Mr. Ledbetter, can you tell me again, what's a Mississippi Flush and how's it beat this hand?

 I really couldn't tell you why, but since I've moved back home I have gotten more... into? interested? engaged? enraged? Whatever it is, I'm more of it concerning the political situation in Mississippi. Maybe it's because I know, deep down, that I'll probably never leave for good again. Or maybe things have gotten just this bad in the past 20 years since I left.

 I've been actively engaged in politics basically since my college days in Florida. All through my time in Georgia and New Orleans, I've kept my head in even when it was considered a character flaw by many in my social circle. That being said, I'm not going to lie, it was mostly national politics. I dealt with local stuff when it affected me, particularly in Athens, but my eye was always turned to at least the U.S. Congress or, failing that, socio-political concerns that were greater than one state. The Confederate flag on state flags or at state capitols, for example, has driven me up the wall for years.

 I've always kept an eye on Mississippi. It's my home, much as I may not like that (or as much as my brother hates it). The bulk of the state or, for that matter, Itawamba County, I really didn't give a good goddamn. Now, my home is here in Peaceful Valley, this hill I live on. Then, though, it was just where I grew up. I stayed away and intended to stay away until I was put in the ground, and only then because I already have a grave site. Mississippi's where I'm from, I'd tell people, it's not where I am.

 Well, now it's where I am and unless something drastic happens, it's where I'll stay. I don't like that, but that's how it is. Anyone with half a lick of history knows Mississippi has a dark, nasty history, one that we're still trying to come to grips with. Like William Faulkner wrote in Requiem For A Nun, "The past is never dead. It's not even past." Our history of slavery, Jim Crow, Medgar Evans, near-total political domination by the Klan for decades, and even the overall anti-labor history of treating poor white trash as nothing more than a bulwark for the rich and powerful.

 But now, it seems it's gotten that much more real. The ICE raids on the chicken plants that were used to rid the company of workers who'd made hay about sketchy practices by management. The medical marijuana initiative that's on the 2020 ballot. The ongoing horror of prisoners living and dying while in state penitentiaries and their deadly conditions. And now, the Nissan plant down in Canton is doubling the workers' load in the midst of CORVID-19 while giving the executives leave to "self quarantine". Why? Because we have a labor history that is actively hostile to any concept of a union.

 For the first time in a long time, state and local politics feel real and urgent in a way they haven't. Along with that, my general disgust with both parties and even soi-disant "leftists" and "socialists" as well as my long-dormant interest and sympathy for anarchistic political theory. I've said it elsewhere, one of the most attractive aspects of anarchism, to me, is the suggestion that you can use the tools of the system to change the system and you can do it in smaller, personal ways. Right here, right now, in Mississippi 2020, that just sings, man.

 I'll be 45 next month. I'm single with no kids and no real strong ties. I find myself at times cut adrift from my own head. I don't understand it nor do I want it, but I won't deny part of me envies my brother and his wife or my cousin and his family. I wouldn't trade my freedom for the world, but a man does need something to latch himself to, something to make the universe worth the effort.

 I'd might as well try to make this state a little better than I left it.

I'm just a country boy without angels, I'm just a country boy without gold.

 So, if you're here from the WordPress site, you know what's going down. If not, I'll explain and then we'll get to business.

 Back around the end of last year, I had planned on making a big change with my bunch of blogs. Instead of posting the same thing at Blogger and WordPress, I would keep the News at the latter and use the former for Gibberish. For various reasons - mainly because I didn't feel like it - this didn't happen.

 Sharp-eyed readers will note, however, that there has recently been a change in the format. Specifically, I quit posting the day's Offerings at both sites. It seemed superfluous and, frankly, the writing tools at WordPress are a little better. For the most part, I've just been posting links with the odd wandering when the mood struck me.

 Today's change, however, comes mainly because I am sick to the teeth of writing about, reading about and, indeed, thinking about CORVID-19 and it's impact on society. There's news there to dig into, sure, but it's grinding my gears and making it harder to write something different. The comparison just came to me, but it was like writing about baseball. I enjoy baseball, but it's dull as dirt to write about day after day. It's true, deal with it.

 I went into a little bit of detail at the WordPress site on the particulars and depending on how everything goes, we'll do the News properly tomorrow. For now, let's have a little fun... or try to, anyway.

 It didn't really occur to me until this afternoon's constitutional with Otis that I was suffering from writer's block. Basically, most of last week's Offerings came thanks to squeezing blood from a stone, and the quality mostly reflects that. Saturday was good, but I'm skeptical about the rest. Friday and yesterday especially were difficult births and almost bad enough for me to take a break.

 However, the last time I took a break from writing it lasted four years, so we don't need to do that. There's still a mess of frustration that I can't find a tone or a topic, something to specialize in and concentrate on to make my Offerings unique. I'm still having fun, for the most part, but the ongoing stripping of the gears makes it a chore. It shouldn't be a chore, especially since I'm not getting paid for it.

 So, let's have some fun. I finished Cowboys and Zombies and enjoyed it, mostly. It started off very strong but, unfortunately, it drug some in the middle and the ending seemed a bit muddled. Maybe I missed something, but either some characters disappeared or the author was just sloppy, confusing one character for another. Taken as a whole, the plot could've been tightened up a bit, as well. One character who proved to be pivotal to the ending didn't show up until the last third. Also, I don't think people in the Old West knew what "zombies" of any kind were nor did they say "zillions".

 Overall, though, an enjoyable read if maybe needing a little tightening or a better editor. I haven't read anything else by author W.R. Benton. He seems to concentrate of straight Westerns in the Zane Grey-Louis L'Amour vein rather than Weird Westerns. I might dive into it later, but for the time being, it's time to move on. I'm going to finish off this reading of Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters To A Young Poet before I do anything else. I really recommend this to other writers - and maybe poets, too, I don't know - and there's a lot of inspiration in his words.

 I wish I could tell you he was my favorite poet - I was introduced to him by singer-songwriter legend Ray Wylie Hubbard, for the record - but I still don't "get" poetry. The only poems I really get into is T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock" or Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven," and that's for different reasons. The former's tale of loneliness, alienation and despair just rings so true. The former is no light-and-sunny affair, either, but even that morbid tale of death and loss doesn't equal the starkness of a solitary man slowly wasting away surrounded by a world that just can't be bothered.

  I haven't played any games lately. Still sort of stuck on the ending of Two Worlds 2. Good Old Games is having a sale and, on a whim, I finished off my Ultima collection with 8 and 9. I also picked up Deep Space Battle Simulator from Steam, an indie game on Early Access. I haven't played it yet, but it has an interesting premise. Basically, you control a larger space battleship from the inside with occasional jumps into Wing Commander-style dogfights. Or so it seems. Anyway, it looked interesting enough - and was cheap enough - for me to give it a chance and do the whole support-the-indie-developer thing.

 It's 8:30, so I'm going to go ahead and post this up. I'll leave it open and maybe add more to it as the evening goes on. Otherwise, have a good evening.

The Weekend: Saturday, March 14, and Sunday, March 15, 2020

 Well, here's what I did this weekend. Saturday's pretty decent but Sunday comes off as kind of a dud. Nothing much beyond more people being (mostly) dumbass about the coronavirus thing. We're at the "George Soros is trying to destroy capitalism" stage of dribbling wingnuttery from yay-hoos who've gone way, way past their 15 minutes due. I still say the best thing we can do is hunker down for a little while, at least until we can get a better grasp on whatever the hell it is. But, hey, what do I know.

 In other news, today (March 15) is Sly Stone's birthday. One of the noticeable flaws of our culture is that we don't hold Sly & The Family Stone in higher regard than we do. I don't know about you, but I think there is something apropos about Sly being born on the Ides of March. Don't ask me to explain why. A lot of acid got passed around in that last video, I bet you.

 Anyhow. The forever student in me wants to add a third paragraph to this, if for no other reason than symmetry. Granted, I don't have an introduction and probably won't have a conclusion, so it's probably a moot point. On the upside, I've been reading a not-terrible-at-all little Weird Western piece called Cowboys and Zombies by a W.R. Benton, and it's exactly what you'd think it is. It's a fairly simple, straight-forward take, a bit more on the old-school side of things than full-on Dead Wood, and executed fairly well. Granted, I'm fairly early in the process - like maybe a tenth into the book - but so far, so good.

 And what more can you ask out of this life?

Thursday, March 5, and Friday, March 6, 2020

 Once again, I forgot to post yesterday's link to the Daily Gibberish, so here 'tis. It's mainly about Liz Warren dropping out of the nomination race, how badly Sanders is pissing away his shot, and how uninspiring Biden is. And, here's today's update on how badly the U.S. government is handling the growing unease over the CORVID-19... thing.

 Have a nice weekend.