The Previous Post....the legacy of Chief Justice Earl Warren II

The Eagle Weeps Again

in prologue:

      We are not big fans of posting direct from another source, especially a fellow blogger.   This posting in our previous day's effort from the Anglican Curmudgeon, was very necessary, however for the small but growing OROG community.   The Reverend Curmudgeon (we know not if he is ordained...probably not), holds two degrees, both from Harvard.   One is in that mathematical science called music, the other is in that art of insanity and precedent called "The Law".

   Without wishing to appear to be a groupie...it must be taken as a very, very serious recommendation to all OROGs that each review the sporadic submissions on the Anglican Curmudgeon's blog.   Further, the other bloggers of interest to him, which he lists and links very conveniently,  represent a stunning, almost burdensome, challenge of studied people, intelligent people, somber, funny, sharp, light, heavy, sardonic, sarcastic, kind, wry, considerate, and sometimes thunderously judgemental.   It is reading that will put an OROG to sleep sometimes, not from boredom, but just the having to complete one more paragraph....and it is also reading that will keep an OROG up at night, counting broken canons and conventions of the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Communion, and other religious and lawyerly institutions.

     Review the Anglican Curmudgeon's borrowed entry from yesterday, if you will.   And certainly go there, not here, to water your camels from that better oasis.   But see the sadness and humour of his words concerning this ghastly decision by the Supreme Court, to-day.  Observations he made BD (before decision).

 NOW TO THE POINT:

     The Anglican Curmudgeon's blog entry was placed on this page yesterday because El Gringo Viejo thought it would bear upon this disastrous opinion read to-day by the Supreme Court of the United States.    The swirling confusions around what is such a simple case, the diamond of 58 facets had long since become a common piece of gravel that was simply an assembly of haphazardly placed cracks.   It became the Golden Calf.   The Tower of Babel had already been built by this same Court when it ruled that Barak Obama could personally order the dissolution of the bonds held by institutions and individuals, as well as the cancelling of the shares of preferred stock in the companies General Motors and Chrysler;  not to mention the "ordering" of the closure of 600 auto dealerships....(national socialism, anyone?).

   When they ruled that a president of the United States could order the taking and/or dissolving of privately (and publicly) held financial instruments, and by the wave of a sceptre pass other real estate, ownership, and financial assets to a group he himself would name, this observer felt that the game was over.    It was certainly over in terms of seeking redress from the Supreme Court of the central government.

      Therefore, now all OROGs know why El Gringo Viejo was not looking forward to this decision.   He was not at all hopeful of hearing a verdict of outright unconstitutionality of the Obama Socialised Medicine Initiative.    He feared that it would be a further jumble of the mumble mumble, and a further obfuscation of the whingle-dingle and the jibber-jabber....at the very best.   What we have received from Chief Justice Earl Warren II is a lot of both.   We have more mumble-whingle-jibber, and we have a central government elated with the new authority to impose upon America the thing people come here from the rest of the world to escape.

    John Roberts is a Trojan Horse of the highest order.  George Bush must either be sitting in a dark parlour of his relatively modest ranch house outside of Crawford, falling off the wagon and  drinking a gin and tonic and saying "Son-of-a-bottle-opener!  Why would he do something like that?"   or if one is of a darker belief, "Heh-heh, John and I really pulled one over on the rightwing crazy Republicans".

    With this decision the Republic is lost.   We have become an organic law country, doing what is "reasonable" at the moment for this person or that group.   We have ceased to be a country with any pretense of being a Republic ruled by a common law pertaining to all, regardless of creed, colour, social position, age, or other indicatour;   a common law attempting to cover fairly and equally issues affecting both Prince and Pauper.

ALL THAT IS LEFT TO US AT THIS POINT IS TO PLAY THE ROLE OF THE WHITE ARMY AS IT TRIED TO CONSTRUCT SOME DEFENSE AGAINST THE RED ARMY.   BUT THE ROMANOFFs ARE MURDERED AND DEAD.

THIS IS PETERSBURG IN APRIL OF 1865.   THE OUTCOME IS THE SAME.   THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT SAVED THE NATION FOR ALL TIMES IN 1865.  NOW THE SAME CENTRAL GOVERNMENT IS GOING TO SAVE THE NATION FOR  ALL TIMES AGAIN, IN 2012, BY SOLVING ALL THE PROBLEMS THAT THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT HAS CREATED BY REWARDING SLOTH AND TAXING INDUSTRIOUSNESS.

This is the Alamo with no San Jacinto.   The only chance to restore the Republic in any recognisable form is to overturn the Congress, elect another RINO as President of the Central Government, and overturn the Obama Socialised Medicine Initiative by an act of Congress signed by the new President.    Even that will be fought tooth and nail, through the Courts by the newly emboldened Bolsheviks.   And, they will win.   They will win because the people will burn down the bakery when the bread runs out and they will drag all the Little Red Hens to the guillotine.

Strike the Flag, Let us all cross over the River.
El Gringo Viejo

    

A Must Read - For Jews, Protestants, Catholics, and Anglicans, and Agnostics, and Cowboys

Unfortunately, not by the Anglican Curmudgeon

The great Brahms once responded to an autograph request by penning a few measures of Johann Strauss' famous Blue Danube Waltz, and then writing: "Unfortunately not by Johannes Brahms."

I feel the same way about this marvelous post at Noncuratlex.com, leading up to the Supreme Court's decisions this Thursday on Obamacare: "unfortunately, not by the Anglican Curmudgeon." I'm afraid that, just as you would have to read music to recognize the piece that Brahms was referring to, you will have to be an attorney and Supreme Court scholar to get many of the inside gags in this parody.

At the end, I will offer a few guideposts to orient lay readers to what follows.

Breaking News: Husbands and Wives of Nation’s Constitutional Law Professors Collectively File for Divorce

Posted on June 25, 2012

RENO, NEVADA (Press International), June 25, 2012: The husbands and wives of the nation’s estimated 543 married Constitutional Law professors collectively filed for divorce today in Nevada state court, alleging that their spouses’ complete obsession with the United States Supreme Court’s upcoming ruling on the Affordable Care Act had effectively destroyed their marriages.

“It all started pretty innocuously, with him writing a simple symposium piece on whether early 19th Century precedents could somehow justify the ACA’s individual mandate,” said Marla Thompson, wife of UC-Irvine law professor Farley Thompson. “But then Farley got obsessed–the ACA litigation just took over his life. He told me that we couldn’t eat broccoli for dinner because the vegetable represented a ‘tool’ in the hands of the ‘Lochnerians.’ He would come home and read nothing but ancient admiralty treatises and Whiskey Rebellion conscription notices. He wouldn’t even carpool to work with me, unless I conceded at the outset of each trip that the government could properly demand that I replace our Honda with a Chrysler.”

Spouses of law professors known to oppose the ACA’s mandate voiced similar complaints. “I wish I had never heard of the Hkolov Cabal,” said Lawrence Tribkin, husband of Notre Dame professor Candace Yanders, referring to the law blog that has served as a central forum for anti-ACA commentary. Yanders, formerly known for her well-regarded work on the Nineteenth Amendment, “guest-blogged” on that site during May 2012. There, she revealed what she learned from 720 continuous hours of listening to the March 2012 oral argument on the ACA, as placed on a continuous loop in her office. In her post, Yanders asserted that if one plays the full audio recording of the oral argument backwards, at one point what sounds like Chief Justice John Roberts’ voice can be heard to say either “the ACA is dead,” or perhaps,”thacadad.”

Yanders, who has petitioned to change her name to “Metta World Barnett,” subsequently was committed to a mental institution for treatment.

On the courthouse steps, other petitioners related dysfunctional behaviors by their spouses such as: insisting, for several months running, that they were “this close” to being invited by SCOTUSblog to offer guest commentary on the ACA; repeatedly manipulating dinnertime servings of mashed potatoes into busts of Paul Clement; passing off suppositions about Justice Kennedy’s likely vote on the ACA as “bedtime stories” to young offspring; and otherwise obsessing about absolutely every single aspect of the ACA litigation.

The worst part, many of the spouses said, was the waiting. “I thought that this would all be over by June 18.” said Ron Anders, the husband of Ohio State University’s Thomas Chavez. “But no decision from the Court. Then, maybe earlier today. Again, no decision from the Court. Meanwhile, all Tom does, twenty-four hours a day, is sit in front of his computer hitting ‘refresh’ on the Supreme Court’s website. He hasn’t showered in something like three weeks now. I wish that we could go back to a simpler time, when all we worried about was what movie to go see on Friday, and whether the Second Amendment applied to the states.”

* * * * *

Now, here are some endnotes for those who couldn't get all the references:

"Farley Thompson" is a made-up name, as are many in this post. It could refer to Dean Erwin Chemerinsky of the U.C. Irvine Law School, who has written and spoken extensively about Obamacare, and has gone from predicting two years ago a victory for the mandate, to predicting just a week ago that it could go either way.

"Lochnerians" is a reference to the much-maligned 1905 case of Lochner v. New York, in which the Supreme Court struck down a New York statute regulating bakers' hours on the grounds that it interfered with individuals' freedom to contract for themselves. Those who argue that if Congress can force everyone to buy health insurance, it could also force everyone to eat broccoli to remain healthy are said to be "neo-Lochnerians."

The "Hkolov Cabal" is, of course, the Volokh Conspiracy ("Hkolov" = "Volokh" spelled backwards), a law blog (linked on the right) that has carried extensive debates pro and con regarding Obamacare, but mostly contra. "Lawrence Tribkin" is a take-off on Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard, who predicted today that his former student, Chief Justice John Roberts, would vote to uphold the mandate.

"Candace Yanders", aka "Metta World Garnett", appears to be a complex amalgam. First, there is law professor Randy Barnett, who blogs at the Volokh Conspiracy, but who teaches at Georgetown (not Notre Dame), and who has published work on the Ninth (not Nineteenth) Amendment, as well as writing and speaking extensively in opposition to the universal mandate. (He was recognized as a target of this spoof by his co-bloggers in this post.)

Then there is law professor Richard W. Garnett, who does teach at Notre Dame Law School (in constitutional law and political science), and whose employer (Notre Dame) brought one of the lawsuits against Obamacare. He has recently written against the liberal threats made against the Supreme Court justices if the conservative majority (which would have to include Justice Kennedy) rules Obamacare unconstitutional.

"Metta World [Peace]" is, of course, the Los Angeles Lakers basketball player formerly known as Ronald Artest, who was recently suspended from seven games by the NBA for elbowing another player.

"Thomas Chavez" appears to be another fictional character. His last name, coupled with the reference to the Second Amendment, definitely refers to the Venezuelan dictator, who recently banned all gun ownership in his country. But "Ohio State" has echoes of one of the key cases cited in support of the mandate: the 1942 decision in Wickard v. Filburn, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government's power under the Commerce Clause could prohibit Roscoe Filburn, an Ohio farmer, from growing more wheat for use on his own farm (and fine him in the process).

For an earlier parody by Noncuratlex of the Obamacare oral arguments before the Supreme Court, follow this link. (The name Noncuratlex is a play on the Latin maxim "De minimis non curat lex", or "the law does not care about trifles".)

POSTED ON THE ANGLICAN CURMUDGEON....BY THE ANGLICAN CURMUDGEON and pirated by El Gringo Viejo to make sure all his charges could have this laugh among us.   The drinking light is lit.

El Zorro is deceived...

Gringo:

The story about Jake is very strange.  Indeed so if he is fictitious.

As you remember, I was a counselor at Camp Capers just a spit away from Dime Box (I can’t say if old or new).  My summers at Camp were 1962 and 1963 not more than two or three sessions each year.  We had a fellow come around from Dime Box from time to time to do handyman work.  He was about late 20s or early 30s, quiet, and country smart.  He liked the smell of skunk and handled rattlesnakes by hand.  I had conversations with him on Hill Country lore.  His name was Jake.  That is for real!

Z

The open-air Chapel at Camp Capers

Where El Zorro and Mountain Joe worked.
Truly a pleasant place.  Deer by the billions
and birds, and all that stuff.  Just nice.
It's Texas, after all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

El Gringo Viejo responds:

     Of course it is remembered!   For OROGs who are not familiar, Camp Capers is set on the Guadalupe River in Central Texas some distance to the northwest of San Antonio.   It is in the German country, not far from Fredericksburg, Comfort, and Kerrville.   El Zorro had a posh job of it, working at the camp....it is quite nice....still.   Probably 40% of all Episcopal squirts in the Diocese of West Texas (actually what is now geographically South Texas) suffered pleasantly through 2 week, 3 week, or 4 weeks sessions there in the Summer.    It was also a place that had Acolytes' Conferences and retreats.

     During my time at Camp Capers (Summer of 1959), we were told that there was a monster man in the oak and cedar forests surrounding the camp.   Supposedly, he was a friend of Charles Lindbergh who had been involved with Lindbergh's flight from Brownsville to Mexico City in 1930.   When the friend left Brownsville to fly to El Paso, weather forced his plane down, and he was never found.  It was assumed he was dead.   But some time after his crash, strange and violent things began happening around the ranches and farmsteads near Waring and Comfort.   There were even tales of a monster....or a badly disfigured man...would wait for people to go out into the night to throw the day's garbage into the farm's burn pit.   He would wait for morsels that he might find....unless it struck his interest to brutally murder and cannibalise the hapless errandeur.

     He was known as "Mountain Joe", and we were not to venture out without flashlights and a "buddy"....perhaps it was so that Mountain Joe could kill and eat two of us instead of just one.   Susan Sizer observed during a conversation about Mountain Joe that it was good that our Camp Director for our session was (Suffragan) Bishop Dicus.  I guess that having a Bishop made the Camp safer or something....I'm really not clear.   At twelve years of age, nothing is too clear, except it was my great desire not to get into trouble and to get back for the rest of my Little League Baseball season. 

     El Zorro is distressed about Jake....but my Jake is fictitious....while his Jake is real....and yet El Zorro had dealt with a Jake from Dime Box....go figure.  I remember El Zorro being gone in those days, but he did not run back to McAllen and say "I met a guy named Jake and he liked skunk scent, and he's from Dime Box!"

     These are the peculiar congruities and phasic focus episodes that El Zorro and El Gringo Viejo have had to put up with since about 1958.   The position of Camp Counsellor was "very prestigious" for a summer job in those days, and only for responsible young people, considering the reality of the rattlesnakes, water moccasins, the heavy rain episodes (it was very possible to be isolated for many days, especially in June and July....huge heavy rains....very pronounced rainy season) and 10 - 14 year old squirts full of all kinds of complexes, anxieties, and pimples.   It provided room, board, and MONEY!!!!  Real paid money.  We complained about the food, I guess, but it was actually quite good.  When my parents came to get me in the 1959 episode,, we barely made it out before the little rural road was closed due to flooding from the heavy on-going rains.

     It was during these times that a fellow came from Runge (RUHN - gee), Texas to our Church in McAllen, on the border.   Runge is not far at all from both Old and New Dime Box.   Runge also has an Episcopal Church.   The fellow's name was Ken Chandler, and he had a younger sister named Judy.   Ken looked like Elvis Presley's younger brother....almost indentical....and his sister looked like his twin.  She was a very attractive girl who adapted well to McAllen and excelled in school.   They were very "country" but in a dignified and classy way.   Hard to explain, exactly.  Perhaps it's a Texas thing.

El Gringo Viejo 

United States of America secedes from Arizona

The Obama Administration served notice yesterday to the State of Arizona that the United States of America would no longer extend the protections and agreements that normally attend annexation of a State by the central government of the several united States.   In so doing, it became clear that the central government of the various united States is abrogating the agreement, the attendent guarantees associated with that agreement, and the equal protection of the citizens of Arizona provided by various elements of the Constitution of the United States of America, as amended.

     Although the Supreme Court of the United States of America held that the State of Arizona does, in fact, have the right to inquire concerning the legal status for presence in the State of Arizona of any person detained by a member of the constabulary and/or the posse commitatus authority of that State, it has been advised that the Executive of the central government will not enforce that decision.

      The central government has also taken a bellicose and hostile position against the citizenry of the State of Arizona by suspending any co-operation and co-ordination of law enforcement activities that could be construed as being based upon the State of Arizona's willingness to assess a detained person's right to be in the Arizona, either as a citizen of Arizona, or a citizen of any other State in the Union, or as a person of foreign citizenship who has the appropriate permits as a visitor or legal resident alien.   This refusal to back up a previous agreement, and to logically follow the legal processes involved in the arrest and removal of non-citizens who are in the State of Arizona (ergo: the United States of America) who are without the necessary permissions and attendent documentation represents a willful divorce provoked by the Central Government's executive.

     This is a first.   The Obama Administration has managed to set in motion a program that has, to date, been involved with the killing of over 400 Mexican men,women, and children innocent of any connection with the Cartels, semi-honest and honest State, local, and federal cops, and heroic Mexican soldiers and naval infantrymen working to defend their country and the United States against a demonic enemy.   At least two American central government police agents have also been killed due to the use of arms provided organised criminal entities by the American central government without the knowledge of any Mexican police or military or diplomatic agency, nor the knowledge of any agency of the State of Arizona.

     It has become clear, based upon the known "Brady Conversations" involving the present President of the United States that the program known as "Fast and Furious" was established solely for the purpose of defaming legitimate firearms dealers, owners, home defenders, hunters, and other legitimate firearms users.

     This separation of union and the unwillingness of the Central Government to abide by its responsibilities that normally pertain to a federal union of sovereign States has left the State of Arizona in a precarious situation in terms of its domestic tranquility.   The right of the citizens of Arizona to be safe in their effects, for the legal aliens, citizens of other Amerian States, tourists, and legitimate transient business people to be safe in their effects and persons, has been compromised by this deriliction on the part of the executive branch of the Central Government.

                                                                    The Alamo Battle Flag

     Texan urge the people of Arizona to remain steadfast.   Enforce all laws written under the auspices of the police powers of the State of Arizona.  Film all procedures, because the central government agents are filming you, hoping to find any excuse to loose their police agents upon you, and to prohibit your correct exercise of Arizona's prerogatives and authority.   We shall hope that by 20 January 2013 we shall find a better solution.   We recognise the dangers that you are facing in Arizona.   We know that the majority of Latin people who are citizens in your State are also with you, that they are you.   We understand the invasion of people who are dedicated to death and violence, gang activity, kidnappings, home invasions, drive-by shootings, murders, graffiti, welfare and medicaid invasion, and other cultural blight.   We understand that frequently it is the citizen of Latin origin and the legal alien of Latin origin is on the front line of abuse by these agents from Hell.    We know the difference and you know the difference between who is good and who is bad.    We are with you and we are in the same war.

Liberty or Death

El Gringo Viejo

El Zorro and Company forward these scenes that give pause

Outstanding is a very mild word for this. Our European arrogance in alphabetical order 1. The American Cemetery at Aisne-Marne, France... A total of 2289 2. The American Cemetery at Ardennes, Belgium... A total of 5329 3. The American Cemetery at Brittany, France... A total of 4410 4. Brookwood, England - American Cemetery... A total of 468 5. Cambridge, England... A total of 3812 6. Epinal, France - American Cemetery... A total of 5525 7. Flanders Field, Belgium... A total of 368 8. Florence, Italy... A total of 4402 9. Henri-Chapelle, Belgium... A total of 7992 10. Lorraine , France... A total of 10,489 11. Luxembourg, Luxembourg... A total of 5076 12. Meuse-Argonne... A total of 14246 13. Netherlands, Netherlands... A total of 8301 14. Normandy, France... A total of 9387 15. Oise-Aisne, France... A total of 6012 16. Rhone, France... A total of 861 17. Sicily, Italy... A total of 7861 18. Somme, France... A total of 1844 19. St. Mihiel, France... A total of 4153 20. Suresnes, France... A total of 1541 Apologize to no one. Remind those of our sacrifice and don't confuse arrogance with leadership. The count is 104,366 dead, brave Americans. And we have to watch an American elected leader who apologizes to Europe and the Middle East that our country is "arrogant"! HOW MANY FRENCH, DUTCH, ITALIANS, BELGIANS AND BRITS ARE BURIED ON OUR SOIL... AFTER DEFENDING US AGAINST OUR ENEMIES? WE DON'T ASK FOR PRAISE... BUT WE HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO NEED TO APOLOGIZE! Americans, forward it! Non-patriotic, delete it! Most of the protected don't understand it. DO THINK ABOUT THIS. THANK YOU. This is the  old story about the American in the saloon in Paris. He is a veteran of the Second War.   There is a Russian and a Frenchman and a German seated at the next table.   They have all come to the agreement that the worst people are Americans  and the worst country is the USA.  Finally the American tires of it all, and he turns and asks the German, "Do you speak Russain?"        "Nein", he responds.         Then to the Russian he asks, '' Do you speak German?"         The Russian grunts, "Nyet!"         The Frenchman tries to turn away, but the American says, "Wait, please!  Do you speak German?"         The Frenchman says, "Mais non!"         The American flips enough for the accounts of all four onto the bar and begins to leave.   But near the door are two more fellows, one is Japanese and the other is Chinese.   Each rises, and the Japanese fellow says, "No Chinese"   The Chinese fellow follows with "No Japanese".         The American throws down a few more francs on their table, and turns to all, and says, "You are all very welcome."

Obit of Old Jake McKlanahan

JACKSON ANTWELL McKLANAHAN

13 January 1884  -   31 December 1979

Word was received here to-day from Huntsville, Texas that Jake McKlanahan has departed this Earth to be with the Lord.    He had been sent up the last time for being habitual, and that gave him a pretty long term.   Everybody here in Dime Box remembers when Jake was sent up, because we all can remember that the inmates at the TDC went on a hunger strike when they found out Jake was coming to their unit.   An accommodation was reached when all the prisoners were given 18 months credit, and all the ones waiting for the chair were commuted to time served and released.  Jake never seemed to have a whole lot of friends anywhere he went.

This is a group of Czech settlers in Dime Box, Texas at their Catholic Church's

 parish meeting.  The fellow second from the left in the second row is Jake

 who snuck in for the free beer and sandwiches.  This is the meeting in 1909. 

  He kept saying "Ich bin Ihnen sehr dankba".     Jake was unaware

 that the Czechs in that part of Texas do not get along with the Germans

 in that part of Texas.  They shook him out of 6 bits of silver and ran him off

 the property.   Jake just never seemed to fit in.

     It wasn't long after he left that the entire town left and set up New Dime Box, just down the road.   According to the County Register, this weekly newspaper that brings folks the most recent obituaries, weddings, and such, the townfolk said that the stench stayed behind even after Jake had been gone for a couple of months.   So they up and moved the town up-wind.

    Jake was born in Busted Butt, Texas and lived there 'til he and his whole family were run out of town after Jake set fire to the livery and killed 30 or so horses and mules of good shod and tooth.   Jake said he had only been trying to square accounts after doing 18 months for attempted sale of a horse that belonged to the Oates's Livery and not to Jake.   The McKlanahans weren't really bad people, but they never seemed to fit in with the rest of the folks.   When they moved into Cut and Shoot, Texas they bought a cabin in the Coloured part of town.   Within a week all the Coloured Folks had moved over to Abilene, and vowed to never come back.

Dime Box, Texas to-day

     In an interview with the Abilene Avalanche newspaper, the McKlanahan people said that they had Indian blood...some Apache and some Cherokee....but that resulted in a lawsuit.   State District Court 344 in Abilene had a jury that awarded the Tribal Council  of the Five Apache Tribes and the National Cherokee Tribal Council 100,000 Yankee dollars each for defamation by the newspaper for having printed such a damaging story about the Indians.

     People all over are waiting to see where Blackstone's Funeral Parlour and Hardware Supply is going to try to bury old Jake.   The story is that they're going to try to do it by night.  No preacher, Catholic or Protestant, will say words over Jake and nobody we know of intends to go to his funeral, if one is held.   No pallbearers have been named and there is no list of survivors, because most of the survivors are either dead or in prison anyway.

      Now, we have been told by some important political folks that if you all would like to, in lieu of flowers, you all can give the Obama Re-election Campaign a memorial contribution, of a minimum of 50 yankee dollars, in cash or check.   Jake didn't like flowers too much anyway.  He seemed to like warm beer and Spam that had done spoilt a little.

RIP - JACKSON ANTWELL McKLANAHAN

El Gringo Viejo renders proper credit to Debbi Robertson for this fine photograph.  Thanks, Debbi!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Yes, Virginia, there really are two communities in Texas named Dime Box and New Dime Box.  They're not too far from Runge, Texas   It is an area with lots of Czech and Bohemian folks who settled in there, beginning with a trickle shortly before the War Between the States up through the early 1900s.   They are, like the Polish in Texas, people with very little imagination, but very intelligent. Very good farmers and ranchers, and they are very clean.   They tend to vote Republican in these days, and they tend to poke fun at themselves.   They will admit to still being a bit wary of the Germans who live to their north and west, but the Germans vote Republican too.  The Czech, Poles, Germans, and Bohemians, in many ways, are "typical Texans" raised to the stereotypical.   Boots, hats, rodeos and barrel racing, FFA, gun-racks, pick-ups by the hundreds at Old Lady Ranocek's funeral....religiously rooted....good people.
     But Jake is not too real.   The suggestion about giving money to Obama instead of sending flowers to Jake's funeral, however, is real.   Obama is not like these folks, because Obama and his people are whitetrash.) 


Thank all OROGs, each for his or her patience, time, and attention.
El Gringo Viejo