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Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Bond on Dubya A famous Texan is over here in town. So, given the rude noises coming out of the bottom-feeders of the ‘peace’ movement, with their oh-so original cracks about the ‘cowboy Bush’, here’s a quotation to ponder taken from Ian Fleming’s first, and arguably best, James Bond adventure, Casino Royale:
Bond reflected that Americans were fine people, and that most of them seemed to come from Texas.
No rudeness implied, by the way, to citizens of any state outside the Lone Star State, just in case folk get upset!
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Someone should tell them cowboys is not always pejorative on the other side of the Atlantic.
Certainly not when it comes from them, at least…
I second Slyvain’s comments. To Americans, cowboys are symbols of qualities such as self-reliance, individualism, triumph over adversity, and a personal code of honor — values that are very important to Americans.
I realize it’s difficult for some Britons to grasp the size of the US, but there’s more to the country than a desolate 19th century wilderness anchored by New York and Los Angeles on either end. Kudos to the Samizdata folk who have come over to explore the country firsthand!
I live in Tennessee (a fairly insignificant state the size and shape of Italy), and the closest thing I have to a cowboy hat is an old leather Australian Outback hat that I only wear while fishing or drunk (or both). However, perhaps on my next trip across the pond I’ll take it with me and scream “YEEE-HAAAAH” at every twitchy leftist who dares cross my path. 😉
Cheers,
Rum Smuggler
As my buddy Dave the (retired) Graverobber says, Texas is a nice place to be from…
Doug Jones wrote:
As my buddy Dave the (retired) Graverobber says, Texas is a nice place to be from…
Or as my college roommate, who was from Alaska, liked to say, “Cut Alaska in two and make Texas the third biggest state.” 🙂
Us folk out here in the heartland have been desperately trying to bring civilization to provincial places like NY and LA but, by Gawd, those resolute retrograde elites resist every good intention of ours. They think they own the country but all they do is supply a running commentary that most of us in the so-called red zone know is pretty much off-base. Our here in the real America we like to watch CBS news, hit the mute button on the set, and ridicule ol Dan Rather.
Related to Texas: in Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (directed by Tim Burton), Pee-Wee visits the Alamo right before deciding to ride a bull in a rodeo. He gets thrown and is knocked out. As the cowboys are reviving him, they say “hey, you OK? You remember anything?” And Pee-Wee says “I remember the Alamo”, and all the cowboys throw their hats in the air and yell “YEE-HAAAW!!”. I love that scene.
As a lifelong Texan, I appreciate Fleming’s compliment and note that Bond’s American pal, Felix Leiter, was from Texas.
Yet, I would like to point out how many of our most prominent citizens came from elsewhere. Sam Houston was the former governor of Tennessee. Stephen Austin, David Crockett, William Travis, Jim Bowie, and George H. Bush, all went to Texas from other places.
Furthermore, some of our more unsavory citizens were native, including Lee Harvey Oswald, Charles Whitman, Billy Sol Estes, Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. So, while I appreciate Fleming’s compliment I find it about as accurate as most broad generalizations.
I grew up in small Texas town with a population of 18,000 that was the largest community in 70 miles (113km). Very much like the “The Last Picture Show” I thought it was nowheres-vil and I couldn’t wait to get away to big city lights where all the action was.
In the mid-90’s the local churches sponsored a group of Bosnian Muslim refugees to relocate to my hometown. In a newspaper interview, one of the refugees said something like, “Wow, I can’t believe that I’m going to TEXAS! Me, in TEXAS! Amazing.”
That’s when I learned that everybodie’s home town is somewhere exotic and far away.
We have lots of cows in Wisconsin, but, oddly enough, not many cowboys.
As a book: ‘From Russia With Love’.
The Soviet killing machine, Rosa Klebb, Istanbul…
As a film: ‘Goldfinger’.
Title song, “No Mr Bond, I expect you to die!”, Oddjob’s hat.
For the past three months, I’ve been Blogging Across America: I drove from L.A. near the southern end of the west coast to Maine at the northern end of the east coast. Now I’m in Texas. If I hadn’t taken any sidetrips, I would have driven about 6000 miles, and I’m still about 1000 miles from getting back to L.A. How many times would you have to drive from the south of England to the north to get those same mileages?
So, the U.S. is a big place, as is Texas. Earlier today I was at 8300′ on the top of this peak in western Texas. A couple days ago I was driving across endless flat desert; a few days ago it was slightly rolling hills and the flatlands. The people are varied as well. Sleepy, majority Hispanic San Antonio is different from the college poseurs and elitists of Austin and the hustle bustle of the Big D. And, west Texas has a desert rat/southwest/art/UFO vibe all its own.
It also appears to me that Bond’s quote could be taken in two ways: most of the nice Americans come from Texas, or just that most Americans are nice and most Americans come from Texas, and that one doesn’t imply the other.