Friday, July 18, 2014

N.C. one of nation's scariest states

When we saw that North Carolina has been named one of the scariest states in the nation, we thought we knew what the researchers were talking about. Turns out it has nothing to do with our legislature.

The real estate search site Estately declares North Carolina is the sixth scariest state in the country.

The site says it wants to help house-hunters "make a more informed decision" when choosing where to buy a home, by mapping "where Americans' darkest fears are most readily found." They picked 15 common fears, from shark attacks to dentists, then ranked each state.

North Carolina ranks 4th for hurricanes, 5th for shark attacks, 10th for lightning -- and 45th for dentists per capita. "Humanity's worst fears are everywhere in North Carolina, except for dentists, which is odd," Estately says.

Florida was the scariest state; South Carolina ranked 8th. North and South Dakota are the least-scary states. Which makes you wonder how helpful this "study" really is to house-hunters.

-- Taylor Batten

 
 

25 comments:

Archiguy said...

Being a victim of shark attacks, hurricanes or any other "act of God" is so remote, literally millions to one, that it shouldn't factor in anyone's decision about where to live.

No, the scariest thing about NC is the direction the state is going in since the GOP gerrymandered a decisive majority in the legislature even though nearly a half-million more votes were cast by Democrats.

This used to be the most progressive state in the south when Democrats were in charge. Now, it's on par with Mississippi in terms of limiting voter rights, women's reproductive rights, gay rights, and to top it all off, they've raised taxes on the middle class by cutting income taxes on the one percenters, making our tax code more regressive.

THAT is what the scariest thing about NC is these days. And unless suburban and rural registered Republicans in those gerrymandered districts come to their senses and throw the bums out who did all this, it's only going to get worse for all of us.

WeLikeItThatWay said...

Archiguy i love reading your posts you make me laugh.

I really worry about how miserable you are perhaps you need to get outside and do something fun.

What you fail to mention and I am sure it was just a simple fact that you forgot...

Was that the democrats did the same thing since I have lived here in North Carolina. since 1984.

Mel Watts District was a really pretty Mohawk strip following 74.

Do you think that was gerrymandering?

Do not even try to act like both sides don't do exactly the same thing when they take control.


For me I would rather divide it by counties. That way its fair and it puts people in the same voting block so they can have their voice heard.

But that is too much like common sense.....

Whoops what was I thinking.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and that you get outside and enjoy the wonderful weather.

Archiguy said...

WLITW, If you mean gerrymandering, no, the Democrats never did it like this, no matter how much GOP apologists like to say they did.

Perhaps you missed the key point in my post: Democrats outpolled Republicans by nearly 500,000 votes in NC yet still took control of the legislature with a supermajority. That result makes a mockery of the very notion of democracy.

Nothing like this has ever been done before. The Republicans used complex computer algorithms to slice and dice districts down to the street level. They did this nationwide, which is why they not only control the NC legislature, but the U.S. House of Representatives. The result has been never-ending obstruction and chaos, and Congress's record low approval rating. This is not how democracy is supposed to work.

And since you mention Watt's district, note that the GOP gerrymandered it even further, to make sure Democrats were even more concentrated there so has to guarantee GOP wins in contiguous districts.

I do agree that something has to be done with regard to fairer districts being drawn. The painful fact is that the majority of NC's citizens did not want the electoral result that they were given, and the GOP has instituted a reckless series of bad laws that are not only unconstitutional in some cases, but horribly regressive in nearly every case.

DynaSteve said...

floridum being #1 makes perfect sense. They also ranked it on violence, as you can be shot dead in a sec by some Caribbean thug.

Conan said...

Hey Archi,
I can't believe how far your head is in the ...sand???
How did the Dems control both houses for what ONE HUNDRED years!!!! Really, no gerrymandering there, right! You really need some fresh air.

Archiguy said...

Conan - Can't you read? What part of the Democrats outpolling the Republicans by half a million and still losing the legislature, not by a simple majority but by a SUPER majority don't you understand? What part of "nothing like this had ever been done before" - meaning using complex computer algorithms to slice up districts down to the street level - don't you understand? Re-read my post, and try to pay attention this time.

And when you're done, try to find an equivalent situation, at any point in history, where the GOP outpolled the Democrats - by even one vote - and still lost the legislature. Good luck with that. And maybe a remedial reading course might be in order.

Hornets said...

Archiguy, you are incorrectly assuming that EVERY Dem votes for the Dem candidate. I have several friends around the state in small towns/counties who register Democrat because for whatever reason, in the county they live in, it just makes sense for them to register as Democrat but they vote Republican. They say many others do that as well.

Archiguy said...

Hornets - "For whatever reason" is right; I can't imagine what that would be. But assuming they're not fibbing, it's also reasonable to assume there aren't a large number of people doing that. Certainly not half a million. It doesn't disprove the premise.

There was a reason why such hysteria, such hyperbole, such irrational fury was created around the ACA in the summer of 2009. Redistricting happens in decennial elections, driven by the Census. The GOP needed to win the 2010 elections in a big way in order to make their gerrymandering plans come to fruition.

If you were wondering why the GOP establishment so vociferously opposed a health care plan they themselves thought up (Obamacare originated in the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation), thinking it made no sense to oppose an expansion of health insurance which benefits the whole country, think about what they had to gain by potentially securing so many state legislatures, and the U.S. House for the next 10 years.

They needed to make people forget on whose watch the Great Recession happened and create an unnatural fury directed at the new president and his party. The ACA gave them the perfect target and the perfect tool. It worked brilliantly.

And we're all suffering the consequences, especially in the red states. Like NC.

Hornets said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Hornets said...

Why do you believe that Dems can only vote for Dems?! I'm sure a lot of Dems were disenchanted with Gov Perdue and the legislature and decided to "throw the bums out." Is it possible that this 500,000 registered voter difference is skewed to only a minority of districts? i'm thinking you took 1 number (500,000 more Dems voting over Repubs)and didn't take the time to dig into the actual districts' voting stats. The point is you make a broad conclusion on 1 number.

Work on getting Dems back in office, have them change the gerrymandering to be fair to ALL - which unfortunately, will never happen.

Ghoul said...

Archiguy,

Just a heads up, the Republicans won both houses in NC while under the Democrat gerrymandered system. They did not change the districts and then ran for office.

They won because the vast majority of North Carolinians were tired of how the Democrats were running the state into the groundd.

Archiguy said...

Ghoul - No, they did not. The GOP achieved this legislative dominance based on the 2010 elections. That was the goal of the Republican High Command. As for the ACA, the Democrats won that battle, but the Republicans won the war in terms of legislative dominance - for at least the next 10 years. Unless the Republican voters in these heavily gerrymandered districts wake up and realize they've "been had", we are all going to have to live with the consequences.

I don't think for one second a majority of NC Democrats were "tired of how their party was running the state". That flies in the face of the voting statistics.

I explained what happened, and the very calculated way the GOP accomplished it, in the above post. Anger and ignorance were, and are, their great advantage. Feel free to believe what you want, but understand you are being conned.

Carol Justus said...

1357North Carolina is not a scarey state it, but it is a cheap state when in comes to paying its workers.

To live in NC, you will probably wind up in poverty if you stay here very long. They want top prices for gas, they want top prices for groceries, and clothing, but they think that the minimum wage is outrageously high and the workers should be happy to work for whatever the businesses want to pay then and come to work with a smile on their faces and bowing to the owners and managers!!

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Carol Justus said...

North Carolina is not a scarey state it, but it is a cheap state when in comes to paying its workers.

To live in NC, you will probably wind up in poverty if you stay here very long. They want top prices for gas, they want top prices for groceries, and clothing, but they think that the minimum wage is outrageously high and the workers should be happy to work for whatever the businesses want to pay then and come to work with a smile on their faces and bowing to the owners and managers!!

Carol Justus said...

North Carolina is not a scarey state it, but it is a cheap state when in comes to paying its workers.

To live in NC, you will probably wind up in poverty if you stay here very long. They want top prices for gas, they want top prices for groceries, and clothing, but they think that the minimum wage is outrageously high and the workers should be happy to work for whatever the businesses want to pay then and come to work with a smile on their faces and bowing to the owners and managers!!

Carol Justus said...

North Carolina is not a scarey state it, but it is a cheap state when in comes to paying its workers.

To live in NC, you will probably wind up in poverty if you stay here very long. They want top prices for gas, they want top prices for groceries, and clothing, but they think that the minimum wage is outrageously high and the workers should be happy to work for whatever the businesses want to pay then and come to work with a smile on their faces and bowing to the owners and managers!!

Carol Justus said...

North Carolina is not a scarey state it, but it is a cheap state when in comes to paying its workers.

To live in NC, you will probably wind up in poverty if you stay here very long. They want top prices for gas, they want top prices for groceries, and clothing, but they think that the minimum wage is outrageously high and the workers should be happy to work for whatever the businesses want to pay then and come to work with a smile on their faces and bowing to the owners and managers!!

Carol Justus said...

North Carolina is not a scarey state it, but it is a cheap state when in comes to paying its workers.

To live in NC, you will probably wind up in poverty if you stay here very long. They want top prices for gas, they want top prices for groceries, and clothing, but they think that the minimum wage is outrageously high and the workers should be happy to work for whatever the businesses want to pay then and come to work with a smile on their faces and bowing to the owners and managers!!

Tandemfusion said...

Funny thing, this discussion of whether people might register as Democrats and then vote for Republicans. I recall attending a voter forum some while back with a local politician who was running for Sheriff as a Democrat. He was asked by some fairly conservative people there about his stance on a variety of issues, and he responded with what amount to very conservative positions.

Someone asked him at one point why, if he thinks like a Republican, he registers and runs as a Democrat. His response was that being a Democrat was a long held tradition for many of the old timers, and if he were to register a s Republican he'd never be done explaining himself to family and friends.


Truth is that for decades people wouldn't identify with the party of Lincoln. More than a hundred years later there are still some folks fighting the civil war, and no matter how they act in the privacy of the voting booth, they register as Democrats.

Unknown said...

I haven't read through every comment here, but I was recently schooled in how technology has now enabled us to look inside each of our homes and see exactly who the voters are. Mom-D, Dad-R, Son, D, DaughterD, House goes to District A, (or whatever)-Both sides of aisle are gerrymandering when the opportunity presents itself, but what is wrong is when people are disenfranchised when doing it. Early voting, gone, polling places, removed. etc. We should be doing everything possible to enable americans access to voice their vote-we should be able to buy an app on line and vote on line-why hasn't anyone invented this? there are fingerprinting apps for apple already available for identification for ATMs as well as police records and applications for all sorts of high security applications. This is 2014, We don't need to physically BE THERE to vote!!!!

Unknown said...

I haven't read through every comment here, but I was recently schooled in how technology has now enabled us to look inside each of our homes and see exactly who the voters are. Mom-D, Dad-R, Son, D, DaughterD, House goes to District A, (or whatever)-Both sides of aisle are gerrymandering when the opportunity presents itself, but what is wrong is when people are disenfranchised when doing it. Early voting, gone, polling places, removed. etc. We should be doing everything possible to enable americans access to voice their vote-we should be able to buy an app on line and vote on line-why hasn't anyone invented this? there are fingerprinting apps for apple already available for identification for ATMs as well as police records and applications for all sorts of high security applications. This is 2014, We don't need to physically BE THERE to vote!!!!