I’m inclined to give Chick-fil-A franchisees the benefit of the doubt–who knows what they knew about the haters who run the company, and once you’ve bought a franchise, you’re just along for the ride. So when I read what seemed to be a heartfelt letter from the owner of the Chicago restaurant, I felt bad for the owners, until I learned that it was a form letter.
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Baud
Popeye’s: We only serve gay chickens.
Handy
Hate tastes like crap no matter who serves it.
JGabriel
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mistermix:
Chick-Fil-A
fricaseesfranchisees have to prove their conservative Christian bona fides before getting the franchise, or so I’ve heard.So I’m not terribly inclined to give them the BotD.
Not that it matters much here. No CFAs in NYC. Must not like us godless heathens. To which we say, “Thank god.”
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mistermix
@JGabriel: As an atheist, I’m inclined to forgive them if they say they don’t agree with corporate, but not via a form letter probably written by corporate.
the Conster
Keeping track of every product I buy’s provenance is becoming a full time job, so off I go to the farmer’s market to buy stuff from people I can talk to. Giving up beef and pork was the best thing I’ve ever done, and the little bit of chicken I eat is about to become zero.
By the way, when will Dan Cathy acknowledge that his PR person was just smited dead by their God that always coincidentally hates who they hate?
TheMightyTrowel
@the Conster: around the same time that C-f-A waffle fries start to taste like more than salty cardboard.
(that means never.)
JGabriel
@mistermix: Even if the local franchise owner does not agree with corporate, he/she is still passing on fees and profit that corporate uses to bankroll hate groups, as noted in the DKos article you linked above.
After all, as a libertarian would argue, the franchise owner can end the franchise and take up a new one, or go it alone.
In any event, whether one sympathizes with the local owner or not, one should still avoid patronizing their local CFA, if only to avoid any part in corporate’s funding of hate groups.
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NonyNony
@mistermix: I’d forgive them, but I still wouldn’t but chicken sandwiches from them or encourage anyone who disagreed with Dan Cathy to buy them either. I know how franchisee fees operate. Lie down with dogs, wake up with fleas and all that.
@the Conster:
That’s evidence of Satan’s power creeping over the Earth, not God’s. God smites the evil and the unrighteous and the atheists. Satan viciously backstabs the good and the just and the True Believers who are trying to enact God’s Plan.
schrodinger's cat
I never liked Chick-filA (sp?)’s chicken all that much, but their waffle fries are something else. Any way that was when I lived near DC, no Chick-filA’s in New England.
Elizabelle
Years later, I never fill up at Exxon if there’s another station available.
Nor BP.
Maybe all those people keeping Susan Komen funded (not!) can flock over to CFA.
General Stuck
It’s usually the coverup that gets them
NonyNony
@schrodinger’s cat:
I’m not big on the fries, but I did enjoy their chicken sandwiches and their chicken nuggets. Not a bad breakfast menu either if you need to have something quick on the road.
But screw ’em – they already made me feel uncomfortable with their “super-Christian” act. I just feel kind of stupid that I thought it was all just cynical marketing to pander to self-absorbed “super-Christians”.
Raven on the Hill
Wander by the WinShape Foundation’s web site. These people are the toxic sort of Christians, and I suspect if you dug into WinShape’s “ministry,” you would find much more to dislike.
General Stuck
Then there is the bizzaro wingnut outrage on what the fuck happened to Churchill’s bust. For some reason, it makes me think of Weekend At Bernies with that bust of a dead GOP hero, being shuttled around town for the sake of appearances.
Sometimes I wonder what American life would be like without our wingnuts, and the goofy shit they care about.
red dog
This is a stupid conversation. Some of you think you can only work for someone who agrees with your opinions, good luck. How would you even get hired if you asked about the boss’s stands on social issues. Should all company declare their political views? Be diverse people, that’s part of our charm.
Raven on the Hill
They are also Google spammers, which makes it hard to research them. Literally I can find almost nothing about them that isn’t by them or their connections in the first six pages of Google commentary on WinShape.
I think some detective work on WinShape is in order.
General Stuck
@red dog:
So what do you think of how Obama has disrespected the bust of Winston Churchill? That’s important to converse about, taint it?
geg6
Fuck CFA and their awful horrible “food”. Tried it once. Never again because it simply sucks. I’d rather eat at Mickey D’s and that’s saying something because I hate that shit, too. And now that I’m aware of their agenda and how Santorum is their “special sauce”, I not only will continue to not eat the crap they serve there, but am encouraging everyone I know to stay the hell away. My staff assistant, who is buddies with the local franchise owner and a crazed Christianist, got into an argument with me about it yesterday. Her face turned several lovely shades of purple as I continued to insist that perhaps she’s happy to patronize and be friends with bigots but my atheist morals do not allow me to do the same. Said I got the idea from that great philosopher, Jesus of Nazareth. I thought she would explode.
Raven on the Hill
Oh, wow. S. Truett Cathy is a wealthy activist Christian Dominionist, and his business deserves scrutiny. Here’s a 2007 Kos article that covers part of the ground: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/07/23/361219/-Dominionism-s-parallel-economy-Pt-2-Dominionism-s-Corporate-Sponsors
Tripod
Chik-Fil-A is running a bust out. First they’ll over build so they can bilk sucker franchisees, then float an overvalued IPO. Before anyone can say Krispy Kreme, whoever ends up owning this turd will be retrenching back to core markets, blah, blah, blah….
The marks will be able to blame the gay kerfuffle rather than CEO Jesus Christ and moronic faith in a get rich quick hustle.
NonyNony
@red dog:
The fuck you talking about?
This is about giving money to a company that is going to spend that money on bigotry. Not about “who you work for”.
It’s a free market – I’m free to buy my fried chicken sandwiches anywhere I want for any reason I want. Something that Chick-fil-A’s president should have thought of before he opened his goddamn yap.
He’s just lucky his company isn’t publicly traded, or his shareholders would probably have his nuts in a vice right now.
Villago Delenda Est
@red dog:
“Be diverse”? With people like this who loathe diversity and want to destroy it? Who actively work to zombify everyone to be just like them?
Raven on the Hill
@red dog: “Some of you think you can only work for someone who agrees with your opinions”
The Chick-Fil-A corporate management is Dominionist; I doubt they leave space for disagreement.
And learn some grammar, sheesh!
Mr Furious
Any major food service / fast food corporation that requires stores to be closed on Sundays is wearing their religiosity pretty aggressively on their tacky, polyester sleeve. You had to know to a large degree what you were getting involved with when you bought in.
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of compassion
@red dog: It became one when you joined it. “Some of us” think that American consumers have a right to know that a portion of every chicken crap patty they buy goes to fund anti-gay causes. This isn’t about “free speech”, dumbass. Cathy can think and believe any damned thing he likes. It’s when he starts using money I pay for food to donate to people who work 24/7/365 to make my life and the lives of those I love that of a second class citizen in this country. If you can’t distinguish between that and your bullshit definition of diversity, then you’re even more stupid than your writing would indicate. Which is a high bar, indeed.
schrodinger's cat
@NonyNony: Well this was over 4 years ago. Chick-fil-A was one of the options at the Student Union, where other choices were McDonalds, SBarro’s and Taco bell among others
Soonergrunt
@red dog: Oh, I loved working for conservatives when I was in the private sector. I mean, besides constantly being fucked over and subjected to illegal working conditions. I really loved donating part of my paycheck to DNC and the DCCC and knowing that it came from them.
But see, here’s where you are wrong–Dan Cathey can do whatever he wants with the money he gets from his private enterprise. Whatever bigotted shit he wants to do, he can go for it. I wouldn’t dream of stopping him, as long as it’s strictly legal. But I’m damned if he’s going to use any money from me to do it. Being under no obligation to give him my business, I choose to not do so because he is a bigot, a liar, and a fraud.
JoyfulA
@JGabriel: True. Franchisees must convince owner rep of Xtianist right-wing bona fides before they’re allowed to pay, according to friend’s friend, who interviewed for a franchise.
JoyfulA
@General Stuck: I got a message last night from Plouffe or the DNC or someone, saying the Churchill bust is in the White House, just not staring at POTUS in the Oval Office. There were pix, including POTUS and the PM looking at the bust.
Soonergrunt
@JoyfulA: According to right-wing news source Politico, it’s in the Residence, outside the Treaty Room. Its place in the Oval Office was taken by a bust of an actual American President, Abraham Lincoln.
NonyNony
@schrodinger’s cat: Jeebus your university hated you guys didn’t they :)
JPL
@JoyfulA: Supposedly there are two busts, one that was on loan and returned and one in the White House. It’s all very confusing because I’m not sure why we are celebrating Churchill anyway. We have many Americans that we can honor.
Villago Delenda Est
@Soonergrunt:
Well, not an actual American President as far as the people who “want their country back” are concerned. Jefferson Davis was the actual American President during that time period, you know.
jon
@General Stuck: I can’t figure out how a loan became a gift. I wonder if Obama would have been a Katrina Looter or an Imperialist Tyrant if he had kept that bust. That he replaced it with a bust of Abraham Lincoln must have something to do with Republican anger, as that idol is only to be brought forth in the sacred We Aren’t Racist shuck and jive of the New Southern Republican.
Mino
It never occured to these idiots that anyone would notice that these oh-so-sincere franchise letters were all duplicates?
General Stuck
@JoyfulA:
Yea, but the wingers ain’t buying it, as just more Obama lies.
See now. Doesn’t that make perfect non sense. I do expect Inspector (Clouseau) Issa to get on the case any day now.
Mino
Nevermind. The Wingnutterati don’t like the British anymore so who cares what happened to Churchill’s bust, anyway.
JPL
@General Stuck: What I don’t get is why did they have the bust anyway and why would they have two?????
Villago Delenda Est
@Mino:
The Tories are way too socia1ist for wingtard tastes, particularly after they reacted so poorly to the Rmoneytron’s brilliant diplomatic moves over the last two days.
Soonergrunt
@JPL: That’s what I’d like explained by those fuckwits. Why would we (or anybody, including the Brits, for that matter) need TWO busts of Churchill in one place.
NonyNony
@JPL:
From here, which means that it’s just a bunch of Obama lies of course.
@Mino:
This is true, but it just means that the Tories in “England” have forgotten what it means to be a True Conservative like Winston Churchill was. They don’t deserve the bust either, so now President Romney must commit himself to getting it back from the UK even if it means bombing them into submission to get it back.
General Stuck
@JPL:
Maybe Chick Fill A will add an item to their menu to right this blasphemous wrong, to honor Sir Winston all proper and shit. Chicken Catch A Tory.
I stole that from Mr Peabody who coined the phrase decades ago after returning from a trip in the WAYBAC Machine.
maya
@NonyNony:
The original bust was having its ear hairs removed.
Mino
@General Stuck: Well, you brought the two threads together rather nicely. Ouch.
Ash Can
Jake Tapper covered this whole thing on his blog at ABC yesterday. There are two busts, both by the same sculptor. One was a gift to Richard Nixon (which is the one that remains in the WH) and the other was lent to W by Tony Blair. When W left office evidently Blair offered to extend the loan to Obama, and O declined. Mystery solved. And kudos to Tapper for performing actual journalism — moar of this, plz.
JPL
@General Stuck: tee hee
the Conster
@General Stuck:
OK, thread won and done.
flukebucket
@General Stuck:
And with that I am off to cut grass and do productive things. It just will not get any better today. Thanks for the bust a gut laugh.
henqiguai
@schrodinger’s cat (#9):
Your’re out of date. There’s at least one that I know of — Pheasant Lane Mall’s food court; south Nashua, NH right across the border from Massachusetts.
xian
@Soonergrunt: there’s that journOlist agenda again
patrick II
If Obama had replaced Churchill’s bust with a statue of his dog Bo or something, I could see that the English, or anyone else for that matter, would make a fuss. Churchill was a great man, but his statue was replaced by one of Abraham Lincoln — not just a great man, but a great American. Probably the greatest American. Why is the right wing whining about Americans? Are they anti-American now?
Why is Romney calling for replacing the bust of Abraham Lincoln, an American, with Winston Churchill, a foreigner? I think Romney isn’t a true American but a pseudo-European and probably a communist.
Ben Cisco
@red dog: Shorter red dog:
Be a good lad and fill this, wouldya?
foodriots
You wankers are making me ill with your sympathy for Chicago franchise owners. Fuck em. If they have a problem with it they should complain to the franchise executives who brought this on themselves with no help from anyone. This is war and war is ugly. It’s not all rainbows and sprinkles.
Got a chuckle out of the breaking bad reference though.
Donut
My business revolves around restaurant franchisees and I have seen some of the various operating agreements out there, and even the most lackadaisical franchisor/franchisee relationship is pretty in-depth and detailed in terms of what the two parties know about each other when they start the process. You’re being far too generous with the doubt, IMO.
patrick II
Small, foster child raising, business man sued by fascist chicken corporation.
Lavocat
I like mine with extra-spicy hate.
Lavocat
@patrick II: Churchill a great man? NFW. One word: Gallipoli.
Donut
@Ash Can:
The whole thing was debunked three-plus years ago. I had pretty much that understanding of the narrative back when Obama didn’t take up Blair on the offer.
Zombie lies and all.
West of the Cascades
@patrick II: Abraham Lincoln was a RINO, not a real bigot like Churchill, hence the current GOP’s hate. Even up until four years ago you used to hear the occasional Republican saying they are “the Party of Lincoln.” Not so much any more.
JGabriel
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patrick II:
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From the linked article:
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[Marvels at the last sentence]
Sometimes you don’t even need to write a punchline. I want to take the phrase “Chick-fil-A’s valuable ‘Eat Mor Chikin’ Intellectual Property” and make mad love to it.
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TooManyJens
@patrick II:
Remember, these are the people who’ve now decided that having “anti-colonialist views” is un-American. What they think we had a revolution for, I don’t know.
JGabriel
@patrick II:
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That’s not exactly a new development.
TooManyJens:
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To be fair, they thought that back in 1776 too, when they were still calling themselves Tories.
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Liberty60
@Ash Can:
HE DECLINED???!!?!?
MOAR OUTRAGE!!!11!!!!!111
ANGLOSAXON HERITAGE! BRITAIN IS GREAT!SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP! BRITAIN IS TERRIBLE! SHOVE IT UP THE QUEENS ARSE!
ARGLEBARGLE FLAPPITTY FLAP!
Doesn’t matter. The magic of wingnuttery is being able to believe 5 different things at once.
ShadeTail
@Mino:
No, it didn’t. Because ten or fifteen years ago, nobody would have. Back then, this probably would have flown under the radar. But since then, the internet has changed almost everything, and these dimwits still haven’t caught up.
Joseph Nobles
@patrick II: Well, technically, the bust of Abraham Lincoln was already in the Oval Office, from what I understand. Lincoln’s bust was moved to the spot where Churchill’s bust had stood.
Going into the place where Lincoln’s bust had stood was a bust of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Jim Ehlen
@JGabriel: Go to the Chick-fil-A web site and take a look at the franchise offering document it will open your eyes. The “owner” is only allowed one store and must work it full time and promote company values (Christian) and be closed on Sundays. They have very little in the way of personal wealth at risk as Chick-fil-A has things well skewed to their control of the business.
herding old cats
I tried Chick-Fil-A exactly twice many years ago (being an open-minded liberal) and both times my chicken patty had a hair in it. So I’ve been done with them for a while.