BARF

I came up with the name "Born Again Redneck" because of a discussion that I had with my nearest neighbors on the farm next to mine. They are born again Christians who belong to a very small sect that believes that all other Christian sects are wrong and that the only way to be saved is to join their sect. So, naturally, when I first moved here, they tried to "save" me and get me to join but there were just too many things about their sect that I did not approve of (it's a bit like a cult) and obviously too many things about me that their sect did not approve of.

So, rather than argue and get too heavy about our disagreements, I just told them that we would have to agree to disgree about religion and focus on those things that we do agree on such as politics. I told them that my religion was the American Revolution; that the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights was my credo; that the Constitution was my Bible; and that I believed in the old-fashioned American virtues of self-sufficiency, self-discipline, independence and individual sovereignty. I joked that I was really just a born again flag-waving gun-toting red-blooded American redneck.

I called my first blog, "The State of Jefferson" because I live in that area which at one time thought of combining the southern counties of Oregon with the northern California counties and seceding from their respective states to form the State of Jefferson. Then I discovered another website called the State of Jefferson. It has a forum so I read that and started to realize that I had nothing in common with them. Most of it's members were either pie-in-the-sky libertarians or tree-hugging greenies and they all hated Bush, were anti-war and generally impractical and sounded like a bunch of spoilt brats. So I changed the name of my blog to "Born Again Redneck."

I did realize that some people with no sense of irony might not understand my humor and, to avoid confusing folks, I thought of calling my blog, "Born Again Redneck Fag" but I decided against that not because of the inevitable silly jokes about BARF but because I'm not particularly interested in talking about fag stuff. Out of the nearly 300 (292 to be exact) posts that I have made in the 6 months since I started this blog, only four have mentioned the subject.

The first was a post that I wrote, "Why I am against gay rights." It was written in response to an argument that I was having with some lefties on another blog. I had to make it clear that, while I was a fag, I did not approve either of the gay life-style or their leftist agenda. I also spelled out pretty clearly that it was not a topic I wanted to focus on not only because it was of no interest to most people but because it was actually the least important and least interesting part of who I am.

I made it clear that I thought the gay agenda was stupid and unnecessary and that my politics basically boiled down to: what's good for America is good for me and that, in face of the war on terror, leftist "special rights" politics seemed like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. In a subsequent post, I linked back to that original post in order to make my position clear. Then I made a post about Tammy Bruce called "Pat Robertson loves a lesbian." My most recent post that mentioned this subject was my jocular marriage proposal to Miss Peace Moonbeam which elicited comments such as:

A self described queer proposing to a woman. So it is not a born disease, it is a choice. You choose to be queer and then get miffed when conservative christians tell you that hell is your home. Your choice.

After looking through your site, I am thoroughly confused. I thought that the "born-again" part meant you were a Christian. I have spent the last few minutes reading things that are definitely not Christian. Seems to me that you should not use "God" in this site alongside posts that speak of homosexuality and other strange topics. I believe you too are confused.

Let me answer those comments.

Thanks for your comments. Actually, I don't "get miffed" when conservative christians tell me that "hell is your home." You can think and say whatever you want. Last time I checked it was still a free country. Also you are making assumptions about my private life that I would not dream of making about yours.

I never said I was a born again Christian. I'm a born again REDNECK. I guess neither of you noticed that I was joking. You either have no sense of humor or are suffering from an irony deficiency. The internet, like the real world, is full of lots of different kinds of people. Perhaps you don't like the idea of freedom and would like to make everyone conform to your concepts just like the Islamic totalitarians.

But I am wondering if should I change the name of my blog to BARF. ;)