Okay, I'll take a swing at this, but I'm going to have a more constructive-destructive approach to this, instead of what I used to do "Bash one, praise one" motto.
To Californio Sur: Ordinarily, I'm a fan of your posts, you really stay on the bright side of things, and it's admirable. But this thread, don't take it offensively, but after reading multiple threads you've made and some of you your posts, you highly emphasize on the importance of "converting to liberalism through the transition of republican to democrat" that's fine, but you emphasize a great deal on one sided politics in evaluation which place is more ideal, as far as any observations have gone, this thread is entirely pointless, and I know you're not trying to make any state look bad, but I have an idea in mind this thread was more about your political views to "get people to open their eyes why a democratic state is more successful than a Republican one". Am I correct? This truly is about politics rather than the state themselves right?
Okay my background history goes as the following:
My grandfather and uncle in India are politicians, my uncle is currently active as a politician in India and he just switched to a different party recently and won. My grandfather started getting death threats and such when he was practicing, people were being kidnapped before the elections and deaths were all over the place (typical thing for Indian politics- there is ALWAYS violence) so he moved here a long time ago. Those things are still evident in India today, in fact a new movie came out just this past weekend called Rajneeti, watch it if you care for foreign politics and how it works. It will make my silly state of Texas look like an angel. The movie itself is quite serious and expresses how Indian politics are done. With all that said, it's the reason why I stay away from politics, more of a promise to my grandmother, in my family it really has destroyed my family a lot, there's been a lot of deaths near my family because of that.
My political background (whether this be important or not- I think it is to state what my ideas are before making posts here) I am neither a Republican nor a Democrat, throughout childhood and my teenage years I embraced the Democrat party with open arms, but it's not my ideal party anymore. I am moderate as can be, I don't care about the party itself, I care more about the candidates and what their viewpoints are. I give a fair assessment to all the candidates, and I like multiple candidates from either party, Ron Paul-R, Hillary Clinton- D.
However I'm not one to make the excuse and blame anything on our president, I strongly believe that we the people put him in office and we the people are responsible for his failures. He is just one man, whether he is Bush or Obama, I support the guy because whether you like it or not, he is OUR PRESIDENT, those of you whining about it, get over it. It's done.
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Originally Posted by californio sur
It seems that the obvious escapes certain posters. Comedians make fun of ignorance. States like California and Florida going into serious debt because of a recession generally isn't very funny. How many jokes have you heard that make fun of disaster? [ie the oil spill]. There isn't any humor in people's misfortune. .
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I watched Steven Colbert after Game One Friday night, I had it recorded and ready to go, he made fun of BP, President Obama, and the Oil Spill crisis.
So I think you're kind of contradicting yourself there with that statement, people have and "successfully" aired shows directed towards making fun of that spill at the cost of lives from 11 men and millions of wild life.
I normally like Colbert, and I take everything he says with a grain of salt, nothing ever too deep, just as I do when I listen to Michael Savage.
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Originally Posted by Overcooked_Oatmeal
Exactly. It's a sad viewpoint of the way things are. And that's not a Red-State/Blue-State thing either. The dumbing down of America is a nationwide phenomena that should be addressed with alarm from all sides. Too bad that will never happen.
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I strongly agree with you, it's not the fault of either side, the fact that the American people choose to put certain people into office says enough. I am ashamed of my Governor, Rick Perry for so many reasons, but I have also liked certain things he has done. Like a positive thing would be his role on the Elizabeth Pena murder case and how to handle to gang memebers who murdered Pena and Ertman.
I dislike entirely that legislation about "rewriting history" and telling children false tales about what really happened. That shows a magnitude of ignorance I can say that was one of Texas's major set backs politically. Now compared to my other state, tell me which would be worse, auctioning off Barack Obama's senate seat to the highest bidder after he moved on to become president right here in Illinois, or the fact that we have had three straight governors end up in prison for corrupt practices. IMHO, they're both pretty bad, but on different notes, we should try to help out state and our country not spend countless hours criticizing it.
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Originally Posted by jjacobeclark
Now we're getting somewhere. If you can just spread this message among your peers it would be greatly appreciated.
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Tell the people in Israel how "stupid" they are for taking religious warfare to extreme levels. Have you been watching the news lately, people in Israel are suffering, dying without food and water and being attacked. Does that make Israel stupider than Texas? No, neither is stupid, people are people, and you're bound to have problems everywhere.
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Originally Posted by californio sur
There isn't anything funny about a state being in debt over trying to be a "nanny" but it does become funny when California insists that it must provide services even when there's no money. Maybe not very funny for a comedian trying to get laughs. So Maher keeps his focus on religion and mocks states where evangelicals\ mormons have undue influence on secular governing.
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No Sur, you're right, there is absolutely nothing funny about a state being in debt and families having to shed tears about being able to put food on the table and making it to next months mortgage payment.
But you're wrong, there's nothing funny about brainwashing the minds of children about what happened in our country's history. There's nothing funny about corrupting the minds of innocent children. There's nothing funny about that.
Laughing at religion and how a state reacts and embraces to religion is the same as laughing at a state for it's economic troubles. It's neither funny now is it something to be proud of.
I say that because I have two little brothers, both in high school in Texas, I can't imagine what it would be like to one day pop open your text book and read "slavery never existed in Texas, Texas stayed away from it while the rest of the country fought on to that" there's nothing funny about that, when those students take AP exams what are they going to do when they can't use what they learned properly in school on the exam for a US standardized test? What are they supposed to answer? A lot of students rely on those exams for ease in college, education plays a huge role in who we become and what we think. I still remember every word my elementary school teachers said, the way they thought is represented by the way I think. I retain information taught by them when I make arguments.
It's not funny at all to laugh at that, and it's just as bad as laughing at that as it is to someone who comes from a very disturbed state financially. Would you laugh at a family crying because they can't afford to live in their current homes? You wouldn't. Would you laugh at a child retaining false information and leading a misguided life yet still expressing his innocence tainted by the corruption of a school board? You wouldn't.
Would you laugh at Illinois because of the corruption here? You wouldn't. Any normal person would want things to work out for all the better. You have to be an extremist from one side to laugh at the misfortunes, Right wing nut cases laughing at the families who can't pay their next bills because they live in a blue state. Left wing lunatics laughing at innocent children for not retaining proper knowledge because they live in a red state.
That's why I have objections to this thread, normally I like all your posts Sur, but this thread is a large setback for you. No way of politics is right, no way is wrong, both have their advantage and disadvantage, it's just more what you prefer, and what you will do to keep things balanced.
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Originally Posted by californio sur
"Name-calling" is funny. It has nothing to do with being "productive." This is not political correctness. Comedians make fun of what they see as "stupid" and that can be anything from Democrats having affairs [ie Spitzer's romp with a 20 yr or the New York congressman's playing around with boys] to Republicans have affairs while portraying themselves as Bible-believing Christians. It's the hypocrisy that get's laughs of derision and why Red states are prime targets by Maher and just about every other comedian. Maher is mild when comparing him to Chelsea Handling.
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Same can be said for blue states, they are prime targets for many radio talk show hosts. In fact, when you listen to those shows, you'll get the idea of exactly how much a state can be attacked. The "stupid" list varies for both sides, you've just displayed one side, the left side of who they view as stupid.
Like i said, politics is a never ending game, people will always destroy to get ahead.
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Originally Posted by jluke65780
This.
He lost credibility when he excluded California. People love to single out Texas but other states have done much worse imo.
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No Jluke, he lost credibility far before he even named a state, he lost credibility when he titled his list "stupidest states" when it should have been "stupidest state governments". He lost credibility for generalizing millions of people as "stupid" because of a few hundred state government officials.
He lost credibility for listing the entire state of Alaska for just "Sarah Palin". I didn't know one person spoke for thousands of people. I didn't know one person is the icon for the way thousands of people are in that state.
So Jluke, this man he lost credibility even before he got started.
There should be no state on that list, not Texas not California.
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Originally Posted by clean_polo
Also, California is ran by a Republican, Arnold Shwartzenegger. How come it doesn't get mentioned? Hasn't California been in debt for a couple of years now and has been having housing market problems like Florida? Last I heard, California was going bankrupt...
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Last I checked on this thread it's funny to make fun of a state "rewriting it's own history and corrupting the minds of innocent children" and not a state that "families have concerns to make the deadline for their next bills before losing all they have". It's funny, NO it's not. Both are equally bad. Why pick on one? It's an agenda, always has been, always will be. Rush Limbaugh has a list of his own, please stay tuned to his show and see if your state makes it on that list.
Oh, but when it comes to Rush, he's just a right wing nut right? Doesn't know what he's saying, right? So it's okay to discredit his list and keep the list of Maher, right? Because Maher is liberal, it's all goooood.
LOL yeah folks things go both ways.
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Originally Posted by jjacobeclark
No, it's sad and pathetic for the governor of your state to pretend like he has the right to secede from the Union. Are you saying those laws aren't stupid and shouldn't be ridiculed? In the future, do you think our country stands a fighting chance against places like China and India, if we're unwilling to stop questioning the validity of evolutionary science? Evolution, like global warming, is not an issue up for debate anywhere else except here in this stupid country, in these stupidest of states.
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I'm Indian. How much about my country do you know?
Let's see if you can school me about my own country. Why don't you compare the per capita income of Texas and India. Tell me in which place would people be more better off? Answer, Texas. Why don't you go to India during political elections and see if you can support a party and not get kidnapped, does that happen in Texas? No, it doesn't. Happens more in India. Watch some of the documentary films about Indian politics and then come here and talk about India and China before you make generalizations about which place "stands a chance".
And I suppose you're the same person who thinks it's okay for Illinois to be a axis of political corruption, because it's not a bible thumper like Texas, right?
You're probably the same person who thinks it's okay for California to be drowning into economic turmoil, because it's not a bible thumper right?
Nice to see your one track mind showing. Please play again.
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Originally Posted by jjacobeclark
I find it incredibly ironic that these same conservative tea-baggers in states like Arkansas and Mississippi are always calling for less government and smaller government, when the reality of the situation is that their states would actually suffer disproportionately as a result of any type of cuts in federal spending.
TaxProf Blog: Red States Feed at Federal Trough, Blue States Supply the Feed
States Receiving Least in Federal Spending Per Dollar of Federal Taxes Paid:
1. New Jersey ($0.62)
2. Connecticut ($0.64)
3. New Hampshire ($0.68)
4. Nevada ($0.73)
5. Illinois ($0.77)
6. Minnesota ($0.77)
7. Colorado ($0.79)
8. Massachusetts ($0.79)
9. California ($0.81)
10. New York ($0.81)
States Receiving Most in Federal Spending Per Dollar of Federal Taxes Paid:
1. D.C. ($6.17)
2. North Dakota ($2.03)
3. New Mexico ($1.89)
4. Mississippi ($1.84)
5. Alaska ($1.82)
6. West Virginia ($1.74)
7. Montana ($1.64)
8. Alabama ($1.61)
9. South Dakota ($1.59)
10. Arkansas ($1.53)
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I don't see Texas on your list. It's my state, the only state on Maher's stupid list that I'm concerned for. What's your argument for that? In fact, what even is your point?
Weren't you the same person that called me out for having an "inferiority complex" because I said San Francisco has more pedestrians than Chicago (the city I actually do live in) and then I gave my sources and links to support why I said it only to be debunked by you with the words "you seem to have an inferiority complex". You're reasoning is flawed, how do I have an inferiority complex when i gave another city props above my own city? That is what I mean. I truly can't take anything you say seriously anymore after that post and after this thread.
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Originally Posted by buzzpost
There are extremes on both the conservative and liberal side. Maher is taking advantage of that at the expense of conservatives. Like you said, it's stupid to spend money when there isn't any; something the current administration (AND the former G "Dubya" Bush) did as well.
As far as legislating religious ideals, I'm kind of a Ron Paul guy. Stay the heck out of religion and leave people alone to practice what suits them as long as it isn't hurting someone. If gay people want to be married then they should be allowed to get married. WHO are they hurting by getting married?
Conservatives need to butt out. IMO, they're only pandering to hard core neocons.
Likewise, Democrats need to butt out when it comes to gun laws and such. Leave the freaking people alone. All of these governmental regs on people are driving us to the brink.
That's the reason why I'm becoming more of a Libertarian; the Progs and Repubs seem to be leaning toward big government to satisfy all of our desires. I think both are just short of pond scum and are leading us into disaster, both fiscally and our position in the world.
We should butt the hell out of other people's business around the world; stop being the police of the world and maybe, just maybe we wouldn't be in the position we're in.
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^^ This.
Anyways, the point of my almost non-ending rant was that everything does go both ways, this thread is an example of someone who comes from one way and dislikes the other side. I'm positive someone can easily make a thread for the other side.
It's a pointless thread, and all it does is waste time. Want to help and do something constructive? Volunteer at an animal shelter, help the homeless, do something other than getting online to argue about what you think is stupid or not.
Every state has it's faults, just try to help it change for the better fortune.
I'm visiting Detroit next week for a few days, want to know what I'm going to see there? I'm going to see honest, hard working people, a great city that once was, and I'm going to enjoy it.
I'm not going to criticize it for being a "poverty ridden, crime ridden city"... that's wrong to make such generalizations about a place and label everyone there the same.
I'm out, you can reply back to my post, you can even argue it, you can hate my post, you can hate me for all I care for my post but, hell have fun. But I'm not responding back. Politics is pointless, especially when you have the nut jobs from both sides. I didn't bother assessing the posts of others and debating with sources to show there are good and bad in those places, that is a never ending circle, both lists are always equal. And it's a waste of time, so I don't really care to or bother with it, the main point I'm trying to illustrate is that there's two sides to everything, and you can't just make some idiotic thread about one and generalize people based off of what "ONE GUY" said.
Peace!