So, I was walking the Mall of America

[salex]

JM Cremp’s is owned and operated by Jay and Maria Asplin, along with their five boys, Michael, Peter, Collin, Erik and Ryan, from their home in Dassel, Minnesota.

Per their website. NOw I'm going to have t look into this guy. HAs anyone heard of him?

Sorry if other posted this first

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/re ... 34609.html left link as newspaper...

[Stephanie66]

JM Cremp’s is owned and operated by Jay and Maria Asplin, along with their five boys, Michael, Peter, Collin, Erik and Ryan, from their home in Dassel, Minnesota.

Per their website. NOw I'm going to have t look into this guy. HAs anyone heard of him?

Sorry if other posted this first

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/re ... 34609.html left link as newspaper...

Dassel, MN is TINY.

[already hungover]

OMG I KNOW someone from Dassel. She's a crazy, crazy fundie and makes some of the people we discuss here look like bleeding hearts.

[lizziesmom]

+1's to what JFC and Cleo7 said.

This whole thing being at MOA disturbs me - Minnesota and Wisconsin, I always think of them as the progressive lights of the Midwest.

:doh:

Sadly, this is no longer true. Wisconsin seems to have reverted to McCarthyism and Minnesota is now giving us Michele Bachman.

[NurseNell]

Sadly, this is no longer true. Wisconsin seems to have reverted to McCarthyism and Minnesota is now giving us Michele Bachman.

I lived in MN for 23 years, a few minutes from the MOA, a place I avoided like the plague. I lived in WI from 1980 until 1989, and I returned here a year ago. Michele Bachmann represents only one district in MN, the majority of Minnesotans are embarrassed by her. MN has long been home to liberals: Eugene McCarthy, Hubert Humphrey, Paul Wellstone to name a few.

I can only think of one WI friend who voted for the current governor. We elected the first openly lesbian senator during the last election. Wisconsinites are just as liberal as their neighbors in MN.

[lizziesmom]

I lived in MN for 23 years, a few minutes from the MOA, a place I avoided like the plague. I lived in WI from 1980 until 1989, and I returned here a year ago. Michele Bachmann represents only one district in MN, the majority of Minnesotans are embarrassed by her. MN has long been home to liberals: Eugene McCarthy, Hubert Humphrey, Paul Wellstone to name a few.

I can only think of one WI friend who voted for the current governor. We elected the first openly lesbian senator during the last election. Wisconsinites are just as liberal as their neighbors in MN.

Yes, MN was the home to liberals, but Senator Wellstone is the most contemporary activist of that trio and he has been gone 12 years. Who are the well known liberal activists in MN now? While I am sure Wisconsin has its share of liberals, as an outsider it appears that the state is trending red. Paul Ryan and Scott Walker seem to be the most well known national figures from WI and IMO, both are slightly to the right of Attila the Hun. From my outsider view it appears that both states, like much of this country, are in a bare knuckle fight between progressives and conservatives for control of policy.

[Savoring Samsara]

Minnesotan here. NurseNell is right, we are still quite progressive overall here and Bachmann is even quitting at the end of this term. Wellstone's loss was a huge blow, but people like Keith Ellison (first Muslim congressperson in the US), Al Franken, and Amy Klobuchar are stepping up to that legacy. We've got a DFL governor now and majority in both houses of the legislature and have passed a lot of fairly liberal bills including marriage equality in the past year. Wisconsin is where it's totally screwed up now thanks to luminaries like Scott Walker.