Rod Miller
Latest from Rod Miller
Rod Miller: The 800-Pound Gorilla In The Wyoming Classroom
Columnist Rod Miller writes: "Absent the immediate writing and passage of an amendment to the Wyoming Constitution that says lawmakers can do what they damn well please with school funding, our citizen legislature has its work cut out for it. And it all circles back to our Constitution."
Rod MillerMarch 02, 2025
Rod Miller: Whiskeys I Have Known... Another Cautionary Tale
Columnist Rod Miller writes, "Please don’t misunderstand, this column does not advocate alcohol abuse. I believe it is up to the individual to come to their own terms with mind-altering substances, and to determine for themselves what 'abuse' means."
Rod MillerFebruary 28, 2025
Rod Miller: Breakfast With The Old Guard At The Ferris Hotel
Columnist Rod Miller writes, "The Ferris Hotel was once the elegant heart of social life in my hometown. Built by an early Carbon County copper baron and filled with Molesworth furniture, the Ferris featured a cafe that opened long before the sun rose."
Rod MillerFebruary 25, 2025
Rod Miller: The Thrill of Victory, The Agony of Defeat
Columnist Rod Miller writes: "Participation trophies be damned. The rubble of history is full of second place winners. Humanity didn’t survive and advance by celebrating the runner-up. Survival of the fittest is the ultimate meritocracy. We ignore it at our mortal peril."
Rod MillerFebruary 23, 2025
Rod Miller: If SF69 Was A Roundup – A Campfire Allegory About Property Tax Reform
The stranger wore town clothes, and sat his horse uneasily. “I’m just deliverin’ the message,” he said, “put half back where ya found ‘em or somethin’ bad’s gonna happen. Cops will get fired, an’ towns will go thirsty. Bad stuff like that.”
Rod MillerFebruary 20, 2025
Rod Miller: Scorched Earth In Wyoming And Elsewhere
Columnist Rod Miller writes, "By strangling the lifeline for local services such as fire and police protection, water and sewer infrastructure, schools, libraries, and other essential elements of civilization, the Freedom Caucus will turn our landscape into a scorched earth of ghost towns."
Rod MillerFebruary 16, 2025
Rod Miller: Voting With Dollars in the Big Empty
Rod Miller writes, “I have to chuckle when I see someone go all bug-eyed over the possibility of a politician suffering economically over his politics. What could be more free-market, capitalistic and American than that?”
Rod MillerFebruary 13, 2025
Rod Miller: Goat Ropin’ In Gaza For Trump – A Campfire Parable
The sultry Mediterranean night made the cowhands sit waaay back from the campfire. The hot hamoun wind made them swap their Tony Lamas for sandals, and their sweaty stetsons for sweaty keffiyehs. All in all, they were not pleased to be herding goats in Gaza.
Rod MillerFebruary 09, 2025
Rod Miller: Using Kids As Human Shields In A Culture War
Columnist Rod Miller writes, "It boils down to this: if you don’t want to read a book, don’t read it. If you don’t want your minor children reading a book, don’t let them read it. Libraries don’t force-feed anything to anyone."
Rod MillerFebruary 05, 2025
Rod Miller: Emotional Support Critters Around the Ol’ Campfire
Rod Miller writes, "Rawhide Ricky from Rawlins perked up and informed his colleagues, 'All we gotta do is get a letter from a doc sayin’ we cain’t function without our critters. Then we can take ‘em with us everywhere we go. It’s the law!'”
Rod MillerJanuary 30, 2025
Rod Miller: The Separation Of Church And School In Wyoming
Columnist Rod Miller writes, "The Wyoming Constitution says religious organizations will never get one thin dime of taxpayer money. Things don’t get much more separate than that. Things are rendered to either Caesar or to God, not to both."
Rod MillerJanuary 26, 2025
Rod Miller: Let's Not Give More Power To The Gang That Can't Shoot Straight
Columnist Rod Miller writes, "In Park County, home to the nincompoops that are trying to tell Wyoming how to conduct our elections, the county assessor resigned then the dumpster caught fire."
Rod MillerJanuary 22, 2025
Rod Miller: Planning The New Mount Rushmore Around The Ol’ Campfire
Rod Miller writes, "Sourdough forged onward. 'Vedauwoo has all them rocks right by the interstate. If someone carved Josh Allen’s face on one o’ them boulders, tourists would go nuts an’ Buford would be a boomtown again!'”
Rod MillerJanuary 19, 2025
Rod Miller: A Music Critic's Look At The Wyoming Freedom Caucus
Columnist Rod Miller writes, "Wyoming’s post-punk, neo-emo, proto-death-metal musical sensation, The Freedom Caucus, rocked the opening gig of their Five and Dime tour by slashing their way through every song on their freshman album, 'Mandate,' in Cheyenne last night.
Rod MillerJanuary 16, 2025
Rod Miller: Make (Fill In The Blank) Great Again - A Campfire Conversation
Columnist Rod Miller writes, "It was a dark and stormy night. Cowboys huddled in a miserable circle, as wind blew the sputtering campfire sideways, and blew snow down collars. The beans and coffee had been cold, and there was nothing but a blizzard for dessert."
Rod MillerJanuary 07, 2025
Rod Miller: Let the First Amendment Free Your Mind
Columnist Rod Miller writes, "If a human mind finds the way to God, that is a result of its own freedom, and not the result of government. Here endeth the lesson."
Rod MillerJanuary 05, 2025
Rod Miller: Things Might Be Weird Enough Now
Columnist Rod Miller writes, "Dr. Hunter S. Thompson invented Gonzo Journalism by embedding with the Oakland Hells Angels and provoking them to stomp him into jelly. He would have been the perfect journalist to cover the MAGA movement."
Rod MillerJanuary 01, 2025
Rod Miller: That Day I Crashed My Airplane
Columnist Rod Miller writes: "Seminoe Reservoir was smooth as a mirror, and with the sun behind us, we chased our own shadow across the calm water. But something bad happened as soon as the tires touched the runway.”
Rod MillerDecember 29, 2024
Rod Miller: Returning Power to Wyoming People, One Good Idea At a Time
Columnist Rod Miller writes, "Things should get pretty lively in Cheyenne during the upcoming legislative session. There’s a new posse in town and, according to them, their intent is to invest more political power in the hands of Wyoming’s citizens."
Rod MillerDecember 26, 2024
Rod Miller: A Campfire Christmas
Columnist Rod Miller writes, "Twas the night before Christmas, ‘round the ol’ campfire. Coyotes were howlin’ out past the picket wire."
Rod MillerDecember 22, 2024
Rod Miller: Wyoming's Signature Cocktail Is The Ice Slough Mint Julep
Columnist Rod Miller writes, "When the julep hits your gullet, it’s like drinking brimstone distilled in lye, with an after-taste of death on the trail. But you’ve come this far, so you drink it all. Momma keeps making juleps ‘til the jug is empty."
Rod MillerDecember 15, 2024
Rod Miller: Wyoming Democrats & the Elusive “Different Result”
Columnist Rod Miller writes, "So, Democrats in the Wyoming Legislature were cold-shouldered when committee assignments were recently handed out. As expected, they grumped and groused about being left out. That’s really the only response available to them because they simply don’t control enough seats to effect any other outcome."
Rod MillerDecember 09, 2024
Rod Miller: The 10 Worst Things In Wyoming In 2024
Columnist Rod Miller writes, "Number 6 – The 'out of order' signs, and police tape that encircles the Independence Rock rest area as you are on your way home from Frontier Days, with your intestines full to bursting with funnel cakes. And you lock your keys in the car."
Rod MillerDecember 08, 2024
Rod Miller: Mutton Conductin’ in the Cowboy State
Columnist Rod Miller writes, "Coyotes are the reason Dad finally got out of the sheep business. He tried everything to keep them from murdering our sheep. He even bought a helicopter to hunt coyotes and that didn’t even make a dent. Coyotes are smart as hell, and they just kept out-thinking us."
Rod MillerDecember 01, 2024
Rod Miller: Dear Li’l Chucky, Let’s Rumble!
Columnist Rod Miller writes, "On 'The Cowboy State Daily Morning Show With Jake last Monday, Secretary of State Gray accepted my months-long challenge to a debate. Needless to say, my nostrils flared and my pupils dilated with anticipation."
Rod MillerNovember 27, 2024
Rod Miller: Free Speech and the Hypocrisy of the Wyoming GOP
Rod Miller writes, "It’s almost as if the Wyoming Republican Party wants to prevent any voice other than their own from being heard out in the Big Empty. It’s almost as if Party leadership wants Wyomingites to hear only their officially-sanctioned speech."
Rod MillerNovember 24, 2024
Rod Miller: Gen Z Around the Ol’ Campfire – or – Kids These Days
Columnist Rod Miller writes, "A yellow bus from Big Empty High School had pulled up to cow camp in the pale pre-dawn, and dropped off a dozen or so juniors and seniors for their annual field trip to the sticks. Their broncpeeler chaperons paired off with a newbie apiece, and set out to do cowboy work."
Rod MillerNovember 21, 2024
Rod Miller: Red Shirts, Green Pickups, Murdered Muleys and Me
Columnist Rod Miller writes, "I was gratified to see that a woman, Angi Bruce, was given the nod to replace Brian Nesvick as Game and Fish Director when he retired. I certainly wish her the best, because I nearly got that job decades ago."
Rod MillerNovember 17, 2024
Rod Miller: In Praise Of Tricksters And The Free Press
Columnist Rod Miller writes, "If you read something that offends you or calls into question your basic beliefs – say, in a column in Cowboy State Daily – feel free to read no further, and go back to your pep rally."
Rod MillerNovember 14, 2024
Rod Miller: Defining Moments in Our Democracy
Columnist Rod Miller writes, "Given the magnitude of voter turnout this year, and the margins in contested races, there can be little doubt that the people have spoken loudly and clearly. That, to me, is a source of pride in our country and our state."
Rod MillerNovember 10, 2024