Red State Babylon

Great article in Vanity Fair which proves what we already knew: That the so-called home states of the "values voters" are no such thing.

Get over there and check it for yourself.

But here are some snippets (and my interjections):

If the blue states are sinkholes of moral decay, as right-wing pundits insist, how come red states lead the nation in violent crime, divorce, illegitimacy, and incarceration, among other evils?

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, of the 10 states with the highest number of total inmates per 100,000 residents in 2003, 9 were red. Of the 10 states with the most female inmates per 100,000 residents that same year, all were red. (Conversely, of the 10 states with the lowest incarceration rates of female prisoners, 9 were blue.)
Since 1976, the highest number of executions have been carried out in red states, with Texas—no surprise—ranking No. 1 on the hit parade.

Note, the red states with all their killin' and jailin' aren't any safer because of all this.
There's more violent crime and that ever lovin' meth in red states.
Oh, and don't forget canned hunts. You know, where really manly men with small cocks pay big bucks to shoot a sleeping lion on someone's ranch. How fucking pathetic do you have to be to do something like that??

When gambling interests slap on the feed bag, greed makes them sloppy. It's hard to pace yourself when so much money's sluicing through. The growth spurt in Native American casinos, scattered across 20 red states and 8 blue states, gave us the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal—la grande bouffe of greed, where millions of dollars were diverted for campaign donations to Republicans, illegal gifts, luxury trips, and sniper equipment for West Bank settlers.

Note, of course the Bush-supporting churches were happy to slap on that feed bag.

The red states may be more churchgoing than the blue states, but they're no strangers to Peyton Place. The 10 states in the union with the highest divorce rates in 2004 (among the 45 states for which figures are available) were all red!

Illegitimacy rates? Once again, the red states can hang their baseball caps in shame. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, of states with the highest percentages of births in 2003 to unwed mothers, 9 of the top 10 were red. Considering how ardently the hard-core Christian right is campaigning against abortion availability and birth control, this percentage could conceivably (no pun intended) rise, giving the red states an added advantage in the birth race.

Note, now THAT is not a good thing for sure..

[R]ed states are where the dumbing down of America has achieved rock-bottom success. In a survey done by Morgan Quitno Press, an independent, private research-and-publishing company in Kansas, blue states accounted for 8 out of the top 10 "Smartest States" as measured by pedagogical criteria. (And one of the 2 red states that did make the top 10—Montana—is trending blue.) As for the bottom 10 states, 8 of them were red.

Blue states not only put a premium on education but are also willing to pay the premium. Nine of the 10 states paying the highest average salary for schoolteachers in 2004–05 were blue; the 10 states with the worst-paid teachers were all red. This gap helps explain why our children isn't learning, to paraphrase President Bush.

Yea, but who needs all that book learnin'? That's the work of the devil, I tell ya!
Not too shocked to learn who pays their teachers the least, either..

Lot's of other interesting stuff, too.
Go over there and have a look.

Peace. And Lord, save us from the red states!