For Every Season, There Is a Time

Be not deceived;  God is not mocked: for whatsoever
a man soweth, that he shall also reap.

     There is no way to avoid the natural law of Yahweh as it is set down.   If we produce un-fathered children and support those children with the wealth of those who are not their parent, the majority of those children are bound to the crooked, self-destructive path.   They care nothing for their own patrimony and will destroy the patrimony of others.   They have no souls.   They do not care.   They are born dead....seeming to live for a brief while, as they destroy everything around them.

      There is no way to avoid the natural law of Yahweh, as it is set down.   If we send out children to tutelage, and they dwell among fools, then our children will leave their instruction as fools, with only rare exception.   If they are told naught, they will know naught.   If they are told the tales of fools, they will be as the fool.   If they are told that they are wise, and their informers are fools and full of guile, our children will be a danger to themselves and everyone around them.   Our children's souls will atrophy within them and they will see themselves as greater than the Laws of Yahweh.    They will know there is no Yahweh, and with that certainty they will know that they  themselves are gods, and have no constraint.

       Mexico has lost 20 percent of its young people and 15 percent of its human-occupied geography.

        America has lost 20 percent of its young people and 10 percent of its human-occupied geography.

        Canada has lost 10 percent of its young people and  5 percent of its human-occupied geography.

      Were it a war, these losses in dead, wounded, and captured would essentially mean that those who had suffered those losses had lost the war.   When it is stated that an amount of children have been "lost", it is meant that those children have been killed or taken into the short life of organized crime, or those children who have embarked upon the life of glue and paint sniffing, marihuana smoking, cocaine, methamphetamine, morphinates, and other inebriates.    Most are drawn from what is politely known as the "urban environment", but....

        Do not doubt that your own children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces, and/or those of your friends and associates  could be among those who have the 10 miles stare, the lying, the early aging and dental problems, the secretivity and sneakiness, the peculiar moods, the irascibility, and the counter-productive explosive spontaneity.

 "My parents treat me like I'm a
child.   Nobody understands me.''

OOOOOOOOOOO

       Reasonable alternatives proposed in the past were not employed.   Many proposals were made.    Some were seemingly radical.   What we have now is a catastrophic collapse leading soon to total anarchy, death, and destruction of all property, value, and wealth.   IT IS HAPPENING NOW.     All the "radical" proposals bandied about in restaurants and saloons and beauty parlours, and backyard barbeques could have had a positive impact towards moving to a solution to the problems caused by bastardy and the unwillingness of so many  to concern themselves with the legal pursuit of self-sufficiency.

TO WIT:

(1)    Utter and total legalization of all psychotropic anything.  With safeguards such as requiring the AMTRAK engineers and the Southwest Airlines pilots and the Greyhound Bus drivers and all such similar critical personnel to submit to urinalysis before departure or other such deployment...and other such basic, logical measures....we could have allowed those so disposed to turn into the Zomboes they wished to be, take them out to de-activated Indian Reservations, and kept them there, stringing beads, and eating their oatmeal and Vienna sausage until they died.    The Gringo Viejo rates this alternative a 93.

OR

(2)     Arrest, demonstration of incontrovertible proof to the satisfaction of a special drug jury of 18 people who have passed a reasonable, difficult examination concerning their intellectual capacity and reasoning ability, and execution by firing squad that could be publicly heard but not seen.   Another two tiers of appeal should be worked out.   Visiting panels of (6) jurors, drawn from random assignment as in a lottery, could be the first tier of appeal.   Another could be the existing Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.    The entire process would be held to the time limit of 360 calendar days.    El Gringo Viejo gives this alternative a 93.

THEN 

(3)     Withdraw, cease, and eliminate the operation of government public assistance programs.   The central government in Washington, D.C. has no Constitutional authourity to transfer payments from one group to another.   The individual States might have that authourity if they, in their wisdom, wish to burden their own citizenry.    Elevate the eleemosynary institutions in the various locales to the task of providing for those who require charitable intervention in their lives.      El Gringo Viejo gives this alternative a 95.

THEN

(4)      Upon the proving beyond all reasonable doubt, any woman who is deriving the majority of her family unit's support from charitable or public assistance, and who has a third baby without the benefit of paternity will be first given a preventative, and then after due process with be taken to a veterinarian to be spayed.    The three children will be taken into private or State child protection and adoptive alternatives sought and obtained.    There will be no foster-care programs...only adoption.

       Any female who has produced three children without benefit of paternity will submit her whelp to paternity testing.  Those who have been identified as the procreants to her whelps........barring he who can demonstrate the PREVIOUSLY publicly published announcement and DEMAND FOR THE RIGHT and intent to take, own, and be wholly responsible for his progeny, .......will be taken to the veterinarian and be gelded....at the procreant's expense.
         All participating veterinarians will be exempt from any civil liability for these services.
         El Gringo Viejo gives this alternative a  95.

AS always, it is an continuing pleasure to have your company, share your time, and receive the OROG's attention.
El Gringo Viejo...   

Emotional Millstones

Each morning, each week, each month, as the sand runs through the narrow part of the hourglass, El Gringo Viejo tries to move to the next issue without being troubled, angered, and distressed about things over which he has no control.

      The fault is entirely that of the Gringo Viejo.   He chooses to forget the admonitions of his father to his mother when she complained about some foolish thing someone had done..."Doll, try to remember he's a Mexican"    or  "Doll, try to remember he's a German"  or "Doll, try to remember he's a Southerner".    These admonitions gave, at the very least, some comfort to those who believe in bio-cultural dominance in terms of major influences over individual and group human activity.

      "I just can't believe that that horrible man was letting his 6 year old child drink beer at the table.   We're only 30 years away from the Prohibition and half the County's still dry!   I want you to go over and tell Mr. Hophenbluschter what a bum he is!!   We fight two wars against them and they still don't learn anything"

      "Husband, that lazy Mexican is over there sleeping at 2:00 in the afternoon!   People are going to say he's drunk!   Go over there and wake him up right now!

      "Look at that crazy English tourist there on the beach.   He's actually going into the water and it can't be a degree over 80f," she would point, incredulous of the scene.

     It was not quite that extreme, but it was something similar.   The Old Gringo's father would smile and beg a bit understanding and tolerance, which was always granted.    It was my job to anticipate my own uncomfortableness with deviant social and cultural behaviour and move to be understanding and tolerant, to the extent possible.    One does that realizing  there are certain cultural, biological, and social forces that are overwhelming to the large majority of humans.    There are also certain variables among individual humans who make them disposed to do well, prosper, be happy, to work, to serve, to do good by their neighbours, and generally be positive....And there are variables that move certain persons, individually to do things that are self-destructive, that are narcissistic, that cause pain to self and others, that are counterproductive in general to the establishment of a good, prosperous, and happy existence in this life.

    Sometimes El Gringo Viejo forgets.   Forgets to accept.  Consider the Leftist.

      He is always angry.   Let him be angry.

      He is always certain that his motives are the only pure motives.

     He is satisfied, since his motives are pure, that his policy of taking things away from owners, killing millions of people - or thousands - or hundreds - or scores that is always justified, for the greater good.

     He is always sure that his plan for bussing someone else's child from here to there will serve to punish the evil and liberate those he wishes to liberate.

     He is always convinced that when his programs and designs produce results that are many times worse than the ill that had been proposed for extinction, it was the result of insufficient expenditures.

     He  is satisfied that all the ills of the world are caused by wealth and the wealthy, and that the "poor" are somehow more morally grounded than other people.

     He is content in the knowledge that, if it is necessary to publish information about an event, it is perfectly acceptable to amend the facts so as to protect his point of view and to slander the opponent.   After all, those who oppose helping the poor are evil people.

    He is proud of the people who foul the lives of the un-involved and destroy their paths and properties, because he knows those who have, need to suffer what it means to be poor and lacking control.

     He understands that while he proposes stringent programs and strident solutions to problems that may or may not exist, he himself must not be restrained by the law, or even require of himself any compliance with that new law.

     He scoffs at the idea that certain people suffer in life due to their own addictions to alcohol, drugs, sloth, self-centeredness, promiscuity, violation of natural law, profligacy, or other personal failings.   All personal problems are reactions to the Oppression by the Rich.

     He stares in wonder at an old fool like the Gringo Viejo's father who always urged to understand the origins of each man.  To tolerate his idiosyncrasies.  To allow a troubled person to awaken to his disorder, seek help, and climb from his abyss. (Stupid Indian, why doesn't he use a saddle for his horse?)


El Gringo Viejo was touched by this posting by a OWC activist.   Much jewelry, many piercings of nose, lips, eye brows, and many tatoos.   She was well dressed but dirty.   Her eyes seemed to be able to hold a focus for two or three seconds before going into a 10-mile stare.  She might have been 20 years old.

Her protest sign?

"There is nothing the Amerikan Wehrmacht  can do that regular people can't undo with a law to set people free and give them money and food and what people nede.   No Jews!  No Jews in Palestine! No Jews in America!"

The Gringo Viejo will have to vote for that bill before he reads it again.  Peace, brother.


 

The Collegiate Defect

     Rush is raving forth about the dunce - ism of majoring in liberal arts.   In these days, most of those who are stumbling through a liberal arts curriculum are not aware that the only place where their studies can be readily applied is in the area of instruction.    Therefore it becomes something like the Bavarian Butt Biter.   The Bavarian Butt Biter is the animal who bites himself on the rear and as the pain becomes more intense the animal gnashes himself on the rear even harder.   One can only imagine how it all ....how would one say....how it all ends.

     But, frequently Rush is wrong.   The Old Gringo has the right to say a little about that because we were sponsors of one of his early stops during the Rush to Excellence Tour he did early on during the launch of his National radio career.    Rush is more frequently right, this this time he is wrong.

     The point is that those who go into liberal arts need to know going in that they are bound to have to adapt to a changing seascape here and a changing landscape there.    There is plenty for them to do, because they are usually capable of performing in three or four or five discipline areas.   Many are extremely quick studies and can move from entire discipline to another with ease.

      BUT !!!    The type who wants to go into liberal arts should be a person who is going to university only to verify that he is a gentleman or that she is a lady, a studied and compliant person to some measurable degree.  The liberal arts graduate has a piece of paper to prove it to the world.   That same graduate must accept that others who have taken technical and professional degrees have a leg up....but only in direction of life's path.

      Once the liberal arts graduate has finished he might go to the military, the Peace Corps, into church missionary work, or (heaven forbid) into "public service".   He can also move into the business world by serving a form of apprenticeship in or with a small or large business.   He can quickly figure how to start small, on a shoe string, and connect with potential clients.   He is comfortable in old tech, low tech, high tech, cutting edge tech, business, trades, or space colonisation.

       The Old Gringo met a man in Louisiana who refurbished old Confederate whatevers;   wagon wheels, pistols and rifles, flags, uniforms, ledgers, or whatever bore an identifiable CSA purpose, manufacture, or utilisation.   He had three degrees in History.  BA, MA, PH.d. and said that he was essentially retired when he was 43 years old.   People paid him and paid his travel to review documents, supervise reconstructions of old homes, supervise battlefield and cemetery excavations, and repair artifacts.   He made about what a "pretty fair lawyer" might make, in his own estimation.

        He said he had only been interested in one thing since he turned five years old, and he never grew up.   They had paid him in public and private universities to work at his hobby and then after he kind of, more or less,  withdrew gradually from the teaching he went on to working at his hobby and being paid for it.    He said, "I'm like Mickey Mantle.   I'm paid to play."

       What the Gringo Viejo means by all of this is some people do well to be uselessly educated.   BUT THEY MUST BE SADDLE TRAMPS, even if they are from the upper-middle, or upper class.  They have to establish their own "career ladder", understand the value of a university education that has no direct objective.    They must have a sense of self-value that is not measured by trappings and treasure, but by the nature of  their journey.    The journey will ultimately bring wealth if the Saddle Tramp Paladin is true only to the Beatitudes and the Golden Rule and loyal to those closest to him....the first level of relation and the one or two friends that one might encounter in a lifetime.    Usually, wealth to the "professional Liberal Arts" person is something to store up later in life and to be meted out or willed to causes and people deemed to be of value.

      Rigid values, flexible path, and basic catechism.   Those are the tenets of success for the liberal arts person.    Most of those who are in the liberal arts schools at Whatever U. are not there for the right reason in these days.    My urchins are liberal arts type people and they have wound up in areas so interesting and places so perfectly ordered for a good life and having accomplished so much that it is staggering.   My son-in-law and his brother are the same.   So....just because your degree does not have a built in range-finder or a roadmap to the pot of gold or whatever....it does not mean that you are in the wrong room.   Maybe you just crossed into the Twilight Zone of fulfillment.

(just to prove the Old Gringo's point, click below)

 

For Yankees

http://www.angelfire.com/oh3/civilwarantiques/ 

For both regular folks and Yankees,

http://www.civilwardealers.com/dealers.htm

These people are all happy, frustrated, grumpy, and get up every day and do the same thing because it gives them great pleasure.

El Gringo Viejo

The Reason Perry is a Dumboe

     The number one reason Mr. Rick is a dumboe is because he can talk longer and say less than even the most accomplished Texas politicians who talk right and act left in history.

     The number two reason Mr. Rick is a dumboe is because he calls us down because we don't "have hearts" when we suggest that it is not a good idea to allow in-State tuition to children of illegal aliens who have been here for a long time.    The Gringo Viejo understands this issue, and is conflicted by the various arguments on about 5 or 6 different points of view about the issue.  To say that the Old Gringo does not "have a heart" is arrogant, misleading, and pointless.

     The number three reason Mr. Rick is a dumboe is because he never did point out that the Border Governor's Conference did not meet in Texas last year because the Mexican Governors of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Sonora, and Baja California were miffed with the Texas Governor.   The Mexican Governors played the Tom for the anti-American intellectuals in Mexico and the United States and snubbed because Mr. Rick tended to side with Arizona's right to self-defense in light of the avalanche of lawlessness that has beset that poor State...due to Janet Napolitano's failures both as Governor of Arizona and as "Secretary" of something called Homeland Security.     Perry said he had a few issues with Arizona's law but he supported the people's right to arrange things the way they chose.

Instead of pointing out something intelligent, he underscores that he tries to be stupid, when possible.  

     The number four reason Mr. Rick is a dumboe is because Texas is still stuck with a Tar Baby thing that no one knows whose uncle it is, where it came from, why it's here, or why it does not leave.    That unidentifiable amorphous mass is called  the "Business Tax".    It was put in place so as to make up for the reductions in property taxes that were being passed in most locales of the State.   The poobahs and the Governor were adamant that the "Business Tax" was not a State Business Income Tax....which of course meant that it was exactly that.
    There are exemptions now, so that no tax is owed for businesses generating less than 1,000,000 dollars in sales.   There are other exemptions for left-handed Lesbian Eskimoes, blue eyed Eskilarrys, and club-footed Eskicurlys....so now we have to seven or eight more  Astronautical Accountants to fill out all forms and obtain the correct number of contradictory answers from another layer of dumbasses in a government taxing office somewhere.
     Still, nobody knows where the "Business Tax" came from, why it cannot be repealed outright during the openning seconds of the next session of the Congress of the Republic of Texas.   We are told that we need to make certain that we have enough money to fund the "Feed Somebody Else's Children Who Have Severe Dietary Disorders Program" via the Lone Star Card.    And other very important programs, like "Feed the Children of Mother's Who Miraculously Become Pregnant and Whelp Out Seven Babies in Nine Years by a Possible Universe of Fifty-three Paternal Eligibles Program"
      You know, like, it's not like we're wasting money or anything.....and if you rich people don't chip in, then who's goin' to feed them?    It's just, like, you know...you gotta have a heart.   Otherwise the grocery stores and banks won't get any money to show how prosperous we are.  And it's required anyway in order to qualify for our share of the WIC program, and the Pre-teen Neo-natal delivery assistance program, and the Big Gold Lone Star Card we have to give every quarter to the girls who qualify to become members of the 26 Year Old Grandmothers Club.   Last year we had to make two trophies for the Annual Golden Lifetime No-limits Lone Star Card when two different girls tied for youngest grandmothers of the year at  24 years, 3 months, 15 days, 5 hours, and 22 minutes of age.   The decision had to be delayed because the mid-wife of one of the two girls was in prison for documentation forgery, so her paperwork had to be checked out a little more carefully.

      The number five reason that Mr. Rick is a dumboe is because instead of attacking and tearing down other Republican candidates about anything, he could say, "This is why Social Security is not a good choice for Americans or for America.     Here is a copy given to me by a public school employee in Texas.   She wanted me to show it to you in order to save America.   I cannot show her name, but it is a common Texas Teachers' and Public School Employees' Retirement System Statement.....She has been employed by the school district near where she lives for 33 years.    She has served in four or five different capacities.    Her earnings have been low, by New York standards, but the pleasure and honor of living in Texas and being a Texan, makes up for that.    Even though the salaries she has earned are low, we still take off the top a percentage, about 6 percent, and put it into.....not a lock box for Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi.....but a numbered account that belongs to this woman...only her....no one else.  She does not participate in Social Security and pays no Social Security withholding.   We then turn the money over to a bunch of our "good-old-boy" friends who serve on the Board of Governors of the retirement fund and they put money into green energy projects and Amalgamated Alchemy, and Soros, Gore, and Associates sponsored projects and flush it down the toilet.

         No, no .. no no no ....excuse me.   That comes for one of those bills we had to vote for in order to find out what was in it.
       Our fund's governors put this woman's money, and several hundred other similar peoples' money into a mix of very conservative and boring investment instruments.   About the most dangerous are Mexican and Canadian short term bonds, the rest are like Joe's Watch the Paint Dry Bonds.   So here we are.
     Her monthly pension will be almost 2, 300 dollars per month.  She can choose less and leave some to be inherited.   There are burial alternatives, there are five different plans for her and an equal number for her survivors.   Why, it's almost like......it's her money and she can make the choices.   Not me, not you, not Hillary.....She makes the decisions....She has 112,000 dollars that only she can access and manage.    In Texas, we do not fund the retirement system from the general fund....it is funded by the employee....and it belongs to the employee....not to the politicians.
     But Mr. Rick is a dumboe so he gets into a shouting match and plays the part of Stanley Laurel while he forces a Massachusetts dumboe to play the part of Oliver Hardy.   That does a lot of good, Mr. Rick.....or maybe it's Rowan and Martin....or is it Martin and Lewis??

      The number six reason Mr. Rick is a dumboe is because he cannot bring himself to say, "The Confederate Flag license plate option is supported by the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the vast majority of Texans.  The SCV is the Ku Klux Klan's and their assorted white-trash membership's worst enemy.   We need to know, understand, and remember our past.  Six Flags Over Texas, we honor each.   Next question please.
      But no....Mr. Rick....you went estrogen on the issue and did what the liberal Republicans and the anti-Americans wanted and Tom'd out to the anti-American Politically Correct metro-sexual tofu eaters.    Although you seem to be a Texan, at times you smell like a carpetbagger.....the kind of carpetbagger who will say, do, and sacrifice any sense of honour in order to obtain your ends.

That will do for a few reasons why Rick Perry is a dumboe.   I would still vote for him over any possible, known, probable, Democrat for President.   We have to remember that he can fly a C-130 , and he is a graduate of Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University and he has served the longest tenure as President of the Republic of Texas...longer even than Sam Houston.    He's been sober longer than Houston, and Houston was drunk a lot longer than Perry has been alive.   (The Old Gringo thinks that it is probable that Perry does not use alcohol.)

 One of the worst nightmares of America's enemies.   A bunch
of guys like Rick Perry driving a few of these babies into
someplace that needs a lot of USArmy attention.   Perry can
drive one of these War Busses...the Old Gringo can't.
(Just doing some basic balance)

Thanks for your attention as usual.
El Gringo Viejo

Too Good to Pass Up

     This screed was found while stumbling around on various blogs, newspaper editorials, and screed responses.    It speaks to the truth.   It points out the ultimate results of allowing people like the Occupiers to have their way with anything, especially America.    In a way, it shows the audacity of mendaciousness of a president and first-lady who can campaign in mansions and rant about the "1% who don't pay their fair share" while they vacation and insume and act like the white-trash at every venue.   Since they have no real moral grounding they are actually proud of their hyporcrisy.   They relish the illogic of their proposals and analyses of the American people.   The more preposterous their proposals and blame-casting becomes, the prouder they become of themselves....what pitiful people.

(note for OROGs :    The writer of this entry below-entered is obviously educated.  He learned his English well, but uses a bit of Russian language syntax.   OROGs should have no difficulty with the one or two rough parts of the entry.   The Old Gringo was going to say that if a person had watched Boris and Natasha during the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, there will be no problem.   But since that might be offensive to the ACLU and the White House Czar for Feeling Bad, Hurt, and Athletes' Foot, it was decided not to include the above statement)

Former Soviet Citizen

Orange you said? That explains everything! What’s next – Bandera was like Robin Hood? Nazis were good people because they were killing Russians? I net bol’shego schastiya, chem chtoby u soseda korova sdohla? (There’s no bigger happiness then to see neighbor’s cow dead) You should learn some wisdom lessons from Vintage. Tho… darn! I forgot, he can’t be right because he’s been a RUSSIAN!!! or may be even worse – Moscal! And speaking of Russians – do you and does your wife see any difference between Russians and comminusts/bolshevics?

When real rich people were gone (Russian Immigration) or killed and their redistributed wealth didn’t make anybody rich (you better take a pen and write it down) Bolsheviks still needed money to create their equality paradise. And they found a new target – kulaks, not so rich but not poor either because they were hard working people. Does it ring the bell with 250K and then with 200K? (write it down too) My grand-grandparents were farmers (ukranians, just for your wife’s info) and their whole family worked hard so they had bread to feed their kids. Since they had horses and cows then, according to Bolshevist agenda, they weren’t honest people because “honest” people couldn’t be “that rich” and “honest” people are always poor because of folks like my grand-grand-parents. 99% vs 1%, anyone? (I hope you are writing) Bolsheviks’ solution was simple – take away their “dishonest” earning, give it to “honest” people and send this nasty “rich” family to Siberia to pay for their sins. All young children, half of the family, paid them alright – they didn’t survive and died of starvation on their way to Tomsk. Did the bread they couldn’t eat any longer improve anybody’s life? Hell, no! Write it down too, you might need it when one day somebody will knock into your door because you make, let’s say, 30K which makes you “rich” and it’s time for you to pay your debt to society of “honest” people in a local kolhoz or, if you make, God forbid, “filthy” 50K, then Kolyma will be your final destination . Now that you wrote it down you can donate it to those neo-leninists from OWS you and your wife support so much. I hope they don’t accept cash and blankets only but useful reading as well. And I hope it’s enough to wake them up.

     These are the words of truth spoken against the rage of self-appointed madmen who seek to perfect society....not for society's sake....but to realise a burning desire and impulse to control the lives of other people and make society into something it should be as determined by a madman (Adolf Hitler), a group of madmen (Lenin, Mao, Ho, Pol, Fidel, Saddam), or an organization of organizations of madmen (Soros, NOW, PP, Move on, USCommunist Party, SEIU, ACORN, Democrat Party, atheist Media, Jew-haters, atheist Jews who hate Jews, Muslim fanatics who hate all Jews and Gentiles, ).

     There is a certain sadness in recognising that Russia...free standing Russia....is a country that is totally consumed by a corruption that would make New Jersey, California, Mexico, and New York blush.    Since the fall of the Communist Government, there have not been enough people with moral or ethical understanding to come to the fore and develop a new Russian life code...morality...common understanding of right and wrong....common law...etc.    The population continues to drop....over 8,000,000 fewer Russians now than say...since the Berlin Wall came down.     Babies are not all that en vogue....but consuming a barrel or two of Vodka for breakfast remains a national passtime.    There is enough to export to keep cake on the storeshelves for a while longer.   There is always hope of finding more gold, gas, oil, or lumber or fish...to sell on the world market so that the people can continue the socialist way of life while calling it democracy....but what happens when the Russian brand of the  Bastille People run out of Vodka once and for all?    Will they dig up the Romanoffs and kill them again.   Will they revive the mummified Lenin and beg forgiveness?   What happens when all the plans fail and there is no culture left...No true morality, no true ethic, no culture ....only variations of mad dictators,  mafia, crime, decay, and hopelessness.

El Gringo Viejo likes to take the words of inspired Communists, and play them against the backdrop of their concrete.   So, perhaps I am a magician, changing their concrete into our beautiful green lawns and golf courses.
                                      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRxvaVhVN7Aul 

 Malvina Reynolds

Pete Seeger was excellent at the mastery of the pointless.   So long as it hated America, it had to be good.   In this famous ditty, he points out that what he rails against is much worse than the "projects" and the children going to the corner to sell drugs and the to prison instead of trade school or college.    After all, can a child learn if the government doesn't give him.....(enter any or all of 14,234 things)? 
                                                 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONEYGU_7EqU

 Pete Seeger

   If you read the Russian's words all the way  through, you have heard the tone of a fine bell made of copper, silver, and gold.   The truth always rings true.   Bless the truth of a Russian who knows...

El Gringo Viejo

    

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