That song again

 Gabe Kapler did the proper thing yesterday. It was Memorial Day, our day to honor the dead of America's wars, and so the Giants manager came out of the clubhouse and climbed the dugout steps and stood on the dirt for the national anthem, because he said honoring the fallen was as important on this day as honoring America's other fallen.

That would be the 21 fourth graders and teachers who were murdered in our latest skirmish between civilization and semi-auto weaponry.

Not surprisingly, civilization lost again. It's got a hell of a losing streak going these days, here in America the Locked And Loaded. 

Which is why Kapler decided last week he could no longer come out and stand for a national anthem whose words no longer seem to fit our current reality. So Kapler figured he'd discreetly stay in the clubhouse during the anthem, until America decided it wanted again to be what that anthem celebrates.

And that was the proper thing to do, too.

Of course, it set off the usual suspects again, who worship the anthem almost as zealously as they worship shootin' irons. Somehow that song has gotten conflated with the flag and the troops and, you know THE TROOPS!, and is all about location and posture. Stand and you're being respectful; kneel with your head bowed or stay in the locker room, and you're being disrespectful.

I don't know why those usual suspects think they get to decide all that.  I don't recall any of them being appointed Official Poobahs of Anthem Etiquette or anything. But they sure seem to think they were.

Of course, it's pretty hard for them to say, this time, that Kapler was disrespecting THE TROOPS!, given that he came out for the anthem on Memorial Day expressly to honor the troops who died defending our nation. I'm sure they'll find a way, though.

In the meantime, Colin Kaepernick  just signed a deal with the Raiders, whose history of taking in iconoclasts and various other NFL orphans is long and distinguished. Kaepernick, of course, got run out of the NFL for his own anthem protest. Now he's back.

Bad week for the anthem worshippers, it seems.