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The Buddhists Had The Answer To The American War in Vietnam He is a monk, not a returning general, but "triumph" seems to be the word for the vindication of Thich Nhat Hanh after 39 years of exile by both sides in Vietnam.
more>> The Religious Implications Of Protecting Virgin Ground From Hole Punchers My letter to the government, which to paraphrase Emily Dickenson, never wrote to me. Submitted as comment on the finding of no significant impact in the Baca Refuge case.
more>> Barack Obama And The Return Of The Hooded Figure Factor They could not defeat Barack Obama by copying the words. His message came from the heart, and his oratory used a "trick" that was inconceivable and too risky for most politicians.
more>> Albatross, Bear Print, Broken Jar, Hermit, King's Horseman, Empty Road As an old journalist, I could not resist the customary year in review, particularly this year. The world is so full of a number things -- east, west, north and south.
more>> Once More Into the Wild, This Time Armed With. . . Poetry My amended review of Sean Penn's adaptation of Jon Krakauer's "Into the Wild" from the Telluride Film Festival. How a piece of poetry helped turn a piece of investigative journalism into a story.
more>> The Supreme White Hunter At The End Of Nature The Canadian North is a separate land with a frontier past and a brilliant future. The Polar Bear its symbol, as is the penguin of the Antarctic. Big difference, as we found out.
more>> Darwin And The Absence Of Yamanas In Their Fire-Hearted Canoes Tourism paints over things, but the paintings in the cellblock at Ushuai were reality. Journey to the end of the world (and back).
more>> The Village At Wolf Creek: Salesmanship Trumps Meteorology Is the Forest Service complicit in poor planning by a developer? It would not the first time that the snowfall in the south San Juan mountains has been ignored, with disastrous results.
more>> Commentary On A Shooting At Nangpa La, A Pass In The Himalayas The video in which Chinese riflemen fire on escaping Tibetan refugees on Nangpa Pass took me back to April 2002 in the Nepali Khumbu village of Thame and asked a question.
more>> Rovean Political Theory Meets Reality In New Mexico Congressional Race Heather Wilson was nearly defeated by her Democratic challenger, Patricia Madrid, who said the Congresswoman "was not doing her job," regarding Mark Foley. What was her job, anyway?
more>> The 33rd Telluride Film Festival And The Sudden End Of The Pence Era Artful, original and surprising: making movies in a time of (we are told) war. "The Last King of Scotland," "The U.S. versus John Lennon," "Volver," and more.
more>> Long Weekend, Short Lives You might think I have a morbid attitude, visiting a death site and all, but on this particular weekend it figured. There had been a synchronistic them.
more>> When Legends Die Real Estate Agents Move In In search of my Appalachian gene, lite. To baby-boomer outsiders, "Deliverance" was a scary movie, but then so was "The Milagro Beanfield War."
more>> How My Appalachian Gene Led Me Back To North Carolina It was the North Carolina homeland I had never seen and wasn't sure I really wanted to see. I could relate to the stereotype hillbillies on TV without seriously considering we might be related.
more>> Big Constitutional Confrontation On The Right Of Privacy? Who will protect the right of privacy? The President? The Congress? The Supreme Court? Do we have to pick any of them? How about the phone companies?
more>> A Besieged Government Agency Goes "Wild" Why the people -- and I am one -- of the lucky subdivision north of Great Sand Dunes National Park should show the generosity and vision of the National Park Service and share the access.
more>> Meditation In A Killing Field As the tour guide struggled through the life of the Buddha I watched a depressed monk smoke a cigarette and stare out toward a pile of skulls pressed against glass. I wondered what he was thinking.
more>> It Was Not Shambala, This Village Full Of Life On the eve of a return trip to Southeast Asia, I recalled a village scene 40 years ago that to me defines the difference in practice between the two "vehicles" of Buddhism. Theravada is not as lonely as Mahayana.
more>> Holy Cities Of The West: The Centers Could Not Hold Stuck in a slithering python of a traffic jam in Salt Lake City, I wondered what Brigham Young would think. I mean, when he said, "This is the place," he surely did not mean the place for hopeless urbanization.
more>> Cool It, New York Times. Sheriff Bell Is Not Running For Office The main character of "No Country For Old Men" is squarely on the conservative side of the cultural war, but it's a mistake to read this as a political novel. And a problem for the nation.
more>> LETTER FROM TELLURIDE My blog from the 2005 Telluride Film Festival. On terrorism and murder and seeing the world through movies and love in Singapore, Taiwan, Paris and even New York City.
more>> HIROSHIMA They were teenagers from Japan, summer students at the Shumei Institute near my home. It was the 60th anniversary of the Japanese surrender ending World War II. They gave me paper cranes.
more>> Government By Property Owners Association What is a non-government to do when surrounded by government? Crestone Baca Grande v. Great Sand Dunes National Park.
more>> High Desert Golf And Carting Around Saguaros The president did Lyle Anderson a favor by playing golf at Las Campanas, but Democrats probably wouldn't go near the place.
more>> You Ask Why I Live On This Green Mountain. . . The Shumei Institute, one of the spiritual centers where I live, celebrated its third anniversary. Sometimes I can't help being a reporter. . .
more>> Why A U.S. Invasion of Belize Is Not Imminent (Probably) My report on the political crisis in the tiny Carribean nation that happens to be located in Central America. Nobody could phone out the story as it happened because the phones were all sabotaged.
more>> Faith and Reason, Reason and Faith When John Paul II died, the media actors praised him as a a great actor. But he also was a writer, and the written word is revealing. Consider his "Fides et Ratio."
more>> Zen And The Art of "Ghost World." My interpretation of the indie film "Ghost World" in the light of an ancient Chinese koan.
more>> New West Powder Snow: Start Yer Engines, Get Yer Gun In one NRA ad, a defiant Charlton Heston carried a double barrel shotgun, unloaded, open at the breach and breaking nicely over his right shoulder. On the other hand, there's reality on Molas Pass.
more>> Old And Crazy And Mumbling And Brilliant Thoughts on the timely death of Hunter S. Thompson. With reference to Hemingway and some Christian Republican political figures.
more>> On The Death Of A Scientist, And An Era Ernst Mayr said it: Evolution is as much of a fact as the observation that the earth goes around the sun.
more>> Take Off With Lakoff: A Linguist's Aerial Tour Of American Politics George Lakoff, the Berkeley professor who has become a liberal political guru, was recognized early by The Santa Fe Institute, known for its work in chaos theory. It figures.
more>> Española Rides Low And Slow Toward Santa Fe With every trip to the San Luis Valley and back to Santa Fe, I grew fonder of the place. Christopher Columbus liked it too, if my translation is right.
more>> Revised View of The Texas Rangers: Secret Police A new book on the Texas Rangers during the bloody decade of the Mexican Revolution recollected my strange first encounter with Reies Lopez Tijerina.
more>> Remedy Revealed For PSAD (Political Season Affective Disorder) My post-election blues song: Prayer and hugging, sex and evangelizing, freedom for slaves in the Christian Confederacy.
more>> The Hooded Figure Factor: Surviving Born-again Government Maybe I've been subjected to too many Karl Rove subliminal Jesus suggestions. Maybe I've spent too much time at Christ in the Desert. But I saw a religious context in the video of Eminem's "Mosh", on the internet near U.
more>> He Voted Against Canadian Drugs Before He Voted For Them I got a flu shot for the most indefensible or reasons, as Bill Clinton would say, because I could. Then I felt a cold paranoia starting in my arm: Was this a third-worlds trick?
more>> The Mansur Bombing And The Second Debate How can George Bush agonize over stem-cell research and not the bombing of thousands of innocent civilians?
more>> Wonkie Impressions From The First Debate Forget the catch phrases and imagery. This debate brought out the difference between Bush and Kerry on nuclear proliferation. It's a down home issue where I come from.
more>> Ethics For Democrats, Duck For Republicans Recuse! Recuse! If the new Republican judicial puritans go any further, the entire judicial system will be disabled. Except for corporate lawyers, of course.
more>> Letter From Baghdad The Telluride Film Festival chose only one of the many new movies about Iraq. It's a digital film from a digital war. And it's about soldiers.
more>> A Simple Solution To The Outsourcing Problem Mid-Americans don't really care where their running shoes are glued together as long as they're affordable. So does it matter where their books are put together?
more>> Border Water Fight Brings Down Wrath Of Richardson Bill Richardson owns the executive, legislative and judicial branches of New Mexico government. Is local government next? The mayor of a dirt-poor border town is making his stand.
more>> The Madness of Prez. George? Is Justin A. Frank's frightening Freudian profile, "Bush On The Couch" really psychology? Or is it just couched that way?
more>> Part-time Legislature? Santa Fe Advice For Visiting Schwarzenegger Part-time legislatures are no better than full-time legislatures, but if New Mexico is any clue, they are more submissive.
more>> Let Us Now Salute Max Cleland The networks were indulging in their "survivor" show fare, but he was impressive on C-Span, with his FDR way of gesturing with his head and neck, this true survivor who called John Kerry "my bother."B>
more>> Appreciating The Democratic National Convention As Art Teresa Heinz Kerry was right. The media celebrities intent upon enforcing a sort of high school code of popularity, good looks and cliches should go shove it.
more>> Word From The Mountain: Natural Law And Taylor Ranch Some rights to use land come, not out of the literal terms contracts, but rather out of “pre-existing and higher authority of laws of nature, of nations, or of the community to which the parties belong,” the Colorado territorial court said in 1872.
more>> Open Flame In House Of Oil Why does the White House give special access to an anti-American, royalist, untrustworthy and unreliable foreign power? See the movie, read the book.
more>> Compulsory Union Dues? No Problem The old anti-union bulls of the New Mexico Legislature will bellow their horns off in the pastures of heaven when they hear about Fair Share.
more>> Tim Jennings Is The Man For NM Senate President Pro Tem The New Mexico Senate has operated under a constitutional leadership fiction since Manny Aragon took power. Time to reorganize, but will the senators do it or will Bill Richardson do it for them?
more>> There's A Red Light Blinking On The NM Political Machine Roman Maes, a powerful Democratic state senator going for a sixth term from liberal Santa Fe, defeated himself by indulging in conservative rants. Your attention, please, Bill Richardson.
more>> WMD's As A First Casualty Science Kind Of Thing Did the media just go blank on the propaganda that supported the first Gulf War? At least The New York Times and Bob Woodward have published apologies.
more>> Iraq Explained In Terms of the Stanford Prison Experiment The psychological explanation for Abu Ghraib currently circulating in the media doesn't let the military command off the hook. John Kerry is missing another opportunity here.
more>> Cargo Planes At Midnight. Right. . . Maybe the reason I remember it is I was the only one in the restaurant who didn't rush outside to see. But they came back. And got me later.
more>> Pork Politics Versus Health Care In New Mexico Sen. Smith goes to Santa Fe. And Gov. Richardson plays hardball. The inside story on the New Mexico governor's most controversial veto.
more>> Voter Tech 101: Democracy Is What Truly Counts The arising distrust of electronic voting machines and their makers can be calmed by the simple application
Tom Stoppard's famous quote.
more>> Presidential News Conference: Prime Time, Ex Cathedra Look. The authority of George W. Bush to speak for me is probably constitutional. But he arrogates an authority higher than that.
more>> Welcome To Election Night Help Line Diversity, in the view of the president of the National Association of Election Directors, is the best safeguard against vote rigging. But in New Mexico a few county clerks have taken diversity over the hill.
more>> Max Coll Was A Very Good Citizen Legislator. . . A What? You'd think Max and Bill would be allies, having, you'd think, the same enemies. But everything based on experience elsewhere fails in New Mexico.
more>> What If Spanish Catholics, Not Anglo Protestants, Colonized The U.S.? Harvard political scientist Samuel P. Huntington is bringing his cultural clash model home to the American Southwest, but it could be a clash crash
more>> Larry King Live with John Edwards And Al Sharpton American public life is anti-intellectual as hell. Advice to John Kerry: don't think in public.
more>> New Mexico And Arizona Are Not The Same OK. The governor of Arizona is from New Mexico. The northern New Mexico congressman is from Arizona. The two square border states voted the same on the same day. But they're different, no?
more>> Dreaming Academic Freedom In Las Vegas, N.M. How I came to support the master of the New Mexico Senate for president of a small state college and a few afterthoughts.
more>> Baja Travelblog No. 6: Playing Hemingway In A Hispanic Puerto We cross the Baja by ferry to San Carlos and come to terms with the true nature of pelicans.
more>> Baja Travelblog No. 5: Diving For Chocolates Jungian psychology on the beach, plus the usual Nazi political problems
more>> Baja Travelblog No 4, Fishing For Americans We saw dolphins and the wreck of a failed resort. Is nature winning_
more>> Baja Travelblog No. 3: Welcome To The Hotel California Having left La Paz we come to lovely Todos Santos. Not all legends are true.
more>> Baja Travelblog No. 2: A Whale of a Tale Guerrero Negro whale watching and the new symbol of Baja tourism.
more>> Baja Travel Blog No. 1: The Far Tortugas Baja Travelblog No. 1, wherein I rant about dead fish and future tortugas. . .
more>> Year In Review: Bill Richardson Changed The NM Constitution Trouble with a judge? The highways? The schools? Who ya gonna call? In New Mexico now, you call the governor's office.
more>> Can A Good Politician Make It Rain? New Mexico's response to the drought is being written by lawyers and political experts. Meteorologists and geologists don't write that good.
more>> The Struggle To Define What's Wrong With Talk Radio A review of two speeches in which national news executives express to their colleagues why paid political diatribes are becoming a threat to their traditional journalism.
more>> Some Rapid Reading About Rapid Transit Too bad rapid Bill Richardson's idea about light rail transportation avoids the Albuquerque Central problem. Too bad Mayor Martin Chavez is unrealistic. Urban light rail works in the four biggest North American Rocky Mountain metro areas. The fifth is Albuquerque. Impossible dream?
more>> Lord Save Us From The Demon Rum (And Also Fred) Minnie B. Owens had it right: the saloon men eventually will ruin the state. They aren't doing much good for Bill Richardson's political career either.
more>> Message Control, Bill Richardson Style The Santa Fe press corps exploded in laughter when Bill Richardson made a slip of the tongue. But it was nervous laughter. The reporters were tense. The governor eats softball questions for lunch.
more>> Travels With A Neganative, Part 2 Continuing along U.S. 84 in New Mexico's Rio Arriba County, I search for the secrets of preservation of the living West in Los Ojos and Chama
more>> Travels With A Neganative, Part 1 The first way to save the ranch, if it's scenic enough to appeal to rich donors, is the way they saved Orville's place on Wilson Mesa. But what about the magic length of U.S. 84 between Abiquiu and Chama in northern New Mexico?
more>> The Terminator Vs. The Iron Man What is to be learned from the California recall and Arnold Schwarzenegger? New Mexico has already been through it. The story does not end with the election.
more>> Two Ways of Looking at a Bill Bear Why Bill Richardson "lost" Amendment No. 2 in the special election: Was it the the total return? Or something bigger, like the chickens coming home to roost?
more>> A Long Letter From A Good Citizen I freelanced the arguments from Aubrey Dunn's
polemical e-mail on Bill Richardson's school deal, but the anecdotes of corruption called for real journalism.
more>> The Firebombing Of Japan: An Apology The maker of "The Thin Blue Line" and other artful documentary films interviewed Robert S. McNamara for 20 hours and came up with. . . the 20th Century, personified.
more>> Loathing Of Wilderness Does Not Come Naturally Before you get taken in and taken over by the political delusions about wilderness, go out and take a look for yourself. There are hikers and rangers who really love it out there, and they are not wackoes.
more>> The Strategic Importance Of Verbal Camouflage High energy access tools, educational reform and accountability initiative. Words, words, words. Do they mean anything anymore?
more>> Two Cases On Parental Rights New Mexico does not look favorably on nonsupporting fathers. Or negligent mothers.
more>> Here's The Opinion -- Will The Appropriation Be In The Mail? The agency that watches judges and magistrates needs more money worse than it needs continuity of membership, goes the implicit argument of the Supreme Court majority. Well, first let's retain the continuity, goes the dissent.
more>> Is The Judicial Watchdog In The Governor's Lap? Judicial reform has always been a rough road, but now there's a big pot hole, courtesy of the State Supreme Court and Gov. Bill Richardson.
more>> El Turista: "America's Premier Historic Railroad" With a little help from its friends, the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad is the last best remnant of the narrow guage. And the Chama yards are free and open to the public. Also, you can find parking.
more>> The Santa Fe Rain Barrell Polka Every rich retiree needs several, under each picturesque canale, but are they safe? Has there been an environmental impact statement on the Santa Fe Rain barrells?
more>> NM Law: The Billy the Kid Defense
In the first place, he shot the sheriff because it was a gang fight. OK? Then Billy the Kid shot the guard and the deputy because he was escaping. DUH!! Case dismissed.
more>> What The Voters Need Is An Outside Investment Advisor The supporters of the constitutional amendment to increase the distribution from the New Mexico State Permanent Fund by 23 per cent a year include a lot of teachers, but obviously not a lot of math teachers.
more>> Lone Republican Concedes Public Land To The Public It's high and wild and full of elk and things like that. No wonder Patrick Lyons wants to trade it for some depleted coal reserves. He can't manage it. Besides, he's a Republican
more>> Will Richardson Also Control The Judicial Standards Commission? Did Bill Richardson go out of bounds when he fired the Judicial Standards Commission? The Supreme Court is the referee. What's taking it so long?
more>> Bless You Too, Bro, But You Gotta Have Insurance Something is wrong with a health system that forces monks who dedicate lives to service and devotion to beg for donations and depend upon politically-influenced indigency funds to pay for medical care.
more>> Let's Keep An Independent Judiciary A partnership between the executive and the judiciary in the American form of government is suspect, even if it's for a good cause, like fighting terrorism or drunk driving.
more>> Don't Answer The Phone, Bill, It's That Telemarketer Again It's not a credit card, not a debit card. It's the new, the wonderful, the magic National Deficit Card! Bill Richardson and the phantom debt-planning telemarketer.
more>> Concerning The Appointment of Felons To High Positions Governor's man Contarino says 98 per cent is a pretty good average for non-felonious appointments. Are they giving the real politicians a bad name?
more>> Two Views How Dendahl Became Political History Was it the libertarian drug issue or superior organization that defeated John Dendahl as New Mexico Republican state chairman? Whatever. . . Politics ain't simple.
more>> Invasion Of The Pennsylvania Hired Killer Hit Fish! You have to wonder upon reading New Mexico Game and Fish news if there are any natives left in New Mexico. Biologically speaking. . . .
more>> You Can't Separate Science and Politics New Mexico gets $168 per person this year in pork barrell spending from Congress -- fourth highest in the nation -- according to a Washington anti-waste group. Should we feel guilty?
more>> Drought Cycle Is Not Something You Ride Around Moab Another four years of this and Lake Powell could be a mud puddle? Surely the Bureau of Reclamation will think of something. Right?
more>> How Urban Sprawl Makes Democrats Look Like Republicans In the post-Dendahl era of political warming, the Democrats and Republicans may be dropping all pretense that they are polarized on environmental and business issues.
more>> Checkout Questions: Paper or Plastic? Exemption or Rebate? Low Income Comprehensive Tax Rebate? Apparently nobody understands it except people with a lot of time on their hands. Like prisoners.
more>> Now The Highway Program Is Between The Governor And The Legislature Bill Richardson could resort to refinancing the Gary Johnson bonds, but that's only a temporary solution to New Mexico's empty road fund. And then there's the fight between the planners and the legislators.
more>> Texas And New Mexico Take The High Ground For A Change He's the nation's highest ex-governor, but he's shunning publicity on this one, especially the cost. A fragmentary report on Gary Johnson at Everest Base Camp. Will he summit? Will the Texans?
more>> Sun Tsu Would Be Shocked There was no firepower in China's Warring States period. The "shock and awe" attributed to Sun Tzu's classic, "The Art of War," is about deception, surprise, and the use of unexpected and unconventional small forces. Is Saddam about to be surprised?
more>> Richardson: It's My Way At Highway It was probably the most insulated executive commission in New Mexico government. Not any more. Bill Richardson got the 2003 Legislature to erase the political boundaries around the Transportation Commission.
more>> Another Item For The Closing Statement You could be fined $1,000 for failing to file a price affidavit on recording a real estate contract or deed, but if you wanta to know what houses are going for in your neighborhood, you still have to see a Realtor.
more>> How To Have An Open Meeting Without Disclosing Anything Suppose "the Santa Fe Mafia," as a Republican news releaser called the House leaders, were governed by the public meeting resolution proposed by House Minority Leader Ted Hobbs?
more>> Richardson To Face New Mexico Voters Again One of the perils of being Gov. Bill Richardson is the net of side issues that can tangle his school reform agenda, which will depend upon voter ratification of constitutional amendments. But if the money doesn't come through, there's always the "war premium."
more>> Legislative Retirement Math: 20 X 0 = $20,000 The pitch is that legislative retirement will be paid by collection of an uncollected tax. Namely, the income tax due on oil and gas royalties sent out of state. Otherwise, no deal. What are these guys? Tax bounty hunters?
more>> New Mexico Legislature: Going Loco Over In Loco Parentis A suggested compromise that would make opponents of cockfighting feel good, if not completely satisfied, and would indulge the legislature's parental inclinations
more>> Bloggy Day In Undone Town: A Santa Fe Story And Other Tales The former Great Books student faced the former grocery sacker in a State Senate committee room. A lot had happened in 35 years. A Santa Fe story. . .
more>> Legislative Herbicide: A Bill To Get Rid Of Those Annoying Greens If it were really about the fairness of using your money for the convenience of a political party of which you are not a member, then maybe the Democrats should pay for their own primary elections.
more>> Richardson Takes New Mexico On A Fast Ride Over The Speed Bumps He used to be called a young man in a hurry but no one knew where he was going. Now we know. But will the voters of New Mexico follow as Bill Richardson takes over
the public schools?
more>> Ernie Mills: The Voice From Santa Fe Goes Off The Air He loved politics, and all politicians interested him, no matter what their views. Some never caught on that the key to getting along with Ernie Mills was ethics. Stuck with probes and sensors in intensive care, he was still a tough old guy.
more>> Persuade? Negotiate? Hey, This Governor Obviously Is No Republican New Mexico has tried 150 years of colonial resistance, 50 years of make everyone happy Democracy and eight years of gridlock. Now we're trying it Bill's way.
more>> Be Sure To Include U.S. Senate In Your Resignation Letter Using the highest nonpolitical personnel procedures, said the governor, have him confess to misfeasance in office, unsound fiscal policy, poor negotiation skills, robbery, burglary and bad putting.
more>> The Man Who Found Trinity Site As a kid at La Luz, said the beloved MacArthur Prize philosopher, "We wandered all over the Tularosa Basin, one way or another, looking for minerals, looking for excitement, looking for rattlesnakes."
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