Southerners are the most crazy, dysfunctional folks in the nation, perhaps in the world. I sometimes think that we love our guns so much because without them, we couldn't shoot ourselves in the foot so often and with such devastating consequences.

Along with the dysfunction, however, occasionally comes insight. You acquire it at the cost of leaving home and settling in a strange land for a time and then returning to live. That is the plot of the modern southern novel, and it is nothing more than a retelling of a journey that repeats itself in real life over and over. The south is a mother one must leave in order to grow up.

Joe Bageant has made that journey. Here is a recent interview of his on Australian TV:

Click here for video of Joe Bageant interview on Australian TV.

P.S. Posting will be infrequent for another week while I finish what I hope will be my last legal brief and become more proficient on the Dvorak keyboard.