The warm weather has brought the DIY'ers out in droves, on YouTube anyway, and my truckbuddies may be interested to see what somebody is doing with an old plantation house in South Carolina. Brian Branton, a D.C. attorney and lobbyist, saw historic Cedar Grove for sale online a while back, and by his own account, immediately fell in love with the place and snapped it up. Now he's hard at work writing checks to have the house and gardens restored to his idea of fabulous.
An enormous "passion project," as monied people like to say, but he seems to have the requisite energy and enthusiasm for it. Well, good luck to him in that reddest of all red states - I'm sure it's great fun to have a whole estate to play with.
You can choose how much you want to see of this project, from among a dozen or so vids Brian has posted already. Here's his first introductory overview from April 2024 (2 min.):
Here's Brian's walkthough of the whole house, a work in progress (47 min.):
And here's his latest video, just posted yesterday, an overview of the garden and grounds (29 min.):
An ungodly sight: the Confederate battle flag at the South Carolina State House remained, per state law, at full staff while the national and state flags were at half staff this week for the victims of the Charleston shooting.
Since the horrific shooting in Charleston last week, the uproar over the presence of the Confederate battle flag on governmental premises in various Southern states has exploded across the airwaves and the blogosphere. As a native Southerner whose ancestral lines stretch back to 17th-century Maryland and Virginia, the descendant of slave-owning planters and Confederate soldiers, your Head Trucker could write a long and nuanced post about all that, from several different points of view; but I content myself with simply presenting this excerpt from an essay written this week by Dr. Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention:
White Christians ought to think about what that flag says to our African-American brothers and sisters in Christ, especially in the aftermath of yet another act of white supremacist terrorism against them. The gospel frees us from scrapping for our “heritage” at the expense of others. As those in Christ, this descendant of Confederate veterans has more in common with a Nigerian Christian than I do with a non-Christian white Mississippian who knows the right use of “y’all” and how to make sweet tea.
None of us is free from a sketchy background, and none of our backgrounds is wholly evil. The blood of Jesus has ransomed us all “from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers” (1 Pet. 1:18), whether your forefathers were Yankees, rebels, Vikings, or whatever. We can give gratitude for where we’ve come from, without perpetuating symbols of pretend superiority over others.
The Apostle Paul says that we should not prize our freedom to the point of destroying those for whom Christ died. We should instead “pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding” (Rom. 14:19). The Confederate Battle Flag may mean many things, but with those things it represents a defiance against abolition and against civil rights. The symbol was used to enslave the little brothers and sisters of Jesus, to bomb little girls in church buildings, to terrorize preachers of the gospel and their families with burning crosses on front lawns by night.
That sort of symbolism is out of step with the justice of Jesus Christ. The cross and the Confederate flag cannot co-exist without one setting the other on fire. White Christians, let’s listen to our African-American brothers and sisters. Let’s care not just about our own history, but also about our shared history with them. In Christ, we were slaves in Egypt—and as part of the Body of Christ we were all slaves too in Mississippi. Let’s watch our hearts, pray for wisdom, work for justice, love our neighbors. Let’s take down that flag.
And that, if you are a Christian, says it all, I think. The full text of Dr. Moore's essay is here.
P.S. - Just last week, the Southern Baptist Convention at its annual meeting issued a call for civil disobedience against same-sex marriage. Southern Baptists, as you may know, split off from their Northern brothers on the issue of slavery in 1845.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Sigh.
I’ve had to make statements like this too many times. Communities like this have had to endure tragedies like this too many times. . . . this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency. And it is in our power to do something about it.
Good news - enjoy it fellas, before we plunge into the deep darkness of another fascist Republican era, now fast approaching. All bets will be off then.
Update, 6:15 p.m.:
The U.S. Supreme Court today denied South Carolina's request for a stay, so couples all over the Palmetto State began marrying shortly after 4 p.m., mirabile dictu.
You Yankee boys should understand - South Carolina is deeply conservative, even more so than Alabama or Mississippi. They have lovely manners, but they are Bourbons who refuse to advance beyond the 19th century. There's a reason why South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union. This will fry all their tomatoes.
Today, U.S. District Court Judge Gergel ruled in favor of the freedom to marry in South Carolina, striking down the state's ban on marriage between same-sex couples. This ruling came after the United States Supreme Court denied review in five cases involving the freedom to marry, including a case in Virginia. Because Virginia is in the 4th Circuit, the ruling is binding for the entire circuit, including South Carolina. Since this ruling, West Virginia and North Carolina have secured the freedom to marry. The ruling is stayed until November 20 at noon.
Judge Gergel's ruling reads in part:
The Court finds that [Bostic v. Schaefer] controls the disposition of the issues before this Court and establishes, without question, the right of Plaintiffs to marry as same sex partners. The arguments of Defendant Wilson simply attempt to relitigate matters already addressed and resolved in Bostic. Any effort by Defendant Wilson or others to overrule Bostic should be addressed to the Fourth Circuit and/or the United States Supreme Court.
South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson has already announced he will immediately appeal the ruling.
--And in other news--
Update, 6:45 p.m.: Kansas couples are free to marry. Late this afternoon, the Supreme Court denied a stay of a federal judge's ruling striking down the Sunflower State's marriage ban. SCOTUSblog reports:
Because the judge’s ruling had been on hold only because of a temporary Supreme Court order issued Monday, the Kansas ruling took effect when the Justices’ new order lifted the earlier postponement. State officials are now under a federal court requirement to start issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
The Court has issued a series of orders in same-sex marriage cases over the past eleven months, but the Kansas order marked the first time that members of the Court had recorded dissents. Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas noted only that they would have granted the delay sought by the Kansas attorney general.
Kansas officials had attempted to show that their case was different from others that the Supreme Court had chosen to leave undisturbed, arguing that the federal judge’s order was an invalid attempt to second-guess a Kansas Supreme Court order delaying the issuance of same-sex marriages. The federal judge had rejected that claim, but it may have been the one that drew the implied support of Justices Scalia and Thomas.
Today's order from the Supreme Court in its entirety. Click to enlarge.
Once again proving that the whole "family-values" bandwagon is just a stinking sack of shit that does not apply to straight boys and girls, the righteous, God-fearing voters of South Carolina have turned out by the thousands to vote for for former Governor and unrepentant adulterer Mark Sanford, giving him their seal of approval as their representative in Congress.
Which was only to be expected. You may recall that while Governor, Sanford famously told reporters he was "hiking the Appalachian Trail" when in fact he was shuttling back and forth to Argentina at the taxpayers' expense to bang his Latina lover. But I guess the fine, upstanding, oh-so-Christian people of the Hellhole Palmetto State figured, hey, boys will be boys.
Rachel reports on this hot mess of hypocrisy and prevarication:
Greenville is a big town, but I'd advise you boys to step lively when passing through there, and not let the sun go down on you before you're way on down the road. That's why this quiet little demonstration sponsored by the Campaign for Southern Equality just takes my breath away for courage and gumption. Your Head Trucker remembers when doing something like this was near abouts worth your life down here in the Southland.
Notice how the snotty, self-righteous straight couple in line ahead of the gay gals does their best to humiliate them.
A friend brought this Jon Stewart clip to my attention. Priceless. And so true.
You Yankee fellas think it's Alabama and Mississippi that are the center of racism, reactionary thinking, and fundamentalism. Not so. It's South Carolina, hands down. There's a reason they were the first state to secede from the Union. I know, I've lived there - very briefly, thank God.
Oh hell no, not in South Carolina - that would be too good for the worthless beggars.
At a town hall meeting on Friday, the Republican - you knew that, right? - lieutenant governor, Andre Bauer, delivered himself of these compassionate remarks about why poor kids should be denied school lunches if their parents don't attend parent-teacher conferences:
"My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed," Bauer said, according to the Greenville [S. C.] News. "You're facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that. And so what you've got to do is you've got to curtail that type of behavior. They don't know any better."
Among other South Carolinians who responded with outrage to Bauer's remarks, Democratic candidate Mullins McLeod said: "It amazes me how some Republican politicians claim a monopoly on Christianity and then go out and say and do some of the most un-Christian things imaginable."
Yeah well, no shit buddy. The Republicans aren't about being Christian. They're all about power.
And screwing over all the poor bastards who don't have any.
P.S. - Bauer is rumored to be gay, which of course he firmly denies; google it up if you're interested.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, harmony; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that I may seek not so much to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
.
We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.
and welcome to the Blue Truck, a blog for mature gay men with news and views on gay rights, history, art, humor, and whatever comes to mind. Plus a few hot men. The truck's all washed and gassed up, so hop in buddy, let's go.
CAUTION: For mature gay men only beyond this point. Some posts and links may not be suitable for children or the unco guid. You have been warned.
Insert valid picture ID with date of birth now, or click here.
My Story
click photograph to read
Churches say that the expression of love in a heterosexual monogamous relationship includes the physical, the touching, embracing, kissing, the genital act - the totality of our love makes each of us grow to become increasingly godlike and compassionate. If this is so for the heterosexual, what earthly reason have we to say that it is not the case with the homosexual?
It is a perversion if you say to me that a person chooses to be homosexual. You must be crazy to choose a way of life that exposes you to a kind of hatred. It's like saying you choose to be black in a race-infected society.
If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn't worship that God.
