Something in the Water?

They say that the Roman Empire failed because everyone drank out of leaded cups and it made them stupid.  They could no longer understand what was in their best interests and they couldn't make rational decisions to protect their civilization.

It makes one wonder if there are leaded pipes at the New Mexico State Capitol.  How else could one explain the death of a bill to keep guns out of the legislature and the building that houses it.  I can't imagine the lawsuits that will happen when one of our mentally insane people buys his assault rifle at a gun show, while on hiatus from the state hospital, and then visits the building to waste the source of all the strange voices he hears.  Will he first go down into the chambers?  Or will he just start in the hallways or perhaps the daily briefing for the young pages who work for the lawmakers?

Truth is stranger than fiction.

And then there is the leadership of the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce.  They are fighting attempts to get additional funding for early childhood education in this state.  This is the most lackluster Chamber in the history of our city.  They are doing nothing to insist on a public private partnership to come up with an economic development plan for our state.  They just sit around a try to protect low taxes and the resulting bottom ranking of our state in just about anything.  No matter that many states are now seeing bipartisan efforts at increasing early childhood education.  New Mexico just has to be the odd man out.

Here is that great graph again from the Wall Street Journal.  It says it all for the leadership in New Mexico.  If there were any leaders in the business community, like the old-timers Bob Hoffman and Larry Willard,  there would be some action taken.