San Jacinto Day

Today we celebrate the 170th anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto. Yet the silence we celebrate in continues to boggle my mind. We loudly celebrate Cinco de Mayo - the 5th of May - where a Mexican army defeated an imperialistic venture of Napoleon III on May 5th, 1862.

The United States was too preoccupied with its own Civil War to react to a French attempt to take over Mexico, and a smaller Mexican army defeated a much larger French army, ending Napoleon III's venture before it got out of hand. In many ways, we should be thankful that Mexico defeated the French. I mean, after all, could you imagine having a French state as a neighbor? It's bad enough to have Quebec so close to American shores!

But still - we celebrate with sales, parties, and lots of drinking the 5th of May. Why is it that April 21st passes in such silence? The 18 minute Battle of San Jacinto was, without much exaggeration, one of the most important battles in the history of the United States. By defeating the Mexican army and capturing Generalissimo Santa Anna, Sam Houston and his ragged volunteers created the Texas Republic, which lasted until annexation by the United States in 1846.

Shortly after annexation, the Mexican War took place (1846-1848) and ended with the United States in control of the vast majority of what is today the American West. New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, and parts of Colorado entered the Union and the United States was well on its way to becoming an emerging world power.

So tonight when you're out to dinner or out with your friends, drink a little toast to Sam Houston and the Texicans that allowed us here in Texas to live in the greatest state in the Union.

Cheers!!

Storm Evacuees Placing Strains on Texas Hosts - New York Times

Like the bumper sticker says:

Welcome to Texas. Now go home!

McClellan out and who's in?

Now wouldn't this be nice?

7-Hour Standoff Ends; Police Discover Nobody In Home

For hours, according to reports, they tried to make contact with anybody in the house.

At about 3:30 a.m., agents approached the house but found nobody inside.

I can't believe my child is going to attend college in Oklahoma...

May Day

Perhaps you've started to catch rumors of the big "nada gringos" day scheduled for May 1. What we're being told is that this has been organized by immigrant's rights groups in California or even, in the case of this article, " high school students have been the most active so far in organizing rallies and educating groups on the proposed changes to immigration laws."

However, do a little digging and you find that the real push behind this event is none other than the IWW. As in, the Industrial Workers of the World. An organization that's been around for awhile, and you could say was synonymous with communism and socialism. I'm sure those of you with half a brain recall that May 1 is otherwise known as May Day in the old Soviet Union. I'm sure it's just a fickle coincidence that this "walk out" is scheduled on the same day here in the US.

In their mind, they want to go back to a system that has never worked under any circumstance in any part of the world, at any time in the history of the world. Capitalism is the most evil thing that ever existed and all of the world's evils can be traced directly to capitalism and therefore the United States.

I can tell. Some of you are saying "come on Catfish, no one is that stupid any more. This is the 21st century!!"

Ok dear readers, don't take my word for it. Read the mission of the IWW for yourself. For those of you too lazy to check out the link, here's a little taste:

Instead of the conservative motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work," we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, "Abolition of the wage system."
It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with
capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.

Yeah. Freakin' commies. Just when you thought all we had to worry about was crazy jihadists and greenies, the commies are sticking their ugly, unwashed, unshaven, long haired, maggot infested, berkenstock wearing mugs back into our daily lives.

Anyone who thinks the upcoming "nada gringo" event on May 1 is about immigrant rights - how does it feel to be a pawn of the communista?

Shooting Stars And The Clash In The Heavens

The Way to Truth is a website that we spotted on the way to Waco the other day (or one just like it, anyway. I Googled "truth about islam" to find this jewel), and thought I'd see how enlightening it was. Here's a direct quote from the page linked to above:

Whether they might label me as unscientific or a skeptic, it is not more reasonable, in my opinion, than trying to find a political purpose behind those philosophies to attribute to those people who have made gigantic advances in science and technology such theories as biological "evolution" and that the Western brain is apt, because of its biological composition, for science while the Eastern brain for romanticism and the Negro brain for jazz and athleticism.

There's your "enlightenment," kids. I almost stopped reading after that. The writer of this article is as backward, ignorant, and reprobate as that last sentence would indicate. It appears that Koranic morality is subjective and flexible. In other words, it lacks moral absolutes ("right" vs. "wrong" are open to interpretation, depending on circumstances):

Do not kill anyone which God has forbidden, except for just cause. al-Isra’

Unfortunately, "just cause" seems to be based on an individual's interpretation of morality:

There is in principle nothing, other than his free choice, to dictate his fate.

Sorry, but that's creepy enough for a government to subscribe to without an entire religious philosophy subscribing to it. No wonder they have no problems justifying the murder of innocent people. Savages.

Bush Taps Portman

I was about to be impressed, thinking it was Natalie Portman. But it's just some political thing. Rats.

Record Heat Prompts Rolling Brownouts

Hot enough for ya?

I love Texas weather. Maybe what we need is a good, hot, dry summer to run off the riff-raff.

I understand Pimp Daddy had the rolling brownouts, but some Imodium fixed him up.

Qur'an 47:4

Yep. It's the religion of peace folks. But only if you are a member of that religion.

Oops, scratch that. You'll get killed if you belong to the other sect of the religion of peace too.

Qur'an 47:4 tells believers to "strike the necks" of the unbelievers. Or maybe I'm reading it wrong.

Gingrich warns Republicans Americans want change

The Republican Party is in serious danger of losing political ground in November elections if it does not enact reforms that eliminate waste and hold the federal bureaucracy to higher standards, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said on Sunday.

The former representative from Georgia said the "debacle" over measures to strengthen U.S. borders and create a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants "was one more piece of the puzzle" for many voters who have lost faith in Republican leadership.

With the federal budget deficit at record levels, Gingrich said Americans are losing patience with "pork," the discretionary spending earmarked to benefit local political constituencies.

"We were sent here to reform Washington, not to be co-opted by Washington," he said.

Amen, brother.

Road Trips & Elements

As you may have seen from The Girl's previous post, my car is a Honda Element, irreverently referred to as "the Toaster."

I'll have you know the Honda Element is a very fine vehicle, and is particularly suited to my lifestyle. Namely, I'm a slovenly slob when it comes to car care. It's got plastic floorboards, stain-proof seats, and even plastic quarter-panels. In short, it's a man's dream car. It's even been vomit-tested by a 14-year-old cheerleader (another story, and don't get all pervy on that).

No, it's not the most aerodynamic vehicle ever built, but it's got a 270-watt, 7-speaker sound system that makes my XM radio the best thing ever. It's got copious space for 4, and a ridiculous amount of headroom. It carries all our shooting gear, and leaves plenty of legroom. In short, it's an awesome road trip car, and has performed very admirably for well over 50K miles.

On the way back from Waco, we stopped somewhere around Waxahachie to fuel up, and pulled up next to another Honda Element, piloted by some teen (maybe post-teen - I'm not getting any younger, and they all look the same to me) guys. They were driving - *sigh* - "Dad's" Sunset Orange Pearl (SOP in Element circles) Element, and the battery had apparently croaked. It looked like they'd been there a while, too sheepish to ask anyone else to give them a jump. When we pulled up, they ran straight over, and asked if I'd help. They didn't even have cables - the kid went inside to buy them. Of course we helped, and sent them on their merry way. Just for the sake of this blog, we took this pic. Not much point to this whole post, just thought I'd share.

A little perspective

VDH hits the nail on the head. Again. Read it all.

I myself recently returned home to California, without incident, from a visit to Iraq’s notorious Sunni Triangle. While I was gone, a drug-addicted criminal with a long list of convictions broke into our kitchen at 4 a.m., was surprised by my wife and daughter, and fled with our credit cards, cash, keys, and cell phones.
Sometimes I wonder who really was safer that week.