America Reacts: Pastor Burn-a-Koran and Rush Limbaugh Were Classmates

 
 America's "Burn a Koran Day" celebrity pastor Terry Jones and pill-popping serial groom/hatemonger Rush Limbaugh are not only both graduates of Cape Girardeau Central High School in Cape Girardeau, Missouri -- they graduated together , in 1969. Some people are suggesting that this means something!

For instance, Twitter-person "@jemmo" tweeted:

In a small social media miracle, @KeithOlbermann heard @jemmo over the Twitter machine and retweeted her message to his 109,000 followers, who retweeted the message to their followers, and so on. Subsequently, most of the Tweeple Nation spent the night tossing and turning in their futon-beds while ruminating over the shocking Limbaugh-Jones nexus.

A less astral-planey response to The Nexus than @jemmo's comes from the blogger behind Cape Girardeau History and Photos, who also graduated from Cape Girardeau Central High but did not become as "successful" as his slightly younger alma mateys. "Rush Limbaugh USED to be Cape Girardeau’s most prominent export," the blogger writes, suggesting that Limbaugh is some sort of has-been (cruel). The blog includes pictures of Terry Jones with his baseball teammates (Go Tigers!) and quotes like this one from former classmate Van Riehl:

I think this guy may have been on my Babe Ruth team, The Mets. Interestingly enough so was Rush Limbaugh.

Perhaps Jones and Limbaugh once shared a bottle of Haterade, which made them the haters they are today, ha ha.

Meanwhile, the local CBS News station in Cape Girardeau interviewed other former classmates, who said that in 1969 Jones was just a ball-playing kid who shaved normal-style and did normal things -- not at all the dimestore Burt Reynolds-looking famewhore/wizard of personal branding that he eventually became:

Classmates and fellow ball players say they don't remember Jones as being any different than any other high school student in those days.

"He was always a nice guy. He never did anything wrong," said Karen Kirtley Baugher.

"I remember he was always smiling. We were surprised to see him getting national attention," said Mae Holland Cuellar.

But somewhere down the line, someone stole Jones's smile and replaced it with a frownstache. Where did that "nice guy" go? Is Limbaugh to blame? THEORY: Jones watched his old classmate reach the pinnacle of success and professional integrity, and grew bitter and envious (and the ’stache). He turned to "psycho-terror" religion to step outside of Limbaugh's shadow and become his own man.

Now Jones has captured the world's attention with his book-burning act and finally become "Cape Girardeau’s most prominent export," at least for this week. He has achieved A-list status, however fleeting. Predictably, Limbaugh responds as though they never walked the same public/socialist school hallways together -- calling Jones a "crackpot." What does it all mean? That Limbaugh has become the envious one, naturally. [KFVS TV / Cape Girardeau History and Photos / Orlando Sentinel / RushLimbaugh.com ]