Neglected Duties - The Cemetery Events of Francisco I. Madero Ejido for All Saints'

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    During our last episode down at the Quinta we went through that period of the celebration of All Souls and All Saints.   Normally, at this time, throughout Mexico there is considerable activity centring around the cemeteries.   Especially on the nights that unite the 1st of November with the 2nd and the 2nd of November with the third one might find established cemeteries crowded almost shoulder to shoulder with the descendants, direct and collateral, who are among the Quick, visiting with their forbearers who are among  the Dead.

 

     While urban cemeteries are frequently continuously tended at some level or another, and can be quite elaborate, the rural cemeteries are cared for on a quarterly basis by a committee of the ejido or, in the case of an incorporated small town, a local department that oversees the "Panteon Municipal".    During the period about a fortnight before All Saints, the official and semi-official authorities will deploy "fatigas" to clean out the cemeteries of litter, overgrowth of weeds and grass, bottles, cans, and any other insults to the aesthetics of the "Campo Santo" (Holy Ground). 

 

     Families are also involved.   They will go an tend to graves, repainting, cleaning, straightening, and generally returning everything to as "new" an appearance as possible.   Those who live in the community are charged a share of the community "fatiga" whether they have anybody living in the cemetery or not.  In other words, all adults and/or family units pay, and in the case El Gringo Viejo, this time it was just the standard 75 pesos / quarter that normally pertains to the matter.

 

     During the two overnight periods, and during the daylight periods as well, there might be two or three thousand people come an visit where there are 200 crypts and single graves.   The leaving of a "corona" artificial flower remembrance is very common, although other artificial flower arrangements are also numerous.  Even a common cemetery such as ours will be all but covered up with these gifts to the departed.   Normally large groupings of descendants and friends of the dead fellow living in the cemetery will be seen huddling, hovering, and standing around...perhaps even sitting on the grave covering "lapida" (long, rectangular, stone).....where beer, tequila, brandy,  various foods and fruits favoured by the departed, pictures of other departed relatives of the departed, votive candles, and perhaps even a few fresh flowers (not in water bearing vases).
     Vases or water bearing vessels of any kind are prohibited because of the long standing laws, rules, and prohibitions in force against the spread of Dengue Fever, a brother of Malaria.

     Our problem, it must be confessed, on this particular episode of the celebration of the "Dia de los Muertos" was that there was a dank, cold drizzle both nights.   The temperature was in the mid-forties, it was foggy, sloppy, and miserable,    (Sorry AlGore).  So, each time El Gringo Viejo arrived at the Panteon del Ejido, it was totally dark, no votives, no flash lights, no hurricane lanterns, no subdued, somewhat happy crowds of people bearing gifts to their departed.   It really was just miserable, especially for a people accustomed to living on the Tropic of Cancer.  Early November is just far too early to take the children and the women out into such elements.
     El Gringo Viejo was grumpy about the meteorological turn of events and hardened his heart against reporting about the traditional celebration, but after visiting on the morning of the 3rd of November, it was noticed that considerable effort had been made to at least make the people who live in the cemetery happy that their people came and expended said effort on behalf of their ancestors.  So, these pictures were made on that bright and cheerful morning.   Please note that the "Coronas" are the generally circular, artificial arrangements that are wrapped in a very heavy cellophane covering.  They are expensive, ranging from 200 to 500 pesos each (15 - 40 USD plus or minus).  

     Please forgive my lack of compliance and tardiness in the reporting of this significant event in the calendar of the Mexican experience.
El Gringo Viejo

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A Small Tribute We Held Back to and for a Special Veteran

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     And a final tribute, based on yesterday's salute to friends and family who are veterans, is this one to the grandfather-in-law of El Gringo Viejo's daughter. 1st Lieutenant Ted, United States Army Air Corp, pilot of the B-17, (retired) who saw considerable action, and was fortunate enough to have served into those moments when it became very apparent that the Wehrmacht and its madman commander-in-chief were done.    Ted and his wife are still spry and living well in Central Texas.  

 

     We include some notes about what his experience might have included. 

 

 

 

 

The plane that the  "Veteran Emeritus"  we saved back for a separate recognition flew is this one.  The animation pictured above is shallow tribute to the ardours of the B-17 Flying Fortress crews that flew into Germany during the last half of World War II.   The B-17 Flying Fortress and various other American and British sister ships bombed and bombed and bombed almost incessantly.   The Germans were resilient, resourceful, and effective in their resistance.  Whether Nazi or not, when these huge flights of bombers came over, the German was fighting for his/her homeland, family, and the big church in the village, and the 400 year brewery over there four miles to the south, not to be captured by the Russian, to save what could be saved.  Most knew by the middle of 1944 that the War was lost.

 

Our boys....an old man would have been 25 or so....there were many, many 18 year old tail-gunners, flew at 20,000 to 30,000 fasl, with on-board temperatures at times around -20 F and noise that damaged almost all their hearing permanently for the rest of their lives....and that was if they were lucky.

 

Early in the bombing runs, they had a bit of fighter protection.   Later, there was little or no fighter escort as the lumbering bombers, majestic but slow at 150 -170 mph outdistanced their lighter cousins and had to face Hans and his Messerschmitt.   It would be fairly late in the War when German attrition, in pilots, mechanics, petrol, and airplanes would make the flights a little more tolerable....except for the flak that would blacken the sky until almost the very end.   Escort in the form of the magnificent P-51 fighter, the finest ever built gave the bombers further cover by a plane that could outfly anything and then return to England, strafing trains and troop convoys as he went.

 

Luckily, very late in the War, the Germans turned out a two-engine jet fighter that could stand up to the P-51, except for a couple of things.   Very few qualified pilots and no kerosene for the engines.  German production of petrol had been converted almost entirely to diesel and gasoline.  Col. Chuck Yeager in remembrances after the War recalled finding a Me-262 apparently limping back to his home field, nursing his fuel.    Yeager went up on top with his P-51 and "put the 262 out of its misery".   Later he lamented having picked on the cripple, so to speak, as well as for not having taken note of the landing spot and/or  devising a plan to capture the plane and the pilot.

 

Another American encounter that resulted in victory over the Me-262 that was not crippled-up is chronicled in this clip:

 

 

 

Finally, it is well to consider that almost 60,000 Americans were lost in these bombing raids.   This does not count the Americans who had the good fortune to have been captured, after bailing out, by elements of the regular German Army and not the Gestapo or SS groups.   Civilian Guard people were usually rough, but not brutal....so almost 12,000 fly-boys (Brit and Yank) wound up in prisoner of war camps for the duration.   But, more were KIA than in the entire Viet Nam War, and their universe of actives was much, much smaller.   The casualty count for these men was approximately 25% KIA, WIA, MIA, or POW.

 

Salute to all once again.

El Gringo Viejo

A SALUTE AT THIS TIME, and in THESE DAYS

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A special salute to all American veterans who have honourably served.

A special shout out to:

 

 

Petty Officer David Christian (retired),  United States Coast Guard, serving in Baltimore during the Muslim Extremist Assaults 

El Zorro USAF (Viet Nam) - Sergeant,  jet/tech and special out-of-theatre ops

 

Gunnery Sergeant Cesar (retired) Macedonia, Iraq,  and Afghanistan

 

El Gringo Viejo's brother-in-law Sergeant Robert USAF (retired)

 

Father-in-law who is now with the Angels, Sergeant  Jesus, United States Army Air Corps, North Africa

 

El Gringo Viejo's father, Ist Lieutenant Milton Birchard, United

States Cavalry, Ist Division, 12th Regiment, mounted (now with his

consuegro Jesus, also with the Angels)

 

El Gringo Viejo's consuegro, Petty Officer John, United States Navy, Mediterranean and World-wide 

  

And to my grandfather's two brothers, Pennsylvania 96th Regiment of Volunteer Infantry, one who died one the month before and the other one month after the Battle at Gettysburg.

 

And to my several Confederate combat veterans, eleven in total, four of whom were killed in action or died of their wounds at a later point, and seven of whom survived.

Cesar E Munguia

7 hours ago near Copperas Cove, TX · Edited · 

• A toast to my brothers this Veteran's Day:
  
  "...This story shall the good man teach his son;
  And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
  From this day to the ending of the world,
  But we in it shall be remember'd;
  We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
  For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
  Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
  This day shall gentle his condition:
  And gentlemen in England now a-bed
  Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
  And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
  That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day." 
  -Henry V, A4 S3

 

(a quiet note to family and friends - my son was left off the list due to my own re-re-re-editing, and failure to note that he had been deleted from the list of honour.   He also had the honour of standing in the sleet and  snow on the day of the inauguration of George Bush in January of 2001, serving as a traffic and clearance guard.   Another oddity, perhaps, is that a fellow with his same Christian Name and his same surname was on board one of the planes that hit the Twin Towers.   It was somewhat disconcerting to receive calls and/or emails from various folks who knew that our boy was serving up there in the same area.  Pray for America)

Habitual Derangement

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     We had wanted to wait until we were certain.   We are certain now.   It could be readily predicted what would happen.   The Soros and Co. cabal runs a garbage piece of legislation through a slack-jaw Congress. barely passing an income redistribution programme known as the Obama Socialised Medicine Initiative (OSMI).  The programme provides free medicine and medical services up to and including maternal pre- and post- partum, and a tempore services to men's and women's  pregnancy and childbirth issues.  It also allows unlimited re-reverse sex-change operations for those who have a hard time deciding exactly where they might stand in the old issue of "To be a man or a woman, that is the question."    In any regard, the entire issue could have been resolved long ago had the millionaires and billionaires only paid their fair share.

 

     We had tried to disbelieve Alice's wild stories about having fallen into a subterranean  madhouse somewhere in the centre of Washington, District of Colombian Redskins.  But alas, the child bore us true tidings.    Someone took a cumbersome, inefficient medical system that was expensive to operate and cared for those who cared not for themselves first, while charging those who tried to provide for themselves for the costs of the entire system.   While it was not perfect, it functioned fairly well.

    Most of the inefficiencies of the old system were things caused by overregulation and government intervention on various levels.  So the solution to what problems there were, of course, was deigned (literally) to be the passage of a Congrefsional Act of Human Bondage and Perpetual Slavery which authorised even more....yea! much more... central government intervention.

     That Act, now more commonly known as the Obama Socialised Medicine Initiative (OSMI), could not even be read until it had been passed, because the deranged sponsors and designers wanted to, in the words of the then Speaker of the House...." ....give the American people a very, very special Solstice gift of free medical care.  But remember,  we can't read it until we pass it.  No peeking."

      Santa Roberts dutifully delivered little boxes down the chimneys of all, each box containing  a card for the occupant of each Section 8, reading "This card entitles the bearer on demand to free medical care.  Call 1 - 800 - lotsoluck or click on to FREEMONEY.Com in order to select the amount you will be required to pay for your free medical care."

 

    Some weeks later, there is another advisory that is made stating, "If there are problems in the implementation of the OSMI or in communicating with the programme, blame one of the following:

                    (1)  George Bush

                    (2)  Tea Party

                    (3)  Republicans

                    (4)  Millionaires and Billionaires

                    (5)  The guy down the street who jacked a bigger flat screen than

                            you could because you were too drunk and stoned to carry

                            anything out of the house that you all were burglarising

 

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Now, against that relatively accurate description of how we managed to arrive at this point....two airliners on the same runway, one taking off, the other landing, both doing 179 mile per hour....all the usual suspects return.   The socialists, the moderate Republicans, the un-thinking self-centred Americans who want a "reasonable and immediate fix because I'm me", the illegals who have come to trough and not to toil, the low intelligence and information personalities and all are clamouring for "THE SOLUTION".   And Beelzebub smiles.

 

     He sends Lucifer and Lucifer says, "Sign here, and your problems are over."

 

THE SOLUTION:

 

 

     Congrefs authorises 932,000,000,000 USD per annum additional free money to the budget to "....subsidise necessary expenditures that the Administration always said were necessary but which were prohibited by the hostage-taking wealthy radicals within the Republican caucus who are totally opposed to sharing the American Bounty with the people who have been historically exploited.   Now that the obvious nature of their iniquity is so clearly demonstrable, we can move quickly to subsidise all Americans in their purchase of free insurance so as to obtain the free medical services they so richly deserve.   Finally, America can begin to speed up the original purpose of the foundation of this wicked country and provide the social democracy that works so well in the ant-hill and the bee hive.

     Of course, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D - Massachusetts) affectionately known by all Americans who love her so very much as "Pocahontas" because she is a Princess of All Red Skinned Native American Aboriginal Indians,  will be named to oversee this redistribution of ill-gotten wealth from the millionaires and billionaires back to the slaves and downtrodden, huddled masses from whence it came.

    Also, Eric Holder has informed us that he has incontrovertible evidence that the Insurance Company Cartel has conspired to engage in price gouging, simply because we were requiring them to pay for life-time re-reverse sex-change operations and abortions for 79 year old men.  Therefore, we have called Barney Frank back into public service to oversee the new Federal Insurance Alliance, a division of the Internal Revenue Service, to oversee the operation of this new, fully free, free health care system for all that is totally free.   Just pay additional shipping and handling.

 

     In other words, Obama will say, "Let's just fix this by subsidising those who have had their premiums go up.  That's only fair."

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     The response to that insanity is "NO!!"   The only acceptable path in this matter is to completely reset the chessboard.   Clear all the pieces, and return to them to where they were on the board five years ago.   Prohibit any government fix.   Pass one original promissory law that allows for insurance companies to sell across State lines.   It is amazing how cheap life insurance and automobile liability insurance for responsible drivers  has become.  And, on top of it all, there is simply not the money to pay.  It would be the camel that broke the straw-stem in two.

 

     After that, privatise Medicare, and return to the States the responsibility for paying for what is now Medicaid....which is essentially the refuge for the slugs, addicts, illegal aliens, multigenerationally dependent welfare sloths, and the occasional down-on-your-luck folks that might really need it.   The States and localities can sort that out much more readily.   They will be in a better position to say "NO" instead of grovelling before Uncle Obamaham for a few more inflated, borrowed, and deficited dollars to pay for some welfare recipient's sore throat or the leavings of the last shoot out between four street corner drug dealers.

 

 

 

And that ladies and gentlemen, is the name of that tune.  NO SUBSIDIES to cure what Obama caused!!!   Nay, Neigh, Non, No, Nyet, Nein!

 

El Gringo Viejo

 

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Chasing Our Tails? Or Psyching Up for the Big Game?

 

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The Coming Bailout of Obamacare:    This linkage will take the OROG back into the chapel of the Anglican Curmudgeon.   He excerpts a bit of a piece from the American Spectator, and wraps his own particular wisdom around other weavings of advanced thought.   A very short read, perhaps two minutes.   The OROG has already had to suffer through the sobering lamentations of both El Zorro and El Gringo Viejo....neither is icing his birthday cake with icing made of optimism.

 

     On the morrow, we shall renew the interchange....perhaps not as Emerson and Thoreau....when El Gringo Viejo will respond to El Zorro's observations.   We do wish to point out that Anglican Curmudgeon folds very salient points about the tribulations brought unto the citizenry by the present Regime ensconced in Washington, D.C. into his most excellent analysis of interior wars affecting Anglican Orthodoxy.   He includes material from other intellectually conservative fountains of information and thought....as do we.

 

    Is this a case of us chasing our own tails?   I think not.   It is necessary for us to know that there are others among us....many others....who think well and passionately.    Each of us is "....una fibra mas en el metate..."  as the country Mexicans say....."another fibre in the rope".  The more fibres the stronger and longer the rope.  A smaller force that is intelligent and resourceful can beat another that is larger and full of sloth.   And further, perhaps we are not even the smaller force.

 

   To be blunt....the conservative women.....?   Prettier and smarter.   Black conservatives?  Infinitely more intelligent and capable of critical thought and deductive reasoning.   The conservative Latin element?   There is not even the remotest comparison in terms of intellectual BTU's.  But we need to feed to, on, and from each other.

 

   We shall win.   To-morrow, more.

 

El Gringo Viejo

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Demographi​cs, Greed, Apathy and Solution

 

 

Attn:  El Gringo Viejo,

 

"Remember the Alamo!”

 

We are outnumbered.

 

      The results are settled?  There are more of them than there are of us?  The Haves are a dwindling species and the Have-nots are about to have it all… that being free subsistence.  We are still stunned at the progressive coup that is holding the Constitution hostage.  The ransom is to give up our freedom.  The hostage takers will take the ransom and kill the hostage anyway.  The minority of the conservative element are negotiating with the perpetrators; however, their methods are weak due to a lack of leadership.  The guys with the megaphone (McCain, Graham, McConnell, Rove, etc.) are offering compromise but the hostage takers want our soul and will not settle for less.  The bad news is, the negotiators are inept and the majority of the population doesn’t know or care.  The potential good news is Obama and the gang are aiming at their collective feet (with black rifles).

 

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    Nobody really knows the makeup of the population but it is clear that the majority consists of either those that do not care what happens to them, or they who have bought into the Obama tripe.

 

     El Gringo Viejo and El Zorro are aware of the demographics generally and how they affect the outcome of elections.  Rural areas are typically conservative.  Metro areas are typically liberal.  Throw into the mix North and South, East and West and the distribution becomes convoluted.  Other variables are divergent types such as libertarian and single issue voters.  With enough data an outcome can be predicted at a given time; however, over time swings occur due to changes in events.  Depending on how large the affected population and significant the event, the outcome can be instant and dramatic.  We saw in Virginia a typical outcome in the Governor’s race where Cuccinelli was as much as 9 points ahead until the large metro areas were counted and McCauliffe won by 3 points.

 

     If all things are equal, the metro Northeast, North, West and DC are mostly liberal.  Those populations pretty much outnumber the rest of the country which are conservative split by moderates/libertarians.  They are also top loaded with low information voters and government dependent enclaves. 

 

     There are some exceptions where there are large numbers of immigrants, mostly from Mexico, Central,  and South America who are eager participants in the welfare benefits available.

 

 

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      In the recent 2013 election there was a proposition to amend the Texas Constitution as follows:

“Proposition Number 8
(HJR 147 and SJR 54)
HJR 147 would repeal the Texas Constitution’s maximum tax rate for a Hidalgo County hospital district; the maximum rate is currently set at 10 cents per $100 valuation. This rate is lower than the maximum tax rate allowable for hospital districts in all other counties in the State (75 cents per $100 valuation). The repeal of the constitutional cap would authorize hospital district tax rates in Hidalgo County equal to the hospital district tax rate laws applicable to all other Texas counties.”

 

     This is a special consideration that was written into the Texas Constitution at a time when 10 cents per $100 was higher than the rest of the state.  This was a special consideration for South Texas.  Now that the population of Hidalgo County is much higher, the taxes collected for the hospital district are insufficient to support the overwhelming indigent use of the emergency rooms and those who do not pay for services.  This proposition was on the ballot for the entire state.  This was a fair proposition but the point is that South Texas is a demographic that is more liberal than the rest of the state (exception being Austin).  This proposition passed. The elimination of the maximum rate for Hidalgo County will not alleviate the condition of misuse of the hospitals because of Obamacare mandates that the states cover what it will not.  In fact the 75 cents per $100 will not cover the costs for underinsured, subsidized, and pre-existing condition provisions in the law in Hidalgo and surrounding counties.  The repeal of Obamacare and sensible immigration reform are desperately needed here.  At the time El Zorro was a young man growing up in the Rio Grande Valley, Hidalgo County was rural.  Today it is metropolitan in nature. 

    

     The population of the United States is upward toward 330 million.  A rough breakdown hold the conservatives at 39%, liberals at 23%, and moderates at 37% (Pew Research Center).  So why do the liberals have so much control over the electorate?  The moderates obviously vote democratic and republicans stay home.  It is clear that moderates like free stuff and republicans (we didn’t say conservatives) don’t care.  The democrats are the elite handing out cell phones.

In order to change the tendency of government toward socialism the conservatives have to participate.  The moderates have to detox from dependence on Uncle Candy.

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Mark Levin

     We have strongly supported Mark Levin's "The Liberty Amendments” but have been some what critical (unfairly) that he has written the book and stopped there.  Mark still works at his radio show and with his legal foundation to work for us.  What we have to recognize it that he has done his part and it is time for the rest of us to do our part.  The challenge is to find charismatic leaders who can consolidate and coordinate the effort to set state conventions leading to amendments to the Constitution that will strengthen it per the intent of the Framers.  One individual has raised his hand and we should follow this closely and see where we can fit in.

     Indiana state senate president, David Long  - (R) has invited all states to participate in a meeting to discuss conventions as allowed in Article 5 of the US Constitution.  This is encouraging.  It is hoped this keeps going.  It will be a long hard slog.  It has taken 100 years to get to where we are… we have to have commitment, focus, and patience to make this work.  We also have to find and promote true conservatives to displace all democrats and RINOs.  We have to primary those Republicans who are doing as much or more harm than the progressives i.e. McCain, McConnell, Lindsey Graham to start with.

     To reiterate, more conservatives need to displace progressives/liberals/democrats/RINOS to gain majorities in the Congress in 2014 and the Presidency in 2016 for the short term.  Then the Constitution needs to be strengthened to stop this downhill slide to Marxist, socialist hell. 

     Support your local Tea Party if only to subscribe to their email.  It is an individual responsibility to keep oneself informed.  Do not do so at your own peril.  America needs all of us or she won’t be America any more.

We are only outnumbered because of apathy and greed.  We can overcome both of these.  Then we can say, “The results are settled”.  We cannot wait!

Attentamente.

El Zorro