May 27, 2004

• I used to live in Tyler and there are a lot of *very* conservative religious people there. Why am I not surprised this came from that area?
• I'm in South Carolina, and I don't remember inviting these guys to come in and take over.
• We live in strange days. Didn't the last Civil War start there?
• Indeed it did. Probably at least part of the reason for the choice.
• Us secular humanists should get our shit together and follow in their footsteps. Can we call dibs on the West Coast? From Alaska down to the Mexicali border? If the idea didn't make me giggle, I'd be up for forming the fundamentalist middle ground party.
• They still call it "The War of Northern Aggression" in South Carolina. And they are still extremely bitter about losing.
• But he admits if the federal government decides to use military force to stop the effort, "Then it can't happen." Give me freedom to deny freedom to others or give me death! Uh, if that's ok with you....
• It looks like they've adopted the Bush administration's postwar policy, too: For now, Burnell prefers to shy away from specifics on the precise laws governing the country. "Independence first, details later," he says. Yeah, sure, I'd trust you. Bet it'd be soooooooo democratic.
• Christian exodus.
• Sometimes secession does work, though, as evidenced by the inventor of the Segway scooter. He even signed a treaty with the US.
• I'd gladly let them secede if it included cutting all ties, economically, socially, and infrastructurally. Basically, once they cross the state line, wall them in, burn the bridges, cut the power lines and treat them like Cuba (except more hands off than Cuba).
• Really, I don't see why those people leaving would be a bad thing. (yes, I said "those people." Ugottaproblemwiththat?) It's like the t-shirt says: "I can't wait for the Rapture. All the Christians will be gone!"
• *sits back, imagines the US without fundamentalist bigots* AND I SAAAAAYYY TO MYSELF, WHAT A WOOONDERFUUUUL WOOOOOOOORLD.
• It's actually a good point, drivingmenuts. The Economist did an article last year that noted that the loud "public virtue", anti-welfare religious types that are the base of the modern Republican party predominantly come from the welfare states (the net leeches on Federal monies), and that said states also typically have higher divorce, drug abuse, domestic and other violence problems than the much reviled "liberal" states like California and New York. Who, incidentally, are also the net economic providers in the US. So going on the evidence, the people involved in these sorts of exodus movements are likely to create a economic and social shithole for themselves. Let them seceede; they'll look more like Haiti than their imagined Pleasantvile utopia.
• Three small points: 1. Not all fundie wingnuts live in the south. Look around, there are probably some near you right now. 2. No state will ever secede from the US. Ever. 3. I have lived in the south my whole life, and have never heard anyone refer to the Civil War as "The War of Northern Aggression."
• Oh, and I think we should make a big sign that says "Don't let the door hit your a** on the way out!".
• [...] never heard anyone refer to the Civil War as "The War of Northern Aggression." I was born and raised in deep Dixie. My father called the war "The War of Yankee Aggression," but as a joke.
• What i.f.u. said. I too live in the South, and have never heard that phrase used. There may be some old hillbilly in some backwater that still calls it that, but there ain't many. However, you will meet the occasional good ol' boy who will tell you, if asked, that the Civil War was largely about states' rights, and not slavery. (Most of these men are octogenarians, but they are still to be found here and there.)
• Here in Illinois, we refer to that war as the "War of Throwing A Big Fucking Net Over a Bunch of Traitorous Wretches."
• Let them go. One generation of isolation (what nation in their right mind would actually want to establish political, economic, or cultural relationship with this bunch of regressive, hyper-proselytizing imbeciles?) and they'll come crawling back on their ricket-warped knees to beg "secular" America (you know, the folks who actually make this country's economy run) to take them back into the fold. Unless Jesus comes back. Then we're all fucked.
• Apologies to the collective for the vitriol of my post, but these sorts of blatant calls for cultural Balkanization infuriate me. They represent a fundamental willingness to destroy the very foundations of the American experiment, and by extension, express a naked contempt for the principles which allowed (and still allow) generations of Americans to improve their lot...
• I don't know about "War of Northern Aggression", but I knew a number of people in Atlanta who pointedly referred to it as the "War Between the States".
• Doesn't it strike you that this would be a really good way to make money? Though they didn't say it, as far as I remember, in the article, don't they need cash to buy property to make sure the faithful are grouped together? Plus, they could make a profit on reselling what they bought. If they could qualify as a non-profit, their tax liability would be pretty rosy, and the people who donated could get a tax deduction. And, if they went into the construction business, yet more profit. On the other hand, they could just solicit donations and go away with the first profits. I don't think even the dumbest of the Free Staters really think they can take over a state or three and succeed from the Union. This is way more sophisticated than the Nigerian emails which, hard as it is to believe, get people to sign up, but it's no less of a scam, IMO.