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Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Author, While Apologizing For Article About Dying North Dakota, Insults The Literacy Of Its Citizens

See, it’s not that his article was inaccurate and insulting.  It’s that we North Dakotans were too dumb to understand the scribblings of this learned, urban dwelling intellectual.

Charles Bowden gave the keynote speech Monday at the a summer geography institute at Bismarck State College, and spoke to reporters.

Bowden’s article, which ran in National Geographic Magazine in January, drew editorials and strong criticism from North Dakota officials. A letter from Gov. John Hoeven said the story was “way off the mark.”

“I think most people thought, ‘the state is never mentioned in a national magazine and when it is, you picked this to talk about,’” Bowden said.

“The comic thing for me is, I really like this place,” he said. . . .

Bowden also took on critics of the article.

“I don’t know about your governor, I haven’t met him,” Bowden told KFYR TV. “But I guarantee you I can hand it to a 10-year-old in Arkansas, and they’d read it, and they’d perfectly understand it. If people in North Dakota can’t reach the level of a 10-year-old in Arkansas, I don’t know what to say.”

I guess Bowden isn’t interested in an intellectual discussion of his article about North Dakota with people who actually live in North Dakota.  Instead he’d just like to tell us how it is, and if we don’t agree with him then we’re stupid.

By the way, love the Arkansas comment.  As if 10-year-olds in Arkansas were dumber than ten-year-olds in other parts of the country.  No elitism there at all.

Comments

Rob, we’re from North Dakota.  Maybe we don’t understand that he meant we’re dumber than an Arkansas 10 year old is some kind of compliment. 

That guy’s got the gift of graciousness.


What’s going to happen to US industry when the global warming extremists like John McCain double the price of electricity?  I would think all these factories will close and set up in countries where they aren’t scared of technology.


The Whistler's signature
The Whistler on June 10, 2008 at 12:21 pm

The AP story says BSC’s president, Larry Skogen, admits to being from a farm town that’s disappeared.

His bio says he’s from Hettinger.

Assume that that means he grew up in Bucyrus or Haynes, but now says Hettinger since that’s a recognizable town.

Pomerdorgrad on June 10, 2008 at 12:58 pm

Hettinger’s still there?  Why wasn’t I informed of this?


What’s going to happen to US industry when the global warming extremists like John McCain double the price of electricity?  I would think all these factories will close and set up in countries where they aren’t scared of technology.


The Whistler's signature
The Whistler on June 10, 2008 at 01:01 pm

What Democrat controlled human cesspool does this ass live in? Lets have a look at it and see what we find.

NoDaks, and SoDaks, and Squareheads,Jayhawkers,Okies and the rest of the populations of the “dying” rural states need to give this clown and his fellow “intellectual” scumbags a thorough smackdown.

And yes, I read his NG piece on North Dakota, along with others he has done over the years. Condescension is the best term to apply to his work.


Una Salus Victus Nullam Sperare Salutem

2Hotel9 on June 10, 2008 at 04:32 pm

You know, I don’t even live in North Dakota (WAY too cold for me - ice fishing and all that)and this clown’s elitist attitude pisses me off.

Just another soft handed, effete, metrosexual pseudointellectual elitist buffoon trying to show how cool he is to the barbarians in Middle America.

He and Garrison Keillor should open up a little antique store somewhere together. They’d make a lovely couple.


Election ‘08 - We Are So Screwed

Pilgrim on June 10, 2008 at 04:48 pm

OK! Now y’all done did it. Pulled up googlearth, just to see how dead a hole Hettinger is, and being the map&compass FO kinda RedLeg I is, started sweeping around and found an anomalous object at 46 07’29.48 N
103 03’38.89 W, near Gascoyne. Can anyone tell me what it is? Throw me a friggin bone! It is going to bother hell out of me till I find out.

Oh, and Bucyrus and Haynes ain’t dead. They look a bit comatose, but still there!


Una Salus Victus Nullam Sperare Salutem

2Hotel9 on June 10, 2008 at 05:03 pm

I think it has something to do with coal, just don’t know what.

qzkktd.jpg


C. Y.'s signature
C. Y. on June 11, 2008 at 07:39 am

Fanning out I see some sort of mining operation, not sure how that would tie into it. Does not appear to be a strip mine, no pits.

At first I thought it may be an abandoned Nike Interceptor missile site, but it seems small for that.


Una Salus Victus Nullam Sperare Salutem

2Hotel9 on June 11, 2008 at 01:28 pm

Oh, and don’t mean to hyjack the thread. Let me know when, I’ll be there with bells on, pitchfork and torches ready to go!


Una Salus Victus Nullam Sperare Salutem

2Hotel9 on June 11, 2008 at 01:31 pm
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