Planning to adopt a cat? Make sure its a house cat

For those of you who plan to adopt a cat, please make it a house cat! Cats love to climb trees and sometimes they find a nest up there and will bring baby birds down, one at a time, to play with until the baby bird is dead.

Since our wild birds can't talk, I will ask you for them — make your cat a house cat so that our song birds have a chance to raise their babies. Your cat will soon adjust to being inside and will be a loving companion.

Geri Tillett, Las Cruces

Try these alternatives to political ads

Brace yourselves. The flood of political ads has already begun, with Gov. Susana Martinez' out-of-state fundraising giving her a $4 million head start. Most of that cash will go to TV ads, making your nightly viewing unbearable. One remedy is binge watching previous TV series from now until Nov. 4.

We'll be flattened by ads telling us Martinez sold the state jet years ago and that Bill Richardson was a terrible, horrible governor. But if you want to live in the past, try "Downton Abbey." The clothes are great, and Lady Mary can usually solve budget problems by marrying another rich guy instead of firing all her employees.


New Mexico sits near the bottom of every list after four years of Martinez' administration, but unfortunately her ads don't offer any solutions. "Game of Thrones" has a better plot arc with Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen learning new things about leadership every season. Besides, dire wolves and dragons are more appealing enablers than Jay McCleskey.

As for Martinez' disaster areas — jobs, child welfare, education, the Downs at Albuquerque, behavioral health services, minimum wages — "Treme's" portrait of New Orleans' citizens rebuilding after Katrina is less depressing.

It'll get worse. The GOP billionaire Koch brothers plan to pour $300 million into U.S. races this election, including their new LIBRE initiative designed to teach Hispanics how to be Hispanic. The Kochs' version of an improved Hispanic voter favors more tax cuts for bosses, lower wages for workers and women who "respect authority." LIBRE ads should be a hoot, but if you want sublime TV featuring Hispanics, try locally filmed masterpiece, "Breaking Bad." Who can resist Gomie, Gustavo and Tio Salamanca?

And for bloody, vindictive, scorched-earth infighting among the powerful, "Rome" beats even Santa Fe.

Laura Sanchez, Los Lunas

Country was hotter in 1930 than today

Alice Anderson's letter supporting more taxes on fossil fuels to fight climate change is an example of ignorance and emotion unhindered by fact. ("Support tax-and-dividend to fight climate change," June 17)

Is she unable to use Google to check facts? Anderson says our climate is getting uncomfortably warmer because we're putting more CO2 into the air. Has anyone noticed people moving from the Sun Belt back to the Rust Belt because it's too warm in New Mexico?

If Anderson had looked at the data, perhaps she would see it was hotter in the 1930s Dust Bowl years. State maximum temperature records at the National Climate Data Center show 23 state record maximum temperatures set in the 1930s, many more than any other decade.

States from Montana to Louisiana and Colorado to New Jersey set all time records in the 1930s, when CO2 was 306 parts per million compared with today's 400 parts per million.

Anderson posits a hotter climate with massive crop failure, human suffering and death, but the modest warming added CO2 might bring might make growing seasons longer. Increased CO2 clearly makes crops much more productive in terms of biomass, roots, leaves, and fruits, demonstrated dramatically in the Plant Growth Data Base at

The planet is full of human suffering and death, especially in Africa and lesser developed countries because of the nonavailability of inexpensive and abundant energy for electricity generation and food production. In Africa, the average life expectancy, according to Dr. Caleb Rossiter in the Wall Street Journal, is 59 years, while in the United States it's 79 years. Africa needs inexpensive electricity to help people with night time security, the ability to generate income, and to provide an environment to improve livelihoods and life expectancy.

Alice Anderson's ignorance of facts shows in her letter.

Robert W. Endlich, Las Cruces