Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
The Fall of the US
I heard the following story on Glen Beck awhile back and it brought shivers to me again.....Apparently back in the '50's ( yep back when I was born....) Ezra Taft Benson, then Secretary of Agriculture under Eisenhower reluctently met with Russian Prime Minister Nikita Krushchev, when this exchange took place:
Ezra Taft Benson at the behest of President Dwight Eisenhower met with Nikita Khrushchev. Following is the transcript: “I have personally witnessed the heart rendering results of the loss of freedom. I have talked face to face with a Godless Communist leader. It may surprise you to learn that I was host to Mr. Khrushchev for a half day when he visited the U.S. I’m not proud of it. I opposed his coming in and I still feel it was a mistake to welcome this atheistic murderer as a state visitor but according to President Eisenhower, Khrushchev had expressed the desire to learn something of American agriculture and after seeing Russian agriculture, I can understand why. “As we talked face to face, he indicated that my grandchildren would live under communism. After assuring him that I planned to do all in my power to assure that his and all other grandchildren would live under freedom, he arrogantly declared in substance, ‘You Americans are so gullible. No, you won’t accept communism outright but we will keep feeding strong doses of socialism until you finally wake up and find you already have communism. We won’t have to fight you. We’ll so weaken your economy until you fall like over ripe fruit into our hands.’”
Scary ain't it?
Ezra Taft Benson at the behest of President Dwight Eisenhower met with Nikita Khrushchev. Following is the transcript: “I have personally witnessed the heart rendering results of the loss of freedom. I have talked face to face with a Godless Communist leader. It may surprise you to learn that I was host to Mr. Khrushchev for a half day when he visited the U.S. I’m not proud of it. I opposed his coming in and I still feel it was a mistake to welcome this atheistic murderer as a state visitor but according to President Eisenhower, Khrushchev had expressed the desire to learn something of American agriculture and after seeing Russian agriculture, I can understand why. “As we talked face to face, he indicated that my grandchildren would live under communism. After assuring him that I planned to do all in my power to assure that his and all other grandchildren would live under freedom, he arrogantly declared in substance, ‘You Americans are so gullible. No, you won’t accept communism outright but we will keep feeding strong doses of socialism until you finally wake up and find you already have communism. We won’t have to fight you. We’ll so weaken your economy until you fall like over ripe fruit into our hands.’”
Scary ain't it?
Friday, February 20, 2009
Famous Quotes by an Infamous Man
"This year will go down in history. For the first time,a civilised nation has full gun registration!Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient,and the world will follow our lead into the future!"
"The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed the subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non for the overthrow of any sovereignty."
"Why nationalize industry when you can nationalize the people?"
"The great masses of the people ...will more easily fall victimsto a big lie than to a small one."
"Without law and order our nation cannot survive."
"The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed, for the vast masses of a nation are in the depths of their hearts more easily deceived than they are consciously and intentionally bad. The primitive simplicity of their minds renders them a more easy prey to a big lie than a small one, for they themselves often tell little lies, but would be ashamed to tell big lies."
"What luck for the rulers that men do not think."
-Adolph Hitler
"The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed the subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non for the overthrow of any sovereignty."
"Why nationalize industry when you can nationalize the people?"
"The great masses of the people ...will more easily fall victimsto a big lie than to a small one."
"Without law and order our nation cannot survive."
"The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed, for the vast masses of a nation are in the depths of their hearts more easily deceived than they are consciously and intentionally bad. The primitive simplicity of their minds renders them a more easy prey to a big lie than a small one, for they themselves often tell little lies, but would be ashamed to tell big lies."
"What luck for the rulers that men do not think."
-Adolph Hitler
So Simple a Chimp Could Understand it....
Finally, somebody gets the idea of the porkulus bill correct. So what happens? It inspires protests and near riots throughout the mentality deficient north....I guess what's good for the goose isn't good for the gander huh...
Great minds like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackoff call it "racist" and outrage grows.....Gee, it sure is swell to see el presidente and his administration of thugs, charlatans and losers melting down right before our collective eyes ain't it? I just hope they get 'er done before the damage is too great to repair. I'm sure not holding my breath though...
I think it's time to call a chimp a chimp.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Chili's
Well, the latest local victim of the George Bush administration is the new Chili’s restaurant in Port Isabel. Hell isn’t everything George Bush’s fault?
Opened for a little over a year, I understand from insiders that their operating costs are around 30K / month, and their gross doesn’t generally exceed 18K / month, a rather large discrepancy.
However
Informed sources also state that a major chunk of the 30K / month operating cost is property lease and City taxes.
Nothing new here.
The City of Port Isabel has long been recognized for it’s arbitrary and confiscatory tax rates. Hell, the residents of the eastern part of the Fingers area pay something like 23 dollars a square foot, residential tax rates, while their neighbors right across the road, on the western part of the fingers pay about three and a half backs a square foot, and over at Port of Call the rate is eleven dollars. All of these areas are of contemporaneous property value, all waterfront, so these rates are puzzling to a number of the residents of the eastern Fingers who rightly feel that there’s just no rhyme or reason. Could it be because certain members of the City Commission hold land in select low tax rate areas? Nothing new here either….in fact politics as usual in the third world-third coast.
It is an area that would cut off it’s proverbial nose to spite it’s rather dumb face.
In the case of Chili’s, would it not be better for members of the City Commission, the esteemed mayor, Joe Verga to try and negotiate, perhaps even show up, hats in hand to see what can be done to try and encourage business to remain in this economically distressed area? Some income is certainly better than none.
But apparently a Machismo-Machiavellian attitude prevails, blinding these folks with visions of enrichment.
That is why Port Isabel has been, and always will be a second class city.
Opened for a little over a year, I understand from insiders that their operating costs are around 30K / month, and their gross doesn’t generally exceed 18K / month, a rather large discrepancy.
However
Informed sources also state that a major chunk of the 30K / month operating cost is property lease and City taxes.
Nothing new here.
The City of Port Isabel has long been recognized for it’s arbitrary and confiscatory tax rates. Hell, the residents of the eastern part of the Fingers area pay something like 23 dollars a square foot, residential tax rates, while their neighbors right across the road, on the western part of the fingers pay about three and a half backs a square foot, and over at Port of Call the rate is eleven dollars. All of these areas are of contemporaneous property value, all waterfront, so these rates are puzzling to a number of the residents of the eastern Fingers who rightly feel that there’s just no rhyme or reason. Could it be because certain members of the City Commission hold land in select low tax rate areas? Nothing new here either….in fact politics as usual in the third world-third coast.
It is an area that would cut off it’s proverbial nose to spite it’s rather dumb face.
In the case of Chili’s, would it not be better for members of the City Commission, the esteemed mayor, Joe Verga to try and negotiate, perhaps even show up, hats in hand to see what can be done to try and encourage business to remain in this economically distressed area? Some income is certainly better than none.
But apparently a Machismo-Machiavellian attitude prevails, blinding these folks with visions of enrichment.
That is why Port Isabel has been, and always will be a second class city.
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Get Over It!
-The more I think about it....
Old Billy was right
Let's kill all the lawyers
Let's kill 'em tonight!
-Don Henley, Get Over It
Old Billy was right
Let's kill all the lawyers
Let's kill 'em tonight!
-Don Henley, Get Over It
The Leaning Tower of South Padre
Graft and corruption in Washington?
High ranking politicians making hair brained decisions?
Hell, I think they might take some direction from the Laguna Desmadre area…..or maybe vice-versa. Take for example the Ocean Towers project located on the north end of the Island, just past Andy Bowie Park, there on Cameron County Land.
Ocean Towers SPI (OTSPI) was to be built as one of the first really big high rises on the sand spit that we call South Padre Island. The County Politicos….the infamous late, not-so-great, Pedro “peckerhead” Benavides, then precinct County Commish, (since his none-too-soon demise replaced by none other than his grieving widow Sophia “the talking sphincter” Benavides) along with the rest of the counties stooges: John “morning” Wood, , Edna “asshole” Tamayo, David “douchebag” Garza and of course the two most culpable criminals of them all, Gilbert “pussychaser” Hinojosa and his replacement speedy-gonzalez lackey Carlos “cuntface” Cascos along with nefarious Park Mis-management Javier “la rata” Mendez and Jolly Joe Verga (better known as the Mexican Laurel and Hardy’s) gave their unanimous blessings to the project, and of course the money exchanged hands beneath the table (accompanied by the jubilant grito) and everybody went away smiling.
The developer, a certain Mr. Clayton set about making the big building a reality. Between the county and the developer, engineering “studies” were held (with the requisite wink and nod), and an out of town firm, Coastal engineering gave the assurance that the project would work out allright.
Now I’m not sure where in the world they got this idea from. You see, South Padre Island is an delicate, shifting barrier island with a base that is a very poorly consolidated mudstone (actually a quasi mudstone) called the Prairie Terrace, something totally incapable of holding back the concentrated weight that the OTSPI was designed as. It was evident to anyone who had seen the plan that it would be like trying to anchor the thing in bread dough.
And sure enough, before the building was even complete it began to sink into the mire…..attaining a most evident lean, not unlike the leaning tower of Pisa.
Construction was halted and the area was cordoned off. The principals began the furious back pedal, but aside from a flurry of immediate publication in the local rags, the whole mess became back burner, manana news as is the case of so many failures, mistakes and political blunders here on the third world- third coast.
So what’s to become of this great eyesore? Nobody knows for sure.
Perhaps, like so many other local eyesores (and believe me there are plenty of them here, starting with the SPI City Manager Dewey Dickweed) it will simply be left to rot in place, eventually falling down across already raped and ruined sand dunes and formally pristine island expanse. It's what we want, it's what we deserve.
Who knows? Worse yet…..who cares?
Monday, February 02, 2009
Since I last checked in....
It's been awhile since I've added anything new to this site. Probably doesn't get a lot of viewing anyhow......
Well, that's fixin' to change yasee.....
A lot of things are transpiring (have transpired) since my last missive, and so I have some catching up to do.
Like talking about the leaning tower of South Padre Island....
Or the recent closure of Gabriellas Restaurant in Port Isabel, and the impending closure of the Chilis too (betcha some of you locals don't know that yet).....Yep, it has to do with weird tax rates, Laguna Desmadre good ol' conjunto politics and our downright penchant for corruption here on the third world-third coast.
Of course I haven't even begun to rant about the new boy in the White House yet, and his plans for "economic stabilization".
Suffice it to say me and mine are:
a) becoming well armed (and proficient with those arms)
b) seeking to creatively disburse / hide / protect assets
c) seek out other like minded individuals
d) plan escape routes
So just stand by. I'll get back here REAL soon....Until then, keep your powder dry.
Well, that's fixin' to change yasee.....
A lot of things are transpiring (have transpired) since my last missive, and so I have some catching up to do.
Like talking about the leaning tower of South Padre Island....
Or the recent closure of Gabriellas Restaurant in Port Isabel, and the impending closure of the Chilis too (betcha some of you locals don't know that yet).....Yep, it has to do with weird tax rates, Laguna Desmadre good ol' conjunto politics and our downright penchant for corruption here on the third world-third coast.
Of course I haven't even begun to rant about the new boy in the White House yet, and his plans for "economic stabilization".
Suffice it to say me and mine are:
a) becoming well armed (and proficient with those arms)
b) seeking to creatively disburse / hide / protect assets
c) seek out other like minded individuals
d) plan escape routes
So just stand by. I'll get back here REAL soon....Until then, keep your powder dry.
Monday, June 16, 2008
The Great Isla Blanca Lifeguard Discussion
There have been 4 drownings this year in Isla Blanca Park. Therefore it's time to enter into the Isla Blanca Lifeguard discussion once again.
Every few years when the heat gets turned up on Cameron Cunty, the administration of Parks and Recreation do what they do the very best.......they host a series of meetings and discussions and talk about the feasibility of implementing a life guard system at one of the busiest most dangerous beaches along the entire Gulf Coast. And so the park honchos, Javier Mendex and Joe Verga get their lunches paid for, get to disappear from any real work, and ultimately when the issue goes before the Cunty Commissioners, it is tabled again until the next paroxism of public outrage surfaces...every couple of years.
Lifeguards at Isla Blanca Park? Don't hold your breath or bet your life on it.
Every few years when the heat gets turned up on Cameron Cunty, the administration of Parks and Recreation do what they do the very best.......they host a series of meetings and discussions and talk about the feasibility of implementing a life guard system at one of the busiest most dangerous beaches along the entire Gulf Coast. And so the park honchos, Javier Mendex and Joe Verga get their lunches paid for, get to disappear from any real work, and ultimately when the issue goes before the Cunty Commissioners, it is tabled again until the next paroxism of public outrage surfaces...every couple of years.
Lifeguards at Isla Blanca Park? Don't hold your breath or bet your life on it.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
The Wisdom of Saul (Ochoa)
Would you buy a used car from this man? No....but a lot of people entrusted him to be a Cunty Constable.....meanwhile he was selling dope on the side.
Of course the Cunty itself weighed in. The Cunty Judge, Karlos ("Napoleon") Casco-rones as usual talked out of both sides of his mouth, a couple of the cunty cumissioners expressed "surprise"...hell, how could an erected awful-official be capable of such a thing here en La Frontera, northmost Matamoros?
Buncha goddamn jerks.
They ought to be castrated (in the case of the males), or have their pussy lips sown shut in the case of the female type politico excuses for their complacence over generations of mismanagement of South Texas, so that neither genders has the ability to breed any more of their own worthless genetically inferior kind.
Hell, do we have to remind them of the pussy chasing Gilberto Hinojosa (who has recently resurfaced in another morph of human excrement), Conrado Cantu ("El Animo", I think "El Pendajo" is better though - one of the most corrupt sheriffs in recent history anywhere in the US.....oh I almost forgot....this ain't quite the US), Mark Yates (Who besides violating the Sherman anti-trust laws, inadvertently "gave" up all of the social security numbers to the public of all cunty employees by "mistake"....you should've seen the cunty scramble to try and save it's worthless asshole on that one!) or Rob Almon (tit grabbing fill in for Mark Yates) as just a few of the most recent shining examples of Cameron Cunty politics at its best?
Nope folks, thinks aren't likely to change till you demand better, and start watching over these worthless fucksticks with microscopic vision.
With respect to our history, I don't think that's too likely to happen though.
Two Minute Warning
Well....Yesterday I quit my phony-baloney county administrators job after Edna ("The Cunt") Tamayo sent me several insulting and degrading emails. I finally had enough, and I fired back an email to the wrinkled old bitch admonishing her for being such a goddamn, self aggrandizing, ignorant, prurient asshole.
The I realized that most of the verbiage I used probably wouldn't even register in the first place. Hell, her grasp of the English Language is so fucking poor to begin with that she would have a hard time discerning between the words "aggrandizement", "aggregate" and "aggravation". So I sent the smelly old hag another missive with that in mind.
Then I sent my two minute warning to the management, shut off my county cell phone and put my ID badge in the desk and left....
No Enda, it does not take a village, an army or anything else to raise a child. It takes caring and involved parents (which apparently you never had.....the best part of you ran down your mothers hairy leg)....
All of the learning centers, parks and other edifices that you are building in all of the "economically depressed" areas of your precinct of the Tragic Valley will become more billboards for more graffiti and vandalism.
You see Edna, these "children" are simply the soul-less vermin that inherit this area after you and all of your kind who espouse "entitlement" and "compassion" for our "recent immigrants" in order to engender more votes for your political gain foster are left with. They are the orts and leavings of people who fuck for pleasure and do not worry about the consequences thereof. They are the unwanted and unholy, who will forever be a problem to society, and much of it is YOUR FAULT.
Better you take the 6.5 million Certificate of Obligation dollars you absconded with and plow it into involuntary sterilization clinics for these people.
So, therefore I have declared war on you and all of your kind, and will do my best to expose your plots to subvert and mismanage the taxpayers money on parks, learning centers and the other nonsense that will quickly become more third world problem areas.
Be aware, I'm watching you and the other clowns in the Cunty Commission, and I am hell bent on exposing your wrongdoings.
The I realized that most of the verbiage I used probably wouldn't even register in the first place. Hell, her grasp of the English Language is so fucking poor to begin with that she would have a hard time discerning between the words "aggrandizement", "aggregate" and "aggravation". So I sent the smelly old hag another missive with that in mind.
Then I sent my two minute warning to the management, shut off my county cell phone and put my ID badge in the desk and left....
No Enda, it does not take a village, an army or anything else to raise a child. It takes caring and involved parents (which apparently you never had.....the best part of you ran down your mothers hairy leg)....
All of the learning centers, parks and other edifices that you are building in all of the "economically depressed" areas of your precinct of the Tragic Valley will become more billboards for more graffiti and vandalism.
You see Edna, these "children" are simply the soul-less vermin that inherit this area after you and all of your kind who espouse "entitlement" and "compassion" for our "recent immigrants" in order to engender more votes for your political gain foster are left with. They are the orts and leavings of people who fuck for pleasure and do not worry about the consequences thereof. They are the unwanted and unholy, who will forever be a problem to society, and much of it is YOUR FAULT.
Better you take the 6.5 million Certificate of Obligation dollars you absconded with and plow it into involuntary sterilization clinics for these people.
So, therefore I have declared war on you and all of your kind, and will do my best to expose your plots to subvert and mismanage the taxpayers money on parks, learning centers and the other nonsense that will quickly become more third world problem areas.
Be aware, I'm watching you and the other clowns in the Cunty Commission, and I am hell bent on exposing your wrongdoings.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
A Post from CB
I received the following in email from my old friend CB who now lives in Austin (Autism)...."Keep Austin Wierd" motherfuckers...but keep it THERE...Don't bring it here!
Nonetheless this story was so good, and the lesson in discernment so profound, I just couldn't resist adding it here.
As I walked through the parking lot of Austin's toney Central Market this evening, a young man approached me with a prescription drug vial prominently displayed in his outstretched hand. His expression was theatrically plaintive. "Please, sir," he said in a trembling voice, "I've run out of anxiety medicine and I need just 4 dollars to buy more!" He sure did look stressed. I don't blame him, begging is a high-stress occupation. I stood silently for some time, considering what I would say to him (and no doubt worsening his anxiety). First, I wanted to recognize his superior effort in developing a unique pitch. I really thought he ought to seek employment in Austin's thriving theater scene.
A few years ago, in a strikingly similar encounter in an HEB parking lot in Weslaco, a man asked me for $10 so he could take his wife, who was dying of cancer, to the hospital. He didn't have any money, he just needed $10 for a taxi to the hospital. Leukemia, he said. She's dying. Please, sir. Uncharacteristically, I broke down and gave him $5.
"But sir", he said, I need $10 for the taxi." "Don't you have any family?" I asked. "Yes sir." "Well, you should get the rest from them."
A week later, the very same man approached me in the same parking lot and asked money for some other emergency. I looked him straight in the eye, and asked, "How's your wife?" "What?" He asked. "My wife? I'm not married." I then reminded him that I had given him $5 the week before to take his wife to the hospital. He seemed to ignore this fact, or perhaps had completely forgotten it altogether. As I walked away, he asked, "Well, how about giving me $5 today?"
I'm thinking now that he could be an advisory to Hillary's campaign. Despite all indications, he just kept pushing relentlessly on.
Every day I pass a dozen panhandlers at busy streetcorners with cardboard signs. Most are remarkably similar. Please! Anything helps!! ☺ Will work for food! ☺ Single mother of 3 - Need help! And so on. Lots of smiley faces and exclamation points. A few have pretty clever signs, because they know that if they can lure you into eye contact it will be a lot harder for you to get away without paying. They all appear to be able-bodied and at least have the where-with-all to carry on their acting routines until they have conned enough cash to get stoned again.
I went to lunch with a coworker today. The kitchen and cashier of the jewish deli were staffed 80% by Mexican immigrants who had managed to communicate passably well in English, despite a lack of formal training. They were efficient and pleasant, and appeared to enjoy working. In the median strip just outside the restaurant was another gaunt anglo panhandler with a cheesy cardboard sign.
Like you, I've worked since a young age. I was motivated out of necessity and a drive to succeed. I always enjoyed working, whether it was on the factory line, or waiting on tables, or out in the remote mountains of Guatemala, or in my cushy agency office job. I have no sympathy for people who will not work. You're hungry? You need medicine? Shelter? Clothing? Psychiatric counciling? Good. Maybe when you get really hungry, you will be motivated to be of some use to society. Have a nice day! ☺
I didn't have a penny for the anxiety-ridden limosnero, nor words of advice. However, one night a week ago as I pulled up to a gas pump, I noticed a car parked at an odd angle at one of the other pumps. As I began to fill my tank, the attendant emerged from the convenience store and began shouting to someone out of view "stage left." "Laty!" He shouted. "Yu CANnot leave YUR card heerd. Eet ees not Parking Lot heerd, Laty!" I judged from his heavy accept and appearance that he might be from Nigeria or thereabouts, and was struggling to learn English, though it is immaterial, except to note that there probably was a communication issue between the attendant and the woman he was addressing. I heard her responding from half a block away, and soon she entered the orb of light that illuminated our stage. I could not help but observe this performance as the gas trickled into my tank and the dollars whizzed by on the display. The woman, an angla about 30 years old, pleaded with the attendant. "Please, sir," she said, "I ran out of gas just now and barely had enough speed to make it up to the pump. But then I realized I left my purse at home. I just live a few blocks away. I'm just going to walk home and get some money, and then I'll be back to fill my tank." The attendant would heerd nothing of it, or better said, would understand nothing of it. "Yu CANnot leave YUR card heerd. Yu MUS park eet somewherd else." This dialogue went back and forth enough times to convince me that the attendant probably had no idea what the laty was saying. He was just a peon, and if he didn't follow orders, he would lose a job that probably supported 20 people in Africa. As he walked back to the store, perhaps to CALL de PolEEZ, the woman followed him, begging. She was about to cry (a unique last-ditch talent all women possess). I thought of offering her a ride home, but realized she would not know if I am trustworthy or not. So I pulled $5 from my wallet, walked over and stuffed it in her hands. "Lady," I said, "get yourself some gas." She seemed stunned. "And be safe." I then resumed filling my tank. She thanked me profusely, and went to pay for some gas. But when she came out, she found that her car had come to a dead stop about a foot short, and the hose wouldn't reach. Needless to say, the filler was on the wrong side of her car. So I went over to assist her in pushing her car forward, but the transmission was stuck in drive. She couldn't get it out. So I had her jiggle the steering wheel, which did the trick. We almost pushed the car far enough when it ran into mine. No damage done! I backed my car, then we pushed her car again, and this time I was just barely able to access the tank with the hose. As I was pulling out past her, she turned and smiled, and said, "Oh sir, thank you so much! You are so kind!"
You know, it was only then that I noticed how attractive she was. Not beautiful, like a pageant queen, but like a very decent person I would like to know. Of course the thought occurred to me to get her phone number or find some other ploy to "keep in touch," but I immediately realized that this would obliterate the value of the experience, for both of us. So I smiled and said, "Just get home safe!" And drove away.
Nonetheless this story was so good, and the lesson in discernment so profound, I just couldn't resist adding it here.
As I walked through the parking lot of Austin's toney Central Market this evening, a young man approached me with a prescription drug vial prominently displayed in his outstretched hand. His expression was theatrically plaintive. "Please, sir," he said in a trembling voice, "I've run out of anxiety medicine and I need just 4 dollars to buy more!" He sure did look stressed. I don't blame him, begging is a high-stress occupation. I stood silently for some time, considering what I would say to him (and no doubt worsening his anxiety). First, I wanted to recognize his superior effort in developing a unique pitch. I really thought he ought to seek employment in Austin's thriving theater scene.
A few years ago, in a strikingly similar encounter in an HEB parking lot in Weslaco, a man asked me for $10 so he could take his wife, who was dying of cancer, to the hospital. He didn't have any money, he just needed $10 for a taxi to the hospital. Leukemia, he said. She's dying. Please, sir. Uncharacteristically, I broke down and gave him $5.
"But sir", he said, I need $10 for the taxi." "Don't you have any family?" I asked. "Yes sir." "Well, you should get the rest from them."
A week later, the very same man approached me in the same parking lot and asked money for some other emergency. I looked him straight in the eye, and asked, "How's your wife?" "What?" He asked. "My wife? I'm not married." I then reminded him that I had given him $5 the week before to take his wife to the hospital. He seemed to ignore this fact, or perhaps had completely forgotten it altogether. As I walked away, he asked, "Well, how about giving me $5 today?"
I'm thinking now that he could be an advisory to Hillary's campaign. Despite all indications, he just kept pushing relentlessly on.
Every day I pass a dozen panhandlers at busy streetcorners with cardboard signs. Most are remarkably similar. Please! Anything helps!! ☺ Will work for food! ☺ Single mother of 3 - Need help! And so on. Lots of smiley faces and exclamation points. A few have pretty clever signs, because they know that if they can lure you into eye contact it will be a lot harder for you to get away without paying. They all appear to be able-bodied and at least have the where-with-all to carry on their acting routines until they have conned enough cash to get stoned again.
I went to lunch with a coworker today. The kitchen and cashier of the jewish deli were staffed 80% by Mexican immigrants who had managed to communicate passably well in English, despite a lack of formal training. They were efficient and pleasant, and appeared to enjoy working. In the median strip just outside the restaurant was another gaunt anglo panhandler with a cheesy cardboard sign.
Like you, I've worked since a young age. I was motivated out of necessity and a drive to succeed. I always enjoyed working, whether it was on the factory line, or waiting on tables, or out in the remote mountains of Guatemala, or in my cushy agency office job. I have no sympathy for people who will not work. You're hungry? You need medicine? Shelter? Clothing? Psychiatric counciling? Good. Maybe when you get really hungry, you will be motivated to be of some use to society. Have a nice day! ☺
I didn't have a penny for the anxiety-ridden limosnero, nor words of advice. However, one night a week ago as I pulled up to a gas pump, I noticed a car parked at an odd angle at one of the other pumps. As I began to fill my tank, the attendant emerged from the convenience store and began shouting to someone out of view "stage left." "Laty!" He shouted. "Yu CANnot leave YUR card heerd. Eet ees not Parking Lot heerd, Laty!" I judged from his heavy accept and appearance that he might be from Nigeria or thereabouts, and was struggling to learn English, though it is immaterial, except to note that there probably was a communication issue between the attendant and the woman he was addressing. I heard her responding from half a block away, and soon she entered the orb of light that illuminated our stage. I could not help but observe this performance as the gas trickled into my tank and the dollars whizzed by on the display. The woman, an angla about 30 years old, pleaded with the attendant. "Please, sir," she said, "I ran out of gas just now and barely had enough speed to make it up to the pump. But then I realized I left my purse at home. I just live a few blocks away. I'm just going to walk home and get some money, and then I'll be back to fill my tank." The attendant would heerd nothing of it, or better said, would understand nothing of it. "Yu CANnot leave YUR card heerd. Yu MUS park eet somewherd else." This dialogue went back and forth enough times to convince me that the attendant probably had no idea what the laty was saying. He was just a peon, and if he didn't follow orders, he would lose a job that probably supported 20 people in Africa. As he walked back to the store, perhaps to CALL de PolEEZ, the woman followed him, begging. She was about to cry (a unique last-ditch talent all women possess). I thought of offering her a ride home, but realized she would not know if I am trustworthy or not. So I pulled $5 from my wallet, walked over and stuffed it in her hands. "Lady," I said, "get yourself some gas." She seemed stunned. "And be safe." I then resumed filling my tank. She thanked me profusely, and went to pay for some gas. But when she came out, she found that her car had come to a dead stop about a foot short, and the hose wouldn't reach. Needless to say, the filler was on the wrong side of her car. So I went over to assist her in pushing her car forward, but the transmission was stuck in drive. She couldn't get it out. So I had her jiggle the steering wheel, which did the trick. We almost pushed the car far enough when it ran into mine. No damage done! I backed my car, then we pushed her car again, and this time I was just barely able to access the tank with the hose. As I was pulling out past her, she turned and smiled, and said, "Oh sir, thank you so much! You are so kind!"
You know, it was only then that I noticed how attractive she was. Not beautiful, like a pageant queen, but like a very decent person I would like to know. Of course the thought occurred to me to get her phone number or find some other ploy to "keep in touch," but I immediately realized that this would obliterate the value of the experience, for both of us. So I smiled and said, "Just get home safe!" And drove away.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
The EYE is back. With a Vengeance
OK. I am going to try and keep up with this one again too.....it allows me to rant on things I can't elsewhere, and I can use powerful adjectives like "Shit" and "Fuck" and "Asshole", all great terms for describing the best of the worst....
For the past several years I have been a phony baloney administrator for "da county", and have been privileged (until now) to a lot of the soft underbelly of Cameron County politics....which politicians are stealing from who and to what extent. And to that end, I still have some ear, although several months ago I shot myself in the foot by trying to get these miserable fuckers (see there it is, the use of a powerful descriptive adjective!) to try and think (something way beyond the capacity of a "pubic servant") about what's going to happen in the future.... things like what will happen after Cameron County builds 6.5 million dollars worth of new parks (in economically depressed areas where they will be the immediate target of vandalism and destruction), and since it hasn't made any plans to increase the staff or operating budget, what will become of the maintenance and upkeep of these new facilities? Jeezus, they don't have enough personnel to maintain the existing parks as it is, and most look no better than third world efforts.
Shit, even an idiot can figure out those things.
I guess they'll just have to keep robbing from Isla Blanca Park (which doesn't even have enough budget for toilet paper right now) and live on the day to day basis....which is what these people are best at anyway. Instant gratification and entitlement. The typical. Nothing out of the norm here.
So anyway, whenever I run across anything funny, like Joe Rivera's (The County Clerk) assistants getting busted (again) for assault and battery with a baseball bat (how creative is that?) I will obligingly pass it along in a link.
Meanwhile, you can count on other county politicians like Sofie (a/k/a "Sonsa) Benavides absconding county funds to aggrandize her dearly departed husbands death anniversary by putting on a pachanga grande at the newly upgraded (the park was essentially new to begin with, but hey, we just had to get some new stuff there for the event....) Benavides (nee Browne Road)Park.
And then there's Edna Tamayo, the wicked witch of the west. Talk about ego centrism (try that word on for size bitch, and you....you were a region one administrator. You should've been wearing a dunce cap). In an internecine deal with the former County judge for some votes and supports she received the lions share of the money needed to construct the vast majority of the new parks, learning centers and Boys and Girls clubs, at the ultimate expense of poor old Isla Blanca.
Just politics as usual....status quo.
And so as not to become just another political blog, I vow to also include any manner of other rants here for my own goddamn aggrandizement. Just let me get a little of this squalid conjunto politico cheap third world federale crap off of my chest first.....
For the past several years I have been a phony baloney administrator for "da county", and have been privileged (until now) to a lot of the soft underbelly of Cameron County politics....which politicians are stealing from who and to what extent. And to that end, I still have some ear, although several months ago I shot myself in the foot by trying to get these miserable fuckers (see there it is, the use of a powerful descriptive adjective!) to try and think (something way beyond the capacity of a "pubic servant") about what's going to happen in the future.... things like what will happen after Cameron County builds 6.5 million dollars worth of new parks (in economically depressed areas where they will be the immediate target of vandalism and destruction), and since it hasn't made any plans to increase the staff or operating budget, what will become of the maintenance and upkeep of these new facilities? Jeezus, they don't have enough personnel to maintain the existing parks as it is, and most look no better than third world efforts.
Shit, even an idiot can figure out those things.
I guess they'll just have to keep robbing from Isla Blanca Park (which doesn't even have enough budget for toilet paper right now) and live on the day to day basis....which is what these people are best at anyway. Instant gratification and entitlement. The typical. Nothing out of the norm here.
So anyway, whenever I run across anything funny, like Joe Rivera's (The County Clerk) assistants getting busted (again) for assault and battery with a baseball bat (how creative is that?) I will obligingly pass it along in a link.
Meanwhile, you can count on other county politicians like Sofie (a/k/a "Sonsa) Benavides absconding county funds to aggrandize her dearly departed husbands death anniversary by putting on a pachanga grande at the newly upgraded (the park was essentially new to begin with, but hey, we just had to get some new stuff there for the event....) Benavides (nee Browne Road)Park.
And then there's Edna Tamayo, the wicked witch of the west. Talk about ego centrism (try that word on for size bitch, and you....you were a region one administrator. You should've been wearing a dunce cap). In an internecine deal with the former County judge for some votes and supports she received the lions share of the money needed to construct the vast majority of the new parks, learning centers and Boys and Girls clubs, at the ultimate expense of poor old Isla Blanca.
Just politics as usual....status quo.
And so as not to become just another political blog, I vow to also include any manner of other rants here for my own goddamn aggrandizement. Just let me get a little of this squalid conjunto politico cheap third world federale crap off of my chest first.....
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