Follow the Water

Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument

The 45th president of the United States Department of the Interior has just short listed the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument for decommissioning.  It is on the list of natural treasures under review. Removing it from National Monument status would remove this region to toxic uranium mining. The uranium mining lease was actually entertained first by the State Department under the direction of Hillary Clinton, and was to be let to a consortium which included Russia.

The beauty of this land

There are so very many reasons to protest this move by our politicians , The awesome beauty is just a small fraction of those. And if your concept of what a uranium mine looks like is a shaft into the ground with all the workings hidden from view let me say you are wrong as the picture below indicates. And it does not go away when the mine is closed. Even the waste hauled out of the mine is radioactive and must be constantly washed with water to keep it cool. Water which goes into the aquifers below all western lands. It seeps through canyon walls and the sandstone and goes into the precious few rivers which cross the land.

Uranium mine in New Mexico

I want to protest this move by the despot in office currently because of the water. As I have stated in this blog platform before the next war will be over water. It is a resource we cannot live without. And while there may be alternate sources of energy there is no alternative to water. Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument is in the Colorado River watershed. What happens there drains into the biggest river in the southwest.

The water from the Colorado River goes into Lake Meade, a major water recreation area, and is used by Colorado for irrigation of its crops. Phoenix has built a canal to siphon some of this precious resource to mist its sidewalks. Ultimately it goes to the Gulf of Baja. We have a treaty with the Mexican government about the amount and quality of the water it receives from us via this international river.

Colorado River as seen from the cliffs of the monument

Tailings from uranium mines retain 85% of the radioactivity of the ores which are mined. And uranium can have a half-life of 5,730 years. So it is possible, if this mine is allowed, that your strawberries will glow in the dark for millenniums. 

Take another look at the map beginning this article. The blue line at the bottom edge is the Colorado River. And canyons and streams in the monument drain into it. Those are the visible parts of the watershed. The west also has the below ground parts of the watershed. 

This is about so much more than beautiful scenery or, if you will, just more red rock. This is about the water. Please protest this action by the Department of the Interior.

Department of the Interior
1849 C Street, N.W.
Washington DC 20240

202-208-3100

feedback@ios.doi.gov

Cry Over the Water

The story goes that in the wild west killing wasn't a killing offense, but recreation. Only two things a man could be hung for was stealing a man's horse or his water. Both were cruel methods of killing someone. You have to live here to understand that. And you know you will never move when you totally understand it.

Horses are not as important any more. We have roads and cars and conveniences closer to us than when the Camino Real was the only road and all else were horse paths. But water is still very precious and very necessary. People still get killed over stealing water but the bodies are better hidden. Poisoning water may be even worse than stealing it. You cannot steal it back. Poisoning it has made it useless for everyone including the livestock and the land and the wild creatures.

So the recent news of the toxic spill from the Silverton Gold Mine into the Animas River is to us westerners worse than a madman in Aurora killing people in a movie theater. And yet the national news seems to be unimpressed. Or are they being paid to down play it? By Mississippi standards the Animas River is small but it is part of a major watershed which includes the San Juan and Colorado Rivers, and the states of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. The water in that watershed are used for irrigation, livestock, drinking water, fishing, and recreation.

The Animas River mentioned constantly in the news begins in Colorado (about the middle of that square) crosses into New Mexico where it enters the San Juan River. The San Juan goes through the four corners area and enters Utah before joining with the Colorado River at Lake Powell. They claim the toxic chemicals in the spill will be diluted as it moves down stream. But for now nobody should drink the water, irrigate with the water, water livestock (like they are in pens where they can be kept from the water?). No swimming, boating or fishing.

New Mexico has a system of acequias or ditches used to irrigate the fields. It is the hottest part of the growing season and yet they will not be used while the water is still orange. It is unclear if the spill has even been stopped. Just today the estimate of toxic liquid dumped into the San Juan River Watershed has been tripled. It was announce that Navajo Lake, upstream from where the Animas enters the San Juan, is releasing water to help dilute the spill.

If no people die, no livestock thirst to death, no crops are infused with toxic chemicals there is still the fish die off. And say fishery experts the killing of all insects and micro organisms in the water producing a sterile river which cannot support restocked fish.

Mining was rampant in the west in the 1800 and 1900's. Regulations on mining were nil. In fact to support the settling of the west and the needs of the east you could file a mine claim for $50. Records on all these mines are few. And mine owners had no rules about filing plots of their shafts and adits. And clean up of the mine when "closed" was never required. Open shafts collect rain water and perk away under ground leeching out toxic chemicals. More of a problem since California began sending us acid rain. There are likely thousands of these little toxic time bombs to be accidentally released especially if you add fracking into the equation.

The good news for Colorado River Compact states is once it gets into Lake Powell only Nevada, California Phoenix, and Mexico get to use the water. I think the old wild west was right. It isn't nice to mess with water.

Chronicle Closes

Last Issue

An award winning local paper closed its doors after its blindsided staff issued their final paper. Second homeowners and residents of the Village of Angel Fire were in absolute shock. And very angry.

The closing if the Chronicle and the Raton Comet left Colfax County, New Mexico without a newspaper of record. The parent company which owns the Santa Fe New Mexican and the Taos News claims local residents did not support the lessor papers and offered subscribers to convert their subscription to the Taos News.

The banner of the Santa Fe New Mexican founded in 1849 declares proudly that it is locally owned and independent. And yet it feels that is not necessary for the survival of its acquisitions. Most subscribers to the Chronicle say the New Mexican made a lot of mistakes since it bought the paper. First it tried to merge the Raton Comet into to the Chronicle. They were too far away in airy fairy Santa Fe to know we hate each other. There has been an underground movement for almost two decades to divide Colfax county in half. And we do not like the Taos News (or Taos really). We resent that we shop there but no one from Taos ever comes here. And all the Taos Galleries have a Taos artist only policy. But most importantly Raton is ranch country and we are the mountains. Taos is the other side of the mountain.

And under the less than independent standing the Chronicle brought in editors and reporters from far and distant cities. People who did not know anyone here and who seemed to resent being here. A small, local paper needs above all loyalty of its readers. And it needs to be local. Locally Owned and Independent to borrow a phrase from the Santa Fe, New Mexican. Its staff needs to understand and belong to the community. Northern New Mexicans, it is said, do not even talk to newcomers until they have been here two years. Why should we read what they wrote?

Everyone has an opinion as to why the Chronicle failed even after giving Raton its own paper. You hear the digital age bantered about but there are still a lot of people not connected, who want their news in a concrete form like paper. They want to sit in the coffee shop to work the puzzles, point out the picture of their granddaughter graduating from middle school to their friends, and discuss the editorial with the editor who they have known for years and lives next door when they come in for their double cap to go. And the local businesses in this tourist town, the ones that advertise, want a paper which says Angel Fire and not Taos on its banner.

It helps if you know it is not Angle Fire or Eagles Nest. And that Sangre de Cristo does not have an H.

Just Say NO, NO, NO

It is time the American people took back their power and their rights. Big money and illegal politics have stolen our lives, liberties and happiness. There is not a minute of time when some politician is not running for office. And this jams up our email in boxes, and our quiet time at night with pleas of money to support their campaigns.

Why should we. With the Citizens United verdict from the Supreme Court of the United States, our money does not count because the Koch brothers and their rich friends can always give more. They have already picked their winners and we are just for window dressing. Don't hang their curtains. It just encourages them.

And why should it take two years to run for any office in these United States? With mass media and the Internet 90 days should be enough. Australia does it. And we have already proven we can make bigger mistakes with two years to consider our candidates.

We are supposedly electing these citizens (seekers of higher paid lobby jobs) to govern. An elected president of the United States has two years to learn his job and then he is once again running for office. A congressman of the United States only holds his office for two years, so the minute he is sworn in his campaign for the next term is in full swing. When does he govern?

We have been asking for campaign reform since I was old enough to vote. But those that succeed at this game know the rules and how to play them so they are not going to vote to change them. But we can decide not to play. I propose a political boycott. I do not mean not vote. I mean do not encourage them. Do not back or encouraging or fund a candidate or his party until six months before the election.

Do not open political email. They have programs that let them know how opens and reads them. Just relegate them to spam. Unsubscribe doesn't work.

Do not answer political calls. Yes, you can block those annoying telemarketers but not politicians or political polls. Even if it is a robo call they know you picked up.

Do not back a candidate on social media.  All your friends are for Hillary and you seriously think you are voting for her but do not share her posts. I used to share Bernie Sanders posts but he has not come out as a presidential candidate. No more shares or likes.

No bumper stickers or buttons. They used to give these away and now they are tied to a minimum donation of $5. Just don't.

If they want to continue to campaign fine. But do not encourage them. We live in a vacuum while they play their political games in Washington or our state capitals. None of the bills we want get passed. So they want us to support them? DO NOT.

We should not encourage or support a system we do not believe in. We may believe in democracy (question as to whether we have one) but we never signed up for constant campaigning. Let them know the only way they get our attention is by doing their jobs.

DO NOT GIVE FUNDS, DO NOT SUPPORT, DO NOT POST THEIR RHETORIC ON YOUR BLOG OR SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT UNTIL JUNE 8, 2016.

That gives them six months to campaign. I think that is generous for just empty sound bytes produced by an advertising company. And we can use our free time for meaningful activities: Write our congressmen and women on issues; back policies we want to be passed as laws and sign petitions to repeal laws we do not like; Campaign for an amendment to overturn the SCOTUS decision on Citizens United. And we can work to make our corrupted elections fair again. We can try to ensure correct counts of votes. And we can organize in our neighborhoods to get every citizen registered to vote, and help them secure all the documentation they need to not be turned away at the polling place in November 8, 2016.

Let's make this next election real to win back the confidence of voters.

JUST SAY NO TO POLITICS AS USUAL.

About Time

In 2006 my sister and I booked a house boat on Lake Powell for eight days. We did this because at the time the lake created by the much protested Glen Canyon Dam was 130 below optimal level. And it had been that low for long enough that the "bathtub ring" has largely washed off. It was as close to a photographer's dream as it would get since the dam was built. Unless of course the dam was removed.

Water levels had plummeted in 2005 and the Bureau of Reclamation reported the reservoir could not sustain itself if current levels of out pour were continued. The word drought was not even whispered in those days, but a decline in the rainfall from the 1960's when the dam was designed and built had substantially declined. The Glen Canyon Dam was a farce within four decades of its construction.

When the dam was built it was supposedly to supply water and power to California. With somewhat vague promises of ending the spring flooding and providing water and power to the Ute and Navajo reservations. Its construction spawned the Sierra Club and was the inspiration for the book Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey. I first became aware of the dam and its effect on the west in the 1970's when I rafted the Colorado River for the first time and the guides talked of Sunday water or Monday water as a determinate of the level of water in the river and the difficulty of rapids. Release of water from Lake Powell was determined by the need for electricity in Los Angeles.

The Utes and the Navajos never received the promised benefits of the great white wall of concrete. No water and no electricity. And as almost all the spring flooding are in tributaries below the dam it didn't do a lot for that either. The great gods of government wanted three more dams between Glen Canyon and Hoover. And all for electricity in the growing cities of California. Nor was the low my sister and I took advantage of reversed in the following years. In May 2014 Lake Powell was 42% of capacity and whole side canyons once navigable were cut off and dry. Earth Observatory by NASA has an alarming set of satellite photographs of the ever declining Lake Powell and a great write up.

Dams are not about water. They are about power. They are not about conservation. They are about abuse. Los Angeles has never reduced its need for power generated by Glen Canyon Dam even while the four western states which supply its water have cried about the worsening drought. California keeps on its lights and Phoenix still mists its sidewalks with water coming from the Colorado river after passing through Glen Canyon Dam and Hoover Dam. For decades the water taken out to green the deserts of California and Arizona and keep golf courses green, and light all the night up with lights prevented the Colorado reaching the sea. Canals were built to take its water hundreds of miles from its natural river bed.

Now at last Mexico is enforcing the treaty which says they should get some of this precious water that has been wasted. And California is talking conservation of water. REALLY? Now, when there almost no water left all because you wanted to light up office towers all night long? Only of the wasteful practices of Sodom of the west where fields are turning saline from water pumped from diminishing aquifers once filled by the Colorado River system when it was allowed to run free in its own basin instead of being routed in concrete canals.

 The Monkey Wrench Gang was right. Too bad we could not blow it up before it was finished. But the outcry from the building of the Glen Canyon dam did stop the other three planned dams. Though I hear undercurrents of talk that they are back on the drawing board to end the water crisis.

Note to world: You cannot save in dams what does not fall from the sky. And you cannot release water for your lights if there isn't any there.

Enough

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

Abraham Lincoln - The Gettysburg Address

The civil war this time is being fought on the political front. It has already gone on for eight years. And it is once again over the rights of black citizens. A whole group, the GOP, do not believe a black man has the right to be president. And step by step politicians have handicapped the country so nothing has gotten, or can ever, get done again for the good of the people.

Because the politicians involved do not care about the good of the people. They care only about continuing to hold office so they can get supported by lobbyists. Oh, some may care about turning our country into a theocracy.  And a few more want to legislate women back to the days of caves and slavery. The ideal of Hobby Lobby.

BUT nobody cares about the people of this country. No, it is not a democracy any more. I have doubts it ever was. It is now clearly a corporacy. All for the good of the corporations and 1% of the "citizens united" who have moved all their corporations to tax shelters in foreign countries.

I find myself on the eve of this latest election wondering how this country would have looked if we had lost the Civil war. Or if upon winning we had refused to let the south (home of the Tea Party GOP) re-entry into our fragile federation.

I, like so many of my friends, find myself wondering what would it be like if we broke the US (too big to fail?) into five smaller countries. And we all kept our resources and water and politics to ourselves.

Yes, I will vote Tuesday. But, I do not believe in this country any more. I think we are losing this test and this nation will not long endure unless we hold a constitutional convention and change all that is horridly wrong.

One citizen and one vote no longer counts for anything in this country.

Will the Next Civil War in the US be About Water?

Chamisa Blooming

There is something about the open plains and a totally straight line of highway for mile after mile which frees the mind to think. On this trip back from Trinidad I was thinking of so many other trips across the plains in the last few years and the difference rain can make. I want to use the word lush but so many in the east will not understand that used in this context.

The grass, already beginning to go gold because of night temperatures looked so thick and so long in spots you almost felt it would be difficult to walk through. And indeed a lot of the locals were not walking. One of this herd of buffalo got up when I walked (waded) to the fence line. The grass was up to my knees and almost up to their bellies. They definitely looked well fed.

Buffalo on the Vermejo Park Ranch

Even the post rut Pronghorn Antelope were too stuffed to move much. A rather nervous animal in the best of times this one even allowed me to get out of my truck to get a better angle. He was not about to move from his patch of long green grass. And one can hardly blame him. In his lifetime it has been difficult to find. This spring as I drove through this area I wondered it it would ever recover. I was not just grass grazed to nubbins but bare earth in large expanses.

And all the stock ponds and catch basins and streams were dry. We all laughed about the Canadian River. Bridges seemed to be unnecessary, another government boondoggle. All the fishermen in my valley complained about the water being released from Eagle Nest lake per water rights owned by ranchers, and treaties with other communities and states. Eagle Nest is at about half capacity. And even with the monsoons more seems to be going out than coming in.

Draining the lake has been going on for at least four years. The drought in the plains a bit longer and the water we trapped was the survival for the plains. So the stock pond below was a cause for celebration. I apologize for the power lines. I took this photo primarily for my sister who was last here when this body of water was not.

Water

And there was water in the Canadian River and Ponil Creek. And many more stock ponds dotting the eastern plains. The rest of the world is all upset about ISIS and Iraq and Iran and Israel (what is it about I's), but few of us here in New Mexico care much. We do have Weapons of Mass Destruction because we built them in Los Alamos and the other states of the United States have shipped their atomic wastes and weapons of war here to our "wasteland" to store.

Here we are excited about grass and water. We are angry at politicians from the east for ignoring climate change and letting Phoenix (a desert community which gets at best 4" of rain) mist their sidewalks with water which came from the peaks of Colorado, also in a drought. If water is to be expended it should be to grow pasture, not lawns, to feed livestock and native residents both two and four footed. We measure the water used and the height of the grass, not the strokes on a golf course.

Standing guard

Those hot spots that begin with the letter I had their rights ignored too for too long. Nations decided borders and policy based on what was true of the G8. And the politicos in Washington decide what they think is right for the states with the biggest electoral votes. But it is the lessor folk that built this nation and we are getting upset at being ignored. There are 30 states in the US with petitions to leave the union. Nobody will miss our electoral votes but they might miss our produce, water, and those stored nuclear weapons.

Wars have fought over water and war will be fought over water again.

Entrenchment

Note: This blog is about political issues I really care about. It was actually my first blog. I began Creative Journey for business and Sidetracked Charley for lighter approaches to subjects which can be as sensitive as those covered here. This blog is no holds barred.

The GOP's war on women is totally unacceptable. More moderate leaders of the Grand Old Party will tell you the attacks on women's rights to control their own bodies is the political agenda of just a small segment of the Republicans. Blame it on the Tea Party. But in truth the Tea Party is just the front dogs of the attack. The old "Run it up the flag pole and see who salutes" approach. It is a tried and true strategy. Nixon used Agnew for the same thing.

The truth is all the talking heads, be they the "leaders" or the 40 Tea Party members of congress, are just puppets of the real leaders of the Republicans: The fundamentalist religious right and their agenda to turn the United States into a Christian theocracy. This goes against the very core of the foundation of our government - Separation of church and state.

And this campaign is not new. It first appeared in the 1950's when Under God was added to the pledge of allegiance and to our money. (I frankly find that latter significant as money is their god.) Barry Goldwater left the Republican party in the late 1960's because he said allowing the Religious Right a chair at the table was the biggest mistake the leaders of the GOP would ever make. But the Religious Right and its Moral Majority founded in 1979 ruled the roost in the 1980's. It was dissolved in the end days of that decade only because it was no longer needed. They were the Republican Party. Make no mistake, the Republicans are a religion.

It it was religion that brought you the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem Witchcraft Trials and the Klu Klux Klan and the blowing up of churches in the south if they were black churches. And religion, in the mask of the Republican Party, has brought you our current do nothing for this country Congress.

The Democrat's biggest mistake, and this is huge, is thinking there can be a dialog and negotiation to move the country forward. The only forward the GOP will agree to is their agenda: The United States of America One Nation Under their Christian God.

And that means no rights for women. Maybe even a resurgence of public burning of witches in town squares. Goldwater was right about the unholy marriage of Republicans and the Religious Right. Jefferson and the founding fathers were right to demand the separation of church and state as a key aspect of the Constitution of the United States. We are no longer the country of 1776. We fought then against taxation without representation. Given that the GOP supports no taxes for the rich 1% (which they belong to) can you honestly say you have been represented in the leavening of taxes you currently pay?

Time to say not one more step down this path we have been lead on by the Fundamentalist Religious Right. They are not moral and they are not majority.

Not a Chance

I have a friend who just dusted off her political blog. I admit to the fact that mine has been lying dormant for some time. And not for lack of issues I could blog about but that the GOP has made them all so funny why bother.

But the latest news about the Fukushima Reactor in Japan has generated a lot of interest. And a lot of guessing because Japan has made it criminal to report on this issue. Even all the photos are taken from far off shore it seems. I love Google images and really how secret can a nuclear power plant really be.

I have included a diagram of one of the four reactors because I thought it was very interesting that in an earthquake prone area the spent fuel pool is above the reactor. BTW I think "spent" is wishful thinking. One bit of news to hit lately was that the enormous amount of these spent rods in reactor number three of four were going to be moved over a period of time. Very Carefully one hopes. Nobody says where but, that sent me to an overview of the entire facility and the question just where are the stored rods from reactors one, which exploded, and four which was at one time on fire? Judging from the aerial photos two is in the best shape. Three is the one currently steaming because they believe there is still sea water leaking into the wet well or heaven forbid the pressure vessel.

Voice of Russia led their most recent article with the headline 89 TONS OF DEADLY RADIOACTIVE FUEL COULD REACH US IN 2 DAYS. California is already getting measurable amounts of radiation in its rain. No reports as to whether or not the fish glow in the dark. US news seems to be ignoring everything west of our coast as if it will go away soon. Not a chance.

And there is also not a chance that we can do anything about what is happening. With the aid of hurricanes we have already proven we are incapable of evacuating our major cities like say Los Angeles. So why panic the population along our western coasts. How far inland the 89 tons go depends on whether it is coming by sea or air initially and which way the winds are blowing. I do not think there is any good news on that front. And there are those missing fuel rods from the other reactors which have been doing their think already.

My sister asked just how long I planned to live anyway. Watching above ground nuclear tests in Nevada as a child and being downwind from Los Alamos may have already done it for me. Do you suppose I have become resistant?

I admit to not being all that overly concerned about my home in the mountains until a friend that works for emergency management asked me about the major fault lines in New Mexico and how stable Carlsbad Caverns were.

Think before you act

Pick-Up Sticks the game

Life has gotten very, very complicated. And obviously everyone thinks it is very, very simple. Just change it.

Far easier said than done. We had an open range law in New Mexico at one time. And some legislature decided we were too populated for that and so they amended the law. We now only have open ranges on Bureau of Land Management holdings, Indian Land, and forest service property. Good luck with figuring out which of those you are on because they are not fenced necessarily. But to make matters worse when the well meaning lawmakers decided to change the law they forgot one of the little parts of the law about it being the landowners responsibility to fence out the cattle. Not the cattle owner's responsibility to fence them in.

Several following court cases that made it to state supreme court decided that fencing the cattle out only applied to immediate neighbors. So if the cattle got out of the owner's property and wandered merrily down the county or state or forest road to a more distant neighbor's roses then they were in violation of the closed range law and the owner of the roses was entitled to damages and could hold the cattle hostage and charge a grazing fee. Which makes that neighbor more equal than the immediate neighbor who cannot even get the owner of the offending cattle to fix the damaged fence.

All of this is just a small example of how complex our laws get. Rather like the game of pick up sticks I posted at the top of this page. When I played the game the sticks were not striped. You could see where the solid blue one ran under the solid yellow and over the top of the solid orange. Goal of the game is to remove a stick at a time. I was surprised they still made them. And even more surprised they had striped them.

But it is a perfect example of how complex our laws and issues have become. And changing one little thing can upset the whole pile. Yes, I am usually liberal. No, I do not want my right to defend myself from what I see as a threat taken away. Yes, I do not support assault weapons. No, I refuse to have my right to carry a gun infringed upon. Yes, I am for wild horses. No, I do not think they have the right to graze areas in a severe drought and ruin it for grazing forever (note wild horses are transplants from Spain). Yes, I am for re-introduction of wolves. No, I do not believe they should be restored to historic levels because there is no longer historic herds of their natural prey about. Yes, I think it is wrong a 17 year old died. No, I do not think he was innocent either. Yes, I am for a path to citizenship. No, I do not think we should make that path available for felons (and those that entered illegally are guilty of felonies).

Oh, and on the messed up closed range law? I think the owner of said maverick cow is libel for any and all damages even the immediate neighbor and he should be required to fence his livestock in. Now that in the wild west (if the wolf statement didn't) should get me fearing for my life. So think, as you protest the verdict that if you changed the laws so there was one Zimmerman was guilty of, what freedoms you now enjoy would you be giving up?

Play by the House Rules

Mother thought I was too intelligent to be a woman. Translate that to "ever be married." Or as would sometimes add "to be happy."

At an extremely early age I saw that there were always at least two sides to every story and that is if there were only too people involved.

Maybe it was my very active and creative imagination but I immediately got that my reality was not necessarily your reality. College only made matters worse; specifically philosophy and debate. I understood Plato and Jean Paul Sartre and Kierkegaard. Dad thought I should have trained as a lawyer but it just seemed too black and white. But I worked as a court clerk for a while and came to understand the law.

But there is something wonderful about the logic of the law. But I do believe entirely too many people fail to understand it especially when it go against what they want. It does not matter who is right or wrong but who broke the law and can that be proved. And was their a clear and precise law to be broken. That can get rather muddled.

My father played poker and taught us kids the game. According to Hoyle and table rules were everyday phrases in my home. I was the kid at the neighbor's house that when the Monopoly game was pulled out I asked by what rules we were playing. If there are two people cheating in a three handed card game who is wrong if the non-cheater loses all his money. The one not cheating because he was too stupid to get up and leave.

I am one of those strange people that can see the argument from every side and defend it. Not like it. That is entirely something different. But if I take a side it is usually based on fairness. No one promised me fairness but does not prevent me from arguing for it. And fairness is not always equal or unchangeable. It can in fact be quite variable depending upon table rules if you will.

We are great at setting out table rules whether it is Hoyle for games or Roberts Rule of Order for meetings or the Constitution of the United States and the Supremes. We are a civilized country if we play by the rules as written down. Mob violence is not by the rules. Nor is it fair to try a person in the media either before or after the trial because it didn't go as you wanted it.

We have become a nation of whiners. Not a nation of laws. If our side loses we want the rules changed.

I think the Table Rules were followed in the Martin/Zimmerman case. I think the jury did a wonderful job even though they were picked for the belief that as mothers they would be biased. Now let's see who are whiners and who truly believe in the rule of law.

Remember Justice is blind. And so it does not always go the way us biased and illogical people want it to go.

I have made up my mind

I have no interest in the truth. I have made up my mind, is a dogma that fits an alarming number of my former friends. I say former because I have no interest in closed minds. It is an open and shut case with me.

I love diversity. And since being forced into speech class in college love debate. Too bad I was not born a boy in the time of Plato because I would have thrived on discussions of the noise a tree makes if it falls in the forest.

And I find nothing sexier than intelligence. My idea of an ideal date? A museum or series of Ted Talks in Oxford. Two of my biggest turn off's? Rush Limbaugh and Nancy Grace. Both are too darn sure they are right. And with every major news story it seems the lines are drawn from day one. Not all the facts are available and even if they were they have not been read because nobody wants to be bothered by the facts. Their minds are already made up. Picking an impartial jury must be next to impossible these days.

Never mind finding honest and open investigators. Let alone impartial reporters and media. Can you imagine what will happen if Zimmerman is found not guilty? Rioting in the streets no doubt. But the evidence on either side is so inconclusive. And  imagine what would have happened if O.J. Simpson had been found guilty even when the evidence said he was. There seems to be this collective unconsciousness which says THIS IS THE WAY I WANT IT and so it shall be. Certainly do not mess their minds up with any doubt or evidence or facts or, heaven forbid, truth.

All that said I think the title of this blog is wrong because there is no mindful thinking in this collective unconsciousness these days. They have not made up their minds because they have no minds. The title should be I HAVE MADE IT UP. And so shall it be.

Why should we mess up the west? Again

Mount Taylor by Dave Arnold

I lived and went to school in Albuquerque during the 1960's when the power brokers were beginning their destruction of the west with the building of the Glen Canyon Dam. They argued very few people went there and ergo who would miss it. And the greater good was to provide energy for the area and prevent the flooding of the Colorado River and build a great recreational reservoir. The fight to stop the Glen Canyon Dam and a proposed other three dams along the Grand Canyon was spear headed by Ansel Adams and the newly formed Sierra Club. It is Ansel's images which remind us of what is buried beneath the waters.

We did not stop Lake Powell, we personally get no power from it, and the Colorado never flooded below that point because the Grand Canyon controlled it naturally. But the environmental movement did stop the other dams proposed. I have heard rumblings on the net that the dam proposals are getting active again.

This is so wrong and so is the proposed largest US Uranium mine on Mt. Taylor. Thousands of people daily in Albuquerque watch the sun set behind this 11,000 foot peak which includes sacred lands for several First Americans. However, you hear the argument that nobody cares about the back side. I have seen the backside. My sister has off roaded on the back side. And it can be argued that the west central area of the state looks at dawn from its backside.

My sister took me to the San Mateo area behind Mt. Taylor in 2011. It is an area open to mining for coal and uranium even though much of it is government land. There are also huge ranches in the area and a sparse population.  It was formed by the same volcanic activity that made Mt. Taylor and is mineral rich. And it is beautiful! That seems to get lost in this whole argument about Canada and Japan needing our uranium. I cannot post pictures of the forests on the back of Mt. Taylor but I urge everyone that can to do so. Please link in a comment to this blog.

I can however personally post my photos of the mysterious and beautiful San Mateo landscape.

Goblins by J. Binford-Bell

Red formations by J. Binford-Bell

Sandstone cliffs by J. Binford-Bell

 This area held by the BLM is used for camping, hunting, grazing of cattle and protection of wildlife in the area. And photographers. It is abused only by geologists looking for mining areas. They obviously want to open new uranium mines even though we have not cleaned up the mess from the old ones mostly closed in 1990 and we still have not a clue what to do with spent uranium fuel rods, etc. It is relatively safe hidden in the earth so let's destroy the earth and dig it up.

Stock pond by J. Binford-Bell

Vista of the valley from one of the cliff walks

Another poly-chrome cliff by J. Binford-Bell

My sister recording the beauty of the area

It was so quiet the day were were there in October. It was the New Mexico of my youth when you could hear the ants crawl if you listened. And the sky was such a vivid clean blue. Mining roads up and down through here to the proposed biggest uranium mine in the world just across the valley would ruin that. And leave a patina of dust all over the beautiful rocks, choking the life out of vegetation that struggles with the arid environment.

Just because you have not been there do not let them destroy it. Or contaminate the aquifer for all the residents in the area and anywhere on the aquifer. The closed uranium mine near Milan just a few miles south is already doing that. And the uranium is not even for us.

The God Complex and the Jesus Scam

"Be humble, for you are made of earth, be noble, for you are made of stars." Serbian proverb.

My father used to say the only trouble with the word of God was how man interpretative it. And because of recent experiences I would have to add the only problem with Jesus is what people do in his name.

You probably have noticed all the WWJD - What Would Jesus Do - bumper stickers. Note they are on the back of the cars so you can ask yourself that question. I seriously doubt any of the drivers of those cars give it a single thought as they break all the rules of the road and risk your life. They think Jesus is on their side. And as a result of their prayer they get to do all they want to do. And if you do not pray to Jesus what they do to you is justified. 

Mother used to say you could not go wrong trusting in God faring people. I think you should definitely not trust them.  My last three tenants have thought they had Jesus Christ on their side. They used their respective churches to borrow money, enlist help, and beg forgiveness for their wrongs. But quite obviously they never asked God to make them an instrument of his peace. They do not know charity unless they are the beneficiaries. And they believe all they have to do is pray and everyone must forgive them. They work their Christianity as a scam while living a life that is anything but holy.

It used to be that this sort of behavior was limited to what Mother called the Sunday Christian. But now it seems to be all visible members of virtually any Christian sect though the fundamentalists are by far the worse. And they believe they are entitled to be spared from the floods, survive the fires, be forgiven for murders and thefts. They get to lie, cheat and steal and ask you WWJD.

The woman whose house was spared as a forest fire skipped through her neighborhood proudly announced to the world media that she was spared because Jesus answered HER prayers. The assumption being that anyone whose house burned to the ground was deserving of such disregard. Such a vengeful God Jesus has become. And Christianity is more like Zoroasterism these days.

Some years back I stopped using businesses that had the fish on their cards. I was always getting cheated by them. And now I am finding myself questioning applications for tenancy where a church is listed as a reference. Let your faith be known by your works. Not by your bumper stickers or words. Be humble and noble and charitable.  

Gun Control Is Not The Solution

James Bond's Gun

Social media has gone crazy since the shooting at Sandy Hook. And all my carefully bared down liberal friends are screaming for gun control. They do not understand why I am opposed. It's complex.

The following is a personal message I sent to an internet friend in response to her query of why I am not behind taking guns out of at least the hands of the mentally unbalanced.

It isn't as easy to identify the mentally unbalanced as you think. And they have to be identified to the point that there is a record of that mental problem. At the same time we have restricted mental health professionals with contradictory requirements that make them hesitant to put on the record things that may stick with their patients forever.

I have a friend who is a mental health professional and because of her liability and the chance of being sued sees only patients that can pay her in cash so she does not have to go by insurance demands for reporting. Meanwhile the profession to avoid trouble is coming up with new jargon that is like splitting and resplitting hairs. Lantz's DMI might be disassociative. That can mean anything from does not pay attention in class to excessively shy to serial killer. And will it even work?

The Aurora shooter did not have a mental health record until after he purchased all the guns and ammo. He probably went to a shrink just to see if they would stop him and the wheels ground so slowly that they didn't.

The mall shooter took a gun from a neighbor without permission and this last one used his mother's legally obtained weapons. And you all make it sound as if the guns are easy. And they just picked them up and began shooting so of course they would not take the time to make a bomb from instructions on the internet. The Aurora shooter amassed weapons for months and months and built bombs to booby trap his house. He took the time. The Columbine shooters spent months in their parent's garage stashing ammo and building pipe bombs. They took the time.

I am a liberal. I am not a member of the NRA. I am not ranting about the 2nd amendment. I am just saying that this banning of assault weapons or even a requirement of a background check to own a 10 gauge shotgun will not stop the killing. It will not even slow it down. The Brady Bill didn't work. Taking gun control out of the hands of the state and making it national will not work. Banning guns totally will not work. Mexico has the frame work to get drugs over our borders so they will just start bringing guns. Ooops they already do to those states that restrict gun sales. I live in a border state. I know.

You have a right to your own opinion too but I am tired of the meaningless rhetoric and it bothers me that you and the majority of my liberal friends are buying a "panacea" that will not work. We need to address why there is this much sickness in our society. And how to identify it and how to get those people the help they need before it is too late. 

Every time the United States has rushed to a quick fix on anything it has only made matters worse. My same liberal friends that are fighting to tighten laws on guns are also arguing for legalization of drugs. Two states made marijuana legal this last election. These states are flaunting national laws on drugs. States' Rights rule on guns and any federal action on gun control always runs counter to that. There is a huge difference between New York and New Mexico or Alaska. It is not just the NRA that will fight any move to outlaw or ban guns.

PS while Googling an image for this blog I ran into pages and pages and pages of sites for on line gun and ammo sales. I need a spare clip for my Walther so I book marked a couple. The opening image of the Walther came from Gun Auction.com. I bet if you ask politely they have a source for the kits that can change any semi-automatic rifle into fully automatic too. So are those that want gun control willing to cede internet control at the same time?

Mechanics Lien Laws in New Mexico

The mechanic's lien in New Mexico is being used and abused to the detriment of homeowners and contractors alike. With current New Mexico laws regarding the placement of mechanic's liens no proof is required before placing a cloud over an owner's title.

To file a lien in any court in New Mexico the person filing the lien does not have to prove they are a licensed contractor, had a legitimate contract with the person named in the lien, or are actually owned any monies let alone the amount claimed. The lien, once placed rightly or wrongly, clouds the title of the homeowner for two years making it next to impossible for them to refinance or sell without paying the sum named in the lien.

Removal of the lien before the two years requires going to court to prove they are innocent; a concept which runs counter of the belief that all men are innocent until proven guilty. When I sought legal advice as to the removal of a lien on my property by a contractor no longer licensed I was told to just pay him as the amount owed was less than the legal fees it would cost to go to court. This, in opinion, amounts to legalized blackmail.

A contractor can at any time within that two years move for judgment. And the homeowner can actually have their home foreclosed on and sold out from under them to settle lien even if it is a fraction of the worth of the house. The only recourse for the homeowner is to participate in a lengthy and costly legal action for which there seems to be no alternative or affordable path even if the lien was illegally placed, the contractor has no proof of the contract, or the amount owed. And until the matter is settled in court the title of the property is still clouded and the homeowner hog tied. In my instance the legal action took four and a half years. And extends beyond the license of the contractor or the legal standing of his now defunct company.

Regardless of the legal rightness of either side of the argument changes need to be made in New Mexico's Mechanic's lien laws to avoid the tying up of court time, the abuse by contractors, and the victimization of homeowners.

Other states have amended their mechanic lien laws to be more fair. But as the law currently stands in New Mexico it is merely a legalized form of black mail which damages everyone involved. I have lots of friends that have been a victim of the Mechanic's Lien and who, like me, would never, ever hire a contractor again. So this law damages the construction industry as well as homeowners and the real estate market. And the Construction Industries division does little to monitor this process and its abuse.

After a two and a half year deliberation on the court trial the judge finally found in my favor and released the lien on my property. He found that the contractor did not have a case. I fortunately was assisted in my battle by New Mexico Legal Aid because they saw this as a problem many homeowners that could not afford to fight had and were subsequently losing their homes.

I would be more than happy to meet with any New Mexico legislator willing to take on this miscarriage of equal rights before the law and testify before any committee or answer any questions as to my personal experience with this abusive law.

Whew!!!

The First Family Still

I was so happy last night when President Obama won re-election in record time against all predictions that we might not know for weeks or months because of all the dirty tricks and fraud and suspected voting irregularities.

Elections have never been easy for me. Much of my youth I seemed to always be voting for the least onerous candidate. And when I was deeply devoted to a candidate they seemed to lose. The 2000 election when Gore had the election stolen from him I was a wreck for weeks. I was so embarrassed for my country. We export democracy and yet we failed at it on our home turf. And when GW turned out to be a drunken fool that leaned on podiums and could not speak proper English I just tuned out.

When Kerry lost to GW in 2004, again by suspected voting machine manipulation, I seriously contemplated moving to Canada. Evidently one hell of a lot of Americans did the same thing. When Barack Obama won the nod of the Democratic party for the 2008 election I didn't dare hope he might win. It was a huge and historic victory. The first black man in the white house! Made up for not having the first woman president in Hillary Clinton.

Had I been the president elect in 2008 as GW Bush and policies pushed the United States off the financial cliff I would have moved to Canada. What an impossible task? There we were as not merely a nation but the world heading for economic free fall. And everyone seemed to believe he was superman. He was suppose to keep us out of the deepest depression the world had ever known and deliver on all his campaign promises. And all against a GOP subset that was determined from day 8 to make him a one term president. And yet he got us the ACA and signed into law a bill to help ensure equal pay for equal work for women. And slowly inch by inch the economy has been improving.

I would not have run again (see previous mentions of moving to Canada) but he did. But there was so very much at stake. With the economy beginning to heal we could not turn it over to a party and the same polices that broke it. And it was clear from the outset that the GOP wanted to return women to the '50's. The 1850's. It was so scary because losing was not an option but also not in our control. There were several indications the GOP was willing to cheat. That was taken so seriously the United Nations sent Election Observers to several key battle grounds. The polls kept saying it was too close to call. This has not been good on my stress levels. But Nate Silver's reading of polling data gave me hope.

I had voted early so on election day I could divert my mind and tummy with something creative with a friend - Nuno felting. And I was so exhausted when I came home I figured I would just go to sleep. But an election junkie I tuned in and watched. At ten o'clock it was all over and Barack Obama was still president of the United States.

I am not sure this will solve all our problems. This campaign has shown that we are a deeply divided nation. Maybe even more divided than the days before the Civil War. But at least we did not turn over the country to the people that broke it in the first place and seemed determined to do anything to get in power including lying, cheating, and bigoted/sexist slurs.

To my list of words I no longer want to hear I add - polls, polling data, cliff hanger, birther, Donald Trump, Romney, Ryan, and Republican. Not another word about 2016 until at least 2015. See campaign reform.

We need a third party

On October 19th I early voted. For one of the first times in my voting history I voted a straight Democratic ticket. Beyond President, Senators and Congressmen (both national and state) I had no clue who I was voting for. I was voting against a party. So I looked seriously for other options.

New Mexico has in the past been host of a relatively strong Green Party. And I have voted for them in local offices. This election they did not seem to be running any candidates. There were six people running for President. I have a friend that is an advocate of the Libertarian candidate Johnson.

Sadly our current campaign laws and financing make it impossible for a third party to compete. And given the huge division between the two parties we now have we need a third party. Badly. If for no other reason that to make our two party system pay attention to itself and realize how very much they have turned off a large proportion of the populace. While that bile is still lurking in our mouths we need to get serious about campaign reform. No longer than 100 days and no more money spent by a candidate than twice the annual salary of the office they are campaigning for. And definitely no out of state or out of district funds.

A third or fourth party candidate could compete viably in a campaign under such restrictions. And the American people would benefit from having more choices. How many of us are truly red or blue, Jesus or Darwin like the illustration. I think of myself as a centralist more than liberal or conservative. I admit to some believes that are far right (not beyond Attila the Hun but out there) and others that are as far left. But I am not Christian (and the more fanatic the fundamentalist become the more that is true). And while Darwin's work was ground braking current science is proving him wrong in some instances. Like it may be survival of the fanciest and not the fittest. Scientific theory is a moving target. Quite literally were earth sciences are concerned but that is another blog.

I believe in my right to carry a gun, and in the right for same sex marriage. I think the US is not a Christian nation and would fight to defend that. And contrary to my blog friends that did not vote for either of the major party candidates because they did not mention Global Warming, I seriously believe it needs to be a campaign issue. But because of our entrenched two party system the only topics that get heard are those that are important to five or six swing states that because of the Electoral college matter more than the one citizen one vote principle. We are a republic and not a democracy.

If there is good news in this election it is that it has made some people truly upset at the sad state of affairs. We could end up with a Mormon Theocracy if Romney wins or a totally broken Republican party if Obama wins. Frankly I am for the latter because it gives us a real chance to end the Red State/Blue State civil war.

Either way we are going to have a large group of people very upset about the sorry state of politics in the United States. Read up on Article V conventions. Let's change the path we are taking.

Words and Phrases I Would Ban

It has been a long, long, long campaign and a particularly divisive one. I do not even have access to television stations to be bombarded by campaign ads. But social media on the internet has been bad enough. And if I get another request for campaign funds via an e-mail I may just scream

I do not live in a critical swing state. I can image what it is like for poor Ohio. I frankly think the political process is seriously broken and I do not know if I ever want to participate on any level in another campaign ever again. And as I told a friend recently I want to ban several words and phrases.

Do not ever in my presence say we are a Christian nation! We are not. The word Jesus (which I also want to ban) is not mentioned anywhere in any of the federalist papers. Nor do I want to be told that Sandy was an act of God. I never want to see the word RAPE with a modifier. And the phrase legitimate rape should carry a prison term if used in a political speech or a police station.

We are not a democracy. I think the Tea Party has proven that beyond a shadow of a doubt. We are a broken Republic in my humble opinion. I got really tired of hanging chads in the 2000 election and I am really, really, really tired of voter ID requirements. Voting is a right and not privilege like driving or buying liquor. I need a photo ID for the last two but not the first one.

No doubt because of Sandy and the suspected faulty voting machines owned by the Romneys I will get really tired of the word recount. I am tired of dressing the stage at campaign events and photoshopping crowds to double their size GOP. And I am sick to death of the fact that only Ohio and Florida count.

I plan to work hard for an Article V convention to move for campaign and electoral reform. But I am not going to refriend anyone that was abusive to me because of my views not matching theirs. I am fed up.

BTW this is just a short list.

Call for an Article V Convention

Last Friday a friend and I headed east to Raton, New Mexico to cast our ballots in the 2012 United States Presidential election. The two hour drive across the plains gives you a lot of time to think and talk. We did not have to think about our vote because our minds were firmly made up. But we talked about how deeply divided our country has become. This great experiment of ours is not working. Something has to change.

I am reminded of Abraham Lincoln's Springfield, Illinois speech of June 18, 1858 in which he addressed the issue of slave vs. free: "A house divided divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free." It took the bloodiest war in the history of the world to resolve that issue. And the years I lived in the south made me doubt that the wounds of that war were ever going to heal.

Now we are divided Red and Blue, Republican and Democrat, Christian and freedom to believe as you will. Politicians have played on the differences and erected fences against either side talking to each other. Such must have been the tension along the Mason Dixon line in the days before war broke out with brother fighting against brother. To avoid another civil war I think we need to call a Constitutional Convention as provided for in Article V of the Constitution. Our system is broken and it needs fixed.

 "Even though the Article V convention process has never been used to amend the Constitution, the number of states applying for a convention has nearly reached the required threshold several times. Congress has proposed amendments to the Constitution on several occasions, at least in part, because of the threat of an Article V Convention. Rather than risk such a convention taking control of the amendment process away from it, Congress acted pre-emptively to propose the amendments instead. At least four amendments (the Seventeenth, Twenty-First, Twenty-Second and Twenty-Fifth) have been identified as being proposed by congress at least partly in response to the threat of an Article V convention."

What is clearly broken is the election process, including but not limited to the Electoral College. At the time our constitution was written maybe we needed two years to campaign for office. Not so today in this age of rapid communication. And maybe we needed the safeguard of the Electoral College procedure to prevent a do over of the election should a candidate die between election and swearing into office. But not so today. Nor should candidates be allowed to buy an office. Or buy the voting machines that will tally his votes for that office.

We need to put a sense of power back into the hands of the people and that means taking that power from the millionaires and billionaires and mega corporations and lobby groups. "Government of the people, by the people and for the people . . ." Enough already! This election has shown just how bad it can get. And there is a real danger of a popular vote for one candidate and election of the other by unfairly distributed Electoral College numbers.

At the county court house in Raton a 91 year old couple, the Romeros of Raton, were voting early. And a young woman came in with her daughter to vote. The court house staff gave the little girl a sample ballot and pencil to fill out. I hope when she is old enough to vote voting will still mean something. And that it will continue to mean something until she is 91 or older. But if that is going to be true we have to do something decisive and we have to do it soon.

After you cast your vote connect up with others in your state to begin the process of calling for an Article V convention. Save our noble experiment.