An open Letter to the Red States
Wikimedia Commons
Note from Dan: This is an email that’s been making the rounds. Mayda Nel Strong of Salem passed it on to me. Thanks, Mayda!
Dear Red States:
We’re ticked off at your Neanderthal attitudes and politics and we’ve decided we’re leaving. That’s right, leaving. We in New York and California intend to form our own country and take the other Blue States with us.
In case you aren’t aware that, includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and the rest of the Northeast.
We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation and especially to the people of our new country, The Enlightened States of America (E.S.A).
To sum up briefly:
You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches.
We get Andrew Cuomo and Elizabeth Warren. You get Bobby Jindal and Todd Akin.
We get the Statue of Liberty. You get OpryLand.
We get Intel* and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard (Princeton, Penn, Haverford, Colgate, U of R). You get Ole’ Miss.
We get 85 percent of America’s venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama.
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue. You get to force the Red States to pay their fair share. Good luck.
Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition’s, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.
With the Blue States in hand we will have firm control of 80% of the country’s fresh water, more than 90% of the pineapple and lettuce, 92% of the nation’s fresh fruit, *95% of America’s quality wines* (you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90% of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the US low sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.
As the Red States you will have to cope with 88% of all obese Americans and their projected health care costs, 92% of all US mosquitoes, nearly 100% of the tornadoes, 90% of the hurricanes, 99% of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100% of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.
We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.
38% of those in the Red States believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62% believe life is sacred unless we’re discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44% say that evolution is only a theory, 53% that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61% of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals than we ‘lefties’.
We’re taking the good weed too. You can have that crap they grow in Mexico.
Sincerely,
Citizens of the Enlightened States of America
October 26, 2012 - 6:06 PM
Hell Yeah!
Please let Va . Join. We promise to exile bobby mac ,Jenny the cooch and bob marshall to Mississippi .
yeah boy,
just listen to what’s going on about Benghazi. maybe you dopes could get by with D.C., and take oBUMa and clinton with you…and, I mean hillary. At least ol’ bill is fun to have around.
From The Daily Beast; Why Obama Will Win
We’re ticked off at your Neanderthal attitudes and politics and we’ve decided we’re leaving. That’s right, leaving. We in New York and California intend to form our own country and take the other Blue States with us.
Oh, God! Would you? I would love to see liberals go form their own country. See how well you like having no freedoms, no tax base, no industry, no energy sources, and no jobs, no possessions, and no family commitment, and no children. And when the terrorists come for you….no protection.
Right on Dan !! I could go on but couldnt day it any better !!
So much for responsibility in the red states:
http://www.upworthy.com/chart-our-country-votes-ass-backwards-do-you?c=ufb1
Hey Blue States… you can take that Hope and Change with you, as well. I’m not sure what amusement park you live in, but things in the real world are not getting better, and your savior can’t offer up solutions. It will be no shocker to see that you become a vassal state of China; after all, if the state that is the tech leader of the US is any indicator of how well Enlightened Ones maintain their fiscal house, you will be needing help before your Dictator, Barack Obamer (as the BBC refers to him,)finishes his first term.
Take the conservatives out of the blue states, and watch every last one of them declare bankruptcy. Take all the liberals out, and you have unprecedented prosperity.
Good commentary, Suzie. And…THEY know it!
I was asking my husband where we could send all the liberals so they could start their own country, and he, ever the problem-solver said “Well, nearly the entire of population of Canada lives within a few hundred miles of the US border, so there’s all that land north of that”. Perfect.
I would contribute more than my fair share to help ship them up there.
I guess my daughter and son in law missed that part in the liberal handbook where it says you can’t have family committment or children. They’ll be celebrating their 10 year wedding anniversary next month, and they have two children.
Yosemite…LOL. A super volcanoe with a rising dome.
Deal, strike the division on the 2012 election results. . .oh wait. . .the equation is changing. Go bigger RED!
Yawn…this is recycled from the last presidential election.
“Hey Blue States… you can take that Hope and Change with you, as well. I’m not sure what amusement park you live in, but things in the real world are not getting better, and your savior can’t offer up solutions. It will be no shocker to see that you become a vassal state of China; after all, if the state that is the tech leader of the US is any indicator of how well Enlightened Ones maintain their fiscal house, you will be needing help before your Dictator, Barack Obamer (as the BBC refers to him,)finishes his first term.”
tomr has a point. We should all go back to growing & picking cotton, eh?
hey dano,
Is THAT all you got…throwing out the race card? Well, considering that your main claim to fame is being an “opinion” journalist for a small town lib newspaper that no other newspaper company wants to buy…, ok. I understand.
But, it’s a pathetic “loser” position….but then again, it’s all you’ve got.
Well Dan, I started as an 8 year old, picking beans and corn, and I am doing just fine. I would argue that I am better off here in Lynchburg than I would be in any Blue state, so I’m fine siding with the Reds- and I’m pretty sure that good old Virginia will be Red this election year.
Sadly, the whole growing and picking cotton thing seems to be more the direction we are heading in no matter which way way go this November.
“Yosemite…LOL. A super volcanoe with a rising dome.”
–Comment by Leon
Readers, note carefully the comment above from Leon/. It’s a perfect example of his incredibly skewed view of the world.
In fact, there is a national park, that is an ancient super volcano with a rising dome. It hasn’t blown in hundreds of thousand of years, and when/if it does, it’s going to be a big one.
The only problem with Leon’s comment is that it’s NOT Yosemite. It’s Yellowstone, which is in Wyoming and Montana (both red states).
Leon, though, is convinced that it’s Yellowstone, and that the facts are a liberal conspiracy. It’s a perfect example of how conservative yahoos on this board INVENT facts to argue against sanity.
Yosemite, Yellowstone, what’s the difference? They both start with Y, right? One is the same as the other. This is Leon’s world.
And he is miffed that (for the most part) I’ve given up trying to correct his garbage.
tomr, I’m sure you doing well in Lynchburg, with all that $450 million per year in taxpayer subsidies flowing into that town for Liberty U.
The federal government is bailing out Lynchburg, tomr. And you like that!
Yeah Frank, Dan can only dream of being the BMOC you are, hiding in the safety of anonymity and posting insults to someone with a career and a following.
Virginia is a big state and thankfully you all do not represent all of it.
Yeah Dan- did you ever have student loans and did you pay them back? When you come up with facts on that it can be acknowledge, but since all you’ll be able to do is say that Liberty students shouldn’t get government back school loans or grants, you simply look a little bigoted. Now if you want to see what government funding does for a city, just head to Charlottesville, and take a look at Fort Rivanna. Don’t forget- you can have your own blog, but you can’t have your own facts!
Tom Rogers- Lest someone badger me for hiding in the safety of anonymity.
Lynchburg gets more federal money than Charlottesville or Blacksburg, where the universities DON’T teach creationism as a biology course, by the way. It really is the height of hypocrisy for anyone in that town to be bitching about government spending. That’s exactly how old man Jerry would see it, and you know that.
But so long as that scam benefits Liberty and Lynchburg, you’re perfectly happy to look the other way.
Uh Oh tomr, not only did Liberty get a boatload of federal money, they got “federal stimulus program and the government’s expansion of the Pell grant program“…Obama cares money!
Lynchburg leeches…I like it.
http://www2.newsadvance.com/news/2011/mar/27/liberty-tops-state-federal-aid-its-students-ar-929147/
Any news on the graduation rate from their online programs or employment status for them for all that federal largess? We know there was a boom… the “financial aid office has expanded from 51 to 138 employees“
Tom Rogers, you may be as anonymous as you like, until you start calling us names and telling lies.
No School like LU should have 50,000 online students IMO. If you do not think that is a money pit, you are dreaming.
Of course, you have no solid facts to go on, and I have more important things to do than to argue about something that really never had much traction. I would venture to say that you have no idea how much state and federal funding go to Charlottesville, but it would be surprising if it didn’t surpass both Roanoke and Lynchburg. Any idea how much Fort Rivanna costs, or how much the state and federal government hand UVa? I think you just love to grind the old axe on Liberty because you hate what they stand for. Thats fine- carry on with the Red State/Blue State discussion.
Just an addendum- Fort Rivanna was completed in 2010, at a cost of 62M, 4M over budget. There are more than 1,000 employees there and the number continues to grow, and wages are a bit higher than hamburger flipping money.
Then you have groups like the Federal Executive Institute- basically a training program for government executives, and there are plenty of federally led programs active within UVa itself. When it comes to federal dollars, Blacksburg is small potatoes compared to Charlottesville.
If by “Fort Rivanna” you mean Rivanna Station, $62 million from the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure legislation under George W. Bush.
And last I checked 62 million is substantially less than 450 million.
@tomr: “Hey Blue States… you can take that Hope and Change with you, as well. I’m not sure what amusement park you live in, but things in the real world are not getting better, and your savior can’t offer up solutions.”
You know what, Tom: BS. BS, BS, BS, BS.
You right-wingers can whine and moan all you like about how things haven’t gotten better in the last four years — and since you all seem to live in an alternate universe (the one where Mitt Romney won the foreign policy debate despite agreeing with Obama about everything except unicorn farts), maybe they actually haven’t gotten better where you live — but in THIS universe, a slide into economic oblivion was halted and turned around.
Instead of losing hundreds of thousands of jobs a month like we were in late 2008 and early 2009, we’ve gained more than 5 million private sector jobs since March 2010. If the public sector had expanded like it had during the Reagan and Bush recessions, we’d be doing even better. Instead, BIG GOVERNMENT Obama has overseen the largest contraction of public-sector jobs in American history.
Instead of an American auto industry on the brink of collapse, which Romney would have gladly shoved them over, hoping for nonexistent-at-the-time private financing to rescue them, we have an American auto industry on the way back, earning record profits and hiring workers for the first time in a decade (oh, and don’t believe Mitt’s shameless lies about Jeep, either; they may be building new factories to build Jeeps in China FOR China, but they’re also hiring workers here in the U.S.).
Instead of a Dow falling through the floor, we have a Dow that’s hit several five-year highs in the last couple of months.
We have record corporate profits.
Is there room for improvement? Hell, yes. If Congress would get off its ass and pass the American Jobs Act, we could have added 2 million more jobs this year, according to independent economists. Median wages continue their decline, but maybe changing some tax incentives around so the ultra-wealthy don’t get even more tax breaks can help stop that slide. Romney’s half-plan (he’s told us the good half ($5 trillion in tax cuts plus $2 trillion in additional defense spending; he’s waiting until after the election to try to figure out how to pay for it) certainly won’t. Independent analysts say the only way Romney can keep his promise not to explode the debt is to increase taxes on the middle class.
Obama has offered up solution after solution. The stimulus stopped the slide — without a single Republican vote. He offered up the American Jobs Act. Republicans blocked it. The Affordable Care Act will work to bring health care costs down, a necessary precursor to do anything about our long-term debt. Republicans promise only to repeal it and keep the good parts (with unicorn farts paying for them). Time after time after time, Obama has offered up pragmatic, moderate proposals once embraced by the Republican Party to try to get this economy moving again.
They’d rather have a better chance at winning the White House in a week and a half.
The American people should tell them where to put that hope, and their House majority.
Just an addendum, if you are going to answer your own questions…don’t ask them.
Sandi- We better get used to online education. North Carolina is ahead of Virginia in that regard, but UVa has seen tremendous interest in their new online program, with more than 15,000 applying for a single class. If this develops into a full online offering, or the state looks to have Fresh/Soph classes delivered online, Liberty’s numbers will drop substantially. Even leaders at Liberty have acknowledge that demand will not be a long term prospect. That being said, loans and grants are just what they say they are, and most here have probably benefited from the same type of aid in the past.
I will also take the “Lynchburg leech” comment personally since about 60% of my businesses gross receipts come from Roanoke and Richmond. Sorry.
This is all to amusing…..LOL…..With all this “ah schucken and ah jiving” with red and blue…..don’t you get green eventually? Think about it?
IMHO, “Comment by Dan Radmacher —”…….Could not have been more eloquently stated were the honest to God truth stated as well as Mr. Radmacher wrote.
I think what he wrote puts in all nice and neatly in a nut shell, end of argument. Except of course for those who will never see the light no matter how bright it is shown, be it shown directly into their eye balls.
You guys may want to take a look at the map of the 17 states that you will have in Utopia. The first question that springs to mind is, what are you going to eat? Next, I assume you will continue buying oil from the Middle East because you’re leaving most of the oil in the US for the rest of us. Maybe you can have a wind powered car, or perhaps Ed Begley will build everyone a solar powered car. Hell, perhaps you can create a car powered by smug. Electricity will be out since you are abandoning most of the coal, oil and natural gas reserves. Since those about 75% of the electricity generated in the US comes from coal, oil and natural gas, I guess you guys better get used to reading by candlelight. Or maybe you can read by the glowing embers of your huge stash of good weed. Good luck using that to power all that tech stuff you were bragging about though.
While you’re at it, will you promise to take a few other things? Seems like there are a lot of people who will fit this cause nicely. Honey Boo Boo and family, Lindsay Lohan, Lil Wayne, Rosie O’Donnel all spring to mind. Perhaps the best thing you’re going to do though is to take Washington, DC. With it out the mix, it probably won’t take long to correct most of the challenges facing America.
Once you go though, please do not plan on coming back. One of our first orders of business will be to secure the borders. With that in mind, looks like you guys can have the Mexican weed too. We prefer reality to the drug induced haze you suggest anyway.
Sincerely,
The United States of America
ps – good luck defending yourselves. We know how you feel about guns and the military.
Love this! I am so tired that part of our country is trying to drag all of us down and backward. They do not learn from our mistakes and our history. The current GOP is not the party my Dad belonged to his whole life. He would be sickened that they view the active duty military and veterans’ lives and abilities as just expendable resources to fuel the military industrial machine.
Nice analysis, Chuck. I am kidding, of course. You have adroitly put your thinking cap on and taken exactly ONE step. Now, can I persuade you to take 2 or 3 more?
What are the Red States going to do with all that food they grow, coal they dig and oil they pump? Because if they don’t sell it, they will have no money.
Perhaps you believe that is unnecessary in an agrarian-mining economy. That was more true 200 or 300 years ago but it’s not true today, Chuck. You regressives are such a laugh riot.
You may not realize it, but the blue states outlined in the letter above are mostly DONOR states and the red states are mostly TAKER states. That means the tax revenue from the blue states is actually supporting the (mostly) dumb schlub red states. Most of the red states are going to be in a world of hurt without their fat subsidies from the blues.
And it will be hard for them to dig out of it, because the red-state average educational level will be about 10th grade. That’s fatal to a growing economy in this day and age, Chuck.
I know! Maybe the red states can have military conscription. They can pass all their guns out, and, when they realize (about 200 years from now) how badly they got taken in the split up, and how they’re little more than ag/mining serf states for the blues they depend on to buy their stuff, they can declare war on the blues.
Problem is, by then the blue states will have figured out how to repel any attempted military invasion by red state idiots armed with pea shooters and bayonets.
Nice thinking, Chuck. Thanks for playing!
Dan@18. . .I sit corrected
Dan@18. . .BTW. . .Yellowstone blows about every 5,000 years; not 100,000
as per Dan (should try to keep stuff straight Dan). It’s due. . .which is
why they monitor it. Super Volcanoes do not erupt like regular volcanoes.
Much larger, much more expansive. . .equivalent of nuclear winter.
Obama has offered up solution after solution. The stimulus stopped the slide — without a single Republican vote. He offered up the American Jobs Act. Republicans blocked it. The Affordable Care Act will work to bring health care costs down, a necessary precursor to do anything about our long-term debt. Republicans promise only to repeal it and keep the good parts (with unicorn farts paying for them). Time after time after time, Obama has offered up pragmatic, moderate proposals once embraced by the Republican Party to try to get this economy moving again.
Comment by Dan Radmacher — October 26, 2012 @ 11:42 pm
Radmucker, Your analysis is just flat wrong. I challenge you to find one, just one, reference to unicorn farts in any Republican proposal or
the entire Congressional Record.
Appears to me, and IMO the majority of Americans, that the bottleneck in passing legislation is, in fact, the liberal controlled U.S. Senate (soon
to be fixed).
Obama’s solutions are like his most recent budget proposal which did not even get one Democrat vote for passage. . .DOA.
Dan@38. . .your comments have a flaw. The civil war changed the red states from an agrarian society to a more diverse mix. IMO, it is the
blue states who will come begging. . .everyone has to eat. As to money,
without the present overstuffed Federal Gov’t to sustain everybody will
have a great deal more. Oil, gas and coal are world commodities. . .the
blue states and other countries will stand in line to buy them. As to educational levels. . .having lived in a big city as well as southwest
Virginia. . .I wonder about the intelligence of anyone who citifies.
hey sandi, your are soooo right.
ol’ dano throws out the race card when he’s got nuthin’ else…and, you follow the leader of the pack, fer sure!
No fair!! They got all the BBQ!
Leon, Chuck’s “analysis” was based on the assumption that the Red states would refuse to sell food and fuel to blue states. That’s my chief criticism of his (non) thinking.
Thank you for agreeing with me.
Dan@18. . .BTW. . .Yellowstone blows about every 5,000 years; not 100,000
as per Dan (should try to keep stuff straight Dan). It’s due. . .which is
why they monitor it. Super Volcanoes do not erupt like regular volcanoes.
Much larger, much more expansive. . .equivalent of nuclear winter.
Comment by Leon — October 27, 2012 @ 7:56 am
Yellowstone experiences a supereruption around once every 600,000 years. The last major eruption occurred 640,000 years ago. There have been three major eruptions in the last 1.2 million years. The last known small-scale eruption occurred around 70,000 years ago, so yes, it does occasionally erupt like a “regular” volcano.
45.Leon, Chuck’s “analysis” was based on the assumption that the Red states would refuse to sell food and fuel to blue states. That’s my chief criticism of his (non) thinking.
Thank you for agreeing with me.
Comment by Dan Casey — October 27, 2012 @ 9:12 am
Dan,
You’re welcome. IMO being dependent for food and fuel would not be an advantageous position for the blue states. . .in fact the wealth/money factor you addressed would flip / flop rather quickly although the Super
Volcanoe would, in fact, still be in the red states.
Dear Blue States:
Well, imagine our relief that you’ve decided to secede and form some sort of bathing-optional commune headquartered in California. The money we’ll save in aspirin, now that we won’t have headaches from listening to your interminable whining, will be worth it to us alone.
We’ll finally be rid of you lazy, moping, latte-sucking Streisand fans now that you’re actually going to follow through–for once–on your promise to finally get off your butts and leave, as so many of you claimed you would every election cycle and then chickened out of actually doing. (Yeah, we’re looking at you, Alec Baldwin.)
In fact, all around our great nation, you get to keep all the Blue voters who’ve made urban war zones like downtown Detroit–a Blue bastion, of course–the proud showplaces they are today.
Sure, we get the rednecks and holy rollers. But since you’re apparently willing to trade them for the gangs and psychopaths terrorizing your Blue cities, what can we say? You want the Crips and the Bloods in low riders raking your streets with automatic gunfire, and you’re offering us Bubba heading off to church in his pickup?
Hey, a deal’s a deal. Done.
Oh, and one last thing. We get the U.S. military, too. Did we mention that part? (You may have forgotten that they’re volunteers, and most are happy Red state voters.)
Not to worry, though, since we’re sure that Islamic fundamentalist terrorists will be more than happy to reach an accommodation with a society that embraces radical feminism, gay marriage, gun control, hostility to organized religion of any kind, and Salman Rushdie. Good luck with that.
But one day when some misogynist Saudi freak–who no doubt will sneak into your country by strolling over the northern border after a few years sucking on the Canadian welfare system you all admire so much–blows up a couple kilos of plutonium on Sunset Boulevard, go send Sean Penn to ask the French for help. We’ll be busy that day.
Sincerely,
The Red States
46 “Dan@18. . .BTW. . .Yellowstone blows about every 5,000 years; not 100,000….”–Comment by Leon
Then Yellowstone has only blown up once? The Earth is only 6,000 years old, right? sarcasm font off
The Red States might make a decent buffer between us and Mexico.
I believe Leon was applying a creationist “correction” to the scientific “lie” that Yellowstone last blew its top 640,000 years ago.
This was after he got his head around the fact that it was NOT Yosemite (in California) that’s the supervolcano in the offing. LOL.
Brian @48,
Hilarious! Well done, sir.
Also, in defense of Leon, the Long Valley Caldera, another supervolcano, is only 15 miles from Yosemite (though Yosemite was formed by uplift and glaciation, not volcanism). Approximately 740,000 years ago, it was formed during a massive eruption which blanketed 12 states with pyroclastic flows and ash, including TX, OK, KS, NE and SD. This also included the entirety of AZ, UT and CO being covered in ash. The Long Valley Caldera is indeed lifting as the magma chamber fills and has risen over 2.5 feet in the last thirty years.
You can argue the time scales all you want, but that doesn’t change the scientific certainty of massive eruptions occurring in both locations in the past.
This was after he got his head around the fact that it was NOT Yosemite (in California) that’s the supervolcano in the offing. LOL.
Comment by Dan Casey — October 27, 2012 @ 12:38 pm
Having already sat corrected on Yosemite. . .beg that you consider Long Valley caldera in California for the Blue State Super Volcano site.
Everyone makes the occasional mistake; knew there was one in California.
Re: Comment by Sandi Saunders — October 26, 2012 @ 11:13 pm
No School like LU should have 50,000 online students IMO. If you do not think that is a money pit, you are dreaming.
—————–
FWIIW, I have no problem with distance learning.
IMHO, any place / any time education is a valid form of education. Many years ago, I took some quality graduate correspondence courses from excellent institutions, including the University of London. UMD ran a great program for the military, which has since expanded to quite a few colleges.
VT has elearning programs — http://tinyurl.com/8fdjjx3 .
UVA has them — http://tinyurl.com/cmglwns .
From what I have seen elearning is even better than the correspondence courses, which I took. The addition of chat, as a form of class participation, fills a void in the format of the days of old.
OTOH, my criticize of LU (and others) is the poor graduation rates. 50K or a 100K students would be OK with me if the students were graduating with a useful degree. IMHO, LU is a money pit because of its failure to deliver.
Dave Hicks,
You have just hit on a key difference with online learning.
There are many e-universities that are organized for the specific purpose of wringing as much money in guaranteed student loans and Pell Grants out of the federal government as possible. How can you spot these? One way is when the number of online students is 4 times the number of campus students.
And then, there traditional universities that offer e-learning as a adjunct, rather than as their main mode of revenue. Like VT and UVa.
The key words there were “school like LU” not 50K and not online students. This is a money pit. Like many other of the new online learning, huge financial office, get’em in and get the money “schools” that are NOT teaching anyone any damn thing except what student loans does to you.
Look it up, I have presented the evidence here and on the Round Table numerous times. Stop acting like I am against learning or online studies dammit.
http://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2012/10/predatory-learning
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/05/141070032/thieves-scam-aid-from-online-education-sites
http://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/Real-learning-or-online-scam-3725484.php
Re: Comment by Sandi Saunders — October 27, 2012 @ 4:38 pm
“Stop acting like I am against learning or online studies dammit.”
—————–
Acting? What emphasis or language in my comment suggest that I was “acting like [you were] against learning or online studies”? What emphasis or language suggest that my comment could not be read as as simply supplemental or simply expanding on your comment w/ my opinion — that of the graduation rate being a key factor, in my opinion?
Looks as if we might be in agreement — albeit, IMHO, it is hard to pick out the “key words” in isolated comments, unless they are bolded. I summit that one can easily read your comment as having the numbers as a key issue. If your comment was not about the numbers, to what is the word “like” referring? What would be “like” LU?
I like the idea of the Blue States seceding. I’m all for it so long as the Red States agree NOT to bail out California when it financially collapses under it’s own weight or accept any more BS gun control arguments because NJ won’t allow its populace to defend itself (or even pump their own gas for God’s sake!). Not our problem anymore!
Imagine how quickly the “ESA” would go bankrupt! Good thing their citizens will be able to defend themselves from all of the chaos that will result…. oh, wait a minute. The ESA better hope the Red States stay friendly too as the ESA would be a pushover to come in and take. I guess that government will take care of them forever; after all, they think that’s the govenment’s job.
Here’s a question: If the United States was geographically split into two separate countries; liberal and conservative, which one would the Mexican illegals sneak into?
We have our answer. Cuba is exact what the extreme left country would look like. . People are trying escape that leftwing paradise; not enter it.
I guess that FDR should have forgotten about the TVA. That would have left the South in the dark for years. Eisenhower should have forgotten about the Interstate Highway System. Most of the South would still be driving on God knows what kind of roads. Finally, we should have put all those military bases in the Blue States. Then the south could have relied on its state militia for its defense. Lincoln could have applied the Land Grant Institutions Act only to the northern states and schools like VT, NC State, Clemson, UGA, U. of Florida, Auburn, Mississippi St., LSU, UT, Texas A & M, etc wouldn’t have come into existence. The GI Bill could have been available only to those in the north & west. Pell Grants and Student Loan programs would have only been available to the same geographic area. No Social Security or Medicare for residents of the South. I could go on but it probably would be a waste of time.
Sandi- None of your links reference Liberty, and all point to the institutions that do not have true brick and mortar programs. I’d venture to say that neither you or Dan know much about higher ed and you obviously haven’t done the math. Liberty students only received in grants or loans an average of 7500 per student (based on 60,000 students). Liberty’s grad rate is similar to ODU’s, and as one would assume, most online students aren’t able to graduate in the typical time frame due to work or family constraints. The only ground you might have worth defending would be if you could point to factual evidence that Liberty students did not repay their student loans, but since Liberty fares pretty well compared to both state and private schools in Virginia, that won’t work (based on latest 3 year returns). Any way you cut it, your arguments only end up exposing your hatred for the belief system of the school. Yes, Lynchburg has some good things going for it right now… that probably only increases the bitterness that you and Dan harbor!
Reflecting back on my business, doesn’t it rankle you all to know that in some small way, you surely contribute to my income?
LOL, you can even muck up a fantasy. Way to Go.
I believe I was clear in both posts, Dave h.
The “red states” are welcome to keep the military. Right up to the moment when they realize they can’t afford to keep one fighter in the air.
tomr, the regulars here on Dan Casey’s blog know a lot more about loans, grants and whatnot to Liberty students than you do. We’ve been discussing this for years. You’re still catching up.
Go school someone else on this subject, really. . .
tomr,
What are the LU’s elearning graduation rates? Please provide a link.
I cannot help your dysfunction tomr, it is a uniquely right wing disorder from what I see here, and there is no cure.
The LynchburgNA paper article I linked to in #25 clearly showed the huge jump in online enrollment, dwarfing their actual physical enrollment. 52K in an online program at a small agenda driven school and the massive increase in the federal funds for it COULD all be a coincidence and 52K diplomas may well come out of it, but I seriously doubt it given the “for profit” motive that some colleges have taken and the number of kids with no degree and huge loan debt.
If you could get a degree from UVa, Tech or Penn State for the same money, with the same strictures, 52K would NOT be the online number at LU. I call it a scam. I call it abusive. I call it a damnable shame, not something to be proud of.
http://www.foxnews.com/topics/education/diploma-mills.htm
“Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa., who has led the criticism of for-profits from Capitol Hill, concluded for-profit colleges have been taking in upwards of $32 billion annually from taxpayers even though most students don’t graduate; those who departed lasted just four months on average. In 2010, the report found, leading companies employed nearly 10 times as many recruiters as career-services advisers, and spent more on marketing than on instruction.
The latest government figures show for-profits still have twice the federal student loan default rate of public colleges (23 percent of borrowers at for-profits have defaulted within three years).”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/26/for-profit-colleges-new-measures_n_1626286.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/04/for-profit-colleges-student-debt-dropout_n_1567607.html
Fat chance of that, Dan. Writing and discussing does not equate to being knowledgeable. I guess you think like a writer, though. I know that I won’t change your opinion in the least. Hating Liberty and Lynchburg has been part of your schtick since back in the BRBJ days… maybe the mid- 90s hasn’t it? I wonder if Sandi and Dan R. have been following you as long as I have.
“Fat chance of that, Dan. Writing and discussing does not equate to being knowledgeable. I guess you think like a writer, though. I know that I won’t change your opinion in the least. Hating Liberty and Lynchburg has been part of your schtick since back in the BRBJ days… maybe the mid- 90s hasn’t it? I wonder if Sandi and Dan R. have been following you as long as I have.”
Oooooh, tomr, you have got my number, all right! Gee, I’m flattered you’ve been following me. Why don’t you tell everyone here what you know about my employment/tenure at the BRBJ (Blue Ridge Business Journal)?
@60: Anybody know what the frack this post is supposed to mean?
Trolls should not drunk-blog.
Nice Sandi. Liberty is non-profit, so re-adjust your argument.
Dave- LUs overall 6 yr grad rate is 44%. Considering that online learner traditionally take longer to complete programs, this compares favorably to ODUs 47% grad rate. Liberty students latest default rate was 4.1 %, less than a “good” school like Hollins. Data should be very easy to come by since Dan insists that regulars know alot more about this than I do.
Lastly, Dan- I think that you remind me so much of Dan Smith, that I started thinking you all are one and the same. Must be the beard and your shared sentiments.
Nice Sandi. Liberty is non-profit, so re-adjust your argument.
Dave- LUs overall 6 yr grad rate is 44%. Considering that online learner traditionally take longer to complete programs, this compares favorably to ODUs 47% grad rate. Liberty students latest default rate was 4.1 %, less than a “good” school like Hollins. Data should be very easy to come by since Dan insists that regulars know alot more about this than I do.
Lastly, Dan- I think that you remind me so much of Dan Smith, that I started thinking you all are one and the same. Must be the beard and your shared sentiments.
Comment by tomr — October 27, 2012 @ 11:46 pm
How about a source for those figures and confirmation that the figures include online students as well as full time on-canpus students.
Leftwingers want to take credit for the huge conservative producers in the blue states. Nope. Sorry. Before we do the secession deal, we take back conservative achievers; we ship you your leftwing riff-raff.
But could we settle something once and for all? Liberty doesn’t receive a DIME of federal funding. Dan is been pushing this lie for months. Pell grant money belongs to the student; not the university.. A student can choose to spend their allotment at whatever university they choose. Many just happen to choose LU.
So you know how much stock to put in Dan’s arguments, he makes the same silly claim about Walmart “being on the government dole” because some lower-end employees like shelf stockers who earn modest wages dictated by their skill level and the market, sometimes apply for government assistance.
Dan would also say Walmart is on the government dole because so many welfare recipients shop at Walmart because they can’t afford to pay union store prices.
So you know how much stock to put in Dan’s arguments, he makes the same silly claim about Walmart “being on the government dole” because some lower-end employees like shelf stockers who earn modest wages dictated by their skill level and the market, sometimes apply for government assistance.
Dan would also say Walmart is on the government dole because so many welfare recipients shop at Walmart because they can’t afford to pay union store prices.
Comment by Suzie — October 28, 2012 @ 7:46 am
You made the same point I made on an earlier thread SuzieQ. Walmart is the largest recipient of food stamps & medicaid funds solely because of its employees. The wages & benefits it offers its employees costs the rest of us taxpayers nearly $4 billion each year. That’s almost as much as the very profitable oil companies receive in oil subsidies each year. All that so we can provide welfare support for the Walton family members who receive $2.7 billion in dividends from their Walmart stock each year. I think, deep down, you are upset that you aren’t a Walton family member as thus miss out on all that welfare money.
You made the same point I made on an earlier thread SuzieQ. Walmart is the largest recipient of food stamps & medicaid funds solely because of its employees. The wages & benefits it offers its employees costs the rest of us taxpayers nearly $4 billion each year.
No, Liberal Ron, that’s the “point” I was ridiculing. Only a moron would say the government cuts Walmart a check because shelf stockers don’t make $50K plus bennies.
I guess I shouldn’t use the term “bennies” when Dan is in the room. Might prove confusing.