I have met many people who are anti-abortion and a smaller number who are anti-contraception; I’ve never heard any of them say that they think of sex without pregnancy as an abomination. Hence I judge that statement of yours to be false, and don’t classify it as a reason to from conservative areas. As for the Muslims of Murfreesboro TN begging to differ on how red staters stand on freedom of religion, that’s too vague to constitute a meaningful argument. If you honestly believe that freedom of religion is not allowed in the red states, you’re welcome to present evidence backing up that claim.
Tune in to WDUH (“Well, DUH”) for an in-depth analysis on this phenomenon: Parasites Get Fatter; Hosts Get Thinner.
This is the most pathetic attempt to evade argument-defeating counter-evidence that I have ever seen on these boards, and that’s saying something.
Do they? According to this map, the data seem mixed. Both red states and blue states are represented among those with the highest and lowest graduation rates.
Once again, it’s worth remembering that politics isn’t divided by state, but rather by urban vs. rural and suburban. And where do you think graduation rates are higher: in urban cores that lean heavily Democrat, or in rural and suburban districts that lean heavily Republican?
As I said, If you honestly believe that freedom of religion is not allowed in the red states, you’re welcome to present evidence backing up that claim.
I understand now. It’s that they are insane.
That’s not entirely true either. If you look at a map by county, counties tend to vote Democrat as they get closer to urban areas. Not just the urban centers but the entire suburban metropolitan region surrounding places like New York, Boston, La, San Fran, Seattle and Chicago.
That’s because county boundaries only somewhat approximate the boundaries of the urban and rural areas.
For example, in Texas, Harris County is fully blue. This makes sense- Houston is primarily in Harris County. Ft. Bend and Waller counties are a darker purple. This is not because the people are homogeneously voting democrat/republican like that, it’s because the Houston urban area spills over into those counties. Ft. Bend in particular has its eastern 1/4 covered by Houston suburbs, and the western 3/4 are pretty much rural. In addition, the first mile or two of the suburbs within the county are places like Missouri City, Mission Bend, Stafford and southern parts of Alief, which tend to be minority and poor. Outside of that comes places like Greatwood, Quail Valley, New Territory, Pecan Grove and Sweetwater, which are as affluent, white and firmly red as anywhere in the country.
But… when you do it by county, the entire shooting match comes out in a purple shade, which is misleading at best.
You don’t recall this thread?
Now we’re at the seven year-mark. Can you point to a single case of a victim of domestic violence finding it necessary to go through an extra wringer to obtain those protections because Virginia amended their definition of marriage?
Red states are anti gay marriage. I don’t think this needs to be cited, does it? You can try to make excuses how “this isn’t religious”, but you’d just be making excuses for sheer bigotry.
And then there’s trying to force no contraception and totally baseless, stupid things like that on non-believers.
And yes, you have stuff like this:
Is this “freedom of religion” to you?
The fact that you think “attacks against freedom of religion come from democrats” show just how out of touch you are. I’m sorry you don’t get to beat gay people to death and shoot muslims. It must be so hard on you and your fellow conservatives.
Huh? About half the blue states don’t give marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Until very recently, no state gave marriage licenses to same-sex couples. In 2008, the Dems elected a presidential who was anti-same-sex-marriage. If not giving marriage licenses to same-sex couples is opposition to religious freedom, then apparently many Dems are opposed to religious freedom, and they were almost unanimously opposed to religious freedom until very recently.
Who exactly is “trying to force no contraception on non-believers”? Could we have a citation for that?
The only attempt I know of to take away our freedom regarding contraception came from Pres. Obama, who wants to force everyone in the country to buy a health insurance plan that covers contraception, or else be fined. The Republicans responded to this by supporting the freedom for everyone to make their own decision regarding contraception.
I certainly don’t see anything in either link that would constitute a lack of freedom of religion.
I have no desire to beat gay people to death or shoot Muslims. Good day.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/06/03/235552/personhood-bills-attack-contraception/
More “freedom of religion” from red states: Judge to Sikh Man: Remove "That Rag" | ACLU
Are you OK with this too?
Broadly speaking, urban areas are the most Democratic, suburban lean slightly Republican, and rural are very Republican. Even in New York or Chicago, the urban cores are more heavily Democratic than the suburbs, even if the suburbs are majority Democratic.
All of which is beside the point. You start the thread with the claim that Democratic states are objectively better off than Republican states. We’ve seen that this is not true. On specific measures such as unemployment or high school graduation rates, the data don’t justify your claim. When we move from state-level to more local comparisons, the data turn even more against your claim.
You don’t think that people who literally cheer at the mention of burning down mosques are against “freedom of religion” ?
Because only people in red states do that, and all people in red states do that. :rolleyes:
It’s a good thing all people in red states walk in lockstep and agree on everything and every issue, it makes life so much easier when everybody looks, thinks and feels the same way.
Makes it easier for people to feel superior and justify the hate when you judge a whole group on the actions of a few.
I think that’s how it’s supposed to work.
This topic is getting pretty heated (even for GD) so I’m going to move it over to the Pit.
Pretty sure I didn’t say that, but it 's cool. I don’t expect conservatives to be honest.
…but keep sending the checks.
How about instead of you coming here, we send Harper there? I’m sure you guys won’t mind, or even notice, when he starts muzzling your scientist(s?). I think we’ll struggle along, even if taxes on the wealthy and on corporations happen to go up.
Yeah, the thread started with claims of objective proof that life is better in blue states than red states. Once we started looking at actual evidence, it quickly switched to ‘I have an anecdote about something bad that happened in a red state’.
Yawn.
This is bullshit. Are you ever fucking right about anything? I mean seriously, every thread you start, your premise is picked apart nearly instantly. Here, you’re full of shit as well. Pick a metric, and show me anywhere that red states outperform blue states.
Here’s a discussion we just had about state rankings on standardized testing:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=16614390&postcount=21
Here’s overall health, with links to a large number of health and functional indicators, including graduation rates: http://www.americashealthrankings.org/rankings
Worst 10 states: MS, LA, AR, WV, SC, AL, KY, OK, MO, IN
Here’s dental care: www.richmondinstitute.com/ranking-u-s-states-by-trends-in-oral-health
worst five for dental visits: OK, MS, WV, MT, AR
top five for seniors with all teeth removed: WV, TN, KY, MS, LA
top five for shortage of dentists: MS, LA, NM, SC, AL
Here’s ratings of happiness: Happiest States of 2012: The List | Gallup Well-Being Poll | Live Science
Lowest 10: WV, KY, MS, TN, AR, AL, OH, LA, IN, NV, OK
Hot off the presses: the 10 most dangerous states in the US: USA TODAY
Ten Most Dangerous states: TN, NV, AK, NM, SC, DE, LA, FL, MD, OK
Worst drivers (most fatal crashes, driving under the influence, careless or inattentive driving, failure to obey traffic signs): http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2010/09/22/the-worst-drivers-in-america.html#slide21
Worst 10: ND, MT, KY, LA, OK, AK, MO, DE, ID, TX
state rankings of firearms deaths: http://www.statemaster.com/graph/cri_mur_wit_fir-death-rate-per-100-000
Bottom 10: AK, LA, WY, AZ, NV, MS, NM, AR, AL (excluding DC)