HAINTS!

Welcome to Haint Week at Goat Rope. Now some flatland readers--and maybe even some fellow hillbillies that ain't been raised right--may want to ask what, exactly is a haint?

Well, let's see. According to the Reflexive Property of Haintness, a haint is a haint, so if you see one, that's what it is. More precisely, a haint is that which haunts so if it's haunted, you got a haint.

It seems like an appropriate theme for Halloween Week.

El Cabrero's beloved state of West Virginia has more than its share of haints. There are some pretty good collections of local haint lore. One of the best is the late folklorist Ruth Ann Musick's The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales, which I devoured in elementary school.

I'm not sure what I'd say if asked point blank if I believe in haints. Some days, I don't even believe in the multiplication tables. But basically I think we live in a wild, open universe and that Hamlet was right about there being more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophies, Horatio.

I will venture this much: I think the quality of hauntedness or even sacredness has more to do with places than with spectral beings. More about that tomorrow...

CHECK THIS OUT. It's a very interesting article from the NY Times Magazine about the current state of the religious right.

US LABOR MAKES INTERNATIONAL APPEAL. The AFLCIO has filed a complaint with the International Labor Organization over the anti-union bias of Bush's NLRB.

KISS THOSE POLAR BEARS GOODBYE. Here's a good but grim one on the future of coal.

MEDIA MADNESS. Here's an interview with Paul Krugman about the right wing media.

THE RACIST MIND. Is it different? Maybe. Note: Spinoza came up with basically the same answer in the 1600s.

UPDATE ON MEGAN WILLIAMS CASE. The Charleston Black Ministerial Alliance is the latest group which has decided not to support a march planned by out of state groups. Others include the state NAACP and the Logan County Improvement League.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED