[RANT]Today I was watching Greta Van Susteren's show and she had former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) on discussing Harry Reid's upcoming landslide loss to whichever Republican wins the primary. During the interview he stated that the Las Vegas economy "is the state of Nevada". I hate it when people make the mistake of thinking Nevada is nothing but Vegas. I can't tell you how many times people have asked me for advice about things in Vegas, and I have to explain that I live 400 miles north of there and don't get down there very often. Or the general ignorance of the difference in climate between the Vegas area and the northern part of the state. Hint: it hit 17 below zero here in December. In Vegas it barely even snows. To the senator's credit, at least he pronounced the name of the state correctly. Many people can't even get that right.

Link for anybody wanting to learn more about the best state in the country* (well, except for our unemployment rate):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada

You may want to pay particular attention to the "listen" function explaining the pronunciation.[/RANT]

*Unless you're from California. If you're from California just stay home. I'm sure you would hate it here

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Well, Santorum is an idiot.

Can't speak to the man's level of intelligence, but he is certainly an idealogue that pandered big-time to the religious right when he was in office.

I think the social and moral issues are going to be on the back burner for a while - Roe v. Wade tends to fade into the background when you're worried about finding a job and putting food on the table.

OTOH, at least IMHO, Harry Reid is of the same ilk as Santorum - just at the opposite end of the spectrum - and I won't shed a tear when he's kicked out of the Senate as well.

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I'm not gonna miss Reid either.

I don't care about Reid one way or the other, but if a Republican is talking about his 'landslide' defeat I have to wonder if there is any truth to it.

Reid's numbers are at currently at 40%, but his funds for re-election are in the many, many millions. As Sen. Phil Graham used to say, "I have the best friends a politican can have: Ready Cash."

If there is a third party canidate run against him they will snag about 18% of the total vote and most of those votes will come from the Republican canidates' side.

That would put the results, if the election were held today, at 18% for the Third Party, 32% for the Republican and 40% for Reid.

I remember the election of 2006 when Karl Rove was predicting a hugh Republican rout in both Houses when it was clear to everyone that the Dems were about to pick up a number of seats. Rove sounded just plain delusional during interviews. His story was that he saw different poll numbers than others did and it turns out he was right, but all the polls he was looking at were wrong. Rove 'retired' right after that. He had lost his touch and had nothing more to contribute at that time.

It is fun to watch all of this though.

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I'm more and more attracted to Nevada as I find a place to bail out of Michigan. Things are now hopeless

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I drove up 93 a few weeks back, and Caliente to Ely is a beautiful drive. Kinda harrowing when you're in an underpowered fullsize van with questionable brakes though, but there is some incredible scenery in that state.

If you had to plan a 5 day trip there for someone what would you include as "have to visit" ? Would you start in Reno?

I drove through Ely too last fall on my way home from California. There are some roads there that are straight and flat for 10+ miles. I was doing about 90 going East when I got passed by a C5 Corvette doing probably 100+ mph!

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Good question. If you're flying in from out of state, your main options for an arrival airport are Reno or Las Vegas. Things to visit would depend on what you like to do. The tourists generally like to hit the casinos, and sometimes the brothels. I find the Nevada State Museum in Carson City (about 30 minutes south of RNO) to be a worthwhile stop. I also was pretty pleased with the National Automobile Museum in downtown Reno. I will admit my failure to visit the Nevada State Railroad Museum, also in Carson City, which I must rectify soon. Lake Tahoe is nice, even if all you do is get up there and look at it.

Virginia City (short drive from Reno) is pretty interesting, and you can spend a full day there easily. If you happen to be in town at the right time, you can see the Reno Air Races in Stead (instead of what?), or Street Vibrations (Harley rally in Reno in the Summer) or Hot August Nights (classic cars, mostly American, and also in Reno).

If you like skiing, we have several good ski resorts, though Northstar, generally considered the best by most people I talk to, is on the California side. There is also no shortage of good hiking and mountain bike trails, located pretty much all over.

Hunting and fishing are available in quite a few places scattered throughout the state, but hunting tags are subject to a lottery system, and (at least for local residents) certain tags in certain areas can be hard to come by.

__________________
Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.