Cain't Beat It With a Stick!

Humour, Ire, Wonder, and Frustration....

Among the OROGs are many, many more eloquent and well-stated than the Gringo Viejo.  My old buddy from days of yore is one of those more intellectually endowed who will write in occasionally with recommendations, corrections, and salient comments.    He arrives at certain points where the frustration of things like, "Why doesn't somebody make Obama understand .....blah, blah, blah.."   or the famous, "I think Obama is a loyal American who wants the best for this country. ....blah, blah, blah."  drive him back down to the television store to buy another flying-brick-proof television.    We meet down there frequently.   It's like buying another battery for your car.   They measure the time left on the warranty on the old television, figure our remaining credit and then we pay the difference on the new brick-proof television.    My last one only set me back about 43 dollars.

      He states things in a way that neither requires nor begs apology.   He very frequently states exactly what I am thinking, only in a more readily understood way.   To wit:

 0.)   I feel your mortality as I do mine.  The issue about belief in Jesus is huge.  To be a charismatic Christian or not, that is the question.  Never mind.  The ends make the means a difference without a distinction.

1.)   Without having any informed basis to comment, I believe the Mexicans who are dedicated are as good or better than any soldiers in the world excluding ours truly.  They have motivation without prejudice.  The problem I see is the dysfunctional bureaucracy/govt. with the disclaimer that the govt. appears to be struggling mightily to “do the right thing” unsolicited corruption notwithstanding.

2.)   University is not one size fits all nor is it appropriate for what could be more than 60% of the high school graduates.  There are alternatives that could shrink the number of unfit significantly i.e. associates studies, trade schools, OJT, last but not least the military.  The problem is education.  They need to go to university “to know what’s in it”.  Actually, the pressure for the urchins to attend college by family is absurd.  Not all your 90 IQ offspring are qualified or able to comprehend that level of dribble.  Then the vigorish to the government is equivalent to racketeering by the mob (wait… they are the mob).

Sorry.  I feel compelled to, rather commiserate with, your brilliant knowledge and analysis on most matters affecting the universe.  I will try to limit my inane commentary...

      This OROG's code name inside of our computer and files is EL Zorro.  We had thought about using his initials, but they are 'JR' and we did not want anyone to think that Larry Hagman had anything to do with this blog.   Larry Hagman can act like he was an officer in the Air Force hobnobbing with beauties like Barbara Eden, but while that show was going on El Zorro was actually serving in Viet Nam.   He did advanced technical work on the F-4 Phantoms, and also did black-ops work outside of, and adjacent to, Viet Nam, especially related to counter-insurgency and recovery.   He was one of the guys who won the war that the pinkoes in Congress decided to lose for us after we had withdrawn.   Thanks, Sen. Church.

This is Barbara.  She's a Republican.
She performed for the troops.
  After second thought we
decided Larry Hagman is a drunken pinko, so
we did not show a picture of him.

     Anyway, you all can see that OROGs are a literate bunch....most of them much better than El Gringo Viejo.   It is interesting how El Zorro can state forcefully in three paragraphs more goodies, and in pure Texian lexicon, than El Gringo Viejo.   Must work on my brevity!
El Gringo Viejo

All Saints Intervene in the Affairs of the Episcopal Church....We pray

We urge the intervention of  the Saints in the affairs of the Anglican Communion, especially the Episcopal Church, USA.    We ask that attention not be spared the Church of England as it drifts into its self-satisfying heresies.    We also recommend the site, The Anglican Curmudgeon, as usual.  There are still lighthouses in the storm.   His  is one of the good ones. 

The Anglican Curmudgeon has asked us to consider the absurd comments of highly placed personalities who hold power and fundamentaly Apostolic positions of authority in our Communion.   To wit:

The American Anglican Council has published on its Website a newly updated (as of April 2012) edition of its classic resource: Tearing the Fabric. The compilation is more useful than ever, but also more desultory than ever, as well.

It starts out with a collection of quotations from ECUSA's heretics, including this classic statement of the "faith once handed down" (not!) by the former rector of All Saints Pasadena (which shows why that church went the way it did):
"'I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to God except through me.' The first thing I want you to explore with me is this: I simply refuse to hold the doctrine that there is no access to God except through Jesus. I personally reject the claim that Christianity has the truth and all other religions are in error... I think it is a mistaken view to say Christianity is superior to Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism and that Christ is the only way to God and salvation." The Rev. Dr. George F. Regas, Rector Emeritus, All Saints Episcopal Church, Pasadena, California, April 24, 2005, guest sermon at Washington National CathedralAnd of course, it does not fail to include gems from the Presiding Bishop, such as these:
TIME Question: Is belief in Jesus the only way to get to heaven?
Katherine Jefferts Schori: We who practice the Christian tradition understand him as our vehicle to the divine. But for us to assume that God could not act in other ways is, I think, to put God in an awfully small box. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, TIME Magazine interview, July 10, 2006 CNN Question: So what happens after I die?
Jefferts Schori: What happens after you die? I would ask you that question. But what‘s important about your life? What is it that has made you a unique individual? What is the passion that has kept you getting up every morning and engaging the world? There are hints within that about what it is that continues after you die. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, interview by CNN Live, June 19, 2006The document continues with a section on the "Fruits of TEC's Theology", including "Syncretism", "Promoting Abortion", "Weakening Traditional Marriage", and more.

It also has a useful compilation of ECUSA statistics, including a nifty graph showing the decline in active membership from 2.32 million in 2002 to 1.95 million in 2010. Then it concludes with a compendium of all the litigation with which ECUSA has harassed its congregations, bishops and clergy since 2004. The list of more than 78 lawsuits initiated by ECUSA and its dioceses demonstrates how their pace has accelerated in recent years.*

It is an invaluable resource, and I commend it to your attention.

We once again commend the Anglican Curmudgeon's site, which can be readily linked by searching just to the right of this posting....perhaps a little lower.   As according to the canons of our Holy, Catholic and Apostolic faith, you do not have to be Orthodox or Catholic to enjoy, enter, and study at his site.   It helps to be baptised by water in the Name of the Father, Son, and  the Holy Ghost....but nobody will check to see how wet your forehead or hair is.

El Gringo Viejo

El Gringo Viejo

Makes the poor Gringo Viejo crazy!

(1)    There are stories, circulated by McKlatchy News Service concerning the desertions in the Mexican military.
      This news service cites various un-named sources who moan about how crummy the service is and how low the pay is and how they don't want to make war on fellow citizens just to defend the rich. The news service cites the number of "nearly 50,000" soldiers and airmen who have deserted.

The Truth:
        Mexico has a form of national military service. Young men of a certain age are require to report once a month for rank and file formations, drill, weapons familiarity and marksmanship, military law and protocol, and so forth. This is done for one year. Some are chosen and asked to join the "regular Army", and many of those do, perhaps one-tenth or fewer.    They are the ones who have an inner military bent.

       Many who are momma's boys, poofies, communists, dumboes with no sense of obligation to the country, and some who are just shiftless and lazy, drift in and out of this obligation for part of the year, and just kind of evaporate along the way.    They are enrolled as members of the reserve training program, but their brief records indicate that they did not complete. They are noted as "desertadores". BUT! In Mexican military Spanish, this has the equivalent of the American military English of Absent Without Leave (AWOL). It is rarely punished.   They do have problems later in life when their "tarjeta militar" cannot be presented or it is not stamped "Sirvio'".

      The fact is that the men under arms at this time are very dedicated. The pay is relatively good, the benefits are good, the arms and equipment are good, and their mission is honourable and legally founded. Previous postings have the numbers who are under detention and the numbers presently serving and the numbers of personnel in combat and close combat support who have served and/or are serving since 2006. The official and the probable statistics are close....better than "close enough for government work"....and they are very good in terms of the morale of the troops and sailors,  especially considering the difficulty of the mission.

   And so that folks will know, last Saturday there was a "pursuit" by the Army against four thugs in two vehicles. The Army followed the thugs and their stolen vehicles out on the Monterrey highway to the west of Reynosa. Both vehicles were recovered and two of the thugs were wounded, all four were captured. There was a brief news article on one of the television stations, the reporter interviewing a business woman near where the incident began, wherein she stated, "I had gotten used to the pursuits and the battles. It's been so long since we had a good one, but this one was nothing...just two little cars. I was hoping we would have some more altercations so that the Army would stay in force longer."

(2) Why Romney evokes yawns when passion is required:

       We rightwing crazies say, "But, we cannot compromise with those who want to buy votes with someone else's money. It's a racket...Social Security, Medicare, AFDC, WIC, Section 8, Food Stamps, COLLEGE LOANS, and the like....It's all a racket. We cannot compromise!"

Now, with the nomination more or less comfortably in hand, Mitt decides that he likes the slavery producing, communist halls of higher (sic) learning funding college loan program that Father O'bamaham wants.

        Earth, Gravity, Solar forces to Mitt Romney!!!
      Money!   Give money to college bound urchins. Urchins give money to communist professors and overpaid university workers. There is more money now because Romney and O'bamaham want to give urchins more  free money! Therefore, since there are fewer "students" with more money in hand, the COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO RAISE TUITIONS AND OTHER CHARGES because they are staffed and run by leftist slugs who like to do little and be paid much. More money, same amount of product? Prices and charges rise. DUH? DUH! DUH? So, we pay,  and the urchins pay in order to be indoctrinated and told that the system is taking advantage of them, by making them slaves to the bank. Can you imagine how the commie professors are laughing up their sleeves?

      My urchins borrowed a bit, but they both totally paid their way, working much of their way through, with good grades and incredible life experience en route. They were forged and tempered. They started excellent and came out even better. There is no need to facilitate university tuition. It is not meant to be easy.   Many, if not most, of those who are on campus would be better off somewhere else.   A master underwater welder makes $300/hour.   First class and deluxe hotels are paying six figures to Managing Chefs, for instance.
      And, if overly facilitated, a graduate winds up as cannon fodder arrogant, ignorant college-drips who feel entitled to something and feel bitter and neglected because there were not 500 employers offering 100,000 dollar/year jobs to people with degrees in "History of Lesbian Circus Performers' Literary Works".

          ''And your degree is in "African Myths and Legends as a major, let's see here, Women's studies as a minor, with emphasis on Eskimoe Serial Murderers as a Justifiable Homocide Sub-group.    And you want 20,000 dollars/month to start, and a chauffeured limousine to take you to and from your office? We'll get right to it!

Thanks for your kind attention, as usual.   Negotiaing with a communist always starts with the communist declaring, "What is mine is mine.   What is yours is negotiable".   One cannot reason or compromise with a communist, a nazi, a socialist of any kind.    The want to dress your children in grey linsey-woolsey, and feed them all bread and water twice a day while they carry dung to the dung heap for Chairman Mao.
El Gringo Viejo

El Gringo Viejo has been in a WalMart, perhaps, 30 times in his life.   It seems to be the primary outlet for Peking's junque that cannot be unloaded into Indonesia.   The environs are depressing and the going and coming is wrought with all the same problems, at least down here, of drippy people who are dedicated to the leaving of grocery carts in the parking lot, with or without recently changed pampers.

     There are more and more people  who have learned, apparently that pampers really can last for one week without being changed.   They all seem to wind up at WalMart or the grocery stores or the public parks or anywhere El Gringo Viejo happens to be walking in low-light situations.    We try not to get out much anymore.

     HOWEVER, lest all be dismayed, the WalMart issue will be flogged, a la Miss Flukie and the women who were so offended by Herman Cain, and the Guatemalan illegal alien who wept over her horrible treatment by Meg Whitman, for as long as the story will stay on the front page, then on the second page, and then on the first page, second B.     Then it will make the rounds in the editorial sections of newspapers nobody reads any longer.

      The same crowd, those with IQs under 90 and those disposed to be Bolshevik or National Socialists, will howl to the heavens (which do not exist), about exploitation and corruption.  The left can strike a blow for liberte', fraternite', egalite' once again....dragging out the guillotines and the gut-wagons to lug the rich and titled to the chopping bloque.   Whack!!  Hurrah, vive la revolution!   Go Frida Go!

      But before they walk into the door like Miss Flukie, Pelosi, et. al. allow us to state that little will come from this "scandal".   Please remember that the Left hates certain things.   One is a Mexican Republic under a common law schema, under the governance of a conservative and especially non-marxist regime.   The next thing is anything that causes the lower-middle class to form up and stabilize and thus become less beholden to labour bosses and politicians who want to "help" them.    Wal Mart is one of those institutions.   They have faced the same union bilge and "discrimination" against women, corruption of local officials charges from their first arrival in Mexico. The two things are related, in this case.

     Understand that WalMart went into Mexico under the umbrella of the Grupo Cifra and the Grupo Aurrera, a mega-important Mexican-Spanish retail and restaurant consortium.   This was back in the 1990s.  WalMart de Mexico, SA went the route of having a "white union" instead of the old mossback, totally corrupt official union...the Confederacion de Trabajadores Mexicanos.   For so long as the PRI was running every detail of business and labour law in Mexico, business and labour pretty much had to do the wishes of the "officials" and "important people".     Americans have been taught by people who do not know anything that the "rich people" in Mexico run everything.   For those of us who hang around in Mexico too much, we know this a wry joke, because we have seen the hundreds of times that some lower level slob labour-leaderof a local affiliate of the CTM could whip up a group of employees at some factory or business and close the business down....sometimes permanently.

   With the Free Trade Agreement and other liberalisations of the labour law, the requirement that businesses with a certain number of employees assure that those employees are members of  (the)(a) labour union, it also became possible to form and operate "non-official" unions....totally unaffiliated, independent, and unconcerned about being a force for PRI party "voter mobilisation".

     WalMart is presently the largest employer in the private sector in Mexico, especially when one includes the SAMs operation.   Since entering into partnership with the Cifra organisation (the father of Aurrera Group), WalMart has caused price decreases throughout the "food chain".  The public is wildly supportive of WalMart, and even the hootsy-tootsy people who look like actors and actresses from the telenovelas and the rich folks are seen in WalMart, without bags over their heads.   It is telling that the community of Teotihuacan, which is adjacent to the archaeological zone of the same name, was going to have a WalMart.  Various Indian Rights groups from all over the New World came to protest.   Televisa and all the PRI and PRD mossbacks trundled out to moan and whine and talk about "sacred ground".
Then the people who live in Teotihuacan held protests which were explained by CNN to be "protests" against WalMart's plans.   Oddly, in one televised broadcast, the stupid reporter was speaking very authoritatively  about how the "people" had mobilised against this horrid incursion unto 'sacred ground of the native Americans"...when in the background were hundreds of people holding pennants and home-made signs with the epithet "PRO-WALMART".    Apparently the stupid, ignorant, or intentionally mendacious reporter figured that the gringos watching the "news" article would be too stupid to figure out the signs.
     WALMart built the store anyway, just a little closer to the village.

     With all this said, and with a female conservative party candidate making a reasonable bid for the Presidency, the left has pulled out all stops....operating with its American brethren, to assault WalMart with any combination of criticism, outright lies, physical intimidation, and negative propaganda, disseminated via a willing pro-socialist press, which, as we know, is abundant both in the United States and Mexico.   Nothing is lost on the fact that Carlos Slim, the world's richest man, is also a claptrap for the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (the old official government party) and the owner of the New York Times, the water-bucket carrier for the "corruption story" now flooding into the American sensibility zone.    This assault by members of the Zuno family from Guadalajara...(in-laws of the disgusting pro-communist, totally corrupt, madman Luis Echeverria Alvarez, President from 1970 - 1976), and other old, immensely wealthy limosine liberal lefties of the PRI have always hated WalMart....because WalMart, like the Maquiladoras left these mastodons in a real lurch.   Like they frequently say..." It's just terrible what all this industry and commerce has done to things.   You just can't get a girl to work in the house any more, and if you find one, she want 100 pesos a day and the holiday and benefit package.   It's just terrible."We used to be able to get one for 30 pesos a day and a meal.   Just terrible".

     In other words, this is a Miss Flukie sham.   Again.   The "corruption" is that the Aurrera format is to pay the Notario Publico (a super-attorney in Mexico, who has the authority to draft agreements concerning real estate and permanent structure title establishment and transfer).   The Notario Publico might or might not determine if "lubrication" might be worthwhile to effectuate the timeliness of real estate transfer, the permitting process for construction, the engineering report acceptance, and other preliminary details.   WalMart will figure out how to apologise for any errors....which are actually none....and how to express contrition to the press and the Bolshies who hate WalMart, and this will have been something akin to running over a possum in a rainstorm within six months.

     It is strange the Boshies and other pinkies hate WalMart so.   Without WalMart, Mao's "Revolution" would have ground to a halt 20 years ago.

A time-line, so that the OROGs will know WalMart's history in Mexico.

          . 1957   the Arango brothers, Jerónimo, Placido and Manuel, founded the stores Aurrera

                        thinking in a supermarket model, with household items and clothing at cheaper

                        prices.    Aurrera in Basque means "Let's go!"...or an emphatic  "Come On!"

• 1958: Opens the first store Aurrera, with the branche Bolívar.
• 1960: Begins to operate stores Superama 1960.
• 1964: Starts operations Vips Restaurants 1964.
• 1970: Begins Suburbia and Bodega Aurrerá operations.
• 1976: Inaugurate First Distribution Center in Mexico (in Spanish, CEDIS).
• 1978: Opening of restaurants El Portón (The Gate).
• 1986: Makes the organization Grupo Cifra, for the administration of stores and restaurants in Mexico.
• 1990: Aurrerá starts the barcode system in Mexico.
• 1991: Wal-Mart and Cifra makes a joint venture. Creation of the International Division of Wal-Mart Stores and signed a partnership agreement with Cifra. Born the first Sam's Club in Mexico.
• 1993: Began operations Wal-Mart Supercenter. The supermarkets Aurrerá changes style and design in Walmart stores.
• 1994: They're joined Suburbia and Vips inner the association Cifra/Wal-Mart Distribuidora, S.A. de C.V.
• 1997: Wal-Mart buys most of the shares and acquiring control of the company.
• 2000: Grupo Cifra renames figure at Wal-Mart de Mexico.
• 2001: Aurrera stores become Walmart Supercenters and Warehouse Aurrera.
• 2005: Walmart Mexico makes the stores Mi Bodega Aurrera currently has over 50 units in various parts of the Republic. It's a variant of Bodega Aurrera, with less area and products.
• 2007: Bodega Aurrera has about 300 units driving prices lower for much of the Mexican Republic.

Just a bit of explanation.   Thank you all for your time and interest.
El Gringo Viejo

Actuarials and Reality

The number of zombies, druggoes, and head-cases wandering around loose in the United States is flabbergasting.   The article below about Chicagoland is repeated in hundreds of venues throughout our nation.      Any metroplex with 200,000 people or more has this report. Just this week, a trio of slugs who live only a block from our little place, decided to kill a girl with whom they were doing business. Their business is burglary, receiving and selling stolen goods, and now, at least least one case, premeditated, cold-blooded murder.   One of the three is now charged with the shooting of  a 23 year-old girl in the lower part of the back of the head and dumping her body off on the edge of an important secondary street in the McAllen, Texas area. She was a daughter of an important merchant in the area. She was also en league with the other three in their other 'business pursuits". None of the males involved had crossed the age of 20 years yet.

      Three more were gunned down a few miles northeast of McAllen during a session of mid-night basketball....except here instead of a basketball, they use two roosters and betting tables. There were several score "people" at the cockfights, and all managed to escape, save for three who were killed, when a group of thugs arrived, faces covered with ski-masks, and opennned fire of the crowd.

And on, and on.

 Below is the reality of Chicago.   This is the reality of every large urban center that has a large urban population that has been raised up on public assistance and/or a secular humanist "school" environment.   El Gringo Viejo makes this inclusion, and attributes the article to the Chicago Sun Times and local FOX Channel 2:

9 Dead, At Least 15 Wounded in Citywide Shootings

Updated: Monday, 16 Apr 2012, 3:21 PM CDT
Published : Sunday, 15 Apr 2012, 8:25 AM CDT

Sun-Times Media Wire

Chicago - Nine people were killed and at least 15 others wounded in shootings across the city from Friday night through Monday morning, including a cabbie found shot to death in his cab, and a 25-year-old woman police believe was targeted after she was shot multiple times.

This weekend’s fatal shootings include:

• David Loggins, 52, shot in the neck at 1:23 a.m. Saturday in the 6500 block of South Champlain Avenue.
• Adegboye Oguntade, 31, of south suburban Lansing, found shot to death in his taxi about 2:45 a.m. Saturday in the 1200 block of West 69th Street.
• Michelle Gregory, 21, was shot multiple times about 4:30 a.m. Saturday after arguing with someone at a party in the 3900 block of West 19th Street.
• Erik Loggins, 40, was found shot dead in his home about 12:40 p.m. Saturday in the 9700 block of South Carpenter Street.
• Darryl Davidson, 23, was shot twice in the chest about 1:45 a.m. Sunday in the 1300 block of South Springield Avenue.
• Brandon Miles, 19, was shot twice in the back about 2:50 a.m. Sunday in his home in the 1000 block of North Waller Avenue. Sources said he was standing in front of a window in his living room watching TV when he was struck by rounds fired from outside.
• Kimberly Harris, 25, was shot multiple times in the face, head, chest and legs about 7 p.m. Sunday in the 2900 block of West Arthington Street. She was shot three times in the face alone, and police said they believe she was purposely targeted because of the extensive number of times she was shot.
• An unidentified man in his 20s or 30s who was shot in the head was found by police at 3:55 a.m. Monday in the 4500 block of West Jackson Boulevard.
• An unidentified man was standing on the porch of a home when he was fatally shot in the 5800 block of South Shields Avenue at 8:30 a.m. Monday.

At least 15 others were wounded in shootings, including three women who were shot about 10:25 p.m. Saturday night by a male gunman who’d been turned away from a party in the 13200 block of South Vernon Avenue. None of the women suffered life-threatening injuries.

No one is in custody in any of this weekend’s shootings, according to police..

And, yes there is no Al Sharpton. No Jesse Jackson. No one to set things straight. What is to come of us without Al's and Jesse's and O'bama's help? Who will feed the children? Who will give Miss Flukie her new replacement back-up bi-polar-solar-batteries for her portable sola-powered aborto-matic kit for free? Who?

Asking the questions that much be answered.

El Grngo Viejo