Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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Mother’s Day is this coming Sunday and, while many will celebrate with their mothers, others of us will fondly remember our mothers and be grateful for those who were godly and led us in paths of righteousness so we could know that, despite their passing away from this life, they still live, as Jesus promised (John 11:25-27). The name of the holiday is singular possessive because it’s set aside to honor each one’s mother, as is the case for Father’s Day, while Grandparents’ Day is plural possessive, likely because we all have several grandpare...
I just want the world to know that all this “catch-and-kill” National Enquirer-style of so-called journalism is a disgusting exception, nowhere close to the rule of how newspapers behave. In my 30-plus years of newspapering, I’ve worked at big dailies and little weeklies and others in between, and I can confidently attest to the fact that I never, ever saw an editor or publisher “buy” the rights to a story, much less buy the right to bury it, as the Enquirer’s Pecker said he did for Donald Trump. That just doesn’t happen, at least not at any of...
Here’s to the deep state, or, what we used to refer to as the federal government. With little fanfare, the Federal Trade Commission has leveled the playing field for millions of workers. The FTC freed an estimated 30 million employees who are now bound to their current employers through non-compete clauses. On a 3-2 vote, the commission found that the clauses are an unfair method of competition and therefore a violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act which prohibits “unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce.” There’s an exem...
What a good week it should have been for Republicans. Dozens of campuses from UCLA to Columbia University were being wracked by pro-Palestinian protestors who set up “Gaza Solidarity” encampments, spewed antisemitic hate speech, took over buildings and intimidated Jewish students. The protestors demanded their schools condemn Israel’s invasion of Gaza, come out in support of Palestinians or divest themselves of any Israeli investments. The riots were so heavily covered by the national media and criticized by conservatives that some spineless “p...
The noise may be more pronounced elsewhere, but here in New Mexico, we’ve got plenty of hot topics of our own. Hottest at the moment, I suppose, is the lawsuit that’s been filed challenging the Public Education Department’s new rule requiring 180 days of classroom instruction per year per school district, which effectively nixes the four-day schedule that dozens of school district have been operating under. There are two questions before the 9th Judicial District Court in Curry County: Whether to order an injunction that would prevent the P...
For almost a decade, Donald Trump has sent the Republican Party and much of the mainstream media into a political whirlwind. Trump’s bombastic behavior and searing personal attacks have angered many establishment Republicans while endearing him to hard-line conservatives. But it’s nothing new for the Grand Old Party. Over the past half-century, Republicans have engaged in behavior that has allowed individuals like Trump to rise and flourish in their ranks. Much of it can be traced back to the 1964 Republican National Convention in San Fra...
Another week, another round of Republicans attacking each other. This time it was over the Ukraine funding bill that was passed by the House and ultimately became part of the big military aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan that Congress passed late last month. The Republican controlled House, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, passed the Ukraine funding bill after what seemed like years of delays by a vote of 311-112. All the “no” votes came from Republicans and Johnson had to rely on Democrats to get the bill over the finish line. That, of c...
“Pastor, how can you believe in the Bible when it’s been translated so many times?” That’s a common objection. Meaning no insult, but it’s an argument based on ignorance. The objector doesn’t know anything about how the Bible came to be and assumes the worst: a shadowy history littered with corruptions both accidental and nefarious. It’s assumed that we got the Scriptures through a process much like the old party game, “Phone Message.” In that game, you line up several children in a row. A long sentence is told to the first child. He takes o...
We could learn a lot from the animal kingdom. Hundreds of critters have passed through the gates of Head Acres over the years. We’ve had Spanish bulls, emus, hogs, ducks, horses, snakes, chickens, lots and lots of chickens, chickens, feral cats, and most recently a “not-my-peacock” named Chicky. Chicky’s screeches did take some getting used to but now we look forward to his call. Some of our animal friends were destined to go on to rescue; we were a safe albeit temporary place for them to land. Others were destined to stay, whether they we...
While traveling back from Albuquerque recently and knowing we’d get home in time for supper for a change, I asked the family whether we should stop along the way or pick something up for supper in Tucumcari. The teenage grandson immediately said he was hungry, which is his typical response, even shortly after lunch. So, we opened the package of beef jerky we keep in the car for such purposes. After finishing the package, I noticed my wife reading the label and asked, “What does it say, ‘Best if used by yesterday’?” After a momentary pause, sh...
Imagine living in a household full of smokers. Whether you like it or not, you’re stuck with each other, so if you want to overcome your problem, you’re going to have do it together. More than one doctor has told you as much, but not everyone in the household believes what the docs say, opting instead for a quack’s opinion that the whole problem is better off ignored. The problem is, you’ve all got to quit together or you will all get sick and die by either first- or second-hand smoking. All that coughing and hacking around the house are obv...
For those too young to fully remember the OJ Simpson trial, it was a television spectacle with all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster. Sex and violence, interracial relationships and marriage, infidelity, alcoholism, sexual deviancy and a host of lurid details that titillated and fascinated the public. Stories covering the trial became daily tidbits, as just about every outlet – from weekly tabloids to highbrow magazines and newspapers – intensely covered the trial. You also had a real life cast of characters that would have been a fic...
“Death to Israel!” “Death to America!” It sounds like something you’d hear chanted by hundreds of brainwashed young people in the streets of Tehran. But as we saw last week, those are the chants of our own children on college campuses. People can agree or disagree on what the Israeli military is doing to the Palestinians in Gaza to punish Hamas for its attack on Oct. 7, or what our State Department is doing wrong in the Middle East. And am I seriously worried about Joe Biden’s weak, confused and destructive foreign policy in the Middle East...
I was reading one of the thousand or so articles that pop up on my email homepage, about why people reject religious faith: “17 Challenges Atheists Have for Believers.” These are always good for a chuckle. One objection caught my attention. It was this: If God exists why doesn’t he show himself? Well, how big a show would it take for you to believe? Would 10 consecutive, pre-announced plagues, reducing the world’s most powerful nation to rubble, be enough? How about splitting the Red Sea so people could cross through on dry land? You simply...
We have some big, rich and powerful neighbors, but that could change in the years ahead. Let’s start with Texas. New Mexico is heavily influenced by our neighbor to the east. In fact, a good number of New Mexicans on the east side of our state are wannabe Texans, aligning themselves to Texas values more than New Mexico’s. There’s a lot of chili (without the “e”) being eaten in eastern New Mexico. And the last time I visited the resort city of Ruidoso, I saw so many Texas license plates I wondered if I’d inadvertently crossed the state line...
Thanks to the so-called culture wars, debates about events on college campuses are being employed as useful weapons for attacking the gradual democratization that has occurred in higher education since the 1950s. Those of us who are academics and see education as crucial should be alarmed at the specter of partisan attacks, not to mention the garish and outlandish headlines that adversely affect many people trying to make sense of and understand their lives. Academic freedom, a term the American Association of University Professors developed...
I don’t blame the public for not wanting to put the Republican Party back in power in Washington. As the GOP proved again in the House last week, it’s incapable of accomplishing anything of importance. The big vote was over the reauthorization of a reformed version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act – aka, FISA. FISA is the controversial act that permits U.S. spy agencies to gather foreign intelligence by collecting the communications of non-Americans located outside the country. It’s considered by government officials to be a cruci...
Question: Why did the cat change its mind about crossing the road? I actually saw that happen while driving down Tucumcari’s Lake Street recently. My first thought was the cat had tried crossing unsuccessfully eight times before and decided not to take any more chances when a car was approaching. In this case, the cat had plenty of time before I’d get to the crossing point. Still, perhaps the cat realized it had only one life left to live. That’s all any of us have, for there’s a (singular) time to be born and a (singular) time to die after whi...
The capital outlay bill passed by the Legislature this year provides just under $290 million for 136 projects throughout the state, including $20 million for steam tunnel and electrical infrastructure upgrades at New Mexico State University. NMSU will also get $10 million for facility construction in the Creative Media Institute and $1.575 million for road improvements on the Gadsden campus. All 136 projects will be funded without any kind of ranking system to determine what our top priorities are, or vetting process to ensure that the projects...
Leave it to the right to make a cheap attempt to capitalize off human tragedy. For most people, the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore was a disaster of horrific proportions. Americans across the political spectrum expressed their sorrow and prayers toward the victims and their families. But for many in the bombastic world of right-wing conservatism, it presented an opportunity to partake in one of their favorite hobbies: injecting racism into the issue at hand. As first responders frantically plunged into the frigid waters...
The end of last month must have been especially rough for the people still living in the contaminated eastern Ohio town of East Palestine. On March 26, only hours after the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore Harbor was knocked down by an out-of-control container ship, they had to watch President Biden come on national TV and promise to “move heaven and earth” to reopen the port and rebuild the bridge “as soon as humanly possible.” They also had to see Biden pledge to have the federal government pay the entire cost of the accident and hea...
I’m seeing a particular objection to Christianity repeated often on the internet. It started, I believe, among some Muslims, but has spread to the larger culture. The objection is this: In the Bible, Jesus never claimed to be God. He never said, “I am God. Worship me.” I’m not sure what has made this criticism so popular recently. Can I be harshly direct and say it’s stupid? Maybe not. Maybe I should be lighthearted about it and say it’s “all hat and no cattle.” It’s a vacuous statement either way, especially if you’ve ever bothered to read th...
Spring fever is in full bloom at Head Acres, evidenced by tissue boxes, allergy meds and decongestants. There are also dozens of little plantlets growing in cut-down toilet tissue holders, and peat cups scattered around the house. They all look alike to me, but my husband Wayne can tell me what’s in each little set. We’ve tried longer than not to get tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers of all kinds, and various other veggies to grow with fair to little success. The other day, Wayne surprised me with an assortment of sunflower seeds, in beautiful sha...
An anonymous reader sent a letter last week reprimanding the newspaper because it “refuses to publish” an important story. “There is a big cover up,” the letter read. Our reader is referencing a lawsuit settled in February by the state’s Children, Youth and Families Department. The lawsuit alleged improper handling of a 2020 case in which a Clovis child was placed in her father’s home after her mother died. The father, Juan Lerma, subsequently killed the child, Samantha Rubino, and left her body in a garbage can. Our newspaper reported on...
Recently, Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard, after pushing the Legislature for a 25% tax hike on New Mexico oil and gas producers, made the decision to pull those “highly valuable” tracts of land and not lease them. That decision has raised concerns that her actions may violate her fiduciary responsibility to maximize revenues from the lands under her control. Garcia Richard told the Albuquerque Journal, “It’s worth it to temporarily forgo the dollars (from leasing immediately) to make billions more in the future by leasing out the...