i was confused about this "whatever it was". has garrison keillor lost his mind? or had a stroke? mr. everyone-goes-about-their-business-here-at -lake-wobegone has suddenly become a seperatist nut case.

1. you advocate a marital way of life you yourself are unable to sustain? glass houses, etc.

2. your bizarre simplification of gay men and how they act? where have you been the last, oh, 20 years? aside from the ignorant stereotypes, it shows the stigma of a lazy writer. one who falls back on hackneyed descriptions when their imagination and curiosity about the real world fall short. it's the equivalent of "it was a dark and stormy night..". but without the irony or humor.

3. most dissapointingly, it makes me rethink your entire body of work. i wonder if you've been harboring this animosity and inane point of view all along. how did you hide it when you appeared in your closest claim to fame, the film version of "A Prairie Home Companion"?

feh to you. you spun some fantastical view of americans as earnest good natured people while behind the curtain you seem to stew in your own small minded and bad natured idea of what makes people great. in effect, you knifed your own vision in the back.

Here's a recent quote from a writer...

"Of course, today, elders mean nothing to GenX'ers, just as their kids are nothing more than props in their lives."

Generalizations, especially hurtful ones, have no place in conversation. How in the world could a person say the above sentence about ANY group (GenX'ers, gays, blacks, redheads, etc.) and not see themselves as a bigot?

I'm a GenX'er, and I take great offense at the statement that my son is nothing more to me than a prop in my life! What nerve!

I don't believe in the "Generation Wars." I believe that people from all walks of life suffer. And when looking for the causes of that suffering, all too often scapegoat another group. Gays, blacks, immigrants, women are frequent targets, but the group of people older than you, or the group younger than you, is an easy target too, and it seems completely valid, because it's so regularly reinforced. "Kids these days," is a cliche, because so many people have said it for so many generations.

It still isn’t true.

I am old enough to remember when we were all cowboys. It got pretty crowded around the campfire, as I recall, and I ended up sharing a bedroll with old Gabby on cold, winter nights. But, really, Mr. K, shouldn't you have consulted with Meryl or Lily or someone with some experience of the real world before opening your anachronistic trap?

And I can't help but wondering: which one of your three marriages are you so gall-durned nostalgic for?

Just thinking with my mouth open.

Mr. Keillor, are you kidding? My monogamouns parents were quite happy but they sure didn't focus attention on the children. None of the parents did back then. My parents had dinner by themselves in the living room after all us kids had been fed. They usually had better food too. And they left us pretty much to our own devices.

I am not complaining. I think it was great.

It is entirely possible to write satire badly. No matter what his point, no matter what his context, using outdated stereotypes of gay men to be "funny" is as funny as using outdated stereotypes of Jews (greedy fellows with skullcaps who live in New York...) or African-Americans (lazy fellows with nappy hair who live in rat-infested apartments...) or any other group. What's the difference? It's still okay to kick around the queers.

Keillor's timing for this unfortunate essay could not possibly be worse. We've been called faggot a few too many times as of late. Don't think for a second that we're going to take it one minute longer.

Mr. Keillor, you had better clarify and apologize or prepare to lose a very significant portion of your consumer base, and I say that as a now-former fan.

Shame on Salon for printing this. Shame on Salon for printing Paglia. What message exactly are you trying to send to your readers?

I'm very happy for you Garrison that you were lucky enough to be raised by a white dude and a white woman who managed to stay married to each other for as long as suited you. You obviously grew into a uniquely well-rounded adult.

Further congrats on mentioning all the weird new-agey things that just *didn't exist* when you were a mere white baby in a perfect nuclear fam in an America that had no real problems. Nuclear war? Huh? We don't worry about that, we're white and we don't even know what pizza is!

Garrison, you live in the same sick coma as this country did in the years you're celebrating. Oh no--does little Timmy have too many grandparents?! How about if li'l Timmy was born in your time and his parents, despite their deepening resentment of each other, had to stay together for the sake of the appearence you find so calming?

"Hey! Li'l Timmy's pops just beat his old lady to death with anl iron! Li'l Timmy's going into the State foster program now! So he'll be raped by all the older kids! America works!"

You lazy freaking sack. Have you ever once looked into this issue now that you've decided to write about it? Do you have any idea how many happy white families have their kids taken away because daddy is raping them? Could you perhaps compare that number per year to the number of gay couples who have their kids taken away for the same reason? I think you'll find a meaningful difference, and I know you will ignore it, because you're a reprehensible fossil with campaign.

And I'd be shocked, by the way, if Salon even forwards this to you, much less publishes it. You're lucky enough to be published on the most gunshy website on earth.

I try not to attack old fools who have no idea what is actually going on in America right now. Because, usually, it's as unfair as asking Andy Rooney to set up my PS2. But you come out of nowhere to debase and discredit a whole generation of parents just because your particular M&P were great--or so you say.

You have no authority at all to speak to American parents. You're an old musty tool. Your references are completely without merit. You sound like one of the two old men in the balcony on "The Muppet Show." Except you're alone in your weird, stupid opinions, so you're not evem as funny as they are.

Choke and die, stupid

Ian Spiegelman