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Earlier this month, Madonna caught flack for declaring that her former stomping grounds of Rochester Hills was filled with "basic, provincial-thinking people" on Howard Stern's show. As if to prove precisely how basic and provincial we are, pundits like a NASCAR driver and the mayor of Rochester Hills stepped up to defend their city.

The latest person to defend Michigan against the Queen of Pop is Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, who took to Facebook on Tuesday in an attempt to disprove Madonna's thesis:

Enough already Madonna! I am probably not being politically correct in someway, (and I am reposting because I forgot the Pistons down below and she just got my me going this am) but I am tired of Madonna and her cheap shots at Michigan and her hometown .....I love this state, the people, my friends (some since grade school),the weather ( yes all four seasons), sports(lions, Tigers, red wings, the pistons, a big ten football game, MSU in the sweet 16) the music ( maybe not hers), the water, floating down the river in an inner tube, freighters, cars, universities, the food and diversity of it, ethnic cultures and neighborhoods, and the realness of the people I know and love...intense, passionate, opinionated.......the ups and downs are life and prepare us for the future....but there is always a community to back you up, try to help and struggle with you in tough times and celebrate good times......but this is my home, my roots, a michigan car girl born and bred and she certainly never learned what the nuns taught me....if you cannot say something nice don't.
Michigan contributed to her success....we don't take shots at her, her style, her life.....so something good must have happened here .....
I am and always will be a Michigan girl, quit bad mouthing us.....!!!!!!

OK, obviously we're big fans of Detroit (if you haven't noticed, we spend every week telling the world how cool it is). But rants like these suggesting that Michigan is undeniably the greatest state are impressive in the extent to which they grasp at straws. Freighters?

We also spend a lot of time here at MT shedding light on Michigan's myriad woes and corruption. The thing is, our Dysfunction Junction has done little to curb the brain drain of creative young talent that has been fleeing the state for decades. Such basic, provincial-thinking decisions — like, say, attorney general Bill Schuette's recent insistence on upholding Michigan's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage — offer little incentive for forward-thinking people to stick around. 



So, please, leave Madonna alone! Nobody should ever be shamed for wanting to expand their horizons by wanting to leave Michigan — and for telling it like it is.

Madonna's Rebel Heart is out now. She will make a stop at Joe Louis Arena on Oct. 1.