Natalie Maines continues to inflict her ignorant political opinions on an indifferent world:

"The entire country may disagree with me, but I don't understand the necessity for patriotism," Maines resumes, through gritted teeth. "Why do you have to be a patriot? About what? This land is our land? Why? You can like where you live and like your life, but as for loving the whole country… I don't see why people care about patriotism."

There can be no rational explanation of how Maines's remark came to drive a red-hot poker into America's divided soul, but it's only now that some of the poison has begun to dissipate.

No, of course not. No rational explanation at all.

And of course, they'll continue to whine about their lack of record and concert sales. They've obviously never heard the old saying about holes, and what to do when in one.

So what's the rational that explains why Americans have to be Dixie Chicks patrons?

I hear the Chicks are big in Europe. Maybe they should just move?

Well, the Chicks have an interesting business model. The concert tour isn't there to plug the record, which is doing pretty well, it's the other way around. They've dropped shows in what used to be core cities for them (Nashville, San Antonio) and added them overseas. And the new record sounds more rock like than country ish to my tin ear. Pretty vocals though.

Still, it's better than Jackson Browne singing when I was in high school with a map and a pointer telling me where the contras were in Nicaragua. I think any musician who bores or lectures the audience does so at her peril.

Personally, I love the fact that many 'progressives' are trying to make themselves Dixie Chicks fans now that they're being "silenced by the Bush administration." I've seen repeated pleas by several libs to buy the album to support the Chicks' freedom of speech.

However, the same support for freedom of speech does not apply to those people who disagree with the progressives, such as Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Shaun Hannity and Glenn Beck. Those people are just hate-mongerers who must be silenced!

Bob

Wow! Is she really this dense??? Could it be that she's been misquoted? If not, she should be this year's winner of the Metaphorical Darwin Award.

Just as she has a small chance of breathing life into her career, she shoots her mouth off again. Here is some advice to help move her career in the direction she obviously wishes to go:

Call a press conference to tout her new album. Then, at the conference do the following:

1) Say that she hates her mother, and that anyone who would stay at home to raise a child is either a willing dupe or a lazy fat-ass.

2) Suggest that if Americans ate more sushi and less apple pie, maybe they wouldn't be so fat.

3) Deliver a heartfelt and sympathetic ulogy for recently deceased terrorist al Zarqawi, and say that Americans are the real terrorists.

She can then conclude her statements by burning a U.S. flag in front of the cameras.

Let's see: Mom bad-check, apple pie bad-check, America as a terrorist nation-check. Burn symbol of the nation she comes from-check. That aught to sell some albums!

What a schmuck.

I also find it interesting that the new Chicks album is going for less than ten bucks.

Dixie Chicks New Album, Taking The Long Way, Debuts At #1 On Billboard Top 200
Wednesday May 31, 8:45 am ET
Dixie Chicks Become First Female Group Ever To Have Three Albums Debut In Top Slot
On Sales Dates For Dixie Chicks "Accidents & Accusations Tour" Announced

NEW YORK, May 31 /PRNewswire/ -- As Taking The Long Way debuts at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 best-selling albums chart this week, with first week's sales of 525,829, the Dixie Chicks have become the first female group in chart history to have three albums debut at #1, breaking the record the Chicks established in 2002 when the group's last studio album, Home, debuted at #1 and made them the first female group ever to have two albums debut at #1.
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'Nuff said..wonder where Rand gets his information....So pathetic for a supposed "scientist"....

wonder where Rand gets his information

I posted the link to where I get my information. Did you have trouble following it?

The album is selling, and really that is good for them. Of course, there are ways to make those numbers seem great. Interesting for a #2 album (it's slipped), there is only 1 single in the top 50. Yeah, sometimes only 1 single is released, but this one peaked at 23rd, was 40 2 weeks ago, and is now holding on to 49.

With concerts being cancelled and hits staying out of the top 20, I'd say there's not much there. (source Billboard)

Also from Billboard, sells of Dixie Chick's album dropped 33% in the second week.

If it's true, well, no one ever accused rock or country stars of being Rhodes Scholars

I think she was (rather un-eloquently) pointing out that with the rhetoric flung around by the right these days the word 'patriot' is something everyone should be and to BE a 'patriot' means you question nothing.

THE CHICKS HAVE EXHIBITED A TYPICAL HOLLYWOOD, LIBERAL ATTITUDE. EVERYONE SHOULD LISTEN TO MY FREE SPEECH NO MATTER HOW LAME, BUT NO ONE ELSE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO SAY WHAT THEY THINK.

You know, Mark Twain had a similar stance on patriotism ('google it', as the kids say), and history has judged him to be far from ignorant.

The fact that you disagree with somebody's views does not by default make that person ignorant. There are a plethora of rational reasons NOT to be a 'patriot'.

If you lived in North Korea or Iran or China or even France, would you be a patriot? Would you want the government to change or would you simply 'move'? What of the citizens of 1930s Germany...the ones that blindly follow...what would you have said to them? Just move away. Turn the other cheek. Maybe then the problems will just go away.

The fact that you disagree with somebody's views does not by default make that person ignorant.

No one said it did. Nice straw man, though.

What makes her ignorant is her cluelessness about why others might think this important, particularly among her (now former) fan base.

Or the notion that there is some moral equivalence between the US and the other examples you name.

There are a plethora of rational reasons NOT to be a 'patriot'.

For some values of "rational," I suppose.

No one said it did. Nice straw man, though.

The very first line of this article did so. You even did so in your response. Shall I call you ignorant for not seeing why someone else doesn't see why people care about patriotism?

This is her view, and the fact that you don't see eye-to-eye makes neither her, nor you, ignorant.

As far as the 'former' fan base comments, true ignorance would be to ignore what's in your heart just to sell a few records--to 'shut up and sing', as it were.

I still think it's funny how the record isn't doing well on the charts, but on the internet, the single still ranks as one of the top 10 most downloaded country songs.