Well yeah, if you want to get all technical and bring “facts” into this.
Can we please divy up the state? I am from Nevada (a Red state by a slim margin) but Southern Nevada (Las Vegas area) was overwhelmingly Blue…and boy were we blue after the final tally.
No no no! The Queen says the states stay whole. And your little imaginary ‘West Virginia’ seceeding from the actual Virginia gambit or strawman or golem or whatever doesn’t fool me. Pah! Next you’ll be saying there’s a ‘North’ and ‘South’ Carolina, too.
So, Ruckinge, would you prefer to admit to ignorance or lying?
Well, North and South Carolina were formed under different circumstances. Both were named after King Charles 1 (Carolinus, which also gives Charlemagne or Charles the Great), and made into one single area although the southern portion was not settled. When his son, Charles II, regained power he changed the name of the southern area of Carolana and gave it to a group of noblemen who allowed several Barbadian colonists to settle there.
So it’s kind of dissimilar. Mostly.
I was going to post a good-spirited “it was ‘common knowledge’ in Texas, thanks for fighting my ignorance” but now I’m just offended.
I would personally love to see this happen. My ideal would be for the blue states to secede from the US and join Canada. From Michigan, I feel a thousand times closer to our neighbors in Ontario than I do the Bible belt loonies.
Boblibdem --I agree with you, but I wouldn’t put it quite that way.
I have never understood just what it is that these Red states want-because they vote against their own interests.
Is it clean air, water and a better future for their kids? No. Is it fair and decent education, housing and health care for all those who are citizens? No. Is it privacy in health care decisions, be they at the begining of life and at the end? No. Is it the freedom (oops, a Republican word-I’ll have to pay a fine for using it. 
) to marry the person you love? No. Is it the ability to worship the religion (or not) of your choice? No-this is a “Christian nation”.*
The letter is a snarky, snide bit of “humor”. It feeds into popular prejudices about the South. The South is more than tired of being seen as redneck, incestous and backwards. That’s why they fly the Confederate flag, give the Rebel yell and are proud to have such crappy schools and a higher rate of divorce.
I am on another bb which is mostly nurses. Do you know that of the 15 or so nurses from the South on the bb, only 2 of them could correctly identify all 50 states?(we did one of those quizzes so popular online) Don’t even think of Canada. These are intelligent professionals. I am still agog at that one.
IOW, I’d be happy to cut the South a whole lot of slack, but they seem to cling to the very things that set them up for ridicule. Having lived there and having my share of southern relatives, from Kentucky to Virginia to Florida–I would be more of an advocate if the South would lose its superiority complex about Family and Gracious Living and Heritage at the same time it loses its inferiority complex as to “I’m jest a good ole country boy” and all that nonsense…
But it is the strident emphasis on Christianity that is most ominous to me.
The letter is just some hack who tastes sour grapes, but the he (she?) draws attention to more serious issues, IMO.
*only slightly exagerrated for effect.
Can Montana seceed as well? I know it’s a red state (51% Republican, 49% Democrat in 2004), but it’s just so pretty. Besides, my people (I was born and raised in MT) have enough nukes to make the new United “Blue” States the second largest nuclear power in the world (after the Russians). Let those bible belters threaten us now! 
Dear Blue States:
In case you've forgotten, the Red States TRIED to leave the Union and go their own way a long time ago. So, the division you say you wanted was a reality.
But it turned out you DIDN'T really want that division. You started a bloody war to force the red states back into the fold.
NOW you say you want out?
Please do us a favor- make up your feeble minds, and get back to us when you know just what it is you want.
-The RedsAnd who fired the first shots?
I am sure all those people in Oklahoma City agree with you.
But. . .but. . .they were rearming the fort!
Psst… in case you weren’t aware, I was born and raised in New York City- you might want to take my letter with a grain of salt.
Regardless, do you REALLY think Lincoln would have acted any diffferently if shots had not been fired on Fort Sumter?
I don’t know. I think Lincoln really wanted the rebs to be the instigators of battle. It would have been interesting.
You know, I think this whole Nuevo California thing is a bad idea, now. I just got out my copy of Charles Kuralt’s America. In it he writes about his 12 favorite states, spending a month in each state during which he considered their best time of the year. I defy anyone to give up even one of those states, after reading that book. I’ll bet he could have done the same for all fifty states if he’d lived long enough.
So yeah, some states are like the crazy aunt you keep locked in the attic. But you’ve got to admit that the crazy aunt does make life a bit more interesting and you love her anyway because her endearing qualities outweigh her faults. Besides, a family is strongest when it sticks together-- granola without a few fruits and nuts just kind of falls apart into oaty blandness. Nope, Queen of the World says nobody’s leaving and taking their toys with them.
Oh my. Not just making up imaginary norths and souths, but inventing histories, too. If you want to be some sort of L. Ron Hubbard, you’re going to need a more believable vocabulary. Barbadian colonists, indeed. There is no such place as Barbadia. And your timeline is atrocious. Charles is still only Prince Charles and he has no power to give any part of America away to his buds. His sons’ names are Harry and William, by the way, not Charles II, and they wouldn’t be Charles II anyway because Charles’s dad’s name is Phillip. Who’s also just a prince and not a king of anything.
But let’s say something happens in the future and somehow Charles gets his hands on some land here in the U.S. Why would he name it Carolina if his name is Charles? It would be named something like Charlesylvania more probably. Charles = Carolina doesn’t make any sense. Carolina is a girl’s name ya know. Really, you’ll never get a religion out of thinking like that Ruckinge. Also, you’ve completely ignored adding something to generate income by bilking your followers. You should look into that post haste.
:dubious: :rolleyes: :wally 
For starters, I’d like to see the Democratic Party nominate someone who isn’t a buffoon or a traitor. I voted for Slick Willie twice, but since then, C’mon! :rolleyes:
As for who started the Recent Unpleasantness, well, DUH! Of course the damnyankees started it. Why do you think the history books refer to it as “The War of Northern Aggression”?
It sure is funny how Bush gets a pass for dodging the draft by going into the Guard, then dodging the dodge by skipping out, then lying about dodging the dodge. Yet Kerry, who actually saw and felt enemy fire, is somehow a traitor. It was patriots in the 60’s that condemned the Vietnam War, and it’s patriots today that condemn Bush’s Iraqalypse.
Who says Bush gets a pass? He didn’t, however, give aid and comfort to the enemy.
Your idea and mine of who the “patriots of the '60’s” are is very different.
When I read the first few postings I thought “All right - I’m ready to join the Blue State Nation.”
I live in Boston, where the owls say “whom”. (You can’t get “bluer” or more Yankee than that can you?) And as others have mentioned, the last time there was an all out brouhaha between the North and South … well, let’s just say I don’t have to post the conclusion of that conflict in a “spoiler box” do I? 
Still, despite my zeal to be a citizen of the New Blue State Nation, I felt that Ashes, Ashes’ posting put things in perspective. If I might add a few more examples along that line - the family that gave us Eric Roberts also gave us Julia Roberts. The Gabor Sisters (in their youth) had beauty but were never renowned for their prowess in calculus. Yet another Gabor (I forget his precise relationship - but he is related) - Dennis Gabor won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Admittedly, if I had to make a choice, it would definitely be for Blue State citizenship but it seems it takes all kinds to make this country what it is.
(But we can say NOO-KLEE-ARR just fine )