Detroit- now under a 'failed state' status?

[Nightshade]

No doubt the police union may be dramatizing things to make a point- but not by much in reality:

http://cbsdetroit.files.wordpress.com/2 ... n-risk.jpg

[callmeslick]

Hell, Texas has been in failed State status for years.

[Nightshade]

Hell, Texas has been in failed State status for years.

Yep, so failed that Texas is doing well economically unlike certain blue states. ;P

[callmeslick]

if you consider low wages and a massively undereducated populace, coupled with high poverty rates and more people per capita without health insurance, you all are doing just swell. I'll live elsewhere, gladly. Heck, even my wealthy Texas friends have gravitated to Louisiana and Missisippi.

[woodchip]

and a massively undereducated populace,

"A little note: The Lone Star College System hit another milestone with an enrollment of 78,000 credit students this fall, a 3 percent increase over fall 2011. This is the largest student body in the history of the college system. Community College Week magazine listed LSCS as fourth in the nation among the top 100 Associate Degree Producers"

if you consider low wages
coupled with high poverty rates and more people per capita without health insurance, you all are doing just swell. I'll live elsewhere, gladly. Heck, even my wealthy Texas friends have gravitated to Louisiana and Missisippi.

So they're moving to Missisippi where wages are even lower?:

"and Texas isn’t a low-wage state compared with, say, Mississippi."

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/0 ... -in-texas/

So comrade, you think because you post something and throw in a little of "My wealthy friends" that the adoring masses will believe you?

[callmeslick]

did you even read the description I wrote, Woody? I said my well-off friends, who aren't going to give a rats ass about wages, it's all about lifestyle, culture and edcuation of their fellow citizens. They all say that Texas has become a backwater cesspool of luddites.

[flip]

Heh, no they move to Mississippi where they are even more backwards and the labor is cheaper

[callmeslick]

I'll agree that, to my tastes, Missisippi is no prize, although sort of pretty down by the Gulf(where a couple of my friends live). Still, you can hang around Conservative enclaves down that way(say, yacht clubs) and not hear the sheer looney tune crap you get out of conservative Texans of recent years. Reference? See TB;s claim that Obama and Chavez are 'best buds'....and, pretty much any other TB thread. That brand of conservative gets slapped silly in Louisiana and the more civilized parts of MS..

[Isaac]

What an insulting shitty thread this is.

Texas is my favorite state and the people here are great. If a couple of rich ass snobs found some prettier real estate in tornado alley, good for them. callmeslick, screw you.

[callmeslick]

Issac,
You have to get out more.....



perhaps you might realize that I'm messing with TB here, and not all that serious....the smiley at the point of my first post might have been a giveaway......still, Texas ain't all that much of a prize and has helped provide leadership for the looney right wing.

[Kilarin]

Heck, even my wealthy Texas friends have gravitated to Louisiana and Missisippi.

What?
You have GOT to be kidding! I'm not blind to the fact that Texas isn't QUITE as perfect as we think it is. But Lousyana and Mississippi?

[callmeslick]

The Garden District, French Quarter and coastal Missisippi are pretty plush, and you don't have to daal with right-wing extremeists.
Of course, in this thread I have been tending to mockery more than dead seriousness(although the bit about several friends bailing out of Fort Worth, Dallas and Houston is true). My entire point, such as it is, is that when you, as TB does, belittle other locales, you have to be ready to defend your own. No place is perfect, nor can it be expected to be. Detroit has problems, and a lot of poverty(Paul Ryan says it's due to a lack of character in the residents). So does Texas. So do my home states of Delaware and Virginia. When you diminish your fellow citizens, it diminishes all of us. When you diminish large groups of fellow world citizens, say Muslims for example, it diminishes us all. Therein lies my mockery of TB.

[Kilarin]

My entire point, such as it is, is that when you, as TB does, belittle other locales, you have to be ready to defend your own

I'm from Texas. There is no real need to belittle other locales any more than to point out that they are not Texas.

Or, as my father once told me. "Boy, when you meet a man, never ask him were he is from. If he's from Texas, he'll let you know. And if he's not, well, there is no need to embarrass him..."

[flip]

Na I say when they diminish themselves they diminish the rest of us. Lazy, thieving, complacent bastards will be the death of us. They need a wakeup call, not empathy.

[Foil]

Are you referring to Detroit residents (re: slick's post), flip? Or someone else?

[vision]

Not to make this about Texas, but I've lived in Texas the last two years. I moved down here to support my childhood friend and his business when work dried up in Chicago. My friend's wife and entire family are native Texans and easily the most ignorant people I've ever met, having no understanding of world affairs, math, science, history, or anything outside of reality TV shows. Some of their views border on flat-Earth, Geo-centric understandings of the world. And unfortunately, most of my co-workers are no better, all of whom ride that "yeehaaw native Texas pride" -- except Juan from Mexico (the Mexican guy with the work visa is smarter and speaks better English than our crew from Houston, which may come as a shock to any racists here).

Of course, I can't paint all Texans with the brush of stupidity, though I am continually amazed at what I see here. On the other hand, I have a number of friends in Austin who are extremely bright. I try to get up there as much as possible because I look up to them and enjoy their company. It's nice to have a conversation with them because it isn't about drinking, pickup trucks, and shooting guns or whatever people do here. One thing that makes my Austin friends different is they lack the Texas pride, which seems to be coupled with anti-intellectualism and disregard for others and the environment.

And that's all I have to say about Texas other than I can't wait to get out of here.

[Top Gun]

Most of the people I know who live in Texas want to get the hell out of it, or at least are diametrically opposed to their neighbors' views. It definitely seems like its own strange little world. Not that every state doesn't have its own weirdness, but most of us try to hide it instead of flaunt it.