From the buckle on the Bible Belt, a great LTTE

[onager]

This will take a minute to explain but has a great payoff, so bear with me...

The following letter to the editor appeared in the local newspaper yesterday, here in Upstate South Carolina.

Title of the letter was "Pickens County School Board Should Be Ashamed."

There's the wind-up...

The writer is personal friends with many schoolteachers in Pickens County. The School Board claims to be so broke, teachers have to buy their own paper and pencils. The writer was especially outraged when the obsolete laptop issued to one teacher quit working, and the teacher had to pay for the repair out of their own pocket.

However, as the writer points out: last year the school board found plenty of money - when it had to fight a lawsuit over its practice of opening school board meetings with Xian-only prayers.

And here's the pitch...

Quoting directly from the letter:

Remember, they spent $55,000 last year on lawyers for figuring out how to pray at their meetings. In March 2015, school board chairman Brian Swords said..."In the last two years, the School District of Pickens County has spent $55,000 and countless hours of debate trying to address this (prayer) issue."

But many teachers have to buy their own paper and pay to repair old antique computers they are given for school use. Nice going, school board! Way to rally behind your teachers!

And he KNOCKS IT OUT OF THE BALLPARK!

That $55,000 was wasted on an imaginary sky god and would buy quite a few new laptops and paper. Please spend taxpayers' money in the real world from now on.

This paper requires real names for its LTTE writers, but I have to wonder. This writer's name was "Beauregard Burnside." Which happens to be the last names of two famous Civil War generals, from the Confederacy and Union respectively. So I suspect he was having a little bit of a joke there. And keeping himself anonymous. A really good idea around here if you're going to argue against God/Jesus, as I myself have found out the hard way in the past.

[needledriver]

1. No that it has anything to do with the subject

But I do have a friend whose actual name is Jefferson Beauregard.

[Curmudgeoness]

2. You can't pull off an alias in our local paper.

There are times that I want to write a letter on certain subjects like this one, but you have to give name, address, and phone number, and they check. I have had calls before they will print my letters. One day, maybe I will try using an alias....all they can do it refuse to print it.

[mountain grammy]

3. Maybe the editor just wanted to print the letter

and didn't care that the writer wanted to remain anonymous. An honest editor will try to get the story out one way or another. we had an editor like that for a year. She quit printing the letters from the climate change hoaxers and Obama hating racists.

She did some good investigative reporting into special districts and how they spend money too. Really got people's attention and candidates for open seats started popping up all over the place. Amazing what a good local newspaper will do for the community. Unfortunately, she quit and the lousy paper is back to the same old shit.

[dflprincess]

4. Beauregard Burnside was the name of Auntie Mame's husband (in the movie of the same name)

As I recall his full name was Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside.

[progressoid]

6. Good catch.

Love that movie.

[dflprincess]

11. It's always been a favorite in my extended family

many of whom originally thought the character was based on my mother - even my grandfather was said to have left the theater muttering "It's <Mom's name>."

Pity Mom never had Auntie Mame's money. -- I did give some thought to putting the quote in your picture on her headstone. (BTW the Broadway quote was "poor bastards are starving to death" - but the censors wouldn't let the word be used in the movie.)

[onager]

9. That was a great catch, thanks!

That character's name is also interesting, with 3 Confederate generals for his first names followed by "Burnside."

For non-boring humans who pay no attention to this stuff: Ambrose Burnside was a spectacularly incompetent Union general in the Civil War. Who, unlike modern generals/politicians, at least admitted his incompetence - Burnside told Pres. Lincoln he was totally unfit to command the Army of the Potomac. Events proved him absolutely correct. His name lives on today in the word "sideburns."

Which reminds me - there's probably a good PhD thesis or something in the connection between fashion statements and military incompetence. IIRC, the two idiots most responsible for the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade were the Lords Cardigan and Raglan.

[beam me up scottie]

5. Living in the bible belt makes you appreciate atheists even more.

Especially ones like that!

You get so used to the bullshit that when someone actually tells it like it is it's like someone opening a window after a long stuffy winter indoors.

[Duppers]

7. Exactly!

Thanks.

[beam me up scottie]

10. You get so numbed to the idiocracy here it's startling when someone makes sense.

[JNelson6563]

8. That was great and love the name! :)