I have returned from the Land of the Lost.

[Are_grits_groceries]

It is still lost.
Don’t know why I stayed away for so long.
I no longer speak to 95% of my family. I knew some would be MAGAts. I guessed about others. I had no idea that some were so devoid of empathy and had no moral compass. Trump exposed a lot.
That worm Lindsay Graham is still squirming about and is attached at the hip to Trump. The SC legislature wants to pass bills honoring Charlie Kirk and want to name a bridge after him. As you can see, they are still working on important issues.
If I post the word Smedley, they got me.
Grits

[bigtree]

1. first thought

god help you ... and welcome back.

[Are_grits_groceries]

2. Thanks!

The pic is fairly accurate.

[Brother Buzz]

3. The Prodigal Son returns!

[BlueSpot]

4. Welcome home

At some point, family is who you choose. If they share your blood, great. But if not, they're still your family.

Glad to see you back.

[Permanut]

5. Makes perfect senses to take a break..

from the chaos and the daily truckload of verbal vomit from Mango Mussolini and his minions.

Glad to see you.

[niyad]

6. Welcome back!!! You have been sorely missed!

[LoisB]

7. Welcome back.

[appleannie1]

8. My kids decided I was too old to live alone in a 5 bedroom house on 3 acres. My son in S. Car. bought me a house.

I now live near him. I moved from rural PA to South Carolina. It took over a year but I have found a few people that are sane and use their brains to think past "Oh, God Bless You Sweetie Pie" and then say "And pray for the President" to make friends with. There is not much difference between the two places except S. C. has more Baptist Churches.

[AverageOldGuy]

11. It's about Baptists

Protestants don't recognize the Pope as the head of their church. Jews don't recognize Jesus as the Messiah. Baptists don't recognize each other at the liquor store.

True story. We lived in Bristol TN/VA for 9 years. Bristol is the buckle of the Bible Belt. Bristol is in NE TN where Bristol, Johnson City, and Kingsport form a triangle known as the Tri-Cities. In all three of these cities there are literally, no shit, for real intersections where there's a church on all four corners. Every church has meetings on Wednesday night -- choir practice, "prayer meeting," youth group meetings, and potluck supper. Wednesday nights are the best time to go to the liquor store because the aisles are empty.

Lots of Baptist organizations have conferences in Nashville so they can go to the Grand Ole Opry then wander up and down 16th Avenue buying cheap shit. The Nashville hotels report a spike in in-room rentals of porn movies when the Baptists are in town.

[appleannie1]

12. Was raised Baptist till I was 8 and dunked in a Christion Church at age 13.

You forgot about how the women sit and whisper things like "She had that same dress on twice this month and twice last month. Her husband spends all their money on the devil's drink". or Look at that Mrs. Smith. I saw her talking to a man in front of the movie theater last Sat. night" "Little tart, she is". Meanwhile the pastor is helping the organist do more than pick hymns after choir practice. Oh yes. My dad was a bartender. The manager was woman. There were 'prayer meetings" in the apartment upstairs of the bar at least once a week and the only attendees were a minister and the manager of the bar. She sure got saved a lot. You hit the nail on the head.

[Are_grits_groceries]

13. "Bless their hearts"

“Bless your heart” is a very valuable phrase. If you haven’t yet, learn to use it.
It can mean anything from “I’m so sorry” to “F*** you.”
And those are Southern Baptist churches and that’s a whole different breed of cat.
I live in Florence which is the heart of something.

[AverageOldGuy]

9. We are Souhterners

I'm a Mississippi native, wife is an Alabama girl. In our 80's.

Grew up in the 1950's and '60's in the Jim Crow South. A young Black man working for my grandfather was lynched. The Freedom Rider bus was attacked and burned in sight of my wife's home.

We met in college in Alabama where we both marched in Selma, Montgomery, and Birmingham.

We left the South when we graduated from college and never looked back except for occasional returns for a funeral.

We have 2 sisters-in-law, 1 niece, 1 nephew, and 18 cousins living in Alabama and Mississippi. We talk to exactly 2 of the cousins and the one niece. The rest are dumb-as-dirt MAGAts.

We have blocked them on our phones, social media, and email. Talking to them is like listening to George Wallace proclaim "Segregation yesterday, segregation today, and segregation tomorrow!!" They worship Trump and Tommy Tuberville.

[AllyCat]

10. Welcome back!

Good to see you again!