Columns

Tucumcari for the first time. Other than a few lawyers’ offices, its lifeless main street was a canyon of vacant storefronts and hollow buildings.
A Kmart had opened on the outskirts of town, and one business after another abandoned downtown to be close to the action. The only retail was a place that sold Bully Bags, little bags made of bulls’ testicles, and business wasn’t exactly booming.
Other than the Bully Bags, Tucumcari’s scene was playing out in many small towns.

SANTA FE — New Mexico’s gubernatorial contest has become Susana Martinez’s race to lose. Lt. Gov. Diane Denish can still win it but unless Martinez stumbles over a pile of kryptonite, she’s the favorite.
Yes, I said kryptonite. I realize that is Superman’s nemesis but I can’t recall what weakens Wonder Woman. And Wonder Woman is what I am christening Susana Martinez.

I really don’t even know where to begin with this one.  I was reading one of those side stories off the home page of a news site about a hot dog.  Yeah, a hot dog, but not the kind that you or I might eat. It was a $69 hot dog.  Grilled in white truffle oil and topped with duck foie gras, tourists can enjoy this overpriced hot dog while being laughed at by New York residents who find the whole idea a bit hard to digest.

The problem with both democracy and freedom is that they complicate how to make people do what you want them to do.

Plead, cry, wink, pound a fist, roll your eyes, stomp your feet – those tactics don’t always work, but which of us has not pulled a face or had a fit to get our way?

Force is one way around the problem, which is what people mostly did before there were other options.

As the English political philosopher and author of “Leviathan,” Thomas Hobbs put it, “Not believing in force is not believing in gravitation.”