tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19580203.post1523743239703696471..comments2024-03-25T16:03:36.810-07:00Comments on The Existentialist Cowboy: When the Sea Walks Over the LandAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04598093941551759917noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19580203.post-90306246605400043682008-09-18T03:33:00.000-07:002008-09-18T03:33:00.000-07:00tiago, since you mentioned that your 'post' was no...tiago, since you mentioned that your 'post' was not for post, perhaps, you will forgive if I reply to some general comments. Indeed, your mention of Mt. Franklin brought up a lot of memories. The 'scenic drive' that curves around the Southern end of Mt. Franklin offers a magnificent view of El Paso and, more distant, Juarez just across the Rio Grande. There are few urban views to equal it, perhaps the view of Rio from Sugar Loaf. It certainly compares with views of L.A. from Mulholland. Some people 'diss' El Paso. But I found it to be much, much less conservative than Houston, laid back, and, at the time, the cost of living was very low. But, so were salaries, I suppose. I have no idea what the economic stituation is now. Like all base towns, I am sure that when the US military raises pay, prices locally will increase. I lived north of downtown, between Mesa Dr and the mountain itself. I used to enjoy climbing around on the mountain. Some of the best restaurants were in Juarzez. when I was there, they were flying lobster in from Maine. It was simply world class. There was also a great Chinese restaurant on Montana Blvd (as I recall). <BR/><BR/>As I recall, there were several plans to divide Texas up, One of them, I think, wanted to carve it up into as many as five separate states. Lately, I have toyed with the idea of restoring Texas to Mexico. The US claim to Texas was alwas dodgy and remains so. The land between the Nueces and the Rio Grande is, I belive, still disputed. The 'Republic of Texas' had claimed all land between the Rio Grande and the Arkansas River but made no attempt to occupy the western most region. México staunchly refuted Texas' claims, insisting that the Rio Nueces was the legitimate border between the two nations.[see: <A HREF="http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2536601220.html" REL="nofollow">Rivalry Along the Rio Grande: War with Mexico</A>]<BR/><BR/><BR/>Many of those settling in Texas wanted to create a slave state. Indeed, the empresario, Stephen F. Austin, lobbied the Mexican government for an <A HREF="http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/austin.htm" REL="nofollow">exemption from Mexican laws</A> which had forbade slavery since 1824. Given the direction of the US under GOP domination, Texas would fare better as a part of Mexico. At least, in Mexico, the rights of the individual are addressed AT THE VERY BEGINNING of the Constitution of 1910. In the US the 'Bill of Rights' was almost an after thought and Madison insisted upon drafting them himself when he was convinced that the Constitution would not be ratified without them. Interestingly, believing that it was the Mississippi River, René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salleqv, sailed up the Nueces in 1685. Such were the accuracy of maps of the period. <BR/><BR/>feckless said... <BR/><BR/><EM>Galveston has a long history of blaming and attack the poor and people of coler...Maybe Ike is a Hagee/Robertson manifestation of god's displeasure with the racism and hypocritical libertarianism of the people of Galveston.</EM><BR/><BR/>I won't presume to know how God expresses 'His' displeasure, but what you say about racism and hypocrisy is true of Galveston, Houston, indeed, most of Texas, which, by the way and because of Bush's 'sterling' leadership as Gov, beat out Mississippi in education. I would not have expected the 21st Century to have resembled so closely the 19th. Was nothing learned in some 100 years? Give the GOP another 8 years and it will have reset the calendar to the 18th century.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04598093941551759917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19580203.post-35629339370337859132008-09-18T02:05:00.000-07:002008-09-18T02:05:00.000-07:00I have some friends down in Texas that came throug...I have some friends down in Texas that came through alright (both had trees fall on their houses but no one was hurt at least) but it looked pretty nasty. I'm sorry for all those that were hurt or worse and hope they get the help they need.<BR/><BR/>I've lived in Kansas (in a small town about a half hour south of Topeka now) for most of my life, so windy and tornado weather are par for the course. Any kind of what we call a 'bad storm' leaves people picking up trees around town. I remember once several years ago I was cooking on the grill on the deck and a tornado came by only about a mile away from here, but I never heard it because of the continuous thunder and sirens were never set off. I'm glad I don't live close enough to any coast though, hurricanes surely don't look like any fun.timkinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10150017325857753009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19580203.post-23125135515814395482008-09-17T10:03:00.000-07:002008-09-17T10:03:00.000-07:00I wish the good people of Galveston would stop sen...I wish the good people of Galveston would stop sending a congressional representative (Dr. Ron Paul) who preaches self reliance, then takes Billions of dollars of federal aid for Hurricane relief.<BR/><BR/>I don't mind giving aid to a city that will be repeatedly assaulted by seasonal weather. <BR/><BR/>BUT, I resent the hypocrisy of moaning about federal money spent on people daily assaulted by poverty (aka people of color, see Ron Paul supporters, most notably Stormfront)<BR/><BR/>But Galveston has a long history of blaming and attacking the poor and people of color, from exterminationist white riots to the shunning the first black heavy weight boxing champion, native son Jack Johnson.<BR/><BR/>Maybe Ike is a Hagee/Robertson manifestation of god's displeasure with the racism and hypocritical libertarianism of the people of Galveston. I'm sure many folks in Galveston thought New Orleans deserved Katrina for their gay tolerance.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19580203.post-86590984469685538502008-09-17T08:54:00.000-07:002008-09-17T08:54:00.000-07:00tiago said... I was born in the dust bowl of Oklah...tiago said...<BR/><BR/><EM> I was born in the dust bowl of Oklahoma and raised there, in Kansas and in the Denver area of Colorado.</EM><BR/><BR/>I was born in West Texas but never saw a tornado where I lived and went to school. Later, as a young adult, I lived in Wichita Falls, TX near the Oklahoma border. But --again, no experience with tornadoes. Nor, in El Paso, TX nestled as it between a mountain range in Mexico across the Rio Grande and Mt. Franklin on the US side. <BR/><BR/>I had relatives in Wichita Falls, however, who experienced and survived a killer tornado in the late seventies. It very nearly wiped Wichita Falls off the map. A brother-in-law, not wishing to see another home destroyed, actually built an underground home that was incredible.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04598093941551759917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19580203.post-26135372336283864132008-09-17T05:20:00.000-07:002008-09-17T05:20:00.000-07:00Len; I probably should not comment, but I see no o...Len; <BR/>I probably should not comment, but I see no other comments and that is sad. I’ve never lived near a large body of water such as the gulf.<BR/>I was born in the dust bowl of Oklahoma and raised there, in Kansas and in the Denver area of Colorado. We moved to the Denver area because of the tornadoes that swept through Oklahoma and Kansas. Except for the wall of water, the magnitude of destruction, there is little difference between a hurricane and a tornado. I’ve seen fence posts and trees that looked like they had fur, from the straw driven into them from the wind. But, not all the destructive force of a tornado is from the wind. The vacuum formed in the eye causes a building to implode.<BR/>I’ve lived the last 28 years in the ‘other’ Arkansas, (the Ozarks), and even here, the wind causes damage. Two years ago, wind damaged the State Capitol building. In fact, the wind damned near blew the whole trailer park away.tiagohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00354310296446288223noreply@blogger.com