While society today is phony and corrupt, I try to be honest and real.

When I say something in The Last Word, it's over with, so I won't try to justify every word I've ever said in the past 16 years. But I will say The Last Word - as a true voice of the political left - stands for justice and the truth.

You may have heard lies and distortions about me over the years, so allow me to clarify why I do what I do. There's also been a lot of inflammatory, idiotic crap under my name or that of The Last Word that was written by assholes impersonating me, and the record has to be set straight on that too.

Though it has some humorous pieces, The Last Word has long been a champion of social justice. Unfortunately there's a lot of asswipes out there who are just like the spoiled brat in school who always goaded you into fighting them just so they could see you get busted - and The Last Word has gotten me in heaps of trouble, not just from the usual trash-talking right-wing suspects but also from supposedly educated milquetoast "liberals" (who are actually anything but liberal), who think The Last Word is beneath them. If they're so fucking educated, how come they've never educated themselves about the long-term effects of being treated as a second-class citizen (as I was)? Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and when I'm pushed, I push back. Fair is fair.

I can browse the Internet for a day and learn as much as I learned in 18 years in the "modern" American school system. Quality of education - not quantity - matters.

What I do is tell the truth about things. I realized I couldn't allow myself to be pushed around any longer, so I tell it like it is. I won't tell you what you want to hear. I'll tell you the truth.

During my battles of '96, I got fed up - so yeah, I was forced to play by the lax rules that govern my enemies. To cut through my foes machete-like, there was a local urban legend published on my state highway log. It wasn't in The Last Word, which I take too seriously for such games, but some "upstanding" local citizens had unleashed their rage on me for over a decade, and in response I tried to get their goat - even though what I said wasn't even meant to be taken seriously, except by my local enemies, because I love watching them squirm. Anyway, I don't know if they saw what I wrote, or what they thought about it, so fuck them.

I'd be happy to compare my commitment to truth with that of personal foes or right-wing media talking heads. I'm confident I'm on much higher ground than them.

When I say I'm a champion of truth and justice, I mean it. I'm a good ol' Kentucky populist. I'm not like that one asshole who bragged on his webpage about what a big populist he was, even though he was somewhere to the right of Dan Quayle. There aren't many of us populists on the Internet - since we're always getting censored, as my own experience proves - so I have to fight harder.

Because I'm from a working-class background, I'm a proud defender of working people, and I'm a strong opponent of union-busting. I stand firmly against abuses by Big Business.

I also stand strongly against racism, the Bush regime, and the Iraq War.

Since the 1980s, America has evolved into a fascist police state where it seems every move is watched by an elaborate spy network. I've long been an outspoken critic of this trend.

The Last Word is the voice of the beleaguered working class. I'm one of the many who are so forgotten by the government and media that I wasn't even counted in the census. Officially, I don't even exist.

I've been pushed around so long that what I've often done for years is simply pound out ideas in a fit of fury. The good part of this? It gets things done. I don't fuck around. Some things published in The Last Word in earlier years would be way over the heads of today's brainwashed sheep, so what I'm saying here probably is too - but if you're a person who's stood strong against the rising tide of oppression, then you catch my drift.

The attitude of the assholes who have attacked me is: We hate you, but will you please love us in return?

I won't go away. I'll keep fighting until some sanity is restored to America - even if I become the world's last remaining populist.

Are you a weary fan of truth and justice? Send me your comments.