Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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In the wake of the recent mass shootings and the hype surrounding them, people are asking “why?” Simpletons parrot the popular answer: “guns.” Sensible people know there’s no single reason. Thankfully, mass shootings are rare. The way they are publicized makes them seem common, and copycat crimes often follow on the heels of well-publicized shootings. If it were up to me, the shooter’s face would never be shown and his name would be replaced by the words “some loser.” Mass sho...
Once again we approach that saddest time of the year: when the majority of parents send their kids back to school; back into the local government concentration day-camps. If you’re someone who mistakes schooling for education you probably believe this is good. School is a socialist babysitting system funded by your neighbors. If you’re OK with forcing others to fund things you want, then go ahead and support the government schools. I can’t support socialism. Schooling is al...
There are many things I don’t know. There are things I think I know but I get wrong. There are also things people may believe I’m wrong about, but I’m not — a topic for another day. When I’m wrong, I want to be wrong in the least harmful way possible. I’d rather make the mistake of allowing you the liberty to live your life within your rights than to make the mistake of violating you for your own good. Or for the good of society. Since I’m going to make mistakes either way, I...
President Trump makes people crazy. Or maybe he magnifies the crazy already present in people. It’s like a superpower. His supporters seem desperate to defend and support just about anything he does; even things they would have opposed had any other president done them — his anti-gun edicts, for example. At the same time, his detractors foam at the mouth over every little thing he does; always interpreting them in the most negative way possible. It’s obvious he knows this and...
If your idea of a good time is to vandalize someone’s home, I have no sympathy for you no matter what consequences result. Last year a relative’s home near Clovis was burglarized and cleaned out. Through the ruthless determination of his granddaughter, all his belongings were discovered on the property of the burglar (or an accomplice) and recovered. Now, someone has decided it was a good idea to try to destroy his whole house. The house he built with his own hands more tha...
There are few things I enjoy more than helping people. In the past few months, I’ve opened a car for a neighbor who locked her keys inside. Twice. I gave a military-style can opener I was carrying to a guy who was unsuccessfully trying to buy a can opener. I hold doors for people, I hand them items they drop, and do my best to help whenever I see the opportunity. I just put in a two-week stint helping my family with a fireworks stand. It was like one of those harsh c...
America was born in an act of secession. Those future Americans told an overbearing central government — the world’s most powerful empire and military at the time — it was no longer welcome. It had lost the consent of the people. Of course, the overbearing central government didn’t want to let go. They never do. It had to be convinced. Its military had to be defeated and sent away. It’s a precedent that should be continued to this day. Washington, D.C., is much worse, by every...
One way you can tell laws are not legitimate, ethically or morally, is in the way they vary from place to place. Those of us who live near an arbitrary political line — a state line or a national border — have the opportunity to notice this more easily than others might. Something that is legal on one side of the line becomes illegal once you cross it. Without otherwise changing your behavior in the slightest you can go from law-abiding to criminal, by law, simply by pac...
I love watching the market work. I don’t call it “the free market” because if it’s not free it’s not a market. Under government rules and regulations what survives is a pale shadow of a market; the more rules, the dimmer the shadow. Fortunately even this shadow of a market is enough to make life better for everyone; much better than the more regulated alternative. I appreciate this. Under the unfree conditions that exist in America and other “civilized” places, the market ma...
It amazes me how often people create worse problems while trying to solve problems. Most problems can be solved; some probably can’t. Don’t give up trying to solve the hard problems, though. You never know if the Elixir of Life is waiting for you to discover just around the next bend. The best approach is to let people find their own solutions. Most of their ideas will fail; some will be spectacular failures, but as long as no one’s solution is forced on everyone else, people...
There’s a sense of personal accomplishment, of self-worth, when you make something with your own hands through your own efforts. Even if you seek guidance from someone with experience, you’ve learned more than you knew before. You’ll probably value the results more than if you had no part in making it. If, after you do the work yourself, you decide you’d rather pay someone to do it for you next time, at least you now know what’s involved. You will probably have a better se...
A few years ago, I was hiking down a trail in Colorado. Exploring trails — and off trails — is probably my favorite activity. After a few hours, I decided I needed to turn around and head back. It was past mid-afternoon, on my last day of vacation, and I needed to pack and get ready for the drive home. I doubt I had walked even 100 feet when my natural klutziness struck and I twisted my ankle. Hard. I was in agony, and the realization that I had miles to walk made it even wor...
Preferences are a personal thing. Some people prefer dogs while others prefer cats, and some like both species equally. None of these choices is wrong, even if one choice might make more sense or be more right for some people. If dogs are preferred, there are those who prefer large dogs and others who prefer small dogs. Some people prefer aggressive dogs while other people want a more sociable dog. It’s all OK unless your preference is to prevent others from making their o...
Would you rather live in a world where it’s normal for people to try to convince each other of something, or a world where it’s acceptable to just give an order and shoot anyone who doesn’t immediately comply? I’m firmly in the “convince others” camp. To convince people, you’ve either got to have reasons or ways to play with their emotions. If you convince them with good reasons, the convincing sticks. If you use emotions, someone with stronger appeals to emotion will come alo...
It’s fascinating how easily people accept something they would otherwise know is wrong when someone they view as an authority figure tells them it’s right. Voltaire observed, in 1765, “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” This truth has led to many of the worst horrors in history. People still haven’t learned the lesson. There are hordes of people working full-time — at your expense — to trick you into believing absurdities. My hope is t...
I’m sure there will be a final answer on the racetrack/casino any month now. Right? Those who support a local racino must see by now how giving government the power — permission from the people — to approve and ration racinos is obviously a terrible idea. Tying anything to the government’s wagon makes certain it won’t be as good as it could be. Nor will it be timely. Those who oppose the racino should have noticed that if you give control of such things to government it will d...
Imagine you have an antique car in your back yard behind a privacy fence. A neighbor climbs your fence, sees the car, and decides something must be done about it. How he decided your property is his concern is a mystery. Clearly, he’s a bad neighbor who doesn’t mind his own business. Then it gets worse. He doesn’t ask about the car, offer to buy it or to help you get it running. Instead, he hires the local crime boss to force you to build a shed for the car, paint it pink,...
“Validly enacted laws.” This is how New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas deceptively characterizes the new anti-gun laws he wants enforced against you. They aren’t validly enacted. They violate the Second Amendment, so they aren’t even laws. You might imagine they don’t violate the Constitution, based on cowardly and dishonest opinions of Supreme Court justices over the decades, but they do. The Second Amendment is clear. It’s even more clear once you’ve read the disc...
Recently, out of curiosity, I scanned the daily jail log for Curry County. I had never done so before and probably won’t do it again. Afterward, I felt guilty and was ashamed of myself. I learned something interesting, though. Half of the people — five out of 10 — booked into the jail that particular day weren’t even accused of having done anything wrong; only things that have been arbitrarily declared illegal. What’s the difference? An act that violates an individua...
Never before have I needed my emergency preparations twice in so short a time. For the second time in just over two weeks, I’m glad I make a point to prepare for the unexpected. First, it was the power outage from the wind storm. I was ready, so it was only a minor inconvenience. Then, this past week a broken water main meant I, along with most of Farwell, had no running water for several hours. When the water was restored, we were under a 72-hour boil order. Again, a small i...
People are often their own worst enemies. They listen to those they should ignore or laugh at while they ignore (or laugh at) those they should listen to. It’s always been the same. Harriet Tubman, the 19th Century abolitionist, is quoted as saying, “I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed more if only they knew they were slaves.” It’s the libertarian’s dilemma. People don’t like to notice their chains even when that’s about all it would take to break them. It’s to...
How much did you enjoy our recent “shingle apocalypse” brought on by the little wind storm? Probably about as much as I did. I even went out and took a walk in it. I love the feel of gravel pelting the skin of my face, the grit in my teeth, and debris hitting my body. You just can’t enjoy this kind of thing in lesser places like Paris, France. On my walk, I staggered like I was intoxicated, but I told myself it was a good workout, and good practice if I’m ever on a cruise...
It’s interesting to me how many people want their own rights respected, while also wanting other people’s rights to be violated. People who want their rights as gun owners respected often advocate a massive government welfare program, carried out through taxation and land theft, in order to build a border wall, which violates the right of association and the right of people to move about freely. They also demand a police state where you can be stopped and checked for your pap...
While I appreciate when governments express support for natural human rights, I wonder if they really understand the rights they claim to support. Roosevelt County was recently declared a “Second Amendment Sanctuary” by the county commission. How serious are they? Are they only concerned with additional violations of the Second Amendment by the state? What about enforcement of all the violations on the books beginning in 1934 with the National Firearms Act? Do they und...
It was once a common theme in science fiction humor for a flying saucer to land in front of witnesses, with little green men coming out to say: “Take us to your leader.” If this happened to you, to whom would you take them? Do you have a leader, and if so, who? Most people seem to think of a politician in this case — perhaps a president — but who in their right mind wants to follow a politician? Why would they? It’s similar to the mistake of looking to politicians as role m...
