A Week At CTZ
NOTE: This post appeared a few years ago. It was taken down, and edited. The location of the hosting facility has been intentionally obscured.
At 752 am, October 11, 2010, PG warmed up the car. The destination was Central Time Zone. The Gathering had started on friday, but PG found enough slack to go on monday. After an hour on the road, there was a stop at a gas station. The lady said “wherever you are going, don’t work too hard”. PG assured her that, where he was going, that would not be a problem.
At 1130 pm PG rolled onto the driveway to the land. (The time zone play provides a layer of confusion right away. Atlanta is not that far east of CTZ, but is on the western edge of the time zone. While there is little difference in the location of the sun, CTZ is on Central time, and an hour behind.) The first day of a gathering is a lot of work. You have to get your gear down a steep hill, go park your vehicle, hike back, and then set up your tent. The parking lot is about two miles away, and the trail has a steep hill and a poorly maintained trail. You get used to walking on steep hills at a gathering.
People who have been to gatherings before tend to have a preferred place to camp. PG likes the yurt yard, which is right next to the knoll, fire pit, and flag pole. This is a center of activity, and can be noisy. It is also closest to the driveway, and has the least distance to haul goods. PG thinks this is a good trade off, and can go to sleep listening to a drum circle.
There is a lot of dust, after a month with no rain. Water is brought in by truck every day, and water conservation is preached whenever announcements are made. There was a spigot on the porch where you could get water. It was very slow, and getting water was often a social activity.
Dinner monday night was an asian themed event, with several varieties of veg-sushi. One of the pieces had a sauce that was as hot as anything PG has ever eaten. Eating on the porch, with oil lamps providing minimal lighting, it became an act of bravery to eat, not knowing whether the next bite might be your last. PG ate the rest of the dinners inside, where there was electric lights.
After dinner, a lively drum circle started by the fire pit. A tall man, in a striped costume, was dancing with a sign that said “please touch me without asking”. It seems as though there had been a discussion before PG arrived about not touching people that did not want to be touched. Not everyone was happy with this development, and it was a subject of conversation the rest of the gathering. There were also reminders to get consent before taking pictures.
During a break in the drumming, an English lady posed a riddle. A man was watching TV. He turns off the TV, goes upstairs, turns the light on, and jumps out the window to his death. The riddle caused many furrowed brows, and for about twenty minutes no one could figure the dern thing out. Finally, PG asked if it was a lighthouse. The man had learned about a boat crash on TV, went upstairs, cut on the light, and jumped out the window in his shame.
On tuesday, a neighbor cooked pancakes. PG had heard about this for a few years, and finally got to eat a couple. This was followed by a heart circle, lunch, and something called playback theater. PG was imitating a bird that flies into a plate glass window, and took a tough fall back onto the ground. He got back up, rubbed a few things, and decided he was not as delicate as he thinks.
A few raindrops came down, and the theater play was cut short. The rain never did arrive, and the rest of the day was spent chatting with people. A lovely dinner of lentil loaf was followed by a rousing dance party. PG saw the septuagenarian Randy Wicker , and suggested that he act his age.
Wednesday morning, the 13th of October, began bright and dry. There was a hike over to a neighbor’s land, where he was building a foundation for a yurt. The hike went to the bottom of a ravine, and up a steep, rough path to the other neighborhood. The plan was to fill plastic bags with gravel, seal them with duct tape, and arrange them in a circle where the yurt was going to go. The walk back to camp was over a much easier trail.
When PG got back to his tent, there were some goats supervising things. He got a few pictures of one, who said baa to indicate her consent. Soon it was time for a nap, dinner, and a brief ritual. There were no seats left for the know talent show, so PG went to sleep. It finally rained a bit, just enough to make the dust settle a bit.
There was a heart circle Thursday morning. At this, a tarot card is drawn, and the instructions for that card read to the circle. A talisman is handed to the first person to talk. After this person speaks, the talisman is handed to the next person. PG laid back in the sun, with a bright pink baseball hat cutting a crescent into the blue sky. Someone read a poem… When you were born, you cried, and the world rejoiced. Live so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.
Thursday was going to be a working afternoon. The reason gatherings are so cheap is that all the work is done by participants. PG is not fond of washing dishes. An alternative is to be the greeter. Thursday afternoon was spent at the top of the hill, telling everyone who comes in “welcome to Wal Mart”. There was a scrabble board, and as soon as a game was started the customers came in. The action slowed down long enough to finish the game, with PG losing 271-204.
After dinner thursday night, there was dancing in the kitchen. Someone brought out a tray of a chocolate pudding cake. PG ate a slice, and decided it was time to shoot a video about how it does indeed get better. Soon, the dance broke up, and PG was chatting with octogenarian Crazy Owl…who always acts his age. Crazy Owl left the earth April 4, 2011.
By friday, the pace was slowing down a bit. There was a long, slow walk down the paths behind the garden, with stops to visit along the way. After lunch, PG made the mistake of being idle in the kitchen, and wound up stirring lentil soup for a couple of hours. There was a party friday night a couple of ridges over, but PG decided to stay put. Some movies were shown in the pavilion.
Saturday morning was another heart circle, followed by lunch, and a spell of greeting new arrivals. There was dinner, dancing in the kitchen, drumming by the fire, and the sad knowledge that another gathering was coming to an end.
PG is starting to use his first name, Luther, in day to day activity. Sunday afternoon saw something inevitable happen. PG gave a man a ride away from the facility, toward a house down the road a bit. As the man left, he said ” nice to meet you Martin“.
Hawaiian Good Luck Sign
Dear Grand-daughter, The other day I went up to our local Christian book store and saw a ‘Honk if you love Jesus’ bumper sticker . I was feeling particularly sassy that day because I had just come from a thrilling choir performance, followed by a thunderous prayer meeting.
So, I bought the sticker and put it on my bumper. Boy, am I glad I did; what an uplifting experience that followed. I was stopped at a red light at a busy intersection, just lost in thought about the Lord and how good he is, and I didn’t notice that the light had changed. It is a good thing someone else loves Jesus because if he hadn’t honked, I’d never have noticed. I found that lots of people love Jesus!
While I was sitting there, the guy behind started honking like crazy, and then he leaned out of his window and screamed, ‘For the love of God!’ ‘Go! Go! Go! Jesus Christ, GO!’ What an exuberant cheerleader he was for Jesus! Everyone started honking! I just leaned out my window and started waving and smiling at all those loving people. I even honked my horn a few times to share in the love!
There must have been a man from Florida back there because I heard him yelling something about a sunny beach. I saw another guy waving in a funny way with only his middle finger stuck up in the air. I asked my young teenage grandson in the back seat what that meant. He said it was probably a Hawaiian good luck sign or something. Well, I have never met anyone from Hawaii , so I leaned out the window and gave him the good luck sign right back. My grandson burst out laughing. Why even he was enjoying this religious experience!! Praise the Lord!!!
A couple of the people were so caught up in the joy of the moment that they got out of their cars and started walking towards me. I bet they wanted to pray or ask what church I attended, but this is when I noticed the light had changed. So, grinning, I waved at all my brothers and sisters, and drove on through the intersection. I noticed that I was the only car that got through the intersection before the light changed again and felt kind of sad that I had to leave them after all the love we had shared.
So I slowed the car down, leaned out the window and gave them all the Hawaiian good luck sign one last time as I drove away. Praise the Lord for such wonderful folks!! Will write again soon, Love, Grandma. This repost is written like J. D. Salinger. Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Joshua Bishop And Leverett Morrison
The State of Georgia is planning to execute Joshua Bishop tonight. Mr. Bishop was convicted of beating Leverett Morrison to death June 25, 1994. A co-defendant, Mark Braxley, is currently serving a life sentence in Reidsville. There is a possibility that Mr. Morrison was the father of Mr. Bishop
A press advisory from the State Attorney General tells the story as well as anyone. Further details will be supplied in parentheses, with a link to the source.
“[Leverett] Morrison drove Bishop and Bishop’s co-indictee, Mark Braxley, to a bar. Bishop and Braxley decided to steal Morrison’s car. The three left the bar around 11:00 p.m., June 24, 1994, and drove to Braxley’s trailer. (192 Linton Road) Bishop reached into the sleeping Morrison’s pocket for the car keys, but Morrison awoke and sat up. Bishop began to beat Morrison about the head and face with a blunt object. When Morrison was unconscious, Bishop took the car keys. Eventually realizing that Morrison was dead, Bishop and Braxley wrapped and then loaded the body into the back seat of Morrison’s car. They drove to a dumpster which was located a short distance from Braxley’s trailer. After unsuccessfully attempting to toss Morrison’s body into the dumpster, Bishop and Braxley left the body on the ground where it was discovered several hours later. They drove Morrison’s car into the nearby woods, set it on fire, and then walked back to Braxley’s trailer to dispose of evidence of their crimes. (No murder weapon was ever recovered.) After his arrest, Bishop made a statement in which he admitted delivering the blows with a wooden rod until Morrison stopped breathing, and described how he and Braxley disposed of the body and burned the car. Bishop subsequently confessed that, some two weeks prior to the murder of Morrison, he participated in the murder of Ricky Lee Wills and that he buried Wills’ body in the woods near Braxley’s trailer. (…then-district attorney Fred Bright said Willis died June 9, 1994. He was beaten with a blunt object, had eight deep lacerations on his head and face, had four broken ribs and his throat was cut with a knife. Bright told jurors Bishop and Braxley buried Willis in the woods behind Braxley’s father’s trailer and had to break the man’s legs to get him into the shallow grave.) After investigators recovered Wills’ body, a grand jury indicted Bishop and Braxley for that murder as well. The trial court admitted evidence regarding Bishop’s participation in Wills’ murder in aggravation of punishment during the penalty phase of this trial for Morrison’s murder. (Bishop said he killed Wills because Wills boasted about sexually assaulting Bishop’s mother.)
Although both Bishop and Braxley initially denied any involvement in the murder of Morrison, Bishop later confessed in a statement given to Detective Ricky Horn. In his statement, which was audiotaped and played by the State for the jury, Bishop explained at considerable length the events culminating in the beating and murder of Morrison.(Bishop urges that his inculpatory in-custody statement should not have been admitted because, as the result of antecedent drinking and smoking crack cocaine, he was unable to make a knowing waiver of his rights.)
Bishop, Braxley, and Morrison had been drinking through the afternoon and had smoked crack later that evening. That night, Braxley suggested that Bishop take the keys to Morrison’s Jeep; Morrison was lying in bed at the time. According to Bishop, when he reached into Morrison’s pocket, Morrison “popped [him] and asked [him] what [he] was doing.” Bishop then hit Morrison with a wooden stick that “was like a closet rod.” In Bishop’s words, he used “[o]ne of them big heavy closet rods.” Bishop explained, “I hit him too hard, I reckon, and he didn’t say anything. He just wouldn’t breathe.” At one point in his statement Bishop said that he hit Morrison on the backside of his head “about twice” and Braxley hit him “about three times.” “I hit [Morrison] like three times in the head with that stick, just to see the first time if I could knock him out where I could get his keys. But he wouldn’t knock out. I hit him one more time and finally, he looked like he was knocked out.”
According to Bishop, he then exited the room, but left the key to Morrison’s Jeep on a coffee table. Bishop added that, while he was outside the room, he “heard something loud.” He elaborated: “When I went back in there after I left the key on the coffee table, I walked back there and saw that [Morrison] was dead. I saw we were messing up pretty bad. He wasn’t breathing. I checked him out and he wasn’t breathing. He was dead.” Bishop explained that he and Braxley then wrapped Morrison in a comforter and placed his body in the back seat of the Jeep, and that they tried unsuccessfully to put Morrison’s body in a dumpster but ended up leaving the body between two dumpsters. At Braxley’s suggestion, Bishop took the Jeep to a nearby pond, poured gasoline all over it, and lit it on fire, destroying all but the frame of the vehicle. ( Prior to Bishop’s arrest, the officers had the following reasonably trustworthy information: Morrison was last seen alive leaving the bar with Bishop and Braxley around 11:00 p.m. Although Bishop and Braxley claimed Morrison left the trailer in his car about 2:00 or 2:30 a.m., they were seen driving Morrison’s car after 3:00 a.m. Morrison’s body was found several hours later, less than a mile away from Braxley’s trailer. These facts were sufficient to give the officers a particularized and objective basis for believing that Bishop murdered Morrison. … The singed hair on his hands indicated that Bishop set fire to Morrison’s car.)
Dr. James Dawson testified regarding Morrison’s injuries and cause of death. He determined that Morrison died in the early morning hours of June 25, 1994, as a result of inner cranial bleeding, with contributing factors of a cerebral contusion and aspiration of blood, all caused by blunt force trauma to the head. Dr. Dawson confirmed that Morrison was beaten to death. Several of Morrison’s seven significant head wounds appeared to have been caused by a cylindrical, circular, or tubular object, while other wounds appeared to have been caused by a flat object. Dr. Dawson could not state the order in which the seven injuries took place, nor could he state whether the first blow, the seventh blow, any of the blows in between, or any combination of the blows caused the cerebral contusion (bruising of the brain) or the hemorrhage resulting in inner cranial bleeding and ultimately death; finally, the medical examiner confirmed that all seven injuries occurred while Morrison was alive.” (Leverett Morrison is buried at Baldwin Memorial Gardens, Milledgeville GA)
The fishwrapper published a story the other day, Violent childhood put Georgia killer on sure path to Death Row. It is a doozie. Here are excerpts.
“When Morrison and Wills were murdered, Bishop had been living under a bridge with his mother, an alcoholic and drug addict who sometimes prostituted herself. She was heard telling her son that men show their love with punches, slaps and verbal assaults. She knew a man loved her, she told her son, if he beat her. … Bishop’s mother treated her two sons like “drinking buddies,” wrote Barbara Cheeley, the boys’ aunt. “This seemed to be the way she dealt with them best.” …
Carolyn Bishop was 17 when she gave birth to Joshua Bishop’s older brother, Michael. Michael Bishop’s father, Mike, was 14 years old when he married Carolyn. Joshua Bishop, however, never knew for certain who his father was. “Josh was almost obsessed with finding out who his daddy was,” the brother wrote in an affidavit. “It was sad for me to hear Josh ask so many people while he was growing up who his daddy was. The answer was usually ‘I don’t know.’”
Carolyn Bishop told her younger son that one of three men could be his father, most likely Albert Ray Morrison, who was Leverette Morrison’s brother. “Many people say Josh is my son but I don’t really know for sure,” Albert Morrison wrote. “His mama, Carolyn, went with a lot of men, including me and Leverette.” … his dead brother had “problems with drugs as far back as I can remember…. I know Josh was charged with killing Leverette and received a death sentence for it. But Josh is the same people as me and Leverette. With all the drinking and crack going on, it could just as easily have been Josh who was killed as my brother.” …
Joshua Bishop first tasted alcohol at 4 and in just a few years was “huffing” chemicals like gasoline. Eventually, he was using cocaine and drinking with his mother. ” His last meal request is a barbecue sandwich, Brunswick stew, potato chips, coleslaw, lemonade and purple candy. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. UPDATE: Joshua Bishop died at 9:27 pm, March 31, 2016.
The ATT Problem
PG let the phone ring. The machine had the message. “This is Jaime I am calling on behalf of A T and T. This call may be monitored for quality assurance purposes” Some fast, unintelligible talk followed. “Please call 800-288-2020.” PG had to replay the message four times to get the number.
1-800-288-2020 is the main number for ATT. You have to go through an automated voice. This voice does not like the way PG talks. The voice kept saying to please answer yes or no. PG did not know what the question was. Calling about a spam phone call from Jaime was not an option. PG started to get angry, and asked started to say AGENT AGENT I WANT TO TALK TO A PERSON.
After a minute or so on hold, a lady came on the line. She asked what number PG was calling from. The lady looked in the system. It seems that Jaime wanted to tell PG about some wonderful new service from ATT that is now available in your area.
The anger that ATT causes PG to feel exploded. There was a lot of yelling. After it was over, PG felt his head hurt. There was guilt about unloading on that lady. But the harassment from ATT has got to stop. How to get a faceless corporation to understand?
Thousands of junk mail offers from ATT have polluted the mailbox. A gigabyte of emails have brought the same message. Men in orange shirts have knocked on the front door, spreading the gospel of expensive new technology.
The email is marked read, and deleted. The junk mail is thrown away unopened. PG does not want the bundled service. The TV has not been turned on since the super bowl. The land line is working the way it should. The internet service is adequate, even if more speed would be welcome.
ATT, and the predecessor Southern Bell and Bell South, have been a part of life forever. PG pays the bill every month without fail. When there have been problems, they get resolved … sometimes this is smoother than other times, but eventually the problem is resolved. The only problem that is not solvable is harassment from the tone deaf sales department. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Trump Is About Trump
@AryehCW Everyone mentioned in this post should #DonSackclothAndAshesAndWalkBarefoot
@chamblee54 can you make a sackcloth and ashes pantsuit for Hillary?
@AryehCW she should trek to Lourdes and bathe in the healing waters
By this time, Donald Trump behaving badly is old news. The incident to fire up Ann Coulter involves a tweet, where Mr. Trump says that his (former model) (third) wife is prettier than Heidi Cruz. The post inspired by the tweet, ‘Mental.’ ‘Utterly Stupid.’ ‘Trump Only Cares About Trump,’ sets a new standard for conservative purple prose.
“The hard truth is: Trump only cares about Trump. … Trump is about Trump. Not one of his many wives. Not one of his many “pieces of ass.” He is, at heart, a self-preservationist. Trump supporters, no one should let you off of that bandwagon now. You should be handcuffed to that Titanic you volunteered to crew. Donald Trump didn’t suddenly change in the past few days, weeks or months. He’s the same guy he always was … He didn’t abruptly become reckless, obnoxious, ill-informed, erratic, hot-tempered, pathologically dishonest, narcissistic, crude and catastrophically unqualified for the presidency overnight. He’s always been that guy, … Years of effort spent attempting to dispel the accusations of inherent Republican misogyny, xenophobia, hypocrisy, ignorance and blind rage have been undone by Trump’s campaign.” (Racism and homophobia are not mentioned in this list.) “And every Trump advocate in front of a camera had a hand in this. We’re not just gonna hug it out. “
The “Mental” post begins with a link to a video Ann Coulter made with Milo Yiannopoulos ✘<. “COULTER: Moreover, I’m a little testy with our man right now. YIANNOPOULOS: You are? Daddy’s annoyed you? COULTER: Our candidate is mental! …YIANNOPOULOS The trashier he gets the more I love him … Presidentiality is in the eye of the beholder”
At 3:20, Ms. Coulter (where are those gender neutral titles when you need them?) says the DT can be presidential, but that “drastic measures may have to be taken. … I want to take him to a urologist and have electrodes inserted into what is apparently a very large schlong, and whenever he does something like this I want to have the button” Mr. Yiannopoulos said “I can tell it, I think its huge.”
This is the first time many have heard of Milo Yiannopoulos. Unfortunately, it probably will not be the last. He authored a piece at Breitbart, In Defense Of Donald Trump’s Heidi Cruz Tweet. “Trump’s critics have accused him of being over-the-top in his response. Surely, say his critics, insulting a rival’s wife for being too ugly is simply crass, classless, and rude. I agree. It’s all of those things. But that’s a good thing. … In the process, he’s certainly lowering the tone — but it badly needs to be lowered. Only by totally ignoring people’s feelings can we end the left’s culture of grievance, offense, and victimhood. It’s what I’ve been doing for years, and it’s what Trump is now doing on the national stage. Sure, the rudeness is uncomfortable to decent conservatives who appreciate good manners and a civil tongue. But if we really want to beat the left, we need Trump’s crassness. A few mean tweets about Heidi Cruz is a small price to pay to end a quarter-century of grievance culture.”
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Warning Not A Manual
What better way to start the new week but a meme, featuring a quote from a famous person. “I wrote 1984. as a warning not as a fucking instruction manual.” George Orwell
Chamblee54 has a ten minute rule on quotes. If you can’t find the source in ten minutes, then the quote is disputed. Fake is a harsh word. “I wrote 1984.” fails the ten minute test. It also has an extra period, which does nothing for it. A learned Englishman like Eric Blair (the birth name of George Orwell) would not insert a useless period into a sentence. Ditto the use of fucking as an adjective. 1984 is not a sex education text.
The first page of google results has a couple of forums, and a handful of tasteful graphics. The quote is expressed as Orwell was a warning, not an instruction manual, and Atlas Shrugged is a warning not an instruction manual. At no time is a source for the quote, from the words of Eric Blair, given.
George Orwell died January 21, 1950, six months after the publication of 1984 Mr. Blair had been in very bad health. There were indications that he preferred working on his manuscript to taking care of his health. ( The masterpiece that killed George Orwell tells the story.) This fact is another indication that the meme is an example of *doublespeak*.
1984 was an influential book in the sixties and seventies. When the actual year took place, it was a bit of a relief. It was the year of Ronald Reagan’s landslide re-election. While technocratic control of the population was in effect, it was not as overt as the book would have it. (PG has never read 1984. It is uncertain how many people using the adjective “Orwellian” have read the book.)
The reality of the present does not always line up with the sci-fi predictions in the past. 2001 was going to be the year of interplanetary exploration. Instead, September 11, 2001, was the start of the twenty first century. Jet airliners as WMD sucker punched America into a series of self destructive wars. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Blocked From Following
I pick up the ringing telephone. It was Timothy Whatsisname from Blah Blah Blah research company I would like to ask you a few questions on a confidential basis for quality control purposes this call may be monitored I asked the name of the firm he represented He sighed and hung up the phone ~ We hope this new largely symbolic measure will help us create a more pleasant and cultivated environment for all of our readers, and, as always, we thank you deeply for your support. ~ less a paywall than a gesture of your own commitment to the cause of great conversation. ~ How did the lake get that clean? ~ will take your word on this it is too much work to read puffho and see for myself ~ Turnip is an anagram for I Trump ~ Thank you for posting the link. I appreciate being able to read the interview and decide for myself. ~ Bernoids are more self righteous. ~ @RuPaul Derogatory slurs are ALWAYS an outward projection of a person’s own poisonous self-loathing ~ The people who think that racist is the worst insult imaginable are probably not going to vote for DT. Demoze might be making a mistake in their hysterical insistence that DT is a racist. They might impress themselves. It might also drive marginal voters into the DT camp. ~ This is very different from my experience with Christianism. ~ How then would you interpret taking out “She-Mail” from the show due to allegations of transphobia? I don’t know. You know, I didn’t do that. The network did that, and you’d have to ask them why they did it, but I had nothing to do with that. …Well, the intention behind that word is a portmanteau that was meant as a way to be fun and to enjoy language. … ~ Is RuPaul a racist? ~ Real Talk With RuPaul ~ Why Sponsor? By purchasing a Guest Book sponsorship, you’ll be giving loved ones a place to express their feelings and share memories any time they’d like in the months and years ahead. ~ Unfriending can be hurtfull, but sometimes you don’t want to see all their cultural/political contributions ~ A trans woman can be a bigot. ~ Today is nine months until christmas. In other words, this is the day that joseph and mary did not screw. ~ Please quit sending these unsolicited junk messages. I do not want to pay for television. If I want to get your new product, I will contact a sales agent. I get dozens, no make that hundreds, of these junk mail email sales pitches. I never read so much as one word. I mark them as read, and delete. You are alienating a long time customer. Please stop. No more packages in US mail. No more orange T shirted men knocking on my door. No more e mails. Go away. Don’t come back. ~ essjayuyu ~ @N7IRL ~ @AngryBlackLady Racism against white people is a serious threat. Just like unicorn stabbings and death by aerial pig droppings. ~ @TananariveDue As Twitter users, we all have the sacred right to decide which trashy stories to speak up about and which to ignore. ~ The CEO of the National Enquirer is David Pecker. This led to the #TrumplovesPecker hashtag. ~ The spikes used to attach Jesus to the cross were driven through the wrist. If you drove them through the hand the flesh would tear through the spikes. The Romans knew what they were doing. ~ The sword and the egg are symbols of life/death male/female duality. Maybe the fertility of the egg is a counterpoint for the violence of capital punishment. ~ so divided ~ people who are not black have some real problems ~ n word ~ The “get over it” school of dealing with life’s problems is very appealing, especially when it is someone else that has the problems. I do try to keep things in perspective. Sometimes I succeed, and sometimes I do not. I breeze past things that upset other people, and get bent out of shape over trivia.Often my body chemistry is the culprit. When this chemistry tells me to be unhappy, my mind will find a way to comply. ~ Maybe a good place to start not taking things too seriously is with the opinions (and autograph) of a drag queen. Yes, they say some wise things. But it is just a black man wearing a blonde wig. ~ 1-That is what RuPaul says in interviews. I wouldn’t be surprised if RuPaul gets upset about trivia when no one is looking. It is a part of being human.2- I would be interested in RuPaul’s opinion about singular they. ~ #CruzSexScandal 1 with that last name, of course he is a dog 2 were those women blind? 3 Trump is fine one to talk 4 BS is too ugly ~ @TheKevinAllison 1-listened to RISK#723 all way through – JF says Mitt should have said I am not conservative enough for you & they would @TheKevinAllison 2- respect him- Today Trump is doing just that he is not respected but just might get elected ~ 0325 is nine months until 1225 this is the day Joseph and Mary did not procreate #goodfriday ~ You are blocked from following @BGDblog and viewing @BGDblog’s Tweets. ~ @tedcruz Father of two, @heidiscruz’s husband, U.S. Senator, fighter for liberty, player of iPhone games, 2016 GOP candidate for President. ~ The word you’ve entered isn’t in the dictionary. Click on a spelling suggestion below or try again using the search bar above. ~ Making up quotes on the internet is unforgivable Albert Einstein ~ my ideal audience aacddeeeiilMnuy ~ 1-You can send a message to @RuPaul on twitter There is no guarantee that you will get a reply. 2- I am now following @kat_blaque on twitter. She sent a nice message thanking me for following her. This is a first. I hope she has a light touch on the block feature, unlike @angryblacklady, 3- I agree that RuPaul is an entertainer, whose thoughts deserve no special attention. 4- I forget if this was the article linked above, or the @kat_video on RuPaul, but… there was some speculation as to how, essentially, RuPaul is not black enough for some people. Now, this is not something I am going to pretend to know enough to judge. I do find it rather noteworthy that RuPaul is being judged in those terms. White performers are not judged on whether or not they are white enough. I think RuPaul feels that emphasis on race is part of the illusion, but I cannot speak for her. I just sense that she has better things to worry about. ~ White People Explain Why They Feel Oppressed ~ To Bro or Not To Bro? ~ authoritarian personality There is an online test for authoritarian personality. They give you a list of words, and ask you to select the ones you are sure you know the definition of. Two of the words are cuivocal and florted. These two words are not in any dictionary that I checked. ~ The Authoritarians ~ Your score for right-wing authoritarianism ~ water use ~ Donald Trump Doesn’t Have the Character to Be President ~ Trump’s Hypnotic Gig at AIPAC Will Go Down in History – or Infamy ~ #NationalWaterDay ~ Real Talk With RuPaul In fact, I’d rather have an enema than have an Emmy. ~ But if you are trigger-happy and you’re looking for a reason to reinforce your own victimhood, your own perception of yourself as a victim, you’ll look for anything that will reinforce that.~ Do you think it’s important for the younger generation to learn it? I don’t know. I don’t really care about them. The truth is, they’re on their own. They’ll figure it out. There’s nothing we can do to force them to say, “Look, this is important.” Humans don’t learn that way. ~ List of Paraphilias ~ 5 (Statistically BS) Complaints About Social Justice Issues ~ “Racism” The Curious Beginnings of a Useless Word ~ Going down the coney hole ~ Performative Blackness and the Problem With ‘RuCo’s Empire’ ~ Don’t Believe the Stupid Argument: The “Bernie or Bust” Movement is Not Based on Privilege ~ Old Mansions of Peachtree ~ Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. “Henrietta Egleston Hospital for Children, Atlanta, Georgia, 1937 ” ~ chocolate bunny monday ~ selah
Slavery And Global Warming
Have you ever wondered why your ancestors owned other human beings? How can you justify something this cruel? In an NPR interview to promote a new book, 1861: The Civil War Awakening, Adam Goodheart has an answer.
It was economics. “But I think we think of it differently when we realize that the value of slave property, some $4 billion, enormous amount of money in 1861, represented actually more money than the value of all of the industry and all of the railroads in the entire United States combined. So for Southern planters to simply one day liberate all of that property would have been like asking people today to simply overnight give up their stock portfolios, give up their IRAs.”
Mr. Goodheart compares it to the situation today with fossil fuels. “many of us recognize that in burning fossil fuels we’re doing something terrible for the planet, we’re doing something terrible for future generations. And yet in order to give this up would mean sort of unraveling so much of the fabric of our daily lives, sacrificing so much, becoming these sort of radical eccentrics riding bicycles everywhere, that we continue somewhat guiltily to participate in the system. And that’s something that I use as a comparison to slavery, that many Americans in the North, and even I believe sort of secretly in the South, felt a sense of guilt, felt a sense of shame, that knew that the slave system was wrong but were simply addicted to slavery and couldn’t give it up. “
When the economic pressure is there, people will find a way to justify their actions. Slavery was justified in a number of ways. Today, there are people who deny the ill effects of using fossil fuels, and they have an eager audience. The payback for the environmental horror is in the future. This is similar to the way people today are paying … with racial turmoil … for slavery.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
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