Merry Christmas, Montana!

By Lawrence Reed

12/16/2024

Montanans know that the spirit of the holiday should transcend a single day, December 25. As expressed by the reformed Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”

TAGS: Frontier History

Maybe Blaine County Needs A New Name

By Lawrence Reed

11/18/2024

"Though it didn’t get far in Washington, some 38 states eventually passed so-called “Blaine Amendments,” including Montana."

TAGS: Frontier History

A President Who Didn’t Want The Job

By Lawrence Reed

10/21/2024

"If not for a bullet, the man who least wanted to be president may well have become one of our better ones. Such can be the bitter ironies of history thwarted."

TAGS: Frontier History

Albert Gallatin, Renaissance Man

By Lawrence Reed

09/23/2024

"In his “spare” time, he spoke out against slavery and in favor of fiscal responsibility, free trade and individual liberty. Most people never accomplish a tenth of what Gallatin did in his 88 years."

TAGS: Frontier History

Montana’s Activist Supreme Court

By Lawrence Reed

08/28/2024

"The Court should display fairness and stability and respect the constitutional prerogatives of the other branches of state government."

TAGS: Frontier History

An Idaho Story NOT Coming To Montana

By Lawrence Reed

07/23/2024

"Montanans should be grateful, though ever vigilant, that the Shippy story is not likely to be relived here in the Treasure State."

TAGS: Education Freedom, Frontier History

The Jews Of Montana

By Lawrence Reed

06/18/2024

"All of us should be proud of what Nicky Winton did to save so many, and proud of Montana’s Jewish heritage too."

TAGS: Frontier History

Fort Benton: A Small Town with a Famous Name

By Lawrence Reed

05/21/2024

"Fort Benton, Montana, is right to take pride in the man for whom it is named."

TAGS: Frontier History

Doing Something About the Debt Bomb

By Lawrence Reed

04/23/2024

"It may be what Benjamin Franklin had in mind when he said the Founders gave the American people a republic, but only so long as we can muster the courage, integrity, and fiscal rectitude to keep it."

TAGS: Frontier History

Humans Are Snowflakes

By Lawrence Reed

03/26/2024

"We flourish to the extent we are each free to build on our uniqueness, to make our own choices, so long as we do no harm to the equal rights of others."

TAGS: Frontier History

Black History Month In Montana

By Lawrence Reed

02/19/2024

"He did not believe in segregating history by race, but rather, he dreamed of seamlessly incorporating the relevant history of all peoples into a unified discipline."

TAGS: Frontier History

The Montana Town Named For A British Poet

By Lawrence Reed

01/22/2024

"Kipling himself, I’m sure, would be as proud of the town as the folks there are to bear his name."

TAGS: Frontier History

The Wright Brothers and the Plane That Landed Itself

By Lawrence Reed

12/19/2023

"The rest is history, as well as a phenomenal tribute to private enterprise, the profit motive, and the ingenuity of free and unsubsidized entrepreneurs."

TAGS: Frontier History

Indians, Property Rights, and Ayn Rand

By Lawrence Reed

11/20/2023

In 1876, when rejecting the demand to move his people to a reservation, Chief Joseph said, “I claim a right to live on my land and accord you the privilege to return to yours.” To me, that sounds like a man who understands private property.

TAGS: Frontier History

Montana’s Love Affair with William Jennings Bryan

By Lawrence Reed

10/30/2023

"Were Montanans right when they endorsed Bryan twice, or were they right to change their minds and oppose him the third time?"

TAGS: Frontier History