Three Part Plan
There is a three part statement that applies to many situations. If you remember this, and know when to apply it, your life will be easier. The three parts are…It is none of my business, I don’t understand it, I am not interested.
For a few years in the early nineties, PG represented Redo Blue in a customers office. There was a small machine to run prints on. The print room was a public area, and the scene of many informal discussions. Often, PG was running jobs, and could not leave his work station to avoid hearing conversations. The three part plan was th result.
Lets take this one step at a time. It is none of my business is frequently a no brainer. People are discussing things because they don’t know what to do, and more input will only confuse them. If no one asked you what you think, there is a good chance they don’t want to hear it.
Architecture is a complicated profession. Building plans have thousands of details, and the slightest mistake can bring the building down. If you have never studied this, you cannot possibly know what they are talking about. It is best to focus on doing your job, which hopefully you know how to do. If you don’t understand a discussion, you don’t need to worry about it.
In the last paragraph we mentioned that you never studied architecture. There might be a reason for this, like thinking that it is boring and complicated. If you have no interest in a subject, it shouldn’t bother you for people to talk about it. People who care passionately about a subject might not appreciate your non interest.
This principle applies to many things. Religious discussions, other people’s families, and NASCAR are three examples. If a person insists on forcing you to deal with a subject against your will, then that person does not respect you. In this case of Evangelic Christians, this principle is a conflict with their belief that your religion is their business. You should deal with this conflict the best way you can.
Supremacy
There is a playwrite named Owldolatrous. He wrote a blog post about the chicken sandwich company that went viral. The post today is about a follow up, Aesop to the Right: Why I Believe Bristol Palin. The concept of Ms. Palin as an advocate for “traditional marriage” is kinda bizarre. When you are an attention whore, any camera is your friend.
OD says things a lot better than PG. With the miracle of copy paste, they can be easily borrowed. Here is a selection from the post.
I don’t think you hate me. I certainly don’t think you’re afraid of me. Neither is Bristol Palin. She probably even has LGBT people she calls friends. She just disagrees with them about whether they should be invited to the party (the party, in this case, being marriage). But here’s the problem: the basis of that disagreement is her belief that her relationships are intrinsically better than ours.
There’s a word for this type of statement: supremacist. … I know that the word “supremacist” makes you think of “White Supremacists,” which makes you think of the KKK and cross-burning and lynching. We think of supremacist as a Southern thing, a rural thing, a racial thing, a militia thing, a hate thing.
Here, maybe this will help: I’ve had supremacist habits too. I grew up in the rural South. I never hated African-Americans. I never knowingly said or did or voted in any way that hurt African-American people. I even had African-American friends. But I’d be lying to you if I didn’t admit that some white supremacy seeped into my thinking at a very young age. This is a painful thing to admit. Even now, I find I can’t go into specifics, from sheer shame. Fortunately I have been able to break those habits, but it has taken a while.
Supremacy is the habit of believing or acting as if your life, your love, your culture has more intrinsic worth than those of people who differ from you. Supremacy can be about race, but it doesn’t have to be. Supremacy and hate aren’t identical, but they often go together.
Some people turn supremacy into an over-arching philosophy. For most, it’s just a habit of mind. As a habit of mind, supremacist ideas can spring up in anyone. Being liberal doesn’t make you immune. Being gay doesn’t make you immune. Being a minority doesn’t make you immune.
You don’t have to hate people to feel innately superior to them. After all, what kind of threat are your inferiors to you? You may be annoyed by them, from time to time, or you may even like them. You can even have so much affection for them that you might call that affection love.
There is more, but this is enough for our morning discussion. Supreme, Supremacy, Supremacism, Supremacist. It is not just for white people. The whole business of thinking that you are somehow better than your neighbor is part of being a human being. Think about it, aren’t there some people that you think you are better than? Of course there are. You are a competitive animal, and you have to win sometimes. You, and your tribe, are just better than that other tribe.
PG saw a sign over a desk once. I have never met a snob who was not a born liar. Above this sign was a plastic case. In the plastic case was a white dress shirt, with an ink stain in the front pocket.
There is a concept, mythos over logos. The idea is, when you present people with information that contradicts a long held belief, the person will ignore the information and stick to the belief. This is related to the concept of supremacy. If you think you are better than a person, and you get evidence that the person is better than you, you will ignore that evidence and continue to believe the person is inferior to you. It helps when your magic book agrees with you.
PG was riding his bike yesterday, when the thought came to him. Anti racism is a form of supremacy. PG associates with a so called “radical community”. There has recently been a rabid discussion about racism. Now, this is a pretty enlightened bunch. The type of virulent racism that PG saw growing up in Georgia is simply not there. This does not stop the Anti Racist Supremacist Egophile (ARSE) from looking for racism to combat. The ARSE will expand the definition of racism to include every PWOC, except him and his immediate tribe.
One root word of Supremacy is Supreme. There were once three young ladies performing as “The Supremes.” Four videos are embedded into this post. That is not real hair. Diana Ross did not get to sing lead because of her vocal ability. Pictures for this episode were taken at a dance performance on July 11, 2012. This was written in the style of H. P. Lovecraft.
What Did Jesus Really Say?
When religion raises its gnarly head, folks like to talk about what Jesus said. The question for today’s discussion is, how do they know?
Some say the Bible is “the word of G-d”. Some even say it is inerrant, which means there are no mistakes. (The spell check suggestion for inerrant is ignorant.) This assumes that the translation, and the understanding of that rendering, are also perfect. There are people who think this is nonsense.
PG is in the latter category. He has two beliefs about Christianty. G-d does not write books. Jesus has nothing to do with life after death. If you add the label evangelical, you get a third disagreement. To PG, evangelism means trying to convert people to your understanding of Christianity. PG thinks that what he believes is only open to discussion when PG trusts the other person.
How did we get to this point? The Bible is a collection of texts, from a variety of sources and languages. It was compiled into one text somewhere during the fourth century, give or take a hundred years. At this time, the only way to get a copy was to have a scribe copy the text by hand. As anyone who has played telephone knows, there were probably mistakes made while copying this text. It was several hundred years before the printing press was invented, and more than a tiny minority of people could read.
How to the Bible get from being a collection of texts, to the current “G-d in a book” view. Here is one hypothesis. “The deification of the Bible is a result of the Protestant reformation. Before then, the final authority, the ultimate arbiter and source of information in religious matters was the church, with its ancient traditions and living experts. When Luther and friends opposed the teaching of the Catholic hierarchy, they needed a superior authority to appeal to, which was provided by the Bible.”
Moving right along, we still have to listen to people who speculate on what Jesus said. In one sense, it does not matter. A core belief of Christianity is that having the correct beliefs about Jesus will get you into heaven, while those without this belief will go to hell. This is a big deal in JWR. Many believers are far more interested in the death of Jesus than his life. Anything Jesus said pales in importance to what is reputed to have happened forty four hours after his death.
OK, so what did Jesus say? We really don’t know. The accounts of the Bible were written many years after his life on earth. Jesus spoke a language called Aramaic. The New Testament was written in Greek. The King James Bible is in English. Whatever record we have of the words of Jesus was written down after the fact, and translated a minimum of twice.
A few years ago, some scholars began to look at the reputed words of Jesus, and decide what was really said. They published a book, The Five Gospels: What Did Jesus Really Say? The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus. “The Jesus Seminar , a group of scholars who have attempted to locate the authentic words of Jesus, made headlines two years ago by reporting that, of the entire Lord’s Prayer as found in Matthew, the only words that could conclusively be attributed to Jesus are “Our Father.” In this book they have published their results. This new translation of the four gospels, augmented by the noncanonical Gospel of Thomas, presents Jesus’ words printed in colored code: red for words Jesus almost certainly spoke, pink for his probable locutions, gray for the less than likely, and black for the implausible.” Many old favorites were said to be invented by later scribes.
The Jesus Seminar is a function of the Westar Institute. A good bit of their findings are available online. If your mind is already made up, it won’t make any difference.
As this is spoken, the 2012 is heating up. BS detectors will be buzzing nonstop. A poster is emerging, with a picture of BHO. There is a quote, attributed to Caroline Kennedy. “I can’t stand to hear his voice anymore. He’s a liar and worse.”
According to snopes, the quote is from a book, The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House. There seems to have been a bit of a personality conflict between the Obamas and the Kennedys. In addition, it was suggested that BHO was not liberal enough to suit Carolyn Kennedy.
Whatever personal problems existed between Ms. Kennedy and BHO appear to have been smoothed over. The former first daughter made an appearance on behalf of BHO in New Hampshire. “Caroline Kennedy stumped for President Obama’s reelection bid Wednesday night, highlighting the differing visions for the country held by the two parties. … “I’m a woman, a mother, a lawyer, an educator, and I really believe that Barack Obama is fighting for the America that I believe in.”
Here we have something, said in private, in the last four years. It is being used out of context, by people who hate liberals. If we cannot quote a contemporary public figure correctly, why can we assume to know what Jesus said two thousand years ago?
Pictures, of Union Soldiers, are from The Library of Congress.
Kindness
There is a bit of a debate going on about whether, or not, Jesus said to “Love your enemy”. There are some who profess to believe this, and proceed to practice the opposite. There are others who claim to love their enemies, but you have to understand what they mean by it. It can be very confusing.
PG went to a source for documentation. Oh, the blessed conjunction of copy paste with public domain. When PG entered enemy (singular) in the search engine, 100 verses came up. When the request was made plural (enemies), 237 entries popped up. The last mention of enemies in the bible is… Revelation 11:12 “Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them” Loving your enemies does not include bringing them to heaven with you.
As for Jboi, he was quoted as saying Matthew 5:44 “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”.
There is a scholarly debate about what Jesus did or did not say. The words available to modern man have been copied by hand, edited, translated, and interpreted. PG does not know Greek from Geek, and cannot tell Aramaic from Alabama. Like anyone else, PG can only read and listen, and think for himself.
In a sense it does not matter what Jesus “really” said. The cult of Jesus Worship is going to believe what it wants. More important, it is going to practice what it wants. As far as the difference between what Jesus “really” said and what his believers say and do…they can explain.
What follows is a humble suggestion. Maybe the translators and scribes got it wrong. Maybe Jesus did not say to love your enemy. Maybe what Jesus said was to show kindness. This is a practice thing, rather than a belief thing.
It is not as much fun to be nice to someone, as it is to scream about life after death. Kindness does not need to be justified by a quote from a magic book. You just need to do it.
Pictures are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”. The text of this message is a repost. This was written in the style of H. P. Lovecraft.
The Imperfect Church
There was a link on facebook to a tasteful story last week. The incident took place last September. The first page of google does not report, with one exception, what has happened in the last year. As some people say, G-d is in the details. This is one story where it may be the devil in the details.
First, here is a TV station report on the initial incident. The link has a video report, including an interview with the pastor’s son.
A gay Gibson County couple said they were assaulted when they tried to attend church services at the Grace Fellowship Church in Fruitland last Wednesday. “I went over to take the keys out of the ignition and all the sudden I hear someone say ‘sick’em,'” said Gibson County resident, Jerry Pittman Jr. Pittman said the attacked was prompted by the pastor of the church, Jerry Pittman, his father.
“My uncle and two other deacons came over to the car per my dad’s request. My uncle smash me in the door as the other deacon knocked my boyfriend back so he couldn’t help me, punching him in his face and his chest. The other deacon came and hit me through my car window in my back,” said Pittman. He said bystanders did not offer assistance. He said the deacon yelled derogatory homosexual slurs, even after officers arrived. He said the officers never intervened to stop the deacons from yelling the slurs. Pittman said neither he nor Lee were allowed to press charges while at the church.
“If I was on the scene I would not have allowed that. The deputy should not have allowed it if he did,” said Gibson County Sheriff Chuck Arnold. “I haven’t talk to him but that would be out of character for my deputy to say unless they were causing a problem themselves.”
Friday, the couple filed assault charges against Deacons Billy Sims and Eugene McCoy. Pittman pressed additional charges against his father and Deacon Patrick Flatt. Pastor Pittman’s attorney contacted ABC 7 Eyewitness News by phone and said she had no comment and demanded we not contact the pastor. All parties are due in court October 4.
At first glance, that looks pretty gnarly. When you read the comments, the waters start to get muddy.
I’m openly gay and from this area. I received the following info from pro-gay confidants in the area.
There’s a lot more to this story than it appears in this story. The son and bf had been attending the church for 2 yrs without incident. Things got ugly between father and son when the son reported to his stepmother than his father was cheating on her. Divorce proceedings ensued (significant that, in the event the church folded, the church property reverted to the father’s name and would be part of the divorce) and the son still showed up for services on the morning in question. It couldn’t be proven that the father yelled ‘sick em’, but it became clear that, when the elders approached the son/bf to tell them to leave, the son lashed out first. Unfortunately for him this makes it self-defense in the eyes of the law and he killed his own case. Regardless, it’s also pretty clear that the elders used seriously un-Christian words – fag etc – against them in this incident, so shame on them. Can only speculate about the son’s motivation for showing up where he knew he was no longer welcome, but it’s not likely his main purpose was to worship.
This church and its founder/members are notoriously low class people. In the words of my mother when we discussed this, “What do you expect from trash?”
The story does not end there. WBBJ has another report, Gibson County Pastor Charged With Stealing. It seems as though the estranged wife of Mr. Pittman heard he was stealing from her employer. He was arrested on the charges. Chamblee54 does not know what happened to either case.
Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
The Perfect Church
This time in 2008, The Perfect Church was hit by lightning. PG thought it would be fun to check out how they were doing four years later.
The Perfect Church still has a website. When you log in, you are greeted with an auto start music player, with no way to turn it off. The history of the church does not mention the lightning strike. The Perfect Church is on McDaniel Street in SW Atlanta, a few blocks away from the location of the Jack city video.
Some feel that it is not appropriate for a church of people to call themselves perfect. There are numerous Bible verses to support this, as well as common sense observations. No less an authority than Dear Abby says “A church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.”
A visit to the clinic of Dr. Google has a few observations. A young man took a group from his church to paint a lady’s house. On the way to the site, the passed The Perfect Church. “I saw this as a teaching moment and told my young adults that the label was only true on a day like that day…when the parking lot was empty!” One quote in the lesson that follows is quotable: “WHAT IF instead of exhausting our finances on church ski trips we wore holes in our pants on church knee trips?”
In Avondale Estates, across town from Jack City, you will find A Perfect Wedding Chapel. They have an auto start video, which is embedded above. The site says “A wedding ceremony only requires two people.” The gender of the participants was not specified.
Ed Stetzer has a picture of Perfect Alternative Baptist Church. Here is his commentary: “It you are tired of your stale and carnal church, it appears there is a perfect alternative– though if it were really perfect, why did they use commas on the date? It appears they are such a personal alternative that they need a chain link fence to keep the people out. If that is not enough for you, it turns out that there is actually a Perfect Church — and it’s in Atlanta, of course.”
Perfect Alternative Baptist Church. is in Bayou La Batre AL. The auto start music player features Kirk Franklin. PG suspects a lot of buildings in that neighborhood have chain link fences.
A comment at the Ed Stetzer site mentions that The Perfect Church, in Atlanta, is supported by The Beautiful Restaurant. There is no auto start music player. “The Beautiful Restaurant was founded in 1979. “Beautiful” came from the scripture “Acts 3:2.” The concept of the Restaurant was and still is, founded on religious principles giving love, consideration and concern for the customers, as well as the preparation of the food. The Beautiful Restaurant has been featured in many magazines, publications and films. The lastest being “The Rise of The Southern Biscuit” released in the summer of 2005, and shown on the PBS television channel.”
Pictures are from The Library of Congress. This was written like Dan Brown.
Heathen Hunt
PG looked out the window, and saw two men wearing neckties. They were walking up the driveway. PG put a shirt on, and arrived at the front door at the same time as the knock.
The African American stood closer to the door. He had a pamphlet in his hand. He said he was talking to the people in the neighborhood, and he had a question. Where can you go to find truth?
PG looked at the man, and did not smile. I don’t mean to be rude, but when I see you walking back down that driveway, that will be truth. Good bye.
The large man had a nervous laugh. He left without protest. The two men walked away, followed by a large African American woman wearing a long dress.
This is wrong on so many levels. Religion is a highly personal matter. At the very least, you should not go knocking on doors, pushing your opinions about a sensitive matter on strangers. The heathen hunter knew nothing about PG. He did not know, and probably did not care, about the festering wounds he was pouring salt in.
It is not possible to live in the United States without hearing about Jesus, and the scheme for life after death. PG has heard about “salvation” thousands of times, and has made the painful decision not to agree. This heathen hunter thinks that he will be so special. He thinks that hearing this obnoxious message for the ten thousand and first time will make be different. Jesus should give this man the gift of humility, and respect for his neighbor.
The jist of the post below is the need for trust and respect. If the person who you are preaching to does not trust you, then you are speaking in vain. Period, end of story. For this stranger to show up uninvited, and assume that he is trusted, is a gesture of disrespect.
There is also the race of the messenger to consider. PG is a Georgia white person, and has been around black people all his life. His attitudes about race have been criticized by anti black racists, anti white racists, and anti racism racists. PG tries to treat people with fairness and kindness. He also keeps an eye on his back. It does not make PG feel less violated to have a black man deliver an offensive message to his front door.
The person who taught PG the most about Jesus is the Bully for Jesus at Redo Blue. For seven years, PG worked across the room from this man. There were dozens of temper tantrums, hundreds of missed pickups, and thousands of hours, on company time, devoted to conducting a ministry. After a while, PG wished nothing more than to never hear the word Jesus again. It is highly relevant to today’s discussion to note that the Bully for Jesus is African American.
The third commandment says to not use the name of G-d “in vain”. There is a post from August of 2008 that deals with this issue. It will be repeated as part two of this post. Ironically, PG was reviewing posts from August when the heathen hunters appeared. The idea was to find posts, and pictures, that could be repeated when PG was too lazy to write anything new. Religion has long been a source of unhappiness for PG, and there is a lot of material.
In his unpaid role as resident non Jesus Worshiper, PG left the following comment at Twenty Two Words yesterday. ” I sometimes feel that I am the only non believer that comments here. You might consider that not everyone is impressed by your religion. Many shortcomings…selfishness, meanness, lack of respect for others … can be found in thoughtless, inappropriate preaching. Just because you are doing it for Jesus does not make it any less offensive. It also reflects poorly on Jesus”
To which another reader replied: “@Chamblee: You’re right, preachers can taint their own message. Can you expand on what you mean by thoughtless, inappropriate preaching?” Oh my. This is going to take more than twenty two words. Twenty two volumes might not cover it all.
There are two quotes that help. One is from a motivational speaker: “You need to sell yourself first, your company second, and your product third.” The second is the third commandment: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy G-d in Vain…”
Anyone can read to you from the Bible. Not everyone that does this has worthy motives. Some are crooks and thieves. For a person to preach to another, there needs to be TRUST. If you do not trust the person who is preaching to you, then that person is speaking in vain.
Trust has a brother named RESPECT. When you preach to a person who does not care for your message, you are showing disrespect to that person. When you preach without mutual respect you are speaking in vain. The third commandment is more than G-d’s last name.
This is not just the person you are talking to. It is everyone who comes in contact with your message. This is not just the words you speak, but your actions, the chrome fish on your car, the catchy phrase on your t shirt, and the Bible you make a show of carrying around.
We are all G-d’s children. When you disrespect the children of G-d, you disrespect G-d. And when you preach without trust and respect, you bring shame to Jesus.
Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
This was written like David Foster Wallace.
Eatmorchikingate
Eatmorchikingate was made for 2012 media. The corporations give tons of publicity to a valued advertiser. The spelling challenged ads of CFA have inspired giggles and groans for years. The entry of The Jim Henson Company introduces a stable of beloved charactars. And there is matter of equal rights for LGBT people.
There was a comment exchange on facebook recently. “Turning a chicken sandwich into Public Gay Enemy Number One makes LGBT people look superficial, vindictive and juvenile — everything that we as a community have worked hard to overcome.” “Maybe that is why the press is giving this so much attention. It takes attention away from Sally Ride’s surviving partner.” The struggle to live without being hated has degenerated into waffle fry jokes.
There is a dandy commentary about this whole thing, The Chick Fellatio: stuck in the craw. It has a paragraph at the start that needs to be quoted in its entirety. It is about listening, and paying attention. Too often. people assume they know what you think, and don’t listen to what you are saying. Or they break in to interrupt, and don’t give you a chance to finish. Even if you disagree with the rest of the feature, this one paragraph should be displayed everywhere. Maybe someone will post these words in front of a pretty picture, and the poster will be liked on facebook.
Now, let’s get to the nitty-gritty of things. Please read carefully. These things have been said before, but not by me, and not all in one place. Please read with an open mind. If you can’t read with an open mind, please leave, take a minute, come back, and try again. If you can’t do that, then please don’t bother. Please read all of the words here, rather than just reading half of the argument and assuming you know what I’m saying. Read these words as they are written. Again, if you don’t want to read my words, then don’t continue.
You really should read The Chick Fellatio: stuck in the craw. before you continue. The link opens into a new tab, so it is easy to come back here. The pictures, from The Library of Congress. , will be here when you get back.
There are four points to this discussion. Chamblee54 will offer a commentary on each.
1 – There is little to argue with on point 1.
2 – “Asking for “mutual tolerance” on this like running up to a bully beating a kid to death on the playground and scolding them both for not getting along”. To begin with, if you take the word bully, and change the vowel, you can get belly. Like the protruding body part you get when you eat too many perfected chicken sandwiches.
PG used to work with a bully for Jesus. There was no physical abuse, although there were a couple of threats. It was emotional abuse, a lot of it. Lots of so called good christians supported the BFJ. They seemed to think they were standing up for Jesus when they did this. After all, they were going to go to heaven when they died, so it is ok to treat your neighbor like dirt while you are alive. This point will be relevant in point 3.
3 – “This isn’t about Jesus. I have a lot of Christian friends. Most of them …” Ok, this is where we are going to have to agree to disagree.
Jesus is a spirit living in the heart of man. It has little to do with the star of the Bible. This spirit has evolved over the years, until what we have today has little resemblance to what people felt even a hundred years ago.
To some people, Jesus is love. To some, she is righteous anger. To the majority of Jesus Worshipers, Jesus is a scheme for life after death. If you don’t agree with this scheme, then you are going to hell, and it is ok to treat you like dirt.
People, including the author of this feature, like to refer to the so called teachings of Jesus. The truth is that we know very little about what Jesus actually said. The Bible is a controversial document, with much disagreement about what it says and how to interpret it. Both sides in this dispute claim to have the teachings of Jesus on their side.
To PG, the best way to know Jesus is through the people who believe in her. Remember the Bully for Jesus? PG worked across the room from him for seven years. He witnessed thousands of hours of an on the clock ministry. (BFJ was paid to work for Redo Blue. He spent this time conducting a ministry.) BFJ showed an enormous amount of hatred towards PG, and used Jesus to express this hatred. It was during this nightmare that PG came to realize that Jesus hates him.
And so now, we have the spectacle of people waving a book, and calling it the word of G-d. This book leads people to hate LGBT people. The fact that others find love in this book is a cruel irony, or perhaps the Stockholm syndrome. And this same spirit is calling people to go buy overpriced chicken sandwiches, to support a company that hates LGBT people. That has EVERYTHING to do with Jesus.
4 – This chapter gives the example of KFC giving money to groups that fight equality for Asian Americans. This is a bad analogy. KFC is owned by Pepsi. They are the ultimate corporation. Pepsi has a faceless CEO in some office somewhere, who would not be giving interviews to a Baptist magazine about gay marriage.
CFA is the Cathy family. It has long been known for staying closed on Sunday, and for other “Christian” quirks. It should be noted that Dan Cathy is the son of the founder, and might not know enough to keep his mouth shut. (Ryan Tate is another founder’s son run amok.)
The company has tried to back down. The controversy will die down eventually. This too shall pass.
Abby Farle Is My Clean Up Facebook Friend
The Chick fil A story just gets weirder and weirder. It is the sort of thing which blossoms in hot weather, when real news slows down and media mouths need something to chatter about. Just ask Abby Farle.
CFA is an Atlanta based fast food chain. It is known for spelling challenged advertising, a cow, and being closed on Sunday. The company has always made noise about Jesus, which irritates some people. They quietly give money, and food, to different groups, some of which are religious.
S. Truett Cathy operated a grill, in Hapeville GA, called the Dwarf House. There is a small door for short people. He sold chicken sandwiches there, and started to open other stores. The cow mascot, and redefining the traditional spelling of chicken, came later.
Dan Cathy is the son of the founder, and the present President and C.O.O. He kick started the present fuss with some comments on a radio show. “I think we are inviting G-d’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,’ I pray G-d’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about.”
Mr. Cathy stepped in it again with a print interview. The fun started. Some said they were going to stay out of CFA, and spell chicken correctly. Others said they were going to eat mor, and changed their spell check settings to chikin. Miss Piggy said to eat more cows. Attention vultures in all shapes and sizes, including XX large, saw the circus as a chance for another fifteen minutes. An attempt to back down by CFA was ignored in all the joyful noise.
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any stranger, Gizmodo published an alleged facebook conversation. It featured a young lady named Abby Farle, who was quickly found out. Supposedly, this fake facebook person was the creation of Chick fil A. She defended the company in an alleged facebook conversation. PG learned about it at another facebook thread, this time started by a real person. Here are a few of the comments.
It is going to be tough to prove that “Abby Farle” is the invention of Chick fil A. The company has issued a statement trying to back down, but people on both sides don’t want to let this matter slide. The facebook page created by Mike Huckabee is part of this mess. With competing messengers fighting for attention, it is tough to tell what the real message is. In the case of Jesus, the jerks have long been louder and more persistent. After a while, it is just easier to walk away from it. If you don’t agree with the scheme for life after death, there really isn’t a good reason to subject yourself to the abuse.
I’m confused. Is it not likely that an employee of the company, maybe at company HQ simply did this on their own?!? Why the assumption that this was generation by CFA executives or public relations. Sounds beyond stupid as some intentional way to spread positive pr after the Henson thing. And in this digital age, it would be easy for any stock photo to have been pulled by just about anyone. I don’t see any facts in the article that demonstrate that this fake Facebook account was created by the company or its executives. It looks more like something maybe a lower level employee did just because he was sick of hearing all the negative crap on Facebook but didn’t want to be seen as biased with his own comments. I also don’t get how this would be a game changer. I think you should just admit you are doing it because you are such a massive Muppet fan. Not because of this unsubstantiated BS.
1-This is from the comments, of the Peach Pundit Story about CFA backing down. Bob Loblaw July 22, 2012 at 3:20 pm I know a person who was interviewing to be an owner/operator who says they were asked if he engaged in premarital sex during an interview after telling the interviewer that they were unmarried. Calypso July 22, 2012 at 4:22 pm Why would anyone engage in premarital sex during an interview? Doesn’t sound like they really wanted the job. 2- ” I think you should just admit you are doing it because you are such a massive Muppet fan.” Miss Piggy has lost a lot of weight. She is no longer massive. Not eating waffle fries has it’s advantages.
Miss Piggy appeared to me in a vision while I was floating in the ocean at Tybee Island yesterday morning. I do not want Miss Piggy mad at me.
I suspect this is a hoax. There is no Abby Farle on facebook. The Chick fil A fb page is mostly about Cow Appreciation day. All I have seen is a screen shot, with last names blacked out. It would be fairly simple to fake that bit of dialog.
If this wasn’t a hoax I’m sure it wasn’t done by any executives at CFA. It was probably by a low-level employee or someone else acting alone. My decision to no longer patronize CFA is not based on this one incident, but on conversations with friends. As well as the Miss Piggy vision
We will probably never know who created Abby Farle. (Who’s your daddy Abby?) Any photoshop queen could have pasted that Gizmodo conversation together. What is amazing are the people who assumed that it was another CFA product. When your COO runs his mouth, and creates ill will, people are willing to believe bad things about you.
The facebook member page of Abby Farle is long gone, if it ever existed to begin with. Today, there is a “public figure” page, with 524 likes. There is a meme generator. There is also this, Hi Guys!! I’m Abby Farle. It has one of the few messages, produced by this circus, which is worth reading.
Hi Guys!! I’m Abby Farle. Oh, wait, I’m not. You know why? Because Abby Farle is fake. I’m Jeremy Goldman, author of the upcoming Going Social: Excite Customers, Generate Buzz, and Energize Your Brand with the Power of Social Media and blogger at jeremygoldman.com. You know why I’m not lying to you about who I am? Because lying to further a cause sucks. Brands shouldn’t do it. Advocates of those brands shouldn’t do it.
I’m sure many of you have seen that Chick-Fil-A has allegedly created Abby Farle to stick up for their policies. The truth is still coming out – but we do know that Abby Farle – at least the one in the picture – is a fake. Assuming for a second Abby Farle is 100% the creation of a brand – or a brand representative – doesn’t that suck? Shouldn’t we be past this type of idiotic manipulation as a society? In my mind, we are. That’s why I’d like to encourage all of you to avoid any brand that speaks down to you or misleads you in any way. We’re smart, and we’re owed better.
Thanks for listening! – Jeremy “not Abby Farle” Goldman
Pictures are from The Library of Congress
The Pill Hill Massacre
PG was looking through his archives, and found a post about abortion protests. He was driving to work one day, and suddenly there were hundreds of people wearing red tee shirts. Operation Rescue/Operation Save America was having a convention in Atlanta. As their website says. “Will you heed the call and allow God to move through you this summer as the Church once again stands for Truth at the very gates of hell?” Atlanta does get hot in July. However, “gates of hell” is not a very nice thing to call your host city.
Part of the economy here is based on meetings and conventions. This does bring a lot of money into our fair city. The flip side is, residents are the captive audience for a lot of loud people. Mostly, people just go on about their business, until the vulgar idiots take their credit cards back home.
During his years with Redo Blue, PG saw lots of abortion protests on the way to work. For some reason, abortion facilites were frequently located near blueprint companies. Seeing pictures of mutilated fetuses does not get your day off to a good start.
Does this vulgar spectacle save any babies? PG has severe doubts. The politicians who rant about abortion enjoy the distraction from their ethical challenges. The “faith” that these activities build, for the believers, should be balanced against the alienation they produce in the innocent passerby.
One motto of OR/OSA is “Jesus is the standard”. Few abortion protesters are the result of virgin birth.
While preparing this post, PG clicked on two links in the original article. One lady organized counter protests to the fetus wavers. In the past four years, she married her boyfriend, and had a baby.
The other link is a doozie. Within hours of the tragedy in Colorado, there was a video, Massacre in Colorado – The Reason Why. The devil made him do it, and Jesus can make him stop.
At the moment, little is known about the motivations for the shooting spree. It is possible that Jesus worshipers influenced the young man. Maybe he got grossed out by abortion protesters once too often.
There was another post from four years ago that is worth a second look. It is about the Olympics, and Afghanistan. This time sixteen years ago, the Atlanta Olympics were going on. Afghanistan was a forgotten country, except to heroin merchants. Today, the war there goes on, and on, and on. BHO apparently has not gotten enough revenge for 911. The drone warfare in Stan Land makes Colorado midnight movies look like a Sunday School picnic.
Afghanistan stays in the news. A major source of opiates, Afghanistan is one of the wildest places on earth. Guarding the historic trade routes between Europe and India, The Hindu Kush is home to some of the fiercest soldiers on the planet.
In 1979, the Soviet Union decided that it wanted a war with Afghanistan This conflict lasted ten years, and the Mighty Soviets lost. This was during the Cold War,and the United States wanted to do everything it could to hurt the Soviets The Afghani forces fighting the Soviets received much aid from the United States, which was very helpful in its ultimate success.
The defeat in Afghanistan was a factor in the dismantling of the Soviet Union. Soon, the rebel factions began to fight each other for the right to rule the country, using the weapons given them by the United States. Eventually the Taliban won, and set up shop. On September 11, 2001, The United States was attacked. Credit for the attack was given to Al Queda, which was based in Afghanistan To avenge this attack, Afghanistan was invaded by the United States. We are still there.
This feature is not about the wisdom of attacking a fierce people, for the purpose of revenge. It is not about the future of our occupation there, or in neighboring Iraq. It is about the Olympics. In 1996 Atlanta hosted the Olympics. On the last day of the games, the Men’s Marathon was run.
The Marathon course went out Peachtree from downtown, and turned around near the end of the 23 Oglethorpe busline. This was in front of the funeral home. It then turned right, and went down Lanier Drive beside Oglethorpe University. It went down the street a couple of blocks, turned around in front of Oglethorpe Presbyterian Church (a former employer of PG), and went back to Peachtree. The runners turned right, and ran to the Olympic Stadium.
Being a slack person, PG had not gotten tickets to an Olympic events. The Marathon was a free event, and was walking distance from his residence. When he got there, there was an instant community assembled along the course. A remarkable event was almost over, and this was all PG was going to see! The fact that it is more than many others saw was little comfort.
PG walked alongside the course, and crossed Lanier Drive. This is important to the rest of the story. The runners were a bit of an anticlimax. A pack of men in track uniforms, with the leaders in a bunch at the start. They ran past, went to the end of the course, down Lanier Drive, and hustled down Peachtree to the end of the race.
After the second appearance of the bulk of the runners, PG was ready to go. However, there was a glitch. One runner was way behind the rest of the pack, PG could not cross Lanier Drive until this runner had gone by, and the course was opened for pedestrian traffic.
The last runner was from Afghanistan After a few minutes, he appeared. He had a large bandage on one leg, which apparently had been injured. He finished the race.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
Lisa Baron And Ralph Reed TMI
Lisa Baron is a big, cavernous piece of work. When she was married to Jimmy Baron , they lived in a McMansion on Osborne Road in Brookhaven. She is currently flogging a book, Life of the Party: A Political Press Tart Bares All. Ms. Baron has a podcast, a twitter account, a youtube account, and no shame. (The youtube account has one subscriber, jimmybaron. )
The Daily Beast has a review of the book, which is handy for copying the trademark quote. “When people find out that I worked for Ralph Reed during the 2000 Republican presidential primary in South Carolina, they always ask the same thing: Was it true Ralph told voters that Senator John McCain fathered a black child?” she writes. “And my answer is always the same, ‘How would I know? I was in a Greenville hotel room giving Ari Fleischer a blow job.”
This competes with the first line of the trashiest book PG ever read, Going Down With Janis, Janis Joplin’s Intimate Story. “I was stark naked, stoned out of my mind on heroin, and between my legs giving me head was Janis Joplin.”
Lisa Baron is the former spokeslady for Ralph Reed. The medium is the message. Mr. Reed is a professional christian politician, lending expertise to candidates who can afford his services. When the lady, known at the time as Lisa Gimbel, was giving a “Lewinsky” to the spokesman for George W. Bush, Mr. and Mrs. Reed were in the hotel room next door. Mr. Reed has been quoted “I now realize that politics is a noble calling to serve G-d and my fellow man,”…“We’re interested in outlawing all pornographic and indecent communication, which makes it harder for a site to entice children in.”… “What I want to do is to ensure that cyberspace is family friendly and children friendly.”
PG first heard of Lisa Baron when she was writing a weekly column for the SundayPaper. She became notorious on December 11, 2005, with the publication of My big cavernous pit of love. ( This link is for a cached version of this column. The Sunday Paper no longer has archives available. The column we are discussing today is sandwiched between “Sucking the fat out” and “Leaving Atlanta for a bisexual plumber”.) The intro to this seminal piece is “I swear I don’t have a big vagina, but over the Thanksgiving holiday, I told my father-in-law I did. That’s right, I told him right to his face that his daughter-in-law, the woman his beloved first born son chose for a wife comes with a big cavernous pit of love.”
This is a repost in two parts. The second half is about Ralph Reed. The concept of sexual harrassment in that office is too gruesome to contemplate.
Lisa Baron has had a quiet year. Her youtube channel still has a subscriber. Her last tweet: @lisabbaron The only thing better than coffee in bed…is wine in bed!
Uzi sent PG a video this morning. It is a satire on Alcoholics Anonymous. It is for unpleasant people…in this video they are all males, with ethnic diversity. The name describing these people is a body part used for elimination. Since this is a profanity light blog, so we will call it assbleep. (The video bleeped the H word) It is a rude thing to say about donkeys.
After viewing the video, and the inevitable youtube suggestions, PG visited JoemyG-d. He saw a post about someone who needs to go to one of these meetings. This would be Ralph Reed.
Mr. Reed was for several years the Chairman of something called the Christian Coalition. It was a political organization that supported candidates that passed the smell test. After a while, Ralph Reed left the Christian Coalition to start his own firm, Century Strategies.
This is where the story gets personal to PG. There is an office space on Presidential Drive, down the street from the round hotel. Redo blue had a facility in this space, which employed PG. After a merger, Redo left the space. This was when Ralph Reed was starting Century Strategies. He rented the space on Presidential Drive for his new company. It gives PG a warm feeling to think that Ralph Reed’s assbleep has contributed to the same commode as PG’s assbleep.
Apparently, the independent consulting business is not what it should be. Mr. Reed ( his full name is Ralph Eugene Reed Jr.) wants to have something called the Faith and Freedom Coalition. As the man says : “This is not going to be your daddy’s Christian Coalition. It has to be younger, hipper, less strident, more inclusive and it has to harness the 21st century that will enable us to win in the future.”
Something else that didn’t work for Mr. Reed is running for political office. In 2006, Mr. Reed ran for Lieutenant Governor in the Republican Primary. PG had to make a values decision. In the Democratic primary, Cynthia McKinney was running for re election. Here were two politicians who needed to retire, but PG could only vote against one. PG chose the Republican primary, and helped Ralph Reed spend more time with his family. In another act of electoral hygiene, the Democrats sent Cynthia McKinney to the Green Party.
While Lisa Baron is being mercifully low key, Ralph Reed is just as obnoxious as ever. Faith & Freesdom Coalition has a splashy web site, with an endorsment from Mitt Romney. FFC sponsors car #32 in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
Sign FFC’s Petition to Fight Back in Obamas War on Religion is another crowd pleaser. Pro-family and pro-freedom Americans will not sit idly by as government attempts to compel us to violate our own conscience. For three years, the Faith & Freedom Coalition has pointed out this Administration’s war on religion. This unconscionable edict is the final straw. Have you had enough of Obama’s war on religion? Send a powerful message to President Obama by signing the petition and making a contribution to the Faith & Freedom Coalition today. … This decision by the Administration displays a total insensitivity if not outright hostility to religious faith in our country. It will force millions of Americans to choose between having health insurance or their conscience and faith. The Faith & Freedom Coalition stands with Catholic Americans and all people of faith in this fight. It is imperative that we join forces to stop Obama’s war on religion. If you share our concern for religious liberty, please sign the petition and consider an on-line gift today of $25, $50, $75 or even $100. Thank you, Ralph Reed Chairman
The Church Of The Big Chicken
PG was listening to a podcast about atheists and religion. There was a comment about how prayer … the concept of talking to G-d … is often self aggrandizing. Duh. Why should the creator of the universe care about the budget problems at your church? One thought led to another, and soon PG remembered a series of brief conversations.
For those who are new to this blog, perhaps a bit of explanation is in order. PG is a recovering Baptist. He suspects that G-d does exist, even though the world would probably be a happier place without her. Whatever her status, G-d does not write books, or engage in real estate transactions. Jesus was killed because he was a troublemaker. The reputed exit from the grave has nothing to do with what happens to people when they die. And, last, but probably most important, PG is under no obligation to discuss any of these items.
At the time of these conversations, PG was in his last round of working for Redo Blue. He was based in Cobb County, making pickups and deliveries. As a mobile person operating in Cobb County, PG had frequent encounters with the Big Chicken. There is speculation that future civilizations will consider the Big Chicken to be an object of religious significance. PG decided to give this hypothesis a test run.
When this story took place, PG enjoyed the “privilege” of making comments at PyroManiacs. One of the Pyros, Scent, was mean to PG. One day, while waiting at a red light on the Cobb Parkway, next to the Big Chicken, PG looked over at the sheet metal bird and said “G-d, what should I do about Scent?” “You should forgive him.”
A week or so later, PG was waiting at the same red light. Across the street from the Big Chicken was an “adult fantasy store” named Tantra. This combination of extra crispy poultry, and eastern sex magick, led to the next question. “Why does Jesus hate me?” “I don’t know.”
By and by on the four lane, the light turned red. PG turned down the radio. A traffic report was underway. “Hey G-d, whats happening?” “Don’t worry about me, listen to the traffic report”.
All parties must come to an end. One day PG asked a more serious question. “Are mom and dad ok?” There was no answer. PG began to feel sad, until he realized that this whole thing was becoming too serious. Even if Jesus worshipers obsess over the lifestyles of the dead, you do not need to imitate them. Just keep you seat belt fastened, and watch out for the nut behind the wheel.
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