U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Hayes of St. Louis doesn’t like that Toni Smith, a girls basketball player from Manhattanville College won’t face the flag during the national anthem. He also doesn’t like that Peter King, a writer for Sports Illustrated and part timer on HBO’s Inside the NFL, talks politics in his Monday Morning Quarterback column. For those who haven’t already clicked on the link, you can read the full column by doing so now. Otherwise, here is the quote from the Sergeant but you’ll need to push “read more” to get it.

"I'm sitting here at a forward deployed location on the Arabian Gulf using my 15 minutes of Internet time a week to read my favorite column and instead of NFL news, I read about your view on some girl who won't face the flag I'm sworn to defend. Fine, but Mr. King, I don't need to hear your defense of it. Please stick to the NFL, coffee, field hockey -- anything but glorifying a person who people here could die for." - U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Hayes of St. Louis

This is where I come in. Hey, I love a good political rant. I love free speech. Sometimes I get excited and dbsmall gets all bent at me for having a weird opinion, but it’s “all good” as the slang saying goes. Writers generally have opinions on all sorts of things, and they have an audience to vent their frustrations with political policies. Should Mr. King (and myself) stick to what we know best? Maybe yes, maybe no and for what it is worth I will chime in on this discussion.

Here’s what I don’t like. I saw a little bit of that clown who made Bowling for Columbine on Oprah Winfrey. He looks like he just walked off the set of Lord of the Rings. In his film, he was twisting the right to bear arms into something that it clearly is not by asking this fellow (who has a gun under his pillow at night) if he feels everyone should be able to have nuclear weapons. Hey dummy, nukes weren’t around when the constitution was written, guns were. The right to bear arms relates to GUNS. The guys who wrote the constitution were bright individuals, but they aren’t going to make reference to weapons that are some odd 150 years away from being developed. (Note: this is a rough number, if you want to correct me go ahead)

The point is that I see liberals twisting the constitution all the time to suit their needs, which disgusts me. When it comes to free speech, and expression, I’m all for it. Toni Smith, turn your face away from the flag all you want. However, I fully support anyone who decides to taunt and yell at her 100%. She is bringing it on herself by publicly displaying her freedom of expression instead of just praying for peace on earth in her bedroom at night.