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My Page: Sutton R. Stokes

Missoula Notebook

The phrasing of the sign struck me as imprecise and perhaps even a little sinister, kind of like the announcements we keep hearing from the federal government about the financial crisis. Either you are closed today, or you are closed until you can get your oven fixed, but ovens are complex devices and it could conceivably take more than a day to fix one. Likewise, either we need to spend $700 billion buying distressed mortgage securities, or we need to nationalize the banks, but maybe next time you could make up your mind before giving the first panicky press conferences? [more]

Missoula Notebook

An automobile traveling at 70 miles per hour along a winding two-lane blacktop seems as good a place as any to think about inertia. The "bodies in motion staying in motion" part feels most obvious, particularly when a tight inside curve is tugging the car close to an oncoming dump truck and I remember that the odds of our continued survival are at least slightly decreased by the blown rear struts we are planning to get fixed as soon as we can find a spare $500. [more]

Missoula Notebook

At 5:45, as we rattled at high speed along the gravel road that serves the put-ins north of Johnsrud Park, returning the other drivers to their cars, I felt frustrated partly at the river conditions that had slowed us down but mostly at myself for trying to pack more into the day than could reasonably fit. I felt stupid for having overlooked the obvious: I am not the center of the universe, and nature will not be contained in the little squares of a day planner. [more]

Missoula Notebook

As the month limped to a close, operatives of the party of alleged fiscal responsibility began appearing on camera, tugging at their collars and licking their lips as they admitted that, yes, maybe it would be prudent for everyone to convert their savings to gold, just for the time being anyway. In more than one case, the whine of a helicopter engine warming up could be heard from just off camera, as could the sound of fancy silver being scooped off of tables into pillowcases. [more]

Missoula Notebook

Of course, if the volcano were to erupt at its full potential force later in the evening, you’d be vaporized instantly — not to mention that everyone in the western U.S. would be burned to death in the following minutes, a five-inch layer of lava would spill across the entire country, the world would be plunged into epochal winter, and almost every other living thing on Earth would die within a few years of ice, drought, starvation, and turmoil — but does this really sound so bad when you consider that the alternative is sharing the world with the kind of people who prefer Tech N9ne to the bugling of rutting elk? [more]

Missoula Notebook

You don't have to bike in Missoula for very long before you start to notice confusing and contradictory reactions from drivers. It might happen at a four-way stop, where some drivers will wave you ahead out of turn, or at a busy cross-street, where some drivers will come to a stop to let you cross, even when you have a stop sign and they do not.

As a result, it’s easy to start thinking that bicycles have right of way over cars, like pedestrians do. The only problem is that this is wrong. [more]

Missoula Notebook

First, let me make clear that I could care less about Bristol Palin’s pregnancy vis a vis the election.

However, there are some arguments going back and forth in various places on the ‘nets, concerning the case’s relevancy to ongoing debates over so-called abstinence-only sex education, and I became curious as to just what Alaska’s policy is. [more]

Missoula Notebook

As I sifted through news reports about Palin this weekend, I seemed to find more and more evidence suggesting that — given the upside-down, Bizarro World that American political culture inhabits — Palin will not hurt McCain’s candidacy but might even help it and, indeed, might even find herself in the Oval Office one day. I’m already anticipating that Palin will “win” her debates with Joe Biden, not despite but because of a shaky grasp on the facts of foreign policy. [more]

Missoula Notebook

First in an occasional series of "fun facts" about the Senator from Arizona.

John McCain's latest ad (linked below) claims that Barack Obama says "Iran is a tiny country and doesn't pose a serious threat."

Here's what Obama actually said:
“Strong countries and strong Presidents talk to their adversaries. That’s what Kennedy did with Khrushchev. That’s what Reagan did with Gorbachev. That’s what Nixon did with Mao. I mean, think about it: Iran, Cuba, Venezuela — these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don’t pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying, ‘We’re going to wipe you off the planet.’ And ultimately, that direct engagement led to a series of measures that helped prevent nuclear war and over time allowed the kind of opening that brought down the Berlin Wall.”

Now, watch John McCain's deliberate distortion of these remarks, and consider whether you really want a president who is willing to lie his way into office.




For more like this, read the rest of the Missoula Notebook.

Missoula Notebook

To all the new faces in town this week, a warm welcome. I know you are busy finding apartments, figuring out class schedules, and selecting the right chocolate lab to go with your Subaru Outback, but there is something we really need to talk about, right away.

It’s your bike.

There are some people in town who want to steal it.

They have a plan, they are already out looking, and your cable lock will barely slow them down. [more]