More Values From the 'Heartland'

This is a remarkable post, although it's not too surprising. Who needs Hizbollah when you have these assholes:

My parents raised my sisters and me in a small town in rural Wisconsin. Never mind exactly which one -- I have to maintain my anonymity here in order to keep my jobs for grad school. Suffice it to say it's a good distance away from Madison, and in terms of worldview, it might as well be on a different planet. You might recall the story of the Indian River School District in Delaware, which ran a Jewish family out of town with death threats and other harassment after the family complained about the district's official promotion of Christianity. Well, the Indian River School District has nothing on my hometown. Growing up, my mom, dad, three sisters, and I were the only Jews in town, and a lot of people were all too happy to remind us of that on a regular basis. Everyone else was Christian -- more specifically, a fundamentalist Protestant variety of the sort we all recognize from Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, James Dobson, and their ilk. Everyone was white, too, except for us -- "Jews can't be white, they're just lighter colored niggers," my sisters and I were often told by our classmates...

In total, though, I was physically assaulted 27 times, stabbed two more times, and shot at twice before we finally moved away the summer before my senior year in high school. Now, I've been very fortunate for the most part in that I am a stereotypical linebacker -- very big and very strong -- so my attackers usually walked away from their attacks with much worse injuries than I suffered. But they knew they wouldn't win a fight and attacked me anyway because it was so important to them to draw Jewish blood. Thank God their chauvinism worked in my sisters' favor, or they would have been attacked, too. The local authorities never did a damn thing to protect me or to stop the people who were attacking me, even though it was widely known who they were, there were often witnesses, and attempted murder is generally frowned upon. Indeed, they all but tacitly approved what happened to me. I think the only kid who had it worse than me was the one openly gay kid in school...

Someone remind me why Jewish conservatives want to make common cause with these fuckers 'values voters'. This is just slow motion terrorism.

More like this

As bad a rap as the Deep South gets for being the American cradle of ingrained racism, the Midwest is, in my experience, worse in this regard. As much as it's never appropriate to paint the people of an entire region in the same sparklingly ugly colors, if I had to live in, say, rural Ohio (where my dad is from; his mother's a bigoted loon, bless 'er 95-year-old heart) or Indiana, I think I'd wind up doing all of my shopping at 24-hour supermarkets at 3 a.m. just so I would never have to encounter any of the locals. We're talking an entirely different dimension of God-fearing backwardness here.

Well, unlike the South where it was so obvious because of slavery, the midwest never got the big slap-down. In fact, the racism of the midwest was originally to conquered hispanics (yes, "conquered" is the word of the day, at least according to Pat Buchanan's new book and his interview on the Today Show this morning), and natives who responded to the racism with violence (and effectively were wiped out in response).

By Joe Shelby (not verified) on 22 Aug 2006 #permalink

I find it incredible that a child of holocaust survivors would be so dismissive of those who have concerns about experimentation on humans, even if they are embryos.

Sure, you think they are wrong, but your baseless arrogance and attitude of superiority to them is, well, just stupid.

Scientists have alwasys been there to help every power mad dictator who comes along, from Hitler to the present Commied Regime in China.

If not for scientists, the world could not be filled with wmds, no matter what the politicians wanted.

"The scientists have blood on their hands." Robert Oppenheimer.

By The Christense… (not verified) on 25 Aug 2006 #permalink

oddly enough - I've got vacuum pump oil on mine. That's from tinkering with the freeze dryers which help some O-us wee bloody bio-scientists formulate a new and improved lung surfactant which in turn saves neonates lives (as well as improving the lives of kids with CF, asthma, and potentially other COPD's. It's a NICU thing, you probably wouldn't understand. But if I had to sum my job up, it's Saving Babies. So in my own humble opinion, my hands are covered in the shimmering light fantastic of improving other peoples lives and families. I LOVE what I do for a livin! On weekends I often surf, tend my vegie garden or revv my bike, like so many ordinary people - that is when I'm not bein' an evildoin' librul commienazi sex crazed aetheist crack smokin rock-n-roller that I am. can't help it - I was born to ask questions and seek the truth, and the truth is out there, no matter how many Discovery Institute lobbyist wankers you hire to obscure it.

Anyhoo - Part of me would really like to explore this 'scientist's are evil' thing with ya Christy Squid, but if I had my druthers, I'd say yer off yer meds and incapable of dialogin' in a respectful manner. So troll away, but don't expect respect until you give some. jus sayin'
-skunq