Only The Stupid Die Young

Today's NY Times has two pieces worthy of notice, so far as this endeavor goes.  I'll leave you to hunt out Floyd Norris's column, if you like.  You should, of course, since he echoes much of what I've been writing.  The article I'll explore is a subject close to my heart:  only the stupid die young.  (It seems that the map was first published a few days ago, although I only saw it this morning in my dead-trees-with-croissant moment.)

More than once, I've taken the Tea Baggers to task (not many read this blog, I'd wager) for their insistence that Gummint is Evil, and so on.  In the course of those musings, I've pointed out that, were it not for FDR, the South would still be living a 19th century existence.  No piped water.  No piped waste.  No electricity.  In other words:  shitting in the backyard, next to the hand pump, and may be a kerosene lamp or two at night.  That's no joke.

Still and all, the Southern embrace of Fascism has its price.  This map makes it quite clear. 

You can go here for median income data.  Sort it South, so to speak.

And here for smarts.  The bottom quartile is almost all South; California and Hawaii likely due to non-English native language issue.