Montana has new invaders.

By DARRELL EHRLICK | Editor-in-Chief

"Shaking things up is going to get people to abandon their positions, and that’s the intent. It’s a long-term dismantling of the scientific backbone and staff. The theory is that the federal government will abandon a lot of the public lands and then states will be forced to fill in those gaps.” – Chandra Rosenthal, Wester land and Rocky Mountain advocate with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a group that defends whistleblowers in public sevice.

As the United States Forest Service announced that it would be leaving the Washington, D.C., headquarters, it said that it was doing so to be closer to regions of land that it oversees. Some people have cheered on that the large federal agency is getting closer to the land, so to speak. Others said that this is just going to make the service even more fractured, parochial and put the burden on states.

The legal case against Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona, will test the court system as it challenges the limits of free speech and how much a former officer in the military can speak out.

The top general for the National Guard has responded to concerns that the military will be a presence at polling places during Election Day. This has some concerned that it will be a not-so-subtle sign of force and coercion, but Gen. Steven Nordhaus said that the guard members will “follow the Constitution.”

Note: some links may lead to stories behind a news organization's paywall

Reporters in Montana have been writing a lot about the different political fractures in the Big Sky State. We saw a good amount of dissent from Republicans during the Legislative session, which has bled into the election season this year as the GOP is challenging many of its own members. Well, during the weekend, The New York Times has a large write-up of the divisions within the political party, including Montana Republican Chairman Art Wittich saying politicians can’t serve two masters, when referring to those who worked with Democrats to pass legislation with Gov. Greg Gianforte’s support.

Among the many emails we receive, there are a lot of story pitches. More are being generated from online or text polling, which can raise certain questions about reliability and sample size. Sometimes, the issue isn’t even something as technical as margin of error, rather it’s a more fundamental question: Who cares? For example, there have been surveys purporting to tell which Montana town has the friendliest pedestrians or which card game is the most popular. Both of those seem not just pretty subjective but also rather obscure.

A new one last week looked at different states’ sensitivity to gas prices. A group called Advance America surveyed more than 5,000 residents and found that the tolerance to gas prices varied — probably not surprisingly. They asked a straightforward question, though: How much more expensive does gasoline have to become before you start modifying your driving or spending (either spending less on somethings; or, driving less). Montanans said if gas prices increase 80 cents it would change their behavior. That means around $4.64 per gallon is the top end for most Treasure State residents.

That is right in the middle of the states. Our friends way up north in Alaska said that gas would have to increase another $1.40 per gallon before they’d make changes. Meanwhile, Vermont said it was just about tapped out, with an average of just 17 cents more per gallon before they started to change. And several of our other neighbors seemed like they were also close-to-the-edge: North Dakota came in at No. 3 saying it would begin changing habits at 50 cents more per gallon; South Dakota ranked No. 5, saying it could only tolerate another 55 cents.

One of the tidbits of news that was making the rounds during the weekend was Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth having military leaders pray with him as he recited a Bible verse he thought was real, from the prophet Ezekiel.

We won’t repeat the non-Bible verse here. It’s already hard enough to get some people to read the book, we won’t make it even more difficult by printing something it doesn’t include.

However, Hegseth’s prayer sure sounded familiar to a lot of us who are pop culture junkies and musical lovers. That’s because the famous non-Bible biblical quote was from “Pulp Fiction” and was delivered by Samuel L. Jackson during a particularly violent vignette in the Quentin Tarantino masterpiece. For a long time, it’s been widely acknowledged that the quotation and fabrication of the verse was done for dramatic effect, intentionally — a character who thought he was acting righteously is really adopting a verse that justifies his own violence and moral position. For an administration that has taken such an active role in theological commentary lately, this just adds to the debate, as well as the conservation of how well church and state mix. We’ll leave that to you all to figure out.

But, if there’s one thing that Taratino is known for is the use of popular songs and music in the movies, even if during particularly bloody or violent passages. The 1994 release of the “Pulp Fiction Soundtrack” had audio clips from the movie and that caused me to pull it out and listen to it this weekend, including the snippet of Jackson repeating the non-Bible authority with gusto. The soundtrack did very well on the album charts, as it was a collection ranging from introducing an entire generation to the Statler Brothers — something I loved — to introducing Surf rock, the hard kind of pounding instrumentals that would become the earliest base for a much harder rock of the next decade. The soundtrack includes an up-until-then forgotten legendary surf guitar rocker, Dick Dale and his interpretation of an old Middle Eastern song, “Miserlou.” Even if you don’t know the artist name or the song, you’ve probably heard it, thanks to the relaunch of the song into popular culture because of “Pulp Fiction.”

And it’s exactly the high-octane energy we’re going to need to survive another week of the headlines. Here’s to Monday — while remembering you can’t get to Friday without it.

If you have a song that you’d like to share, or would like to get in touch with us, please send us a note at [email protected]

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