New Mexico Mercury

Space Invaders

I never should have presumed I was friendless. It turns out that I DO have friends. And they both decided to spend a night at my house.

It’s a miracle these two people— I’ll call them “Andy” and “Kristen,” because those are their names—even know where I live. I generally don’t share more than the two-letter state code of my address, lest the federal student loan thugs find me and repo my formal education. But I seem to have acquired too many manners while on my parents’ generous 18-year full-ride scholarship. Over the holidays, I suggested that Andy and Kristen were always welcome to stay with me, should they ever pass through the municipality of [REDACTED]...

El Machete: Charlie Hebdo

Charlie Hebdo

Tipping Point?

Periodically one nation or group attacks another. The assault can be shocking. The corporate press, eager to sell news, keeps the headlines going as long as possible. Governments and pundits who have the power to use what’s happened in support of their interests, extrapolate from the particular to the general. They spew accusations that instill fear of everyone who shares a racial or cultural identity with the perpetrators. Before we know it the situation escalates, and we may have another Inquisition, Middle Passage, invasion of First Nations, Holocaust, Patriot Act, or rash of police murders of unarmed youth on our hands...

Mercury Poetry: The woods eat war and forget it

The metal jackets of bullets
rust in the dark river
beyond the weaving grass.

Lightning bugs rise up
in their landscape gaping
with old graves overgrown.

Tractor guts rot and ripped
up soil becomes nutritious...

Iguala Revisited

Mexico’s President, Enrique Peña Nieto has just completed his lightning fast January 5 visit to Washington to meet with President Obama, a report has been issued, citing their areas of discussion and the meeting could, in normal times, be considered a success. The press coverage was so minimal, however, that Mexico is obviously not a priority issue in the United States. Besides, the real “Mexico issues” are back home in Mexico and they are not favorable to Peña Nieto. This is bad news for us as well.

First, take Iguala where 43 students were kidnapped and later killed last September...

Five Questions for New Mexico Authors – Benjamin Radford

This week we ask author, researcher, and editor Benjamin Radford about his new nonfiction work, Mysterious New Mexico: Miracles, Magic, and Monsters in the Land of Enchantment, published by the University of New Mexico Press. Radford is the deputy editor of the must-read Skeptical Inquirer science magazine.

New Mexico Mercury: I know you must be a skeptical inquirer yourself. But what first drew you to investigating old New Mexico mysteries like the haunted KiMo theater and the real-world crime scene of a serial killer on Albuquerque’s West Mesa?...

Satire vs. Fundamentalism

On Wednesday, January 7, 2015 three armed men burst into the offices of Charlie Hebdo, the satirical paper that has published a number of extreme caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in recent years, some of them frankly pornographic. The men were Muslim fundamentalist extremists, out for revenge. They opened fire on an editorial meeting, killing the editor and several cartoonists. Before the horrific incident was over, 12 people were dead.

In the finely honed spirit of French satire, Charlie Hebdo has been poking what some would term religious fundamentalism’s defensive self-image since 2006...

Fool’s Gold: Bench Oppressed

I guarantee that I am WAY ahead of everyone else’s New Year’s resolutions. Check that box, notch that belt, color me successful—we’re just skidding into January, and I have already outgrown my naïve resolution to exercise at the gym.

I should mention that I already owned the killerest biceps of the entire English Department Class of 2007 at the University of New Mexico, so far as I could tell through the graduation gowns. And unlike my peers who went on to earn doctorates and professorships, I let neither my body nor my mind slip...

PRC should reject PNM’s fossil fuel-laden plan

Esteemed Public Regulations Commissioners,

I humbly request that you reject both PNM’s proposed power replacement plan for the San Juan Generating Station and the proposed rate case on economic, public health, and environmental grounds to make way for clean, renewable energies in the Land of Enchantment.

Spending a combined $576 million on gas, coal, nuclear energy purchases and generating capacity does not serve the best interests of the public. Similarly, a dramatic rate increase falling disproportionately on residential customers has no benefit for the vast majority of New Mexicans; contrarily, it bodes well for PNM’s investors (who received an 8.1 percent dividend increase on December 9th)...

Thank you

As the year comes to an end, the fate of immigration reform remains stuck in a bitter political impasse and faces an uncertain future. Nonetheless, there are many individuals and organizations here in New Mexico that are deeply committed to bridging the gap between the United States and Mexico. I would like to say a year-end thank you to three that I’ve worked with that are located in Santa Fe...