Garrison may have burned a few bridges with folks in Lake Wobegon

St Paul Pioneer (de)Press ^ | 11/20/02 | CHUCK CHALBERG

[NativeNewYorker]

do you think Keillor's emphasizing that Coleman was from Brooklyn was meant (for Minnesota consumption) as a veild anti-Semitic comment?

Wellstone was Jewish too. I think the caricature of the smart-alecky Brooklynite ("youse talkin' to ME?") was meant to impugn Colman's bona fides as a Minnesooooootan.

[NativeNewYorker]

One of our former Democratic governors' wives writes monthly letters to the newspapers attacking Israel, often in terms in which the antisemitism is scarcely veiled.

Would love to see you post one, if possible.

[CatoRenasci]

Indeed. I detest such witchhunts as well, but I have certainly heard midwesterners and westerners make cracks about "New Yorkers" where the they obviously meant Jews. I would imagine that outside of Minneapolis-St.Paul, Jews are pretty scarce on the ground in Minnesota.

[skraeling]

I have certainly heard midwesterners and westerners make cracks about "New Yorkers" where the they obviously meant Jews.

I suspect that link is far less solid than you believe. Most midwesterners have not (knowingly) met enough Jews to dislike them. But they have met enough "New Yorkers" to dislike them. Doesn't everyone dislike New Yorkers???

[Right Wing Professor]

I just checked; unfortunately the Omaha World Herald cut back its archive to 3 weeks.

This is her comparatively mild recent effort, from the Lincoln Journal Star of 11/17. Please note: this is posted under a category orange barf alert.

U.S. funds horror

A Baltimore Sun news story by Peter Hermann reported in the Journal Star said, "`The terrorists were shooting from heavy machine guns and they were throwing grenades,' an army spokeswoman ... said. `After a while, the soldiers got to be in serious jeopardy.'"

The story went on to explain: "Thursday's battle comes after a series of Israeli army raids in the Gaza Strip -- home to 1.2 million Palestinians and 7,000 Jewish settlers -- in which many civilians were killed. In July an F-16 warplane dropped a 1-ton bomb on an apartment in Gaza City to kill the head of the militant wing of the Hamas group, but also killed 15 bystanders, nine of them children."

The army spokeswoman explained: "Our forces try to avoid hurting the innocents, and of course we express regret if we have." Most of the injured were children near a United Nations school that was hit by gunfire. No Israeli soldiers nor civilians were injured during the fierce gunbattle.

How much more do we need to understand that the Israeli army and government, supported by $5billion a year in aid, both military and economic from the United States, is intent on euthanizing all Palestinians, who are called terrorists for fighting back to keep the tiny scraps of their own country not colonized by Israel's settlements, bypass roads and gigantic concrete fences to keep Palestinians out of Israel?

How much longer can we citizens of the United States play passive victims of our right-wing foreign policy which supports only Israel in the Mideast -- and Saudi Arabia with its huge oil reserves -- pretending we know nothing about the massive imbalance of power in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

The root cause of misery and war in the Middle East is the Israeli brutal domination and now ethnic cleansing of Palestine and Palestinians. The United States supports and funds this horror. For how long and at what cost?

Ruth Raymond Thone, Lincoln

[Billthedrill]

I suspect that link is far less solid than you believe.

I quite agree. New Yorkers have the reputation, afforded them by an obnoxious few, of being pushy, opinionated, patronizing, and parochial. I stood in line behind a woman in a bank in Portland, Oregon, not too long ago, who was hectoring a poor teller about identification required to cash a check "that's not how we do things in Nyoo Yawk!" The guy actually pretended to care.

Same deal with Californians on the West Coast - they're seen as interlopers who have thoroughly fouled their nest and are attempting to export the habits that were responsible to a new location right next door to you. Again, it's a noisy few making things uncomfortable for the ones who really do want to blend in - I'd guess under 95%...

[NativeNewYorker]

Fat: A Fate Worse Than Death? by Ruth Raymond Thone

Generic bubble-headed feminazi.

[NativeNewYorker]

Everyone has a right to an opinion, yadda-yadda, but she sounds every bit as much a Jew-hater as the Pallie-backing spouse of the European Central Bank chief.

It's hard for me to imagine that this woman has met too many of my co-religionists.

That said, a few years ago, I passed a group of Nebraska fans in full regalia, in NYC for a game at the Meadowlands. When I shouted "GO HUSKERS!", they just glowed. It was very touching, and it's hard to imagine such decent folks allowing such hatred to fester in their community. Oh well.

[skraeling]

I stood in line behind a woman in a bank in Portland, Oregon, not too long ago, who was hectoring a poor teller about identification required to cash a check "that's not how we do things in Nyoo Yawk

I hear Portland has a surplus of Nyoo Yawkers, including their Mayor. Their soon to be ex-Governor is from Conn I believe.

The guy actually pretended to care.

Figures. Those NW Scandinavians are very liberal, but they are generally nice, and very polite. That teller will justifyably not have a nice impression of "Nyoo Yawkers", and may tell some stories. That will cause some of the Nyoo Yakwkers to scream "anti-Semitism", thus blowing their cover.

[Right Wing Professor]

It was very touching, and it's hard to imagine such decent folks allowing such hatred to fester in their community. Oh well.

Ruth Thone is regarded as somewhat of a warped and broken record, but as ex-guv's wife, she gets her letters published. The left here is a very strange mix, stranger even than usual, possibly because they're so isolated.

[MadIvan]

She is also resented for her beauty.

Absolutely. I was gobsmacked when I met her this past July. Truly someone who looks as good in person as she does on her album covers.

Cor, blimey

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

"We don't 'preciate commies 'round here. Why don't you just step back out through that there door."

Keillor did a monologue once in which his supposed phone call was interrupted by the operator, his former Sunday School teacher, who said, "Your folks aren't at home, and I don't intend to connect you, you just are calling up so you and your swell friends can make fun of us...this town was a decent place until some people came along and left" And then she hung up on him.

Perhaps a bit more truth in art than he'd care to admit.

Regards, Ivan

[okie01]

About twenty years ago, I stopped listening to Prairie Home Companion.

I've never been able to accurately articulate just why I ceased enjoying his humor -- which, at first, had seemed so fresh and insightful.

Your #31, however, is right on the button. I come from a small town in Oklahoma and Keillor's storytelling revealed some humorous insights I could relate to. Eventually, I realized that he wasn't laughing with us, but at us, instead. He was mocking the very people whom he purported to admire -- biting the very hand that fed him.

Garrison Keillor is an ungrateful wretch, a very nasty man.

[PLK]

On Wellstone's plane crash: I personally don't believe he (Coleman) had anything to do with the crash of Paul's plane. Plenty of people suspect he did. I don't.

Vicious.

[BlazingArizona]

Try mentioning Renée Fleming to some classical musicians - watch how they sniff and say "She's popular" as if they said she was vulgar.

In the same way, it's de rigueur among opera fans to hate Andrea Bocelli purely because he caught on with the ugly, unwashed general public. Opera fans want their music to remain a sealed-of little world all its own.

[MadIvan]

In the same way, it's de rigueur among opera fans to hate Andrea Bocelli purely because he caught on with the ugly, unwashed general public. Opera fans want their music to remain a sealed-of little world all its own.

That encapsulates some of the reaction I've received from the "establishment" about my little Renée website. (www.rusalkasvoice.com in case anyone is interested.)

Regards, Ivan

[stands2reason]

Heh. These people wonder, "How'd these ignorant hicks survive without us Californians and New Yorkers telling 'em what to do?"

[justshutupandtakeit]

Women like that make me lose my train of thought but I don't mind sharing speechlessly into their eyes. There is nothing more dangerous than a beautiful woman or inescapable. I married one so I should know.

[stands2reason]

Scar-r-r-y. She looks like she could be my sister.

[SerpentDove]

Ivan, I've never asked...

Why is a Brit like you so interested in American politics? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you are. And I'm glad you are more partiotic than a lot of people in this country. Just curious.

:-)))

British by ancestry,
SD