Nice little chicken stand you have here.
Listen to the broadcast of You Tell Me on KTBB AM 600, Friday, August 3, 2012.
If you harbor any doubt as to how far we have strayed from the founding vision look no further than the story involving the fast food chain Chik-fil-A. Chik-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy recently gave an interview in which he affirmed his belief in the traditional definition of marriage.
He did not condemn homosexuality. He did not say that openly gay customers are unwelcome in his restaurants. He did not say that he refuses to hire openly gay employees. He did not speak a single word of condemnation against anyone who supports same-sex marriage. In fact, Dan Cathy spoke nary a word on the subject of homosexuality at all.
He simply said that he believes that marriage should be defined as the union of one woman and one man in a monogamous relationship. Which is to say he affirmed over 5,000 years of human experience and articulated the position held by as much as two thirds of the population.
Immediately the city fathers of Chicago, Boston and Washington, D.C. — Democrats all — donned the municipal brass knuckles and waved them in Chik-fil-A’s face. Chicago Alderman Joe Moreno said, “Because of this man’s ignorance, I will now be denying Chik-fil-A’s permit to open a restaurant in the First Ward.” That sentiment was echoed by Chicago mayor and former Obama chief-of-staff Rahm Emannuel.
Said mayor Tom Menino of Boston (the city that is home to the Freedom Trail), “If they need licenses in this city, it will be very difficult.”
So there it is, out in the open – holders of elective office arrogating to themselves the power of medieval earls, complete with the sole and arbitrary power to reward those that they favor and to punish those that they don’t. They might as well have said, “Nice little chicken stand you have here. Be a shame if anything happened to it.”
Presumably, inasmuch as until a couple of months ago President Obama held the same position on gay marriage as Chik-fil-A, Alderman Moreno and Mayor Menino would have also denied President Obama a license to open a business in their burgs.
(To be fair, Menino of Boston has grudgingly backed off. Emmauel and Moreno, however, are unapologetic.)
So much, at least in those precincts, for the idea of a constitutional republic. So much for the protections of the first amendment. So much for due process and equal protection under the law. Dare you utter any apostasy against the dogma of the ruling elite and you shall suffer the consequences.
When a business owner dares not speak his mind for fear of economic loss at the hands of government overlords, freedom is forfeit. Secular liberals should take no delight in the momentary discomfort of Dan Cathy, a Christian conservative. Their moment awaits. Once the rule of law may be safely disregarded by those sworn to uphold it, it is only a matter of time before the sacred oxen of the left come to be gored by the same disregard.
That these big city mayors would threaten reprisal against a CEO for the “crime” of him having freely stated his opinion should sound an alarm. It should call our attention to the fact that many in high places in government have become unashamedly untethered from the restraints of law and the constitution.
The word “tyranny” was used frequently by the founders because they understood that it is the nature of man that those in positions of power naturally gravitate toward it. There will always be more Joe Morenos in the world than there will be angels and the founders knew it.
That egregious illustrations of this fact come from members of the same political party constitutes either a grand, unfortunate coincidence – or a telling look into the ethos of that party.
You can decide which.
These people have no idea how CHILDISH they sound! The liberal leftist are nothing more than school yard BULLIES. If you don’t play by OUR rules, you can’t play. A small segment of society is trying to ram their beliefs down our throats by attacking what they fear most. Bullies are cowards at heart and can easily be dealt with by standing your ground. Mr. Cathy has shown us this is the case. If you have faith in what you believe is right, don’t back away. There is NO SHAME in believing in God and what the Bible tells us is so. In Genesis we are told that God made man. Breathed life into him and out of Adam’s rib came woman. God did not make Adam/Adam or Eve/Eve, God made Adam/Eve. I am not going to debate this, there is nothing to debate. This is my belief. Isn’t this still America, land of the free? Isn’t this still where we have free speech and freedom of religion or has this become else since I slept last night? Since when has a small segment of society become more important than the rights of many afforded us in our Bill of Rights and the CONSTITUTION of the United States? This politically correctness hammered into us by the liberal leftist has made a mockery of what this very Country has stood for for hundreds of years! This Country was founded on FREE SPEECH and FREEDOM of RELIGION first and foremost…can ANYONE explain to me just exactly WHAT Mr. Cathy did that was wrong because I can’t see where he did any injustice to anyone. The only injustice that I can see is the bullying by the leftist hate mongers to a man of FAITH!
Biggots shouldn’t be allowed to speak on air. Opposition for equal rights is the same thing as racism.
The self-appointed elite ruling class doesn’t recognize “tyranny” as an issue since it is their “divine right” to control our lives due to their superior intelligence, judgment, and conviction that “we, the people” are sheep, in need of a shepherd. You are “free” to do their bidding and you should be grateful for the “liberties of obedience” that they are willing to bestow upon us.
– QED
Gleiser, are you just trying to hop aboard the Republican propaganda money train or what? I don’t really understand the point of you repeating the same stuff that all of the pundits say over and over again on your conservative talk radio stations. I also find it more than hypocritical that this whole segment is sponsored by a business who directly benefits from a market created by the local government that allows it to flourish by restricting the competition. My guess is that you realize that people like Limbaugh and Beck make more money that the worlds highest paid athletes, and just want a piece of the action.
Okay, I’m a little confused here. I could have sworn that this gallant defense of our first amendment freedom of speech was a reprint of a commentary you posted several years ago in which you simply substituted “Dan Cathy” and “Chik-fil-A” for “Natalie Maines” and “The Dixie Chicks”, but looking through your archives I find no such posting. Has it been deleted for some reason?
Also missing is your eloquent piece championing the right of people such as Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Jeremiah Wright to air their political views under the guise of religion, up to and including views that most sensible people would find offensive, if not downright hateful. What happened to that post?
Digging deeper, I find that your complaints about Barack Obama’s deficit spending are still there, but your equally virulent condemnation of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush increasing the national deficit almost twenty-fold have mysteriously vanished. What gives?
Oh no! Someone has left intact your attacks on the morals of Clinton and Edwards over their adulterous affairs, but your screeds about the extramarital indiscretions of Newt Gingrich, Rudi Guliani, John McCain, and even Ronald Reagan have been expunged.
I have to believe that you have been targeted by some vast left wing conspiracy trying to make you look like a typical right wing hypocrite. Perhaps someone has hacked into your website, although I would think life-lock would have nipped that in the bud. Or maybe some liberal saboteur has infiltrated your staff (Just how well do you really know that Kiser girl?). There must be some logical explanation, otherwise one would naturally assume that you really are a typical right wing hypocrite who only champions our “unalienable rights” when they suit his purposes.
Perish the thought.
Gotta love the left. If they can’t argue with you straight up, they try to sneak around and bite you on the behind. There probably are a few folk left on the fence these days, but I think we’re running out of folks who haven’t decided whether to be sheep or goats. And yes, I did sneak in a Biblical reference there for those of you keeping score.
If I were you, Paul, I’d be flattered that these guys are so afraid of what you say that they are willing to spend the incredible amount of time researching the archives of everything you’ve ever written to find something that “proves” your hypocrisy. And they aren’t even getting paid to do it (unless they’re part of the ACORN teams I saw that were hiring.
Anyway, keep up the good work. It’s inevitable when you turn on the lights, the cockroaches will be revealed.
Tom
It constantly amazes me how the Left Wing, Marxists, Socialists, and all around angry supporters of Tyranny follow Chicago’s Saul Alinsky’s and Barack Obama’s anti-logic. They are always vicious supporters of Tyranny, as long as THEY are in control, at any cost. They never debate the issues on intellectual grounds. They employ the despicable method of demonizing the opposition in order to avoid substantive discussion. As the self-appointed leadership of their “ignorant masses”, they depend on the BIG LIE to persuade this imagined, wholly owned constituency, for which they claim omnipotence and omniscience.
In other words, this is Act I in the Genesis story of the Serpent’s beguiling of Adam and Eve, all over again, as evil displaces conscience, and mankind tries to become a god unto themselves.