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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Somehow I'm gonna guess that there is a large overlap of the people pissed that Kap didn't stand for the anthem and the people who think that flying the Confederate flag is their god given right as an 'Murican!

I mean... I'm not pissed he didn't stand but I think flying whatever flag you like would Indeed be protected, wouldn't it?

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

I agree. As is not standing up for the anthem.

I would, except for those stupid W flags.

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Hold on, I've gotta finish this Kardashian marathon on E!, then I need to watch CNN have groups of 4 people who like or dislike Donald Trump yell at each other for an hour with no resolution. Then after that I'm gonna log in to the board and have a ten page deep debate w/ JoRR about whether or not wins dictate a good pitcher, or maybe join the death penalty discussion because I think that thread is going places.

Come to think of it, I'm kinda busy this afternoon and evening. Sorry. Important stuff.

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You don't think flying a Confederate flag is protected speech or expression? Or are you saying it shouldn't be?

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

I think flying the flag is protected speech, and I think not standing for the anthem is protected speech. I think the majority of people with their panties in a knot saying how disrespectful this is to our county are the same dillweeds who would fight you to death to defend their right to fly a flag that literally stood for a group of states who said "fuck this, this place sucks we're leaving" Our sense of self awareness as a citizenry is sorely lacking.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

All right.
Well, I guess I'm a hybrid then. I could not give a rats ass if dude stands sits boos or shits during a national anthem and I would fully support anyone to fly whatever flag they choose even though I would personally find each of those actions quite distasteful.
It's a hell of a thing that first amendment. If you want some of it you gotta take all of it.

As a counterpoint to your post, and this is strictly respectfully phrased to the best of my ability, I would say that people that would be upset about someone flying a confederate flag are the kind of folks who want to stop the first amendment when it protects speech they find offensive, indefensible, obscene, or unpopular, which is precisely what the amendment intended to protect.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

The only answer is to revise the first amendment.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

No counterpoint necessary. We agree on that.

I'm assuming this is said tongue in cheek. I hope.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Very well.
And on that note this peace treaty is nice.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

What about the transgender man who walks into a women's bathroom wearing a confederate flag blouse?

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

I don't know leash well enough to comment.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

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They may also be the kind of folks who refuse to admit what they fully understand in other contexts: artifacts like the Confederate flag have multiple meanings in today's world. (Though if the Confederate flag is your symbol, you'd have to expect some blowback.)

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I don't get upset over someone flying the Confederate flag and I don't get upset at Kaepernick refusing to stand for the anthem. I just think both guys are douchebags.

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

Agreed, but the confederate flag does bother me more.

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Hmm, I had to think about that for a moment. I guess neither one bothers me at all. If you want to be a dipshit, go for it. Don't get mad if others judge you.

On a somewhat related note, it's become de rigueur to bring out military veterans to take a bow at some point in any live sporting event. I go to a lot of events with a friend who is a Vietnam era guy. He's very resentful that there are almost never Vietnam era vets brought out. Like why should he stand when Vietnam vets are never honored. He'll point out that it went from WWII right to Desert Storm and beyond. I have to admit, it does seem that way. One day he was complaining about it and I said maybe it's because you guys lost. He didn't like that too much.

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

Are people still falling for this shit?

I wouldn't mind debating his point rather than whether some silly gesture profanes something that some people find sacred.

I've bought hot dogs and quickly grabbed a squirt during the national anthem. There is no red, white and blue spaghetti monster in the sky this offends.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Love it or leave it, pal!

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

Seriously, I see it as more of a breach of protocol rather than some huge offensive gesture. I don't expect a guy on the concourse who is eating an overpriced plate of mediocre barbecue to get up from his food to stand at attention or the guy in the restroom to stop his piss stream to salute. But if you're in your seat, you should stand and remove your cap. Failing to do so would be similar to walking into a business meeting and refusing to shake hands with the other attorneys.

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

A number of White Americans just have a short fuse when it comes to black people being douchebags.

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Sure that's true, but if you're talking specifically about Kaepernick, it's pretty hard to take race out of the equation when the whole point of his refusal to stand is the treatment of blacks in America. America is also the country that allowed a middling quarterback like him to accumulate generational wealth for his family. He has to understand that a laid off white steelworker in Aliquippa is going to have a hard time with such a message being delivered by a $114 million dollar "oppressed" quarterback. And I get that Kaepernick isn't speaking about himself or his own situation, but to expect the guy I described to be real open to the message coming from such a source may be tone deaf at best.

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

Did he actually say he was the one being oppressed? I thought he was standing up (sitting down?) for people who don't have a voice.

I like that he cares about this topic, but hitching your wagon to the BLM is no way to get support right now in the United States.

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No, like I said above, I know he wasn't talking about himself.

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

There is no other side,he should stand! This country is 240 years old and guess what,we could bitch about some injustice in every year of existence. There will always be something wrong that many of us disagree with going on,so how about if nobody stands for their own particular injustice?

There are other things he can do to make sure his voice is heard.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

Don't we do all this stuff to ensure that we don't treat vets the way we treated the Vietnam vets? I remember the first Gulf War....yellow ribbons around every tree....that was overkill, but Americans were pretty sensitive about the Vietnam vets then. I swear that was as much for the Vietnam vets as for those currently serving.

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