Feudalism

Feudalism is alive and well in Kentucky. I know, it's widely known that connections are what matters in getting ahead, and the value of a degree from a school like Harvard is mainly valuable in terms of the connections that you make, and not in the knowledge gained from your courses. Hillbillies carry the concept to a new level, like they do with everything else they touch.
To the hillbilly, kin is everything. When you first arrive in hillbilly land, one of the things that the more observant notice is that there are family names that run all the way to high offices in Frankfort. These same families have kin that are in and out of the local jail on a regular basis. Now, in a normal place, this wouldn't be a big deal. You'd have two branches of a family that took different life paths and the family branch that "made it" would be rightly embarrassed of the branch that didn't. That's not quite the case in Eastern Kentucky.
In Eastern Kentucky, kin is everything. So the drug dealing branch still has connections with the political office class. It's kind of like the mob, only they control law enforcement and the courts. That, boys and girls, is called feudalism.
I should have known the first time I called law enforcement here and the first question they asked was, "whose kin are you, and whose kin are you calling on". You see, without knowing the family connections, how could anyone be expected to know which law applied. Silly me, I always thought that there was one set of laws, but you soon learn differently in Kentucky.
If you want to witness feudalism first hand, come to rural Kentucky.

More On The Welfare Crowd

In the last installment, the welfare crowd was breaking into my vacant house, squatting there, and stealing things. I went back there yesterday to fix the hole in my wall that they left when they pulled out the air conditioner and found a new level of insanity had started.
First, they are very cleanly squatters. They always pick up after themselves. There is just enough movement of the items in the house, so that you know someone has been there. They even fold and replace the blankets on the bed they are sleeping in.
The really strange thing, is that items are now reappearing in the house. Not the expensive stuff like the air conditioner or the bicycle, but little things. Specifically, the dog bowls they stole and 3 pieces of firewood. Seriously? Why would anyone return those items?
The freaky part is the fact that when I returned home, my realtor called and told me that someone had put an offer on the house for $22,000. Now, since the house has been on the market for over 2 years and has only had one other offer, and since similar houses in the area are selling for around $70,000, the timing and the amount just seem suspicious. 

Welfare People

The welfare people of Appalachia form a unique and distinctive breed. They also form a violent cancer in society. I'm not speaking of city folk on welfare here. I know little of them. I'm talking about their country cousins.
It looks like I'm headed into bankruptcy soon, because the local welfare types have decided that the house I have up for sale is theirs, and I can't afford to pay $600 a month to give them a place to squat.

Here is a view from my driveway of a standard hillbilly welfare cluster. No, I didn't buy into this neighborhood. When I bought the house in 2005, it had older people and young families. Then the patriarch of the family died, the young families all divorced, and the drug/welfare crowd arrived. It happened over the course of a couple of years. I never realized that hill families relied on their patriarchs so much, but here's the proof. 

Anyway, it's all about clan for these folk, like it's all about gang for their city cousins. Let me explain what you are looking at. The mobile homes you see are owned by some relative or other. You see, everyone is related to everyone, and if you have land, instead of selling or renting, you let your welfare relations live there. You arrange a payment schedule from their welfare check under the table and it's win-win. You get tax free money and an army of minions. The minions get a really cheap place to stay, and with their welfare checks and benefits, free food and utilities, a pretty good lifestyle. You can't really see it, but the cars in the driveway are all late model. 

Now comes the fun part. There are probably at least 8 adults living in these buildings. And no, you're not going to get a count. Aside from the fact that they lie, this is the area where the census worker was found dangling from a tree. These people don't like questions. Welfare will pay you more for each child up to a maximum of 6. So, since they are unwilling to work, each pair of adults can be counted on to have 4 - 6 children. That adds up to a lot of people. 

Now for the part that would be amusing if it weren't happening to me. I went to check on the house the other day, and found that it had been broken into and an air conditioner had been torn out of the wall. Every time I go there, they seem to show up the next day and do enough damage to let it be known they are there. Naturally, my realtor is afraid to go there anymore. It's annoying and no one is going to buy a house that is constantly being robbed by the neighbors. 

I called the local sheriff, and not getting a response the state police. When I arrived, the neighbors all stood there and glared. When I called the sheriff (and understand these people all have police scanners) they stood there and glared. When I called the state police, within 10 minutes, 3 different cars sped up to first house, filled up with people and drove off. They left a preteen boy. You can't see him, but he's under the tree in the center. He went and sat under the tree with a cell phone and watched the house until I left about 90 minutes later. And, no, he wasn't alone, there was an adult watching him from inside, so he had backup. I swung back 5 minutes later just to see  and the neighbors were coming back. So, I have about 20 people, with no jobs and nothing better to do, just watch my house and see what damage they can cause. That puts them at a great advantage. Of course, if I even try to talk to them, I'll get 20 people swearing that I'm violent and the sheriff will be there within 5 minutes. And people wonder why I'd rather live in a world without police. They are really counter productive at the moment. 

The state police called after a half hour and took a statement,. They weren't willing to come out and take fingerprints either, but that's understandable. They can't really get a conviction unless the value is over $500, and they were 1 trooper, who was 70 miles away. I wasn't willing to wait 4 hours until he could get there, and he wasn't to keen on the idea either. At least he called back. 

The sheriff? About 7 hours later, my wife posted about the incident and lack of response on facebook. Remember, everyone is related to everyone in the county and connected via facebook. The sheriff called and took a statement within 5 minutes. 

Really? The sheriff responding more quickly to facebook than a call to dispatch. That pretty much tells you what you need to know about him.

So I have the sheriff, who will only respond to the calls of the welfare people. The state troopers, who are rare and busy, and 20 people who are out to seize my property and have nothing better to do. What chance do I have?

By seize I mean get the house into forclosure. Then the bank sells the house at auction. The only bank that will really give a loan on the house is run by the rich part of the family, so, they will set the price. Thus the usefulness of minions. 

More On The Death Watch

A couple of posts ago, I wrote about how there were some "important" families around here and that things tended to always happen to benefit their clans, including the deaths of their opponents.

Here is an old story along the same lines. It also shows how the press here obfuscates the truth. It concerns the death of the sheriff one county over.

https://www.odmp.org/officer/16249-sheriff-samuel-wilson-catron

What the news story tells you is that an assassin shot and killed the sheriff, one of the deputies who was running against him was indicted, and two of the people involved got life sentences. It's like they're trying to avoid telling the truth on the issue.

The local story fills in the blanks. The deputy really wanted to be sheriff, but he didn't have a chance of winning the election. He therefore hired a criminal to shoot the sheriff and since he was the only other person running, he gets the job. He would have gotten away with it too, except he hired someone who was stupid enough to actually show himself after the assassination to see if he really got the sheriff. Then when he was caught, he squealed on the deputy immediately. The speed at which the local criminal class around here turns snitch is amazing. If the deputy had hired a more intelligent hit man or hired him through a third party, he would have gotten away free and clear.

Imagine a place where law enforcement acts this way, then imagine how the rest of Kentucky acts. Is a death watch surrounding the top families really so fantastic?

From the Mouths of Babes

One of the nice things about having connections in the educational establishment is that students say the most amusing things. I was talking to a middle school teacher the other day (middle school consists of grades 6 - 8, about age 11 - 13) who related the following story:

They were discussing the government and were explaining that they lived in a dry county. A dry county is one where the sale of alcohol is forbidden. Why a state that is famous for whiskey production has more dry counties than any other in the United States seems hypocritical, but it is typical Kentucky. Anyway, the teacher was explaining that they lived in a dry county, so you couldn't buy alcohol there. One of the students immediately replied, "Sure you can. Just go to the trailer park down town and go to the third trailer on the left".

The really amusing part was that a lot of the students seemed to know about this. Now if 11 - 13 year olds know this, you'd expect the police to as well. Especially since a trailer park in the South is hardly a private space. But that's Kentucky. The law can be incredibly blind depending on who your are and whose interests are served.

Kentucky Colonels

The above is the license plate of a Kentucky Colonel. What is a Kentucky Colonel, you may ask. The Colonels are listed as a voluntary, philanthropic organization. In order to become a Colonel, you must be nominated by a current Colonel and then appointed by the governor. The appointment is supposed to be for some philanthropic work that has benefited the people of the state.
Personally, I don't know of any philanthropic works actually done by the Colonels I run across. Rather, it's more of an I'm connected and important type of thing. Now I ask you, in a state that has been nominated for most corrupt in the country, is it a good idea to give one class of people a special license plate that proclaims them politically connected all the way up to the governor? It sounds more like a get out of tickets plate than anything else. 

Hating Ohio, part 2

Recently, I came across an article in the news about neighbors being up in arms in a certain part of New York because the local mosque blared the call for prayer so loudly that it could be heard for 20 blocks. That's a little over a mile. Now, I'm all for putting restrictions on the mosque. After all, America isn't a Muslim country, and one must try to be polite to the neighbors. If you read back over my blog, you'll see that I've complained about Christians doing the same.
But the tale here is about hating Ohio again. This last weekend, I got to listen to horrible, top 40 country music coming from the boats racing along the river. Yes, I do mean racing. You see, when an 18 foot boat tows a water skier, the noise isn't that bad. Now, double the size of the boat. The noise more than doubles. Now, instead of one boat, make it 4 or 5. Now, since they all like music, put on speakers you can hear over the engine so the skier gets to listen to the music. I live a mile from the river, and I can hear the songs at the same volume as I play my TV at.
The only difference is that the mosque broadcasts 5 times a day, while the idiots on the lake run for 16 hours straight.