If we keep this up...

Missouri at 51.8 percent outbound, continued its 12-year outbound trend as 1 percent more residents left in 2006 compared to 2005.

This was a fact presented in a story about moving patterns in Realty Times, which by the way made more sense after I realized it wasn't the Reality Times. Anyway, I love it when statistics hit home. My wife and I have had three friends move out of state in the last year, and I am yet to meet anyone who has moved here from anywhere else during that time. This is mildly distressing to someone who has been a lifelong (minus a regrettable 7 month period on the dark side that is Kansas) Missouri boy. Is it economics, is it our burgeoning place in red-statehood, is it the stench coming from the Kansas City professional sports franchises? I don't know the answer, but I propose we start one of those campaigns to try and convince people to move here. We'll need a good slogan. I have a few preliminary ideas.

"Missouri, you can get to the middle of nowhere in any direction fast."

"Move to St. Louis and believe you live on the east coast. Everyone there now does."

"Perhaps you didn't know that Don Johnson is from Missouri?"

"Kansas City is the perfect new home for the tortured sports fan."

"Think of us as reddish-purple."

"They call it the Sho-Me State for a reason (this one needs a creepy middle aged pervert with sweatpants and an arched eyebrow looking up from his computer)"

"We're unbuckling the Bible Belt!"
(This one isn't true as far as I know, but it wouldn't be the first ad that stretched the truth a bit right?)

These are just some ideas. I am sure there are better ones. Just give the concept some thought. Our population ranking depends on it.