We need to point out...

     This is not terribly surprizing.   Bill Maher has come out to defend Rush Limbaugh.   El Gringo Viejo thinks that Maher is something of a pitiable personality who at times chokes on his own unreasonable vitriol.  However, his right to say things and not be punished by hypocritical superiors should at least have been considered before they threw him under the bus for saying the same things on the air that his bosses were saying over their martinis in their super-select saloons in Manhattan.
       The Jew-hating atheists of Jewish extraction...almost all marxists, like Saul Alinsky...hate Yahweh and Jews and Christians and Moslems who get along with Jews.   They are a strange lot.  They too were celebrating the destruction of the Twin Towers in those days following 11 September 2001.   El Gringo Viejo hopes, in any regard, that Bill Maher can continue to resist turning to view Sodom or Gomorrah and becoming a pillar of salt.   Come back to your faith, go to a nice conservative synagogue with a good cantor.  Yahweh is patient and Abraham will rejoice in the return of his grandson.   There is hope.
      Bill Maher pointed out that there is something more going on to this story than it might appear (obviously).   He also says that the sponsors withdrawing from Limbaugh are following an unfortunate path.   It is also refreshing to note that the surliness of the martyred Saint Fluke and the hysterical rage and sobbing without tears of the War on Women victims has already begun to stink like dead fish guts.....have they been here three days already?   I thought she was your uncle.

     The Carbonite stock going into collapse is refreshing, as well.   El Gringo Viejo also sent messages of dismay to several of the hypocritical, pinko businesses who sponsor those who attack reason and abandon those who preach reason.
El Gringo Viejo....  

It is done, the Alamo is lost

During these hours the fires ordered by Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna had consumed the remains of the Defenders of the Mission of  San Antonio de Valero....known to the locals as..."la capilla de los Alamos....the chapel of the Cottonwoods.

Col. James Bowie

     Only one of the defenders was not thrown onto the common pyre.   Juan Jose Esparza was the only person to be granted permission to be buried in Holy Ground, under Christian Rites.   All the others were immolated.  Including David Crockett.   Esparza was a close friend of James Bowie, the co-commander of the outpost.  Esparza essentially snuck into the compound through a window, bringing his wife and children with him.    That evening or the next day, he took to the defense of his very ill friend, Col. Bowie and bolstered him in the continuing arguments that he had with the childish and arrogant, 28 year old William Barrett Travis.

     Travis was Southern aristrocracy.  He also carried the rank of Lt. Colonel.   He looked down his nose at the sometimes sober Bowie, who was famous as an alligator wrestler, dueler, gambler, and adventurer.   Travis was cold, spoiled, arrogant, and as we say in the South, 'full of himself'.   James Bowie was a man of Eastern Tennessee with considerable life experience in and around Southern Louisiana, especially New Orleans.    He spoke Cherokee, and could read, speak, and write English, Spanish, and French, making him comfortable in any environment...low or high.  All who knew him thought him given to flights of extreme chance in business, and perhaps being fascinated with risk.   People say he invented the Bowie Knife, but that honor actually belonged to his brother Rezin Bowie.

Antonio Lopez de
Santa Anna c. 1869

     When Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna ordered the Defenders burned in a commom pyre like dogs, finally even deciding to throw Bowie in with the rest, Juan Jose Esparza's brother, Francisco, a middle ranking officer in the Mexican force under the command of General Filisola, asked the Supreme Commander for permission to take Esparza's remains to be buried.   That was the only one who received such permission.   There were 17 known Latin Defenders, although there is a probability that some of Captain Juan Seguin's men were never rostered....meaning there may have been as many as 35 to 60 Latins....known as Tejanos.   Impromptu volunteers would not have been out of the question because Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was extremely disliked by the people of Coahuila and Texas, Latin and non-Latin alike.

Lt.Col. William Barret Travis

      Bowie, however, is an interesting element among the Texian Forces.   Some think he was afflicted with tuberculosis, others say he was fighting the residual effects of a bout with typhoid.    Others say that he was struck hard by the death of his fiancee' in Mississippi some years before....and then after a very successfull marriage ...which had financial and emotional depth  into a pre-eminent San Antonio - Monclova - Saltillo based Spanish/Mexican family it all happened again.   A cholera epidemic swept through Texas in 1832, so Bowie sent his wife, children, and several of his in-laws to Monclova to wait out the plague in the healthier, drier, and higher air.    They all died when the cholera broke out there.
    So, there is reasonable speculation that Bowie, although relatively young and very accomplished, decided that he had a better place to be than on this Earth.   From the time after the death of his family, he had taken to drink and, while still gregarious and friendly and popular among the people in and around San Antonio, he was obviously a man with a wounded heart and soul.   He would not be the kind of man one would want in charge of a military garrison.
      So you have Bowie, the Mexicanized fighter for the Constitution of 1824, and Travis who really did not like the Latins and their peculiar brand of Christianity.    Bowie has a Latin friend who essentially comes into the Alamo to die with and for his Anglo friend.   Then we have Travis turning to Captain Juan Seguin, a brilliant Mexican army officer who hated Lopez de Santa Anna to ride out for re-enforcements, because  Seguin was the only one who knew enough about the lay of the land and the populations to be trusted with the job.

Capt. Juan Nepumecino Seguin

      Imagine Captain Juan Seguin riding to find Col. Fannin in order to bring him and his 350 men to the Alamo's defense.    He finds that Fannin's group has been annihilated at Victoria, near the coast, and all were lost.   General Urrea has riden back from a forward scouting to find that lesser officers have ordered the execution of all the prisoners, some 300 men, according to the orders of Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana.   Urrea is furious, because he knows well the rule of "if we do it, then they will do it ten times over".   But, the damage is done, Seguin rides back to San Antonio to find that upon his arrival, the Alamo is fallen, all is lost.
     He continues then to the east, looking for Burleson or Houston or Austin or anyone.   He finds Mrs. Dickenson and her baby and Man James.  He arrives to meet with Samuel Houston and to confirm that Fannin, Bowie, Travis, and Crockett are all gone.   Along with almost 500 regular and irregular militia.   Although he is a trained artilleryist,  Seguin goes on to command the Texian cavalry at the decisive Battle of San Jacinto, where he and the Texian forces destroy Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's headquarters command of some 1,800 men, through a Washington-like attack on a Holy Day...a Sunday...21 April 1836.
      Lopez de Santa Anna had brilliantly conducted an Army and Navy attack, 1,000 miles away from his point of origin, moving three large corps of combined military force, cavalry, infantry, and artillery over deserts, mountains, cold, snow, and rain, encountering the enemy on frequent occasion and winning a succession of 24 straight engagements.   In every engagement the Texians had been beaten badly.   And then he camped with his main force on a swampy peninsula, surrounded by water, with no exit.   The carelessness of arrogance.

      Finally consider the Yucatecan Infantry, earlier this morning before sunrise.   They were put at the front of the attack group, attached to the 2nd Batallon de Zapadores, Ingenieros de Combate.   To them it was a form of punishment as Yucatecos, because that province had declared itself allied with the forces supporting the Constitution of 1824.   Lorenzo de Zavala had written that Constitution and Lopez de Santa Anna knew de Zavala was taking refuge in Texas.   So, the Yucatecan soldiers lay in the heavy wet snow that morning before sunrise, then became exasperated with their suffering, finally rose up and began the attack before the bugle call, that would leave 182 - 225 Defenders dead within the next 2 hours, and a minimum of 400 Mexican soldiers dead, and as many as 225 more dying of their wounds over the next two months.
      All of this defense and offense over a place that was neither worth defending nor assailing in military terms.   The brother-in-law of Lopez de Santa Anna, Gen. Perfecto de Cos declared, "Con una victoria mas como el este, perdieremos no  solo la guerra, pero quizas el pais.   (With another victory like this, we should lose not only the war,  but perhaps even the country).

     From an event that lasted for a little less than a month, that involved directly less than 3,000 men, there are a million stories and angles, points of view, and tidbits that will continued to the analysed, talked about, studied, and frequently misunderstood for the next one thousand years.....or more.   To be sure, we shall, and our progeny shall, Remember the Alamo.

Thanks for your attention.   Remember the 6th of March 1836.

El Gringo Viejo

CNBC did something decent

Dr. Juan Jose Suarez Coppel, Director of Petroleos
Mexicanos, Mexico's Oil Monopoly

It is a bit disturbing, but when it happens, El Gringo Viejo has to just accept it and use the information for the benefit of all.  CNBC, the financial affairs network had a good article based on an interview with the Director of Petroleos Mexicanos, Dr. Juan Jose Suarez Coppel.   The Director pointed out that Mexico received 10,000,000 barrels of refined, high test gasoline from EXXON - Mobil, and that Mexico also sends 85% of its oil exports to the United States.   Also, it is understood that EXXON "harvests" a radioactive isotope of some rare metal and that isotope is used as the reactive agent in some kind of MRI process for medical research and treatment.  PEMEX does not claim against that benefit for EXXON, preferring instead to take the preferential pricing for the refined gasoline.

     The 10,000,000 barrels of gasoline, essentially EXXON Supreme 93 octane, is refined from Mexican and other oils.   It used to be, and may still be the case that EXXON refines what is sent to Mexico without any mark-up.   It is essentially wholesale priced out to the original supplier.  The amount of oil that Mexico exports to the United States dwarfs the amounts we receive from all but Canada and Venezuela.   There are months when Mexico's exports actually put them in first place.

     The reporterette asked Dr. Suarez if he thought North America could be self-sufficient and self-contained in terms of oil, gasoline, and natural gas, and he replied in the affirmative.   He pointed out that the reserves of all three countries are "beyond millinial", and the logistical advantage of keeping the resources within the Continent were clearly evident.   Suarez-Coppel heads the giant company, ranked 43rd among all companies on the Planet, and presently producing 105 billion dollars in annual sales.   PEMEX recently, after many years of trying to root out union and other problems in terms of accountability, was awarded the title as the most "transparent" of the megabusinesses in Latin America.   Suarez Coppel was "puzzled" by the EPA and other governmental problems holding up the Canadian - American Keystone Project, and pointed out that Mexico and the United States have been transporting natural gas and oil via pipeline for many decades with no significant or dangerous problems.
      There, in seriousness, have been several "great leaps forward" since during the last three years of Zedillo Ponce de Leon, Fox Quesada, and now Calderon Hinojosa which have resulted in many structural, administrative, and financial improvements in this huge company.

Some new news and some restating of known knowledge.
El Gringo Viejo

And He Did Not Receive a Call From the President of the United States

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhZ3vRiq6TI&feature=related

    El Gringo Viejo recommends this link very strongly if one would like to see what a homeless, five year old boy, selling candies and soft drinks on the streets of Seoul, South Korea can do if he just plogs away and believes in himself enough.   This shows an oriental form of the Susan Boyles  "Got Talent" show, and is well conducted, equally surprizing in the results.

     One also is brought immediately to the question at hand, that if this boy can suddenly walk out in front of 1,000 people in studio, and know that 2,000,000 fellow Koreans are watching him on live television and do this well, then certainly a 30 year old woman with all the privileges in the world must certainly be able to figure out how to buy her own medicines.   Perhaps she would even want this boy to pay his fair share for her pill? 
     As he is being questioned, he informs the panel that he has never had any lessons, although he did try to listen to people at a music school, from outside the windows.  Of course all the women in the audience are crying, and the female judges are sobbing and blubbering...and all for good reason, I imagine.   And yes, El Gringo Viejo is crass enough to draw comparison between two seemingly unrelated events.   And the comparison should be drawn.   Some people have class, others are socialist parasites.

     This young man did gain a little training before his arrival to the contest.   He gained a little more as he advanced into the finals of the competition.   Then he....    No, El Gringo Viejo will let you all find out whether he won the whole thing or not.    A further bit of disclaimer, he did receive a public housing accommodation finally, through the intercession of his first voice coach.   But, remember that in South Korea, much of the housing was "nationalised" after the Korean War, in an effort to rebuild the huge amount of damage that the War had visited upon the people and their houses and properties.   Many people wind up buying their aparments and privatising them legally.   So, it's not like Section 8 or "the projects".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIusYFl3oTo&feature=related

Okay, so you'll know.   Here is the final so that you don't have to look it up.   I know you're busy.
El Gringo Viejo

You all will never believe it....

     You all will never believe it.   El Gringo Viejo clicked into the Democrat Senate Campaign Committee's call for condemnation of Rush Limbaugh's ''mysogeny".  Of the respondents who had arrived....very few really....something like 1,400 since the call went out, over half were not in approval of condemning Rush.

     The funnier part is that the screed has been totally taken over by Muslim Brotherhood types and Syrian Assadistas calling O'bamaham names and invoking prayers to Allah that it would be His will to destroy the meddling Americans, especially O'bamaham.   We know that way down deep inside the Muslim Brotherhood is terribly concerned about the psychological damage and hurt that poor little Saint Fluke has suffered at the hands of The Misogynist.

      If only William Jefferson Blythe ("You'd better put some ice on that lip.") were here to show Rush how women really want to be treated.    His example was really something.   Really.

      It is a wondrous thing to be allowed to see the perfect hypocrisy of marxists.  Praise be.

El Gringo Viejo

For Those Who Fret, a Source of Comfort

     Many OROGs become depressed at the slightest notion that Father O'bamaham could possibly be re-elected.    We know there are several who hope for a positive outcome for the President, but most who invest their time here come to find out things about Mexico or have some comfort blogfood.

     Take faith, and be of good cheer.  Many of us do not take the trouble to go to Rasmussen's comparison of "The President makes me feel a little nauseated all the way to  'the President makes me puke'" a opposed to "The President is doing alright all the way to 'I simply love the President and wish I had married him'".   This used to be called an "intensity index", that measure only the most dedicated, heartfelt, intense feelings of the respondents to the pollster's questions.   It often can predict probable turnout preponderance, as in whether the Republicans or the Democrats will have an easier time turning out their vote.

     The above graph shows fairly clearly that on a scale of 0 -  5, Father O'bamaham has not been able to ignite the 4's and 5's enough to make it over the 30% mark since January of 2011.

No matter what the MSM says, that is stunning.   Critical, way-past-the-red-line B A D.   For O'bamaham.

      It means that the ooommph! to haul voters out to the polls, whose only motivation is the possibility of receiving more public assistance will be very difficult.   Once people are really trained into lethargy, they can lose even the instinct to beg....it is just too much trouble.   Besides, we can use the Lone Star Card at MacDonald's now, anyway.

     This is why there is such a frenzy about whipping up  the frenzy level of the Mrs. Che Guevara  Vegetarian Foundation for Women's Issues, and the Democrat National Socialist Party by means of  this "contraception plot".    They are trying to scare the ear wax out of those females who have deductive capacity of a dead rock by saying..."the Republicans are going to take away your contraceptives".    There are many who are so pitifully stupid, and so hopelessly incapable of even the most basic deductive reasoning that they will fall for the argument.    But....wait!   That's not bad news, because those women vote Democrat anyway, and they are likely not to vote, even with the fervor that is happening now.

     The MSM has been hiding the fall-off reflected above for several months, now.   Over a year.    It is even known by Republican strategists.   THE MOST INCREDIBLE THING NOW IS THAT EVEN WITH THE DUST UP ABOUT THE POOR GIRL WHO WANTS YOU TO PAY FOR HER BC PILLS, THE FALL CONTINUES.   Notice that the graph actually diverges, even after the dust up began, starting with the stupid questioning of Romney by Stephanopoulos and, a week ago, Fluke's Inquisition and Martyrdom.    If a person watches the merest amount of MSM he will be surprized at the above facts.   But facts they are.

     Be encouraged as well that the 43% who score 4 and 5 in terms of disapproval are ardently committed, in all probability to voting for almost anybody other than O'bamaham.    They want him to buy his VOLT next February, if they are still being made, not five years from now.  Take faith.   This poll, essentially indicates, if we remain motivated.... a possible landslide in favour of at least a more or less conservative.    If we can push the Congress a bit to the right at the same time, we are on the cusp of an Alleluia moment.

Keep the powder dry, cleave unto your religion, and thanks for your continued interest, support, and great submissions and questions.
El Gringo Viejo