ALTERED STATES
There was a shooting at Delaware State University early this morning. There really are no facts yet, except that a man and woman were shot on campus at about 1 a.m. It does not appear to be a Virginia Tech-type deal. Those are the facts, but not the interesting stuff.
The Bloomberg article had a very interesting statement about the shooting victims. It said that "the victims were taken to hospitals within the state." How small is your state when that is sufficiently descriptive? You don't hear that a victim in Illinois was taken to a hospital within Illinois. It is a little too inexact. In Delaware it is apparently plenty descriptive.
This brings up the entire issue of all of the ridiculously small states on the eastern seaboard. Do we really need New Hampshire and Vermont and Massachusetts and Connecticut and Rhode Island? Does Delaware serve any purpose at all? In fact, let's look at Delaware's problems, since the others should just be the State of New England, maybe with Maine tacked on and we could be done with it. Delaware is a problem on every front.
First, Delaware has fewer than a million people. Detroit is bigger by population. Post-population crash Detroit. The North Side of Chicago has more people than Delaware. That's ridiculous. Then there are the boundaries. The northern boundary is an arc extending 12 miles from the top of the statehouse cupola. Really. Wikipedia says so. The arc also creates the Delaware Wedge, which is a small piece of land until recently (1921) claimed by Maryland and Delaware. A fuller history is available here. The arc also creates an anomaly in that Delaware apparently owns both sides of the Delaware River border with New Jersey. This is highly unusual. It has also led to several Supreme Court decisions and a current dispute about whether New Jersey has the power to allow BP to build a facility on the riverfront.
So, you can see that tiny Delaware is a problem. It has border issues with its neighbors, and is apparently small enough for everyone to know all the hospitals. Time to go Delaware. Let Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland just divide it up and be done with it. Interestingly, Delaware only has THREE counties, so that may be an easy basis for the division.
There was a shooting at Delaware State University early this morning. There really are no facts yet, except that a man and woman were shot on campus at about 1 a.m. It does not appear to be a Virginia Tech-type deal. Those are the facts, but not the interesting stuff.
The Bloomberg article had a very interesting statement about the shooting victims. It said that "the victims were taken to hospitals within the state." How small is your state when that is sufficiently descriptive? You don't hear that a victim in Illinois was taken to a hospital within Illinois. It is a little too inexact. In Delaware it is apparently plenty descriptive.
This brings up the entire issue of all of the ridiculously small states on the eastern seaboard. Do we really need New Hampshire and Vermont and Massachusetts and Connecticut and Rhode Island? Does Delaware serve any purpose at all? In fact, let's look at Delaware's problems, since the others should just be the State of New England, maybe with Maine tacked on and we could be done with it. Delaware is a problem on every front.
First, Delaware has fewer than a million people. Detroit is bigger by population. Post-population crash Detroit. The North Side of Chicago has more people than Delaware. That's ridiculous. Then there are the boundaries. The northern boundary is an arc extending 12 miles from the top of the statehouse cupola. Really. Wikipedia says so. The arc also creates the Delaware Wedge, which is a small piece of land until recently (1921) claimed by Maryland and Delaware. A fuller history is available here. The arc also creates an anomaly in that Delaware apparently owns both sides of the Delaware River border with New Jersey. This is highly unusual. It has also led to several Supreme Court decisions and a current dispute about whether New Jersey has the power to allow BP to build a facility on the riverfront.
So, you can see that tiny Delaware is a problem. It has border issues with its neighbors, and is apparently small enough for everyone to know all the hospitals. Time to go Delaware. Let Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland just divide it up and be done with it. Interestingly, Delaware only has THREE counties, so that may be an easy basis for the division.
posted by David at 8:35 AM
2 Comments:
Your blog brings up some very good points. Since Delaware is primarily situated on the DelMarVa peninsula, doesn't it make sense that Delaware assumes control of the entire peninsula? That way we still have 50 states, and Delaware will now have a greater landmass, a few more people, and the rest of the country will then have to pay a little more attention to Delaware. The same could be said for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Why isn't it part of Wisconsin? I could never understand that. Consolidating NH, VT and CT and MA will be a great idea. That way we can get rid of 6 democratic senators and a whole slew of congressmen. As an incentive I would even let the folks in New England call the new state, Red Sox Nation. What about Maine, you say? Who cares! There all French anyway. Maybe we can sell Maine to the Canadians for some Molson's and a bag of hockey pucks.
Delaware exists primarily to effect highway robbery. No other state maximizes its rent seeking abilities to the degree by teh postage stamp otherwise known as Delaware. Delware tolls on I-95 are more expensive, per mile, than any other state in the union. And the number of tolls, coming and going, mean Delaware essentially contributes to a 20 mile long traffic jam on a daily basis along the East Coast's primary north-south corridor. All that, and they can't even pony up the bucks for a decent rest stop. Any frequent driver on I-95 will tell you, Delaware is a blight upon the land. F in EG
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