New Mexico Mercury

Authority and the Art of Lying

A great dichotomy grips our social interaction. On the one hand we are taught—by our parents, in school, and through every cultural and consumerist message—that the world is divided into experts and the rest of us. Those leaders we vote into power by such dubious “democratic” process know what’s in our best interests. We are conditioned to ignore the fact that so many of them are bought and paid for by commercial or geopolitical interests.

I was motivated to write this rumination after listening to V.B. Price’s illuminating interview with Dan Hancock.  Hancock is a true expert. He knows a lot, but doesn’t pretend to have all the answers...

Political Science to the Rescue: A Scholar’s Look at the Status of Healthcare Reform

Next week is the deadline to sign up for health insurance under the nation’s new health care law and, once again, the rhetoric is heating up, both pro and con. Last week, Larry Jacobs, professor and chairman of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, entered these troubled waters here in New Mexico, bringing a fresh, analytical look at the implementation of the Affordable Care Act not just here, but throughout the country.

Jacobs spoke in Albuquerque, his presentation sponsored by UNM’s Robert Wood Johnson Center for Health Policy and the Scholars Strategy Network...

What the New World Taught Putin About Land Grabs

What Vladimir Putin is doing today in the Ukraine has a wealth of historical precedent in the New World. To understand how a few hundred—or a most several thousand—Russian soldiers succeeded in seizing Crimea without firing a shot, you could hardly do better than go back to the early 16th century and take a look at how Hernán Cortés’s 550 soldiers conquered the 25 million citizens of the Aztec Empire and how a decade later Francisco Pizarro’s 168 soldiers defeated the ruler of the Inca empire, the world’s largest country, without suffering a single casualty...

El Machete: It’s Getting Cold Again

It's getting cold again

The Work of Edward Abbey—Prophet of the West

Edward Abbey has been dead for 25 years. Larry McMurty called Abbey our ‘Thoreau of the West’. Abbey, who published seven novels and a score of essays and confessions and travel books all dealing with the American West, was known for his uncompromising point-of-view, his insights, his extrapolations, that cover the whole race, and hold a special resonance for citizens of this desert country.

And, of course, this ongoing work we call fledging democracy...

Insight New Mexico - Don Hancock on WIPP Leak

VB Price talks with citizen expert Don Hancock about the recent radiation leak at the WIPP site in southern New Mexico.

Gary’s Underwear?

I put my underwear on backwards this morning, and that’s why I’m for Gary King in his race to become Marquis de Nuevo M against the current Marquesa, Susana Hanna. You don’t really need to hear more about my wardrobe mistake, but you must hear about Gary’s spine-tingling campaign. You see, Gary is just like his dad.

I remember Gary’s father, Bruce, cruising through the old UNM SUB in his cowboy hat, gray suit, bolo tie and $300 boots...

What Happened to Democracy?

In 1917, the United States entered World War I, because, in the words of President Woodrow Wilson, “The world must be made safe for democracy.” Today, however, the more pressing issue is whether democracy can be made safe for the world.

The essence of democracy has been reduced by its advocates to a series of ritual formalities and frozen institutions—political parties, elections, written constitutions...

Public education is not a sporting event

Hanna Skandera tells us, in a recent Albuquerque Journal guest editorial, what should have been an inspirational and heart-warming story about her glory days in track, when she trained for months for that one big cross-country race at the end. She came in second. It’s implied that the rest of them were ranked-and-filed as, I assume, winners and losers?

First, academics and cognitive development are not cross-country. Learning is not a race; learning is a process. Learning is not a competition; learning is a quest...

Provincial Matters, 3-10-2014

V.B. Price's weekly collection of appreciations and observations.