I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the nonsense written about North Dakota by John Hoff. He’s a guy who came to Grand Forks, somehow won a local government seat, then proceeded to act like such a jackass that they threw him out. He landed back in Minnesota, where he now puts his pen to work making North Dakota seem like a vast wasteland of despair. You can read this stupidity here.

Now we’ve got this, a post on rakemag.com that sums up North Dakota as a place where only the trapped remain, attempts at productivity and happiness are futile, and the wise escape to Minnesota. Drivel.

I would agree that small towns and outmigration are a problem, but I have yet to personally talk to anyone genuinely unhappy about living in North Dakota. Making feigned complaints about the winters are almost a sport here. Sure, our high school kids want to attend a “big city” college after graduation, but what about the numbers that return back once it’s time to raise a family?

I don’t know why some Minnesotans seem to have a chip on their shoulder about our state. It seems to be a dandy place to hunt and fish, though, because they’re sure screaming about having to pay non-resident fees for that. But it’s not even the sportsmen writing articles like this. It’s just another sort of elitist, looking for perceived angst somewhere that they can use in order to spew nonsense in the name of insight.

So, go ahead and read the article here. After that, if you still want to live in “hell with the fires out,” I’ll see you out on the streets sometime. I’ll be the one with a smile on my face. I love North Dakota.

I couldn’t resist the term “hate speech.” I know, it’s a liberal term for anything that might imply a sense of right and wrong, or just something they don’t like or declare as “intolerant.” I, unlike liberals, still recognize the right of people in this country to say whatever they’d like. It shows us who the writer is, and where they come from. In this case, it also illustrates that they have no idea what they’re talking about. –Thanks to my friend Shari G for the heads-up on the Rake Mag article.