In a June 24, 2021 opinion by Senior Justice Barbara Vigil, the New Mexico Supreme Court affirmed in part and reversed in part the conviction of Alejandro Azamar-Nolasco for the brutal 2016 murder of Mandy Vanlandingham in Raton. Chief Justice Michael Vigil, Associate Justice C. Shannon Bacon, and Retired Justice Judith Nakamura (sitting by designation in place of Associate Justice Julie Vargas) joined Justice Vigil’s opinion. Associate Justice David Thomson concurred in part and dissented in part with the opinion.
A Brutal Murder
Azamar-Nolasco murdered Vanlandingham on July 20, 2016, after a long period of stalking her, following Vanlandingham’s choice to terminate their…
Bernhoff eased his car into the parking lot before speaking into his earpiece. “This is Charlie One Actual, I’m pulling up with him at…” Bernhoff looked up at the sign and snorted. “Fuckin’ Sugar Daddy’s burger barn… I don’t know. Fuckin’ burger stand. Let’s get One Two and One Three to take a forward position on 68, and One Four and One Five take a position south of here in case he turns around. Charlie Two you have command.” Bernhoff listened as the other cars answered with their locations while he looked down at the radio in his lap. He…
The ongoing population and business declines in rural America are undeniable, but they need not be inevitable. Those who say that rural America is destined for perpetual decline forget that this was the prediction for large urban centers in the 1970s.
— Neil A. Belson, Promoting Rural Entrepreneurship and Rural Economic Development, Third Way (Jan. 7, 2020).
For those that live amongst the farms and ranches of the rural United States, the fact that there are challenges uniquely faced by small businesses is no surprise. However, we benefit from learning more about the source of these challenges. …
- Bill Weld
- Bill Nye
- Gary Johnson
- Jill Stein
- Andrew Cuomo, current governor of New York
- Chris Cuomo, television personality
- Rivers Cuomo, lead singer of Weezer
- ADM McRaven (US Navy, ret.)
- GEN Mattis (USMC, ret.)
- GEN McCrystal (US Army, ret.)
- Colonel Potter (US Army, fictional)
- Sen. John Thune (R-SD)
- Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) (admittedly, this is just because I like the name “Dick Durbin” almost as much as I like the name “Dirk Diggler”)
- Sen. John McCain (deceased)
- Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI, ret.)
- Emmanual Macron (even though he’s president of another country)
- Angela Merkel (ditto)
- Betty White
- the current leader of…
The Unbearable Silence of God
“Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned,” the man began. “It has been… six years, I think, since my last confession.”
“Go ahead, son,” Monsignor Rybeck responded. The confessional was little more than a woven fabric screen on wooden legs between two metal folding chairs in an alcove of the chapel. As the man shifted in his chair, it squeaked under his weight. Monsignor Rybeck pursed his lips and waited for the man to confess.
“I gave up, Father,” the man said. “I gave up my faith. I despaired. I…”
“What do you mean, ‘you…
“Harry, you know as well as I do that the Representative needs this money or he will not be able to compete on the television market.”
The Tune Inn was a staple in Southeast Capital Hill. Harry had been coming here since his law school days, wandering home drunk and alone to his basement apartment on A Street, just down the hill from the Library of Congress. On the walls of the bar were dusty hunting trophies, signs requesting that patrons pay in advance if they are drinking to forget, stolen roadsigns from past inauguration parades, and flat screen TVs…
… the world is a world of tears and the burdens of mortality touch the heart.
Virgil, The Aenied, Book 1 (Robert Fagles translation)
On August 21, 1875, in the (then) Austro-Hungarian city of Prague, 35 year old composer Antonin Dvorak (1) looked down into the crib of his two-day old daughter Josefa Dvorakova and discovered her dead. Dvorak, newly successful for his Third and Fourth Symphonies, was a devoted Catholic and family man. While more modern thinkers look back at infant mortality rates in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and may assume that the inhabitants were accustomed to the…
Peace In The Desert
I spent last week visiting the Desert Southwest, a place near and dear to my heart. I don’t normally talk about my personal life here, but the trip itself was beautiful. The desert in May is in full bloom, not desolate like many assume. The peaceful scenery of Mesa Verde National Park, of the ruins of the Anasazi civilization dating back millennia, worked like meditation to clear my mind.
I try to avoid cross-posting from my blog these days. I tend to think that the blog is for business, and Medium is for stuff that I can’t claim is related to work (or wouldn’t want clients looking at and saying, “Is he touched in the head?”). However, reading is a subject that applies in both my creative/personal life and business life. Don’t worry; despite this coming from a marketing blog, there will be no call to action, no pop-ups, and no invitations to subscribe to something.
Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness — all of them due to the offenders’ ignorance of what is good or evil. …
