Jeff Stahler for September 14, 2016

Professional sports are so patriotic, that during the Viet Nam war almost the entire NFL was in the National Guard or 4F, with comparable numbers in MLB and NBA.

Now, they show their patriotism by running ‘celebrations’ of the military, which are bought and paid for BY the military.

Given the ratings they get, they might as well be.

No one seems to mind when they hold a little church service after a touchdown. I guess we have freedom of Politically Correct speech. Right wing PC – I can call those guys what I want, but they have to stand up during the anthem

braindead08And in 1932, the military forced the adoption of that imperialist drinking song to be our national anthem.

It seems interesting that we haven’t seen this type of protest in the mlb. Are the foreign mlb players afraid? Lots of them are from Latin America.

I get the purpose of the protest: it’s against racist people in America. So what did the rest of us do to deserve this insult? Does the analogy of throwing the baby out with the bathwater apply? A part of America is bad, therefore all America is bad.

I see this as a matter of "I have the spotlight and it’s all about ME. How many of these people are donating a significant part of their multimillion dollar salaries to the cause? (Yes, you can donate a million dollars but that still leaves you with tens of millions of dollars of expendable income – I give a much larger proportion of my income to charity). How many are putting in their personal time? Or is it “hey, I’m on camera!”

It’s like back in the 1960’s. You can either organize a movement of hundreds of thousands of people like the gathering in DC for Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. Of if you’re lazy, gather a couple of your friends and burn an American flag. The media will give you both equal time.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”Deal with it, folks. No one is required to “pledge allegiance,” or stand for the National Anthem. That’s what freedom is all about.

You’ll protest when we SAY you can protest!

If a person is living in the USA reaping its benefits and can’t be patriotic and salute the Flag then kick em in the butt all the way to the border!

So the 49’rs back-up QB has found his voice by kneeling down on the turf.

A lack of knowledge is a dangerous thing and Colin is showing that he doesn’t understand what ‘bending the knee’ means. It would be much more creditable if he had started with issues a bit closer to home such as the abuse of PED’s and domestic violence. Maybe, just maybe, he would have some cred when dealing with a centuries old problem. But then a gesture is worth so much more than anything of substance.

OldCoalDid he still get paid for his services? If so, the ad agency figured it had done enough; if not, as W.S. Gilbert said in another context, “with a little piracy.”