OP/ED

DeVolder: Comments On McQuiston – Car Insurance Rates Skyrocket …

by

By MARK DEVOLDER
Los Alamos

Mr. McQuiston passed along an article (link) he read in Forbes magazine dated August 2023 (updated December 2023).

The article indicated the following:

Drivers currently pay an average of $1,668 for their car insurance policy, according to the online insurance agency Insurify. New Mexico, Nevada and New Jersey are seeing the highest annual rate increases in 2024, with prices soaring by 38 percent, 36 percent and 34 percent respectively.

Experts point to four main reasons for the spike in car insurance rates:

  • Costs associated with driving are higher.
  • More cars are
Read More

Op/Ed: Response To Editorial On Joe Biden’s Age

by

By DIANA MARTINEZ
Los Alamos

In regard to James Rickman’s editorial on Joe Biden’s age (link), I wanted to provide a synopsis of what a neuroscientist wrote to the NY Times. Dr. Charan Ranganath, a professor of psychology and neuroscience and the director of the Dynamic Memory Lab at the University of California, Davis said that everyone begins losing memories and words in their 30s. He said there is “forgetting” and “Forgetting.” The first is when we mis-speak the name of someone like the president of Mexico, and the second is when we don’t remember having met that person. He also spoke to Biden’s Read More

Op/Ed: Age ‘N’ Biden, Indeed

by

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

by

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 III

by

MARK DEVOLDER
Los Alamos

There has been considerable news lately about immigration and the integrity of (or lack of integrity of) American borders. Immigrants crossing the border have been bused, flown, etc. to various cities throughout America. The cities are having issues with where to house the immigrants, how to feed them, etc. In some cases, there are also crime-related issues.

To me this issue seems similar to the great migrations which occurred in America during the 1930’s Depression.

During the Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was created to provide employment Read More

DeVolder: America For Sale – Cheap / Part II

by

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

by

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

by

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

Op-Ed: Where Are Our Spiritual And Community Leaders?

by

By KELLY MYERS
EMMA ABATA 
Los Alamos

We write with heavy hearts from Los Alamos, a place with an extraordinary history that is currently confronted with a disturbing present. For the past 16 weeks, a small group of us have stood on the streets of our town, voices raised against the heartbreaking events unfolding in Palestine. Our peaceful protests have sometimes been met with hostility and derogatory slurs, although we also sense a growing approval for our cause to see an immediate cease-fire, as well as a long-term peaceful solution for all the people in Palestine.

Having both grown up and been Read More

Hanrahan: Candlemas – Halfway Between Solstice & Equinox

by

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