Flag Day

That's right, yesterday was Flag Day, Confederate Flag Day, so I did my bit by buying a Hood's Texas Brigade plate. Pleased with that.

One of the 4 readers of this so-called 'blog" even sent in a poem. It's a melancholy tribute, here's an excerpt:

For, though conquered, they adore it,—
Love the cold, dead hands that bore it;
Weep for those who fell before it;
Pardon those who trail and tore it:
Oh, how wildly they deplore it,
Now to furl and fold it so!

State's Rights,

LSP

Are You Ready For The Country?

Good question. Maybe you are, maybe you're not, but one thing's certain, the hat most certainly is. Speaking of which, no one's attempted to vandalize or remove this statue.

Sensible townsfolk.

All for the Cause,

LSP

Texas Heritage

I went to the Texas Heritage museum today and liked it a lot. It has:

Flags.

A "D Guard" Bowie Knife.

Crossed Sabers.

Uplifting statues.

Audie Murphy.

And a lot more. No one's thought to airbrush out The Cause, and that's just fine by me. There's a Vietnam exhibit too. In fact, come to think about it, it's pretty much a small war museum. Maybe that says something about Texas.

Train hard, think positive, fight easy.

LSP

Willie Nelson Rebuilt This

I went downtown to register my truck. There isn't much downtown, but there is a courthouse, which burned down in the '90s (1990s). Willie Nelson helped to rebuild it.

There's also a Confederate War Memorial, and guess what, no one's tried to vandalize it. Weird, eh? Maybe that wouldn't go down too well around here.

And that's just the way it is.

LSP

The Cause, Confederacy

It's not that long ago, the American Civil War, and a bloody business it was too. Some people think that the Confederacy is synonymous with with slavery and oppression, whereas the Union was was a beautiful civil rights movement. Others think that the war was about States' rights and freedom from big government Washington tyranny.

They opted for the latter where I live, and lost. There's a memorial in the Courthouse Square to remember the fallen.

William Henry Parsons raised a regiment of cavalry from the surrounding counties, the 12th Texas, comprised of the Hill County Volunteers, the Freestone Boys, the Johnson County Slashers, the Bastrop Cavalry Company, the Ellis Grays, the Ellis Rangers, the Kaufman Guards, the Ellis Blues, the Williamson Bowies, and the Eutaw Blues.

The 12th Texas went on to become part of Parson's Brigade and it may, or may not be the case that the National Flag of the Confederacy is on display in the courthouse.

For the record, I think our courthouse, which was restored by Willie Nelson, would make for a decent club. "What would you call this club?" asked a church lady, "I would call it Parson's, Ma'am," I replied.

Share your Swag Bags as you will,

LSP

Feast of Christ the King

Today's the end of the church's liturgical year and it's marked, appropriately, with the Feast of Christ the King. Why is this appropriate? Because our Lord reigns as King over the year of the Christian life.

Good Anglican

I'll spare you the theology, but you'll be glad to know that General Lee and the Duke of Wellington featured in the homily.

Bad Anglican

That made it a good sermon on at least two counts.

God bless,

LSP

I Hate Strip Malls

our new town center

In the olden days, when the Cause was living memory, the trains went to Hillsboro and business flourished in the center of town. Then things changed. Passenger rail went out of style as people took to the highways in their motors and business moved out of town, leaving it a hollowed out, semi-derelict wreck.

another town the yankees wrecked

But look, all's not lost! We have a new town center, sprung up strip mall style on either bank of I35. That's going out of business too.

the old station, now a "visitors bureau" whatever that is.

I like to escape our merry little rural dystopia by driving out of town a short way to see my horse and go for a ride, preferably at great speed.

Powerful therapy and, you never know, maybe a useful skill.

Happy Feast of St. Andrew. 

LSP

Hog Poem, Innit.

Photograph: Niall Benvie/Corbis

My good friend GWB, philosopher, theologian, shooter, fisherman and fowler, has been branching out into verse and turned in this number about the tuskers. With apologies to The Cause and Mr. Tate:

You know who have waited by the wall

The twilight certainty of an animal,

Those midnight restitutions of the blood

You know--the immitigable pines, the smoky frieze

Of the sky, the sudden call: you know the rage,

The cold pool left by the mounting flood,

Of muted Zeno and Parmenides.

You who have waited for the angry resolution

Of those desires that should be yours tomorrow,

You know the unimportant shrift of death

And praise the vision

And praise the arrogant circumstance

Of those who fall

Rank upon rank, hurried beyond decision--

Here by the sagging gate, stopped by the wall.

Seeing, seeing only the hogs

Flying, plunge and expire

Well, one word's original and that makes all the difference. Thanks, GWB, for the line and Mr. Tate for genius.

God bless,

LSP

PS. Go to Virtual Mirage for an amusing Cell Phone Karma video. Thanks LL.