A Gringo in Rural Mexico: Making the Rounds of the Well-informed

Wednesday, 1 October 2014

Making the Rounds of the Well-informed - a message from El Zorro

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MAKE SURE YOU READ WHAT THE RETIRED OFFICERS HAD TO SAY
he picture is of the five first line US nuclear carriers docked together in one place, Just like Battleship Row, Pearl Harbor,
December 7, 1941.
This picture was taken February 2014 in Norfolk, Virginia.
Obama ordered 5 nuclear carriers into harbor for "routine" (?) inspections. Heads of the Navy were flabbergasted by
the directive but had to comply as it was a direct order from
their Commander-in-Chief.

The carriers were all pulled out from the MIDDLE EAST and the Afghanistan support role leaving our land forces naked and exposed!

(The OROG is directed to the bottom of this post to a live

linkage to a striking picture of five flattops at rest in

sitting-duck formation. Thanks for your patience

with our production glitch.)

NORFOLK, VA. (February 8, 2014). This is the first time since WWII that five
nuclear powered aircraft carriers were docked together. USS Dwight D.
Eisenhower (CVN 69), USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), USS Enterprise (CVN 65), USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), and USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) are all in port at Naval Station Norfolk , Va. , the world's largest naval station.

Knowledgeable sources stated that this breached a long standing military
protocol in the Navy meant to avoid a massive enemy strike on major US
forces.
>
(U..S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Ryan J.
Courtade/Released).

Major General Paul Vallely (Ret):
> This long list of senior military officers and one sergeant major
> comes at no great surprise to me because of the direction this
>country is heading.

Here is the list of our military elite who have been purged or fired under
Obama:

Commanding Generals fired:

> · General John R. Allen-U.S. Marines Commander International Security
> Assistance Force [ISAF] (Nov 2012)
> · Major General Ralph Baker (2 Star)-U.S. Army Commander of the Combined
> Joint Task Force Horn in Africa (April 2013)
>
· Major General Michael Carey (2 Star)-U.S. Air Force Commander of the 20th
US Air Force in charge of 9,600 people and 450 Intercontinental Ballistic
Missiles (Oct 2013)
> · Colonel James Christmas-U.S. Marines Commander 22nd Marine Expeditionary
> Unit & Commander Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis
> Response Unit (July 2013)
>
· Major General Peter Fuller-U.S. Army Commander in Afghanistan (May 2011)
> · Major General Charles M.M. Gurganus-U.S. Marine Corps Regional Commander
> of SW and I Marine Expeditionary Force in Afghanistan (Oct 2013)
>
· General Carter F. Ham-U.S. Army African Command (Oct 2013)
> · Lieutenant General David H. Huntoon (3 Star), Jr.-U.S. Army 58th
> Superintendent of the US Military Academy at West Point , NY (2013)
> · Command Sergeant Major Don B Jordan-U.S. Army 143rd Expeditionary
> Sustainment Command (suspended Oct 2013)
>
· General James Mattis-U.S. Marines Chief of CentCom (May 2013)
> · Colonel Daren Margolin-U.S. Marine in charge of Quantico 's Security
> Battalion (Oct 2013)
> · General Stanley McChrystal-U.S. Army Commander Afghanistan (June 2010)
>
· General David D. McKiernan-U.S. Army Commander Afghanistan (2009)
> · General David Petraeus-Director of CIA from September 2011 to November
> 2012 & U.S. Army Commander International Security Assistance Force [ISAF]
> and Commander U.S. Forces Afghanistan [USFOR-A] (Nov 2012)
>
· Brigadier General Bryan Roberts-U.S. Army Commander 2nd Brigade (May 2013)
> · Major General Gregg A. Sturdevant-U.S. Marine Corps Director of
> Strategic Planning and Policy for the U.S. Pacific Command & Commander of
> Aviation Wing at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan (Sept 2013)
>
· Colonel Eric Tilley-U.S. Army Commander of Garrison Japan (Nov 2013)
> · Brigadier General Bryan Wampler-U.S. Army Commanding General of 143rd
> Expeditionary Sustainment Command of the 1st Theater Sustainment Command > [TSC] (suspended Oct 2013)

Commanding Admirals fired:
> · Rear Admiral Charles Gaouette-U.S. Navy Commander John C. Stennis
> Carrier Strike Group Three (Oct 2012)
> ·
Vice Admiral Tim Giardina(3 Star, demoted to 2 Star)-U.S. Navy Deputy
Commander of the US Strategic Command, Commander of the Submarine Group Trident, Submarine Group 9 and Submarine Group 10 (Oct 2013)
>
Naval Officers fired: (All in 2011)
> · Captain David Geisler-U.S. Navy Commander Task Force 53 in Bahrain (Oct
> 2011)
> · Commander Laredo Bell-U.S. Navy Commander Naval Support Activity
> Saratoga Springs , NY (Aug 2011)
>
· Lieutenant Commander Kurt Boenisch-Executive Officer amphibious transport
dock Ponce (Apr 2011)
> · Commander Nathan Borchers-U.S. Navy Commander destroyer Stout (Mar 2011)
> · Commander Robert Brown-U.S. Navy Commander Beachmaster Unit 2 Fort Story , VA (Aug 2011)
>
· Commander Andrew Crowe-Executive Officer Navy Region Center Singapore (Apr 2011)
> · Captain Robert Gamberg-Executive Officer carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower
> (Jun 2011)
> · Captain Rex Guinn-U.S. Navy Commander Navy Legal Service office Japan
> (Feb 2011)
>
· Commander Kevin Harms- U.S. Navy Commander Strike Fighter Squadron 137 aboard the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln (Mar 2011)
> · Lieutenant Commander Martin Holguin-U.S. Navy Commander mine
> countermeasures Fearless (Oct 2011)
>
· Captain Owen Honors-U.S. Navy Commander aircraft carrier USS Enterprise
(Jan 2011)
> · Captain Donald Hornbeck-U.S. Navy Commander Destroyer Squadron 1 San
> Diego (Apr 2011)
> · Rear Admiral Ron Horton-U.S. Navy Commander Logistics Group, Western
> Pacific (Mar 2011)
>
· Commander Etta Jones-U.S. Navy Commander amphibious transport dock Ponce (Apr 2011)
> · Commander Ralph Jones-Executive Officer amphibious transport dock Green
> Bay (Jul 2011)
> · Commander Jonathan Jackson-U.S. Navy Commander Electronic Attack
> Squadron 134, deployed aboard carrier Carl Vinson (Dec 2011)
>
· Captain Eric Merrill-U.S. Navy Commander submarine Emory S. Land (Jul
2011)
> · Captain William Mosk-U.S. Navy Commander Naval Station Rota , U.S. Navy
> Commander Naval Activities Spain (Apr 2011)
> · Commander Timothy Murphy-U.S. Navy Commander Electronic Attack Squadron
> 129 at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island , WA (Apr 2011)
>
· Commander Joseph Nosse-U.S. Navy Commander ballistic-missile submarine
Kentucky (Oct 2011)
> · Commander Mark Olson-U.S. Navy Commander destroyer The Sullivans FL (Sep > 2011)
> · Commander John Pethel-Executive Officer amphibious transport dock New
> York (Dec 2011)
>
· Commander Karl Pugh-U.S. Navy Commander Electronic Attack Squadron 141
Whidbey Island , WA (Jul 2011)
> · Commander Jason Strength-U.S. Navy Commander of Navy Recruiting District > Nashville , TN (Jul 2011)
> · Captain Greg Thomas-U.S. Navy Commander Norfolk Naval Shipyard (May
> 2011)
>
· Commander Mike Varney-U.S. Navy Commander attack submarine Connecticut (Jun 2011)
> · Commander Jay Wylie-U.S. Navy Commander destroyer Momsen (Apr 2011)

Naval Officers fired: (All in 2012):
> · Commander Alan C. Aber-Executive Officer Helicopter Maritime Strike
> Squadron 71 (July 2012)
> · Commander Derick Armstrong- U.S. Navy Commander missile destroyer USS > The Sullivans (May 2012)
>
· Commander Martin Arriola- U.S. Navy Commander destroyer USS Porter (Aug
2012)
> · Captain Antonio Cardoso- U.S. Navy Commander Training Support Center San > Diego (Sep 2012)
> · Captain James CoBell- U.S. Navy Commander Oceana Naval Air Station's
> Fleet Readiness Center Mid-Atlantic (Sep 2012)
>
· Captain Joseph E. Darlak- U.S. Navy Commander frigate USS Vandegrift (Nov
2012)
> · Captain Daniel Dusek-U.S. Navy Commander USS Bonhomme
> · Commander David Faught-Executive Officer destroyer Chung-Hoon (Sep 2012)
>
· Commander Franklin Fernandez- U.S. Navy Commander Naval Mobile
Construction Battalion 24 (Aug 2012)
> · Commander Ray Hartman- U.S. Navy Commander Amphibious dock-landing ship Fort McHenry (Nov 2012)
> · Commander Shelly Hakspiel-Executive Officer Navy Drug Screening Lab San
> Diego (May 2012)
>
· Commander Jon Haydel- U.S. Navy Commander USS San Diego (Mar 2012)
> · Commander Diego Hernandez- U.S. Navy Commander ballistic-missile
> submarine USS Wyoming (Feb 2012)
> · Commander Lee Hoey- U.S. Navy Commander Drug Screening Laboratory, San Diego (May 2012)
>
· Commander Ivan Jimenez-Executive Officer frigate Vandegrift (Nov 2012)
> · Commander Dennis Klein- U.S. Navy Commander submarine USS Columbia (May > 2012)
> · Captain Chuck Litchfield- U.S. Navy Commander assault ship USS Essex
> (Jun 2012)
>
· Captain Marcia Kim Lyons- U.S. Navy Commander Naval Health Clinic New
England (Apr 2012)
> · Captain Robert Marin- U.S. Navy Commander cruiser USS Cowpens (Feb 2012)
> · Captain Sean McDonell- U.S. Navy Commander Seabee reserve unit Naval
> Mobile Construction Battalion 14 FL (Nov 2012)
>
· Commander Corrine Parker- U.S. Navy Commander Fleet Logistics Support
Squadron 1 (Apr 2012)
> · Captain Liza Raimondo- U.S. Navy Commander Naval Health Clinic Patuxent
> River , MD (Jun 2012)
> · Captain Jeffrey Riedel- Program manager, Littoral Combat Ship program
> (Jan 2012)
>
· Commander Sara Santoski- U.S. Navy Commander Helicopter Mine
Countermeasures Squadron 15 (Sep 2012)
> · Commander Kyle G. Strudthoff-Executive Officer Helicopter Sea Combat
> Squadron 25 (Sep 2012)
> · Commander Sheryl Tannahill- U.S. Navy Commander Navy Operational Support > Center [NOSC] Nashville , TN (Sep 2012)
>
· Commander Michael Ward- U.S. Navy Commander submarine USS Pittsburgh (Aug 2012)
> · Captain Michael Wiegand- U.S. Navy Commander Southwest Regional
> Maintenance Center (Nov 2012)
> · Captain Ted Williams- U.S. Navy Commander amphibious command ship Mount > Whitney (Nov 2012)
>
· Commander Jeffrey Wissel- U.S. Navy Commander of Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron 1 (Feb 2012)

Naval Officers fired: (All in 2013):
> · Lieutenant Commander Lauren Allen-Executive Officer submarine
> Jacksonville (Feb 2013)
> · Reserve Captain Jay Bowman-U.S. Navy Commander Navy Operational Support
> Center [NOSC] Fort Dix , NJ (Mar 2013)
>
· Captain William Cogar-U.S. Navy Commander hospital ship Mercy's medical
treatment facility (Sept 2013)
> · Commander Steve Fuller-Executive Officer frigate Kauffman (Mar 2013)
> · Captain Shawn Hendricks-Program Manager for naval enterprise IT networks
> (June 2013)
>
· Captain David Hunter-U.S. Navy Commander of Maritime Expeditionary
Security Squadron 12 & Coastal Riverine Group 2 (Feb 2013)
> · Captain Eric Johnson-U.S. Navy Chief of Military Entrance Processing
> Command at Great Lakes Naval Training Center, IL (2013)
>
· Captain Devon Jones-U.S. Navy Commander Naval Air Facility El Centro , CA
(July 2013)
> · Captain Kevin Knoop-U.S. Navy Commander hospital ship Comfort's medical
> treatment facility (Aug 2013)
> · Lieutenant Commander Jack O'Neill-U.S. Navy Commander Operational
> Support Center Rock Island , IL (Mar 2013)
>
· Commander Allen Maestas-Executive Officer Beachmaster Unit 1 (May 2013)
> · Commander Luis Molina-U.S. Navy Commander submarine Pasadena (Jan 2013)
> · Commander James Pickens-Executive Officer frigate Gary (Feb 2013)
>
· Lieutenant Commander Mark Rice-U.S. Navy Commander Mine Countermeasures
ship Guardian (Apr 2013)
> · Commander Michael Runkle-U.S. Navy Commander of Mobile Diving and
> Salvage Unit 2 (May 2013)
> · Commander Jason Stapleton-Executive Office Patrol Squadron 4 in Hawaii
> (Mar 2013)
>
· Commander Nathan Sukols-U.S. Navy Commander submarine Jacksonville (Feb 2013)
> · Lieutenant Daniel Tyler-Executive Officer Mine Countermeasures ship
> Guardian (Apr 2013)
> · Commander Edward White-U.S. Navy Commander Strike Fighter Squadron 106 > (Aug 2013)
>
· Captain Jeffrey Winter-U.S. Navy Commander of Carrier Air Wing 17 (Sept
2013)
> · Commander Thomas Winter-U.S. Navy Commander submarine Montpelier (Jan 2013)
> · Commander Corey Wofford- U.S. Navy Commander frigate Kauffman (Feb 2013)

Since Barack Obama has been in the White House, high ranking military
officers have been removed from their positions at a rate that is absolutely
unprecedented.

Things have gotten so bad that a number of retired generals are publicly
speaking out about the 'purge' of the U.S. military that they believe is
taking place. As you will see below, dozens of highly decorated military
leaders have been dismissed from their positions over the past few years.

So why is this happening? What is going on right now is absolutely crazy
especially during a time of peace. Is there a deliberate attempt to reshape
the military and remove those who don't adhere to the proper 'viewpoints' ?
Does someone out there feel a need to get officers that won't cooperate out
of the way?

Throughout world history, whatever comes next after a military purge is
never good.

> If this continues, what is the U.S. military going to look like in a few
> years?

Perhaps you are reading this and you think that 'purge' is too strong a word
for what is taking place. Well, just consider the following quotes from some
very highly decorated retired officers:

-Retired Army Major General Paul Vallely: The White House protects their
> own. That's why they stalled on the investigation into Fast and Furious,
> Benghazi and Obamacare. He's intentionally weakening and gutting our
> military, Pentagon and reducing us as a superpower, and anyone in the
> ranks who disagrees or speaks out is being purged.

Retired -Army Major General Patrick Brady: There is no doubt he (Obama) is
intent on emasculating the military and will fire anyone who disagrees with
him.

> -Retired Army Lt. General William G. Jerry Boykin: Over the past three
> years, it is unprecedented for the number of four-star generals to be
> relieved of duty, and not necessarily relieved for cause.

> -Retired Navy Captain Joseph John: I believe there are more than 137
> officers who have been forced out or given bad evaluation reports so they
> will never make Flag (officer), because of their failure to comply to
> certain views.

A Pentagon official who asked to remain nameless because he was not
authorized to speak on the matter said even young officers, down through the
ranks have been told not to talk about Obama or the politics of the White
House. They are purging everyone and if you want to keep your job just keep
your mouth shut. Now this trend appears to be accelerating.

General Vallely's comment:
> Absolutely every communist regime on the planet did this as soon as they
> got in power.

Attachments area

Preview attachment ATT00001.jpg
SO WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?
> I am doing my part. How about forwarding this.
> Paul
> (General Paul Vallely)
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Click to visit our little Adobe Hideaway…

This is our rustic, but very comfortable place, out in the rural area to the northwest of Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas…the State's Capital. From a bustling city of 400,000, we placed our domicile a bit more than 20 miles into the scenes of mountains, citrus groves, spring-fed creeks and rivers with crystal clear waters, and an abundance of bird species that make veteran birders shake their heads in wonder.

We are all but adjacent to the venerable Hacienda de Santa Engracia (about 500 yards away), which dates to the 1720s and has ancient structures still in use, very elegant, and mystical in many ways. It has operated as a guest hotel since the 1970s.

Our little place rests on three and a fraction acres, fronting on the Rio Corona, which is lined with over-1,000 year old cypress trees. The nearby Sierra del Cautivo…a major segment of the overall Sierra Madre Oriental that dominate most of eastern Mexico, lies to the west by about three miles. guards the many springs that maintain the almost perpetual flow from those heights (up to 12,000 fasl) while our place is situated right at 1,000 feet above sea level.

Give us a call, come by and visit…it is truly a different venture in the most positive sense. We can be reached by our email - privatouring@gmail.com - which is our preferred method of communicating.

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What is an OROG?

Once a person lands on our page, that individual becomes a member of the Order of Readers of the Old Gringo, (OROG). There are no dues or assessments to pay, no meetings, no requirements. We are not associated with the KKK, the WCTU, the French Masons, or the Global Warming Glacier

Protection Committee.

We do have a distant connection with the Knights of the Golden Circle and hold the maps to the internment sites of 34 tonnes of Confederate Gold, and 1,000 tonnes of Mexican Imperial Silver (bar and coinage) derived from the collapse of the Reign of Maximillian von Hapsburg, Emperor of Mexico (1863 - 1867). I think we can remember where we put it.

All kidding aside, we are acerbic, but we do not bite. We do believe in our antiquated philosophy, but we try to not impose our quirks and beliefs so far as to be disrespectful.

El Gringo Viejo

__________________________

Wise Words

Communism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

Winston Churchill

oooooooooo

Be sure you are right, then go ahead.

I bark at no man's bid. I will never come and go, fetch and carry, at the whistle of the Great Man in the White House, no matter who he is.

I told the people of my district that I would serve them as faithfully as I had done. But, if such was not to be, then you may all go to Hell, and I shall go to Texas!

David Crockett

oooooooooo

And on and on it goes. The more the Government gives away, the more it takes, and the less Americans do for themselves, until finally, like Europe, there is nobody left to do anything, and there is nobody left to pay for, the nothing that is not done.

And, yes, Virginia, there truly is a Santa Clause, and he and Mrs. Clause and their helpers care greatly for the good children of the Planet. So long as there is happiness, kindness, charity, generosity, and the Spirit of Fellowship, Santa Clause will be there, representing those noble things, and he will always move in a spiritual way so as to provoke humankind to goodness.

El Gringo Viejo

oooooooooo

“There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.”

Booker Tallaferro Washington

oooooooooo

It is impossible to make a poor man rich by making a rich man poor.

Abraham Lincoln

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El Gringo Viejo: a fair description

Life for El Gringo Viejo began on the Texas-Mexico frontier, near McAllen, Texas literally on a real, live farm. The farmer, as one might imagine, was his father, who had moved with his parents from Gwinner, Sargent County, North Dakota in 1915 - 1916 period, down to the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. (And yes, Virginia, that is the way Sargent County is spelled.)

His parents farmed in an area close to the new community named after its founder, called Ed Couch, in Hidalgo County of Texas. My grandfather is buried in the Weslaco Municipal Cemetery about 10 feet away from his friend, Ed Couch.

After studies, and a stint in the 1st Cavalry, 12th Regiment (mounted), Headquarters Squadron of the United States Army...riding warhorses back and forth along the Rio Grande from the late 1920s and early 1930s. He did not speak much about his service, but we determined that he apparently made rank of 1st Lieutenant.

El Gringo Viejo's Father established his farming and citrus grove-care operation just north of McAllen, Texas. Mother was a housewife and a professional woman....a learned, eloquent, well-read woman.

They were educated people, my father winding up as a Superintendent of a major school/facility of the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation in Austin, Texas after a twenty year career in education at the secondary level. He had degrees in History, Psychology, and Education Administration.

El Gringo Viejo is the last of three children, all males. Number one was Milton Birchard, Jr. who was born in 1936 and died in a vehicular incident in 1988. He was narcoleptic. He held a doctorate in geography from Louisiana State University and was head of the Department there for a good while.

Number two is Norman Francis, who was born during the WWII situation in 1942 and became an important Republican political engineer and fundraiser. He served as Executive Director of the Republican Party of Texas during the late 1960s and early 1970s and as Senator John G. Tower's immediate Executive Assistant. The Senator is the Godfather of Norman's first son.

Norman died at age 77 in Austin, Texas and I was one of four eulogists who was chosen to speak at his en memoriam at the Austin Club in downtown most Austin…within sight of the State Capitol.

It was a personal duty and very rewarding

in every way.

My arrival was in 1947, and I was destined to confound my parents and all those around me. Educated entirely in public schools in McAllen, skipping the third grade, and stumbling out of my high school in the upper 90% of a class of 606. I

attended and graduated from Southwest Texas State University (now named Texas State University, unfortunately), being one of the few conservatives to graduate out of the School of Sociology, although my treatment at the hands of my tormentor-professors was not so unpleasant in those days. Emphasis of studies were social demography, and Latin American Affairs with a concentration on Mexico's history and current political evolution, with a minors in History, Geography, and Political Science.

El Gringo Viejo is one of the old, unreconstructed high-church Episcopalians. Politically, he is very fundamentally conservative. He prefers Baseball to football, and considers that baseball with a designated hitter for the pitcher should be called "poofy-ball". Favourite major league team of all times? The Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950s. It will never be the same again.
El Gringo Viejo's father was born to a Hudson Valley-type girl and a man who had lost two older brothers who served in the Pennsylvania 96th Regiment of Volunteer Infantry during the War Between the States.

The surnamed line (Newton) originated from East Anglia, not far from a place called Washington in northeastern England. They came into Boston Harbour, Massachusetts in 1642 (the 1st voyage of the Mayflower had overbooked), and settled there and in Maine as well as spreading out to Vermont, New York, and Pennsylvania, over the generations for the first 220 years.
Another batch of folks, mainly Anglo, settled in the middle Hudson Valley. There was another group of Celto-Teutonics types from Saxony and Prussia, establishing and settling along the Hudson River from around what is Catskill County northward to Duchess and Rennselaer Counties around a place named Red Hook. The main group came in during the early 1650s.

My mother's people were another English line of long-term Southern and Tennessee people, from the Eastern part of that State, who originally came in during the 1660s through Virginia and North Carolina, and finally into Eastern Tennessee, settling in and around a county to be named Franklin, and helping to establish the city of Winchester. Almost all of these people originated from southwestern England, near the frontier with Wales.

Only recently did we verify that she had many people involved in the service of the Confederacy. One died in northern Mississippi, another Captain Asa Grant, 2nd Tennessee Volunteer Cavalry, was severely wounded and succumbed to his wounds finally in 1869, and another hung around in an Ohio POW camp (Camp Chase) for about 13 months, while three others were either wounded or died in action, including David Limbaugh, Lieutenant, 42 Tennessee Infantry. Another five made it through relatively unscathed.

Almost all were, oddly enough, related to the great-grand uncles and gggg-grandfathers down to gg-grandfathers of Rush Limbaugh. The gggg-grandfather came into the Colonies in the early 1740s from a Prussia and Saxony background, and served in both civilian and military capacities to the Continental government and Army. He was the XO of a Militia Battalion of 3,000 Pennsylvania effectives. They honed their military readiness under the supervision of Gen. von Steuben and someone named Washington at some place called Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

A grandson of his, Isaac, settled in Tennessee after the War for Independence against King George III. So Rush and I share grandfathers, four generations deep on the American Continent.

It should be stated here that were I to be called to declare, my allegiance would still be with the Southern Cause, although I bear no rancor against those who feel the same about their instinct to maintain the Union. Oddly enough, both my mother (a Southerner) and my father (a true Yankee by blood) believed that we would have remained closer if we had separated, and each side gone the ways of their own yearning, but amicably.

The last of the English (El Gringo Viejo's) line came during the time between the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. They left County Wicklow, where they had been involved, apparently, in that peculiar Anglo - Scots/Irish practice of making whiskey by the use of peat for fuel. They were also involved in the business of production and processing of various types of grains as well as the production of whiskey, gin, and beer. By their surnames one would know that, while coming out of Ireland, they were actually English, one with the surname of Christian and the wife, Webster. They had, in fact, married in Christ's Church Cathedral, Anglican, in downtown Dublin in 1796. They landed in New York, set up shop in the City among previously arrived relatives, and then in Albany. We have some record that this Christian who married the Webster had actually lived in the colonies, but travelled several times back and forth between the Spirits businesses in England and Ireland and the New World. They wound up as the generations progressed in and around Minneapolis (St. Anthony) & Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Racine, Wisconsin. My particular line went from New York to Alabama, then North Carolina, and then Wisconsin to join up with the rest of the extended family, finally in Minnesota, before the War Between the States.

The Time Line of entry of all lines of my children's blood ancestry on their mother's side in the New World begins in 1578, when Spaniards of mixed Hebraic and Iberian peoples, and others of ancestry from Portugal, Galicia, and southern Spain entered into what was to become Monclova and Saltillo, Coahuila. They are brought under the auspices of the Explorer, Conquistador, and Colonizer Jose Luis Carvajal y de la Cueva, with elements settling in Lampazos and Cerralvo (Nuevo Leon), in Palofox (Texas), and Revilla (Tamaulipas) on the Rio Bravo.
Also, the Count of the Sierra Gorda, Col. Jose de Escandon brought another group of mainly Spanish, Portuguese, and Azoreans in the early 175os, settling along the Rio Bravo (Grande), and then on the north (Texas) side, spreading up to what is now Yorktown, Texas (near and southeast of San Antonio de Bexar, more or less) before and during the Texas Republican period.

My children and theirs are qualified to join the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Sons of Liberty, The Sons of the Grand Army of the Union, The Sons of Confederate Veterans, and the Daughters of the Confederacy. By my side they are 16th generation English Colonial - American and 6th generation Texian. By my wife's side, my children are 23rd generation northernmost New Spain, Texian, and American. Isolating Texas alone, my grandchildren are 15th generation Texian.

LIKE?

Cats, and then dogs.

Fishing, even a bit of bird watching, now and then.

Really good music..antique, old, 1950s and early 1960s rock and roll, classical - Hayden, Mozart, Beethoven, both Strauses, and many others, African tribal sounds en chorus, Mexican bolero...mariachis when they play out-of-doors, some country and quite a bit of the old western (Sons of the Pioneers, the Texas Ploughboys, Marty Robbins "Gunfighter Ballads, for instance.), even some of my own piano works, bagpipes, Enya, marimba, Caribe.

The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess always seemed to me to have been, and remains, a true masterpiece of Americana.

Well maintained Firearms, smooth running small equipment, old autos that respond to repair and upkeep and keep going. Used to have BMWs and so forth, but being old helps tone things down a bit.

Antiques, and antiquities...Meso-American archeology...and religious history. Formal religious services among the Orthodox..as in Anglican, Roman, Orthodox and Conservative Jewish services and celebrations. Hard to find, now.

Overnight radio, rightwing talk radio until it becomes overly tedious and repetitive.

Weather and climate.

And strangely during the past few years,cooking. Not just barbequeing...but actually dishing up gourmet-type stuff...and gardening to a purpose.

We grow a lot of our own spices for our little bed and breakfast and we specialise in flowerng plants, bushes, and trees that attract bees and literally hundreds of species of common to extremely rare birds to our place.

Lifelong Republican, honourably discharged - United States Army (conscripted).

Now drifted into the position of favouring the amicable withdrawal of Texas from the American Union. My grandchildren are 15th generation Coahuila/Texas by my wife and 8th generation Texas by me and my will is to have them answer for the debt of Texas and not for the debts incurred by the National Socialists who have taken possession of the central government in Washington, D.C.

DISLIKES?
Any kind of socialism...bolshevik, national, marxist, social democratic, Trotskyite, progressive, ....and any kind of socialist.

The Ku Klux Klan and such types who figure that they have to hate somebody because of how he/she was born. They are just role players, resucitated by the Communist Party USA in the 1920s, whose members are fueled by a well deserved sense of inferiority.

And almost all social activism.

Almost all labour union officers and almost all labour unions. (There are some exceptions.)

Public assistance of any kind. All welfare and/or charity should and must be privately handled in order to avoid the trap wherein we have fallen, that being the multigenerational slide into the abyss of forlorn hopelessness that is government slavery and dependence. That slide is cheerfully supported by politicians who love to buy votes with other peoples' money.

Lotteries operated by governments.

Litter, filth, graffiti, gangs, and waiting in line for people using food stamps whil'st they argue with the cashier about how they "need" this or that to be covered...when they have three carts with 450 USD of snacks and things we cannot afford because we are in an 'upper income" category.

Church reformers who want to change my church instead of them going to another church and just leaving me alone.

Medications for boys who are over-active, and medications in general.

Lite beer, lite Coca Cola, fat-free, lo-cal, artificial sugars and sweeteners, anything marked "healthy" on food packages, sugar-free, margarine, and driving 23 miles to buy gasoline over there because it is 2 cents per gallon cheaper.

Any government programme designed to help anybody; 94% of the time the programme winds up morphing into some kind of monster. Then liberals and do-gooders will propose another programme, twice as costly, to cure the ills caused by the first cure-all.

Officiousness, and the term "non-profit", as if there is some kind of moral superiority in the failure to produce wealth.

Physical abuse of an animal, an extraterrestrial, a child, slave, woman, or anything like a tractor or power tool, firearm, sewing machine, or an auto, etc.
Loud and/or sharp noises, especially when such noises have no particular purpose.

Wasting anything, from paper towels to Clorox to cake and cookie batter...anything. And....waiting in a line.