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Tuesday, December 27. 2011

From recent morning links, I get the impression that the goal of the Maine legislature is to put everybody in the state on Welfare, and to have nobody working except them.

Well, as if a job in a state legislature were "work." Let's face it - it's a title, not a job.

They happen to have elected a semi-revolutionary governor. That might help. Politically, Maine is a strange little state. It has papermills, gigantic tree farms aka forests, a bit of lobstering, marginal potato farms and berry farms, a hundred dead old mill towns, the town of Portland which contains more doctors than people (big retiree town for Yankees who reject Florida ways), a fancy recreational coastline for prosperous New Yorkers and yachtsmen. Fair fishing and hunting, too.

Nobody moves there except drug dealers. And our friend theEditor of the Rumford Meteor. Perhaps he can explain to us the state of mind of the State of Maine sometime.

The government of the state would be in fine shape if they could tax meth and pot.

Love that photo. All anybody needs for a good wedding.

Posted by The Barrister in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 14:43 | Comments (9) | Trackbacks (0)

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They happen to have elected a semi-revolutionary governor.

Paul LePage is a semi-revolutionary? Supports school vouchers, streamline business permitting, does not support, but does not reject teaching creationism, welfare reformer, etc., etc., etc?

Am I missing something?

#1 Tom Francis on 2011-12-27 15:22 (Reply)

well for the most part the article is true; but not the part about only drug dealers moving to Portland. More likely it's rich people from Conneticut or Massachusetts; as well as artists. We now have artists galore. We have many chefs making news in the culinary sector. Actually our main problem is not drugs but immigrants and generational welfare as well as people coming here for the welfare since it's so damned easy to get AND stay on. And that sign they showed, it's cute but not the norm. Maybe for waaaaayyy "down east" b ut not for southern Maine at all! BTW the Eastern Promanade is BEAUTIFUL and I never see druggies up here. Not saying they aren't around but not as many as your article implied.

#1.1 Susan Malia on 2011-12-27 19:12 (Reply)

We spent a few days in Maine this summer, really only in Ogunquit, but we absolutely loved it. We went sailing and my husband chatted up our captain about the state. He said that if it weren't for the tourism that Maine would be a backwater, and that fifteen miles in that is what you have anyway. But of course he loved Maine.

We didn't go fifteen miles in, so we were just in the touristy parts. But it was truly lovely. It's a shame it is so screwed up.

#2 Cheryl (Link) on 2011-12-27 21:51 (Reply)

A friend from Virginia who moved to Portland calls the state West-Virginia-by-the-sea. Great lawn ornaments there.

Though a Newhampshireman hardly has grounds to criticise that...

#3 Assistant VIllage Idiot (Link) on 2011-12-27 22:09 (Reply)

If you need someone to explain the state of mind of Maine to you, then I would suggest you just don't visit, or move here. Leave it to us folks that love it.

#4 Bomber Girl on 2011-12-28 06:27 (Reply)

Reminds me of a line from a Tim Dorsey book (and I paraphrase): "In Florida the ATF is a convenience store, not a government agency."

#5 Jim Burton on 2011-12-28 10:08 (Reply)

I'm from Maine (although transported to VA for work) and I could never explain Maine to those who are "not from here".

#6 JS on 2011-12-28 15:13 (Reply)

Pops and I fish every summer up in the "North woods" almost to the Canada border, outside of Patten. Other than logging and the summer camps, there is nothing there. My sense is, once you get north of Bangor, other than tree cutting, there is little in the way of jobs. Big deal up there right now is the founder of Burt's Bees products buying up timberlands in an effort to make it a National Park. She's a twit and an Obama supporter. Buys the land, then shuts off snowmobile and hunting access. Says a National Park will bring jobs. Of course she neglects to mention turning the land into a National Park takes it off the tax roles, further stressing the county and town budgets.

#7 BlackDog on 2011-12-28 20:18 (Reply)

Not so hard to explain.
Maine has an influential progressive elite who model our state's legislative and regulatory regime after California, especially San Francisco. The fact that the same policies have taken California to the edge of a cliff does not daunt them. Nor does the fact that Maine lacks the enormous economic base that California has - or, used to have - in order to afford such nonsense.

#8 JaneG on 2011-12-29 09:52 (Reply)

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Tuesday, December 27. 2011

Maine