Secessionist

I've long thought California should secede, along with a handful of coastal states and other blue states. Some news articles make me not want to share a citizenship with a lot of people "over yonder," east of CA. A lot of them are scary. So Darron and I have thought about taking a trip to better understand these strange gun-slinging, religion-clinging, abortion-denying, so-called fellow Americans, with whom I don't think I have an iota in common.

I came across this piece, which I have abbreviated slightly at the end. It sums up my feelings pretty well.
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Dear Red States Cousins:

We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, Nuevo
California, and we're taking the other Blue States with us. Bye.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave
states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get the
Statue of Liberty and Hollywood. You get Dollywood and Branson.
We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get Harvard.
You get Ole' Miss. We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and
entrepreneurs. You get Alabama . We get two-thirds of the tax revenue,
you get to make the red states pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the
Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. Please be
aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're
going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need
people to fight, ask your KKK members, your evangelicals and
your hockey moms.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent
of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple
and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of
America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners)
90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most
of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and
condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools plus Stanford , Cal
Tech and MIT. With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to
cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected
health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100
percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent
of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all
televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University , Clemson and the
University of Georgia. We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was
actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred
unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent
say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent say that Saddam was
involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you
are people with higher morals then we lefties.