Weighing In on the brouhaha, Conan O'Brien helpfully offered up a new mascot to replace the recently departed Muppets.
Steven Colbert sprayed Chick-fil-a sauce on both Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum.
And this young lady called for a use of biblical jujitsu again the faith based fast food chain.
The mayor of Boston, Tom Menino, was joined in his public denunciation of Chick-fil-a by Rom Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago, and Ed Lee, the mayor of San Francisco. While Menino himself made his opposition to beleaguered fast food chain official with a letter to it's president. And all three of them were denounced by conservative/gay blogger, Andrew Sullivan and the Big Gulp hating (but fried chicken loving) Mayor of NYC who reasserted his support for marriage equality while saying
“It’s inappropriate for a city government, or a state government, or the federal government to look at somebody’s political views and decide whether or not they can live in the city, or operate a business in the city, or work for somebody in the city,”Here in Los Angeles the owner of the Hollywood Chick-fil-a took to the Facebooks and posted this very nice letter...
But what Mr. Cillipam doesn't seem to realize is this isn't about the personally held opinions of the executive of a privately owned company (which he is entitled to) no is it about how politely treated I am at the local branch of that privately owned company (which i am sure has exemplary service). This is entirely about what that privately owned company does with those dollars after i spend them. And it just so happens this privately owned company takes those dollars and spends them on depriving my people of their natural rights.
Mr. Sullivan (who I admire greatly) says that the issue at hand is Freedom of Speech, and warns us that our equality cannot come at the expense of other's freedoms. And I agree with that. By the same token, I am deeply uncomfortable with the notion of the State passing out permits based on religious or political beliefs. I love Freedom of Speech with a depth and passion that borders on zealotry. I would defend to the death Mr. Cathy's right to call me a sodomite and an abomination, but I don't have to help buy him a printing press, and I'll be deep and cold in the ground before i allow a single penny of mine to fall into his coffers. And while I'll admit I let out a little cheer when I read Mayor Menino had pulled in the welcome mat to CFA, intellectually, the State picking winners and losers based on political belief is abhorrent to me. But I wonder what if Chick-fil-a was funding Holocaust denial, or terror abroad, or the re-introduction of racial segregation in public schools? How would I or Mr. Sullivan, or Mr. Bloomberg feel then?
Is it proper for the State to use it's vast array of powers against a private company if that company funds the oppression of it's citizenry?
