Tuesday, January 31, 2006

The Curse of those Two Green Doo Wah Diddy Ribbons, II

Damn! But they could talk up a storm, those Bright Boys from the Southwest Conference, the Big Ten, the Awesome Eleven and the Dyn-o-mite Twelve. Or from the whoever.

Their lives were like this: whenever we'd be sitting outside the Marine Corps Recruit Depot quonset huts, using our upturned galvanized buckets for seats during that time of the southern California evening known as "Commanders' Time," the Bright Boys of the Summer of Sixty-six would be going at it hammer and tongs, while the rest of us minded our places in life and kept our mouths more or less shut.

In fact, as a rule, most of us kept our relationships with fellow Marine recruits within the bounds of our respective platoons. Not so the Bright Boys.

For example, the evening's stillness might be broken suddenly 'way down line by an exuberant grunt, followed in turn by an outpouring of sheer raw eloquence and passion.

"Hey, Brother! Yeah, YOU! 'Way up there in Ten Twenty Five! That's right, YOU! Correct me if I'm wrong! But Brother, were you not the Master of the Forty Aardvarks? You know what I mean!"

The brother in question stirs lazily and pretends to ponder, while glancing at his counterpart down line, with a slantwise questioning look, as though to say, "And....?"

But, naturally, this doesn't faze number one an iota, as he carries on.

"Brother! You surely know what I mean! We were both at the Third Annual Let's All Run Ape Doo-doo Through the Streets Peace, Love, Wine and Beer Bust! Right? The last big event during the Pan Hellenic Spring Festival! O.K.? A few months back at the Ann Arbor -- or was it the Lansing, or Detroit or who knows? -- U. of M. campus! Remember?"

After a breath-taking moment of suspense, the brother so recognized at last nods gravely. Now it is his turn. He rises to his feet, majestic in his shower shoes and green utility trousers, strikes the College Man's Stance in such a way as to provoke the bad case of the Green-eyed Monster in the rest of us seventy to eighty-percenters, and then with all the blustering pomp of a bellowing Cicero declaims:

"NO! I can't believe my eyes! Tell me, Brother! Is it not you, the legendary Joe Spumoni? The Number One Frat Brother from Dis Mo Sy? The Party People? Likewise from the Lansing -- or was it the Ann Arbor, or Detroit, or who knows -- U. of M. campus?"

Another suspenseful moment passes until Brother Joe Spumoni gets up from his overturned galvanized bucket and makes a solemn bow in confirmation. Only now it is his turn, once again.

"Brother so and so, Master of the Forty Aardvarks, do you recall what happened when the driver of the lead Roman chariot lost control in the last lap of the Big Pan Hellenic Race? And let his thirty Mexican burros from UT El Paso plow all through your forty Aardvarks, on loan from the Detroit Zoo? You do? Like, wow! Then dig this! It was I, Fraternity Brother Joe Spumoni, who was the Authentic Roman Legionary -- or whatever the ancient Romans may have called an inebriated chariot jockey of such proven Aardvark-plowing ability -- driving that very same chariot!"

After this would come another period of comparative silence. The silence of a warm, glowing, sharing-kind of mutual narcism, shared memories of the Halls of Higher Learning and the shared high points of recent academic and social achievement.

Then these latest two examples of the Bright Boys of the Summer of Sixty-six would sit down again and we would all carry on, although by now fairly green with envy, cleaning our M-14 rifles, shining our brass, or whatever.

END PART II

From that Sizzling UTEP Book Store Non-seller Known as....

The Allegedly Mother-Fixated Bright Boys of the Summer of Nineteen Sixty-six!

A Chilling Tale of Mass Delusion, as we begin to read, but no! More like as we begin to actually live...:...


The Curse of those Two Green Doo Wah Diddy Ribbons

From all parts of America they came, these fine young men whose testosterone and blood alcohol levels had long since achieved a rough and ready parity over the course of several years in their pursuit of higher education.

Suffice to say, when on June 1, 1966, some 300 of us Marine recruits, whether voluntary enlistees or involuntary draftees, were released from the tender clutches of the Receiving Barracks NCOs at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, California, to the equally tender clutches of the regular Marine Corps drill instructors, things begin to happen.

Fast!

But that wasn't such a big deal. Because, you see, the four 75-man platoons making up the four-platoon series of which mine, Ten Twenty-five, was anchor, had one awesome, exuberant, bunchola of Bright Boys.

They freely admittedly to coming from such exotic places as the Southwest Conference, the Big Ten, the Awesome Eleven, and the Dyn-o-mite Twelve. Or from the whoever. They made up twenty to thirty percent of four entire recruit platoons.

And, truth to tell, they were like 100% lily white.

But leaving this all aside, take it from me, o.k.? 'Cause it's like I'm struggling to tell you all something.

These Bright Boys who were so quick to tell anybody who cared to listen -- or even if they didn't -- that they'd come from all these exotic places were likewise quick to let us know that they weren't about to stop with just getting by here in basic. So here's what -- well -- almost happened.

And it would be the United States Marine Corps itself that would reap the benefit of such an influx of talent; these Joe College Men, these Bright Boys of the Summer of Sixty-six, were an awesome breed of cat.

True, those hard-bitten Marine sergeants wearing the undress blues trousers and long-sleeved tropical worsted shirts of the Receiving Barracks NCOs could and often did express in no uncertain sneering and ribald terms their hostile opinion that said Bright Boys actually did little more than run the entire all-American intellectual gamut from "Ugh, me know you," aka the psychology and sociology majors, to the "Just put me in Phys Ed" types, aka the jocks.

But that's understandable. Those same Receiving Barracks NCOs were merely little men, written smaller still, who just naturally hated anybody ready to look down his nose at them while fearlessly flaunting his own genuine intellectual and moral superiority.

And to give these Bright Boys credit, man! They weren't the least bit bashful about letting you know how far above the common herd they'd climbed!

Because, you see, they knew, every last one of them, that if only the Marine Corps would "Just quit f ..... 'n all us College Men around and turn us loose," they'd waste no time in showing that same backwards, out of date, reactionary Marine Corps just what four entire recruit platoons dominated by all-American college-trained intellectuals could do.

And so far as the other 70 to 80 percent of us in these same four platoons went, just who the f ... k did we think we were anyhow? "Just you all keep out of the f...'n way 'cause we college jocks are here to stay." This they would chant with many a menacing stare at the rest of us.

END PART ONE!

Monday, January 30, 2006

We few, we lucky few: for he who sheds his blood with me today, him I shall call my brother tomorrow.

Motto inked on the sea bag of Sergeant (E-5) Don Aherns, Hotel Company Weapons Platoon M-60 machinegun section leader, the Second Battalion, 27th Marines Regimental Landing Team (RLT) at Ha Dong Bridge, Viet Nam, 1968. I know. I was there. I was in the same weapons platoon. I knew Don. I saw his seabag. He was a Marine's Marine.

1968. A bloody year in I Corps, Republic of Vietnam.

As author Edward F. Murphy tells us in his excellent book, Semper Fi Vietnam, [available in the UTEP library], on page 382, "At the peak of the war in 1968, more than 86,000 Marines were ashore in South Vietnam--more than 25 percent of the Marine Corps' total strength." Out of these 86,000 Marines, as he tells us elsewhere on page 250, roughly 4,618 were killed in action, and another 29,320 were wounded in action, for a combined total of 33,938 casualties, roughly 40% of the total pairs of Marine boots on the ground for that particular year.

My tour from November, 1966 to December, 1967. A bloody time for Fox Company, the Second Battalion, First Marines, w/more than 45 Killed in Action.

And now, for a comparison and contrast between two combat battalions, one in World War II and the other in Vietnam.

Colonel Glover S. Johns' famous 1st Battalion, 115th Infantry, 29th Division, aka The Indestructible Clay Pigeons [of St. Lo].

"From Omaha Beach to the Elbe, this battalion sustained a loss in killed and wounded of 2,384 officers and men -- almost three times its strength. Of these, 454 were killed in action. And its commander was commended for taking objectives with minimum losses." Forward to Col. Glover S. Johns' fascinating book, Clay Pigeons of St. Lo, [UTEP Library], by Maj. Gen. William H. Sands, US Army.

2nd Bn, Ist Marines, aka The Professionals, "Vietnam Wall of Honor."

During their years of deployment in Vietnam, 2/1 sustained at least 546 Killed in Action (KIA), including some 19 officers ranging from 2nd. Lieutenants to one Lt. Colonel and one Naval Lt. Commander. If we assume the same ratio of 5.25 wounded to every Marine killed as the Army suffered in this combat unit in World War II, that would give 2/1 a total of 2,867 Wounded in Action(WIA). Then, by adding the wounded to the killed we can say that 2/1 sustained at least 3,413 casualties during its time in Vietnam. Sure enough, this too, adds up to "almost three times its strength" as Maj. Gen. Sands comments about Colonel Glovers' WW II battalion.

EXTRA! NEW DELIVERY TIME RECORD SET FOR FIRST CLASS MAIL BY UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE!

ONLY 39 DAYS FROM MIAMI TO EL PASO WITH CHRISTMAS CARD!

SETS OFF SPASM OF INDIFFERENTIATED MARINEOBILIA, A RELATIVELY NEW AND HITHERTO UNDESCRIBED CONDITION IN THE MANUAL OF POLITICALLY, IDEOLOGICALLY AND INTELLECTUALLY CORRECT FORENSIC PSYCHIATRY [AKA DSM IV]!


OH MY GOODNESS!


Seriously, folks. Thirty-nine days is pretty good time in delivering a Christmas card sent from a former Marine CO, Col. Edward F. Danowitz, now living in Florida to one of his former Combined Action Platoon leaders, then- Sergeant(E-5) Dennis Paul Morony, now living in El Paso. But! With the "old" 37-cent stamp of John A. Lejeune on the envelope, just getting it, period, was a reminder of the importance of continuity. Along with the comforting probability that Colonel Danowitz was still hanging in there: a platoon leader in WW II, a company commander in Korea, and a battalion commander in Santo Domingo, plus our own CO before going on to command the 9th Marine Regiment in Nam.

What this all boils down to is the simple historical reality that, in relation to combat command and leadership issues, the United States Marine Corps is continuity. Even more, it is continuity personified!

For example:

Yours truly arrived at the rural South Vietnamese compound south of Da Nang holding the Second Battalion First Marines (2/1), and was assigned to Fox Company's First Platoon, under Second Lieutenant George Mallon, right around Thanksgiving, 1966.

I had been assigned stateside to the 3rd Replacement Company, of Replacement Draft Number 3017, and after my first leave I was at Staging Battalion "Gateway to the Pacific" at Camp Las Pulgas, part of the vast Camp Pendleton Marine Corps complex, for some hurry-up shake and bake training.

But! It was only upon arrival in Vietnam that things really began to move. Because this was where we began our 12-month combat apprenticeship, the Marine Corps way. In time, this would be followed by around another 21 months of hands on training, only this time we'd be gaining NCO-level combat command leadership experience, much as Marines are learning these days in Afghanistan, Iraq, wherever.

As it was, Fox Compay's CO, Captain Gene Deagan, would in time become a Major General commanding Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Our Fox Company First Sergeant Claud V. Thorpe was a Marine of the Class of 1944. Fox Company Gunnery Sergeant (E-7) Alex Romero was hideously scarred from multiple machine-gun bullet hits in his stomach area, whether from fighting the Japanese in WW II or the Red Chinese or North Koreans in Korea, hell, no one really knew which. Nor did all this slow him down any.

Staff Sergeant Gutherie, First Platoon's Platoon Sergeant, was a Korean War combat vet too, and still carried his MI Carbine. So, too, was Lance Corporal (E-3) "Pappy" who'd been in the Korean War and signed up for this one for good measure. Sergeant (E-5) Bernard Terhorst, First Platoon Right Guide, was a Canadian national who had been with the Corps since at least the late Fifties. Even our First Platoon First Squad Leader, buck Sergeant Otis Lovejoy, told us he had participated in joint training exercises with the French Foreign Legion on the island of Corsica in 1963, this would have been within a year or so of the Legion's departure from the still-smoking hot battlefields of Algeria in old French North Africa. Corporal Bradley (E-4) was yet another squad leader in First Platoon with beaucoup time in: around seven years total USAF - Marine Corps service.

These men on the rifle company level provided the backbone of the wartime Marine Corps of that era, and I'll guarantee their contemporaries still do today, whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, or who knows where.

So, for all you gyrenes out there, in whatever war zone, fleet deployment or shore installation you may find yourself in this season, here's Col. Danowitz's belated Christmas Greetings to all of us, of whatever generation or war:

"It's always great to hear from a brother and share a holiday greeting. Good luck in your life and in your work.

Wishing you every happiness at Christmas and always.

Semper Fidelis,

(signed) Ed. Danowitz."

Sunday, January 29, 2006

SO JUST WHAT IS THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT EL PASO, POLICE AND SECURITY WISE, AS AN ALL-AMERICAN UNIVERSITY?

AS OPPOSED TO, SAY, A EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY?


Source: John W. Powell, Michael S. Pander and Robert C. Nielsen's Campus Security and law Enforcement, 2nd. Edition. Newton, Masachusetts: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1994.

First, let's look at what exactly an all-American university is in terms of being a political entity, o.k.? O.K.!

Vartan Gregorian, President, Brown University, interview with Rolling Stone, March 21, 1991:

"The problem you're facing on our campuses is whether we're running an educational institution or whether we're running communities .... But we have become small city-states now. I have my defense force - 50 policemen. I have my barracks - 5,000 rooms. My dietitians. My psychiatrists. My physical health services.

"[F]or the first time these people come together from different backgrounds, different cultures, different habits, different religious convictions, and they have to accomodate each other for four years, and there's a great deal of tension.

"The president of the Sorbonne - if there is a rape on his campus, it's a civil matter and has to go directly to the police. Here [Throughout the entire good 'ole USA], we are running almost like Aristotelian cities, a polis of between 5,000 and 50,000 people. I pay over two million for security. If I'm president of the Sorbonne, I would not spend a penny."

In order: top of pages 217, 241 and 247.

SO, WHAT IS UTEP'S UNIVERSITY POLICE BUDGET?

Source: The University of Texas as El Paso 2004-2005 Budget.

Answer: $1,428,107

Saturday, January 28, 2006

With a neighborhood watch of 25 neighbors like these, who needs a secret police?

French Press Agency (AFP)

Via: El Diario de El Paso, Viernes 27 de enero de 2006

"La Habana -- Partidarios del presidente cubano Fidel Castro impidieron el acceso a la casa de la disidente Marta Beatriz Roque a un diplomático norteamericano que ayer se disponía a visitarla, informaron los propios manifestantes a la prensa.

"Vino undiplomático de la SINA (Sección de Intereses de los Estados Unidos) y no lo dejamos entrar. Le impedimos el paso..., pero nadie lo ofendió ni lo agredió, dijo Marta María Sánchez, quien vive contigua a Roque en el barrio Santos Suárez.

"La versión fue confirmada telefónicamente por la propia Roque, quien explicó que efectivamente un diplomático de la sección política de la SINA vino a visitarme y no lo dejaron entrar.

"Desde las 11H00 locales unos 25 vecinos del lugar se apostaron frente al edificio donde está ubicado el apartamento de Roque para impedir el acceso a disidentes al lugar."

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Sample Campus Security Posters

From: Campus Security and Law Enforcement, Second Edition. Newton, Massachusetts: Butterworth Heiniman, 1994

By: John W. Powell, Michael S. Pander and Robert C. Nielson


Number I

FREE 10 SPEED BIKES!

That's what you are supplying
when you lock your $100.00
bike with a $3.00 lock. See a
bike dealer for information on
adequate locks for your bike.

UTEP Police (915) 747-6639


Number 2

FREE! FREE! FREE!

RECORDS! BEER! COMPONENTS!

The value of the equipment and
money taken from UTEP dormitory
rooms and offices could purchase
DOZENS of Component Sets,
THOUSANDS of Records, or
HUNDREDS of Kegs of Draft Beer.

GOOD SECURITY WILL DOUBLE
YOUR FUN

UTEP Police (915) 747-6639

Number 3

NO INTEREST, NON-REPAYABLE LOANS!!

Are now available from the wallets,
handbags and desks of students
and staff who leave their valuables
unprotected.

THOUSANDS OF $$$$$ GIVEN AWAY
ANNUALLY!!

Want to increase the return on your investment?

BE MORE SECURITY CONSCIOUS!!

UTEP Police (915) 747-6639

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

El Paso Times. Thursday, Nov. 10, 2005

"UT plans to improve its lagging grad rates"

By Brandi Grissom
Austin Bureau

"AUSTIN - It won't happen overnight, but the University of Texas System today will launch a plan to improve graduation rates at its schools.

"The University of Texas at El Paso has some of the lowest graduation rates in the state. Just 4.5 percent of students obtain degrees in four years, and 24.7 percent finish in six years, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

" UTEP Provost Richard Jarvis said the school has set a target to increase its six-year graduation rate to 50 percent [ from the current 24.7% ] by 2014.

"Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, who earlier this year wrote a letter to UT System Board of Regents Chairman James Huffines asking for quick action to improve graduation rates, said if schools don't improve their graduation rates, lawmakers may take action of their own.

"In 2003, the Texas Legislture gave universities authority to set a portion of their own tuition rates. Since then, tuition at UTEP has increased almost 37 percent.

"Graduation rates are a measure of success, Shapleigh said.

"Lawmakers want to see a return on their investment."

"Brandi Grissom may be reached at bgrissom@elpasotimes.com; (512) 479-6606"

Monday, January 23, 2006

More on suspected bang-on demographics shared by aging wannabe "Online Queen," and UTEP College of Education "Dean."

Hola Dennis

Oye con respeto a las fotografias que me mandaste de las dos mujeres pues si se parecen en la cara, lo unico que cambia es el color del pelo, porque eso es faciel(sic) de cambiar. Por otro lado, acuerdate de que estoy puesta para...etc. y etc.

Nombre de informante: Carmeleona Woo, reportera de un periodico capitalino, también viniculada -- mediante parentesco -- con la Policia Judicial de la Frontera, Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Republica Mexicana.

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Suspected UTEP Teacher Education Alumni in Trouble in Las Cruces?

The following story certainly fits the so-called UTEP College of Education Habitual Alumni Sex-Offenders Profile, a highly classified document purportedly in current use by area law enforcement agencies, whether city, county, state or federal. Or, it is in use, at least, among those law enforcement agencies cooperating in that hush-hush ongoing multi-state, multi-agency collegiate law enforcement task force with the somewhat uninspiring code name of Operation Dial a Ho, so who knows?

A further irony is that, in spite of the frankly sexist and offensive tone of this so-called code name, almost all the arrests to date have been male.

This in turn should give pause to an impartial outside observer, as she (or he) considers this demographic fact: that so far as this "whole business" is concerned, almost an even 100% of the rejects from the bottom feeders of this sector of society's low lifes are male, a truly sobering fact! The female of the species is most likely at a higher, refined, administrative or even at a collegiate administrative level, as is the case with UTEP, and other institutions currently undergoing quiet, intense scrutiny. Further, the she of the species is far more dangerous and resourceful at staying alive and in coopting potential opposition than is her lowlife, brain dead male counterpart.

[Acknowledgement is hereby gratefully given the editors of the American Academy of Forensic Science's biannual Journal of Comparative Collegiate Social Ho Ology, as well as to Professor Rodney Cobbledik, editor emeritus, for his kind permission to copy material from his publication at will.]

Number one:

El Paso Times. Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2005

Band Teacher allegedly had sex with student

"Las Cruces -- Las Cruces band teacher Brian Theodorson, 32, was arrested Monday night, accused of having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old female student, Las Cruces police said.

"Theodorson was charged with three counts of sexual penetration of a minor by a licensed school employee, a fourth-degree felony. Theodorson was jailed in lieu of a $15,000 bond."

-Daniel Borunda -

To verify whether or not Theodorson is indeed a Golden Child From Among the Bottom Feeders of UTEP's mis-named "College of Education," check with Mr. Borunda at:

dborunda@elpasotimes.com; (915) 546-6102

or call our own UTEP Alumni Office on campus: Ms. Margo A. Yanez, (915) 747-8600/ alumni@utep.edu



Number two:

El Paso Times. Thursday, Dec. 29, 2005


Coach charged in teen-sex case

By Daniel Borunda

"An Andress High School assistant boys basketball coach faces a felony chrge for allegedly having sex with a 17-year-old female studen in a campus locker room, court documents state.

"Michael Pinson, 34, was arrested Friday by El Paso Independent School District police on a charge of improper relationship between an educator and student, district officials said. Pinson was released on a $50,00o bond.

"A custodian allegedly interrupted the pair the second time they had sex in the [school locker] room.

"Last year, Pinson was under investigation by the school district on an allegatiion of having improper conduct with a student, newspaper archives state.

"Pinson also faced a past indecency with a child charge that was dismissed on Oct. 1, 2003, a spokeswoman for the El Paso district attorney's office said.

"The charge of sexual rlaitonship between an educator and student is a second-degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

"Pinson's arrest is the latest of the arrests of several school staffers this year in the El Paso - Las Cruces area for allegedly having sex with students."

To verify whether or not Pinson is likewise a Golden Child From Among the Bottom Feeders of UTEP's mis-named "College of Education," just check with Daniel, as above, or the UTEP Alumni Office, where operators are standing by day and night to take your call.

Acorralados! Dos prófugos universitarios más!

¿Son ambos productos del ambiente nocivo de la facultad de Alcahuetería Pedagógica de la Universidad de Texas El Paso?

¿Sí, o no?

Para conseguir más información respeto los antecedentes universitarios de este par de puros hijos de la ......!!!!, favor de comunicarse con:

La Licenciada Margo A Yanez

(915) 747-8600

alumni@utep.edu


Y, ahora, número uno:

Fuente: El Diario de El Paso Sábado 21 enero de 2006

"Detienen a consejero; embaraza a su alumna"

por Aracely Lazcano Aveytia

"Un consejero de la escuela Cordova Middle School fue arrestado por las autoridades el jueves por la mañana acusado de sostener relaciones sexuales y embarazar a una de sus alumnas, según consta en el archivo de la corte.

"Darrin James McCluskey, de 39 años, quien ha sido emp;leado del Distrito Escolar Independiente de El Paso (EPISD) por 16 años, también es acusado de querer vengarse de las personas que reportaron los hechos a las autoridades.

"McClauskey renunció al distrito escolar el 13 de enero y fue arrestado el pasado jueves por lo que fue recluido en la cárcel del condado donde se le asignó una fianza de $50,000 dólares."

(Aracely Lazcano Aveytia/El Diario De El Paso) alazcano@diariousa.com


Y, ahora, número dos:


Fuente: el mismo
Fecha: la misma


"Tiene antecedentes el maestro abusador"

De la Redacción
El Diario De El Paso

"El maestro de la Burges High School, acusado de conducta inmoral con sus alumnas contaba con antecendentes penales ya que en el año 2002, dicen, fue detenido cuando les daba licor a sus alumnos durante un día de campo en Anthony.

"De manera inexplicable José Mendoza, el profesor de estudios sociales de la Burges High School, ubicada en el Distrito Escolar Independiente de El Paso (EPISD), el mismo que le pidió a una alumna que se levantará la blusa y le mostrara los senos, ya tenía un mal récord porque en su desempeño como maestro en el [D]istrito de Ysleta, fue sorprendido cuando ingería bebidas alcohólicas con sus estudiantes. Sin embargo, las autoridades educativas extrañamente no se percataron de ello.

"El acusado que tiene su domicilio en el número 500 de la calle Prospect se entregó de manera voluntaria en la oficina del Sheriff en donde fue llevado a la cárcel del condado [donde] ahí se le fijó una fianza de $10,000 dólares."

(Juan Manuel Martinez/ El Diario De El Paso)

newsroomdiario@yahoo.com

Saturday, January 21, 2006

DOES DR. JOHN PILCH PLUS THE REVEREND JEROME KODELL AND ALL CALL US TO A "HEROIC " SOVIET-UNION STYLE OF SO-CALLED CHRISTIANITY??!!

Why NOT a Marxist-Leninist alternative to that mundane Christian opiate of Professor John Pilch's and Rev. Jerome Kodell's supposedly ignorant peasant masses, addicted, as all such peasant masses are, to their pathetic trance experiences? Yes! That's right! Boys and girls! Now, here is a golden blast from out of the past. When Joe Stalin's Russia bravely set out to prove itself as the living, breathing, embodiment of You-Know-Who's Sermon on the Mount, Eight Beatitudes and all.

An ideal which in today's South Africa such intoxicated evangelists as Dr. Pilch are still trying to perpetuate in some neo-Marxist think tank in Pretoria.

All fine and dandy if Professor Pilch was writing for some professional journal with a name like "The Journal of Marxist Anthropology," and if the Rev. Fathers Jerome Kodell and Robert C. Harren plus their respective American Catholic Bishops, J. Peter Sartain, of Little Rock, Arkansas, and John F. Kinney, of St. Cloud, Minnesota, had all had the good sense and wisdom to have kept the Nihil obstat and Imprimatur stamps off both Professor Pilch's book and Catherine Upchurch's guide to it.

And, in fact, if you scroll down far enough you can see where we have quoted from both Pilch's and Upchurch's works.

Why? So what difference does having those latin stamps make, anyway?

Good point! Number one: Professor Pilch is using a classic Marxist-Leninist tecnique of political subversion called, if my feeble memory serves me, Unperceived Ideological Trans-shipment and Dialogue.

Number two: This same technique calls for the use of something called either the talismanic word, or the talismanic phrase. We're talking now about something that was very, very current maybe twenty years ago, folks, ok?

Number three: the talismanic component to all this is to impress upon the population selected and targeted for political subversion the false idea that this is all good and comfy stuff they are hearing, even though it might sound a little strange, at first.

Thus: these latin stamps are critical in achieving the desired effect. They have the necessary "magic" of the talismanic word - talismanic phrase.

Number four: this psychological warfare gimmick's ultimate goal is to alienate the reader/ believer from her (or his) previously held beliefs and make them all but cling with a new dependency upon something (or anything) glibly packaged as both new and revolutionary, while getting the targets' wholehearted support and cooperation in their own long-term psychological and emotional self-destruction.

In this last sense, anyway, all this is just an extension of the lectures given to us by our old Iranian Professor of International Law at the University of Houston, way back in the Fall of 1976.

For Dr. Razi never tired of patiently explaining to us certain realities of world law and politics, with such memorable zingers as:

"It is absolutely essential, when making a hostile nation the target of political subversion and propoganda, that one of two things must first transpire: Number one, that you already control the means of mass communications within the targeted country itself, or, number two, that you are successful in creating the impression within the targeted population itself, that you do. It really doesn't make much difference which method you chose. Both techniques are equally effective in destabilizing a hostile regime." Damn! That guy told us undegraduates the "way it is!" No sugar coated if ands or buts!

Believe you me, this all applies to Professor John Pilch's book, Cultural Tools for Interpreting the Good News, and the symbolic reassurance given both it and Upchurch's Guide using this same Marxist-Leninist technique of Unpercieved Idoleogical Transshipment and Dialogue with its built-in Talismanic word - phrase sub-component.

It is working fine here, at least, in Bishop Ochoa's Diocese of El Paso, Texas, and we might assume, elsewhere as well.

Here's a sample from Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon giving the philosophical mindset of the Dr. John Pilchs of this world, or at least of their own political handlers, or commissars, followed by a roughly remembered paraphrase from some book on Mexican politics and history; it may be from Alan Riding's excellent Distant Neighbors, but I'm not real sure. Anyway, the last quote deals with the pithy, succinct views of a lifetime party hack in Mexico's Revolutionary Institututional Party.

First, the Romance and Glory of Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union!

Pages 43-44

"The Party can never be mistaken," said Rubashov. "You and I can make a mistake. Not the Party. The Party is the embodiment of the revolutionary idea in history. History knows no scruples and no hesitation. Inert and unerring, she flows towards her goal. At every bend in her course she leaves the mud which she carries and the corpses of the drowned. History knows her way. She makes no mistakes. He who has not absolute faith in History does not belong in the Party's ranks. The Party's course is sharply defined, like a narrow path in the mountains. The slightest false step, right or left, takes one down the precipice. The air is thin; he who becomes dizzy is lost."

Regarding this last: Nope! Neither Pilch nor Kodell are in any danger here, so far as losing their supernatural credentials as "Historical Revolutionary Apostates" is concerned. Instead, they are both locked in solid, perhaps for all enternity, in the service of some "Master," and, one might ask, all for what?

"To faithfully execue their Master's every whim?"

Really?

Well, then, just who is their "Master?"

One guess!

Since it's obviously not Jesus Christ, then it is...........??!!

And, if so, how will Messers Pilch and Kodell be suitably rewarded??!!

As one such "revolutionary" cadre years ago in Mexico confessed on being honored for surviving in that dog-eat-dog world for fifty years:

"Comrades, you ask me: Jefe, Boss, what have you learned in fifty years of faithful service to La Partida, The Party? Well, you see, the answer is really very simple. I have come to learn that all my friends were false, and that all my enemies were real. And that as others were prone to do to me, so, too, did I also do to them."

Koestler, Arthur. Translated by Daphne Hardy. Darkness at Noon. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1941. Page 43-44.

Friday, January 20, 2006

Una famosa profecia de los maya

Libro de Chilam Balam de Chumayel. Prólogo y traducción por Antonio Mediz Bolio. Ciudad de Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1999.

Tercero

1680 [AD]

"El Diez Ahau Katún, Chablé es el aisento del Katún. Allí llegarán sus pobladores. Y los árboles del bosque se doblarán sobre ellos, que serán los reyes de la tierra.

"Se quemarán las pezuñas de los animales; arderán las arenas del mar; se incendiarán las nidos de los pájaros. Reventarán las cisternas. Grandes sequías son la carga del Katún. Es la palabra de Nuestro Padre Dios y de la Señora del Cielo. Nadie podrá escapar al filo de la guerra. Es la palabra de Nuestro Padre Dios, Dios Hijo, Señor del Cielo y de la Tierrra. No ha pasado. Va a suceder con todo rigor sobre todos.

"Llegará el Santo Cristiano trayendo el tiempo en que se conviertan los soberbios de su mal camino.

"Y nadie podrá evitar que en los días de los grandes soles, se deje ir sobre ellos la palabra de los sacerdotes mayas. Es la palabra de Dios."

Como la voz que nos evoca, o el sonido de las cuerdas de una guitarra, que también nos ayuda recordar.... una memoria breve de otro tiempo, casi como otro mundo, pero un mundo ya perdido para siempre en las neblinas de la prehistoria: platequemos pues de unos...

CONSEJOS DE LOS MAESTROS MEXICANOS!

"Queremos un maestro que tome atole y tortillas con chile y que viva con nosotros."

Gral. Lazaro Cardenas

"El magisterio es una bella ruta para un joven."

Rafael Ramirez

"Lo que real y verdaderamente educa, junto con el ejemplo, es el trabajo."

"Si queremos formar jovenes trabajadores y responsables, lo conseguiremos mediante el trabajo."

"La solidaridad, la igualadad, la justicia, el optimismo, la sencillez y la perseverancia, son algunos valores y sentimientos que se fomentan con el trabajo."

José Santos Valdez

"La sociedad más justa sera aquella en la que cada intelectual sea un trabajador y cada trabajador sea un intelectual."

Profe Ruperto Ortiz Gamez

"Cuando necesitemos algo, cuando queramos algo y cuando nos preguntemos: ¿Quién lo va a hacer? Siempre nos responderemos: Yo mismo, con mis propias manos."

José Labrador

[Vienen estos comentarios y/o consejos de la revista mexicana, "El Maestro"]

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Samuel Butler on the squabble between the English Church and the English followers of Darwinism in the mid-1800s:

"The men of religion tell a lot of little lies for the sake of one big truth, and the men of science a lot of little truths for the sake of one big lie."

Disraeli and Gladstone, by D.C. Somervell, page 134.

Roman Catholics four hundred years ago may have been smarter than many glib-talking 21st Century university faculty members care to admit!

For example: Concepts of the relative size of the stars, universe and so on.

Donnelly, S.J., John Patrick, and Teske, Roland J., S.J. translators and editors. Robert Bellarmine Spiritual Writings. Mahwah, New York: Paulist Press, 1989.

page 67

"And what, I ask, is the size of the earth in comparison with the vastness of the heavens above?" Bellarmine marvels in 1618. "Astronomers claim that it is like a mere point, and they are right. We see that even when the earth comes in between, the sun's rays reach to the stars at the end of the firmament as if the earth were nothing at all. And if every star of the firmament is greater than the whole earth, as scholars generally believe, and still these stars seem tiny specks to us because of the of the almost infinite distance, who can grasp in thought the size of the heavens where so many thousands of stars shine? Please consider now, my soul, if the world is so great, how great is he who made the world? [I]f another world were created, God would fill it too, and if there were many worlds or even an infinite number of worlds (emphasis added), God would fill them all."

Hummm! Like maybe even "life on other planets?" Wow! Cool!

Thoughts on this official Week of Prayer for Christian Unity:
January 18-25, 2006. Catholic Diocese of El Paso, Texas.


American Protestants and Non-Catholic Christians have long played a positive role in keeping the so-called American Catholic Church more or less on an even keel, if only by stimulating competition.

Interestingly enough, religious history shows that it was the Roman Catholic Church, through one of its recognized saints, St. Louis de Montfort, that caught on to what, in English translation at least, appears an eucumenical spirit long before Vatican Council II!

In fact St. Montfort wrote this around the year of 1700 AD, enraging his French Jansenist bishops, to be sure!

On page 60 of the English edition of Montfort's classic The Secret of the Rosary, 26th printing of April, 1991, we read:

"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."

page 99:

1. "We ought to pray and not to faint. (Luke 18:1) These are the eternal words of our Blessed Lord Himself. And we must believe His words and abide by them if we do not want to be damned. You can understand them in any way you like, as long as you do not interpret them as the world does and only observe them in a wordly way."

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

So! Is there a sane alternative to UTEP's Childrens' Literature Spring 2006 classes' insistance on such winners as Heather May Have Two Mommies, But With Little Jive'in Willie, It's More Like He Be Have'in Three Daddies ?

Wow! There is? Like what, for instance?

Well, here's one, recently in use in a El Paso ISD elementary school:

The Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling. Mahwah, New Jersey: Watermill Press, 1980.

Excerpt, telling us about the Monkey People, aka Bandar-log:

P.41

"They were always just going to have a leader, and laws and customs of their own, but they never did, because their memories would not hold over from day to day, and so they compromised things by making up a saying: What the Bandar-log think now the jungle will think later, and that comforted them a great deal."

p. 58 Mowgli is being entertained by the Monkey People:

"He could not help laughing when the Bandar-log began, twenty at a time, to tell him how great and wise and strong and gentle they were, and how foolish he was to wish to leave them.

"We are great. We are free. We are wonderful. We are the most wonderful people in all the jungle! We all say so, and so it must be true, they shouted. Now we will tell you all about our most excellent selves.

"Whenever a speaker stopped for want of breath they would all shout together: This is true; we all say so!"

So! What better way of giving bright young elementary students a chance to really get used to the all-American University of Texas at El Paso's Rah Rah SPIRIT? While having a lot of fun in the process? And thereby prepare them for what they will be hearing constantly once they show up here on campus in some far off future time?

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

NOW FOR THE STUDY GUIDE!

Upchurch, Catherine. Study Guide. [Cultural Tools for Interpreting the Good News] Little Rock Arkansas: Little Rock Scripture Study, 2002.

Nihil obstat: Jerome Kodell, O.S.B., Censor librorum.
Imprimatur: J. Peter Sartain, Bishop of Little Rock, March 16, 2002.

Page 20.

"Lesson 3. Jesus Announces the Reign of God.

Day 1

Question 2. In what ways are your images of Jesus Christ challenged by the realization that at the time Jesus began his public ministry he would have been considered an older man? (see Luke 3.23)"

In the first place, it seems highly unlikely that Jesus Christ would have had any influence at all among the Jewish people if He had started His ministry before the age of thirty.

And that's just for starters!

From the so-called American Catholic Church's Theology of Jesus as a Warm Fuzzie, to today's Jesus as a Home Boy, the Bishops of St. Cloud, Minnesota, Little Rock, Arkansas & El Paso, Texas still have trouble making the here and now connection between declining financial resources and the continued proliferation of religious apostasy in their bible study teaching materials.

Result?

Interesting!

Because while non-Catholic Christians are having a field day snapping up former Catholics to their own churches, many non-Catholics are converting to Catholicism, albeit not necessarily in these same dioceses.

Here are the latest examples of religious apostasy, a word which is more or less defined as the denial of religious belief, two books used in the here and now in the Dicoese of El Paso's Bible Studies program:

Pilch, John J. Cultural Tools for Interpreting the Good News. Collegeville, Minnesota: The Order of St. Benedict, Inc. 2002.

Nihil obstat : Robert C. Harren, Censor deputatus.
Imprimatur: John F. Kinney, Bishop of St. Cloud, Minnesota. April 8, 2002.

This book is warmly endorsed on the back cover by one David Valtierra, C.O. Scripture Institute at the Oratory, Rock Hill, S.C.

Pages 39-40.

"The baptism of Jesus precedes this encounter with the demon [as is recorded in Mark 1:24]. Jesus is moved to repentance by the preaching of John [the Baptist] and submits to his baptism. Perhaps his [Jesus Christ's] manual labor was less than perfect, perhaps he [Jesus Christ] cheated a customer, even if unintentionally. John was announcing forgiveness of sins using a word, forgiveness, which in peasant experience was always linked with forgiveness of debts. Even Jesus as an artisan could plausibly have needed forgiveness of debts. At the same time, John's baptism inserted the candidate into a transformed community which John announces." (39)

"No doubt he [Jesus Christ] also learned the basic skills of a Holy Man from John [the Baptist] an experienced, succesful, and to judge by the crowds he attracted, highly respected Holy Man.

"Once initiated, the holy Man becomes increasingly familiar with the adopting spirit and the spirit world. Because God and the spirit world are involved in this experience, anthropologists call it a religious trance. In the life of Jesus, these would include the testing (Mark 1:12-13); walking on the sea (Mark 6:45-52); the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-8), For his followers, all experiences of the Risen Jesus are instances of religious trance."

Page 71, dealing with the Ressurection of Jesus Christ:

"The nature of this sighting of the risen Christ is an altered state of consciousness experience. Ninety percent of the people on the face of this planet have such experieces routinely, since all human beings experience a variety of states of consciousness throughout the day and even during sleep. Daydreaming, road hypnosis, reverie produced by music or art are but some of the twenty different states of consciousness of which human beings are capable, including normal, waking consciousness."

Lewis, Archibald R. and McGann, Thomas F. Editors. The New World Looks at its History. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1963.

Bishko, Charles Julian. "The Castilian as Plainsman: The Medieval Ranching Frontier in La mancha and Extremadura." pages 47-69 of The New World Looks at its History.

In this fascinating article we learn how the Spaniards had already acquired ranching experience through centuries of livestock raising and cattle drives to hither and yon, centuries before coming to the New World. As the Spaniards continued the Reconquista, they drove south into periodically arid and hostile lands, such as that of the Guadiana Basin, where they had to confront militant Islamic raiders, as the author tells us on page 50:

"For both Moors and Castilians, the endless warfare itself was a typically plains affair, normally characterized by incessant raids and hit-and-run attacks (algaras, correduras) which sought to surprise the enemy, devastate and pillage his towns and farms, and then swiftly withdraw across the intervening plains with captured humans, livestock, and other booty."

By pages 64-65 he concludes:

"We are often told how in the New World the Spaniard succeeded only where he could conquer and explolit Indian agrarian societies, and critics lament his supposed failure to fill American plains regions from Texas to Argentina with farms and bustling urban communities. But it should be remembered that the development of a plains country through ranching was a Castilian frontier experience, as rule over great subject masses was not; that pastoralism has its own legitimate claims to respect in the early civilization of many regions and the permanent economy of some; and that where, from the sixteenth century on, the New World frontier of the Americas has fostered the rise of pastoral societies, they have been -- with all their own many original contributions -- deeply indebted to the way of life and institutional patterns of an Iberian plains background in which the Guadiana Basin was a central and integral element."

Gibb, M.A. H.A.R. translator. Al-Qalansi, Ibn The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades. London: Luzac & Company Ltd., 1932.

This is a fascinating book that tells a lot of contemporary history in the Holy Land during the Crusades, but from anIslamic point of view!

For example, this entry, from pages 253-254:

A.H. 533
(8th September, 1138, to 27th August, 1139)

"On the morning of Friday 23rd Shawwal (23rd June), there was made known the plot directed against the amir Shihab al-Din Mahmud, son of Taj al-Muluk, son of Zahir al-Din Atabek, and his assassination while he was asleep in his bed during the preceding night, by the hands of his accursed slaves, Albaghash (?) the Armenian [plus two others]. These three accursed malefactors used to sleep round about his bed.

"When the assassination became known, search was made for Albaghash, but he had fled and his house was plundered. The other two were seized and crucified on the wall over the Jabiya gate."

The deceased amir's brother is then summoned:

"He came in haste to Damascus; he was formally invested with authority , and the oath of allegiance and loyalty was taken by the amirs, commanders, and notables. Matters were thus settled and calm restored."

Nope! Not even close. Now here's why:

The deceased's mother appealed to another amir, in Mosul [Iraq?] and demanded vengeance, and before long Ba 'albek, on the road to Damascus, was severely besieged, "bombarded in turn night and day," by fourteen catapults. (255) Ba 'albek finally surrendered after assurances from the vengeance- minded Man from Mosul "confirmed by his oath, of their personal safety. "

"But when the fortress was in his hands, he ordered them all to be crucified and none of them escaped except those whose destiny guarded them. The people were horrified at his action and at such an unheard-of-breach of oath on his part." (256)

Hummm...you know? It does sort of look like the Crusaders were far from being the worse enemy the Islamic population had to face in those far off days: even had there been no Crusaders around at all, these guys did a pretty good job of mass murder and mayhem on their own account, just as the warring factions in Iraq do today, no matter what some college professors still continue to insist, that the Islamic people were always very civilized, warm, tolerant and loving fuzzies.

Friday, January 06, 2006

"a.k.a. HO GATE ??!!"

On the Road to the 2007 Texas State House Committe on Higher Education Hearings Regarding Organized Criminal Activity within the University of Texas System

1. The role of the University of Texas at El Paso as the academic equivalent of an ENRON of Texas-syle continuing Criminal Enterprise.

a) Highlights from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, case No. 02-50566

SARDAR ELDAROVICH GASANOV AND NADIRA GASANOVA, Defendants-Appellants.

i. Critical role of UTEP Professor Eppie Rael
ii. Vital role of UTEP Professor Sid Das

Taken from transcript pages 8 through 11:

"At the University of Texas, El Paso (UTEP), the professor who is seeking permission for an alien student's entry to the United States prepares an application for the IAP-66, which is then reviewed and approved by various UTEP officials before the IAP-66 is issued (6 R. 153)

"Gasanov, a researcher at UTEP and a director of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), was known in UTEP's scientific community ( 6 R. 128, 132).

"Mr. Siddartha Das, a fellow professor researcher at UTEP, believed and relied upon Gasonov's false representations of Ms. Sabirova's and Ms. Romanova's qualifications, and prepared an application for the IAP-66 and other documentation to support their entry into the United States (6 R. 131-132, 134-135). Mr. Eppie Rael, another colleague at UTEP, similarly relied on Gasonov's false representations to sign an application for the IAP-66 on behalf of Ms. Ikmatova (7 R. 102-103, 105).

"[The three womens'] ability to speak English did not substantially improve while they were topless dancers ( 7 R. 160; 8 R. 76, 90; 8 R. 197). Ms. Sabirova and Ms. Romanova never set foot at UTEP to perform any research. Ms. Ikmatova only came to the laboratory on a few occasions to wash laboratory dishes and [in her own words] make microbes, as instructed by Gasonov (8 R. 150-151). Gasanov said she had to come so that other professors [besides Rael & Das??!!] would see her in the laboratory ( 8 R. 150). Gasonova [the other's wife] admitted that she had no intention that the women would be students or perform research; the primary purpose was for the women to earn money by working as topless dancers ( 9 R. 77)."

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Interesting UTEP-related websites:

www.rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/edpjhm.htm

http://personals.yahoo.com/us/preview/view?index=2&id=personals-1081318347-416999..

Plus, the citation below, starting with the phrase:

"In 2002, we prosecuted a University of Texas at El Paso research assistant and his wife..."

http://judiciary.senate.gov/print_testimony.cfm?id=1255&wit_id=3639

Check'em out!

Viet Nams 411 Service Trumps Most all American Cell Phone Services!

Meanwhile UTEP's Science Department R & D Chiefs are unanimous in confirming what we have all most feared:

Yes, Virginia: the 10th worse job in science is indeed, that of a Collector of Orangutan Pee!

The Ho Chi Minh City cellular phone directory service 1 - 0 - 80 handles up to 35, 000 calls a day, we are told. And if they don't know the answer, like who won the Super Bowl in 1963, or whatever, they can call you right back with the answer from someone on the staff who does know.

Meanwhile, in an end of the year UTEP FM Science Studio production, we heard the thrilling news, regarding the ten worst jobs in science, that, in so many words, "Taking it from the bottom, the worst job in science is that of a Collector of Orangutan Pee!"

What would all that make number one? Wow! Number one must be really bad!

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

"UTEP can't make research claim!"

Ex-Dean of Engineering declares.

El Paso Times, Monday, December 19, 2005, Opinion. By Professor Robert Grieves.


"Imagine if UTEP's football team was rated No. 197 nationally at the end of the season. The coach would be on the way out, especially if he kept saying that he ahd an excellent team.

"And so it is with UTEP being called a research university. The latest National Science Foundation published data on university research funding for fiscal year 2003 shows UTEP, with 27.5 million funding, to be ranked 197th nationally.


"In contrast, NMSU [up IH 10 in Las Cruces, New Mexico] at $106 million is 111th. To be in the top 100, generally regarded as research universities, $127 million would be required, a 500 percent increase for UTEP. For fiscal year 2004, UTEP's position will not change appreciably.

"UTEP's administration loudly proclaims UTEP to be a research university, which it is not and never will be. It is long past due for them to stop the deception and spin-doctoring and to focus on the extremely serious problems facing their undegraduate programs.

"Perhaps it is time for a new coach."

Go get 'em Professor! But, hey! When the El Paso Times tells us, as it did in the fall of 2003, that UTEP was due for a $10 million combined state and federal R & D package for Doctor Josie Tinajero's College of (ha! ha!) Education, and she, in turn, turns all this over to her "Associate Dean of Educational Research," whose demographics are right bang on with those of an aging wannabe-queen of the Yahoo-licensed online hos, with electronic "hits" running from Florida (two on July 1, 2001) to Enid, Oklahoma, what can you expect?


Texas A & M University Waxes UT El Paso in Retention League Playoffs!

A: TAMU College Station, Texas. "A leader in student retention & graduation rates."

1) More than 90% of fall 2003 freshmen returned for their sophomore year.

2) 76% of fall 1998 freshmen graduated within six years.

a) State average is 45%.

b) But! Commercial Hood and Practicing Ho-dominated University of Texas at El Paso can barely maintain a 26% freshman graduation rate within six years.

c) This means upwards of 73% of UTEP students are alternately pushed and harrassed into failure, within any given six year period.

B: TAMU College Station, Texas. "Ranked by Hispanic Magazine as one of the Top 25 colleges for Latinos."

www.tamu.edu/admissions or http://www.applytexas.org

www.aggiecatholic.org


Parental Question:

Which of these two(2) Texas-certified Institutions of Higher Learning do you think would do right by your child?


TAMU, or the University of Texas at El Paso as the academic eqivalent of an ENRON of Texas-style continuing criminal enterprise?


Why?



Material above adapted from add on page five(5) of the December, 2005 issue of the Diocesan newspaper, the "Rio Grande Catholic." Neither the Diocese of El Paso, nor TAMU is in any way, shape or form responsible for our adaptation.