Dowd's Best of 2021

Our editor and policy director's personal favorites

D. Dowd Muska, The Rock of Talk’s editor and policy director, has been “in the business” for nearly three decades. Since before he could legally drink, he’s fought the corruption and destructiveness of Big Government, and advocated for the Enlightenment principles of reason, tolerance, and liberty. He attacks the “public” sector with the same vigor that he prunes apple trees back home in New England.

Herewith, links to Dowd’s favorite pieces from 2021, and the reasons why each made his personal Top 10.

10. Worth Its Salt

“Lifetime New Mexicans have no clue what a nightmare winter in the Frost Belt can be. (I don’t know that any amount of money could get me to live there again.) The Land of Enchantment should be immensely proud of extracting the stuff that makes snowy/icy roads safer. And kudos to Mike Rowe for giving the United Salt Corporation’s Carlsbad operation some national attention.”

9. The ABQ Museum Celebrates a Stalin-Lover

“In addition to being a lousy ‘artist,’ Frida Kahlo was a commie who adored one of history’s greatest murderers. Had she liked swastikas, her life and ‘work’ would be condemned. But a hammer and sickle? No problem. The hypocrisy is astounding.”

8. Los Alamos: Lesson Unlearned

“Even Bill Maher understands that the Rona offered an opportunity to discuss America’s terrible health habits. Didn’t happen, in New Mexico or anywhere else. Too bad. Los Alamos serves as a tremendously instructive example of how the virus has bypassed clean-livin’ communities.”

7. Big Government Becky’s Very Bad Votes

“For years, I have marveled at the appalling awfulness that is Rebecca Dow. The Sierra County lawmaker is no friend of freedom, and now that she’s running for governor, she’s portraying herself as the second coming of Barry Goldwater. Please. Look at her record.”

6. Tom Hnasko’s Sweet Side Hustle

“One of Eddy Aragon’s gifts to me is an awareness of the grifters who relocate to New Mexico and profit from its corrupt political culture. This tale, of a native North Dakotan who’s done very well for himself, wallowing in the Santa Fe sleaze-o-rama, reveals so much. Ugh.”

5. Buying the Server Farm

“Speaking of sleaze, corporate-welfare flack Gerges Scott’s June 2017 prediction that the Albuquerque area would become a ‘major data center in the coming year’ hasn’t aged well, has it?”

4. New Mexico’s Nutty — and Woke — Professors

“Why do governments run colleges and universities? I’ve never heard a satisfactory answer to the question, at least at the broad level. In New Mexico, the answer is simple. ‘Higher education’ exists to provide jobs — and votes. But wait, it gets worse. Ideologically, there is nothing even close to balance when it comes to faculty members. Gutless GOPers have never delved into that scandal, and thus, taxpayer-funded Marxists continue to be employed as ‘professors,’ and the state drifts more and more to the left.”

3. Those Who Deny Reality

“This was fun. Okay, I’ve been in love with the former Mrs. Jonny Lee Miller/the former Mrs. Billy Bob Thornton/the former Mrs. Brad Pitt since Gia. And Taylor Sheridan is a helluva good filmmaker. The movie was a bit of a disappointment — and it bombed — but my purpose here was to show that when Hollywood arrives for its subsidies, it uses its regulars, not New Mexicans, for productions’ high-paying jobs.”

2. Afghanistan: The Price New Mexico Paid

“No kidding around with this one. Fifteen New Mexicans died during America’s two decades of bloody, expensive failure in Afghanistan. The quagmire was doomed from the start, and many of us knew that on Day One. Few in Washington seemed to care, as the bodies piled up and trillions of dollars were squandered. The Biden administration deserves enormous credit for the pullout — something the Bush, Obama, and Trump White Houses didn’t have the guts to do. You know the adage about a broken clock....”

1. A Century of Real Energy

“To their eternal shame, politicians in New Mexico did not observe the 100-year anniversary of the start of the hydrocarbon industry in the Land of Enchantment. Come to think of it, no one in the MSM noticed, either. But that’s why you subscribe to www.rockoftalk.chat!"