After a little cruise around the local

blogosphere, it appears I may get to be the first to congratulate amigo johnny_mango for

appearing in today’s Albuquerque Journal — on the front of a section, above the fold and with color photos, mind you. Damn, I even

scooped the Fix! (Though thousands will never know.)

Jim Scarantino calls Jon Knudsen

“the Damon Runyon of Nob Hill.” And while that’s almost lost on me, Jon has found the gold in the straw of daily life.

Mazel tov,

Jon.
peace, mjh

ABQjournal: Blogger Finds the Tidbits of Daily Life Fascinating By Isabel Sanchez

Jon Knudsen surveys life in its

details. Historical details, prosaic details, human-scale details, sunset-scale details.

mjh’s Blog: Local Man Makes Good

Albloggerque

Call New Mexico’s Senator Domenici and Representative Wilson

and tell them to STOP the sell-off of our Public Lands!

Representative Wilson
(202) 225-6316
Local: (505) 346-6781

Sen. Domenici
(202) 224-6621
Local: (505) 346-6791

This week, the House and Senate are expected to hash out the

versions of the bill.

House Bill, Pombo Mining Provision: A provision that would allow the holders of mining claims to

buy America’s public lands. At least 6 million acres of public land, and possibly as much as 350 million acres, could wind up in the

hands of private buyers if this provision passes. Call Representative Wilson and tell her to vote to remove the Pombo Provision, which is

anoutrageous raid on our public lands.

For more information on the Pombo Mining Provision:

http://www.wilderness.org/NewsRoom/Release/20051201.cfm

Senate Bill, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: There is still a provision

in the Senate version of the Budget Bill that would open the Arctic Refuge to full-scale oil and gas development. This provision is out

of the House Bill and it must be removed from the Senate Bill. Call Senator Domenici and tell him that the House was smart to remove the

Arcitc Refuge from the Budget Bill, and that the Senate needs to do the same.

For more information on the Arctic National Wildlife

Refuge: http://www.alaskawild.org/campaigns_arctic.html

mjh’s blog — Selling Off Public Lands?

In a column that didn’t make it to A1 — selling cop porn / copyright violations being today’s A1

Amusement — Jim Belshaw provides the QOTD (though not yet in the HTML edition):

It’s all part of the Merry Christmas-Happy Holidays

mythical war. … Are you tired of all this yet? You should be. I know I am. There is no war on Christmas.

There are incidents from each side of the trenches with nuggets of truth and bad judgments and bad decisions. But there is no war against

Christmas. There are only people in need of creating one where none exists.

Take if from

this atheist/antaganostic/anti-theist (if there were a god, I’d hate him): Merry Christmas! It means no more or less to me than Happy

Holidays or Season’s Greetings! And those well-wishes do mean something to me: Xmas is the time of year in the US when more people are

spontaneously happy. Who would make war on that?

No one, obviously. And just as obviously, FUD and anger are tools for controlling your base. Tell your folks everyone is out to get them and they’ll stay closer

to the fold.

The only time I’ve gotten a negative response to saying “Merry Christmas” was from a church-goer who told me “we

don’t celebrate Christmas.” Hell, even my Jewish friends celebrate the season. I don’t celebrate Christ, just Christmas, that mongrel

holiday of happiness and optimism in the midst of dark and cold.

Happy Saturnalia, everyone! Happy Long Night! And a joyous New

Calendar to you and yours! mjh

I don’t know if I’m amused or exasperated by the recent struggle
over what to call the national sacrificial tree: Christmas or Holiday? Dead

is most accurate.

Can you imagine the look on Jesus’ face if he came into your living room and saw your Christmas tree? “What the

hell is that?”, he’d ask.

From libertine secular humanist to the most hidebound bible literalist, everyone must realize that that

the solstice tree comes to us from pagans or polytheistic Romans, not from the bible or Jesus. Part of the Christian Conquest of Europe

(and the world) involved co-opting anything they couldn’t suppress or destroy.

So, by all means, call it the Capitol

Christmas Tree. Just don’t overlook the irony.

Almost as ironic as Christian enthusiasm for pagan symbols is the

decision of the Albuquerque Journal to elevate this to the MOST IMPORTANT STORY OF THE DAY. Or do I misconstrue the meaning of its

placement just below the banner across the front page. Perhaps in today’s news bizness that’s just the place for the piece that gets us

to plunk our dollar down.

I feel sorry for writer Michael Coleman if this is what it

takes to get one’s stories on the front page.

If that place is for stories with both a national and local twist, the Journal

could have elevated the story in which both of our Senators are pursuing the intimacy and duplicity of the Oil Industry with BushCo. Or

how about the following, which languishes deep in section C (and is missing from the HTML equivalent). mjh

Group Says LANL Plutonium Missing

[mjh: Jesus Christ! Is this not news?]

POJOAQUE — More than 660 pounds of

plutonium at Los Alamos National Laboratory is unaccounted for, a Maryland-based environmental watchdog group said Tuesday.

The Institute for Energy and Environmental Research compared public records data from the nation’s weapons and disposal sites

with a 1996 Department of Energy report detailing plutonium waste inventories. IEER researchers discovered large inventory discrepancies

at Los Alamos, said institute president Arjun Makhijani, who co-authored a report on the findings.

ABQjournal: Voter ID Passes First Test in

Council Runoff

Opponents argue that voter ID disenfranchises some minorities and people who move frequently or who are

homeless. But the requirement, which is well accepted in many jurisdictions, didn’t create any obvious problems in the District

9 City Council runoff, in which 3,686 ballots were cast.

LOL:

homeless Republicans in District 9 weren’t inconvenienced?

City Clerk Judy Chavez said the election went

smoothly. Poll workers said voters were not put out at having to show ID. One election clerk, Shirley Bartel, said many voters commented

that ID should have been required a long time ago.

Uh, these were mostly Republicans voting, right? So a

lot of them said what a lot of Republicans say? That’s newsworthy.

[A]lthough a council runoff race between

two Republicans is not the best test of the voter ID requirement, any problem should have been evident to some degree.

Thank you. If you had opened with this paragraph, you might have realized there wasn’t much to

editorialize about.

Perhaps the comment should be made that nearly 5,000 people who voted in October did not vote in November.

Those are the disenfranchised.

Don Harris got 500 fewer votes this time around; Tina Cummins, 1,000 fewer. No other just-elected

councilor got so few votes. Congrats, Groundswell Don! mjh

City of Albuquerque, New Mexico,

USA – Unofficial Election Results
October 04, 2005 vs November

15, 2005

ABQjournal: Runoff Ousts Cummins

I know the agony of defeat — and that sense that voters

must be idiots. I also know, indirectly, the thrill of victory. So, my modest sympathies go out to Tina Cummins and I offer a weak

congratulations to Don Harris. I hope I’m wrong about him. mjh

Remember to take your driver’s license when you vote today. Rumor has it Don Harris

forgot his — again. mjh