Teeing Off on Everybody

     Mexico is a fascinating place.   The people are a fascinating people.   As I have said quite frequently, whenever you hear somebody say "All Mexicans are...." it is necessary to disengage the auditory system and move on.    Because, like Americans, all Mexicans are the same except for the ones who are different.

     Right now, the Old Gringo has a bone to pick with more than a few.   Soccer people, no matter how one might slice the pie, are pretty much metric, mumpy, glumpyflumps.     They can be entertained apparently by watching a bunch of effeminate boys run back and forth and back and forth for days and days and weeks at a time while avoiding the mishap of kicking a ball into a fairly large designated area.   If they would simply score the game on how many balls go to one side, or over the net, then it would be more interesting.  It would give the "boys" more opportunities to hug and smooch and roll around in the grass with each other in front of the world.    During the last two Mundiales de Futbol...the goalee (0r is it goalor?) for Mexico looked as if his "uniform" had been tailored by Liberace from the grave.    There was no rule against a goalperson defending his/her goal while in drag, so...who am I to judge?

      In any regard, the deportment of the Mexican fans in Los Angeles demonstrates a boorishness and lack of class that is stunning.   The conduction of the post-game ceremonies in Spanish, and not in English, was a particularly egregious breach of civility and respect.     The same fools who booed the American team and made obscene, threatening, and degrading chants, cheers, and other mostrations were in the basement of the same septic tanque as the Brit Hooligans....trash living off the Queen's dole.....who made themselves famous for rioting and throwing pub darts into the crowds below them.   They also made themselves famous for dispensing with the idea of going to a restroom when there were perfectly good bleachers and stands available.
      Well, the Mexican and neo-nationalist psuedo-Mexicans who made fools of themselves in Los Angeles at least did not throw darts and the like, but they did do dishonor to the concept of friendship and neighbourliness.    Perhaps I am a hopeless dreamer....but I do call attention to the famous line of President Benito Juarez Garcia....Mexico's first great progressive President and only Indian President....who said "El respeto al derecho a lo ajeno es la Paz"....."The respect to the rights of another's possession (or person) is the Peace".   Nice words....uttered as a warning to the United States....
       These people come in second place, because when a bunch of people come into my country and act like white-trash, I can consider the source.    The first place goes to upper caste, intellectual Mexicans who come into the official residence of the President and proceed to upbraid him and hold him personally responsible for their grief.....for the loss of a near relative.   "If it weren't for you we would not have lost our son"...."You have no right to do this to us"....The grief is one thing.   The loss of dignity, the irrational blaming of anyone standing around reminds me of people suing after failing in an attempt to brush their teeth with a chainsaw.
       Unlike O'bama, I do not fault the wealthy for being wealthy.   I do not hate them nor do I bear jealousy for their fortune.    But there are those, and Mexicans I will tell you are very polished in this attitude, who absolutely believe that anything bad that happens is required by natural law to happen to "someone else".    They do not wait for anyone, they do not hold doors open for the people coming behind, they expect everyone to be on time except for they themselves, they despise "los morenos" (the brown people), they are incensed if they are stopped for driving through a red light.
       Somehow, with all the peculiar violence going on....all the lives being ruined by the trafficking of drugs, by the sale of drugs, by the taking of drugs, and with all the corruption of the civilization it has brought to Mexico and the United States,  to these people it is only important when one of their's is killed or wounded.   They blame this untoward imposition upon their privilege on the same people who are trying to save their position, their wealth and property, and their favoured status as "important people", those being the Mexican Armed Forces.
      The Old Gringo speaks to the soccer bums, the rich, arrogant, socialist intellectuals who demand protection from the masses and then condemn those who provide that protection.....and advises,  Enough!   Enough of saying that America must learn to treat Mexico as an equal in the fraternity of nations.    It is time that Mexico mature to its position as the 10th most powerful economy in the world.   It is time that Mexico not lecture the United States about immigration issues, when their beam is considerably larger than the American mote.

      Oddly enough the OROGs might think that this manic-depressive episode represents a change from what many consider the Old Gringo's normally pro-Mexican positions....Allow me to repeat...repeat all over again...that the Old Gringo is not "Pro-Mexican" or "Pro-Mexico"  like a blind man searching for the exit door in the theatre at midnight.    The Old Gringo is a fair and impartial judge of things Mexican.   Sometimes a man has to tell his brother or sister...."You going to have to stop this!" and that does not make the man an enemy of his brother or sister.     Likewise, pointing out good, positive, and worthwhile things being done by, or going on in Mexico does not require that the Old Gringo check his ability to hold the scale of reason constant and accurate.

     El Gringo Viejo is not done yet....later this afternoon, once he gets the Sopwith Camel filled with high-test and loaded up for another bombing run, he will drop a few more bombs.    If a bomb falls in deep South Texas, does anybody hear the explosion?

Thanks for your time and attention.
El Gringo Viejo

Please Spare Us.

     When Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) gave her inaugural address as speaker of the House in 2007, she vowed there would be “no new deficit spending.” Since that day, the national debt has increased by $5 trillion, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

"After years of historic deficits, this 110th Congress will commit itself to a higher standard: Pay as you go, no new deficit spending,” Pelosi said in her speech from the speaker’s podium. “Our new America will provide unlimited opportunity for future generations, not burden them with mountains of debt."



HRH Nancinus Maximus, before
she parachuted from her private
B-52, openning the Fund Drive for the
Re-transgendered, Cross-dressing
Male Lesbian Native American
Cowboy Poetry Readers Home for
Wedded Mothers
She was quoted, just before her
jump,"When George Bush will not
help, good people have to hop to it."



     "We really were committed to 'draining the swamp' too, but all that budget balancing kept getting in the way.    Then Harry had trouble with all those peskey 'smelly tourists' so our inter-chamber communications broke down...but just a little bit....like when we had to cancel because I really, really had to get back to San Francisco for the wine-and-cheese for the Transgendered Lesbian Poodles and non-religious Santa baskets for Guantanamo Torture Victims for Ramadan....We put special bottles of brandy with little baggies of what my all my maids call "Chee Cha Rhonies"....isn't that the cutest sounding thing, like that Hispanic Dance they do during their mating festivals, I just love their grass skirts and the way they climb the coconut trees....it's fried pig fat...but those people will eat anything.....and with a cute al Qaeda flag....they have a flag don't they?.....and anyway....after all the lies from Bush we figured it was the least we could do....and everything...it was like a real 'reaching-out moment' ....we named the wine Vin de Mohammed with a nice picture of him on a sleigh with eight tiny reincamels on the label.....We're just really committed to make certain that the people who should be paying their fair share...The ones who always escape through the fruitloops, I mean loop holes....leaving the burden on the unemployed, the people spending their AFDC in the casinos and bingo parlours....the people who have to sell their Lone Star Cards for 30 cents on the dollar just to be able to put their meth and crack on the table for the family....And the Oil Companies doing the work of the snake handling Christians....and the Pope making all kinds of errors on Roman Catholic Canons and Dogma, I am SO GLAD I set him straight on that one because I really feel strongly about the things that I feel very strongly about.   And so that is why we are here to-day in .....in......Where am I?   Is this Rome....?   What?   Muskogee?   Where in the Hell is Musdogee?   What am I doing here?"

(Everyone applauds and cheers,  and then they both leave.)

       You people who read this think that I take cheap shots at the minority leader,   and maybe it is true.    But it is so easy to take cheap shots at a person who inherited and married wealth and yet rails against the "Rich" (who always seem to wind up being you and me), never did anything worthwhile except be waited on, has set records for length of time with no measurable left-brain activity, and who does the things she accuses others of doing....when the others either are not doing it or are doing it to a much lesser degree.    It takes a real pro!     Like Bill Clinton tieing up LAX for three hours to get his hair done by Frankie the HairDresser to the Stars ,
     But, just to be fair, she goes through a lot.   Data prep, fact checking, looking just right, political negotiations.....you have to work hard, do your best, and look your best.   So I'll give her that.   You just have to admire her wardrobe and accessories and everything.   How does she always manage to look ....'just so'?

Thanks for your time and attention.

The Old Gringo

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, and another thing......

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.    And another thing, this Santa Claus comes from a long tradition of Saints in the Christian Church.   He is real and he is mythical.   He is a symbol of the application of reward and charity.   He is latter day manifestation of the visiting Magi from the East, who are also real as well as mythic bearers of gifts to someone important.   Virginia, you are 9 years old now.   Life is going to come at you quickly, very soon.   You will have to learn what is mythic, what is real, what is true, what is legend.    You will have to sort it out for yourself.   I cannot tell you what to believe, only what I myself believe.   Finally, you will have to learn to detect malicious lies and deceptive reasoning disguised as truth.

     Beware, the baby polar bear, doomed on a free floating piece of ice, soon to drown or starve to death, separated from his mother.    The picture lies a thousand words.    There is no man-caused global warming.   The picture was presented as a polar bear during his/her last moments, but it was a false picture meant to colour and cloud the minds of children.    There are five times more polar bears on Earth now than in 1970.    There may well be more polar bears on Earth now than at any time in recorded history.

The teacher tells you that your parents are stupid because they use incandescent light bulbs.   In  order to save the planet you are told that you have to use a funny looking flourescent light bulb that is made in Red China.   The incandescent bulbs use too much electricity and electricity production is bad because it produces carbon dioxide which make the Earth heat up and kill children.     The new style bulbs pay for themselve by producing more light with less electricity,  your teacher tells you.

     But no, it does not quite work out that way.   Being judicious, turning of lights not in use, scaling back wattage only slightly can be effective at reducing consumption of electricity.   The incandescent bulbs are still made in the USA, Mexico, Malaysia, and Singapore.....cost less....and cast a light that can be used for seeing print in a book or newspaper.   And....when their life is done, they can go into the dump and become part of the methane production process....But!!! Not the piggy-tail bulbs....because they have mercury and mercury is not what we want in the landfills or anywhere else.   The same people who tell you we cannot have mercury in our tuna fish are the same ones who tell us that mercury in a light bulb is the best thing since the invention of political correctness.

       Then, your teacher tells you that your parents are bad because they do not have a hybrid electric automobile.  Bad parents!    You are told that autos are bad because they use fossil fuel and everybody and the baby polar bears are going to die because your parents are using fossil fuel.   Burning melted dinosaurs causes carbon dioxide emissions.    Your parents will not have evolved to the correct level of human development until they plug their automobile into the electrical outlet for free energy.    That way they don't have to used dirty old melted dinosaurs and kill polar bears like George Bush.     And since it is free, it will only cost about $140 a month extra on the home electricity bill.    And since it is cleaner it will only burn about twice as much melted dinosaurs to make the electricity out of coal.    And, you will still have to use gasoline in the Chevy Volt to drive on the highway.   So, it pollutes more, it costs more to operate, it cannot be junked because of the batteries, and it was produced by a company that had to be taken over by the government due to incompetence.    Welcome to Al Gore's Aliceinwonderland Theatre.    Al saves the Earth by having one mansion for his ex-wife, 30 rooms, 50,000 dollars a year electricity bill, and one mansion in California with a beach view for his lady friend.....utility bills unknown.



     What brought all of this on is this morning's  early news report from a Monterrey television station we follow,  about a child bringing a live, juvenile bear to the house out on the northwest edge of the Monterrey metroplex, where San Pedro de Garza Garcia, Santa Catarina, and Monterrey more or less come together.  That report was followed by the effort to get a large adult male out of a Dempster Dumpster after he was tranquilized by Monterrey's Animal Authority.    The older Yogi was taken back out to the forests to the west of the metroplex.   The younger one is a problem because it seems that he has bonded already with the young lad who brought him home, and that might limit his ability to adapt in the wild.    Some rancher-tree hugger type told the Animal Authority people that he might be able to give the little bear a "sheltered transition" place up around Laguna de Sanchez.     We'll see.    The fact, in any regard, is that even with all the abuse wild animals have suffered in Mexico over the years....useless killing, poaching, and other bad things....there is a better social concientiousness about these matters now.   So, with that comes more bears in Monterrey.   There were over 400 "bear encounters" within the incorporated limits of the Metroplex last year.

       Virginia needs to weigh the facts instead of just listening to Captain Planet and Al Gore.   Christianity teaches stewardship of God's creation.    The dirtiest countries in the world seem to be the most socialist.    The property of everyone soon becomes  the  property of no one.

More later.

The Old Gringo

More Good News - Additional rains

The Quinta Tesoro de la Sierra Madre has received substantially beneficial rainfall.  The bulk of Central Texas and South Texas has also received anywhere from "some" to a "substantial" amount of rain.   Our place in Texas on the border had between 3 and 4 inches.    A station near Zapata, Texas had over 10 inches and the area around Harlingen, Texas had from 4 to 8 inches.   This will help.    Yahweh is greater than our problems.   He had better things to do for a while, and now he got back to us.
______________________________________________
    Now it's tomorrow, Thursday, later on in the afternoon and we have had a light to moderate rain most of the afternoon.   It seems to have been about an inch, according to the 24 hour cumulative sweep from the weather service.   The radar looks like a little depression was trying to form, but right over Brownsville, Texas.....no hope for any real development, but it is producing a goodly amount of much needed rain.    This second day of rain is slow enough that all the water will go into the subsoil.    There is a slight chance that the Highway between Matamoros and Cd. Victoria might be flooded over about 20 miles south of Matamoros.    A similar chance might occur later to-night along US 77 just north of Harlingen and then at another place just north of Raymondville.
       Who would have thought 10 days ago that we would ever see rain again?   In thanking Yahweh for getting back to us, the Old Gringo forgot to remember  the contribution Al Gore made to the issue, considering that he invented rain, while ploughing with mules on a rocky hillside not far from this father's mansion that was surrounded by tobacco barns and beautiful leafy fields of bright-leaf tobacco.
    You have to admire Al, the pride he has in his father who tried to keep him in school at Harvard and Yale....where he flunked out of the schools of divinity and law.    Al was probably proud of his dad's old Boss, Armand Hammer, whom he aided during those bonding moments with Uncle Joe Stalin.   It's enough to make a guy want to call the masseuse.
Later...and thanks for your time.   I'm out to play in the rain puddle for a bit.
El Gringo Viejo

Hooray! Hooray!! with additions (12:40 pm)

    This is a substantial piece of good news.   The nationwide dragnet by Mexican police and military,  looking for people with active warrants in Mexico and/or any other nation of the world (re: United States, France, Spain, UK Commonwealth) has resulted in the arrest and detention of 2,000 really bad actors.   There  are 250 who are destined for deportation because the pleasure of their company has been requested by the above-named countries.   This dragnet began, somewhat in co-ordination with the American effort to round up legal and illegal aliens who have wants and warrants in the United States and Mexico, and other countries around the world.

     The really big news, however is that the people in Tamaulipas State...where our little place is found....were surprized to see columns of heavy infantry coming into their communities throughout the State.   Especially in the cabeceras municipales (county seats),  folks having a barbeque at home or giving their children 'paletas' (ice creamy frozen treats) on the plaza, began to see on Sunday last, several thousand more new Army troops were being inserted.    They are building on the successes of the surge from two months ago, when President Calderon sent an additional 36,000 troops to the States of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon.

      The 36,000 was added onto a previous 40,000 and has resulted, predictably, in pitched battles between different groupings of cartels.    The disorganization among the cartel people has caused a great increase in arrests and casualties in their ranks.    It has been noted on the Texas side of the Rio Grande that the efforts to smuggle marihuana and drugs to the "otro lado" have become increasingly comedic, hysterical, and farsical in their execution.    Each week for the past two months the cartel people have lost 40,000 pounds of marijuana or more and between 25 and 300 pounds of opiate-based material...(much greater value per pound).     These are apprehensions by the Mexican Armed Forces and the Texas and US authorities.

        These last 2,300 Army troopers are extemely important.   They are "urban rangers".  They have positive-result experience in taking over cabaceras municipales, de-commissioning the local constabulary,  and subsequently evaluating that local constabulary in terms of policing skills, alcohol and drug use, veracity by polygraph, firearms capability, heroic and/or over-and-above efforts records, first-aid knowledge, physical condition, intellectual ability, and so forth.

    ALL THE POLICE ARE BEING REMOVED FROM SERVICE IN ALL 43 COUNTIES OF THE STATE.   The ones who are evaluated and considered worth salvaging are to be sent to a special military training base in the State of Coahuila (adjacent to Nuevo Leon) for three months of intensive physical, intellectual, and police training.   Those who have some issue that would preclude reasonable inclusion in this new professionalisation effort will be removed from the constabulary.    Those who are removed but who have no legal or moral disqualifications will be sent for other training, perhaps forensic collections training.

     The biggest cities are first to go, so Reynosa for instance had 300 heavy infantry essentially take over the entire policing issue for that city as of yesterday.   They will be backed up in close support by one battalion of five "welded companies" of heavy infantry  (approximately 1,200 effectives) already in place, but having had slightly different duty assignments.     Now, they are all involved in assuring the domestic tranquillity of the entire County of and City of Reynosa.    And yes, that means traffic regulation and control.

     This also means that a community that has risen to the level in recent years to almost, kinda-like okay....will be fairly quickly transformed into something that might look like a military base in terms of order and presentation.

      The Municipios (counties) in order of size will all have their police units replaced totally.   In six fairly small outlier municipios there never was or, has ceased to be, a local police presence;  these will be staffed as well.    The occupation will be completed within 6 days of yesterday.    It started with the largest city first, Reynosa.   Then follows Nuevo Laredo, Matamoros, Tampico, Cd. Victoria, Cd. Mante, Cd. Madero, Cd. Altamira, and Cd. Rio Bravo, in that order.    These cities represent 90% of the population of the State' 3,000,000 people,   but all the cabaceras (country seats) will be occupied in force before the end of the month, including Abasolo, Aldama, Antiguo Morelos, Burgos, Bustamante, Camargo,  Casas, Cruillas, Gomez Farias, Gonzalez, Guemez, Guerrero, Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, Hidalgo, Juamave, Llera, Mainero, Manuel, Mier, Miquel Aleman, Miquihuana, Nuevo Morelos, Ocampo, Padilla, Palmillas, San Carlos, San Nicolas,  Santander de Jimenez,  Soto la Marina, Tula,  Valle Hermoso, Villagran, and Xicotencatl.    Whew!    (The hard part is the alphabetical disorder).


     As you all know, the Old Gringo is an inveterate State's Righter and it must cause a bit of a question in the minds of the normal OROGs about my celebration of the nationalization of the local police forces of a given State.  One of the problems with all of this is that the Constitution of Mexico requires  an authorization by the State's Governor, with the approval of the State's Congress,  at each level of insertion of national military authority.    This request by the present Governor, plus an additional 2,000 pesos per month hazardous duty pay from the State to the common soldier, per month, has all been authorized by the Tamaulipas State Congress about a week ago.   Very important stuff....to them and to us.    The first authorization for the general troop deployment came about six months later than it should have, according to many observers, including your humble correspondent.
More to follow...will not sign off quite yet.     This is a great day. 


     On the above map, my county is 16 and the State Capital is 41.  One can see that this deployment by the Army will be daunting.   There are several Municipios from the State of Nuevo Leon being trained at the Army facility in Coahuila.    As those cycle out, the Tamaulipas personnel will be cycled in for the next three months.    The Army intends to stay on the ground in their new capacity for at least one year.
      It is worth repeating that the advanced infantry combat training presently undergone by Army personnel is at times joined by participation from American, British, and Israeli training sergeants.            

                     

A Long Time Ago, and Things of that Nature

Several hundred years ago....it seems....the Old Gringo and his wife owned and operated  a nice little excursion company.   We took folks to all points throughout Mexico and a few other destinations.   An old competitor, also a rightwing curmudgeon, and the Old Gringo sit around at times, in a diner over lunch and iced tea (no "foggy  drift fueled by Bohemia down memory lane) talking about the glory days when we could count on taking several thousand "winter visitors" to various destinations in Mexico and Texas during the season.    We remember when we would put together complicated excursions for convention, trade, and industrial groups during the Summer months.
      We each re-enforce each other's life experiences and prejudices.     For instance, we both had the same impression about how the market changed and how quickly.     During the 1970's through the early 1990's, the average client was a medium to almost large scale farmer or rancher, a retired Sergeant Major to General in the military, a proprietor, an educator, a professional, or a high-skill blue collar type.   About three/fourths came from Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Kansas.   Almost every other State was represented along with the majority of the Canadian provinces, and there was always a sprinkling of Brits of different types and stripes and other Europeans.    A point of particular pride is that every now and then, Mexicans from the interior would come up to take a tour to Mexico due to their having witnessed the method of our group actions.....and the comments from our clients.
      Anyway, a couple of old war horses now have nothing in particular to do in that arena because the arena was torn down, and somebody made a parking lot out of it.  They named it the Hiroshima Parking Lot.   The excursion business suffered and then died as the clients gradually became more Democrat, more union, and more anti-Mexican.   So much for the party of Kumbaya and Solidarity with Funny Looking Dark Coloured People.   The press and the recent conditions in Mexico pretty much poured cement over the grave.
     Since we are both official geezers, we figured that we would keep on doing some of the other things that were occupying our time, but the touring business is something else again.    It is chromosomal.   So now we are thinking about doing a bit of a revival....ploughing a bit deeper over what might seem to be very old ground.     We are giving consideration to setting up a few  late Winter - early Spring  trips in the southern half of Texas with a cultural, geographical, and historical theme.   As soon as we have a few ideas concreted, plastered, and painted the Old Gringo will post everything so that the OROGs will be the first to know.
More Later.   Thanks as always for your attention and time.
EL Gringo Viejo