Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Sometimes I'm Quietly Proud of My Little Rural State

A victory for "Don't Tread on Me", "It ain't hurtin' nobody" common-sense New England tolerance and respect yesterday, summed up with simple BBC eloquence:

"In other election results across the country:

Texas banned gay marriage, while Maine banned discrimination against homosexuals"


Actually Maine voted to uphold a state law that provides the same employment, housing, and other basic protections for all it citizens regardless of race, nationality, religion, or sexual orientation, but lets not quibble with the stark divide presented above. Don't like it, oh ye of excessive faith? Then forgive us and pray for us :) And frankly I'm not surprised at the Texas result; have you seen the interior design of Dallas' Southfork Ranch? Not much of a natural opposition constituency in the Lone Star State, desipite all that high school football and "cow punching".

I am also cheered by the news that 8 school board members in Pennsylvania who were demanding the inclusion of "intelligent design" on the science curriculum were defeated by pro-evolution candidates.

A good overview of the US off-year elections can be found here.

7 comments:

Jim said...

I was a bit worried going into yesterday's election, about Question 1. I thought the "yes" side had done a great job framing the question and I wasn't sure that the "no" folks had done enough. Apparently, sanity prevailed, however. I hope this puts the issue to rest, but I fear that we'll see this resurrected again. I was also pleased that questions 5 and 7 passed, as it will help to preserve much of what I see as unique about our "little rural state".

Sounds like you had a good time in the Big Apple this w/e?

Wisdom Weasel said...

Its all about how its pitched (well duh, Weasel). I think the Christian Civic League screwed their hate campaign up by dropping the lie "special rights" in favor of "gay marriage"- Mainers for the most part resent perceived special treatment or favoritism but don't care about things that they don't see as effecting them directly. Then again, that could all be bull and it might be a matter of demographics- all us flatlanders moving up and further liberalising the state.

I too am very happy about 5 and 7, especially as a coastal resident. We have to back the pressure off the waterfront and the woods- condos don't feed families.

NY was a blast: details to follow. Florida sounded sweet too, old pal.

Anonymous said...

Not really key to the debate, but given that I am currently stateside, and tootling merrily around the museums of the MidWest, check out this baby:

http://www.answersingenesis.org/museum/walkthrough

Jesus ass-botherin' Christ!

On a point of order, does exposing a nation's youth to such fancy count as a 'cruel and unusual punishment' and therefore violate the 8th Amendment?

After all bruvvas and sistas, the Word is (as Larry Blackmon once said), Up.

Wisdom Weasel said...

"Other surprises are just around the corner. Adam and apes share the same birthday. The first man walked with dinosaurs and named them all!

God’s Word is true, or evolution is true. No millions of years. There’s no room for compromise."

Ah, Kentucky. Nice find, cuz. This is all very post modern, really. If all science is relative, can we not find a place in the curriculum for a religion brought to my attention by RPS, Flying Spaghetti Monsterism? Its been doing the rounds for a few months, apparently and is spreading like wildfire.

Cousin Jim, where the hell are you? The midwest is, well, the bit in the middle, and thus rather bloody big.

Wes said...

How I love the simple eloquence and U.S.-mocking quips of the BBC.

Wisdom Weasel said...

Cynical superciliousness has surpassed agnosticism as Britain's national religion. I think of the BBC as the high church in that regard.

Anonymous said...

Ah indeed, Pastafarianism - that cropped up in the summer; v. slow on the uptake there Cuz.

Am returned just this afternoon to Blighty, after a brief sojourn in Milwaukee (dull, pleasing range of beer) and a week in Minneapolis (better than I'd imagined, and socially progressive in that way only smugly prosperous places can be). Looks like I escaped the snow just in time - And I thought the Scots took a perverse delight in the inhospitability of their landscape...

MainePages.com