Friday 28 February 2014

Who Cares? We all should.


~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Charge Of The Light Brigade

by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
1809-1892


 Alfred, Lord Tennyson1809-1892
This poem was written to memorialize a suicidal charge by light cavalry over open terrain by British forces in the Battle of Balaclava (Ukraine) in the Crimean War (1854-56). 247 men of the 637 in the charge were killed or wounded. Britain entered the war, which was fought by Russia against Turkey, Britain and France, because Russia sought to control the Dardanelles. Russian control of the Dardanelles threatened British sea routes.
Many in the west best know of this war today because of Florence Nightingale, who trained and led nurses aiding the wounded during the war in a manner innovative for those times. The War was also noteworthy as an early example of the work of modern war correspondents.








The Charge Of The Light Brigade

by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Memorializing Events in the Battle of Balaclava, October 25, 1854
Written 1854



Half a league half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred:
'Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns' he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismay'd ?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Some one had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do & die,
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd & thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack & Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke,
Shatter'd & sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse & hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!

 
Note: This poem, including punctuation, is reproduced
 from a scan of the poem written out by Tennyson in his own hand later, in 1864. The scan was made available online by the University of Virginia.
- See more at: http://www.nationalcenter.org/ChargeoftheLightBrigade.html#sthash.IIsdCbR8.dpuf
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Republican Referenda - Primary 2014

Republican referendums:
 
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM  - Texans should be free to express their religious beliefs, including prayer, in public places.

SECOND AMENDMENT -  Texas should support Second Amendment liberties by expanding locations where concealed handgun license-holders may legally carry.

FRANCHISE TAX - Texas should abolish the state franchise tax, also known as the margins tax, to encourage business growth.

WELFARE REFORM -  Texas recipients of taxpayer-funded public assistance should be subject to random drug testing as a condition of receiving benefits.

NO LAWMAKER EXCEPTIONS -  All elected officials and their staff should be subject to the same laws, rules, regulations, and ordinances as their constituents

OBAMACARE -
The Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare," should be repealed.

 
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
 
    This is pretty much something that the Rightwing Crazies, Tea Party Folks, Country Club Hootsey-Snootseys, and Libertartian Elephants can pretty much come together over.   One does remember, however George Herbert Walker Bush telling a reporter, ''I'm a conservative, but I'm just not going to be crazy about it!''
     We are well past the point when we can continue to be reasonable with our basic liberties and budget matters in the American Republic.  The only "reasonable" position is one that totally eschews any thought of further debt tolerance or deficit spending.
 
El Gringo Viejo
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ghouls, Gobbledegook, and Other Ghastly Gibberish

________________________________________________________
 


 
     The mainframe picture in the Drudge Report is well placed, but the answer is that the Empress of the Universe and most intelligent and beautiful woman in the history, before and after all Eternity,  has always had since her time at Wellesley, severe intellectual and mental health problems.   Her condition was complicated by the fact that she was born with no soul.   The area where her soul was to be installed was stuffed full of rotted narcissus blossoms, at her request, and then she was sent down to an unsuspecting Republican family in Ohio.   For that reason, she has always been a fervent New York Yankees fan, and remains so to this day, having become even more dedicated to the game of American-style football.
 
     The question remains:   Can a frumpy, infirmed Old Hag who truly has no special or general qualifications to do anything beside worry about herself and be as ruthless and unblinking as a cobra.....actually respond to a telephone ringing by the beside at 03:00 hours in the White House?   Only time will tell.   If, in fact, the bell tolls for Her Majesty before she melts down into a pool of green, smelly slime, time will tell.
 
     (Sir Edmund) Hillary's soliloquy a couple of days ago, when she responded to carefully scripted questions, as would any self-respecting, unblinking cobra was classic (Sir Edmund).  She extolled the wondrous social and cultural progress that will be unleashed when all woman-kind will be able to stay a home and have subsidised  medical services, paid by the tax-paying 50% and try on muumuus and watch re-runs of Oprah and The View.   Just think about what kind of social, medical, engineering, literary, and business advances can be made by having subsidies such as that.   After all, the entire Obama Socialised Medicine Initiative (OSMI) was secretly designed to set women and young people and the oppressed free from silly things like paying one's own way.
 
     We must remember that the OSMI was designed to replace the Whitewater, Corkscrew, and Kattlefutchers Nationalised Health System (The WC and KNHS)  originally designed by good ole' (Sir Edmund) Hillary back in 1993....that went down in 200 million pages of regulation and throat-choking control worth of flames....after having been brewed up by some 4,000 marxists and elitists for several months.   That brewing was done, of course, completely behind closed doors.
     Besides controlling Bimbo Eruptions, corruptly running off the White House Travel Agency people, and collecting many, many hundreds of FBI classified raw-data personnel files (possession of each file a separate 3-year felony), the Queen of Everything and Forever found out but never admitted that she was not only deranged and incompetent, but also pretty much useless in terms  of almost anything, including baking cookies.
     In Washington, District of Colombia such qualifications qualifies a dysfunctional person to become referred to as "....a kind of co-president....deeply involved in the day-to-day running of America as is her husband..." as would gush the Obsolete Media in those days.
 
 
Fast Forward and Furious to the Present:
 
     In 2009, the adult American public had 85 per cent coverage for medical issues, and further almost 90 per cent  of that cohort was  very satisfied with the coverage they had.   There was another 5 per cent who was essentially not insured because they had resources that could cover even the most catastrophic medical matters.
     That would leave the slugs who walked into the emergency rooms of America with a 101 fever.   Also, it left to be covered that cohort of hundreds upon thousands of people who would be dumped off at hospitals with bullet wounds, or with a butcher knife imbedded in the chest.  Some, of course, would be delivered by a 300 dollar ambulance ride.   But whatever and however they arrived they received medical services....legal, illegal, with or without money.   They even arrived without any discernible illness or injury but with the need to receive attention.  And they would take up time of med-techs, middle and high skill nurses, doctors and surgeons of all stripes and types.
     And it was all "free".

     We were told that there were 15,000,000 people who had no "health care".  Then the number increased to 20,000,000 people who were dying in the streets from hunger and lack of medical intervention because of Republican indifference.   A few weeks more would go by and we would learn that there were 35,000,000 people "with no health-care".
     We knew such to be a lie.  We knew that people who "had Medicaid" paid nothing and received everything, and furthermore we knew that we...the productive and self-provident....were paying for their "free medical".   We resented it, but knew that without our indulgence their misery would increase.  We also knew that almost all of their misery was artificially induced, caused by indifference and self-indulgence, or because of drugs, alcohols, or criminal activity.  Little matter.  We were the ones who paid.  County Health Departments, State Health Departments, charitable donations to private health operations, and so forth....we paid through direct and indirect taxation and from contributions.   That was "free medical".
     The OSMI still provides the "free medical", except it is now expanded into Miss Flukie "entitlements" and folded into Medicaid "entitlements".  So it will cost ever so much more, with a Cast of Hundreds upon Thousands of ex-ACORN slugs serving as "navigators" and legions of Lois Lerner robot IRS agents being loosed upon the hapless self-providers.


     There is nothing quite as "free" as the bondage caused by addiction to entitlement.   It is the kind of "free" item that causes a person to lose everything.
El Gringo Viejo
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 

A Few Notes and Topics - Back up in Texas

     Times have been interesting during our stay down in the Mexican outback this time.   For the second occasion in the past several months, for instance, we had our five senses confused and dazed by strange orbs, four in total, moving through the sky in our normal viewing area.   This time, the event was much briefer, perhaps two minutes, with a follow-up orb coming behind about six or seven minutes after the first batch.
      They all followed the same path, first four or five, and then finally the last one several minutes later.   The last one diverted from the SSW to NNE alienation, after completing 90% of the same route, but suddenly making an instant 90 degree turn to the NNW.....as if desiring to make a run to Saltillo.
     All this activity was in the same general area, somewhat higher in elevation, but running in the opposite direction from the much more numerous  orbs that were sighted a few months ago.   The more recent ones also appeared much earlier, and ended much,  much more quickly....within very few minutes.
_____________________________________________________________
 
 
 
THE COLD:
 
     This stay, like the previous one, was marked by cold.   Cool days with temperatures in the mid to upper 40s up to nearly 60 and chilly to downright cold during the night-time and earliest morning periods.   This all finished up with  fairly heavy rains  this morning, along with skin-burning, frigid winds that gusted all night long up into the 40 mph level.
      For the first part of our stay, suffice to say that a lot of firewood was burned so as to keep man and beast maintained at some level of comfort.   The rain will be helpful for the advance of the crops however, and the several millions of acres of sorghum (and now soy-beans showing up) are off to a rousing start.  We hope for another rousing year for the sorghum producers and their profit outlook.  Almost the entire route between Reynosa and then beyond San Fernando is committed to sorghum production (now with certain other crops edging in) and all plantings seem to have sprouted and show to be off to a rousing start.
____________________________________________
 
 
 
TOMORROW:
 
     More commentary is on the way concerning the capture of El Chapo Guzman, other encounters by the Mexican military, and the state of affairs of the Texas Primary Election scene.   We should be sending out messages during the afternoon in all probability.
 
El Gringo Viejo
_________________________________________
 

 
_____________________________________________

Wednesday 12 February 2014

Ted Cruz reaches out to OROGs and others who are Free and Sovereign Citizens

______________________________________________________________________
 
 
   http://www.scribd.com/doc/201478237/Letter-from-Sen-Ted-Cruz-to-Eric-Holder-on-the-IRS-s-Targeting-of-Conservative-Groups"  style="text-decoration: underline;" >Letter from Sen. Ted Cruz to Eric Holder on the IRS's Targeting of Conservative Groups
by http://www.scribd.com/SenatorTedCruz"  style="text-decoration: underline;" >Senator Ted Cruz
 
 
 
__________________________________________________________________________
 
 
 
Ted Cruz does not fear the Windmill.
 
      Nor do I.  We have signed this particular petition and would like to share the letter that he is "nailing to the door".  As a pitcher in baseball, my forte was the straightaway fast ball.  During a good game, which were several, my accuracy was at least good enough to quarter a plate and hit that quarter 95% of the time.  When accuracy was a little short in supply, the batters made up for it by standing back and lightly at the plate.
     I never understood the point behind wasting a pitch.  The objective, in my mind was to have every inning be a nine-pitch inning.   It did not happen often, but it did happen often enough to keep trying it.
     We understand the mind-games and the deflections and the feints to this or that pitch or manoeuvre.  But our blood is given to the direct resolution of issues and conflict.  Peace is brought by victory in war.
 
     This is a war against the sovereignty of the common citizen.  I intend to be on the winning side of truth, and I shall comply with that intent.
 
El Gringo Viejo
______________________________________________________________________

A surprising position by El Gringo Viejo - please take this sitting down

________________________________________________
 
 
 
      There is a bit of a problem for the Democrats, who are celebrating a
"victory" in obtaining the authorisation for further indebting ourchildren, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren from the hapless Republican majority in the lower House of the United States Congress.   Rush is playing it  that way, as are various Obsolete Media outlets.  Harry Reid is strutting around and celebrating the early death of the "tea party extremists" and feeling very empowered and fulfilled.
 
     There is only one problem for Harry, Barry, and Scarypelosi.  The authorisation for the debt limit increase is for the length of one year and one month.   One year, as in 12 March 2015.   That means that the number one Superscary, Boo the Vote, hokum pokum bologna polka about the debt limit increase and the Republicans jeopardising the  Full Faith and Credit of the Estados Unidos de NorteAmerica....is a dead letter suddenly.   It may be occurring to Father Obamaham right now....and he is stalking down to Valerie Jerrod's office to ask if she had thought about the "Demonise the Elephants, Episode 1,395" and the need to do these things at or just before the national general elections.
     Barry the Abominable is demanding at this second, perhaps, "Why did you tell me to let them do that?   What is the exit strategy now?   Not sign the  deal? Have Harry hang up the vote in the Senate and blame Ted Cruz?   Where do we go with this thing now?  Increase the minimum wage to $23.12/ hr. USD?
_____________________________________________________________




 
    The other shibboleths are of lower interest, and therefore of lesser use to play in the harem-scarem, Boo the Vote Polka band.   The Democrats have the dead chicken of Obama's Socialised Medicine Initiative (OSMI) hanging around their necks.  It will stink all the way to November of the year 2525.
     Barry has "given" the oppressed a 10.10/hr. USD base wage, and so even that will have to wait before he can raise it to 12.83/hr. USD.    Global Warming will have to wait for a bit until things thaw out, and the Unions are going to go rubber-knee'd because of the Keystone Project having been held up.  Youth vote, women's vote, "Hispanic vote", "African-American" vote....substantially dis-inflated.  The New ACORN will have to really, really work hard to Rock the Vote....and hard work is not the strong suit of the kind of white-trash who work in "community organising and mobilisation".
 
    So let's see.   I do not suspect that Boehner did this intentionally.   Slipping punches, dancing like a butterfly and stinging like a bee are not Boehner's strong suits.   He is a dull, used up, old pol who is a typical pinky-type conservative who really likes to bring bacon home to the Chamber of Commerce hypocrites.  With luck he will not run in 2016, and/or with more luck, we will have a brazen, fearless batch of new. unwashed, non-RINO, regular folks who are unsophisticated enough to stay in with the mission.   The mission is to scale back all non-military, central government activity and spending by at least 20% in 2017.
 
Let us see how this thing works out.
El Gringo Viejo