I've seen this term being thrown around as an epithet a lot lately and it's really gotten under my skin. Now, gentle DU friends, I'm not flaming because you don't know that which you don't know. There has been an awful lot of social conditioning that has gone into the use of the term "hillbilly" and I can't undo it all at once, but let me try as gently as I can. I am a hillbilly. I am a born an raised Appalachian man, one who has sprung from a culture that has been derided for centuries, c...

There's a lot to cover, my new family, and I hope you'll stick with me to the bottom. We've got a load of work to do over the next few years, but I couldn't think of a finer group of people be doing it with. There's nothing like that first morning after a long, long storm, when that first ray of sunshine peeks over the horizon. Despite the destruction that has been wrought around you, you know you've made it and some way, somehow, things will eventually be alright. The minions of Bush, Norqu...

that they can kindasorta hold down a few protesters in a single city. We saw what went down in the twin cities. We see what's going down in Houston and Galveston. We remember what went down in NOLA. We know as well as they do, and they know as well as we do, they they can't hold us all down at once, nor in any significant numbers. Vouchsafe that straight to your heart. I have a sneaking suspicion, though, that some of the worst offenders are already "taking extended vacations" abroad and...

I left a comment on an (entitled "Just some of the calls for violence against Democrats/Liberals, Gays, Pro-Choice, etc") that drew some supportive comments itself. My original post was rather late at night and reflected a certain amount of frustration that has built up over the last 5 or 6 years in trying to draw some attention to the problem and to a solution (albeit a very small contribution) that I had offered toward it some time back. The original comment was: About 5 years ago I put up ...

I owe this post to AngryCarpenter, YardWork, a whole bunch of Texas posters, and the ghost of my granddad. I've have seen a lot of stereotypes being thrown around on DU, and I'm not faulting anyone. What's been thrown around is a lot of what's been fed over time, just like what's been fed to the RW'ers over hate radio about what supposed "libruls" are and why "librul" are such boogeymen. When you hear that spew, it gets your dander up, doesn't it! Well, it's intended to incite not only the m...

Well, after a record-temperature and droughty start to June that nearly killed everything, the temps broke and the rains returned. The change in the opposite direction is just as surprising. I went out last night and took some pictures and uploaded them to my personal server where I also keep my . Here's the latest entry about . Yesterday, I ordered a pile of heirloom seeds since (a) I've got some available pocket change NOW and (b) I'll be expanding my garden area in just a few weeks when h...

The abusive collection of personal data has been a quietly rumbling issue for some time now, but with the recent soreness of amnesty for telecom companies, another set of abuses has surfaced in my inbox. Now this article is a couple-three weeks old, but I haven't heard a hew-and-cry about it. So I'm makin' one. It's not bad enough that corporations have been collection information about every aspect of our lives (not just our credit history, but our purchasing habits, our spending and saving ...

From Talk to Action with credit to the original author, . Now this story has somehow escaped my radar until now, but for the month of June, I've been doing my best to keep the medical profession in business (sigh). All's well that ends well, and I am well now. I did debate with myself just a bit to pick the right category for this post, as it's as appropriate enough for Religion/Theology (or practice thereof), but in this particular report has every bit as much impact on present and future na...

and I try to remind myself, I suppose, more than any other, why it is that I continue to fight, why I remain on American soil rather than to give up and go elsewhere. It has been my privilege to visit thirty-eight of the Lower Forty-Eight, to live in about ten and finally in the beginning of the autumn of my life, to return to my home state. North Carolina had cradled me and my vast family for a long, long time. I believe I owe this stand not only to those before me who stood fast when they c...

since the shock from the chutzpah is just way too much. I guess it boils down to the way HillbillyBob put it, short, sweet and in a single phrase: Republicans only have two kinds of sex, both of which are illegal... Giggles aside, my mind is still resounding with the single syllable "GAWD!" in shock and amazement. But looking at the crew of desperate bozos behind the bill, it shouldn't be a surprise. Vitter, Craig, Roberts, Inhofe, Brownback, Allard, Thune and Shelby represent exactly the N...