Arkansas Blog

Another example of why Arkansas is held in the barely disguised contempt and ridicule, nationally, that it is and always has been.

Too bad. In so many other ways it's such a wonderful state full of wonderful people.

What can we do to change that reality / perception?

>>What can we do to change that reality / perception?<<

There's not much hope. Just live close enough to an airport so you can escape occasionally,
like Jan 18-21.

Both Rockefellers tried it for a long time, working as it were thru the wrong side, and it killed
both of them. Bill Clinton tried and the river rats around L.R. brought him nothing but misery so he rightfully moved to NYC and set up office leaving a few competent souls in charge who were more or less immune from lower Ark slimes.

We manage to elect some the worst of them to the lege from time to time.

Best thing about the state for those with any interest, certainly not me, is that weed production is a sure fit, and there's an abundance of locations. Plus the Northwest and North East corners are ideal climates at about 35/36 N. latitude.

We're so proud

I hope there is lots and lots of light shining on this debacle of a decision and I hope it hits some of the religious folk who thought they were saving kids. Then, maybe in the future they will be more selective in their methods of 'saving kids'.

My home is like Grand Central Station - always has been, with boomarang kids and other assorted relatives and non-relatives who need help, need a place, etc. It seems clear to me that if something happened to one of my kids, I would have a nearly impossible task of trying to legally take care of any of my grandchildren, all of whom would run to Meme if something awful happened. I would likely be denied the right to care for them, yet I have been the constant in each of their lives with the exception of their own parents. This would happen, not because I'm sharing my bed with someone - cuz god knows I'm not - but because I am not related to or married to someone who might take shelter in my house on occasion or even permanently.

Pathetic

Yep,
As many on this blog predicted, we've gotten another black eye. And with that black eye comes a loss of business, jobs, innovative people who will refuse to move here, our best and brightest high school seniors who will seek education and a living elsewhere. I'm still amazed that European companies want to set up their windmill factories here.

What a feckin' legacy: Secession from the United States, the 1957 crisis, attempts to keep women in "their place", lychings, gay bashing, anti unionism...

And you can sure bet this all was done "in the name of Jesus." What an awful shame, shame, shame.

The forces of bigotry, led by Jerry Cox. Wonder how much financial gain they soaked out of this issue?

We'll see this injustice turned around. Certainly not as soon as we'd like to see it, but it will happen.

Spunkrat, don't forget Arkansas's stellar cutting-edge attempt to force "creationism" down the throats of our schoolkids.

"...maybe in the future they will be more selective in their methods of 'saving kids'. "

Ah, Ci.Ci - such an optimistic Pollyanna you are - but to be admired for it!! ;>) The people who believe in this un-American RepubliBaptist Taliban BS take PRIDE in automatically rejecting ANY/EVERYthing which comes from "off." Just like Frank Rich's piece yesterday regarding Bush's view that California is just another France, they think all opinions/policies from the states which have the brightest, best-educated populace are simply Godless Liberals to be ignored or repudiated.

This IS maddening to those with over 3 functioning brain cells, and thankfully Hugh is spot on:
THIS WILL NOT STAND!!! It's just a shame that we have to be tarred by the neighboring wingnuts...and our grandchildren will one day look at it and wonder WTF?!!!

May ALL the wingnut's children be GLBT - tough on the kids, but the ONLY 'payback' these assholes can grasp.
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Arkansas is a physically beautiful state. Its also overrun with too many of these Cox-Phelps-Faubus types that are hell-bent on keeping this place a Third-World state inside America's own borders.

Its easy to dismiss all of us in Southeast Arkansas as reactionary, redneck neoconfederates. Too few progressive tolerant folks to overcome the products of the white-flight rural school districts and socially conseravtive demoninations. Is Arkansas a lost cause, I hope not but I'm not optimistic in the short term.

Arkansas seems to have that split personaility: a great supporter of the Komen Race For The Cure, while at the same time supporting a hateful state inititiive at the ballot box. Not everyone is wearing the white or black hats but mostly some sort of grey ones. Maybe in the lifetime of grandchildren of folks my age might there be major changes....

I recorded (but not watched yet) the Charlie Rose show last night featuring the interview with late Helen Suzman (d. January 1, 2009). Suzman stood tall almost alone as a MP in the apartheid era of 1970's. There are a few Suzmans in the Arkansas Ledge, but IMHO far too few. Her obit at the clicky

"Arkansas has a long tradition of allowing child welfare professionals to decide who should become a foster or adoptive parent. "

on the point! now case in point, where was wh granma before nov 4., did granma already have a part in raising a child, the parent of wh? maybe, just maybe this particular case has more than meets the presses to it. just pondering.

i'm not bigotted, racisist, nor prejudice.

your mistaken if you believe this law created the overflow in the system since, nov 4 2008. where were the people (all ) when the parents of all these children in need were growing up.

i believe our social workers dropped the ball, somewhere, or there wouldn't be the need for intervention by a state.

i don't care to know the sexual preferences of adoptive parents, nor should that be at issue.

It's ironic that in most of this country, it's better to be gay than from Arkansas. You don't choose to be gay, but you do choose to live where you live. It's like choosing to be stupid. My wife said something about moving to a different part of the city the other day, and my thoughts were "if I'm moving, it's going to be to get the hell out of Arkansas."

Then there is the Duggar clan and Huck...to confirm that Act 1 is not an anomaly and that we can be every bit as backwards as all those stereotypes. (And I love my state and don't want to l live anywhere else.) I'm not sure how a state that's filled with such kind good-hearted folk can be so ass backwards. I do know that most of my relatives/close-acquaintances who I consider to be genuinely good people lose every bit of kindness/reason when their local church tells em to. Even if they manage to keep their kind ways, they routinely follow every church news letter/declaration without turning on their brains to think about any other consideration. (The lone exception was my father-in-law who bristled when told he HAD to vote Republican.) And even mentioning gays brings out old Testament crap that even scares the bejesus out of me (sorry, bejeeus)...and I'm not afraid of much...other than my child dying.

I truly think it's our penchant for electing anyone, like Huck/Monkeyboy, who gets the Evangelical stamp of approval...and it doesn't matter if their lives are so far removed from their public persona it's laughable...that ultimately does us in, enlightenment-wise. If a politician is not willing to use God as a daily battering ram...he/she faces an uphill battle. (Thank God and my Goddess for Snyder!)

When historians study how an ignorant daddy's boy destroyed our economy, lied us into a war and stole two elections, they'll need to look no further than Arkansas. I can still remember all those horrid replies when asked why they were IN LOVE with Bush...'He's a man of God who'll save our country... after Bill single-handedly destroyed everything good/holy.'

".'He's a man of God who'll save our country... after Bill single-handedly destroyed everything good/holy.' "

GgaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All I can say to that is what is "good and holy" ain't worth whale shit. Monkeyboy Shit-for-brains destroyed the rest.
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The irony is that the gay rights activists brought this on themselves. Nobody would have ever dreamed of banning unmarried foster/adoptive parents if the gay rights folks hadn't sued to overturn the ban on homosexual foster/adoptive parents. And then the Arkansas Supreme Court threw the Constitution out the window and declared the ban "unconstitutional" because it didn't ban unmarried heterosexual foster/adoptive parents. The Court, in its desire to unilaterally impose acceptance of homosexuality on us hick Arkansans, gave us no choice.

There's an interesting story waiting to be written of how the gay rights movement shot itself in the foot time and again in the last twenty years. They brought about Act 1 here in Arkansas when they tried to eliminate the ban on gay foster/adoptive parents. They brought on the federal Defense of Marriage Act -- and state constitutional marriage amendments, now even in California -- by trying to impose gay marriage through the courts. Had they left well enough alone, gay marriage would have been the law of the land in another twenty years with nary a peep from the public. But the movement was hijacked by a narcissistic obsession with acceptance and a demand that every single person not only accept but celebrate the joys of anal sex. Then again, gay men are pretty much defined by a narcissistic obsession with anal sex. Maybe it's not such a surprise after all.

"But the movement was hijacked by a narcissistic obsession with acceptance and a demand that every single person not only accept but celebrate the joys of anal sex. Then again, gay men are pretty much defined by a narcissistic obsession with anal sex."

Seems to me that only the hetrosexuals are the ones with the obsession.

the extreme "left and right" forced the grey silent majority to speak. there were only two choices on nov 4. yes or no. the grey was out in recording breaking numbers it seems from coast to coast.

one vote collectively speaks. like it or not.

choice. so far...........................

freedom of......not from.

What can we do to change that reality / perception?"

Education is the key. Education, education, education, education, education, education, education education, education, education, education, education, education, education.

"The irony is that the gay rights activists brought this on themselves..."

Oh please...talk about blaming the wrong folk. There have been backlashes against every movement of equality/acceptance and blaming the oppressed is just ignorance personified. Besides...it's the foster children who are ultimately suffering from Arkansas' religious prejudices. And they certainly don't deserve losing a single-home because some religious zealots are disproportionately obsessed with homosexuality...obsessed with 'anal sex.'

"Oh please...talk about blaming the wrong folk. There have been backlashes against every movement of equality/acceptance and blaming the oppressed is just ignorance personified. Besides...it's the foster children who are ultimately suffering from Arkansas' religious prejudices. And they certainly don't deserve losing a single-home because some religious zealots are disproportionately obsessed with homosexuality...obsessed with 'anal sex.' "

who would be the right folks to blame.

"ignorance personified"
"religious prejudices" "religious zealots " disproportionately obsessed "

which side of the obsessed, prejudice, and ignorance is right.!

life as it is....one vote...so far...

durango is right. education. for ALL sides.

children are the innocent.

"who would be the right folks to blame."

Well it ain't the homosexuals who are simply fighting to be treated as equals within our government.

And equating my 'prejudice' against those who think gays shouldn't be accepted as equals as the same thing as their anti-gay prejudice is ridiculous. Were folks who fought to gain women the right to vote/own property guilty of the same prejudices as those who opposed gender equality...NO!

Too late to this continuation, but anyway: "The irony is that the gay rights activists brought this on themselves."

THIS nonsense is the "dogs cause fleas" logic of someone with their head buried up their OWN butt, namely NativeArkansan - also lrr - MORONS!!!
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