Chick-Fil-a, the first ammendment, and the pointlessness of boycotts

Let me start off by saying (and my conservative Christian friends may not like this) that I believe a person has the right to love whomever they want, and if they want to display that love in the form of a binding legal contract (marriage), I feel they should be allowed to.  Secondly let me say (and my liberal friends may not like this) I feel that any person has the right to disagree with this viewpoint, and to express their disagreement.  It is their constitutional guaranteed right to speak freely of how they feel.  If the courts say that a man who has never served in the military can say he is a war hero if he wants too; then surely a man, businessman or not, can say he believes in traditional marriage.

Now, let me lightly tread into the whole Chick-Fil-A absurdity.  First of all I think the owner was basically just exercising his right to express his views.  He in no way was saying we should hurt, harm or bully homosexuals; he simply said he was a supporter of "traditional families".  And suddenly his stores were the target of a boycott from the homosexual community.  Also we need to note, he is not an elected lawmaker or a judge on any court, so really his personal views are harmless, and have no effect on national or local policies.

What I find funny about this is that just a few weeks before this incident, several of my gay friends (yes, I have friends who are gay, and very wonderful people) were posting things on their facebook basically making fun of Christians who were boycotting some company or another about their pro-gay-marriage stance.  And I had to agree that it is silly, even pointless to try and boycott a company because of the views of management on an issue.  And suddenly these same friends who had mocked the Christian boycotts were calling for a boycott of a company based on the view of their owner.  This confused my and reeked of the hypocrisy that Christians were being accused of.

Now let me put in here my view of boycotts in general.  They are a stupid waste of time.  I do not mean this as disrespect to any of my friends boycotting on either side of any issue; but they are a waste of time and breathe.  The company, whether a smaller chain, or a huge conglomerate are not really going to care much whether or not you shop/eat there.  There will always be people who will not care about the issue, or be on the other side, and support the business.  The only people who are hurt by a boycott are those boycotting, if they were a regular customer of that business.  And if they were not a regular customer, what's the point of the boycott. "I never ate there before, and now I'm never going to." ..Guess what, they lost no business and you have made no sacrifice.  If you were a customer, then you lose out on something you enjoyed, and they find another person to fill your spot. 

A few years ago the Southern Baptists decided to boycott Disney.  Disney, not too worried, continued to make money off everyone else.  Only people hurting were the Southern Baptist parents whose kids wanted to see Cars (or whatever Disney cartoon was out at the moment) and couldn't.  Sorry, boycotts don't work, plain and simple.

Hopefully I have not ticked off too many of my friends yet; but at the risk of stepping on a few more toes I have a final message for my friends who are homosexuals, and a message for my more conservative friends. 

First of all to my conservative Christian friends; I just want to tell you that I have many friends who are homosexuals, and despite what I have often heard from the Church, none of these friends have ever tried to recruit me over to their side.  None have come to try to lure my son off to "the dark side".  There has been no "gay agenda" shoved down my throat, and several of them have been involved in loving monogamous relationships since the time we were in college (several lasting longer than the marriages of some of my straight friends.  In short, these friends are great people who just happen to love members of the same sex.

Now a message for my homosexual friends; I have a lot of conservative Christian friends, and as far as I know, none of them have ever bullied or harassed someone because of their orientation.  None of them have ever invited me to West Hollywood to go gay-bashing.  None of them teach their children to hate people with an interest in theatre and fashion.  They are just people who are trying to live in the way they feel God has called them to live.

In short, I feel we all need to take a moment to stop seeing "The Gays" and "The Christian Right" as groups that are just a mass of stereo-types.  I challenge you my friends to get to know a few people from "the other side".  Get to know them as people at as members of "THE" group, but as individuals.  I think you will find that though you may have some differences, you will have much more in common than you think.   I know there some bad apple extremists on both sides that tend to mess things up and make their group look bad to anyone outside of it.  But most of the individuals on either side are just people trying their best to get through this voyage of life.  Try to get to know some of these wonderful people, who may hold differing views than you; maybe you could get together and work on a way to help the poor in the neighborhood.  Move beyond your differences to make a difference....just a thought.  Love ya!

Rest In Peace Rodney King

If you are from the LA area, the name Rodney King is very well known.  I'm not sure how much the rest of the country or world really know the name.  Over 20 years ago this young black man was beaten by LA police.  After a trial for the officers involved that became a televised media circus, a verdict came down that was less than satisfactory for the African American community (and to most normal thinking people).  The verdict was followed by the LA riots, that turned the city into a war zone for days.  Even in the Inland Empire where I lived, fear was rampant.  One of the most famous moments during the riots was when Rodney King himself went on TV and pleaded for calm, "Can't we all just get along?"

After the riots cooled and life in LA went back to normal, King dropped off the radar, except for a few brushes with the law.  He tried to live a quiet life out of the spotlight.  On Sunday morning his girlfriend found him in his pooled, drowned.  I pray now that he finds the peace that eluded him in his life.

Black Music Month and Poliical Correctness

June is Black Music Month.  They told us so at work the other day.  It is an observance that was started by President Jimmy Carter, and June has been declared as such by each successive president with the exception of President Obama. I know what you are saying right now.  "How could the first black president not declare Black Music Month."  Well here's the thing; In his great wisdom President Obama has caved to the idiocy of Political Correctness and is now calling it "African-American Musical Heritage Month".

Besides being way to long to say, this bow to PC effectively eliminates a lot of great Black Music.  We lose Seal and Sade, both British, with a Nigerian background, so NOT African American.  We love Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the Black vocal group from South Africa that came to fame on Paul Simon's Graceland album (they are just Africans, not African Americans). And of course we lose Bob Marley and all his kids, as well as Peter Tosh and most of the rest of the reggae community, who mostly come from Jamacia, not America.
So why limit Black Music Month to only African Americans...Let's screw Political Correctness and celebrate Black Music WORLDWIDE!!!

Election Time for California

California's primary is tomorrow.  Of course it is a bit late in the season, and as a Republican I am basically down to just one choice for the presidential primary.  So I was thinking of just throwing the vote there and picking Green Party Candidate Rosanne Barr (just kidding).  There are a couple state wide ballot measures that are of interest. There is one dealing with term limits for state legislators, which if I understand it will actually extend the current term limits by allowing legislators to switch houses at the end of their limited term. If it keeps those idiots in longer, I'm opposed. And we also have to vote on an increase in tax on cigarettes.  On this one I figure I'm for it because the big tobacco companies are spending big bucks to defeat it, and anything that might make less people smoke their cancer sticks, I'm for it!

So not a lot of surprises expect in California tomorrow, but I ask my fellow Californians to vote anyway.                                                                                                                                                                                        

Missing the boat on Education

I was talking with a friend of mine the other day.  He is a recent (2012) graduate of the UC system here in California.  We were talking about how the California state government is missing the point on education.  The state government, currently under our idiot Governor Brown has decided the only way to do anything for  the state's floundering budget is to cut over $330 million from the state's education budget.

My friend and I discussed that fact that when you cut spending on education, you raise a generation that will not be able to compete in the job market, and will be forced to work lower income jobs, or be on welfare, costing the state more.  If you invest in education you will have a generation that can get good jobs in fields where they can make money and pay taxes and actually assist in the budget crisis.

But California was dumb enough to elect Brown AGAIN, and I think he hopes by cutting education he will breed Californians dumb enough to keep electing the same idiots to our state government.  Our state will never recover economically until we cut government waste spending (like the "new car" budget that is filling state storage facilities with unused cars), and invest in our future (EDUCATION!!!).  I say vote them all out!!

Fishing Lessons.

There is an old saying that says "Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime."  It seems to me, as I look back over the last several decades that the Democratic party seems to favor the "Give a man a fish" philosophy. They have created a generation of people who have had things handed to them.  "Can't find a job? Not qualified for the job? Don't worry about training...we'll give you welfare"  In other words they hand people the fish.  And the children of the people who have been handed the fish expect the fish to automatically come to them.  Why bother to learn how to fish when the government keeps handing you fish.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't want to get rid of welfare altogether.  There are people out there who work hard and try to support their family and just can't make it with out a little help, and I think it is good that they can get that assistance.  But I think the system needs to be reviewed and repaired. The people out there who refuse to get work, or just keep having more kids so their government check gets bigger, need to be taken out of the system, or penalized for abusing it.

I am also not saying the Republicans have done a perfect job of "teaching people to fish"  but at least they realize that by continuing to hand people fish with no accountability is not the answer.

And another thing the Democrats have become good at is blaming the people who "have learned to fish" for the problems of those who have "no fish".  That is to say they have demonized those who are successful and have made money.  The "occupy Wall Street" movement is a prime example.  Now there are some bad people in the financial business world, yes; but making money and being successful is not a bad thing.  But if the democrats can get people to ficus their anger at business, they can take the eye off the runaway government spending.  With the national debt ceiling at $14.5trillion (that $14,500,000,000,000.00) I think maybe it's time the American people call for the government to curb its out of control spending, drop taxes on everyone, so they would have more of their money to spend and boost the economy.

I do not claim by any means that the Republicans are not also to hold blame for the out of control spending, both sides of the political system is reckless in their spending.  If anyone of us ran our finances the way the government did, we would be in the poor house for sure...wishing we knew how to fish.

An election is nearing...let's find people to vote for who want to help the economy, not just get a tax exempt government job.


okay...I'm done ranting...been a long week...sorry if my train of thought jumped a few tracks.

Say it ain't so!

One of the great things about America is that you don't have to be one of the two major parties to get on the ballot.  Received in the mail today our California primary ballot.  And there to my surprise on the Green Party section of the ballot is Rosanne Barr.  Guess I have been concentrating too much on the Republican candidates, and had not heard she was running.  I realize the last time we had an actor in the White House he did a pretty good job, but are we ready for Rosanne as the first female president...seriously I would rather have Hillary than Rosanne...I mean look what she did to the national anthem.