by Ari Rutenberg

On the heels of Ben's article about the manifest insanity of Bobby Jindal (or as he should be known, Jobby Bindal) today's NY Times has a great article describing the increasing distance between the still-rural, white South, and the rest of the very urban and diverse nation.

There are some seriously ignorant and foolish people out there. Apparently his Muslim name is "unsettling". It seems there are some who think his election will, somehow, justify violent "outbreaks" and aggressive behavior on the part of Black people (wtf?). And it is also, according to one genius governmental employee named Don Dollar (seriously), un-Christian to vote for Obama. What a dick.

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Now I get that they are scared of a changing world in which their assumptions no longer hold true. They want to continue the way things were. They don't realize that the change has already happened and Obama is merely its manifestation, and not its progenitor. Empathy aside, there are a lot of people out there just as crazy as Jindal. And getting it seems like everyday planet Nuthouse and planet Earth get farther and farther apart.

Here are a few choice wingnut tidbits (from the NYT) :

"Race was a strong subtext in post-election conversations across the

socioeconomic spectrum here in Vernon, the small, struggling seat of

Lamar County on the Mississippi border.

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One white woman said she feared that blacks would now become more

“aggressive,” while another volunteered that she was bothered by the

idea of a black man “over me” in the White House.

Mr. McCain won 76 percent of the county’s vote, about five

percentage points more than Mr. Bush did, because “a lot more people

came out, hoping to keep Obama out,” Joey Franks, a construction

worker, said in the parking lot of the Shop and Save.

Mr. Franks, who voted for Mr. McCain, said he believed that “over 50

percent voted against Obama for racial reasons,” adding that in his own

case race mattered “a little bit. That’s in my mind.”

Many people made it clear that they were deeply apprehensive about Mr. Obama, though some said they were hoping for the best.

“I think any time you have someone elected president of the United

States with a Muslim name, whether they are white or black, there are

some very unsettling things,” George W. Newman, a director at a local

bank and the former owner of a trucking business, said over lunch at

Yellow Creek Fish and Steak.

Don Dollar, the administrative assistant at City Hall, said bitterly

that anyone not upset with Mr. Obama’s victory should seek religious

forgiveness.

“This is a community that’s supposed to be filled with a bunch of

Christian folks,” he said. “If they’re not disappointed, they need to

be at the altar.”

Customers of Bill Pennington, a barber whose downtown shop is

decorated with hunting and fishing trophies, were “scared because they

heard he had a Muslim background,” Mr. Pennington said over the country

music on the radio. “Over and over again I heard that.”

Mr. Obama remains an unknown quantity in this corner of the South, and there are deep worries about the changes he will bring.

“I am concerned,” Gail McDaniel, who owns a cosmetics business, said

in the parking lot of the Shop and Save. “The abortion thing bothers

me. Same-sex marriage.”

“I think there are going to be outbreaks from blacks,” she added.





“From where I’m from, this is going to give them the right to be more





aggressive.” "

Read the full article here