Comments for The Billings Blog

Comment on Read a book by David Crisp

David Crisp — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 23:19:02 +0000

Oddly enough, I don’t really have a good answer to this question. For general military matters, David Chandler’s “Campaigns of Napoleon” is definitive. Segur’s and Culaincourt’s accounts of the Russian campaign are hard to put down. Nigel Nicolson’s book on the Russian campaign, “Napoleon 1812,’ is a good read. Felix Markham has a good short biography called simply “Napoleon.” There’s another good book on the general political situation in Europe at the time, but I can’t remember the name or author at the moment. Those are just some of the books I have read; there probably are better ones I haven’t read.

I reread Tolstoy’s second epilogue of “War and Peace” while preparing for class this fall (because I made students read Dostevesky), and I think Tolstoy was basically right. Napoleon, like all “great” man was shaped by events beyond his control, but he did make a difference. Unfortunately, his achievements were ultimately rather empty because he was driven much more by self-aggrandizement than by any desire to help France.

Comment on Read a book by Joel Harris

Joel Harris — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 19:26:26 +0000

I’ve come across your interest in Napoleon in past blog posts and want to ask you what book you would recommend as a good intro to Napoleon.

I’ve been steeped in Tolstoy for a couple years now and find myself agreeing with his (sometimes tiresome) critique of historians in War and Peace who hold up people like Napoleon as great men who shaped history. Is Tolstoy wrong?

Comment on That liberal media by Ed Kemmick

Ed Kemmick — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 16:42:41 +0000

Oh, yeah, a few people emailed me the same bogus column. Hard to believe anybody stupid enough to believe something like that survived into adulthood.

Comment on Talk radio update by Mark Tokarski

Mark Tokarski — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 05:00:25 +0000

Woodward exemplifies the problem with American journalism. The fact that he is given access to power assures that he is compromised in advance, otherwise, no access. I hate to chip away at the icon of the triumph of American journalism, Watergate, but I assume it was the same Woodward then, a man with access to power acting in a staged performance.

I laughed at the photos in one of his books about the Bush Administration, and carved out the center to store cash and credit cards (no more, potential burglars.) The photos in it were White House stills, a photographer in the room capturing staged images. This typifies Woodward, mouthpiece for power, pretend journalist, and also typifies American journalism. Let’s pretend we are journalists, and that they are wary of us.

Comment on Fighting tribal coal by Adrian J.

Adrian J. — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 05:34:34 +0000

When it was voted on to approve coal, go figure coal was going at a high sale rate as energy prices were sky high. At the same time, however, while coal was approved, development for coalbed methane was resoundingly defeated by like a 80% margin. The tribe actually lost a lawsuit against cbm co.s dumping waste into the Tongue River.

Also, most of the water in the area comes from underground springs, and obviously the cbm techniques have a good way of drying up groundwater. Look at Texas now with all of its cracked earth, and look at WY in a few years where cbm wrecked havoc on underground water sources. The Cheyenne want no part of that.

About the coal, the thing is it was voted for because coal was priced high at the time like I mentioned. The Crow tribe was getting rumored 4billion dollar deals with Australia, etc Now, however, with the push to feed China with more more more quantity to make up for what coal lacks in price, people are second guessing if its worth it. Although concerns about “boom town” affects are stated, realistically I don’t think it would come close to being on par with what ND tribes are dealing with. Go figure, the nearby Decker mine is being shut down.

Comment on Har har by Mike

Mike — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 00:33:07 +0000

I also enjoy Bill Maher and I pay for HBO to watch his show. I have tried to watch Lisa Lampanelli on TV, but I find I can’t watch for very long. It’s too bad you had to sit through it. At least you are classy enough to stay to the end. I’m not sure she deserved it. I am getting to be the same way about Larry the Cable Guy, but at least he is funny part of the time. I enjoy reading your blogs. Keep up the good work.

Comment on Napoleon vs. Kubrick by Jim Larson

Jim Larson — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 19:01:34 +0000

Anyone who has had drinks with Herr Crisp knows how freakishly delighted he is to be standing at the intersection of Bonaparte and Kubrick.

Comment on Har har by Ed Kemmick

Ed Kemmick — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 00:12:25 +0000

I wondered what she was like when I saw she was coming here, so I watched an HBO special she did. I thought she was kind of funny some of the time, but I also wondered how in the hell she’d do her show in Billings, Mont. Sounds like it might have been a bit painful.

Comment on The melon trap 2 by DrGonzo

DrGonzo — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 15:57:09 +0000

Eric- By, “didn’t offend anybody,” do you mean your little circle of like-minded redneck buddies?

You honestly don’t think that no other republicans are ashamed their party is being represented by this type of racist behavior? That’s not even to mention the local blacks in Montana who are already leery of how the local GOP patronizingly views them.

Comment on The melon trap 2 by David Crisp

David Crisp — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 21:31:47 +0000

“a liberal can say anything they want, about anybody, and get a pass for it.”

For example?