Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Mississippi: So Depressing

Living in Mississippi can be a challenge. It is a very conservative state. One that elected Governor Phil Bryant who said this:
"Even if you believe in abortion, the hypocrisy of the left that now tried to kill this bill, that says that I should have never signed it, the true hypocrisy is that their one mission in life is to abort children, is to kill children in the womb."

No Mr. Bryant, we leftists do not have as our life's mission to kill children in the womb. Our life's mission is to guarantee that a woman has the right to make private medical decisions about her body. It is our life's goal that women have access to birth control so they can make private decisions about how many children they want. In short, it is keeping BIG GOVERNMENT out of a person's medical decisions.

He also supports a bill for school prayer. It sounds innocuous. Students leading prayers, what harm can there be in that? For one thing, the students are chosen by the administrators of the school and people of different faiths or no faiths will have to listen to largely Christian prayers at mandatory school assemblies. This bill seeks to sneak around the establishment clause of the 1st Amendment. Children can already pray in schools. This bill is unnecessary and will just cost taxpayers more money as will the abortion bill passed.

It is maddening sometimes talking to others about these issues. You mention the 2nd Amendment and that's got their attention. You mention those pesky other rights and it's crickets.

I think the mind-set of our legislature is reflected in Republican Senator Tony Smith who was able to get passed what is called the anti-Bloomberg bill. It proposes that restaurants do not need to list ingredients or calories and was in response to the 32 oz soda ban passed and then knocked down in New York city.

See he benefits greatly form this bill as he owns Stonewell's BBQ and catering. He proposed legislation that benefits him another way. He voted to require schools to have longer vacation times.

It's not any wonder that Mississippi ranks last in education and in so many other areas. But a lot of Mississippians keep voting for these people even though it's not in their best interest. Just shout the words "states rights" and "gun control" and you have the majority of votes. And the effect is depressing.

The following chart is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics :

The majority of the 1,300,000 workers in Mississippi make an average of $200 less a week than the national average of workers across the country. That works out to be $260,000,000 in less earnings. This a legacy of Governor Ross Barnett who made Mississippi a so-called "right to work" state in 1960. Our current governor and legislature continues the grand tradition.

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