AMERICA ROCKS  
Ted Nugent

JACKSON, Mich.- As the war on terrorism continues and as war with Iraq appears to loom ominously in the not so distant future, Americans must be equally vigilant to remain thankful that we live in the greatest country the world has ever known.
Thanksgiving is a very important holiday and celebration in the Nugent household. We don't believe that Thanksgiving, as some retailers would try to lead us to believe, is a mere bump in the road between Halloween and Christmas, but a very special holiday that naturally comes during the hunting season as we finish up the natural season of harvest. It is fitting that we celebrate all of the blessings that God has bestowed upon our family and America.
Thanksgiving is not an anachronism whose time is past. It is much more than a holiday to celebrate a meal shared between the Pilgrims and Native Americans. It is a time to reflect and be thankful for what we have—not for what we cherish, desire or envy. Rich or poor every American has many things to be thankful for, not the least of which is that we live in a country where our freedom and individual dedication and hard work define the limits to your success, whatever your aspirations, dreams and goals may be. The American Dream is still yours for the making. Be very thankful for that. More importantly, be smart enough to seize it.
With our men and women in the military in harms way defending freedom, we should be thankful that many of our young people answered the call of patriotism and love of country to serve in our armed forces and defend our way of life. Without their numerous personal sacrifices and the sacrifices of generations of veterans who have gone before them, there would be little in America to be thankful for our brave warriors who are separated from their loved ones by thousands of miles.
We should all be thankful for corporate America and the smart, savvy men and women who are steering their companies through turbulent economic times. Contrary to the high-profile news reports of the past year concerning the very immoral and criminal acts of some of the officers of Enron, Global Crossing and WorldCom, these morally bankrupt company officers remain the pathetic exception rather than the rule in the American free enterprise system.
There are untold tens of thousands of honest people with high moral and ethical standards at the helm of American businesses. I know some of them, have worked with others, and admire many more of them for their business acumen. These leaders rarely make the news for doing what is best for their companies, but they are out there nonetheless trying to find innovative ways to expand existing markets and open up new business channels so their companies will be profitable, stockholders will make money, and millions of Americans will have good jobs for years to come. Capitalism is the fuel that propels this experiment in self-government forward. Be thankful for those ethical, dedicated people who steer American businesses.
Having met tens of thousands of Americans in my music and hunting travels over the past 40 years, I’m buoyed and thankful that the American spirit still soars high on the wings of an eagle. From cops to priests to firemen to guitar players, the rugged defiant American spirit that has built and nurtured America is alive, prospering and kicking. I remain convinced America is the land of hard working, caring, law abiding people who go about their daily lives trying to provide a better life for their families, which in the final analysis, leads to amore vibrant America overall. Rush hour and traffic jams are beautiful things. They prove we rock.
America isn’t at a social or political crossroads as some will try to tell us. Those who believe that would have told you 500 years ago that the earth was flat. Thirty years ago they would have been stoned on LSD, drooling and dancing naked at a Grateful Dead concert. My advice is to avoid these people. They will always gravitate towards the negative. Take it from an old, cocky rock’n’roll guitar player whose God-given senses remain finely tuned: America’s best days are in front of us.
Mr. Nugent, a hunter and musician http://www.tednugent.com/

Not that I've ever given the possibility much thought, but I'd have guessed the chances of my agreeing with a rock musician were pretty slim...but I've gotta tip my hat to him because he makes a great deal of sense (unlike Bono of U2).  I echo the sentiment he expresses at least 95%.

One thing Nugent is definitely right about - America rocks!  We're the greatest country on Earth.  Let's all work to keep it that way by defending freedom.

Give it to "Terrible" Ted to bring such a poignant message at this time in our history.  He rocks and so do we as Americans, and as a country that I proudly serve and defend.

Have read his stuff several times. Often pretty good stuff.

America rocks?  Gee, what profound thinking.  Traffic jams and corporate greed are cool?  Sounds like the good old Orwellian word games.... "war is peace", "love is hate".  Nugent is a Neanderthal with money.  There are plenty of them running the show in America, and they are quite happy with the status quo.  Whao can blame them?  Why worry about the consequences of overconsumption, of blatant greed and shortsightedness if you have this year's largest gas hog and plenty of cheap gas pump into it?  Go ahead, all you Bush/Rush fans, fire up your flame throwers.  But first, let me spell it out a little more clearly.  Sure, we are the richest, most successful society in history.  But we are also using over 25% of the world's resources, especially food, water and oil, with only 5% of the world's population.  We have totally abandoned any committment to slowing down our thirst for oil and our need to produce greenhouse gases. That makes you proud?  Then excuse me but where is that enlightened self interest that would make even the most unrepentant capitalist realize that we are using up assets (the earth's) faster than we can deal with the consequences.

I can just hear the flamethrowers roaring now.  Can you believe the nerve of this guy?  Questioning whether this great country actually "rocks"?  Is "rocking" some kind of all purpose word for explaining a condition where you are so powerful that you can tell everyone else to fuck off while you fart in their face?  John Belushi was great in Animal House, but I wouldn't go so far as to actually try to adopt his character's approach to analyzing America's place in the world.

resources is because in many part of the world people are starving or live in poverty due to misguided government policies (South America), religious intolerance and suppression of women’s right (Central and South Asia, Middle East) , Authoritarian and Totalitarian rules (Cuba, North Korea, Ukraine, etc.), ethnic hatreds and war (Balkans, sub-Sahara Africa), and vast corruption.

I am no economist but I will try to tackle some of the underlying premises of over consumption by US.

1. Water – most water resources are not transferable except within the nearby geographic area.  There is no weather altering machines invented yet.  Within the North American continent which US resides, there are only 3 countries, Canada, US and Mexico.  Canada is not as economically vibrant as US and has less industrial output and farming activities, hence the lesser per capita consumption.  Mexico is a dry country and has a poor economy.  One can claim that the southwestern part of US takes a lot of the output from the Colorado River and gave less to their Mexican counterpart.  However, the water source is originated from the US and it is hard to argue that we are depriving the Western part of Mexico their fair share.  Since US are not taking away Africa and Asia’s water, I don’t believe the water consumption pattern of US affects most of the people in the world.

2. Food – US is a big food exporting country.  Setting aside the use of energy in the production of food (energy will be dealt with later), it is nobody’s business how Americans feed themselves.  We use our technology and manpower effectively.  The only part of food production that affects other countries is fishing.  However, the US rate of fish consumption is a lot less than Japan, Southeast Asia and many part of Western Europe.  We don’t have the huge species depriving dragnets of fishing fleets like in Japan and Taiwan.  There have been a number of moratoriums on fishing issued in Eastern US that were necessary but nonetheless devastating to the local fishing industry.  As far as I remembered, only in a couple of cases that western European countries and Canada have considered moratoriums on fishing.  I am not sure they have implemented one.  The rest of the world is AWOL in this issue.

3. Energy (portable energy, mainly Oil and Gas) – US is a big consumer of oil and gas, no doubt at all.  However, if one divide the oil and gas consumption percentage with that nation’s GDP, (unfortunately I don’t have the data nor the time to check it out), I don’t think the US will come off as bad as the 25% consumption, 5% population data.  China is growing fast and their energy consumption has greatly increased.  It will be interesting to compare the correlation of consumption of portable energy and GDP among US, India and China.

I think a lot of these talks of the evil of capitalism practiced in US ignore the importance of Happiness, Freedom and Opportunity.  Unlike in many parts of the world including Western Europe, US is still a society that rewards ideas and hard work.  We don’t have the ridiculous regulations and vast corruptions that stifled innovation and economic activities.  We have much less class prejudices and subtle nativism compared to Japan, India, UK and Germany.

US scarified hundreds of thousands of lives to liberate Europe and Asia in 2 world wars in the last century.  This country has defended the freedom of hundred of millions of people in Western Europe and South Korea with decades long military commitments and hundreds of billions of dollars and many young soldiers lives.  We have opened up our economy to the world to help nations such as Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and China to rebuild their economies.  Thanks to the generosity of foreign student admission policy and the transfers of technologies, other countries have benefited greatly.

I, as a naturalized citizen, do indeed have a lot to be  thankful for, especially to this the Greatest and most Generous country in the history of the world.

p.s. Sorry, Greywolf, I just can't resist the bait.  I still believe it is important to post counter arguments although they rarely change the other person’s mind.

-- Modified on 11/28/2002 10:07:27 AM

Too bad for Praiaman that we don't all live in caves and wander around naked.  I wonder just how well he lives and how much resources he consumes while indulging himself in bleating about how rotten the rest of us all are.

NEWS FLASH.  If everyone starves and freezes, this is not an improvement over some people being better off than others.  The reason the USA is wealthy is because we are not doing the destructive things that other nations do to themselves.  The USA is not STEALING resources.  They have been purchased at competative prices from people who are delighted to have the business.

Either be properly grateful for living in the most wonderful nation on the planet, or pick some pitiful, incompently governed nation to move to so you can LIVE your ideal of living miserably.
Try living your convictions instead of just being a lame hypocrite.

I find it very amusing that you knew your post would draw flames, as I am sure that this has happend to you everytime you spout your blathering.  You might consider that you are the one with the ridiculious ideas.  But you won't, beacuse you are secure in your hatred of America.

The glory of the United States is not how rich or powerful our country is. It simply is that we are nation of laws, bound by the Constitution and its amendments. Primary in the Bill of the Rights is the First Amendment which states:

"...Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances....."

It seems to me that Praiaman was simply exercising his right to disagree with the above posts, and indicating ways "to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." On the otherhand, Iroman3, you seem to imply that people who disagree with you should either leave the U.S. or be ridden out on a rail. I would leave it to others to decide whether the comments of Praiaman or Iroman3 best reflect the "original intent" of the framers of the Constitution.

I love my country, but not like some witless fool that just finds it incomprehensible that we could ever be in the wrong.   "Love it or Leave it" was a common refrain in the 60's when anyone who dared question foreign policy was branded a traitor.    

Ironman (man of steel?) would be right at home in a place like Iran or Iraq where those who criticize society or the government are immediately imprisoned.  It's called fascism and it exists in the heart of all humans when fear of change or of a loss of comfort makes us lash out at those who look around and say what the fuck is going on here?  

I've lived abroad and I know how lucky I am to be an American.  I also vote in every election.  Does that mean I have to cheer while my government fucks things up big time?  I don't think so.  Can't stand having someone question the wisdom of our lifestyle?  You're not alone. Neither am I.  And being insulted doesn't make me want to give up, just makes me more sure I have said something that needs to be said.

praiaman,

Voting is good, but not enough.  Write your congressfolks and tell them what you think.  Believe it or not, they do care (they want to get re-elected).  Become active in local government by joining civic groups and attending local council meetings.  Express your opinions in letters to the editor of your local newspaper, but preferably without the colorful bodily function metaphors.

Complaining about America only alienates people and accomplishes nothing.  Far better to set an example for friends and acquaintances.  Sell your SUV.  Move to a smaller house closer to work.  If you can, work from home or bike to work.  Buy only what you need and recycle what you can.  Be an inspiration, not a heckler.

peace,

Max

It would clog up the jails to throw every America hating liberal in them, besides, it would be a drain on the public purse, so I do not think they should be jailed.  I also do not think that they should be silenced, just ridiculed for their idiotic opinions.

So, Priaman, live your ideals or cease bothering the rest of us with your self rightous silliness.  Move to a rat hole nation where you can live in pious poverty, or move into the woods with the bears.  Or if you don't have the courage of your convictions, shut up and stop whining about the ideals you plainly don't believe in yourself.

Part of that is standing up in the face of jeering right wing nazis and telling the truth.  Get an education, ironman, your point of view is so blatantly jingoistic... "my country is always right, everyone else is ignorant savages"  Jeeesus what a throwback.  I suppose you see your self as a John Wayne or Ronald Reagan putting the "liberals" in their place.  You're full of hate, ironman, not me. Try thinking for yourself some time.  I know its scary but others have made the leap.  Heard of Scott Ritter?

"Complaining" is a label used by those who disagree when trying to make the opposing point of view look bad.  Was Ronald Reagan complaining when he said our welfare system was shit?  Are the chiefs of police of hundreds of American Cities "complaining when they say there are too many cheap guns on the street?

Please, I don't need a civics lesson. I know how politics works.  I'm just not going to sit quietly while idiots give three cheers for traffic jams, complacency and corporate greed.  What do you write to your congressman about?

Someone posted an interesting article they read and you decided you needed to shoot off your mouth responding.

I read your original reply and you flatter yourself if you figure everyone is going to suddenly "warm up their flamethrowers" to respond to you.

The first amendment does not give you the right to speak without consequence, people can ridicule your ideas if they disagree with you. Or they can just ignore you.

If you dont agree with ironman, why dont you ignore him. I don't think you have the slightest idea what you are talking about, and I (until now) ignored you. And if you are in the Scott Ritter fan club, good for you. Go get the decoder ring, but for my two bits, he is an idiot.

-- Modified on 12/2/2002 7:51:22 PM

John.Galt is correct.  I should have ignored your blathering.