The state of Louisiana is, according to http://www.americashealthrankings.org, currently at 48th out of all states in terms of health. Hilarious highlights include:

* High prevalence of physical inactivity, obesity, & diabetes

* High percentage of children in poverty

* High infant mortality rate & high prevalence of low birthweight

* For the third consecutive year, the percent of children in poverty exceeds 30 percent of persons younger than 18 years.

* After 4 years of increases, public health funding declined in the past year to $87 per person.

* Obesity remains high at 34.7 percent of the adult population, with more than 1.2 million obese adults in Louisiana. Also, over 1.0 million adults are physically inactive.

Funny...because in terms of education performance Louisiana also comes 48th out of all the states. That is according to ALEC anyway. Education Week gave the state a solid grade F for student performance. A detailed study by the Center for Applied Economic Research rated Louisiana:

* 29th out of 49 reporting states in terms of Teacher Quality

* 40th out of 48 reporting states in terms of Educational Input

* 38th out of 40 reporting states in terms of Educational Output

* 45th out of 50 reporting states in terms of Education Social Impact

* 32nd out of 39 reporting states in terms of Educational Efficiency

According to the 2012 USPI (US Peace Index - http://www.visionofhumanity.org/...) Louisiana is a solid 50th ... last place.... in terms of peace.

According to the Louisiana Free Press (http://louisianafreepress.com/...) Louisiana has the fifth highest crime rate in the USA, and the third highest poverty rate. In terms of murder rates, old Lou ranks number 1 in the USA. In terms of overall violent crimes, Lou comes in at number 7.

YEEEEEEEEEE HAW!

Well Daddy Duckwit.... if that is where your Bible and Guns brought Louisiana, may I suggest you swap the gun for a stairmaster and the Bible for a textbook.....cos from here it looks like your swampy heaven of heavily armed Christo-Taliban Birchbaggers is everyone else's idea of HELL.



Just a quick update. For what you get when you think Bibles and Guns should be important, see the excellent book by Chris Hedges - "American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America"