WhatFinger


Better idea: Make it the official national anthem.

NY Daily News to Major League Baseball: Get rid of God Bless America!



Offense is a spirit you decide to pick up and carry around. If you're offended, it's not the fault of the thing that is the object of your offense. It's your own fault because you made the choice to let the thing offend you. Because you wanted to be offended. No one picks up offense more than a left-wing atheist, It's pretty much their reason for living. They sit around and take offense at things other people believe in, express and live by. If they have a belief system of their own, it's basically, I believe that you're offending me!
So it's no surprise that the liberal New York Daily News would give voice to a cranky left-wing atheist like Gersh Kuntzman, who wants Major League Baseball to stop playing God Bless America during seventh-inning stretches. Why? Because it offends just about everyone, he claims. Or more accurately, it offends everyone who thinks like him. Or even more accurately, it offends him:
Part of my outrage stems from ponderous Mussolini-esque introduction of the song, when fans are asked to rise, remove their caps and place them over their hearts. Reality check, friends: “God Bless America” is not the National Anthem. The only songs Americans should stand for are “The Star Spangled Banner” and “Here Comes the Bride.” . . . “God Bless America” is as divisive as American politics: Kaskowitz’s research found that 83.8% of people who described themselves as “very liberal” dislike the song, while only 20.5% of people who called themselves “very conservative” have a problem with it.

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And more than 88% of atheists dislike the song, Kaskowitz found. (Quick aside: We atheists also hate having “In God we Trust” on the currency and in the courtrooms of a country whose Constitution bars the “establishment of religion” — but that’s a fight for another day.) The song also offends: * Believers!: Charlie Pillsbury once ran for Congress as a Green Party candidate and one of his issues was his objection to “God Bless America.” “God shows no partiality towards nations,” he said. “God blesses the whole world.” * Foreigners!: I once went to a Brooklyn Cyclones game with a British guy named James Silver, who smiled when “God Bless America” was being played. “It’s exactly what I expect from Americans,” he said. “The self-righteousness, the patriotism. It’s always nice to see my opinions confirmed.” So let me see if I have this straight: The song "offends just about everyone," which means 80 percent of conservatives don't count as anyone. It offends 83.8 percent of liberals and 88 percent of atheists - subsets of people who could offended at the popping of popcorn. It offends some guy names Charlie Pillsbury, who Kuntzman labels a "believer" but who obviously don't know very much about God's favor or the manner in which He releases blessings. And it offends "foreigners," er, shall we say, one British guy named James Silver who already held a low opinion of Americans before he ever heard the song played.

Eh. I've got a better idea. Baseball doesn't need more than one team in any city. I don't much like the Yankees, but they're obviously an iconic and historic franchise of great historical significance, so we probably need to keep them. Let's get rid of the stupid Mets. What purpose do they serve? And the fact that they're this guy's favorite team only makes me more convinced they should be contracted, along with the White Sox. The Rays deserve to be contracted too but I'd send them to Montreal as the resurrected Expos, which reminds me: The worst thing about Kuntzman's column is his deficiencies as a music critic. Both The Star Spangled Banner and Take Me Out to the Ballgame are horrible pieces of music. God Bless America is better than either of them, "official anthem" or not. And if we're to be honest, O Canada is a much better national anthem than ours. The melody is more stirring. It's easier to sing. Its words are aspirational rather than a ham-handed attempt to narrate a battle scene. ("Our flag was still there" sounds like the schmaltzy conclusion of a Mitch Albom column.) Compare the two, not through your patriotic filter but strictly as pieces of music, and tell me honestly you don't think O Canada is superior: I think we should seriously consider making God Bless America the official national anthem, although Rob and I have often discussed an even better idea:


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Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain

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