IrishAyes
IrishAyes's JournalDid you happen to ...
... read a book called 'Black Like Me'? PBS ran shows on the author during February. Very interesting.
You're entirely correct
But sometimes if they can't find any close enough to reach, they'd be willing to settle for anybody of any color who happens to be a hair's breadth to the left of Lyndon Larouche. Some younger folks on this thread might not remember him, but he would've made David Duke look liberal. And those sorry excuses for human beings aren't just in the South, either. You wouldn't have to turn over a field full of rocks to find more of them than you care to think about.
I like the picture I saw elsewhere of a young lady on the beach at sunrise, her arms outstretched as she says, "I love it when I wake up in the morning and Barack Obama's president!" Me too, though we still have so far to go. I can't think of any era in history when I would prefer to have been born. We've seen so many wonders, with still more to come.
Sickening
So glad I finally watched this BEFORE breakfast.
Even with President Obama's second term safely underway, I kept putting off watching the video. Where I retired, I have to live with these people! Unfortunately for them, they have to live with me too, regardless of the tight circle they try to draw around their 'safe little haven' of conservatism.
To me it represents hell on earth. How can people live consumed with so much blind, idiotic hatred? How would you like to have them in your face all the time? If you don't believe they're truly dangerous and demented, look at that guy from Nicaragua threatening to kill the interviewer and throw him in the river.
While I realize most barking dogs don't bite, rabid ones do. The main reason I've survived here for over 7 years is because they know from experience that I bite back, sometimes even hard. The two chows let me sleep easy while they were alive, and now they're gone the delicate balance of power has so far remained secure.
You wouldn't wonder if maybe I'm a little hypersensitive if it was your own neck on the line. They know they can't reach President Obama himself, so they try to make do with one of his Yellow Dog Democrat supporters. Some tradesmen have refused the chance to bid on major renovation projects on this place amounting to several thousands of dollars, and they weren't shy about telling me why either. One guy who doesn't want me in his store (especially when I wear Democrat gear) simply closes shop the minute I step foot in the door.
So believe me, I treasure the comparative few who aren't so punitive. It's been an education for me in so many ways, and oddly enough increased my self confidence because if I'd known completely what I'd be getting into when I moved here, you couldn't have given me a house in this town for free. Now that we're pretty much stuck with each other, I've learned more survival skills. I can control my own temper better and unleash it more at my own rare choosing than theirs.
So to a degree I celebrate the strength this general battering has encouraged in me, and I count each and every tiny (but growing) social grace extended in my direction by the nicer element as a mutual victory. Maybe on my 100th birthday, I'll run for mayor! I once settled for several years near a little town in Southern California when I had a horse ranch, and those people kept me elected to a lesser local office even though I was the newcomer and you couldn't convince them for love or money that I'm not an undercover commie. But it was a whole different world there and then. I never quite appreciated how they spoiled me.
Most of the world
... only thinks of the bad witnesses, it seems. That's understandable, but really incompatible with a rational assessment. People shouldn't blame the song when half the choir's offkey.
The Puritans
... who I believe eventually morphed into Congregationalists, sometimes stripped non-compliant or dissident women to the waist; they tied them to a wagon and made them follow behind while being lashed. They really hated Shakers. Think the Republicans would behave any better if they ever got the upper hand? I don't.
Lovely - Inspiring - Looks Delicious!
And I don't just mean the food. Good friends are one of life's great blessings. You're all very fortunate. It keeps me inspired with a little hope for the world. We can always use more of that.
One of my blessings in this tiny town I'm always griping about is the room to grow a good bit of my own food. Nothing in the world tastes better than cherry tomatoes picked off the bush on a warm afternoon. I always start with the intention of bringing most of them in, but it seldom works out that way. I've been known to eat so many off the bush that I had no appetite by the time I got to the kitchen.
That's one of the things I like best about retirement. Not only the chance to cook from scratch almost always but to grow the food organically from saved seed too. Besides tomatoes I always grow peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, tomatoes, eggplant, and... well, you get the idea. This year I'm trying out more heirloom tomatoes and black currants and those adzuki beans Dr. Oz keeps talking about. And I want to branch out into the winged bean because I understand you can eat every bit of the whole plant, even the roots. If the state ever legalizes recreational marijuana, I'll try my hand at that too. Then all the people here who drink too much and fight with their spouses and cheat on their taxes can talk about me and my evil pothead ways. It always does wonders for my deportment.
Easy to say
It would've been catastrophic. Huey Long showed many sociopathic tendencies, and he was brilliant and eloquent enough to get away with it. He would've been our Hitler-Mussolini combined. For instance, when he went to the state legislature for highway funds, they only gave him a pittance. So he took the money and spread it all over the state in one-mile increments so everybody could experience the luxury first hand, if only for a short distance. The next time he asked for highway funds, the voters backed him and he got all he wanted.
Despite the good things Long did, he was such a dictator that nobody could get or keep a job in Louisiana during his time w/o his approval. He ruled that state with an iron fist and would've done the same with the whole country, given the chance. And crooked? As a dog's hind leg.
Kudos
After only a week or so on this site, I feel it's time already for me to say I enjoy your thoughtful and excellent posts.
At present I babble on about lots of things and seldom pass by an excuse to yelp about my difficult choice of retirement location. But I'll calm down soon enough. It's so very comforting to escape somewhere populated by people with hearts and brains. I mustn't forget to bring mine along next time.
Forgive?
I struggle with that principle in general myself and likewise find it easier to forgive 'mere' ignorance in people. Have to since I live surrounded (almost drowned) by it where I retired to a little corner of the Midwest I call RedNeckLand - when they're not looking.
Leave aside arrogance. Any kind of willful ignorance is especially heinous and dangerous, especially in a supposedly educated person. I'd be a fool to expect much from people who brag on someone for almost making it to the 11th grade. And I admit that too many degreed folks don't really know much about anything; yet they're the ones without a leg to stand on. At least they obviously had a chance.
Until they had to leave for the sake of future political ambitions, Sarah and Todd belonged for several years to a radical right fascist group that advocates secession from the U.S. To me that's plain and simple treason. Why she didn't get hammered about it during the '08 campaign is beyond me. Maybe because our side figured it would get more GOP sympathy votes?
This is partly what explains my bottomless, utter contempt for the GOP and its tarbucket brigades. Regarding the latter, I haven't seen or heard much more sense from their degreed members either. And now they've driven poor Bob Woodard insane? Several times a year I write political letters to the editor of our local conservative rag sheet, and perhaps too often I finagle an excuse to whack at the neoConfederates, just daring them to go ahead and try to secede; THAT's when they'll see federal troops in the streets and maybe then they'll get a taste of what they deserve. Yes, I'm stupid enough to send such letters to print.
So far I've received 3 unsigned letters of support from people too scared to sign their names for obvious reasons. Among other niceties I've also had heavy glass beer bottles thrown at me from passing cars. When the GOP first took the House, a pickup load of the local alleged 'Patriots' showed up in front of my house cheering and waving their rifles. I went outside and smiled and waved while I took their picture. They took the hint and left. Haven't been back - so far. But they're out in the woods playing soldier all the time, preparing for that race war they claim the President wants to start.
Sheesh! All I wanted was a quiet, cheap place to retire and enjoy my books and animals. Sometimes it feels like it's already a war zone. Which it is, culturally speaking. I don't mean to whine even though I never dreamed things would turn out so hard. Among the totally apoliticals, I actually have a few friends. But I do owe future liberal retirees best wishes in having enough money to keep as far north as possible.
Profile Information
Gender: FemaleHome country: US
Current location: retired to MidWest
Member since: Mon Feb 18, 2013, 10:15 PM
Number of posts: 6,151
