I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
Pruden's duck is already salivating at the thought of ripping this worthless little fascist "journalist" to shreds.
Southern secession is a bad idea?
After reading the Red states comment below, I wouldn't think seccession would favor the South so much but maybe it's time to dream of a rich progressive country and a poor one in need of assistance to the south. I mean other than Mexico.
Has the Washington Times ever made a profit? I don't think so. It's purely a mouthpiece for an exceedingly odd religious maniac.
But of course it provides lots of entertainment for us liberals, too!
Shorter Pruden:
If he didn't mean it he shouldn't have said it, even in the context of quoting someone else, who, intimated that somehow, somewhere, someone meant it, and Kerry meant it.
I think.
Oh well, not shorter.
Civilized people, with their metric system and their aversion to torture and their superiority to religion, look at how we accept the WT as a real newspaper in the same light as our doubting global warming or evolution.
maybe we'll move to England/Denmark/Sweden/Nederlands without the lowering of any cross-worshipper's iron burkha, it'll just be one minor idiocy too many.
Someone enlighten me: does the Washington Times sell as well as the WaPo?
I sometimes feel more sympathy for the South than for the country as a whole. We've all been fucked. But large portions of the South don't realize it yet.
A.
It sure would be great not to have to deal with all their stupid racist, anti-femiinist, pro-life, anti-intellectual, militaristic, homophobic , evangelical nonsense. Let them have their own theocracy! Really, can you name one good thing the South has contributed, that we couldn't probably just import from somewhere else if we needed to?
Please do secede Confererales. We in the
North NEED a steady flow of ignorant
menial laborers flowing northward to
tend our machines and clean our toilets.
When you're done seceding and done teaching evolution and other 'science gobbledygook', and fully into your
theocratic, agrarian existence, you'll be
ripe for exploitation. Think ANYONE with
an IQ above 90 will want to stay in your
burgeoning cesspool? Hell, you can even
have DC; we'll move our capitol back to
Philly.
" ... the 'science' of improving the human race through selective breeding."
Is this how Falwell and Robertson were hatched? They'd better go back to the drawing board. I think some weasel DNA got mixed in somehow.
Thea -
Well, in a Dianetics kind of way...
But the big Moon $$$$$ is UPI, methinks.
"Really, can you name one good thing the South has contributed, that we couldn't probably just import from somewhere else if we needed to?"
They fill up the bottom of the state-by-state rankings so Wyoming doesn't feel so bad about itself.
"can you name one good thing the South has contributed, that we couldn't probably just import from somewhere else if we needed to?"
A scapegoat!
On another comment section, someone posted the address to Barry Krischer, Palm Beach County state attorney's office regarding Rush Limbaugh..
the address is:
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/
home..._sao.guest.html
I wrote the following and feel GREAT!!!!
Dear Barry Krischer:
Thanks to this link, I am given the chance to tell you how I feel about Mr Limbaugh's drug case.
Due to his lack of empathy and sympathy for people less fortunate as he, I am hoping that his money does NOT get him off. Because he has expressed the wish that people be prosecuted (" And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be
convicted and they ought to be sent up."
") for drug offences, I feel he should benefit (by his own words) from that as well. It would definitely be hypocritical if he were to not get jail time. I know we are supposed to believe people are innocent until PROVEN guilty, however, Mr. Limbaugh has, time after time, expressed other people's guilt before they have gone to trial.
Because Mr. Limbaugh CHOSE to buy and take those pills, he was doing his society and neighborhood a great injustice. He was DESTROYING our country. May the lord have pity on Mr. Limbaugh and give him the maximum penalty due his crimes, so he may learn how it feels to walk in another's shoes.
***"Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. And the laws are good because we know what happens to people in societies and neighborhoods which become consumed by them. And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be
convicted and they ought to be sent up."
-- Rush Limbaugh. October 5, 1995 show transcript.
Thank you,
Sara
You know, I read this article and really didn't care. I hate to say it, but a Republican Journalist in the Washington Times writing something incredibly pig-headed about a Democrat just doesn't seem to reach my standard of outrageous any more.
Man, I'm getting numb. The Republicans are gradually wearing away my soul. I'm scared now.
Visit my web page, please
Bigby, I thought back in the day (in about the 1790s), the capital city of the US was very briefly New York?
"We've all been fucked. But large portions of the South don't realize it yet."
Large portions of the whole country don't realize it yet...it has more to do with rural vs. metropolitan than North vs. South.
"can you name one good thing the South has contributed, that we couldn't probably just import from somewhere else if we needed to?"
A scapegoat!
"Scapegoat" suggests that they aren't culpable. They are.
""Scapegoat" suggests that they aren't culpable. They are."
Culpable for what?
I read in Utne (I think) that Vermont has its own secessionist movement going, and it really made a lot of sense -- I guess I should move there. (So damn cold, though.)
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Culpable for what?
For the things that they're scapegoats for. 
OT, but does anyone have any updates on Robert Novak's assault on that guy in New Hampshire? This was reported on Tuesday, but I haven't heard anything about it since.
A government by neocons for neocons begs for a secessionist movement somewhere.
We've established what Andrew Sullican is; they're just haggling over the price.
"Culpable for what?
For the things that they're scapegoats for. "
Perhaps we differ on the definition of "scapegoat".
My dictionary says: "...a person or group bearing the blame for others"...there is no culpability inferred.
I'm starting to think Lincoln did the wrong thing in trying maintain the Union. Let the South split then open up the Underground express.
Damn time machine! Almost got it, though.
Yes, let them have Washington, it's only fair. Move the capital to Denver.
j/k, because I don't want Military Spending to go up as much as it would have to.
My original point exactly. You said they were scapegoats. I think they are responsible. (OK, not completely, there are others too)
I'm starting to think Lincoln did the wrong thing in trying maintain the Union. Let the South split then open up the Underground express.
I grew up in the South, and I live in Virginia, and my reaction to this scurrilous remark is...give me time to sell the house and move to Maryland, okay? Also, are the winters in Vermont as bad as I've heard? Minnesota?
"Semper Ubi...I think they are responsible."
Yes I understand you think they're responsible...my question is, for what?
Maryland is still south of the MDL. I gotta believe VT winter is better than MN (used to live in Chicago, and IT GETS F'IN COLD.)
For dragging the rest of the nation down. "Southern Strategy" anyone?
Bigby, I thought back in the day (in about the 1790s), the capital city of the US was very briefly New York?
The first Congress convened in New York from, I think, 1789 to 1970, before moving to Philadelphia and then Washington. Congress also met in New York under the Articles of Confederation for about five years prior to the move.
Hmmm...
Long bit ago we'd been attacked for referring to the enormous amount of facts condemning the South as the Inferior or Incorrect Half of the United States. Now it's wider understood.
Anyway...
OT at "Homepage"
Shin Bet (Israeli FBI) doesn't like the Wall.
So, it's decided then. Northern secession it is!
Pruden - caught in the headlights of another exposed lie - does not apologize or retreat. He has no shame. The more one becomes familiar with the so called Mighty Wurlitzer, the more profound Franken's title becomes: Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them. Indeed!
Why must I waste my beautiful mind on such things?
***
another caller called him a "moonie propagandist" but was cut off.
Someone enlighten me: does the Washington Times sell as well as the WaPo?
Well they may say they do, but they lie about everything else so no doubt they'll lie about circulation figures. Anyway, who cares, it's not fit to line a birdcage with.
On the capital- yes NY was briefly a seat of the early US government, as was Philadelphia. For an excellent discussion of the early US, read McCulloughs excellent biography of John Adams. It's a great read as well.
For rabid evangelical christianity, working to blur the separation of church and state. For rampant racism (let's not forget why the Southern Strategy works), for glorifying the military, for 10 Commandment judges, for Jerry Falwell, For Trent Lott. For "good ole boy" anti-intellectualism. For dragging this country down a very ugly path.
jeebus. Yet more proof that in order to be a servant of Media Mordor, you simply need to be subservient enough. No need for actual journalistic ethics, talent, training and so on.
Just the willingness to get on your knees and choke down whatever the right-wing conspiracy shoves in your mouth.
Lincoln couldn't simply let the South "secede". The Confederacy was "imperialist"; it couldn't allow a peaceful resolution because it knew the only way it could spread its "culture" into the west was through force. Consequently, it needed to provoke a war -- and did so (firing on Fort Sumter when the garrison there was less than a week away from surrendering -- due to lack of food). For all the southern propaganda floating about in conventional wisodm (even in the north), the Civil War was actually the War of _Southern_ Aggression.
Looking to the present, the increasing black and hispanic population in the South may spell eventual doom for the neo-confederates there -- leaving them only places like, say, Idaho. So, don't be too premature in jetisoning the south.
I ranted, and I'm over it now.
Paul Krugman wrote today:
"As far as I can tell, nobody in the Bush administration has ever paid a price for being wrong. Instead, people are severely punished for telling inconvenient truths."
Pruden has all the makings of a great water boy for the murdering thieves who are occupying the Executive Branch.
Ouch, my beautiful mind.
***
Dammit, don't you yankees cut and run on me now. There ARE some of us down here with a little common sense and human decency. It's pretty goddamn hard getting through the good ol' boy skull, but we're trying. And, for what it's worth (and not to turn this into a North versus South pissing match), some of the scariest places I've ever been were in the Midwest, like Iowa and Indiana and Nebraska. Not a non-white person for miles.
As for what we've given society, we DID invent rock & roll, jazz, the blues, country music (your mileage may vary, of course), not to mention barbecue, Tex-Mex vittals, Cajun food, as well as William Faulkner, Edora Welty, Harper Lee, Hunter S. Thompson...
That all being said, if there is another shot at splitting, I sure as hell ain't hanging around. I'm partial to Chicago, but I dunno if I can handle the winds. Cold's nothin', but the winds get to me somethin' fierce.
About early capitals. New York, Philidelphia, then DC.
They started up North and then moved South. Not a random placement.
Here back in Texas, Gov. Rick Perry is offering schools $100 dollars for each child that scores 90% or higher on TAKS. $200 if the child is "at-risk".
First thing that hit my mind, "Damn, like the bounties for escaped slaves!"
"at-risk" means at risk of escaping the system.
"For rabid evangelical christianity, working to blur the separation of church and state. For rampant racism (let's not forget why the Southern Strategy works), for glorifying the military, for 10 Commandment judges, for Jerry Falwell, For Trent Lott. For "good ole boy" anti-intellectualism. For dragging this country down a very ugly path."
Yes there are those things and many more...unfortunately they are not the sole purview of the south...ignorance and people who hold to the values of the kind you've described above are everywhere in this country...if you go to any White supremacy watchdog website you'll find KKK like organizations in every state in this country. Many of the issues you cite are also conservative issues and are supported (though not in the extreme) by conservatives of every stripe both north and south...I was born and raced in the south...and I think of myself as liberal. It is unfortunate that whether I walk into a restaurant in the south or I come to liberal on-line resources, I hear people categorizing whole segments of the population (both north and south) based on their own prejudices and preconceived notions.
The problem with the Vietnam background.
All it takes is ONE guy to testify agaisn't Kerry Vietnam experience and he'll go the way of Sen. Bob Kerrey.
The media isn't going to take a look at Kerry's record until he's up against Bush.
By then it'll be to late to late to vote for anyone else except a 3rd party candidate.
I was at a job interview yesterday and the recruiter stated that they were looking for someone who could talk to the people who worked in the plants.
Ummmm, wha???
Luckily, my first job at 16 was working in a factory. So, I can.
They were shocked that they could find someone who knew who to talk to the proles.
30 years ago would that even be on anybody's mind?
Lincoln couldn't simply let the South "secede". The Confederacy was "imperialist"; it couldn't allow a peaceful resolution because it knew the only way it could spread its "culture" into the west was through force. Consequently, it needed to provoke a war -- and did so (firing on Fort Sumter when the garrison there was less than a week away from surrendering -- due to lack of food). For all the southern propaganda floating about in conventional wisodm (even in the north), the Civil War was actually the War of _Southern_ Aggression.
Looking to the present, the increasing black and hispanic population in the South may spell eventual doom for the neo-confederates there -- leaving them only places like, say, Idaho. So, don't be too premature in jetisoning the south.
So Pruden decides he's in the right because he thinks he knows what the impression was that Kerry meant to convey.
That caller prevented further damage, at least as far as CSPAN viewers were concerned. Viewers that were actually interested in the truth, that is.
Beside, there is no real secession movement in the south...and most of the people in the south (at least where I live) are from the north.
All the articles about Strom Thurmond when he finally died mentioned only two "accomplishments".
Was in the Senate for 50 years.
He stopped hating blacks.
That is one fucking low bar.
But what did he accomplish? Those are accomplish-esque.
~A~
So you live in Atlanta or Florida, huh? (Southerner joke...)
"~A~
So you live in Atlanta or Florida, huh? (Southerner joke...)"
Yes, I was afraid that might give me away!
Of course there are right-wing nuts everywhere but the Southern Strategy is what propelled them into power. They targetted the South for the racist fear mongering because they knew it would be more likley to work there, and they were right.
All the anti-south business a bit offensive to those southerners who are TOTALLY ASHAMED that the idiot minority regularly sets the standard for the reasonable majority in the South. Indeed, we (like the rest of the nation) have our redneck communities, but the worn out cliches are tiresome. The last elections were NARROWLY lost by Gore. I wonder what would happen if the liberals in the rest of the country stopped looking down their snoot at the shoeless, toothless hillbillies below the Mason-Dixon. Chances are, were the noses not blocking the view, you would see a vast region ripe for the picking. My dady (in typical hillbilly fashion) had a little saying: "Can't never could do nothing." Yes, the double negative makes him sound a little backwater, but if you continue to write off the South you'll just prove my old grey-haired pappy's genius. It's really revolting and defeatist. Besides, I only have to walk a block to get a damn good latte ---- that is the new standard for civilized liberalism, no?
I've not heard of this "Southern Strategy" of which you speak...like many I've travelled around the country and been to many states...racist fear mongering, regardless of it's origins, has taken hold throughout this country. To pretend that it is only a southern issue is to ignore the extremeists in your own backyard.
~A~,
No worries. I live in Athens, and I don't know but a hand-full of folks who're actually from the town. And when I lived in Gainesville, Florida, I could count the native or first-generation Southerners I knew on both hands and feet. They looked at me like I came out of an Erskine Caldwell novel...and it wasn't too far from the truth!
...or extremists (sorry)
"Really, can you name one good thing the South has contributed, that we couldn't probably just import from somewhere else if we needed to?"
Music. Lot's of great music, from jazz (or jass as they referred to it in Nawlins) to to gospel to bluegrass to Hank Williams, Sr.
And great food. Fried chicken and barbecue ribs and okra and hush-puppies. The only authentic American food I know of.
And lots of cheap labor in the form of slavery, which, like it or not, played a rather substantial role in the generation of the northern capital upon which our modern cities and progressive values were built.
Now before anyone calles me John Wilkes Booth, I'm about as much of a yankee-liberal as you're gonna get. Fuck Robert Stacy McCain for being a race-baiting, propagandizing sonofabitch. But I don't hate the average poor white southerner for being racist. Poor whites have been played against poor blacks for centuries. Virtually the whole south has been disenfranchised and turned into a dependent political group, voting en masse on cultural issues.
"Only a pawn in the game" - Bob Dylan
NEWS FLASH: Washington Times owner in Korean corruption probe -- accused of paying off President Roh to the tune of $77 million U.S. bux.
LOL Backslider...that is a common experience (few original southerners). Sometimes I think Northern racists move to the south because they somehow feel it's more acceptable here.
Follow up: perhaps, as a Southerner I take the jabs too seriously. But also, as a Southerner--- and accustomed to being the butt of many jokes--- I see all too well where this regional snobbery gets us. I want Bush GONE! Libs from other regions making fun of the South isn't going to do anybody a lick of good. It just gives the South another reason to side with the folks who, at least act friendly, even if their intentions are cruel.
"...don't hate the average poor white southerner for being racist."
Or the poor white northerner...I've never heard the "N" word used so mush as on a brief trip to a predominantly Italian neighborhood in New York city.
...or much (damn bad fingers, bad!!)
A--- you know perfectly well that Florida doesn't count as the South. And yes indeed, cerntal Fla. has some scary characters. Scariest in the country, if you ask me. But you can't define Fla. by the giant gator bators, now can you?
A said: I've never heard the "N" word used so mush as on a brief trip to a predominantly Italian neighborhood in New York city.
On a trip to L.A. I met some natives (yes, there are natives there). When they found out where I was from they felt free to sling the N-word. I was sick to my stomach.
That's true PeskyFly, though for my part, the scariest thing in central Florida is Mickey Mouse...talk about cultural retardation...the high tention power lines in Orlando are in the shape of that frickin' rat's head!
"But I don't hate the average poor white southerner for being racist. Poor whites have been played against poor blacks for centuries. Virtually the whole south has been disenfranchised and turned into a dependent political group, voting en masse on cultural issues."
Exactly. From Nixon on down, they played poor white Southerners for fools. Still, it took two, as it were, to make the strategy work. It seems there was more/more easily exploitable racist resentment in the South for them to work with.
The for the broad paintbrush strokes. Just jettison the entire no-good, traitorous South. That will cure all that ails you. Good to know you got my back. But don't worry; we will persevere.
I guess ole Abe had no plans to resupply Sumter or Pickens. Beauregard really f*cked the pooch on that one; who knew Anderson was a week away from surrendering. Damn imperialist; French to boot.
"I was born and raced in the south."
Simply too good to pass up.
Exactly. From Nixon on down, they played poor white Southerners for fools. Still, it took two, as it were, to make the strategy work. It seems there was more/more easily exploitable racist resentment in the South for them to work with.
Eric
I'm not saying this isn't true...I'm just saying that a huge number of northerners would have had to buy into this strategy as well for it to work on a national level. The south, especially in Nixon's day, didn't carry as large a population as it now does.
"I was born and raced in the south."
"Simply too good to pass up.
Anonymous"
Not intended, but pretty damned funny anyway. 
Backslider, it was 14 degrees below zero here this morning. I don't think you want to move to Chicago.
Besides, we're technically "middle America," so according to six guys in a bar in New York we're just as backward and socially conservative as you lot. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go polish my gun rack, attend church and vote Republican.
A.
A--- about that mouse, here's a story for you. A friend of mine used to work as a character at Disney World. According to her (and I swear this sounds like an urban myth, but she swears...)one of the Mickys pulled off her mouse-head to jump into a fountain to save a drowning child. She was either fired or demoted. One way or the other, she could never play Micky again. You never destroy the magic in the magic kingdom, even if means letting a kid drown. On one hand I hope that's a myth. But it sure fits the M.O.--------U.S.E.
~A~,
I believe you're right. I moved from a rather sheltered rural Mississippi life - where racism was commonplace and one heard "nigger" on a daily basis - to Gainesville, a college town that I thought would be a more open and accepting society. I figured the racism of my upbringing was more a geographical quirk than anything. After all, hadn't the media and the movies shown me that only poor white Southerners were racist?
Man, the first time some kid from Jersey dropped the N-bomb on me was a revelation. Or when the Cuban girl I was dating went on and on about how much those "greasy Mexicans were taking American jobs". Or hearing how the Jews really ran the world or, from a Jewish friend, how he refused to shop at Christian-owned stores.
I think the kicker was when a classmate said, and I quote, "Man, it must be nice in Mississippi. You guys keep the niggers in line". It flabberghasted me. It was enlightening, of course, and at once disappointing to see racism so widespread yet heartening to find out it just wasn't "my people". I'm learning more and more it was my own particular raisin' that kept me from falling into that mode of thought than any thing else. All you hear about the "polite South" is so much horse feathers. Try walking into a small-town Alabama gas station with long hair (if you're a guy)...
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"...according to six guys in a bar in New York..."
As long as those six guys aren't black. They'll never get a cab in that city! Racist Bastards!
They already had their strongholds...for example, much of the West could be counted on for their side already as (anti-)environmental and property rights issues sold (and sell) well for them there.
They needed another area to turn. Democrats in the South were already more conservative (generally speaking) than Democrats from elsewhere and as I said last, there was a lot of resentment and fear for them to exploit there.
I think the Southwest is the most strategic area for Democratic gains now but I'm not going to write off the Southeast entirely. I'm also not going to welcome the Southeast back into the fold if it means the Zell Millerization of the Democratic party.
Backslider,
I was visiting my sister in college at Gainesville about 10 years ago and overheard Chinese students’ complaining about the blacks and Hispanics off campus...perhaps it’s something in the water?
Athenae,
I know it's colder than a well-digger's ass in Chi-town, but I love it anyway. It's got soul, like Memphis or New Orleans. One of the reasons I never warmed to Atlanta is that it's so sterile. As my buddy Scott Miller says, "Don't trust a town that ain't built on a body of water." My best friend's from there, and she's getting hitched in October. Now, normally I avoid weddings like the plague, but this is one I'm indebited to attend...and I sure ain't looking forward to it on several levels.
PeskyFly,
Florida's a weird state, but I guarantee you parts of it are Southern as collard greens. Particularly north of Gainesville - or, as the natives call it, LA (Lower Alabama). Some scary individuals running around loose in the Panhandle, bud. At one point, the strongest Klan prescence was in Florida - lots of different colored folks to hate, I reckon - until it was usurped by, of all places, Indiana.
"Zell Millerization of the Democratic party."
Oh my f***ing God! Now I'll have nightmares for a month!
"...until it was usurped by, of all places, Indiana."
I thought it was Ohio?!
Ok. Here's a question to all the lawyers: is open preaching of secession from the Union against the law? I have in mind the United States of New England, with Southern Connecticut cut off and nice bits of Canada added instead. Very nice and liberal, and plenty of good winter weather! I love the cold.
So is proposing that the US of NE secede against the law?
Backslider, it does really fucking rule, despite the cold. In the summer it rocks so hard it's almost impossible to get any work done. And people, the really good ones, have parties when it's cold so that you can numb yourself inside before being numbed outside. And there's such good pizza.
I can hear the L go by from my apartment window like the tide going out, a rush of sound carrying people somewhere, anywhere, all the time. It's the bestest city ever. Come and stay.
A.
~A~,
May've been Ohio, but I'm almost positive it was Indiana. Granted, it's been some years since my last study of the Klan. And, hey, in related news, David Duke's looking to run for Louisiana legislature once he gets out of jail on tax fraud charges. Ain't that a kick in willies?
And as far as hating folks goes, one of the funniest things I heard while I was in Chicago was my friend's ex-boyfriend, a lad of Italian descent, bitching about the "goddamn Greeks and Armenians" in his neighborhood. Not off-the-boat Greeks and Armenians, but folks like him: second- or third-generation Greeks and Armenians. All I could think was, "Hell, at least in the South, they put the effort into hating folks who are at least a different color."
I'm all for California, Oregon and Washington secession. We can call ourselves "Pacifica".
There is a "redneck" Northern Califoria/Southern Oregon secessionist movement too.
I wouldn't think so echidne. I'm no scholar but I don't recall anything barring it in the constitution though anecdotally and historically, those that have tried have suffered major ass kickage.
So is proposing that the US of NE secede against the law?
So far as I know, secession was never illegal.
Lincoln just decided it wasn't going to be allowed to happen. So he "invaded" the South (or, at least, went to war with the Confederate Gov't.) with the intention of destroying it and reasserting Federal authority over the states that seceded.
Hey, sorry about that carpetbagging thing. It took a long time, but man, you got us back good with George W. Bush.
Ooops Backslider. I actually thought that part of Florida WAS lower Alabama. My family used to keep (gulp) a trailer(yes, a trailer) outside of Orlando (we ran a nursery in Tennessee and needed a base in Fla, you see). For years I really thought that after 65 all northerners were REQUIRED to move to Fla.
~A~,
May've been Ohio, but I'm almost positive it was Indiana.
Joking about Ohio...Duke is bad news though. Can't talk...thinking about Chicago pizza....mmmmmmmmmm.
Chicago--- my favorite city in America---- except for the winter. I'd live there---- but I've spent the winter there, and know that I can't live there.
"...you got us back good with George W. Bush."
A product of Haavard, I'm sure. And I suppose he received virtually no support in the north? I certainly didn't vote for him though.
Athenae,
I went up there a year-and-a-half ago with my friend, a native Chicagoan, a fell madly in love with the town. Like I did with Memphis or New Orleans, except the mallinization of America hasn't hit the really cool parts of Chicago like it's more or less ruined Bourbon Street and Beale Street. Cool record stores, killer pizza, a jumping music scene and a local political scene that's almost as entertaining as Mississippi's.
We stayed with a childhood friend of my friend, and her place was right under the L. We'd come in from drinking and carousing, and I'd sit on her fire-escape smoking grass and watching the trains pass. She thought it was "adorable" that I was so excited to actually ride on one. I was in serious "wide-eyed country boy" mode, with my neck craned to look at all the tall buildings. I'm amazed I didn't get mugged, though I did get hit on a couple of times in Boys Town.
My band and my brother will keep me in Athens for a couple more years, but we both decided once our respective bands fall through - they always do, mind you - we are loading up the truck and heading north for the City With Big Shoulders. First, though, we're packing lots of thermal underwear.
Have to go back to Bourbon street soon...been awhile and I'm missin' the food.
Anonymous,
The March after Bush was "elected," I was in Austin, Texas, for South By Southwest. I spent a lot of time in cabs and would ask the cabbies what they thought of their boy hitting the big time. They were all sorta embarrassed, kinda like the embarrassment one gets when one's brother is drunk off his ass in public. It's not your fault, but you still feel somewhat responsible.
PeskyFly,
There's nothing shameful about manufactured housing. I spent my formative years in the all-mighty doublewide, and I consider it a character-building experience. As for the seniors in Florida, the age split there is crazy. It's all old faults and young maniacs, which made driving on the highways an experience.
"And I suppose he received virtually no support in the north? I certainly didn't vote for him though."
La la la la la la (fingers in ears).
Hey, he's got an almost real Texas accent now. That makes him southernesque.
I'm all for California, Oregon and Washington secession. We can call ourselves "Pacifica".
You need to pick up Ernest callenbach's Ecotopia, in which California N of San Luis Obispo/Bakersfield, Oregon, and Washington form their own little ecologically friendly ministate, by using nuclear blackmail against the rest of the US. Please note that, rather pointedly, "Ecotopia" does not include the hellhole that is the LA Basin.
There is a "redneck" Northern Califoria/Southern Oregon secessionist movement too.
That would be the "State of Jefferson" movement, in which some of Oregon's most backaward counties merge with some of California's and form their own state free of those damn liberals in the valleys on either side of them.
Oh, and one of his assistant editors is a man who is an open advocate of Southern Secession
I'm sorry? Is this a bad thing?
Let 'em go...
No doubt Backslider...your either in Florida on Spring break or retired...anyone in-between moves away.
"That makes him southernesque."
Hee hee hee...but you can't fake real ignorance!
~A~,
I haven't been in the Big Easy in a long time. Last time I went, my best friend (at the time) and I drove from Gainesville to pick up his fiance from Tulane. We were geeked up on crystal meth (ahhh, college daze) and since they wanted some "private time" together, they wouldn't let me leave the apartment on my own. Couldn't imagine why...
Still...the Hard Rock Cafes and Planet Hollywoods are slowly but surely eating it away. It's not as bad as Beale Street in Memphis. What's happened there still breaks my heart, man. We're losing what really makes America in an attempt to make everything the same so's suburban assholes can feel comfortable wherever they go. It's all Boston Gardens and Cracker Barrells. Fah! Give me the Rendevous any day of the week.
Interesting piece on Tapped on Roger Stone, an adviser to Al Sharpton. Stone is no friend of progressives, as his long resume makes clear.
"I haven't been in the Big Easy in a long time."
Too long for me as well...I used to hang in "The Dungeon" all night then go for coffee. Fuck TGIF, Chili's, and Planet Hollywood. They're ruining my damned country. That and Wal-mart.
Cafe Dumond flashbacks!!
Gary,
Wasn't it somewhere in Oregon where the town council voted to defund the local libraries because, and I'm paraphrasing here, "if people wanted to read, they can buy books online"? I seem to remember a councilwoman defending her anti-library vote with the arguement that she didn't use the library, so why should she pay for it? Ahhhh, the conservative philosophy...if I'm an ignorant dipwad, why shouldn't everyone else be one?
~A~,
There's a reason everyone moves away. Florida sucks. What isn't a paved-over tourist trap monstrosity is being run by a group of Bible-thumping (but not Bible-reading, oddly enough) nimrods hoarding four whole chromosomes to themselves. Just before I escaped (in '99) the state legislature had voted to introduce a man-made virus into the ecology that was designed to kill marijuana plants. There's a brainstorm: ignore that the growers and even the plants themselves will work around it (which they did) but nevermind the goddamn's state's so ecologically fragile from dipsticks introducing all sorts of non-local flora and fauna. Spanish moss, anyone?
I'm amazed I didn't get mugged, though I did get hit on a couple of times in Boys Town.
The first time I brought my very timid mother to visit I convinced her to ride the L with me downtown. "It's just like in ER," I told her. She loves that show.
So I take her to the stop, couple blocks away from my house, and for the first time ever, there was a drunk pissing off the side of the platform and singing loudly to himself. When we got there he stopped mid-piss, waved at us and winked at her, and went right back to his business.
Right after she got home my dad called and asked if I would like to borrow his handgun for an indefinite amount of time.
A.
"What isn't a paved-over tourist trap monstrosity is being run by a group of Bible-thumping (but not Bible-reading, oddly enough) nimrods"
Well there are alot of freaky sex clubs and orgies on the East coat Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and what-not. That counts for something...even though it is paved.
Athenae,
Sounds like my mother who was horrified that I'd a sunny Sunday morning walking around all by myself near my friend's apartment. My mother, who's a couple critters away from Ellie May, was worried I would get hurt. I told her, "Momma, it's Sunday. The muggers are sleeping it off." However, I did get cussed at by some Menonites for taking a picture of their storefront church. Then again, Menonites aren't known for their joviality.
~A~,
I'll grant you, some parts of Florida are cool. Key West is a riot. I can't handle our local drag queens because of it. Down there, the guys looked like women. Here, they look like fat guys in dresses. And, as much as I loathe Jimmy Buffett and all that fly the Parrothead flag, I've got a fondness for St. Augustine. Course, it could just be that every time I was there, I stayed drunk off my ass. There was also a neat little town due West of Gainesville on the Gulf Coast my band played at a lot. I'm blanking out on the name, but there was a club there called the L&R. It rocked. They'd give us two bottles of free tequila, and since this was a blues band made up of four 40-year-olds and me (23 at the time), I got both. Don't remember much about my time there, neither, now that I think about it.
Damn, Athenae, I thought you were going to tell me your mother waved back.
I loved Chicago (lived in the west suburbs and went into the city a lot). I'd go back in a minute.
pie,
Oddly enough, the only part of Chicago I didn't enjoy was the burbs. We stayed with my friend's parents for a time, and while they were cool as all get out - coming from a Southern Baptist background, it's a hoot to have a family dinner include beer - the house all close together like that weirded me out. Apartments are fine, but I grew up in the hills and my nearest neighbor was a mile through the woods as the crow flies. Never have gotten used to that.
I saw this guy beaten down by facts live on CSPAN and it was hilarious. He should go kill himself.
"I saw this guy beaten down by facts live on CSPAN"
Who?
Thanks for the info that preaching secession is not illegal. I'll get to it right after the elections if B**h wins again.
pie, mom was profoundly freaked out and tried to disappear into the background. Now my 79-year-old great-aunt Mary, she would have gone up to him, bitched him out for peeing in public and started a conversation. Ten minutes later he'd have been at her house for dinner.
Back on topic, is that Pruden guy a tool or what?
A.
A.
Backslider,
The incident you describe could well have taken place at any of a number of small towns in Oregon; the red/blue split isn't so much geographical as cultural, and it has to do with urban/suburban areas vs. rural areas. Oregon has lots of that, and it happens to follow geographic boundaries for the most part, except for conservative/Republican/fundie suburbs of Portland that align themselves with the rural areas against Portland, salem, and Eugene.
Americans tolerate a lot of hyperbole in election season, but stuff like this will unhorse even a [ Botox man.]
... man who says fabulous way too much.
... man who compliments other men's pretty faces.
... man who says "fuck saddam, we're taking him out!"
... man who can lift a whole turkey centerpiece all by himself.
... man who can't eat pretzels.
... man who has his news pre-chewed for him.
... man whose first concern is if Chinese-held american aviators have bibles and exercise equipment.
... a man who supports spacial entrepreneurs.
... a man who will make it his duty to stamp out the evils of Steroids, come what may.
Mardi Gras is Feb. 24th this year--can be a little crazy in NOLA, but not terrible, except for Bourbon St. itself, where the wall to wall people is exceeded only by the pervasive eau de rue mix of--well, let's not go into that.
My personal favorite bar on that street is Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop.
Kaldi's Coffee used to be a nice break from Cafe Du Monde, until it closed down.
For what it's worth, you can listen to Andre Coudrescu droning away at Molly's on Decatur at least once or twice a week--or do your laundry at Checkpoint Charlie's.
And there's a nice, but slightly expensive place in Pirate's Alley--good for a breakfast drink.
Man, it's been almost a month since I was in the city...gotta get my car fixed.
Maybe when you accuse someone of saying that Till's murder wasn't a racist act, you shouldn't -- you know-- link to a quote of him saying that Till's murder "certainly" had a racial motivation.
Just a thought, I guess. Just trying to help.
Maybe when you accuse someone of saying that Till's murder wasn't a racist act, you shouldn't -- you know-- link to a quote of him saying that Till's murder "certainly" had a racial motivation.
Just a thought, I guess. Just trying to help.
A better link would be that editor talking about how it's "not racism" to shudder at the thought of your white relative getting together with the black bank teller.
Has Pruden had a saliva test lately?
life would be so much easier in Canada or scandanavia.
Southern secession?
Buh-Bye!
Another vote here for southern secession. If they didn't take Chimph with them, he'd lose in the election in a landslide.
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