Nugent, Lapdancers and other Parks Poseurs

Rest in peace, Rosa Parks :( Ever since I heard about her death tonight, I've been thinking of an essay about Parks by Sarah Vowell ("Rosa Parks, C'est Moi" in The Partly Cloudy Patriot). Vowell lists an odd assortment of people who've likened their cause to that of Ms. Parks:

1. Larry Gatlin thinks Katherine Harris is a shoe-in
2. A Florida street-performer banned from doing his thing feels he's Parks-esque
3. A Tampa Bay area lap-dancer: ditto
   
4. Ted Nugent likens himself to "Rosa Parks with a loud guitar"
5. Speaking at an Oct 2000 Nader rally, Michael Moore likened Naderites to Ms. Rosa (what with the "rising up" and all; how'd that work out, by the way?)

Vowell's essay makes an excellent point: "about the only person in recent memory who has an unimpeachable right to compare himself to Parks is that Chinese student who stared down those tanks in Tiananmen square." PS: Sarah's essay ends with the irony that at the very moment Katherine Harris was being compared to the civil rights heroine, she was actually being sued by the NAACP for voter disenfranchisement. PPS: The Partly Cloudy Patriot has an hilarious chapter on Canada--must read :) PPPS/Confession: I was one of those childish goofs who tried to monkey with the vote for "Greatest American" on the Discovery Channel webpage, so that Rosa Parks & Dr. King would win. It didn't work. This "States rights" arsehole won instead.