Here we go again!

Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump

The NFL National Anthem Debate is alive and well again - can’t believe it! Isn’t it in contract that players must stand at attention, hand on heart? The $40,000,000 Commissioner must now make a stand. First time kneeling, out for game. Second time kneeling, out for season/no pay!

The President is in mid season form even before the beginning of training camp. The new NFL anthem policy lasted about as long as the Jets Super Bowl hopes. The policy basically had two options. First they could take the cowards way out. Not come out of the dressing room at all. Or they could set up their own policy if the players came on the field and knell down to disrespect the flag and our nation. The Miami Dolphins were the first team to set up a policy that they would fine or suspend players who decided to knell. The Players Union shit a brick and of course the NFL dropped to their knees to blow them.

Comedy Tonight

I was working inside this morning and rather than listen to the radio I was watching An Evening at the Improv - a repackaged version of 30 year old standup comedy acts. I have seen several seasons and it's interesting to see who made it and who didn't. Some of the stand up comedians went on to have good careers, some of them still work, and some vaporized into the ether. It's amusing to me to see how much of those old routines worked their way into my daily vernacular - Tim Allen, for example - rr rr rr (chimp noises). My love of comedy permeates my very being. That's no laughing matter.

I like physical comedy and this bit, from a guy I had never heard of before, struck me as funny.

Link.

I did read the Wikipedia page on Budd Friedman, who started the Improv back in the early '60s. Turns out he was wounded on Pork Chop Hill - the things one learns along the way.

KLEM FM

Overheard:

Shouting Thomas said...
Now, that's something to think about:
The genius of the electric guitar was a patriot!
September 3, 2016 at 6:41 AM

Context:

Jimi Hendrix: I don’t know, man. All I did was play it. I’m American, so I played it. I used to sing it in school. They made me sing it in school, so it was a flashback. 

Dick Cavett: This man was in the 101st Airborne, so when you send your nasty letters in…

The contextual caveat refers to Hendrix playing the national anthem at Woodstock. Lesser known was Hendrix's call to stand and sing the British anthem, "God Save The Queen," the following year at the Isle of Wight Music festival:

Hendrix to the British crowd: "In fact it'd sound better if you'd stand up, for your country, and your brother...and start singin'! And if you don't, fuck ya."

Of course, this all went to hell a scant seven years later.

link

So look where Britain is now.

NBA is no longer recognizable as an American Sport.

Anthem singer kneels during her performance at Heat game

By Associated Press

October 22, 2016 | 1:00am

  New York Post 

MIAMI — A woman performing the national anthem before an NBA preseason game in Miami on Friday night did so while kneeling at midcourt, and opening her jacket to show a shirt with the phrase “Black Lives Matter.”

The singer was identified by the Heat as Denasia Lawrence. It was unclear if she remained in the arena after the performance, and messages left for her were not immediately returned.

The NFL should be ashamed.....and put out of business by the fans who used to support them. Here's another reason why.

Wheelchair-bound teen shames anthem protesters                                                            

New York Post By Chris Perez October 19, 2016

A Florida teenager with spina bifida was caught on camera shaming athletes who sit for the national anthem — using his arms to proudly “stand” from his wheelchair as the American flag passed by him during a parade.

Arek Trenholm, 16, has become a social media sensation after his uncle Myron Leggett, a professional photographer, snapped a picture of the patriotic act and posted it to his Facebook page on Oct. 14.

The image shows the teen pushing himself up on his own at a local high school’s homecoming parade as the junior ROTC color guard approaches with the Stars and Stripes.

“To all of ‘Those’ that refuse to stand for the Flag of the United States of America…this is my nephew Arek Trenholm, he has “spina bifida” he used his arms to ‘STAND’ from his wheelchair as our Flag passed by!!” Leggett wrote in the description of the photo, which has been shared more than 500 times on Facebook.

“He will never be able to ‘play’ football, if he could, he would ‘Stand’ as the flag passed or when the ‘National Anthem’ is played. Take a lesson!”

An American Patriot Stands Alone

Daily Mail October 18, 2016

\A college football player from Illinois ended up being the only person on his team who stood to honor the national anthem as it played before a game.

The rest of Conor Brewer's team mates remained in the locker room, following in the footsteps of NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers.

Kaepernick sat down and then crouched on his knees during the anthem for what he said was to a silent protest to show support for minorities who were being oppressed in the United States and to take a stand against police brutality. 

Despite his loyalty to his college football team, Brewer felt that loyalty to his country came above everything else and so took his place on the sidelines. 

+4

+4

A spectator captured the moving site of Brewer respectfully 

 standing as the Star-Spangled Banner played. 

The community has been deeply divided over the actions of the team, however the University, defended its players in a liberal fashion saying it was respecting the team's 'voice'.

Brewer has said that he does not wish to speak to the media until he talks to his football team and coach.

'I'm very supportive of Millikin sport programs, I'm very supportive of the college as a whole, I've lived here my whole life, however in this instance, I believe they have dropped the ball.' said Jewell Young to WAND-TV. 

'If some don't agree with the National Anthem, then they should stay in the locker room and come out when it begins. I don't think the whole team should have to stay in because I don't think the whole team feels that way.' 

Screw you Colin Kapernick....and all the rest of the overpaid worthless scumbag football players

Injured Former High School Football Stands for National Anthem
by Kerry Picket Daily Caller 9/27/2016

A former high school football player seriously injured three years ago stood for the first time at the football field he once played at for the national anthem Friday night, Local 12 reported.

A large truck struck Wesley Baker in July 2013 as he walked on Highway 701 in Conway, South Carolina. Baker lost one of his legs and became brain damaged among other injuries.

Baker’s mother Debra Phipps said that her son barely survived but after hard work managed to stand for the playing of the national anthem at the Conway High School football game for the first time at the field since the accident.

“It feels like a dream. I’ve asked God for three years… when his accident took place I said, ‘God please let my son walk again and talk again,’ and day by day, he’s shown me miracles,” Phipps said.

Athletes from the NFL to the high school level have protested the “Star Spangled Banner” by either sitting out, kneeling or giving a black power salute in the past few weeks. Baker’s mother sees the issue differently.

“Wesley, he’s worked hard, he’s lost his leg and he had a right to sit down, but now God is giving him the strength to stand up, and we all need to stand up for America,” she later added.

NFL confirms that it doesn't want it's patriotic fans anymore!

NBC SPORTS.com

Eagles planning anthem demonstration on Monday night

Posted by Mike Florio on September 17, 2016, 8:52 AM EDT

Getty Images

The first Sunday of the regular season coincided with the 15th anniversary of 9/11. And while there were still some demonstrations from NFL players during the national anthem, at least one team refrained on that day — but won’t in Week Two.

“Everybody wants to be a part of it and I feel like it’s no different on our team,” Eagles safetyMalcolm Jenkins told Glen Macnow of WIP in Philadelphia on Friday, via CSNPhilly.com. “We got guys, especially myself, who feel very strongly about the topic. Last week, we talked about doing some stuff, but we wanted to make sure we didn’t do anything to take away from the folks, the families, that suffered from 9-11. We didn’t want to mess with that day, so we left last week alone. But moving forward, I’m sure there will be guys that will probably join in.”

Jenkins said he possibly will be one of the players who participate in the demonstration.

NYT: Is the National Anthem Racist?

NYT:  The continuing refusal by the San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick to stand during the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before games has set off a debate about patriotism, protest and professional sports. But it has also raised another fraught question: Is our national anthem itself racist?

The journalist Jon Schwarz, writing in The Intercept, argued yes, denouncing the lyrics, written by Francis Scott Key during the War of 1812, as “a celebration of slavery.” How could black players, Mr. Schwarz asked, be expected to stand for a song whose rarely sung third stanza — which includes the lines “No refuge could save the hireling and slave/From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave” — “literally celebrates the murder of African-Americans”?

That argument drew outrage from some conservative news outlets, as well as a more scholarly rebuttal from Mark Clague, a musicologist at the University of Michigan and the founding board chairman of the Star Spangled Music Foundation. We spoke with Mr. Clague, who is writing a book about the song, about the anthem’s history and shifting meanings. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Why do you think those who call the song racist are wrong?

The social context of the song comes from the age of slavery, but the song itself isn’t about slavery, and it doesn’t treat whites differently from blacks. The reference to slaves is about the use, and in some sense the manipulation, of black Americans to fight for the British, with the promise of freedom. The American forces included African-Americans as well as whites. The term “freemen,” whose heroism is celebrated in the fourth stanza, would have encompassed both.  (Link to rest of the interview)

KLEM FM

Overheard ca. 1969-70:

Jimi Hendrix: I don’t know, man. All I did was play it. I’m American, so I played it. I used to sing it in school. They made me sing it in school, so it was a flashback. 

Dick Cavett: This man was in the 101st Airborne, so when you send your nasty letters in …

Lesser known was Hendrix's call to sing the British anthem, "God Save The Queen," the following year at the Isle of Wight Music festival:

Hendrix to the British crowd: "In fact it'd sound better if you'd stand up, for your country, and your brother...and start singin'! And if you don't, fuck ya."

Of course, this all went to hell a scant seven years later.

link

Oh Canada

Althouse has a new post about a train wreck in Canada.

"Police say there's evidence Canada train was tampered with."

 Althouse focuses on a comment from a [heavy duty] mechanic who suspects sabotage.

If you want to read about it, I suggest you go and read it, and then come here and comment until your heart is content.

While I was trying to get worked up about it, enough to summon the blog dogs, the song 'Oh Canada', the Canadian National Anthem, popped into my head.

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.

With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!

From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

I believe the first time I heard the song, it was a television performance at an Olympic Ceremony.

I also remember hearing it before a baseball game against the Sox. And I conclusively remember comparing it, in my mind, to our US national anthem and thinking our song was better. Now, looking at the words, I see a simple magnificence of faith and trust that I believe is very beautiful.

Sabotage - Beasty Boys