EXITING CALIFORNIA! -- Invasion Of The Fleeing Golden Staters!

ICONOCLAST ^ | by Lin Anderson

[Apolitical]

ICONOCLAST EXCLUSIVE!!

EXITING CALIFORNIA!
-- Invasion Of The Fleeing Golden Staters!



Bye, Bye, California; Nevada, Here They Come!

by Lin Anderson

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the traditional American immigration pattern -- East to West, for those of you who slept through "U.S. Demographic History" that day -- seems no longer to be operative here in the 21st century.

For the record, also inoperative are common sense and the Detroit Tigers.

"Go West, young man, and grow up with the country," wrote Horace Greeley back there in 1865 in an editorial in the New York Tribune. Modern-day researchers have, however, found that the same exact words were penned 14 years earlier by a Mr. John Soule in a Terre Haute, Indiana, newspaper. It must be gratifying for former New York "journalist" Jayson Blair to serenely contemplate that in his tenure with the New York Times, he was in fact just carrying on a longstanding Empire State tradition established by Horace Greeley.

No matter its provenance -- as they say pretty much hourly around the New York Times these days -- the quote has long been a linchp in in the annals of the western United States, even though the odds are pretty good that Greeley was drunker than a convention of Dean Martin impersonators when he plagiarized it.

According to an article by Haya El Nasser, in a recent very colorful edition of USA Today, the Census Bureau has determined that today's immigration patterns are from West to East -- more specifically from California to anyplace distraught Californians can think of to flee to.

"Most of the people leaving California," the USA Today piece notes, "are going to other Western states such as Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Washington and Colorado." And most of the most of them are going to Nevada. Or, as writer Haya El Nasser hilariously phrases it, "Nevada was the biggest beneficiary" of these refugees from Gray Davis's Worker's Paradise.

Lucky us.

The bureau estimates that some 200,000 Californians made tracks to Nevada in the late 1990s, hoping to escape such happy Golden State features as "earthquakes, race riots, economic downturns, a wave of foreign immigration and skyrocketing housing prices." While we haven't had the earthquakes or race riots yet, we seem of late to be quite well represented by the other items on the list, so I'm thinking it's just a matter of time before some unpopular court verdict or other causes the ground to start shaking and the good china to come hurtling off the shelves.

It's not exactly a stunning revelation that a sizeable chunk of the Golden State's population is scurrying over the border and into our hearts. We're handy, after all. Right next door, you might say. In the line of fire, certainly.

Nevada is also attractive by virtue of our having no state income tax; but, per capita, we have just as many nutball legislators as the Californians are used to. I'd say that would make the immigrants feel right at home, but their goal always seems to be something along the lines of making our home feel an awf ul lot like their former home.

It has been a recurring theme of mine -- for at least the past four years or so-- that, as Nevada has become more and more a Haven for the Disaffected Soul (particularly the Disaffected Soul from our neighbor to the West), we have found many of our own cherished Silver State traditions relentlessly assailed. As the folks from Fresno, the beings from Bakersfield and the peeps from Pomona have arrived, so, predictably, have the demands for smoke-free casinos, smog inspection stations, vegetarian menu alternatives and draconian zoning ordinances.

It's as if these refugees had risked their very lives fleeing the Nazis and then suddenly decided upon reflection that maybe they liked that whole crazy "we VILL rule da VORLD" concept after all.

I was a Californian long ago, and have many acquaintances who presently live -- if you call that living -- Over There. I also lived in Seattle back when the California license plates started showing up in unsuspecting neighborhoods with alarming frequency, so I know how this thing works -- or, more to the point -- doesn't work.

I had a conversation with a Seattle-based friend of mine awhile back during which we reminisced about the California invasion. He noted with some degree of cynicism that the hordes which had poured into the city during the 1980s and 1990s were, as the new century dawned, rapidly tiring of the area and were even now pointing their fuel-efficient vehicles south, toward Oregon.

If you've scanned the news out of Oregon lately, you know they arrived there safely.

I fear the upcoming recall election will find even more of our neighbors dropping next door to borrow a cup of sanity. With Gray Davis "alternatives" including Arnold Schwarzenegger ("The Governator"), Arianna Huffington, tiny Gary Coleman ("Whatchu talkin' 'bout, Davis?"), and big blob Larry Flynt already on the goofy ballot -- which may includ e the names of dozens of candidates by the time voters finally trudge wearily to the polls in October -- men, women and children from Redding to Riverside are likely even now nibbling low-calorie things like their fingernails and planning a daring escape to a more hospitable climate such as, for example, us...Nevada!

What's to be done? ...............

[Texas_Dawg]

That must mean you live in New Jersey--the most densely populated state in America.

I live in Manhattan. It's no Africa (very sparsely populated), but maybe someday. One can only dream.

[FITZ]

In this part of Texas ----and this is the part of Texas that is growing in population at a high rate, there is a lot of demand for a state income tax. Local taxes (which are extremely high) don't come close to paying for the schools ---even with Robin Hood and the county hospitals. I think there could be an income tax quite soon.

[Age of Reason]

You live in Manhattan?

Shall we find Manhattan on these maps . . .

http://images.usatoday.com/news/electmap.jpg

http://txsdc.tamu.edu/download/pdf/txcensus/2k_night.jpg

no wonder

[Riley]

So I guess that means you also disagree with Age of Reason that forced abortions in China are a good thing?

And that has exactly what to do with California politics? My reasoning is that 60 or 50 or 40% of something is better than 100% of nothing. A real Conservative isn't going to get elected in California for Governor in the forseeable future. It doesn't matter what we do, or what we say, or how hard we campaign for someone who passes everybody's Conservative litmus test. Arnie would be better for the state than Davis. So would Simon or McClintock.

I do not support abortion, and forced abortion is to my mind, an abomination. The issue here, is what happens to California.

Look at it this way. The better off California is, the fewer nutball crypto-communists will flee their own mess and move to Texas.

[Texas_Dawg]

Shall we find Manhattan on these maps . . .

Are you happy?

I am.

[Age of Reason]

And conservatives haven't held as much political power across our country in over a century.

That woulud be republicans you're speaking of.

Don't be so quick to call them conservatives.

[Texas_Dawg]

And that has exactly what to do with California politics?

Doesn't have anything to do with it. Just showing you that by disagreeing with Age of Reason you are probably on the right track. He's just one of the many, many scary creatures lurking around FR. There are some real nutballs that frequent this site.

[Riley]

Doesn't have anything to do with it. Just showing you that by disagreeing with Age of Reason you are probably on the right track. He's just one of the many, many scary creatures lurking around FR. There are some real nutballs that frequent this site.

I have seen folks here with whom I have disagreement. I try to be careful about picking my fights, and to argue the issue instead of the poster.

One of my favorite Consevative radio hosts, Geoff Metcalf, used to always say, it doesn't matter who's wrong or right. What matters is what's wrong or right.

[BooBoo1000]

I would not consider Nevada, too hot, too many people, too much crime, too many homeless. I think you might want to go to Idaho. They have a lot of land and no people. Give it some thought. Lots of love from Las Vegas.

[Riley]

I'm on my way to the other coast. New York for a month or two, then on to Virginia or one of the Carolinas.

[gridlock]

I've been going to church from time-to-time up in a fast-growing town in Washington for the past couple of months. Every week, another youngish couple stands up and announces that they just moved into town and will be joining the church. The Rector invariably askes them, "And where in California are you moving from?" It's always good for a laugh, and the youngish couple always answers something like "Fresno".

[Spok]

Time to step up those fruit and nut inspections at the California border!

[austinTparty]

Look familiar?

[Joe Hadenuf]

The best that we'll be realistically able to get is someone like Arnie. I'd prefer McClintock, but this is no longer the California that elected Ronald Reagan to the State House.

Hey Riley, hows it going?

I'll go one further, this is no longer the America that elected Ronald Reagan as President.....

[Joe Hadenuf]

Clearly, more people means more liberal voters.

Agree, and I am familier with those maps. But understand, where you see the blue regions and the lights in both images, they are some of the best real estate in the world, with beaches, best weather, harbors etc etc.

That's why so many people flock to those regions around the coast lines. They are not all their by accident.

I am fortunate, got a place in the red and blue zones, one very remote, and one near the coast, both in Cal.....If conservatives would get their acts together, instead of retreating and fleeing to some blazing desert, or frozen icy tundra, they too would move to the most desirable regions, and make the leftist flee the best to settle for less. I am spoiled, I love Southern California weather, as I don't like baking in 110 degrees, sweltering humidity, or freezing and sliding around on ice. I like mountains, oceans, beaches, deserts, country etc, and it's all here. No one is pushing me out. I love it here.

[Jay D. Dyson]

What the California Republicans need is pragmatism and party discipline.

Translation: California Republicans need to act like Liberals. Who cares about principles and values? Nothing matters but having a governor with an (R) by his name.

Sellouts like this would vote for Gray Davis if he only switched parties.

-Jay

[Jay D. Dyson]

Gee, the resource you cite:

Looks an awful lot like this:

...which is derived from this:

Coinkydink?

[Riley]

Heya Joe,

Everythings OK, at this point. The house is sold, and I step into the great, humid unknown on the 24th.

With the 'Total Recall', we'll see what happens. I will be watching from a distance.

[Age of Reason]

Better take it up with the Texas State Data Center--I found that map on their site: http://txsdc.tamu.edu/maps/thematic/

You'll find the map in question among the first listed on that page, under the heading, "Population Distribution in the United States ("Nighttime") Maps"

In any case, it's no coincidence:

More lights, more people

More people, more liberals.

So?

[Age of Reason]

Look familiar?

Sure.

Now your turn:

Look familiar?

Here, maybe this will help:

"I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health and the liberties of man. True, they nourish some of the elegant arts; but the useful ones can thrive elsewhere; and less perfection in the others, with more health, virtue and freedom, would be my choice."Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 1800

"The mobs of the great cities add just so much to the support of pure government as sores do to the strength of the human body. It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws andconstitution." Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XIX, 1782

"I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. When they get piled upon one another in large cities as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe." Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1787