After a recently proposed 75,000-seat stadium was approved by state legislature to be built in the City of Industry, environmental groups in California are protesting another proposed NFL stadium that would be constructed right next to the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Both stadiums, however, will provide a great boost for the local economy as scores of fans will flock to watch all zero professional football teams in LA.

The City of Industry stadium was approved after lawmakers waived certain environmental obligations for the builders, causing major concerns that the same would happen for the downtown LA stadium. These groups have sent a letter to the same lawmakers, demanding that they investigate the stadium’s impact on traffic, noise and air pollution, to which the lawmakers responded, “Any of you ever been to Los Angeles before?”

Put a daisy in my rifle, LA Times:

“We cannot allow wealthy developers to buy their way into exemptions from state environmental laws,” said David Pettit, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “The entire point of our laws is to ensure that a project won’t do more harm than good to our environment.”

Pettit’s group joined Sierra Club California, the Planning and Conservation League and others in sending a letter to lawmakers last week raising their objections.

Legislation for the waiver of environmental laws hasn’t even been proposed yet, but the groups are trying to get a head start because they anticipate it happening. Essentially, this seems like an awful lot of effort by a couple billionaires to build two stadiums, and even more effort by tree huggers to make sure they’re built right, while nobody has mentioned who is actually going to play in either of these stadiums.

The NFL has not approved an expansion team for LA, nor has Jacksonville or St. Louis hit rock bottom enough yet to actually relocate. However, the urgency to build these stadiums means that the wheels are in motion. And that’s great news for whichever city a LA franchise would move to in five years.

Let's mix it up with a fun little rant.  Today the New York Times turns its critical eye on something that has pissed me off for a long time: how the New York Yankees are the only team to play "God Bless America" during the seventh-inning stretch of every home game (a holdover from an MLB practice after 9/11, though the song is still played in all stadiums on Sundays and holidays), and how their ushers prevent crowd movement during the song by holding up chains across the aisles.

“Mr. Steinbrenner wanted to do all games to remind the fans about how important it is to honor our nation, our service members, those that died on Sept. 11 and those fighting for our nation,” [spokesman Howard] Rubenstein said.

The chains were implemented because a bunch of fans sent angry emails about how people didn't respect the song properly.

I'm amused by what people consider patriotic.  I've always placed the Bill of Rights and the Constitution over a song praising a country's geography, but what do I know?  I'm just some stupid Marine Corps combat veteran.  For the record: I stand at attention from the first note to the last note of the National Anthem because that's what Marine Corps order dictates; however, there is no law (Marine or otherwise) that requires me to stand still during "God Bless America," a song that I've never particularly liked in the first place. 

Patriotism is a nice gesture, but it shouldn't be confused for freedom — and I'd like the freedom to move around when I damn well please.  I think I've earned it.