'Hidden' Facebook page has treasure trove of old Holly Springs photos, stories

    A couple of years ago Candice Holbrook Logue created a page on Facebook called "Celebrating Growing Up in Holly Springs." This page was quickly joined by more than 200 people who uploaded all sorts of great historical and not-quite-yet historical photos.
    The page was set up as an "event," rather than as a group. So when the event dates passed, so did everyone's link to that page -- and to all of the wonderful old photos and stories it contained.
    I thought the stuff was lost forever, but I found a link to the inactive page with my Facebook Activity Log, and you can go to it by following the link above. It's a shame the page can't be converted to a group, but at least now everyone can have a link to it through this blog.

I've lost respect for Thad Cochran, but I support my party's nominee; Chris McDaniels should, too

    I voted for Chris McDaniel on Tuesday and I would do so again. My support for McDaniel wasn't because Thad Cochran was a raving liberal, but rather because he was a squishy conservative.
    But my candidate lost. He lost because Cochran ran an immoral, unethical, race-baiting campaign that relied on scaring or bribing Democrats to come to the polls and vote for him. Cochran literally sent one set of messages to white voters while PACS supporting him phoned blacks telling them how much Cochran supported Barack Obama.

Click to enlarge

    The flyer at right was apparently distributed throughout parts of the Mississippi Delta. Note the lack of required statements as to who paid for the flyers. That's the kind of advertising that can be bought when people named "Scooby Doo" are given massive amounts of cash "walking around" money.
    Certainly McDaniel supporters have every right to be angry over Cochran's manipulation of Democratic black voters, many of whom made it clear that they would be supporting Democrat Travis Childers in the fall. We all have a right to be angry that Cochran and his handlers have nearly destroyed the Mississippi Republican Party. But anger doesn't change the fact that Cochran won.
    Sen. John Stennis had as his first and last campaign slogan "Plow a Straight Furrow." And Thad Cochran owes his electoral success in both his first and last campaign to the black vote. Cochran never would have been elected back in 1978 if Charles Evers hadn't siphoned off most of the black vote, allowing Cochran to take office with a mere plurality of 45.3 percent to 31.8 for Maurice Dantin and 22.6 for Evers. I know many people at the time wondered if Republicans had funneled just enough money to Evers to allow him to make the race, but I've never heard anybody make any credible claim to that effect.
    The respect I once had for Thad Cochran is gone. For as long as I live I will have a distaste for him, the Barbours, and the other big-money lobbyists surrounding him.
    But this November, I will hold my nose and vote for him. That's what Republicans agree to do when we vote in our party's primary. Anyone who thinks Cochran is "just the same" as Travis Childers is deluding themselves. For starters, a vote for Travis Childers is a vote for Harry Reid. I'm not the biggest fan of Mitch McConnell, but I do like him a lot more than I do Harry Reid. I really, truly can tell the difference in the things they do and don't support.
    Make no mistake, those of us who are conservative will have ample opportunity for payback. There will be a reckoning, in fact numerous reckonings. But failing to support the most conservative candidate this fall because we've gotten our feelings hurt isn't going to advance our interests.
    Chris McDaniel needs to stop with the hissy-fit and essentially say what I've said in this blog post. He then needs to say that he will support Thad Cochran in the fall for the reasons I've stated above. It's just my opinion, but if McDaniel fails to do this I believe he is finished politically.
    Let's concentrate on fixing the things we can. McDaniel ought to make a beeline to Jackson and file a bill creating a closed primary system for Mississippi. Now that this genie is out of the bottle this scenario is likely to be repeated again, with both Republican and Democratic victims. It's time for Mississippi to join a number of other states which protect party primaries from outside interference through proper party registration.
    There are more elections ahead, and we have a better idea now of who is a conservative and who is a kinda-sorta-maybe-sometimes conservative. We can fight these future battles accordingly so long as we keep our powder dry.

Election update: Turnout low on the Coast, up in Madison County

    This post will be updated as the day or evening goes on:    

    Here are a few election items gleaned from Faceboook and Internet news sites:

    Turnout at the Oxford 2 precinct was up slightly when I voted at 11 a.m. I predict that about 100 additional voters will vote in this box, and most will be for Cochran.

    The Sun Herald reports that turnout on the Gulf Coast is very, very slow. Few voters, and few volunteers outside polling places. A low turnout here hurts Cochran.

    A friend's Facebook message said the turnout at the Holly Springs National Guard Armory was beyond low. "Wish I could say we are really busy, but it is very slow. Didn't think it could get much slower than last time, but I was wrong." This is bad for Cochran, but not many votes here in any event.

    Jim Prince reports that turnout is up in Madison County. This is Cochran Country. Another Facebook friend reports that Coahoma County turnout is up slightly. A few extra votes for Cochran.

Feds force Oxford Schools to make students pay more for lunches that they like less

    The Oxford School District is raising the price of full-pay lunches from $2.25 to $2.75 for the next school year, according to a memo from Nutrition Director Richmond Smith to the school board.
    The memo states that the increase is being mandated by Section 205 of the Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. Essentially what the federal government has done is to force school districts to comply with all sorts of expensive federal directives in exchange for increased reimbursements for students on the free and reduced lunch program.
    Now the schools are being required by the federal government to raise prices on full-pay students to help pay for lunch changes that they did not want and do not like.
    Oxford is not alone in raising prices. Schools all over the country are increasing prices to comply with this new federal intrusion.  And some schools are just opting out of the federal school lunch program altogether. Almost 1,500 school have said "No thank you" to federal funding and regulation of school lunches since changes went into effect.
    Nationally about 1.6 million full-pay students have stopped buying their lunch at school since the federal government began micromanaging the program. That's about seven percent of the 25 million students who were buying their own lunch at school each day. With lunch prices increasing, expect this number to rise. Most people don't like to pay more and get less.
    I don't blame the Oxford School District for making these changes; it is just complying with federal law. But this is certainly an example of how an increase in federal spending can make the lives of the supposed beneficiaries worse instead of better.

I managed to resist the urge to cut the grass naked yesterday, but just barely

    My dad says when he was a boy there was a lot of excitement when someone came running into one of the little furnish groceries around Slayden or Mt. Pleasant and shouted, "Y'all come quick! Cousin [redacted] is plowing naked!
    I'm not sure what possessed my cousin to plow naked, but for the first time in my life I had the urge to cut the grass naked yesterday. Watch the 15-second video above and you'll understand why.

Illegal immigrant protest urges lawful citizens to pay more taxes to give criminals more benefits

A Roma man holds a sign reading "More taxes for you = more benefits for us"  during a demonstration on 'International Roma Day' at Republic Square in Paris, on April 8, 2014.

    The Gypsy, or "Roma" man on the right certainly has figured out how welfare and the politics of entitlement work, even if his appeal isn't very effective. An illegal immigrant to France, he was a participant in "International Roma Day" in Paris.
    The sign translates to read as follows: "More taxes for you = More benefits for us." What the sign fails to explain is why law-abiding French citizens should tax themselves to provide benefits for Gypsy criminals in the country illegally.
    The sign is a clear statement of what is in store for nations that fail to police their borders and control illegal immigration. The lawful citizenry will face higher and higher taxes as the dregs of society pour in to claim the free goodies.

Lucy Hurdle, RINO hunter

    Jinny, my daughter Lucy and I were talking about the Cochran-McDaniel senate campaign, including some of Cochran's gaffes on the campaign. No need to repeat them all here. I'll make a list later.
    However, I told Lucy that Cochran was not even aware that House Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor had been trounced in the Republican primary. Lucy didn't know who Eric Cantor was, so I set out to explain.

Me: "Eric Cantor is the Republican Majority Leader of the House of Representatives. He's a conservative, but he supported amnesty for illegal aliens."

Lucy: "Well then he's not a conservative."

    I might add that Lucy almost snapped her line. She's 14 and she's figured out what it's all about. Why can't our Democrat and Republican overlords?