Did you kiss more chicks or had chick fil a?

Jimmy Snyder

Is this criterion being used against any other company that wants permits in Chicago or Boston? If not, then why this company and this company alone?

And apparently succeeding. Moreno and Menino are not even trying. I have seen nothing in your evidence other than a company president who views the world differently and speaks his mind.

What is wrong with this statement that would cause you to take away his right of free speech?

By the way, you can't blame my googling skills for missing that one anecdote. It wasn't even about discrimination since the people who made homophobic jokes didn't know she was gay.

wuliheron

As far as I'm concerned the politicians were all spouting the usual empty threats when they threatened to deny Chick Fil A a licence to do business. The far right has been making endless threats against gays for fifty years and the first time someone threatens them back they get all defensive. They can dish it out, but they can't take it any better than the neighborhood bully. In any case, it brought national attention to the issue which is just fine by me.

Whether you know someone is gay or not is not the issue. You don't know if someone is Jewish or not either and employees being allowed or even encouraged to tell anti-Semitic jokes at work all the time, customers being allowed to make outrageous racist comments every day of the week, etc. are all unacceptable behavior in a public place of business. For too long the far right has promoted itself as the voice of dignity and decency only to support these kinds of anti-democratic intolerant and just plain ugly behaviors. Again, like the neighborhood bully who is all too eager to dish it out, but can't take the slightest blow to their own over-inflated ego and needs to be confronted.

wuliheron

The evidence does paint a bleak picture. How would you like it if you worked in public place of business where the management allowed customers and employees to routinely mock and denigrate your religious beliefs, race, or whatever. Freedom of speech does not mean the freedom to say just anything you want including such restrictions as those against yelling fire in a crowded theater, harassing people at work, or inciting riots. If they were construction or dock workers or whatever I could understand, but not a public place of business that serves thousands of people a day. A consistent pattern of such behavior implies a real desire to discriminate against hiring such people.

Jimmy Snyder

Wrong when they do it, OK when we do it? Do you have a link for a public official threatening to deny a permit based on a disagreement with what was said by one of the employees? What, if anything at all, is wrong with the following statement?

Nothing that I can tell, but perhaps you can enlighten me.

Pythagorean

context?

http://i.imgur.com/VSW8L.png

russ_watters

Problem is, you said discrimination and you can't discriminate against someone if you don't know "what" they are. What you are describing is sexual harassment.

And while sexual harassment is technically illegal in workplaces, in the low-end of society it is a virtually continuous occurrance. One example of one person feeling uncomfortable hearing gay jokes is absurdly banal.

wuliheron

You must be joking. Just last year the governor of Texas threatened to secede from the union. In Italy they elected a XXX porn star to national office repeatedly just to mock the system and in many countries the legislators routinely have mock wrestling matches on the floor just to prove to their constituents they are fighting for them. Americans are no different and politicians would not continue the practice if it wasn't obviously effective. The idea that this may be too far and over the line is naive to say the least.

You can get on your high horse and say this is too far, but that's obviously a personal issue. In the days of Anita Bryant gay bars were routinely being raided by the police and shut down. Cops would bust down the doors of even private residences and arrest people for homosexual behavior or, in my state, not having proof of separate bedding. Whether legal or not slavery was an abomination and so is denying gays equal rights under the law and supporting hate groups that promote ideas like deporting them.

russ_watters

Can you see the difference between granstanding and deriliction of duty? If you think the politicians are just grandstanding, fine, but jimmy believes they are serious. So do I.

Jimmy Snyder

I couldn't find any examples either.

wuliheron

If you are expecting someone to hold your hand and tell you everything is going to be OK think again. You have every reason to be afraid because the right wing has been asking for payback for decades. The single most destructive act of terrorism on American soil until 9/11 was the radical right wing bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building. Last year NYC arrested 26 reporters in one day in violation of their constitutional rights and congress seriously debated allowing the military to arbitrarily suspend habeas corpus altogether and round people up in camps like so many cattle. Be very afraid. This is the mess the American public has allowed and even encouraged.

Jimmy Snyder

Yes, our rights are being eroded. And your solution to this problem is to deny Chick-fil-A their free speech rights. How will that help?

I have selected 9 posts that are not part of this thread. Quote these posts as well, or deselect these posts.

russ_watters

Setting aside the conspiracy theory tone and inaccurate characterizations, I agree that those things are wrong. That's all just an OT rant, though, unless you mean to imply it should be OK for the Left to even the score.

WannabeNewton

I don't understand this double standard people in this country seem to have (I'm not saying you have it because I know you don't and when you say free speech you do mean it generally) where they use free speech as an excuse to attack gay rights or the act of being a homosexual and then get absolutely smitten and angry when someone makes a racist comment about blacks or asians or what have you. It is extremely infuriating and I see it on various public forums (most notably facebook). Why is it absolutely wrong and disgusting in the eyes of the media or the general public when someone says the aforementioned racial groups shouldn't have the rights they deserve but its ok to say it about gays?!

wuliheron

What on earth does "deselect" mean and what on earth are you talking about?

wuliheron

I'm saying when the foundations of democracy such as tolerance, equal rights, and freedom of the press are ignored it's anything goes. That's not a personal morality, but a simple fact of life.

Jimmy Snyder

I wish I knew. I was hoping you or someone else might tell me the meaning of these words. If you reply to this post, you will see them just below the text input box.