Flare Sci-Fi Forums: The 51st state

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Posted by MIB on :

Who do you think is going to become the 51st state of the U.S.A. So far the only two areas that are seriously rallying for statehood (that I know of) is Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.

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Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :

DC isn't seriously rallying, although many citizens do support the idea. Check out the "Taxation W/Out Representation" thread in the Flameboard too.

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Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :

Euphoria

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Posted by Ritten (Member # 417) on :

I was the Gov. of Intoxication once.... Impeached for sobriety...

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Posted by Jeff Raven (Member # 20) on :

And Puerto Rico doesn't want to be a state. They're confortable with their situation. All the privileges of citizenship without the burdens.

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Posted by First of Two (Member # 16) on :

*Considers making a comment about P.R.'s statehood quandary as relates to cultural stereotypes, but declines, as this doesn't need taken to the Flameboard*

Er, I've heard, over many years, several proposed candidates for 'new' states, at various levels of sincerity, including:

Dividing California into North and South California
Dividing Kansas into East and West Kansas
Doing the same with Florida
The self-partitioning of Texas into various states.
The State of New York City (which I think had a cutesy alternate name, but I can't recall it.)
D.C.
Puerto Rico (sorry about Rhode Island. I musta been having a fit)
Guam
New Brunswick (is rumored to have asked the US State Dept. for info on how it might become a state, back around '94 or so.)
Manitoba (is also said to have done so)

Are any of these likely? Probably not, unles Quebec eventually secedes from Canada, in which case there is some small possibility that the US might pick up the then-isolated Maritimes.

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"My knowledge and experience far exceeds your own, by, oh, about a BILLION times!" -- Q

[This message has been edited by First of Two (edited February 07, 2001).]

Posted by Vacuum robot lady from Spaceballs (Member # 239) on :

You musn't know many Maritimers, I take it.

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"...screw logic, let's go for a theory with no evidence!" - Omega.

Irony ensues.

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Posted by Jeff Raven (Member # 20) on :

Well, first off, Rhode Island *is* a state and my roommate wants your head for implying that is not.

And NYC and Long Island were thinking about it not too long ago... the rest of New York State would be glad to be rid of them, cuz they're a huge tax vacuum.

the "Big Apple State" would also die off like the vestigial limb that is, if were to do so anyways.

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"President Bush. It's fun saying that. Go ahead, you try." - M. Lucinsky, Spectrum Editor

"Being a liberal is one of the most gutless choices you can make. It doesn't require you to think, it only requires you to feel." - Rush Limbaugh

Posted by First of Two (Member # 16) on :

*Plese note: The following is entirely in jest.*

Don't need to. If we decide we want it, we'll take it. Thanks to your gun policies, you'ns don't have hardly any personal weapons to defend the land with, and from what little, admittedly, I've heard about Canadian internal affairs, the bigwigs in Ottawa don't seem to much give a hoot about the Maritimers' problems, anyway. At least economically. And the Quebecois would no doubt give you hell aboot transporting troops across their country from the West.

No, seriously, the US should have no designs at all on any part of Canada. They're just fine the way they are: a noble country, a respectable culture, a decent people... and a great big buffer zone between us and former soviet ICBMs. And a huge economic boost to our country's northern border areas, when they come flooding over the border to avoid the GST.

I'm such a bad person.

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"My knowledge and experience far exceeds your own, by, oh, about a BILLION times!" -- Q

Posted by First of Two (Member # 16) on :

"Rhode Island" slip corrected. My apologies to Jeff's roommate. I don't remember writing that. I must have been distracted by the damn dog going poopy again.

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"My knowledge and experience far exceeds your own, by, oh, about a BILLION times!" -- Q

Posted by The359 (Member # 37) on :

Puerto Rico can't become a state because it doesn't have the population required in order to become a state (there is a minimum requirement, a precident set all the way back when Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio were formed out of the Northwest Territory). And since Puerto Rico can't exactly gain anymore land (you can drive around the entire perimeter in a day), I doubt if they can cram in enough people to make it able to become a state.

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"No, 3 & 6 are mandatory, so you only have to do them if you want"

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Posted by Antagonist (Member # 484) on :

Oh, I know what will become the 51st state. Here, let me explain it to you:

You see, when I finally unleash My Evil Plan to Take Over the World (v. 6.0b), I will make the south pacific island of Pitcairn the 51st state.

Why, you ask?

I don't know exactly why, but don't tell anybody that because it would make me look rediculous.

Anyway, Pitcairn, 51st state of the union. Did I say union? I'll have to change that to Imperial Combine. So you see, by eliminating the requirements to become a state and making a completely useless island in the middle of nowhere a state I suppose will completely confuse the public, giving me time to dissolve the House of Representatives and Senate, which will call an emergency meeting, by introducing a small covert team of black-ops martial arts trained teletubbies, which I have dubbed Ninjatubbies, into the capitol building.

Where all of the relevence in this is in My Evil Plan to Take Over the World (v.60b), I don't know; I just made it up. Then again, ICQ has many irrelevant things about it that seem as though they were just made up on a whim of the programmer, yet we accept it.

Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :

If we're taking things over, we should try for Tibet, so as to build that cool orbital launcher thingy.

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I will shout until they know what I mean.
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Read three (three!) chapters of "Dirk Tungsten in...The Disappearing Planet"! Then, go insane!

Posted by Ritten (Member # 417) on :

And, as a bonus, we can piss off the Communist Chinese, which would be good for a few laughs...

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"One's ethics are determined by what we do when no one is looking" Nugget
Star Trek: Gamma Quadrant
Star Trek: Legacy
Read them, rate them, got money, film them

"...and I remain on the far side of crazy, I remain the mortal enemy of man, no hundred dollar cure will save me..." WoV

Posted by Antagonist (Member # 484) on :

I already talked to them, they said if I ever show up in their jurisidction again, or even eat chinese food, they would cut me into so many pieces that I wouldn't even make good worm meal.

Suffice to say I'll never go to a foreign coutry and do THAT again! Well, maybe in South Africa, I hear it's legal there.

Posted by MIB on :

(QUOTE) Puerto Rico can't become a state because it doesn't have the population required in order to become a state (there is a minimum requirement, a precident set all the way back when Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio were formed out of the Northwest Territory). And since Puerto Rico can't exactly gain anymore land (you can drive around the entire perimeter in a day), I doubt if they can cram in enough people to make it able to become a state. (END QUOTE)

Are you sure about that? I've heard that the minimum required population for statehood is 200,000 people. And sense P.R.s population is several million people, I didn't think that population requirements was an issue. Hell, P.R. is even more populated than states such as Colorado, Alaska, and Montana.

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Posted by Ritten (Member # 417) on :

I'd opt for Antartica or a Lunar Colony....

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"One's ethics are determined by what we do when no one is looking" Nugget
Star Trek: Gamma Quadrant
Star Trek: Legacy
Read them, rate them, got money, film them

"...and I remain on the far side of crazy, I remain the mortal enemy of man, no hundred dollar cure will save me..." WoV

Posted by The359 (Member # 37) on :

Over a million people?! Are you sure? On that tiny island?

Besides, those 51-Star Flags they created were fugly...

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"No, 3 & 6 are mandatory, so you only have to do them if you want"

Alex, fellow classmate, trying to explain an assignment (2/2/01)

Posted by Ritten (Member # 417) on :

We need to do new states in groups of 5 or 6, so we can keep the same pattern....

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"One's ethics are determined by what we do when no one is looking" Nugget
Star Trek: Gamma Quadrant
Star Trek: Legacy
Read them, rate them, got money, film them

"...and I remain on the far side of crazy, I remain the mortal enemy of man, no hundred dollar cure will save me..." WoV

Posted by Antagonist (Member # 484) on :

Fine and well. We will just have to make Puerto Rico into 5 or 6 different states! :P

I would like to see colonization of the moon! Yess, the moon can be the 51st state. Even if it is in orbit, not on this world, it could become a state. Right? Are there even rules for claiming stellar bodies?

Posted by The359 (Member # 37) on :

A UN Treaty claims that no nation can claim land on the moon.

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"No, 3 & 6 are mandatory, so you only have to do them if you want"

Alex, fellow classmate, trying to explain an assignment (2/2/01)

Posted by Ritten (Member # 417) on :

Screw that, the US does more on this planet than any other, we should get the moon, just be default for being the first, and only ones there....

Convincing enough??

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"One's ethics are determined by what we do when no one is looking" Nugget
Star Trek: Gamma Quadrant
Star Trek: Legacy
Read them, rate them, got money, film them

"...and I remain on the far side of crazy, I remain the mortal enemy of man, no hundred dollar cure will save me..." WoV

Posted by First of Two (Member # 16) on :

He who controls the sky controls the ground.
Space superiority would give us reeminence above all other nations.
Do not assume that the other signatories of the UN treaty would have had the same idea, had THEY landed on the Moon. Mainly it was created to keep US from claiming it, as we had every right to, being the first to make it there.

More realistically, we should abrogate the treaty and capture and mine the Near Earth Asteroids for their metals and other resources. There's gold, platinum, and iridium and possibly diamonds and petroleum in them thar rocks. The small chunks of rocky leftovers, when coupled to a decent Forward-Looking InfraRed guidance system and a small rocket motor, would make excellent weapons. Less need for aiming than a Tomahawk, since they don't have to cruise but simply fall, cheaper, and less "dirty" than nuclear weapons.

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"My knowledge and experience far exceeds your own, by, oh, about a BILLION times!" -- Q

Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :

LOL Ritten.

That's the funny thing, about the US. We're the first, if not only, to give aid to any country..even just after being at war with them. And yet there seems to be lot of anger and hatred towards America by many other countries.

So if no country can claim land on the moon, what about a person? I recall hearing about someone that wanted to buy lunar land. And if possible, who would you purchase it from?

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Posted by Fabrux (Member # 71) on :

Seems to me someone linked to a lunar real estate site.

And aren't the Chinese going to land on the moon soon enough?

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Posted by First of Two (Member # 16) on :

The Chinese? Launch a Lunar mission?
And reveal the extent of their ICBM capability?
Thus embarassing everybody on this board who said that China wasn't a threat?
*rolls eyes*
Surely not!

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"My knowledge and experience far exceeds your own, by, oh, about a BILLION times!" -- Q

Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :

If any of you recall Pat Buchannan, he had a plan in place sometime during the 1996 Quebec Referendum on Sovereignity. If Quebec did become a separate country back then, and if Buchannan was president, he would make motions to make BC and Alberta the 51st state, Saskatchewan and Manitoba the 52nd state, Ontario the 53rd state, and New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and PEI the 54th state. The Two Territories would be merged with Alaska, but no Mention of Newfoundland for reasons I don't know.

Of course, being in 1996, some facts may be misconstrued. I'm just gathering things from what I remember. Any corrections/clarifications are appreciated.

And if the US ever tries to take us over, THEN I'll pick up a gun, to use against them damn Yankees....

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Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :

But where, praytell, would you get one?

I might lean towards other continents for further states. England, once the UK disintegrates. Japan, S. Korea. Maybe Taiwan, if you REALLY wanted to tick off the Chinese. Heck, why not assimilate Mexico? They all seem to want to live here, anyway.

As for the flag pattern, you could keep the basic pattern we have pretty well indefinitely. I seem to recall figuring that out, once upon a time.

Oh, and China never signed the treaty banning claims of extra-terrestrial territory, IIRC.

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[This message has been edited by Omega (edited February 08, 2001).]

Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :

Although I suppose, looking back, that that was a little hard on Mr. Buchanan. So I shall whisk it away!

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I will shout until they know what I mean.
--
Neutral Milk Hotel
****
Read three (three!) chapters of "Dirk Tungsten in...The Disappearing Planet"! Then, go insane!

[This message has been edited by Sol System (edited February 09, 2001).]

Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :

No body noticed what First of Two said... that they could mine the asteroids... for petroleum!?!

Unless there was some very clever life on those asteroids - like plants and animals a couple of million years ago and their remains were compacted... there'd be no petroleum in them their asteroids!

Andrew

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Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :

Shhhh, Andrew, don't upset him.

Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :

Why would England want to join the U.S.? Even assuming the UK disintegrates, and, um, I don't really see where you're getting evidence to support that ... ?

You know, not all Mexicans want to live in the U.S. What an interesting statement to make, however, they all seem to want to live here anyway. Hmmm.

Why would Japan or S. Korea want to join the U.S.? Japan is pretty independent minded, AFAIK, and I think S. Korea has some human-rights issues they'd have to get resolved before they joined up.

Taiwan? Um, you know, no offense, Omega, but the Taiwanese want to rejoin with China at some point (preferably when the PRC won't blow 'em up, although the stage for that seems to be passing). So what you'd have is Taiwan becoming the 51st state, China collapsing, and Taiwan succeeding to rejoin with China. Brilliant.

Posted by First of Two (Member # 16) on :

Some asteroids are carbonaceous. Now, I'm not certain (and admittedly, I took the petroleum reference out of an old, old (more than 10 years) pro-asteroid-mining article,), but aren't there some ways to produce petroleum (or its components) that don't require life processes? Remember, we've already found complex molecules driting in space, where there is no life.

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"My knowledge and experience far exceeds your own, by, oh, about a BILLION times!" -- Q

Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :

He was joking. I think.

As for Hobbes:
"That's the funny thing, about the US. We're the first, if not only, to give aid to any country...even just after being at war with them"

Er, what? Are you saying that the US is the only country to give money to contries it has just been at war with? Or that you're often the only country to give aid to other countries? Or was it just a burp, and it only seemed like words were coming out.

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Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :

Yes... I was joking... or was I!?!

Joking... but there'd still be no Texas tea would there??

Andrew

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"This is cooling, faster than I can..." Tori Amos "Cooling"

Posted by First of Two (Member # 16) on :

Just a grouch point: It's 'seceding' NOT 'succeeding!'

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"My knowledge and experience far exceeds your own, by, oh, about a BILLION times!" -- Q

Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :

Well, it could be argued that Taiwan's long term goals have always been to reunite with China, and they'd finally be suceeding in that regard

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Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :

I didn't mean to imply that America is the only country to offer humanitarian or economic aid to other countries.

I guess I can't think of any way to say what I meant without it coming out the wrong way. So in order to prevent myself from looking foolish even more I won't try.

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