Category: Regional Politics (SE)

Politics of the Southeast, particularly East Tennessee and the surrounding states.

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Separation of Church and State..except in Arkansas

So, in TN we are doing stupid things with our constitution like dictating morals, telling people whether or not they can get married, and forbidding people from buying dildos. But in Arkansas they have an article in their constitution forbidding Atheists from holding public office or testifying as a witness! I’m calling my state representative! Our stupidity has been one up’d! (See the correction)

Article 19, section 1 of the Arkansas Constitution: Atheists disqualified from holding office or testifying as witness.

No person who denies the being of a God shall hold any office in the civil departments of this State, nor be competent to testify as a witness in any court. [Source]

The Arkansas constitution is available online.

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Big holes!

So I was reading about the biggest hole in Russia

The gaint hole is actually a diamond mine in Eastern Siberia near the town Mirna. It is 525 meters deep and 1.25 km in the diameter.
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The suction above the hole resulted in several helicopter crashes, so all flight above the hole is prohibited now.

and learned about Bingham Canyon Copper mine via the post comments. The facts about the mine are fascinating. And the pictures are impressive. I wonder if this is what the West Virginia mountains will look like in 100 years. (see also)

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I rode The Dragon

Julie posted a reference to The Dragon. Years ago I rode The Dragon on a 1981 Honda CM400C (the C apparently means "custom" and is bored out to have the displacements of a 600…basically means a 600 will take me from the line but at cruisiing speed we pull the same RPMs). Sometimes a comment deserves to be a post so I repost here:

I rode the Dragon once. It tightens your butt cheeks quite well.

Motorcyclists have a rating system called “pucker factor” which is the degree to which your gluteus clings to your seat. The Dragon has a high pucker factor.

Once thing about the Dragon is you come out of it knowing how to take a turn. I was loaded down on an underpowered bike really designed to stay in the city and heading to Atlanta and I recall this one turn that I went into with a lot of lean. It was graffitti defying antics nearly dragging peg (that means the piece of metal your foot rests on drags the ground). That turn kept on going and going and going. It felt like I made a full circle three times! I certainly surpassed my comfort zone on that one but really learned the capabilities of my bike.

I hope to high heaven that I-3 gets shot down and does not destroy the Dragon.

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Woot! Wine!

Woot has a new angle, they are selling wine. Yes, you heard correctly, http://wine.woot.com/”>. For connoisseurs of the grape, this could be an excellent way to acquire some fine wine at fine prices.

For those that don’t know, Woot lists 1 product per day at midnight Central time (GMT -6) and sells it until they are out of stock. It might be junk or it might be an iPod $60 cheaper than anywhere else you could find one. Often the great stuff sells out in the first half hour of listing. Last I checked, Woot is affliated with Overstock.com.

What is woot.wine? We were all pretty despondent when we couldn’t work out the logistics for massage.woot.com. We started to question the very idea of spinning off another new dot-woot. But then woot.com offered our Rinfrescante wine and we were positively deluged with inquiries from friends and family pleading for more (of course the cheapskates wanted more – they got it for free). This was enough “market research” for us. We reactivated our wine-industry hookup and wine.woot.com was conceived.
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So every week, wine.woot.com will uncork a sweet new wine deal.
Can I really buy wine on the Internet? Thanks to our esteemed Supreme Court, recent and dramatic changes in how wine can be sold and delivered in the U.S. allow wine.woot.com to bring wine directly from the winery to you.
What states can you ship to?Thanks to stick-in-the-mud buzzkilling state legislators, wine may only be delivered to the following states:

* Arizona (expect longer delivery times)
* California
* Colorado
* Connecticut
* District of Columbia
* Florida
* Idaho
* Illinois
* Indiana (expect longer delivery times)
* Iowa
* Louisiana
* Massachusetts (expect longer delivery times)
* Michigan
* Missouri
* Minnesota
* Nebraska
* Nevada
* New Hampshire
* New Jersey (expect longer delivery times)
* New Mexico
* New York
* North Carolina
* North Dakota
* Ohio
* Oregon
* South Carolina
* Texas
* Vermont
* Virginia
* Washington
* West Virginia
* Wisconsin
* Wyoming

If your state’s not on the list, no wine for you! Take it up with your state assembly person. We comply with all federal, state, and local laws in providing this wine.

Of course Tennessee is not on the list. We wouldn’t want to lose our reputation as being a bunch of backwards hillbillies. Now whar’s my shine?!

Little sidenote, The Tennessee General Assembly website looks like one of the politicans had his highschool age child build the site. "Pages Created and Maintained by: Legislative Information Services"

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Help Stop Interstate 3!

Interstate 3 is a horrible conception and unless the public steps up to the plate and contacts their representatives billions of dollars will be wasted and the ecology of the Southeast forever changed! I was composing a lengthy opposition to I-3 when Blogger deleted my account so my research was lost. Fortunately, the Stop I-3 Coalition has stepped up to the plate to bring public awareness to this disaster that has been forming since 2004. Contacting your representative is EASY! Explaining to your grandchildren why the Great Smoky Mountain National Park died and why the Southeast no longer has a wilderness is HARD.

Billions of dollars are being allocated to build a road that reduces current routes by only 15 miles. This money should be spent to build electric rails along existing interstate corridors instead of irrevocability changing the landscape and environment of the Southeast. Modern trains can be equiped to transport cars like ferries so arguments that a rail system would be useless are invalid.

It is my personal believe that this is a military inspired route to expedite transportation of weapons from Oak Ridge to the coast (an unfounded and unproveable statement — but it is a straight line!).

Please click MORE to read the full email from Stop I-3. Please, if you contact your representative about nothing else, just contact them about this. Put a stop to Interstate 3!

Continue reading Help Stop Interstate 3!