheap or easy. Local governments in many parts of the state have enacted ridiculous amounts of red tape restricting what people can and can’t do with their own property.

The Frontier Institute’s Montana Zoning Atlas looked at zoning restrictions in six of Montana’s towns with the highest demand for housing. What the data and mapping analysis found was damning: Missoula prohibits attainable housing development in 75% of residential areas. In Bozeman it’s 51% and in Kalispell it’s 56%. All three of those towns have restrictions on attainable housing in 100% of residential areas. Only 12% of Whitefish is open and unrestricted.

Billings is a bit better with 42% of residential land open and unrestricted, but it still prohibits attainable development on the rest. Helena is the most housing-friendly town analyzed; 0% of its residential areas prohibit or restrict attainable housing. It’s no surprise then that, even though Billings and Helena also have housing challenges, their residents have been able to navigate the crisis better than people in Bozeman, Kalispell, Whitefish, and Missoula.

As Montana legislators, we want the future of our state to include the ability to live here and raise a family. We also want to preserve the character of Big Sky Country with our vast open spaces. Local zoning restrictions are putting all that at risk. Regulations are increasing the cost of housing, driving out young people and families without the money to make ends meet, and encouraging urban sprawl across rural

Legislative Notes Reps. Casey Knudsen, Caleb Hinkle, Katie Zolnikov, Braxton Mitchell, and Mallerie Stromswold

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areas by limiting development in town.

Ideas like price caps and subsidies that some have proposed can’t address the supply problem, in fact, they’d only make it worse. When there isn’t enough housing to go around, cost shifts will only create animosity among neighbors, suppress the incentives to build more, and force Montanans who can’t find a home onto the streets or out of the state.

We can’t stop people from moving to Montana. We can’t control the supply chain, the labor force, or rising inflation. What we can do is get unnecessary regulations out of the way and embrace freedom for the people to decide the future of our towns, not the government.

This housing crisis has been growing for decades. Now, we can’t wait for solutions and hope the problem goes away. If young people can’t afford to live and raise a family here, the future of Montana is at stake.

Reps. Casey Knudsen (Malta), Caleb Hinkle (Belgrade), Katie Zolnikov (Billings), Mallerie Stromswold (Billings), and Braxton Mitchell (Columbia Falls) are all Republicans. This column was originally published as part of the Frontier Institute’s “Legislative Viewpoint” series.

vj

Hypocrisy

Editor,

President Biden has nominated a candidate to fill the upcoming Supreme Court vacancy who is now participating in Senate confirmation hearings.

I submit that the nomination of another be considered. A person who: 1) Is an unmarried male, Middle Eastern born of humble beginnings, a teacher of sorts, speaks a strange language, has a swarthy complexion and maintains a kindly, unassuming disposition. 2) Rural blue collar, not academically credentialed but incredibly wise and true. 3) Associates with low caste undesirables, even prostitutes, and is a staunch public defender of his society’s underprivileged, neglected and scorned. 4) Is a criminal who was adjudged to have committed a capital crime punishable by a cruel death; managed to survive his public execution and still lives. 5) Distributes pardons to other capital crime offenders and invites them home to dinner. 6) This man is near universally exalted and adored.

To my point, I have no doubt that a number of judges, scurrying to save their privileged jobs, will self-righteously proclaim him a fatally flawed, extreme far leftist radical despite undisputed qualifications of the highest order. Shameless hypocrisy.

Thomas Alan Kragh Polson

Irrigation project management proposal

Editor,

As reported in the Feb. 16 edition of the Valley Journal, at a special Flathead Irrigation District (FID) meeting on Feb. 8 the FID board approved an agreement that would establish with the CSKT, subject to U.S. Department of Interior approval, a Board of Directors (BOD) to operate the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project (FIIP) under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (PL 638). Such a possibility was provided for under the federal Montana Water Rights Protection Act that accompanied the Water Compact.

At the February meeting, some feared that project management based on PL 638 would work against irrigators. I was concerned because I thought that there were a number of issues that needed to be addressed in order to avoid misunderstandings and conflicts between the tribes and irrigators under such an entity. Apparently the CSKT also concluded that approval of the BOD agreement was premature.

Because uncertainties about the future of FIIP management make it difficult for the BIA’s current project management to maintain and recruit employees, I propose that the CSKT and FID each appoint three individuals to a committee to discuss and propose options for a potential agreement.

To avoid conflicts under a PL 630 agreement, an agreement should:

First, clearly define the organization and legal identity of the entity that would actually operate the FIIP, on a dayto-day basis, under the direction of the BOD.

Second, clearly define the responsibilities and authorities of the FID and CSKT with respect to the BOD.

Third, clearly define the BOD’s responsibilities and authority vs. the project’s operating entity.

Fourth, clearly define tribal laws and procedures that would apply to the BOD and project operations.

Fifth, clearly define how current FAID employees would be protected in any transfer from BIA project management to the new operating entity.

Dick Erb Moiese

People must intervene on behalf of feral cats

Editor,

“Now you see me – now you don’t” – and so it is with the Magic 30 feral cat colony in downtown Polson. The Magic 30 needs to be renamed to the Magic 20 due to winter casualties. It is now their season to be out and about hunting, raising young and exploring. I will miss them. Of course I will stop there daily to leave dry cat food for their “pit stops.” Plentiful mice and voles will do just fine for moist food. Hunting – a time for what they do best.

Also to spring comes “courting.” I wonder how much this population will increase. A trap-neuter-release, TNR, program is so needed to help keep the feral population in check. These cats just being cats are at no fault for this condition of population explosion. Back to the Magic 30 or maybe 40. We are at fault if we don’t humanely intervene in this cycle of ultimate destruction for them. For a few upcoming months, life may be kind to them – no huddling in some kind of shelter so as not to freeze to death and waiting for compassionate humans to bring food. The bigger the population the more difficult the survival it would seem. I hope to see a few of them before winter.

Joan St. John Polson

More on character

Editor,

Each person gives differing weights to issues such as empathy, compassion, and justice, and would judge a person’s character uniquely. Some would include that the person is stalwart and not to be swayed. Others, however, might define character as having the willingness to consider life’s complexities and adjust accordingly - being flexible.

Another dimension of “having character” is the issue of “knowledge” - first, how you get it – and secondly, (and importantly) how you use it. Regarding how you get it, humans are terrible information-gatherers. We develop our beliefs by operating among tremendous perceptual filters, blind spots, social pressures, and more. We create beliefs (things we think are true), and then make important decisions always based upon varying degrees of ignorance. Sad, but true.

Decision making is always a game of statistical chance. Sometimes the result only affects the individual. But when the result affects other human beings, that is when

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