Iowa

Remember that meme where red states are "real America" and (mostly blue) coastal states aren't? My immediate reaction to the Iowa Supreme Court ruling overturning Iowa's ban on marriage was that now that this has happened in Iowa, maybe the political class might shift a little, given how it considers places like Iowa to be real and coastal states (where, you know, most of the people live) somehow fake. Then I read this almost immediately afterwards:

"I think it's significant because Iowa is considered a Midwest state in the mainstream of American thought," Socarides, a senior political assistant for Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin in the early 1990s, said Thursday. "Unlike states on the coasts, there's nothing more American than Iowa."

Still comin' right out and saying it! So don't think that's gone. Iowa: Real America. Coast states: fakey aliens, probably traitors, to be ignored.

The state GOP is already ratcheting up for a Constitutional amendment banning marriage, of course. The soonest that can be on the ballot is 2012.

stupid, stupid, aaaaaaaaand... stupid

Creationists win in Texas - and this matters outside of Texas because textbooks made for Texas will be sold in other states.

Anti-vaccination activist wants return of infectious diseases. She's one of those vaccines-cause-autism crazies. The problem is she's getting interviewed places like Time, Good Morning America, and Larry King Live. Not coincidentally, she also has a new book out.

The Bureau of Labour Statistics has a Birth-Death Model I've talked about many times in my economics posts. This month it added 114,000 jobs in March. It subtracted jobs in only one sector (Education and Health Services, -1000), the only sector in the actual data showing job growth; all other sectors lost jobs in substantial numbers (in the real data) but had them added back (in the birth/death model). It would be lovely if this stupid model could be viewed by something other than its crazy, crazy results, but we don't get to see it. Oh well. As always, Mish at Global Economic Trend Analysis talks about this in great detail.

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( Tagged by lyonesse )