Men fear thought more than they fear anything else on earth -- more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible; thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages ... But if thought is to become the possession of many, not the privilege of the few, we must have done with fear. It is fear that holds men back -- fear lest their cherished beliefs should prove delusions, fear lest the institutions by which they live should prove harmful, fear lest they themselves should prove less worthy of respect than they have supposed themselves to be.

-Bertrand Russell

The National Conference for Media Reform got off to a great start this morning.

If at first an idea is not absurd, there is no hope for it. - Albert Einstein

I was born and I live in Jackson, Mississippi, near what is known by convention as 90 degrees west longitude, 32 degrees north latitude.  (You can look up your own location on this arbitrary scale here.)

As a result of this curious happenstance, and by conventional rights, I am qualified to call myself a citizen of the municipality of Jackson, Mississippi, a citizen of the state of Mississippi, and a citizen of the United States of America.  Thus, I could be described as a Jacksonian, a Mississippian, and an American.  When it is convenient I use these monikers myself.  I apply them to myself and to others.  I also use my regional identity as a Southerner when it is convenient.

There is no escaping from these conventions because they are widely accepted as shorthand descriptors for sets of attitudes and outlooks in a convenient, but limited and faulty, tribal identification scheme.  For example, folks from rural Mississippi may use the words "Jackson folk" to describe and attribute urban attitudes and problems to the tribe of Jacksonians.  Likewise, many who make statements about Mississipians, Southerners, or Americans use these tribal identification schemes to describe their broad views of humans within these geographic boundaries.  In some cases, the utility of these modern tribal identification schemes makes their usage nearly unavoidable.

We'll come back to 90 degrees west longitude, 32 degrees north latitude shortly, but first, I digress:

First of all, please indulge me while I share something of my own beliefs.  In no particular order, I am or have been, an agnostic, a dunked-in-the-water Southern Baptist (the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message kind, excluding the 1998 addendum), a humanist(h.t. to our own mrboma), a metaphysical naturalist, a follower of the Church of Reality(shot of chinaco to bartcop),  a Bahá'í, a Zoroastrian, a deist, a Naturalist Buddhist, a Transcendentalist,a Unitarian Universalist, and an American Baptist, of sorts (h.t. and a deep bow to Reverend Professor Peter J. Gomes and a hearty "Amen" for his sermons - check out Patriotism is Not Enough for the text of a fine example of a great anti Iraq war sermon or this mp3 sound file of his recent sermon entitled "Tangible Truth" for an earful of mellifluous vocalisation with a real message).

Howdy, ya'll!

A few of us are committed to the Memphis in May BBQ Fest this weekend and we're hoping to see more of you there.

Please email Brenda Stewart (stormyweather1_at_hotmail_dot_com) for details on where to meet and how to contact us as you approach downtown Memphis.

See ya'll there!

OK everybody, if we're gonna do this, let's get the plan together.  BBQ fest is coming.

We left off with a small number of folks who were interested, but most weren't sure if they could make it.

Some of us needed to wait until later to make a decision on it.

It's almost here, so maybe we can figure out if we will have enough folks to make a go of it.

I'd love to see this come together.  How about it?

Any thoughts?

The results are in!  It's the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, May 18-20.  Please visit the link and browse the "--Quick links:--" drop-down menu.  From the Ms. Piggie contest to the People's Choice Award Judging, you'll find the details there.

For those of you who may not have an interest in bbq pork or beef, the city of Memphis is full of other great attractions, and attendance at the bbq-fest is obviously optional.  Our rendezvous sites and times will not involve the consumption of pork, and will start with a Friday night gathering and end with Sunday brunch.  Saturday will be the day where I hope everyone can meet at one place and time.

As for lodging, it is not possible at this time for me to find a single place for us to stay together.  The events during Memphis in May are usually well attended and the lodgings become more difficult to acquire as the time approaches.  BrendaStewart has some helpful info in the South thread which you may wish to consult.

I'm very much looking forward to meeting all of you!  We will plan several opportunities for rendezvous as the time approaches.  Please hotlist this diary and use it for keeping everyone informed about your success with hotels, etc.  I will be looking for a place to stay soon, and will let you all know specifics about what I find.

Howdy Ya'll!

We'd like to plan a BooTribbers meetup in Memphis and we have several candidates for dates and times.  "Memphis in May" hosts several events every year throughout the month of May.  There is also a DFA workshop at the end of March(March 25th-26th, Sat-Sun, 8:30 am - 5:30 pm).

I think if we plan early enough we could probably get accomodations in Memphis during May, but the sooner the better.  The DFA Workshop doesn't clash with any major events in Memphis that I'm aware of.

Hopefully those of us who are interested can pick a time where we could all go.  Please take the poll and let's get the planning underway.

Pelosi's Privileged Resolution

Today, in a heroic attempt, Nancy Pelosi introduced a Privileged Resolution on Iraq which laid out the crimes of the President Katrina administration and called for the Thug Leaders of the House of Representatives to exercise their oversight responsibilities and "conduct a thorough investigation of of abuses relating to the Iraq War".  

Privileged Resolution on Iraq

The resolution was tabled by the Thugs in a strict party-line vote, with one Democrat voting with them.

"A vote to table is a vote to cover-up," Pelosi said. "Congress has the responsibility to find out why so many things in Iraq have gone so terribly wrong. That is why I asked the House to investigate abuses relating to Iraq. Yet, Republicans again thwarted efforts to answer the questions of the American people. This Republican cover-up Congress refuses to live up to its oversight responsibility."

Here are links to video of Pelosi on the floor today.  (I couldn't get the links to work directly, but I was able to go to the page and download the .wmv files to my hard drive and view them that way)

floor speech video

privileged resolution video

[If you have to do what I did to get them to play, use this link, then find the picture of Pelosi and right-click on the link below her picture and choose "Save link as..."  from the drop down menu....]

This is as much as the House Rules will allow Pelosi to do.  The House Rules do not allow for the same kind of actions that Reid took in the Senate, so this is action by Pelosi is the MORAL EQUIVALENT of what Reid was able to do in the Senate when he moved for a closed session recently.

Please let Pelosi know that we appreciate her by contacting her at this link.

Hi everyone!  I'm really enjoying the photo fair!  It's exciting to see so many excellent photos of great subjects posted by all of those who have participated.

You can click on all of my photos to get to a larger version.  I highly recommend the click-thru on all of these images, if your bandwidth can handle it.  I'm still unhappy with some of the larger online copies of my photos as they definitely lose crispness as compared to a full-size print....

I hope you enjoy mine at least half as much as I've enjoyed everyone else's!

First up, a FROG from my recent trip to Michigan, Dedicated to Booman and Susanhu and all my fellow Trib-beters!:

Say what you want about my state.  I've said some harsh things myself.  But please remember this one thing.  After all is said and done, Mississippians are on record as the most generous state in the Union.  

Our need is tremendous.  Everyone who can to give aid to the survivors of this devastating catastophe, please do so.  We need some generosity and hospitality back.  We need for the concerned people of the nation to ring the phones of their elected Federal representatives off the hook demanding that the federal government do MORE.   That the Federal authorities claim that they waited for local authorities to ask them to help is a TRAVESTY.  The Federal government and ONLY the Federal government has the necessary resources to respond to a disaster of this magnitude.

Join me at NASA-TV for the launch.

The crew is strapped in and going thru checklists.  The hatch is still open, but will be closed soon.  Lift-off is scheduled for 10:39 EST, but NASA-TV gives you a great  run-up to the main event, with explanations of main steps along the count-down path and some beautiful video of the launch.

I encourage you to get your link to the TV site going early, because when it gets close to liftoff, you may experience difficulties initiating a new link-up.

The weather looks good!

10-9-8-7-6-5-4...........

Hi, I'm blueneck, and This is My South.

I've had it today.  I've thought long and hard about starting this series of diaries.  Should I point out the good news about the South, or rat out the sorry state of affairs that continues....?  Maybe I'll do some of both, but this one is about the sad, sad ignorance and intolerance that regularly continues to rear its ugly head.