Posts Tagged → tourism
DMZ Mexico here we come
Mexico has always had a lawless cowboy “Pancho Villa” kind of relationship with America. Historically, Mexican raiders would come across the border, whether that border was where it is now, or when Mexico owned what is now Texas and raided across into what is now Oklahoma, California, New Mexico, Arizona etc. Mexicans always preyed upon Americans, whether they were lone homesteaders or big cattle barons.
Anyone who has an interest in this rough border history can pretty well boil it down to the Alamo (a frontier fort that became a symbol of American resistance to Spain and Mexican imperialism, and then later a successful rallying cry in search of revenge for the Mexican massacre of wounded Americans there, “Remember the Alamo!“) and you can watch several good movies about that. Or you can read up on the Texas Rangers. No, not Chuck Norris type Texas Rangers, with nickel-plated Colt 45 1911s and fast cars, or the baseball team, but the very early and very real Texas Rangers. Guys like Frank Hamer. Guys tough as steel wearing true ten gallon hats, riding beautiful strong horses, with big Bowie knives strapped, lever action Winchester rifles across the pommel, and Colt Peacemaker revolvers on their hip, chasing Mexican cattle rustlers, banditos, and thieves back and forth the border in bloody mortal combat.
Books with amazing photos have been published, and I think some early silent movies were done on the Mexican-American border. It is a history that few Americans know about today, because our relationship with Mexico has been defined for a long time in terms of tourism, itself a very new human experience, and to lesser extent the importation of fresh fruits and vegetables long grown with human excrement in lieu of animal manure.
It is also a history now rife with all kinds of modern far-Left anti-America fabrications and nonsense, not the least of which is at history.com, as well as many other anti-America websites that blatantly lie and whine about the legitimate American defense of its borders.
America’s relationship with Mexico only began to become something positive when Americans became tourists there. Acapulco, later the Yucatan Peninsula, became destinations for the then-new 1960s cruise ships. Then industrial investment came, car factories, John Deere tractor parts factories, some hand tools, all positive, although readers should know that Mexican law still forbids foreigners from owning land there.
Over time Americans became literally fat and happy, our own material success killing us, robbing us of our competitive spirit and even of our own will to live. Americans became oblivious to the myriad problems afflicting us, including cross-border drug exports from Mexico. The beautiful movie Act of Valor captured the old American attitude towards border security, before the Biden Administration and its bipartisan supporters opened the border wide for everyone and everything – human sex trafficking, including small children, fentanyl, marijuana, assorted pills, cocaine, forty million foreign invaders from around the planet, just walking in to America.
Suddenly Americans began to really suffer from all the open border problems, and notice the cause. Thousands of illegal alien drunk drivers killing entire American families, repeat offender homicidal maniacs raping and murdering beautiful young American girls, beautiful and promising young American boys and men accidentally ingesting poisonous drugs and dying. The list of maladies afflicting Americans from the Mexico export of bad stuff became too big, too bad, too serious to ignore any longer.
And so Americans voted for President Donald Trump to close the open border, stop the one-way flow of death, violence, and destruction from Mexico, and fix the problem once and for all. And so within thirty days of being sworn in, President Trump correctly declared the Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorists. This means their members who are here on American soil do not enjoy the protections of civil rights or basic criminal law. Rather, they are legally and correctly viewed as armed invaders who intend to do Americans harm, and so they can be shot like dogs, on sight. Beautiful.
Things are looking up, right? Well, not so fast.
In response to all this good course correction stuff, Mexico is right now in the speedy process of making it illegal to hold their citizens accountable for their illegal acts, in Mexico or in America. In other words, the Mexican government is working hard to protect the drug cartels and their human smuggling, drug smuggling, weapons smuggling, and violence smuggling. Presently a pile of drug cartel hit squads are actively murdering Americans and foreigners right here on American soil, usually over drug dealing and money laundering. The Mexican government wants this situation to continue.
Essentially America is going back to the ultra violent 1860s frontier relationship that we had with Mexico, except that it is now official Mexican government policy to unleash their marauders upon us. America is facing a Mexican guerilla war on our southern border, from Tijuana all the way to Florida’s coastline, enabled by the Mexican government.
I am not a military expert, or really a military anything. I could not command a platoon let alone a pineapple. However, I am a long and passionate consumer of human history, and I think history is instructive in instances such as what America now faces along our Mexican border. America must take decisive control of the most dire situation there right now, which is the lawless borderland that allows psychotic murderers easy access deep into our homeland.
Extending a hard American military presence across the Mexican border is hopefully not needed, but it is what is going to have to happen in some shape or form to give us the full control of our side that we need. It is fully 100% justified. It is time for a demilitarized zone on the Mexican side. Whether that DMZ is a half mile, a mile, or ten miles, it is what needs to happen to give America the protection we need from Mexico’s predatory behavior, both official and unofficial wink-wink nudge-nudge.
I want to say that I admire Mexicans. I think the legal Mexican immigrants to America are the new Americans. In my experience, they universally work very hard, value tight and strong families, they believe in God and His higher law. They are patriotic and proudly serve in America’s toughest combat units. Great people, great Americans. Welcome, please.
I spent time in Mexico as a kid, as a volunteer on a Green Cross ambulance among the pobrecitos in a very sad, very poor area. It is a story for another time, but I came to love regular Mexicans at that time, and I still feel very warmly towards those who want to become legal Americans and share in this incredible country with us. They are most welcome here.
It is the lawless banditos we are worried about here, with this borderland issue. And that includes the Mexican government.
Frank Hamer, Texas Ranger and righteous American patriot
Texas Rangers patrolling the Rio Grand River
Pancho Villa, Mexican bandito
Should conservative Americans travel abroad?
Earlier this year several news stories circulated about American tourists being jailed in Caribbean island nations, because one or two loose and forgotten hunting bullets were found lodged deeply in remote seams and pocket corners of their luggage.
While firearms are mostly illegal in these Caribbean island nations, American tourists vacationing on Caribbean beaches were treated as violent criminals when single stray bullets were discovered in their luggage upon entering the islands. Reportedly, these bullets were left over from prior hunting trips, and they had escaped the scrutiny of USA TSA security personnel during the first leg of their trip.
Despite having committed a simple mistake, with the help of the TSA mind you, these travelers were roughly handled by island police, jailed, and held without much due process. Their dream vacations turned into nightmares, and spawned a lot of online discussion about whether or not Americans should risk traveling abroad these days. We are clearly no longer valued for our tourist money in these tiny places, but rather we are valued as political prisoners, symbols of an impotent laughingstock America run by a demented old man and his bribery-plagued family. That American government refuses to flex a little muscle to extract innocent US citizens from these ridiculous destinations is yet another indication of our empire’s forced decline.
Were I president of the USA, and one of these microscopic places dared to lay their filthy hands on an American tourist for some silly mistake, I would sail one or two large US Navy ships into their main harbor, and dispatch several thousand armed US Marines to forcefully re-acquire our illegally detained citizen, by any means necessary. Maybe it’s about time an American flag fly over these local places, anyhow.
Shifting gears to another big tourist destination, Americans have always felt most comfortable and welcome in the “United Kingdom” aka Britain, Wales, Scotland, and formerly Ireland, now its own nation. Because English is the native language or the common language in these places, countless American tourists have traveled there to sight-see, see relatives, marvel at world class museum collections. However, one must openly wonder if these destinations are also now tainted and dangerous for us to visit.
Not too long ago, several American hunters in different parts of Scotland ran into unexpected and undeserved criminal charges for doing exactly what Scottish law allowed, exactly following the directions of their hunting guides. These hunters, both women, had done nothing criminal. What they were guilty of was hunting and having anti-hunters get angry about it. Mind you, paid hunting is about eighty percent of the economic activity in rural Scotland, which is about 80% of Scotland itself. I have hunted in Scotland, and the views there are unbelievably majestic, the animals plenty wild and difficult to take, the “stalkers” (hunting guides) and “ghillies” (hunting assistants) incredibly talented.
But what happens if you follow all the laws, all the rules, and still get in trouble with the government? This bizarre official behavior at odds with the basic rule of law is the very core of lawless arbitrary and capricious government, and it is about the most evil sort of criminal law for a government to engage in. After all, how can you trust a government to host you as a tourist if you follow their laws and they put you in jail anyhow?
I don’t think I would return to hunt in Scotland. And while we are on the subject of the United Kingdom and its environs, I am not sure I would return to Scotland, or England or Ireland or Wales for any reason, for the simple reason that these jurisdictions are now enforcing unbelievably arbitrary speech laws.
In fact, over the past two weeks Britain has descended into complete tyranny, with senior police officials threatening to arrest Americans and others living abroad “wherever you live” for violating Britain’s new arbitrary and capricious speech laws. Britons are being jailed right now for posting simple questions on Fakebook, and apparently even criticizing the current government there can get you handcuffed and taken to jail, for years. Even little kids!
Canada’s lawless and violent customs officials are notorious for their brutality towards Americans who even question why their vehicle is being strip searched at the beginning of their family vacation. American families traveling to Canada have had their family dog shot dead in front of the kids by hyper aggressive Canadian customs agents, who unnecessarily but nonetheless sadistically revel in their complete power over helpless Americans. I would avoid Canada if possible, because it is a place that is also presently descending into lawless tyranny, run by people eager to unfairly make examples of political opponents.
(I wonder why the hell America has not turned Canada into our 51st state by now, but again, I am the kind of proud American who believes in using American military force for the benefit of America and Americans, and to send clear messages to our adversaries)
France just arrested the CEO of the social media company Telegram, because he believes in the free speech of his users. Screw France! France does not believe in individual rights or free speech. France also is descending into tyranny, for your own good, as the British tyrant Keir Starmer also asserts.
So one cannot help but wonder if Americans should refrain from traveling abroad much right now. Maybe this is not a good time for us to be tourists abroad. It seems that no one fears us, no one fears our government or military, and we Americans, used to our personal freedoms and free speech rights, and used to expressing ourselves plainly on every topic we wish, are placing ourselves in harm’s way by traveling abroad.
I don’t think the risk is outweighed by any possible benefits. The benefits of traveling abroad are outweighed by the risks right now.
Here in America we have an incredible array of national and state parks and monuments just begging for tourists and appreciative visitors, beautiful beaches from Maine to Texas, and all within the confines of a nation that at least will respect our right to have opinions. And by vacationing within America you don’t get ripped off by the money changers preying upon us in every other nation.
Americans, you and your tourism dollars belong here in America for the foreseeable future. The upsides are many, not the least of which are that you will see just how incredible this huge and majestic nation is, and why so many of us want to keep it free.
The Bob Webber Trail takes on a whole new meaning
The Bob Webber Trail up between Cammal and Slate Run in the Pine Creek Valley is a well-known northcentral Pennsylvania destination. Along with the Golden Eagle Trail and other rugged, scenic hiking trails around there, you can see white and painted trilliums in the spring, waterfalls in June, and docile timber rattlers in July and August, as well as large brook trout stranded in ever-diminishing pools of crystal clear water as the summer moves along.
Bob Webber was a retired DCNR forester, who had spent the last 40 years or so of his life perched high above Slate Run in a rustic old CCC cabin. That is the life that many of the people around here aspire to, and which I, as a little kid, once stated matter of factly would be my own quiet existence when I reached the “big boy” age of 16. Except Bob had been married for almost all of his time there. He was no hermit, as he enjoyed people, especially people who wanted to explore nature off the beaten path.
That Bob had contributed so much to the conservation and intelligent development of Pine Creek’s recreational infrastructure is a well-earned understatement. He was a quiet leader on issues central to that remote yet popular tourist and hunting/fishing destination. The valley could easily have been dammed, like Kettle Creek was. Or it could easily have been over-developed to the point where the rustic charm that draws people there today would have been long gone. Bob was central to the valley’s successful model of both recreational destination and healthy ecosystem.
A year ago, while our clan was up at camp, Bob snowshoed down to Wolfe’s General Store, the source of just about everything in Slate Run, and I snapped a photo of my young son talking with both Bob and Tom Finkbiner, one of the other long-time stalwart conservationists in the valley. Whether my boy eventually understands or values this photo many years from now will depend upon his own interest in land and water conservation, nature, hunting, trapping, and fishing, and bringing urbanites into contact with these important pastimes so they better appreciate and value natural resources.
Bob, you will be missed. Right now you are walking the high mountains with your walking stick in your hand, enjoying God’s golden light and green fields on a good trail that never ends. God bless you.