Schoep passes away

Schoep has passed away right after his 20th birthday.

My heart is breaking for his human, John Unger. The two were blessed to find each other.

Old RWNJ friends: Not Now.

Right wingers and nut jobs,
Now is not the time to approach me, to try to argue with me, to gloat, to defame Trayvon Martin, the victim, or the glories of our justice system.

I know I have right wing friends, like you, Frank Corum, a constant source of stress for me. But friends, please, I ask you to stay away from me now. I will permanently block all racists and that will be goodbye. No one who is glad that Trayvon is dead will be my friend if i know about it. That is sick.

My heart is broken. I love my country, "when right to keep her right, when wrong to set her right," and things are terribly wrong right now. Your hateful and blood thirsty, vengeful remarks show it.

No matter what you say, an unarmed teenager was walking to his dad's and Zimmerman who had already called about 46 "suspicious looking" black men found this young black man also suspicious looking . He followed him tracked him down pulled his gun on him and murdered him. When he made the decision to leave his car with that loaded gun that had no safety and was ready to be fired, he showed premeditation. He should have gotten a First Degree conviction and a death sentence but God is in charge and he will face his maker, he a little man made big by his great equalizer the steel penis for those who lack one of their own. This creepy little man will face an all powerful, just God who will handle him. My job is to protect future young black men.

I have pledged never to argue again with one whose mind's cavities have been filled by Right Wing radio, Fox News, and the hateful Right wing Blogosphere or twitter scape. Leave me alone, I am done fighting the Civil War.

Right wingers and RWNJs, please give me space to grieve.

How bad are the words "honky" and "cracker"?

You may have noticed or remember that during the presentation of the Zimmerman case, someone on Zimmerman's side mad a bid deal about Trayvon's having used the word "cracker." It was treated seriously in the court room and I assume the record that this word as just as bad as the n-word and that Trayvon was just as bad as a white n-word user. It is also sometime argued that the use of the work that begins with "honk" is also just as bad as the n-word. (I am avoid saying any of the words involved because a friend of mine seems to have be censored by Facebook and had his comment on this subject deleted.)

This is ignorant, wrong, and absurd.

The n-word has layers of meaning, history, usage, semantics, and a thousand other differences from the Nabisco and horn-tooting words for white people. I am a professional linguist with Ph.D. in the field, and I know what I am talking about.

The H-word comes from a Wolof (a West African language that was the language of thousands and thousands of slaves) a Wolof word that sounds like "honkie" and is translated as "pink people." English speakers who overheard the speakers assumed they were calling white people that word because of the similarity in sound. They never dreamed the Africans had full, rich, beautiful languages of their own which they brought with them when they were forced into the Middle Passage. The earliest users were just speaking their own language.

And the Cookie word, well that's used in scholarship, drawing a distinction between the Scots-Irish Southern culture and the Northern British "Yankee" culture. See historian Grady McWhiney's scholarly study in book available from Amazon and most other bookstores called "Cracker Culture." It's not flattering, but it does not designate lynchees.

 The censors are uneducated idiots throwing their weight around and flaunting their power.

In order to have freedom and democracy, it is necessary that there be enough people who are well-educated and well-informed to pull against the weight of the ignorant citizens. We've got to know our history, man, or we will lose our future.

Cracker Culture  by Grady McWhiney

origin of "honky"

Yesterday I had a senior moment and gave Forest McDonald as the author of the book Cracker Culture. This is incorrect. The book's author is actually Grady McWhiney. I hope I have corrected this in the text above and I offer you my sincere apologies. It is still correct that it is a fascinating book!

Narcissistic blindness

My former friend had a publishing coup that brought him great fulfillment and delight this summer. I saw it on Facebook. One old friend had congratulated him and he had remarked that he had KNOWN that she would be as happy as he was for him.

Everything is about him.

Were he not blinded by narcissistic, exhibitionist ego, he would have known the joy I felt for him, despite our negative status, when I read the column that had been published. But I'm sure it never crossed his mind enough to be rejected. It just didn't cross his mind. I am dead to him now.

But I do not hate, I hurt. And I felt such joy at reading that article and was so happy for him and he'll neither know nor care.

If I could hate the people who have stomped on my neck, I would not have depression today.

"I do not like your Christians"

I was raised in a southern Independent Baptist fundamentalist church, too conservative to be a part of the Southern Baptist Convention. I can tell you from my church and others that we associated with that what my friend who was a psychiatric resident at UNC Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill in the early 70's said to me is true: The most mentally sick people in America are the Christian fundamentalists. It was true 40 years ago, and it is true now. Even Barry Goldwater tried to warn of the dangers of Protestant conservatives. I myself even wrote a letter to the Catholic William F. Buckley in the early 80's trying to convince him that he did not realize the poisonous nature of the snakes he was beginning to build a relationship with. Crazy, crazy, crazy. Beat your wife and children, get drunk, pay prostitutes, cheat on your taxes, screw your best friend's wife, hate "the Blacks," Catholics, and Jews, and then show up on Sunday morning with a smile on your big, fat, redneck face like you are a true follower of Jesus Christ. I love Jesus Christ, but I agree with Gandhi, who said, "I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ."