August 1 was “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day.”
Today, August 3, is “Chick-fil-A Kiss-In Day,” also known as “Kiss Mor Chiks.”
But Chick-fil-A itself had nothing to do with either of these official “Day”s. The first one, “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day,” was announced by conservative candidate and talk-show host Mike Huckabee. The second one, “Kiss Mor Chiks,” was organized by progressive activist Carly McGehee. Neither one of these people has any official role in either the Chick-fil-A corporation nor in any established group opposed to Chick-fil-A. They’re both just…people.
Apparently, therefore, it is now acceptable for any random person to declare an official “Chick-fil-A _____ Day.”
So why not me? I’m random.
But here’s the problem:
• I’ve never eaten at Chick-fil-A.
• In fact, I’ve never even seen a Chick-fil-A.
• I actually thought it was pronounced “chick-filla” until about five days ago, as prior to that I had never heard anyone say the name out loud.
• I’m mostly a vegetarian (except at family reunions, where to be polite I’ll eat a few old-time recipes so as not to offend various aunties), so I wouldn’t eat at Chick-fil-A even if I had the opportunity, which I don’t, since there are no Chick-fil-As in my area.
• And in general, I just don’t give a damn about Chick-fil-A, its owner, or its owner’s opinion about marriage, one way or the other.
But how to express all these VERY IMPORTANT POINTS in my official “Chick-fil-A _____ Day”?
Simple!
I hereby announce
Chick-fil-A Indifference Day
 |
On Saturday, August 4, all across this great nation, I call upon Americans to express their complete indifference to Chick-fil-A and this entire non-scandal. Participants in Chick-fil-A Indifference Day are encouraged to have no opinion whatsoever about Chick-fil-A on Saturday, and to not really think about it at all, and to avoid eating there unless you’re driving by and feel a little hungry and wouldn’t mind a chicken sandwich, in which case you could eat there, but only for non-political reasons, and only if there wasn’t a better place next door.
Join us! Let waves of boredom and indifference about mind-numbing non-scandals wash across America. Our time has arrived! Stand up, speak out, and say nothing!
UPDATE: Mitt Romney announces he will observe Chick-fil-A Indifference Day!
Related:
Leftists Don’t Create Jobs, They Destroy Jobs, and Kill Freedom at the Same Time
Very disappointed in your Zombie, calling this First Amendment scandal a non-scandal. The Mayors of various large cities have sworn to punish a private citizen for daring to speak his opinions in public. This is about Free Speech, not chicken or homosexuality. And when government officials try to use their power to censor citizens I darn well call that a scandal of the first order.
They have salads by the way. And wicked good chocolate fudge brownies.
Sorry, you just can’t get me to care.
No one stopped the owner of Chick-fil-A from speaking. He was and remains completely free to say whatever he wants. And politicians are free to beclown themselves in public and look like fools by announcing that they will illegally try to ban a restaurant for political reasons, and then fail to do so. And gay activists are free to look like bigots and Alinskyite bullies. And Christians can reverse anti-boycott the boycotters. Everyone is and remains free under the First Amendment to do whatever they want.
And still…I don’t care. It’s not just a tempest in a teapot, it’s a tempest in a doll’s teacup.
If you lived somewhere with a Chik-Fil-A you might care more. I was so happy and heartened to see soooooo many people turn out in my liberal town (Austin.) It just made me feel less lonely here. If you saw the same thing happen in SF you might get a sense of it.
You can barely understand what Mayor Meninio says most of the time anyway, but it was when Rahm made his pompous “Chicago values” statement about Chick-fil-A on the same day he welcomed gay marriage opponent Louis Farakhan to a PR event announcing that the Nation of Islam would now help patrol Chicago’s rowdy streets that really set off Wednesday protest.
By doing that, it wasn’t just Emanuel saying as Mayor of Chicago that the Cathys and their fast food joint would be blocked from locating in his city because their Christian beliefs conflicted with what Rahm saw as the proper position on same-sex marriage, but he was partnering with a minister from another religion who had been even far more vocal against gay marriage than Cathy and saw no problem with the city officially partnering with him on law enforcement.
We all know the political realities of why Emanuel did both things, but to do them less than 12 hours apart — and given Rahm’s connection to the current administration — was such an in-your-face example of liberal hypocrisy it just demanded a response, if for no other reason than (non-secular) free speech grounds. It was blowback for the left’s “Do as I say, not as I do” attitude combined with an attempt to use government to control commerce based on what remains mainstream political beliefs that caused the kerfuffle which was about more than just gay marriage.
(And even as a vegetarian, you could do the waffle fries, cole slaw and drink at Chick-fil-A, if it wasn’t such a long drive to the nearest one in the Bay Area. My own personal pet peeve with the store is the put pickles on their chicken sandwiches. That’s just not kosher.)
You say,
True, but only to a limited extent. What about adverse governmental actions due to what he said? Should helpful governmental actions toward those whose speech is favored and adverse governmental actions toward those whose speech is disfavored be acceptable? Does the latter not infringe upon freedom of speech?
The problem is that the First Amendment is not self-enforcing.
Various public officials have declared their official hostility toward Chick-Fil-A due to the speech of its owner and have ample power to act on their hostility, without regard to the First Amendment. Municipal permitting procedures can move rapidly and with favorable results for friends but quite slowly and with unfavorable results for enemies. Judicial redress for enemies, such as Chick-Fil-A has been declared, costs much time and money and, in view of the discretion lodged in permitting officials and requirements that courts review their findings of fact with great deference rather than de novo, is usually a losing proposition. Abnormally frequent and severe inspections? The possibility of judicial redress is substantially nil.
Cities discourage/encourage/ban/harrass/help certain businesses and types of business for political reasons all the time. For decades the city of Berkeley banned all fast food chain restaurants, simply because they were “evil corporations.” (The City Council eventually caved and relented because getting more tax revenue became a higher priority than symbolic statements.) Chi-chi resort towns will often deny permits to businesses that attract a redneck or downscale clientele. Conservative towns will resist getting a new Saudi-funded mosque downtown. Stuff like this happens every day somewhere in America.
If one wants decentralization of power and “local control,” one will have to allow that local control cuts both ways.
I will note, however, that so far not a single mayor or city official has been able to ban Chick-fil-A, and any attempts to do so will likely backfire. The municipal morons are themselves just responding like hotheads to a completely ginned up transitory fad-scandal, and both the scandal and their illegal ban promises will be forgotten soon enough, to their relief.
In re para #1 – that municipalities do things for partisan political reasons (as they often do) is not the principal issue here. Instead, the principal issue is that municipalities have threatened to take actions against someone because he exercised his rights of free speech in ways their leaders found politically expedient to attack.
In re para #2 – nor is the issue one of increasing or decreasing local control. The issue is one of local people showing support for the First Amendment in efforts to influence in their localities to respect the First Amendment. They should be encouraged for doing so. That’s worth substantially more than a “ho hum.”
In re para #3 – that they have not yet done what they threatened to do, or that they may upon less immature reflection refrain from doing it, seem rather less important than their threats. They seem not to have succeeded as to the owners of the restaurant chain in question. What may be the chilling effects on others, whose financial resources do not allow them the “luxury” of comparable resistance?
My thoughts on the matter are expressed here and they seem to differ from yours.
“If one wants decentralization of power and “local control,” one will have to allow that local control cuts both ways.”
I’ve been saying that for years, as the secondary whenever the squeal of “States Rights” come up.
For some reason people seem to think being tyrannized by their State is somehow better than being tyrannized by the federal government. If not they forget about their county government, or municipality or town, or their neighborhood association.
It is no better being tyrannized by your neighbor than it is the guy down the block, across town, or in the next county, than it is by someone off in D.C.
People forget that in their haste, and then want to complain when they have raised up local tyrants to replace distant ones.
Again, Menino’s a buffoon; Lee plays to his liberal fascist base to S.F. but has little name recognition outside the Bay Area; and Christine Quinn thinks she can try the same act in N.Y. and become mayor by getting enough support to win next year’s Democratic mayoral primary. Rahm’s actions were the match that lit the protest.
Unlike the others, he’s not an idiot — he’s cold and calculating and has served as a top adviser to the last two Democratic presidents. What Emanuel basically did in the span of just a few hours was to say if you are opposed to same-sex marriage and you are part of a religion that is not seen as being friendly to the Democratic Party is is perfectly fine for the city of Chicago to announce it will discriminate against you in any effort to expand your operations within the city of Chicago. On the other hand, if you are not just part of, but one of the leaders of a religion that is opposed to same sex marriage, but your followers are seen as a core part of the Democratic Party’s constituency, you not only get a free pass, you are allowed to help with the activity of enforcing the laws of the city of Chicago.
Rahm was dividing his religions and his First Amendment religious tolerance based on what he believed that religion could do to/for his own political ideology. Cathy+Christianity=conservatism=bad; Farakhan+Nation of Islam=liberalism=good. The selective free speech rights for selected religions likely would never have even made it through a Chicago court, but just the idea that a politician with as high a national profile as Emanuel would attempt to hold two such contradictory positions on the same day definitely was worthy of some major push-back, which you saw with the buycott on Wednesday (and I have no doubt that, had there not been push-back even before that, Rahm’s PR efforts against the restaurant would have had him leading the protests outside downtown Chicago’s Chick-fil-A store, demanding that those intolerant bigots from Georgia close their establishment and leave the city forever. Not quite Chickennacht, but also not worth dismissing as a tempest in a no-franchises-near-you teapot).
Let the man (or woman,as the case may be) show his indifference people! You have made good and reasonable points for supporting Chick-Fil-A,he has made his case for not caring one way or the other. Being apathetic w/regards to politics is practically an American tradition in some circles.It’s not like a couple people being indifferent is gonna stop an overwhelming number of passionate patriots like yourselves from supporting 1st Amendment. I fully support the crusade against liberal intolerance, I would like nothing more than to see more of this on everything from protecting free speech to getting those who want to go Nanny State on the Micky D’s menu and punish people for providing “too many calories”back on the farming commune where they belong instead of telling us all what we can eat. Keep on doing what is working,and put all that support and passion into finding other ways to pry the lib boot off of our necks, but Zombie is entitled to his/her opinion as well.
>>>>>>>>>I will note, however, that so far not a single mayor or city official has been able to ban Chick-fil-A, and any attempts to do so will likely backfire.
Indeed so — if people stand up and *DO* the backfiring, as in “Chick-Fil-A appreciation day”. It’s not that the idiot mayor will ban the 1st amendment all at once and by himself, but the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.
Zombie – You wrote: “No one stopped the owner of Chick-fil-A from speaking”.
Erm…. With all due respect, your understanding of the 1st Amendment appears deficient here,
Imagine the IRS announces that youl’ll be slapped with a Criticizing Obama 25% Income Surtax.
Hey, no one stopped you from speaking, right? So, no problem!
Different situation. The IRS has the power of the United States behind it.
But individual boycotters have no power other than their own wallet. They can not be compelled to spend on something they don’t want, for whatever irrational or absurd reason.
As for the mayors and city officials: Their mockable attempts to ban Chick-fil-A will lead absolutely nowhere, except give Chick-fil-A a lot of free publicity.
So this is an example of mutual First Amendment rights taken to their ultimate logical conclusion. Chick-fil-A can say whatever it wants; individual boycotters can say whatever they want. individual kiss-in-ers can assemble peaceably wherever they want; individual Chick-fil-A fans can reverse boycott as much as they want; and everybody’s happy.
Now if a mayor actually did something unconstitutional and used the power of government to penalize someone for speaking their mind, then that would be a different story. But there’s a huge difference between being a pompous trend-conscious ill-informed blowhard who zigs when everyone else zags, and being a petty dictator who follows through on those unconstitutional pronouncements. The mayors realize now that they can never enact what they promised. They earned their street cred by briefly joining the howling mob. But they’re not gonna follow through. And if by chance they do, then the weight of the courts and pubic opinion will fall down on them.
And if the IRS, as you speculate, targets Chick-fil-A with extreme prejudice, then we have a coup d’etat on our hands and I will be standing with you on the barricades.
But that hasn’t happened. Yet, at least. And hopefully it never will.
“And if the IRS, as you speculate…”
You missed my point. No, that was a hypothetical, simply to illustrate that “prior restraints” are not the only kind of 1st Amendment violation the state can engage in. Thus, the fact that “no one stopped the owner of Chick-fil-A from speaking” is insufficient as a response,
But government officials DID thireaten official retaliation for Cathy’s non-PC views. THAT’S the point. Now, you find their efforts comical. But the chief reason they’re comically ineffective is because of the chorus of disapproval they produced, which forced them to back down. And it’s that very chorus you’re mocking now. But for that outcry, it’s likely Menino, Rahm et al would have denied licenses, and CFA wouild have had to litigate the point. Time, money, hassle… it almost wouldn’t matter if they win, the point is made, don’t speak against official orthodoxy if you want to do business in a Blue State jurisdiction.
Actually — and I think this is the source of the contention on this thread — I really wasn’t thinking of the response to the boycott when I wrote this post; I was mostly thinking of the original call for boycott. 90+% of my mockery was directed at the gay activists who were up in arms over essentially nothing. And yet several people here seem to think I was directing my mockery specifically at them. To be frank, I didn’t follow the story all that closely, and assumed that the overall headline of the narrative was that gays were boycotting C-f-A, while the secondary sub-head was that there was a pushback from the right. People here are acting like the headline is the pushback, while the original boycott is now of secondary importance, focus-wise.
I have the feeling that if this exact same post had been published on, say, DailyKos or whatever, then I’d be barraged by people questioning why I am mocking the boycotters. It all depends on who the audience is.
My understanding was the whole thing started when an alderman rejected a Chick-fil-A building permit because of the chain owner’s response to a direct question about his opinions.
That’s a fairly material penalty right there. Should your drivers license be contingent upon your position on gay marriage?
“II really wasn’t thinking of the response to the boycott when I wrote this post; I was mostly thinking of the original call for boycott.”
Really? Reading the very first lines of your post, there’s very much a “pox [or chicken pox?] on both their houses” sense to the thing; as have some of your reponses, in which you breezily refer to mocking “both sides”. But the actions of “both sides” are not the same. One side is throwing a tantrum over identiy politics – and getting government officials to threaten the use of state power to back them up. The other side is standing up for a principle of liberal democracy. You seem to view them both, casually, as being silly.
To compare to an example near and dear to you:
Islamists jumping up and down and seething over Mohammed cartoons = being silly
Artists and pundits responding with “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” = NOT being silly
And ultimately, this episode is no more about chicken sandwiches and smooching lesbians, than that one was about cartoons.
Yes, but
Islamists jumping up and down and seething over Mohammed cartoons = the world finally sees how noxious Islam really is.
So in one sense the “Mohammed riots” were a plus for our side, because they helped to expose the true nature of Islam without Western civilization having to learn the hard way through a global Caliphate War or whatever.
So even in the counter-example you gave, the side that acted out aggressively ended up “losing” the narrative for the very reason that they acted out.
If the Muslims had swallowed their irrational outrage and acted all smiley and calm, then the world would have continued its mistaken belief that Islam at least has the capacity to be a “religion of peace.”
What I’m trying to say is that it’s better to allow one’s opponents expose their true nature and deploy their full arsenal over comparatively minor skirmishes, so that the body politic will be much better prepared for them when the battle is over something much more important.
Thus, in this comparable episode, it’s a strategic plus for our side that the Left revealed its ugly Medusa head for all to see over something “silly.”
But your example also illustrates what I said earlier:
Islamists cannot tolerate being mocked.
Cartoonists can tolerate being mocked.
So if I mocked both equally, it would sting the Islamists much more than it would the cartoonists, and — here’s the key — my mockery would have much more cultural potence for being “evenhanded” and bipartisan.
That’s why cartoons like this one are the most significant of all: Jesus, Mohammed, Moses and Buddha are all in bed having just completed a homosexual orgy; it is theoretically offensive to all religions, but ONLY Muslims blow a gasket upon seeing it. Thus this cartoon is far more culturally potent than any cartoon that just mocks Mohammed alone. Its even-handedness gives it a viewpoint-neutral strength that a partisan attack would lack.
There are a million posts attacking gay marriage bullies. But because they are partisan attacks they are limited in their effectiveness. A bipartisan skewering can “reach” both sides, but will cause much more damage to their side than ours.
First they came for Chick-Fil-A but I was not a customer of Chick-Fil-A. . .
First they came for the people who had no opinion, but I had an opinion…
If Honey Badger cared, he’d be worried.
Is it permissible for an Agnostic to say “Amen!?” Oh Hell. I’ll say it anyway: Amen! This is very much (and to my feeble mind, only) about the First Amendment, one part of our old fashioned Constitution, which many of us revere if not as “sacred” then as rather close to that.
Might it be possible that even some of those expected to participate in today’s kiss-in debacle might have similar feelings?
Oh yeah, I used to be compelled to eat there with the work crew I was on and the chocolate brownie was all I ever bought.
Based on the few news reports I have seen thus far (and I have been looking for them), you seem to have been preempted by the Chick-fil-A Kiss-In Day organizers. Their much touted demonstrations of
happygay solidarity seem (thus far) to have been something of a nothing.We shall now continue with our regularly scheduled nap.
I’ve only eaten at Chik-fill-a twice. Both times I was not in an urge to eat there again and I love chicken.
I second a Chik-fill-a Indifference Day.
on your fabulous Berkley photo tour
3. So…?
– covering the Chick-Fil-A at Fairfield tomorrow?
August 2, 2012 – 2:43 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
Zombie
Fairfield is a LONG WAY from me, unfortunately.
August 2, 2012 – 3:05 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
cptime
I just may go up to Fairfield…with my camera
August 2, 2012 – 4:52 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
Zombie
Send me the photos, if you do. Seriously.
August 2, 2012 – 4:54 pm Link to this Comment | Reply
Be interesting to see…
– if some use dental dams or are viruses not transmitted by saliva?
August 2, 2012 – 9:01 pm Link to this Comment
Yes, that exchange did happen in the comments section of my previous post. But I guess I’m missing the reason to repost it here.
Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to have it on the fifth, since Chick-fil-A’s are closed on Sunday?
But that would guarantee success! Can’t have that. Us Indifferenciacs must ensure that we don’t care whether we succeed or not.
The date was changed to Sunday.
Zombie’s feigned indifference is a scream for attention. There’s a word for that somewhere, I just don’t care to find it.
“There’s a word for that somewhere, I just don’t care to find it.”
Uh, “hipster”?
It’s a scream for an absence-of-attention to be paid to purposeless kerfuffles. If I’m screaming for attention (to any greater extent than any public writing on the Internet, including comments such as yours), then to what end and for what purpose am I seeking this attention? I feel like the person in a loud movie theater yelling “Everybody be quiet – - we’re trying to watch a film here!”, to which a heckler replies, “Why don’t you be quiet?” Ya just can’t win.
A distraction to be sure, Zombie, but a distraction of the Left’s making, tracking right along with Fluke-Trayvon-Romney’s Taxes/wife’s horse/foreign bank accounts/tax returns/Chinese prostitute connection, ad nauseum, brought to you by the alphabet Marxist media. Chick-fil-a is important because the battle is engaged, the Left is losing, and they are desperate in their defeat. A beacon it is, of golden fried chicken goodness. Hold the pickle.
E_X_A_C_T_L-Y
The lefty loons can never ‘win’ by real merit or truth. They f*cking win by using bait and switch tactics and abstractions (that never make real sense).
They are always the ‘man behind the green curtain’ playing good on the idiocy they have created (through horrible public schooling and other minutiae.
The tipping point is coming.
Lock and load.
Menino.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/op_ed/view/20220727poultry_excuse_mayor_radical_imam_ok_but_not_chick-fil-a/
If it’s a tempest in a teacup, why write about the stuff you do? Hundreds of thousands of people showed up for nothing? Nothing cuz you never ate at a Chik-fil-A?
Rahm makes statements that indicate a blithe unawareness of the First Amendment because of supposed concerns about bigotry and then makes a pact with a Jew-hater like Farrakhan for political expediency. Suddenly you’re bored?
When two Dem mayors of our largest cities cry wolf and then make pacts with the Devil that’s news brother.
The own-goaling of Chicago politicians is delicious and funny. Especially since it was in response to something so trivial that it otherwise would have almost immediately blown over.
So yes, to that extent the “scandal” is helpful and beneficial to the conservative side, because it provided an opportunity for fools to publicly augment their reputations for foolishness.
All I’m saying is that the very fundamental spark that started this brouhaha — some uninformed liberal airhead noticing a comment in a Christian magazine, the same comment having been said countless times before by the same person with no outcry whatsoever — is trivial in the extreme.
Zombie, you never disappoint! Absolutely love your sarcastic dry wit!!! (Sorry about all the exclamation point. They are definitely NOT in the spirit of indifference, she said with a simple period at the end.)
The next time you have a bris mila
You shouldn’t hold it at Chick-Fil-A;
Though their chicken is good,
When removing the “hood,”
Kosher catering is the real deal-a.
Although I am laughing, I feel compelled to point out that the rhyming is a little discombobulated this time around.
Also, are you implying that if a bris were held at Chick-fil-A, one might end up accidentally eating deep-fried schmuck?
Yeah, I know I played fast and loose with the rhyme scheme, but my poetic license is up to date.
Other than that, I wasn’t trying to imply anything; it’s just wordplay.
Buzz, you won’t be eating at Chick-Fil-A on Saturday?
Chicken too tasty.
Took the blue pill eh?
boycott Ben & Jerry’s. Good ice cream but they support Occupy Wall Street. On the ben and jerry tour, they mention “Occupy” but never “Occupy Wall Street”.
What a bunch of disgusting commie bastards. Ben and Jerry live in wealth and splendor near Burlington,VT. They must be part of the 1%, LMAO
i dont need to ban them for their political foolishness
when they took the cherry bits out of cherry garcia i was a goner
LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Dax, there’s no cherry in anything cherry much any more. Fo shame.
When they have a “fornikate-a-ckicken day” at some place around Frisco, Zombie will be there to do the photo essay.
And I’m sure it will live up to the others.
That is HILARIOUS! I agree 100% on this brouhaha.
I would like to make one exemption to my wish for general indifference, though. I read an Appreciation Day account of a gay Chick fil-A employee who said she tried to make her wraps and sandwiches look as gay as possible. Can’t totally ignore a genuine laugh.
How exactly do you make chicken look gay?
Heels, lipstick and a feather boa.
Don’t ask me how I know this.
hahahaha
Just remember to Eat More Kale!
The cryptic reply is to draw some attention to the trademark conflict between the chicken company and a one man screen printing operation.
See http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/chick-fil-as-successful-eat-mor-chikin-74702/ for some details & links.
I’m disappointed. Chick-fill-A appreciation day was not about the company per se. It was about standing up to the bully. It was about standing up to two big-city mayors telling a company where it can and cannot build because of the personal views held by the company’s owner. It was about a company obeying all the rules, regulations, building codes etc but still being prohibited from doing business because some big-shot mayor didn’t like them. It was about standing up to a bunch of elite media types spreading hate.
If you are indifferent to that then you’ve lost me as a reader. goodbye.
What’s a Chik-fil-A? Did something happen?
nah.
Why is it when “our” side has one of its rare victories against the left, one of “our” ironic hipsters always comes along to ridicule us and declare moral equivalence?
This is not a rare victory against the Left. Victories happen constantly now.
Nor am I undermining that victory. In fact, I am subtly piling on, in my own postmodern way.
Mockery is kryptonite to the Left. But the Right has been mocked so relentlessly that they can take it, no problem.
So if I level mockery at a situation involving both sides, it’s gonna hurt the Left much more than their opponents.
Think of it as chemotherapy: it hurts your body, but it hurts the tumors more.
I like being treated with respect and honor by Chick-fil-a employees and the new Peach shake is killer
meh
Zombie, I am a big fan of you and your work, and you have every right to enjoy your day of inddifference; because you are right, it is less than a tempest in a tea pot. Thankfully Romney has noticed and not waded into a manufactured scandal. That being said, I don’t think that the affair is without value. To me, a guy who has no problem with gay people, or fast food or anyone’s right to involve themselves with either, one of the commenters above summed it up best for me. Tierney said,
“I was so happy and heartened to see soooooo many people turn out in my liberal town (Austin.) It just made me feel less lonely here. If you saw the same thing happen in SF you might get a sense of it.”
To me that does matter. the left comes up with one boycott of this after another and it is all just another way of saying, “shut up”. It was nice to see one blow up in their faces. Making the left have to choose to either walk it back or dig in. That is a rare and new thing indeed,
In totally unrelated news, frogs are visiting Droso-Fil-A in record numbers.
I, for one, got it.
I think there are too many comedians on the stage for your joke to receive the reaction it deserves! Who can hear a pun over the sound of flying tomatoes and whoopee cushions?
There you go again Buzz. I toad you not to go there.
“Buzz”;
And another “flies” over the heads of the Left.
Zombie, your libertarian instincts are trumping your common sense. Sure, city officials deny permits for all sorts of reasons, real or politically motivated. But when the mayor of a large city, a former high cabinet member, openly denies a a perfectly legal application solely on the basis of an expression of moral opinion on a subject which is totally unrelated to the operation of the enterprise or the service it provides to the public, this is a matter of indifference to you? Probably most of the protesters, like you, have never eaten a Chick-fil-A, or maybe even tried it and didn’t like it. Their outrage has nothing to do with chicken and where and how it is fried.
Emanuel’s message is a fascist declaration: “Express an opinion that differs from your rulers and you will suffer!”The MSM running dogs mock the protesters. And Zombie’s response is a big “Ho Hum”. Thank God most intelligent people do not share your indifference to the chilling display of Socialist arrogance, something we can expect to be amplified if Obama is not defeated.
Chick-fil-A Indifference Day is not for everyone. If you don’t feel indifferent, you don’t have to participate. That’s fine by me. This is a holiday for those of us jaundiced by decades of mockable and transitory fad-cotts.
I’m actually too indifferent to muster the interest in deciding whether I want to participate or not.
OK, I get it. Hurrah for indifference! And with an air of superiority. That’s what the U.SA. needs more of. You are so indifferent that you go to great pains to photograph the behavior of those who are definitely not. Evidently this is not an expression of political conviction; it’s just a fun hobby that pays off in the enthusiastic approval of others who are also definitely not indifferent.
I understand why you identify yourself as the living dead and hide in anonymity. Cool!
I think the comment-discontent is based on the different ways folks look at the same thing.
As an illustrative example:
Let’s just say a famously liberal city made it legal to walk around naked.
Many people would read about that and think it was a bad thing — gross, disgusting, perverted. And they’d be right, on one level.
But I look at the same news and see it as a good thing. Why? because it highlights in a visceral and irrefutable way just how morally bankrupt and lacking common sense the left has become. This one counter-example will energize the opposing side — with little actual social damage done.
So I’m always responding to things not at a gut instinct level, but on an overly cynical second-tier strategical level, like psychological Machiavellianism.
Put more simply:
Every time the Left misbehaves publicly, it’s a win for us.
“Why? because it highlights in a visceral and irrefutable way just how morally bankrupt and lacking common sense the left has become”.
————————————————————–
And that is exactly why this manufactured controversy, like Sandra Fluke and the Republican War on Women, is worth covering.
Here’s a picture I took at Chick-fil-A in Hollywood earlier today:http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=480922305251377&set=a.221797707830506.65761.115647035112241&type=1&theater
Mind if I made a Tatler post of it?
Please do, I already emailed it to you.
Done!:
Chick-fil-A Kiss-In, Hollywood: the pictures
Stick to your camera Z. It’s a lot more effective that your explication of your indifference to difference.
Is it a win for us or for you? If you are so indifferent about this and have such apparent disdain for our reaction to it, why were you so quick to post pictures of the support day and comment on it in the first place? What happened in 24 hours?
You make it seem like the fascist left is joking around when they act this way? I guess Harry Reid is just playing around too? Right? Just small potatoes?
You say this goes on all the time as if that means it is okay for governments to ban people and industry based on PC mandates from the on-high progressive left. Why is it okay?
Why do you seem to be relishing in your indifference and making us who care look like we are just not up to your level of, say, cynicism, wit, aloofness, or dare I say, arrogance? We care about what the left does because we understand their nature: they seek a totalitarian nation governed by them. So even if this is small potatoes, it is just another demonstration of what they want. Notice how Dear Leader has not spoken out agains the potential infringements of the First Amendment. Wonder why?
And to your friend Ringo: this is not a manufactured controversy. This was another example of the who the left is and how they feel about us and if left unchecked what they would do to us.
Sorry but I cannot be as sanguine or indifferent about this as you.
Great. So when the entirety of the Third World lives here and all cities look like Detroit we can say, “I told you so” and move on to a glorious new era of eccentric individual exceptionalism, the Left completely discredited.
Smart move. That’s probably why sports teams always want the other team to score first. Twins tricked the Red Sox last night; went down 5-1 to lull the Sox and then won in 10 innings. Stupid, stupid Sox. How many times are they gonna fall for that one?
Actually, you’re raising a very important point. In modern culture, victimhood trumps all. In days of yore, if two people fought, the person who physically won the fight was considered the victor. But these days, the person who physically loses is considered the moral victor. The whole point behind cultural Marxism is to glorify and sanctify the underdog, the downtrodden, the “oppressed,” society’s losers.
My strategy is to say, OK, Big Left, you made these new cultural rules, now let’s play by them. I hold the left to its own standards. Thus if they bully someone (as they often do), I will point out that they are bullies, that they have victimized someone. Doesn’t even matter what the topic is — they can’t tolerate being identified as the victimizer. Every time the left tries to “win” a cultural duel, they assume the role of the oppressor and the overdog.
Your sports metaphor doesn’t work because sports is the last bastion of merit and reward due to superiority. That’s why sports remain so popular — it’s the only cultural arena where anything makes sense any more. In the rest of culture, whoever makes the first move is depicted as the aggressor. Aggression = bad = moral loser. So all I need to do is wait around for the Left to do something, anything, and then I point out that by their own rules, they already just lost.
I know this is crazy-making and illogical, but it’s the world we now live in. People on the right often assume that society is still playing by sane rules, and so attempt to combat their opponents under those rules, unaware that the opponents are playing by an opposite set of rules. But the Left makes the Right live up to its own guidelines; yet too many on the Right don’t make the Left live by their own guidelines. That’s the gap I try to fill. For a mental illness to be overcome, it must first be conclusively demonstrated to be delusional; then and only then can a sane mental structure be re-established.
Well, I was joking about the sports of course. However you’re dead right about how the Left views failure as success and success as failure. The weird thing is that I don’t think liberals really have any idea they see the world like that. To me it’s obvious they do. When you read 1,000 articles and essays trends definitely emerge and the fact the Dem Party embraces what they see as underdog causes is No. 1 on their list.
I think one reason Dems see it as legit is because at one time it was legit. What I think they don’t see or acknowledge is that their battles have been largely won and so they keep fighting them. That’s how the NAACP goes from being legit to a hate group, that’s how the Southern Poverty Law Center goes from doing some really good work to being borderline eligible for their own list of hate groups.
The Left has gotten to the point where failure has an automatic sheen of morality and success the stink of exploitation. The Left has transferred this to race as witness “white privilege.” Where the Left fails in this regard is that they don’t allow themselves to have a fundamental principle to distinguish between right and wrong. It is fundamentally wrong to concoct weird arguments that attach and detach morality according to skin but that is exactly what white privilege is – straight racism. The Left doesn’t buy that for one minute. They see WP as a very real evil. That’s because they see racism by its shadow, using stats.
By any measure I know of MSNBC employs 3 people who share an identical philosophical and intellectual space to a modern KKK or neo-Nazi. Those are Al Sharpton, Melissa Harris-Perry and Michael Eric Dyson. If fact I think one can make an excellent argument that nearly the entirety of the black political and academic Left is equally guilty of having gone way to far overboard in coming up with ever more trivial examples of racism in America. They have failed to look around and realize the Dem Party is the last bastion of mainstream institutionalized groups organized around race. But, on the Left, black folks can’t be racist and that’s that.
I think your last point might be valid except for one thing: immigration both legal and illegal. This is a touchy point, even within the Right. If we ever got to a point where we can show how nuts the Left is, the damage from siding with immigrants from failed Third World nations may be even today too much to overcome. It’ll be a Pyrrhic victory. Throw in crazy Muslim groups and it’s all over but the shouting.
The verdict is pretty much already in: we have 3 racial caucuses in congress and they won’t be disbanding anytime soon while at the same time denying whites the same thing. The irony is that the so-called racist whites, the root cause of all the Dem Party’s problems according to them, show the least sign of racial solidarity. Of course there are historic reasons for this but just as obviously it’s 2012.
Liberals live in the past, a Jim Crow past, and they want to keep that narrative alive, even if it means code and “dog-whistles,” racist Hallmark graduation cards and innocent but racist traffic stops.
The bottom line is this: the Dem Party already panders to race and gender identity and the pressure is on the GOP to do the same or become irrelevant. If they do so they become the same as the Dems in essence. Due to political correctness in America and radicalization in this regard, ethnic groups like Hispanics and blacks are already in the hole and gone as far as voting on issues. Next we’ll have a Muslim caucus in congress and in 40 years America will be a Tower of Babel where a vote is essentially meaningless in terms of the greater good.
The Left has already as good as destroyed America, a tipping point reached. The Left is totally unaware of the Wanssee-like core of diversity and multiculturalism which is of course less white people. The fact they never come right out and say that shows how true this view is but that is in effect what it means. Whites are endemic racists who must be leavened with a taste of nobility and high cheek bones liberals see in every race but white.
Liberals are some of the stupidest and most suicidal people on Earth. The vast majority have no clue as to what the Third World is really like. They think long plane rides make Muslims tolerant, turn Hispanics into Jeffersonians and will uplift Somalis and Mayans to be the next group to put rovers on Mars. I’ll tell you right now, that ain’t gonna happen. A doorknob is a frickin’ Rubik’s Cube in a place like Egypt and you’re just gonna have to trust me on that one.
Bolivians are flying across valleys like the flying Walendas in 2012, suspended from cables, while America Civil War engineers were putting up hundreds of bridges in no time flat. The contrast is deep and stark. Faith in equality is something the real world simply doesn’t care about. People who don’t believe in American exceptionalism will get a wake-up call about the same time the lights go out forever and a long slide backwards begins simply because the Left embraces failure without ever once realizing it.
Zombie, you are the most sensible man on the pitch……….
In addition to bullying, the crux of the issue is that it’s utterly contrived. It’s an assumption on a misinterpretation based on an paragraph in an interview taken out of context. It’s a shy taken at people of faith from the Left solely because they could. To fight this controversy only justifies it, and gives weight and purpose to an illegitimate claim when it never had any to begin with. Bullets should be saved for real targets and when you hurl lead at everything and anything, the audience you should influence will have lost interest and when a real issue arises you will be all spent………
How do you know if this is the Good Fight? When winning it helps your cause or hurts your adversary. When it does neither, then it is not the Good Fight………
As an official member of the League of Extraordinary Procrastinators I’ll have to get back to you on this. Mebbe inna coupla months, mebbe.
On this, I am zombitacus.
Though I must admit my utter indifference has been in high gear for some days already, I see no problem extending it into the indefinite future.
I don’t believe I’ve ever sampled their wares, I have a vague impression of having been turned off by their corporate religiosity before, although these days I tend to have a vague positive impression of religiosity in most cases, generally excluding Islam. There is a kosher fish place down the street that I am not boycotting, nor kissing anybody at, nor standing in a block-long line to patronize. I suspect their position on homosexual marriage is about the same as Mr. Fil-A’s, fwiw.
Anyway, I completely support your complete lack of involvement with any way, and I will strive to stay up with you in a total absence of concern.
LOVE your work, Zombie! But on this post, I think that you should man (or woman) up and re-consider. For as your PJM colleague Richard Fernandez so astutely points out, this is not about Christianity, gay marriage, or Chick-fil-A at all, but rather, a visceral backlash against about the insatiable over-reach of PC (an idea which I would think would be close to your heart). As per Richard:
The legend as told by Tschudi (ca. 1570) goes as follows: William Tell, who originally came from Bürglen, was known as a strong man and an expert shot with the crossbow. In his time, the Habsburg emperors of Austria were seeking to dominate Uri. Albrecht (or Hermann) Gessler, the newly appointed Austrian Vogt of Altdorf, raised a pole in the village’s central square, hung his hat on top of it, and demanded that all the townsfolk bow before the hat. On 18 November 1307, Tell visited Altdorf with his young son and passed by the hat, publicly refusing to bow to it, and so was arrested. Gessler — intrigued by Tell’s famed marksmanship, yet resentful of his defiance — devised a cruel punishment: Tell and his son would be executed, but he could redeem his life by shooting an apple off the head of his son, Walter, in a single attempt. Tell split the apple with a bolt from his crossbow. And the rest, as they say, is history.
What is remarkable about Gessler’s Hat is that it was about anything except the hat. It’s very insignificance as an object of forced respect showed that it was all about arbitrary domination. Gessler had made his hat holy, as Caligula had made his horse a consul, and everyone was expected to acknowledge it. Thus it was above all about power, made all the more manifest by its exercise in the most capricious and petty ways, for most any king can command a respect for his person. But only a tyrant can demand the veneration of his underwear.
Rahm Emanuel’s insistence that Chick-fil-A bow to the icon of gay marriage had that effect, at least upon some. Chick-fil-A is not about gay marriage or Christianity at all, any more than the incident of William Tell was about a hat. It’s about power. It is morphing into an overt test of whether the cultural elite can have its way. The problem with National Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day is that it constitutes an act of open defiance by manifesting all too publicly the contempt that a fairly large segment of the population has for shibboleths of political correctness.
Read it all here http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2012/08/02/the-chickens-hat/?singlepage=true
and keep up the good work! (and don’t be above a public re-thinking – we don;t want to become like Leftists here
Somebody on the internet said that Harry Reid picks up Chicks at the Boy-Fil-A. He hasn’t denied it.
Everybody: New thread!!!
Ringo was lucky to find a kiss-in at the LA branch:
Chick-fil-A Kiss-In, Hollywood: the pictures
Everybody go there.
…Obey…Zombie…
‘s…suggestions………humor…gland…missing….
Postmodern indifference=Self-centered snarky sarcasm. I don’t think the jack booted thugs from the Ministry of Love will let you take your Pabst Blue Ribbons to Room 101.
Wow. Guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree and leave it at that.
Kinda disappointing.
Atlas yawned?
Every person is entitled to their opinion.
However, they are apparently not entitled to have no opinion!
Never before have I aroused such dismay by expressing disinterest in a news story!
Instead of venting anger at someone who makes a satirical post about having no opinion whatsoever, it might be more productive to vent anger at all the many people who have very strong opinions you find objectionable.
It’s actually the fact that people here respect your work and your opinion that explains why so many of us are stating our cases on why you should have an opinion, or at least, why this isn’t just about same sex marriages and chicken sandwiches, with or without the pickles and waffle fries.
My friend’s wife is a big-time lib who wants everyone to think as she does, so she’s been posting links to websites opposed to the Cathys and their stance on gay marriage for years. So this is not a new battle, but what was new was the idea that certain Democratic politicians decided, in the wake of Obama’s flip-flop on the issue, that it was now OK to use the power of the state to enforce that position. The fact that one of them has connections to the highest levels of the Democratic Party is why the blowback went viral.
When the man who famously said “Never let a good crisis go to waste” just prior to becoming White House Chief of Staff decides it’s in his interest to turn a minor kerfuffle into a crisis that allows suppression of someone’s First Amendment rights, people aren’t going to be indifferent. And it only turns back into inept, clownish behavior by those seeking to curtail the rights because so many people pushed back so fast — if everyone’s indifferent, Rahm’s beliefs would soon become the law of, at the very least, Blue State land.
It is about rights to an extent. As Richard Fernandez pointed out, Mountain View banned a franchise of Chick-fil-a on zoning grounds. Sounds unlikely. So indifference is the wrong posture, assuming one cares about the endless culture and political wars. Sometimes is all just too nauseating to contemplate.
Purely from a marketing perspective, Chick-fil-a’s decision to assertively put itself in the middle of controversial political issues seems like a real marketing mistake. Why deliberately alienate any segment of your potential customer base? For many years Chick-fil-a has been making it’s contributions behind the scenes like most other companies do, they should have kept doing that.
So what you are saying is cowardice is profitable. Perhaps Dan Cathy believes in the integrity of a higher power. Just the sheer fact that he had record sales puts the lie to your theory.
From the news coverage I’ve seen so far, all I can say about CFA is:
They’ve treated all customers, even the free-loading, cup-of-water-only, kiss-in protestors, with respect.
They’ve served the hell out of their food, and the employees have performed like champs. Apparently same store sales are up something like 200%.
The public appears to be coming back for more: the CFA I drove past this morning (Saturday) was packed, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they are packed for lunch also.
Find me any business that wouldn’t give their left arm for the week that CFA has had.
#19 DRtuddle: That Peach shake is amazing. I’m heading to my local CFA right now.
I enjoyed this Zombie, made me laugh. The MSM media and Obama administration are perpetuating the culture war battle in order to distract the populace from the crumbling nation. And I have to either laugh or cry at how effectively their strategy is working.
I’m random too, I’ll join you in your day of indifference. I have no idea where the closest Chick-fil-A is in my city. I just don’t care. I have eaten there many times before though and would do it again if I was hungry and nothing better around.
Too many more frightening things happening in America to really give a hoot about this non-issue. From the brewin’ war in the middle east, to the shocking video footage on youtube of paramilitary police in Anaheim, CA. Last time I check, the nation is still bankrupt. Probably a good idea for the MSM to keep good Americans focused on the culture war.
The success of the CFA appreciation day is irreverent. The MSM is winning this battle.
“to the shocking video footage on youtube of paramilitary police in Anaheim, CA”
no you d’nt.. *snap
I would be happy to see the end of all the brouhaha about gay marriage. The issue affects a tiny percentage of Americans and has been promoted to be a major cause. In a world where thousands are killed every day, there are millions with no work, zillions on the dole, and nuclear attacks and terrorism are possibilities, there are far more important things which deserve conversation and action.
Dashing Through The Snow!
Or:
Scriptures He Don’t Know!
A Hillbilly Carol
By Caleb Boone
To be sung to the tune of “Jingle Bells.”
We’ll call him “Chicken Dan,”
He talked all night and day,
To boost his master plan,
Confusing all the way.
Bells on churchtops ring,
That Dan is wrong, not right.
How sad it is to say and sing,
Dan’s half-baked thoughts tonight.
Oh, Chick-fil-A, Chick-fil-A,
Let’s send Dan back to school!
He needs to learn some Scriptures,
In a one horse open sleigh!
Chick-fil-A, Chick-fil-A,
How dumb can Danny be?
Oh what fun we’ll have when he
Is well out of the way!
A day or two ago
Dan said God would kill us,
Blow us to kingdom-come,
Without too much fuss.
He said we’d be struck down,
That God would be real mad,
He’d blow us all to smithereens,
And hurt us very bad!
Chick-fil-A, Chick-fil-A,
Your food is not that good!
You’ll never beat Kentucky Fried,
With sandwiches made of wood!
Chick-fil-A, Chick-fil-A,
The Colonel will survive!
We’ll run you out of town real fast,
In a one-horse open sleigh!
Chick-fil-A, Chick-fil-A,
Go back to Sunday School!
You need to learn to read and write,
Not sit on a Dunce Stool!
Chick-fil-A, Chick-fil-A,
God is Love, not hate!
But, bless my heart, you’ll never know,
Unless you study and stay up late!
Hays, Kansas
July 30, 2012.
Stupid.
Lame and pathetic and just kinda dumb.
We already have a poet laureate and songmeister around here. His name is buzzsawmonkey. Take some lessons. Maybe you’ll learn something. But you’ll have to give up the forced liberal-bigot imagery first.
I went to Chick-Fil-A today.
Nice place, good food, great service.
I heartily approve of this. I will continue to eat occasionally at Chick-fil-A, regardless of who is protesting/promoting it for what.
For someone ‘indifferent’ you sure wasted a lot of type. I don’t buy it.
A pox on both their houses starts in somebody’s house. I suspect you don’t like your own house. Your indifference reads a lot more like scorn.
It comes down to this, Z:
“They came for the chicken sandwich seller, and I said nothing, because I’m not a chicken sandwich seller…”
(lifted from a commenter in another thread, who I’m sure will not mind)
Now please go back to your usual excellent work. “Non-engagement” is not an option this year.
Zombie usually gets a bulls eye but this time missed the broadside of the barn. It stuns me when people miss what is right in front of them.
Perhaps I was aiming at a different barn. From your vantage point I missed, but the people in that other barn feel the sting of buckshot in their collective tuches.
And let’s not forget where all of this began…
“Homosexual advocates vilified [Anita} Bryant for her stance, and continue to insult her to this day. They organized a boycott of her corporate sponsors and they obtained denunciations of Bryant by other entertainers. Four self-proclaimed homosexuals slapped Bryant with a pie in her face during a speaking event in Des Moines, Iowa.[3] Bryant responded immediately by saying a prayer for her assailants. Police authorities refused to prosecute for the assault.
The efforts of the homosexual activists succeeded in destroying Bryant’s career. The corporations refused to continue to hire her; the music industry excluded her. Subsequent attempts by Bryant to further her entertainment career in small towns were unsuccessful, and liberal newspapers hound her about that also.[4]”
http://www.conservapedia.com/Anita_Bryant
Um, I think Anita Bryant destroyed Anita Bryant’s career. But that’s just me.
I don’t believe in the bible thumping philosophy but my granddaughter likes chick fil A because they often have things for little kids so I support her. My daughter in law stood in line and got some take outs on appreciation day. She was struck by the anti-gay mentality of many of those in line……not a freedom of speech mentality. I think it’s a big to do over nothing. Gay marriage will open a new field (gay divorces) for lawyers and i wouldn’t be surprised if many supporting the marriages aren’t in that category.
Oh dang, is it Monday already? I completely forgot about Indifference Day. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
I think the Left had a much more successful Starbucks Indifference Day yesterday, than Saturday’s Chick-Fil-A Indifference Day.