DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... What is toughest state in the union? And why?

Oh this is a question just for dawgtalkers, and not meant to start a world wide war of homerism. I just ran across a series of events that leads me to believe that one state in the union must be the toughest.

Toughest to live in. Toughest people found there. Just generally a no nonsense place.

So it makes me curious to find out what other dawgtalkers think is the toughest state to be in or be from or to take part in.

I'm sure everybody has their own reasons why they feel each particular state they will mention is the toughest, and I'm curious to hear those reasons and how many feel the same as me.

I haven't been to each of the 50 states, but I'm curious to wonder which is the toughest state in the union, and why?

I don't know what your definition of tough is. But in my experience the east coast is a lot more uptight and less friendly than the west coast.

Alaska.

Independant, self-reliant people.
No time for nonsense- Winter's coming.
No time for nonsense- Summer lasts 8 hours or less.
The elements will either make you tough or kill you.
and...

"Bears are Godless killing machines"
-S. Colbert

If by toughest you meant "what is the worst of the 50 states to live in?"..... I have no idea I'm Canadian.

If I was gonna pick one based purely on perception, I'd say NJ, maybe a state like Nebraska or Idaho or Iowa, only cuz they seem boring to me. People who live in those places have reason to love them of course.

What about Michigan? Detroit is its anchor city and that place is not in great shape.

This man speaks the truth. I know from experience.

You either "get" where I live, or you run away after a year.

California. We have no water.

You try and live with no water. I have to drink my own urine, it's gotten that bad.

Is hyperbole some type of water that we don't have in California?

Nah, just some QB Farmer should've drafted.

Thanks again, Farmer.

We don't even have farmers because there is no water.

It's gotta be tough.

Late last Summer, we had a water use emergency, because of microcystine in Lake Erie (due to algae bloom). Bottled water only, couldn't safely wash in the shower, etc. The crisis lasted less than a week, but folks were pressed hard to adapt.

And this has been going on for 4 years or more with you guys?

Hats off to you for bearing up under the load.

You have water. You also have a wackjob government.

Link

For example, enough water to sustain 2.6 million California families was dumped into the ocean because there isn't enough storage capacity in the north of the state and environmental rules limit the amount of water that can be pumped to reservoirs in the south.

My vote is for Alaska, but if you ask anyone from Texas...

quote above:

"...in my experience the east coast is a lot more uptight and less friendly than the west coast."

Agreed. And Rhode Island and Connecticut are the worst.

Most of the native people (who were born, raised and lived their whole lives there) are unfriendly jerks. I think there's two reasons:

1) There's a New York City influence (they are very cynical). They think strangers are inherently bad.

2) The whole state suffers from "short/small syndrome".

As for the "Toughest People", I'd have to guess Alaska. Never been there, but you kind of have to be adventurous to live there.

South Florida...

Why?

1) It's HOT.
2) The insects are horror movie size
3) I'm never sure when or if I have crossed into Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala or Cuba.
4) It's HOT.
5) We have no seasons, we have 'summer' and 'tourist'.
6) You need to know 3 languages and tons of dialects
a) kind-of-English
b) Spanish/English/Portuguese/Cuban blend
c) German (Yes lot of Germans here), especially during tourist season
7) Hurricanes
8) Alligators
9) New York, New Jersey, Ohio and Michigan drivers all on the same roads at the same time. Not to mention 100 years old that can't see, hear or operate a motor vehicle safely.

I didn't see anything about you not having water.

I believe, as many seem to as well, that Alaska is the toughest state.

I believe the state that thumps its chest the loudest trying to convince us it's the toughest is Texas.

For the toughest state, I'd have to go with the state of desperation.

When I saw a Tulsa post on this thread I thought for sure Oklahoma was getting a vote.

Not us, we're a state filled with happy, fun loving people. There's no need for us to be tough. We love one another.

Excuse me while I join my neighbors in a chorus of Kumbaya...

Sorry. Had to.

A criminal from Maryland where they have tough anti gun laws came over to Virginia recently to rob a store he had cased. He walked in and shot the owner in the neck. The owner drew his own gun and killed the Maryland guy dead where he stood. Two days later the owner was back working at his business and had a big bandage on his neck. The Press asked him about it all and he said "People from Maryland have to realize that in Virginia, we can shoot back and do!"

Tennessee. It's called the Volunteer state for a reason. As a percentage, more people from Tennessee have signed up for war then any other state. It also has a high percentage of hillbillies. Say what you want about them, but you can't refute those folks are as tough as untanned rawhide. Country Boys Can Survive.

But, do you have water?

Yep. We turn it in to Tennessee Whiskey, sold around the world. Only dumb ass Arabs and Californians live where water is a challenge. Water is a first thought on setting up a homestead with anybody with half a brain. JMO

great response Peen...

let Cali or anyone else try and tap Lake Erie, and we'll soon see what is the toughest state in the Union.

thanks to Eric in Hell for the Kinks link. one of my bigger regrets is passing on going to see their 1982 tour. it's a damn shame the Davies brothers can't put aside their differences and give us one more tour.

You say dumb ass, I say tough. Same thing.

Civilization has always taken root and created civilizations around a water source, even neanderthals. What's that say about Californians.

People want to live where it's never cold, it turns out. Soon we will build a giant hose and put into one of your Great Lakes.

Cold is good. However, when you guys build that, we will shortly thereafter tap into it and hook our sewer lines to it. It's a win win for everyone. Here, where we have water, we'll still have water AND we won't have to treat our dirty water. We still have water, and we close down the treatment plants, saving us money. There, where you have no water for farmers, you'll get pumped plenty of fertilization sludge. You'd even be able to treat it for drinking if you'd like.

This is disrespectful.

We feed the nation! We need to waste your water now, we used up all of ours.

We'll send it. You hook up the pipeline, we'll fill it.

On a serious note though, why did Cal. not build reservoirs? Why don't they build desalination plants? Cal. does border an ocean, right?

Is it/was it simply a financial decision? If so, how's that working out?

I'm reminded of a town/city in Cali that, a number of years ago, mandated that the citizens reduce water usage. Basically, at the end of the year, the citizens had reduced usage so much (and therefore the water billing) that the city said "hey, you did great conserving water. But, consequently, our water department didn't make enough money, so now we're going to raise your water and treatment rates. Thanks for using less, now you have to pay more for less."

These are all good questions. I think it's because no one lives here and the people that do live here pay no taxes. So they can't build anything.

Desalination plants aren't that effective. It's much easier to just filter out sewage water, but I guess that's disgusting to people? Any way, it would solve the water crisis over there quickly.

Israel has used desalination plants quite effectively.

I think it works for the navy. If I'm not mistaken (and I might be) the aircraft carriers produce their own fresh water from the ocean. Probably many other ships do as well. I know cruise liners produce their own fresh water. Perhaps it's cost prohibitive for a state to do it? But by the same token, being without water due to cost is also counter productive.

All municipalities re-use waste water. The water you or I drink has more than likely been through a waste water plant. They take the sludge out. Treat it. Then pump the water into tanks/reservoirs and re use it OR pump it into a river (lake?), only to suck it back in and treat it again and put it in the clean water system.

Right?

A ship is small enough for it to work. It doesn't scale well.

I'm not sure how much water is re-used in most place, but I don't believe it's that much and it's not the triple filtration system that people want to implement into drinking water. But there is a difference between what's being proposed and what we already have.

They're still pretty expensive and possibly bad for the environment. They're interesting, but more research is needed. Toilet to tap is much more safe.

No, it's that the only cost effective way is to use nuclear power to boil the salt out of the water. We tried to get a desalinization plant in Virginia Beach, VA at one time, and the idiot environmentalists fought it, as they didn't want a nuke plant on the coast. Oddly enough, we have about 20 nuke plants in harbor in Norfolk, and they move.