In the news...

Sometimes it can be frustrating, discouraging, or downright embarrassing to live in Tennessee. But then again, at least I'm not in Alabama:

[On Nov 2nd, Alabama voters refused] to approve a constitutional amendment to erase segregation-era wording requiring separate schools for "white and colored children" and to eliminate references to the poll taxes once imposed to disenfranchise blacks. [...] The amendment had two main parts: the removal of the separate-schools language and the removal of a passage -- inserted in the 1950s in an attempt to counter the Brown v. Board of Education ruling against segregated public schools -- that said Alabama's constitution does not guarantee a right to a public education. Leading opponents, such as Alabama Christian Coalition President John Giles, said they did not object to removing the passage about separate schools for "white and colored children." But, employing an argument that was ridiculed by most of the state's newspapers and by legions of legal experts, Giles and others said guaranteeing a right to a public education would have opened a door for "rogue" federal judges to order the state to raise taxes to pay for improvements in its public school system.

Gosh! Take racist language out of their constitution? They might be forced to improve their shitty schools? And what's this "right to a public education" crap? Who comes up with these radical ideas?!?