From: firstinitiallastname@texas.net   
      
   George Kincaid wrote:   
      
   > Thank you. The term cowboys has changed through time, then, too-from thief   
   > to folk hero. So there were border raids from Mexico into Texas. I heard of   
   > Villa's raid's in the 1910s, but that was part of a long pattern then.   
   > Interesting set of relationships down there.   
      
   You have no idea. Whole books have been written on the relations between   
   the border peoples. It is still very much a peculiar place where the   
   kind of political environment that taught LBJ the ropes continues and   
   where you can't tell the good guys from the bad guys by their badges;   
   where it's remarkably safe in some ways but Rangers and narcotics   
   officers carry their M-14's ready on the front seat; where you can find   
   hundreds of thousands of acres of fabulous backcountry to pack through   
   but where you're well advised to pretend that line of beefy American   
   boys with overstuffed packs are just fellow backpackers to whom you nod   
   and keep walking while they head north to meet the truck long before you   
   can report the sighting; where anyone who comes along will help you out   
   but where it's presumed that everyone is ready and able to take care of   
   trouble if it comes.   
      
   And long, long memories - some of them of bad old days.   
   --   
                          Gerald Clough   
       "Nothing has any value, unless you know you can give it up."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)