You gotta love them

[andrewducker]

There's a _wonderful_ diatribe at http://www.fuckthesouth.com/ that's well worth reading, if only for the amusing stats.

Let’s talk about those values for a fucking minute. You and your Southern values can bite my ass because the blue states got the values over you fucking Real Americans every day of the goddamn week. Which state do you think has the lowest divorce rate you marriage-hyping dickwads? Well? Can you guess? It’s fucking Massachusetts, the fucking center of the gay marriage universe. Yes, that’s right, the state you love to tie around the neck of anyone to the left of Strom Thurmond has the lowest divorce rate in the fucking nation. Think that’s just some aberration? How about this: 9 of the 10 lowest divorce rates are fucking blue states, asshole, and most are in the Northeast, where our values suck so bad. And where are the highest divorce rates? Care to fucking guess? 10 of the top 10 are fucking red-ass we're-so-fucking-moral states. And while Nevada is the worst, the Bible Belt is doing its fucking part.

Comments

[derumi.livejournal.com]

http://www.divorcemag.com/statistics/statsUS2.shtml
http://wid.ap.org/campaign2004/041006catholics.html

That actually has to do more with the higher numbers of Catholics in those low divorce-rate areas than anything else, I think. Check Louisiana's ranking, for instance.

FWIW, my sister was never divorced, despite having married another man. As far at the Catholic Church is concerned, that first marriage was annuled. You think that'll skew the statistics some?

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I'm deeply amused. I've lived in the Midwest Bible Belt and have visited the South and the attitudes common in both places are definitely worthy of mockery.

[birdofparadox.livejournal.com]

Just remember, quite a number of us are rather sensible folk.

[birdofparadox.livejournal.com]

conversely, there's this: http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=5652

[darkoshi]

well, funny. the article ducker linked to links to another that says:
In 1996, the U.S. murder rate was 7.4 per 100,000 people. The rate that same year state by state showed 12 of the 20 states with the highest murder rates are in the South.

States topping the list of murders per 100,000: Louisiana (17.5), Mississippi (11.1), Alabama (10.4), Tennessee (9.5) and South Carolina (9.0).

while the one you linked to says:
Bush USA also is far safer, its murder rate being about 16% of the homicidal binge that plagues Gore/Kerry USA--2.1 per 100,000 residents, compared with 13.2 per 100,000 (from a study by Professor Joseph Olson, Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota).

Makes me sort of want to see a state-by-state breakdown. I have a feeling the writer of the 2nd article may have just averaged the murder rates for the "Bush" states instead of calculating it based on populations...

[darkoshi]

oh, and WOOT! - If that's right, we've here got the 5th highest murder rate in the nation!!! (Got to be cheerful about something...)

[birdofparadox.livejournal.com]

it is.... i'm really just sickened and don't want to be associated with the factions that prompted either editorial.

I'm a big ol' tree-hugging, feminist liberal, and while I wish I lived in a blue state because I'd feel like caring wasn't utter futility, I think reactionary, extremist views like both of these articles only makes the situation worse. As a liberal, I wish I didn't have neo-cons foisting their values into laws that govern a country of varying views that deserve representation and consideration. However, throwing tantrums and name-calling isn't going to do anything but make conservatives so angry, they will continue to utterly disregard our values, beliefs and desires.

Overall, I wish the realm of politics less resembled the grade school playground, with its ridiculous insults and equally noisome "go play somewhere else if you don't like it," mentality.

[autodidactic.livejournal.com]

Can I be Scottish next time?

A.

Tired of over simplifications

[hfnuala.livejournal.com]

Mass has also got one or two catholics...

[lilitufire.livejournal.com]

I'm not up on which states have quickie divorces, but could that also skew the stats some?

[derumi.livejournal.com]

Only slightly. Nevada has both quickie marriages and quickie divorces. And is mostly non-Catholic. Guess what's the #1 state for divorce rate?

Vitrolic, Pathetic

[sammy1996.livejournal.com]

Neal Pollack sticks up for the South:

http://www.nealpollack.com/cgi-bin/blog/do.cgi/200411101441/permalink

Don’t Fuck The South [Nov 10, 2004]

I know I promised I wouldn’t post again this week, but I’ve been
receiving emails all day about this site
[http://www.fuckthesouth.com/],
because people think I’ll find it “funny.” Well, it’s not funny. The
writer makes some valid points about how the South seems to get a
disproportionate amount of federal pork. That, I’ll give him. But as
for
the rest of his (or her) argument, I can say one word: Nonsense.

The South isn’t the only region of the country that is over-pious about
its churchgoing and aggressive in trumpeting its “values.” You can find
equal culprits all over the country. This isn’t a regional conflict
we’re in, it’s an intellectual one, and people live on both sides of
the
debate in every state. Northern stereotypes about the South are
snobbish
and annoying. Enough already!

I was born in Memphis, grew up in Phoenix, got married in Nashville,
went on my honeymoon in North Carolina, and live in Austin. Many dear
friends grew up in and still reside below the Mason-Dixon Line. The
South is diverse. It’s varied. And yes, it’s ignorant in many ways. But
I’ve never lived in a more segregated place than Chicago, the epitome
of
a great Northern city, and have never seen as much concentrated poverty
and injustice in this country as when I lived in Philadelphia, the
birthplace of our Constitution. So spare me the superiority rap.

The south gave us Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Michael Jordan, Hank
Williams, Tennessee Williams, fried chicken, Gone With The Wind, Truman
Capote, pecan pie, barbecue, Mark Twain, and manned flight. The list
goes on and on. Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were both from
Virginia, both founding fathers and both gun-toting slave owners. If
you
say ‘fuck the South,” you’re saying fuck Nashville and Charlotte and
Charleston, and Atlanta, and Austin, and New Orleans, and Athens,
Georgia, the city that gave us the B52s and R.E.M. and...OK, well, fuck
R.E.M. But that has nothing to do with the South.

I assume this person is a Democrat. The last three Democratic
Presidents
came from Texas, Georgia, and Arkansas, respectively. I say this to all
of you who think it’s funny and wise to say “fuck the South.” If you
fuck the South, you’re fucking yourselves.

I add:

Perhaps the South-basher should read Jimmy Carter’s new book about the Revolutionary War. Most of the battles were in the South, and the war was won in the South. Other than the battle of Yorktown, most of the famous battles and martial events (e.g. Valley Forge, Battle of Trenton) were Northern failures, small gains, or merely symbolic acts like the Boston Tea Party. History only tells the Northern half of the Revolution. Perhaps we need more Southern revisionism.

I tend to ignore most people who express this writer’s sentiments unless I am stuck in close quarters with them. Still, many times when I am in the Northeast, I am dumbfounded not by arrogance or condescension towards the South. I am used to that. What strikes me is the complete lack of knowledge about or experience with the South, the stereotypes that they would consider grossly unfair if applied elsewhere, and the lack of interest in learning anything or in challenging their positions. It is hard to reach out to arrogant people and to sore losers, especially when they claim a high level of worldliness, but have very little idea what they are talking about.