-
2 weeks ago | 
calexicochronicle.com | Carlos Silva Acuna |Carlos R. AcuñA |Carlos Andrés Acuña |Richard Brown
When I actively practiced in criminal courts I noticed that on rare occasions the DA and the police — the bureaucracies tasked with enforcing the laws enacted by the state Legislature — would fail to consider that an individual charged with a crime carried, like an aura, their constitutional rights; the sole shield against the near-absolute powers of the state.
-
1 month ago | 
calexicochronicle.com | Richard Brown |Carlos Silva Acuna |Carlos R. AcuñA |Carlos Andrés Acuña
One of the platonic and ostensible beauties of representative government is the sacrosanct belief that our elected representatives take our aspirations to an assembly and after diligent deliberation vote to implement the human community’s priorities. And what could these actual, non-Platonic, existential priorities possibly be?
-
2 months ago | 
calexicochronicle.com | Carlos Silva Acuna |Carlos R. AcuñA |Carlos Andrés Acuña |Richard Brown
One must confess: under pressure to deliver a weekly contribution to our Valley of Fairness’ cultural and political life, one often desperately casts about for topics, issues or even the occasional political rascal who merits a few cc’s of vitriol. Anything or anyone not 2.0.Just the other day a notion came to mind: what’s with the intellectual laziness that descends on our culture, like the eye-burning sand March winds bring to the Mid-Winter Fair?
-
Feb 13, 2025 | 
calexicochronicle.com | Richard Brown |Carlos Silva Acuna |Carlos R. AcuñA |Carlos Andrés Acuña
“Well, it’s come to pass.” I’ve read this predictable phrase in half a dozen novels and viewed it in twice as many films. These ominous words tend to arrive weighed down with serious schadenfreude and regret, usually intoned by an avuncular figure in a gravelly voice formed in the hellish pits of experience. And here we are. I hate to use any declension of the verb “to be.” It feels apropos in this column.
-
Jan 15, 2025 | 
calexicochronicle.com | Carlos Silva Acuna |Carlos R. AcuñA |Carlos Andrés Acuña
Thus spoke philosopher Frederick Nietzsche back in the mid‑19th century. Want to know an open secret? He erred. God remains very much alive. In keeping with the times she changed gender and got a new name: money. God is money. Money is God. Don’t believe me? Try reading the political section of your daily paper. Its most recent apostle and main proselytizer, none other than Elon Musk. Apostle, did I write? How about its new pope?
-
Dec 10, 2024 | 
calexicochronicle.com | Carlos Silva Acuna |Carlos R. AcuñA |Carlos Andrés Acuña
Well, ‘tis the season for family reunions, whether we like it or not. Most folks like them, especially our inner Ralphie (“You’ll shoot your eye out, kid …”). What’s not to like about egg nog, champurrado, tamales, menudo, buñuelos, Christmas cookies daintily laid out in nana’s vintage platter of unknown origin, stored behind a creaky, forgotten door along with the Christmas decorations eagerly dragged out hours after Thanksgiving to resume their traditional cheer-inducing duties?
-
Dec 9, 2024 | 
calexicochronicle.com | Carlos Silva Acuna |Carlos R. AcuñA |Carlos Andrés Acuña |Richard Brown
Aren’t you glad it’s the first week of December? I just took a metaphorical glance in my rear-view mirror. In a Doppler effect of sorts, November’s rapidly approaching, unwanted political noise arrived, buzzed by loudly, rattled our brains and now grows smaller as it fades into the receding distance, till it vanishes along with every ghost of elections past. Time to keep our eyes on the world ahead. And, no, I am not suggesting a Santa watch. That can wait for Dec. 24 or thereabouts. But I digress.
-
Nov 27, 2024 | 
calexicochronicle.com | Carlos Silva Acuna |Carlos R. AcuñA |Carlos Andrés Acuña
Psst. Want to know something? I hate political writing, despite all the schadenfreude and subliminal and not so subliminal virtue-signaling that weighs down each ponderous sentence much like the angst-inducing coal in Tennessee Ernie Ford’s “16 Tons.”But the coming holidays and Thanksgiving lead my mind to funny places, to ask less than funny questions. We’re supposed to live in a Constitutional republic, a democracy. For the better part of my adult life it sure hasn’t felt like it.
-
Nov 21, 2024 | 
calexicochronicle.com | Carlos Silva Acuna |Carlos R. AcuñA |Carlos Andrés Acuña
I don’t know about you but with the election over, I was ready for a long postponed sigh of relief. No more Election Day commentary. Yay! Done. Over. Finito. But like the eponymous character moans in “Godfather III,” “Just when I thought I was out they pull me back in.”Did you see the jaw-dropping ghastly results in the initiative or Proposition side of the ballot?
-
Nov 14, 2024 | 
calexicochronicle.com | Carlos Silva Acuna |Carlos R. AcuñA |Carlos Andrés Acuña
I remain grateful for evolution, specifically our evolutionary simian brain. It arrives with an uncanny number of impulses. For now the masochistic impulse comes to mind. Mankind tolerates a lot of adversity and pain. Its psyche struggles through Sisyphean torments that could easily lead weaker minds to thoughts of ending it all. Then where would our species be? How could it have survived to land at this time and place a million years later?
