Emporia, KS - that's what I mean whenever I talk about Home. As in, "back home we had real weather," or, "back home we at least had a public education system that worked." But at this point it's been a great number of years since I'd really taken the time to go back for a visit for more than a day or so and even then it's been due to funeral or whatnot. It's kind of silly I know, but one of the biggest reasons I hadn't gone back was just out of pure embarassment.

When I'd left, Kansas was a nice livable place. Sure they had more than a few churches along the bible belt, but it was a nice place to bring up a family or to grow up, get an education, and generally use it as a launching pad to do whatever else you wanted to do. There was also the oddballs, like the preacher from Topeka that'd wander through town ranting about pornography (picketing random 7-11s because of their playboys), about the satanic elements of Dungeons and Dragons, or other similar antics. But at the time we all knew he was nuts and just left him rant away until he got tired and went home.

But now there's stupid crap left right and center. Ok, mostly to the right. As in far right. The kind of right that gets a bit uncomfortable because Rush Limbaugh is a bit too liberal and free loving. Yea, I'll admit that when I was in high school I was a Republican, and still have my ol party card somewhere, but I'd gotten into it because of the "government is best that governs least" anti-federalist ideas. I rather must have missed the memo that has the add-on language that says "…except in cases of morality, ethics, and anything that's not like us." Now the state is so Red that the notion of going back just feels dirty. I'd feel less so if I went to Mississippi and hung out at a cross burning and tractor pull - at least they don't have any pretense of being anything other than what they are - the good ol boys there know they're nothing more than low grade rednecks. But what's the excuse of the rest of the heartland? The ones that now sit back and say, oops, maybe Bush was an idiot and that the Iraq war might just happen to have not been thought through before jumping into it.

Yea, there's a lot of good people back there, but they're also the ones that are the laughing stock from around the world by causing the Flying Spaghetti Monster to have to be brought up in schools because they thought that Intelligent Design was a concept. If I tried to convince my professors that anything is true if you can't prove it to be false, I would have gotten the F that I deserved. Oh wait, you don't give F's anymore because it'll make someone feel bad.

What ever happened to the middle ground. The one that had christmas programs if a community wanted one, but also allowed for other programs as well if they wanted it. The ones where you had to have a detailed background check to buy a gun, but once passed you could have whatever you wanted. There's too much all or nothing if you ask me. Too much black or white.

Fundamentalists of any color are by definition illogical and mostly crazy. Maybe if I don't stop for very long I can avoid being dragged into a born again revivial and army recruiting drive. I miss home. I just don't think the one I left is still there…