Ted Nugent: Patriot

Ted Nugent, who has become infamous for incendiary rhetoric against President Obama and Hillary Clinton, and some really bad music, made the headlines yet again with more vitriol against the President causing enough concern for the Secret Service to investigate. While listening to those comments, something he said struck me. He considers himself, and all those who think like him, patriots.

NUGENT: "If you take that adamant, 'We the People' defiance, remember we're Americans 'cause we defied the King. We didn't negotiate or compromise with the King, we defied the Emperors! We are patriots! We are 'Braveheart'! We need to ride onto that battlefield and chop their heads off in November!"

Well, when Ted Nugent had a chance to show his patriotism, for real, he chose the Dick Cheney way out with student deferments... while on tour.

...Nugent received student deferments in 1967 (1-S) and 1968 (2-S). But according to the Internet Movie Data Base website, Nugent has been "performing professionally since 1958, non-stop yearly touring since 1967, averaging more than 300 shows per year '67-73." Hmm, that would include the two years he was supposedly too wrapped up in his studies to be serving his country.

And then he just decided to shit himself.

In a July 15, 1990, Detroit Free Press interview, Nugent crowed about how he managed to dodge the draft. He claims that 30 days before his draft board physical, he disavowed personal hygiene. The last ten days he ingested nothing but junk food and Pepsi, and with a week to go until the physical, he stopped using the bathroom altogether. When the big day came, he had been living in excrement-caked and urine-stained pants.

Ted Nugent. What a patriot.

Today's Experience with Faux Patriotism

I went to the Mets game tonight and experimenting with the new and varied food choices at the new ballpark, decided on La Verona Taqueria. I couldn't resist after hearing Keith Hernandez rave about them on television.

While standing in line (about 15 minutes before game time) the announcement came on for the singing of National Anthem, which was not clearly audible in the food court behind the centerfield scoreboard due to the large amount of people standing in line waiting for their food, having conversations and ordering their beers.

All of a sudden, just as the anthem was starting, I heard someone behind me go off on a little diatribe resembling something like the following:

Take of your caps. TAKE OF YOUR CAPS! Show some respect. This is ridiculous - (to his friend) I don't have many pet peeves but someone not taking their cap off during the Star Spangled Banner really fucking pisses me off. Look at these guys, these guys don't know what the hell is going on. TAKE YOUR CAP OFF! The fucking national anthem is being sung and they keep their caps on. Goddammit! All it takes is 30 seconds. 30 fucking seconds. Would it kill them to take of their caps? Would it?

He continued his outrage... THROUGHOUT the entire National Anthem. This faux patriot spoke through the anthem. He didn't stop once to actually listen to it. He just bitched and moaned while waiting in line for a taco.

So I thought about it for a bit. What would be the proper procedure? Everyone stops speaking, the lines stop moving, the vendors stop selling and we pay respect. Or, this being America, we could choose to honor the anthem in our own way or not, silently reflecting on its performance or laughing at the bad rendition, dissecting the lyrics and what they mean... or just ordering a taco. In any case, my reaction was to initially take off my cap despite my embarrassing hat head, but I immediately decided against it once some asshole was ordering people in the general vicinity to take off their caps. If you haven't guessed, I'm not the type to let people have the satisfaction.

By the way, the Mets lost 8-3 ending a 7-game win streak but the tacos were delicious.