More ado about nothing

Bless every little heart down there in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. They sure do know how to keep their priority hats on straight.

While the rest of the country was still reeling over last Wednesday's Putsch For Trump, when American democracy was attacked by a fascist mob in the name of their perpetually aggrieved instigator, the spiritual descendants of Dan'l Boone had their minds right.

No, sir. They didn't foam at the mouth over what Arnold Schwarzenegger, a native of Austria, aptly compared to Kristallnacht in 1938, when rioting goons engaged in acts of terror designed to look like spontaneous acts of rage. They saved their outrage for John Calipari and the Kentucky basketball team, who knelt quietly for the national anthem a couple days later in response to this stain on their nation.

Why, the very idea. To the ramparts, self-styled patriots!

And so we had a Kentucky sheriff posting a video of himself burning his Kentucky T-shirts. We had a massive backlash on social media. We even had Kentucky legislators proposing to defund the university, taking tax dollars away from "unpatriotic recipients."

To sum up: The players and coaches kneeling in response to what turned out to be a planned assault on the seat of American government were the ones insulting America, not those other guys.

Chew on that for awhile.  I'll wait.

And while I do, allow me to express how endlessly weary I am of all this. Kneeling quietly for the national anthem -- often with the head bowed -- is not nor was it ever intended to be a slur against the song or the flag or, God forbid, The Troops. Anyone with his head screwed on straight understands this, because if it were intended to be a slur, it would be a profoundly puny one. 

I mean, I can think of any number of more effective ways to display one's disdain for America, were that the goal. Shouting "(Bleep) this song!" over the anthem. Shooting the double bird at the flag. Choreographed mooning during one of Sportsball America's innumerable Salutes To The Troops.

But kneeling quietly? 

I always thought of that as a posture of reverence. But apparently it's not the right posture of reverence for the occasion, according to the self-styled patriots. There are rules for this, apparently -- even in an allegedly free country.

Which last week came under attack from American brownshirts egged on by a malign Mad King, and who not long before were being given the old fist pump by some of the very legislators they would put under siege.

Meanwhile, John Calipari had to explain for the umpdillyicious time that, no, this wasn't about The Troops. And the president of the university had to issue a statement defending their students' right to express themselves.

Aye-yi-yi..