It’s not all bad, but a new study by the liberal advocacy group Center for American Progress Action Fund underscores the widespread perception that Louisiana is a lagging, flagging banana republic.
The study finds the Bayou State last among the 50 states in the earnings gap between men and women and second to last in the union for the percentage of 25- to 34-year-olds with a college degree. Other troubling findings include the 39th highest percentage of persons over 18 with no savings or checking account; the 45th highest poverty rate; and a substantially higher teen pregnancy rate than the national average.
However, the study also finds Louisiana with the 13th lowest unemployment rate in the nation — 6.9 percent — which is the third lowest in the South, and the 14th best overall ranking for jobs based on unemployment data.
The Times-Picayune has more on the study here.
The conservative Pelican Institute in New Orleans, meanwhile, has a different take on the gender gap in earnings. Read it here.
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
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If people get married, stay married, go to work and raise their kids together, then all these terrible social ills don't happen to them.
On the other hand, a teenage girl gets pregnant, drops out of high school, and gets no help from the father or some grandparents, she's practically doomed to a life of poverty. Minimum wage doesn't pay a car note AND daycare.
So don't get pregnant! There's pills for that, and they're free for the asking! If you do get pregnant, make sure it's with a man that's gonna stay around and pay the bills! If he runs off, then make the law track his ass down and garnish his wages!
How come I've never seen advice like this on a billboard? How come Center for American Progress doesn't send an army of "activists" or "occupiers" down here to say that to all these poor uneducated southerners?