The Casper Star Tribune Colunist Dan Molyneax

As I've criticized the Casper Star Tribune from time to time, I have to give it credit where credit is due. While I don't always agree with him (I think, for example, he's wrong on Putin), he writes well, clearly, and isn't afraid of stating opinions that most people hold to themselves out of fear of holding them, if they do.  That columnist would be Dan Molyneaux.

Molyneax has guts.  In the short time he's been writing he came out with an article sympathetic to the aims of Vladamir Putin, with a clear explanation of why he feels that way, he's criticized the common idolizing of John Wayne as a hero, and on a recent Sunday he declared that Islam is not a religion of peace. All pretty bold comments really from a print columnist in a local newspaper.  Just taking on the odd memory people have of John Wayne as an American hero took guts I thought, and actually discussing the tenants of Islam at their written face value is very bold in the west. Having bold opinions is one thing, but actually stating them in the compressed amount of space a columnist has is quite another.  Molyneaux actually manages that.  And he doesn't do it in a superficial manner, in which some inflammatory national columnist do. Agree with him or disagree with him, he actually states a point and why he thinks what he does.

Again, I don't always agree with him, but I hope they keep him around.  As I thought would be the case, one recent column will met with a lot of opposition, probably about 70% of it vitriolic and not bothering to actually address his points in their disagreement..  That's the risk of being a columnist in the age of the instant anonymous comment.  I wouldn't read the comments if I were him, and I hope the Tribune doesn't regard them as a reason to set him aside. 

Of interest, Molyneaux fits into the category of clergymen correspondents, something we tend not to see a great deal of now, but which were at one time quite common.  In his case, he's an ordained Lutheran minister, which the Tribune used to note in its short note on his column, but no longer does.  Anyhow, it's nice to see the Tribune have an articulate serious columnist, no matter what a person might think about any one of his particular columns.