Ed, Elaine, and The Southern Poverty Law Center

[Nikki]

Don't forget NYC also has Donald Trump!

Only because New Jersey had first pick and chose the toxic waste landfill.

[Dezcad]

FWIW - the current Supreme Court justices with home state and law school

Scalia - VA - Harvard Law School
Kennedy - CA - Harvard Law School
Souter - NH - Harvard Law School
Thomas - GA - Yale Law School
Ginsburg - NY - Columbia Law School
Bryer - CA - Harvard Law School
Roberts - NY- Harvard Law School
Alito - NJ - Yale Law School

Harvard Law School and Yale Law School, btw, are both in New England.

[Prof]

FWIW - the current Supreme Court justices with home state and law school

Scalia - VA - Harvard Law School
Kennedy - CA - Harvard Law School
Souter - NH - Harvard Law School
Thomas - GA - Yale Law School
Ginsburg - NY - Columbia Law School
Bryer - CA - Harvard Law School
Roberts - NY- Harvard Law School
Alito - NJ - Yale Law School

Harvard Law School and Yale Law School, btw, are both in New England.

You left off John Paul Stevens, the senior assoc. justice, graduated from Chicago and Northwestern Law. Ginsberg attended Harvard, moved to NY with her husband, and graduated from Columbia. Stevens and Souter are the only two Protestants on the Court; Ginsberg and Bryer are Jewish,although Bryer is married to an Englishwoman who is, I believe, a protestant. All of the rest are Roman Catholics. And, as you otherwise point out, except for Stevens, the others are all products of Harvard or Yale (Ginsberg's graduation from Columbia is mere happenstance; she's a Harvard girl). Prof, LLM, '79

[ErsatzAnatchist]

This post has really taken a turn for in-fighting amongst the Quatloos brethren.

Too much in-fighting in general going on lately.

Yeah, first Reno gets kicked out of the Brown compound, and now everyone on Qualoos is bickering about which state is best.

[Demosthenes]

everyone on Qualoos is bickering about which state is best.

Not me. Maryland sucks.

[Nikki]

everyone on Qualoos is bickering about which state is best.

Not me. Maryland sucks.

Metropolitan DC bites.

There are some areas of Maryland which are quite tolerable, even enjoyable.

However, they all start at least 15 miles outside the Beltway. (Same for Virginia.)

[grixit]

And for others "the west" is CA, NV, AZ, NM and possibly TX.

I find that grouping unappealing. Let the strip from Montana to Arizona be "the West", Washington and Oregon are "the Pacific Northwest", Alta California is is its own category.

[Dezcad]

Granted all the current justices on the Supreme court went to Harvard or Yale, but can we yet consider any of them jurist giants? And those considered giants as jurists (Brandeis, Marshall, etc), where did they go to law school? In fact, the one true giant of the court (Wm. H. Taft), where did he go to law school? Just curious.

Louis Brandeis went to Harvard University and Brandeis University is outside Boston, MA (my alma mater actually). Marshall went to Howard Law School in DC and Taft went to Harvard and then Cincinnati Law School.

[LDE]

No, Captain, you didn't say New England sucks. You said:

So what the article is saying is that New England states and New Hampshire specifically, is run and populated in large part by candy-a**ed, limp-d*cked, whiny gutless little wimps.

And by New England, I mean Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachussetts - all of whome when combined together have an importance equal to....oh I don't know.......Kansas? Iowa? Oklahoma?

First of all, as far as I can see, the good people of New Hampshire overwhelmingly wish for action to end this standoff. It's the Feds who are wimping out.

Does the similar (endless) standoff in Texas mean Texans are a bunch of ... what you said?

Now, I'm not going to dis California, quite fond of your state in fact, but as a former Mass. resident (25 years) I just had to run some numbers. I don't know what you consider "important," but most people probably would look at parameters like these:

Population
6 New England states: 14.0 million
KS: 2.7 million
IA: 2.9 million
OK: 3.5 million
Massachusetts alone has 6.3 million, more than twice as populous as any of the three states you cited.

State GDP
6 New England states: $715 billion
KS: $112 billion
IA: $124 billion
OK: $135 billion
MA alone: $338 billion; CT alone: $204 billion

Best hospitals (US News)
The New England states have 3 "honor roll" hospitals; KS, IA, OK have none
On the full "best hospitals list":
6 New England states: 16
KS: 1
IA: 1
OK: 0

Accredited 4-year universities
6 New England states: 163, including 4 of the 8 Ivies and such major research institutions as MIT, Brandeis, Tufts, Northeastern
KS: 27
IA: 36
OK: 27

Major military installations and personnel
6 New England states: 22 installations, 77,849 personnel
KS: 4 installations, 33,376 personnel
IA: 2 installations, 17,515 personnel
OK: 6 installations, 47,174 personnel

And as for the wimp factor:

Servicemembers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan
6 New England states: 188 (72 from Mass. alone)
KS: 46
IA: 46
OK: 63

Add to that the fact that New England contains one of the nation's busiest airports (Logan), several major seaports, the headquarters of many large financial and insurance firms, and major facilities for the high-tech and biochemical industries, and it should be clear that the region punches well above its weight. Important? Hell, New England is invaluable.

Of course, if "important" is defined as 'defending Godly creationism against atheistic Darwinism' then you might have a point about Kansas.

[Lovin]

FWIW - the current Supreme Court justices with home state and law school

Scalia - VA - Harvard Law School
Kennedy - CA - Harvard Law School
Souter - NH - Harvard Law School
Thomas - GA - Yale Law School
Ginsburg - NY - Columbia Law School
Bryer - CA - Harvard Law School
Roberts - NY- Harvard Law School
Alito - NJ - Yale Law School

Harvard Law School and Yale Law School, btw, are both in New England.

RBG started at Harvard and transfered to Columbia when her husband graduated a year ahead of her and took a job in NYC. Really isn't the most diverse group of degrees ever is it.

[Agent Observer]

The Air Force Academy is in Colorado.

Nuff said...

And I second Demo...DC and Maryland suck.

[Prof]

Granted all the current justices on the Supreme court went to Harvard or Yale, but can we yet consider any of them jurist giants? And those considered giants as jurists (Brandeis, Marshall, etc), where did they go to law school? In fact, the one true giant of the court (Wm. H. Taft), where did he go to law school? Just curious.

Louis Brandeis went to Harvard University and Brandeis University is outside Boston, MA (my alma mater actually). Marshall went to Howard Law School in DC and Taft went to Harvard and then Cincinnati Law School.

Taft -- who served on the Court after being President was a giant in terms of his huge girth!

I presume you mean John Marshall of Va., the first Supreme Court Justice. He had no education other than tutors and a short period where he (and Madison) boarded with a Minister who taught them in his home. He did read law with Wyth, of William & Mary, before admission to the Bar in about 1780.

Modern law schools were not invented until the end of the 19th Century -- at Harvard. The modern three year post-grad degree is still not mandatory in all states. A few still allow some sort of "reading the law" under a licensed lawyer. Mr. Justice James F. Byrnes was the last Justice of the Supreme Court who had no formal legal training (nor did he have a high school degree or a college degree). Orphaned at 14, he sold newspapers to help his Mother, took a stenography course, and became a court reporter. He read law under the judge. After serving as a US senator form SC, he was appointed to the Supreme Court by FDR. He resigned to head the Office of War Mobilization. He served as Secretary of State after Marshall and his last office was as Governor of SC. FDR might have selected him rather than Truman in '44, but Ms. Roosevelt believed his positions and ideas about race and Blacks and segreation were far too conservative (he was a racist, although paternalistic, to be blunt).

Note: As I point out, you all keep forgetting Mr. Justice Stevens, a graduate of Northwestern. Chief Rhenquist and Madam Justice O'Connor attended Stanford.

[Judge Roy Bean]

Not me. Maryland sucks.

It's the wind from DC. And don't get me started on contributory negligence.

[Burzmali]

Yet you elected the governator.

[Imalawman]

Yet you elected the governator.

HA! BURN. (although he's turned out to be better than most)

Cap'n, your love of your home state is admirable and rises to the level quaintness usually found in NE and parts of the south. But I think you're overestimating its value just a tad. Truth be told, there probably is no one state the US "couldn't do without". If CA wasn't part of the union, we would that much fewer mouths to feed and support on welfare. Our violence rates would drop and immigration would be a little less of a problem. Also, republicans would likely be glad to get rid of millions of democrats. I'm proud of where I live, but the union would be fine without it, just like without CA. Personally, I'm glad we have CA and NE.

[Cobalt Shiva]

The mid-west by that time will be noted for gigantic agri-farms, water collection facilities (for resale to CA, AZ, NV, etc) and microwave power receiver/conversion stations (to receive power generated by orbiting solar arrays) and a few SAC bases.

Small correction: SAC was deactivated in 1992, replaced by the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM). This made nuclear deterrence mission fit into the Goldwater-Nichols unified/specified joint command framework--SAC was an all-Air Force show, and the SSBNs were run by the fleet commanders, which led to some interesting problems.

[Anti-861]

Lay off California!

You know, the rest of America has been having quite a laugh at California’s expense lately. But let’s remember this: California has a lot of people. And the reason it does is lots of other people in other states saying, “Fuck this, I’m outta here!” And then those people come here to California, and people ask them, “Don’t you miss the winters?” No, strangely enough, I don’t. Much the same way I don’t miss slamming a car door on my hands.

Make fun of California, but if it weren’t for California, East Coast rappers would have to shoot musicians from Branson. If it weren’t for California, there’s be almost no TV, and you’d have to come home at night and actually talk to your family.

You know, the rest of America feels about California the way the rest of the world feels about America. They hate us because we do what we want. They think we’re too blessed and too free, and it makes them nuts in the dreary hovels of Kabul and Tikrit and Lubbock, Texas. They pray to their threadbare gods that we’ll get what we deserve. But it won’t happen. Because you never know what we’re going to do here next.

We elected Ronald Reagan and Jerry Brown. We’re home to Disney and Hustler, the Partridge Family and the Manson Family. We can drink a Mudslide and a Sex on the Beach during an actual mudslide while having sex on the beach! Our farms feed the world, and Calista Flockhart lives here. We have bears and great white sharks. And even our washed-up actors are allowed to kill one blonde chick. We invented surfing and cyber-porn and LSD and the boob job. And if we didn’t, who would have.

We have oranges, free oranges, everywhere. What grows on the trees in Scranton, fucker?! We have a real hockey team named after a hockey team in a movie! Our Indian casinos could kick your Indian casinos’ ass. We give our illegal aliens driver’s licenses. And we have a guy running for governor who digs group sex.

Would anywhere else in America trade places with L.A. or San Francisco in a piss-soaked New York minute? You bet they would. Because I don’t recall anyone ever writing a song called “I Wish They All Could Be Rhode Island Girls”! ."

[Randall]

And be thankful CA is part of the Union, if CA wasn't we would build our own border fence and the rest of the Union would have to deal with illegal immigration.

As long as that fence also keep Paris, Lindsay, Brittany and a few others in CA, go right ahead.

[Imalawman]

CA has Paris Hilton, Iowa has Norman Borlaug. Sometimes I seriously question the relevance that is placed on CA and true social value of the things and people it produces.

If you don't recognize the name of Borlaug, you should - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gregg-eas ... 56665.html

[silversopp]

Ah-nold is the second actor turned governor for CA, the other one went on to bigger and better things in 1980......

Arnold is the 3rd actor-turned governor. Jesse Ventura was the second, being elected in 1998.