The Honor Roll

Here is a list of the states with the highest rates of child poverty, in order:

1. Mississippi
2. New Mexico
3. Arkansas
4. Louisiana
5. Alabama
6. Georgia
7. Arizona
8. South Carolina
9. Kentucky
10. North Carolina
11. Tennessee
12. Texas

The 13th state is Florida, the 14th Michigan.

Notice anything about these places? (Hint, consult the map above, which is a map of the districts which sent Tea Party Representatives to Congress.) One other connection you might make is every Confederate state is listed, save Virginia. Florida of course, would have made it had it not been for New Mexico grabbing a spot.

And New Mexico is the anomaly. One might think New Mexico made it because of "Breaking Bad" but Mad Dog's guess is there are a lot of impoverished Indian reservations in New Mexico.

Arizona, of course, was not in the Confederacy, but only because it was not a state at the time. With Sheriff Arpaio driving the streets in his customized tank, looking for dark skinned people who must be illegal aliens, Arizona is at least an honorary member of the Confederacy.

Is it not remarkable that those places represented by Tea Party fanatics are the most backward, impoverished, uneducated, underachieving parts of our country? We don't need no help from Washington, these districts say. Well, maybe you might ought to think again about that, pardner.

Think of Texas Representative Pete Olson, who spoke into the cameras at a recent Congressional hearing on the troubles with the Obamacare roll out and said, ever so modestly, "Being a computer science major from Rice University and a former naval aviator who could not afford to have my computer drop off line as I'm rolling my plane to drop a torpedo to stop a Russian submarine from launching a ballistic missile, a nuclear missile at our country..."

Wow! There's a lot going on in that little tirade. What a man! He has been saving our country, ever since he went to a FREE university, and worked for the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT to protect our nation using the flawless technology aboard his United States Navy, federal government made and maintained airplane. And he has nothing but scorn for the federal government, which just cannot do anything right, and ought to be defunded, shut down and put out of business, even if kids in his own state are starving, uneducated and think school is about marching bands and Friday night football games. 

It has struck Mad Dog nearly mute when he realizes that many of the most vehement anti government, free market, Ayn Rand, frothing, self made men have been government employees (often military) state employees or employees of big corporations which fed on the government teat, their entire careers.  They have never been out there in that vaunted "free market" risking their own financial fate at sea. They have always had a W-2 form and a steady paycheck. (Mad Dog was self employed for most of his career and can smell a salary man from way off.) Mr. Olson, one might note, currently gets his 6  figure pay check, his health insurance and his gym and franking privileges courtesy of the federal government he so reviles.

Was Mark Twain being overly generous when he said, "Consider our Congress. Now, consider a pack of jackasses. But then, I repeat myself"?