Houston, We Have A Solution

[filkertom]

The latest from Andy Cobb (the guy who did the Teabagging videos last week):

(h/t AmericaBlog)

Now, Texas is home to some of our regulars here, e.g., redneckgaijin, shockwave77598, and starcat_jewel, as well as some of our favorite companies (e.g., Steve Jackson Games) and conventions (e.g., FenCon). So, what's the sales pitch to get 'em to move to where you are? I think they should come to Ann Arbor, where the food and weather are better and more diverse, the fannish community is strong and centrally located, and indie artists run free.

Comments

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

LOL!

While I'm in Texas (and no, the Gov isn't gonna ask for us to secede) this was still damned funny :)

[peachtales.livejournal.com]

That is funny!

[mouser.livejournal.com]

Speaking as an Austin-ite, we'd like to remain as part of the U.S. Sorta like West Berlin surrounded by the evil East Germany thing...

[jenrose]

Austin should move to Boulder. Like twins, separated at birth, reunited at last.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Plus, the weather is much nicer in Boulder in the summer, and in the winter you're right next to great skiing!

[beldar.livejournal.com]

Indiana, home of GenCon!

Other than that, I'm not sure what to say. Maybe, all the statewide stupidity you're used to, but with more rain, less humidity and fewer tornadoes? (This pitch would work for Arkansas and Oklahoma as well)

[renquestor.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'd say climate wise, Arkansas is a lot nicer than Indiana. As for stupidity...well, nobody's perfect.

[beldar.livejournal.com]

To be honest, the two are quite similar climatewise (note my perspective is from living in Indiana for only 7 1/2 years after living in Arkansas for over 30). Judging by the wintery hell I'm told Indiana used to be, I'm guessing global warming has taken its toll. To be honest I'd rather have the snows of the past few winters than the crippling ice storms we had down south before I left. Arkansas is actually in Tornado Alley (you get quite a few here, but still, it's more like Tornado Cul-de-sac). I can't help but smile when I hear Hoosiers complain about humidity. Granted it rains more in the summer (which Texan farmers would kill for, I'm sure), but I don't miss all the 100-degree days I got back home.
Still, as long as I have a good job and Internet access, I can live in either state.

[renquestor.livejournal.com]

Well, I lived in North Central AR, in the Ozark mountains, and by my remembrance the summers weren't as bad as they are here. The winters were iffy. Some would drop a buncha snow on us, some would have nothing. Currently I'm in Indiana in the Ohio River Valley, and I hate what this area does to the weather. Horrible humidity, crappy winters. I just don't like it.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

See, this is why we need a Really Big Space Laser...
we could laser etch a canyon all the way along the border, and then when the ends meet the gulf coast..whoosh!! insta-moat!

[hey, you could probably hold off on the last little bit at either end, warn everyone to clear out and then see how many Darwin award candidates you get trying to surf the flood waters!]

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

Reasons Why I Prefer Texas Over Other States:

(1) Family.

(2) Home paid for (not counting property tax).

(3) No need to own snow shovels, blowers, etc.

(4) Must-issue free (no fee) business licenses.

(5) No state income tax.

(6) Proper, sensible frontage roads on virtually all freeways (unlike what is done in the rest of the nation, where you have to drive all around God's green earth to get to a building that faces the freeway).

(7) Relatively cheap gas compared to most of the rest of the nation. (Current price in the county seat: as low as $1.91/gal.)

(8) Austin (which is to us Texans as San Francisco is to the rest of the country).

(9) Legislature that only meets for about four months every other year.

(10) Ratio of Ignorant Rednecks to Other People no worse than, for example, Michigan, and considerably better than the rest of the Confederacy, Pennsylvania, Utah, etc. and especially Kentucky.

Right now there are only three incentives for me to move to Michigan: (1) close proximity of Peter is the Wolf artist Ben Rodriguez; (2) Detroit average home price $7000 as of February this year; and (3) Canadian border within easy reach in case of Palin presidency.

[kilbia.livejournal.com]

Sorry, hon. There's no paying me enough to move someplace where 2 feet of snow is normal (or heaven forbid, light).

If this sort of shit really started going down, I would be looking at the job market in Oregon, preferably Portland, but willing to consider other cities along the I-5 corridor depending on what sort of professorship gigs HM2 could land.

[jenrose]

Eugene, if you're not allergic.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Western Oregon doesn't get much snow. As in, whole cities grind to a halt if the roads actually turn white. People go out to walk / take pictures / play / in the snow until it melts. Then city goes back to business.

Eugene is very nice, but Corvallis and Portland are pretty good too, and probably other towns I haven't lived in.

Plus Oregon has no sales tax. When something says it's $1.99, it really is! Of course, it does have an income tax.

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

I've lived many places in this great country. If I'm going to move because some bunch of nimrods have a dream of government that doesn't govern and yet still serves all the functions they don't want to be bothered with, it will be a) no farther north in the world than I already live, b) away from humidity, and c) avoiding whenever possible similar conglomerations of right-wing redneck idiocy.

[maiac.livejournal.com]

I have several friends I've been trying for years to get to move to this area, and they always say, "Too cold!"

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

According to a new poll ( http://www.dailykos.com/statepoll/2009/4/22/TX/288 ) seems that half the Texans are in favor of splitting off and forming their own country. Considering this is the only issue Perry has to stand on, it's a pretty safe bet he's going to whip it into a frenzy during the campaign and get a lot of out-of-state whackos eager to help him out, both financially and physically (and with a good amount of internet ranting as well). So maybe it's time to start thinking about possible "What If" scenarios, just in case.

And if any of you want to move to the Seattle area, I'll bake you a lot of cookies and cheesecake, and I have lots of games we can play while you're settling in. In other words, please move up here, I'm lonely ;-)

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

A Rassmussen poll taken on the 16th showed only 18% of Texans in favor of secession... and only 33% who believed it was legal at all.

This Research 2000 poll didn't ask that question. It didn't ask if Texas should secede- it asked (a) if Texas would be better off independent- to which only 1/3 said yes; and (b) if they approved of Rick Perry's statement that Texas might need to secede someday, which was only marginally more in favor. In either case, less than 40% is not "half."

Most of the rest of the questions, quite bluntly, were useless, since they dealt with Texas pols even most Texans haven't heard of.

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, but that wasn't the poll I thought it was. Thanks for pointing it out. I went back to check and discovered the poll I was thinking of _wasn't_ on dailykos and I can't find it. Information overload, too many web sites surfed too early in the morning. I do recall it was a newspaper poll, and the previous questions were about splitting the state up, so most of those in favor of seceding probably were thinking of only parts of Texas, not the entire state, which could explain the 52% rating it got.

Sorry everybody, please ignore me today, I'll go sit in the dunce corner now ;-)

[banjoplayinnerd.livejournal.com]

Do you go to the housefilks and cons in the Seattle area? There's a bunch of 'em up here, y'know.

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

A bunch? In the past several months I've only heard of a few, and either they were way, way up north (three-four bus transfers and 2 hour commute is not going to happen) or on a night I can't make. Where do you hear of these housefilks?

[banjoplayinnerd.livejournal.com]

They're announced on the Emerald Forest Filk mailing list, by and large. http://www.emeraldforestfilk.org for more info.

Unfortunately I can't give you much help in the "way up north" department. There's a house concert tonight, but it's in Shoreline; our family occasionally (like once a year) does housefilks, but we're also in Shoreline; Runnerwolf does her housefilks, but she's in Redmond. And so on.

You can also get filkish goodness from some of the various SF cons in the area. At least two are in the south end (Conflikt (Renton) in January and Norwescon (Seatac) over Easter weekend); there are a couple of others in the area, but much farther away (Orycon over Thanksgiving weekend and VCon in October) with decent filking, and while they are a ways away, it makes it easier to plan for them, save up money, justify traveling, etc. when it's a 3-4 day stay.

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

I was on that emailing list for a while, only saw a few house filks and, as I said, they were either on a night I couldn't make it or way up north (I live in Tukwila, near the big mall). Mostly it seemed to be musicians talking shop to other musicians, so I dropped out since I'm not a musician.

I did make it to Conflikt on Saturday, though! It was great! I'm definitely going to try to make it next year when Tom is the GoH.

[nightmarewriter.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. California girl here.

Been to Texas (Air Force Basic Training... good ol' Lackland... yeah it lacked allright... I drew a Heraldic crest for it, with the supporters being m-16s and the topper being a vulture coming out of a T.I. hat...)

Heard you talk about Michigan... which reminds me of my time at Plattsburg AFB in upper New York state. 60 miles south of Montreal, right on lake Champlain across of Burlington, Vermont. The lake freezes over every winter, and it's easier to count the months where there is NOT snow on the ground.

Yeah, you can come over to California. Warm, and only snow if you choose it (ie, live in the mountains).

[caindog.livejournal.com]

I'd hate to leave Dallas but on the bright side, if Texas secedes then the bid to bring the Worldcon to Texas in 2013 would be the international bid and those almost always win over the U.S.-based bid. So... bright side?

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

OTOH, if Texas secedes the pinheads like Rick Perry, Tom DeLay, land commissioner and neo-Confederate Jerry Patterson, the creationist one-short-of-majority on the state school board, et al. will outlaw science fiction, never mind sci-fi cons...

[skully01.livejournal.com]

To borrow from the late Mr Heston, they can have my science fiction when they pry it from my cold dead hands.

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

Funny you should mention that...

... remember the name I dropped, Jerry Patterson? Who is most notorious in our parts for having said that the Civil War had nothing to do with slavery and that the South- not just Texas- had a Constitutional right to secede?

Well, as land commissioner he received title to a large plot of land adjacent to Big Bend National Park from a private conservation fund, to be either added to the federal park or used as a state wildlife preserve.

Patterson refused to hand the plot over to the feds...

... because the feds don't allow guns on national park land.

You know, in wildlife preserves.

And this isn't for self-defense, either- Patterson specifically rejected the land because he felt Texans should have the right to hunt in state and federal parks.

The conservation fund took the land back, began negotiating directly with the feds, and have pledged to never again offer the state of Texas any new parkland...

[banjoplayinnerd.livejournal.com]

Assuming Texas could secede, I would guess that any theoretical Worldcon bids would be on a par with Canadian ones -- out of country, yet close by enough to not be considered for a Nasfic.

This raises other questions I don't have time to debate right now, like what would be the mood of US citizens going into a Texas that broke away from the country, and would they be willing to vote for a Worldcon, or to go to one there if they were to win?

Hmmm, sounds like a basis for speculative fiction to me. :)

[banjoplayinnerd.livejournal.com]

I worked for Steve Jackson for several years and at one time tried to get him to move to Seattle. Unfortunately he really likes Austin, plus it has a number of business advantages. For instance, being centrally located in the US, shipping charges to the East and West Coasts even out, which makes quite a difference when you ship a lot of stuff all over the country.

Besides, why would you want to move people you like out of Texas? Last I heard only a fairly small minority of Texans supported the insane ramblings being fed to Rick Perry by that alien on top of his head masquerading as hair. The rest are just fine with keeping Texas in the Union and we need them there to counteract Teh Crazy.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Any state that gave rise to Kinky Friedman must be great. Yea Texas!

"If I owned Texas and Hell, I would rent Texas and live in Hell” -- U.S. General Philip Henry Sheridan, 1866.

I would attach a Kinky Friedman youtube video here, but they're all just SO twisted. My favorite Friedman songs are Sold American and Ballad of Charles Whitman.