If It Looks Like Ignorance, Quacks Like Ignorance...It's Probably Political

First things first:  Sorry, Mike, no picnics or new-mown lawns again this week.  There's other stuff that has my attention, so you might want to stop reading now.  I still love you, though.

You may have heard of this issue, as it's been featured on "neutral" news, as well as lots of right wing media.  An old (duration, not age, and let's just go along with the idea that it can be the one but not the other, shan't we?)) friend of mine is at the center of a firestorm about a book.  It's sort of hard to believe that that's true in 2014 but, human nature being what it is, it'll be true in 3014, for the 18 people still living above the rising seas and below the near-constant tornadoes.

The book in question this time is Jodi Picoult's Nineteen Minutes, which is concerned primarily with bullying in various forms, which ultimately culminates in a shooting at a school.  Seems like that's about as timely, topical and important as it gets these days, and would spark valuable and necessary conversations among the population that most needs to have them and is most directly affected by the book's subject matter: students.

The problem with this particular book, in some people's eyes, is that it contains a fairly graphic scene depicting a rape.  The main bully in the book forces himself on his girlfriend in this particular scene, and while they have had consensual sex in the past, this scene clearly is about something else; it's about force, domination of the powerful over the less-so, and goes to the heart of the book's theme.  Without it, the climax of the novel (no pun intended) would make little sense.  Additionally, the novel is 468 pages long; this particular scene is 5 brief  paragraphs, about 2/3 of one page.  One may be reminded of the quote, often attributed to Jack Nicholson, about movie ratings:  "If you suck a tit you get an 'X' rating, but cut one off with a sword and you're 'PG-13.'"  One assumes that, if the book had solely depicted non-sexual violence, no matter how extreme, the protesting parents wouldn't have made a peep.

And about those parents:  interestingly enough, many, if not most, of the most vocal are members of the "Free State"  movement, a conservative/libertarian group whose avowed intent is to choose a state it sees as susceptible to their propaganda and political aims, and become the dominant force in its government, in a sort of bloodless (hopefully) coup.  The main parental complainant, the one who was arrested at the special meeting to discuss the issue, in fact, just recently moved to New Hampshire from New Jersey, a move allegedly paid for by the Free Staters, who are known to recruit new members in that manner.  In fact, although school officials have been deluged with letters and emails from partisans on both sides of the issue,  very, very few are from the town the school's located in.  The vast majority come from all over the country, indeed from around the world, from people who know nothing of the matter except that their comrades in arms need their support.  Seems the issue here is not morality, but politics.  As Tip O'Neill said, "All politics is local;"  it's just that today, in the global village, it's pretty hard to say exactly what "local" is.

Chillingly, too, there has been a request made to the school district under the Freedom Of Information Act (a law enacted by that awful Federal Government that people of that ilk hate/don't recognize except when they can benefit from it) for all emails, lesson plans, any communication about Nineteen Minutes, dating back to 2007, the first year the book was taught in the school.  Never before was there any sort of problem raised about the use of the book.  Sure seems like they want to shut some people up while they impose their own beliefs on the majority. 

I'd be willing to bet that fewer than 5% of those parents so incensed have read the book except, of course, for that awful page 313.  One of the protestors at the meeting brought a Bible, from which he intended to read as a contrast to Nineteen Minutes; unfortunately (!?) he went on too long on other things like telling folks there which of them was going to Hell.  Wonder if he was gonna read Song Of Songs?  Must be that the Word of God cannot, by definition, be salacious or sexual....

This is not the only recent example of a vocal conservative minority trying to impose their pedagogical will on a school:  in Idaho (another state high on the FSers list of potential states to take over, before NH "won"), a group of parents recently succeeded in getting Sherman Alexie and Ellen Forney's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian removed from their school district's curriculum because they found it "anti-Christian" and "because it contains offensive words and a 'reference to masturbation'" (The Week, "Only In America," May 9, 2014).  Apparently masturbation would never occur to 15 year olds in Idaho if they weren't alerted to its existence by a book, natural biological urges be damned--as they so often are.

So we can't even discuss regulation or modification of guns (have you heard of the new "smart guns?"  The NRA has, and hates 'em.  Yep, the NRA is against some guns.  Careful, gang, that's a slippery slope; next you'll be wanting to ban all guns), but, as has so often been the case throughout history, people can advocate the banning and burning of books without a second--or first, really--thought.  They'll tell you that the first step in a Totalitarian Takeover is the confiscation of people's guns; I think that it's been shown, time after time, that the first thing they come for is our books, magazines, newspapers, thus proving Edward Bulwer-Lytton's(!) famous dictum that "The pen is mightier than the sword."

Let's get to the playlist for this week's show on WOOL FM, 91.5, wool.fm, on Tuesday from noon till two, though, okey-doke?  The playlist choices:

Book Ends                                                                          Joe Walsh
Book Faded Brown                                                            The Band
The Book I Read                                                                 Talking Heads
Book Of Liars                                                                     Walter Becker
The Book Of Love                                                              The Magnetic Fields
Book Of Love                                                                     The Monotones
Book Of Rules                                                                     The Heptones
Bookends Theme                                                                 Simon & Garfunkel
Bookworm                                                                           Margot & The Nuclear So And So's
Can't Judge A Book By Its Cover                                       The Harpoonist And Axe Murderer
Every Day I Write The Book                                               Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Good Book                                                                           Melanie
Green Book                                                                          Steely Dan
Heart Like An Open Book                                                   Michael Franks                                                             
In My New Book                                                                  Greg Brown
Jungle Book                                                                          Weather Report
Matchbook                                                                            Ralph Towner And Gary Burton
My Little Brown Book                                                         Duke Ellington & John Coltrane
My Little Red Book                                                              Love
Open Book                                                                            Cake
Picture Book                                                                         Simply Red
When I Write The Book                                                        Nick Lowe
You Should Have Wrote A Book                                          Dan Reeder
Political                                                                                  Mark Germino
Political World                                                                       Bob Dylan
Oliver's Army                                                                        Elvis Costello & The Attractions

For further reading, Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here, and anything about the Free Staters.
Now those words will fuck with your head.                                                                                                                                                                                               

Marking Time Through A Dog's Life: A Lament

My dog has, rather suddenly, it seems, gotten old.  Just yesterday she was a furry little bundle of apparently boundless energy, always on the go, ready to chase balls, sticks, squirrels, birds, butterflies, whatever moved past her field of vision.  Now, even a walk down the driveway or across the field leaves her limping, out of breath, content to move no more than she has to-- her bed to the floor next to it, to the rug in my office, where she's lying now as I type this, back to bed, maybe out to lie on the deck or porch.

I called her energy "boundless," but she wasn't, in her heyday.  She's an English Setter/Golden Retriever mix, so, as she ran through the woods leaping over stone walls, downed trees, bushes, with no regard for what might be on the other side, all you'd see would be white fur, tail and ears flowing in the breeze behind her.  Occasionally, when she made one of those blind leaps, she'd give a sharp yelp when whatever was on the other side was maybe not the soft landing spot she was assuming, but she never seemed any the worse for them when she'd come back to check us out before dashing off again.

Now, as I watch her moving slowly and reluctantly around the house, I realize that that young thing is gone.  We may see occasional returns to a semblance of the dog that used to be, but, as I said, there's a price paid for those returns to the thrilling days of yesteryear.  When I scratch her now, run my hands over her, I feel a couple of troubling lumps or masses and wonder what lies ahead, and how far "ahead" is.  And of course I think of the passage of my own life, of my own aging, and know that I can no longer leap tall buildings in a single bound, either.  The best I can hope for is for someone to rub my ears, scratch my belly, give me a warm heart(h) to curl up on and, when the time comes, put me down easy.

Songs for an old dog getting older, then, this week.  Among them:

Hey Packy                                                                       Loudon Wainwright
Big Dog                                                                           Lyle Lovett
Black Dog                                                                       Jesse Winchester
Black Dog                                                                       Led Zep
Black Dog Blues                                                             Dirk Hamilton
Black Eyed Dog                                                              Nick Drake
Damned Old Dog                                                            The Roches
Children And Dogs                                                         Graham Parker
Diamond Dogs                                                                David Bowie
Dog                                                                                  Sly & The Family Stone
The Dog Song                                                                 Nellie McKay
Everything Reminds Me Of My Dog                              Jane Siberry
Dogs In Bed                                                                    John Stewart
Dogsong (Sleep Dog Lullaby)                                        The Be Good Tanyas
Dogs                                                                                Pink Floyd
Good Dog Ska                                                                 Bim Skala Bim
Good Dog, Happy Man                                                   Bill Frisell
Hey Bulldog                                                                    The Beatles
Honeysuckle Dog                                                            Chris Smither
If Dogs Run Free                                                             Dylan
Little Brown Dog                                                             Taj Mahal
Mad Dog                                                                          Lee Michaels
Moondog                                                                          Daniel Lanois
One Man Dog                                                                  James Taylor
To The Dogs Or Whoever                                               Josh Ritter
Waggin' The Dog                                                             Railroad Earth
Old Blue                                                                           The Byrds

Tuesday, from noon till two, on 91.5 FM, or wool.fm.  On a frequency humans can hear.  I'm Sirius (no, not the satellite radio network).  The "real" one.   

"Let The Rough Side Drag..."

That's the title track to one of Jesse Winchester's albums, from 1976, and pretty damn good advice. 

Jesse Winchester died of bladder cancer on April 11th.  He was an enormous treasure in my generation's musical legacy, and his songs will continue to be sung for years to come.  And yet I'll wager that, at the most, 10% of you reading this right now know that you know him (as Donald Rumsfeld might say), or at least his work.  It may be true that "talent will out," but that outing doesn't necessarily lead to a trip to the bank to deposit scads of money.

He was an Army brat, born on Barksdale Army Air Base in Louisiana in 1944.  He graduated from Williams College in 1966 and in 1967 made a life- and career-changing decision.  At the height of the War in Vietnam, he moved to Canada rather than serving in the armed forces.  Certainly sizable numbers of young men made the same decision, or at least the decision to refuse induction, and all paid a price.  Perhaps the best-known of them was Muhammad Ali, also in 1967, who famously said "I ain't got nothin' against no Viet Cong; no Viet Cong never called me 'nigger.'"  Yow.

I want to say right now that this week it is not my intention to be controversial; I simply want to write a nice little introduction to a life and pay tribute to someone who I feel is deserving of much greater notice and appreciation.  But, given that one of the most salient facts of Jesse Winchester's life is that he chose to leave his country and become a citizen of Canada, that needs to be addressed, especially as it made me admire him (and Ali) more.  The Vietnam War tore my country apart when I was in my teens, and I don't think the scars have yet really healed for a lot of us.  I do not mean to attack, even by implication, those who fought:  all men of a certain age had a terrible decision to make, and each required its own moral calculus and its own sort of bravery and came with its own set of consequences.   I was one of the lucky ones who didn't have to make the choice.

Jesse Winchester's choice, as I said, had immediate and, I believe, lasting consequences for his career.  While he met Robbie Robertson of The Band soon after moving to Canada, and Mr. Robertson played on and produced his first album, Winchester was of course unable to tour the States behind it, or any of his next several records, and you couldn't really carve out a successful career with that restriction.  Yet, in a remark that I think shows his character as well as anything he ever said or wrote, upon being able to return to the US in 1977 after Jimmy Carter granted amnesty to all who chose to leave rather than fight, Winchester said "It doesn't seem fair to turn your back on your country and then come back when the coast is clear and make money."  Imagine the inner conflict and turmoil that would lead to that way of thinking.

Anyway, as I said, you may not know that you know him, but I'll bet you've heard his songs.  Here's a partial list of artists who have covered Jesse Winchester:  Patti Page(!), Anne Murray, Elvis Costello, Jimmy Buffet, Joan Baez, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Roseanne Cash, The Everly Bros., Jonathan Edwards, James Taylor, Jerry Garcia, Lyle Lovett, Jerry Jeff Walker, Nicolette Larson, Brewer and Shipley, and Wilson Pickett(!).  Quite a disparate and wide-ranging group.  You should check out a YouTube video of his appearance on Elvis Costello's way-too-briefly-aired show on Sundance, "Spectacle," where Winchester moves Neko Case, seated next to him on stage, to tears with his rendition of "Sham-A-Ling-Dong-Ding," which title doesn't give you the impression that the song would have that sort of power.

It was also on that show that Winchester, wholly characteristically, gave another inadvertent glimpse into his character.  In talking about the songwriting process, he let drop that "The Brand New Tennessee Waltz" was the first song he ever wrote.  It was said only in passing, to make a larger point, but Costello stopped him, staring in disbelief.  "You mean to say that that was actually the first song you ever wrote?"  Jesse sort of dropped his gaze in an embarrassed, "aw, shucks" way, and sheepishly said yes.  Costello just shook his head.  Listen to the song, and you'll see why.  It's just one reason that Bob Dylan said "You can't talk about the best songwriters and not include him."

This week, then, on Tuesday, from noon till two, on WOOL FM, 91.5, or wool.fm on the webs, two hours of Jesse Winchester.  I own his entire discography, and it was very difficult not to play all 150-plus songs.  What I chose:

All Of Your Stories
Baby Blue
The Brand New Tennessee Waltz
Dangerous Fun
Do It
The End Is Not In Sight
Evil Angel
God's Own Jukebox
How About You
How Far To The Horizon
I Turn To My Guitar
If Only
Isn't That So
Lay Down Your Burden
Let Go
Let The Rough Side Drag
Lullaby For The First Born
Mississippi You're On My Mind
Twigs And Seeds
Wake Me
Yankee Lady
That's What Makes You Strong
Blow On, Chilly Wind
Defying Gravity
My Songbird
North Star
Nothing But A Breeze
The Only Show In Town
Payday
Pharaoh's Army
Rhumba Man
Rosy Shy
Say What
Sham-A-Ling-Dong-Ding
A Showman's life
Silly Heart
Talk Memphis
Tell Me Why You Like Roosevelt
That's A Touch I like
Third Rate Romance
A Touch On The Rainy Side

"...And let the smooth side show..."

Everything That Rises Must Converge

I've always loved this title, and only known it from a short-story collection by Flannery O'Connor.  But in one of those mysterious coincidences that make life so interesting, or at least more interesting than anything else I know, when I did a little research I found its original source (Oh, wait, that's redundant, innit, like "safe harbor?"), Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.  I don't know about you, but I was completely unfamiliar with him; the two spiritual seekers in my home were not.  Turns out he was a Jesuit priest, likely developed the concept of the noosphere (oh, Google it yourself), and imagined what he called the "Omega Point," which is the point at which everything that rises converges:

                                   Remain true to yourself, but move ever upward toward
                                   greater consciousness and greater love!  At the summit
                                   you will find yourself united with all those who, from
                                   every direction, have made the same ascent.  For every-
                                   thing that rises must converge.

In March of 1955, de Chardin expressed to friends his wish to die on Easter.  Be careful what you wish for--or not; on April 10, 1955, Easter Sunday, de Chardin got into "a lively discussion with friends," had a heart attack, and died at age 73.  And I'm writing this on Easter Sunday, wanting to talk about risings.  Cue spooky music.

Wednesday, April 22, 1970 America celebrated its first Earth Day.  In a decade in which all kinds of consciousnesses had been raised, we finally acknowledged what we had been doing to the planet for generations and resolved to begin the task of rectifying the damage, of resurrecting the clean nation and planet we'd been given.  I was a Junior in High School then (yeah, it had been invented), and rather than going to classes, the entire student body was out combing the roadsides throughout the district, picking up the trash thrown there by thoughtless, ignorant people (many of them us).  Oh, there were signs, and posters, and great fervor and resolve throughout the land to   
                                     SAVE THE EARTH!!!
leading to the passage of such legislation as the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, which did result in, well, cleaner water and air.  But most of us continued to litter, and to be wasteful, and, worst of all, to continue creating carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, leading us to the Climate Change we're in the early stages of, although most of us either actively deny that, like the Koch Brothers and many of our political "leaders," or implicitly deny it by not changing our habits and lifestyles (guilty as charged).  It's gonna be sooommme ugly, methinks. And why are we in this predicament?  Because these greenhouse gases are lighter than air, and thus rise and, as you've learned already, if you've been paying attention, Everything that rises must converge.

And today, of course, is the day that Christians and those interested in the spiritual, or in myths in general, celebrate a death-defying act, the rise from the tomb of Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior to many in the world.  And if He is risen, where is His point of convergence?  Is he up there with His Dad, hacking and coughing from all of the crap we're spewing up there at 'em?  I'll bet they're gettin' pissed....

On Tuesday, then, Earth Day XLIV--hey, the NFL hasn't copywrited the use of Roman Numerals (and doesn't that look a lot like it would be pronounced "ex-live," or "formerly alive?"  Just sayin'....), these songs about earth and rising:

Back To The Earth                                                            Rusted Root
Blood Of The Earth                                                           Friends Of Dean Martinez
Earth Died Screaming                                                       Tom Waits
The Earth Wants You                                                         Mose Allison
Ends Of The Earth                                                             Dirty Three
Here On Earth                                                                    Ben Arnold
Here On Earth (I'll Have My Cake)                                  Crash Test Dummies
Humans From Earth                                                          T-Bone Burnett
Mother Earth                                                                     Dave Alvin
Mother Earth                                                                     Tom Rush
Mother Earth                                                                     Tracy Nelson
Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)                                        Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth                          Neko Case
Ol' Mother Earth                                                                Tony Joe White
Railroad Earth                                                                    Railroad Earth
Salt Of The Earth                                                               Rolling Stones
This Bitter Earth                                                                Etta James
This Island Earth                                                               Jonathan Edwards
Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)                                      Marvin Gaye
Dreamers On The Rise                                                      John Stewart
I'll Rise                                                                              Ben Harper
I'll Rise Again                                                                   David Bromberg
I Will Rise Up/Ain't No More Cane                                  Lyle Lovett &His Large Band
Rise                                                                                   Josh Rouse
Rise To The Sun                                                                Alabama Shakes
Rise Up With Fists!!!                                                        Jenny Lewis/Watson Twins
The Rising                                                                         Bruce Springsteen
Rising In Love                                                                   Michael Nesmith
The Rising Sun                                                                  George Harrison

Tuesday, noon till two on WOOL FM, 91.5, or WOOL.fm.

Don't look up....


 
 

"Maps Are Of Time, Not Place..."

It took me a while to get that line totally.  It's from one of my favorite poems, "Judging Distances," by Henry Reed, which is actually on this week's playlist.  Of course it finally came to me that maps of the world have changed enormously throughout history, while the land has, relatively speaking, changed not a whit.  It's all about how the lines are drawn, about borders.

And there's been lots in the news in the last few years about borders, from Tea Party insistence that we fence ours with Mexico, so as to keep out all of the workers willing to do the jobs Americans disdain as too menial, distasteful, or low-paying.  And now we're looking at the Russian incursion into Ukraine and the annexation (after a vote, however) of Crimea.  There are the usual blustering, fist-banging, ultimately impotent saber-rattling calls to action from the US Right, and the seemingly timid, hand-wringing, ultimately impotent calls for sanctions from the Center (remember, there's no real Left left here).  Specious and spurious comparisons to Neville Chamberlain's alleged appeasement of Hitler in 1938 abound, and yet what, really, can be done?  Russia, although embroiled in its own issues at home, is still a powerful entity militarily, and we don't engage with people who can fight back (and why should we fight at all?), so sanctions seem to be the only possible way to have an effect.

But why's it our business in the first place?  Why are we always the ones to stick our noses into issues and events the world over?  More importantly (and crazier, in most people's eyes) why do we need borders?  Why can't a citizen of the world be allowed to go wherever she wishes, whenever he wishes?  Yeah, yeah, I know, terrorists-- all Muslims want to kill all non-Muslims, etc.  But maybe, if we allowed true freedom, all of the anger and acrimony would be erased, and we'd realize once for all that there is just "one world, believe it or not."  Imagine.

This week's playlist, then:

Across The Borderline                                                            Willie Nelson
Borderline                                                                                Ry Cooder
Border Song                                                                             Elton John
Cross The Borderline                                                              Dillard Hartford Dillard
The Borderline                                                                        Dirk Hamilton
Border Radio                                                                           Dave Alvin
The Border Guard                                                                    J.D. Souther
Disorder At The Border                                                          Dizzy Gillespie/Coleman Hawkins
Down Below The Borderline                                                  Little Feat
On The Borderline                                                                   Leon Russell
Bordertown                                                                              Chris Whitley
Cross The Borderline                                                              Jerry Jeff Walker
South Of The Border                                                              Lou Donaldson
On The Border                                                                        Eagles
Map Of The World                                                                  Monsters Of Folk
Judging Distances                                                                   Henry Reed
Borderline Blues                                                                     Little Feat
Borderline                                                                                Daryl Hall
Over The Border (To America)                                              Graham Parker
Across The Border                                                                  Linda Ronstadt/Emmylou Harris
Borderline                                                                                Joni Mitchell
Crimea River                                                                           Joe Cocker
One World                                                                               Dire Straits
One World                                                                               John Martyn
Aerial Boundaries                                                                   Michael Hedges
A Map Of The World                                                              Pat Metheny
Imagine                                                                                   John Lennon


Interesting that there are so few women represented.  Do they just care less about nebulous, ephemeral, and ultimately meaningless constructs, or have they been prevented from establishing their own boundaries for so long that it doesn't matter?  That's probably a whole nother topic though, huh?

See you Tuesday, noon till two on the new, expanded, even better WOOL FM, 91.5, or WOOL.FM on the webs. 

"I'm Livin' On The Inside..."

And aren't we all, except for perhaps Arctic researchers and polar bears?  What a winter, huh?

No rants, no attempted profundities this week, just a "holy shit, is this weather ever going to loosen its grip?"  We've all been "living on the inside" (a Michael Franks title and lyric) this winter, except for those of us who've been forced to work outside, or those whackjobs who willingly go forth to play in the Great White North.  And Climate Change deniers, just shut up; it's not a straight line, it's likely to be a jagged graph: some places colder sometimes, some places hotter.  On the whole, we're headed into a hotter environment.  And I'm scared to death that the summer yang to this winter's yin will be a scorcher.  To be honest, I'druther cold than hot:  you can keep adding clothes, but there's only so many you can remove, especially with my body....

So, anyway, a bunch of songs this week that reflect "the interior life;"  for religious folks, that's a life which seeks God in everything.  For me, it's a life which seeks warmth in anything.

Here are my songs this week, then:

Inside--Looking Out                                                                The Animals
Laughing On The Outside (Crying On The Inside)                Aretha
Inside                                                                                       Bill Morrissey
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again      Dylan
The Fire Inside                                                                         Bob Seger
She's Inside The Moon                                                            Dirk Hamilton
Inside Of Me                                                                            Eric Clapton
Stuck Inside A Cloud                                                               George Harrison
The Night Inside Me                                                                Jackson Browne
Inside                                                                                        Jethro Tull
Crippled Inside                                                                         John Lennon
Step Inside This House                                                            Lyle Lovett
Voices Inside (Everything Is Everything)                                Donny Hathaway
Inside                                                                                       John Martyn
On The Inside                                                                          Michael Franks
Living On The Inside                                                              Michael Franks
From The Inside                                                                       Poco
Turn You Inside-Out                                                                R.E.M.
Inside Out                                                                                 Phil Collins
Elgar/Something Inside                                                           Steve Erdody/Jon Rhys Meyers
Inside Out                                                                                Traveling Wilburys
Joy Inside My Tears                                                                 Stevie Wonder
Trapped Again                                                                          Southside Johnny

Are you a member yet, of the new, expanded, glorified magnified WOOL?  Aw, c'mon now....  

Mississippi Goddam

Came across this in The Week, 3/7/14, in their "Only In America" section:

More than 50 years after James Meredith became the first black student at the University of Mississippi, three white students have been accused of hanging a noose and a Confederate battle sign on a campus statue of the civil rights hero... and (After President Obama's re-election) a large crowd gathered on the Ole Miss campus to protest President Obama's re-election, shouting racial slurs.

I dunno why, but that just struck me in a really bad way (I mean, I know why, but why just those examples, and why now?) but it did.  I found myself really pissed, which led me to consider what I know about Miss'ippi, and led me to a little research.  Not surprisingly, it's essentially a Third-World country economically, in terms of its citizens' health, and, obviously, educationally and attitudinally.

Mississippi is the poorest state in the US, with around 35% of the population living in poverty.  Romania, the poorest nation in the developed world, has a poverty rate of 24%.  Mississippi is the fattest state, with a rate of 32.5% of adults (and almost 40% of children) considered clinically obese.  Mississippi is one of numerous Republican-led states which have refused to officially participate in the Affordable Care Act.  Fattenin' 'em for market, perhaps?

Between 1882 and 1968, there were over 4700 lynchings in the US.  Guess who led the way?  Yep; 42 white (one presumes that they were nigger lovers) and 539 (Georgia was next with 492) black, or 16% of the total.  And in 1964, of course,  the murder of 3 Freedom Riders (one black, two white), which the State of Mississippi refused to prosecute, forcing the Federal Government to do so, was a primary impetus to the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.  P'raps it's true that some good comes out of even the worst events.  Although, as the bit from The Week shows, little has really changed in Miss'ippi itself, and yet it's just as much a state as any other in this Greatest Of All Countries, Ever (right, Dr. Pangloss?)  Ah, we should'a just let 'em all go their own way when they wanted to.

On the up side, there's a lot of really good Miss'ippi-themed music, to wit:

Down In Mississippi                                                       Mavis Staples
Down in Mississippi                                                       Ry Cooder
Down In Mississippi                                                       Pinetop Perkins
In The Mississippi River                                                Mavis Staples
Miss The Mississippi                                                      Dylan
Miss The Mississippi And You                                      Arlo Guthrie
Mississippi                                                                     Dylan
Mississippi                                                                     John Phillips
Mississippi-Mali Blues                                                  Taj Mahal & Toumani Diabate
Mississippi Blues                                                            David Bromberg
Mississippi Bottom Blues                                               Rory Block
Mississippi Freight Train, Pts. 1&2                                James Cotton
Here's To The State Of Mississippi                                 Phil Ochs
Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodleoo                       Grateful Dead
Mississippi Goddam                                                       Nina Simone
Mississippi Kid                                                               Lynyrd Skynyrd
Mississippi Moon                                                           Seatrain
Mississippi Muddy Water                                               Maria Muldaur
Mississippi Nights                                                          Mark Egan
Mississippi Queen                                                          Mountain
Mississippi You're On My Mind                                    Jerry Jeff Walker
Mississippi You're On My Mind                                    Jesse Winchester
My Head's In Mississippi                                               ZZ Top
Nitty Gritty Mississippi                                                  Ry Cooder
Skippin' In The Mississippi Dew                                    John Hartford
The Waltz Of The Mississippi                                        John Hartford
Strange Fruit                                                                   Cassandra Wilson

Hope to see you Tuesday on the New, Expanded, Even Greater WOOL FM, now located at 91.5 on your dial (and available to more than 100,000 more listeners over the air), and, as ever, streaming live at wool.fm.

Are you a member yet?