WARREN, Maine — A carload of food from Chick-fil-A had more meaning Thursday evening than a tasty meal for the approximately 100 people who turned out for a meeting of the Knox-Lincoln County Tea Party.
“This is about freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the freedom of assembly to meet here and enjoy some chicken,” said Col. Kris Mineau of North Reading, Mass., who is president of the Massachusetts Family Institute.
Mineau was one of the speakers at the Tea Party gathering, bringing the national political controversy over Chick-fil-A to the midcoast of Maine.
The president and chief operating officer of the restaurant chain, Dan Cathy, made comments to a newspaper in July in which he stated his support for traditional marriage. That led to criticism from supporters of same-sex marriage, with some urging a boycott of his restaurant chain. That, in turn, led opponents of same-sex marriage to issue support for the company.
When Carroll Conley, the executive director of the Maine Christian Civic League, heard about the planned meeting of the Knox-Lincoln Tea Party, he contacted Gordon Colby, who is a leader of the midcoast group and offered to arrange for Chick-fil-A food to be shuttled to the Tea Party gathering.
That’s where Mineau came in to the picture. As the Massachusetts counterpart to the Maine Christian Civic League, Mineau agreed to pick up enough Chick-fil-A food to feed 100 people and drove it more than three hours and 160 miles to the meeting.
Mineau, a retired fighter pilot who flew 100 combat missions over North Vietnam, said he not only strongly supports the right of Cathy to state his views on marriage but he also agrees with the restaurant executive’s position.
“Marriage should be between one man and one woman,” Mineau said.
He defended Cathy, noting that the company does not discriminate against its employees or customers. Mineau issued sharp criticism of Boston Mayor Thomas Menino for his comment saying he did not want Chick-fil-A in Boston.
“I will go as far to say that this type of incendiary speech played a role in a shooting at the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C.,” Mineau said. A man with bags from Chick-fil-A entered the organization’s headquarters Wednesday and shot a security guard before he was subdued. The Family Research Council also supports what they say is traditional marriage.
In a speech to the gathering, Mineau said the United States is at a precipice.
“We’re in a real battle for the heart and soul of America. Our rights come not from government but from God. If rights come from government, then government becomes God,” Mineau said to a loud round of applause from the crowd.
He recounted the time he ejected from a supersonic jet as it was plummeting to Earth at 750 miles per hour. He said no one knows how he survived, although it took six years to heal all his broken bones. He said, however, that a chaplain helped to put together his most important part.
“Now, we can take this most broken country and put it together again,” he concluded with a loud amen.
Colby rallied the gathering to work hard to elect people who share their beliefs. He read excerpts from letters written by Gen. George Washington during the Revolutionary War. He said the the letters were on the importance of perseverance and he told Tea Party members that perseverance was needed to elect the right candidates.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Charlie Summers was in attendance, as were local legislative candidates Robert Carter and Carole Gartley and state Rep. Deb Sanderson.
Maine Treasurer Bruce Poliquin also was in attendance. He noted the size of the turnout.
“This is America, this is democracy,” Poliquin said.
Empty gesture, empty calories
Alternative Headline ; Maine Tea Party Does Not Support Maine Businesses.
““We’re in a real battle for the heart and soul of America.” so screw Maine businesses.
In our experience Mainers are not respected in others States, anyway.
So in the battle for the heart and soul of America, we’ll side with the outta State interests, too.
Well … these nutters even outsourced lunch.
As you and your friends are shopping at wal-mart you may discuss shopping Maine
What’s a wal-mart ?
The only place most of us can shop as healthcare and wages are cut for the working class.
before walmart you used to have to go to the carnival to see a bearded lady….
What in he11 does that mean?
reference: http://www.peopleofwalmart.com
click the pictures link on the home page.
Stale chicken and stale ideas complement each other, apparently.
Certainly did not take long for that to be said.
Interesting….The lefties will be all over this because of Chick-fil-A supporting the right..
Old news. Most people in Maine know this southern fried food is garbage,
The racists join the homophobes for dinner…pathetic
It only took 20 minutes for someone to play the race card, with a bonus point for baseless name calling.
You could learn a lot from the Chick-fil-A executives about tolerance of those with whom you disagree.
As long as tolerance means donating to hate groups? Not my kind of tolerance, thanks.
But you could learn more about how to rake in a couple million bucks selling dead carcasses with just a few calculated words. Oops, sorry – not supposed to play the rooster card!
I am a democrat teaparty person and these people are neither. racist or homophobes… You are the hater. I don’t know what party you belong to but you are not a democrat. Because democrats allow people to discuss their interest at gatherings.
What party do you belong to?
You sound confused. That’s like saying you are hot and cold at the same time.
In the time of “Give ’em Hell Harry” and JFK the Democratic Party was not so far removed from conservatism as it is now. Ronald Reagan was a Democrat back then, and even as president he had an entire bloc of voters called Reagan Democrats. This page explains the seeming paradox: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reagan_Democrat
pushtheredbutton is probably one of those old style Democrats, unlike the trainwreck liberalism has become as typified by 90% of the comments on this page.
Not quite the same. The Tea Party is just one of many failed offshoots of the right. The majority will NEVER allow them to succeed long term.
Racist, how? Scared of gay people? No proof of that either. Your name calling only proves you have little to say.
How are the Tea Partiers racist??? Seriously? When outright racist hate is spewed at state conventions as humor (which got big laughs by the audience) and candidates are calling for the assassination of a f-ing n-word president and his “monkey children” and images depicting our president with a bone through his nose and his lynching flooding the Internet and plastered on Tea Party signs…..If that isn’t blatant racism then what is?
And homophobia isn’t fear of gay people it’s hatred of them.
Bigots and homophobes..Do those dudes really need the extra fat?
Only a communist would prevent free speech sir.
sheesh, you for real? God help us.
No, fascists have also suppressed free speech.
Fascists are all for free speach, as long as it is THEIR free speech.
Only a bigot would stomp all over a persons rights
not a bigot,.
So you would like it if you could take away the people in the stories right to vote.
I’m starting to see a pattern in the way that you draw fallacious conclusions from others’ posts and attack the poster based on those conclusions. Frankie wrote nothing about taking away bigots’ rights to vote. He simply labeled the subjects of this article as bigots. I for one would fight to protect the bigots’ right to vote and frankies’s right to call them bigots.
And only a communist would be against same sex marriage.
Does that mean that Democratic President Bill Clinton is a communist? He is the one that signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law in 1996, along with overwhelming majorities from both houses. You probably even voted for him didn’t you? What does that make you?
Personally I believe that marriage is a farce. With a divorce rate over 50% us heterosexuals have made a mockery of it. I’ll bet same sex couples would have a much lower divorce rate. I’m a 39 year old realist who knows that changes are coming in this democracy and I embrace them.
You can live in make believe land called a democracy and I’ll live in this great Republic. How can you pass judgement when you don’t even know the country you live in is a republic..
Semantics my friend. China is a Republic too.
They are also a “democracy”.
EXACTLY! “Semantics” is the “study of meaning”. Unless people are posting here just for the joy of seeing their thoughts on the Internet (probably true for some), they they are concerned with the meaning of what is written here. On the other hand, if you believe that your consciousness is the only reality then focusing on what others’ words mean would be a waste of time. I am not a solipsist and therefore, to me, semantics matters.
In this case, what did you mean by “democracy”?
Democratic republic is still a democracy
We are a constitutional republic, if we were a democracy you would actually have to participate not just make comments.
It is actually both and I participate by casting votes for representatives. This is called representative democracy.
You mean Cheney fibbed to us about “spreading democracy in the Middle East”? You’ve confused me, was he just “mak(ing) comments”?
NO WHERE IN THE US CONSTITUTION ARE THE WORDS DEMOCRACY, DEMOCRATIC, OR DEMOCRAT used.
Our government is a Constitutional Republic.
And a representative democratic republic… it is both
I was pointing out that democracy is not in the constitution.
Democracies do not work after the voters find that they can vote themselves largess from others.
Good point. Also notable, “welfare” is the 29th word.
Yep with “general” before it, meaning something that is good for the general public NOT good for an individual.
Both times Welfare is used it was in the same way. General welfare.
Not that you care about the point.
We are democratic, constitutional republic.
Got it? Oh good.
There is nowhere in the Constitution where democracy or any variation of the word used.
We live in a Republic controlled by a Representative Democracy. What’s your point? Even the Facist world of the tea Party can be a Republic. Mussolini proved that.
Wow, you’re wicked smaht.
you are 100% correct, but I still insist gay people have the same right to be miserable as we do,
There were no other options back then. He was the better option though.
Communists are against same sex marriage????
I think that Communists are all for SSM in the US, both those in the US and those in Russia, china, Africa, South America … One more step toward making the US weaker.
This isn’t about free speech.
who is preventing free speech? Everyone has the right to free speech….but you had better be prepared of the consequences of that free speech….
no one is preventing free speech, just returning it in kind, sir.
How is anybody “preventing free speech”?
By the way, I clicked on “Like” by accident, instead of “Reply,” so you have at least 1 less “Like” than you think because I don’t really “like” your mindless post at all.
Incorrect statement.
I feel sorry for these confused, lost people. Eating 3 hour old fast food to show your opposition to people doing something that doesn’t affect you.
Sheesh all the bigots are going to kill themselves off with all this CFA… maybe it is the most brilliant plan ever devised?
Edit for all future readers: Definition of BIGOT
: a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially : one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance
“Bigots”
That liberal buzz word is so 2011 (you broke it by the way)! Don’t you have another moniker for people that disagree with you?
If you have a problem with it, Joe, too bad. You have the choice to NOT be one.
Who said I didn’t agree with you. All I said was I was tired of the term “Bigot” tossed around whenever somebody disagreed with anothers stance on an issue. Please try again. Perhaps your the “Bigot” for accusing me of such things?
aah sorry joe – tired of the word bigot – than stop being one – i know you folks are in the business of trading out facts for fiction but you don’t get to redefine terminology- you are a bigot!! jesus would be sooooo proud!!
Wait, how is fitting the definition of bigot, then being labeled as a bigot, me using a buzzword for people that disagree with me?
How about we discuss the labels used by the kind of bigots that eat fast food from 3 states away to support people and a company that donate money to groups that actively seek out and destroy homosexuals.
Seriously… that’s the best response you have? You have no real opinion of your own? All you’ve got is some silly nonsense about “bigot” being last year’s liberal fad and “buzz” word? The word “bigot” has been around and used for centuries!
The Chick-Fil-A debate is about religious views not political views. It isn’t about conservatives or liberals. It’s all about Bible interpretation and intolerance. It’s about “selective” sins. The truth is the Bible is not 100% God’s word. Don’t believe me? Do a little research on the many, many versions and revisions.
Scriptures such as Leviticus 20:18 is pretty interesting – this is about the “sin” of menstruation, then there is Levitucus 15:19-30 – according to this God demands some really hostile and horrible repercussions for anyone who “sins” and touches anything a menstruating woman has touched. That’s so graphic that it’s scary. Then there is Ezekiel 18:6, Leviticus 28-30, Leviticus 15:1-33 which is about the “sin” of men being unclean (and this does not mean in need of a bath), then Deutronomy 23:1, Exodus 4:24-25 on the “sin” of circumcision, etc…
My point is the people opposing gay rights claim to be doing it because the Bible tells them it’s a sin. The problem with this is that there are so many other things that the Bible says are “sins” that these same people engage in. What is that supposed to mean – some sins are worse than others? Some sins are acceptable and some not? Those who accept gay rights wonder why is this one “sin” singled out for compliance but none of the other “sins” are? It’s a legitimate question. The Bible clearly isn’t the reason why people oppose gay rights… it’s just prejudice and discriminatory views. This is a free country and also one where discrimination is against the law – both man’s and God’s law.
I encourage and invite anyone to actually read the Bible and research the history of the creation of the Bible – look at several of the different versions. Compare them and see what’s been revised and who revised “God’s word” and why? As yourself, why is anyone revising God’s word? Obviously that wouldn’t be necessary at all if it were really God’s word. But, it is necessary because it is obvious that man has contributed largely to the words in the Bible and man has altered God’s words many, many times over fully diluting God’s word within the Bible.
Wow! I’m quite honored you took that much time to spew for little ole’ Me. Thanks, I think? I actually read it twice, no joke. I never from the beginning said I was against homosexuals. Do I think they should wed? (No) Do I think they should be allowed civil unions with all rights of a married couple? (Absolutely) Gay marriage is attacking this thing from the wrong angle, they always have. The more you push, the more people dig in. I just laid the ground work for you.
You’re very welcome… I’m always open to conversing with other people about pretty much anything. I love differing opinions – it tells me people are thinking for themselves!
I didn’t say whether I was for or against homosexuals either..I just started out saying the issue isn’t about left vs right or liberal vs. conservative, etc… it’s about religion. I have strong opinions on this subject and I agree that the gay community would seem to be going about this the wrong way. But, on the flip side of the coin what choice do gay people have if they want the right to cover their loved ones under a family health insurance plan or if they want to file a joint tax return? Gay couples today even raise children – the working partner may parent the child but not be the biological parent or parent through marriage.
The real problem is that religion and state are not really separate when it comes to marriage. Marriage is a religious union but also determines how the government taxes people and whether or not gay partners and their children can be covered under the working partner’s healthcare insurance plan. This whole religious/government debate could be resolved pretty easily. If the government would, for tax purposes and for healthcare coverage, just add the words “legal life-time partnership” and require the same exact licensing, etc… as is required for a marriage the problem would no longer exist. Everyone would be happy! For Christians marriage would remain a religious union before God and his witnesses, for gays they could live together legally as a family unit and could file joint tax returns, file head of household, and cover their partner and children under a family healthcare plan, etc… It really is not nearly as complicated as it’s made out to be. It’s just minor legislation and a new check box on tax and insurance forms!!!
You have no idea what your talking about. I keep hearing arguments referencing old testament law and how we who believe the bible and use it to point to the Biblical references against homosexuality are hypocrites because we don’t keep the whole bible.
You really have a sad misunderstanding of the purpose of the old testament law. The bible says those who trust Christ as Savior are “not under the law, but under grace” Romans 6:14 Our righteousness does not come by keeping the old testament law, our Righteousness is Christ and our Salvation is by faith in Him. He makes us righteous and gives us a new heart to serve Him. The law bore a curse because none of us could keep the whole law and part of the purpose of the law was to show people just that. We can’t be righteous by keeping the law because we all have already broken it.” All the law does is show us we are all sinners and all fall short of being righteous on our own merits. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; ” Romans 3:23. The law points us to the need of righteousness and Salvation outside of ourselves and in Christ. “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. ” (Gal 3:24).
The Old testament law was written mainly for the Jews. I don’t have to keep all those commandments of the old testament to be right before God. Christ alone and faith in Him is enough.
I find it so strange to hear people like you use the bible to justify sin. You are in a real spiritual darkness if you think God in any way allows for the sin of homosexuality.
The Bible is very clear on it’s teaching against gay and lesbian lifestyles:
“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. ”
(Rom 1:26-27)
Now, you tell me whats to interpret about this verse? It’s pretty straight forward. God’s Word on the gay lifestyle is that it is an unnatural thing. It is “against nature”. People are not created and born that way. God put in the nature of the man to desire a woman and in the nature of the woman to desire a man.
People who are gay need God in order to be delivered from the gay lifestyle. They don’t need people like you telling them God is o.k. with them being gay because He is Not.
Give me a break… why don’t you read the entire history of the creation of the Bible and while you’re at at read the Bible in entirety instead of pretending you read it. I know for certain 100% that you didn’t do this – EVER!!! If you had you wouldn’t be saying something so ridiculous.
I believe in God… but I am telling you that mankind contributed largely to writing and editing the many, many versions of Bible over the years. The Bible contains more of man’s word than it does God’s. No one really knows which words are man’s and which are God’s but there are some obvious hints as to some that man injected, i.e., God would not consider the natural reproductive process of ovulating a sin – but man who didn’t understand it fully just might.
You say gay people are sinners, so what exactly do you think you are? Are you not a sinner too? Or do you think that you are immune, exempt from sin? What makes you so sure that God can forgive your sins but not forgive the sins of a gay person? Don’t even tell me it’s in the Bible… so is a lot of other nonsense. Tell me, did God ask you to judge others on his behalf? I don’t think so. As a matter of fact I think it’s somewhere in the Bible that you are NOT supposed to do that… you are NOT to act as God. But here you are, “lording:” over people in a pompous manner… lying that you read the Bible in entirety and lying that you know it’s full origin and lying that you know which words within the Bible are truly God’s words.
Lying is a sin, did you know that? In fact, lying is one sin that made it into the top ten… you know, the 10 Commandments. Interesting that no where in the 10 Commandments does it say anything about condemning gays. So how is it that you conclude that your lying, your sinning is acceptable to God but not the sins of a gay person?
People like you need God to remind you that your sins are no more acceptable to Him than other people’s sins are. People like you need God to remind you that it’s wrong and it’s not your job to humiliate, condemn or judge others because of your biases.
You said that you don’t believe in the Old Testament because that Bible was written for the Jews. Are you kidding me? God’s word is God’s word… end of story! The Bible is one book with many edits and is completely diluted by mankind. I mean look at you claiming you don’t believe in God’s word in the Old Testament… just the new and revised edited version. I think we all know that God did not come back to earth and edit the Bible himself. And I think we all know that God does not have one set of rules for Jews and another for Christians, etc… It’s people like you who reject God’s word and replace it with man’s edits with all their own spins on it that need to ask God for forgiveness. Thou shall not worship false Gods… Worshiping a man-edited Bible which we are in agreement is God’s words altered, does constitute worshiping a false God. How can you spew claims that you speak God’s word knowing that what your preaching is really man’s edits. I’m a Christian and I find your pompous behavior totally insulting… I believe God’s word should be the same no matter what language or religion it is spoken through. I refuse to spread man’s word or to replace God’s words with man’s word. You can have that…
Of course they have other words, read through these posts and make a list.
1%er
hater or variations
racist
homophobe
sexist
Stupid or something similar
Bible thumper
Tea bagger or some such
Pick out almost any post here and you will see bigotry and hatred
No, NO….The BDN assured me in an email that the term, “Tea Bagger” was an automatic ejection from the post. We see how well that has worked. I bet if you wrote the term “f_G” I bet it would get you booted.
What if you were refering to sticks or cigarette?
Whe I explained why the term Tea b******er was offensive, That was femoved, but maybe that was because of the “gay” connotation.
How do you think that tea bagging is a gay act? (maybe you don’t know what it really means). Is your name Dirty Sanchez?
(no harm larry, let’s all have a little fun)
Actually I had to look the term up and the definition had to do with gay men, but obviously there is no reason that gay men would be the only ones to enjoy the activity.
Nope My name is Larry and I am not into
coprophilia. But if that is your thing … go for it.
I won’t stop you from having fun.
Bigotry is a two way street!
I forgot all those terrible gay bigots that just want to be able to be legally afforded the same rights as everyone else in the world, how horrible!!!!
Defending oneself from vicious attacks from those who wish to discriminate is not bigotry.
Nice name! Show me your Mu…Oh, Murf.
You mean the way YOU treat anyone that is “dumb” enough to disagree with you?
YOU are as bigittoted as any one of the people at this get together. Probably more.
I mean everyone that spews forth hateful rhetoric and encourages or commits hateful actions or actions born of hatred towards a very specific targeted group. Fighting prejudice is not bigotry. Supporting civil rights is not bigotry.
I agree that fighting prejudice and supporting civil rights is not bigotry, BUT Using bigotry to “fight” these things are certainly bigotry and as evil as using bigotry for any other reason.
Bigotry is bigotry no matter who is responsible for its use.
Your definition of bigot appears to describe your view of fundamentalist Christians. But, it is PC acceptable to hate on them. Do you post similar “bigot” posts about Muslims with the same view? Or did you do so six months ago about Obama before his position “evolved?”
My definition of bigot is derived from the Merriam-Webster dictionary. I use it to describe any and every group that spews hate at another group for based of beliefs. Christians that hate Muslims are bigots just as much as Muslims that hate Christians. Whites that hate blacks are bigots as much as blacks that hate whites.
People that hate homosexuals are bigots. They are also hypocrites for picking and choosing which parts of the bible to decide sins and ignore all the biblical forms of marriage that don’t aide their cause.
OK, but would you ever, ever post such a rant against Muslims who oppose gay marraige. I strongly doubt it. It’s a cultural thing with Muslims but hate on the Christians part?
It is unfounded hate on everyone’s part. I don’t care where it comes from and who says what, it is all disgusting and pointless hate speech and actions when at the very least these groups should actually read the message their religion is based on.
Col. Mineau’s last crusade was protecting the military from “The Gays”. His position included that they might bleed on their fellow soldiers …… He lost that “battle” and now has moved on to saving the rest of us from “The Gays”. I’d say that what he ‘s done is find a way to be a professional bigot trading on his military affiliation. That’s even more distasteful than the idea of 3 hour old chain-food fried chicken being driven from out of state. Kudos to the rest of the Viet Nam pilots who flew combat missions who do not use that experience as a platform for provoking division in this country. I ponder….how many “Divorcers” were choking down that chicken???
I feel sorry for you. your life of sodomy is not the norm friend.
Pick up a dictionary and look up the word ‘sodomy’, keeping in mind that the biblical city was not names for the act….the act was named for the biblical city. Also keep in mind that the only stupid question might well be, “Why should I bother to learn; the bible already tells me all I need to know.”
Well I feel sorry for you as you assume knowledge that you do not actually have.
like occupy wall street get a clue
How tacky.
Chick-Fil-A Day was in response to the mayors of Chicago, Boston and San Francisco proclaiming that people who hold traditional values regarding marriage were not welcome to open business in those cities, and the weight of the law would be used to deny them their constitution rights. So, yes, it does affect them. And, besides, people attempting to redefine marriage from husband + wife to create family to anything goes affects the whole society.
Nope. Marriage is not legally defined anywhere as husband + wife “to create family”, nor is gay marriage “anything goes.” You would rather defend the “constitution rights” of a corporation than the basic human rights of your neighbors and fellow citizens? You are free to hold “traditional values” regarding marriage, but it is silly to assume that being “traditional” makes them intrinsically good, and you are not free to force those beliefs on others. Slavery is a traditional value to some but you are not free to practice it. (yes, the South lost, for reals) Read the Bible and see some the outrageous “traditional” arrangements it endorses you will see that one man/one woman or one man/one man or one woman/one woman; without bigamy, concubines, arranged marriages, rapist+victim or brother+widow are pretty conservative options. Either you are for freedom and equality or you are against it.
I’m wondering how well that fried chicken kept during the journey. Guess the TPers were part of a big experiment, how good is Chik-fil-A as leftovers.
As for the former pilots testimony, it’s not said what his religious experience was prior to his downing and apparently the either the Chaplain convinced him that anti-SSM was part of the “package” or he assumed that it was.
I don’t think either the chicken or the speaker validates the TP stand on SSM. Don’t they have more important issues to crusade for (although I probably won’t agree with those either).
I am a Teaparty Democrat and I approve of this gathering 100%
Imagine a Constitution the foundation of our country. Without it there wouldn’t be a democrat or republican party. Long live the Republic
Teaparty Democrat? Isn’t that like a chicken that votes for Colonel Sanders?
More like a Facist union member.
I’m confused. I’m an independent Dem (registered Dem but vote for best candidate). I lean towards Tea Party ideals when it comes to less government in our lives. Being against marriage equality seems to be against everything the TP says they stand for.
Can you help me understand that dichotomy?
Way to support our local Maine economy folks-That is beyond insulting to every food business in that town-chain food from Mass -come on-put your money where your mouth is
I’m sorry, but this is the stupidest argument I’ve ever seen here. I vehemently disagree with the Chic-fil-a supporters but obviously they are making a statement by their actions. Its a statement that could not be made by ordering lunch from the local dairy bar. IMHO, your argument is right down there with the birthers.
I anticipate tomorrow’s headline about an outbreak of salmonella in Warren, ME.
we can hope!
I fear these people more than I do any other group in America.
So lost.
We always have the right to vote. This is no time for apathy in our country.
don’t fear them, hon. But it does bring life to Ben Franklin’s words, when he was asked what form of government did the Constitutional Congress create, and he answered,
“a democracy, if you can keep it.”
(or something like that).
Gather, eat your fat infested food, speak to your hearts’ content but understand that many of us disagree with you…. and think the Mayor of Boston took the path of liberty for all when he said they do not belong on the Freedom Trail. For those of you who missed it here is the letter: http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/391261_10150978481064930_1111641156_n.jpg
I thought the Tea Partiers wanted the government out of people’s lives- yet they support a company that calls for government sanctioned bigotry?
Smells like hypocrisy.
The company calls for no such thing. The owner stated his personal beliefs to a religous newspaper. That is all.
And so he doesn’t support using the law against gay people?
Actually, he also opens his wallet for the cause, not just lip service.
The owner has spent millions of dollars to fight against gay rights. That is the problem people have with him. It would be no difference if he were spending millions of dollars to fight against Jewish rights or women. He’s a bigot.
Dan Cathy did more than state his personal beliefs. His company, through the WinShape Foundation, gives millions of dollars to organizations actively fighting against marriage equality, including some hate groups. That folks like to wallow in their ignorance is alarming. To stuff your face with chicken and think you’re doing God’s will because you hate the same people He does is really shaking your fist at Him.
You clearly have no idea what has been going on with Chick Fil A. The president simply made a statement that he does not support laws to legalize same-sex marriage. That is in NO WAY a call for “government sanctioned bigotry”. First of all, it’s his personal view (not the view of the company), and second, he is making no call for government action. He’s simply choosing to disagree with these ballot questions.
That’s government using benefits to discourage and hinder the standing of certain people in this country. Yes, it is hypocrisy. The Tea Party says they want government out of their lives and to stop making decisions for us, yet they have no problem using the law against those they disagree with. No problem using the government to hinder those they disagree with.
That IS hypocrisy.
And he made this highly ironic statement: “And I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to try to redefine what marriage is about.”
and God Bless him for saying that
And God bless him for making millions of dollars by selling junk food filled with fats, chemicals, additives, hormones, steroids, antibiotics that is contributing to the obesity epidemic and the downfall of the American healthcare system.
By the looks of some in the picture, they should be gathering at a gym to exercise together instead of spitefully filling their faces with toxic foods. If they started taking care of their own bodies, they may stop sticking their noses into other people’s lives, trying to limit the liberty of others. This crew yells about the government being out of our lives, but they want the government to be in someone’s bedroom.
Now, now, TrueNative, in all fairness what someone else eats does not make you fat. ;-D And that phase fits every known definition of ‘eat’.
did god bless the pr director at CFA?
My god wouldn’t bless him for saying it, my god would exact his justice against him with his mighty hammer. My god Thor, justice with a hammer. Funny, my god wields a hammer, and your god died nailed to a cross…
“God bless him” for passing his own negative small-minded judgment on God’s creation?
If people believe “God made man in his own image,” then they have to accept all images of God, not just the ones they like and “approve of.”
Maybe he should have read the Bible before he made that statement. Then again maybe he naver got the true definition of marraige from the Bible.
He is doing a hell of a job of trying to run the way ppeople should live ,plus lots of free advertisment [they say the chicken was good cold]?????
He is not trying to run anyone’s life. He simply opposes a law. Just like everyone else gets to make that decision during their time as a United States citizen. He was asked a question. He answered. Shocking, huh???
Denying same sex couples equal rights is indeed government sanctioned bigotry.
What else would you call it?
Common sense?
Common sense, like the Taliban use to inflict their moral judgement on others?
No.
Common sense like how liberal minded education employees indoctrinate young minds.
spoken like someone with no post secondary education.
lol
Lucky me.
proving the old adage, “ignorance is bliss”.
The Law
An outdated law based on some people’s religion that’s about to be history! Hurrah!
I guess only time will tell.
Exactly right.
And the supreme law of the land is the Constitution. This is why, sooner rather than later, the SCOTUS will decide this issue, regardless of what happens in Maine this November.
If/when this issue is decided by SCOTUS, I will be content with the law, can you say the same? It’s amazing how we hear so much about SCOTUS and how Republicanized it is when it came to the decision of corporate funds for campaigns, but yet are praised by these same people for upholding the Health Care Act.
Our constitution is a living document. That is the nature of our country. I can live with that.
I don’t give one hoot about party, praise or people. I care about equality, the Constitution and due process.
Why should you be content?
Disagreeing with some SCOTUS rulings and not others is not hypocritical as you imply. If one disagrees with a SCOTUS ruling one can work towards amending the Constitution. Are you saying that the framers intended to empower hypocrites (as opposed to those taking principled stands)? Please forgive me if I’ve incorrectly inferred your intent from your post.
Yes, the framers did empower hypocrites. If they were all knowing and far seeing, we wouldn’t have had the issues throughout the course of this country. The natives (b/c they wouldn’t be considered cultured or americans) would be extinct, blacks (b/c they wouldn’t be called americans) would be slaves and women would still have no rights.
Also many of the framers may have been self proclaimed deists, but they still believed in the Christian God. i.e. Ben Franklin instituting Prayer before every meeting during the Constitutional convention.
The Supreme Court exists to only to interpret and protect the Constitution- not to edify social movements. It’s up to the people; not nine members on a court.
equality is not a fad social movement, it is the essence of our Constitution.
You speak as if gay marriage has existed for our 200+ year history. No one is trying to strip away historic rights. Simply, there are people who happen to oppose new laws legalizing this type of redefinition of marriage. Which is a PERSONAL opinion (like I mentioned in my earlier post), not a call for government action. Two very different things.
That’s right, 200+ years ago we were burning gay people.
Let’s get it right this time. Equality for all Americans.
Actually, Chick-fil-a as a company, has donated millions to known hate groups. Hate groups that advocate discrimination against LGBT people and/or banning SSM all-together. It is their position as a company. While that may be a position you support, it is far bigger than just “the president simply made a statement that he does not support laws to legalize same-sex marriage”. Those who support equality have every right to boycott and protest in the same way religious fanatics do over almost every group, organization, or company that doesn’t support their cause. The difference is we aren’t crying about anyone attacking our freedom of speech. We are using it in exactly the same way religious conservatives are, unless the ‘Million Moms’ Focus on the Family backed protest/boycott of JCPenny is somehow different?
you’re all making way too much out of this.
Smells like fast food chicken.
They ate fast food that traveled 100+ miles?
and 3 hours…..mmmm good…
Love the idea that: “This is about freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the freedom
of assembly to meet here and enjoy some chicken,” said Col. Kris Mineau. However, it is actually about the right for one group to deny the right of contract to people based upon their gender.
Secular marriage — which is the issue — is a contract between to people; it grants each certain legal rights of information access, inheritance, decision making, tax relationship, etc. The idea promoted by those who oppose the the right-to-marry legislation are, in fact, attacking the right of two people, of the same gender, to enter into a contract which, in a single act, grants a wealth of legal rights — rights which are universally recognized within the American territories (we do not recognize many foreign marriages, or legal rights).
If we deny contract rights based on gender, then the time will come when that denial will be utilized as a precedent for extension of that right to deny any two people of the same gender to enter into any contract. Sounds weird, but look at how laws are made, reshaped, and redefined.
If the issue of marriage is about freedom of religion — that is, religious marriage — then let the secular law bind people according to the laws which govern the place where the marriage is conducted — for example: those who marry in a Catholic Church will never be allowed to divorce, nor will a divorce be recognized, so they cannot remarry. That’s freedom of religion; it is not what is being discussed — which is the freedom to be a bigot & deny contract rights.
or the right to run rampant outside of society and natures norm…its certainly one or the other…your certainly nailed it down to two choices…..now, are people who disagree with you on solid ground, bigots?….doubtful…and with todays court….have you ever seen people actually denied contract rights (that are currently in law)…..
Please pay attention. All people are currently denied the right to enter into a marriage contract, with a member of the same sex, in the State of Maine. We are denied this right based on the type of reproductive organs we (and our loved one) were born with. This is clearly a case of discrimination based on sex and/or gender. Anti-SSM folks don’t disagree with this. They claim that such discrimination is warranted. The fact that the discrimination occurs is not in dispute.
Mmmm, cold soggy chicken.
Which was probably then stuffed in a microwave and irradiated to within an inch of its life . . . oh . . . wait . . .
Get the government out of licensing and legislating marriage. Get rid of marriage at the civil level. If people want to be domestic partners, let them. If people are interested in marriage in the religious sense, then marry. The laws were written for a marriage between a man and a woman with procreation in mind and were to protect the childbearers whose roles were clearly defined. Looks like we don’t need that anymore.
stop with the procreation argument. if that were the case, my mom would not have able to remarry at 56.
I don’t see the religious right getting all freaked out about old people getting married, do you?
Right.
So, it’s not about procreation, it’s about bigotry.
I did say do away with marriage, civil laws for marriage. Revert back to religious marriages and allow the government to allow domestic partnerships. Why would you want to hold onto marriage laws which are now a sham—get rid of it. Then anyone who wants a religious ceremony for their marriage can do so. I gave the historic background. My argument is not about bigotry as you claim. If we don’t need the original marriage laws, then do away with it. I have no idea what your argument is with getting the government out of marriage. One might think that you would be in favor of allowing anything goes instead of traditional law.
What you are explaining is exactly what the Yes vote in November gets you.
Some semantic differences, yes. But NO one wants to interfere with churches and their beliefs. Equal protection under the law is what is necessary.
So long as its the same for everyone (expect for that church thing).
NO, what I am saying is GET RID OF ALL MARRIAGE LAWS. You are not reading and semantics have nothing to do with the law. Get rid of marriage laws totally!!! A YES VOTE ADDS TO THE MARRIAGE LAW AND NO ONE WANTS MORE LAWS. Get the government out of marriage by asking that all marriage laws be struck down and only civil union or domestic partnership be law for privacy issues.
Why are you so bent on getting more legislation? Without marriage civilly, there would be no problem in trying to redefine what a marriage means. Let everyone figure it out on their own and decide how to proceed in the religious sense or out on some beach by exchanging their own vows. Your problem is in trying to shove new definitions of marriage down everyone’s throat legally. Get rid of all of it and no one will have a problem.
We need civil laws to handle things like children, insurance, common property, etc. The law provides that a wife/husband shall be forced to testify against a spouse. There are societal reasons why marriage is in place.
Read my posts carefully. You are hanging to the term MARRIAGE. Get rid of marriage laws and substitute domestic partnership or civil union for everyone wanting that. If the people involved want to go a step further for themselves, it would be a union or marriage that they would complete with either themselves exchanging vows or a religious group or clergy performing as a ceremony. Marriage needs to be scrapped at the civil level. Why are you insisting that society requires marriage. Many things which formed the basis of archaic laws are now gone. Get rid of this too rather than have voting and a bunch of nonsense taking place. Let the people involved have the civil union or domestic partnership with the government and get whatever else they feel they need from either themselves or their religious group. Think of all the things we are better off without. Society does not require marriage—its old reasoning is long past.
okay, whatever
You must be very young—the term, whatever, is sarcasm used by the young. Please refrain from resorting to sarcasm, it never serves your purpose well.
Do you want to ask my two grandsons how old I am?
You then must understand the flip nature of the term, whatever. If your grandchildren spoke to you in that manner, grandma would not like it at all.
If my grandkids grow up to be advocates for equality, I will be very proud indeed.
These laws were more about the transfer of money and possessions, along with the financial gains that marriage could bring a man. It had little to do with procreation.
Traditional Biblical marriages included polygamy, marrying slaves, keeping concubines, marriages to early 12-13 year old girls, etc.
Civil laws protected women and children due to their traditional roles in the home and not out in the work place.
I support getting rid of marriage laws, going to civil union, and allowing marriage to be handled by whatever religion the pair espouses. I never mentioned a biblical marriage.
Why is it that so many people can’t handle getting the government out of marriage?
Let’s also get rid of paying taxes on inheritance while we are at it. Anything inherited by anyone I choose to leave it to has been amassed on money that I have already paid taxes on. There is no need except government greed for wanting to tax it again. Right now if I don’t have kids or living parents, whoever gets it pays again. That is so wrong.
Seems to me there would be less problems regarding marriage if the government got out of the equation.
They also serve it grilled.
Also gave some tax dollars to a state that has marriage equality :-)
Haha, losers.
People have the right to freedom of speech and tasty chicken, even if their opinions are dumb and the chicken is full of saturated fat.
Look on the bright side: all that chik fil a will prob put them in an early grave.
Birds of a feather, Summers, Poliquin, Lepage.
They should have served crow….
Mr. Mineau should keep his big nose out of other people’s business. All of his talk about, “God,” is ridiculous and offensive; his tone is extremely condescending/sarcastic and so are his actions.
Bigots
Loud and Clear
Yessah
“This is America, this is democracy,” Poliquin said.
This is wrong on so many levels it’s almost impossible to pick a starting point. But let’s start with a corporation and the tea party representing democracy, that’s bad enough, add religion and right wing politicians all who represent restricting the rights of those who have absolutely no impact on them except for their life style that they disagree with. Then add to that bad food and you got yourself a recipe for disaster.
That’s not democracy, that’s just twisted.
when you use that rhetoric, most sensible logical americans think one thing…”you are talking about yourself”…your not convincing anybody that what you are saying has any sliver of truth…and you actually shine a little light nto your own twisted world…but please….continue….
radical stuff huh …. objecting to letting corporations and religion dictate democracy and then right wing politicians ceremoniously wrapping a flag around it. Logical Americans consider that something totally different than about one’s self. Better check your party affiliation I don’t believe it belongs in this country or this century.
Nobody would even start to believe that “corporations and religion disctate democracy”…that right there is where the discussion stops….thats just loony, grassy-knoll, anarchist diatribe….now do corporations have some or seek control, absolutley…and where this crosses the line into the three branches of govt is where the pinch point is…
Theocracy???!!…if America was going to be a theocracy, wouldn’t it have made some broad movement forward with President Bush?…his hero was Jesus Christ…he had all braches of govt ‘under his control’….and where is the theocracy?…its just loony..just like you will say Romney will do the same because he is a Mormon…..its ok to put to rest your theory of theocracy, really…it will not happen…unless you listen to crazy left wing people.9or the current media) ..then you are probably out of reach anyway….
Come November we shall see if corporatism will win out over democracy. Your crew though is doing a fantastic job at destroying the very heart of our Democratic system by all your voter suppression. You sir are kidding no one.
Pledge of Allegiance much?
“..one nation under god..” Sounds pretty theocratic to me.. are you ashamed of it?
Delusional TeaRadicals adding more pounds to their flabby paunches. Gee, any chance to gobble up some nice fatty foods is a motivator for a TeaRadical.
It sounds disgusting. One can only imagine what 3+ hour old fried chicken would taste like and it doesn’t sound apetizing – but then the Tea Baggers will swallow anything. They’ve swallowed the rants of their leaders for such a long time that soggy fried chicken probably tastes pretty good to them.
Grammar error.
Why do conservatives want people slow, fat, and stupid?
sheep!
The garthering of hate.
with a side of cold fries.
Mr. Mineau thinks our rights come from God and not the government. There is no such thing as God given rights. We live in a country that is made up of laws that bind us together and help us maintain a civilized society. Try shooting a neighbor you disagree with and go before a judge and tell him it was your God given right to do so and see how that works out for you. Just because the government is charged with enforcing our laws that doesn’t mean they are trying to play God or replace him. I think Mr. Mineau’s analogy of the government becoming God because they play a very important roll in our society may fit well with the Tea Party crowd but will probably not play well with mainstream Americans.
They don’t seem to believe John 3:16 which says “For God so loved the WORLD………” not just those who agreed with Him, but for the WORLD. EVERYONE. They had better be careful when they start evoking His name to bless their cause or they may see wrath like they have never seen.
There is another verse: “God will not be mocked.”.
And for those that are not Christian, your argument is invalid.
Arthur: The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water, signifying by divine providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. THAT is why I am your king. Dennis: Listen, strange women lyin’ in ponds distributin’ swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony…you can’t expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you… if I went ’round sayin’ I was Emperor, just because some moistened bint lobbed a scimitar at me, they’d put me away.”
Excellent job, folks. That is the way to take a principled stand.
Unlike Occupy, I bet there were no drugs, assaults, or trash at this event.
Oh, there was trash…
:)))))
Dannyboy7
Can you count all the way to 8?
I guess you think anyone who is for equal rights must have done drugs in the Bangor park in a tent? Wrong. The vast majority of us are just like you, except we don’t hate gay people.
If i erase my brain from all that is good and right…forget the history of everything that this country stands for…disregard everything my parents taught me about society and nature……”wait a second here….I think you may be right”….
Oh, Please AccidentalOpportunist, dont dumb down DannyBoy7…..Occupy Maine was agroup of people that were a shill for the Anarchists in America…vs the Tea Party, who still believes that America has a civil process for change and would still like to engage in discussions about answers to American societies problems…..When Anarchists lose the debate, they get meaner and dirtier…..and they use ciivil unrest to get what Anarchists want…not civil discourse…..
Don’t feel so bad, since Occupy Maine dissolved…..you and I both know this current administration will need chaos in America’s streets and Occupy will answer the call….make sure your membership dues are kept up to date.
Again, and tell me if I should slow down, you seem to think all Democrats are Occupiers. Untrue.
Perhaps we can stay on topic? This country was founded on some pretty messed up beliefs (that one religion’s God is in total control; that people are in fact NOT created equal), and that’s what the truly progressive want to change.
I’m not a defender of the “Occupy” movement. However, the concentration of wealth in this country needs to be recognized and discussed. The richest 400 people in this country have as much wealth as the bottom 150 million. Assuming that this statisitc is anywhere near correct, the ramifications for our society may not be very pretty.
Social disintergration is a possibility. In the 80’s, the CIA felt that the USSR was rapidly gaining economic ground on the US. By 1990, the USSR had ceased to exist. Embrace ideology at your peril.
Pathetic. If they knew what was in that chicken they wouldn’t eat it! But on the bright side, we’ll get the election and all they’ll get is Type II diabetes.
Oh, they probably think the government is protecting them from all the bad stuff. Don’t they know the government doesn’t protect you?
:(
“Our rights come not from government but from God.”
We are not a theocracy. They have theocracies in the middle east and that’s not my vision of America.
Yeah, I agree. We do not need an American Taliban, dictating how everyone else needs to live.
you two are absoultley hilarious….I’m gonna share your comments with my 9 and 11 year old….see if I can get them to agree with you…..If they will just stop laughing long enuff to read it with a straight face….
Please don’t subject your children to your anger.
Classic ad-hominem fallacy! Strike three!
praise the lord he is king of all
LMAO….
Great group to support out of state fast food.
Odd…I only see men in the photos. Did the women already eat–or were there none?!
Check out the Cat in the hood in the background of the pic with two fat white guys. He looks like the Unabomber! Or a startled Klansman. He looks as if he knows he’s up to no good…
Actually, a post op to the story…the women were in the kitchen…don’t worry, I know what you are thinking….their shoes were neatly stacked by the door just outside……
I think we can officially name this comment section Wacko West Wing…..Your hateful, immature schtick is way outside societies norms of common sense and thought……You know exactly what the Tea Party stands for, but you twist and try to shut down discussion because you cannot win the argument of the Tea Party……..must be embarrassing to cut down a group of people who are damn good americans… anyone who disaggrees with the left is hateful, bigoted…… pssstt….we all know it means….. you are talking about yourselves because you are too lazy to create an arguement…. but if you say it loud enuff other people might actually believe your foolishness…There is a reason 80% of people in Maine did not vote for a democrat in 2010…scroll up to find the reason…
A meeting of folks devoted to freedom of speech, assembly, and religion but devoted to the denial of basic human dignity to a group of citizens.
Poor fools! They could have had lobster and saved some money while supporting local small business, but then again, Tea Potty is all about supporting big business.
Ah, yes, the Vietnam era fighter jockey to the rescue. This “huff and puff” sleeps well at night. One hundred combat sorties over North Vietnam and now it’s on to denying others a fundamental right. Gee, I wonder if he’d like to come over for dinner this evening…we’ve so much in common. United States forces killed 2 million Vietnamese during the “American War”–mostly civilians, may they rest in peace.
With liberty and justice for all.
Absolutely disgusting. Driving 3 hours to get greasy food, just to prove how much of a bigot you are? Classy. Real classy.
Charlie Summers continues to clock more to the right.
And it’s like a ratchet, there is no moving back to the center.
Your description of the war in Vietnam was perfect. Go eat some old chicken.
You mean the war that their hero, our disgusting governor, carefully avoided by moving to New Brunswick?
You hate that Fr@g and all his race?
Mais non, since half of my heritage is French and I also lived in PQ for a while, as a child. What I hate is phonies and hypocrites who go out front and center and claim to support our troops today, while expecting me to forget that while our men were dying in ‘Nam, he moved to Canada.
“Our rights come not from government but from God.”
I thought the Tea Party were not aligned with extremist Right-wing Christians. In fact Tea Party supporters have argued with me about the contemporary Tea Party being nothing more than advocates for a closer following of the U.S. Constitution, and they’ve challenged me and they’ve challenged others who’ve pointed out the alignment with Christian groups to point these linkages out.
Just like their lie that they’re not Republicans, but they instead have members of every political party. Like their lie that they’re diverse and every race and religion makes up significant parts of their “grassroots” movement.
Just insulting. It’s like reading a report of a Klan gathering with all the justifications and platitudes for their existence.
I do not understand and will never understand why other people are so worried about gay marriage. I do not see how it devalues heterosexual marriage in any way. It is not as though straight people are going to be forced to marry someone of the same sex.
I don’t get it either. I am married traditionally, and I don’t think gay marriage poses any threat whatsoever to my marriage. Maybe someone who attended this event could explain.
Did political speech have anything to do with the shooting of Gabby Gifford or the shootings at the Sikh temple? I recall the right disavowing any connection. So it seems sort of hypocritical of Colonel Mineau to link the shooting at the Family Research Council in Washington to the “incendiary” speech of Mayor Menino saying that Chick-fil-A was not welcome in Boston.
Uhm….
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2012/08/15/only-abc-offers-full-story-shooting-frc-cbs-nbc-blow-it-tiny-reports#ixzz23ii4uAux
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SECURITY_GUARD_SHOT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-16-11-10-03
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0812/79807.html
Nope, no link here, let’s move along folks, nothing to see here, just an act of domestic terrorism.
Did they wear tri-cornered hats or white pointy hoods? Inquiring minds want to know.
Yeah I know its weird how all the members seem to be old white guys…
“If I ever had to have a heart or a brain transplant and I could choose my donor, I’d choose the heart or the brain of a bigot, whether he be black or white, because I’d want a heart or a brain that’s never been used before.”
Godfrey Cambridge, 1960s
Zing!
Wow! I think it’s great that these folks have discovered freedom of speech and assembly. Didn’t they know about it all along? And they’re also free to eat that antibiotic chicken. God Bless America!
I think the point was…Chik-Fil-A excersized thier right to free speech……and they were attempted to be shut down by leaders (hmmpf) of some pretty large cities, including Boston, because they voiced thier opinion…..To excersize YOUR free speech, if you don’t like Chik-Fil-A is to not visit that business…clearly you are disingenuous if you think thats all that happened to Chik-Fil-A….There was a group that attempted (the same group that holds the exact same veiw as you) to try to silence or produce harm to this business other than not visiting that business. This also produced a person who attempted to shoot thier way into Family Research Council, using the Chik_Fil_A business as an example.
I think you have missed the crux of the CFA issue ….. it is not about Mr. Cathy’s freedom of speech or his freedom of religion. He is free to speak his beliefs. It is about the Charitable arm of CFA. It is about donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to support organizations that have consistently made incendiary statements regarding racial and ethnic minorities, religious minorities as well as LGBTs. To give you a little taste of these some of these statements, just search Bryan Fisher from American Family Association. Chick-Fil-A has made many large financial donations to the AFA.
Boycotting is part of US history and every citizen may take part. There have been many boycotts begun or called for by those who oppose SSM and civil rights/human rights for LGBTs: Starbucks, Home Depot, Disney, McDonalds, General Mills, JC Penney, etc. because they have publicly spoken or acted in support of LGBT civil and human rights as well as SSM.
What I find interesting is that FRC blames the Southern Poverty Law Center for the shooting because FRC is on their ‘hate group’ list but they do not consider their incendiary statements as a reason for gay teens committing suicide, vandalism of non-christian placed of worship, violence at health centers that perform legal abortion ….
Your answer is a simple one. You don’t like Chik-Fil-A, get you and millions of your friends to not visit there. ..just like millions chose TO visit CFA that day…That should be the limit of ANYONES actions against Chik_Fil_a…is that all that was done?…of course not, thus the crux of this debate is at hand….
You feel FRC uses incendiery speech…its speech..not any more powerful than your speech against FRC (or anyother issue). FRC speech is not a reason for crimes or issues of society, but you use it as some tool in your attack of FRC free speech rights…..The issue is, those who speak out against FRC speech (very loudly and widespread) remains eerilly silent when speech is actually be attributed to crime…FRC attack….not a word from most media groups….if your argument was true, you would need to use the words incendinary or blame this speech on violence against legal acts or suicide or attacks on religious orgs…
Your point will be complete and sensible when President Obama or the National DNC asks VP Biden to step down immediately…or when Ft. Hood, or FRC or Skih shooting are NOT referred to legally as workplace violence…America sees that your view has to contort into something unrecognizable in order to appeal to a very few…
This needs more editing.
All I know is that I had a married gay couple move in next to me and the next thing I knew my marriage crumbled and my lilacs died.
Oh wait, nothing happened.
Freedom of Speech…only for the left wing haters.
It seems every political movement needs a boggie man or scapegoat to rally the worst in people. Funny how the Tea types want to have gubbiment off their backs, but reserve the right to use that same government to restrict the rights of others. It’s the same hypocrisy with the left fringe too. I’m waiting for the day when a politician or two are brave enough to support all Amendments to the U.S. Constitution that support civil rights for all.
Not holding breath for that.
i guess there is still KKK DNA in Maine.
The KKK doesn’t exists anymore statistically…except in the Democratic party…
That’s all ya got for your defense of that inane chik fest for the Tea Party?
Keep eating that cholesterol and calorie laden food….. that’s okay. It’ll bite you back eventually.
You have no idea what you are even talking about. Did you visit any Occupy sites? Spend time getting to know the people?
You have no idea what you are even talking about. Did you visit any Tea Party meeting? Spend time getting to know the people?
“We’re in a real battle for the heart and soul of America. Our rights come not from
government but from God.”
Wow.
Pretty hard to discuss things with a Tea Partier who just stepped off the Ark at Mr.
Sinai. He’s been there. Done that. Seen it with his own eyes.
The humble Farmer
I’m guessing this is just the first in a long line of out of state interests coming to Maine to influence a vote on Maine law.
…again.
Right on! This meeting seemed to me to be more about God, and less about America. Mixing the two is always a slippery road down to fascism. What don’t these fanatics understand about the division of church and state? They need some classes in basic civics. Or maybe I need to organize a similar meeting with the Buddha, or Rama, or any other “special God’s name”, as the rationale for voting MY way?!
Yes, indeed. There are shades of fascism as there are shades of chameleons, but, to a degree, three factors join them all.
First is irrationalism, the rejection of rational and honest scientific inquiry as means of searching for and finding truth. Fascists would argue that life is too complex and mysterious to be understood through rati0nal inquiry and discovery. To them, truth is subjective, therefore best grasped by those gifted individuals whose will, personality and spirit ought be accepted by all the rest. After all, the gifted ones know the truth – they divine it somehow. By attacking education directed at critical thinking and replacing it with “practical” training and the like, fascists enhance their power and prestige as the source of those elusive truths, using whatever works to put it across.
Next is a love of nationalistic militarism and police authority (homeland security). Fascists are absolutely in love with all things military. It goes with their belief that when it comes to it, a big stick on the skull is the only reliable way of settling differences. To them, essential protection of the country isn’t enough, for instance spending more on war-making capability than the next seventeen nation-states. Rather than serve foreign policy, the military is given an ever larger hand in determining what it should be. All of it gets done with much flag waving and patriotic ceremony when and wherever possible. All this may be normal enough to a degree in all tribes, but fascists strive to make it a centerpiece.
Finally, totalitarianism, by which the individual is reduce to a servant of the state which is the heart and soul of the national organism. To be sure, this is no small order in the transformation of a liberal democracy, but if enough people come to believe that democracy is too hard, too confusing, and too slow things get a bit easier. Also, if enough people come to understand that liberal democracy was never intended by the founders of their republic (in our case), what else is there to fill the void but some sort of permanent elite. And what better way to do that than by giving the private sector elites who own both the government, broadcast and digital media unchecked access to the public mind through mass media? Without copying the exact methods of, say, Mussolini’s corporate state, the result could be pretty close to the same, only more in line with Ray Bradbury’sFarenheit 451 perhaps.
History never repeats itself, but patterns of mass behavior do, and we should always be mindful of that. We are not immune, and because of that, we do well to study the whole past and not to cherry-pick it.
Note to pro-marriage equality folks: This is what happens when you just jump out on the streets with signs and no unified message. The topic not only gets muddled and subsequently twisted into something else by your opponent; it comes back at you 10-fold. I have quietly NOT eaten at CFA for over 30 years because I didn’t want my money getting funnelled to who-knows-what organizations they contribute to.
The whole point of the outrage of CFA’s stance on marriage equality is NOT that Mr. Cathy doesn’t have the right to say or believe what he does. He can absolutely support whatever he wants as guaranteed by the rights he has in this country.
The point is that quite a few of the organizations that the charitable arm of CFA gives money to are involved in actively denying rights to LGBT communities globally.
THAT is what has folks up in arms and that should have been the focus of the outrage. But, no. Signs about racism and bigotry are trotted out to the CFA stores and that’s what the media shows. That’s the most frustrating part of being a progressive thinker in this country; there’s no unified message.
These people are confused. The tea party was supposed to be about liberty and small government. They seem to be pushing the idea that one group should be able to control another group. That is not freedom.
you should get any information about the tea party from reliable sources……clearly you have been horribly mislead…
You are being too kind Mr. Waldo. They want to ridicule and paint the Tea Party as a bunch of radicals. Their ignorance is to our advantage. The best part is that these people continue to underestimate the power of the Tea Party. Let them do it and watch for their reaction after the next election.
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First the homosexual community took the word Gay and made it theirs to use. Then that wasn’t enough, they wanted the word fag/faggot. Then the word queer was taken away from the heterosexuals. And now they want our word marriage? So the homosexuals view of equality is that they can take words they want, rearrange the definition to fit their needs, and then announce that no one else can use them. That is called special rights.
You are delusional.
Delusional? Really? How? How often are you hearing the words such as gay, fag/faggot, and queer? Almost never. Because now those words have such a negative meaning that people are afraid to use the word anymore despite the fact that they are using it in the correct form. So once again, you have taken those words and now you want marriage.
Those words are offensive and hurtful. Many teenagers have committed suicide because of those words. Many adults have worked for a lifetime to recover from those words being used.
You are right, us “queers” have invented those words because we just loooove to be called them! I don’t use those words because they are hateful and offensive. And you know what, they SHOULDN’T be used for those same facts. As truenative pointed our below me, alot of people have killed themselves over such harsh words. I myself have attempted a couple of times over my lifetime for the same exact reason. So while you continue to use those hateful words, we will continue to feel hatred and hurt by them. I hope you can live knowing that.
Special rights are when one group of Americans think that they have the special right to dictate to other Americans how they live out their lives. Special rights are when a religious group wants to force all other Americans to live by their religious belief system. Special rights are when one group of Americans obsesses about what other people do in their bedroom. Special rights are when one group of Americans squelches another groups’ ability to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Tasty? Really? Other than that, what does one get from this hot story about cold chicken and cold hearts? Old white guys with thin white hair making white noise, perhaps? Let’s see, there was once a time when (depending on the country) their types wore brown-shirts or black shirts or silver shirts or blue shirts. They were full of resentments of all sorts. They prided themselves on their toughness. They despised refined behavior. They disliked intellectuals even while some of them posed as such. They recoiled from identifying with the working classes with whom they shared more interests than they would admit. They were of the property-owning middling classes and as such considered themselves the proper successors of their country’s founders. They spoke endlessly of the nation’s heart and soul, often with strong religious overtones. They strutted, paraded, and attracted attention through staged spectacles. One thread of the theme they harped on relentlessly was the attack on public servants, on the legislative process and of democracy itself. One favorite line was the false distinction they often made between a democracy and a republic (familiar?).
All the posturing and pontificating of this strange collection of misanthropes, their crude attacks on the objects of their resentments, their simultaneous expressions of petty grievances and delusions of grandeur would have seemed seedy or comic in optimistic times, but in their time – the great Depression -fears about a shrinking share of the national wealth and of losing ground led others of the same socio-economic groups to see them as bulwarks against change. What they feared most, perhaps, was their becoming redundant and unnecessary, something more destructive of their sense of worth than practically anything else.
All their spectacle might have come to nothing had they not be seen by the rich and powerful as a tool with which to resist threats to their own accumulated wealth. And so, without having to actually mingle or invite them to their clubs, their homes or their summer enclaves the rich saw fit to fund and encourage the spectacle.
It worked. The spectacle became meaner and more destructive in many ways, ways which couldn’t be countered by civil discourse. Thus they got away with even more outrageous behavior. They managed to prevail one way or other in several places, and wherever they prevailed, things eventually turned out badly for everybody.
What do we have in the tea party movement – the white shirts? Could Kris Mineau or someone like him become the Ernst Roehm of our time? Could he be our very own Oswald Mosley ? Perhaps they’re no more than a flash in the pan or pain in the ____, but the oh, so white ones bear watching. We live in volatile times.
Oh Paleeeeze!
so the “Maine Christian Civic League” does not believe in supporting local Maine businesses. no chickens available in the Mid-Coast? Nice combo platter of bigotry and saturated fat they served up. Fighting to deny people their “pursuit of happiness” in matters of love and commitment is Bigotry – it is the correct word to use – it is just that simple and it is just plain wrong.
bigotry, intolorance, insendiary speech, hate speech, call it anything you want…you are joining those on the left whose only goal in this debate is to stifle free speech, make it look like these people who oppose your side are just monsters…. your not on the correct side of the arguement so they try to smash good people into submission…..
That Tea Party members couldn’t find something good to eat in Maine – with Lobsters going for less than the price of Bologna – goes to show, that like their choice of food, most of them are transplants.
Besides the litany of things they want to do away with is there anything notable that they want to do to create a better America for Everyone? No, I didn’t thinks so – just a bunch of spoiled spoilers trying to get some ‘Me’ attention.
The Tea Party wants to do away with big government and more taxes. You know that.
Anyone who thinks that spending money at Chik-fil-a is protecting free speech is confused or just wants to keep their head buried in the sand.
I support free speech and I would fight to protect the CEO’s free speech even though I think his opinions are wrong. But with free speech comes consequences, in this case a boycott and lots of bad press.
The reason that this has brought up such a stink is not because the CEO said something inflammatory, but because for years this company has donated MILLIONS of dollars to anti gay groups, one that has been classified as a HATE group. They know that they are supporting a hate group, one that is looking to strip away any rights that the LGBT community has. If people would research the three companies that this chain supports, Focus on the Family, Exodus international, and Family Research council, they would be pretty appalled, although these groups have very “family” type names, they are far more sinister. The Money from Chick-fil-a is used to lobby against the LGBT community, in a very hateful, scary way.
I’m glad that the CEO said what he did, lots more people know where the money that they spend is going and can choose to eat elsewhere. Since the “Chick-fil-a Appreciation Day” ended, the restaurant near my house seems much less busy than it used to. There used to be an almost constant line around the place and a full parking lot (even before this) now although it isn’t a ghost town, it is far less busy. Since this is a private company we’ll likely not know the truth about how much this has hit their bottom line, but I know it will.
THIS is what needs to be shouted from every rooftop; not that the CEO simply said that he is against marriage equality, but that he effectively WRITES the CHECKS that end up in these organizations’ hands.
This is not a speech issue, it is an issue regarding how patrons’ money is spent!
http://tinyurl.com/c9xpck3
Bah! I also disagree with the CEO but this is not an issue of how patrons’ money is spent. The money belongs to the business owners. I believe Chick-fil-a is privately held. He can do with the money as he pleases. I agree with “formermainer” that transparency around their actions is the benefit here. They have the right to spend their money as they see fit. I have the right to not patronize their business if I disagree with their politics, especially if they use their business to support their politics.
Well, you and I essentially agree on this. I just used the phrase “patrons’ money” because that’s where the company’s money comes from for the most part.
hahaha. that is just sad and pathetic.
“We’re in a real battle for the heart and soul of America. Our rights
come not from government but from God. If rights come from government,
then government becomes God.” Maybe ‘Colonel’ Mineau should send back all the government checks he has been collecting all his life, if the rights that he fought for don’t come from those who signed his checks.
There is nothing Christian about the Christian Civic League.
said by a person who knows nothing about them, except what he reads in the liberal media….
Wrong again Mr. Waldo. My opinion regarding Christianity and the Christian Civic League is based upon the actions of the League and having read the bible. The two do not agree.
Well, We cannot get into specifics here, I knwo those who work at the christian civic league and if you knew them, you would not feel this way……also, you have to remember, others brought this fight to them..they would be much more effective an organization for all faiths if they weren’t mired down into this battle..which is a game plan of the opponents
I agree George. Have followed the league since a child. They gave up on anti-alcohol and now are anti-gay. The Catholic church is educating their people about marriage, but staying totally out of the political debate. The way it should be. Personally, will be voting for gay marriage because God gives us free will to choose to do things His way or not. I am obese and in God’s book that isn’t His plan either. Hope they don’t take away my ice cream sundae. That’ll be next. ;)
Republicans: Too busy making a political point to remember that a lot of local restaurants and caterers would have appreciated the chance to serve their delicious local cooking to a high profile gathering of 100 people.
Guess that means you missed the point entirely. Try to keep up.
I never understand why supporting one thing means that you have to tear something else down. I believe in God, and I believe very strongly that every one of us, including every one of the Tea-Party supporters, is doing something God did not intend.
I believe in the Bible, but I think many good things have been lost in the translation, including “Judge not lest ye be judged.” This is our world and the people who support all families without tearing certain types down are the ones that have my vote. Why not spend the time, money and energy giving support without stomping on others.
The whole foundation of the argument against GM is fear. People are scared of change and those who are different. Often it manifests in violence and anger.
People are afraid it will ruin traditional marriage. People are afraid of what it will teach kids. People are afraid of what will happen to the country. I see a lot of scared people.
Dealing with change is the best way to cope with it.
Those people who live in fear of traditional marriage being ruined should look at the divorce rate and the reasons behind divorce. Gay marriage isn’t too high on the list. What it will teach kids – if parents choose to get involved with the change – is the joy that comes with appreciating diversity. I am not gay, and I don’t care who is. I would be losing out on some great friendships and disowning some wonderful family members if I eliminated gay people from my life. Why would I do that? What will happen to our country? Well, if we can manage to stop being voyeurs in each others bedrooms maybe the time and energy can be spent in ways that will move it forward. I agree with you. I have been afraid (although not of GM), so I know you are right. However, fear that runs rampant is not only debilitating, it is destructive. I hope that all of this evolves into something positive. I guess it’s a process and it’s hard to be patient with those concrete minds that are all mixed up and permanently set.
Thanks for the feedback.
Watch this and decide…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezQjNJUSraY&feature
Article of explaination…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-vines/bible-homosexuality_b_1378368.html
ooohh….two very reliable news sources for information….maybe we can go to the NAMBLA website to and ‘decide’ about pedophilia
you are all confused this is about freedom of speech which you are about to loose if people dont wake up soon
Who is trying to silence anyone?
People aren’t allowed to choose where they do business? If I don’t want my money goes to anti-gay campaigns, I’m going to choose not to spend my money at a business that donates to those kind of campaigns. Plain and simple.
Most people I know who oppose same-sex marriage are not bigots. They aren’t opposed because they have a hatred towards the gay community. Their opposition comes from their beliefs that marriage is between a man and a woman. Nearly every religion teaches this (Christianity, Judaism, Islam just to name a few). I am not sure whether sanctioning gay marriage would be harmful to our society or not. Smarter people than I seem to think that would be the case. I do believe that the vast majority of homosexuals are born as such & do not become “gay” later on. This whole topic is a serious one and one that deserves our best intentions as a society.
You are correct, everyone is entitled to their opinion.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Everyone should not be able to make decisions for other people’s lives, especially when it comes to family rights.
I agree…. CFA isnt making any decisions for anyone….
The Civil Marriage License is not issued by any of the various religions in Maine, the state does. Without that state issued civil marriage license even those who choose to have religious ceremony are not recognized by law.
My reading of the likes/dislikes is that the chicken-eating “family values” (as long as no one is gay in your family) crowd are gonna be disappointed this fall after the referendum.
No matter what side you fall on just the fact that Poliquin was in attendance is enough to make most Maine people laugh.. What a joke !!
was it his work to clean out the cesspool that was Maine State Housing or when he recognized that the state of Maine puts $900 million a year INTO the pension fund, while retirees GET OUT %15.4 Billion dollars….and tried to responsibly correct this financial in balance……..which one of these is the laugher, cause maine taxpayers would love to laugh with ya….
Chick-fil-A, Yum!
The thing I find the most ‘humorous’ about this whole issue is Xian religionists defending the ‘god given’ sanctity of ‘traditional’ marriage. Legalized three-party marriage (one woman, one man, one govt) was established by Roman pagans, not the Xians. I challenge those of you who are defending this error to research the invasion of the Sabines by ancient Romans. Look and learn. Prior to that event, marriage was a commitment between families more than a commitment between two persons. The contract of the Jewish religion (the accepted religion from which Xianity grew) has nothing to do with governmental legalities and everything to do with cultural laws, rules, and regulations. It is my understanding that there is no word for homosexuality in ancient (biblical) cultures, apparently, since it was an accepted and blessed part of those cultures. The Tanakh is filled with stories of men enjoying long lived male to male relationships. If it had actually been an ‘abomination’, there would have been a word to define it. If religionists can’t accept that Timmy and Jimmy next door have a loving relationship, how can they so easily acccept that both David and Solomon, highly revered patriarchs of the bible, also had homosexuals relationships? This reeks of hypocrisy and intolerance, both of which are considered to be biblical sins.
I hope they all get salmonella.
I wonder how many poor and hungry people they drove past on the way north?
I bet they help more people then you do
This sounds great.
Does anyone remember when not too long ago the Maine Tea party held a rally in Bangor, and they shouted at posters of people perched on chairs? These folks must be very small-minded and none too bright, God love ’em. It won’t be long until they’re snoozing in their rocking chairs while the next, more enlightened generation takes over.
he article says: “A carload of food from Chick-Fil-A had more meaning Thursday evening
than a tasty meal for the approximately 100 people who turned out for a
meeting of the Knox-Lincoln County Tea Party.”
Evidently the author hasn’t had a Chick-Fil-A sandwich., but why let that get in the way of a “good” dig?
P_Dizzle, the suppression of the First Amendment rights of anyone does effect everyone. See John Donne’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls”
I thought the tea party was about taxes, so what’s with this little “thumb in your eye” dig at gays? I mean seriously, how petty of them.
“stifle free speech?” no, I think that groups convening in any particular state should support local businesses there.
Secondly, I never said these people *are* monsters; I said bigots, meaning they are intolerant of a group who does not adhere to their opinions and prejudice.
Lastly, I am not on the wrong side of the argument – you are. You are also on the wrong side of history.
freedom of speech and freedom of religion?? how about freedom to be a bigot and freedom to carry on as a hate group…never been so ashamed of my little area of maine – and our representatives carrying on with these clowns – how bout helping the people of mid coast maine out and buy 100 plus lobster dinners naaah – lets go out of state and give money to a chain that spews bigotry….what a disgusting bunch of hypo-christians marriage “should” be between a man and a woman ….yeah and the moon “should” be made out of cheese – lets get one thing straight tea party klan – your view of “should” has no bearing on how laws are made…and why the heck don’t you read your bible …you know the bible???? its the book you wave in the air when you scream at gay people….
GOD SAID MARRIAGE WAS BETWEEN A MAN AND A WOMAN…. unless of course when he said marriage was between a woman’s rapist and a woman….or when it was between a woman’s father and his assets and a man….or when it was between man and a woman and another woman who could bear children…or when it was between a man and a woman and the virgins the men “kept for themselves”….and of course you tea party hating klans current leader – williard Mitt Romney’s Great Grandfather’s God own spin on marriage – a man and 5 women 0r Mitten’s Great Great Grandfather’s between 1 man and 12 women…..aaaah when you deal with ACTUAL FACTS AND ACTUAL HISTORY instead of the made up crap in your head you get a whole different picture…..what a bunch of despicable excuses for a human life….