The has-been rock star, and current board member of the NRA, is incensed that the NBA fined basketball player Kobe Bryant for calling a ref a "f-g." You have to read the entire piece, it's one of the most bigoted things the Moonie paper has ever published, and that's saying something. Let's look at 3 paragraphs of the rather long op ed.
Those of us addicted to common sense and logic think that fining Mr. Bryant $100,000 for calling a referee a name is much more ugly, vile and demeaning than anything Mr. Bryant uttered or could possibly have uttered. The politically correct brain-dead can’t seem to remember the ending for “Sticks and Stones.”Is it politically correct not use to use the n-word, or do we not use it simply because it's not right to spout bigotry? Someone should ask the NRA that question, since their prominent board member thinks the only reason we don't smear minorities is because it's not "politically correct."
I doubt Mr. Bryant would have been fined 10 cents had he referred to the referee as a useless Christ on a crucifix soaking in a vat of urine.Actually, Mr. Bryant would no longer be working in basketball had he said something like that, and Nugent knows it. I do think it's interesting, however, that Mr. Free Speech is actually alluding to a (in)famous piece of art entitled "piss Christ," something that conservatives were in an uproar over at the time. Nugent seems to be suggesting that Christians don't get the same rights as gays, so he appears to also be suggesting that Bryant should have been fined had he mocked Christians, which undercuts the entire "free speech" "sticks and stones" argument of his essay. (Then again, it's Ted Nugent we're talking about, not Mensa.)
Homosexuals are a protected class in America. 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.Ah, so does the NRA now have a position on gays in the military too? And here I always thought they were a gun organization that tried to stay away from other politics? Yeah, they're as independent as the religious right. Otherwise, why would the NRA weigh in on the recent DOMA controversy as well?
That's an awful lot of homophobia - gays in the military, DOMA and hate speech - all in two weeks time from an organization that claims it takes no position on civil rights issues.
