This is not a solicitation

El Gringo Viejo is an odd old bird.   He has a best friend who he hasn't seen in 20 years, and other people who are important who also receive scant care or attention.   Most of the other people with whom he would drink coffee and gossip are dead.   It is, perhaps a personality defect.   In any regard, some very nice people who are very successful, pleasantly mildly eccentric, crossed paths with El Gringo Viejo some years back.

    They, like others commissioned a bit of consulting work and other interesting assignments.  They have always been in our top five since.   We communicate sparingly, but always with interest and gusto.   We share many, many common attitudes and opinions.

     The husband of the pair sent me a note of interest concerning a friend who owns a relatively famous and productive gold mining operation that has interests in Mexico.   One of the mines most commonly mentioned around our area is the one in Durango.   It is some distance away, but also relatively close....Texans know what I mean.    El Gringo Viejo is including a descriptive folleto about the business.   It is very interesting and a proven "gold mine" for those who did invest in the operation. 

http://argonautgoldinc.com/admin/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/PDAC-2012-Fact-Sheet.pdf

This linkage is a PDF, it fills with a lot of blank area in the beginning so be sure to scroll down far enough to engage the information.  It takes very little time to go through the material, and it is fascinating.   We are not agents or representatives of the business, and no stock purchase or investment is solicited either by El Gringo Viejo or by our friends or by the business.   It is just a pleasant look at what other crazy gringos do, South of the Border.

Thank you all, as usual for the investment of your time which is valued greatly by EGV.

El Gringo Viejo

How El Gringo Viejo responds.

     It is with some trepidation, but it is how I see these things.   People ask, I shall answer.   Rosie and the liberals somehow assert that Islam is just the same as Christianity and Judaism, just a little better because the majority of the people are poor and backwards and incapable of critical thinking.

The Gringo Viejo's response to this line of thinking was drawn up thusly:    

     The matter at hand is a comparison of fundamentalists and orthodox of the three Great Religions. The Jews and the Christians are taught and usually believe that we are born into original sin. We are told that Yahweh stands aside to allow us the right of choice desired by our grandparents, Adam and Eve. We hope that a woman learns from her training and her errors and either becomes a saint or becomes at least saintly. We are taught to forgive even more than 7 times 70 times.

     We are taught to hope the same for a man.

     The fundamentalist Ishmaelite and many orthodox Muslims believe that a woman is a whore and must be forced to be a saint. Which begs the question, "If a woman is forced to be a saint, is she really a saint?"

     Each of the three religions have members who violate the basic teachings and canons of their own religions. The Muslims, however, are the only ones who blow up each other's churches at a whim. They do it on a regular basis. If a woman wears a green burka on Tuesday, an Imam can demand that she be stoned for lasciviousness. Her husband, or first son, or her father is given the honor of throwing the first stone.

     We are taught that the Nazarene intervened in the stoning of a harlot, and demanded of the crowd, "Who among ye be without sin? Let him casteth the first stone." The crowd of cowards dispersed, and the Nazarene spake to the harlot, saying ''Go ye and sin no more."
In that profound scene the Nazarene identifies the two sins. Extension of judgmentalism...."I find her conduct offensive, therefore I shall kill her", and the disrespect of ones own body, the temple of Yahweh, by prostitution. In both cases the parties of concern received their punishment and instruction. The bullies were shamed in front of everyone, and the girl was told that she is a sinner, and hopefully to-morrow she will be a saint.

So there,

El Gringo Viejo

Some Parting Shots, Heading South

Not untypical San Pedro girl.  Well
 educated, talentedbut she can't
 boil water.She can shop,however.
Favourite saying?
  "Daddy,This credit card doesn't
 work any longer."

    We head down to the South while 30% of Mexico heads to McAllen for two weeks of shopping at La Plaza Mall and in the various venues in the McAllen area that have shops laden with every imaginable and unimaginable necessity that nobody needs.   A strong peso and gradual comfortability with travel conditions are causing considerable optimism among merchants on this side, and several million half-witted 12 - 19 year old females who range from the lower middle classes to the impoverished billionaires of San Pedro de Garza Garcia (Latin America's richest city (per capita), adjacent to Monterrey, but over the Loma Larga and just out of view.

     The population of the entire Metroplex of 8 contiguous counties/cities, including Monterrey (the largest), is a bit over 5,000,000 people.    San Pedro is only about 200,000 souls, the majority of whom live in families with an income in excess of 1,000,000 dollars per year.   It is almost entirely "Old Money", held by industrialists, bankers, and commercial heavyweights.

 The City of Monterrey and San Nicolas de los Garza are more middle class and upper middle class, small business people, professionals, and youngers outliers of the magnates and poobahs of San Pedro.   But, now, even the working class adjacent city of Guadalupe is a place where considerable disposable income comes from.  That is where the business comes from in McAllen.   Cities in a cluster where even the working class has a pretty good slice of the pie, and a metroplex where pies are being generated, different kinds, different fillings, different sizes.    It is one of the reasons why the War is worth fighting.



Chipinque Mesa National
 Park and Environmental
            Reserve.   Adjacent to San
 Pedrode Garza Garcia.
  Full of Bears and other major
      mammals, next to a metroplex
 of nearly 5,000,000 people.  



     El Gringo Viejo will be heading South against the traffic, a good place to be.   While most of the inundation of McAllen comes from the West...the Monterrey metroplex...there are still considerable numbers who depart from Tampico metroplex, Victoria, and San Luis Potosi for the assault upon the Malls.   It is a pleasant madness.   But it is madness....they leave a place where there are plenty of things to buy, prices have become more equivalent over the years, and any gain enjoyed with the somewhat lower prices in McAllen are pretty well eaten up in travel and accommodation costs.



     We shall be arriving during the mid-day to-morrow, and it will be good to see Alvaro and the dogs and cats.   Alvaro has had a long stay of it, and he will take off for a month or so (usually he returns as much as two weeks early because he actually prefers hanging around the Quinta, and the animals and the friends he has there).    Have no doubt that Alvaro is an exceptional personality.   His contributions are legion and his errings are very few.

ADMONITIONS DURING THE ABSENCE OF EL GRINGO VIEJO:



      The proposed budget by Congressman Ryan of Indiana, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee is, perhaps, as good "putting of the toe into the water".   It includes, however, by choice, a continuation of the notion that the high income and wealthy should pay a higher tax rate....simply because they are bad people who have too much, and much more than they need.    It also calls upon the taxpayer to include the employer's share of any matching portion  of  the insured's premium as gross income.   Likewise any portion of a retirement program paid by the employer as an incentive or reward for employment or longevity in employment would likewise be subject to taxation by the central government.

     El Gringo Viejo almost dropped his teeth into the garbage compacter when he saw that Ryan was boldly projecting a balanced budget, in terms of the running income/expenditure accounting BY 2040.......???????    We're talking about some serious belt-tightening here.   Right?

     Another of the fool-proof, fail-safe assumptions to make about any "closing of the loopholes" in order to "expand the base of coverage of the lower tax rate" so as not to have and overall reduction in the "gross income tax proceeds needed to fund governmental operations", is that the intent of the "reform" is to keep funneling globs of lard into Washington D.C.     This lard, fudge, and butter will continue to be used to pay for a bureaucracy that will tell you that your driveway gutter is a "wetland" and.....

       "You are prohibited from occupying your home until the Migratory Waterfowl Administration's new regulations are published in the next 30 months.   In the meantime you are fined 20,000 dollars per day for willful attempted injury to a snaggle-jawed rump-minnow which is the prime food source for the roughbellied whackquacker duck.   While it is not proven that the Whackquacker Duck does or does not exist, it has been proven through our in-house opinion surveys that he does feed on the above-described minnow.

     Remember, Just Say No! to Alar....You eat apples, you die.   Just a frindly reminder, from Smokey the Bear."

Paul Ryan (R) Chariman
  House Budget Committee

El Gringo Viejo proposes once again the movement over a ten-year period from the income tax to a national sale tax of 7 percent, along with a total cancellation of the income tax on individuals, companies, and/or corporations by the end of that 10 year period.   Expenditures would be kept at 2008 levels, and social security contributions would immediately be placed into the private accounts of the member.   His/her social security number would be programmed as his/her private account.   For people under the age of 46, they would be required to wait until the age of 70 to access their annuities, but it would be theirs as part of their wholly owned assets and estates.

     Once again, the Ryan plan is a place to start the overhaul of the concept of central government involvment in the private financial affairs of a sovereign person.   It is half of a baby step.   Until the income tax concept is abolished, people like John Corzine and  Maxine Waters will live inside the citizens' wallets.

El Gringo Viejo

Mexico, Cuba, and the Bishop of Rome

     Some OROGs may be displeased because the Gringo Viejo refers to the Bishop of Rome as the Bishop of Rome.  "His name is Mr. Pope," they protest.   Yes, to the misinformed who are not enlightened Episcopal sticks-in-the-mud, and antique antiquarians, responds EGV.   The true Episcopalian....any real fire-breathing Anglican....knows that the Christian Church must be Apostolic in succession and based upon the passing of Church authority by way of the construction of Dioceses.   Each Diocese is presided over by a Bishop, and an important man is he.   He must be elevated from the common priesthood by now fewer than three other Anglican Bishops.

     The Church of England is headed by an even more very special Bishop.   He is the Archbishop of Canterbury who is elevated to his chair by the Monarch of England, be he or she whosoever.  The present Monarch is a Monarchette named Elizabeth, and she shall soon be naming a new head priest for the entire Church of England, the official church of the Realm.

      As bishops are certainly important, the Archbishop of Canterbury is really important because he is also the head of the entire assembly or "communion" of Dioceses known, quite simply, as The Anglican Communion.    That is, all churches and organisation of such churches that extend from the original Church of England, founded and/or recognised by Saint Augustine in the latest days of the 6th Century.   However,  Saint Augustine (not of Hippo) the great emissary of  Pope Gregory was a bit flummoxed by his mission, because, as he informed HSH Gregory, "I have found the church alive in Britain and the fiel at worship of our Saviour.  What should I do?"
     His Holiness directed Augustine to allow them to continue to worship in their way and to direct their attention to the greater Church and the communion of all Christians.   That tie of the present to the past, and the present to the future became the foundation of a Roman Catholic-like orthodox church....still speaking Latin....still drawing on the ancient Celtic and, to a lesser extent Nordic, mythology and mysticism.   Merlin would have felt at home in any Church of England then, and quite probably in most of the conservative ones to this day.
     To bring a long story to a mercifully short end, the Anglican Communion recognises that there is Roman Catholic Church as one of many Orthodox, Apostolic churches within the Body of Christ.   But it recognises the authority of the Bishop of Rome only as that, and for one other purpose, that of representing the affairs of the Roman Catholic Church in affairs of business and negotiation with other members and churches of the Christian Religion.   The Bishop of Rome has no authority beyond his own denomination.   His infallibility in interpretation of the dogma and liturgy is not accepted in the Church of England or the Anglican Communion.
     Otherwise, the Anglican tradition is such that any baptised person can receive communion at the rail in an Anglican Church of any sort...ie, a Roman Catholic can take communion at St. Georges' Church, Episcopal in Dog Paddle, Texas.    But, an Episcopalian cannot, correctly, receive or be granted communion or rites of the Roman Church, even if baptised and confirmed.

     So, now we arrive at this visit by the Bishop of Rome to Mexico.   The foreign leftist press has been stunned at the spontaneous turnout and reception.   They were certain that the "with-it" young people have had enough of the priest sex-scandals, the obvious corruption within the Church, and the even worse alternatives presented by the protestant and Mormon and Episcopal churches active in Mexico.   But....oh! no!   There are huge  crowds.   There are even events that parallel the Pope's and intertwine with his mission.    The Vicar of Christ is in a Popemobile wearing a touristic sombrero charro...!   Oh! No!  He's speaking out about how communism has failed Cuba....HOW INSENSITIVE CAN HE BE????     And with every careful word he points to the need to re-establish faith and goodness, and to turn away from the easy money and casual relationships that result in the dehumanizing of the the human race.
     El Gringo Viejo is a bit surprise himself about the warmth and reception that Benedict has received.   But it is encouraging in terms of the election coming up and in terms of underscoring the commitment to bring the War of the Cartels to a successful end.    While it is true that the average Mexican in the street with any functional IQ at all is not enamored of this war, the overwhelming majority want the Army and Naval Infantry to continue the search out, encounter, and destroy efforts.   Mexico is prospering right now, in gross national economic terms, and if it could eliminate the plague of this cartel thing, and if we could stop using the miserable drugs, it would seal the power of North America as a Citadel of Prosperity and good works for generations to come.
    Now, Benedict heads for Cuba, where he will probably be conciliatory yet scolding.   His Church in Cuba is full of liberation theology advocates, priests who are communists first and then parish vicars third.    It is dominated by the horridly marxist Mary Knoll nuns and other pseudo-Catholic operatives who are no more Christian than the pseudo protestant "Pastors for Peace" communist-adjuncts who lobby on behalf of the corrupt Communist regime.
     Benedict knows these are dangerous vipers who hide in the dark pantry of the house of God, and it is best not to stir them up.   It is better to speak over the vipers and remind the common people that they have an advocate on this Earth as well as another advocate in Heaven.    It is the common folk who will save the churches, Protestant and Catholic, and the beautiful country that Cuba was.    It will be again.    It is the dissidents, it is the Ladies in White, and those who know the soul sapping drudgery of a socialist dictatorship, who actually constitute a majority of the population.    Hopefully this visit might be the last spark before the whole resistance ignites and Cuba can be placed back into its rightful path to liberty and prosperity.

      Benedict's head-fake, his setting of low expectations, and his ability to turn the pictures of a mean old man into the image of a kindly old grandfather, with the right to guide his "family" to a better path has made this journey something very special in the movement of liberty and Faith.

El Gringo Viejo
      

Encouragement and Disappointment

     It is cause for a bit of celebration that the visit to Mexico by the Bishop of Rome has been so successful.  His willingess to move among the populace and to lecture as well as listen has been a big hit.   He is put in the position of having a hard act to follow, since the Polish Pope had established a very particular positive relationship with Mexico.

     It does give the public a chance to see that the broad expanses of Mexico and the broad mass of people are still believing in something bigger than themselves.    The scenes around Guanajuato State, including Leon, Guanajuato (city), Silao, and various places in the Colonial Zone of Mexico's Central Highlands.
     It is hard to convince my people of the certainty that if Mexico were to collapse because of the cartel business and the general seductive nature of nihilisitic anarchy, it would lead to the certain demise of both Cental America and much, if not all of the United States.  While the tail rarely shakes the dog, in this case the tail is very large.

     It is necessary for both the United States and Mexico to repair their institutions both of religion and of governance.   Both countries are terribly in need of repair for any number of reasons, almost all of them leading back to the failure to practice a common law approach, and a recognition of a God-based religion based upon the precepts laid out in the Beatitudes and the Golden Rule.    Here are a few pictures of nice places.   Oddly, El Gringo Viejo found one article from AP that told more truth than fiction.   Most of the MSM articles have been between sneering and loathing of the "Show With Men in Skirts -  The Next Chapter of Opiate for the Masses".

     Most of what follows here is either neutral or positive.   The issue of the Cristeros and the Cristero War is very complex, and one which shows that conservative, Christian forces can and do roll back progressives and Communists when we put our minds to it.   It takes courage and the willingness to sacrifice everything at time, but it can be done.

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SILAO, Mexico (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI urged Mexicans to wield their faith against poverty and drug violence, telling hundreds of thousands of worshippers in an open-air Mass on Sunday that they would find hope if they purify their hearts.

Benedict delivered his message in the shadow of the Christ the King monument, one of the most important symbols of Mexican Christianity, which recalls the 1920s Roman Catholic uprising against the anti-clerical laws that forbade public worship services such as the one Benedict celebrated.

The pope flew over the monument in a Mexican military Superpuma helicopter en route to the Mass at Bicentennial Park, where he rode in the popemobile through an enthusiastic crowd estimated at 350,000.

Often seen as austere and reserved, Benedict charmed a country that adored his charismatic predecessor, John Paul II, by donning a broad-brimmed Mexican sombrero as he was driven to the altar at the sun-drenched park.

     "Some young people rejected the pope, saying he has an angry face. But now they see him like a beloved grandfather," said Cristian Roberto Cerda Reynoso, 17, a seminarian from Leon.

Before the ceremony, the vast field was filled with noise, as people took pictures with their cell phones and passed around food.     As the Mass started, all fell silent, some dropping to their knees in the dirt and gazing at the altar or giant video screens.     In his homily, Benedict encouraged Mexicans to purify their hearts to confront the sufferings, difficulties and evils of daily life. It has been a common theme in his first visit to Mexico as pope: On Saturday he urged the young to be messengers of peace in a country that has witnessed the deaths of more than 47,000 people in a drug war that has escalated during a government offensive against cartels.

     "At this time when so many families are separated or forced to emigrate, when so many are suffering due to poverty, corruption, domestic violence, drug trafficking, the crisis of values and increased crime, we come to Mary in search of consolation, strength and hope," Benedict said in a prayer at the end of Mass.

      "She is the mother of the true God, who invites us to stay with faith and charity beneath her mantle, so as to overcome in this way all evil and to establish a more just and fraternal society."

The reference to Mary is particularly important for Mexicans, who revere the Virgin of Guadalupe as their patron saint. His reference to immigration resonated in Guanajuato, which is among the Mexican states sending the most migrant workers north.  Many said the pope showed a deep understanding of the challenges Mexico faces. While they said things may not change as a result, at least the pontiff gave them hope.

     "It was really gratifying," industrial engineer Juan Jose Ruiz Moreno, 39, said after the Mass. "In his words there was a great understanding of us, the Mexican people."   Some in the crowd wore white tunics with images of Benedict, the monument and Mexico's beloved Virgin of Guadalupe, and reading: "The entire church asks for peace in Mexico."

      "People leave for the good of their families," said Jose Porfirio Garcia Martinez, 56, an indigenous farmworker who came to the mass with 35 others from Puebla. "For us it's difficult, not seeing them for 10 years, communicating by phone and by Internet."  The Vatican said Benedict wanted to come to Guanajuato to see and bless the Christ the King statue, something that John Paul II had wanted, but was never able to do.

     With its outstretched arms, the 72-foot (22-meter) bronze monument of Christ "expresses an identity of the Mexican people that contains a whole history in relation to the testimony of faith and those who fought for religious freedom at the time," said Monsignor Victor Rene Rodriguez, secretary general of the Mexican bishops conference.     Before the Mass, the pope presented Mexico with a gift of a mosaic of Jesus Christ that will be placed at the monument.   After nightfall Sunday, the pope will remotely inaugurate its new lighting system.

     Guanajuato state was the site of some of the key battles of the Cristero War, so-called because its protagonists said they were fighting for Christ the King. Historians say about 90,000 people died before peace was restored. The region remains Mexico's most conservatively Catholic.  With roads closed, pilgrims walked for miles to the Mass with plastic lawn chairs, water and backpacks. Old women walked with canes. Some Mass-goers wrapped themselves in blankets or beach towel-sized Vatican flags, trekking past vendors selling sun hats, flags, potato chips and bottles of juice.

      Hundreds of young priests in white and black cassocks, waiting to pass through the metal detectors, shouted "Christ Lives!" and "Long Live Christ the King!" — the battle cry of the Cristeros.

The 84-year-old pope will be going to Cuba on Monday.

___

Associated Press writer Michael Weissenstein reported this story in Silao and Nicole Winfield reported in Leon. AP writers Adriana Gomez Licon in Guanajuato and E. Eduardo Castillo in Leon contributed to this report.

In this picture made available by the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI celebrates a Mass in Colegio de Miraflores in Leon, Mexico, Saturday March 24, 2012. Benedict arrived in Mexico Friday afternoon, a decade after the late Pope John Paul II's last visit, and will travel to Cuba on Monday. (AP Photo/Osservatore Romano)

Pilgrims walk along a road toward the site where Pope Benedict XVI will give a Sunday Mass in Bicentennial Park near Silao, Mexico, Saturday, March 24, 2012. Benedict arrived in Mexico, Friday afternoon, a decade after the late Pope John Paul II's last visit. The pontiff's weeklong trip to Mexico and then to Cuba on Monday is his first to both countries. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

Faithful wave to Pope Benedict XVI as he passes by in his popemobile on his way to the Plaza de la Paz or Peace Plaza, in Guanajuato, Mexico, Saturday March 24, 2012. Benedict arrived in Mexico Friday afternoon, a decade after the late Pope John Paul II's last visit. The pontiff's weeklong trip to Mexico and then to Cuba on Monday is his first to both countries. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Pope Benedict XVI waves during the symbolic key ceremony of the city of Guanajuato, Mexico, Saturday March 24, 2012. Benedict arrived in Mexico Friday afternoon, a decade after the late Pope John Paul II's last visit. The pontiff's weeklong trip to Mexico and then to Cuba on Monday is his first to both countries. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

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