Kansas was inexplicably counted among things U.S. schoolchildren are taught to think of as bad in the “Ten Random, Politically Incorrect Thoughts” written by Victor Davis Hanson, a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution. In his rambling thought No. 10, Hanson wrote that “the following things and people for some reason must be bad, or at least must in public company be said to be bad (in no particular order): Wal-Mart, cowboys, the Vietnam War, oil companies, coal plants, nuclear power, George Bush, chemicals, leather, guns, states like Utah and Kansas, Sarah Palin, vans and SUVs.”
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24 Comments
The list was obviously compiled by a liberal minded person. It’s not far off the mark either.
Actually Mary, the Hoover Institute, based at Stanford University in San Francisco area, was founded way back by Herbert Hoover, long before Hoover became President, as a conservative think tank.
Although I am a fan of Herbert Hoover to some extent, I wonder why the name of Herbert Hoover wasn’t included on Victor Davis Hanson’s list. Generally, Hoover had a bad reputation after the depression developed in 1929 because he insisted the government should allow the business world to solve the economics of the depression.
Franklin D.Roosevelt watched Hoover’s inability to do anything so brought the power of Federal Government direct intervention to try to turn the economy around after taking office as President in 1933.
I notice some revisionist historians are now questioning the “rescue” of the depression situation by FDR.
FDR did what he had to do to help the people, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing today. I think the turn around in the economy will happen with the same foresight that FDR had. What I know for sure is that we will see some badly needed regulations for the banking and mortgage industries. Seems the best lessons are always learned the hard way.
This ‘list’ is a self fullfilling prophesy. When I moved here from FL, I found a lovely state, but its population seems to have an inferiority complex. Not sure why…this city and state have a lot of positives and is a great place to live. Ok, it doesn’t have the vistas of Colorado, the beaches of California, the green mountains of Vermont, etc., but it has a lot that is positive.
After traveling to and working in all 50 states, I am firmly convinced it is possible to find good (or bad) everywhere..it is a matter of outlook. And, the outlook of many Kansans is almost apologetic–for no reason that I have been able to discern in almost 4 years.
I will admit that my opinion of Kansas is not what it use to be. I was proud of this State and its people.
Of that Mid-west common sense that Kansans seem to have. While working on a bridge crew out in the middle of no where. Of how I was looking at lands that have not changed much since a tribe member rode his pony across it. Nothing seemed broken and was solidly where it should be.
Now my confidence in that mid-west common sense has been shaken and the beauty of that land after returning from North Carolina seemed gritty and lack-luster. If we both lose our jobs I have been entertaining the thought of moving to another state. But it falls to what a old married man said of his old married wife. “I at times wish I had a new wife, but to be honest I do not think there are many women that would be any different!”.
Cowboys, leather, vans and Kansas are bad? I don’t get it. Will have to talk to a short young person.
If you don’t like Kansas, don’t live here.
After reading the article I get the impression what the author is commenting on it that we are a drift in our culture. Many of what was the rock hard beliefs and concepts of what is good and right have been replaced.
That now we accept noncommittal things, its neither man or woman but unisex. There is no such things as good or bad just what is the action of the moment.
That now we accept noncommittal things, its neither man or woman but unisex. There is no such things as good or bad just what is the action of the moment.
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That is sad.
I think the butt of most Kansas jokes is it’s the flattest state in the union, with Mt Sunflower being all of 4000 ft high. If the Rockies were taller, you could see them from Wichita. Of course, there’s also the ID stamp on the state.
I think the religious reich and it’s death grip on the state make Kansas a laughing stock. When you cant think of a good joke for national tv, just say “kansas” and everyone will ROFLAO. Because the state is flat? Uh no. Because it’s so wingnutty you just cant make it up!
Nothing wrong with Kansas other than a few Libs need to be run out of town on a rail.
Actually, jm, Florida is flatter than Kansas, with the tallest point being just a couple hundred feet above sea level. Kansas has mountains compared to Floria…(well, everywhere except the panhandle, that is)
Regular
Posted November 28, 2008 at 9:04 am | Permalink
Nothing wrong with Kansas other than a few Libs need to be run out of town on a rail.
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Yes sir!!
This was thought number TEN?
Hell with me, it is thought number one that I teach my kid.
Hell with me, it is thought number one that I teach my kid.
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You and your kid must have a very unhappy life.
Sadly, we used to be heros of the anti-slavery movement. We SHOULD have been a progressive state.
Equal with Utah, home of the mormon fundies. Great.
You hear that Bryan? Didn’t you get moved to Texas?
Political_mama
Posted November 28, 2008 at 9:59 am | Permalink
Sadly, we used to be heros of the anti-slavery movement. We SHOULD have been a progressive state.
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Nope!
Ain’t letting you get away with that. The Anti-slave people, the abolitionists (Whigs and Republicans) and the Republican party led the way in anti-slavery movements.
Much of Right-Wingnut Davis’ rant sounds like it is drug-induced. Maybe he is taking too many Limbaugh whites.
y’know…anyone who bad mouths Kansas should be required to go live somewhere they think is ‘perfect’. They will find out that perfect does not exist…and they will likely hate the next place as well.
Your opinion of where you live says a lot more about you than your surroundings.
Good point Raptor. My mother told me she would meet people moving into Georgia and they would ask her what people there were like. She would respond with something like “I don’t know; what are people like where you are moving from?” Then whatever they answered she would reply “That’s interesting; people here are pretty much that way too”
I have lived all over the country and I happen to like it here in Wichita. We might not have mountains or beaches but it is easy to get around, the air is fairly clean, and most people here are friendly and honest. I don’t know why that right-winger found it necessary to attack Kansas. Like I suggested, perhaps it was just a drug-induced rant.
I use to get a laugh every time someone in Oklahoma said that one of the things they hated about Kansas was it is so flat. I was living in an area of OK that you could see every single tree for almost twenty miles!
No I do not mean a grouping of trees but every single standing half a mile apart tree. It was so rolling lands but the top of the roll maybe only twenty feet at best.
There ARE worse places that even in my limited travel I have seen.
Mountain Home Idaho and Grand Junction Colorado are FAR worse places. But at least they are CLOSE to better places and people.
Kansas and the majority of its people suck.
A few years back, as a friend was receiving her Master’s in education at the University of Michigan, she was told not to bother applying anywhere in Kansas, that the pay was lousy and the curriculum was dictated by the churches. She went to Texas instead, and was immediately offered a contract at the same salary as another friend in the Wichita district was getting after two doctorates and twenty years in the system. And she was told to design her own curriculum.