Some of the best common sense writing on the whole Chick Fil A controversy, has been authored by my Canadian counterpart in a couple of really great posts. As I noted previously in my own post-" I think this whole outrage over the remarks of Chick Fil A's president is just silly. "
That said however-now that the who's who of GOP douchebaggery has gotten involved, I would not eat a Chick Fil A sandwhich right now, if it were the only food available to me. Its not that I am such a flaming advocate of gay marriage, but when Sarah Palin becomes involved then, to paraphase Churchill: "I would at least make a favorable reference to buggery in the House of Commons".
The best question my counterpart asks is, "Why did we get here at all?" Why was Dan Cathy so f*cking stupid as to put his franchisees at risk-and even worse-why did liberals snap so quickly at something that the Sean Hannitiy's of the world live for?
As I explained in my previous post, I think Dan Cathy is a coward. If he owned and operated his restaurants or if Chick-fil-A was a publicly traded company, I doubt that he would be showing the courage of his convictions the way that he is.
Instead, he's forcing independent franchisees to take the hit for him. And am I the only one who's wondering how Dan would feel if those franchisees put out press releases saying that he's full of shit? How far would their free speech rights be respected? Would national Republicans be standing up for their rights en masse? Of course they wouldn't.
The conservative "free speech movement" is every bit as duplicitous as the liberal one is and it's time someone called them on it
He makes a great point. Chick Fil A is primarily a southern institution, and while they are attempting to branch out across the country, long term issues like this will hold them back. No matter how many fat people show up to eat their sandwhiches.
While I'm on the topic, this isn't just about gay marriage. If Dan Cathy is the God-fearing Christian that he portrays himself to be, and places his marriage statements on "biblical definitions," it follows that he just doesn't like queers very much because the Bible certainly doesn't. But he doesn't have the balls to say that, does he? The chapters of Bible relating to gays don't mention their marrying at all. But it does sanction their being killed. Absent scripture, it's logically difficult to oppose gay marriage, and scripture clearly teaches that gays should be put to death.
Based on that alone, I can hardly fault gays or the people that support their rights for not wanting to eat there. More importantly. superstitious Republicans were lining up in support of Chick-fil-A's stand before there was a wider controversy. Mike Huckabee, who once opinied that the Bill of Rights should be replaced with the Ten Commandments, started the stupid idea that Jesus types eat there today before anyone else piled on.
As I write this, half of all Americans support gay marriage. Pretty much everyone knows or loves a gay person at this point. Dan Cathy is playing to Southern evangelical yokels, which is his primary customer base. But that base, regardless of what shithead radio talk-show hosts and hucktering politicians wish to be true, is shrinking dramatically.In making the statement he did, Cathy limited his own company's growth potential. If you wonder why I can't bother getting so upset about this, now you know.
Sometimes it is not just enough to be right. You have to present your rightness in an acceptable fashion-and that’s something the Chick Fil A supporters are not being required to do because, as he firmly points out, liberal America is enabling this particular stupidity.
Sometimes I think you really don't understand America.
FU Twice is our birthright. Your stalinist friend from the great north has no clue.
Who the fuck made you and stalin Gods who get to flambe those you disagree with politically?
WTF made you pull fat into your argument? I saw dozens of photos of the lines forming for chicken and not one of them showed any 'fat' Americans.
In other news, Mitt gets an endorsement from Jenna. Looks like I'll be voting for Mitt 😉
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/retired-porn-star-jenna-jameson-says-she-supports-143703925.html
Weak….
I have to go to Graf in a week. How about after that we get together in Heidelberg and drink some beer?
Curtis, spend some time in Alabama. You will see no shortage of fat people in a Chick Fil A. Or Dreamland Barbeque. I understand America very well-all too well. Its the rest of the world America still does not understand.
I'm heading to Houston next weekend for a couple of weeks so wont be back till around the first of Sept.
Skippy.
I am curious when you say that" America does not understand the rest of the world..""
what do you mean?
I ask, because it occurs to me that MILLIONs of Americans have lived, worked, traveled to other countries and at least get SOME idea, imperfect as it might, of how life is lived someplace else.
Skippy, I went to my first 3 years of high school in Huntsville. Been there. Way more than you I understand all of America. Been there, done that. Army brat. Your commie brother, who cares? Shiftless lazy Canadian. Loser!
The president of the company has religious beliefs and the fucking stazi want to burn his business at the stake.
And of course they result to vandalism and violence. What a surprise from the left wing. not.
Millions of Americans have been overseas-however they seem to understand very little it would appear. Certainly it has not shaped on politics at all.
The President of the company has religious beliefs. Fine let him go to church. During the work week let him stick to running his business. I have beliefs too, I just don't get to spout them at work. ( Guilt free, risk free sex with anyone). There is a time and a place for everything. He picked the wrong time and the wrong place.
And SS makes a great point-does he speak for all his franchisees? I think not.
Did anyone see the video of the AZ CFO of a company berate an employee of a ChickFil A in a drive thru after only ordering a cup of water? This Bozo went off on an employee who was only working. The employee held her own, and treated this Bozo with respect. After this idot posted his video, thinking that he had "struck a blow" to the company, he got fired by his own company. In a statement, the company said:
"The actions of Mr. Smith do not reflect our corporate values in any manner." tVante is an equal opportunity company with a diverse workforce, which holds diverse opinions. We respect the right of our employees and all Americans to hold and express their personal opinions, however, we also expect our company officers to behave in a manner commensurate with their position and in a respectful fashion that conveys these values of civility with others."
If only both sides could adhere to the compaines policy, I think we would be better off. Link to the article and video here: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/arizona-cfo-fired-berating-chik-fil-a-drive-through-employee-company-policy-gay-article-1.1128386
The better question to ask is "why does a company get to fire someone for what they do in their private time"?
This begs the much bigger question of companies becoming involved in things they have no business becoming involved in. Should he have gone off on the employee? No. But it doesn't matter if he is an asshole in his off time-so long as he does what is required at work and shows up to work on time.
Personally I hope the company that fired him gets sued. What you do on your own time is your business-unless it violates the law. Furthermore-if Dan Cathy had kept his mouth shut, then none of this would ever have happened.
Fuck Dan Cathy.
Skippy, then you shouldn't shop at Safeway then. In order to get their health insurance for a lower price, they monitor you to see if you smoke at home, and maintain your weight to cut down on diseases like diabetes. The resaon he was let go was because many people flooded his company with complaints and some customers threatened to leave. Sure compaines should stay out of your personal life, but then again, when you put your personal business out to the public this is what you get.
Ah but Skippy, any company wants at a minimum for it's officers to "civil" to the public. That loser was not. He was an absolute asshole to that teenager. You cannot point to any corporate officer at chic fil A and advance the same argument. Every American is entitled to freedom of religion and expression by the Constitution. That just means the government can't fuck you over twice. Say's nothing about corporate rights to fire disagreeable hate filled assholes. The problem at chick fil a is that it was the god damned fucking government that spoke up and were perfectly happy saying that they were going to fuck over a company just because the company founder's son and CEO holds religious beliefs that were once 100% common in the USA. Beliefs shared by that loser Obama until 2 months ago.
Your response to me above about the south, well, I called to mind, as I read it, that movie with Mel Gibson and the little kid who 'saw dead people everywhere'. I gotta admit, Ohio is behind me, as is CA until I go back and I'm now in VA but I'm not seeing the avalanche of fatties but then, I must not get out much.
I've never eaten at a chic fil a; no desire. In Imperial Beach we sometimes did the crazy chicken for lunch but I preferred deli sandwich, carne asada quesidilla or the all up chorizo burrito off the roach coach in the parking lot at NOLF IB.
Curtis,
Let me ask you a question. Suppose I was a Chick Fil A franchisee and I wanted to stay open on Sunday and I wanted to support a gay pride event as well. Think the Executives of Chick Fil A would allow that?
To the best of my knowledge there has been no government involvement in this incident whatsoever. Just stupid people lining up to eat sandwhiches and idiots like that whore Palin using the event to get free publicity. Dan Cathy doesn't hold my beliefs, no should I have to know what his are.
Finally-your definition of fat and mine must be different. I was just back in Huntsville in May and fat people were all over the place. Its one of the most obvious things that you notice when coming back ot the US after a prolonged stay is how fat people are compared to other places.
Skippy,
If you owned a franchise of Chick Fil A, you wuld have to abide by their rules. That meant not being open on Sunday's. They are not stopping you from supporting a gay pride event, you just can't do it using the phrase "sponsored by Chick Fil A of Shopping Mall" just like we used to be in the military before they let people march in the latest Gay Pride parade in San Diego.
You buy into the Chick Fil A Franchise, you buy into their rules. If that wasn't the case, I would open a Burger King, and sell the McDonald's french fries. Chick Fil A's owner never said anything about denying gays their rights, he just said he believed in the traditional definition of marriage. If I wanted to rally a cause, I could also say that he is being discrimantory to me, since somewhere in the Bible it tells one person not to take "a foreign wife" and go back to get one of you kin (I would be guilty of this).
As far as limiting his company's growth potential, if there was a case before the support day, I think that will fall by the wayside at the counter protest that was planned by the gay rights activists and their "Kiss Off Day" protest at Chic Fil A's nationwide. Overall, it flopped. Many people had said that they would go to their local Chick Fil A and kiss there, but not many people showed up.
I don't mind people being gay, nor do I care to "change them" into becoming straight. But if your whole argument is that you are "normal" then why would you go and announce and promote a demonstration of blatant PDA's to make a point. All you are doing is feeding the fuel to people like Cathy that say homosexuality idoes nothing but promotes promiscurity. I like women, but I don't just go out in public and kiss one just to state that I am straight and others who are not should accept it.
What people will see is that maybe this guy had the right idea, and I don't see his business falling off. The gay movement needs to only step back and look at what happened in 2008 in CA. They went out and supported Obama and really rallied people to get out and vote, and wanted them to vote on Prop 8. Well, Obama won,but Prop 8 fell. When you look at the demographics, it won in places you would expect like SF, but it failed in places that had major mintory populations. Why? Believe it or not, most minorities may vote Democratic, but are still socially conservative, and the gay movement just didn't catch that.
Like in this case, they think that they have the moral outrage on their side as with Prop 8, but in reality, they don't.
"It is religion and morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand."
"[T]he first principle of society consists in the marriage tie, the next in children, the next in a family within one roof, where everything is in common. This society gives rise to the city, and is, as it were, the nursery of the commonwealth."
"When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing — they believe in anything."
BTW, I seen some pictures of you on facebook, maybe you should stay away from the fat people argument!
"A pox on both their houses" is really an amalgam of smugness and laziness, masquerading as perspicacity. This stuff matters, and it needs to be thought out and acted upon wisely.
It seems to me what is missing here is the threat of 'liberal" mayors, who SHOULD know better, that you cannot, indeed MUST not use the power of the state to punish someone for their "speech"…or make a "threat" to do so…Thats why EVEN the ACLU came out to support free speech.
Skippy;
Again i am perplexed..How does America not understanding the rest of the world manifest itself? Can you give an example WITHOUT using a politician to make your point?
Richard,
I addressed the asshole liberal mayors in both of my posts on the subject.
Richard,
Lets start with two core beliefs many Americans have. 1) All European health insurance is government run ( Not true) and 2)that all European countries are "socialist". Again not true.
I would also point you to an area a lot of Americans are really ignorant about-and that is Israel.