A new state song

Readers of Goat Rope may recall that El Cabrero has launched an unofficial campaign to change the state motto of WV from "Mountaineers are always free" to "You can't make this **** up." I haven't gotten it on the state seal yet, but I'm told these things take time.

Earlier this week, whilst on a daylong road trip, an idea for another state song came to mind. Our main one is one I like, "The West Virginia Hills." Recently, "Take Me Home, Country Roads" as popularized by John Denver, gained semi-official status as well. Aside from the fact that the scenery it describes in the first verse applies mainly to Virginia, I'm not too crazy about that one.

My more serious nominee for at least semi-official song status seems particularly fitting when you consider our recent and more distant past, with things like chemical spills, mine disasters, industrial accidents, exploitation, and poverty. It's Bruce Springsteen's Badlands. Here's the chorus:

Badlands, you gotta live it everyday
Let the broken hearts stand
As the price you've gotta pay
We'll keep pushin' till it's understood
and these badlands start treating us good

I'm still pushing--and so are plenty of my friends and comrades. We haven't quite got there yet.

SPEAKING OF BADLANDS, here's an interesting essay on some and the economy that made them that way.

BAD ECONOMICS. Here's one from Krugman on how we took the wrong path.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Born in the USA

Happy Beltane, May Day and International Workers' Day! The first was a Celtic holy day. The second was a traditional European spring festival with (perhaps largely unconscious) pagan overtones. You could even say it was kind of Freudian...can you say May poles and fertility?

As for International Workers' Day, folks, especially in the Cold War era, associated it with Soviet communism and the militaristic parades that used to fill Red Square in Moscow. It might be good to recall that the May Day labor celebration grew out of efforts to establish the eight hour workday right here in the USA. It was only later that the day was adopted by the international labor and socialist movement.

I SUPPOSE THIS IS PART OF THE "WAR ON COAL TOO? The Obama administration is tightening up black lung regulations.

WANT TO BE MORE CREATIVE? Take a walk.

URGENT POSSIBLY EXPLODING DEAD WHALE UPDATE here.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Feeling witchy?

Image by way of wikipedia.

If you are, maybe it's because tonight is Walpurgisnacht, which in some northern European countries was a festival accompanied by bonfires, dancing and pagan overtones. The name comes from the fact that May 1 is the feast of St. Walpurga, an English missionary to the Franks in the 700s.

Walpurga herself wasn't witchy, of course, but the time of year was, as in exactly six months from Halloween or All Saint's Day. In German folklore--and in Goethe's Faust Part I--it is the night of the witches' sabbath, where they knew a thing or two about partying.

While we're on a literary jag, Walpurgisnacht is also mentioned in Bram Stoker's eerie story Dracula's Guest, which didn't make it to the novel. Some weird things happened then too.

Alas, the weather is pretty wet at Goat Rope Farm today, so I wouldn't hold out much hope for a bonfire.

And don't forget: if tonight is Walpurgisnacht, that means tomorrow is the Celtic holiday Beltane!

POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY? Click here.

INFOGRAPHIC? Click here.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: FLYING ON A BROOM

Here's a shock

Not. First, a top coal industry lobbyist doesn't really want to talk much about climate change. I didn't see that one coming.

And here's another shock: as my pal Sean O'Leary in the eastern panhandle points out, the industry doesn't want to talk much about how the market is doing way more to hurt WV coal than the EPA or the black guy with the unusual name in DC.

And this might be a shock to the majority in the US House who vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act about as often as Lady Macbeth washed her hands: poll numbers supporting it are going up, even in Republican districts. More people are inclined to "implement and fix" rather than "repeal and replace."