15 miserable years

Bread line in New York City in the 1930s.

The last year and a half have been unpleasant due to the Kung Flu and political conflicts. And then I think of my parents’ generation. A year and a half would have been a godsend for them.

Their bad times were immeasurably worse, and they lasted 15 years, not our measly (so far) 18 months.

We have a pandemic that’s affecting fewer people than one would think, thanks to modern mass communication and the ratings-mad news media. The political situation, in my opinion, is worse if you consider the long-term.

In Mexico, we have a doofus demagogue who can hardly speak correctly. In the United States you have a senile old codger propped up by an oligarchy. In Canada, there is a metrosexual, politically correct fop of a prime minister who’s in office entirely for being good-looking and having his father’s name.

But all of this is a walk in the proverbial park compared to what my parents endured. First a decade of the Great Depression and then five years of world war. So far we have it mighty good. What’s down the line is another matter, but count your blessings. You’re not in a blocks-long bread line or lying dead on Omaha Beach.

1944: The sad casualties of war — husbands, fathers and sons.

Canuck tells the truth

CANADA HAS socialized medicine. It works well at times and at other times, it does not. Leftist Americans are fond of pointing to Canada as something to be copied, healthcare-wise. Those same people enjoy citing Sweden’s “democratic socialism” as worthy of imitation. Bernie Sanders is one of those people. He is a dim bulb.

I have addressed Sweden at least twice in the past. The first time was in 2016 when the disastrous effects of open borders was addressed. That is worth revisiting. More recently, I looked at Swedish socialism, which is a myth. You can revisit that right here.

Open borders has been a disaster for Sweden, and their socialism doesn’t exist. They did give it a relatively brief try years back till they realized their error and corrected it.

But today’s topic is healthcare, specifically Canada’s. The Canucks have one sort of problem with healthcare, and the United States has another.

As I’ve mentioned often, Mexico’s healthcare system is the superior of the three. We have a government-run system, which serves poor folks fairly well, and we  have a private system, which is excellent, but you must pay, but not nearly what you pay above the border. Our government system has worsened since the nincompoop, populist president who goes by AMLO took office 16 months ago.

And quite a few lower-income Mexicans use the private system. That’s how inexpensive it is, thanks to competitive capitalism.

AMLO vowed to give us a system like Canada’s. But what he’s given us so far is a worse government system. The private system still works nicely, however.

A decade gone by

IT WAS 10 YEARS ago about now when I was last in the United States. I don’t recall if it was just before or just after Obama’s first inauguration. I prefer to think it was before, so I can say I never set foot in Weepy Barry’s America.

There was no Black Lives Matter or Antifa, and SJW had not been invented yet. There was social strife and victimhood because multiculturalism had been boneheadedly promoted long before I departed, but nowhere near the absurd level that now exists. But I had never voted Republican.

My Democrats were not rioting in the streets. Nor were they prone to hysterics. They were more sensible people.

Visiting outside your native land is a strange sensation. Living in a world so different than that which sprouted you is odder still. Though I’m a Mexican citizen and almost never speak English, I don’t fit in below the border.

I just have to live with that. A price to pay, well worth it.

Quite a few Americans live in Mexico. The Mexican government puts the number at around 750,000, though you see much higher numbers on the internet, stated by people who don’t know what they’re talking about.

From what I read on internet forums, etc., most Americans (expats, a term I never apply to myself) in Mexico visit their homeland on a regular basis, as do Canadians. It’s like a siren call, but I’m deaf to it.

There are reasons. One is it’s very expensive up there. Two is that America has become a disappointment to me. (Former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy recently described contemporary American culture as vulgar and slipping into moral relativism.) Three is that it’s dangerous up there. Four is there’s nothing above the border that I need.

The last time I left Mexico was in 2012 when we flew to Cuba, which is a miserable place, but it was interesting. We’ll never do that again.

The last time I was in my old hometown of Houston was either 2007 or 2008. It had changed a lot since I left in January 2000. I imagine I would be flabbergasted to see it now.

Like San Miguel de Allende, where no more Mexicans live, Houston might be the flip side, where no more Americans live, just Mexicans.

And the last visit to another old hometown, New Orleans, was 2006, about a year after Hurricane Katrina. The city was a mess.

There are some things I miss about America. Fall foliage in Atlanta. Floating in the crystal clear Sabinal River in the Hill Country of Texas not far from the town of Utopia. Hot bowls of Vietnamese pho in Houston.

But America lacks some things I enjoy here. Cows on highway overpasses. The bray of burros in the distance or just down the street. Dogs on house roofs. Real cobblestone streets. Inexpensive living. Gonging of the church bell from the plaza. Hummingbirds sitting on my aloe vera.

Lovely brown-skinned babes. One of whom I married.

I cannot imagine I’ll ever visit the United States again. When I left America I was a youngster of 55, wet behind the ears. Later this year, I’ll turn 75, mold behind the ears. It’s been quite a ride.

Peterson nails Western women

THOUGH JORDAN Peterson rose rapidly to fame almost two years ago, first in Canada where he lives and teaches, I didn’t become a fan until recently, and that’s because his fame is spreading everywhere.

What brought him to public notice was his outspoken opposition to an idiotic Canadian law mandating the use of PC gender pronouns.

Say zhe and zher, or you’re going to jail, baby.

Peterson has published two books. One is The Maps of Meaning, The Architecture of Belief, published in 1999, and the other is 12 Rules for Life, An Antidote to Chaos, published earlier this year.

Peterson, a clinical psychologist and a psychology professor at the University of Toronto, has been on a global speaking tour for some time now.

What makes him so wonderful is (1) he agrees with me, and (2) he brooks no stupidity at all, and will chew you up and spit you out.

The above video is a good taste of Peterson’s mind and mouth.

Topic: western womenfolk.

Left-wingers, brace yourselves!