Tag: University of Mississippi

Oxpatch tussle in the political class?

After participating in the beat down of cross town rival Bay High last Friday night my son high tailed it to Oxpatch to watch his favorite team take on Johnny Manziel and Texas A&M. When he got home he told me the Grove was “Republican City” with Texas Gov Rick Perry, our own Gov Phil and even Mitt Romney. I was relieved to find out I was on the other end of the state down here in Soggy Bottom when the reptiles invaded.

Of course that would not make a proper post to Slabbed as Oxpatch is famous for attracting reptiles going back to the Presidential debate in the 2008 election so no news there folks. But Slabbed has several friends in low places including the Mississippi Rumor Monger who let me know there were congressional staffers and other political types in Oxford for the game last Saturday as well and that some of them were evidently not playing nicely with each other. Continue reading “Oxpatch tussle in the political class?”

Sound bites or sound reasoning – the first Presidential Debate

A battle lost or won is easily described, understood, and appreciated, but the moral growth of a great nation requires reflection, as well as observation, to appreciate it.

I ran across that quote in my files and thought about the 3000 or so reporters gathering in Oxford to cover the First Presidential Debate – the site itself a message of change.

We’re certain to see a lot of background on the violent integration of the University of Mississippi in 1962 – more than usual, of course, because of Barack Obama.  A recent editorial in the New York Times suggests race is very much in the race for President even when express references to race are not evident.

In the Old South, black men and women who were competent, confident speakers on matters of importance were termed “disrespectful,” the implication being that all good Negroes bowed, scraped, grinned and deferred to their white betters.

In what is probably a harbinger of things to come, the McCain campaign has already run a commercial that carries a similar intimation, accusing Mr. Obama of being “disrespectful” to Sarah Palin. The argument is muted, but its racial antecedents are very clear.

Clearly, the media will be listening closely to what the candidate have to say.  Everyone will.  Continue reading “Sound bites or sound reasoning – the first Presidential Debate”