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Opinion

  • Saving Diane Denish

    It’s presumptuous of me, a lifelong Republican, to offer advice to the Democrats, but I’m also a bit of a non-partisan political junkie and enjoy good analysis regardless of affiliation. So this is my good analysis.

    They may not want to admit it, but the Democrats in New Mexico have some problems. Republicans not only smell blood; they can taste it. All they have to say is ethics, and voters pay attention. Everyone knows which party is rife with ethical problems (for now).

  • An antidote for anxious times

    Over the last few months, the press has been filled with worried articles about the state of the union. “Pundits are beginning to wonder if the system is broken in some fundamental way,” wrote Evan Thomas in Newsweek. “Do partisan polarization, special-interest money, snarling news outlets and public disaffection ensure gridlock into the indefinite future?” asked John Harwood in The New York Times.

  • Blink and it's a decade later

    A cloud of black smoke pouring up from the Jemez Mountains caught my attention 10 years ago.

    I was looking for the next thing to do in my life. A fun, 20-year escapade in film and video as a producer-writer seemed to be winding down.

    Swinging from vine to vine for the next project seemed to work for a quite awhile.

    I got to travel around the world and made films for the Smithsonian Institution and PBS, explored the Maya jungles and covered the First Intifada in the Gaza Strip.

  • The mirror of Eruliaf

    March 20, 2010 — (DP) Disassociated Press, updated 3:39 p.m. PT (Pawlak Time)

      Beaumont, U.S. — The Iraqi military relinquished management of a Texas prison holding some 34,800 detainees to U.S. authorities on Saturday as the Iraqis continued preparations for a full withdrawal by the end of 2011.

  • Who will feed us?

    It all started, for me, with The Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 1973.

    It was a genuine panic, with shoppers wiping the shelves clean of TP (sorry, I couldn’t help myself) and even driving to the next town in search of more. We didn’t learn until later that it started with a Johnny Carson joke on the Tonight Show. Even though Carson apologized and the Scott Paper Co. ran ads showing its factories in full production, the panic continued; it took manufacturers three weeks to restock shelves.

  • Commissioning a ship is a big deal

    SANTA FE — Commissioning of the new USS New Mexico too place on March 27,  at Norfolk Naval Base, in Virginia.

    Commissioning a U.S. Navy ship is a big deal. While the Navy provides the ship, crew and pier, it is up to the state’s commissioning committee to assure the commissioning is a world-class event.

    The commissioning isn’t just a ceremony at the pier. It includes a party for the crew and families, a commanding officer’s luncheon for the ship’s sponsor, a platform briefing breakfast and a reception after the commissioning ceremony.

  • Call for local business support

    Reality Check:  Why does Los Alamos not support local business?

    When the Monitor listed my candidacy, they had me as “musician.” That’s true enough, but it would have been equally true if they had listed me as “musician/business owner ( - man, - person, however you want to put that).” 

    “Business owner?” A musician as a business owner? Do you normally consider the one as synonymous with the other? 

  • We could use more foreign visitors

    SANTA FE — Do you know that the U.S. government doesn’t have an agency to promote tourism from foreign nations? That’s a big deal for New Mexico where tourism is the state’s largest private employer.

    New Mexico receives a big chunk of foreign tourists who want to see what the Wild West really looks like. They want to see Indians, Spanish churches, Billy the Kid Land, UFO sites, museums and galleries.

  • Health insurance costs put the...

    If you’re like thousands of New Mexicans, you were likely shocked by the news that several state insurance companies planned to raise rates by 15, 20 or even 25 percent for the next year. It’s part of a nationwide trend that we’ve seen over the past few months that shows no sign of slowing down. These drastic rate increases highlighted a problem that hundreds of thousands of New Mexicans face. Even if you have health insurance, it is often neither affordable nor secure and the rising costs are putting a squeeze on everyone.

  • Pioneers of another sort

    Sometimes it pays to spend 10 years in detention. Not that a person would ever want that to happen, but if it did — could you put the time to good use?

    That’s a question I’ve asked myself. I’ve also asked my students exactly the same thing. The value of a good high school or college education, I say to them, is that it should give you the tools to use time like that well. What would you do with it?

  • Steamrolling the log rollers

    Some believe that those who sought to restrict the spending limits of the county council got exactly what they deserved. This got me thinking about what actually transpired during that steamrolling.

    I started with numbers. Everybody knows numbers: County operations (budgets), council (votes) and scientists (probability). So here are some: There are around 18,000 L.A. residents; 58 percent of the 6,210 who voted in the last bond referendum nixed funding higher education — in Los Alamos, no less; and 2,000 plus signed the petitions submitted.

  • Thanks for passing health care...

    Please print my sincere thanks to Rep. Martin Heinrich, Rep. Ben Ray Luján, Sen. Jeff Bingaman and Sen. Tom Udall for their bravery and steadfast determination in passing health care reform. 

    Their actions are an historic victory for all Americans — for families, seniors, young people, workers and small businesses alike.

  • Not your typical April Fools&...

    SANTA FE — Instead of my usual April Fools’ column reminiscing about past political pranks or trying to pull one of my own, I am reminded of a promise made 10 months ago that is appropriate to begin fulfilling today.

    On June 6, 2009, full-scale D-Day commemorations were held at Normandy and many other locations around the world.

  • Thanks for your support

    Many thanks to the community of Los Alamos for the outpouring of support and encouragement regarding the accident and fire at Quemazon Montessori School on Thursday, March 25.

  • Cameras are not good politics

         SANTA FE — Why are traffic cameras so controversial? We know that speeding and running red lights is dangerous so we have passed laws establishing penalties against people who do it.

         So what’s wrong with taking a picture of people who have broken the law? For some reason many people who would classify themselves as law-and-order types become downright angry at the notion of their right to privacy being invaded.

  • A point well taken

    In my opinion, the point made recently by New Mexico Environment Department Secretary Ron Curry, as reported by the Los Alamos Monitor on March 27 (“Head wants federal agency removed”), is well taken.

  • Tea Party and the John Birch Society

    In his recent letter to the editor, “Have a Spot of Tea,” Dick Foster appears to be somewhat supportive of the Tea Party movement. Be that as it may, but he said that we shouldn’t belittle the Tea Party because they are being courted by the “John Birch Society, an organization of people with good income, education and social status.” Good social status? Well, not with me! I remember the John Birch Society very well and all reasonable people should be alarmed that this organization of paleo-conservative paranoids is showing its ugly head again.

  • Mixed signals regarding Richardson

    SANTA FE — When Gov. Bill Richardson vetoed the food tax, he noted in the first sentence of his veto message that it would be the last legislative act of his two terms as governor.

    That sounds pretty final. What does it mean? Is he leaving town for one of those cushy million-dollar jobs we’ve been hearing about? Or is he just not going to call any more special sessions?

    The indications I’m getting say it is the latter. Gov. Richardson says he doesn’t want to call any more special sessions while House members are campaigning for office.

  • Future looks brighter than the news

    I’ve seen the future of American science and engineering. And, in my humble opinion, it looks very bright.

    From time to time the media tell us that American education simply isn’t working. Reports can make it seem that public schools — and universities, too — are wasteful, dysfunctional and produce students who can neither read nor write, let alone do science and math.

    But I work at a large, state-run university and I see little evidence of those claims. Let me tell you what I do know about, what I see first-hand.  

  • A simple failing yields many ideas

    Early this year I wrote about the irony of federal stimulus money going into LED traffic lights that save energy and taxpayer dollars. In response to the column, four readers put me on to a fact that I flat missed.

    LEDs produce little heat, which makes them energy efficient and long-lasting. But there is more. In wintertime, emitting less heat can let more ice and snow build up on a traffic light and make it harder to spot. Examples exist of fatal accidents resulting.