Calling All Racists: It鈥檚 Poetry Contest Time!
Sharpen your pencil and summon your muse, it鈥檚 time for the annual 鈥淩edneck Poetry Contest.鈥
听
That鈥檚 right. The call has gone out for the best redneck rhymin鈥 around. And according to the entry form received by the Hatewatch staff, the winning poet will take home a 鈥渂rand new wood-fired deep-fry cooker suitable for everything from turkeys to [T]winkies.鈥
But before you start, a word of warning: If last year鈥檚 winner is any indication, the competition will be stiff. That charming entry pulled off the hat trick by smearing blacks and Latinos and threatening castration 鈥斕齛n incredible feat achieved in only 28 words. Here鈥檚 the winning entry:
鈥淚n Texas we鈥檙e flooded with B------
鈥淭hat鈥檙e no good even for cleaners
鈥淭hey鈥檙e nothin鈥 but lackies
鈥淎nd worse than the b-------
鈥淪o now we cut off their wieners!鈥
The entry form offers little information about the organizer. But it asks would-be poets to send their entries to one Bob Livingston at P.O. Box 3623, Hueytown, Ala., 35023. That address provides an interesting glimpse of the possible organizer and some of the favorite conspiracy theories and topics of the antigovernment 鈥淧atriot鈥 movement. The listed post office box is also offered as a means to contact Personal Liberty Digest, a website where someone identified as Bob Livingston has warned that vaccines are useless and dangerous and has written about the Bilderberg Group, a favorite target for the Patriot movement and other far-right conspiracy theorists.
鈥淭hese are the New World Order folks,鈥 Liberty Digest鈥檚 Livingston writes.
Responding to requests for comment, a woman who identified herself as a representative of Livingston said he was out of town and not available for comment. The Personal Liberty Digest website describes Livingston as 鈥渁n ultra-conservative American who has been writing a newsletter for 41 years. Bob has devoted much of his life to research and the quest for truth on a variety of subjects.鈥
That quest for truth apparently led him to author the book, How to Survive the Collapse of Civilization, a tome that has been hawked via an E-mail from the right-wing WorldNetDaily news site. That E-mail warns that terrorists could attack the U.S. power grid with an electromagnetic pulse device that 鈥渃ould throw America into the dark ages in a split second.鈥 As the book鈥檚 name implies, techniques to survive a terrorist attack, a 鈥済lobal epidemic鈥 and social unrest are offered.
The book鈥檚 author also apparently edits 鈥淭he Bob Livingston Letter,鈥 a 鈥減rivately circulated鈥 newsletter that offers, according to its website, 鈥渟ecret health and investment strategies 鈥 long used by the wealthy, but CENSORED by the government.鈥
A 2006 issue offered a yearly subscription to the newsletter containing these great secrets for $65 or $6 for a single issue 鈥 although the website shows the standard rate for a yearly subscription is now only $59. The same Hueytown post office box as that used for the poetry contest is offered as an address for the 2006 issue. And it appears that post office box is still the address offered in a 2010 issue.
At the bottom of the 2006 issue鈥檚 front page is an interesting mission statement of sorts: 鈥淪ince 1969, we have been reaching out to awaken sleeping Christians to the glorious gospel of grace. God has blessed us. He has shown us his kingdom. Therefore we have a Christian responsibility to help others see the kingdom of God.鈥
There鈥檚 no mention how honoring poets threatening the castration of Latinos fits into the gospel.