AP Photo, Sun Journal, Chuck Beckley
Customers line up outside the Chick-fil-A Restaurant in New Bern, N.C, Aug. 1st
The judgment, the torment, the inner turmoil... you might have faced this Chick-Fil-A moral crisis for sometime now and may have asked yourself "Can one live on Bojangles alone?" "Is a Bo-Berry Biscuit enough?" "What's so bad about a diet lemonade?" Sure, it sounds petty but if you grew up eating Chick-Fil-A then you know just how intoxicating and addictive those sandwiches can be, no matter what the CEO of the company says about judgment God will impose on people who get gay married.
The people I work alongside kept going on and on about how powerful it was to be part of such a righteous movement, and how encouraged they were to know that there were so many people who agree with Dan Cathy. They went on at great length about how it was wrong not just for gays to marry, but to exist. One kid, age 19, said “I hope the gays go hungry.”
When they go on about “family values,” it’s clearly only their families they value. That arrogance, self-righteousness, and desire for their opponents to suffer: that’s the least Christ-like attitude of all.
Dan Cathy's public statements are also putting franchise owners in bind. Chicago's only Chick-Fil-A responded to the outcry by requesting a meeting with Mayor Rahm Emanuel. She stated that her business supports the entire community with fundraisers and donations for schools & hospitals and a "wide variety of causes, including everything from churches to gay and lesbian organizations." I am sure this is the case with many franchise owners. An owner in New Hampshire is publicly supporting his local "Pride-Fest" and I happen to have known one franchise owner who considers herself to be LGBT.
There is a Chick-Fil-A exactly one exit east of the RDU Airport on I-40 and I have failed to resist that urge to stop many times even as the Internet age and blogs like Towleroad.com and Goodasyou.org have tirelessly shed light on the money that Chick-Fil-A CEO Dan Cathy has funneled to anti-gay groups.
I have decided that if I have another Chick-Fil-A meal on my next trip home I will make an equal contribution to EQUALITY NC or some other group supporting marriage equality. It won't equal Dan Cathy's fortune on the other side but it will balance my contribution. Not everyone probably feels the same, especially after suffering through "Appreciation Day:"
When this first started, I implored my friends and allies not to boycott. Now, if I didn’t work there, I’d be boycotting too. That much hypocrisy and hatred leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and the last thing I want to eat is their chicken.
Leave a Comment:
This is this best article I've seen exposing this Chicken bunch.
Eat pork.
Yup, when President Obama win's his second term he may end up spending half as much as Bush did.Of course you must figure in that most of that will be spent paying for the Bush tax cut's and war's, not to mention big pharma's sweet deal.
Go Obama 2012!
Errr...little problem there with your math, joca. In eight years Bush Administration's deficit spending totaled $4 Trillion (fighting two formal hot wars and the informal war on Islamic terrorism, and dealing with the recession left in 2001 by the financial assests and dot.com bubbles burst at the end of the Clinton Administration worsened by the blow to our economy by 9/11 strike on our transportation system and Financial Center in NYC; and also the collapsing financial assets and locked up nations financial system at the end 2007/beginning 2008 due to the bursting of the housing bubble worsened by the insane leverage and derivative gambling by our biggest money centered banks and Insurance Company. Obama Administration?...on track for $5.6 trillion in new deficit spending by the end of his one term in Dec 2012, $1.6 trillion more than the Bush Adminisration in two terms. Get the picture now?
Keith, Little problem with you memory there... Obama got saddled with 2 unfunded wars, unfunded Meidicaid Prescription Program, The loss of revenue for the Bush Tax Cuts, Bush's Bail out of Wall Street, and having to save the DISASTER that was the economy when he took over... just keep ignoring all the things Bush Jr did. ANd when Clinton left office there was a governmental surplus, and you cannot really blame Clinton for the failure of bad business models, or the theft by companies like ENRON. Get the Picture now?
I'll beat Grandpa to the news wire about the jobs report he's trying to spin with his gloom-and-doom machine...
Analysts predicted 100,000 new jobs would be created... The figure was 163,000...
http://economywatch.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/03/13102708-us-economys-job-engine-revved-up-in-july?lite
The number of jobs created, closely watched as one of the best signals of the economy's health, far exceeded the 100,000 jobs that economists had expected.
Okay, unemployment went up a tick from 8.2 to 8.3 because the jobs created weren't enough, but we're moving in the right direction...
Meanwhile, the Republicans who drove the car into the mud are jeering and won't help push (don't want to get dirtry again?) because the President won't give them the car keys...
Errr...Ned Carter: Bushes Tax Cuts took place in 2001 for the working and middle class income earners, and 2003 for the wealthier income earners, and corporate and investor class of tax payers (the job creators). That generated an average unemployment rate of only 5.6% for his full eight years in office. That surplus left by the Clinton Administration was from the capital gains taxes paid by mom and pop investors mostly and mutual fund managers in for the 1999 and the 2000 tax years as they got hit hard for bailing out on their stock and bond investments of the roaring market (until the slide down in 1999), and the savings forced on Clinton by the Republican control of Congress and that Pres's subsequent response tacking right to his position that "this is the end of big govenment!" As to the hot wars, Iraq War was won by the Bush Administration, and already being wound down with the status of forces agreement negotiated for the withdrawal of the remaining US instructors of the Iraq military and police forces and support troops mostly from that country that Obama only had to follow up with. Afghanistan was a troubling War against insurgent radical Islamists, the Taliban and their Al Quaeda harbored terrorists with refuges and support bases in Pakistan. It was Obama that halfhearedly agreed to his commander's in the field request for a build-up surge of the type that won the war in Iraq, but Obama only gave them half of what they wanted, split the baby after 6-8 weeks of polling and thinking things thru as to its political impact on his re-election chances, and ruined his limited approval by announcing a date certain that we will totally withdraw, instead of proclaiming stay the course, as Bush did and then putting the muscle to the effort to win.
Get the Picture Now?
Cab Driver:
When you learn to read the Jobs numbers and the Unemployment numbers correctly you might post your thoughts here. Let me clue you in:
It's discretionary by the Sectretary of Labor on how they report the TEMPORARY SUMMER HIRES, either scale those numbers down by seasonal adjustments, or give them somewhat higher than usual significance, usually depending on the politics of the issue.
1)JULY: SUMMER AND SCHOOLS ARE OUT! YOUTH JOBS AND OTHER TEMPORARY SEASONAL WORK In the City and Town Parks and Pools in Service sector low pay employments with their Ice Cream and Hot Dog & Burger & Soft Drink stands, as well as County and State Parks River, Pond, Lake, and Beach are open for business and fully staffed for July and August til Labor Day, as well as other private sector summer destinations of restaurants, resorts, and amusement centers, don't you know?
2) And temporary employment of all type, full and part time is way up during this period as the dwindling numbers of full time workers in all sectors of our economy take their summer vacations, and employers look to make do. Temporary employment of all types in all sectors are routinely lumped into the SERVICE SECTOR, although occasionally until revisions are out for the prior months (Sept for July and final revision for June) they will be found in all sectors of the current month report.
3) 25,000 new jobs in Manufacturing? July the ISM figures (measure of maufacturing activity in the nation was way down from prior months, auto sales were slumping all month compared to May and parts of June, and consumers attitutes and retail sales were off drastically too. With Europe's economy in the doldrums, China and Brazil slowing down, what is the possibility that manufacturing full time and part time permanet jobs went up? No chance in hell!
4) June figures for jobs (anemic 63,000 previously reported for June: it takes 150K to 175k just to meet the new growth of work eligible employees in the labor force each month) actually were revised downward. And the JULY HOUSEHOLD SURVEY actually showed a very significant drop in employment in the American households reporting. We know that weekly the average NEW claims for Unemployment Insurance were averaging over 380,000 each week for July. You are aware that that has been going on for some time this last 4 months especially? In fact, the 4.5 million of new jobs that the Obama and the Labor Secretary report has been accumulated in this Administration aren't really cummulative? There are hires and then there are layoffs. Yesterday's hire (especially temporary hires) become tomorrow's layoff(s), and new Unemployment Insurance Claim(s) depending on the longevity of the employment and the weekly hours of work. And for the past 4 months particularly there have been far, far more layoffs than new hires! Hence the peculiarity of those reported increases to 163,000 new jobs created by our economy in the last month, and the national UENMPLOYMENT RATE ACTUALLY INCREASING TO 8.3 % from the previous increase to 8.2%.
Get the gloom and doom picture for Obama and his supporters now, Cab Driver. And oh yes, that is BALL FOUR called....TAKE A WALK, OBAMA, BACK TO CHICAGO, and leave the White House silverware in its drawers when you pack up after Nov 6th. NO JIVE TALKING is going to pull the wool over the American voters this time around, as your record to run on is dismal, and the people have their fingers o n the true pulse of our private sector economy that your policies have robbed of its vitality.
Somebody besides me tell Grandpa he didn't say anything with all those words (reminds me of some "religious apologists" i've watched go through similar meltdowns; the fifty dollar term is "cognitive dissonance"). I wonder if most of his schooling didn't consist of "ten page essays" written for teachers who were only too glad to get rid of him and pass the problem on to someone else. I see little evidence of any critical thinking or actual education, just a really loud and obnoxious parrot (should watch myself; he'll doubtless steal that one).
The actual "uptick" in the unemployment number amounted to around one half of one percent so that the figure was rounded up from 8.2 to 8.3 percent... And it was the result of job losses in the public sector (teachers, firefighters, and policemen being laid off; I hate to sound like a Ron Paul goofball, but it would be better to put some pols out on furlough instead).
Note how Fuzz is once again resorting to "buzzword jockeying" with that "people have their fingers on the true pulse of our private sector economy."
Man, what a name calling gasbag... Excuse me, a homophobic, misogynistic, racist name calling gasbag....
Okay, apologies to the rest here... Lots of extra weekend road rage...
Still ignorant of economics after all these years, and refusing to be educated by a conservative independant voter and thinker. Keep whisteling past the cemetary, Cab Driver. Your guy failed. The American voters aren't going to keep him in the lineup just because he is "likeable". You really didn't refute a single point that was QFT of course of why the numbers were so terrificially bad, and came back with your usual garbage bag of weak insults and attempts at put downs. What a loser!
Let me clue you in: the real national average for unemployed and underemployed is over 12%+, 14%+ in hispanic households, and 16%+ in afro-American households. No incumbant President in modern times since we started keeping unemployment records has been re-elected facing that kind of dismal economic showing. And the problem isn't in the public sector employment, it's squarely in the private sector, and certainly cureable by someone who knows there ass from their elbow about groowh economic policies, instead of growth in government, at all levels.
1 hour to the jobs and unemployment figs for July, and the revisions for June and May. I'll be back soon with the bad news, Cab Driver.
I see the honorarium again... I think the guy mentioning the Cato Institute above might be right...
And honest, Wonder Ferret, I'm strictly an unpaid volunteer (I did make some money off Mitt-for-brains Olympics, but the years leading up them were pretty lean).
Ah lessee, about some comic relief? I see the Coultergeist has called John Kerry a gigolo...
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/03/coulter-romney-shouldnt-release-taxes-because-john-kerry-a-gigolo/
Somebody needs to tell Adams Apple Annie that Heinz Kerry inherited most of her wealth from her husband, the Pennsylvania senator who was a Republican...
And Grandpa, if this were a chess game, your wisest move would be "resign"
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57483962/obama-leads-romney-in-three-key-swing-states/
And those women you were talking about?
http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-romney-women-war-swing-state-poll-florida-ohio-pennsylvania-2012-8
See 2nd half of the above post!
As for Chick-Fil-A and the 'free speech' crowd what fed there on 1 August, how'd you like the Dixie Chicks back in 2003? How many of you loved radio stations smashing their cd's and appreciated the station's refusal to air Dixie Chicks music?
Were the Dixie Chicks queer too? I saw them live in concert and they looked definitely feme, not one butch among them, and appeared very hot to me!
Cathy has a right to believe whatever he believes. However, he has put his corporate stamp on intolerance. As graduate seminarian and ordained, I can go toe to toe with him and his side kick Huckabee where Scripture is considered. Cathy lauds "family values". What exactly is/are "family values"? The South has the reputation for having the most out of wedlock children, spousal and child abuse and consumption of pornography. Bible thumpers are everywhere, the very self-righteous hypocrites that Jesus railed about. Who? Oh, yeah, THAT Jesus! The religious right is the wrong religion. If Jesus came back to us today as so many hope and believe, they would string Him up again. Christian fundamentalists are no better than Islamic fundamentalists or Jewish fundamentalists. They function from a monolithic set of rules that they believe must apply to everyone, while too often they fail to follow their own ideology. The Christian right is wrong, consumed with hatred, intorance, ignorance and an unhealthy interpretation of Holy Scripture. "Let the gays starve" says the 19 year old? Well, son, your world will be terribly dull if you did not get to enjoy all the creativity that comes from gays and lesbians, including Church Music, organ and piano players, clergy (yes, in the closet), designers, corporate execs, artists. The list goes on. But, hang on to your ill-fated bias and your singular way of looking at the world. My God! What a small and insignificant world you must live in!
Somehow I think Cathy and the GOP has played the gay community and the rest of us like a violin this past week. I find it very suspicious this issue came front and center during an election year and this close to election. For one thing it has taken the focus off of the voter suppression laws, that are being protested in Pennsylvania, Florida and Texas. Had it been up to me I would have ignored Cathy's statement UNTIL after the election. Moreover, I think the proposed Kiss In demonstrations will only energize the Family Values group and nothing will be gained. Perhaps a better strategy would be for the gay community to declare an appreciation day for another fast food chain.
Beware the backlash in the black, hispanic, and catholic and white protestant fundamentalist religious faiths to Obama's courting the LBGT votes and their campaign contributions and those of their sympathysers in the Hollywood and Manhatten liberal elite.
Chicken sandwiches, gay marriage, God’s judgment on America, Biblical Recorder, Baptist Press, and the Muppets.
1. I would rather have a bag of “sliders” – if you disagree with Chick-fil-a’s use of its profits to support causes that are contrary to your beliefs – be sure that people are informed and encourage them not to eat there. As long as they don’t refuse service to patrons – it is their money. As a model for your behavior, look to the extreme right’s treatment of Barney & Friends, the Teletubbies, Sponge Bob, the boycott of Procter &Gamble for support of gay rights (don’t forget their old satanic logo), Starbucks, Ben & Jerry’s, Oreos, Macy’s, JC Pennys, Girl Scout Cookies, Google, evangelical Christian leaders boycott of Thomas Nelson Publishers over David Barton’s book – whoa wait a minute – boycotting Barton is a good thing – sorry.
As long as you stay within the guidelines for protest established by the far right, I guess you will be OK.
2. If you believe that gays will burn in Hell for all of Eternity –isn’t that enough for you? If you feel your heterosexual marriage is threatened by gays being married in civil ceremonies or in churches other than your own – then you don’t have much of a marriage. Blame someone else.
3. God’s judgment on America - true – if you subscribe to David Barton’s view that this is and has always been a “Christian” nation you would be correct in anticipating God’s judgment. However, here is this little matter of slavery and treatment of Native Americans that awaits redress before the comparatively minor matter of gay marriage.
4. Seriously, who reads the Biblical Recorder – source of Chick-fil-a Cathy’s original interview?
5. Why did the Baptist Press (a lot of Southern Baptists read it) pick up the story and how (why) did it go National? Chick-fil-a’s views on gays are not “new news”.
Where am I? Oh yeah – Muppets – ta tah ta tah ta ta taah!
6. Muppets – I would like to see the documentation proving the “possible safety issue” posed by the Muppet toys. If Chick-fil-a simply released this statement as an act of spite for the Hensen company dropping them, then they are guilty of “bearing false witness”. Not a big deal for a businessman or a politician – it is however a really big deal if you claim to be a Christian – last time I checked it was one of the Ten Commandments.
"Gays burn in hell" Their ration of hell is lived here on planet earth, and I've never really seen a truly gay homosexual or bisexual in my life, Adam. They are mostly a very tortured interally wracked phychological and often as in the instances of AIDs and HIV and other STD infections phycically troubled lot! 50,000 new cases of AIDS every year...that stat hasn't changed since the 80s, even after shutting down all those bath houses in the wastelands of the metrocenters of our mostly North of the Mason Dixon line states.
By attributing to God all kinds of things by saying "He allows it", the person is saying that "God is mentally ill".
Funny Thought of the Day, Augustus. You know all those artists rendering of Adam and Eve in the garden that show navels (or belly buttons)? Think about the incongruity of that for awhile! LOL!
Setting aside what CFA thinks of human life not to the personal liking of its president, here's what they do to male chicks (for which they have no purpose):
How is it that the corporation CEOs from, oh, lets say Amazon, Apple, and Starbucks and the like can speak their mind on this pro gay or pro traditional marriage issue, and they can send their contributions to the organizations and movements attempting to promote "gay" marriage changes to the law in our states, while anyone like Caffee in the non secular of fundamentalist religions views is castigated when he speaks and donates to pro Traditional Marriage (one man, one woman) that is the status quo in by far most of our states, the majority value system of our country? Just how intolerant of diversity of opionion can the secular leftists be? By the way, that miniscule number of people who turned out for the PROTEST of Chick-a-fil didn't compare very well to the very large number of people who turned out for Chick-a-fil APPRECIATION day tells us which direction the nations moral values are tending.
Keith,
Sorry - guess we are down to the old "Both Sides Do It" and can argue on who "dunitfirst" though the evangelical fringe seems prone to attack for no apparent reason. Note #1 in my post 7. I was especially fond of claim that P&G's man in the moon logo (that they had used since 1851) was some how satanic. While the claim was bogus - the company gave up their logo in 1985 (think that's the date) rather than continue the stupid argument. (I believe the whole thing was started by a competitor - no pro gay rights issues involved - just money - but the evangelical fringe lapped it up.)
Starbucks is linked to pro gay marriage - and has been targeted for a boycott as have other companies with gay friendly work policies.
http://www.christianpost.com/news/nom-launches-boycott-of-starbucks-over-same-sex-marriage-stance-72006/
http://www.snopes.com/business/alliance/procter.asp
After that we could perhaps get into a useful discussion on the difference in coverage given to anti-gay boycotts and same sex marriage "kiss ins". I'm still trying to figure out why a network tv show devoted time this morning to live coverage of a sleeping dog with puppies - cute but what about Iran and North Korea?