While they vary from person to person, our values are the central driving force in our everyday lives.

These values form the context of daily decision making that drives our behavior. Quite often, these set-in-stone rules are accompanied by a set of guidelines that we adhere to, but occasionally allow ourselves to bend now and then.

When used as the lens through which we interact with clients, vendors, contractors and employees, these set-in-stone rules form operational boundaries that no situation and no person can convince our business to stray from.

While all of this is obvious, what might not be so obvious is how deep the influence of these rules can be.

As such, it’s worth considering where your rules come from and how you use them.

I wrote an opinion piece published in Montana newspapers nearly nine years ago about a visit I had just returned from to Israel. The topic of that piece is more timely now than it was then.

I was in Israel in 2005 with a delegation invited by the American Israel Friendship League. Our guide was a retired colonel in the Israeli Army with degrees in history and archeology from Hebrew University. We called him Ron. He had performed a similar function a few weeks before for former President Bill Clinton.

The U.S. Census Bureau released all sorts of statistics last week that, if you’re like me, make for fascinating reading. I pay especially close attention to population numbers across the state and try to glean trends that may predict what Montana will look like in five, or 10, years from now.

Of course, trends can reverse course, but the latest stats at least tell us a little bit about potential growth in Northwest Montana and elsewhere in the state. And reading population estimates in Flathead County, a question quickly arises: How long until we crack 100,000 residents.

It seems to me there are people towards the wings of both conservatism and liberalism that tend to fasten on some widely accepted “good” and carry it to an impractical extreme. When it is done knowingly, for one’s own benefit, it is reprehensible. Ted Cruz comes to mind. I may be wrong, but my experience has been that men that look, act, and talk like he does are generally scammers.

Putin stands as an extreme example of leadership run amok. Definitely from the fringe. Definitely willing to inflict pain. His justifying mission appears to be the restoration of the greatness of Russia. There are, have been, and will always be, others.

While deliberately dodging the public’s questions after recently leaked emails exposed a plot to hand a U.S. Senate seat to Gov. Steve Bullock’s right-hand man, John Walsh, Rep. Steve Daines is working tirelessly at his job in Washington fighting for the interests of Montana.

Congressman Steve Daines deserves credit for advancing the North Fork Watershed Protection Act, but he needs to work on being more consistent and reliable with similar Montana-made legislation.

The day Daines helped pass the North Fork legislation out of the House of Representatives he also voted to pass another local grassroots bill that protected a historic lakeshore in Michigan. This is significant because it was the first time in his career he helped pass a collaborative, solution-oriented bill that includes new wilderness area into law.

The U.S. House finally allowed the president to sign a five-year Farm Bill. Much of the agricultural weather risk policy is good news for farmers producing crops like wheat, barley, corn, or soy. Even milk producers gained access to subsidized crop insurance.

The Farm Bill is a funding mechanism for the food and farm policy of the United States. Time will tell how the USDA interprets and implements the law. Sen. Debbie Stabenow insisted her bill was reform and “not your father’s Farm Bill.”

One of the things that separates people from most machines and systems is their ability to adapt their interactions as the relationship matures.

A tough-as-nails 61 year old grandfather who supervises workers on an oil rig in North Dakota’s Bakken adapts his communication to the recipient when training a new guy to stay alive on the rig, and does so again when chatting with his three year old granddaughter about her Hello Kitty outfit via a Skype video call.

He doesn’t coo at a young buck and he doesn’t growl at his granddaughter. He adapts. It’s common sense.

Our systems, processes and communications don’t do enough of this.

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.