Hypocrisy

Dueling political cartoons on the facing editorial pages of a Texas newpaper.  A fairly useless newpaper that still runs AP and Reuters.   But, it makes a good mattress for the outside cats in their boxes during this cold weather period.  Ramirez who is a genious puts the firearms issue into the proper perspective for those who use the left side of their brain.   His cartoon comes first, as it should.

 

     Then comes the doltish "Benson" who fails to recall, let us say, that Chicagoland has incredible "gun control"....which means that guns are predictably "out of control", and the only ones who are generally disarmed are the law-abiding and the innocent.   The leads to Chicagoland being insanely bloody.  Chicagoland is composed increasingly of soulless products of the intergenerational public welfare culture.  It is our fault.  Because we oppose intergenerational welfare subsistence because it degrades the value of the self-sufficient, free standing human.  Especially degraded is the concept of an familially integral father.

    Say, Benson....Rahm and Obama and all the progressive cartel....they blame guns or the welfare culture?  The firearms shoot themselves, right?   The law abiding are shooting up all those dead bodies in Chicagoland...in almost every large urban nightmare centre in America, right?

      Say, Benson....have you ever noticed that conservative Black folks and other what you call "minority individuals"  who are conservative in orientation...and even, dread the thought...GOP types...don't have any problems like the people who are mired in the tar pits of public assistance.   So, what do you say Benson, don't you think that it's not racial, but political, because the Democrats have to pay for their votes with other peoples' money?  Just maybe?

     Say, Benson....Read Ramirez and learn.



RAMIREZ,
One of our favourite political cartoonists of all time
gives us a sad laugh, and some good statistics on the relative
dangers facing Americans.

 

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This second cartoon, the name of the author is difficult to
discern, something like Benson, shows us a paternalistic Obama
"caring" and "hearting" two children, while Wayne LaPierre hearts
only his guns.   Very clever, save for this fact:   If Obama really does care,
and it he had a better way to solve the problem, then why did he not propose
and cause to be enacted empowering legislation to cure this problem.  If he truly
cared, and he truly knew how, then why not Yesterday, so to speak, instead of waiting until
another incident?   Why did he not vote  for the draconian anti-firearm legislation enacted in Illinois back when he was in the the legislature there?   He had the gutless gall to rise up and steadfastly vote...."present" ....like any real weasel.
And, of course, he knows that none of what he has just proposed would have had any impact on any shootings like the one we have suffered through in Newtown.
And he is certain the we are right when we repeat the truism that "...when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns".
And, hypocrit and liar that he is, he knows that Chicagoland's bloodbath is not caused by law-abiding people owning firearms but by the onslaught of un-fathered,  welfare produced and dependent subhumanoids that are somehow held up a products of discrimination by Republicans, when in fact they are products of a purposeful enslavement of a captive group of perpetually dull and dependent and violent malcontents, made angry at the innocent for the misery they themselves with the help of the progressives and other totalitarian secularists have created.
Obama's crocodile tears and feigned concern for "the children" is exposed for the abominable lie that it is, because nothing that he proposes will ever eliminate the risks people face when there are males being drugged up because they are a bit hyper or because they daydream.   There is no ADD nor is there ADHD or any other such thing.   There is only an unwillingness to accept that "Little boys are made of snails and puppy dog's tails" and they require both a gentle, understanding hand and a firm, and posteriorly applicative hand to drag up to the age of 15 - 20.   Over 50% of these incidents are caused by post adolescent males who are taking all nature of mind numbing poison, rendered by male-hating or quick draw prescriptionists.
Further hypocrisy points to the fact that this same administration flooded Mexico with the very firearms they rant and rave about...and the same firearms have been directly involved in the deaths of 400 some odd Mexican innocents...Mexican Army, Naval Infantry, civilian men, women, and children caught in cross fires between cartel cockroaches or military encounters where the cockroaches do not care where the bullets wind up.   These people were killed by Obamaguns....and yet he lectures us about assault rifles.
Ask next time, dear fifth column  of the fourth estate, "Dear Leader, What is your definition of an "assault rifle"?   El Gringo Viejo knows what an "assault rifle" is;  it is a rifle that is used in an assault...any assault.   Just like an assault pistol.  Or an assault jagged edge broken bottle.  Or an assault bottle of rat poison.  Or an assault Bowie's knife.  Or an assault baseball bat.  Or an assault electric heater thrown into an assault bathtub.

You, Barak Hussein Obama, are a poseur and a fraud.  You are a liar and a poor actor entertaining a dull audience.  Half of the nation sees through your every posturing and mendacity...and most them do not really hate you....but rather are saddened that such a great nation would have to put up with such a minor player whose only intent is the destruction of that nation for no other reason than just the pleasure that  a marxist has in  destroying something good and fine.    We know that you are a plastic man, without, and incapable of, original thought.   We know that you have been given social promotion to the point where the saying that "Anyone can become President of the United States" has become, sadly, a true statement.  Any untrained, un-churched, un-educated,  lazy, self-possessed parrot can be made to squawk the marxist line and if the stars are right and  there are enough stupid and ignorant and jealous and covetous, and dependent, and lazy people to form a political majority, then the Manchurian Squawking Parrot can be elected president, and his illegal  alien Auntie Zietuni Obama and Uncle Omar Onyango Obama can keep on living on the public dime in Massachussets for years, and years, and years while their high powered lawyers, paid for by "someone", keep them in the chips provided wholly by taxpayers.   Makes you proud..and you gotta love it.  No?


El Gringo Viejo signs off and drifts back to the old camp fire.  Saddle sore.  Bunches of
problems to-day.  All solved.   Zorro...to-morrow the details about the linkages.
It is all fixed for the future.

Our Dumboe vs. Their Messiah

Texas Star Ruby Red Grapefruit
from between McAllen and Mission, Texas

 

  Rick Perry may be seeing the handwriting on the wall.  Soon Texas will be electing a President of the Republic of Texas.  Perry may be a little too old to see it and still be electworthy...but remember..a memory lapse, a bit of sincere intonement about his notions about Mexicans caught in a kind of legal immigration limbo...and he was toast.   But, to be sure, Perry is a very skillful strategic fighter.  He is not my favourite grapefruit in the cluster but compare the stateliness of his words as opposed to the president of our mother Republic, Barak Hussein Obama's lecture to-day.

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Gov. Rick Perry released the following statement regarding President Obama's executive actions:





 

     "The Vice President's committee was appointed in response to the tragedy at Newtown, but very few of his recommendations have anything to do with what happened there.

 

     "Guns require a finger to pull the trigger. The sad young man who did that in Newtown was clearly haunted by demons and no gun law could have saved the children in Sandy Hook Elementary from his terror.

 

     "There is evil prowling in the world - it shows up in our movies, video games and online fascinations, and finds its way into vulnerable hearts and minds. As a free people, let us choose what kind of people we will be. Laws, the only redoubt of secularism, will not suffice. Let us all return to our places of worship and pray for help. Above all, let us pray for our children.

 

     "In fact, the piling on by the political left, and their cohorts in the media, to use the massacre of little children to advance a pre-existing political agenda that would not have saved those children, disgusts me, personally. The second amendment to the Constitution is a basic right of free people and cannot be nor will it be abridged by the executive power of this or any other president.

 

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       The choice between Perry and Obama is not even close.  In fact, between the two, one is a man and the other is a wormy weasel who likes to play word games and 'trick" people into believing he said one thing when later he will tell us he actually said the opposite.   That is the way of Obama...a spoiled child, playing the role of a cheif executive.
     There is an understated, but readily identifiable touch that one finds in statesmen in the above Statement by Mr. Perry.  The OROGs know that El Gringo Viejo has been rough on Mr. Perry in the past.  I have voted for him at every opportunity save for one Republican Primary, a couple of years ago.   During the Republican Presidential primary process my loyalty was to Hermann Cain.   In this issue of a choice between performances to-day...one is sincere, the other is the slimy presentation of a shyster trying to sell bent and stained aluminum for sterling silver.   Like Edna Ferber, "I'll Take Texas" and in this issue, I'll gladly take Perry.

 

El Gringo Viejo

 

The Campaign Never Ends

The scene presented by the President of the United States  suddenly talking about gun control, with beaming, innocent little children seated behind him tells a mighty tale. 

 

 

     There was nothing being said about any of this until the massacre at Newtown, Connecticut.  Why, one might ask, have the responses by the White House turned out this way.   It is because of the following.

 

 

(1)   The White House and the Stalinist control freaks within the guidance group of the Democrat Party brush off their templates of demands for "protecting Americans from guns and America from gun owners".    Templates include but are not limited to...eliminating "cop killer bullets", "assault weapons" "military-style weapons", "semi-automatic firearms", "Saturday Night specials", "non-hunting weapons", "un-necessary firearms", and the whole gamut of leftist bogey-men lurking in the shadows to frighten the easily confused.

 

 

(2)    With the agenda and objectives taken out of the drawer in the big desk of the foundations, leftist think tanks, progressive organistions, and professional America-haters, the leftist  engineers empanel focus groups of the stupid, dull, consumers, SS-disability0, unemployment compensation, food stamp people and others commonly referred to by the President as "The American People".   These people are asked questions such as, "What do you think the President should do to keep America's children safe?" 

          As the people respond, the engineers tape, watch, study inflections, and the reaction of head noddings of the dolts surrounding the dolt who is speaking..."We need to keep the children safe.   The president should take all the guns and bullets and not let anyone hurt people with them".  

          The engineers can go through a lot of answers with a focus group of 20 people.   They will usually have 10 or 12 questions, half of which will be elicitive...like "What should the president do about.....?"   And, half will be directive....like"Do you think that the president should propose that failure to register already owned guns of all kinds should be an action punishable by stiff prison terms?"
 

 (3)    When the dolts are released to go back to their couches and their Oprah and re-runs of Three's Company, the engineers begin to take out phrases....focus group phrases for the stupid and non-critical thinkers.   "Hard working American people",  "working-class families", "single moms trying to get through....",  "millionaires and billionaires", "everybody has the right to (a house)(three square meals)(a safe place to....)(things that they need)".   The best ones though are, "the children" and "the government should provide....", and "the government should make everyone ......".

      The very best ones are like the one Obama used when talking to the press about his demand and order...under the provisions of the Obama Socialised Medicine Initiative....that declared "....that all contraceptives will be provided  FREE under any private insurance plan..." and ".....that all childen aged 26 and under will be included, FREE, on their parents' insurance plan...."  .   The stupid, lazy, doltish, consumers, envious, mean, small, visionless, inarticulate, incapable of deductive thought, dependent slobs....who compose about two-thirds of the Obama trough of humanity love that word "FREE".   Please notice how frequently it is used in advertising campaigns aimed at the dense, stupid, and compulsively dull...."BUT WAIT, Order Now! and we'll include another bassmasher FREEEEEE, (just pay for separate shipping and handling).

 

(4)     Then, the Stalinist engineers are sent to round up Police and Firemen from the Union. They will be told to report in full formal uniforms at such and such hour, date, and place in order to stand behind the president as he demonises the other half of the world that can still think critically.   Like the white-trash that he is, he likes to show off and do a bully-strut like he did when he had the Supreme Court captive during one of his incredibly boring State of the Union harangues.   Like the defective, narcissistic, un-accomplished, yet totally indulged personality that he is, Obama must have continuous approval and adoration.

      This is the chronic condition of a person who has undeserved credit or comfort.   Being certain that he does not deserve his rewards he requires that there are people around him who reassure him that he really, really does deserve to have a private 747 and a big white house.   He knows he is a plastic man.   The people around him know he is a plastic man.  The press knows that he is a horribly shallow, plastic man...but it's all each party has...they cannot change the stage now, because the curtain went up quite a while ago, and the audience is watching.

        So, the Greek Chorus stands by....bulge-buttoned, union-thug, police and fire officials in full formal regalia, looking both confused and officious, and/or "regular folks" yawning through the dull drone from the president as he speaks to his dull followers and marxist sychophants from his obamaprompter.

(5)      And...at times...when it is absolutely, positively necessary.....THE CHILDREN.  The White House, being under the control of white trash and marxist, cares little about class.  They think class is hobnobbing with vile, profane, degenerate MTV and rapper slime...or the banal self consumed air-headed hollywood left that can only act like they are acting like they care.   They think this is classy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SErowaB4nUY

 

We know it to be trashy.   This all was kept in the freezer, waiting for just the right "firearms incident" to then put into motion.  The time frame....with an allowance of a couple of weeks to demonise the horrid Republicans who hate children and want to see them all murdered and brutalised, and to allow the press to fan the flames of illogic and hysteria, and to massage congress members to not be afraid of the big meany....the National Rifle Association.... and a few days to work out the security clearance for the children's parents to clear security at the White House....let the people know what to wear and now to dress the children...and we're right on time for the OBAMA Show...DEMAGOGUE the NATION....For FREEEEEEEEE!!!

El Gringo Viejo

Interesting Episode: The sedate Corporal and the braying blowhard

Bill O'Reilly sang a bit of a different tune.   He is a blowhard and a fool.  Corp. Hammer was careful wth Mr. O'Reilly, and it was good to see that he was somewhat complementary about "the Mexican people"....but, unless we missed something...he did not express any gratitude to Mr. O'Reilly for having intervened.   Corp. Hammer probably knows that O'Reilly came very close to muddling an affair that had already been resolved. The only Americans who were effective were the Senator Rubio, the Governor of Florida, and the Republcian lady,  Ros, I believe.

     We re-submit these  observatons from 22 December 2012 .   They were true then, and as is the truth, they are true now.

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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) in almost all Latin American and Spanish speaking countries.
 

       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 family members of prisoners 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 by O'Reilly or anyone else in the United States. 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.    His formal position was:  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.   In that truth,  there is something usually that can be stated about fleas, dogs, and lying 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 and immigration 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.

 

 

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      So that all OROGs will be aware, El Gringo Viejo has perhaps one or two friends in the world.   He is pretty much detested and hated by all who know him due to his contrarianism, and it really hurts his feelings a lot.

     But all Americans should be aware that when Mexicans begin to moan about how bad the discrimination and violence is in the United States,  I point out that in 1950 Mexicans receiving public assistance in the United States amounted to less than 1% of the total number of welfare recipients in America.  Now, due to anchor babies and lack of enforcement of rules concerning legal aliens becoming wards of the State, almost 12% are Mexicans.  Another 3% are from other places in Latin America.

     Save for Americans coming over to buy subsidised pharmaceuticals along the border...and a few to take advantage of the "Seguro Popular" (which Americans use as a back up health insurance policy 200 USD/yr)...who are living full or part time in Mexico...we don't barge in on the Mexican "safety net" all that much.

     And while we have 1,039 (or so) prisoners in Mexican formal prison, I remind the Mexicans who are moaning, that there are almost 70,000 Mexican citizens in state and federal detention at this time in the United States, my best estimate would be that 99% of all those detained are more than justifiably detained.  These numbers do not include simple alien detentions for deportation.  I also point out that of Mexicans who are killed by act of murder or violence in the United States, over 80% are killed by other Mexicans...both usually being illegal aliens.  Almost all are killed by people with whom they are in familial or close social contact or in illegal activity, usually organised theft rings or drug dealing/trafficking.

     In any regard, I do not put up with any euphemisms or blisteringly false "everybody knows" jibberish about mistreatment Mexicans or Latin Americans in the United States.  El Gringo Viejo also makes himself less than popular by pointing out that people leave Mexico and go to the United States because they are usually treated better...not worse...there, than in Mexico.

 

     So, now everyone knows that El Gringo Viejo is a cranky old contrarian curmudgeon.  Perhaps in drawing out all the poison of inaccurate judgementalism and making both sides hate my guts, we can draw the two great peoples together in a positive way.

El Gringo Viejo.

For Those Who so Will, El Gringo Viejo already has!

“Representative To File Texas ‘Firearm Protection Act’

Texas State Representative Steve Toth (R-The Woodlands) has begun the process to file legislation assisting the protection of the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution. The “Firearms Protection Act” bill would make any federal law banning semi-automatic firearms or limiting the size of gun magazines unenforceable within the state’s boundaries. Anyone trying to enforce a federal gun ban could face felony charges under the proposal.

First Republican Flag of Texas
aka - Lorenzo de Zavala flag
Zavala was the first Vice- President
of the Republic of Texas

IF YOU APPROVE OF THIS MEASURE, PLEASE COMMUNICATE YOUR SUPPORT TO THE OFFICE OF REP. STEVE TOTH AND/OR TO YOUR PARTICULAR REPRESENTATIVE AND/OR SENATOR WITHIN THE CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS. 

EL GRINGO VIEJO appreciates your interest and tolerance of our concern about this and other issues affecting the sudden assault on several fundamental rights and prerogatives of a free people under the traditions of English Common Law beginning from the Time of Arthur, the acceptance of the Crown of the conditions specified in the Magna Carta  and the Mexican Constitution of 1824 as it was inspired by the Constitution of the United States of America of 1783.

MAGNA CARTA LIBERTATEM
The Barons issue and require the acquiescence of HRH King Joh
1215 ad

(One of only four surviving exemplifications of the 1215 text, Cotton MS.)

 

   If we choose to meddle in this affair...and we must...we are all well advised to communicate our approval of this legislation.  Every impediment must be thrown in front of the "reasonable" and "common sense" approaches to "keeping our children safe".   We know, you know, that such language is designed for the focus group, by the focus group, and of the focus group.  My job as a father was to keep my children safe.  I never did a perfect nor even very good job of it, but I did recognise that I was the first line involved in "keeping the children safe".

    The socialist progressives have birthed-up a race that is composed of many races and ethnicities.  There is one commonality.  They are soulless, products of public assistance, and of a sterile social code that permits no judgements, no Cosmic or Divine Force, and which rewards sloth and self-indulgence.   The socialist progressive gain their influence over the culture by making as many people dependent upon the government larder as possible.  Oddly, they depend upon the dependent.

 

    I refuse to be one of their slaves.   When a man is filled with the conceit and deceit to be able to say without snorting with laughter and contempt for his listeners,"I want to implement these common sense initiatives that are approved by all reasonable people so that I can ensure that what happened in Newtown will never happen again.".....then we are being led by a madman.

 

    We are not the uninformed.  We know that per capita deaths by firearms has decreased by over 50% during the past 20 years.  Much of the reason for this is because people are more well armed and have a better understanding of how to use weaponry that is commonly available,  A once liberal professor set out to write a book about the dangers of firearms in America.   Upon finishing his research he wrote a famous book and titled it "More Guns - Less Crime"  ( johnrlott.blogspot.com/).  He wrote that book because his sociological, demographic, and criminal history research showed that well armed communities and neighbourhoods, filled with people with a communitarian ethic, were incredibly safe, while disarmed and/or unarmed neighbourhoods tended to be at the mercy of thugs and gangs who were well armed but had no sense about the morality or nature of correct firearm usage.   Result, fewer guns, more killings....More guns...fewer killings.  Book is in its third printing.  Hillary and Mrs. Brady hate it.

Thank you for your attention and kind understanding.
El Gringo Viejo

Oddities and Contemplations of an American Life



     The OROG has become accustomed  to the frequently contrarian notions that rattle around in the brain of El Gringo Viejo.  He allows the public to wander into this conflicted mind and, at times, convoluted reasoning that takes place in that strange area. This is done to help the reader know and understand that he/she is not strange.  Other people who seem reasonable and sane, although they think differently and conclude differently, can take faith that they are not alone on an island.   The difference between me and thee, however, is that your humble servant really is substantially cuckoo,  pleasantly cuckoo most of the time, but cuckoo, nonetheless.   Cuckoos are actually interesting, fairly sane and normal birds.    There are a few reasons for my particular disorder.

      El Gringo Viejo's father had a father who lost two brothers to Confederate military action in 1863.   It wound up killing the father of the Union heroes...he entered into a near catatonic depression after about 18 months, became silent, and just died in 1867 at the age of 57.



Chickamauga 
 24,000 casualties dead, wounded, and missing

     El Gringo Viejo's mother had various great uncles and a grandfather and great-grandfather who served the Confederacy in various ways....from mundane to heroic.  One first cousin, twice removed, was killed in action in northern Mississippi, and another, a brother of her grandmother died of his wounds after 2 years of convalescence from wounds received in action at Chickamauga.  The other veterans went home and became good Americans and made good Americans of their children....but they never lost their bitterness.

     So everything is predictable, right?   Wellllllllll, not really.   The very, very, very few time my parents ever talked about the issue of The War, went some like this.   Mrs. Snooflesploot is visiting and she brings up something about a play at the primary school and that she is doing a 'Civil War' costume for her granddaughter.   Frilly hoop skirt, crinolines, lots of ribbons, parasol...she's just going to be the showiest belle of the play.
    My mother says that is nice, but it's a shame to make a happy thing out of so much devastation.  My father says that such is the nature of war, look at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  And then he goes on with, "My father always said that his father hated Lincoln because he should have left the South to go. He always said that it was better to be apart and be friends than to be forced together and hate each other.  The Negro will not win anything out of any of this, the South will nave nothing after Reconstruction and the North will be damaged because of it.   My mother said the same thing, and she was New Yorker....a real Knickerbocker.  Lincoln was the worst president in history, after FDR,"

     The social room, where the fireplace is, has a lot of pipe smoke layered in the calmish room, no HAVC in those days....it is quiet.  Mrs. Snooflesploot, breaks the too-long silence,"Well, Noli, you found yourself a good Yankee, didn't you?"
     My mother is sewing something, it must have been some of the bows she was attaching to the skirt.   She was not a seamstress, in that sense, but she was very good with a needle and seemed to excel at "project" type sewing.   She preferred needle work, it seems as I think about it now, to making things with her sewing machine.  She finally commented, "Lincoln may have been a dog or a madman, but the South would have been better off if he had lived.  John Wilkes Boothe delivered us into the hands of the rabid Republicans....Lincoln wanted to put the country back together and the Republican hypocrites wanted to punish the South".

Alexander Hamilton
 Stevens
Vice-President
Confederate States of
America

      Another two minutes passed.  My father stood up, re-lit his pipe and...Mrs. Snooflesploot cleared her throat and kept looking at her stitching activity, trying not to make contact with the "nice, married couple or even their little boy who seemed so interested in the sewing and the grading of school papers...while my father said,"Lincoln would not have had to put the country together if he hadn't torn it apart.  Almost a million people died for nothing".  And then he went outside to do some project or another, while the tortoise shell cat, "Cutie" ran in with the opportunity of the open screen door presenting itself.

     So there you have it...a five year old witnessing a....disagreement....about something that was of primordial developmental understanding by a man and a woman of the same nationality, an extremely similar race, and an very similar ethnicity, and with a convoluted interpretation about the value of a man that one would have thought should have been easily predictable. My mother would have preferred Lincoln to what we received...and her a Tennessean...with Andrew Johnson, a neighbour to her family in Tennessee coming to the Presidency by virtue of assassination.  My father, a nephew of Yankee heroes, despised Wyatt Earp, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.....and Harold Ickes.
    They say that Johnson may have been sober once after the age of 10, but that is disputed.   Oddly, he hated Negroes, but he was good enough to be vice-president for Lincoln.   Although Jefferson Davis was much more "at home" in the company of Negroes (kind of a early day liberal)  and even Alexander Stephens, in spite of strong statements about inferiority and superiority, was concerned about "fair treatment: of the bound and free Negro" ,  the world assumes that Lincoln saw the Negro as an equal (he decidedly did not) or that Andrew Johnson was a "liberal thinker" about the Negro..(he was a dull N****r - hating drunk).   The people of Eastern Tennessee saw him as such.

     So, if The War (my mother's parents called it The Woh - wah)  was bound to be lost, the people, at least in Eastern Tennessee, would have preferred Lincoln to their own...Andrew Johnson.  And many people from Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania....with 300 killed from that one County....might have preferred to have just passed on the entire bellicosity, never having heard of Abraham Whoever.

 

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    Now you all know why El Gringo Viejo is kooky.  My very Yankee father and his father and grandfather hated Lincoln, although they were, obviously, very tightly related by blood to two Yankee heroes.   And when we say Yankee, we do not mean Northerners...we mean these are people with full-scale Massachusetts, Vermont-Maine-New Hampshire, New York highlands and Hudson people.   And my mother and her people did not discuss whether or not the wrong side won The Woh - wah,  that was settled.   But they all agreed that they "would have been" better off with Lincoln in charge of the post- Woh-wah period.

     We all shared in a distaste for another Southern Icon, Andrew Jackson, because he sold out the Cherokee and the other honourable Indians who had fought and then befriended, intermarried, and become integral with the Tennessee and adjacent whites.  He sold them out to Northern business interests and lost much of his home State backing during his time in Washington.

    But I was left with a dislike and a negative understanding of Abraham Lincoln, reinforced by further study, like my father, his father, and old Hubbard before us.   And, all three brothers of this Yankee man and Confederate woman....were it to occur again, would take a Southern Stand.

 

     Convolution, contradiction, and contrarianism.  The American Saxon becomes his own enigma.   Pray for America.  Consider my path, but do not join it, lest you are convinced of it.  If not, remain an American and raise your children and grandchildren to be good Americans, but I am going deeper into Texas...my flag is changing not because of hatred but for the sake of preference.

El Gringo Viejo