The Ranting Room

You think just new mainstream/radio music sucks?  Listen to '80s mainstream/radio music!

Oh, I've now got that awful song about West Virginia in my head... not good!

Edited by Geck0 - May 24 2006 at 11:24

GoldenSpiral wrote: I can, however testify that many of the West Virginia stereotypes are true, but they are true for just about everywhere in the rural US.

Having attended a college that was very close to the West Virginia border, I can also confirm that many of the stereotypes are true.

West Virginia's countryside is quite beautiful, however.

I think it's funny that whilst upholding the stereo types of gloucestershire (me) and deep south US (natural Science) we both added disclaimers to state that we know perfectly acceptable people from these places!



I think here, now in the 21st C, folk are so migratory that these stereotypes no longer really exist, (at least in a small country like england)........but it is fun to keep the legends going!

prog-chick wrote: Ah.......I know what being from Gloucestershire is all about...........I never knew that Texans had webbed fingers and toes, married their brother's, cousin's, Aunt, or wore thier jmpers back to front to keep the front clean though!

Not so much Texas, but this is a typical epithet for the southern States, particularly West Virginia and the deep South (e.g. Alabama, Mississippi, etc.)  where most everything is really rural.

Texas is almost its own culture...of course it was an indepedent country for a small time after it fought for its independence from Mexico, then joined the union.  When I think Texas I think more cowboy hatted oil execs rather than rubes in overalls with no shoes and a piece of hay in their mouth.  (Southerners:  I don't actually subscribe to this, I have many friends in the South).  Also re: Texas, though I've never been, I've heard Austin is a cool place to be.

Texans do marry their aunts, uncles and cousins!  That was what I was alluding to.

Rant:

Here's a list of all the taxes I have to pay:

Federal Income Tax
State Income Tax (Pennsylvania)
Township Income Tax
Property Tax (again to Township/school system)
Social Security Tax
Medicare Tax

Sometimes it's a wonder that I have anything left at the end of the day!
Stuff on the local level isn't so bad because our public school system is among the better ones in southeastern PA (even though American public education is, on the whole, a disaster).  It's the federal taxes that irk me because almost everything is wasted.  Sometimes I think our country is just too damn big, or at least the federal bureaucracy has grown to such a size as to be utterly useless.  It's clear the Congress has no concern other than shuttling off revenue to their particular states for pork projects in order to get re-elected.  They allow the administration to run amok and just sit idle.  Our entitlement programs are threatening to bankrupt us but no one cares because they don't want to upset grandma, making her think her check won't come, except wer'e not talking about current beneficiaries - it's not her that's going to get shafted in the end, it's my generation.

Ah, got that off my chest.  This room is helpful!

Geck0 wrote: Well it's grim up north, as they say. It's just a rivalry.  Being Northern is a bit like being from Texas, but I'd saying being from Gloucestershire is more akin to being Texan.

Ah.  It's probably like Northern/Southern in the US, or more recently, this "red state"/"blue state" crap.

Well it's grim up north, as they say.

It's just a rivalry.  Being Northern is a bit like being from Texas, but I'd saying being from Gloucestershire is more akin to being Texan.

TheProgtologist wrote: Here in Baltimore I live 1 block away from the Inner Harbor and have an excellent view of Fort McHenry from our upstairs windows.

One of my bachelor parties was hitting the bars in Fells Point...good times.