TED NUGENT : All American or Sanctimonious asshole

I recently read Ted Nugent's manifesto, "Ted, White, and Blue" and I came away doing one thing.

Shaking my head.

First of all, yes, he's a ferocious guitar player, and his style and work is exemplary. A true pathlayer. Ask anyone from Henry Rollins to Slash, they'll back that up. He's a peerless live performer. Having seen him several times, he's flat out amazing. Obvious from his political activism, and articulate nature, he's highly intelligent. Overbearing and obnoxious, but highly intelligent. There's no question that Nugent has a good set of core family values, he is family-oriented, through and through. At least, nowadays.

Shit, I grew up listening to "Uncle Ted". His first 5 or 6 albums are heavy metal royalty pieces. The people he surrounded himself with, Derek St. Holmes, Rob Grange, Dave Kiswiney, Charlie Huhn, all fantastic vocalists, bass players, et al. His first album should be dropped in ANY time capsule.


But, Ted has the most narrow world view of any outspoken, well-known celebrity I have ever seen. He has created a small box that I call the "Nuge Cube", which he seems to want to jam everyone into, and if you don't fit in that cube's living criteria, you're worthless. There's no gray area with Ted. He's among the most black and white people I've ever read. He takes nothing into consideration. Not everyone is raised in a nurturing, healthy, supportive family environment. Not everyone recovers from financial mistakes. He refuses to take mental illness or societal pressures seriously as affects on a persons life. These are REASONS, people, not excuses for being waylayed by life.

Great, Nuge, you had a paper route at 14. What do you recommend as work for someone that age in South Central L.A.? Particularly for one whose parents are on crack? Ted, you lean on hunting a lot as the answer for life's ills. Maybe that kid should get up off his lazy ass, steal a bow, and take a whitetail over in Compton?

Please.

First of all, not everyone's interested in hunting. I agree it's a necessity for the health of the herd, and should be managed by good stewardship of the DNR. But, I find it one thing to hunt an animal and feed your family with the meat, another to treat the dead creature like a volleyball trophy. You'll forgive me if I don't want to dance in the presence of death.

He bashes "fat" people. His scrawny 120 pound ass has probably never seen cellulite on it. Again, a person that knows not of what he speaks. He just groups the overweight into the same group as people who just sit around doing nothing all day, chomping chips, playing video games, and urinating in gallon jugs. Again, with the "Nuge Cube". I've seen him and his wife do this on television. Come on, man, you cannot be that shortsighted. I shouldn't find it funny that a person who spent the better part of the 70's sticking his weiner into anything with a skirt doesn't have a little better angle on what is right and wrong appearance-wise publicly.

A man who legally adopted a 17 year old girl, frighteningly with the permission of her parents, so he could have marry her probably is not a good example of having the right angle on how to view the opposite sex, especially.  He's even admitted sex addiction,....with a grin.

Doesn't our country have a bad enough self-image as it is? Our mass-media fed idea of what is "beautiful" is ruining kids as we speak, and you go on tv and bash "fat kids"? Weak sauce, man, people look up to you. I once did.

We are owners of a gun problem. In my eyes, black market mass distribution of weapons is the issue, not your average gun-owner with a .30-.06 or a .22. I'm with you there. But going on tv howling the praises of assault weapons as your friend is not helping the causes of either side. Less is better on the AK-47s, Mr. Nugent.

And to say that hip-hop isn't a viable form of music? They said the same thing about the blues, the same thing about Rock and Roll, the same thing about punk. All of those genres are thriving. That close-mindedness does nothing for anybody.

I consider myself neither a liberal or conservative. I do agree with a lot of the ideas Nugent has in his book, for every thing I side with him on, there's two that make me want to smash something. 

Or vomit.  

I find myself changing ideas as I grow older. The 30's were an awakening. I've grown sympathetic towards people and groups I was hardened to for a long time. I feel if we're going to survive together, we have to accept each other first. Not tolerate, accept. This manifesto is not a guide to either.

It's a public vomitorium of my way or the highway. That isn't democratic at all.

I used to look up to Ted Nugent. His records just don't sound the same anymore.