Defend the Indefensible: Mississippi

I'm sure the etymology derives from Gloucester at some point, but the street was named after a guy named Gloster when the town was incorporated. It's the main north-south drag in Tupelo; the east-west artery is the innovatively named Main Street. And there's a railroad crossing right at crosstown where the two intersect, which the city and BNSF have been trying to figure out a solution to for at least 30-40 years. xxps

I'll be interested to see how big an explosion this guy built.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloster_Aircraft_Company

The Gloster Aircraft Company was a British aircraft manufacturer from 1917 to 1963.

Founded as The Gloucestershire Aircraft Company Limited during the First World War, with the aircraft construction activities of H H Martyn & Co Ltd of Cheltenham it produced fighters during the war. It was renamed as foreigners found 'Gloucestershire' difficult to pronounce. It later became part of the Hawker Siddeley group and the Gloster name disappeared in 1963.

Sounds like a likely scenario.

btw shoppers, just 25 more days til Black Friday!

This gets even better after an update.

It was the state flag that led to his arrest. An officer in the area spotted a small silver car with a huge Mississippi flag sticking up through the sun roof run the red light in front of Walmart.

“The officer pulled him over for the traffic violation, but when the calls started coming in, we quickly figured out we needed to hang on to this suspect,” said Aguirre. “We still have some more interviews to do and still need to search his car before we take him in front of a judge Tuesday.”

Officials are still waiting to get details of Leonard’s prior criminal history in Illinois and Wisconsin.

“A white male got out, lit the package and threw it in the vestibule,” said Aguirre. “There was an employee on break, and the suspect told him, ‘You better run.’

“The employee did run and was away from harm when the package went off. It wasn’t a large explosion. It didn’t cause a lot of damage to the store.”

So wait, what'd this guy do? Blow up one of those crane machines?

Because I hate those crane machines. Unlike the South, they rise up again too quickly.

Hoo. Boy.

http://i.imgur.com/iihhVGY.png

Committ Adultry

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u120/kingkonggodzilla/leonard_zpswtmdlyy2.jpg

I mean, all fairness to the Lord, that house does need to be picked up a bit.

i stared at that photo waiting for the spooky ghost to pop out

No, the ghost got popped at the stoplight, read upthread.

The elections may not have gone well (with Attorney general Jim Hood being the last remaining Democrat) but at least this magazine is around now, digitally

http://www.clarionledger.com/story/life/2015/11/02/folklife-digital-magazine-highlights-unique-mississippi/74881810/

http://www.mississippifolklife.org/

No politics, just music and stuff

Better not be a bunch of sweet tea and kudzu, I'm warnin ya.

Ha ha. Nope, goat meat at the Otha Turner family blues fife picnic in the hill country

http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2016/feb/13/big-freedia-calls-bullsht-plans-sue-hattiesburg-cl/
http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2016/feb/13/hattiesburg-club-owner-accuses-mississippi-jim-cro/

http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/dailyledes/2016/02/23/despicable-image-shows-why-mississippi-needs-new-flag/80795180/

people are SO MAD at the C-L for sponsoring the contest and giving racists a platform!

x-post -Big Freedia getting barred from Mississippi show getting attention everywhere

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/21/mississippi-big-freedia-twerking-concert-shut-down-beyonce

Good.

The ACLU should get involved

http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2016/feb/24/mississippi-governor-declares-april-confederate-hi/

April is Confederate Heritage Month in Mississippi proclaims the Governor

What better month to celebrate one's Confederate heritage than the month in which your forefathers gave up, surrendered and laid down their arms to Gen. Grant.

http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2016/03/30/3764798/mississippi-anti-lgbt-bill/

Many states have considered bills that enable discrimination against the LGBT community, but Mississippi’s proposed legislation is perhaps the most explicit in this regard. HB 1523 spells out in storied detail all of the different ways that a person should be able to mistreat people for being LGBT without consequences from the government.

The bill does not pretend to be neutral; it only protects people with anti-LGBT religious beliefs and nobody else:

The sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions protected by this act are the belief or conviction that:
(a) Marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman;
(b) Sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage; and
(c) Male (man) or female (woman) refer to an individual’s immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy and genetics at time of birth.

^^^^^ Approved 80-39 by the House last month, approved 31-17 by the Senate today. Governor has indicated he will sign it. Way to fucking go, Mississippi.

Super disappointing, and about as hateful a bill as the new law in NC.

First reported 2-3 days ago, starting to hit the national news.

http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2016/04/02/mississippi-rv-park-owner-evicts-interracial-couple/82469086/

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/03/mississippi-isnt-worried-about-boycotts.html

Unlike Georgia (or the more proximate Louisiana), Mississippi has not gone completely hog-wild for film and TV subsidies. Yes, it has a subsidy program, but one with outlays (per project and overall) that are limited by law. So its lawmakers are less subject to pressure from Hollywood moguls who threaten not to rip off its taxpayers anymore if the state champions discrimination.

Of perhaps even greater importance given the sports-mad nature of the Deep South, Mississippi is not going to be hosting any Super Bowls or any college-football national championships (or NCAA basketball Final Fours) in the near future. It also differs from Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, and North Carolina in having no college-football bowl games being played within its boundaries.

...Perhaps more to the point, Bryant's a guy who seems to be comfortable living in the past, as evidenced by the fact that thanks to him Mississippi will begin celebrating Confederate Heritage Month

I wonder if the day will ever come when someone, anyone realizes the connection between Mississippi's politics and the fact that it is by any reasonable standards a third-world shithole. Second-highest teen pregnancy rate (after New Mexico), worst childhood literacy rate (tied with New Mexico!), second-highest murder rate (after Louisiana), and on and on.

The other people need to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps myth will never die

I spent about two years in Mississippi, living in Indianola and Greenville. That was about 20 years ago. In the time since then, almost any positive memories, impressions or beliefs have been washed away by shit like this.

I know someone who teaches at a University there and also does work setting up blues trail landmarks, and writing about Mississippi musicians. He's not happy with the politics there, of course.

"blues tourism" is such a strange and uh problematic phenomenon

i stayed here once

http://www.shackupinn.com/

the shacks provide comfort as well as authenticity.

Business-community disapproval not enough.
http://www.wtva.com/news/Governor_Bryant_signs_HB_1523_into_law.html

That's infuriating. My heart goes out to all the queer and trans people whose lives are going to be damaged by this ridiculous law.

"blues tourism" is such a strange and uh problematic phenomenon--Goole

My friend there has nothing to do with that. He's a University prof who has been into blues for decades and has been writing about the music and making little money doing so for the newspapers down there and for Living Blues Magazine. He also more recently got involved with writing the text for blues landmark signs. Yep "blues tourism" can be problematic when it is disrespectful such as those shacks, but when its historic landmarks that are publicized in a slightly more fair way it can also pay the bills of old blues performers themselves and others working there in the tourist biz.

http://wivb.com/2016/04/05/gov-cuomo-bans-government-travel-to-mississippi/

the shacks provide comfort as well as authenticity

i feel like an authentic shack would be mighty uncomfortable

"in our 'blues shacks,' you can sleep on an authentic pallet on the floor. also, if you ask room service for whiskey, then bring you gasoline."

http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2016/apr/11/statement-mississippi-writers-opposing-hb-1523/

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/02/us/mississippi-law-protecting-opponents-of-gay-marriage-is-blocked.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

A federal judge blocked — less than an hour before it was to go into effect at 12:01 a.m. Friday — a Mississippi law that would have given a wide range of special protections only to those who oppose same-sex marriage.

Carlton Reeves is one of this state's heroes.

case against this law seems p airtight

...and AG Jim Hood says "fukk u" to the governor and legislature, refuses to appeal Judge Reeves' decision. Woot!

http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/weblogs/jackblog/2016/jul/13/statement-attorney-general-jim-hood-hb-1523/

Yeah, that's seriously heartening!

But the governor is still appealing the case

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/suburbs/desoto/mississippi-attorney-general-wont-join-appeal-of-religious-freedom-law-378977bc-becc-05dc-e053-01000-386703211.html

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood said Wednesday he won't join Governor Phil Bryant in appealing the state's "Religious Freedom" law, saying he was convinced an appeal would be "divisive and expensive" and not in the best interest of the state or taxpayers.

The decision means Bryant will move forward without the backing of the state's top legal officer in attempting to enact the controversial measure, which supporters say is designed to protect strongly held religious beliefs

My alma mater, Mississippi State University, has taken the MS state flag down on campus. They join Alcorn State University, Jackson State University, Mississippi Valley State University, UMMC, University of Mississippi and University of Southern Mississippi. Not sure what the holdup is with MUW or Delta State.

I hate this goddamn place so much. If I breathe my last breath in Mississippi, I'm going to haunt some people for fucking eternity for trying to hold me here.

Officials Investigate Claim of Noose Put on Black Student

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/officials-investigate-claim-noose-put-black-student-43035507

business trip to Starkville tomorrow through Wednesday. anything to do there or to make me aware of?

mostly I plan to do nothing but work and sit in the hotel, but tomorrow mostly want a sports bar to watch my football game at since my flight gets in long before hotels open

Oby's for reasonably good po-boys, Restaurant Tyler for good gussied-up southern home cooking and a zillion ways to prepare a sweet potato. Beyond that, I can't help re: sports bars beyond what Yelp might have to say, or things to do. Been a few decades since I graduated.

lol, I just looked at Tyler's dinner menu and they don't have a heading for Vegetables, they have a heading for Starches.