HEY! That gives a whole different meaning to what she said. She’s not ashamed to be from Texas! All 3 are very proud Texans. She was ashamed that Bush, a halfwit dipstick who’s not fit to shine the toenails of great Texans, was from Texas.
So what? Performers pander to their audiences all the time (“Hello Cleveland!”). Who gives a fuck if it was in London or Tokyo or San Antonio? Overseas my ass. We’re all citizens of planet earth, and the war was wrong. She said it there in England because that day the massive anti-war marches were going on in London (and around the world). Probably half their audience had just come from marching against the war.
This is exactly the point. Maines got a lot of people off side because what people got from what she was saying was that she was ashamed to be Texan (and by extension, ashamed to be Southern and rural and Country and all those other things held dear by the Country music establishment). Maines didn’t mean she was ashamed to be Texan, but that’s what a lot of people heard.
Mr Moto’s post is excellent. This is not a left vs right thing and this is not a hawk vs dove thing.
I don’t know anyone who thought Maines was ashamed to be from Texas. She thought it would be cute to let everyone know that she’s ashamed to be from the same state as GWB. I do know more than a few people who think that it’s stupid for anyone to be ashamed of something they had nothing to do with. Maines had nothing to do with GWB’s being from Texas, ergo she’s stupid. And presumptuous. And egotistical. And silly. And foolishly prideful.
And has anyone else noted the fact that she chose not to make this statement while here in the good ol’ USA, and most especially not in the state of Texas itself, but over in Europe, safe and sound in the heart of liberalism and anti-U.S. bias?
So she exposes herself not only as a stupid nitwit but a cowardly one as well. Little did she know that the folks back home would learn of her disloyalty and subject her to the very same scorn and derision she knew she would have encountered had she felt the “strength of her convictions” strongly enough to have expressed them here in the first place.
And ETF, I’m afraid you’re slipping my friend. You’ve directed me to Charlie Daniels’ website at least twice before. But who the hell listens to him? I wouldn’t get too riled up myself if Jeannie C. Riley constructed a similar page touting liberalism. (Heh, heh…I said riled and Riley in the same sentence…get it?)
Good heavens! I’m channeling Beavis and Butthead!
Okay, at that I’m outta here…at least until perhaps sweet old granny Equipoise comes along to urge someone to suck my balls again. Poor thing. She must be living vicariously.
I know my son isn’t happy that Bush is from the Nutmeg state, like him.
As for this controversy, I respect the Dixie Chicks for standing by their convictions despite the costs. It doesn’t seem like Keith can clearly state the same.
As for country music, well, I can say that I bought 2 Live Crew’s tape way back when in order to make a small political statement. I’ve thought about buying the Dixie Chicks album to do the same. Haven’t done it yet, though.
Why, come to think of it, no, not hardly! See, that’s why we keep you around, for these special insights that nobody else would come up with.
What they oughta do, send ol’ Toby on a Yurpeen Tour, maybe Dennis Miller for opening act, the “Boy Howdy, Do We Ever Love GeeDubya!” Tour. Ought to attract lots of attention. And flowers. Lots of flowers.
That just shows what idiots they were. Not her fault, though she paid for others’ ignorance.
No, she was ashamed that GWB was from the same state as her, and it wasn’t even about her, it was about Texas. It’s a completely different thing, though I know that such subleties are lost on right-wingers/redneck morons, who can only grasp things in black and white, in big simple letters.
It’s called taking a bit of responsibility. I had nothing to do with GWB being from America or being elected president but I’m deeply ashamed that he represents the USofA. There’s nothing I can do about it, but I can state my opinion. I’d rather be “stupid” like her than a dumbfuck like you.
She’s just this girl, you know? And in any case, she’s a better person than all those morons who condemned her. And still condemn her.
Goddamn! You learn something new every day here at the Dope!
“disloyalty”?? To a president who was getting us into a needless and costly war based on lies and bullshit? I’d say she was highly patriotic.
I actually am a very sweet person in real life, but I don’t see the need to be “sweet” to stupid scum-of-the-earth right-wingers and redneck morons. The time for coddling ignorance came and went for me a long time ago.
Yes, and the only reason she’s ashamed that he is from Texas is that she is too. Lubbock, to be precise. Would she have said that she’s ashamed he’s from Texas if she was from Florida? Of course not.
Yes, that’s exactly my point. Performers pander to their audiences all the time, and it looked like that’s exactly what she was doing.
First of all, Natalie Maines shouldn’t be criticizing other singers for being what is wrong with country music today, when she is a big throbbing symptom of that disease. And it has nothing to do with politics, mind, just that the Dixie Chicks’ popularity is among those women cubicle dwellers I mentioned above, and isn’t broadly shared among many traditional, outlaw, and alt-country fans.
Secondly, I typically buy the work of musicians while ignoring their political views. In my country catalog I have a lot of Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and Loretta Lynn - artists not typically associated with the political right. I don’t have a lot of Lee Greenwood (and only because that song came along in some compilations) and my Charlie Daniels tends toward his older work.
Buy music with politics in mind, and you’ll soon wind up with a lot of unlistenable dreck. Like, for instance, 2 Live Crew.
Okay then, it’s also stupid to take responsibility for something you had no part in creating. And presumptuous, as you’re inserting yourself into the issue when you had nothing to do with creating it in the first place. And egotistical and phony, as it gives you an excuse to spout your opinions under the guise of this noble so-called sense of responsibility.
I guess the question then becomes: which is the real persona? I suspect you simply don’t have the gumption to behave in real life (and I will acknowledge that you are perhaps living in a fantasy world here) the way you behave here. I doubt that people who are not naturally hotheaded, foul-mouthed uber-bitches in real life would find it so easy to morph into one once a keyboard has materialized in front of them.
If that was all it was about, she could have said any number of things that entailed no risk at all. She chose otherwise. I take her at her word, you peer into her soul and take her inventory.
And Moto, you’re over-intellecting, slicing country into subset and genres. Country is twang, if it twangs, its country, if it don’t, it ain’t. GeeDub isn’t a Texan, no matter how much brush he clears, no matter how many times his script writers substitute “folks” for “people”. He doesn’t scrape his boots on the steps when he comes into the house, he has people for that. He’s like a country band without a pedal steel. Feh, as they say in Lubbock.
As for Charlie, I think he’s suffering from 9/11 Hysteria, like Dennis Miller. Its a terrible thing what has happened to these people minds, and I hope fondly for their recovery. Need I point out what political party shamelessly exploited said hysteria? I thought not, bright lad that you are.
Charlie wrote Long Haired Country Boy, earned him a lot of slack from me, but he’s pretty much pissed it all away. Oh, almost forgot…Johnny Cash was a punk-ass poseur. When Willie was playing at my uncle’s roadhouse, he was a second rater and nobody paid him any mind.
Whatever floats your boat I was referring to Chad Kroeger. If he and the whole Nickelback band’s work would suddenly disappear and never surface again, where people would say, “Who the fuck is Nickelback?” I would believe that God exists. For His sake, he is lucky, there is only, really, one song (all of them) he has to dispose of.
Puhleeeez. What is this whole thread about other than your attempt to peer into TK’s soul. Why don’t you take him at his word?
I would believe Maines wasn’t pandering to her audience if she had said that somewhere in Texas, or at least in the US. It’s easy to make such “courageous” statements when you know damn well that the audience is going to cheer. BFD.
The statement that Maines made in the UK was on the eve of the Iraq invasion. So from what I’m reading in this thread, if she’d ditched her band in the middle of their world tour, flown to Texas, spoke her mind, and then flown back to England, some people wouldn’t have had a problem with what she said?
Aha. Of course. That makes complete sense. :dubious:
I honestly don’t understand why people care what Natalie Maines or Toby Keith have to say. Do they have any expertise on middle east history or war-fighting or diplomacy that make their opinions on the Iraq war worth more than the guy’s at the end of the bar? Certainly they have the right to say what they want, but why anyone would listen to it or take it seriously is beyond me.
But who the hell listens to him? I wouldn’t get too riled up myself if Jeannie C. Riley constructed a similar page touting liberalism. (Heh, heh…I said riled and Riley in the same sentence…get it?)
I was referring to Chad Kroeger. If he and the whole Nickelback band’s work would suddenly disappear and never surface again, where people would say, “Who the fuck is Nickelback?” I would believe that God exists. For His sake, he is lucky, there is only, really, one song (all of them) he has to dispose of.