Southern, Crockett, Whig, and Confederate

     El Gringo Viejo recuperated long ago from brain-strains caused by his peculiar political and philosophical positions.   He retreated into the intellectual wigwam of his ancestry, his people in Tennessee, and took the advice of one of those people.     This advisor from beyond the veil spoke to many....both contemporaries and those who would dwell in Earth's future....by instructing them to "Be sure you are right, and then go ahead".

     David Crockett would not have fit into this day and time.    He was a showman, like Wild Bill Hickock, and an orator/humourist like Will Rogers.   He was a rustic man of the Smokies and the mountains of Eastern Tennessee.   He was also among the sharpest political and cultural analysts of his generation.    He gained fame as an Indian Fighter, and was also one of the foremost defenders of the Nations of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Cree(k), and other Indian peoples.  He was a Republican of sorts in that he was a member of the prototypical Republican Party, known as Whigs, at the time.    This placed him in the northern, industrial, and banking political group although his personality and loyalty was distinctly rustic, traditional, and individualistic.    While there is some question about his ancestry, it can be assumed by his colour that, like many white people in the South, he had one or two strains of Indian blood.
     He informed people of his "evolution" as a conservative politician having been provoked by a Tennessee farmer.   While out visiting constituents one day, Crockett came upon one of his supporters, Horatio Bount, pushing his mules in the black soil of Franklin County, on the back side of the Smokey Mountains.   Crockett stopped and waved-ho the farmer who reined down his team and put them at rest.   The farmer walked over to the rail fence and shook hands tepidly with the famous Congressman and said nought.   Crockett sensed that there was some recalcitrance dwelling inside the farmer's soul, and immediately sought to plumb his motives.   He enquired of the health of the family and the major animals of the farm, and after receiving the briefest of answers, finally asked,"What seems to be the problem, Horatio?   Is there something we need to take care of?   Something I can do?"
     The farmer elbowed onto the rail fence, and leaned into an instructive pose, "Yes, Davy, there is a problem.   The news came by the paper that you all met in session and heard the plight of a widow who had lost her husband.   She's a known lady in the Washington area, and everyone was moved by her new problems....having children and accounts to pay and all."
      David Crockett brightened up, and interrupted a bit,"Yes, yes Horatio.   You're talking about Widow Baker, she was in a tight way and we voted her a goodly sum to dispel her cares.   It was a great amount for her but less than a copper for the Republic.   You can be sure that we took care of her.   Yes sir."   Crockett beamed with pride over this quick disarming of the issue.     But, his broad smile did not last long.   Horatio, the farmer, continued to look down and was shaking his head in the negative.
     The farmer took off his hat, and beat the chaff off'n his leg a bit, and then responded, "Well, Davy, here's the problem.   I am sure that the widow woman is a lady and that she had a cause for help.   It was good to help her.   But there is a wrong here, and you were part of it.   If you and your Congress friends felt so moved to help this woman, then you should have taken up a collection from among yourselves....or held a social....or informed the various churches and asked for a portion...or any number of other things.    It is not right, moral, legal, or in any way correct for you and your Congress friends to take money from people in Tennessee or New Hampshire or Pennsylvania and give it to anyone as a matter of charity...no matter how distressed that person is.   It is not your money to give.   Had you begged a dime from every Negro, a half-dollar from every wealthy man within 20 miles of that poor woman, she would have had a willingly given estate of several thousand dollars.    But, you chose to raid the national treasury and displace the Samaritan with the will of a messenger carrying his master's money and spending it in a saloon.    The messenger feels good for a moment, perhaps, but he is committing an evil."
      David Crockett was left with nothing more to say, save for this promise, "Jesse, you have spoken well.   I shall return to the Congress and place my share of the award to replace the money and I shall attempt to compel my colleagues to do likewise.   Your words have cleared my mind as to the nature of my duties, and I thank you."

(This is not taken from a "wire" worn by the farmer Horatio Bount.  It is solid lore and something that was passed to El Gringo Viejo by his grandfather.   The writer's mother was born in Franklin County, Tennessee which was the residency of David Crockett and his family during his service in Congress and from whence he left to go to Texas.   The Gringo Viejo's mother's family settled into the area of Franklin County during and shortly after the time of the Revolutionary War.   While the above conversation was not personally heard by the Gringo Viejo or his family members, he can hear his grandfather telling and re-telling the same story many times and in the same accent and rhetorical composition as might well have been used by Horatio and David.   El Gringo Viejo has to this day many, many 2nd and 3rd cousins living and buried in and around Franklin County, Tennessee.)

     Crockett left the Congress, tiring of the hypocrisy of his own party concerning the lack of compliance with the Indian Treaties and in utter disgust of the vicious, dictatorial nature of Andrew Jackson.   It is probable that he and Samuel Houston both came to the same conclusion about Jackson....Houston being a close personal friend of the Old Hickory....and like many Tennesseans, they decided to plight their troth with Texas.    Like many, he thought that it would be a great final adventure to move his family to that golden place and establish a new future for his children and grandchildren.
      It is thought by many people that Crockett was an unwilling participant in the issues that confronted him in Texas.   He was used to being comfortable among people of different races and extractions, being in contact with Negroes and Indians on a very close basis.   But, once in Texas, he found that he was confronting another Andrew Jackson, but this time in the form and presence of one Generalissimo Presidente Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.   He walked into a fight, that like back home, pitted the Centralists (led by Lopez de Santa Ana) against the local control liberal federalists (Zacatecas, Coahuila, Texas, Yucatan, Durango, Jalisco, Morelia, and many, many other entities) who were supporting the Mexican Constitution of 1824.   It was that Constitutionalist tri-colour that flew over the Alamo that enraged the Mexican dictator to unreasonable military measures that indirectly led to his losing a war that he had already won decisively.
     This is not to say that he was not a fighter at the Battle of the Alamo.   It is almost certainly the case that he was a fallen hero.   That he went down swinging "Old Betsy" and waiting for Buddy Ebsen to come riding up with reinforcements is very doubtful.   Best indicators suggest that he was spared by elements of the 2nd Batallion of Combat Engineers...known as the Segundo Batallon de Zapaderos, a truly heroic and militarily correct group....and brought as a prisoner to the presence of Lopez de Santa Ana.    Before the commanding general could speak to Crockett and two Latin Alamo defenders, several particularly effeminate lesser officers fell upon the two Mexican Texans and Crockett and hacked them to death with their parade sabres.
    According to Lt. Col. Enriquez de la Pen~a, XO of the 2nd Sapper Batallion, who had respect for Crockett and the other fallen in the actions of March 6, 1836, he included the above observations in his accounts of the battle.   His unit was the first to bridge the Sacred Walls.   He also wrote a long, detailed account of the war in Texas and was bitterly critical of its conduct by a person he considered to be a vainglorious fool.   He wrote:
     

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna

The diversity of opinions expressed concerning the Texas campaign; the accumulation of lies told to falsify the events, published in national as well as international newspapers, but especially in the latter, and the cheap adulation have rendered to the men least deserving of it; the ignorance, stupidity, and cruelty displayed by the ministry and the commander in chief of this war; the honor of the army, unjustly censured even by its own members, who without adequate knowledge have superficially or inaccurately passed judgement; the honor and self-esteem of every military man who participated, so deeply hurt by the inaccuracies in the official records as to dates, deeds, and places; and above all the honor of the country, deeply compromised by its leaders and no less by the truth and the atrocity of its crimes – these are the principal causes which compelled me to publish the diary I kept during the time I served in this unfortunate campaign. 

     The "Disney" historians would not like for this to be revealed, and others who prefer a hollow myth to the hallowed truth resent the telling of the true story.   The Lieutenant Colonel's account....lengthy, over-flowery like other writings of its type at the time, and detailed have been challenged.   But it becomes increasingly clear as the years go by that his accounts are true....his charges of war crimes, incompetence, corruption, and cover-ups by the Generalissimo and his lackeys have steadily....like tales from the Bible....become more and more plausible.    El Gringo Viejo finds his writings, having read them in both the original Spanish and in translation, to be veritable and worthy of regard as truth.
     Enriquez de la Pen~a's description of timings, unit movements, results, the weather and climate and geography, the support of the Anglo-Irish to the south in Texas and the opposition among the Latins in the northerly parts of Texas....among many other things....point to his veracity.   He regarded Crockett's death and the two Mexican defenders deaths as murder.
      This winding account of very small moments in Col. Crockett's life shows, perhaps, a better understanding of the thought processes of a typical Southern, Confederate, Crockett, Whig.   The typical Democrat....the typical leftist....the typical stereotyper who accuses us of stereotyping while portraying us gleefully as Beverly Hillbillies....has neither the depth of understanding of history nor the native intelligence to truly comprehend things like the Tea Party movement, philosophical conservatism, or the difference between private charity and welfare.
The Gringo Viejo feels better now...for a little while.    Thanks for your time.
El Gringo Viejo
    

People are Watching, We shall overcome the madness.

     People are watching.   We shall overcome.....the madness that has been manifested by the Occupy movement.    We are including a poignant, perhaps even brilliant observation about the soul, or lack thereof, of the movement.

     Sometimes, original unpublished poets need to be recognized by all available outlets.   This is a Facebook-type entry written in observation of the first filing for major office by an Occupy slug.  The place is Phildelphia.   It is for the office of United States Representative.   The slug is filing in the Democrat Primary against an incumbent Democrat, so we know pretty much that we are dealing with a terribly depressed area.    The poem is written in prose form.   It is profound.    The Poet is, like El Gringo Viejo, not at all impressed with the Occupy personalities or purposes.

The girl is not carrying the Che banner
But we could tell that right away anyway

El Gringo Viejo has named this work

ODE TO THE OCCUPIER
by Matthew Clarke

Here is a OWS Dude. He's the guy on the street with the nose rings,
      the dreadlocks and the lice.
He's the guy in Starbucks making coffee because it's the only job he can get with his degree in Art History.
He doesn't always have money for rent or food but he always has money for weed.
He rents a dingy studio apartment with a window on the sidewalk level.
Bums sleep on his steps and wee-wee on his sidewalk window.
He doesn't seem to care.
He doesn't even notice the smell.

He's the guy that rides a bicycle everywhere he goes because he can't afford a car.
He has to keep replacing the bicycle because people like him keep stealing it.
He has no mechanical skills.
He has no administrative skills.
He has no trade.
He is a vegan, too weak from malnutrition to work at any kind of physical labor job;
     not that he would take one anyway as tha...t kind of work is beneath him.
He despises the military and law enforcement.

He has an upside down American flag taped to his sidewalk window...
     right next to his marijuana flag.
He hangs out with other leftwing losers who blame their innumerable failures in life on
      people they've never met and know nothing about.
He's always borrowing money from someone but never pays them back.
He gives them some weed instead.
He's never contributed time or money to any civic project yet he constantly criticizes his
       community.
He fully immerses himself in anything leftwing.
The more these leftwing organizations bash America, the more rabid he becomes.

Despite his leftist fervor, he is always on the outside looking in.
He's a loser and even the leftwing losers that tolerate him think he's a loser.
He's never been able to become part of their leftist clique, no matter how much he bashes
     America.
When he gets old and is unable to support himself he will turn to welfare.
He is a parasite.

When his life is over he will have contributed nothing but hatred and bigotry to the
      world.
He will be buried in a state owned lot at the taxpayers expense.
Maybe one or two of his dealers or customers will stop by for the funeral service.
So long, OWS bum.

AMEN

 

     We stress again that this is not the Gringo Viejo's poem.   He is jealous.   And also recommends it as required reading for all children aged 12 and older.    
El Gringo Viejo.....

Anticipation Is Making Me Wait

We are waiting in this household to hear the inspired words of the Beloved Leader.   It will sound something like this:

     America has been a dump where only the rich are happy.   No one has had a chance until I came here after the rich people drove us into the ditch.   The Republican Congress still stands in the way, but we will take care of that in November.   They have stood in the way of us passing a balanced budget for three years now, but in November we will have the votes to make certain that the richest among us....the millionaires and billionaires....will finally have to pay their fair share.    No more subsidising their wealth, no more secret tax rates that only they know about; from now on, we will be the ones telling them what they are going to pay.    We will finally have a level playing field.   We will be the ones who have....and they will be the ones who have less.

     For too long America has been an extension of the plantation mentality.   It was a country established by slave holders, accustomed to being waited on, accustomed to making other people wait in line while they took the first pickings at the good life.   Now, with our new tax rate of 66.6% not only on the earnings of the wealthiest two percent...but also on the evaluated value of their estates while living....we will see a new day where minorities become empowered to full, rewarding lifestyles, free medical services, free food and lodging, and free entertainment options.  All will qualify except for the richest two percent.

     I have established an executive order clearance procedure which will, from this day forward, authourise the abolition of the electoral college along with the right of abeyance in the case of any disagreement my government has concerning outcomes that are not desirable.  We extend this right of abeyance to any decision made by the supreme court  that is not in keeping with the overall objectives of the administration.

     It is time that we become serious about social democracy, income equality, and other such basic human rights.  For instance, we have ordered Fannie and Freddie to immediately take possession of those domiciles that are designated as "vacation homes" or "second homes" and to make them available to historically discriminated people.    We have a ten point program that will build on this first initiative and details will be released after we have begun the implementation of that program.   Suffice it to say, there will be no more mansions of billionaires and millionaires with space going to waste when there are so many children  sleeping under expressway overpasses.

      More could be said, but you people are not really capable of understanding.   So, we'll just go ahead and say...."welcome to democracy".




 

It's all stunning

The issue with Mr. Romney is that he speaks in four to eight word phrases that are essentially reformed platitudes.   The platitudes have been repeatedly run through a filter that takes out any chance of offense to anyone save anyone too stupid or stoned to be capable of taking offense in any regard.

 Homo Sapien Neanderthalensis
Also known as Mr. Romney's idea of
what a Republican commoner is.

     Mr. Romney is a good candidate.   He was a better candidate.   But now, he takes on the character of that cheese a body was hoping to use in this evening's meal preparation, but upon taking it out of the refrigerator, it is, alas, consumed with mold.   He is remembered as a dolt who actually believes that it is a homo sapien conspiracy to destroy the earth by crock pot and not the Sun.    After all, he reasons, who are you going to believe?   Al Gore and the drowning Polar Bears, or obvious climatogical facts?
      Mr. Romney is also one of those inspired souls who is wise enough to know that criminals will gladly go down and pay four times more for a pistol permit than they used to.   After all, criminals need to be allowed to stand in line for three hours in order to pay for their own personal protection.   What if some Republican took away the criminal's mother's social security money before the criminal could make it to her house  in time to pistol whip the old bag to get to her Social Security money so he could scrape enough money to pay for the next pistol permit he is going to buy?
      Mr. Romney is certainly an inspired, new-wave Conservative philosophical thinker.   And, he wanted everyone in Massachusetts to have free medical services.   For free.   And everything.  For the children.

 The Rev. Mr. Jackson,
shown here trying to
remember what comes
after the number "5".

     At least we have Mr. Gingrich, who is easily the most brilliant thinker in the history of history.  When he rose to the great office of Speaker of the House of Representatives, he was given a group of seats of honor to offer to people of great note, heroism, importance, and positive contribution to the American condition or experience.    You know, like Sergeant Benavides, Congressional Medal of Honor, Purple Heart, etc.   But, the Speaker chose to give a seat to that miracle worker.....the one who managed to reform the concept of being a Negro professional into the new category of Professional Negro, the one who delighted in telling to the story to his....women....that he would spit into the soup of the people he served while a waiter at the country club where he worked.    You know, Jesse Jackson.   Speaker Gingrich "reached out" and invited a poverty pimp, racist, embezzeler, philanderer, profane, hypocritical, marxist, slug to a seat of honor.
     There were only 200,000,000 other people more qualified.  But the Speaker chose to honour Jesse Jackson.   The Speaker knows how to "reach across the aisle" and build working coalitions with septic sludge whose forte is lying, shaking down people, and fomenting violence and threats of violence.    The Old Gringo just loves "reaching across the aisle" to Satanic monsters whose only desire in life is to demogog, shake down, and have other people pay for his women.   Neither the Speaker nor the "Rev." "Mr." Jackson have very good taste in women.
     Then, we have Senator Sentorum.  Anybody who has to translate his real name into Latin must be older than he looks.   He also slings a lot of meaningless mayonnaise at his opponents.  He was also the inventor of elephant earmarks, which are the giant, economy size pieces of pork.    He does have something like a notion about what the concept "conservative" is.

Just Please!    We all know that you are all a bunch of bums to one degree or another.  So just stop worrying about how stupid I am not to have memorised every one of your stupid mudpoints concerning the other candidates and concentrate on the enemy....the atheist marxists in the White House.    Lay down your plan and sign it in blood.   Then be quiet.   Stop shouting about what a scumbag some other Republican is.   What spoiled children you all are.
     One notes quickly why the Democrats and mainstream media had to lynch Herman Cain first.    Oh! And by the way, WHERE ARE ALL THOSE WOMEN WHO HAD THEIR LIVES FOREVER DESTROYED BY THE RAPACIOUS HERMAN CAIN?   The Stepford Wives have become the Cheshire Floosies?  Perhaps Gloria All Red can come to the fore and explain how it is that she can line up white trash and Guatemalan illegal aliens at a drop of a mad hatter's hat to trundle out to blame some Republican or another with all crimes up to and including removing tags from pillows that say "Do not remove under penalty of law".

Back to my cave to nibble on my No-doze and to drink my Air Wick.
El Gringo Viejo

A local report

Hello again to everybody.

    We are back again with no real earth shaking events to report, at least from around our little mud hut in the Sierra Madre Oriental country.   Beyond a three-day episode last week when El Gringo Viejo had to fire up the old fireplace, even the weather was tolerable enough for the December - January time of the year.   There were four mornings when the temperature hovered in the mid-30s, once even flirting with the dreaded 32F figure.   Each afternoon managed at least the mid-60s, and the departure morning, yesterday, followed a day when the temperature made it to 85 F. 

      The flowering trees and the other growies around the area and on the property are already showing signs of the "reton~o".   Our monstrous old mesquite tree is probably in its last demise.   It is an ancient tree, but now seems destined to serve for firewood.   We shall give it another year.   It is being replaced by two medium-huge ebony trees, which is appropriate, because ebony is the State tree of Tamaulipas.   The two trees are about 35 feet tall and of almost equal form and dimension.   They are also close to coming together to form a solid, dark green wall on the upper-west side of the property.   (upper-west side?)

    

Clay-coloured Robin, aka Tropical Robin

     This has also been a very intense episode of birds.   We have had bunches of the old regulars, but also new arrivals.   One of interest is a medium-small bird that is navy-blue in colour, with a black beak and apparently a thin red line across the throat.  He seems to delight in jumping into our large tray of water (we call in Lake Guerrero), and thrashing about with glee.  He'll jump out and shake off like an old shaggy dog, and then fly up to a nearby branch to air and sun dry.   The rest of the topic might prove boresome, so suffice it to say that every day, all day, almost without respite, there were passages of parrots, song birds, ground birds, warblers, etc. without end.   We even nailed a couple of really good navel orange halves onto the flamboyan tree in front, and waited for the attack of the orioles.   This time, however, they were joined by mockingbirds, clay-coloured robins, green jays, and summer tanagers, at times simultaneously.   Every now and then there would be smaller birds swarming looking for fruit flies and other treats around the oranges.

      Another sign of the times is that the Old Gringo encountered a little convoy of American fishermen heading down to the real Lake Guerrero with their boats and trailers in tow....about six trucks.    It used to be a very common sight, and perhaps the event is going to start being repeated.   The last time coming up, another little caravan of trailer/motor home people was seen heading towards the Emerald Coast of Vera Cruz probably for the Winter.   There used to be 50 to 60 rig caravans....sometimes more...."doing Mexico", which I always thought to be a ridiculous way to see and engage a country.   But...to each his own.
      Topics for the days ahead will deal with the continuing saga of  the War in Mexico, the elections to be held in Mexico in July and in United States in November, the lunacy of the gun control nuts and their allies in the Department of Justice and the ATFE, the bitter silliness of the marxists in Chilpancingo, and probably the Gringo Viejo's lecturing of the media, the dumboe missteps of the Republicans, the hypocritical jibberish of the Democrats and the American left in general, and other pleasantries.

     We shall be mulling over the dull, pointless, meandering lack of substance of the Republican Primary.   The candidate who will say...."O'bama's Socialized  Medicine Initiative will be repealed as my first act....could win the nomination and election.    If he can then say, "I shall sign the Balanced Budget Amendment and forward it for ratification by all fifty-seven States of the federal Union.... I shall order the design and implementation of a complete embargo and trade suspension with Communist Red China.....Once empowering legislation is forwarded to my desk, that legislation will implemented....I shall immediately order the lifting of any and all suspensions of deep water or any other drilling prohibitions in the Gulf of Mexico that were put into place during the previous administration......I shall immediately implement procedures that will result in the elimination of the Departments of Homeland Security, Education, Energy, Labour, Commerce,  and most of the Department of Health and Human Services.   In the Justice Department we shall de-activate and disband the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives division of the Justice Department, and the United States Coast Guard will return to detached and independent service as America's only free-standing military service serving principally inside the territorial domain of the United States of America."
     This "America needs jobs" goat barf is tiresome.   Platitudes aspirate.

More later, and thanks for your attention as usual.
El Gringo Viejo  

Windy Return to Texas

Returned from a few pleasant days down at the Quinta.  The theme, I would guess, was that everything was perfectly boring, there were a zillion birds including various new ones, and that the mornings were quite cold....for my old bones....and that my calling as a slave to cats and dogs was well acquitted.    There will be some tales to tell and some observations coming on-line during the next few days, so stand by for a bit.    By tomorrow we might be able to put some thoughts together.

El Gringo Viejo