Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day Is Today

I've never been to one, but today is the day.  Especially when I read sites like this:

Chick-Fil-A Continues to Expand its Support for Intolerance in Idaho
The only Chick-Fil-A in the Boise area is in the student union building at Boise State (and I believe serves a limited version of the Chick-Fil-A menu).  From the press release a couple of years back announcing this:
In a survey conducted two years ago, Boise State students listed Chick-fil-A as one of their top choices for a new retail venture on campus. The Student Union worked with University Dining Services partner Aramark to close the deal.
I would expect some of BSU's professors will spend at least part of the first day of classes in the fall telling students why they are evil, depraved, disgusting perverts if they eat there.

UPDATE: Huffington Post had a screeching absurd article on the subject (of course) with one especially thoughtful and Christian response:
Chick-Fil-A is a Great company operated by a Christian family, comfortable in their religious beliefs. They, just like Gays, are entitled to their own opinions, and denying Chick-Fil-A owners their free speach makes those who protest the company based on religion of others, the actual hate mongers.
I'm on a diet, so I won;t be eating a Chick-Fil-A sandwich today. I will however be buying (50) sandwiches and taking them to our local homeless shelter.
UPDATE 2: The August 1, 2012 Los Angeles Times report includes this intriguing reminder that there are a still a few Americans who don't regard same-sex marriage and homosexuality as something positive:
Across the country, Twitter users described “mile long traffic to get into chick-fil-a,” stores “so crowded there are cops directing traffic off the highway” and “26 cars in the drive through.” One user, EWErickson, wrote that the “crowd was so big I gave up.”
Earlier, several North Carolina Wendy’s restaurants posted signs saying “We Stand With Chick Fil A.” The fast-food chain, a rival of Chick-fil-A, tweeted at MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts today that the signs were put up by an independent franchisee and have since been taken down. “We proudly serve ALL customers,” Wendy’s tweeted. 
But of course, this was never about Chick-Fil-A not serving homosexuals, but about the CEO spending his money in support of organizations with which he agrees.  Not surprisingly, Corporate America, because it is largely controlled by liberals, chooses to confuse these very separate issues.

UPDATE 3: In spite of the horrible parking situation at Boise State (and yes, this is true even when it isn't Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day), there was at least a hundred people in line when I arrived, and hundreds when I left about 12:40.  Channel 9 interviewed me, perhaps because I started explaining the history of the misapplication of the equal protection clause to a guy who is running for Idaho House seat 17.  I'll be curious to see if they use it.  There were no protesters--and the reporter from channel 9 kept approaching people in line asking if they were opposing Chick-Fil-A.  (Why would they be in line to order food, then?)

In spite of the line, they had my meal to me in about ten seconds.  I guess when you can't see the end of the line, you feel confident yelling, "Drop 500 chicken breasts, stat!"

UPDATE 4: Pictures (finally moved by most Rube Goldbergesque methods from my antique Motorola Razr):



UPDATE 5: I suppose that I should mention that I have never eaten at a Chick-Fil-A before.  How is it?  About the same as you get at most other fast food restaurants, but $2.85 seemed like a decent price for what is delivered, especially compared to McDonald's and Jack-in-the-Box.  Once they build some freestanding stores around here (as opposed to smack dab in the middle of the parking disaster that is Boise State), I might buy there more often.  Thank you, intolerant, narrow-minded bullies of Chicago and Boston for opening my eyes to another place to eat!

13 comments:

  1. It doesn't seem to matter who is hurt or who is used in order to support "The Cause". That is selfish and narrow minded.

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  2. But it is about serving or not serving people because the intolerant ones say it is all about that. Even before this flap came up I never saw anything about Chick-Fil-a having sex police at the door checking for sexual orientation, but you'd think that was what this was all about.
    The people who want Chick-fil-a to go under because of this cannot distinguish between expressions of opinion that do not call for an action, and actions. There is no difference in their minds between actually canceling someone's gig that was previously arranged, and saying something is not a good idea. I hate to skirt a Godwin's law violation here, but it's a short line from disapproval of Chick-fil-a and a boycott or to "order a water to take from the corporation for such hateful thoughts" to breaking windows to put people who disagree with you out of business. And THAT's Kristalnacht. Particularly if the Justice Department refuses to prosecute the window breakers.

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  3. Somewhat entertainingly, it looks pretty clear that the initial speech wasn't even about gay marriage to start with, at least not directly.

    I'm not a fan of the corporation for its donations and some other stuff (their reaction to the Muppet toy deal cancelling was questionable in many ways), but just as Huckabee's support is one of the best arguments against the company, the screeds from a lot of less coherent 'progressives' have been one of the more consistent arguments in support of buying chicken for lunch.

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  4. I find myself with a sneaking suspicion that the politicians who initially tried to stop Chick-Fil-A in Chicago and Boston were doing so based on a perception of what gay and progressive voters would want them to do. But once they put their foot in it, a lot of activists felt that they had to back up an illegal threat in the interests of solidarity.

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  5. The activists were moving first, and by a long shot; Queerty's been following this since at least July, and they're not particularly fast-paced as such go. The stuff's been simmering for a while. It's just come to a head because of more important figures floating around. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of today's boycott activity were driven by Huckabee and Sanatorum, and a lot of today's buycott driven by Menino and company.

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  6. I'm on a tight budget and so when I eat fast food, I usually eat at places with a dollar menu (Jack-in-the-Box, Taco Bell, Wendy's). Chick-Fil-A doesn't have a dollar menu, so I rarely eat there. But I did today.

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  7. I don't know about your Chick-Fil-A but ours is a refreshing quick meal stop. The people serving me never reply to my "Thank you" with something like "sure", "no problem", "ok". It's always "My pleasure.". When we eat inside the restaurant, we don't have to wait at the counter for our food to be prepared, they offer to serve us at a table. Last time, a guy who was tidying up came over to our table and asked if my wife wanted fresh pepper on her salad. The staff is always attentive to me. They don't discuss their date last weekend in my presence.

    It's still fast food (that I prefer over most other fast food outlets unless I'm in the mood for something other than chicken), but I enjoy the experience a lot more.

    If yours is like mine, I'll bet you'll find it a unique and pleasant fast food experience and no, I'm not being paid to say this!

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  8. In Kansas (yeah, Kansas) there are strong movements to get the state universities (especially KU, my alma mater) to kick CF off the campus.

    When it comes to tolerance, the liberals have an odd definition.

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  9. One gay man's attempt to get service at Chik-Fil-A on August 1st. For the humor impaired, do watch to the very end and pay attention to the credits.

    http://youtu.be/jku_4IVJ5ik

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  10. your razr takes pretty good pictures.

    Thanks for all you do Clayton.

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  11. I have never eaten at a Chick-Fil-A because with few exceptions, the only day that I have been near any of their locations has been Sunday, when they are closed.

    Their only local location (in a 7-day shopping mall) closed some years ago.

    Recently, they were trying to open a new location at the former site of a Burger King, and were impeded by city planning commission's objections to their having a drive-up window. Burger King previously had a drive-up window at that same location.

    In-n-Out opened with a drive-up window not far away (after some controversy), which has proved to be so popular that it causes traffic problems.

    [The first Captcha word that I have on this panel must be seen to be believed: "cumship".]

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  12. Clayton, you ignorant schmuck. Nobody is denying Cathy's right to speech (including making donations to whatever organizations he wants). The "...denying Chick-Fil-A owners their free speech..." meme is unfounded. For a "scholar" -- and I use that term loosely -- who purports to be an expert on the Constitution, you are sorely lacking in an understanding of 1A.

    Protesting his donations is not infringing on his rights to free speech. I suspect you may actually know that, but don't have the intellectual integrity to point it out, since it causes you cognitive dissonance.

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  13. Protesting his contributions wasn't the cause of this event: threatening to use governmental licensing authority to prevent Chick-Fil-A from opening restaurants in Boston and Chicago was the cause. And that is clearly a violation of free speech: using governmental power to punish constitutionally protected speech. Imagine if a mayor threatened to prevent Home Depot from opening because of their well-known pro-homosexual funding?

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