Letters to the Editor
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More Homeland Security = Merrier Christmas
I know what you mean about those Canadians! I'm sitting here in Detroit, looking right across the river into the foreign country of Canada.
I would feel a lot merrier if we had some well-trained armor-encased Lance Corporals patroling the river bank. Where are the congressional appropriations for barbed wire, landing obstacles, and infra-red sensors on our northern border??!!
P.S. It just dawned on me that they should have called it Hometown Security, rather than Homeland Security. Does that not sound a lot more American?
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Of course the racist is dreaming of a white Christmas
White is all that matters to him. Isn't his robe and hood white enough already?
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an unfortunate troglodyte
>troglodyte: a person who is regarded as being deliberately ignorant or old-fashioned<
GK's continuous apologia for the many deplorable characteristics in the midwestern U.S. psyche is wearing very thin. Why is it of more general interest whether it snows in Minnesota than whether Quebec achieves independence?
Mr. Keillor's many worldly-wise references do not make him any less narrow and cramped in his devotion to an idealized homeliness that never existed in reality. There is no doubt some spiritual logic to being "plain," as the Amish would call it, but constant enthusiastic glorification of small concerns is not it.
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Nasty, Babyish and Not Short Enough
Let me get this straight. The guy who a few weeks ago told everyone who didn't like Christmas to get a life, is now whining on and on about the possibility that there might not be snow on Christmas in St. Paul? What a baby. I'd suggest that he get a life but he needs to grow up first.
And as much as I do not like Rudolph Giuliani, even I will concede that he did much more after 9/11 than look good on TV. Like, for example, attending dozens of funerals, quite a few of which were for people he knew. Furthermore the implication that Giuliani might in any way share Keillor's view that 9/11 was a stroke of good luck for Giuliani is obscene.
Are we supposed to believe that Keillor sincerely wishes for snow but Giuliani does not sincerely wish that 9/11 had never happened? I believe the opposite, Giuliani sincerely wishes that 9/11 never happened, but Keillor couldn't care less about the snow. All he wanted was a few more sentences to pad out this disorganized, nasty column.
Then to top it off Keillor suggests that everyone was surprised that a Louisiana politician who had been accused of corruption was re-elected. No Keillor, it was just you. Those of us who live in America (rather than some faux Minnestoa fairyland) know a little bit about the history of Lousiana politics.
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Rockets bursting in air!
It's the truth about our anthem that pains me most -- many Canadians like me find it embarassing, especially in comparison with the subtle, understated (and entirey singable) Star Spangled Banner.
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Oh, fuck me, Larry
I was hoping to be the first worldclass satirist to make fun of the nitwits who have decided to pile on America's Favorite Old Fart (he's been an Old Far since he was thirty) as the very incarnation of all that is wrong in this world. But I wasn't fast enough.
Though the "racist" / "white Christmas" thing was a little too jejune for the whipsmart satire Salon's readers are capable of.
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'the many deplorable characteristics of the midwestern U.S. psyche'
It sure takes a bitter old cretin to get angry with Garrison Keillor.
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anthems
Yes, behold the superior American anthem, an anthem about laying siege to a fortress and bombs bursting and war and ain't that glorious! Should've switched that thing with "America the Beautiful" decades ago.
Last night I was watching (for the first time) GK's recent movie, and indeed, I did think, "My, what a grand old fart. And check out the shoes." But I like GK. His writing is evocative and he makes me laugh. And while this one'll surely stir the pot (at least among us old farts), "Mayans go home" doesn't bother me that much. Hell, that was a pretty good jungle movie. But it's Christmas! The author doth protest too much.
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Lighten up, folks
Well, I for one like Garrison's light satirical take on things. A long time listener of Prairie Home Companion, I've heard him poke fun of Minnesota much more than any other place, and that shows up in his column, too. To latch on to him as a white racist or the other things y'all are focusing on seems way over the top to me. All along these past hard years, he's been one of the few to proudly claim his liberal perspective and talk about this Bush administration like the blight on freedom and justice it really is. Look around our country, folks. There's too much bad shit going on to get all worked up about GK. If he pisses you off so much, do yourself a favor and don't read his column.
Love you, Garrison; keep 'em coming!
-Yama
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No snow here.
No snow in Montreal, or Toronto, or Hamilton where I live. In fact I think I live farther south in Ontario than where Keillor does in Minnesota. OK, I can see why he would disparage having to put up with the never ending Quebec issue and our anthem. But the CBC! My seconds will contact his.
Gordon Peffer
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Just wait till he gets goin on Unitarians!!!
Robert Bly did and continues to change my life. And there was that one summer midnight on a lake up near Bemidji when the Northern Lights actually bisected the whole sky that I can't ever forget, either.
Merry Xmas, GK!!!!! Hope you get your snow! =)
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Zut!
GK, before you move to Canada, try brushing up on your French.
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Down with White Christmas
For those who may care, it looks like the Twin Cities of Minnesota will have a white Christmas. There is a big system moving up from the South (damn those Rebel storm systems!) that may stop all commerce this Thursday or Friday. Not that the business owners will mind having empty stores for a day or two before Christmas. Not that commuters will mind taking an extra hour and a half to get to and from work. Nor will several hundreds of drivers mind being stranded in ditches, sitting in fractured cars with fractured bones and crippled spirits.
In the interest of veracity, Minnesota promotes the use of Canadian prescription drugs. There is a page on the official state website that informs Minnesotans how to acquire Canadian pharmaceuticals. Rather than keeping the “rapacious Canucks” at bay, they are lured by covetous Gophers.
If we are to have global warming, then we can look at the positive side. A Green Christmas in the North Star State - I wish! Where the White Death is not stalking us every time we venture from our log cabins!