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Wonder if Kenny Smith knew that Lord and Taylor's did open their doors every day with a recording of the Star Spangled Banner?

What I really wanted to share is this fascinating 2015 joint oversight report by Senators Jeff Flake and John McCain on "Paid Patriotism" (with a great cover) -- highlighting the $6.8 million in taxpayers' money that the Department of Defense has spent on sports marketing contracts since fiscal year 2012. - as usual, follow the money!!https://static.politico.com/98/a4/d61b3cae45f0a7b79256cf1da1e0/flake-report.45am.pdf

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Excellent addition, thanks!

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Like The Simpsons decades later, Catch-22 did everything first. It's the Great Loyalty Oath Crusade.

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Oh, I have to add -- singing the Star-Spangled Banner at a Mets-Orioles game in Camden Yards was actually the only time the song was meaningful at game - because the events it summarizes happened just about 2 miles or so from where I was standing!

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Maybe right wingers wouldn't hate Hollywood so much if they played the Star-Spangled banner before movies

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I was a semi-wee lad during WW II and as I remember the theaters began their showings during that time with the anthem. People stood and sang. Popcorn was spilled. My "rememberer" isn't that great today, however.

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I remember a time when concessions workers would not stop what they were doing during the anthem. And that time wasn't pre-9/11. But I moved to Houston last year to find that everything stops during the anthem. Maybe it's the performative patriotism in TX, but it's creepy. I keep eating.

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Another important "Up and anthem" story was Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf being suspended by the NBA in 1996 for refusing to stand for the national anthem https://vault.si.com/vault/1996/03/25/patriot-games-mahmoud-abdul-rauf-caused-an-uproar-when-he-sat-out-the-national-anthem

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Also, a very interesting set of interviews of random people giving their reactions. The arguments ain't changed much: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew9G-qYP8Uo

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