The "Song of the South" could use a different lyricist.

I don't know, folks -- I just don't get the South in this country. I don't understand the mindset down there. In Texas, you have a state that has long been incredibly gung-ho about executing people, to the point where there's a seriously good chance that they executed an innocent man -- and not only is the Governor there trying to cover this up by firing the people whose job it is to investigate it, but the person from his own party who is mounting a primary challenge to him is criticizing his actions not for being wrong but for playing into the hands of "liberals who want to discredit the death penalty".

Then, north of Texas, there's Oklahoma, where they've got a nifty new law that requires all women seeking an abortion to put all kinds of personal details about their abortion into the public record.

Not outdone, though, is Louisiana, where a Justice of the Peace in some town has refused to issue marriage licenses to interracial couples. But of course, he's certainly NOT racist! He just doesn't think that people of different races should marry.

Jeebus -- what is it with the South, anyway?

(No, I'm not actually judging the entire region by these instances, knowing as I do many, many fine people who live in that region. But I do find it of surpassing oddity that the South really does often seem to be the locus in America and some very nasty beliefs and actions based upon those beliefs.

Here's a good article by advice columnist Carolyn Hax about interracial dating, by the way.)

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