Why is it one type of sterotyping is ok when another is not? Let's take this posting and substitute black, hispanic, New Yorker (or what what you will) with Kansans. Do that and this piece becomes right wing venom, use the word Kansas and it's witty commentary. How sad. This blog can't survive too many more posts of such low quality.

Remember, Jeralynn: you can't spell "sass" without Kansas. S.

Oh. And it seems to me the readers at this joint are a pretty ungrateful bunch. I mean, we fill in the space while Steve is away and they bitch and complain.

What's wrong, people? Is this stuff not free enough for you.

Okay. I can take a hint. I'm outta here. I've got my own digs to attend to.

jeff g,

its not like the readers don't hit steve when they feel like it. plus, jeralyn has had two posts.

one dissing condi as a pres candidate (though she had the guts to put up a nice bottle of vodka over the bet) and one smacking kansas for no discernible reason except sneering. sorry that we haven't bowed down at her feet, but consider me underwhelmed by a "take my ball and go home" reaction.

i generally like your stuff, i generally love steve's stuff, and i usually spit bile at jeralyn. hence why i have steve bookmarked and check daily, follow links to your site and occasionally remember to check in, and have seen jeralyn's site a few times, mostly due to that fight over the dean campaign and what it intended with paying kos "consulting fees".

sure you can go home, but i think one of the bennies of this guest hosting gig was added exposure to steve's audience. we're reading his site and seeing what you've got, you're providing some stuff and ideally getting some new readers.

ok, so your elevator joke bombed and jeralyn's leftieness ain't winning many friends. whatever.

jer will probably enjoy pissing us off, and you got some decent love for the leif garret riff. andy's feeling some serious love with the alabama dildos.

will has been fairly well adopted here. some of these things will work out, some won't, but there's no need to get quite as pissy. i do hope that you're just heckling back and will keep the show going.

it's nice that you guys are here and i hope a couple posts that didn't work and some negative feedback don't run you off (jeralyn... well now thats different, in that its political)

cheers

You know Jeralyn I grew up in Kansas and I left because it bored me to tears, so I can't really disagree with anything you've said. Still, I wonder why you would bother to say it? Making a big show of disrespecting Kansas is a lot like bragging about having beat up a retarded child.

So, what was it? Were you once dumped by Admiral Windwagon Smith? Did you twist your ankle exploring the World's Largest Hand-dug Well? What could possibly make you believe that Kansas needed to be taken down *another* notch?

What's all this talk I've been hearing about Kansas lately? Am I missing something? Maybe I'm going to have to go there and see what the buzz is about.

The post was not a random attack on Kansas. The basis for it (and the reason I write about it here) is contained in the New York Times article I linked to:

For better or worse, Kansas has been claiming a much greater place in the national consciousness lately: through its association with conservative politics, documented in Thomas Frank's best-selling 2004 book "What's the Matter With Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America."

....the stereotypical "average" that Kansans pursue is likely to be a good distance to the right of the national average. ... many Kansans have "a visceral dislike" of liberal politics.

i appear to ask that you all,
[the replacements -- the
mystery men, if you will]

c o n t i n u e. . .

to post here.

[loved the "not free enough?"
quip, btw -- excellent! he he!]

based on what i've seen in
two days, i agree that some of
vodka's regular readers are an
unjustly-entitled, snarky, whining,
prickly bunch, but half the fun
is watching their reaction -- in
this case, tl, they are
kansas, right?

so -- what's the harm of a cross-
post? 'tis scant extra effort to
copy and paste something you're
running on your own blog, anyway. . . right?

but -- as always -- do what suits
you, as this sort of traffic is
over-rated. will these folks hit
your tip-jar in the future? doubtful.

will they buy hillary for prez tee-
shirts from your side-panels?

or even a book about hillary,
there? not likely.

before i go though, i must note
that the kansas-jayhawk-basketball
program is the cultural equivalent
of saturdays at the met, with beverly
sills, in days long-past. . .

he he!

[and i get to say that, 'cuz i
grew up out west. . . and the
reader above who was bored to
tears there was largely spot-on.]

c h e e r s !

-- tae, out.

forgot to say that this
sort of stereotyping -- on
geography -- is called. . .

h u m o r.

if it strikes you as
unfunny -- cool -- scroll
right on by. . .

p e a c e,

-- tae, out.

Kansas serves as an example of how those who believed in their high school civics text book can be duped and duped they were

........time to wake up, admit there is a big mess...and clean it up

Jeff is always complaining. He's the neediest blogger besides Gary Farber. (Is it something about Colorado????)

I grew up in WI and was bored to tears. I went to school in IN and was bored to tears. I worked in SoCal for 13 years and was bored to tears. Now I live in KS and it's not exactly exciting.

But you know what?

Excitement is vastly overrated.

You just shat on more than 2.5 million people. Did it make you feel better about yourself?

See, now this is what I was talking about below. This is the kind of crap Jane Galt's commenters spew at her, with far less reason. Allow me to demonstrate further:

Perhaps, Jeralyn, (sniff) your reading skills are simply not up to par. By "claiming a much greater place in the national consciousness", the author does not mean to imply that Kansans are happy about the press their state has received lately, only that they have noticed -- despite intellects vastly inferior to yours, of course (snark) -- that it has been in the news recently rather more than is usual.

The article certainly does not "pimp" Kansas. It is in fact one of those bog-standard NYT pieces in which the inhabitants of fly-over country (sneer) are viewed as quaint rustics whose odd beliefs must be explained to the bemused Manhattanite.

Somebody send an APB for Will Collier. Steve's "stand-ins" aren't fit to mix his martinis.

Boy, Stephen will let just about anyone post here huh?

Where's Will?

The only thing more boring than being in Kansas is reading a pointless post about Kansas.

Don't forget, all that big-city glitz and glamor Dorothy found when she ran away to the Big Emerald turned out to be a sham...

welp, last I looked, mayonnaise was a condiment, or an ingredient, not 'food' per se. If you're tucking in to a nice warm bowl o'mayo, well, I can see why this'd be a problem...

My only experience with Kansas involves I-70 and a Ford Fairmont that had a thermostat crap out late one night in February...ever tried to drive while in a sleeping bag?

"Somebody send an APB for Will Collier. Steve's "stand-ins" aren't fit to mix his martinis."

Good lord, I really have wandered into a dork farm, haven't I?

And Yehudit --

For some reason, you seem to think you know me and are therefore able to make public pronouncements about my character. But the truth is, I'm about as "needy" as you are perspicacious. Don't let the mutual tribe affiliation confuse you into thinking we share some sort of familiarity.

Much obliged.

And Yehudit, you are the humorless scold of the blogosphere. Your blogging and commenting are the culinary equivalent of chewing on tree bark.

You want to show you know nothing about Kansas, mention Dorothy right off the bat.

20 years ago when I started traveling around the country from Kansas, I always got 2 questions:

Do you have electricity? and
Do you know Dorothy?

The Internet has apparently dispelled the notion that we all still live in the little house on the prairie, so I don't hear about electricity anymore.

As for Dorothy, I tell people she's my grandmother (because that's my grandmother's name). For some reason, it really disarms people.

Some years ago, I actually had an adult New Englander ask me whether Kansas was still part of Nebraska.

I informed him that after many years of bloody battles along the border, we had, indeed, won our independence from the tyrannical Huskers.

I wonder, though, if Jeralyn looks down her nose at the people who live in the eastern third of her state. Pretty damn flat there, from what I remember.

Sure Kansas is boring, but so is most of the country. Indianapolis is pretty much a bigger Wichita, but without the good Lebanese restaurants. Ann Arbor, Michigan is a bigger Lawrence, but with a hockey team. I've visited friends in VA Beach and Phoenix, and for entertainment they want to rent movies, shop at Barnes & Noble and Simon malls and eat at chain restaurants.

Colorado seems to be one of the few places that (A) is inherently interesting and (B) a lot of people who live there take advantage of what makes it interesting. I assume that has to do with a lot of Colorado citizens being transplants who moved there for the recreational opportunities.

One thing to remember about Kansas as compared to New York. Your average Kansan views a world with wide horizons. To get wide horizons in New York one must get way up in a tall building (above the little people don't ya know)

Golly gee,I didn't know a comments section was reserved for exclusively complimentary remarks.

Jeralynn doesn't like Kansas, or people who have conservative political views, so she uses an unimportant NYT piece, which essentially says that some national news stories have recently originated from Kansas, to provide the readership of this blog with the penetrating, trenchant, insight that Jeralyn Merritt doesn't like Kansas or people with conservative political views. Call the Pulitzer committee; it is now imperative that a prize category for blogging be added.

What's really funny about this is that mayonnaise is a French condiment. So what Jeralyn is saying is that Kansas reminds her of something French, and that that bores her.

And BillfromINDC, who would not recognize humor if a clown sat on his face, is wrong about Yehudit: she's by no means "the humorless scold of the blogosphere". There are too many other bloggers (cough BillFromINDC cough) who are more qualified for that title.

I've lived on five continents, and from my observation people are about as equally provincial, ignorant, and bigoted everywhere. Excessively stupid people, however, make a point of informing others how certain geographical areas are particularly populated with folks that they don't like. Really, really, dumb.

Andrea, I didn't want to inform Jeralynn that mayonnaise is an essential component to some sophisticated and delectable French cooking, and thereby diminish her sense of worldliness.

I could, however, understand any Yankee believing that mayonnaise is pale, bland, and boring, simply because most of them have not tried the wonder that is Duke's Mayonnaise.

I wonder if she feels that same way about Vermont, whose population is even less diverse than Kansas.

And BillfromINDC, who would not recognize humor if a clown sat on his face, is wrong about Yehudit: she's by no means "the humorless scold of the blogosphere". There are too many other bloggers (cough BillFromINDC cough) who are more qualified for that title.

I've been accused of many things, but "not having a sense of humor" is rarely one of them. If you're going to lash out over the fact that I think that you're a frothy, right-wing, hackish automotan that. spouts. angry. cliched. idiocy. and. overuses. periods. to. make. SUPER. IMPORTANT. POINTS, please at least try to be accurate.

What's on your blog menu today, Andrea? Ranting against some right-wing traitor that dared to suggest that torture may not be a great thing?

To quote XRLQ:

"She’s not funny, she’s not snarky, she’s not clever, she’s just an entity in which arrogance, stupidity and conceit are all struggling to gain the upper hand. "

Best. description. of. Andrea. Harris. Ever.

My daughter has received a wonderful secondary education in a dull, white-bread Kansas public school. Now she's headed to KU. My 5-bedroom house is affordable- costing less per month than a NYC studio apt. Okay, I'm an idiot.

Deriding Kansans strikes me as tired.

I grew up in Denver. My grandparents lived in a little farm town in Kansas. I spent a good deal of my childhood there and I loved every minute of it. Everyone knew everybody else and there was a true sense of community. That little town was like a second home to me.

When I graduated high school, KU was one of the schools I visited. It has one of the most beautiful campuses I had seen.

To me, people that bash Kansas know nothing about it and are just east coast, self-important, stuck up jerks.

I lived in Kansas for about 7 years before moving to San Francisco about 4 years ago and I feel like I got the best of both worlds. A superior mid-western education, a strong work ethic, and now a view of Golden Gate (okay, fine, I have to go up to the roof to see it). I'm not convinced that many of the Californians I work with COULD hack it in Kansas. The people here are nice enough, they just don't work very hard.

Jeralyn should read the essay in the 1986 Baseball Abstract where Bill James (he of Lawrence, Kansas) inveighs against the ignorance of metropolitan Kansas-bashing (this post being almost a parody of what James was talkintg about).

Funny, Kansas didn't get anybody's attention when a native son ran for president just 9 years ago. The main point here is the extent to which Thomas Frank's book looms large in the minds of the NYT (I still think Frank's thesis is hilariously ahistorical, given that Kansas was founded by an armed, religious wing of the Republican party).

Maybe if she stopped eating mayonnaise right out of the jar, she'd appreciate it a little more.

You wouldn't be so cranky, Bill, if you'd tell that clown to get off your face.

Wow, what a good thread! Jayhawks' feathers standing straight up, bloggers pissing on each other off-topic, and total smackdowns of oh-so-superior left-wingers!

BTW, Will Allen wins the thread:

...people are about as equally provincial, ignorant, and bigoted everywhere. Excessively stupid people, however, make a point of informing others how certain geographical areas are particularly populated with folks that they don't like.

Classic.

Kansas Sucks. Been there plenty and it sucks!!! So do the rest of you for being so Fuckin rude to the guest blogger. Steve leaves- wants you all not to be forgotten, invites opposing views to be posted and all you can do is bitch. I think steve needs better readers not better blogers.

I dunno, pete, for my money this is one of the funniest comment threads I've seen anywhere in some time (but then, I thought "CPO Sharkey" was great TV, so go figure).

Well, that's an improvement, pete.

I thought that Jeralyn's post was interesting. (I'm still trying to decide if I want to register to read the NYT article). Such a big deal has been made of understanding "red state" reality lately, as someone up-thread in the comments mentioned. As if "fly over country" is darkest Africa with Tarzan escaping yet again from the cult leaders of lost civilizations.

It's just silly.

Kansas is pretty much what Jeralyn said. Is this a *bad* thing? I've only ever driven across Kansas and that only once but it seemed to me to have all of the things that I really love about North Dakota only farther south.

Well, Julie, when Jeralynn compares it to something that she has the most "hate" for, it is quite apparent, for Jeralynn, it is a *bad* thing. Usually, when somebody like Pete or Jeralynn say they "hate" an area as large as the state of Kansas, or say it "sucks", what they are actually revealing is their own limited intellects.

Pete, you may wish to reflect on whether an opposing viewpoint is synonymous with a viewpoint immune from heaping doses of scorn.

Well having read the article I wouldn't quite call it "pimping" (or perhaps I'm just not terribly familiar with what that term implies); as with most NYT articles concerning places outside of Manhattan it made sure that we all were aware that the only reason Kansas is in the news is because of serial murderers being captured and abortion clinics being scrutinized. Of course the ironic connection that some may infer between those two tidbits would escape their enlightened notice on 42nd street.

But the NYT sneer for all things non-Manhattan is why I cancelled my subscription.

Hands off Kansas! Wretched conservative states are off-limits for these readers. Please henceforth confine your criticisms to New York, California, and Massachusetts.

Why would one be so silly as
to make generalized criticisms of those three states?

Me, I'm a Missourian and I want to retire to western Kansas. It's quiet, the thunderstorms are better and it kicks the crap out living in New York or Los Angeles or some other Godforsaken hellhole.

Hmmm, having driven across Western Kansas on multiple trips, the best thing I can say about it is that you're that much closer to Colorado than you would be in Eastern Kansas.

And there's all that evolution/creationism nonsense too...

You don't have to register at NYT:

http://bugmenot.com/

"Pete or Jeralynn say they "hate" an area as large as the state of Kansas, or say it "sucks", what they are actually revealing is their own limited intellects."

I'm just going by the post. I don't notice any "I hate Kansas" there. Sure, I didn't get the idea that Jeralynn *liked* Kansas but rather thought it was mediocre, boring, etc. So? Like I said, this is a *bad* thing? Where's the sense of perspective here? It's not as if dis'ing the wide open spaces is a new or alarming trend.

I've lived way too many different places despite growing up remote and rural. Kansas doesn't need to be defended because the rural fly-over folks have no cause to be insecure. I like what denise said... sure Kansas is boring. So are most places.

People are interesting... except for bored people. Someone who has to be entertained is most certainly a dull person.

"the thunderstorms are better"

Thunderstorms are *awesome*. In about 10 years in the Bay Area I think I heard thunder twice... and could hardly see the stars at night. How many people have no idea how many stars are in a black velvet sky or how being sucked up into that blackness shakes your soul?

"And there's all that evolution/creationism nonsense too..."

Andy -- A whole lot of Kansans aren't crazy about that crap either.

And don't forget, this state has a Democrat (woman) governor.

Don't you folks worry your pretty little heads about Kansas or us Kansans. We'll be just fine, even if we don't have all that fancy book learnin' that some coastal types have. And we'll always have one of the least appreciated of world class golf courses, Prairie Dunes in Hutchison.

Perhaps Jeralyn has confused mayonnaise and Miracle Whip. I love mayonnaise and make my own whenever I whip up Paul Prudhomme's Green Onion Potato Salad. I dare you to say you don't like my Green Onion Potato Salad made from scratch.

As for complaining about Kansas, well, each area of this country has its own charms, whether they are always appreciated or not. Wide open spaces, self-sufficient people and big skies have an allure that folks from the coasts and Boulder sometimes seem to have trouble appreciating. As I'vce told many a person, I'd rather my car break down in the middle of Kansas or Illinois than the middle of Los Angeles or New York.

She also makes the mistake of claiming that the state AG is violating womens rights by trying to find and prosecute the people who raped them. The AG is only looking into the records of 14 year olds... not to punish the GIRLS but to find the scum who was busy having sex with them (in my world, an adult having sex with a 14 year old is RAPE)