Bay Area's familiar isolation

SJ Mercury News ^ | 2/26/03 | Patrick May

[NormsRevenge]

Kathie Schwartz, 52, of San Jose, holds a peace sign at Cesar Chavez Plaza. Seveal weeks ago people marched to the plaza to protest the impending war with Iraq.

This is a lonely place to be as the nation marches off to war. Steeped in a pacifist counterculture and long considered a peculiar population unto itself, Bay Area residents find themselves chanting in the streets and Bush-bashing their way through cocktail parties, while America boots up for battle.

[NormsRevenge]

``We may feel disconnected from the rest of the country at times,'' she says, ``but that's just because the rest of the country hasn't caught up with us yet.''

You might say.. "They feeel French!"

[headsonpikes]

Judging from evident brain function impairment, I think there may be grounds for a class action suit against hot-tub manufacturers by the Bay Area victims.

[madprof98]

``The Bay Area is not America,. . . . whatever America is these days, it is represented more by Texas than by California.''

Thank God!

[Reeses]

While waiting for peace she better stockpile stolen duct tape as well.

"off the charts" for levels of citizen activism, leftism and tolerance ... open-mindedness; ... creative ... talent and tolerance ... brain power ... economic clout ... experts say ... diverse, trendy, enterprising and fun-loving ... the rest of the country hasn't caught up with us yet.

The Bay Area is the most narcissistic region in the world. Narcissists hate being irrelevant.

[telebob]

Just something to keep in mind: This a liberal reporter for a liberal newspaper doing a piece about liberalism by interviewing his liberal friends. I live in the Bay Area and most people I know are nowhere near what you would call liberal. That doesn't mean that the Bay Area is a hot bed of smoldering conservatism, but we're here, nonetheless...

[gcruse]

whatever America is these days, it is represented more by Texas than by California.

For example, Shania Twain at the Super Bowl.  She was also the featured half time entertainment
at the Grey Cup, the Canadian football league's championship game.  Maybe there's
hope for Canada, too.

[RooRoobird14]

Hubby and I were in San Francisco in January when the first big anti-war protest was staged. It's a lovely city to visit for a couple of days, but a couple of days were all we could stand--the leftist Anti-American politics there are absolutely suffocating.

If another 8.5 earthquake hit this city, I'd feel like it was God's judgement upon the this modern-day Babylon.

[KC_Conspirator]

``The Bay Area is not America,'' says Arthur Asa Berger, a retired San Francisco State professor who has written extensively about pop culture. ``Politically, we are different. The makeup of our population is unique. And there's an alienation people feel here, because whatever America is these days, it is represented more by Texas than by California.''

He's got that right. Our holiday from history and the decade of Fraud and Deceit is over. California used to brag that they were a starting point for political trends because when their liberal state government made liberal laws they were copied by other states whose governments were run by democrats. However, state houses are now run by Republicans.

Furthermore, these people are not "open minded". They have in fact made perverstity the norm and run anyone who does not agree with them out of town.

[NormsRevenge]

I plug my nose every day as I post stuff from liebral rags.

I probably don;t make many friends posting this swill but it needs to be done.

I remember cleaning cattle and pig barns and chicken coops as a kid.

If I could stomach that, well, yaknow.. I guess I've found my second childhood here at FR. ;-)

Hell, Look at Scareymento, it's become the largest open manure pit in the world with the streets of San Francisco close behind.

[Plutarch]

Is it just me, or does this piece strike anyone else as a tad self-congratulatory?

[tubebender]

I probably don;t make many friends posting this swill but it needs to be done.

We can't stick our heads in the sand and ignore this crap...Keep it up Norm

[Toirdhealbheach Beucail]

You can't imagine what it's like to work around here and be subjected to the Greater Bay Area Liberal Media...Pray for us..

[skeeter]

Yet it had an air of desperation, as if the women were crying out for attention on behalf of everyone on this faraway coast.

BS.

Speak for yourself, putz.

[Reeses]

Scareymento, it's become the largest open manure pit in the world

Sackashito is home to the state's specialty fertilizer salesmen. Scott Peterson has a career path.

[The Iguana]

``I think we've always been viewed as a liberal bastion of crooked thinking, off-center liberals that the country is finally willing to marginalize.''

Bingo.

[jiggyboy]

``By not embracing other nations because of our isolationist spirit, we tend to radicalize them,'' Heyman says.

Obviously a Blame America First-er -- he is exactly wrong about what is cause and what is effect.

[texasbluebell]

To longtime Bay Area music critic Robert Blades, Bush's distaste for the far West ``says to me maybe we're more trouble than we're worth.''

Hey, guy, you might be onto something there.

[vikingchick]

``We are accustomed to being a bit out of sync,'' says Wiggsy Sivertsen, director of counseling services at San Jose State University and longtime lesbian activist.

Wiggsy.

[John Valentine]

``We may feel disconnected from the rest of the country at times,'' she says, ``but that's just because the rest of the country hasn't caught up with us yet.''

You just keep on running, Wiggsy, hopefully we never will.