{"id":47750,"date":"2014-10-06T07:00:48","date_gmt":"2014-10-06T12:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=47750"},"modified":"2014-10-06T09:23:48","modified_gmt":"2014-10-06T14:23:48","slug":"i-think-we-broke-their-brains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=47750","title":{"rendered":"I Think We Broke Their Brains"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, Sally Jo Sorenson of Bluestem Prairie <\/em>– one of the small minority of Minnesota progblogs that don’t deserve police surveillance or restraining orders – was jumping up and down over this article in the Minnesota Daily<\/em>, the U of M newspaper.<\/p>\n

It’s an interview with a couple of design and communications professors, going over the symbology of various campaign signs.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, I do a lot of that sort of thing as part of my day job.\u00a0 It’s more than an academic subject to me.<\/p>\n

On the other hand<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Sorenson quotes\u00a0the piece in the Daily <\/em>by Kevin Karner<\/a>, in re the two professors’ comparisons of the signs in the Secretary of State Race between Steve “Couldn’t Get To 45% in the Primary” Simon and Dan Severson:<\/p>\n

Severson also tries to indicate his party affiliation through color, but the placement of the blue ribbon with white stars over a red backdrop almost evokes the Confederate Flag \u2014 an odd choice for Minnesota.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here’s the Confederate Flag – the “Stars and Bars”, which sounds a little like an uptown hipster tavern<\/del>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Yep – red field, blue bars, white stars.\u00a0\u00a0 Modeled after the Union Jack.\u00a0 Maybe the regional left needs to get on the Scots and Brits for their racist microaggressions.<\/p>\n

Here’s Severson’s:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Red “Republican” background. Blue stripe – unlike the Rebel flat, there’s one, not two of them, and not only is it wavy, but it and its white stars seem to vanish into the distance. Almost like something zipping across the sky.\u00a0 Leaving contrails behind it, even.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Now, I’m not a college professor or a progblogger, so I have no idea what one might associate with Dan Severson…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

…that would involve something with a star on it flashing across the sky into the distance?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Being neither an\u00a0 associate design professor nor a progblogger with numerous elite academic credentials, I’m obviously too stupid to figure it out.<\/p>\n

Heck, we all are!\u00a0 It just has to be <\/em>a Confederate flag reference!\u00a0 Sometimes I just feel so stupid<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Hm.\u00a0 What could <\/em>that slashing, star-clad blue ribbon mean?<\/p>\n

DUURRR! DAAAAAAAR! \u00a0Stupid conservative blogger! \u00a0Must smash things!<\/p>\n

Oh, yeah; Sorenson:<\/p>\n

Given the side Minnesota’s soldiers fought on in the Civil War, it’s odd indeed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Given the side Ms. Sorenson’s Democrat party forebears fought on in the Civil War, I suppose it’s just high time for incongruity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, Sally Jo Sorenson of Bluestem Prairie – one of the small minority of Minnesota progblogs that don’t deserve police surveillance or restraining orders – was jumping up and down over this article in the Minnesota Daily, the U of M newspaper. It’s an interview with a couple of design and communications professors, going […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lefty-alt-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47750"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47909,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47750\/revisions\/47909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}