[ale] Heya folks! Any suggestions for a geek moving to/nearAtlanta?

[Jeff Lightner]

I agree that smoking indoors in public places for almost everywhere but bars has been a thing of the past for many years in most of Georgia.

However, the "surprisingly gay tolerant" is way off the mark.  Cobb County lost out on the Olympics because the "leaders" here thought it important to have an anti-gay "resolution" on the books.   The state still has and enforces on occasion an anti-sodomy law.

While Falwell et al may not be from Atlanta the fact is that a lot of their supporters are from the deep south.   While this may be less pervasive in a big city like Atlanta one doesn't have to go far outside the city to find some pretty deep seated fundamentalism or right wing ideology going on.  Don't forget both Newt Gingrich and Bob Barr were elected by Georgians as was the current Republican governor.    

Funny to talk about the legacy of Martin Luther King - it wasn't all that long ago that black people had to march in Cumming due to what was going on there.   As recently as last year was a story of a local business owner who was using his sign to make racist remarks and of course that doesn't say anything about the people who voted out Barnes mainly because he was OK with getting rid of the Confederate Battle Flag portion of the Georgia flag. 

-----Original Message-----
From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Sean Kilpatrick
To: ale at ale.org
Sent: Sunday, June 10, 2007 3:27 PM
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [ale] Heya folks! Any suggestions for a geek moving to/nearAtlanta?
C
| and it was bizarre to me! ?Smoking... indoors... AND ... near.....
| food? ?While people are trying to ... taste? ?To me it's like having
| someone take a poop in the booth next to you. ?Might as well pay the
| bill and go buy some drive though that you can eat without marinating
| it in someone else's stink. ?But of course everyone's still used to it
| in the south.
| 
| We're Atheists too, which I understand is even_worse_than_gay down
| there. ?Might be time to peel off the Darwin fish if we wan't to keep
| from having our windows smashed... ?I can live with treating my ideals
| like a terrible secret, but I don't think I'll be buying a gun... ?I
| qualified with my m16 in the Army and ?haven't any reason to pick up a
| gun since. ?Plus with kids around... ?I prefer the mouse.

I'm going to have to respond to this, because the South has been
fighting this kind of nasty regional bigotry for decades.

Smoking in public places is almost totally outlawed now in the Atlanta
area. Certainly in the city, Fulton and Dekalb counties. Can't vouch for
Gwinnett and Cobb, but I think they have taken the same path.  I can't 
remember the last time I had someone light up nearby while I was dining.

And, no, you won't have to peel off your Darwin fish. The Atlanta area
also is surprisingly gay tolerant as well.  Why?  The gay community has too 
much money!  Your atheism won't cause many problems -- unless you insist on
standing outside a church on Sunday morning proclaiming your views with
a bull horn! :)  Certainly no one is going to be vandalizing your house
because you have a Darwin Fish on the back of your car. You will notice a 
surprising number of your neighbors are in church on Sunday, however,
including members of the LGTG community (lesbian/gay/trans-gendered).  
Atlanta was the home of Martin Luther King, Jr., after all, NOT Jerry 
Falwell; the intolerant fundamentalists haven't had a strong 
political/religious leader here since Lester Maddox left the
governor's mansion.

Sean