Logic would tell you that people have to be somewhere. If they weren't in the South they would be in the North and the North wouldn't be so blue. Do you happen to remember that on his reelection Bush won the POPULAR vote?

Also, fuck you. My people have lived in Memphis since about a hundred years before the invention of A/C. If you think we're wussies for having it, I double dog dare you to come down here during the first week of August. Oh, and my county voted blue.

Similarly to your points about how AC has changed lifestyles, a few years later along came Cable. Now nobody has ANY reason to go outside.

In the old days, people used to do crazy shit like talk to one another and kids would go play ball in the park. Now that has all been supplanted by non-stop entertainment. Now everybody just lives in their own individual capsule, insulated (figuratively and literally) from the outside world.

I read somene who claimed that the three most significant inventions of the 20th century were radio/TV (because they gave people a reason to stay inside), air conditioning (which made it possible to stay inside) and the garage remote control (which made it possible to go from a/c car to a/c house without ever stepping outside).

Thus people never sat on the porch and never saw their neighbors again. Thus was lost the art of conversation and learning how to get along. Instead you could stay inside and yell at the boob tube.

Right on! Garrison Keilor for President! Red Green for Vice President! (Red is Canadian, I know, but it can be very hard to tell a bright Canadian from a dim Michigander.)

Write cozy, cute articles about MY accent (Fargo rocks). Let's hear about Paul Bunyan, rather than Brer Rabbit ("Brer" is Southern dialect for "boring"). Bring back Motown, and scale Nashville back. Say, "You guys," rather than, "Y'all."

Lake Perch tastes powers better than Catfish.

I am a Democrat a liberal and I live in Texas (we do exist) where for several months of the year it is unbearably hot, humid, and the mosquitos are rampant. There are no breezes cool or of any kind when you open the windows. Please do not condemn that of which you know nothing. This is like telling people in the north to buck up and not use heating during the winter.

I spent a month and a half in Indonesia once, and the more time I spent there, the more I came to feel that A/C was evil.

First you have to get used to the fact that all the time you sweat, and everybody else sweats, so nobody smells cuz of sweat. You stop feeling uncomfortable because you feel your body break out into a sweat, because you're there all the time. Then, life in the tropics becomes normal.

Indoors is stuffier than outdoors, of course, so you stay outdoors most of the time. The typical place of business (restaurants, stores) had one or two walls of the building completely absent - that's how they build buildings over there. Few hotels had hot water in the shower - what a ridiculous idea, who would want to take a shower in heated water? The regular water is refreshing the way it is.

People would tell me that air conditioning would make me sick, I'd get a cold. And after a while, I started to feel that way. I'd go into a cooled, de-humidified building, and the air would feel caustic against my nose and throat, like little razor blades, nicking my mucus membranes as I inhaled. What is this stuff we're trying to breathe? What kind of man-made industrial device spews out parched, icy air like this?

It's been several years and I like A/C again, just not turned up too high.

The South went Republican after George Wallace first ran for President 40 years ago. Wallace was a former Southern governor and Democrat and renowned racist who felt betrayed by LBJ for his part in passing civil rights legislation in 1964. The Republicans exploited the anger of many Southern white voters to turn them against the Dems. So the South will only vote for a Democrat for President if he is a fellow Southerner.

Will somebody venture a guess as to why if so many Blue Staters from up north have migrated to the South over the last 40 or more years then why hasn’t the South become Bluer in its voting habits? I live in northwest Louisiana so I’m keenly aware of how all the major Texas cities have grown over the years and yet Texas continues to be very Red.

I keep hoping that the influx of newcomers will add to the ranks of progressives in this region. What gives? Are only unprogressives moving south or are the newcomers being brainwashed by the unenlightened segment of their new neighborhood?

In the interior of Alaska, summer temperatures can reach as high as ninety degrees. So depending on where in Alaska your grandmother lives, she might need that air conditioner after all.

"In the old days, people used to do crazy shit like talk to one another and kids would go play ball in the park. Now that has all been supplanted by non-stop entertainment. Now everybody just lives in their own individual capsule, insulated (figuratively and literally) from the outside world."

No irony in writing this on the INTERNET, no, none at all. :)

FWIW, I'm in south Louisiana and spend most of my time outside in the summer. Nothing beats a long run in the 110 heat index with 85% humidity followed by some ice cold watermelon or a jump in the pool. But my AC stays between 78-80 during the summer, which is my idea of room temperature.

Going over my bills, air conditioning adds about $15/month to my electricity bill during the summer. And you don't use it at all because you can't afford it? And your car doesn't have air conditioning?

We also had a recent Salon article about an author going to a soup kitchen to make ends meet.

Given the evidence, I have to argue that Salon needs to pay its writers better wages.