Rev. Erudite Redneck, B.S., B.S., M.A., M.Div.

It's sticking here now, too! Yay!
 

I like Oklahoma's dehydrated snow. Makes it easier to sweep out of the way. You know, it's really "Dust Bowl" snow. *hand me the dust pan, please.*
 

Yep, dehydrated this time, wet stickey next time, and then horizontal sleet the time after that. I too love Oklhoma's "snow-sleet-ice-thunderstorms".

Didn't start out to write this much but the muse must like the cold.

In 1957 in SW Oklahoma we were stranded on our farm for ten days starting on Christmas day. My mother, my father, my 7 year old brother, my married sister , my bother-in-law, and my one year old niece. The drifts against the barn reached all the way to the eaves, as did the the drift on the North side of our house. My brother and I dug into the barn drift and made a large snow cave. My mother had a hissy fit when she found it. Food started off with the full Christmas dinner. By day six we were down to biscuits and gravy both being made from water, flour, and salt and pepper. Finally by day six my dad ran out of tobacco and cirgarette papers. He rolled his own so he had smoked them down to the nub and saved even the smallest remains to go into the next cigarrette. Even so he finally ran out. It was this event I think that drove to the desperate measure of going to town for "food". He and my brother-in-law had been working in the tractor shed for several days. Using wood and corner iron they had built a cab frame over the largest tractor we had. They had covered the frame with canvas and painted it so the wind wouldn't blow thourh it so easily. Then they ran the exhaust pipe from the engine through the cab to give them some heat. Their windows were two little 4X4 inch holes. They dressed up as warm as they could. Filled up the thermous with hot coffee and their pockets with stones heated in the oven and headed to town 4 miles away.
They couldn't go down the East/West roads because of the drifts so they went across the fields, seeking out the shallow ditches to cross or finding bridges across the bar ditches when the could. Dad stopped at every farm house along the way and picked up food orders and money to buy it with. It took them 4 hours to get there and two hours to return. . The whole trip lasted about 8 hours with my mother fretting all the time they were gone. But damn we ate well that night.
 

ER, first let me say that I do consider you a friend and a brother. You are my favorite Blogger, well second favorite...:)

But I tend to try to stay out of arguments with you concerning Jesus, because in my opinion, you tend occaisionally to try to use Jesus as a tool, and He means more to me than that.

The only time that I remember that I have ever told you to "Shut up" since the beginning of our interaction with each other was when you left a racial slur in a comment on my blog the other night.

It was unnessecary, uncalled for, had no intellectual or philisophical value, and had nothing to do with the issue we were discussing.

So I told you to shut up.

And when I did, I responded to your points, and explained the problem I had with that particular comment.

I am not scared in the least to engage you, or anyone else with whom I disagree, but what you said was out of line.

Once again, I like you and respect you, and I hope that this incident does not cause problems between you and me.

Oh, and congrats on the snow...Have fun!!

I wore shorts to work today...
 

I absolutely did NOT use a racial slur on Tug's blog.

I DID use a historical and admittedly provocative term to dismiss Condi Rice's suppposed "value" to the Bush administration.

And I'll repeat it here, and explain what I meant by it. Most of y'all probably will conclude that it was an invalid and unnecessary use of an insulting term. Obviously, I disagree. In fact, I think it sums up the GOP's entire dang approach to people who are not white and wealthy, or aspire to wealth and power above all else.

I wrote that Condi Rice is what used to be called, in some quarters, a "house N."

Historically, that meant a slave who worked in the master's big house, not in the fields. Historically, the "best-behaved" and most attractive slaves held such positions. Historically, ut in relatively modern times, the Republican Party couldn't have cared less about blacks or any other minority.

And this White House is full of old white men and a couple of Hispanics -- and one black woman who is there for looks.

Harsh. My opinion.

As for Jesus,

Tug and another commenter both turned on me at Mark's place, saying they were "tired" of hearing me, I don't know what words they used exactly, but, "club" others over the head with Jesus.

I damn sure did, and I will continue to point out the inconsistency and the disconnect between right-wingers who claim to believe in Jesus and yet rarely exhibit no signs that have ever read the Sermon on the Mount or anything else the Man Himself had to say.

The "N" comment was over the top. The "J" comments were not.

I will not let the PC police keep me from using a historical, racially charged term to make a point about modern politics. And I will not let those who have kidnapped Jesus for political gain -- and keep him gagged -- tell ME to shut up for quoting the Man.
 

And Drlobojo, that is a GREAT story.
 

From http://www.spartacus.
schoolnet.co.uk
/USASdomestic.htm


Quoth Malcolm X (not because I'm for black separatism, but to show further context for my remark. BTW, I categorically reject the notion that there are some words that some races of people simply are not allowed to utter, especially when using them NOT as epithets, but as legitimate, history-based rhetorical devices):

Malcolm X, speech (9th November, 1963)

If you're afraid of black nationalism, you're afraid of revolution. And if you love revolution, you love black nationalism. To understand this, you have to go back to what the young brother here referred to as the house Negro and the field Negro
back during slavery. There were two kinds of slaves, the house Negro and the field Negro. The house Negroes - they lived in the house with master, they dressed pretty good, they ate good because they ate his food - what he left. They lived in the attic or the basement, but still they lived near the master; and they loved the master more than the master loved himself. They would give their life to save the master's house - quicker than the master would. If the master said, "We got a good house here," the house Negro would say, "Yeah, we got a good house here." Whenever the master said "we," he said "we." That's how you can tell a house Negro.

If the master's house caught on fire, the house Negro would fight harder to put the blaze out than the master would. If the
master got sick, the house Negro would say, "What's the matter, boss, we sick?" We sick! He identified himself with his master, more than his master identified with himself. And if you came to the house Negro and said, "Let's run away, let's escape, let's separate," the house Negro would look at you and say, "Man, you crazy. What you mean, separate? Where is there a better house than this? Where can I wear better clothes than this? Where can I eat better food than this?" That was that house Negro. In those days he was called a "house nigger." And that's what we call them today, because we've still got some house niggers running around here.

This modern house Negro loves his master. He wants to live near him. He'll pay three times as much as the house is worth just to live near his master, and then brag about "I'm the only Negro out here." "I'm the only one on my job." "I'm the only one in this school." You're nothing but a house Negro. And if someone comes to you right now and says, "Let's separate," you say the same thing that the house Negro said on the plantation. "What you mean, separate? From America, this good white man? Where you going to get a better job than you get here?" I mean, this is what you say. "I ain't left nothing in Africa," that's what you say. Why, you left your mind in Africa.

On that same plantation, there was the field Negro. The field Negroes - those were the masses. There were always more Negroes in the field than there were Negroes in the house. The Negro in the field caught hell. He ate leftovers. In the house they ate high up on the hog. The Negro in the field didn't get anything but what was left of the insides of the hog.

The field Negro was beaten from morning to night; he lived in a shack, in a hut; he wore old, castoff clothes. He hated his master. I say he hated his master. He was intelligent. That house Negro loved his master, but that field Negro - remember, they were in the majority, and they hated the master. When the house caught on fire, he didn't try to put it out; that field Negro prayed for a wind, for a breeze. When the master got sick, the field Negro prayed that he'd die. If someone came to the field Negro and said, "Let's separate, let's run," he didn't say, "Where we going?" He'd say, "Any place is better than here."
 

I'm dreaming of a multicultural Christmas.
 

ER, I am well aware of what the term was, what it meant, and it's historical context.

And I am in no way a member of the "PC Police", and I detest restriction of Freedom of Speech and the blockades to problem solving that your party has inflicted on our society in the name of Political Correctness.

But Ms. Rice is a genius who earned her first college degree at age 19, had earned her Doctorate by age 26, and has devoted her life to Education and public service. She is currently negotiating a peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians (whoever THEY are...) and has been a great asset to the Bush administration, and to America.

And she is the SECOND person of her race to have occupied the position she now holds, both appointed by GWB. (He's not a Democrat, by the way. The Democrats, for all of their preaching about racial equality, still seem to think that there are some positions that are just too important to trust to a "house N", as evidenced by your comment, and subsequent explanation.)
(By the way, "house N" IS a racial slur, no matter the context, when applied to a specific person. If she were white, you would not have called her that.)

You have the right to not like her. You have the right to express your opinion. You have the right to say whatever you want.

And I have the right to be offended by it, and to call you on it.

To call Condi Rice a "House N" is to disregard all of her accomplishments and contributions to humanity, and focus on the color of her skin, which she can do nothing about.

OUT. OF. LINE.

I will not argue with you about Jesus.

You believe in Him. I believe in Him.

We have BOTH read what He said.

I will not allow you to use Jesus as a point of contention between us.

We are Brothers in Christ, whether we agree about other things or not. I will not question your Christian Convictions, nor argue with you about them.

Please show me the same courtesy.

Once again, I do not want this situation to be an insurmountable obstacle between us, ER.

I value your opinion, but if I did not believe that I was right, I would never type a word into this keyboard. I cannot back down.

You were wrong on this one, my friend.

You can Quote Malcolm X, the Pope, FDR, JFK, and Mother Theresa if you like, but you were still wrong.
 

Oh, and how deep is the snow by now??
 

(This was a happy post. I'm sorry I ruined it.)
 

Shoot. A nice thread on snow now looks like it's been run over by 20 sand trucks. :(
 

Once again, I apologize, Trixie.

Er and I had unfinished business...

Hope y'all are enjoyin' tha snow!!

I ain't seen none in a couple a' years...
 

Tug, that's mroe like it. You are engaging me, which I will accept, whether we agree or not.

And quit frettin' about this NOT "insurmountable" tiff. That's all it is. A particularly, ah, rhetorical one, but a minor squabble. You bringing up Clinton -- again1 Again! AGAIN! -- sent me over the top.

BTW, I never questioned Rices credential. I questioned the sincerity with which Bush appointed her.
 

Also, Tug, you are correct, the term I used is, in fact, a racial slur, since it was a slur, and its meaning hinged on race -- but history, as well.

Not at all unlike the racial slur "redneck."
 

But, perhaps I shouldn't have used the term, not being black, myself.