It’s not just Kid Rock:

When it comes to endorsements, Mitt Romney has a long list of supporters in the Republican establishment. Here’s one a wee bit outside that category: rock star Ted Nugent.

The Motor City Madman tweeted today that he’s “concluded this goodman will properly represent we the people,” BuzzFeed reports.

Nugent, a noted gun enthusiast and member of the National Rifle Association board, had been without a candidate in the GOP presidential race.

This is rich:

After 25 years, Canada has officially banned the Dire Straits song “Money For Nothing” because it’s extremely offensive! You Know, it has the word “Faggot” in it. Blog Pals and Facebook Friends, Please link to the offensive song and lets offend Canada like never before!!!!

Here you go, Sonic:

Doug Powers notes that while the “original version has been banned . . . it can be played provided the offending word is edited.”

Give me a break.

Guess those bureaucrats up north just think if we ban an offensive word, then presto chango, not only will people not feel offended, but bad people will change their ways, the sun will stream through the clouds and we’ll all sing kumbaya.

Taking no prisoners in his response (as is his wont), blogger R. S. McCain bold challenges those Americans labeling their ideological adversaries as haters:

Somebody call Mark Potok at the SPLC. Tell him I played this homophobic anti-Canadian anthem and demand to be denounced for it!

(Via Instapundit.) Oh, and if you’re offended by that blogger’s style, well, understand he’s doing it to make a point. So too may have been a certain band.

I agree that the word is offensive, but also believe sunlight to be the best disinfectant.

FROM THE COMMENTS:  Throbert McGee offers a “much better” US analogy:

. . . bleeping-out every instance of the word “nigger” in edited-for-TV versions of Blazing Saddles — even though the movie’s script very pointedly puts the word ONLY in the mouths of characters who are idiots, villains, or both.

Back in the late 1970s, just after Howard Hughes passed, people would regularly come forward saying with fantastic stories detailing how they  met the reclusive billionaire, with him promising them part–or all–of his fortune.

Most, if not all of those stories turned out to be fabrications.  As I read the various (and often conflicting) stories on Michael Jackson’s final days (with one report say he was too feeble to rehearse for his upcoming London concerts, while others saying that he was performing in practice at the same level as he had danced in his heyday), I suspect we’ll be subject to the same sort of storytelling about the late King of Pop.

It seems the eccentricity of certain celebrity icons inspires stories even more outlandish than the actual facts of their lives.

CREDIT WHERE IT’S DUE:  This idea came to me the other day when reading Jim Geraghty’s, Michael Jackson and the Birth of Celebrity Culture.

One day I’ll have to sort out why I always felt for Michael Jackson, but not for his contemporary (born just two weeks before him), the pop star who calls herself Madonna, whose popularity, like his, derives, in large part from her ability to put on a great show. Both have enjoyed tremendous success in their professional lives (yet her stardom doesn’t even come close to rivaling his), yet never seemed to have found happiness off stage.

A friend told me yesterday that he once heard King of Pop had say he only felt comfortable on stage. No wonder.  Groomed from his earliest childhood to be a public performer, he likely wasn’t equipped to do much else. He just didn’t know how to interact with his fellows in private.

All that said, he and he alone is responsible for the mess that his life became, just as Miss Ciccone is for hers. My sympathy for him would be more complete if he did not have any children, taking responsibility for their upbringing by bringing them into this world (or into his care, as with his youngest).

Many have called his life a tragedy.  And in some sense it was, even if we rely on the original context.  Like a Greek tragic hero, he fell from grace due in large part to a flaw in his character.  For the pop star, it was to seek his solace on stage and to ignore the imperative of making changes in his private life.  A true tragic hero must recognize his flaw, understanding how his own failure to correct it brought about his downfall.

And the recognition lay in the lyrics of one of his best songs:

I’m Starting With The Man In The Mirror
I’m Asking Him To Change His Ways
And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place
(If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place)
Take A Look At Yourself, And Then Make A Change

But, he, alas, sought the wrong kind of change.  He worked on changing his appearance and not, to borrow the lyrics of another song, “the mess that’s inside.“  (more…)

When Anna Nicole Smith died, a friend of mine, not himself a fan of the professional celebrity, said he burst out crying.  He “couldn’t help” feeling sad.  And so I felt earlier today, upoing learning of the passing of Michael Jackson.  I did not cry, but felt a certain unfathomable sadness.

He was, quite simply, one of the (if not the) most gifted musical peformers of our time.  He was born with a talent that individuals spend a fortune in money and countless hours of their own time to acquire, only never to distinguish themselves in any memorable manner.  This is not say that Jackson did not work hard; there is abundant that he did.

Indeed, the strenuous rehearsals for his upcoming London comeback shows may have caused the cardiac arrest which took his life.  We know from stories of his childhood that he spent so much time rehearsing, recording and performing with the Jackson 5 that he could not do what most children did, hang out with their friends and play with their toys, living in a world of their imaginations.

He didn’t have time to dream, performing as he did in a successful band and dealing with the fame brought about by its success.

That ban was successful large part due to his own talents which his father recognized early on–and pushed him to develop.  Joe Jackson dominated young Michael’s life until, in his early adulthood, he set out on his own.  In a matter of months, Michael experienced a transformation that takes years, if not decades, for most of us, from being in thrall to his parents to being in control of a vast entertainment empire.  And just as he was achieving success on his own, music videos, the perefect medium for communicating his talent to mass audiences, were coming to the fore. (more…)

Confirmed via the Kellow biography that Ethel Merman did indeed sing at the Gipper’s inaugural so that must be the source of the clip I linked on her birthday.  He and Nancy sent her a telegram to mark her seventy-fifth birthday.

According to John Kenrcik this “lifelong Republican. . .  was a frequent guest at the White House during the Eisenhower administration.”

This sure makes up for Barbra’s politics.

I have never really gotten the fasciation my gay peers have with the pop star who calls herself Madonna.  Unlike Barbra Streisand, a true diva, Madonna is little more than a musical cipher, shrewdly adapting her style to the prevailing trends in popular music.  

She has stayed atop the charts for so long (longer indeed than almost any other pop star) not for her own gifts nor for her unique way of singing a song (like Barbra), but for her intelligence and public relations savvy.  She knows how to cater to the audience; she’ll do whatever it takes to get media attention.

Madonna has always been the Bill Clinton of pop music.  Just as he does whatever it takes to appeal to voters, so too would she do whatever it takes to appeal to music-lovers.  In contrast to Ronald Reagan, Clinton is not known for his commitment to a core set of political principles.  Nor is the pop star known for her pioneering any musical style or perfecting any particular genre.

As Katherine Berry put it yesterday in Pajamas:”For two decades now, Madonna’s fame has stemmed more from her antics than any actual talent, singing or otherwise” (via Instapundit who thinks the pop star’s too old to be having a mid-life crisis). And now the faux diva has figured out another way to get attention.  

Launching his Sticky & Sweet Tour in the United Kingdom, she compared the presumptive Republican president to a whole slew of tyrants.  She knows the world media loves any criticism of American politicians with an (R) after their names:During the four-act show in Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, a video interlude showed images of destruction, global warming, Adolf Hitler, Zimbabwe‘s authoritarian President Robert Mugabe and – you guessed it – McCain.

In another sequence that was shown later, the images were meant to be positive. Madonna showed pics of slain Beatle John Lennon, former Vice President Al Gore, Mahatma Gandhi and presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama.

Smart woman, she knows the way to get attention.  It probably doesn’t matter to the very material girl that the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) condemned her use of Hitler’s image as “inappropriate and offensive.“  She just revels in the media attention.

The woman may lack taste or any standard of decency of fair play, but she knows how to stay in the limelight. As do some aging politicians of her party.

Kind of reminds me of a Saturday Night Live sketch.

UPDATE:  Roger wonders if Madonna is secretly helping McCain.

Just a couple more work days and I’ll be Vegas-bound for the Academy of Country Music Awards vacation.

Today, I continue the ACM Countdown with Top Female Vocalist.  Well, I’m in love with Carrie Underwood.  She has rocketed from American Idol winner to Grammy winner in just two years.  She is probably the most successful Idol contestant so far (including Kelly Clarkson). 

But I’m torn here because I also love Martina McBride and have seen her in concert and really love her music. 

And, I’ve also seen Sara Evans… think she has an amazing voice… and frankly, she is smoking hot. 

Next Tuesday, the Academy of Country Music will decide who the Top Female Vocalist is.  When it comes down to it, I think this is one of the strongest categories.  All of these women are outstanding. 

Today, you can pick your favorite.

This year we decided to combine two Patriot favorite past times into one vacation.  One week from tomorrow night, PatriotPartner, PatriotMom and I will be in the audience for the 42nd Annual Academy of Country Music Awards — live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas!

We leave this coming Saturday for a week’s vacation in Vegas including the ACM Awards on Tuesday May 15, and the “Music & Passion” Barry Manilow show at the Hilton a week from this Thursday.  Hopefully there will be some time where I can post photos of the festivities during our trip.

To start the countdown this week, I thought it would be fun to post a poll of the nominees to get your thoughts.  Of course, we start off with Top Male Vocalist.

My pick is Brad!

More countdown to the ACM Awards all week and this weekend…

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Greetings, my dear friends.
Been a while since I posted here (I promise, I’ll be better…is Kurlander still out there?).

This summer, I posed the question “Where’s the love?” when it comes to pop-culture.

Brandon Flowers, notorious loud-mouth and lead singer of one of my favorite new bands, The Killers, seems to be listening. He told an obscure industry magazine recently that he’s “offended” by Billie Joe Armstrong’s “really cheap” anti-American bent on Green Day’s most recent CD, American Idiot.

Now, this seems to some observers to be a ploy on Flowers’ part to garner attention for The Killers’ newly released sophomore offering, but it’s something at least. To be sure, his criticism seems to be luke-warm. Perhaps saying, it’s not what their message is, but rather how they’re delivering it. To wit:

“Americans are getting a bad rap right now…It’s because of the war and everything that’s going on. It’s understandable, but to an extent it’s not fair because we’re just people who were born here.” (Emphasis added.)

He may be hedging a bit with his “it’s understandable” stuff, but, like I said, at least it’s something.

Should I sue Apple because iTunes made me remember these guys?

And yes, I actually downloaded “I Only Want To Be With You.”

Help me.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)