Dixie debate

There’s nothing like an awards show to spark a lively debate.

That’s certainly true after Sunday’s Grammy Awards. The Dixie Chicks went home with an armful of trophies and a lot of people are asking why.

Everybody seems to be dismissing the idea that their recent album, “Taking the Long Way,” is their best work.

The whole thing seems to be caught up in their comments about President Bush made at a 2003 London concert.

Lead singer Natalie Maines said, “Just so you know, we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.”

The remark was made in the face of the anti-American sentiment they had run into during their European tour. It was due to what many perceived as the president’s rush to war with Iraq — a war and a president that don’t seem too popular with a lot of Americans today.

Maine apologized a few days later for being disrespectful to the president, but that was too late for a lot of people.

Exercising their freedom of speech cost the Dixie Chicks millions of dollars in lost album and tickets sales and thousands of fans. But it also resulted in death threats for the band members and their families.

It’s the subject of the song “Not Ready to Make Nice.” The ladies are not ready to forget yet.

So why did the Grammy voters give the band five statues Sunday night including the big three: Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Record of the Year?

Nobody can ever be sure. Maybe it was a message to the White House. Perhaps some just wanted to be stylish.

The record was about something — agree with it or not — in a business where there is so much nothing. You have albums sell millions of copies where lyrics are about the vilest of things and the only “musician” is a guy with a computer and a drum machine. Taking a stand and expressing it well probably earned the trio a few votes.

A lot of people would prefer the Dixie Chicks just shut up and sing those pretty songs like before.

In America, today there are many on both sides of the aisle that only believe in their own freedom of speech. Whether it is the talk show idiots on the right or the politically correct gestapo on the left, it usually provokes a violent reaction when you try to muzzle an artist.

I’m not the father

In other celebrity news, I would like to go on the record as saying I am not the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby.

I’m not saying whether we did or did not have an affair, but I seem to be one of the few males in the media not claiming to be the father of this child.

Since her recent death, a lot of people have been saying “Poor, poor, Anna Nicole.” These same people have been laughing at the train wreck of her life for a decade.

Well, train wrecks usually have a body count, so it’s a little late for all of this concern. As the vultures circle her refrigerated body, it looks like her death will end up being just as messy as her life.

Maybe she would have been better off staying at the Dairy Queen in Mexia.