Those Spoiled NFL Player Protests...

Responding to the justification that NFL players have a Constitutional Right to protest whatever they're protesting (They seem a little confused on that.), I say, "Wrong!"

Except for a few crackpots, most Americans stand for free speech. Like anyone else, then, NFL players — misguided, sheeplike and, yes, hypocritical — certainly have a right to voice their opinions. But there's a time and a place, etc. During an NFL game is neither.

The NFL and its players have forgotten we middle-class Americans pay their salaries. We buy the tickets and jerseys, recite the Pledge of Allegiance, stand with our hands over our hearts during the National Anthem and show respect for the nation and its symbols. We invite them into our homes on Sundays, not the other way around. When we do, we expect to see a football game, not watch some disrespectful, spoiled prima donna trample on the National Anthem or the Flag. We really don't give as rat's patoot whether the players protest or not.  But we hate having it shoved down our throats! And that's what the players are doing when they kneel during the game. That. Pisses. Us. Off!

So what could the NFL have done? Thought with its head, not its wallet. Instead, it panicked. Let's say you miss a three-foot putt, totally lose it and throw your favorite putter into the lake. Now, say Best Buy sends you to install a customer's TV. The connecters don't fit, you lose it and cuss a blue streak.

In the first example, you represent only yourself. Does your Right of Free Speech allow you to swear like a sailor? Eeyup, it does. Your actions reflect on you alone (or maybe your parents, who should have taught you better).

In the second example, you represent your employer. Now, does your Right of Free Speech mean you can offend your customer and reflect badly on your boss? Also yup.

But does it mean you can do it with impunity? Nnnope. Not when it undermines your employer. And not following rules, and embarrassing or working against him certainly is undermining. 

As an employe who takes a wage, you have certain obligations, because you represent your boss. Generally, if you don't agree with his rules and directions, you have two options: swallow hard and keep your job or, man up and quit. You can't have it both ways. Simple as that. The NFL, or at least the owners, Wimped out. They should have laid down the law; fined and benched the instigators; then dealt with it in court, if need be.

Recently, the league, that altruistic paradigm of American values (note the sarcasm), waltzed around the protests and released a mealy-mouthed, I-feel-your-pain statement saying nothing. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, however, later hinted on a radio show the players should find a better way to voice their concerns.

If those players are truly sincere, they indeed should find a more effective venue. Better yet, if they're worried about police brutality, racism, social injustice, the oppression of minorities (in a word, "blacks), homosexual/transvestite rights, that Black Lives Matter, lack of respect and myriad other complaints, they should stop whining.

Note that I earlier called them hypocrites. There are exceptions, but I find it hard to believe they really care about all that stuff when they kneel on their millions and don't pony up to help those they claim to care about. And don't tell me players don't wave the First Amendment around with one fist while threatening teammates with the other who don't agree with them. Witness the Steelers lineman, an Army vet, who stood alone outside the tunnel to show respect for the National Anthem. Later, he decided to apologize to his team. You think he wasn't "helped" in that decision? Especially given earlier rumors that the Oakland Raiders O-line opened the gates on their quarterback because he didn't kneel during the anthem?

Surprisingly, three TV networks finally acted. They opted to air commercials while the anthem is being played, thereby rendering the protesters invisible. (They could just as easily shown only the anthem and not the protesters, but at least those brats are out of the spotlight.) Interestingly, before last year the anthem got very little air time. Only when one network shot Kaepernick on a knee did it become news.

As for me, I'm still not watching the NFL. And I hope the fan boycott continues. Then the league either will clean up its act, or its wallet will continue to hemorrhage! And if that happens, there'll be no "maybe" from me.

I most assuredly will dance!

Media, Shape Up or Shrivel Up...

This piece is in response to an article a friend posted on Facebook:

"The 2016 Election and the Demise of Journalistic Standards"
( https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/2016-election-demise-journalistic-standards/ )
I didn't want to fill his timeline with my rant, so I'm ranting here.

Overall, I agree with Mr. Goodwin. But I differ on several points. If you looked, you could see today's situation coming as far back as post-Watergate. Kids were entering journalism in droves, driven in part by altruism, but as much by personal ambition. And they were taught increasingly and overtly by left-leaning academics.

I'm disgusted at the number of my former colleagues who've fallen right in line with such dangerous judgement and destructive behavior! News flash, bozos: the Left can turn on you in a New York minute. If they take the First Amendment away from conservative voices, they can take it away from news media. Savvy?

Students I saw entering TV news, especially, wanted to be "stars," not reporters. And they saw "splash" as the quickest way. That's how we went from reporting a fatal crash, to knocking on the door of a victim's parent for "reaction," to reporting unsubstantiated rumor today, then convicting based on said rumor.

I was appalled as early as 1977 by reporters, both young and old enough to know better, inserting their biases into news stories — and editors and news directors letting them get away with it!

In his book "Boys on the Bus," Timothy Crouse exposed "pack journalism" during the Nixon-McGovern election, and it has gotten much worse now. The most insignificant dead horse is beaten today, until grows, not becomes a smudge and disappears.

The Left seems to be doing its darndest to quash dissent — amazingly, abetted by the media! The same media who so enthusiastically defended Larry Flynt, publisher of "Hustler Magazine," against obscenity charges in the '70. Based on First Amendment Rights.

The New York Times, Washington Post and Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS to you whom don't know what the initials stand for) once were the epitome of objectivity. Today, only FOXNews of the major news organizations even pretends to be objective. I'm ashamed ever to have been a part of the news media. Had I worked for a national news outfit, I think I'd have probably slit my wrists by now.

For several decades I've felt that many in the government and national news media believe they know what's good for me better than I do. Witness the Clintons, Gores, Obamas, Sanders et al. And in the above article, I believe Mr. Goodwin doesn't give enough credit to we, "the Great Unwashed." Americans can forgive mistakes, even incompetence to a point. But we CANNOT forgive dishonesty.

Though we Americans are sometimes slow to act on the national stage, I believe we eventually tire of arrogance and conceit in our leaders. And the Left's current attempts at DJT's death by a million cuts" notwithstanding, enough of us had it up to here and placed him into the presidency. That's an important point. Though we may not have been a majority, we were a fed-up plurality. And we're NOT gonna cave into a bunch of lazy self-centered whiners who just want to take, take, take and never contribute.

And if the national media don't hold a Come-to-Jesus Meeting among themselves, We the People will. Already the traditional news outlets are suffering. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that if media don't straighten up, they will have no need to.

Economics is a powerful force. They'll just fade to black.

...Or maybe they'll just dance....

Thoughts on Inauguration Day...

I hope this Inaugural Day signals the end of all the whining. Or, depending upon your political persuasion, crowing over the '16 Presidential Election.

I no longer care what the vote tally was, who won the popular vote, or who won the Electoral College. Juste so long as it was honest.

It's over; let's move on.

Like it or not, Donald J. Trump will shortly be our new leader, our 45th. And just as I have the last six or seven elections, I pray our new president is up to the task.

Personally, I think the pettiness of those elected "leaders" who have chosen to forego this inauguration is beyond belief. I also find it laughable that so-called "celebrities," many of whom I've never heard, are "boycotting" the event. When I was a kid, the fact that my favorite cowboy hawked some cereal didn't make me wanna badger Mama 'til she bought it. And age has not changed that. My opinion of someone is not swayed even a little by actors and such, people who live in an imaginary world.

Who cares? We've beaten the "boycott" horse soundly, so let's dismount.

Oh, and we certainly don't want to neglect those idiot protestors making asses of themselves. If they had as dozen brain cells among them, they'd know now is not the time to protest. Today's ceremony is the 56th Inaugural Day, if my math is right; the 56th peaceful passing of leadership of the world's longest-running democratic republic. Today is about passing the torch, whether or not you like the recipient. If those bozos want to protest, they should be doing it at home, before their congressmen/women. Not today.

To the national news media, I say, "Enough! We get that every word from your mouths is golden, and by the 10th or 12th time, they sink into our little pea brains. You don't have to keep hammering!

"

Get off your keisters and go find some new, real news!"

Finally:

Democrats and Republicans, stop playing to your radical constituency!

You Democrats in Congress, if you think your current behavior is gonna make your party stronger, or elevate you within it, you're fools. You Republicans, if you think it's time for payback, you, too, are fools. We, the Great Unwashed, don't give a rat's putout about your petty little feuds.

All y'all better get your butts in gear, and stop with the old-school politics-as-usual crap. Petty vendettas, real or imagined slights, listening to the small LOUD minorities instead of those who put you into office. And stop telling us what you think we want to hear, and tell us the truth!. We're adults, most of us, and we can handle it.

No more partisan bickering, and no more fighting among yourselves. We the People have eyes and ears, and now, finally, we're paying attention.

To paraphrase my sainted mama, "We the People put you into office, and We the People can take you out!"

If y'all don't shape up, after next election, you all will have plenty of time just to dance....