In reply to this comment by dag:

...IMHO this is not a bad thing. The disharmony between the coastal states and "Jesustan" in the middle, highlights that the US is made up of regions where the majority have very little in common with each other.

Kansas wants to teach Intelligent Design in the classroom? OK, fine. Thank Darwin, I'm from the Republic of California.

no, we need a federal government that keeps kansas from doing this kind of thing. i'm from iowa and was very upset that our highschool(in 2000 mind you)let christian church youth ministers in to eat lunch with the students and hand out free snacks to people that would sit with them. there's no reason religion belongs in our schools. students have the right to their own beleifs, but religion should be taught in a classical lit class and not as a science. the midwest needs some outer influence to keep it from being absorbed into the religious abyss, for the sake of the minority that can't abandon their homes for a coast (though most want too ).

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Although a lot of his ideas do sound a bit crazy - he makes it clear that we shouldn't expect all of his idealistic policies to be put in place. He can't repeal the IRS just because he's the president - nor the department of education. I think it's a case of overshooting. He would be lucky- with a friendly congress- to get 10% of the things that he wants done.

If that 10% is an about-face on current US foreign policty - I think he should be supported.

Originally the US was a loose confederation of states. You need to get the other meaning of "state" in your mind. A state like - Japan is a state, not a province. RP would like to return to that. Something like the EU, wherein each US state is a country in a loose confederation.

IMHO this is not a bad thing. The disharmony between the coastal states and "Jesustan" in the middle, highlights that the US is made up of regions where the majority have very little in common with each other.

Kansas wants to teach Intelligent Design in the classroom? OK, fine. Thank Darwin, I'm from the Republic of California.

i think 'nite' is better than 'night'. and basically, i prefer american spelling (wikipedia examples: color for colour, center for centre, traveler for traveller,-ise for -ize, programme for program, skilful for skillful, chequered for checkered, etc.)

and here's the technical lowdown from wikipedia:

Most North American speech is rhotic, as English was in most places in the 17th century. Rhoticity was further supported by Hiberno-English, Scottish English, and West Country English. In most varieties of North American English, the sound corresponding to the letter "R" is a retroflex or alveolar approximant rather than a trill or a tap. The loss of syllable-final r in North America is confined mostly to the accents of eastern New England, New York City and surrounding areas, South Philadelphia, and the coastal portions of the South. Dropping of syllable-final r sometimes happens in natively rhotic dialects if r is located in unaccented syllables or words and the next syllable or word begins in a consonant. In England, lost 'r' was often changed into [ə] (schwa), giving rise to a new class of falling diphthongs. Furthermore, the 'er' sound of fur or butter, is realized in AmE as a monophthongal r-colored vowel (stressed [ɝ] or unstressed [ɚ] as represented in the IPA). This does not happen in the non-rhotic varieties of North American speech.

Lots more here

Ha! Yachties!! Who here would have the coin??? Most monkeys can relate to yachting like a seal can to gathering nuts......and if one were a pirate living in a coastal city, they might be getiing a hard on...

Yes, we all know it's propaganda. Here's one of the scientists whose work was quoted in this ad calling shenanigans on the ad:

"But a scientist whose report about the Antarctic ice-sheet is featured in the adverts has denounced the CEI and said they have quoted his study out of context.

Professor Curt Davis of the University of Missouri-Columbia, said: "I think they are confusing and misleading the public."

Asked if he doubted the evidence of global warming, he replied: "Personally, I have no doubts whatsoever." Mr Davis's June 2005 study examined the ice-sheets of east Antarctic which showed an increase in mass.

However, he said his study did not look at coastal areas which are known to be losing ice and said the "fact that the interior ice sheet is growing is a predicted consequence of global warming".

- http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article571678.ece
25 May 2006