Opinion

Op/Ed: Age ‘N’ Biden, Indeed

February 10, 2024 by Submitted by Carol A. Clark

By JAMES RICKMAN
Los Alamos

My father died at Joe Biden’s age. The end came astonishingly quickly: a cancer diagnosis, several second opinions, a funeral nine months later. My mother was five years older than my father when she died, but I didn’t envy those extra years; dementia is a cruel thief that steals a person’s judgement, abilities and, eventually, their dignity.

I still recall when I noticed the weird change in Mom’s eyes that came before the dementia diagnosis, but after the onset of the relentlessly intensifying confusion that was so frustrating for her. I see the same subtle shift in Read More

Op/Ed: Age N Biden

February 10, 2024 by Submitted by Carol A. Clark

By GEORGE CHANDLER
Los Alamos

I love Paul Krugman.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/02/06/opinion/thepoint/krugman-biden-age?smid=url-share

I am two years older than Joe Biden. Like my hero Paul Krugman, I am disgusted by the tactics of the Republicans, who can’t find anything convincingly wrong with Biden’s performance (sterling in my view) so like everything else they do, they make stuff up by creating misinformation about his age.

Actually, I’ve become sensitized to discriminatory baseless BS about age. Political rhetoric now routinely calls on the old generation to make Read More

DeVolder: America For Sale – Cheap / Part II

February 8, 2024 by Submitted by Carol A. Clark

By Mark DeVolder
Los Alamos

I wrote the following Feb. 5, 2024, “After pondering a wide spectrum of issues in America today, I can’t help but think that everything is broken.” (link)

What prompted my initial writing was a report I saw on the internet where Jerome Powell indicated that the American debt level and the interest on maintaining the debt are not sustainable. Furthermore, Jeremy Grantham has been indicating for a long time that we are living on a financial bubble. And finally, I am getting sick and tired of hearing about how the US Government may get shut down tomorrow or three months from Read More

Op-Ed: Our System Of Public Higher Education Cannot Wait Another Twenty Years For Action

February 5, 2024 by Submitted by Carol A. Clark

By SATYA WITT
Principal Lecturer at UNM Albuquerque
Member of United Academics of UNM

Higher education in New Mexico is in state of crisis. Despite experiencing a boom in student enrollment, thanks to transformative opportunities like the Opportunity Scholarship, our growing student populations have fewer faculty to teach them because significant numbers of faculty are leaving higher education for better paying positions.

House Memorial 32 seeks to find a solution to this crisis, and requests that the Higher Education Department, in collaboration with the Legislative Finance Committee Read More

DeVolder: America For Sale – Cheap

February 5, 2024 by Submitted by Carol A. Clark

By Mark DeVolder
Los Alamos

After pondering a wide spectrum of issues in America today, I can’t help but think that everything is broken. That is not necessarily a problem if people are willing to face facts, make tough decisions and begin on improving a wide spectrum of concerns / issues. A critical question is where to begin making improvements.

Perhaps I am not the best messenger to address such a large spectrum of concerns/issues and there are those who would probably think that pouring molten gold in my ear might be an acceptable solution. However, I think it best to start somewhere and slowly/methodically Read More

Hanrahan: Candlemas – Halfway Between Solstice & Equinox

February 3, 2024 by Submitted by Carol A. Clark

By LYNN HANRAHAN
Los Alamos

Feb. 2 was Candlemas. It’s halfway between the Solstice and the Equinox. Thoughts turn to Spring. Growing up in the Midwest in the seventies it was known as the Blessing of the Throats. After morning mass the priest would bless all of our throats with candles to help us survive what remained of winter. It was kind of creepy but so were lots of things.

Our sports uniforms were scary. We wore the same reversible orange and black tops for all three of the Catholic girls league sports. They were stored in the parish hall basement between seasons and smelled like it. They had weird Read More

Op-Ed: Don’t Write Off Electric And Related Technology Vehicles; They May Be Our Salvation

January 15, 2024 by Submitted by Carol A. Clark

By Peter LaDelfe
Los Alamos

I’m writing this in response to Doug Reilly’s Op/Ed, “Electric Vehicles Not Quite the Panacea…,” LA Daily Post, January 4, 2024 (link). While I disagree with none of what Mr. Reilly says, I believe he has overlooked important factors. Most notably, he treats battery-electric vehicles as the apex technology for transportation, ignoring the hydrogen technologies and other emerging developments.

With regard to hydrogen, I will admit from the outset that charging a battery from the electrical source will always be more efficient than converting electricity to hydrogen Read More

Rickman: My Take On Mystery Animal Photo

January 10, 2024 by Submitted by Carol A. Clark

By JAMES RICKMAN
Los Alamos

With regard to Ron Roybal’s mystery photograph, back in February 1855, news accounts in England reported the strange overnight appearance of “The Devil’s Footprints” in east and south Devon. These hoof-like prints appeared in the snow overnight, spanned 40 to 100 miles, and continued through and over myriad obstacles, including buildings, haystacks and drainpipes. Locals attributed the unsettling tracks to an overnight romp by Satan himself.

It’s no surprise that such an occurrence would be seen here in Los Alamos. We are a community that, like Beelzebub, loves Read More

Cinema Cindy Reviews: Napoleon

January 6, 2024 by Submitted by Carol A. Clark

By CYNTHIA BIDDLECOMB
Los Alamos

“Napoleon” – Director Ridley Scott’s latest film – is worth viewing if only for period details and epic battle scenes. The film attempts to be a biopic about Napoleon Bonaparte. Indeed, in case we missed the point, his dying words are quoted at the end: “France… Army… Josephine,” three loves, perhaps in that order, which appear to have motivated this complex character.

Joaquin Phoenix (2020 Best Actor Oscar for Joker) plays Bonaparte as a quintessential outsider from the French island of Corsica, an officer with a flair for military strategy, a clumsy and often Read More

Op-Ed: Smaller Class Sizes Can Lift Students And The Teaching Profession

December 30, 2023 by Submitted by Carol A. Clark

By MANDI TORREZ
2020 New Mexico Teacher of the Year

Every day more than 37,000 New Mexico elementary students, enough to fill the Pit twice over, experience negative effects of large class sizes such as a lack of engagement, increased behavior issues, and lower achievement.

In the 2022-2023 school year, 27% of elementary classrooms exceeded limits and average targets set in current state law. At Think New Mexico, a think tank serving New Mexicans, we examined the class sizes of every elementary school in the state using data reported to the Public Education Department. The story we uncovered Read More