Potpourri - several topics with brief comments

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     There are several issues that call out for comment and conjecture.  In lieu of rambling on for 5,000 words, we shall strive to make brief, and we hope a bit different interpretation of such issues, still with adherence to principles of non-governmental intervention, self-reliance, and liberty.

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COMMON CORE:

     Perhaps Barry Soetoro could retitle this as "Common Corpse" and make it all better.  The three "teachers"  who have their advertisement on various television channels are very adept at reading their scripts.  The message is easy to understand.   The opponents of Common Core are retro-Neanderthals  who are political extremists, John Birchers even, and know-nothings who resist not only change but improvement.   They point out that Common Core is not a governmental programme, but a complex of education objectives that rose up in the hinterland, and put together....wouldn't we know it...by educational professionals.

     So, the moderate forces that pushed this idea forward, very rapidly, are those like the National Education Agency.   Like Planned Parenthood has little or nothing to do with parenthood or the planning thereof, the NEA has little or nothing to do with education.   It is a group dedicated to indoctrination of America's youth with secular humanist, anti-traditionalist ideas.  It is also totally committed to the idea that teaching is some kind of right, a profession generally immune from the vagaries of the work-place, such as having to produce or be terminated.   It is also one of those self-feeding monsters that takes from its members so as to perpetuate itself and to forward a socialist, secular humanist, egalitarian, and generally hopeless, stolid  culture.

     It is designed to denigrate the notion that there are absolute truths and moral codes.  And, it is adamant about elevating all nature of acceptance of what many people feel to be antithetical to the good of humanity and to moral codes, that if practiced, lead to rewarding and positive lives.   Common Core is based on the teaching of tolerance for everything except Judeo-Christian values classical education designed to produce people capable of critical thinking on their own.

     Common Core is certainly designed by a cabal of "experts" who have developed a bastard from Hell that is fathered by the disastrous "Teach to the Test" system of "No Child Left Behind" (proof that George Bush II was more than just a closet extreme moderate progressive) and mothered by the LGBT, progressive, and socialist secular humanist cabal.   There is no better proof than to point out that while they ridicule the "teaching-to-the-test" concept so fully relied upon by No Child Left Behind, the advocates of the new panacea double-down on the concept.   Reason?   Common Core is not an instruction system for a liberal, individual centred, general education,  but rather an indoctrination and propagandisation  protocol.  It deals exclusively in concepts of "the collective" and ridicules the concept of the "exemplary man/woman or the individual as a sovereign. 

     It is an extension of the same thing that has gone on in the churches being used as instruments to establish "liberation theology" and extreme leftist political orientation as some kind of canon.   Common Core fits, hand in glove, with the offensive by the Girl Scouts of America to become "more relevant" to  progressive goals and tolerance.   It helps pave the path into perversion as a norm and into the ridicule of traditionalism as a positive thing for America such as the opening of the Boy Scouts of America to homosexual scoutmasters and members, OR ELSE!    The progressives do not allow dissent.   They require that the traditionalists shut up, and further that they listen and comply.   The offensive is being conducted on all fronts.

     It will have, and does now have, central government endorsement and backing.  Already the central government's Department of Education is insinuating, as well as following through with, reprisals for failure to implement and implement correctly the overall intent of Common Core.

     El Gringo Viejo's godmother said, sixty years ago, that if McAllen Independent School District were to accept "free" contributions help establish the school lunch programme from the USDA the government would be in the position to blackmail the school district in all manners of policy.   As an elected member of the local school board of trustees she railed against acceptance of the programme, declaring that it would be the nose of the camel in the Bedouin's tent on a cold night.   And she predicted that,"....before that night is over the Bedouin will be sleeping under the stars in the cold and the camel will be warm and toasty, sleeping on antique Persian, Afghan, and Middle Eastern rugs and wovens."

   Considering the number of rules, regulations, demands, and conditions public schools must adhere to in these days, OR ELSE, there is only one thing that can be said of my Godmother's observation, vote, and position:   She was

right.

    Common Core is a hand on the arm of Lucifer.

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ASTROTURF RISES:

    Sasse, the Republican Nominee for the United States Senate, can win the General Election if he makes no grievous errors like saying, "There is a God." or worse, "It is self-evident that a family growing up in a home with a father and mother has a greater chance of stability and social progress".   As a side note, there are Democrats now in the United States Senate, now seeing the noose, are begging for an "altar call".   McConnell could have smoozed five or six senators into an agreement to overturn the Obama Socialised Medicine Initiative.

    (side note)   There have been snarly, snarky statements about the notion that the crummy Republican general plan for helping restrain pricing issues in the medical field is to abolish central government prohibitions concerning the cross - border sales of health-care coverage by insurance companies.  The socialists and central control Control Freaks almost howl with laughter about the idea.

     "Where would all these companies come from?   Who are they?  Are these smaller insurance companies even relevant in terms of assets and insurance strength?   Hahahahaahhaaa .   Dream on, One Per cent people!"

     In Texas there are many, many smaller companies that are so popular with their clients that many of their clients are fourth and fifth generation.   And we are not talking about insurance brokers and agents' sales offices.  We are talking about 100 year old life and casualty companies.

    The elites continue roaring with laughter....Hahahahahaha.  

    But suddenly, El Gringo Viejo comes in through the swinging door, quieting the rabble within.    He strides to the bar and turns to people who had been previously laughing about the idea that there are numerous small and medium-sized insurance companies who would be willing to write out-of-state policies.

      "You all seem to be pretty happy.  Are you laughing about the idea of buying  health-care insurance across State borders?" EGV questioned as he observed who might have an itchy trigger finger and some iron to scratch it on.

      "Whoever heard of such a thing?  It's just like takin' a Mexkin pin~ ata to some kid's birthday party and filling it full of shredded newspaper instead dof candy!" and once again twenty or thirty, still pretty sober, patrons broke into a hearty laughter.

      "I just came back from Texas.   I'll name a couple of companies, and if you all can prove me wrong to-morrow with a wire contradicting what I say from the companies that I shall name now, I will give each person here a one peso Mexican in silver,  and I shall write down their telegraphic address here, and leave it on this bar.   One company is Hochheim Life and Casualty in Yoakum, Texas and the other is Hermann's Sons Fraternal Order. There are probably fifty others.  These two are small and very potent.  You'll see me to-morrow at this same time.  If any of you present a telegraph saying that what I am saying is incorrect, each of you will have one Mexican silver peso in your pocket when I leave, plus another 5 dollar greenback to pay the guy who sent the telegraph," and with that EGV turned on his high-heeled boot and strod to and through the swinging doors once more.

     The next day, at the same time, El Gringo Viejo passed through those same doors for the third and next-to-last time.   The bartender looked over, smiled and shrugged his shoulders, while shaking his head in a negative gesture.  EGV tipped his hat to him, and went back outside, mounted up and headed over to the Culberson Ranch, about 4 miles south of town.

(And yes, Virginia.  There really are two companies with those names still working here.  And the people who are their customers swear by them.)

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MEXICO CITY - TOLUCA WEATHER :

     AlGore and the Globalwarmingcoolingclimatechangewe'reallgonnadie crowd are probably not  going to be overjoyed to learn about the hail/snow storm that hit in that high area between Mexico City and Toluca, capital of the State of Mexico to the west of Mexico City about 50 miles.   Mexico City is situated at 7,300 fasl and Toluca at 8,400 fasl, connected by quite a fine six to up to ten lane toll-expressway.   But yesterday, not so much.   A hail-storm hit, something that is more or less not comment-worthy during this time of the year.   But then things became colder and colder, finally falling into the range of 30F for a considerable distance down to the relatively lower elevations.  The pass between the cities tops out at around 9,600 feet.  Peaks, including the herein pictured Nevado de Toluca (Snowed One of Toluca) go as high at 17,000 fasl.    But, I diverge....this was yesterday:



Toll-expressway halted by 9 inches of snow over 2 inches of hail

This is a fairly common Summer scene, looking to the southeast from Toluca,
the perpetually cold city in Mexico.  And yes, there is a bit of glaciation up
there.  It is snow topped year around most years.


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Enough Said.

El Gringo Viejo

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Another Advisory from Extreme Central Texas

While this was sent from Extreme Central Texas,
 this actual firearms dispensary is in Katy, Texas
 not far from Houston, out west on the IH - 10.

    Houston is a funny place, and not my favourite choice
as hometown, but we can point out that Houston has
 three times as many Black people as Detroit  Houston,
 however has many fewer homicides per capita, and
 in gross numbersthan does Detroit.   Statistically,
Houston 212 in 2012, and then Detroit - 333 in 2013.
Houston population is 2.500,000 in round figures,
 not including adjacent incorporated cities.  It is
the fourth largest city in the United States.
   Detroit in the adjusted census has a little over
700,000 inhabitants according to
 the adjusted census for 2013
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To be more concise:

                                                        Houston  -  population 2,300,000  - 212 murders

                                                        Detroit    -  population    700,000  - 333 murders

However, Detroit is the safer of the two cities, according to the Progressives and National Socialists, because it has more reasonable and stringent firearms prohibitions and controls.

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Reminiscences for the Day: larger blessings

It dawned on us in the afternoon (figure that out) that in the last 72 hours, El Zorro, the Anglican Curmudgeon, and the People who live in Extreme Central Texas all contributed to our humble minor league blogsite.   Few people deserve such regard and attention.  I am not one of them.   But....I do appreciate it, and the OROGs seem to as well!!! 

To Good to Pass Up....or Down.....

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Sometimes a hundred thousand pictures are worth
 a million, quadzillion words.

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Thanks for watching!

El Gringo Viejo

Fun Stuff - The Anglican Curmudgeon Vacations by Jousting with Other Windmills

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     One would think that the Anglican Curmudgeon would just as soon sit in his study and listen to chamber music and enjoy a generous (but moderate) helping of some fine wine, a Chateau Petrus perhaps....nodding off a bit as he luxuriates in well-deserved rest.  His legal wars against the secular humanist usurpers of the Anglican Church and its traditions take up 30 hours of each of his days.   He is, in many ways, the intellectual Sherlock Holmes, the analyst Perry Mason, and audacious and brave Cisco Kid....and it must be exhausting.

Mons. Admiral Baudin

   He finds time, however, to remind El Gringo Viejo that somebody has some thing that Texas and all Texians might want.  The disgusting wooden and cork stump of a prosthetic lower leg  that Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna had lost during a foolish, pointless military gesture/manoeuver against what must have been a very perplexed French Admiral Baudin.

     Two and one-half years after leading one of the most powerful armies on Planet Earth to multiple victories on multiple fronts against an enemy hopelessly mired in its own braggadocio, and then losing the  critical, and final,  battle in an incredibly (allow the writer to accentuate the meaning of incredible....ie - beyond the reach of believability) stupid, costly, cowardly, and disgusting breach of duty and trust, he was back.

     Having been allowed to return from Washington, D,C.  and New York to his very young wife, then 18 years old with a 3 year old infant son, part of the aristocratic structure of Xalapa, capital of Vera Cruz State, and her dowry-home, the Hacienda de Landeros....he leapt again at the opportunity to serve.   This time it was another batch of meddlesome Frogs who always seemed to want to be re-paid for something.  This time it was for failure of the Mexican authorities to keep the public peace and order after the disastrous exploits of the self-same Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's repression of the liberal, Republican States who had cloven unto the Mexican Constitution of 1824.   Governmental and social structure broke down severely in 1836 throughout Mexico, and especially where there was wealth, meaning especially in a place like Mexico City.   A French pastry chef who ran an academy and served finesse de patisserie of great fame, demanded recompense for the fact that the unwashed classes had literally burned down the bakery.   He wanted 3,000 pesos in silver, and all final French public and private claims against the Government finally came to an amount in excess of 600,000 pesos....read to-day, perhaps  20 billion dollars, or more.

     Antonio's "service" to his country was unauthorised and un-anticipated.  The French forces went about a careful demobilisation of Mexican resistance and degraded some of the artillery assets in Vera Cruz city.  They had also blockaded the entire Mexican east coast.  The Brits had come up to blockade the port of Corpus Christi, where much of Mexico's import/export was taking place during the "inconvenience". The Brits were actually protecting the port against Texian intervention, passively siding with the Mexican position. 

     Antonio rode into the fray with a hastily, ill-prepared force that Lopez de Santa Anna thought could out-number-to-death the French.  He failed to take into consideration the two heavily armed frigates and the man-o-war with 56 six - pounders,  28 per side.   Such firepower made quick work of any "shore mounted" infantry.   With a dead  horse, and his own lower leg shredded, and his ankle no longer a pertinent assembly, surgeons removed his lower leg.
    In s0ucceeding days, Antonio drew himself up for what should have been written up long, long ago as some event in a roaringly humorous opera, "Honours to the General's Leg".    Amid prancing chargers, and gloriously uniformed soldiers, with pennants, flags, standards, and ribbons flapping and bands playing stirring tunes....The lower leg of     Antonio de Padua María Severino  López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón, General of the Provisional Army of Vera Cruz was buried with full military honours and with the Sign of the Cross and ample amounts of Holy Water.

     This was all wonderment to the French who were well down the road already to having the Brits negotiate a settlement on French terms that the Mexicans accepted and with which they complied.   It all makes sense, although it helps to be completely insane, as in these days with a lunatic marxist loose in the White House.

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     Now, we move on to the point.   During the next significant war, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna is once again at the head (or tail) of an Army...a large Army waiting to receive a slightly smaller army commanded by General Winfield (Fuss and Feathers) Scott.   Everything fell apart when the left flank of the Mexican defence feel apart, and a route among untrained National Guard occurred.   Lopez de Santa Anna was a fool, a cad, an evil person, but he really was a good general.  He had gone to Vera Cruz after successfully blunting the American northern strategy, outside of Saltillo.   Some think he may have been drugged up, or drunk and drugged up, or just realistic.   Remember the comments of Rommel who is said to have said either "If they gain a toe-hold, to-morrow it will be a foot-hold, and a month from now they will be crossing the Rhine"....when he began receiving reports from Normandy;  or  "If they are still there to-morrow and the Panzers are not mobilised to-night, the War is over."   Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna was wise enough to know that interior lines of provision and communication help to win wars, but for Germany and the Confederacy...and Mexico....not so much.

     He dashed to the next "must" defence point...Puebla de los Angeles, guarding the best (and only realistic) pass over the Ixtaccihuatl and Popocatepetl mountain nexus....with their snow covered peaks above 17,000 fasl.   When this 100 mile dash (190 miles by road) started expendables were left behind.   Among those things were clothes, finery, and personal items that would not be needed.   Some of Antonio Lopez's stuff in trunks was entrusted to teamsters and a few younger officers.  They were told to take the things to the Hacienda de Landero and to deliver everything to Antonio's new mid-teen wife.   The old one was worn out and dead at the age of 22.

Scott and Worth arrange for the formal surrender
 and Mass to celebrate the Peace.  Metropolitan
 Cathedral of Mexico is in the background.

     Somehow, the Illinois Fourth Regiment of Volunteers, apparently a mixed infantry and cavalry group chased down one of these trains and upon opening the trunks found what they determined to be "Santy Anny's wooden leg".   In fact, it was Santy Anny's prosthetic leg...part wood and part cork.  But!   It was not Santy Anny's only wooden leg.   He had several.   Supposedly, he had two of ebony, which considering the weight of ebony leaves the student of history scratching his head.   The area around where Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna lived was and is replete with master carpenters still dedicated to semi-custom and custom rustic and refined furniture.   There are literally hundreds of 'carpenteros" and "carpenterias".   It is known that many items were brought as gifts by both peon and aristocrat made of and by these skilled people among them the very coffin that was used for Antonio's first wife interment.  (We should point out that Antonio might have actually had feelings greater than what he reserved for himself in his emotional dealing with this beautiful and talented girl.   It is said that he had to have minders among the servants who feared that his silence and dark countenance foreshadowed an extreme emotional distress that might lead up to suicide.)

     It is probable that Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna had numerous prosthetic legs.  He had enough to preside over the disastrous retreat all the way into the Zocalo in downtown-most Mexico City....and he had a selection to take with him on his subsequent self-imposed exile, which he took before the American forces arrived in the greatest, most populous, and most advanced city in the Americas at that time.   So when people tell you that the Americans "picked on" the poor stupid, defenceless Mexicans...please stop listening.  Mexico had a greater GNP, a greater supposed and possible land area, more literate people, unlimited resources, a larger standing army, interior lines of communication /supply and an unconquerable geography.   They lost when they should easily have won a war, because it pleasured them to argue among themselves as the Gringos came into the Valley of Tenochtitlan, marching in good order to  the bands playing Yankee Doodle and Green Grow the Rushes,  O! .

    So, the folks in Indiana have something that Texians really neither want nor need.  Were it even to exist as a result of battle with Texians on Texas soil, that might be different.   And, it is not because of any disrespect or discrimination.   One of the true gentlemen and examples of valour under fire was Old General Castrillon whom the Texian officers tried to exempt from the effective fire of their soldiers.  It was to no avail and the old man was killed in action, facing the enemy.   He had been an advocate of military rules and considerations for the POWs and civilians, which Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna eschewed with scorn and laughter.   But Castrillon was buried on Texas soil, in the family cemetery of his friend in Mexico and enemy in Texas, Lorenzo de Zavala, the first Vice-President of Texas, financier of the Texian Revolt, Inscriptor of the Declaration of Independence and most of the provisional Constitution of the Republic of Texas.

    The article sent by my aforementioned favourite authority on matters pertaining to legal, historical, and social matters than involve Anglicanism as a Catholic and Orthodox and Evangelical force in Christianity was of considerable interest.  There was a throw-away attachment that showed a bit about the writers and editors of the article and that was the flag depicting a cannon, and written upon the flag was the challenge, "Come and Take It!"    Perhaps El Gringo Viejo is being overly sensitive, but the particular flag with the cannon pertained to an issue that preceded even The Alamo, and oddly enough was a contention between the Texians and an Anglo Mexican by the name of Colonel Juan Bradburn.   He is buried at or near the cemetery where El Gringo Viejo's father-in-law's village of birth is found on the banks of the Rio Grande...a place called Grangeno  (grah  HEIN oh) which means a type of riverine hackberry, very popular berries for songbirds southern Texas.

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May 12, 2014

Posted in Uncategorized

Illinois Museum Has Gen. Santa Anna’s Legs, Texas Wants It Back

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It is very hard for non-Texans to understand the value of Texas history in the Lone Star State. I write this as someone who grew up in the most non-Texas place in the country (New York City), and came to Texas for the first time for my job interview (layovers at DFW and IAH don’t count). But, Texas history is a big, big deal. And central to that history are the battles fought against Mexico for independence. Central to that war was General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who led the attack on The Alamo, and who ultimately surrendered to the Texians following the Battle of San Jacinto. And, Texas is gearing up for another battle over Santa Anna. This time with Illinois.

Last month, the San Jacinto Battle Monument and Museum launched a petition on the White House website, hoping to get 100,000 signatures to lure an important artifact to Texas. It suggested that the wooden and cork leg used by Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna — the villain of the Alamo and Goliad and a figure deeply embedded in Texas lore — should join other historical items in a Texas museum.

The leg, curiously enough, is in the Illinois State Military Museum in Springfield. And officials there are in no mood to give it up.

“We know Santa Anna is a big deal in Texas history,” said museum curator Bill Lear. “But it’s here. It’s going to stay here. You don’t trade artifacts.”

Given that attitude, San Jacinto museum officials thought a petition might do something to kick it loose.

“We tried to get the White House to diplomatically tiptoe between the interests of the states,” said San Jacinto museum president Larry Spasic.

There is a certain irony that Texas, where the President’s federal authority is not exactly respected, is asking the President, a native son of Illinois, for federal help here.

“I cannot imagine a president from Illinois seriously trying to remove a piece of Illinois history and send it to Texas,” he said this week.

I couldn’t agree more.
How the heck did Illinois get the leg anyway?

While Texas has coveted the piece for years, the state has no real claim to it.

Santa Anna had both his original legs when he led Mexican forces against the rebellious Texians. He eventually lost the war and territory in the 1836 Battle of San Jacinto.

Two years later, back in Veracruz, Mexico, Santa Anna was fighting invading French forces when cannon fire shattered his ankle, forcing the amputation of his leg.

He took the lost leg and had it buried with full military honors. Later, during the U.S. war with Mexico, the Mexican general had to beat a hasty retreat on a donkey during the Battle of Cerro Gordo in 1847, Lear said. A contingent of Illinois infantrymen overtook his position, finding Santa Anna’s carriage with a sack of gold and the prosthesis.

They kept the leg. The veteran who owned it even sold peeks at the leg during the 1850s and 1860s for 10 cents a pop, before his family donated it to the state.

Note the word “Texian.” This is how the people in the Republic of Texas, before it joined the United States, are called.
This reminds me of an episode of the West Wing where North Carolina demanded that Connecticut return a copy of the state’s Bill of Rights, that was stolen by a Union soldier during the Civil War. This is actually the episode where Akhil Amar is mentioned as Josh Lyman’s law school classmates.

Akhil Amar was mentioned during last night’s “West Wing” episode. Josh Lyman said “One of my law school classmates published an article on the constitutionality of Lincoln’s general order” and another character (a lawyer from North Carolina complaining about the fact that North Carolina’s copy of the Bill of Rights was stolen by a Union soldier in the Civil War) said “Akhil Amar.”

It’s actually a thorny constitutional issue. If Lincoln’s view of the war is correct, and the south never really seceded, than all of the property in the rebel states could be seized under the Union’s executive authority to put down the insurrection. After all, this was the legal basis of the Emancipation Proclamation–the slaves were seized as property of the rebels, and immediately emancipated. Note that none of the slaves in the Union states were emancipated, as these states were not in rebellion.

The director of the Illinois Museum is not giving it up.

“The leg is a big draw for our museum,” Lear said. “It’s a centerpiece.”

He also mentioned that almost a decade ago there were some rumblings of Texas obtaining Santa Anna’s leg and trading it to Mexico in exchange for a flag that flew over the Alamo, now displayed in a Mexico City museum.

There was a wariness in his voice.

“It doesn’t go on loan to anyone because it’s a main exhibit for us,” Lear said.

He is almost daring them come and take it.

“No one had anything in mind for removing it by force,” he said. “And if the leg goes missing, we’ll just keep it between us.”

Not to worry, Illinois. He was just pulling your leg.

Molon Labe.

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     We Texians do not need Antonio's worthless leg.  Had he lost it upon the Sacred Soil of Texas then we would wish to have it to use in the next Texas University of Applied Arts and Mechanical Engineering (Texas A and M) pre-UT game bonfire.  As an alumnus of Southwest Texas State University (to-day formally known as Texas State University), it would probably be thrown into the nearest Dempster Dumpster, and sent to the Big BFI in the Sky. 

    Others might have been, allow me to say - certainly were,  worthy enemies in the fight he brought us.  He was not a worthy enemy.

     We ask all OROGs to seriously consider how a flick of the finger by the Anglican Curmudgeon can assign a person back to his previous studies.  Even in humour, serious questions, answers, and understanding are provoked.  He is not only a do-er, but also that finest form of teacher who calls on people to re-do their research, to also teach, and to also learn.  When El Gringo Viejo "orders" his OROGs to read a particular element of the Anglican Curmudgeon's blog, it truly...very sincerely....is more a gift than an order.

There, Illinois.  You have it.  You are the German Shepherd who caught the Volkswagen.  Now, you are stuck with it.  Not even the Mexicans want it.  Not even the Texians want it.  Perhaps with Obama's Socialised Medicine Initiative we can use it in the rehabilitation programmes of the future.

El Gringo Viejo

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Forgetful Nancy, Senile Obsolete marxist press, uncomprehending electorate, and double trouble

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     Our dilemma is how to explain things to people who can be convinced that requiring a photo identification at the polling site does not possibly preclude an earnest voter from casting a ballot.    We have gone to lengths to demonstrate that in Mexico, there is now en force a nationwide voter identification system that is far and beyond anything in Texas or in the rest of the United States.

     Not only does the Mexican voter have to have a photo identification, but his/her credencial electoral Federal has a photo, recently taken, and two other biometric identifiers.  On top of that, the precinct where the voter votes is there waiting for him/here with a huge compendium of voters registered to vote in that precinct.  The voter will encounter him/herself, there alphabetically listed and with his identical photograph that is found on his Credencial Electoral Federal.  The voter still has to sign in with a rubric or signature that is a very close facsimile to the one on his/her Credencial.

Here we have the signature and  rubric of a
famous sculptor of the Mexican Colonial
period.   Pedro Joseph de Rojas.   His religious
stone and oil/canvas artwork are the standard
for many students and analysts for excellence
in terms of religious art of the 17th Century for
both Mexico and the Orthodox world.

To the point, the signature is self-explanatory,
 and the Rubric is that mess of spaghetti below
the name 'Rojas'.   At times, one might sign
 with a signature, at other times with a Rubric,
 and at still other times, with both.

     (Please note, that in Mexico many people have a stylistic rubric that is used as their sign of formal endorsement or signature.   This is found among the educated classes especially, and should not be associated with "making his mark" or "signing with your X").

     That is what is done, thoughout the Republica Mexicana. during all general elections.  The political parties now even require the CEF for internal, formal votes, such as for nominations in convention or in primaries.  The CEF is now more commonly asked for as identification than any other document, including the Mexican Secreatry of Government's Pasaporte Mexicano.   When people lose a purse or a wallet, it is said by the unfortunate,"If you find my wallet/purse, you can keep the money, I would just need to have my CFE.'

     Since the development of the CFE, Mexican elections have gradually changed from a mixture of a boring, tragicomedic joke....to a bit of an interesting battle....to now a situation whose outcome cannot be predicted even late in the campaign.   Thumbprint scanners can play hell with vote scamming.

    In the Magic Lower Rio Grande Valley, where we have far more people registered to vote than there are residents who are native-born or legally naturalised citizens aged eighteen or over.   On top of that, when the Democrats weep and moan about the Republicans making barefooted old people do the limbo dance on black ice and burning coals, tell the liar that in the Magic Valley, during the last cycle of elections, over 400 people paid fines and even went to prison for election fraud.   In one City election, over 400 people were given "voter assistance" by elected officials who were also candidates....and forbidden from entering the polling area except to vote.   That was one of the least offences. One can imagine the big cities in the North.

     So, we have a dumbed-down electorate in many ways, with fewer than 50 per cent capable of reading at a fourth grade level, and perhaps even more who cannot think critically enough to be able to determine if the First World War occurred before or after the Second World War.   We have an electorate that is in favour of direct vote for President and Vice-President who, frequently, have never heard of the Electoral College.   And that, finally, brings El Gringo Viejo to his point.

     The reasons that the Democrats have had such a hard time to determine whether or not they are going to participate in the proceedings of the House Select Committee on Benghazi are two-fold.  

     (1)    The Democrat leadership, Pelosi and Hoyer, are opposed to participating because they are arrogant, ignorant marxists.  They consider themselves, therefore all progressives and socialists in the ranks,  immune to any requirement to answer questions  from the hoi poloi, tea-bagger, astro-turf roots-movement bumpkins who don't shop at the right places.   The know that Hillary ripped her pants, and they know that Barry Soetoro is an empty chair, suit, and single A minor-league clown who is doing an imitation of the Hindenburg crash.  There first reaction to any and all of this is to tell the Republicans to go jump in a lake.  "What difference does it make. Who do you think you are?  Just a political witch-hunt.   We've been all over this 6 or 7 times already."   The irrational, mendacious talking points are there

     (2)   BUT!   The clutch is slipping after trying to put the car into high-gear. The focus groups composed of the dull, the union members, and other terminally self-inflated and intellectually limited people who feel entitled to someone else's money, do not appear to be as acerbic and roiling in the bile of bitter hatred as before.  Perhaps they have heard Sharpton's mispronunciations and his stupid statements and suddenly the "BOING" sound is heard, deep inside the almost never-used brain....and the dolt on the Democrat focus group bleacher thinks, "What in the hell does Sharpton mean when he says, 'Yes we much!!  Yes we much!!!  We are going to march and take back Amurkia from she to seeing sheep!!!!  Yes we much!!' ?" 

     And the focus group ACORN trained minders begin to note a little kickback coming from that ghostly orb floating around in the upper right corner of the focus group isolation room.  "Anti-Mohammed video?   Hillary had a brain concussion, broken jaw, dislocated shoulder, and stomach flu in 9 weeks, and  managed to fall on her .....fat ......uh....uh....face two times when boarding her State Department Private Jet to the White House in 2016?  Is something out of whack here?"

     The point?   The Democrats do not want to be present on the Select Committee on Benghazi, because the normally dependable and easy to deceive, are not as convinced as they used to be that all the explanations are shovel-ready or that they really are going to be able to keep their doctors and insurance.   Once a ball of snow-lies starts down the truth-mountain, it can come up to a cliff pretty quickly, and that may be what is happening now.

     BUT, they also do not want to be outside the room should something Hillary and Barry did prove to be so horrible that the Democrats on the Committee could still run in and vote "for" something after they had voted "against" it....a la John F. Kerry in 2008.

     The inclination for the present is to obstruct and denigrate and smear, with innocuous comments like, "What difference, at this point, does is possible make?" and "Why are we going over and over the same material when it is clearly evident that mistakes were made and have since been corrected."   But, please believe, Chuckie Schumer is practicing his,  "We must face this squarely, as we always have,  and recognise errors have been made.  None so great as Watergate and the lies that were told to justify our involvement in Iraq and the resulting windfall profits for Cheney and Halliburton.....blah, blah, blah..."

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      But, OROGs know.  They know and understand things much better than even the advanced Democrat and Progressive strategists.   The Great Fear is "The Video". with the forensic timer in the upper right corner that is going to show that Barry was not available during this issue and that he and Hillary both went out of their way from the beginning early hours to make certain that no one reported the matter of  fact:   An Al Qaeda-related attack had occurred and been totally co-ordinated in military terms, and totally  successful.

     The press had to be muzzled by their own will.  And the brass in the military had to be muzzled...arrested finally....and sent to a place where press and other access would be denied or very, very limited.   General Ham had to be either figuratively or literally lobotomised because his early efforts to send F - 16s and his calls to activate a couple of Spectres and/or Spooks into the battle zone.....he now says were pointless.  Scores of tactical level officers and combat pilots have let it be known that there was reasonable conviction, over the 50 - 50 probability, that Spectres could have at least shredded the area to a degree that might have even been advantageous to the Obama Administration. Why?   Because any offensive platform that has massive big-bullet, Gatling Gun capacity that can turn a football field into totally freshly turned soil in one 360 degree pass.  Every four square inches, turned to 12 inches.   Ready for tobacco, cotton, corn, dry-land rice, garbanzos....etc.   Obama could have told the truth....'' ....for the first time in my adult life, I have to report that we would like to tell you little people with IQs lower than a basement elevator that we wanted to show you some evidence from BenCasey, but those damned Spectres and Spookys destroyed all the evidence.

    

    Who ordered the stand-downs?   Not on the stand-down in Tripoli, but the Spectre stand-down, and the Carrier stand-down...was it (Sir Edmund) Hillary who is the probably source of the "video" defence.  Was it Leon Panetta, the only Democrat that still had a piece of warm charcoal left from the time when he had a soul? Or was it the Obsolete Media Magnate committee.....getting together to agree that this event, once understood by the dumbed-down electorate might provoke a Road-to-Damascus moment.  Or was it Michelle Robinson's mother?   Barry Soetoro was nowhere to be found. (Sir Edmund) Hillary was nowhere to be found.

   The damned Zero - three - hundred - zero - zero clock just kept dingllinginginglinging....but no one was there.   Wake up, little (Sir Edmund)Hillary, Wake up little Barry Soetoro ...the Man From A.C.O.R.N. is being called by....THE MEN FROM U.N.C.L.E. !!!!

     We are stunned!   Stunned mind you that the Democrats (Pelosi and Hoyer) will not join in the witchhunt.  They will stand by their principles until they find some.  This is cockroaches running for cover when someone walks into the nighttime kitchen and throws the light on.  And, there may soon come a moment when they might have to throw people under the bus.   These Congressional Democrats will sacrifice and and everything to satisfy their own hubris.

    But Nancy, Stevie, summer's coming up.  You might be able to pick up one of the 346.00/hour-living wage training jobs resurfacing mid-night basketball courts....depending upon whom you might know.

    We are going to look for some fishing gear, and head down to some canal to find perch.  We need to re-learn our "life-skills" sooner rather than later.  If (Sir Edmund) Hillary and her bundlers are writing the laws from 2017 through 2025....we will all be organ donors waiting in line to give Hillary our blood and organs, as she disassembles during her first two terms.   But, just think, they say it could be a Reich of a Thousand Years.

Trying to remain humorous and cheerful even as the Republic is destroyed.
El Gringo Viejo

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