Yes, I inherited a certain amount of cussedness from my Blue Ridge Mountain ancestors, so I can be contrary, and, under certain circumstances, I do like to argue.
Someone to say I'm right? I don't particularly want that and certainly don't need it. And while I'd love for the South to rise again, it doesn't really have to; all it has to do is remain standing while the rest of America falls.
Don't I have realistic stuff to attend to? Not sure how Rosemary conceptualizes "realistic stuff," but if she means work (a job or career), family, etc., I am retired, but I do have my writing. I also provide services to other writers (typesetting, e-book formatting, cover creation, video trailer editing, etc.). I learned how to do these things with my first book, because I couldn't afford what others were charging for them. Now I do them at very reasonable rates for others who can't afford the average charges and who don't have the time or inclination to learn how to do it themselves.
One of my favorite jobs is typesetting for print books; I use an older version of QuarkXpress, and it is so satisfying to see a double-spaced conventional manuscript become a lovely print page with headers, page numbers, etc. Formatting for e-books isn't nearly as satisfying.
Among other realistic stuff I'm doing is fixing up my house. It has been humdrum for a long time, and there are some repairs and renovations needed. I have to purchase the items needed as the money comes in, and I won't start a project until I have everything I need to finish it. First on the agenda, the main bathroom. Following that, some kitchen fix up, and on from there to the rest of the house and yard... I'm blogging about it at Old Florida Meets Mid-Century Modern.
I'm also fixing up my 17 year old SUV because it will be a long time before I can afford to buy another vehicle and, besides, this one still runs great and I like it (it's small; it fits me). It just has some cosmetic flaws that I'm addressing... I've touched on my vehicle repairs on my house blog.
I support literacy promotion efforts and certain local animal rescue efforts, though this has amounted mostly to making donations. I hope get more active in both areas as royalties and author services payments come in.
I have other "realistic stuff" but, frankly, they're none of Rosemary's business... I wonder if she has any realistic stuff herself -- or whether it's enough for her to get fake warm fuzzies of fake moral superiority commenting on genuinely crappy blogs like XRoads.
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE
Over on XRoads, Rosemary sez:
"I read up on Ms. Connie and I found out what she wants…. not only that, I learned she and I actually have stuff in common except for several many things including her wanting the South to stand 'while the rest of America falls.' By South I’m thinking she means confederacy, not those USA states south of certain former boundaries. I favor all of ‘em standing, heck with boundaries."
America is going to fall, Rosemary. It is already falling. It is amazing to people of my generation to see how far it has already fallen. I don't want the South to fall with it.
Having said that, I add that it would be fine with me if all the regions of the USA were to survive and come through the collapse of the USA as individual nations. Various folks have predicted the USA fracturing into several nations for years, decades. I think that would be a good thing.
Even without (or before) the collapse, I don't mind, say, New England being there. My primary objection is to New Englanders coming down here and trying to make Dixie into "South New England."
As for my South, here are these states I consider to be The South:
*Alabama,
Arkansas,
*Florida,
*Georgia
Kentucky,
*Louisiana,
Mississippi,
North Carolina,
South Carolina,
Tennessee,
Texas,
Virginia,
West Virginia,
with honorary Southern status going to Oklahoma and Missouri.
* -- States where I have resided.
Just so you'll know, Backsass concentrates mostly on Confederate heritage issues, but my writing encompasses The South -- my South. The hero of my flagship novel, Southern Man, is Troy Stevenson, whose ancestors for several generations resided in West Virginia.
Rosemary continues:
"Ms. Connie, USA citizen, actually is lucky. Maybe her confederacy would be operating today if France helped. And maybe said confederacy, seeking a tight rein on the rabble, would like and take for its own French laws including the one whereby Ms. Connie’d be arrested and do time for stating her stuff about America falling."
If. If, if, if.... What a load of phantasmic bovine excrement. As Montgomery Scott once said, "If my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a wagon." And if I won the lottery, I could live at the beach. And if I lived in the midwest, I'd be miserable .... Oh, wait. I did live in the midwest for five years, and I was miserable.... Is this, um, iffing supposed to make me grateful to the USA, or ashamed of my desire for my region's political independence? Sorry, Rosemary. I am grateful for the freedoms we have left, and I am in no way ashamed of wishing my region was its own nation.
"Before I found out Ms. Connie wrote about me, a mere former freshman, I was thinking about coming back and adding a post to this thread. I still want to mention my feeling that I don’t think the confederacy deserves to be commemorated."
You're allowed to think and don't think whatever you wish, Rosemary.
As am I.
As cute as Rosemary's posts are, you have to cover your mouth to keep from guffawing at Simpson. When Rosemary asks if he's going to ignore the VaFlaggers, he sez:
"Not at all. They are too funny to ignore (although recently they’ve become boring again, so mention of them has fallen off significantly)."
What this means is:
"I'm obsessed with them, but I don't like to admit it, so I deny it. But my obsession is hard to ignore when you realize just how much I blog about them (and that doesn't even take into account what I say about them). I've had to back off recently, so I'm now saying they're boring, and that's why 'mention of them has fallen off significantly.' In truth, I was caught in a lie -- saying I was only going to post about Confederate heritage once a week, and I actually uploaded a flurry of blog posts about it, sometimes every day for days in a row -- and once two posts in one day! -- most of them focusing on the VaFlaggers. So I have to claim that they are funny and I blog about them until they get boring, in order to save face. And people like you, and all my sycophants, either don't realize I'm lying, or do realize but don't care that I'm lying. So it's all good."
" Doesn’t she have realistic stuff to be attending to? "
ReplyDeleteI think what Rosemary really means is that you should be quietly and remorsefully sitting on the everlasting stool of repentance which has been assigned to the South. Or, in other words, be quiet and stop spreading the truth.
Probably. Either that, or watching America's Got Talent, or texting about Kim and Kenye, or looking for a new smartphone, or .... You know, real stuff.
ReplyDeleteWow ya can't hide money ! A 17 year old S.U.V. ? I got a 22 year old Ford Festiva. Needs some work but as long as it's running ----
ReplyDeleteThey are Professors and Students, and Anesthesiologist --
ReplyDeleteand their all made out of Ticky Tacky, and all talk just the same !
I live right across the river from Oklahoma, Ms. Connie, and I can confidently say that it's more than just honorary. It is, after all the home of the Cherokee and Choctaw brigades and General Stand Waite. Lots of Texans and Arkansans went there during the land rush and founded several towns.Tishomingo, Mississippi, Tishomingo County, Mississippi Tishomingo, Oklahoma. That's the Choctaw heritage from Mississippi. Earl P. Halliburton, founder of Halliburton in Duncan, Oklahoma, was from Henning, Tennessee. Then there is S.E. Hinton. We were required to read her novels in school because they were considered examples of contemporary Southern Literature. We could relate to the characters because they were a lot like us. Oklahoma City used to have large numbers of cotton gins and compresses. There are even Confederate memorials there. Since a great many battles and skirmishes were fought in Oklahoma by Generals Maxey and Stand Waite. It was a C.S. Territory at the time. It's west Dixie, and most people there will proudly say so. Especially my Yankee hating friends from Boswell, Durant, Bennington and Idabel.
ReplyDeleteYes, James, Oklahoma is certainly Southern. I was just thinking of "my" South -- mostly dates back to when I was growing up -- back when I considered Virginia and North Carolina "up north." I knew they were Southern states, historically and culturally ... but they were just so far away, in the direction of "N" on a map. Same way with Oklahoma and Texas ... they were very "W".
DeleteUnderstood. I think about it that way, too. But West to East.
ReplyDeleteSimpson sez to Rosemary,"Chastain continues to complain about you, and of course claims I’m obsessed with her … on a blog that exists as a monument to her obsessions. She’s not happy unless she’s angry."
ReplyDeleteWell, I've made no claim that he's obsessed with me; only with the VaFlaggers, of which I'm not one, except in honorary status. How is it that an educator can get so much so wrong?
And Rosemary follows up with: "Never had an anarchist on my case before. Ah, well. To paraphrase the plucky Scarlett O’Hara, it’s always a new day."
1. I'm not an anarchist. 2. I'm not on her case. 3. Scarlett O'Hara said, "I won't think about that today. I'll think about that tomorrow." and "After all, tomorrow is another day."
Free Dictionary sez,
ReplyDeletean·ar·chism
(ăn′ər-kĭz′əm)
n.
1. The theory or doctrine that all forms of government are oppressive and undesirable and should be abolished.
2. Active resistance and terrorism against the state, as used by some anarchists.
3. Rejection of all forms of coercive control and authority.
Nope, I'm no anarchist. The New Testament teaches that governments are to be obeyed when they are not in conflict God's laws. Also, it says governments are instituted for our good -- the implication being when they cease to be for our good, they are violating their own divine authorization.
I once had a Christian woman who was outspoken in her opposition to the US government's growing animosity for Christianity (and other problems with it) and who suffered a sudden fear that she was violating scripture where it says to obey governing authorities. I asked what laws she had disobeyed, and she admitted she hadn't broken any, but she did severely criticize the government, which could be perceived as weakening it -- and thus, an attack.
I explained to her that might be so for some forms of government but "Here, the people rule." The elected and appointed officials, particularly in the national government, are our proxies, and when they act as if THEY, not we, the people, are the authority, criticizing them is not criticizing the governing authorities, but those who are wrongly pretending to be.
In fact, Rosemary, I grew up with a very authoritarian mindset and I did not break away from it until well into adulthood. And, in fact, it still has residual influence on my outlook.