Massachusetts sports the largest collection of cosmopolitan rubes on this side of the Atlantic. Born and raised, and currently a resident, I know this first hand from too many discussions with fellow denizens who, amoeba-like, have absorbed the prevailing attitudes. It's not just that so many of my fellow Bay Staters are outright fools. It's the lack of self awareness. Bay Staters view themselves as the beneficiaries of a superior political mindset as the policies of their state are the laughingstock of the rest of the country. Proximity to Harvard University, Puritan forebears, and home delivery of the Boston Globe hardly inoculate one against political idiocy. Rather, these and other Bay State peculiarities insulate residents from ideas beyond the tiny liberal fiefdom.
Earlier this month, a middle-school principal in Winchester cancelled a previously-approved voluntary student trip to see a theatrical performance of "Miracle on 34th Street." As local writer Chris Connely put it, "Evander French Jr. has done what the judge in Miracle on 34th Street would not do--go against Santa Claus." Since Christmas is not for everyone, the reasoning[?] goes, Christmas cannot be for anyone. A nurse from my hometown has coaxed a state lawmaker to introduce legislation banning spanking in Massachusetts. "Are they going to start legislating that you can’t raise your voice to your kids?," asks Charles Enloe, who was arrested for spanking his child in 2005. "That you can't tell them when to go to bed? We'll be communists then." On election day in Cambridge, where I was born, the city pulled donation boxes placed at polling places by the Boy Scouts to collect materials for troops serving in Iraq. The city manager claimed the boxes were "political statements." They weren't, but banning them was.
Massachusetts has a rich history but an impoverished present. It doesn't take an MIT rocket scientist to figure out why, in contrast to the population growth in the rest of the country, Massachusetts continues to witness a massive jailbreak of inmates escaping south, west, and even north to Maine and New Hampshire.
Hey, together we can! Right?!
What can one say about a state that wants to pass an unenforceable law that parents can’t spank their own naughty children but will release a murderer from prison on his personal recognizance only to have him travel across the country to murder again?
F’ing embarrassing living here.
Until the majority of the residents get some sense and vote the bastards out of office nothing will change. I was in Greenfield last month and many of the people I spoke to seemed oblivious to the plight of their state. Shame, Mass. is a great state being run out of business by the brain-dead.
A small but good example of wht people are leaving: A fifth of Crown Royal in New Hampshire is 16.xx. The same fifth in Mass. is 33.xx. Maybe it's no longer a part of New England but England.
Yes. That , may friend, IS the problem. Many people in this state are so dog whipped that they are completely disengaged with what the morons on Beacon Hill are doing as they've developed the "can't fight city hall" attitude.
I marvel at how my fellow citizens regularly demonstrate a can't do attitude when it comes to squelching bad government and are generally brain dead (as is most times shown by their driving skills) when it comes to caring enough to vote the b'stards out!
All you need to do to understand how inefficiently this state operates is to consider who the Massholes continue to vote into office.
Two good examples are our way left incidental Governor of questionable competence and the Mayor for life of our biggest and most influential city who is a witless boob.
With reference to the topic at hand, the Democratic Rep. from the People's Republic of Lexington who is pushing this absurdly backward spanking legislation was asked if he spakned his own kids to which he replied, "none of you damn business". So, let me get this straight, this guy wants to pass legislation to make it government's business whether or not citizens discipline their kids but it's none of anybody's business if he does the same?
Riiight.
