Goodbye Joe, they hardly knew you.

[Set]

I didn't know Joe Bageant, the barfly philosopher was dead until today. Vale, Joe, I'll certainly miss you and your homespun, booze inspired but spot-on insight into supposed complex social and economic problems.

[Egg]

Never heard of him, Set. Just read one of his pieces at your link, though.

This:

But these days at Burt's you won't hear a word about one thing -- terrorism. Not unless you bring it up. Despite all the blood-in-the-face patriotic rage supposedly felt by working people over 9/11, I am going to commit heresy and say not one shit-faced patron here tonight believes that the world changed on 9/11. What happened in New York City was just another televised event here among the NASCAR and Jimmy Johnson smoked country ham crowd. It was never real to them. Not to people who have never been to New York, and to whom New York is just an imaginary place on television where idealized liberal nether-worlds and nightly murders are electronically served up. And the Twin Towers? It is safe to say that none of these stump jumpers in downtown Deliverance ever even heard of them until they went down in a cloud of asbestos dust and smoke on their TV screens. Yet coastal intellectuals such as Norman Mailer are writing about how 9/11 psychologically affected working class America's sense of virility, security, confidence, national mythology, etc. Not really. Now if the Styrofoam peanut plant across town closes down, eliminating 500 local jobs, THAT is world changing around here. You have a hard time believing it, don't you? Yes, I can imagine.

is the absolute truth. My ex-brother-in-law would tell us how his family in the midwest and Colorado were over 9/11 when we could still smell the stink of it over here in Queens.

This guy was a good writer. Thanks for the link.

[Set]

Never heard of him, Set. Just read one of his pieces at your link, though.

This:

But these days at Burt's you won't hear a word about one thing -- terrorism. Not unless you bring it up. Despite all the blood-in-the-face patriotic rage supposedly felt by working people over 9/11, I am going to commit heresy and say not one shit-faced patron here tonight believes that the world changed on 9/11. What happened in New York City was just another televised event here among the NASCAR and Jimmy Johnson smoked country ham crowd. It was never real to them. Not to people who have never been to New York, and to whom New York is just an imaginary place on television where idealized liberal nether-worlds and nightly murders are electronically served up. And the Twin Towers? It is safe to say that none of these stump jumpers in downtown Deliverance ever even heard of them until they went down in a cloud of asbestos dust and smoke on their TV screens. Yet coastal intellectuals such as Norman Mailer are writing about how 9/11 psychologically affected working class America's sense of virility, security, confidence, national mythology, etc. Not really. Now if the Styrofoam peanut plant across town closes down, eliminating 500 local jobs, THAT is world changing around here. You have a hard time believing it, don't you? Yes, I can imagine.

is the absolute truth. My ex-brother-in-law would tell us how his family in the midwest and Colorado were over 9/11 when we could still smell the stink of it over here in Queens.

This guy was a good writer. Thanks for the link.

Do yourself a favour, Egg, and read all his stuff. Joe was masterful at combining satire and sagacity.

[TraumaT]

I didn't know Joe Bageant, the barfly philosopher was dead until today. Vale, Joe, I'll certainly miss you and your homespun, booze inspired but spot-on insight into supposed complex social and economic problems.

Added to my favourites. Some great stuff there, really enjoying reading his work.

[Pigeon]

One of the reason for this mess of today. If it isn't hitting someone up beside the head then they probably are not to concerned with it. The US government gets away with much using that tactic.

[Dr Exile]

It is safe to say that none of these stump jumpers in downtown Deliverance ever even heard of them until they went down in a cloud of asbestos dust and smoke on their TV screens.

I was, sad to say, one of those folks who never knew that the Empire State building was not still the tallest building in New York. Up until I watched the towers come down did I know about them. When the World Trade Center had the little bomb in the basement some years before, I just thought the WTC was an office for the hated World Trade Organization.

Should I feel embarrassed, shamed, or silly about it? No, I think most folks consider the shit hole to be a mythical mecca for muggers.

[Dr Exile]

RIP Joe, Fred Reed turned me on to you.

[Egg]

One of the reason for this mess of today. If it isn't hitting someone up beside the head then they probably are not to concerned with it. The US government gets away with much using that tactic.

That's the truth. But, it's always been that way to one degree or another, I think.

[Cartoonsyndicate]

Bye, Joe. See ya in Curmudgeon Fields shortly. You, me and Set will toast Lucifer and Groucho. And then fall off the verandah while we piss...