04.25.11
Posted in Extremism, Ted Nugent at 6:34 pm by George Smith
What Ted Nugent should have done was use his column at the Washington Times to review Atlas Shrugged.
Of course, to do it would have required taking a week night or afternoon off between rides to the rib shacks and rodeo barns in Texas at the beginning of his summer tour.
So, instead, he repeats the sub-Ayn Rand-ian lament about the iniquity of punishing the “producers” for the benefit of all the rest of us parasites.
From the WaTimes:
Punishing the producers by taking more of their wealth and giving it to others who have done nothing to earn it is anti-American, historically counterproductive and by all accounts, brain-dead. Additionally, punishing the producers will cause the economy to continue its swan dive into the street.
Last time I looked the Great Recession the John Galts of Wall Street caused the “swan dive into the street.” It wasn’t people on welfare who shipped all the jobs to China in the last ten years.
If you want to read something good and amusing on the adolescent temper-tantrums coded into the DNA of the “producers” who feel put upon by the “parasites” and their theology of the wealthy as supermen, go here
Reading Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead will help you understand the deep cheap level of attraction for Rand by the intellectual lightweights of the far right,” it informs.
I guess you could call Nugent an intellectual lightweight.
The photos at the top are priceless. Ayn Rand in a snood. Haw!
If you’ve been following Nugent’s columns, either he’s censoring himself or WaTimes editors have cut down his real estate. Recent columns are running at about half the wordage of a couple months ago.
Or there’s this great comic explaining it, republished at Pine View Farm.
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04.19.11
Posted in Extremism, Ted Nugent at 6:23 pm by George Smith
No surprise, Ted Nugent is an Islamophobe, a homophobe, etc. Like all the Teahadists, he’s a phobe of every human being not exactly like him.
So the recent fine levied against Kobe Bryant for calling a referee an effin’ faggot has put him in a tizzy.
So look out, he’s at his usual winning best in the pages of the Washington Times:
If the NBA had any true gay convictions, the NBA should host a Homosexual Night. During halftime, the homosexuals could come down on the court, hold hands and prance around the court to music by the Village People. The NBA could then give each homosexual a pink basketball as a symbol of solidarity.
Uncle Ted considers himself quite the humorist. But where was the copy editor for that lede sentence?
“Homosexuals are a protected class in America,” he adds. “If you think what happened to Mr. Bryant was a travesty, just wait until you see what homosexuals in the military do when they claim they have been mistreated because of their sexual orientation.”
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04.17.11
Posted in Extremism, Ted Nugent at 12:50 pm by George Smith
Readers know the mainstream press refuses to take on Ted Nugent. Whenever profiled, he’s portrayed as — at worst — a playfully idiosyncratic character from the right, sticking up for guns, hunting and free speech. And the music press, although it will now start interviewing him locally all over the country as he does his annual ag fair/casino tour, never mentions what’s he really like — someone who regurgitates the worst of Glenn Beck and the Tea Party on a regular basis, ranting about the conspiracy of Islam and sharia law overtaking the nation, or how some very old lady professor is at war with him, or how the Middle Eastern countries where everyone is in revolt are “goofy.”
If you have only read their coverage of Nugent over the past year you’d never know the man makes uncivil extremism seem middle of the road.
You also know that almost all the outdoor columnists in the country declined to make much out of the mighty hunter having his license revoked in California for deer baiting.
Until now.
This weekend, an outdoor columnist let Nugent have it with both barrels. In his home town of Detroit. It was in response to Nugent’s audience with Michigan’s governor to argue for — guess what — the legalization of deer baiting.
From the Detroit Free Press:
Nugent is a rock star whose career depends on getting public attention. Because of that he has more than once made a statement that was outrageous or thoughtless.
But his defense of baiting is more than disingenuous. Last year Nugent was fined $1,750 after pleading no contest for baiting deer in California and not having a properly signed hunting tag. He managed to plea-bargain away another charge of illegally killing a deer, which would have had far more serious consequences.
Had Nugent been convicted on the illegally killing a deer charge, he would not have been able to buy hunting licenses for up to three years in many states, including Michigan.
Nugent also told [Governor Snyder] that the state should not try to ban game ranches and that the threat from feral pigs is greatly exaggerated. Once again, Nugent’s claims need to be taken with a bucket of salt: He owns game ranches in Michigan and Texas (where he now lives) and sells canned hunts.
Nugent’s Web site said he charges $5,500 for people to hunt buffalo with him at his fenced Sunrize Acres facility in Michigan. And people can pay up to $7,700 on his Texas ranch to hunt various Asian and African antelope, sheep and deer. They can also hunt whitetails with him there, but it costs extra (the Web site says “call for pricing”).
Nugent sells hunts for “wild boar,” which makes his statement about feral pigs less than disinterested. (Michigan’s wild pig problem began with escapees from game ranches.) Though he might not be concerned about them, wildlife, agriculture and environmental agencies in several states spend millions of dollars each year to try to eradicate wild swine and repair the damage they do.
At the federal Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge in Florida (home to the Kennedy Space Center), trappers remove 2,500 or more wild swine each year, and car-pig collisions are a serious problem. The ancestors of those swine were introduced by the Spanish 400 years ago, but they still breed like rabbits.
Michigan’s pig farmers are concerned about escaped swine because they say the feral animals can carry serious diseases that threaten a pork industry valued at about $500 million.
Ethical hunters understand that their primary concern isn’t their desire to kill a specific animal or bird during the next open season but maintaining the health of all the wildlife and the habitats in which they live. Nearly as important is maintaining their image as ethical among that great mass of people who don’t hunt but do vote.
If it’s just about making it easier to kill deer, let’s not stop at baiting. As one reader suggested, why not let hunters put sedatives in the bait to slow the deer and make them easier to shoot?
Whenever I hear hunters complaining about the threat from animal rights advocates, I tell them not to worry about that small group. If they want to see the biggest threat to hunting, many hunters need only look in the mirror.
Nugent was playing Nutty Jerry’s, a concert barn in Winnie, Texas, twenty miles southwest of Beaumont, this weekend. You can bet if he read this today it gave him a major case of heartburn.
Nugent was well and deservedly crapped upon in his old home town.
The Detroit Free Press columnist patiently explained that tuberculosis in the deer population is a problem for Michigan and that scientists do not as yet have a precise grip on how it spreads. However, it can spread to cattle which requires the condemning and decimation of the infected.
Law prohibiting baiting was put in place in Michigan as a disease control measure under the reasoning that anything that reduced the concentration of infected animals would help in the control of the disease.
“The [Department of Natural Resources] overcame a late start [in combating tuberculosis] and brought the incidence of disease down by drastically dropping deer numbers and banning baiting and feeding,” wrote Eric Sharp.
Because a small number of people still illegally bait in Michigan, the DNR has not been able to totally eliminate the disease, although the incidence rate has been lowered to 1.9 percent in the most affected area.
The Detroit Free Press on Nugent is here. The picture of Ted included with it is not flattering.
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04.07.11
Posted in Extremism, Ted Nugent at 2:56 pm by George Smith
A little-noticed column by Ted Nugent at Human Events had the rocker “intrigued” by Donald Trump as a potential presidential candidate in late March.
Of course, Trump is now well-known as a birther, being called out on national TV by Whoopi Goldberg. And — just today — creating another disgrace for NBC.
Nugent:
I like what I’ve heard so far from Mr. Trump about his vast understanding of banking, business, and how America is getting the short end of the economic stick from a dramatically inferior China …
I’m intrigued with Trump. I’ll be even more intrigued when he begins to offer us his opinions on his vision for America in 2012 and beyond.
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04.05.11
Posted in Extremism, Ted Nugent at 8:44 am by George Smith
There can be no doubt Ted Nugent is a talking parrot for the stars of the Tea Party.
If Glenn Beck goes on about Frances Fox Piven one day, Uncle Ted will write a column nonsensically insisting he has been attacked by the old lady professor.
If Frank Gaffney delivers a report on the alleged creeping menace of sharia-law overtaking the nation’s judicial system, Uncle Ted will tell his readers at the Washington Times that sharia needs outlawing.
Michele Bachmann, Tea Party leader and star of my “Act Naturally” video, had what was called the “Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act.” It went nowhere.
It was for the prevention of the creeping menace of fluorescent light bulbs, mandated for phase-in by Congress and “signed into law by President Bush” back in 2007.
More recently, the Minneapolis Star Tribune wrote:
Rep. Michele Bachmann has not forgotten about light bulbs.
The Minnesota Republican is reintroducing her “Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act,” which aims to repeal the 2007 mandate that would phase out traditional incandescent light bulbs in favor of compact fluorescent bulbs by Jan. 1, 2012.
To ‘energize’ the Tea Party base, Bachmann makes it a constitutional and hazardous materials issue. It’s un-constitutional to mandate energy savings, which is what Bush’s signing did. And the light bulbs are unsafe because she alleges they contain too much mercury.
Back in 2008, the conversation went like this in the Star Tribune:
“It’s almost as if you have to call the haz-mat team out to your home,” Bachmann said.
Environmentalists argue that most of the steps are the same as cleanup from any broken glass accident, except for the special disposal requirements.
Industry experts say the amount of mercury in new compact fluorescent lights — about 5 milligrams, on average — is small but significant enough to warrant common-sense safety precautions and consumer recycling efforts to keep it out of landfills.
“There are minuscule amounts of mercury, but it’s a hazardous waste, and we want to take it seriously,” said Kim Sherman, product portfolio manager at Xcel Energy.
MPCA spokesman Sam Brungardt said the use of compact fluorescent lights, which use one-fourth the energy of regular bulbs, should certainly be encouraged. If new legislation is needed, he said, it should be to encourage consumers to recycle. “You have to make it easy to do this,” he said.
“This is an issue of science over fads and fashions,” said Bachmann, who believes global warming is a hoax, to the newspaper.
“Carbon dioxide, Mister Speaker, is a natural byproduct of nature,” she said, among other things in 2009. “Carbon dioxide is natural. It occurs in Earth.” The rest is here.
Nugent is a global warming denier. And he has a deep hatred of the Department of Energy.
So in today’s column for the Washington Times, he advocates for more nuclear power while dragging along Bachmann’s light bulb thing:
Amazingly, a component of this administration’s energy policy is to ban Thomas Edison’s light bulb and force Americans to use “environmentally friendly??? compact fluorescent light bulbs by 2014, all of which are made by communist China and pose serious health and environmental threats due to their mercury content.
Actually, it was George W. Bush who signed the bill. And, yes, fluorescent light bulbs are offshored — by corporate legal tax cheat General Electric, naturally.
Nugent has long been for more oil drilling. While the massive spill was going on last year, Nugent was one of the cheerleaders for BP.
And in his column he presses for more domestic drilling because:
Once again, the Middle East is sending America a message and the message is that that region is unpredictable and downright goofy.
When people in Egypt threw out Hosni Mubarak they were being “downright goofy.” When the people in Yemen react badly to being shot by the guy we’re propping up, that’s “downright goofy.” All those people throughout those nations, now trying to overthrow their dictators, are sure doing “downright goofy” things.
Nugent’s column at the WaTimes is here.
Downright goofy! Oot-greet!
Remember, although the advance of technology and the Internet has allowed you to make superb videos in the comfort of your home, you are not allowed to make any money on that. Only YouTube and Google and the same big players as always are permitted that.
Today’s dogshit video pimped on the back of DD’s Taxavoidination — an advertisement for the Sham Wow!
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03.23.11
Posted in Extremism, Ted Nugent at 5:36 pm by George Smith
Today Nugent parroted Glenn Beck’s conspiracy theory that the revolutions in the Middle East could be aimed at establishing an “Islamic caliphate.”
From the Washington Times:
Real rebellion is cool so long as the rebels replace the current system with something better, such as that which the American Revolution achieved.
As of right now, no one knows what will be the result of the Mideast rebellions. No one knows – or is telling us – if Iran or the Muslim Brotherhood is behind the scenes bankrolling or fanning the flames of the Mideast rebellions to re-establish the Islamic caliphate.
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03.21.11
Posted in Bombing Moe, Ted Nugent at 4:14 pm by George Smith
Ted Nugent, kinda late to the game, in the WaTimes:
If the real goal of the United Nations is to topple the Libyan leader, kill him and all his henchmen. Flatten the area of Tripoli where it is believed he is holed up with a human shield surrounding him. Kill all those people and get it over with. Implement total war for a week, and cockroach Gadhafi will be entombed in a pile of rubble.
“Africa in an international scab,” he adds.
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03.14.11
Posted in Rock 'n' Roll, Ted Nugent at 5:51 pm by George Smith
Ted Nugent released a digital single today, a download aimed at increasing membership to his mailing list. It’s a reasonable trade.
Now for the bad news.
It’s called “I Still Believe.” Ted has made the song to tell us he still believes in the American dream and that we are not in decline. Or at least he’s not in decline.
Unfortunately, lyric fail.
Here’s a sample:
I pursue life
I pursue my happiness
I’m so damn alive
I’m so in love with this
Geezus.
When the bridge hits, Nugent inexplicably shifts to referring to himself in the third person:
He believes
He still believes it
He believes in America
I’m going out on a limb here in thinking Nugent did it this way because he couldn’t find any female backing singers to deliver it inexpensively enough.
Music and riff: B
Message hindered by too high school-ish (or Tea Party) clumsy way with words: C-
If you want it, go to his website. A couple extra points taken off for bad web delivery which shoves the mp3 file at you in some browsers as I_Still_Believe.htm. Which, of course, won’t work until you rename the extent back to what it should actually be.
Oof.
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03.11.11
Posted in Rock 'n' Roll, Ted Nugent at 8:44 am by George Smith
Ted Nugent tries to pass himself off as the wholesome American family man. Then when he comes to smalltown USA and swears the atmosphere into rancid cottage cheese at the county fair the locals who hired him act stunned.
And most of the adults you know have probably made it through life without having children given up.
So there’s this from today’s New York Daily News on Nugent’s long lost son:
A Brooklyn restaurateur, adopted as a baby, was shocked to learn his biological father is none other than “Motor City Madman” Ted Nugent.
Bay Ridge native Ted Mann, 42, got the news about “The Nuge” in an October phone call from a sister he never knew he had. She had reached out to the adoption agency that placed him.
“I’m like, ‘What!?'” laughed Mann, whose newest eatery is Cabana Social in Williamsburg …
Nugent, the “Cat Scratch Fever” rocker known for his pro-gun stance and a VH1 reality show where he made people build outhouses and skin a wild boar, [and had an accident with a chainsaw] immediately welcomed Mann into the family.
“His first words to me were ‘Hello, son,'” Mann said. “Within an hour of knowing him, he said, ‘Let’s go shoot some guns.'”
Nugent had always been open with his other seven children about the fact that he’d given two kids … Nugent has since told Mann a little bit about his biological mom, but Mann has yet to get in touch with her.
Nugent was not yet quite the wealthy rock star of the mid-Seventies when he gave the child up for adoption, an item the stories on this don’t really make clear.
If the reporting on Ted Mann’s age is correct, the adoption occurred in 1969. At the time Nugent was in Amboy Dukes.
The Amboy Dukes had a minor hit with “Journey to the Center of Your Mind” in the late Sixties. The band recorded three pyschedelic hard rock records of no great impression for Mainstream.
Two more Amboy Dukes records came out on Frank Zappa’s Discreet label in ’73 and ’74 — Call of the Wild and Tooth, Fang & Claw. Band-wise, they’re the same group — minus a singer — that would put out Ted Nugent in 1975, the record that issued him into the US arena circuit.
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03.10.11
Posted in Extremism, Ted Nugent at 9:34 pm by George Smith
This is so pathetic and lame it’s virtually beyond comment. From an outdoors columnist at the Mitchell, South Dakota, newspaper:
Ted Nugent, the rock star professional hunter, put me on today’s topic. On his television program a few years ago, Nugent had placed his blind over a spot in a corn field where the combine or truck had accidently dropped a few bushels of corn. While baiting was illegal where Nugent hunted, he whole-heartedly endorsed finding such places and using them to one’s advantage. At the time I thought that Uncle Ted was pushing his luck a wee bit.
While watching his television program last week, Nugent emphatically stated that baiting was by far his favorite form of hunting. He then went on to say that the states that permit baiting have had no problems whatsoever, and that if our home state didn’t allow baiting, we should let our representatives know about this bit of bureaucratic mismanagement. Ted was fired up! In discussing the issue with Betsy, my wife, she said and I quote, “Real hunters don’t need to bait.’ ???
As previously mentioned, I don’t have a problem with South Dakota’s baiting restriction, and I am not going to endorse Ted Nugent’s view, although I admire his enthusiasm and political activism.
This isn’t the lousy part, just the backgrounder. Baiting, of course, is what got Nugent in trouble this past summer. Typically for the US press when dealing with Nugent, the public embarrassment and failure always gets left out.
“Political activism,” however, as a description of what Nugent does only continues to illustrate how a radical and nasty extremism has come to be redefined as mainstream.
Anyway, continuing:
Have I ever been involved in baiting? The African kudu, an elk-sized animal with splendid spiral horns, is nicknamed “The Gray Ghost.??? He has a habit of appearing and disappearing before one can take a shot. On my first African hunt, I wanted a good kudu bull in the worst way, but because of my tremor, I couldn’t hold steady enough, and there wasn’t time to use the tripod. After two days of fruitless pursuit, Dirk, my professional hunter, suggested baiting, which is legal in Africa.
Dirk radioed for a load of oranges while he and BaBa built the blind. By mid-afternoon we were ready to go. During the late afternoon, cows and young bulls began to show up. Though we were 75 yards away, they were extremely cautious as they didn’t like the blind. At sunset, a big bull came in and I dropped him with a single shot. I’d guess most South Dakotans don’t care for baiting as I received some critical mail about my kudu.
The thought crosses the mind that if you have a handicap that makes you inferior to the animal you wish to bring down maybe you ought to let him pass rather than rig the game.
The entire thing is here.
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