JCEccles made the association.
It has been my experience ( 1/2 half of my family is from the south and I have lived in Texas) that southerners are the salt of the earth.
JCEccles sounds like another ignorant NorthEastern type to me.
Whenever I hear comments like this (and I am a southern California man) I realize I am dealing with either a very ignorant person or a very deceitful person.