President Barack Obama seriously rattled at least one cage with his recent reference to Russia as a “regional power.”

Following the recent Summit on National Security in the Netherlands, the president, responding to a press conference question, said, “Russia is a regional power that is threatening some of its immediate neighbors, not out of strength but out of weakness.” Although the boldness of that remark seemed out of character for the president, he is correct.

When Congressman Steve Daines voted to shutdown the government and voted to privatize Social Security and Medicare, I wondered who he was working for because it’s definitely not Montanans.

Then I got my answer from a news story I read.

When the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded on Jan. 28, 1986, I first learned of the tragedy from a teacher in a building named after an astronaut. I was too young to fully grasp what had happened as I sat in the second-grade classroom at Alan B. Shepard Elementary School in Bourbonnais, Ill. But I was familiar with rockets – after all, that was the school’s mascot.

Years passed before I began to understand the extent of the tragedy. Seven crewmembers died, including a teacher. Shuttles were grounded for 32 months. NASA was in crisis mode. The program finally continued on Sept. 29, 1988, when Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off into space.

Generally speaking, it does not serve to advance your cause by bad-mouthing your adversary. Better to give him his due, then give him his warning. Clearly and simply with no specifics, with only an end in mind.

In the case of Obama and Putin that means lining up world leaders, both East and West, to go on record as reminding Putin that while we must deal with him because of the way he is over-using the threat of death, or its reality, in his neighborhood we will limit the nature and extent of our dealings with him and his closest supporters.

In response to the many articles and events surrounding the recent vandalism at All Families Health Care, the Kalispell area 40 Days for Life Leadership Team feels compelled to comment.

Following the news of the vandalism, 40 Days for Life issued a press release stating, “We stand in strong opposition to the vandalism incident that occurred at the All Families Healthcare location. Violence and vandalism are opposed to our belief and continued focus on a prayerful and peaceful means to oppose abortion.”

There were two mentions in the Beacon recently concerning the North Fork.

While I am happy to see more people endorse paving the North Fork Road, columnist Rob Breeding undercuts his own argument to do so.

With the departure of Sen. Max Baucus from the Senate, Montana’s longest serving statewide elected official is Ed Smith. Never heard of him? Well, we have elected him clerk of our Supreme Court five times. Ed served as chief clerk of the Montana House of Representatives three legislative sessions and was then appointed by the legendary House Speaker Tip O’Neill to be chief bill clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives. He has also served as president of the National Conference of Appellate Court Clerks.

His is a remarkable record that speaks for itself. Ed always does a good job. That’s why he is rarely in the news and always reelected.

In case you missed it, Feb. 19 was the Tea Party’s fifth birthday. The usual pundits had plenty to say about how the Tea Party movement is fading fast, doomed. No it’s not – but the Tea Party needs to focus on what really matters, and darn quick.

The movement began in 2009 after MSNBC financial talker Rick Santelli belted out an epic Chicago trading-floor rant about the mortgage bailout provisions in the $800 billion “stimulus.” Obama’s stimulus, of course, was hot on the heels of Bush’s “Troubled Asset Relief Program” that rescued Wall Street’s boneheads from their own folly (on our grandkids’ nickel) – just more insult on top of injury.

What things about your business are you fed up about?

Sometimes it might be everything or the very biggest things, but at other times, it might simply be an aspect of your business… the tiniest of things. Even in those cases, the frustration is just as strong. The only difference is the concern you have about the outcome and what’s at right.

So what do you do about it?

It was a chilly day, spring of 1998, when the sixth grade class of Kila School took the most fascinating of all field trips, to the county landfill. It stank, it was noisy, it was cold, but each one of those kids remembers that day and when they learned where their trash ends up. It was exciting and educational; motivating and meaningful. We must teach our children the impact each of us has on our valley. It is hard to push responsibility on a 12-year-old, but they get it when they visit the county landfill.

Once the clocks move forward, excuses hold less water. Before, when driving to and from work under the cover of darkness, it was a lot easier to explain away why you’re not running, or biking, or whatever it is you do to prepare for summer – a season that requires some endurance to keep pace with.

Those days are now over. The temperatures are rising as the sun hangs around a little longer. Muscles little used for anything more than balancing on skis and snowboards are awakened. Rudely. And getting back into the routine is sporadic at best.

The politics between Ukraine and Russia are complex. President Barack Obama recognizes the sovereignty of Ukraine and warned Russia of striking Ukraine. Obama declared there would be costs to Russia if they strike Ukraine, but he acknowledges these costs are diplomatic (i.e. economic and political in nature), not military. Good.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a 2016 presidential hopeful, stated he would take a stauncher position than Obama on the costs to Russia, but it appears Paul’s and Obama’s approaches are similar. Both oppose U.S. military involvement and prefer imposing diplomatic “costs” if Russia strikes Ukraine.

Montana’s hate crime law is on the books to protect Montanans against crimes motivated by “race, creed, religion, color, national origin, or involvement in civil rights or human rights activities.”

People are free to hate. They are free to espouse whatever religious views they wish. But when they kill, threaten or vandalize in order to intimidate people they don’t like, or whose religion they disagree with, that crosses a line.

Here we go again. Religion being blamed for something it had nothing to do with. First Dr. Cahill on TV news blamed “religious terrorist” for destroying her clinic, then Ms. Strong in a letter to the Flathead Beacon, even after it was proven the person who broke in and did the damage was not religious. I especially enjoy the way non-religious people love to quote Bible verses when they clearly don’t have a clue the context of those verses. It’s all about an attempt to control “religious” people by using their Holy Book. Christians do no harm. If anyone claims to be a Christian and does harm, they are a liar.

At the end of the month enrollment for health insurance tax breaks will end. Many oppose the tax breaks Obamacare offers to Montanans who purchase policies at the federal online marketplace.

Since the four-year-old legislation was signed into law, Republicans and their political surrogates still demagogue health insurance reforms and tax breaks for consumers.