This guy is practically a cartoon character...

[dedhed]

Forty-nine years old, Stein is a husband, a father, a landscaper and a Republican. He lives in a house that has six guns in the closets and 21 crosses in the main hallway. His wife cuts his hair with electric clippers. His three daughters aren't embarrassed when he kisses them on their cheeks. He loves his family, hamburgers and his dog. He believes in God, prays daily and goes to church weekly. He has a jumbo smoker in his back yard and a 40-foot tree he has climbed to hang Christmas lights. He has a pickup truck that he has filled with water for the Fourth of July parade, driving splashing kids around a community where Boy Scouts plant American flags in the yards. His truck is a Chevy. His beer is Bud Light. His savior is Jesus Christ. His neighbors include Rep. Tom DeLay (news, bio, voting record) (R-Tex.), the House majority leader, who says of Sugar Land, "I think it is America."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1802&ncid=716&e=20&u=/washpost/20040426/ts_washpost/a41964_2004apr25

[MissMarple]

1. Just like "Pleasantville" how nice.

These people have no experience with the real world. It brings a new understanding to the words "shallow" and "smug".

"I feel it's safer out here. I feel it's more stable. More my kind of people," Lannom says of the appeal of Sugar Land.

"Where the grass is green and the trees are trimmed," Stein says.

"You live in planned neighborhoods where your investment is fairly safe," May says.

"The first time I put my trash out, I put it by the curb, and my neighbor came out and said, 'We don't curb our trash here in Sugar Land.' " Lannom says, laughing. "I had some cinch bugs in my front yard or something, my neighbor says, 'Craig, I want to talk to you about your brown patch."


I can't understand this.

[Bertha Venation]

2. I just read the article in the Post on line -- and these LTTEs about it:

There are two on the page. Both are worth reading.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58086-2004Apr30.html

I agree with both letters. With the first, which reads in part "Yes, there are Britton Steins out there, but I challenge Finkel to prove Stein is representative of most 'conservatives.'" And with the second: "What I find strikingly different about Stein and what I think is a cardinal trait of red-staters is his apparent lack of empathy for anyone not like himself or his neighbors. I read of his family's good deeds in their community, but not a word of concern for those who are not fortunate enough to live in that middle-class comfort."