This works:
====================
#!/usr/bin/ruby1.8
require 'rubygems'
require 'mechanize'
a = Mechanize.new
a.retry_change_requests=1
a.agent.http.verify_mode = OpenSSL::SSL::VERIFY_NONE
a.get("https://business.sos.state.ms.us/")

This does not work:
======================
#!/usr/bin/ruby1.9.1
require 'rubygems'
require 'mechanize'


a = Mechanize.new
a.retry_change_requests=1
a.agent.http.verify_mode = OpenSSL::SSL::VERIFY_NONE
a.get("https://business.sos.state.ms.us/")

jblack@mars:~$ ./rt.rb
/var/lib/gems/1.9.1/gems/net-http-persistent-2.7/lib/net/http/persistent/ssl_reuse.rb:70:in `connect': Connection reset by peer - SSL_connect (Errno::ECONNRESET)
        from /var/lib/gems/1.9.1/gems/net-http-persistent-2.7/lib/net/http/persistent/ssl_reuse.rb:70:in `block in connect'
        from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/timeout.rb:54:in `timeout'
        from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/timeout.rb:99:in `timeout'
        from /var/lib/gems/1.9.1/gems/net-http-persistent-2.7/lib/net/http/persistent/ssl_reuse.rb:70:in `connect'
        from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:755:in `do_start'
        from /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:750:in `start'
        from /var/lib/gems/1.9.1/gems/net-http-persistent-2.7/lib/net/http/persistent.rb:511:in `connection_for'
        from /var/lib/gems/1.9.1/gems/net-http-persistent-2.7/lib/net/http/persistent.rb:806:in `request'
        from /var/lib/gems/1.9.1/gems/mechanize-2.5.1/lib/mechanize/http/agent.rb:258:in `fetch'
        from /var/lib/gems/1.9.1/gems/mechanize-2.5.1/lib/mechanize.rb:407:in `get'
        from ./rt.rb:9:in `<main>'