Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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Being far away from home in Iceland and Britain for the last two weeks was perfect timing. Just as President Biden was proving to the whole country that he’s incapable of being president for another four years, or another week, I left the madness of American politics and flew off to Europe for a vacation cruise. As I often have had the pleasure of doing, I traveled with my travel-agent wife Colleen and a bunch of her clients. This time, though, we also took along my two kids, Cameron and Ashley, and their families. We Reagans had an e...
Evangelical Christians might be scandalized to realize how strongly the God of the Bible comes down on the side of festivals, parties, and days off. They know what tithing is, but they’ve never seen the rule saying that a third of the tithe was meant to save up for the feasts. Basically, one facet of tithing was to build up your vacation fund. It gets worse, though. God comes right out and encourages the (moderate) enjoyment of wine and other strong drink during those festivals. Jesus would not be a good Southern Baptist. There were initially t...
About 12 years ago, when I was at the Las Vegas Optic, we worked up a special section on the seven-county region of Northeast New Mexico. Not surprisingly, our lead story was about water. At the time, Las Vegas was facing some serious drought conditions that had slowed the Gallinas River to little more than a trickle, leaving the city — which gets nearly all its water from the Gallinas — with only a couple months of water in reserve. City officials at that time said the reservoirs were only 68% full and sinking. Also around that time, I got...
For the past five decades or longer, the state Legislature has been planning for what we will do when the oil runs out. We’ve set up permanent funds to ensure we’ll be able to keep our schools open and provide other essential services, tucking away money that is not needed now. We haven’t planned nearly as well for the depletion of an even more precious resource — water. The state didn’t even have a water plan until 1987, and the one drafted that year led more to regional competition than conservation. Many of the plans submitted to the Inter...
The latest edition of Kids Count provides more devastating news about New Mexico and the condition of our children. The report, created by the Annie E. Casey Foundation (a center/left non-profit that works nationwide) analyzes and ranks all 50 states based on 16 variables relating to childhood outcomes. Surprising absolutely no one, New Mexico was once again at 50th. I analyzed the report and counted seven variables that improved, seven that got worse, and two that stayed the same relative to last year’s report. Based on this it is hard to p...
Ruby, our latest rescue dog, is a hoarder. She has a kennel in the living room, a good-sized wire kennel. We set that up the evening we trapped her. We floofed blankets and I put a couple of my t-shirts in there for her. The first couple of nights, I slept in the living room, just to keep her company. She never made a peep. She loves that kennel. She can come and go as she pleases. She has blankets, toys and a giant tennis ball in there. And if we don’t watch her, she’ll have slippers, pillows, and anything else within teeth-range. She doe...
Set aside for a moment Joe Biden’s haunting performance at the debate last week, there was something even more troubling that just took place. It’s not getting as much attention because we’re used to it. The debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump is an example of style versus substance. Trump won on style and Biden won, by default, on substance. Biden supporters blamed a head cold on their man’s hoarse voice and subdued manner, while Trump’s supporters declared Biden ready for the nursing home. Meanwhile, Trump used his arsenal of misinform...
Several years ago, when I was covering state government from Santa Fe, I attended the annual briefing given to reporters prior to the upcoming wildfire season. After going over the current conditions and expectations for the coming months, the discussion turned to reporters’ safety. We were warned about the unpredictable nature of fire and the importance of following their directions at all times. At the end, they talked about worst-case scenarios. The instructor pulled out what looked like an aluminum-foil blanket and explained that when a...
Going into Joe Biden’s debate with Donald Trump on CNN, the big question was whether Biden could last 90 minutes. We found out he couldn’t last 90 seconds. On Thursday night everyone saw what’s left of the president’s brain and body – and it was not just a disastrous political moment for Joe Biden, it was a sad one. It wasn’t just that his voice was hoarse at the start. It wasn’t because of his confused and muddled answers or his five-second freeze about 13 minutes in, which he ended by uttering the mysterious words “we beat Medicare.” It w...
Last year, my Independence Day article was published in the Quay County Sun on July 5. I lamented in that article the holiday is now commonly called July 4th by those who may not be as concerned about the history and meaning of the holiday as they are about having another day off from work and doing fun things such as fireworks. I recognize that many, including myself, also call it July 4th out of convenience, but the origin still has great meaning to us. Generally, dates move backward one weekday from year to year, but because 2024 is a leap...
“Pastor, isn’t the church full of hypocrites?” That’s a common objection. There are people who don’t go to church at all, and they’ll tell you the reason is because of all the hypocrites. They don’t want to be like them. That’s a noble desire. But is the charge accurate? Is the church full of hypocrites? I’ve certainly known a few. That’s for sure. But they were hypocrites as they walked through the doors. The church didn’t make them that way. One consequence of freely inviting sinners to join you at church is that some of them take you up o...
Stifling heat, brutal winds and massive wildfires. Extreme storms, flooding and still a years-long drought. Welcome to New Mexico’s summer of 2024. Before the summer solstice even arrived, much of our state was experiencing 100-degree temperatures. Then “fire season” blew up with a pair of wildfires in the Ruidoso area, while the 2-year-old Hermit’s Peak burn scar led to flooding in Las Vegas as the Gallinas River overflowed its banks. No corner of the state is immune from what’s to come, which is probably going to be more extreme than in s...
Expectations were sky-high in 2005 when British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson inked a 20-year lease on a new spaceport that had yet to be built in southern New Mexico. The lease called for Virgin Galactic to pay $1 million a year for the first five years, with payments after that dependent on the company’s success in developing an industry for space tourism. There was no reason to believe that the venture would not be a huge success. Virgin Galactic reported that 38,000 people from 126 countries had already registered for the opportunity t...
Who do the liberal ladies of “The View” think they’re kidding? Last week Joy Behar and her ragged troop of pretend political pundits were again acting terrified by the specter of Donald Trump – aka, Adolf Hitler 2.0 – returning to power this fall. Behar, who used to be a comedian, was as serious as an insurrection. She and her Tuesday show’s special guest, none other than MSNBC’s insufferable St. Rachel Maddow, worried that if Trump is elected again he would take revenge on them and take their shows off the air. Or sic the IRS on them. Or wors...
I learned something interesting while reading about Father’s Day, celebrated this past Sunday. While Mother’s Day has always been focused on one’s mother and is, therefore, singular possessive, Father’s Day was originally meant to be a celebration of fatherhood, in general, as most of the world observes it, and was proposed as the plural possessive, Fathers’ Day, but the singular precedent already set by Mother’s Day won out. In the USA, a Father’s Day holiday was initially rejected because Mother’s Day had become immensely commercialized....
Common sense is not as common as it once was. Used to be, good ol’ horse sense would tell you that if a jury found a businessman turned politician guilty of every damn charge brought against him, he must be guilty. But now, way too many people have suspended their reason to see the convicted felon as nothing more than a victim of some unimaginable conspiracy against him. It makes no kind of sense, but that’s the Republican Party these days. The fact is, Donald Trump paid a porn star to keep quiet about their sordid affair so he could get electe...
Earlier this month, during an event in Philadelphia supporting Donald Trump and the Republican Party, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds made the attention-grabbing assertion that Black families were stronger and more conservative under the Jim Crow era. “You see, during Jim Crow, the Black family was together,” Donalds said. “During Jim Crow, more Black people were not just conservative — because Black people have always been conservative-minded — but more Black people voted conservatively.” Huh? New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority le...
So I turn on the news …. We’ve got wars raging in Ukraine and Israel. We’ve got nuke-carrying Russian warships visiting Cuba. We’ve got 4,000 illegal immigrants a day crossing our Southern border. We’ve got eight men from Tajikistan with potential ties to ISIS arrested this month in New York, Philadelphia and here in Los Angeles. We’ve got pro-Palestinian and antisemitic protestors making trouble on our college campuses, surrounding the White House, blocking traffic and making plans for disrupting the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19....
“Pastor, all that stuff you talk about is fine for you, all that Gospel stuff. But I live in the real world. I’ve learned that promises are made to be broken. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times it’s happened to me, but I can show you the scars. When a thing sounds too good to be true, it is. I need real help, and all you’ve got for me is pie-in-the-sky fairy talk.” Maybe you’ve never said or thought something like that. Well, I have. I’ve been hurt so deeply that when people repeated to me the promises of God, they did not strike...
I must admit to a certain grudge against Californians who come rolling into New Mexico with an attitude of superiority over us poor souls. It’s a prejudice I developed after a few years living in the Land of Enchantment, after seeing more than enough arrogant Californians coming in and trying to tell the rest of us how best to live and behave. I’ve held the same grudge against Texas, but developed it years earlier while growing up in Arkansas. But I felt my own attitude of superiority when, within just a few years: the Razorbacks exited the...
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg deserves to take a bow following his undeniable victory. A New York jury delivered a guilty verdict in a trial largely devoid of political theater and intense media upheaval. That’s thanks to a judge who, during the multiple-week trial, managed to maintain civility and order and ensure the rights of all parties were upheld fairly. Former President Trump was convicted on not one, not two, but 34 felony counts. Supporters are outraged. Detractors are pleased. From the moment he brought a criminal case a...
It was a good week for the Reagan family. Not so much for the Biden clan. Last Wednesday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, where my father is buried, there was a fine ceremony to mark the 20th year of his passing and recall the conservative principles that powered his domestic and foreign successes. And on Thursday, when the library marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day, it also celebrated the famous speech my father gave 40 years ago when he traveled to Normandy to honor the brave Americans who hit the beaches on June 6, 1944. Meanwhil...
We’re to sing about our hope of heaven to bolster our faith and encourage each other (Ephesians 5:15-21; Colossians 3:12-17). So while my wife’s dear friend was dying recently, without knowing whether her friend could hear, my wife played hymns on her phone. We’ll also sing in heaven and some of the family present wondered what kind of songs we’d sing when we get there, we’ll no longer need faith because we’ll be living by sight (2 Corinthians 5:1-10, especially vs. 7; 1 John 3:1-3). The Book of Revelation provides some insight into presen...
Usually, I’m alone with my thoughts on the early drive to work. A few weeks ago, bleary-eyed and in need of a jolt of caffeine, I drove down the county road and saw a little head pop out of the tall grass. I blink. Nothing. Blink again. Head pops up. A puppy. I pulled over and got out, trying to see if the pup was OK. The pup was OK enough to dart across the road into an abandoned, overgrown property. The skeletal pup took refuge underneath an old truck, and just looked at me, then disappeared. I spent a few minutes trying to coax the pup out,...
I’m a big fan of vacations on the cheap, which is good, since I’ve seldom been able to afford anything first-class. Besides, top-dollar travel often overlooks the best stuff to see. Several years ago, when my family was younger and we were fairly new to the Land of Enchantment, we decided to take a New Mexico-centric vacation. My wife and I, along with our two daughters, got into our four-door sedan early one summer morning and left our northern New Mexico home in search of wonderment, which we found at just about every stop. Our first sto...