Earplugs please! Oh Anita, how this pains me. I grew up listening to old-school music — from classic rock and disco to ’80s R&B, the tunes of yesteryear always had a familar presence in our home. So did the songs of Anita Baker. The Grammy-winning songstress — who just happens to be one of the world’s best-selling altos — has created quite a bit of chatter on the blogosphere this Friday after turning in a less than favorable rendition of our National Anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” as the Lakers took on the Celtics in Game 4 of the NBA Finals last night.

Like Roseanne, Kat De Luna, and a host of other Anthem murderers before her, the former Chapter 8 frontwoman has found herself the butt of a bevy of jokes over her screeching vocals. The buzz over the performance continues on Twitter, with one social networker comparing Baker’s crooning to that of a “dying cat.”

And that’s about as bad as telling someone that they sing like Heidi Montag. What do you think?