Will Mexicans say TGIF?

In Texas, we say TGIF, or “Thank God it’s Friday”. Will Mexicans say TGIF next Friday? Mexico has been waiting for this Friday since July 2nd.

Over the weekend, I checked out an old book.

Caspar Weinberger (Pres. Reagan’s Sec of Defense) wrote The Next War in 1997. It speculated about potential war scenarios for the US military.

It included the usual references to Iraq, Iran, the Middle East, North Korea, China and Russia. Yet, Sec. Weinberger included a chapter on Mexico.

Unfortunately, many of Sec. Weinberger’s assumptions look rather real today. See this piece on StrategyPage — The Border War and Its Costs:

“The border wars, between rival drug gangs, has not only caused a business slowdown all along the border, but news of the situation has hurt tourism. Foreign visitors have declined five percent so far this year, compared to last year. It’s not just the gunfire, scary looking criminals and rumors about all this, it’s also the government response. Lots more police and soldiers on patrol, some carrying automatic weapons. For tourists, this is reassuring and scary at the same time. And the drop in tourist traffic has cost the Mexican economy some $200 million so far this year. The gang wars in northern Mexico have killed over 600 so far this year. The murder rate in many border towns is 2-3 times what it is in New York City, and kidnapping is a growing criminal activity.”

Mark in Mexico has the latest from Oaxaca…..and it’s not pretty.

Don’t get me wrong. I want Calderon to succeed. We want a prosperous neighbor.

At the same time, things don’t look pretty in Mexico!

Then there is Andrés Manuel López Obrador aka AMLO. It’s true that most Mexicans do not like what AMLO is doing. AMLO is a jerk but he is a persistent jerk. As far as I can see, AMLO has the stomach, and troops, to go the distance. He is not going away, regardless of what Mexicans may think of him.

AMLO’s strategy is simple: Make life miserable for Calderon. AMLO knows that he won’t be president of Mexico. At the same time, AMLO knows that his movement can create the kind of political and economic chaos that causes capital flight or personal safety issues (kidnappings).

Question: Does Calderon have the stomach to confront AMLO? We don’t know. The answer to that question will tell us a lot about Mexican politics in the future.

In the meantime, Friday is here. Will Mexicans say TGIF?

For a little historical perspective, see this article, What’s at Stake In Mexico City, by Enrique Krause.

This is unusual. I found a news article in which the National Rifle Association is mentioned in a positive way, or maybe it is a benign way, but not the usual leftist smear that I am used to seeing. From Reuters:

In U.S., women go wild for hunting
By Sarah Mahoney

FREEPORT, Maine – It’s deer season in Maine and although the hunting department of outdoor retail specialist L.L. Bean is packed, this is no old-boy’s club.

Among the aisles of aerosol deer urine and digital duck calls, there are racks of women’s clothing in mossy-oak camouflage, as well as plenty of fluorescent hunter orange.

Lined up behind the counter are dozens of guns, many available with a “short-stock” designed to fit more comfortably into women’s shorter arms.

That’s because an increasing number of women are heading into the woods, becoming one of the most enthusiastic segments of the hunting world….

“During the 1980s, we saw a pretty good increase in women hunting, which flattened out in the 1990s,” said Mark Damian Duda, executive director of Responsive Management, a research firm specializing in outdoor recreation trends. “And now there seems to be an increase in the past three or four years.”

One recent study by the National Sporting Goods Association estimates more than 3 million women now hunt, accounting for about 16 percent of the nearly 21 million active hunters in the United States.

That translates into big money. The National Shooting Sports Foundation estimates that Americans spend $2.1 billion on firearms and ammunition each year.

The study, which covered 2001 to 2005, found that 2.4 million women hunted with firearms in 2005, up 72 percent from 2001. Fifty percent more are target shooting, while the number of women bow-hunters has grown 176 percent to 786,000.

The fastest-growing age groups are women aged 18 to 24, followed by those aged 35 to 44….

Driving the trend, Duda said, are programs like those organized by the National Rifle Association that make it easier for women to get involved. The NRA’s Women on Target division offers such events as a $500 two-day deer hunt in Texas….

This can only be good news for the defense of the Second Amendment, and for the right of a free citizenry to keep and bear arms.

This is one of those times when you hope that the administration is smarter than we are–or that our political leaders know something that we don’t know.

I am referring to the latest round of diplomatic initiatives wherein the president has sought the counsel of Russia and China, the vice-president the advice of Saudi Arabia, and the secretary of state the proferred wisdom of the foreign ministries of the Arab thug-ocracies. Why on earth any of these governments would want us to succeed in the middle east is beyond me. Why the president thinks they wish us anything other than ill is simply baffling.

The only logical scenario that I can conceive of is that the president is simply making a last effort at diplomacy before the hammer falls on Iran. A more likely scenario, on the other hand, leaves me feeling empty and a bit frightened. Maybe the president doesn’t get it, after all. Maybe he thinks the Saudis really are trying to help us in the war against terror, instead of merely killing terrorists/radicals that threaten them, while continuing to fund the hate-fomenting madrassas in Pakistan and the U.S. Maybe the president doesn’t believe that his friend Vladimir wants to see us discomfited, at the very least or, in the ideal world, permanently wrecked.

What has happened to the George Bush of 2001-2003? Granted, the politicization of the war by the Left has made him a bit gun-shy but he previously understood that in a supposed world of gray, there was still plenty of black and white. He seemed to know evil when he saw it.

Now he seems simply content to damn something as “unacceptable” while doing nothing to prevent or reverse it.

I want the old George Bush back. He may not have been perfect, but he inspired confindence in the growing darkeness.

You can read more articles by ADMC contributor [Laconic J] at his own weblog, Laconic Blog.