Yankee fans are now at liberty to go to the bathroom during the playing of “God Bless America” during the seventh-inning stretch, thanks to a settlement reached yesterday in Manhattan federal court.
Signing off on the deal were the Yankees, the New York Civil Liberties Union and Queens resident Bradford Campeau-Laurion, who was thrown out of Yankee Stadium last year after trying to hit the head midtune.
Campeau-Laurion, a Red Sox fan, will also get $10,001 in a separate deal reached with the city because he got the boot from two uniformed cops — one of whom allegedly told him, “Get out of my country.”
This really pissed me off (g). During the 7th-inning Stretch at every yankees Game, they play the prayer-song God Bless America. Unsettling? A bit, especially when everyone stands and pretends it’s the Star Spangled Banner. I’ve gone to these games, and believe me I was one of the few people sitting and talking on the phone during this post-9/11 tradition.
But they went to far here, arresting and booting a man from the park, allegedly for leaving his seat to urinate during the song. Truly outrageous on many levels. GBA is a religious song, not a patriotic song, and even if it WAS patriotic, well, patriotism is not a requirement in this country, nor should it be.
So I am glad this issue is settled and urination, prayer, and patriotism is no longer regulated at Yankees Games. Congrats to the NYCLU as well.
Maybe we should make walking to the bathroom while talking on cell phones during the Stretch a new tradition.
I don’t go to baseball games, but if I did – that’s when I’d need to go pee too.
I was going to make a post about this exact thing on my blog but you said it perfectly here. I’ll just link to you when I get a chance.
This is a perfect example of where religion encroaches onto daily life. This is why I define myself as a secular. I don’t want to stop religion, I just want to stop forced religion.
Because I have family in Massachusetts I’m not a Yankees fan, but of course this is not so much about the Yankees as it is about people being free to choose not to participate in laughably stupid superstitious customs based on absolutely no evidence at all.
I support the right of baseball fans to decline to participate in a completely futile supplication to a non-existent anthropomorphic imaginary deity with anger management issues that clearly border on psychosis.
Just say NO to idiotic ancient fairy tales.
Go Red Sox!
My wife and I relocated to from Massachusetts to Florida 57 years ago when there were only 4 million people here. We are still Red Sox fans. I remember seeing Ted Williams giving his “obscene” gesture at Fenway Park. I also remember as a kid peeing my name in the snow many times after a fresh snowstorm. I was real proud of my “peemanship” and outpeed my playmates! One of the kids was a Yankees fan and we always managed to “accidently” pee on his shoes!
This is just one example of how religion has wormed its way into the most ordinary of events to the point that patriotism and religion seem inextricably intertwined, and I for one am annoyed as hell about it. Jayzus, I can’t even sit down to dinner with anybody outside my immediate family, without having to conspicuously decline to participate in hand-holding and head-bowing. Then you have to explain, YET AGAIN, that you are an atheist, and everyone gives you that “mysterious face of Mars” look. Sometines, being an atheist is more a matter of patience and endurance than controversy.
Unfortuantely, patriotism is a form of religious zealotism – in this case, it is blind faith in your own country. My favorite bumper sticker of all time is “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.” I do love my country, for the most part, but I will never be one of those people that feels that you have to love your country above all others. Every country in the world has its good parts and bad parts. The US is unfortunate in that its bad part is our growing “xian taliban” mentality.
Agree. And well said.
Or as Dr Johnson famously put it, ‘Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.’
And this somewhat lengthier one from Dr Einstein:
“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.”
Tisk, tisk, tisk…while I agree the cops overreacted, it’s obvious what this was all about…
Anyone who thinks the ACLU or AA is really interested in anything but $$$ is a fool…these cases are merely vehicles to line their pockets with “taxpayer” dollars…
http://www.guymondailyherald.com/content/view/115176/27/
If money is the ACLU’s or AA’s goal then they picked the wrong vehicle. Both entities are non-profit organizations.
$12000 is peanuts and probably doesn’t even begin to cover NYCLU’s legal expenses. The article doesn’t say so but I imagine the Yankees had to pay at least that much and maybe a lot more.
It’s too bad that the cop(s) did not have to pay up, too.
Unfortunately, I think you are right about AA and the Smalkowski case.
why didn’t this unpatriotic bum just go in his beer bottle or his pants.
I agree. How dare he infringe on the rights of Christians at this game by using the restroom!
Why I bet there were disabled people in attendance that day who dared to not stand up and show respect during “god Bless America”. They should have been arrested and ejected from the stadium for this disrespect!!!
/sarcasm
I have never been to a Yankees game. When GBA is being played does stadium security or please try to limit other normal behaviors? Can you walk about freely?
please -> police
That was weird.
OT
Washington DC recognises same sex marriages performed outside of the district as of today (the black ex mayor and crack and whore aficionado Marion Barry was the sole dissenting vote). Predictably there was rambling religiously based incoherent nonsense from the large black community in DC.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFFYYjWjVuE&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Efacebook%2Ecom%2Fhome%2Ephp%3Fref%3Dlogo&feature=player_embedded
These are exactly the sort of half baked hateful sentiments that I have experienced from black folks here in NC which is why I avoid blacks like the plague.
Blacks voted 70% against gay marriage in CA vs 45% of white voters.
There is no other such homophobic group in America as blacks and that is an easily verifiable fact.
Fuck ‘em.
I had never, until this past weekend, seen a “Yes on 8″ bumper sticker on a vehicle. Guess the race of the driver.
I dont have to guess, chances favour the fact that the drivert was black.
Black homophobia is the elephant in the room that none of us are supposed to see, let alone talk about.
Google “African-American homophobia” and see what you learn.
Last time I was in America I saw an NRA bumper sticker. Guess the race of the driver.
That certain kinds of stupidity favors certain races is irrelevant. In fact, usually when the stupidity is practiced by a white person no one cares about their race.
Godless
Black. I thought of you when I saw it.
——————————————————–
Thx
Irrelevant? It’s certainly relevant to anybody wishing to overturn prop 8. Campaign dollars spent in California black neighborhoods would probably be well spent.
barry got arrested for stalking.
Could have been hispanic too, but no, it’s not surprising. I saw the demographics on Prop 8, and both hispanics and blacks voted about 70% in favor of it.
And the money behind that stinking pile of shit? The batshit crazy mormons. Am I wrong, but aren’t the mormons the fastest expanding religion right now? I do know that the mormons are targeting blacks for conversion, which is really funny since they were the most racist sect out there.
OT ALERT
From ThinkProgress
I’ve been a YANKEES fan (in Ark) since I was a child.
I first learned of this arrest when it occured. Because of that STUPID act, condoned by Yankee Mgmnt, I ABANDONED all prior loyalties to Yanks.
I’ll now root for “ABTY”; ANYONE BUT the Yankeees.
yahweh what does this have to do with the death of michael jackson.
the yankee poeeing incident is the topic of this thread, Reason.
I’m sure no one in this educated crowd has ever heard of NASCAR, but if you think God Bless America one time during a baseball game is bad you should watch the 15 minutes of TV coverage up until the start of the race. Right before Jesus starts all 43 engines, they have some Colonel Sanders looking preacher give a cross between a baptism and Will Ferrel’s prayer from Talladega Nights.
Also, as part of NASCAR’s Go Green initiative, they will be running on a 60/40 Gasoline/Prayer blend next year, and hope to be running solely on prayers by 2016.
LOL!
The thought of watching NASCAR makes my skin crawl.
Can anything be done about baseball players pointing up to the sky after getting a hit or striking someone out? It seems to be getting worse all the time…even saw a kid in the college world series do it.
I have written to the commissioner of major league baseball to complain about the disgusting display on the grounds that it disrespects the families of our troops who have died or been maimed in Iraq. God evidently said no to their prayers for the safe return of their son or daughter but then took the time to help one of these numb nut players get a hit. I did not receive a response from mlb.
I also wrote to albert pujols, nick swisher and big papi and asked them to stop their ridiculous display and received no response.
I’d like to see a movement designed to get them to stop. Why can’t they wait in the dugout to thank whoever it is they are supposed to be thanking?
andre: I appreciate your eforts.But, I opine they’ll be fruitless. I have long said, “trying to REASON with religionists is like trying to talk the reptillian out of a Nile Croc.”
OT ALERT
After all the fuss the GOP made about Pelosi a couple of months ago:
Try BushCo for their war crimes NOW.
We OUGHT, but we shall not: dems don’t have enough balls to do so, and the nation has no stomach for such.
Ah…What do I know. The CIA is made up of a bunch of life long bureaucrats. They take orders from no one…
Perhaps you missed the fact that recently translated notes from Hussein revealed that he lead a charade of telling the world that he had WMDs because he was fearful of Iran…
But then again…what does truth mean to an atheist?
So now Phreeky is reduced to claiming that we were justified in invading Iraq because Hussein wanted Iran to believe he had WMDs. This despite the following facts:
(1) All reasonable analysis of the evidence pointed to the fact that the very limited number of chemical weapons that Iraq possessed before the Gulf War were destroyed after the Gulf War.
(2) All reasonable analysis of the evidence pointed to the absurdity of the notion that Iraq had a nuclear or biological weapons program in 2003.
But since Hussein wanted others to believe he had WMDs who were we to base our foreign policy on mere facts!
Never mind that within BushCo the “intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy”. Never mind that! Because in the BushCo Whitehouse what Hussein wants Hussein gets! And us? We got an invasion which cost 100s of thousands of lives, displaced millions from their homes and cost the US trillions of dollars.
Is there anyone left in the rethuglican party besides psychos?
NANCY REAGAN AND HER ASTROLOGER?
Phreeky was born stupid and then got dumber. Who is left in the GOP besides Phreek-like religious zealots. That’s got to bring the GOP average IQ down to about 85.
From todays NY Times:
I’m surprised no one has mentioned that “God Bless America” was actually written by someone who didn’t even believe in god….lol!
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