Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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Many of us gathered Thursday to celebrate Thanksgiving. Hope everyone had a great time and got to see all the folks they missed from last year due to the pandemic. As we are all wont to do at this time of year, I have been ruminating on things I am thankful for, and have listed a few of them below. What follows is by no means any sort of complete list, but rather is an inventory of things I don’t think about a lot that make a difference in my daily life. I’m thankful that the...
According to Wikipedia, “Abraham Harold Maslow was an American psychologist who was best known for creating Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-actualization.” Maslow's pyramid contains five levels and each level must be met or realized prior to advancing to the next level, in order to reach level five, “self-actualization.” The levels, from the bottom up, are: Physiological,...
I first began to suspect that everything I was told about the census was bogus several years ago when the Census Bureau continued to undercount the homeless. At least it claimed to be undercounting them. Every year during a Republican Administration the bureau would report they undercounted the homeless, with the following caveat: “We know they are out there. We just can’t find them to count. It never occurred to them that maybe they had an accurate count. Their computer mod...
At a recent CNN Town Hall, featuring President Joe Biden, hosted by Anderson Cooper, the following exchange took place between a questioner, the president and Cooper: Q: China just tested a hypersonic missile. What will you do to keep up with them militarily? And can you vow to protect Taiwan? Biden: Yes, and yes. We are — militarily, China, Russia, and the rest of the world knows we have the most powerful military in the history of the world. Don’t worry about whether we...
A recent “USA Today” article by Rebecca Morin contains a wealth of information on intelligence gathering and analysis as it pertains to the U.S. border. Morin points out that, “The administration was caught flatfooted by roughly 15,000 Haitian migrants who camped out last month under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas.” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told the paper Del Rio was “most certainly a challenge that we had not encountered previously.” Mayorkas also said, “We...
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is the CNN chief medical correspondent and a practicing neurosurgeon. He regularly appears on CNN to opine on all things medical. Joseph James Rogan is an American podcast host, Ultimate Fighting Championship color commentator, comedian, and former television presenter. He regularly appears on Spotify to opine on all things. When Rogan came down with the COVID-19 virus recently, he chose to be treated by the drug, ivermectin. CNN promptly reported that Rogan...
In less than three months, Jan. 6 will be upon us again. You remember Jan. 6, the day the news media report as the deadliest insurrection since the Civil War, don’t you? The insurrection that resulted in the arrest of hundreds of protesters to be charged with attempting to overthrow the government. The same insurrection that resulted in the death of five people. If you Google, “How many protesters from Jan. 6 are being charged with insurrection?” you will be rewarded with...
Everybody is an expert in something. A good ditch digger will take only a few seconds to watch someone who has never used a shovel flail around to know that the incompetent has no business trying to create a trench. Any welder or farrier can do the same, and so can any truly practiced professional of any skill set, including the academic and scientific skills. Murray Gell-Mann was an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the theory of...
The management of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis has been a disaster from the start. “Two weeks to flatten the curve,” should have been two weeks. The point at which legislative action is required to replace “management by executive order,” may be debatable, but surely staring a third year in the eye while continuing to govern through autocratic fiat is unacceptable. Federal and state lawmaking bodies should have enacted legislation long ago. The reason you don’t call your stock...
Bob Woodward’s latest book, “Peril,” alleges that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, telephoned his Chinese counterpart to assure him that if the president of the United States started a war with China, he, Mark Milley would give the Chinese a “heads up.” Based on a statement by Joint Staff Spokesperson Col. Dave Butler, it appears that Woodward’s allegations are astonishingly correct. Butler’s only caveat was that Milley’s conversations t...
I was reading news on the internet, when the following caught my eye: Dozens of students from the San Juan Unified School District in Sacramento County, Calif., are believed to still be in Afghanistan. Raj Rai, director of communication for the district, said in a statement that 27 students, from 19 families, are in Afghanistan. The students, along with family members, were reportedly in Afghanistan visiting families over their summer break. SJUSD Deputy Superintendent...
Some random thoughts: On COVID masks and booster shots: What is remarkable to me about government mandating the wearing of masks and taking booster shots for the current virus is the complete lack of any sort of risk assessment for the different groups of people affected. Age differences, health differences, whether or not you’ve had the virus, the diverse groups suing government to halt the mandating; all have no impact on government decision making. Every one of the g...
By now, most readers will have heard the name of Marine Lt Col. Stuart Scheller. He is the infantry battalion commander who went on Facebook to demand that senior military and political leaders take responsibility for the collapse in Afghanistan and the debacle at the Kabul airport. Of particular note in his statement was the colossal blunder that resulted in the closing of the air field at Bagram. Scheller went on to say that he was well aware of the consequences he faced as...
Those who know me well will tell you that I have defended to a fault, the leadership of the United States military. I have always maintained that, “You can’t be really stupid, and become a general or an admiral.” Further, I always believed that senior military leadership was smarter than me, better educated than me and had access to better information than me. After Aug. 15, I find myself doubting all these assumptions. Forty odd years ago on Dec. 24, 1979, the Soviet Army...
Depending on which source you use, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” was first stated in either an 1884 book titled “A Political Creed,” by Gabriel Manigault, or in a political speech by Sir Winston Churchill during the Second World War. Basically, this adage implies there may come a time when one may have to join forces with someone he doesn't like or admire to face a common threat. The saying was most widely used to describe WWII when discussing the Allies after Rooseve...
If you ask people to name the freedoms listed in the First Amendment, most of them will get the first three: Religion, speech, and press are at the tip of everyone’s tongue. After a moment’s thought, some folks will remember the other two. The First Amendment of the Constitution states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the peopl...
Two issues involving our current president seem to be taking all the air out of the room at this time. One of these is the long-running charge of collusion with the Russian government and President Trump during last year’s campaign. In spite of the best efforts of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan and FBI Director James Comey to oust Curley, Moe and Larry from their position in Hollywood folklore, no collusion has been found. What h...
Much has been written about President Trump’s first year. Allow me to add my critique. For starters, we should remember that calls to impeach Donald Trump began prior to his becoming President Donald Trump. Stalwart Democrats refused to attend his inauguration because he was not a “legitimate” president. In November of 2016, Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman wrote in the “New York Times,” “It really does look like ‘President Donald Trump’ and markets are plunging. If th...
Let me stipulate that I believe if someone is found guilty of rape or pedophilia they should spend a substantial amount of time in prison. We are a nation of laws and for the most part we hold to the precept that all men are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The longest, most expensive criminal trial in U.S. history was the McMartin pre-school case. More than 300 counts of child abuse were alleged against the operators of a child care center in Los...
It’s Christmas again, and it’s time for my poem, So I’m not at my office, I’m sitting at home, And scratching my head for something to write On this wintery, pre-Christmas night. At Christmas this year on New Mexico’s Plain, We had a dusting of snow but not any rain. I really enjoy a light dusting of snow, But not like Goliath from two years ago. For the last several years there’s never a doubt, That a new Star Wars movie will be coming out. This causes a need to gather the...
A recent poll shows 54 percent of the public believes the Special Counsel has a conflict of interest. Over the years, whenever one hears the phrases, “conflict of interest” or “unlawful command influence” they are generally followed up with the more inclusive, “appearance of conflict of interest” or “appearance of command influence.” In all truth I have never been able to fully grasp exactly what constitutes the “appearance” of either of these two types of interference. What...
Hillary Clinton found herself in trouble when it became known that she chose to use an unsecured server to transmit and receive classified information while she was secretary of state, rather than the normal secure system provided to cabinet secretaries. This is a violation of law. Donald Trump came under scrutiny when it became clear to one and all that he would win the Republican nomination for president of the United States. This is not a violation of law, but it served to...
The latest Trump or former Trump associate to be indicted by independent prosecutor Robert Mueller is retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. Depending on which news organization you choose to follow, Flynn’s guilty plea for lying to the FBI is either a bombshell or a nothing-burger. Never Trumpers in both parties and the media seem to believe that Flynn’s plea will be the beginning of the end of the Donald J. Trump presidency. In point of fact, Flynn lied about conversations he had w...
The question being batted around the U.S. Senate these days is whether or not “the greatest deliberating body in the world” would allow Roy Moore to be seated in this august body if he is duly elected by the people of Alabama. Moore is being accused of sexual misconduct with several women, one of whom was 14 at the time of the alleged incident. All of the claims against Moore are alleged to have taken place almost 40 years ago. It is middling strange that the Senate goes int...
There are 17 different intelligence agencies that compose the Intelligence Community. This statement presupposes that the director of National Intelligence has notified the U.S. Congress and the American public of all of the agencies involved in the IC. It is possible there are other agencies that remain so secret that only a handful of individuals outside of the un-named agency know of its existence. As an example of this, the National Reconnaissance Office, whose primary...
