Catching Up: Thanks, Chuckie and comments

I've been away for the weekend hiking at Jack London's old estate near Sonoma, California, which is now a state park.  With the Republican convention under way, I need to catch up quick.

First of all, thanks to John Scalzi for highlighting my Chuckie Watch feature.  Chuckie (CHARLIE DANIELS) is my favorite rightwing punching bag here at Old Hickory's Weblog.  I would feel like it was kind of unsportsmanlike because his rants are such obvious airhead nonsense.  But he's such an obnoxious gasbag it's hard to work up any guilt about it.

And, then, look at Rush Limbaugh.  Chuckie is a good example of the next step in devolving chain of evolution of messages in the Republican media echo-chamber.  From the Republican National Committe, it goes to Fox News and rightwing radio.  If Chuckie's political rants have any redeeming social value at all - and I'm not claiming to have found any! - it's because they're a consistent example of form in which the messages get translated to the "end-users," though he holds them just this side of the crudest manifestations.  (Which can be found at FreeRepublic.com in abundance, if curiousity overcomes you.)

Plus, Chuckie is promoting a primitivist, nativist, bigoted notion of both country music in particular and of Southerners in general.  I love country music too much to want to see it identify with blowhard bigots like Chuckie.

And while it's statistically true that Southern white guys would be more likely to agree with Chuckie's political attitudes than most, it still makes me sick to see him promote this hick, bigoted image of Southerners.  Especially since he's pimping for military adventurism for which Southerners disproportionately bear the burden and for government-for-the-wealthy from which most Southerners don't benefit at all.

I've also been catching up on responding to comments.  I usually try to respond to comments.  I have mixed feelings still on whether it would be good for AOL to open up the comments for easier posting from non-AOL members.  They can do it with an AIM account, of course.

But seeing some of the comments at other blogs, it is a nice contrast that I don't get many "troll" comments.  Most of the ones I get, even the ones strongly disagreeing, are still within the realm of actual thought.

And in these days of Fox News and Oxycontin redio, that really saying a lot!