Wierd?

The World’s Best Retirement Haven in 2011

2nd Place – Mexico

White sand beaches and turquoise-blue seas, with hammocks swaying nearby…centuries-old Spanish-colonial cities with winding, cobblestone streets and fountain-filled plazas…towering ruins left by ancient civilizations… guitars being strummed on warm, moonlit evenings…. Mexico is rich in romance, as the one million-plus U.S. and Canadian expats who live there will tell you.
But expats don’t live by romance alone. Fortunately, Mexico also provides solid, modern-day comforts and conveniences. That secluded, away-from-it-all beach on the deserted, packed-sand road? You can get within a few miles of it on a modern highway—one of the many that criss-crosses Mexico. Those centuries-old cities with their colonial homes? Today their walls conceal telephone and high-speed Internet cables and their roofs sport satellite dishes and solar water heaters.
Likewise, health care is very much 21st century, with first-rate hospitals, clinics, and medical staff. (Don’t speak Spanish? Many doctors, especially in private clinics, speak English.) And the bill will likely run you half or less of what you’d pay at home.
In fact, life in Mexico can cost you up to 40% less than what you’d pay in the U.S. for a similar lifestyle. It’s also lived at a slower, more gracious pace. And that is what, finally, many expats seek. As expat Jill Jackson, who lives in Loreto, Baja California Sur, explains: “It lets me be the person I have always wanted to be.”

     Perhaps it is a matter of spitting into the wind.   But, this article comes to us in a recent publication of the International Living people.   They can be reviewed and contacted via the linkage we have provided below.   It seems improbable to many people who are burdened by being reasonable and who, for some reason, rely upon American press reports for their news.    It is something like, "Do you really believe that Hillary Clinton is concerned about the poor?   Do you really think that millionaires and billionaires being taxed at 100% will make things better for the poor and for Americans in general?"    If the answer is yes....then....


BUT!!!, Turning to the matter at hand, you can check the magazine and the business out here

                                                international living.com

    It must be pointed out that this writer has a bit of skepticism in some of the reportage in this magazine and the business in general.   To be fair, it is an established, long standing actor in the area of foreign living for gringos.    It seems to the Gringo Viejo, however, to promote the idea that foreign life is substantially "more perfect" than living in the United States.   It seems to gloss over certain very necessary adjustments that must be made, and that quite frankly, some people are not intellectually, emotionally, or attitudinally capable of making.   If someone cannot grasp the idea that Baltimore is five times more dangerous than Mexico City, in terms of murder, assault, and armed robbery...then it is really best to stay home.

     On the other hand, this particular operation tends to paint foreign places as something like the upper story to Purgatory, just one step away from Heaven.   Peculiar odors coming out of storm sewer grates and beggar women who used to open the first scene from Macbeth lurking around the doors of Cathedrals are not covered very thoroughly.

This photo shows the Gringo Viejo trying to enter
the Catedral Metropolitano de los Angeles in
Puebla de los Angeles, Puebla, Mexico
Sometimes, extra effort is required to obtain just
a few ashes on the first day of Lent.

Oh! The number one place to live for a well-to-do type American in a foreign country?   They choose Ecuador.    The President of Ecuador is a dripping Red "fully observant Roman Catholic", who is also a "humanist", and "Christian socialist" (Pelosi soup, anyone?) who uses inspired elocution and rhetoric, as the following - ".....in response to Chávez's comparison of George W. Bush with Satan, Correa said it was unfair to the devil."   He is very popular among the unproductive, stupid, proudly troglodyte, and the silk-screeners of Che' T-shirts.

     Mexico on the other hand has PAN governance and fairly moderate Centrist and even leftist blocks in charge of their central governments and several States.    Almost any given State in Mexico produces more economic activity than the entire nation of Ecuador.   Wealth does not make "good", but general wealth sure does cut down on no water, no sewer, no electricity, no paving, dead babies, and turning Indians into welfare slaves.    Ecuador does have many beauty spots and pleasant places to live and even die.   But.....

     Various UN, pinko, and other economic yardstickeries tend to put Ecuador into a category of 4,500/capita income for their population of 13,000,000.   This is widely....how should we say....positive-inclusive.    The Quechuas, an Indian nation whose members constitute what causes Ecuador to be lumped in to that new Economic Category....that of  "Member of the Un-Developeable World, or the Association of 5th World, socialist septic tanques" ....and other intellectuals and labour union types....make for a pretty dull scene of it.   Quito is under siege of almost daily marches in downtown, so its a good idea to re-learn your bicycle skills if you choose to live in the capital.   The more the government gives the Indians and the "students", it seems, the more emboldened they are to ask for increased entitlements.   How could that be possible?   (Little matter, just make the rich pay their fair share.) 

    Thanks again for your continued attention.   The Gringo Viejo will be heading back down now that things on the home hearth...the funerals and readjustments have run a bit of a course.   So, we shall be making our few purchases of doggy-woggy and kitty-witty and the like.   Probably some more expensive glossy white paint for Alvaro's "retirement home" in Xicotencatl.

El Gringo Viejo

Funny, Sad, and Possibly Hopeless

The Old Gringo was munching on his No-doze and drinking his Air-wick for breakfast while watching Squawk Box on CNBC this morning.   He was treated to the usual scene whereby they allow a psuedo-conservative Republican come on and say a few things that sound remotely free-marketish and reasonable.    Then, of course, there is the countering argument which is given by a person who "restates" the previous answer while pointing out the fact that  "this" is not a reasonable position and  "that" of course is "unrealistic" as "all reasonable observers" have agreed.

     The oddity to-day is that the psuedo-conservative, Congressman Ryan from Wisconsin, actually reached down into his inner-caveman and responded.   He had been accused by the "much wiser" liberal ex-governor of Delaware that his and other Republicans plans did not address anything beyond protecting wealthy millionairesandbillionaireswhoflyaroundinprivatejetsanddon'tpaytheirfairshareoftaxesand
paylessthansecretaries.   But! Ryan responded aggressively and made the ex-Governor to appear the fool his is.

     Congressman Ryan pointed out that the ex-governor's point about how the Republicans do not care about re-education of the work-force is false to the point of falsehood.   He advised the panel that there were 40 bills that had been passed out of the House and that were sitting on the Majority Leader Dingy Harry's desk that had never been presented to the Floor of the Senate nor to any Committee.   These bills approved everything from industry inducements to bring on-going education to existing employees and new-hires to consolidating the 55 overlapping, demagogic, union feeding, boiler-plate, afterthought "training programs" established and operated by the Department of Labour, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Health and Human Debris, and the Department of Education(?) etc., none of which have had any effect upon institutional unemployment.

      He also scolded the mentally defective ex-governor who had been oh so condescending in explaining how he was so much more superior to the other guest, a lowly Republican, because he "cared" about things other than helping rich people.    Congressman Ryan pointed out that over 95% of public education activity in the United States is handled by State and local entities.   He also pointed out that every central government initiative that had been forced onto the locales had taken away from the central mission of providing people with a common intellectual foundation to prepare that person for his own self-defense and prosperity.

      It is probably true that kicking Yahweh out the school-house back door and forcing Crips, Bloods, the Mexican Mafia, Marasalvatrucha13, and the Aryian Nations Blastercyclists into the schools is not really a good idea.    Unless, of course, it is the actual objective of the Progressives to destroy the Nation.    Which, after all, is the truth.

     It is well to remember, that save for certain military missions, almost all activities started and supervised or controlled by the central government either are abject failures or suffer astronomical cost overruns or both.    Every business and social intrusion conducted by the central government, and almost all that are conducted by local governments, are money-losers and almost always cause many more problems than they don't cure.

      The least money paid into a morass of despair and hellishness are the one that "help" people.    The home of the brave and the land of the free, in less than 40 years has become the "place where we stays" and "this is our barrio, you diss's us by bein' here, bangbang you dead".   We have quickly developed into a nation of 29 year old grandmothers who somehow are more important than people who are human.

      We are admonished that we are "against children" if we do not vote money to "help" them.  The money goes 70% portion to bureaucrats who preside over this insanity.  The rest goes to feed and house what are increasingly sub-human entities who know only violence and procreation.   The Old Gringo submits that we are "for children" if we do something to stop the production of children born into the welfare dependency industry and the babymother culture.

 Stupid Bird

      Without taxation to support this madness and to subsidize the agriculture, food processing, food marketting, and medicaid industrial complex, our populace would be in a better position immediately to provide true charity, directly and locally controlled by people who can sort out the father who fell of the ladder and broke his leg from Jake the Crackhead who comes around every Tuesday and Saturday and Maggie Ann who comes in once a week because he boyfriend came back, beat her up, and took her "welfare", leaving the babies aged 1,3,5,6,7 unfed.   All need to be attended, but the Salvation Army could handle the job easily, gearing up on its own over a couple or three years.   Government Departments of Human Services are designed to recruit slugs, barnacles, and blobs looking not only for a handout, but a life-style of lethargy.

      The under-paid welfare office workers are making 25 to 50 thousand dollars each by "helping" the "poor".   Each depends upon the existence of the other.   It is a Luciferine symbiosis from Hell.    Throw in the Banks and the Grocery Chains and "voila!" a perfect Hell on Earth.    Before long, Americans will vote in a central government program to punish and flog the few Little Red Hens left.    They are already sawing open the Goose.

Stupid Bird!  Run!  Don't you see
the 666 Bastille Committee coming
over the hill?

Awake finally.   Maybe I can make another round of coffee.  More later, about Mexico.
El Gringo Viejo

San Francisco-Bay Area Wisdom / WARNING - STRONG CONTENT

Lamentably, the Old Gringo simply had to put this in for the sake of OROGs who think that maybe, just maybe one or two cents of the several trillion dollars that the central government has flushed down the toilet just might....might, mind you...have actually done some good.

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/10/18/bloody-gang-fight-breaks-out-at-richmond-city-hall/

This is the result of government intervention.   If one will review every problem we have in the United States of America at this time, one will quickly discover that the United States Government is involved in its funding, financing, or regulation.

 The section 8, AFDC, Food Stamps,
Medicaid culture, always best when practiced
with the whole family, is endorsed and subsidized
by the central government in Washington.
In this scene a father and mother show their daughter
how to tatoo gang emblems on one another.
Remember to pay your fair share.   These people need
to eat, too.
THIS PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT PAID FOR
BY PLANNED PARENTHOOD'S 26 YEAR OLD
GRANDMOTHERS AND BABY MOTHERS CLUB

 

Time to Give Up

LOOK!   This proves it.   CBS and The New York Times did a survey....and this proves that we are right and the Tea Party Geezers are full of it

(Credit: CBS News)

Forty-six percent of Americans say "Occupy Wall Street" represents the views of most Americans,  CBS and the New York Times...!

      This proves that the American people are convinced that no one should have the right to his own stuff, money, cats, cans of tomatoe soup, nothin'....It all belongs to _(nancypelosi and pete seeger?).. to "redistribute" fairly in a way that they determine.   From each acorning to his ability and to each acorning to his need.    And Maxine Waters is in charge.   And Jane Fonda.   And Michelle LeVaughn Robinson.   and Hillary.    and Barbra Striesand...I mean it's really awesome, like totally bash....you know?

It was in the New York Times....they did the survey with CBS,,,,,if you can't trust them, then who can you trust?

El Gringo Viejo 

 

Eye Candy

During the 1950s it was great fun to go to Faulkner's Rexall Drug Store and do the fountain thing.   They made up even the Coca Cola's, with the girl shooting one of those pull down levers of carbnated water into a 5cent or a 10cent official Coca Cola glass, mixing up a real, live Coca Cola.  She would put the ice in and slide it down the counter, like in an old cowboy movie saloon scene.

     But Even Better....and the girls would use Real Mugs....was the House Specialty, another super concoction.   It was so good we had to say our General Confession twice at Episcopal Mass.    The beer mug was a standard sized beer mug type beer mug.    They were kept in freezing compartment there in the service area behind the counter.   The girls dressed like nurses, almost...just no little winged cap.   A lot of children were wary of them because they looked like they might be hiding hypodermics somewhere.

      The mug would first be injected with a couple of generous squirts of "real live chocolate syrup" before receiving a huge scoop of really globby gooey vanilla ice cream...Golden Jersey label...something like a Cadillac in terms of quality.    Then the girl would slowly fill the mug with really great root beer, also made up from scratch.   A little carbonated water, then a little base, then a little carbonated water, then a little more base.  The base was sypplied by A&W Root Beer.   The whole thing would become a huge magnificent frothy mess that required an easy-draft straw and an iced-tea spoon in order to enjoy it all.    For that the mean old people wanted 25 cents.   But the reason for this silly post is finally here.   That drink was called a ''Black Cow".  Sometimes these drinks were so good that we left a whole dime as a gratuity.

                                                 A soda jerk passing an ice cream soda between

                                                   the dispensing faucets.  Pull for regular flow

                                                           push for high pressure skinny stream.

                                                              One had base for Coke, the other

                                                                  carbonated water....

It was more fun back then, I guess.   When we did something stupid, Mrs. Tomlin would come and scold us.   Then our parents would find out and we'd catch it at home as well.   I was only called down once.    They had the best hamburgers, BLTs, and Club Sandwiches.  On cold days they always had ground up fresh Mexican chocolate, and the girls would put whipped cream on top and a teeny squirt of the carbonated water. 

Just thinking.   Maybe the Old Gringo is waiting for the Cold Front.    Thanks for your time and patience.

El Gringo Viejo.... 

Carrying a Point Forward

Free Trade agreements do not have anything...or at most, very little...to do with jobs being transferred overseas or beyond our borders.    Those transfers had begun long, long before any free trade agreements had been inked or ratified.   By using lib-think, the media has managed to tie "job losses" to "free trade" in the minds of a somewhat inattentive American public .   Job losses come from two sources:    labour unions collectively bargaining themselves out of the labour market, and business manuevers designed to avoid over-taxation and to defend the company's bottom line.

     The first duty of any business is to its ownership, whether that be a body of stockholders, a family, an oligarchy, a single person, other companies, a reverse, retransgendered, Lesbian Eskimoe space alien, or any combination of such entities.    Employees are not "entitled'' to a position.    Companies are not "entitled" to a profit.    Nobody ain't entitled to nuthin' nohow.

       Sometimes, even when everything is done correctly and there is no avarice, sloth, fraud, or malfeasance, an earthquake comes along, or some cow kicks over a lantern, and there goes the whole thing.    Sometimes, people are so dumboe that they might even like the sound of a term like "Hope and Change" and vote for the Great Wizard who comes out from behind the Magic
Cloud and says he will take everyone to the promised land of free medical services and free access to the money and property of an undefined group referred to as the "Rich".   And horrors or horrors!    The people actually are stupid enough to vote for such a person.
        It's like voting for Dolly Parton and getting Janet Reno.   Its like going to the beach and all the girls look like Helen Thomas.   It's like going on a bird watching expedition to a place where the guide says there are a lot of birds, and you drive up to an place with 30,000,000 hens in a egg factory....rowed out in twenty long coops that look like Army Barracks.

But, going back to drawing a connection between "free trade" and "outsourcing jobs", the "twin plant" concept was drawn in between the United States and Mexico the year was 1968.  It was long before any "free trade" agressments between Mexico, Canada, and the United States.    Right now, with a combined population of 450,000,000  the North American Free Trade Zone has a combined GNP of almost 20,000,000,000,000 dollars (2o trillion) . 
     The Great Numero Uno Saviour of the World, Red China can barely eke out 5,000,000,000,000 dollars (5 trillion) dollars, with a population of 1,300,000,000  (1.3 billion) people.   That is three times the population, producing one-fourth the goods and services......OR, IN OTHER WORDS, AN ECONOMIC DENOMINATOR WHICH PLACES RED CHINA AT A  1/12TH LEVEL OF WEALTH PER CAPITA as North America.     That assumes that the data published by the Red Chinese is accurate.   It almost never is.   It also fails to take into consideration that what they build and show off as examples of the Great Improvement over the "consumer economies" of the degenerate Occidentals.    Those things that they show off to the world to-day have a bad habit of falling apart to-morrow.
      And that is with the Dumboes like us buying the crud the Red Chinese ship over here hand over fist.

B U Y E R' s    A L E R T !!!

   El Gringo Viejo has found a fairly good supply of incandescent light bulbs.   They are Sylvania, and generally can be found at HEB and other normal places.   Sometimes a person will have to look through the displays for just a bit.  These bulbs and made in Thailand, Mexico, and some place called AMERICA.  !!   They work wonderfully.   Of particular importance is that we have one of those bathrooms with a vanity light over the mirror that takes four bulbs.   The Old Gringo found some 40 watt Sylvanias to replace the two pig-tail 100 watt "euivalent" (Ha!...Hahahaha!).   And now we can see in the bathroom.    That is pretty frightening in and of itself.   Anyway...Sylvania has non-Red Chinese lightbulbs...at least for a bit longer. 


Hard and fast facts are inescapable:
     The more impediment there is to the accumulation of wealth or comfort of hearth, the more the citizenry will practice sloth and evasion.
Rules of Life as put down by the Great Guru Gringo Viejo.