{"id":4660,"date":"2024-07-20T10:42:27","date_gmt":"2024-07-20T15:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/?p=4660"},"modified":"2024-07-20T10:42:27","modified_gmt":"2024-07-20T15:42:27","slug":"saturday-back-in-the-swamp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/2024\/07\/20\/saturday-back-in-the-swamp\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday Back In The Swamp"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>After nearly a week in the other swamp of the <a href=\"https:\/\/knowyourmeme.com\/memes\/events\/land-mass-between-new-orleans-and-mobile\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Southern Landmass<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not as markedly different a world as it was during the lockdowns, but, in a way, refreshing getting away from the Beltway Swamp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some discussion of future plans.  These aren&#8217;t easy discussions;  but, it is somewhat comforting that guideposts are better set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are some similarities to <em>Hillbilly Elegy<\/em>, which I did just finish listening to, but the realities aren&#8217;t the same with my family, and my parents&#8217; upbringing in Mississippi.  (And I reflexively anticipate preening that I listened to it&#8230;..but I am nearly fucking blind&#8230;.not that that matters in the least.  I&#8217;m supposed to just sit on the public dole and vote for the Party of President Biden&#8217;s friend, Jim Eastland, until I die&#8230;) <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Few people dictating how people should <s>behave<\/s> live really don&#8217;t have any connection to life outside affluent areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the things I was dealing with the past couple of days was something that wouldn&#8217;t even be a question in a DC suburb.  The subdivision looks vaguely like something you&#8217;d see anywhere near one of the major East Coast metro areas.  There&#8217;s a tool used to <em>build a business<\/em>, and it&#8217;s slightly unsightly.  Can&#8217;t have that in our pristine neighborhood that was a swamp four years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I could attribute it to happenstance that I&#8217;ve been listening to an awful lot of <a href=\"https:\/\/700wlw.iheart.com\/featured\/bill-cunningham\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bill Cunningham<\/a> lately.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am not terribly familiar with Cincinnati, but I think I have a lot more in common with them than the people who&#8217;ve been ensconced in the major metro areas for their entire lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Where&#8217;d you go to school?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;CNU.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s that?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even in Virginia, I get that a lot.  Our most notable alumnus is probably <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Randall_Munroe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the guy who came up with XKCD<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though I was definitely experiencing some pretty significant effects of my condition when I was an ROTC cadet there, I was completely out-of-place amongst the cadets from William and Mary.  I remember being on an FTX at Ft. AP Hill where they were discussing the boarding schools they&#8217;d attended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I went to three high schools, graduating from <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Menchville_High_School\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Menchville<\/a>.  Bad Newz repruhshent.  (Yes, I did see Michael Vick play high school football after I&#8217;d graduated.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I really find myself recoiling from the prescriptive attitudes that seem to permeate.  We are the experts.  We are THE SCIENCE.  Thou shalt not do anything we don&#8217;t like.  Unless, of course, it allows us to continue paying less for the behemoth of government we&#8217;ve created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But do I see Vance as an Ivy Leaguer?  Not so much.  I see him as what he became to get out of Southern Ohio\/Kentucky &#8212; <strong>A Marine<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That would probably draw more derision from the scolding class than anything else.  Why would you go do that when you can party for years on someone else&#8217;s dime?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Apologies, naturally, for the disjointedness here.  You can blame MS brain fog, but I&#8217;m also juggling back-and-forth among several foci.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, back to the discussion on <em>The Fifth Column<\/em> Substack.  And the overwhelming desire for <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cincinnati_chili\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Cincinnati Chili<\/a> for dinner has subsided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do I agree with Senator Vance&#8217;s (and Donald Trump&#8217;s) fixes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Um.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As I wrote in a <a href=\"https:\/\/control-h.org\/?p=4655\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">recent entry<\/a>, I&#8217;m still kind of the you-broke-it-you-bought-it mindset.  And there probably won&#8217;t even be a Libertarian on the Virginia ballot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The only thing I&#8217;m looking forward to in November is being able to cast a ballot for the <a href=\"https:\/\/ballotpedia.org\/Hung_Cao\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Swabbie pilot<\/a> running against <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/arrests-minnesota-tim-kaine-cecd7562434741a088c14c7724eef3cb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Antifa Dad<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After nearly a week in the other swamp of the Southern Landmass. Not as markedly different a world as it was during the lockdowns, but, in a way, refreshing getting away from the Beltway Swamp. Some discussion of future plans. These aren&#8217;t easy discussions; but, it is somewhat comforting that guideposts are better set. There [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-scarred-brain-murmurings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4660\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}