Off to make a joyful noise

We are heading off to midnight mass in a minute.  Wife and Son and El Gringo Viejo.  To-morrow Daughter and Granddaughters and Son-in-Law arrive to visit and pay homage to the Great-grandmother of the little ones.

 

In a way it leads to notions of guilt.  I have so much and others have suffered so.  But we are left to judge matters based upon our own ability to understand.  Under the laws as written by the  Ruler of the Cosmos, however, we must speak of the Peace which passeth all understanding;   We cannot understand.   So we must content ourselves in simply doing good, as best we can, in our own way.

 

It is left at that.  Good will win.  The balance will be maintained.   I shall do my small part.

 

MERRY  CHRISTMAS

 

EL GRINGO VIEJO

CHRISTMAS

Twas' 11 days before Christmas, around 9:38
when 20 beautiful children stormed through heaven's gate.
their smiles were contagious, their laughter filled the air.
they could hardly believe all the beauty they saw there.
they were filled with such joy, they didn't know what to say.
they remembered nothing of what had happened earlier that day.
"where are we?" asked a little girl, as quiet as a mouse.
"this is heaven." declared a small boy. "we're spending Christmas at God's house."
when what to their wondering eyes did appear,
but Jesus, their savior, the children gathered near.
He looked at them and smiled, and they smiled just the same.
then He opened His arms and He called them by name.
and in that moment was joy, that only heaven can bring
those children all flew into the arms of their King
and as they lingered in the warmth of His embrace,
one small girl turned and looked at Jesus' face.
and as if He could read all the questions she had
He gently whispered to her, "I'll take care of mom and dad."
then He looked down on earth, the world far below
He saw all of the hurt, the sorrow, and woe
then He closed His eyes and He outstretched His hand,
"Let My power and presence re-enter this land!"
"may this country be delivered from the hands of fools"
"I'm taking back my nation. I'm taking back my schools!"
then He and the children stood up without a sound.
"come now my children, let me show you around."
excitement filled the space, some skipped and some ran.
all displaying enthusiasm only a small child can.
and i heard Him proclaim as He walked out of sight,
"in the midst of this darkness, I AM STILL THE LIGHT."


Courtesy of El Zorro.....whose words have helped El Gringo Viejo to confront this horrid event.   Thanks, Old Friend.

     Your humble servant could reasonably be thought of as a self-centred, pompous, egotistical blowhard.   He sees himself pretty much that way.   But he did his father-in-law's Eulogy. It was about a five minute emotional ordeal to speak of a man who was a true treasure of his community.   My comments were prepared, and partially read, partially spoken in an historically important Roman Catholic Church.  The words  spoke of the man and his family and his several, well-known strong points of character and capacity.  Not one personal reference to the Eulogist was made by noun or pronoun or in any context whatsoever.

 

    What has been reproduced and included below are truly the words of a deranged narcissist.

 

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Speaking to the audience at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., Obama talked about his family and their vacations.

 

         "Now, even though my mother and grandparents took great pride that they had voted for him, I confess that I wasn't paying much attention to the United States Senate at the age of four or five or six. It wasn't until I was 11 years old that I recall even learning what a U.S. senator was, or it registering, at least. It was during my summer vacation with my family -- my first trip to what those of us in Hawaii call the Mainland," said Obama.  So we flew over the ocean, and with my mother and my grandmother and my sister, who at the time was two, we travelled around the country. It was a big trip.

 

       "We went to Seattle, and we went to Disneyland -- which was most important. We travelled to Kansas where my grandmother's family was from, and went to Chicago, and went to Yellowstone. And we took Greyhound buses most of the time, and we rented cars, and we would stay at local motels or Howard Johnson's. And if there was a pool at one of these motels, even if it was just tiny, I would be very excited. And the ice machine was exciting -- and the vending machine, I was really excited about that.

 

        "But this is at a time when you didn’t have 600 stations and 24 hours' worth of cartoons. And so at night, if the TV was on, it was what your parents decided to watch. And my mother that summer would turn on the TV every night during this vacation and watch the Watergate hearings. And I can't say that I understood everything that was being discussed, but I knew the issues were important. I knew they spoke to some basic way about who we were and who we might be as Americans.

 

      "And so, slowly, during the course of this trip, which lasted about a month, some of this seeped into my head. And the person who fascinated me most was this man of Japanese descent with one arm, speaking in this courtly baritone, full of dignity and grace. And maybe he captivated my attention because my mom explained that this was our senator and that he was upholding what our government was all about. Maybe it was a boyhood fascination with the story of how he had lost his arm in a war. But I think it was more than that.

 

     "Now, here I was, a young boy with a white mom, a black father, raised in Indonesia and Hawaii. And I was beginning to sense how fitting into the world might not be as simple as it might seem. And so to see this man, this senator, this powerful, accomplished person who wasn't out of central casting when it came to what you'd think a senator might look like at the time, and the way he commanded the respect of an entire nation I think it hinted to me what might be possible in my own life.

 

     "Obama also mentioned the heroic life of Inouye. "And so we remember a man who inspired all of us with his courage, and moved us with his compassion, that inspired us with his integrity, and who taught so many of us -- including a young kid growing up in Hawaii –-- that America has a place for everyone," Obama concluded.

 

 

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     All the Saints and Angels and Archangels and the Cherubim and Seraphims....please intervene in the Health of this Republic.

El Gringo Viejo

Some Odds and Ends After Our Absence

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     The cats helped a bit with the cold episodes.   They are adept at waiting for El Gringo Viejo to nod off on his slightly undersised recliner during the Houston Texans game, knowing that heat travels upward and is to be dedicated to the comfort of felines.   They, as I, have long ago determined that even if the temperature is comfortable, there should be no waste of warmth during the Winter.   As we are situated quite close to the Tropic of Cancer, the period near the Solstice on the Calendar tends to be very cool during the nighttime hours.  We were out about a month (we haven't counted up the days) and almost every night was in the 40s...ending up with Thursday's early morning reading being 35 degrees F.

     The last blast from the north came in just before and brought winds of 50 - 60 miles per hour sustained, and gusts up to 80 during the first moments of passage.   It is pleasant to report that throughout the area of our part of rural Mexico, there was not one power outage.  Excellent when it is considered that the sustained winds endured for a period of over 18 hours.

     We call attention to the fact that our little place is very rustic.   Some new readers might not want to dig through our 600 previous postings to read about the "mud hut", or to visit  our webpage (linked on this page), but even with the cold nights and slightly coolish days, the temperature inside stayed a constant 72 degress....a tribute to the really old fashioned adobe and plaster approach to forming the lobster shell of a house.

 

     It is also of note that the "situation" has improved to the point that people are actually speaking confidently that a reasonable semblance of the old imperfect order has seemed to return.   On our return yesterday, the highways were super over-saturated.   Extremely heavy traffic accompanied this traveller for the entirety of the 239 mile route that was followed this time.  Traffic coming, and going.  Busses heading south must have numbered 200 common carriers of the 1st class and deluxe variety.   Thousands of motorcars, 90 percent of which were families returning from buying expeditions in the Commerce Cathedrals (shopping malls) in McAllen and other places in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.   Another number were those Mexicans who live in the United States legally and make the Christmas trek in SUVs and station waggons, with and without trailers, loaded up like some kind of adjunct delivery service for Santa Claus.

     This whole phenomena is a result of the perceived improvement in the  security situation.   While the chance of being involved, in actuarial terms, in some kind of crossfire or other related event was always very low in real terms, it is now perceptually, truly, obviously, and undeniably very, very diminished.   There is the apparent perception and understanding as well that the new administration is not going to move in the direction of "adapting to a reasonable alternative"(benign neglect of the cartels).   We are hopeful that what is essentially an imperfect victory will not be squandered by yielding to the notion that  sociological rot will not finally overtake an entire huge nation if left unchecked.

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AN IRRITATION:

     It disappoints, as always, when FOX News decides to join into and reinforce the popular perception created by the leftist press about the situation in Mexico.   The whole picture is not that much different than here in the United States.   In many ways, quite frankly, things are better South of the Border.   So when O'Reilly, or the voices on The Five, and others on FOX News were admonishing that Mexican prisons are Hell Holes where the cartels run the show, and that especially Americans are targeted by the criminal and general population of Mexico, and that everything is corrupt.....it brings to mind motes and beams and eyes, kettles, pots, and black.   While O'Reilly, for instance, was warning that if "President Nieto" did not release Corporal Hammer, that Mr. O'Reilly would "take care of Mexico's tourism industry".   Mr. O'Reilly is such an expert on matters Mexican, that he is unaware that it is President Pen~a....not Nieto.   The paternal surname immediately follows the given name(s).

     The Hammer case was already essentially resolved.   The Mexican Secretary of the Navy had declared the issue to have been warrantless and that no crime had been committed because the person involved had voluntarily revealed the shotgun in question and requested permitting for said instrument.  The telephone calls received by the family were from prisoners and/or their family members who commonly attempt to extort money from family members of other prisoners, especially the newly arrived.   American prison gangs do the same thing.

     The fear held by this observer was that what ground had been covered might possibly have to be re-ploughed because Mexican arrogance is similar to American arrogance.   If they are pushed, they tend to push back, sometimes to their own detriment.  O'Reilly fell into this category in a way.

      Many things about this case that were commonly known in Mexico were not reported.   The most vigorous operator in this matter had been the the Tamaulipas State Chamber of Commerce.   The final attorney in Mexico City had served well.   The usually useless Human Rights Commission (totally pinko) served well.   Various State and local elected officials had also been pointing out behind the scenes that the Secretary of the Navy's position was totally accurate.  The federal customs and immigration official had overreacted to some personal affront, and "behaved stupidly" in the words of a great American leader.   It was all but unreported that  Corporal Hammer's friend was not detained during this same incident.   And, while even Laura Ingraham had to pile on, please be assured that of the 1,000 Americans behind bars presently in Mexico, somewhere between 950 to 1,000 are not the type of person with whom you would like your teenaged daughter to be spending time.  As well, of the 140 Americans killed in Mexico during the last year, O'Reilly and Laura and the rest of the choir seem to leave out that 130 or so were very, very probably involved in the drug trafficking business.   Here, there is something usually stated about fleas, dogs, and lieing down with, etc.

 

     It is my judgement that the full weight of the blame....at least 99% of the fault in this issue....lies with the Mexican customs officer.   All he would have had to have done, at worst, is to have ordered the individual back to the American side.    There is some blame to be spread onto the American border agents who apparently told the boy that there would be no problems, just to declare the gun and get the permits.   The permits have to be obtained before going in.

 

      And while all this is going on, there is a 340,000 tonne elephant sitting there on the FOX News set, minding its own business.   "Don't go to Mexico, it's dangerous and corrupt, and they are always doing things all the time to everybody...especially Americans", they say.  While we have Benghazi unresolved....Fast and Furious left unresolved....20 dead children in Newtown, Connecticut....overwhelming corruption at all levels in the United States Government....Solyndra ignored....expropriation of General Motors and Chrysler....and some jackass from Chicago talking about reasonable new firearms legislation, like, you know, Chicago....where "One a Day" would be a substantial improvement.   Thank the Lord that Chicago has stringent firearms control.  That solved all the problems.

 

     Please allow us to include that during El Gringo Viejo's professional and business life, he conducted, permitted, licensed, escorted, guided, scouted, and otherwise attended to the issues of hunting game birds in Mexico involving hundreds upon hundreds of hunters, and thousands of shotguns, scores of thousands of importations of rounds of ammunition.   Never had one man detained.

 

Thanks for the opportunity to unload, perhaps inform to a level of greater understanding, and swim upstream.   These might be the last days for contrarians and other sorts of folks who have knowledge and opinion that is true but not part of the common understanding.

El Gringo Viejo

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Immaculate Concussion, indeed!

In the Complete Guide to the Commandments, Canons, and Orders of the Church of Be'elzebub (the original grandfather of Be'elzebubba), one is required as follows....."Being certain that no good lie be left untold, all confirmed must be dedicated to the mastery and practise of the Holy Whopperistical Mysteries."

 

     We have signed the White House Petition urging immediate re-canonisation, beatification, and embalming, and spraying of gobs of gold upon the person of Queen of the Universe (Sir Edmund) Hillaryabubba.

 

        To one lower order we give Susan Riceabubba dishonourable mention for her perfectly miserable holy grovelling,  mendacity, race-baiting, and generally despicable deportment, which brought us much pride and pleasure.

 

 

Que los Santos intervengan!

El Gringo Viejo

Fiscal Cliff?

As everyone here knows, and it is stated only to confirm to all that  many, many normal people are aware, the fiscal cliff was breached when the Great Society programs were enacted.   The building of the cliff was the biggest We Piddle Around program enacted by the "progressive" administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt.   That does not refer to the sidewalks and park monuments, most of which are gone by this point.   It refers to the massive bureaucracy and invasion of privacy caused by the establishment of the Social Security System. This is the first and greatest Law and the Second is like unto it, the twins Medicare and Medicaid.

     El Gringo Viejo remembers Mrs. Brown's American History class during his junior year in high school.  It was 6th period, followed by our Debate Club session, an after school affair.  Mary McMoron said that Democrats were the party of the poor and the Republicans were the party of the rich and that was why she was a Democrat.  I responded that if Democrats were dedicated to the poor, I would rather be rich, and that is why I was a Republican.

     Out it flowed.   "If it hadn't been for Roosevelt, my whole family would have starved to death.   The Republicans took all the money and caused the crash because they wouldn't let any poor people have any money and Roosevelt made them give it all back."

     John Morris, a fellow Episcopalian, rolled his eyes and moaned, "Save me, Sweet Jesus!  Roosevelt instigated the biggest explosion of bureaucracy in the nation's history.  This nation will be strangled in red tape in 20 years, and half the country will be on welfare."

     "That's easy for you and David to say.  You are rich, rich, rich...you don't know anything about suffering!"  Mary McMoron declared triumphantly.   Picture to-day's Sandra Flukie and add 30 pounds and you have Mary McMoron.

 

   The oddity, of course, is that Mary McMoron's parents and grandparents were country club Democrats who spoke loudly and longly about how they hated "meskins" and the "coloured" and who also were well positioned in a Democrat-dominated  banking and land-scheme industry in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas.   The hypocrisy, at a minimum, was whelming...perhaps even overwhelming.

 

Lyndon Johnson and Harry Reid preparing their free-moeny

spiels before being sent up to do their work among the

American gullible.

     We argued that day, without much supervision, about a new idea being bantied around by the "progressives", about how now seemed to be the time to help our senior citizens, the most vulnerable among us with just a little assistance in their declining years so that they wouldn't have to die forgotten, frozen to the sheets, in some skid-row hotel.....dead from the consumption or a flu that could have been cured but for a small investment in their continued good health.   Various names for the Program were things like ElderCare ( a liberal GOP misnomer), and Senior Care, and MediCare and such ridiculous, meaningless, socialist terms.

     El Gringo Viejo postulated that, like all programs established by the central government, it would, if enacted, become another of the great fountains of corruption since the establishment of something-for-nothing, free-goodies governance., and that the Democrats would use the program to demagogue against the Republicans until the cow froze over the moon and thawed again.

     Miss McMoron stared aghast!  Mouth agape!  "What kind of perverse animal would even dream about such a possibility?   Only a Republican could conceive of such a thing.   DO YOU ACTUALLY BELIEVE THAT ANYONE WOULD EVER TAKE ADVANTAGE OF A FEDERAL PROGRAM THAT IS DESIGNED TO HELP OLD PEOPLE?   HUH?   HUH?"

     Nine fellow debate class members were vigorously shaking their heads yes, as was Mrs. Brown.   The three Democrats (all pinkoes) were astounded.   Mrs. Brown said in her famous, cigarette-gravelled voice,"Mary, a federally funded social program is no good unless it is corrupt.  That is why they are put in place.   They shovel money from corrupt politicians to corrupt bureaucrats  who do no actual work, who shovel the money to businesses and services who come to depend on the bureaucrats who then put the money in the banks, and then the bankers give some money to the politicians.   That is the purpose of "helping people" with other peoples' money.   Now, let's get on along with to-day's exercise."

   Therefore, let us not ask for whom the bells toll.   They toll for all of us.  Since the beginning of free money, and "helping" and "safety nets" the bells began to toll, ominously ringing a one note, dull carillion "Weimar, Zimbabwe, Argentina", and a hundred other governments and countries who tried to "paper over" the reality that one plus one is two, and three minus one is two.  Spend more than is taken in spells economic death.   Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SSi, Social Security Disability, FHA-underwriting of mortgages, Section 8, AFDC, Food Stamps, Free Cellular Phone, everything is free, especially if the rich would only pay their fair share.  

 

Great lessons. Great Old Teacher, Dorothea Brown.   Will be in touch down the road.  Tomorrow, our little place on the Rio Corona.

El Gringo Viejo