Weighing in on Chick-fil-A

Okay, here I am, having to weigh in on the Chick-fil-A issue.

Only because ALL of you extremist, on both sides of the issue, are MAKING me weigh in.

I have my own personal opinions on marriage, gay marriage and what it means to me personally.

I am not going to expound on it. It is just that. MY - OWN - PERSONAL - OPINION.

I will talk to family about it. I will talk to friends about it. But I am not going to make a public display either way.

However, all of the morons out there who just HAVE TO MAKE THIS A PUBLIC ISSUE are ignoring one very basic principle of America.

FREEDOM.

Unlike many other nations around this spinning globe we all call home, in America we have freedoms. Freedoms secured by the wisdom of our founders and the courage of those who voluntarily have defended over the CENTURIES. Freedoms founded in faith and secured by blood.

Two of those very basic freedoms are being ignored by everyone speaking out on the Chick-fil-A issue.

Freedom of religion. This is one of the most misunderstood and maligned of all our freedoms in America today. Instead of being in a country where if you are not a follower of a specific religion you are either shunned or dead. we live in America where it is ILLEGAL for the government to force religion on us. But this also means that our public figures and government workers should also be allowed to express their religion. The whole separation of church and state rhetoric today has been turned upside down and destroyed by those who hate and/or fear religion. They say you cannot have a menorah or a nativity scene on your desk. You can't say have a blessed day or Merry Christmas in a government building. This is a denial of the basic freedom we are supposed to be afforded. Everyone is supposed to be afforded. Private citizen or government worker alike.

The falsehoods being spread about this freedom is at the heart of the problem today in the Chick-fil-A stupidity.

The owner of this fast food restaurant has a belief. According to his beliefs, gay marriage is wrong. He has never made a secret of how much he feels about his faith. Sunday is the Sabbath and thus very important to him personally. So his restaurants are closed on Sunday. Now, with gay rights in general and gay marriage in specific being polarized by politicians trying to pander to specific groups to get elected / re-elected, this owner has come out and stated his personal objections to gay marriage.

So what?! It is his right to feel this way and adhere to his beliefs. Although I may not agree with his public rendering of a private choice, I applaud him for sticking to his faith. So many will abandon the beliefs on the altar of public opinion just to make a buck or gain public approval. This guy didn't.

And if you disagree, that is also your right. If you want to not frequent his restaurant. Fine. Again, this is your right. You have the freedom and choice to decide where you want to eat and what businesses you want to patronize.

The problem comes from those who want to publicly demonize this man. People who want to characterize a whole faith and lambast them because HE DOESN'T THINK LIKE THEM.

But lets remember a few other things about this man. He gives to all kinds of charities. Always has. He offers his employees benefits not normally found in the fast food industry. he always has. He helps his employees with educational choices. He always has. Aren't you glad that he "doesn't think like" lots of other businesses out there? If anyone else was a philanthropic as this man you would be praising them. But because of this man's faith, you crucify him. You demean him. You demand he change.

But what if someone said they didn't like the way YOU think? What if they demonized you for the way you raise you children, give to your church or charitable organization? What if you were told you were a hateful person because you wanted to send you child to a good school instead of a public school? What if you wanted to move out of your crime infested neighborhood to a nice neighborhood and were lambasted publicly as a racist, a bigot, an evil person?

How would YOU feel?

And then there is the freedom of free speech. If you want him to just SHUT UP about what he feels is wrong, you are guilty of stifling his free speech. What if you wanted to protect your children from a child molester living in your neighborhood? And you spoke out about the evils of people who molest children? What if you demanded that convicted molesters be registered and you be notified of if they move in near your home or school. You feel it is your right to speak out, yes? But what if someone told you to JUST SHUT UP? Wouldn't you feel your rights were being denied? So why is it okay to try and keep another American from exercising their free speech?

Finally, all the politicians who are speaking out so vehemently against this man and his beliefs. They don't care about you. They don't care about your feelings on this. They are simply pandering to get your vote. If you don't think so, you are being foolish. They said nothing over the years about this man not allowing his restaurants to be open on Sunday. Even though many people complained because they wanted their fast food on Sunday. They didn't complain about who he donated money to in the past. Lots of them actually got money from him in the past, so fo course they wouldn't complain. But now that it is a hot button topic, now that so many are crying out HATRED, they are jumping on the bandwagon. Think they would do this if it were NOT a national election year?

Again, if you think they would, you know nothing about our current crop of politicians. On both sides of the so called aisle. They are all interested in keeping their jobs.

So don't patronize his establishment if you like. That is your choice.

Keep up this public rant in the media, from our politicians, from the whole social media outcry. Then look in the mirror and tell me who is hating. Decide to "destroy this man's business" because he doesn't think like you and then tell me who is the hater.

And just wait. Some day you will be on the other end of this argument. It may just be something you say that doesn't jibe with all the extremist out there. And YOU will be on the receiving end of cries of HATRED and RACISM and EXTREMISM. It will be YOU who they go after and try to "destroy." THEN . . . then, tell me who is the haters.

As I said, I am not going to voice my opinion on the issue. That is between me, my conscience and my family and friends. I am more concerned with the whole "bandwagon" thing and how you are being used by those who want to further their own agenda. You can agree with me or disagree with me, but just take a moment and think about what all I just said. Think about what all everyone else is saying. Then look inside yourself to see how YOU really feel on the subject. So long as I have gotten you to actually examine YOUR thoughts on this, then I have done my job and it doesn't matter either way how you decide. Because, hey, this is just me, Thinking Out Loud.

Have a great day.

Charles

Duh-bama news

Here's an interesting tidbit from the White House visitor news. Obama is pro-abortion. (And when he was in the IL legislature, he would not support legislation that protected fetuses that "survived" abortion attempts.) Yet a woman MUST register an unborn child (which I must remind you is termed a "baby" not a fetus - kind of suggesting a right) and include the gender, if known. Weird. And kind of hypocritical.

I wrote about Dinner with Obama and brought up how it seemed inappropriate to have this "campaign" function at the White House - as well as kind of illegal maybe to essentially sell lottery tickets for this. No one else was talking about this. Then SUDDENLY its Dinner with George Clooney at his house. Well, not to be outdone, Mitt Romney is having a "Lunch with Mitt" thing. But at the bottom of HIS email, it says "No purchase necessary." I think this is not only interesting (since no one but me was talking about this) but makes a point. Obama was asking people to "purchase" this chance to eat dinner with a sitting President at the White House. Selling the office. Pretty sad.

And for you twit-wits, who would say "uh, da President does those fund raiser dinner things" and I shouldn't even be making a deal about it. But you see here is the difference. Obam does not sell those tickets. And it is a ticket, like going to the movies or something, and not a lottery / raffle / etc. Someone else is doing a fund raiser and the President uses his position as the head of the Party to be there and endorse this person the dinner is for. Even it its for himself. But to sell these raffle tickets, gambling, and use the White House (which does not BELONG to him, it BELONGS to us) is pretty much an abuse of office.

This item is more about the duh-bama supporters than anyone. The President's recent "gay marriage" announcement - which followed the weird and creepy Biden "finger movements" speech - is all about politics. His numbers were slipping even after he denied all blame on everything from the economy to the wet spot on the carpet (just kidding - but he would deny it if it would help him get re-elected). So he did something his handlers told him - openly and loudly support gay marriage. And it did.

From CBS News: "Obama's campaign has declined to say how much it has collected since the announcement but some staffers have asked supporters to give money as a way of expressing their approval."

Anyone who can't see that this is politics plain and simple and they are being used, in my humble opinion, is an absolute idiot.

Don't get me wrong, they all do it. Pander. But since this is "duh-bama news" and not "duh-lected official news" I am just concentrating on this senseless dolts.

But you know, you can agree or disagree with me and it makes no real difference to me. So long as it is you - and not some spin doctor speaking THROUGH you - doing the agreeing or disagreeing. I want you to THINK FOR YOURSELVES, STOP BEING SHEEP and AVOID THE SPIN! Anyway, this is just me, Thinking out Loud.

Have a great day.

Charles

postscript - I hope all of you mothers out there (and I mean that in the awed, respectful way - not the cynical way some of you might take me to say it) have an absolutely wonderful Mother's Day. - Love you and miss you, mom.

Iran, Obama, and the kitchen sink

A couple of tidbits to go over in this posting. Iran, Obama, Romney

Okay, we know the leaders of Iran are off their freaking rockers. Its such a shame because the people are so well balanced there. (eye roll) But now comes this story about an altered image for their missile testing. Seems they included a shot of JarJar Binks from Star Wars. If I were Spielberg, I'd sue. What I like about this image, however, is the missile in the background that seems to be coming back at them. Prophetic, maybe? Lets hope.

President Obama is back on the campaign trail. And this means he is jumping on his old strategy again. Deny, deny, deny . . . and hope the American public is gullible enough to fall for it again. I know many an Obama supporter from the first run in 2008 are fed up with him. But its been four years, so there is a bunch of new young people to target and exploit. A new group of young blacks to lie to, a new bunch of young whites to make feel guilty and just generally a new bunch of well meaning but politically and socially ignorant voters to get to pull the old Democrat lever. Just take a look at his "its not my fault" on the economy. Supporters just knowingly nod their head in agreement (as the puppet masters of SPIN reach in, remove their spine and nod it for them). Oh no, they will decry, this is all Bush's fault. Lets forget for a moment that the President is where the buck stops. Ignore the fact that Obama has constantly dodged that buck stopping on his own watch. To say he is "not responsible" for our current financial woes we must rip out part of our brain and forget he was IN CONGRESS when this was happening. We must ignore the fact that HE DID NOTHING while in Congress of any real significance. He merely stood by during photo ops with the people who did do things. Even things we don't like. But he initiated nothing on his own. You can argue that he said the "right things" in opposition. But I put out there for you to consider, he showed NO LEADERSHIP on anything while he was in congress. SO I further submit to you that by NOT DOING anything, he is just as at fault for the economy as everyone else that has been in Congress for the last decade or more.

(I also point out that the figure MOST responsible for our current financial woes is actually Barney Frank, who obstructed efforts to reign in the problems with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac dating all the way back to 2000. Yet no one is willing to indict this scumbag because they don't want to be seen offending gays. - I further want to point out that I have no problem offending gays, blacks, white, asian, hetero or otherwise sexual, or just about anyone who deserves to be singled out for stupidity. It doesn't mean I am anti-gay, black, etc - it means I am willing to call stupid, ignorant, criminal or whatever if the accusation fits.)

And I don't intend for that to sound racist, but it is the President himself who keeps trumping up the race card. He keeps jumping on it like a kid on a new pogo stick, never getting tired of going up and down, but never getting anywhere in the vicinity of forward movement.

Coming as no surprise to anyone, Vladmir Putin, who really wants a return of the Soviet Union's glory days, speaks of unity and shows what he means by rounding up protestors. In what can only amount to the ultiamte "spin", Putin said, "We want to, and we will, live in a democratic country," evoking patriotic images of Russia as a great nation and urging people to show a sense of responsibility and national pride to make the country stronger. And these guys are our friends. At least they are friends with Obama.

Not to be outdone on the international arena, the President has issued a memoranda (dated April 25, 2012) in regards to ignoring terrorism and ignoring international conventions, in order to give money and lots of other things to the Palestinian Authority. By issuing this memoranda, which seems tame on the surface, simply stating the whole "Chapter 4 of Part II" opens the door to all kinds of aide. We may not be at war with Palestine, and according to Obama himself we aren't even really at war with terrorists anymore, but this really shows that Obama is no friend of Israel.

Things look like a lock for Romney at the Republican National Convention come August. Or do they? Seems that Ron Paul is gathering enough delegates to make things a problem for Romney. If for no other reason than the fact that Mitt will have to do some groveling and give Ron Paul supporters things they want on the platform. The little guy who never seems to gain enough support to influence things may actually get a little maneuvering room at the convention.

To which, on the latter issue, I am hoping to be able to swing enough cash to make it to Tampa for the GOP convention. I have the press credentials, I just need the money to get there, find a place to stay and get home. Cross your fingers. I am not wiling to ask for donations in order to get there, but if you want to buy my book between now and June, I will get the money from the publisher in time to book a flight and room. I figure I need to sell just about 1000 books to afford the trip. As a reminder, you can purchase Thinking Out Loud - The Book directly from the publisher (Smashwords) here. If I get 10 comments on this blog I will also put on a link where you can get 10% off the book. (This should still allow me to make enough money for the convention but on the cheap - that is, only a meal a day.)

Finally, agree or disagree with what I have to say, it doesn't really matter. So long as it is YOU agreeing or disagreeing, and not regurgitation of some SPIN doctor's version of things. Because, hey, this is just me, Thinking Out Loud.

Have a great day.

Charles