Monday, April 30, 2007

"Giai Phong! The Fall and Liberation of Saigon ."

Thirty-two years ago today...

This book was published in 1976 by Der Spiegel's Asian correspondent, Tiziano Terzani.

Vietnam War :

Were any Red Chinese south of the Seventeenth Parallel ??

Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway's We Were Soldiers Once .. and Young seems to hint that maybe so !

Adapted from pages 63-64.

"Says Dillon:

They had made an intercept of a coded message in [Chinese] Mandarin dialect, like a situation report, from a position somewhere on a line from Plei Me camp directly through a clearing at the base of Chu Pong mountain.

The intelligence lieutenant had a map with a line drawn on it.

He said that the radio transmitter was somewhere on this line.

I don't remember how long that message was -- that didn't really bother me.

It was the direction it came thorugh.

The lieutenant said he thought that possibly there was a North Vietnamese regiment somewhere out there near Chu Pong mountain."

Adapted from page 363:

"During Captain Matt Dillon's portion of the briefing he mentioned a report by our men that had seen the body of an enemy soldier they suspected was Chinese -- he was large, and was dressed in a uniform different from that of the NVA -- which disappeared from the battlefield before we could retrieve it.

"Westmoreland reacted angrily and forcefully, telling us all:

You will never mention anything about Chinese soldiers in South Vietnam! Never!"

The authors trace what they call "Westmoreland's sensitivity to the issue of Chinese advsiers traveling with the North Vietnamese on the battlefield," to the New York Times.

They say one Charles Mohr wrote it "in the November 17, 1965, issue."

"Filed from Saigon, the article reported that prisoners captured in late October around Plei Me Special Forces Camp had appeared at a news conference in Saigon, telling reporters that they had entered South Vietnam through Cambodia and had received assistance from Cambodian militiamen.

"Mohr's article added that the prisoners told the reporters that each of the North Vietnamese People's Army regiments had one Chinese Communist adviser.

Apparently citing Mohr's original article the authors add:

"An official American spokeman commented, we don't have positive knowledge of Chinese advisers but it is a distinct possibility."

Oh, my goodness! All this upset the White House no end! Heh, heh!

"There would be no more discussion of Chinese involvement in the fighting in South Vietnam.

"President Johnson remembred Korea, and his fear of Chinese intervention in Vietnam led him to exercise unprecendented personal control over the selection of targets in North Vietnam.

"The question of Chinese advisers was no less sensitive to the North Vietnamese.

"Asked about U.S. Army Signal Intelligence intercepts of radio transmissions in the Mandarin Chinese dialect in the vicinity of his headquarers on the Chu Pong massif on November 14, 1965, [the then- NVA/PAVN battlefield commander in the Ia Drang, Lieutenenat Colonel Nguyen] An said:

We had that language capability and sometimes used it to confuse whoever might be listening."

"Good, food, good fellowship, sharing... "

¡ Ora, UTEP ! ¡ Ora, MEChA ! ¡Adelante, DESTINO !

So, how can a Danielle Steele novel compete with that ?

www.thebrackettnews.com

Picture on "Photos of the Week" link of our hardworking pastor, Father Quang Van, and all the other good folks kicking back at the annual St. Mary Magdalene's Parish Spring Festival 2007.

The young man, a former railroad engineer, playing lead guitar -- and who still has most all his hair --lived so long in Puerto de Vallarta he went native and became a Roman Catholic convert !

A la mexicana ....

Last Saturday, April 28, 2006, it was the Feast Day of St. Louis de Montfort.

Today:

April 30, 2007.

Pope St. Pius Fifth.

He of Quo Primum fame.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira's Revolution and counter-revolution !!

http://TFP.org/what_we_think/rcr.pdf

Warning! This link makes slow - as - molasses seem like greased lighting !!

Feast Day of St. Louis Mary De Montfort .

He made waves with many things, including this statement, albeit I've yet to see it in the original French:

"All Christians have but one Faith and adore one and the same God, all hoping for the same happiness in heaven.

"They have one Mediator Who is Jesus Christ and therefore they must all imitate their divine Model and in order to do this they must meditate on the mysteries of HIs life, His virtues and of His Glory."

He most likely wrote this in around 1700 AD. This quote is froin page 60 of his The Secret of the Rosary.




Friday, April 27, 2007

Mexican Wildlife Experts Doin it With CEMEX, S.A. de C.V. !!

THE EL CARMEN - BIG BEND MEGACORRIDOR ..

Adapted from the article "Beauty on the Border" in the February 2007 National Geographic
.

Pages 70-71.

"This is a different model of conservation.

"Mexico lacks the funds to purchase land for parks or wildlfe habitat, a situation becoming increasingly common in the United States.

"So on the Mexico side of the corridor, much of the protected land is privately owned.



"Mining has been allowed to continue.

"Rather than removing the 5,000 ranchers and farmers living within the protected areas, as U.S. national parks historically have done, conservationists are teaching them why it's in their interest to protect the land.

"The goal is to give residents a sense of stewardship that national parks do not.

You have to understand, the concept of wilderness doesn't presently exist in Mexico,

"Says Patrico Robles Gil, an environmentalist and architect of the parftnerhsip with Cemex.

In Spanish, we don't have a word for wilderness.

This is all new, but it could be the model beyond a national park.

"After a long day working in the desert, a group of ocnservationists gathers for a dinner of steaks and tortillas at the Cemex reserve's main lodge.

"There is talk of the future.

"Already couple of adjacent areas are being proposed to join the two protected areas on the Mexican side.

"They discuss reintroducing the grizzly bear, the Mexican gray wolf, and bison -- all believed to have been native to the area.

"In the Transboundary Megacorridor, such dreams seem possible.

"And why not?

"Decades ago, only a few remaining black bears could be found tucked away in the isoolated mountain ranges of Coahuila.

"A group of Mexican ranchers decided to quit hunting bears and start protecting them instead.

"Now you see black bears on the Texas side of the [Rio Grande] river again.

"Wildlife pays no attention to international boundaries."

And you can just bet on that!

¡Ora, UTEP!

Hooray for UTEP Chaucerian English 4308!

Chapter XXVIII: The Cloud of Unknowing.

I personally suspect that the anominous author was quite possibly a contemporary of Geoffrey Chaucer.

While it's true that based upon this translation (1957) at least, the author more or less wanders in and out of the noman's land dividing religious orthodoxy with gnosticism, I'm personally inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt, a la Marcelino Menendez y Pelayo's dictum that there are many things that may be simply either "mal sonante." or "opinable," without necessarily being outright heretical.

Adapted from pages 128-29.

"That a man should not presume to work in this work before he has been lawfully cleansed in his consciousness of all his special deeds of sin.

"1. IF YOU ASK ME when one should begin this work, I answer: not before he has cleansed his consciousness, in accordance with the common ordinance of the Holy Church, of all the special deeds of sin previously committed.

"2. IN THE WORK a soul dries up within itself the entire root an dground of sin that always remains in it after confession.

"Therefore let whoever wishes to undertake this work first cleanse his consciouness.

"Afterward, when he has fulfilled what is lawfully required of him, let him give himself to the work boldly but meekly.

"Let him consider then that he has been held back from the work for a very long time; for this is the work in which a person should labor all his lifetime, even if he has never committed a mortal sin.

"3 AS LONG AS a soul dwells in this mortal flesh, he shall see and feel this cumbrous cloud of unknowing between him and God.

"And not only that, but as a result of the original sin he shall always see and feel that some of all the creatures that God has made or some of their works are constantly pressing into his memory between him and God.

"4. THIS IS THE JUDGEMENT OF GOD. When man held the sovereign power over all the other creatures, he willfully submitted himself to their requests and ignored the ocmmands of God and his Maker.

"Because man did this, he finds now that whenever he seeks to fulfill the bidding of God, he sees and feels all the creatures that should be beneath him proudly pressing themselves above him between him and his God."

B'ville High's Ms. Gabby Schroeder Rocks in Science !!

This enterprising High School Junior is on her way to the University of Houston to "research a topic alongside a research scientist, and then develope an abstract, paper and presentation [based] on her topic."

Ms. Gabby Schroeder is a member of the 2007 Welch Summer Scholar Program.

www.thebrackettnews.com

Brackettville High's Ms. Nadine Terrazas, Class of 2007.

www.thebrackettnews.com

Ms. Nadine Terrazas credits Mrs. Curry for having helped her the most on her road to Junior College in Del Rio, where Nadine plans on majoring in Criminal Justice. ( The Brackett News, Thursday, April 26, 2007 )

Brackettville's St. Mary Magdalene Parish ....

R.I.P. He was a parishioner, husband, and father.

Mr. Santos DeHoyos:

November 1, 1977 - April 24, 2007.

"He died in a one-vehicle rollover accident while on the job for the Rio Grande Electrical Cooperative, Inc. (RGEC)."

Enternal rest grant unto him, Oh Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May the souls of Thy servant Santos and the souls of all the other dearly departed through the Mercy of God rest in peace. AMEN.

www.thebrackettnews.com

Thursday, April 26, 2007

¡Ora, UTEP BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT !

¡Ora. MEChA !

¡Adelante, DESTINO !

Carl Sagan's

"Protocols of the Elders of Ozone."

a.k.a.


Contact: A Novel ...


Adapted from page 418 of the large print edition on the Soviet Union's views of genetics as a science.

Number one, Joseph Stalin hated, loathed and above all feared, the Roman Catholic Church.

Number two, this included Catholic monks like Mendel who was an early pioneer in the modern study of genetics.

As Sagan tells us:

"A nearly fatal blow had been dealt Soviet genetics when in the 1930s Stalin decided that modern Mendelian genetics was ideologically unsuitable, and decreed as scientifically orthodox the crackpot genetics of a politically sophisticated agriculturist named Trofim Lysenko.

"Two generations of bright Soviet students were taught essentially nothing of the fundamentals of heredity.

"Now, sixty years later, Soviet molecular biology and genetic engineering were comparatively backward, and few major disocveries in the subject had been made by Soviet scientists.

"Fortunately for American molecular biology, the [Christian] fundamentalists were not as influential in the United States as Stalin had been in the Soviet Union."



Wednesday, April 25, 2007

"Why not ask your pastor?"

Even in solid, smaller American Catholic Parishes, confusion can, and often does, reign !

This example is typical not only of St. Mary Magdalen's Catholic Church in Brackettville Texas, but for thousands of others across America.

A confused parent of some middle school student has been told, presumably by the child's Public School teacher, that she (or he) can go to an Ecumenical Summer Camp of one kind or the other.

Among other things the parent is given to understand that the child in question will get religious instruction, good fellowship, and, above all, "be preached to."

All fine and dandy, so far as it goes.

What bothers a potential sponsor, however, is that the religious side of the equation will also include religious intercommunion, as the parent has been apparenty assured by the child's public school teacher that "Protestant Non - Catholics have holy communion, too, just like us."

Since the potential donor is in the happy position of being an outsider, the parent is advised to "go ask your priest for sure," and then to, "do as he tells you."

This is a tricky situation in terms of so-called pastoral theology, as a glance as the Mass Missalettes in any pew in America will show you a lot of seeming ambiguities as to what the American Catholic Church actually teaches on inter-religious communion.

Oddly enough, much of the resulting ambiguity is loosely based on the 1983 Code of Canon Law, which is not ambigious at all!

My own personal opinion is that it is this ambiguity, deliberate or not, that helps fuel the ongoing confusion among many faithful today as to what we can and cannot do in terms of ecumenical activites with fellow Christians.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Brackettville's St. Mary Magdalene Annual Parish Festival a big success!

Last Saturday, April 21, saw a lot of good fellowship and food and auctions, and the weather stayed cloudy and cool ...

But!

They plumb ran out of bar b que !!

The potato salad, macaroni salad and frijole beans were like wise memoriable , as too, was the fellowhsip and live music .

Our robust and still-growing Parish Charismatic community was especially noticeable for the cheerful and hardworking volunteers contributed to the serving line.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Shhh... ! Ernie Pyle's unhuman quiet ....!

Whether it's the aftermath of a conventional WW II battle, late summer of 1944, in Normandy, France ...

Or for that matter, the morning after the equally conventional Battle of Binh Son I ... Vietnam, nearly 23 years later.

As ERNIE PYLE experienced this "battlefield aftermath" so often in WW II.. . so too, have so many of us over the years!

Adapted from page 558, of the large print version of Ernie's War, where Pyle's description gives me the same sensation I had the morning of April 22, 1967:

"From all these things you can tell that the battle has been recent -- from these and from the men dead so recently that they seem to be merely asleep.

"And also from the unhuman quiet. Usually battles are noisy for miles around.

"But in this recent fast warfare a battle sometimes leaves a complete vacuum behind.

"The Germans [or the NVA/PAVN over 22 years later] will stand and fight it out until they see there is no hope. Then some give up [or if NVA/PAVN die and get their lifeless bodies dragged off by their comrades, instead!], and rest pull and run for miles.

"Shooting stops.

"Our fighters move on after the enemy, and those who do not fight, but move in the wake of the battles will not catch up for hours.

"There is nothingh left behind but the remains -- the lifeless debris, the sunshine and the flowers and utter silence.

"An amateur who wanders in this vacuum of the rear of a battle has a terrible sense of loneliness.

"Everything is dead -- the men, the machines [later on in the DMZ in my case!], the animals -- and you alone are left alive."

THE BOW STREET RUNNERS !!

Fans of Georgette Heyer's Toll Gate and Talisman Ring ... !

THE HISTORY:

Pringle, Patrick. Hue and Cry, The Story of Henry and John Fielding and Their Bow Street Runners. [London?]: William Morrow and Company, 1955.

Page 187 - 188:

It seems housebreakers had ben force to evolve a new technique for disposing of their loot, now that pawnbrokers and silversmiths had been drawn into the Bow Street Runners' anti-crime network!!

We read that this burglars, in John Fielding's contemporary 18th century terms, "now go to the Jews, who melt the plate immediately and destroy other things that might be evidence. They disfigure jewels by knocking them out of the sockets so that they cannot be sworn to."

Now, John Fielding was neither a fool nor a bigot, so wnat was he to do?

As the author tells us:

"The Jews J0hn referred to lived mainly in Duke's Place (now Duke Street, Aldgate) and Houndsditch, and he had been trying to root them out for years.

"Their numbers had recently [early 1770's, more than likely ] been swollen by refugees from pogroms in eastern Europe, who arrived in England without money or means of earning an honest living.

"With his usual good sense, John sought the co-operation of the leaders of the Great Synagogue in Duke's Place.

"It was given freely, for obvious reasons.

"Because some Jews were dishonest it was commonly inferred that they were dishonest because they were Jews, and this led to the further inference that all Jews were dishonest.

"Such reasoning, if it can be called that, is not unknown today."

Page 198:

Like the Texas Rangers a hundred years later, the reputation of the the Bow Street Runners was that they were bad guys to have hot on your trail, who knows?

Maybe their 'ole caballos could even swim!

As this short passage tells us:

"In 1777 information reached Bow Street that a thirteen - year - old heiress, Mary Max, was being abducted by two men.

"The runners chased them to Brighton, found the men under full sail for France, and took them at sea."

Today marks the Fortieth Anniversary of the Battle of Binh Son I ...

When:

Eight out of nine Marine Nine Rifle squads of Fox Company, Second Battalion, First Marine Regiment, FMF Vietnam, went head to toe with elements of the Third NVA/PAVN Regiment of the Second NVA/PAVN Division, 'way down in Southern I Corps, in the Valley of the Song Ly Ly -- sometimes called the Nui Loc Son Basin -- not too many kilometers from "our" combat outpost of Hill 185 -- Nui Loc Son.

Thirty-three KIAs and Fifty-six WIAs from Fox Company's 8 rifle squads, reinforced with weapons attachments, alone.

As Tom Singleton's email to us this morning puts it:

"Dennis, have a great day and just a moment to thank those who gave up the best years of their lives for us. Semper Fi Tom and Martha Singleton."

To which we say: "Amen, brother. Amen!"

Friday, April 20, 2007

Huisache; Sweet Acacia (Acacia farnesiana ).

"A twelve - foot tree; thorny; dark - brown bark; pliant branches swaying with the gulf breeze; habitat rich moist soil."

Humm .. I guess that inlcudes Brackettville, Texas and San Antonio and El Paso, too? ¡Guau! Wow!

"The trees, early to bloom, make the waysides a bower of beauty and fill the air with fragrance.

"The wood is used for fence posts and the trees as ornamentals.

"The Huisache is cultivated in France for the manufacture of perfume.

"World War II caused the cancelling of a plan for a Valley perfumery.

"Huisache from Nahuatl, Hui, brier + zachin, tree; farnesiana, the saccharine or sugar gum of the tree when it is fermented; Acacia, Greek, akakia, point or thorn."

Even now, and since 2001, I've tried to remember to send some Huisache blossoms every year to Western New York State and to Houston.

Adapted from:

The Garden of Chaparral, Plants of the Lower Rio Grande Valley

By: Elizabeth M. Riess. New York: Vantage Press, 1958.

Dr. Liviu Librescu: In Memoriam ...

Brave Virginia Tech Professor already knew all about psychopathic killers....

Growing up Jewish in concentration camps in Rumania during WW II with NAZI thugs and then bravely defying Communist ones, DR. Liviu LEBRESCU the 76 year old hero, would have had no illusions that now his turn had come, when at last death came knocking the other day at his classroom door, propelling along merely the latest in a long line of glassy - eyed fanatical killers.

Suffice to say, Dr. LEBRESCU died a soldier's death, died so that others -- his students to be precise -- might live.

Brackett News, Thursday, April 19, 2007.

Three more B'ville Seniors of 2007 ready to roll !

Ms. Sabrina Morin will be going to SWTJC in Uvalde to study Child Development, while Mr. Seth Frerich is deadset on "going to college," and Mr. Austin Shewbart is moving to New Braunfels "with my family and starting college," too!

Go get'em Tigers !!

Lower Rio Grande Valley News !!

Old Valley pioneer - family rancher sues enemies in Court ...

The oil - company clowns joked his pet Rhinos "Glowed in the dark..."

They most likely did, maybe him too ...

Source: San Antonio EXPRESS-NEWS, Monday, April 2, 2007.

By: John MacCormack

"It all started back in 1992 when Hidalgo County rancher James McAllen asked Forest Oil Co. to donate pipe to build pens for two endangered African black rhinoceroses that he was trying to save.

"But according to McAllen it wasn't until 2004 that Bobby Pearson, a retired Forest Oil employee, told McAllen that he pipe he was given more than a decade earlier was radioactive.

"By then he [McAllen] had lost part of a leg to a rare bone cancer.

"He also had shut down the rhino preservation project, launched under the auspices of the Game Conservation International, after both animals had sickened and one had died.

"According to depositions of Pearson and Daniel Worden, another Forest Oil employee at the ranch, company managers had joked about McAllen's rhinos glowing in the dark after the pipe donation.

"McAllen, who earlier had butted heads with Forest Oil over disputed gas payments, quickly saw a dark picture of premeditated malice."

As McAllen told the press:

There's no doubt they knew they were giving me the poisoned apple. Did they give it to me to get rid of me? It makes me wonder...

"[The suit] is set for trial in October in Edinburg."

Well, here's wishing Mr. McAllen luck. Because you know, good people, it makes me wonder, too! And to think Tony Hillerman has to write fiction to tells us things like this, when it's already there in some regional paper.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Es por eso que me fusilan !!!

"Miss Mexico altering dress after complaints"

"MEXICO CITY -- Miss Mexico is toning down her Miss Universe pageant dress -- not because it's too slinky or low cut, but because its bullet - studded belt and images of hangings from a 1920s uprising have outraged Mexicans.

"The floor - length dress is accented with rosses, scapulars and a sketch of a man facing a firing squad.

"It also depicts scenes from the 1926-1929 Cristero War, a bloody uprising by Catholic rebels against the secular government."

FOR MORE INFO:


http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/misc/newsid_6571000/6571197.stm

El calo tells us !!

"Pedirá Verástegui al Papa oraciones antiaborto "


"Eduardo Verástegui anunció que el viernes se reunirá en audiencia con el Papa Benedicto XVI para pedirle que rece por México para evitar que se despenalice el aborto en el DF.

"El actor y productor mexicano agregó que el mismo día ofrecerá una proyección especial de la película Bella, en respuesta a una invitación de la Fundación Papal de Estados Unidos.

"Expresó Verástegui:

El solo hecho de que en estos momentos exista la propuesta de legalizar el aborto en México, es muy preocupante. Me opongo a que esa iniciativa entre en vigor.

El viernes tendré la oportunidad de reunirme con el Papa.

Tengo una audiencia con él y le voy a pedir que rece y eleve sus oraciones por este momento de oscuridad que se está viviendo en México.

También le voy a pedir que visite el país.

Necesitamos despertar, salirnos de nuestra comodidad y trabajr para salvar vidas, tanto las de los bebés como de las madres,
dijo."

Mexico's Mel Gibson?

Eduardo Verástegui !!

Continuity Catholicism, South of the Border ...

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

En C. Acuña:

"ENTUSIASMA CARTA A MI MADRE"

Según nos dice el mismo ejemplar de El Zócalo....

"Los alumnos de la Escuela Primaria [la] Revolución se manifestaron entusiasmados de participar en el certamen Carta a mi Madre, que promueven Zócalo y Núcleo Radio Zócalo, cuyo premio será un viaje a Sea World, de San Antonio, Texas, a los ganadores de los 10 primeros lugares; ya pueden traer su cartita a Zócalo y Súper Estelar de Acuña."

¡Ora, Del Rio!

¡Ora,
Ciudad Acuña!


¡Ora, UTEP! ¡Ora, MEChA! ¡Adelante DESTINO!

¡Arriba, el Barrio! ¡ Arriba, la Mota!

Según nos dicen los titulares de El Zócalo, Miércoles el 18 de abril de 2007:

CAE JOVEN DELRIENSE:

Con 65 libras de mariguana

La llevaba oculta en el tanque de gasolina de su Ford Explorer;

está valuada en 65 mil dólares....

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Augusto Del Noce: Sunset or Eclipse of Traditional Values?

Source: (Rusconi, Milan, 1971), 266.

The following quote is from the TFP's Crusade January/February 2007, page 11.]

"This rescue of morality and civility calls for a true religious rebirth. Many today deplore the eclipse of traditional civilization. But as Augusto Del Noce noted, ...the first condition for an eclipse to end is for the Church to take up her task once again, which is not to adapt herself to the world but to confront it. "

Good TFP Website: check it out !!

www.tfp.org

Fortieth Anniversary of the Battle of Binh Son I :

This coming Saturday, April 21, 2007.

Fortieth Anniversary of the Battle of Binh Son I :

"[Colonel Emil] Radics, what's this I here about you sending out one of my Marine rifle companies, just to get it massacred?"

Attributed to: First Marine Division C .O., on stepping off his command chopper on top of Hill 185 -- Nui Loc Son, to his First Marine Regimental Commander.

Fortieth Anniversary of the Battle of Binh Son I :

Gunnery Sergeant Roger Dale Hamilton, USMC, will be laid to rest,or at least his official marker will be, at Arlington National Cemetary this coming Friday, April 20, 2007 -- almost 40 years to the day he died in combat with old Fox 2/1.

Big Family-friendly Bash of the year!

Where?

At Brackettville's St. Mary Magdalene Parish Church this coming Saturday, April 21 !!

All day long.....!!

Monday, April 16, 2007

Now in Brackettville, Texas!

UTEP Religious Art Appreciation 1301 Bravo:

¡Ora, UTEP!

¡Ora, MEChA!

¡Adelante, DESTINO!

Nearly a half century before Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code we had fellow Catholic Richard Egenter !

But! "Nobody listened !"

Richard Egenter's Kitsch und Chistenleben (1958), in English translation!

The job done on a certain Renaissance Painter by Dan the Man, albeit by liberally copying a lot of other folks, our main man does on nearly everyone else, like Salvador Dali and most recently Dali's famous painting The Christ of St. John of the Cross, copies of which were distributed to all and sundry at the end of El Paso's St. Patrick Cathedral's 2007 three day Lenten Mission as preached in English by Father Rick Mattey.

On Thursday, March 1, 2007, to be exact.

Egenter, Richard. Author. Gray, Nicolete. Editor. Quinn, Edward. Translator. The Desecration of Christ. Chicago, Illinois: Franciscan Herald Press, 1967.

Publisher's note:

"The word kitsch is untranslatable, and does actually now appear in the Concise Oxford Dictionary.

"A considerable part of this book is concerned with the discussion of its precise meaning, but the reader who is not familiar with the word it may be taken as a starting point to mean repository art and its counterpart in music, verse and the other arts.

"It is not by any means applied only to pious art, but this is the aspect with which this book is concerned.

"Kitsch is a noun which can be used adjectivally."

Pages 40-41:

"Our Lord is represented as a young man with beautiful curly hair.

"His body is painted very realistically but without any signs of the suffering of the Passion.

"The Cross is dramatically lit by a strong cross light, but the striking thing about the picture is the angle of view, the beolder looking down upon Christ.

"It may be that devout people glancing at the picture can pass on to a meditation on our Lord's contemplation of succeeding generations of men from the Cross.

"Studying th epicture, however, one becomes aware that the viewpoint is a trick to catch attention, while in itself it is fundamentally blasphemous, as is the realism used to make our Lord physically attractive.

"There is no inkling either of the divinity, or of the redemptive suffering of Christ."

Now, Editor Nicolete Gray has something to add to this in her Epilogue, page 154:

"In a different category are the works of Dali (Plates 6 and 7). These are not cheap and shoddy, but very expensive and very accomplished, and for that reason more insidious; these to my mind are evil kitsch."

Three more of Brackettville High's Class of 2007 Lady Tigers on the move!

Ms. Allison Del Bosque:

"I plan on attending the University of Texas at San Antonio and major in Sports kinessiology. I eventually want to open my on practice of physical therapy."

Ms. Lisa Morgan:

"I plan to move to Houston and attend HCC (like Dennis did at the Sharpstown Campus in 1976?) which I have been accepted to; I will be studying Computer Science."

Ms. Natasha Smith:

"I plan on attending Angelo State University and get a degree in Accounting. I will get my CPA."

RIP -- Spofford and Brackettville, Texas:

La Señora Genobeba Gutierrez (January 13, 1912 - April 7, 2007) and el señor Miguel Talamantez (May 8, 1923 - April 8, 2007).

Both were life-long members of either Spofford's San Blasé Catholic Church or Saint Mary Magdalene's Catholic Church in Brackettville, Texas!

Eternal rest grant unto them, Oh Lord, and may Thy perpetual light shine upon them; May the souls of these and of all thy faithfully departed servants rest in peace. Amen.

Saturday, April 14, 2007


A lurking Vampires over Las Moras Springs Horror ?? !!

"The Curse of Global Warming!"

Vampire Bats already next door to Kinney County in Val Verde County ???

Schmidly, David J. The Bats of Texas. College Station, Texas: A & M University Press, 1991.

Adapted from pages 71-73:

Diphylla ecaudata, Spix 1823. Hairy-legged Vampire.

"The Hairy - legged Vampire is most easily confused with the Common Vampire.

"This bat is known from Texas on the basis of a single female specimen collected on May 24, 1967 in an abandoned railroad tunnel west of Comstock in Val Verde County.

"A thorough search of the caves along the Rio Grande in western Texas may produce additional records of this specimen."

Oh my! What else is the Kinney County Chamber of Commerce witholding from John and Jane Q. Public?

With all this talk of global warming, how soon before Fort Clark - Las Moras Springs become infested by all three species of Tropical Mexican Vampires??!!

Friday, April 13, 2007

San Antonio EXPRESS-NEWS Kathleen Parker !

Friday, March 30, 2007:

"Separating the soldiers"

As Ms. Parker matter-of-factly tells it:

"It's not the womens' fault they've been put in this situation.

"The fault lies with the Pentagon and those who have capitulated to feminist pressures.

"Off the record, in dozens of interviews over a period of years, male soldiers and officers hav econfided that many men resent women because they've been forced to pretend that women are equals, and men know they're not.

"Wishful thinking and bureacratic expansion won't likely solve the problem of sexual conflict in the war zone, but a more-rational structure that keeps women and men apart would help.

"Segregation also would reduce the plague of divorces caused by men and women fraternizing away from home."

Amen, Sister! Amen!

F. Ferrarotti, Homo sentiens....

(Liguori, Napoli, 1995), 108.

Far too often we are what this author calls "a population of supremely well-informed idiots, able to talk about all things without formulating a critical personal judgement on anything at all."

www.utep.edu

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Brackettville High's Class of 2007 to take world by storm !

Mr. Adam Sandoval,
along with Mr. Clint Conrad and their buddy Mr. Cesár Ortiz are ready to "go out and take the civilized world by storm."

For all their individual goals may differ, that is still the basic message as the Class of 2007 gets ready to roll.

Mr. Cesar Ortiz plans "on working for the railroad." He says Ms. Francisca Hernandez was the teacher "that influenced me the most."

Mr. Clint Conrad plans "to attend San Angelo State University" with the goal of a degree in business. As his teacher, Mrs. Ballew impressed him by "her willingness to help."

Mr. Adam Sandoval is headed for college in San Antonio, and credits Mrs. Curry as the teacher who "pushed me to do better."

Good luck, guys!!

Brackettville rancher's son to miss working with dad on family ranch !

Mr. Stanford Conoly, B'Ville High 2007 graduate tells The Brackett News (Thursday, March 15, 2007) and its fearless newspaper reporters that he also thanks "Mrs. Curry," as a teacher who helped prepare him for college. Mr. Conoly also says "I will miss working on our ranch with my dad," and that he intends to go to school at Texas Tech University and "major in business."

We wish him luck!

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

In Kinney County, Texas:

More of Brackettville's 2007 H.S. Graduates Ready to Roll
!

Ms. Brenda Tate and Mr. Michael Stephenson and Mr. José Castillo.

Ms. Brenda Tate
"plans to attend a Christian college in Illinois," while Mr. Michael Stephenson plans to "attend Texas Tech University after graduation and major in chemistry, then go on to become a pharmacist."

Thanks to: "The Brackett News," Tiger Page, Thursday, March 29, 2007.

Mr. José Castillo tells like it is: "I plan on working on the railroad." Mr. Castillo credits B'Ville High's legendary Tiger Coach Hutch as being his most influential teacher.

Thanks to: "The Brackett News," Tiger Page, Thursday, March 8, 2007.

The Great Buffalo Hunt: Its history and drama, and its role in the opening of the West....

Gard, Wayne. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska, 1959.

Monday, April 09, 2007

The Cloud of Unknowing: Introductory Commentary and Translation by Ira Progoff ...

New York, New York: The Julian Press, Inc. 1957.

"A new translation of a classic guide to spiritual experience revealing the dynamics of the inner life from a particular historical and religious point of view.

"This a book of contemplation called The Cloud of Unknowing in which a soul is united with God."

INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY

"More than any other, the present period of history should have a humble and open-minded attitude toward all possible sources of knowledge.

"Modern man has lived to see the most productive discoveries drawn from previously rejected materials.

"Under the hand of science, fungi and molds have been found to be sources of healing substances.

"Again and again in a variety of ways we are reminded of the saying of Jesus that the stone which has been cast aside will become the cornerstone.

"I begin with comments like these because I am about to ask the modern scientific individual to regard seriously, in order to learn from, a class of literature that has long been rejected.

"This type of literature, I must warn in advance, has even been labeled with that nasty epithet of the rationalist era, mystic -- as though man's reason has any greater goal than to penetrate the clouded mysteries of human existence.

"The particular text that is presented in this volume in a new translation -- a translation, that is to say, from archaic English to modern English -- is derived from a medieval manuscript written in fourteenth century England.

"Those who know of The Cloud of Unknowing and treasure it are to be found, however, within all shades of Christian opinion from the Quaker to the Catholic."

Thursday, April 05, 2007

"PERSIGUE Y ARRESTA INMIGRACION A 130 ILEGALES"

EL ZOCALO, Jueves 29 de Marzo de 2007.

Note:

Mexico's government and many American Catholics are understandly concerned about the problem of abuses of illegal immigrants fleeing poverty in their home country to try to catch the brass ring here in America.

But!

When it comes down to immigrants fleeing Central America for Mexico and other points north, nobody seems to care what happens...

EL UNIVERSAL [Zócalo] Apizaco, Tlaxcala.

"Por más de ocho horas el Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM) y las policías municipales de Yauhquemehcan y Apizaco persiguieron y aseguraron a 130 inmigrantes centroamericanos que viajaban en vagones del tren la madrugada de este miércoles.

"De acuerdo con el reporte de la dirección de comunicación de Apizaco alrededor de las 21:00 horas de este martes el INM implementó un operativo que concluyó hasta las 5:00 horas de hoy miércoles, en ese lapso se aseguraron a 130 personas que viajaban en los vagones y a quiences intentaron huir a los campos y comunidades aledañas.

"La información oficial es que no había enfermos,pero la mayoría de las personas estaba deshidratada y con algunos días sin comer, por lo que fueron atendidos por personal de Migración que además los deportarán a sus países de origen en los próximos días.

"El presidente municipal de Apizaco, Ryes Ruiz Peña, reconoció que la estación del tren de ese municipio ubicado a 15 kilómetros de la ciudad de Tlaxcala es un paso obligado de los emigrantes que buscan lleagar a Estados Unidos y que tienen muy poco dinero.."

RIP UTEP Senior Christy Velarde....

In a recent email from Jesus Licon, Jr. we got the news that Christy died in a one car accident Tuesday, March 27, 2007.

Along with Veronica Meeks, Christy, a 24-year-old UTEP Senior, was very active in campaigning for a pedestrian cross walk on North Mesa St. near Kern Place.

As her petition points out, the dangerous intersection has caused four deaths in four years.

We hope Christy and Veronica's cause will go forward, and something gets done, and you can sure we've already cast our online vote in favor of it doing so...

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

WOW! LIQUID MIRROR TELESCOPES ON THE MOON??

Maybe so, or maybe no, but astrophysicists don't want to be left out of the action if moon-missions come back!

[
Curiously enough, the Catholic Church and so-called real-deal Science are not, nor can they ever be, in fundamental conflict. We discussed this under the able guidance of one of our Deacons here at Brackettville's St. Mary Magdalene's Church at last Sunday's Parish Faith Sharing meeting.

For example, the online version of the Catholic Encyclopedia of around 1912-1914 or so, that was originally published under the auspices of the Vatican when Pope St. Pius X was in charge, seems to indicate that based on the limitations of geological science of that era, the earth was estimated to be some 900 million years old, more or less
.]

Science News, March 24, 2007. By Ron Cowen.

"A bucket would be big enough to carry the material to make the 100 meter wide telescope that designer Roger Angel of the University of Arizona in Tucson is proposing for the moon's south pole.

"Instead of being made of glass, Angel's mirror would consist of of a low-temperature liquid.

"When set spinning in a wide ocntainer, the liquid would flow away from the center so the surface would form one of the most prized shapes in astronomy -- a parabola.

"The parabolic mirror would focus onto a single point of the light from objects at any distance.

"Smaller-scale liquid-mirror telescopes have already ben built on Earth and are far cheaper than comparable telescopes made of a single piece of glass or of several joined glass segments.

"A liquid-mirror telescope on the moon has a huge advantage over such a device on Earth, notes Angel.

"The moon's axis of rotation stays fixed with respect to the distant heavens, so a liquid mirror telescope placed at one of the lunar poles would always see the same stars and galaxies overhead.

"Such a telescope could make an extraordinarily deep portrait of its overlying patch [of sky].

"Over months to years, it might see back to the time more than 13.5 billion years ago, when the earliest stars came to life, Angel says."

Monday, April 02, 2007

Brackettville's Seniors of the Class of 2007 easily equal to DHS Redskins Famous Class of 1966 !

Don't believe it? Then dig this!

As I recall, our Donna Redksins Class of 1966 had maybe 97 seniors graduating. O.K., so Brackett only has maybe 50% of that.

But! I'm afraid that Brackettville's Soon To Become Famous Class of 2007 isn't going to have to wait 40 years or more to claim its spot in the sun.

And, so ...?

Hey, it's like this: B'Ville's High Senior Class of 2007 Rocks! Or, as the Beatles said 40-some years back when they first "invaded" the USA:

"The kids are all right !!"

Some Random Examples:

Mr. Cullen Duncan, Mr. Izzy Muniz's
good buddy, told The Brackett News [Thursday, March 22, 2007 ] that he plans "to attend Angelo State University." If that's where I think it is, he'll be most likely rubbing shoulders with two young men from those two faraway Texas towns of Mt. Belvieu and Baytown: Jacob Daniels and his first cousin Joseph "Jo Jo" Daniels, whose daddies went fishing in East Texas with their old "Uncle D." so many decades ago! As for teachers, B'Ville High's Mrs. Ballew helped Mr. Duncan find "the right path to success."

And how about Ms. Lola Cano? Ms. Cano has the good judgement and maturity to blow off those so-called "private" San Antonio colleges, and take her first two years at SAC, before going on to the UT Health Science Center. It sounds to us that Ms. Cano is well aware of the advantage of a four-year college degree in nursing and of how she can really go anywhere she wants upon graduation. Deacon Ken Bader's wife, Mrs. Bader, gets credit from Ms. Cano for her help and inspiration.

But! Don't underestimate Mr. William Adams, Jr.! Please! Why? 'Cause folks like Brother Willie have life already all worked out, but since that's nobody's business except theirs, you just have to watch them to see how they do it. Whether it'll be the NBA or the railroad's Bum-Bah-Ye, Brother Willie is going to flat make it, just you wait and see! Mr. William Adams, Jr. credits Mrs Curry as the teacher who "influenced me the most."

Brackettville's Class of 2007 Senior Izzy Muniz gets USMC Scholarship !

Minimum of two years at the Corps' Fallujah Community College = $$$ for any 4-year US Institution ...

The Bracket News Thursday, March 29, 2007.

His answer to the question, "What Are Your Plans After Graduation,?" is short and to the point. Mr. Izzy Muniz tells us right quick: "I am enlisted in the Marines, and will be attending college through it, so I can get a degree in Kinesiology and become a coach." Good luck, Marine! With the USMC fielding 20% of the combat troops to Fallujah Community College and taking 30% of the overall casualties, ¡Qué ten tanto cuidado!

¿ e Dina sica ?

¡Ora, UTEP ! ¡Ora, MEChA ! Adelante BRACKETTVILLLE y DESTINO !

Humberto Moreira Valdés:

¡ Por fin ! ¡ Un gobernador mexicano del estilo guapangero !

El Zócalo de Ciudad Acuña, jueves 29 de marzo de 2007.
Por: José Luis Medrano Martelet -- Zócalo -- Piedras Negras

"En una entrevista exclusiva con ZOCALO, el gobernador de Coahuila habla de sus amores y desamores, de la crisis de su divorcio, de sus defectos y sus virtudes, de su vida, de su gran responsibilidad de dirigir los destinos del estado y de su muy peculiar forma de hacerlo."

ESTOY SEGURO QUE CUANDO SE ACABA EL AMOR SE ACABA EL SACRAMENTO ....

"Creyente al cien por ciento, el gobernador afirma que todos los días reza para seguir adelante en su gran responsibilidad de gobernante, de padre de familia y en breve como esposo.

"Soy tan creyente que estoy seguro que cuando se acaba el amor se acaba el sacramento y tan cryente que rezo a diario y cuando uno reza habla con Dios; leo casi todos los días la biblia y cuando uno lee la biblia, Dios habla con uno, afirma."

SE MUEVEN TAMBIEN SUS OCHENTA Y CUATRO KILOGRAMOS DE PESO AL RITMO DE CUMBIAS Y HASTA DE HUAPANGOS....

"Moreira dice que es un hombre alegre, bailarín de hace muchos años y orgullosomente ex miembro del ballet de Amalia Hernández.

"Sus colaboradores cercanos, que lo acompañan en cada gira, son quizá los que más tienen trabajo.

"Están en el campo de acción, donde está su jefe.

"Estarán, seguramente, también en la boda que ansioso espera el gobernador de Coahuila.

"Y tal vez algunos de ellos también tengan que seguir su ejemplo, en su momento, de someterse a la vasectomía..."