New Mexico Mercury

Humphrey’s World: A waste is…

A waste is a terrible thing to mind

Air Quality Board passes the buck again!

On Wednesday, the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Air Quality Board ruled against SWOP’s (Southwest Organizing Project) request for a public hearing. SWOP and community members were hoping the board would set a future meeting to consider a new rule to require a cumulative air quality impact analysis in the permitting process.

“Cumulative impacts” appeared to stump some members of the board. When a new industry moves into the neighborhood today, the applicant provides information about the types and amount of pollutants that will spew from his own smokestack. SWOP’s draft rule would have required the air quality board to consider the pollutants coming from all of the smokestacks in the neighborhood; hence “cumulative impacts"...

Section K: Scouting Report - Stanford Cardinal

With a lot to discuss--how the Lobos won in Vegas, why they received a seven seed, and if this team will make the historic run to the Sweet 16--we need to focus on the obvious goal: sending Stanford home and advancing to the next round.

After last year, I doubt many Lobo fans will dismiss this game as a guaranteed win, but Stanford’s 10-8 conference record and sixth seed in the Pac 12 Tournament are not all that impressive. If the Cardinal had lost one more conference game, we would not be talking about them.  A 9-9 conference record and seventh-place finish in the PAC 12 would have elicited a coaching change, not a ticket to the NCAA tournament...

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...

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...

Weekly Poem: déjà vu

The mayor comes over to my table and says I am invited
to join him and el jefe ICE agent for a drink. I walk over
and sit down as the mayor pulls out a small black book
and hands it to the agent. He begins to read aloud:

Richard Vargas, born in Compton, California. Members
of your family came here from Mexico, and you are one
generation removed from picking grapes and cotton.
You went to school, the university, and now call yourself a
“poet"...

Addiction is the Legacy of the Born Immigrant

To many in the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico, the United State’s enactment of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was nothing more than a fancy smoke and mirrors tactic that allowed the U.S. to steal huge pieces of land from its rightful owners.

One of those land owners was my great-grandfather, Jose Inez Quintana.  He was born in Mexico.  His daughter and my great-grandmother, Geñoveva Quintana, was born in the United States.  Only, they were born in the same physical place: San Ildefonso, NM...

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...

Farewell to Books?

A friend wrote the other day to tell me her novella had been published. Where can I get a copy? Here’s the link, she responded. And when I went to it I discovered her book was only available on Kindle. No hardcopy at all! This was my first experience with what I fear may become commonplace, a gradual replacement of physical books with their digital imposters, something like cloning gone wild.

Call me old-fashioned. I like to read real books, material objects with pages I can turn, a cover that draws me in, inked pages that in some cases even smell of the old bookmaking craft...

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...