Eight years later, Burleigh still has abortion on the brain. Her current column at the Huffington Post takes South Dakota to task for recently adopting legislation that bans most abortions.
But it wasn't enough for Buleigh to criticize S. Dakota's legislative move. She had to denigrate the state's midwestern nature with such breathtaking condescension that you'd almost think it was a parody of East Coast elitism.
Excerpts:
"Is the loneliness of the prairie and the vast dirt emptiness of the Black Hills so profoundly affecting that only the idea of more brand-new babies can relieve it?"
"The land is so ungenerous, the place so jobless, that [S. Dakotans] are moving away faster than they can be replaced."
Her ultimate hit on the Mount Rushmore State came in this description of Pat Buchanan supporters she saw during a 1996 campaign stop there:
"American Gothic-styled, grim-faced men in blue overalls flanked by pairs or trios of women in long floral dresses, a local polygamist sect, apparently. These glaze-eyed, pod-women had been allowed to make the trip to the airport that afternoon to see and hear Pat, in what was surely their only voyage off the dirt vista of the frozen American steppe since their last trip to the hospital delivery room."
And they dare call New Yorkers snobs?
Finkelstein lives in Ithaca, NY. 'Right Angle', the TV show he hosts, was recently named 'Best of the Best' among public-access shows in his area. Contact him at: mark@gunhill.net
