WORSE JUST KEEPS ON GETTING BETTER

     A school chum from high school days circulates these pieces of news and information among us survivours with some frequency.   She was one of the "very bright" bulbs in the chandelier.  So, her protestations notwithstanding, she would have done well on the test...a 98 or 99 probably, after a bit of preparation on the night before.  Especially by the eighth grade.
   At our school, David Crockett Elementary in McAllen, Texas....our three combined 6th grade classes score an average of 12th grade plus 4 months on our collective final "aptitude tests".    It was in the upper one percent of the nation, at the time, but it was a peculiarly sharp bunch of urchins.
     Her point is, depressingly, well-taken however.    The regimen for a high school diploma from 1970 and before could not and would not be tolerated by the NEA or any school boards now.  It just wouldn't be "fair" to the children.   Our regimen was still nothing like what was the norm during the first half of the the 1900s.   We have changed especially the public schools  into feeding stations teaching how to pass a test rather than to know, understand, and apply knowledge to the world around us and our lives in that world.

     I remember when we took our daughter to Southwest Texas State University to dump her off on the world.  The parents were given an orientation...which included a morose presentation by the drama department about what a miserable bunch of slugs boys are and how all our daughters were sluts....making themselves available to all kinds of diseases and violence...and that they had come to University in order to be DATE  RAPED....and it was all our faults and George Bush did nothing to prevent it.  (he was governor of Texas then.   Got us into a war with  Bermuda and Samoa)   Not only that, but SWTSU had its own real-live POH-lice Department and when they pick up our child, it was going to be up to her to figure out how to bail out or plea bargain to her best possible legal defense.  After all, she's gotta grow up sumtyme!    Ah! The lofty aims of Acadame'

> 1895 Eighth Grade Graduation Exam,

( forwarded to the Gringo Viejo and various of the same graduating class about 342 years ago from a high school somewhere on the American border with Mexico.)
>
> What it took to get an 8th grade education in 1895...
> Remember when grandparents and great-grandparents stated that they only
> had an 8th grade education? Well, check this out. Could any of us have
> passed the 8th grade in 1895?
> This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, Kansas , USA . It
> was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley
> Genealogical Society and Library in Salina , and reprinted by the Salina
> Journal.
>
>
> 8th Grade Final Exam: Salina , Kandsas - 1895

> Grammar (Time, one hour)>
      1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.
> 2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications.
> 3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph
> 4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of
> 'lie,''play,' and 'run.'
> 5. Define case; illustrate each case.
> 6 What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.
> 7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you
> understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.
>
> Arithmetic (Time,1 hour 15 minutes)>
      1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
> 2. A wagon box is 2 ft. Deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. Wide. How many
> bushels of wheat will it hold?
> 3. If a load of wheat weighs 3,942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel,
> deducting 1,050 lbs. For tare?
> 4. District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000.. What is the necessary levy
> to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for
> incidentals?
> 5. Find the cost of 6,720 lbs. Coal at $6.00 per ton.
> 6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
> 7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft.. Long at $20
> per metre?
> 8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
> 9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of
> which is 640 rods?
> 10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt
>
> U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)>
      1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided
> 2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus
> 3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
> 4. Show the territorial growth of the United States
> 5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas
> 6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
> 7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton , Bell , Lincoln , Penn,
> and Howe?
> 8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849,
> 1865.
>
> Orthography (Time, one hour)>
      1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography,
> etymology, syllabication
> 3. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, subvocals,
> diphthong, cognate letters, linguals
> 4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.'
> 5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions
> under each rule.
> 6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
> 7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi,
> dis-mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.
> 8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name
> the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell,
> rise, blood, fare, last.
> 9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane,
> fain, feign, vane , vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
> 10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by
> use of diacritical marksd by syllabication.
>
> Geography (Time, one hour)&gt
      1. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
> 2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas ?
> 3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
> 4. Describe the mountains of North America
> 5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia , Odessa , Denver , Manitoba
> , Hecla , Yukon , St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco
> 6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S. Name all the
> republics of Europe and give the capital of each..
> 8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
> 9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the
> sources of rivers.
> 10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.

> Notice that the exam took FIVE HOURS to complete. Gives the saying 'he
> only had an 8th grade education' a whole new meaning, doesn't it?!
> No wonder they dropped out after 8th grade. They already knew more than
> they needed to know!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Gringo Viejo, ever the blowhard, responded thusly:

Bye You're fresh chrimp's hear.   While suplie's lasts.
5 pound's -  $9

     My father would show the his students (back in the 1950s) his mother's primary and secondary text books from that era.   She was born in 1870.    She went to public school in Minneapolis at first and then attended an Episcopal school at the St. Michael's Cathedral and later graduated from the University of Minnesota with a couple of degrees.    They could not believe it.   And then when we compare what we were working with then as opposed to the bilge and fill time instruction, I am amazed that the ones coming out of secondary here can even work an automatic elevator that goes up or down three floors.      My other grandmother (born in 1895), the one in Tennessee, had enough books to allow the children to share, two on one.   Since they were so far away from anything, they had "the coloured exemption", because they had very few Negroes in Franklin County.   So the black children, (3) all cousins, went to school with the 9 whites and 4 Cherokee children.   They were distributed fairly evenly over 8 grades.  
    My grandmother had a "real live" certificate.   She had attended the University of Tennessee's Normal and Pedagogy Department and passed their requirements for being an elementary teacher.   She taught near her home, but still had to assure that she maintained "curfew" and would not move about especially at night without proper concern for her own chaperonage as required of a single woman,  and to avoid alcohol and any scandal of turpitude.    All the children in her classes went on to become professional people and/or officers or  non-commissioned officers in the Military.
     My mother and father both worked with me with those text books at very early ages.   We still have some of them somewhere around in the family....most of the "students" at Mission High or almost any High right now would have difficulty even attempting to read them now.   Passing the above test would be beyond the scope of any reason in these days....for 99% of the "students' now'.

     I stumbled through the examination you sent.  Did alright, but it's either ignorance or dementia that slowed me down a bit.   Don't ever get to be my age.     The caret U is a proof reading advisory for the need of some recommended insertion-in-text.  That is about the only place this humble ghostwriter and commentator has seen the term or heard of the term.

Thanks for the note. 
El Gringo Viejo

Lunacies as We Begin to Enter the 430 month long campaign year...

Mexico has a lot of silly rules about adverising formats and schedules for elections.   All the signs have to come down 72 hours after the election....political announcements or polling results given 72 hours before.    Fox News in its American format is blocked during the last days because they occasionally might announce polling results of Mexican voters during the banned period, for instance.   Most damaging, of course, is the National Dry Day during the Election.
   They also have photo ID...not only on the voter's credential, but on THE POLLING PRECINCT'S ROSTER OF ELIGIBLE VOTERS!!!!!  Try that one on for size, ACLU and all the forces in charge of "making sure every vote gets counted"....Al Gore likes to repeat that one on the women's talk programs.

Yes, folks...the president of the voting precinct and the other workers, now drawn essentially from a conscription of other eligible voters at that location, receive the Lista de Votantes.   Each person's name and identifying voter's elegibility number...also has the same photograph that appears on his Credencial Federal Electoral.   If they....then why not we?

     Next is the  Cheshire Cat Knowing Smile and Smirk about all of Bush and Cheney's lies and corruption.

     Just Remember!    Bush and the Enron scandal.

   Just terrible.     BUT, the Fact was, the ENRON people were very much in bed with the national socialists in Clinton's administration and with his national socialist bundler buddies on Wall Street.   It was Robert Rubin who called Bush's Secretary of the Treasury and urged some intervention on behalf of Enron.   The Secretary of the Treasury told him that Rubin's call was inappropriate.   Rubin himself indicated that he had been out of line.   The Bush's and Enron, of course, never did mix...Enron was more aligned with the slimy Bentsen organization and mafia in Houston....experts at turning unused land into soil-bank farm subsidies and stealing royalties from little old ladies and Mexicans and people who were aligned with their crummy corruption in South Texas.    Bentsen was an expert as the big lie..."I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine...and you Senator are no Jack Kennedy...."   Bentsen was sent to a girls' finishing school after returning from Europe where he had a distinguished career as a B-17 bomber pilot which was tainted a bit when he landed his plane in Romania although it did not seem to have any damage.   It is also worth pointing out that Bentsen's position on the top of the Democrat ticket really overwhelmed the chauvinist, dullard Texas Jethroes.
     Since there was a real live Texan on the ballot for Vice-President, the red-necks and hillbillies all went out and voted .....  for the Hoosier...like a Yankee almost...Dan Quayle, who was hated by the press because his daddy had been involved with the John Birch Society.    Dan Qualye is a better man than Lloyd Bentsen, Jr. and Old Man Quayle was a better man than Lloyd Millard Benstsen, Sr.    Imagine a Texan losing to somebody from Indiana for Vice-President in the Texan's home State.

     Then there is that poor Valerie Plame girl.   She was a daring darling,  secret agent for the CIA in Europe, working in deep undercover operations, risking her life, and just being an all around Jane Bond.   Then she received a promotion to be a very high level strategic analyst for Eastern European and Middle Eastern matters at the CIA, and had to go back to Washington, D.C. because that is where her country needed her.   She and her brilliant hubby, Joe Wilson would just have to put up with the dullness of desk duty for the good of the country.
     Then one day while they were serving their country, someone in the CIA said, "I sure wish we could find out if Hussein wanted yellow cake unranium from Niger."   Valerie Plame said, "My husband is a really sharp guy, an ambassador, and he knows all about that area over there."   And since Valerie was a great secret agent man and had a lot of pull in the CIA, the man who needed the job done called Joe Wilson in and said, "Joe, the fate of the whole earth depends on you and your wife.   Go find out about this and write me up a two page report of your findings.  But remember, this is ultra-top-super-duper-secret-classified.   You can't even show your findings to yourself.  In fact, you will have to commit suicide and then eat the report."      Whew!  You have to admire the dedication.   He was authourize, however, to "make the rounds" of the pinko morning shows and Sunday "advance-the-cause" shows, and talk in detail about how he had "....had tea with"....higher-ups in Niger and they had said that they did not sell any such material to Sadam Hussein.   So, who are we to believe?   Thoroughly corrupt political officials, the United Nations nuclear examiner, Saddam Hussein, Joe Wilson who hates America and made his mark by being an anti-war demonstrator during the Viet Nam War era, was and still is a far-left Democrat, or are we going to believe the logic of evidence and proven actions by Saddam Hussein?    The media played its cards very predictably.   Hate America first, Hate George Bush first....and then go to a commercial break from PETA.
     The CIA people were very smart we are told, because they had said there is definitely a large amount of mustard gas, biological munitions, and possibly nuclear weaponry in Saddam Hussein's arsenal.   The first two were well beyond for-sure, and the third seemed very probable.   The deal was to see if Saddam had gained atomic weaponry from black market sources in Russia OR Red China,   OR perhaps from a Bulgarian - Ukranian connection, OR perhaps from a Pan-Arab group combining some of the above with the alliance of Libya, Palestinians, and international criminal elements.
       One indication that he either had the nuclear weaponry or was in the final stages of developing said weaponry was to find out if he was accessing "yellow-cake", and if yes, from where.

      Our friends at Wikipedia have a contributor who provided this information:
The worldwide production of uranium in 2009 amounted to 50,572 tonnes, of which 27% was mined in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia are the top three producers and together account for 63% of world uranium production. Other important uranium producing countries in excess of 1000 tonnes per year are Namibia, Russia, Niger, Uzbekistan, and the United States.^[
       There are several countries in Africa where uranium is found in recoverable quantities, as well as in Mexico and certain other places in Latin America.    Also in Texas,
          Long before Valerie and Joe had made themselves important, the cadillac-communist gagazine, VOGUE, ran an article on, by, with, and for the demure Valerie Plame, noted for her subdued wardrobe and attempts to tone down her beautiful, long, golden locks of natural blond hair.   Part of her undercover cover while being a secret agent man was to make certain that her parking permit was properly display in the correct spot of the window of her auto.   That was her parking permit for Langley....the CIA Headquarters.     But the permit does not say 'CIA', it said 'Central Intelligence Agency....just to keep the bad guys off balance.

This time it is not VOGUE, but the popular culture/ political
satire and commentary mag, JEZEBEL, in 2007, showing Joe
and Valerie in their Incognitomobile, a convertible, avoiding
detection from Karl Rove by driving around in front of the
White House....ostensibly so that they could avoid  Lawrence
Eagleburger outing them again.  (?)

     This thoroughly deluded pair of narcissistic, mendacious slugs, each with a long history of anti-war activism and malingering on the tax-payers' dimes, can now enjoy their Duke of Windsor and wife Wallis Warfield (Simpson)(Harris)(Windsor) way of life, and will hopefully die comfortably in some appropriate place like Havana or Oakland, living long to celebrate slowly their tremendous contributions to humanity and their nation.

     To this day, there are many people involved in the "intelligence business" who think that much of Saddam's gas and bio munitions along with significant parts of the atomic program went into Syria....a fellow Ba'athist state....run by another family of nutcases...the Assads.   The Hussein nuts and the Assad nuts did not really get along all that well, but...Case in point....we remember not only the Israeli pre-emptive strike on Iraq's nuclear facility in the 1981.    We note that the Israelis also bombed  and destroyed a Syrian nuclear facility some months back.   The Syrians and the leftist world press were quite mum about this.  The only possible reason is because, in the world contest of power orbs, it does not behoove the communist and national socialist and anti-American interest at this time to allow wide dissemination of news which would tend to underscore what rational people know to be true.
     SADDAM HUSSEIN HAD WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, USED THOSE WEAPONS AGAINST IRAN AND HIS OWN PEOPLE, AND IN THE WAY OF A MADMAN, TRIED TO PUT THEM WHERE THEY COULD STILL BE USED TO DESTROY ISRAEL AND TO RE-ESTABLISH THE DYNASTY OF SALADIN AND THE WORLD CALIPHATE UNDER A ROYAL HOUSE OF SADDAM AL TIKRITI.     Saddam's two guiding historical figures were Saladin and Nebuchadnezzar  We remember when he "won" the first Gulf War and was forced out of the Emirate of Kuwait, he attempted, before the outbreak of hostilities, to fly his air force over into the protective custody of ....THE IRANIAN REVOLUTIONARY GUARDS?
      One of our problems here, as an uniformed blob of mow almost illiterate, almost totally ignorant body politic, is that our intelligence service might have a lot of people in its ranks who are America-haters, and who feed and work in tandem with the Lamampours of the press world...in other words,...other people who hate America, first thing in the morning, last thing at night.   People like Bill and Barry, Michelle and Hillary.    To think that the Emperor of Japan and the Prime Minister of the Japanese Parliament would have to refuse to accept the apology of the President of the United States for America's bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.   The son of the guilty Emperor and the head of their congress had more class and better understanding of the events of 1945, and a more rational intellectual processing of the event than the world's leading America-hater....Barak O'bama.    Great Yahweh, save us.


Jerrold Post
Author of Political Paranoia: the Psychopolitics of Hatred
Statement of 12/1990, before the House Armed Services Committee

Inspired by his uncle's tales of heroism in the service of the Arab nation, Saddam has been consumed by dreams of glory since his earliest days. He identifies himself with Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylonia who conquered Jerusalem (586 B.C.) and Saladin who regained Jerusalem in 1187 by defeating the Crusaders….
In pursuit of his messianic dreams, there is no evidence he is constrained by conscience; his only loyalty is to Saddam Hussein…

More later.  Especially a reminder of how debased our public education has become.
Thanks for your time and attention.
El Gringo Viejo

AlGore Was Going to an All Hallow's Even Party, but

Poor Al, he just got back from the masseuse, and he just could not find his costume for to-night's All Halloweds' Even Costume Party.   The when he went out to go to town to find another get-up, the roads were closed because of record early snowfalls there at\his little log cabin outside of Nashville....not far from where he used to push mules  on the rocky hillside ....growin' tobacky for his ole pappy.

POOR AL, He just cain't control hisse'f now that
he's a-gettin' on up in years.   Real bad tempered
like one of them there Bipolar Bears.

Of Free Trade and Light Bulbs

Free Trade agreements do not have anything...or at most, very little...to do with jobs being transferred overseas or beyond our borders. Those transfers had begun long, long before any free trade agreements had been inked or ratified. By using lib-think, the media has managed to tie "job losses" to "free trade" in the minds of a somewhat inattentive American public.   Job losses come from two sources: labour unions collectively bargaining themselves out of the labour market, and business manuevers designed to avoid over-taxation and to defend the company's bottom line.         The first duty of any business is to its ownership, whether that be a body of stockholders, a family, an oligarchy, a single person, other companies, a reverse-transgendered, Lesbian Eskimoe space alien, or any combination of such entities. Employees are not "entitled'' to a position. Companies are not "entitled" to a profit. Nobody ain't entitled to nuthin' nohow.                Sometimes, even when everything is done correctly and there is no avarice, sloth, fraud, or malfeasance, an earthquake comes along, or some cow kicks over a lantern, and there goes the whole thing. Sometimes, people are so dumboe that they might even like the sound of a term like "Hope and Change" and vote for the Great Wizard who comes out from behind the Magic Cloud and says he will take everyone to the promised land of free medical services and free access to the money and property of an undefined group referred to as the "Rich".                    And horrors or horrors! The people actually are stupid enough to vote for such a person.   It's like voting for Audrey Hepburn and getting Janet Reno.   It's like going on a bird watching expedition to a place where the guide says there are a lot of birds, and you drive up to an place with 30,000,000 hens in a egg factory....rowed out in twenty long coops that look like Army Barracks.        But, going back to drawing a connection between "free trade" and "outsourcing jobs", the "twin plant" concept was drawn in between the United States and Mexico the year was 1968. It was long before any "free trade" agreements between Mexico, Canada, and the United States.     Right now, the North American free-trade area has a combined GNP of almost 20,000,000,000,000 dollars (2o trillion).   This amount is produced by a population of about 450,000,000 people.      The Peoples' Republic of China  (aka Red China) can barely eke out 5,000,000,000,000 dollars (5 trillion) dollars, with a population of 1,300,000,000 (1.3 billion) people. That is three times the population, producing one-fourth the goods and services......OR, IN OTHER WORDS, AN ECONOMIC DENOMINATOR WHICH PLACES RED CHINA AT A 1/12TH LEVEL OF WEALTH PER CAPITA as North America. That assumes that the data published by the Red Chinese is accurate. It almost never is. It also fails to take into consideration that what they build and show off as examples of the Great Improvement over the "consumer economies" of the degenerate Occidentals to-day, have a bad habit of falling apart to-morrow.       ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- B U Y E R' s    A L E R T !!!   Thomas Alva Edison, born in Ohio on February 11, 1847, was one of a bunch of crazy American Inventors.   He did not have a non-payback loan from Barack O'Bamaham.  He was backed by a group of dumboes who wanted to electrocute the poor, minorities, women, Native Americans, the disabled, and children.   This would amplify the number of people that would be available to  buy the product they were trying to bring to the open market.         BUT, ALL THAT NOTWITHSTANDING, El Gringo Viejo has found a fairly good supply of incandescent light bulbs. They are Sylvania, and generally can be found at HEB and other normal places. Sometimes a person will have to look through the displays for just a bit. These bulbs and made in Thailand, Mexico, and some place called AMERICA. !! They work wonderfully. Of particular importance is that we have one of those bathrooms with a vanity light over the mirror that takes four bulbs. The Old Gringo found some 40 watt Sylvania's to replace the two pig-tail 100 watt "equivalent" (Ha!...Hahahaha!). And now we can see in the bathroom. That is pretty frightening in and of itself. Anyway...Sylvania has non-Red Chinese lightbulbs...at least for a bit longer.  Hard and fast facts are inescapable: The more impediment there is to the accumulation of wealth or comfort of hearth, the more the citizenry will practice sloth and evasion. Thanks for your time and attention!! Rules of Life as put down by the Great Guru Gringo Viejo.

Wierd?

The World’s Best Retirement Haven in 2011

2nd Place – Mexico

White sand beaches and turquoise-blue seas, with hammocks swaying nearby…centuries-old Spanish-colonial cities with winding, cobblestone streets and fountain-filled plazas…towering ruins left by ancient civilizations… guitars being strummed on warm, moonlit evenings…. Mexico is rich in romance, as the one million-plus U.S. and Canadian expats who live there will tell you.
But expats don’t live by romance alone. Fortunately, Mexico also provides solid, modern-day comforts and conveniences. That secluded, away-from-it-all beach on the deserted, packed-sand road? You can get within a few miles of it on a modern highway—one of the many that criss-crosses Mexico. Those centuries-old cities with their colonial homes? Today their walls conceal telephone and high-speed Internet cables and their roofs sport satellite dishes and solar water heaters.
Likewise, health care is very much 21st century, with first-rate hospitals, clinics, and medical staff. (Don’t speak Spanish? Many doctors, especially in private clinics, speak English.) And the bill will likely run you half or less of what you’d pay at home.
In fact, life in Mexico can cost you up to 40% less than what you’d pay in the U.S. for a similar lifestyle. It’s also lived at a slower, more gracious pace. And that is what, finally, many expats seek. As expat Jill Jackson, who lives in Loreto, Baja California Sur, explains: “It lets me be the person I have always wanted to be.”

     Perhaps it is a matter of spitting into the wind.   But, this article comes to us in a recent publication of the International Living people.   They can be reviewed and contacted via the linkage we have provided below.   It seems improbable to many people who are burdened by being reasonable and who, for some reason, rely upon American press reports for their news.    It is something like, "Do you really believe that Hillary Clinton is concerned about the poor?   Do you really think that millionaires and billionaires being taxed at 100% will make things better for the poor and for Americans in general?"    If the answer is yes....then....


BUT!!!, Turning to the matter at hand, you can check the magazine and the business out here

                                                international living.com

    It must be pointed out that this writer has a bit of skepticism in some of the reportage in this magazine and the business in general.   To be fair, it is an established, long standing actor in the area of foreign living for gringos.    It seems to the Gringo Viejo, however, to promote the idea that foreign life is substantially "more perfect" than living in the United States.   It seems to gloss over certain very necessary adjustments that must be made, and that quite frankly, some people are not intellectually, emotionally, or attitudinally capable of making.   If someone cannot grasp the idea that Baltimore is five times more dangerous than Mexico City, in terms of murder, assault, and armed robbery...then it is really best to stay home.

     On the other hand, this particular operation tends to paint foreign places as something like the upper story to Purgatory, just one step away from Heaven.   Peculiar odors coming out of storm sewer grates and beggar women who used to open the first scene from Macbeth lurking around the doors of Cathedrals are not covered very thoroughly.

This photo shows the Gringo Viejo trying to enter
the Catedral Metropolitano de los Angeles in
Puebla de los Angeles, Puebla, Mexico
Sometimes, extra effort is required to obtain just
a few ashes on the first day of Lent.

Oh! The number one place to live for a well-to-do type American in a foreign country?   They choose Ecuador.    The President of Ecuador is a dripping Red "fully observant Roman Catholic", who is also a "humanist", and "Christian socialist" (Pelosi soup, anyone?) who uses inspired elocution and rhetoric, as the following - ".....in response to Chávez's comparison of George W. Bush with Satan, Correa said it was unfair to the devil."   He is very popular among the unproductive, stupid, proudly troglodyte, and the silk-screeners of Che' T-shirts.

     Mexico on the other hand has PAN governance and fairly moderate Centrist and even leftist blocks in charge of their central governments and several States.    Almost any given State in Mexico produces more economic activity than the entire nation of Ecuador.   Wealth does not make "good", but general wealth sure does cut down on no water, no sewer, no electricity, no paving, dead babies, and turning Indians into welfare slaves.    Ecuador does have many beauty spots and pleasant places to live and even die.   But.....

     Various UN, pinko, and other economic yardstickeries tend to put Ecuador into a category of 4,500/capita income for their population of 13,000,000.   This is widely....how should we say....positive-inclusive.    The Quechuas, an Indian nation whose members constitute what causes Ecuador to be lumped in to that new Economic Category....that of  "Member of the Un-Developeable World, or the Association of 5th World, socialist septic tanques" ....and other intellectuals and labour union types....make for a pretty dull scene of it.   Quito is under siege of almost daily marches in downtown, so its a good idea to re-learn your bicycle skills if you choose to live in the capital.   The more the government gives the Indians and the "students", it seems, the more emboldened they are to ask for increased entitlements.   How could that be possible?   (Little matter, just make the rich pay their fair share.) 

    Thanks again for your continued attention.   The Gringo Viejo will be heading back down now that things on the home hearth...the funerals and readjustments have run a bit of a course.   So, we shall be making our few purchases of doggy-woggy and kitty-witty and the like.   Probably some more expensive glossy white paint for Alvaro's "retirement home" in Xicotencatl.

El Gringo Viejo

Funny, Sad, and Possibly Hopeless

The Old Gringo was munching on his No-doze and drinking his Air-wick for breakfast while watching Squawk Box on CNBC this morning.   He was treated to the usual scene whereby they allow a psuedo-conservative Republican come on and say a few things that sound remotely free-marketish and reasonable.    Then, of course, there is the countering argument which is given by a person who "restates" the previous answer while pointing out the fact that  "this" is not a reasonable position and  "that" of course is "unrealistic" as "all reasonable observers" have agreed.

     The oddity to-day is that the psuedo-conservative, Congressman Ryan from Wisconsin, actually reached down into his inner-caveman and responded.   He had been accused by the "much wiser" liberal ex-governor of Delaware that his and other Republicans plans did not address anything beyond protecting wealthy millionairesandbillionaireswhoflyaroundinprivatejetsanddon'tpaytheirfairshareoftaxesand
paylessthansecretaries.   But! Ryan responded aggressively and made the ex-Governor to appear the fool his is.

     Congressman Ryan pointed out that the ex-governor's point about how the Republicans do not care about re-education of the work-force is false to the point of falsehood.   He advised the panel that there were 40 bills that had been passed out of the House and that were sitting on the Majority Leader Dingy Harry's desk that had never been presented to the Floor of the Senate nor to any Committee.   These bills approved everything from industry inducements to bring on-going education to existing employees and new-hires to consolidating the 55 overlapping, demagogic, union feeding, boiler-plate, afterthought "training programs" established and operated by the Department of Labour, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Health and Human Debris, and the Department of Education(?) etc., none of which have had any effect upon institutional unemployment.

      He also scolded the mentally defective ex-governor who had been oh so condescending in explaining how he was so much more superior to the other guest, a lowly Republican, because he "cared" about things other than helping rich people.    Congressman Ryan pointed out that over 95% of public education activity in the United States is handled by State and local entities.   He also pointed out that every central government initiative that had been forced onto the locales had taken away from the central mission of providing people with a common intellectual foundation to prepare that person for his own self-defense and prosperity.

      It is probably true that kicking Yahweh out the school-house back door and forcing Crips, Bloods, the Mexican Mafia, Marasalvatrucha13, and the Aryian Nations Blastercyclists into the schools is not really a good idea.    Unless, of course, it is the actual objective of the Progressives to destroy the Nation.    Which, after all, is the truth.

     It is well to remember, that save for certain military missions, almost all activities started and supervised or controlled by the central government either are abject failures or suffer astronomical cost overruns or both.    Every business and social intrusion conducted by the central government, and almost all that are conducted by local governments, are money-losers and almost always cause many more problems than they don't cure.

      The least money paid into a morass of despair and hellishness are the one that "help" people.    The home of the brave and the land of the free, in less than 40 years has become the "place where we stays" and "this is our barrio, you diss's us by bein' here, bangbang you dead".   We have quickly developed into a nation of 29 year old grandmothers who somehow are more important than people who are human.

      We are admonished that we are "against children" if we do not vote money to "help" them.  The money goes 70% portion to bureaucrats who preside over this insanity.  The rest goes to feed and house what are increasingly sub-human entities who know only violence and procreation.   The Old Gringo submits that we are "for children" if we do something to stop the production of children born into the welfare dependency industry and the babymother culture.

 Stupid Bird

      Without taxation to support this madness and to subsidize the agriculture, food processing, food marketting, and medicaid industrial complex, our populace would be in a better position immediately to provide true charity, directly and locally controlled by people who can sort out the father who fell of the ladder and broke his leg from Jake the Crackhead who comes around every Tuesday and Saturday and Maggie Ann who comes in once a week because he boyfriend came back, beat her up, and took her "welfare", leaving the babies aged 1,3,5,6,7 unfed.   All need to be attended, but the Salvation Army could handle the job easily, gearing up on its own over a couple or three years.   Government Departments of Human Services are designed to recruit slugs, barnacles, and blobs looking not only for a handout, but a life-style of lethargy.

      The under-paid welfare office workers are making 25 to 50 thousand dollars each by "helping" the "poor".   Each depends upon the existence of the other.   It is a Luciferine symbiosis from Hell.    Throw in the Banks and the Grocery Chains and "voila!" a perfect Hell on Earth.    Before long, Americans will vote in a central government program to punish and flog the few Little Red Hens left.    They are already sawing open the Goose.

Stupid Bird!  Run!  Don't you see
the 666 Bastille Committee coming
over the hill?

Awake finally.   Maybe I can make another round of coffee.  More later, about Mexico.
El Gringo Viejo