I'm not an American but....

[PornoDoggy]

I don't like R. Kelly.

I don't like his music, and I don't like anything he presumes to represent.

It's still amazing to me, however, how many people are willing to get their panties in a knot over something so abso-fukin-lutley insignificant as who sang the National Anthem at a fucking boxing match, or how he sang it.

Like I said, I remember my old man going ballistic because Jose Feliciano didn't attempt to play it the way everybody else does almost 40 years ago. We went fifteen rounds over the Jimi Hendrix version too, btw. There was a similar controversy 20-some-years ago when Marvin Gaye sang it at an NBA event - playoffs or All-Star game, I can't remember which.

I have never understood why they play the fucker at athletic events anyway. Never understood the patriotic value of watching grown men hit balls with sticks, hit each other while running full-tilt carrying a piece of pigskin, or bounced a funny orange ball around a court that it far too small for them. And have you ever noticed the way an American crowd acts at a hockey game when the Canadian anthem is played? Oh, yeah - a lot of respect for other anthems indeed.

They can’t prove when the R. Kelly video was made. I realize that moralistic pornographers caught up in the heat of the moment can forget that we live under a system of laws that sometimes means the guilty escape justice – and the rich guilty escape it more of the than the rest of them. "The rich get off for crimes that poor people get convicted of" is about as newsworthy (or new information) as "dog bites mailman" or "politician lies." Only difference in the last 30 years are so is that justice has become color blind.

You either got the green, or you don't.

And please - has anybody been to an athletic event in, oh, say the last twenty fucking years? I certainly have, and I can guaran-gawdam-tee you that 50% or less of the crowd bothers with the custom of putting their hand over their heart, let alone removing a cap, during the butchering of the National Anthem.

I'm not defending R. Kelly. I didn't see the event, so I can't support an opinion either way.

But good grief, people - it's a fucking boxing match.

They cheapened the National Anthem by playing it there.

[Timon]

Originally Posted by PornoDoggy

It's still amazing to me, however, how many people are willing to get their panties in a knot over something so abso-fukin-lutley insignificant as who sang the National Anthem at a fucking boxing match, or how he sang it.

It's amazing to me that you took the effort to type all that just to explain you are amazed people give a shit

[Biggy]

Originally Posted by Timon

It's amazing to me that you took the effort to type all that just to explain you are amazed people give a shit

seriously.

[Almighty Colin]

The Jimi Hendrix version is still the best.

[MorganGrayson]

Originally Posted by Almighty Colin

The Jimi Hendrix version is still the best.

That was one amazing performance.

My reaction is based on how I was raised. The "social rules," if you will, that were taught when I was in school, and for generations before me. I have no idea exactly when it broke down, but break down it did.

I've never seen the way an American crowd acts at a hockey game, at least not for 20 some odd years when I watched hockey with my father. I do feel, however, that if the Canadian anthem isn't met with respect, the Canadian hockey team should be allowed to pile into the audience and start taking people out with their handy wooden sticks.

We're supposed to care. It's wrong to stop caring just because a shitload of other people don't. That's how we end up with people like this asshole singing the national anthem to a...I can't BELIEVE this part..."Latin beat." (I'm generally very much in favor of Latin beats, by the way. Just...not here.)

I'm having another one of my "I'm glad my parents didn't live to see *this*" moments. I fucking hate those and they're coming faster and harder as time passes.

Ryan..I've seen "Runaway Jury." Liked the movie, loved the book. I generally end up reading books first, which sometimes makes it difficult to watch the movie "inspired" by it.

Trivia for Ryan: I read "The Grapes of Wrath" shortly before catching the old Henry Fonda movie on television. I was stunned to find it beginning just about word for word as the book. They had to leave out the last scene from the book, of course. Most definitely would NOT have gotten that one past the censors. I doubt they could even do it today. But, the last decent script writer left Hollywood a long time ago and forgot to turn off the lights.