You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Be Right

Sometimes I'm wrong.  I usually notice it right away (or have it pointed out to me,) and admit it, and try to learn from it.  And sometimes people in general are wrong.  It happens.  But being wrong is not the same as having a valid, alternative viewpoint.  "The Civil War wasn't about slavery" is not an opinion; it is an inaccurate statement.  You can't coddle people and say "oh, it's just as true."  No, it's not.  It's wrong.  There is no controversy about it, except ones made up by people trying to push an agenda or protect themselves.  If you look at the facts, the truth is clear.

That applies to many other issues.  People have incorrect ideas, often based on inaccurate (or inadequate) information, and yet they insist that they are right.  Or, at least, that their opinion deserves as much weight as anyone else's (even if you point out the inaccuracies in the data they used to form their opinion.)

Maybe I should be a fact-checker; maybe that would be a career change for me.  Because, seriously, dumbass opinions bother me.  People are free to have them.  I have, and have had, a few.  But I do try to base my opinions on facts.  If I find out my facts are wrong, I rethink my opinions.  I see so much based on inaccurate facts.  This country was not, for example,  founded on Christian principles, and is not a Christian nation.  So many inaccuracies, typically among conservatives but also liberals.  We can all look at the same facts and come to different conclusions about them.  But when the facts you start with are incorrect, and you base opinions on them, it's dangerous.  And ignoring the facts, or refusing to look into them, is just stupid, and willfully ignorant.

This is a serious problem for society, and our country.  We have stopped thinking.  We reject facts we dislike, not just opinions we disagree with.  How can we move forward if we don't understand the past or present, and have no facts we can at least agree on in order to debate about?

January seems like a good time for Plastic Seat Sweat

Well, I can't believe I've gone this long without a tribute to one of my favorite bands, Southern Culture on the Skids.  Not sure when I discovered them, but it's been ten or fifteen years.  Their goofiness and energy got me; I just hadn't heard anything else like their brand of, well, what do we call it?  Surfabilly fits.  They combine rock, country, rockabilly, surf, etc.  They get pretty silly.  They're another band that makes it hard for me to pick favorites; I like almost all their songs.  I've tried to pick some songs from each of four categories that strike me as typical for them: goofy songs, covers, suggestive songs, and instrumentals.  I've hard a hard time finding decent videos, so these aren't necessarily their best songs, just the best videos out there.

They haven't been hugely successful, but they've been playing for years and still tour.  Some of their songs have made it into movies- Super Troopers, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Beavis and Butthead, Happy Gilmore.  Yeah, not exactly high class, but look at their name again...

First the goofy.  I think Banana Puddin' was the first SCOTS song I heard, though I was aware of them before that.



 Camel Walk is probably the closest thing to a hit SCOTS have had.  And I guess it, and Banana Puddin', are both goofy and suggestive...



 Suggestive?  Eight Piece Box might be, a little.  You'll notice some crowd participation, including fried chicken being thrown into the crowd...



 Nitty Gritty is a good cover; they do some other very cool ones like House Of Bamboo and Come As You Are.



 Their instrumentals tend toward surf rock, often sounding like (or even covering) Dick Dale and Link Wray.  Here's Deja Varoom, with a video including drag racing scenes.



 And Theme From "The Cheaters."  Very surfy.

Adventures in Pop Culture

This is old news, but then, I've been a bit busy in the real world lately.

Last month Phil Robertson, also known as Duck Dickweed, or Daffy Duck, or something- I'm not sure of his official title- gave an interview in which he ranted about gay people, and gave his twisted interpretation of Christian theology.  Also, he reminisced about how happy black people were in the South when he was a kid.  And I had a discussion on Facebook about it, in which people defended him (and I've seen loads of defenders since.)

Here are a few things that I need to say.

If you "support" this guy, you are not supporting the right to free speech.  What happened to him has nothing to do with that.  You are, however, supporting an ignorant, possibly delusional person who makes a lot of money from stupid people.

A+E briefly suspended him from the show, which they have every right to do (just as he has every right to say whatever he wants, and I have every right to say what I want.)  He has a contract with them, which he apparently breached.  I find it ironic that conservatives, who are all in favor of unfettered capitalism, don't seem to understand how contracts work.  And I'm glad they support free speech- I love it, and one minor reason for that love is that it lets the rest of us see and hear just how idiotic people can be.

I was told he was "just expressing his Christian beliefs" about gay people being the root of all evil.  I will point out the modifier "his," because it is important.  What he said is his interpretation of his religion.  It is most certainly not "Christian," much less decent or intelligent.  Plenty of Christians disagree with him.

And jeez, what he said about blacks in the South... I was just down in his state, and thankfully didn't run into anybody like him.  Apparently when he was growing up he never noticed any unhappy black people. And you know what?  Maybe he really didn't.  Maybe he was just oblivious, completely ignorant.  And that's fine- we're all like that sometimes.  Most of us, though, realize later that we missed things.  Certainly anyone who grew up down there has since read about all of the issues they might have missed at the time.  Well, okay, I'll withdraw that "certainly."  He obviously hasn't, and is doubly ignorant for saying something like that years later.  Of course, willful ignorance seems to be a theme among conservatives.

I don't know.  I've only seen his show briefly.  I don't like it, so I don't watch it.  Perhaps he could follow suit, and since he doesn't like gay sex, he doesn't have to partake.  He does seem oddly focused on men's anuses, though.

And I learned that apparently I'm part of the outrage industry.  But guess what?  I'm not getting upset over nothing, or about distortions of something someone said. I'm bothered by what he actually said.  And he hasn't tried to backpedal or clarify- he means it.  Sometimes people say and do outrageous things, so there is a reason to be outraged.  Although, I'm not really outraged, just annoyed and disgusted.  And I'm certainly not surprised.

Looking back, moving forward

2013 was a great year. Hectic, fun, never boring.  It went by in a flash.  And ended with some supercool stuff.

Miss Mox and I had a "preception" party for friends and family, at the Thurber Center here.  It's next door to James Thurber's house and was just right for a book nerd pre-marriage bash.  The party was great. And then we surprised people with the wedding. Our parents, everybody.   We were going to go to the courthouse a few days later, but decided to fit it in while everyone could take part.  Only a few people besides the minister and photographer knew.  I think Miss Mox is still surprised I didn't let anything slip.

She throws a hell of a party.  It was crazy getting things together since we were both working a lot, but with help from family it all got done.  The booze and food were mostly gone by the end, and we were so busy talking to everybody that we barely got any. Everyone seemed to be having fun. The weather, though wet, was relatively warm and not too bad.  We basically winged the ceremony. After we couldn't get the mayor, and getting a coworker ordained didn't work out, we asked her college friend who's a minister do it.  We had to shift locations at the Center a couple of times too.   We wanted to use the front staircase but there was no room. Finally we told everyone to go out on the porch for a picture, and boom- short and sweet ceremony. It was great. Perfect for us- not traditional, not fancy, but elegant and cool.

The honeymoon was great, too. We do road trips well. Stopped in Nashville to see where Miss Mox went to school for a while. Made it through the deep South with no issues. Saw a bunch of weird shit and laughed at it and ourselves. Talked about history, education, the news, the future, whatever. Spent the days around Christmas in New Orleans eating very well, walking the French Quarter, browsing bookshops, and hanging out in our cool old hotel. The whole thing was a blast, and we can't wait to go back.  On the way home we stopped in Memphis for barbecue and a visit to the Civil Rights Museum. Made it home to find living animals, and were able to relax a little before we had to go back to work.

Miss Mox is awesome. We're good together.  From the moment we met I knew she was someone special, and felt like we'd known each other forever.  I had a cookout the next weekend, and it felt like we were co-hosts, we fit together so well.  The time since has been fun and fulfilling, exciting and relaxing... We've been through a lot, good and bad, and I'm thankful for every day.