Let's get a few things straight

This post isn't directed at anyone in particular so don't get your nose out of joint or let your hair get all kinky over it.

• Just because I live in a state that's in the south doesn't mean it doesn't get cold and snow here. It does indeed get cold and snow here, some years more than others but it still gets cold in the fall and winter and snow still falls as well. Sometimes it snows quite a bit. A few years ago it snowed about 2 feet in a little over 16 hours. And yes that snow fall did disrupt things for about a week or so, but you know what? We're not the dumb ass sister/brother fucking barefoot idiots some of you think we are. We have snow plows and we know how to use them. They look very much like this one:

• And we know that after you plow roads and streets if you spread rock salt on said streets and roads, it melts the snow and ice. We usually stockpile that stuff so that we have it when we need it. But if it make you feel better or superior, then you can go ahead and say that someone from where ever you live, if you live north of me, had to come down here and tell us about such things as snow plows and rock salt.
  
• The urban legend that my city, Johnson City TN, is a mecca for gay people is just that, an urban legend. For some reason the rumor has been flying around this area for years that my city has the highest per capita concentration of homosexuals in the south. I'd say it started as an insult, as in "Oooh, Johnson City is full of fags because they have a gay bar!," and through the years it's taken on a life of it's own and when gay folks move here they think that the city is run rampant with teh gay, but they end up being sorely disappointed. This area is one of the most conservative politically and socially in the country, and just because we have a gay bar or two and a middle sized university that doesn't mean that our city is a paradise for gays and lesbians. Don't get me wrong, I wish it was a paradise for gays and lesbians because if it was then we'd have a fighting chance to elect a Democrat to Congress for the first time since the Civil war. But the fact is it's not a mecca for teh gay, I'm sad to say it's like most of America, it's not very gay friendly or gay tolerant right now. But hopefully as many of the older gay hating intolerant Christians die off, then maybe it one day will be.
  
• I consider Elvis Costello my favorite singer/songwriter but there is a shitload of his stuff that I really don't like. I'm not at all into the orchestral stuff he does and I'm no fan of the Burt Bacharach stuff from a few years back. That music he recorded with the Brodsky Quarter, forget about it, I can't stand it. And I'd rather take an ice pick and puncture my ear drums than listen to anything off North and some other of his lesser recordings.
• The south is not the only racist place in north America. I've read on various people's blogs, and these are people who live in Washington state, California, Canada, and other places, statements to the effect that the south is a horribly racist place and it's so nice that every where else is not like the south in that regard. Well folks, I'm here to tell you that's bullshit. I've lived in the midwest and I can tell you for a fact that racism is alive and well in Michigan, just as it is in Oregon, Washington state, Alabama, Edmonton, Moose Jaw, Barrow, and Medicine Hat. Racism is every where and it always has been. Look up the history of race riots and you'll see that they occurred mostly in the north and west. Is there still racism in the south? Yes. Is there still racism in Ottawa, Detroit, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Albany, Calgary, Montreal, Mexico City, and San Francisco? Oh hell yes. So please, don't bitch about the speck of dust on our southern eye when you have a log in yours.

That's all for now but I'm sure I'll have to get a few more things straight at a later date some time in the future.