States Of Wealth
Hey, dig these maps produced by some wonk at the American Enterprise Institute. I’ve broken his one main map into three digestible sub-maps for your convenience.
The Western United States
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The Eastern States
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Alaska & Hawaii
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See what the wonketeer did here? He renamed each of the states for a sovereign nation whose GDP is similar.
My takeaway from this? Let’s stop all the bullshit about how this holy land is broke.
[h/t to Kenneth Morrison, metal artist and revered bwana of the Ever-So-Secret Order of the Lampreys.]
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Thank You For Not Repressing Us
Our expectations are so low these days. To wit: all the huzzah-ing over the failure of the Indiana Senate to pass HJR-3 as it stood. Now Hoosiers won’t get to vote in November on denying citizens who love those of their same sex the right to marry.
Same-sex marriage advocates whooped and hollered as if Lincoln had come down from the clouds and issued a new Emancipation Proclamation.
“You Are Free”
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Breaking news: He hasn’t.
See, the only reason the vile bill wasn’t passed was because State Senators disagreed over whether it should contain language barring civil unions and domestic partner benefits. So, it wasn’t a sudden upsurge in human decency or a thirst for freedom that caused our august Sens. to nix the bill.
No, they were afraid of teeing off the thousands or hundreds of thousands of hetero couples who [The Pencil voice lowers to a whisper here] live in sin.
God forbid this ugly bill should discomfit anybody who digs man-woman sex!
Straight Guys, Apparently, Get Off On Cyborgs
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And, by the way, it ain’t so long ago that the antediluvian, troglodytic wing of the body politic was up in arms about straight people living together without the benefit of marriage. They called it “shacking up” and women who did it were dirty sluts and their men were dishonorable.
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Out In Bloomington
Have you seen the Bloom mag online piece about Gay Bloomington yet?
It’s illustrated with a great photo of some of B-town’s most esteemed citizens — who just happen not to be traditional heterosexuals.
Bloom Mag Photo By Shannon Zahnle
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I’m struck by one thing: all these people are just, well, people.
That’s one thing homophobes and hateful fundamentalists don’t get.
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The CBO says the national debt is now 73% of GDP and will be 100% in about 25 years. Let’s move away from the blame game and raise taxes, cut spending and not pass this on to our chillun’s; after all it will be their fingers on the power switch to our heart-lung machines in our dotage.