Several things are on my mind . . .
Broad Brush Strokes
If you are from Mississippi, you’re a racist . . . or at least if you’re from Mississippi and you’re a republican you are friends with a racist, Trent Lott. This seems to be the sentiment of the democrats who want to keep President Bush’s latest nominee for the federal appelate court from being nominated. See more at: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,75292,00.html Pickering, the nominee, is called “racially insensitive” because he reduced the sentence of a man who was prosecuted for burning a cross in a racially mixed couple’s yard in the late 90s. The problem was that the justice department, then run by Janet Reno of the Clinton administration, had made a deal with 2 of the 3 defendents in the case. They pled guilty, and, in exchange, they were released for time served. The third guy opted to go to trial. He lost. When the sentencing hearing came around, Judge Pickering heard testimony indicating that this guy was not the ring leader of the party who burned the cross, and that the shortest sentence the jury was permitted to give him was 7 years. Judge Pickering felt that if the other 2 parties got off with “time served,” seven years was extreme for the remaining defendent. So Judge Pickering reduced his sentence to 18 months. The democrats have conveniently forgotten that Judge Pickering sent his own children to desegregated schools in Mississippi in the mid-sixties, and in 1967, he testified against the imperial wizard of the KKK, which cost him the election for the DA’s office the following year. I heard most of this on Glen Beck’s radio program, and it just aggrivated me so much I had to blog about it.
Small Town Life
On another note, I am reading A Year in Provence. I bought it used about 6 months ago, and I started it then. I liked it from the first, but I got busy and put it away. This is a great book because while it talks about the specific idiosyncracies of small town living in the French countryside, it also shows the universal characteristics of small towns everywhere. I’ve considered writing my own A Year in Minco, since, much like Peter Mayle in Provence, I am an outsider living among natives who see their way of life as the only way. If you have read A Year in Provence, you will appreciate what I’m talking about.
Pregnant at 37
Being pregnant at 37 is not the same as being pregnant at 30. Nuff said.
I loved that book – and the “sequel” as well. (I can’t remember the name of it – I read them so many years ago!) I don’t know if the story is in that one, but my favorite was the telling of the tale of the huge table they were trying to build.
“Being pregnant at 37 is not the same as being pregnant at 30. Nuff said”. Couldn’t imagine… praying…
Sarah,
The stone table incident takes place in the first book. And, yes, I think it typifies the attitudes described in the book. I bought the sequel at the same time I bought the first book. The sequel is called Toujours Provence (or Toujours en Provence–obviously I didn’t get it out to double check). I am looking forward to reading it, too. What made me pick them up in the first place was memories I had of enjoying the PBS show based on the book that was on several years back.