Category Archives: South of the Border

Happy 180th Texas

On this day in 1836, a date few native Texans, let alone the hoards of newcomers fleeing the Democrat-Obama economy, actually remember, Texas broke away from Mexico and became a republic.

Of course there was a little matter of a war to win to make it so, but that proceeded more or less apace. After looking pretty dicey at San Antonio and Goliad. But all’s well that ends well, eh? Texas became the 28th state nine years later, on Dec. 29, 1845.

Via Legacy of Texas.

Reprise: Mexico penal innocents

One more excellant reason not to get arrested in Mexico for anything even remotely serious. Forty-two percent of Mexican prison inmates are legally innocent because they have never been sentenced, says Mark in Mexico.

“And the reason they’ve never been sentenced is usually because there is not enough evidence to convict them. So the prosecutors never call their cases. The inmates have no lawyers representing them to force the issue. So they are forgotten.”

So you have a lawyer, right? Good for you. Next up, bureaucratic entropy.

Mark, meanwhile, disappeared years ago. No one knows what happened to him. Mexico is such a mysterious place. Especially if you criticize the government.

Reprise: Ran Runnels, The Hangman of Panama

They’re still trying to figure out if Randolph Runnels really was a Texas Ranger before he was hired by the builders of the first transcontinental railroad (forty-seven miles across the Isthmus of Panama connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific) to solve a nasty bandido problem.

Runnels didn’t fit the physical image of a Ranger, according to historian David McCullough in his 1992 book Brave Companions, but he acted the myth well enough: he hanged seventy-eight men in two separate incidents in 1852 and, lo and behold, the banditry stopped. The Texas Rangers Association apparently has no record of Ran’s Ranger service, but their records admittedly aren’t complete.

But at least one railroad historian found sources crediting the Ranger tale, and there was a Runnels who had to do with the Rangers in the 1850s, Texas Gov. Hardin Runnels who took office in 1858. He was a champion of the Indian-fighting Rangers and he may have been Randolph’s brother.

A rainy winter ahead

A strong El Nino tends to bring lots of rain to Central Texas, and meteorologists say the latest El Nino is continuing to grow stronger.

“The forecaster consensus remains nearly unchanged, with the expectation that this El Niño could rank among the top three strongest episodes as measured by the 3-month SST departures in the Niño 3.4 region going back to 1950.”

Via KXAN Weather blog

Diluting the stock

“A country is a lot like a company and the citizens are stock holders. It’s not a perfect analogy, but a useful one. What our rulers seek to do is dilute the value of citizenship by offering it to whoever staggers along….

“If everyone on earth is eligible for the benefits of citizenship, as long as they get to America, what point is there in being a citizen? More important, why would anyone try to make the country better? The whole point of investing in a company or a country is to make it better. In the case of a country, better for your descendants. If the children of foreigners are going to take from your kids the fruit of your labor, why bother?”

Why, indeed. Especially if the foreigners staggering in plan to do it on welfare.

Via Mouth of The Brazos.

Three views on our new Cuba relations

From The Z Man:

“In reality, Obama is just doing the bidding of American business. The tourism rackets, gambling rackets and, of course, the bankers see big profits in Cuba. This news story from the spring [0f 2014] lays out the case for normalizing relations so big business can cash in on Cuba. It is easy to forget that Cuba was a food exporter before Castro. They can also be a source of cheap labor for American business. Our rulers will also enjoy vacationing there as well.”

On the other hand, via Miriam’s Ideas:

“Step outside of the official tourist route and one soon sees the real Cuba. It is here, amidst the prostitutes and the elderly people rummaging through [trash] bins in central Havana, that one starts to understand why many Cubans might like a few branches of McDonalds in their country. Cheap plastic food is, after all, a good deal better than no food at all.”

And from native Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez:

“…Raul Castro has not reduced the repression against dissidents, which in February reached the figure of 492 arbitrary arrests. The Castro regime extends a hand to the White House, while keeping its boot pressed on the non-conformists in its own backyard. However, the disproportion of the negotiating forces between the two governments has been noted, even in popular jokes. ‘Did you know that the United States and Cuba broke off relations again?’ one of the incautious mocked in December. Before an incredulous, ‘Noooo?!’ the jokester responds with a straight face: ‘Yes, Obama was upset because Raul called him collect.’ There is all the material poverty of our nation contained in that phrase.”

Mr. B.’s generation, as yet unnamed by the trendy, will know how it all works out.

The 12th Man vs the 12th Imam

While they’re busy building nuclear bombs under an appeasing American president’s new agreement, the Iranian mullahs need to finally own up to a flaw in their theology.

Their hidden 12th Imam is a corruption, a foolish misunderstanding of the 12th Man at Texas A&M University. That’s why the 12th Imam is hidden. He’s a long way away from Iran.

Now that they’ll be getting all the nukes they want, plus billions of American dollars to help them buy conventional arms to keep up the terrorism they support worldwide, the least they can do is admit their theological mistake.

It’s time for them to bow to the superior Aggie concept of the 12th Man.