09:11 – With the firestorm over the Indiana religious freedom act, I’m not surprised that North Carolina’s governor has announced that he will not support a similar law that’s been proposed here. That’s a shame. As my regular readers know, I absolutely support full civil rights for gay people, but I also absolutely support full civil rights for everyone else, and that includes people who don’t like gay people.
There’s no conflict there, and the only reason there might appear to be is that the progressives intentionally conflate actions taken by the government with actions taken by individuals and private businesses. In short, the government should not be permitted to discriminate in any way against any citizen, but individuals and private businesses have the Constitutional right to discriminate in any way they see fit. The government cannot refuse to recognize marriages between people of the same sex, but individuals and private companies have the right to discriminate in any way they see fit.
A bakery that is owned by a religious person and refuses to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple is within its rights, as is a photographer who refuses to shoot pictures of a gay wedding or a dress shop that refuses to provide a wedding dress for a gay couple. It’s their businesses, and they have a right to serve or not serve any customer, as they see fit. I think anyone who refuses to provide services or goods to a gay person is contemptible, and I would refuse to patronize that business, but they have the absolute right to be contemptible. A church has the absolute right to refuse to marry gay couples (or straight couples) if it is so inclined, or to refuse to allow gay people (or straight people) to be members of its congregation. A landlord has the absolute right to refuse to rent to gays (or straights) or, come to that, to women (or men) or blacks (or whites) or atheists (or Southern Baptists). None of this is any of the government’s business.
Barbara is going to the gym after work. She’s making beef Stroganoff for dinner using only long-term storage stuff, including a can of Keystone Meats ground beef. I’d ordered a case of the stuff some months ago, and wanted to try it before I ordered another two or three cases. I’m sure it’ll be fine. After all, Keystone is a family business whose only product is canned meat products, so they’d be foolish to use anything other than top quality meats. I talked to Lisa at Keystone and mentioned that I suspected that the 5-year best-by date was pretty much imaginary and that their meats would still be fine long after that. She just laughed and said that they were extremely conservative in choosing a 5-year best-by date.
Barbara has been buying Costco ground beef in 5-packs of 1-pound tubes. I asked her last night how much ground beef we consumed per year. She estimated we go through one 5-pound package every couple of months. That’s 30 pounds a year, so we could stock 150 pounds without exceeding even the best-by date. When you consider that we may not have access to fresh meat in an emergency, we’d be dependent on canned stuff, so keeping even seven or eight cases on hand wouldn’t be excessive. Assuming we like it, which I suspect we will. As Barbara pointed out last night, the Keystone ground beef is precooked, which makes it a lot faster to make up beef Stroganoff, spaghetti sauce, or ground beef casseroles.
We have only three episodes of Heartland series eight left to watch. After that, we may start Murdoch Mysteries series eight, the last episode of which ran last night.
as is a photographer who refuses to shoot pictures of a gay wedding
I have refused to photograph such weddings in the past. I did not explicitly state that to the couple, I just quoted a price that was outrageous. They declined my services.
I really don’t see why I cannot refuse to photograph any gay wedding. I really don’t have the expertise in doing such events as the requirements and posing are different. Poses that work for male and female don’t work so well for two males or two females. That would all seem to be within my rights to decline such events simply because I don’t have the necessary skill set. I should also be able to decline simply because I don’t like the couple regardless of their gender preference.
The LGBT community rather than quietly live their lives are making a spectacle of their choice of partners. Any little thing that upsets them is now a big news item regardless of how affects others involved. “It is all about me because I am gay” seems to be their goal in life.
I personally don’t care how LGBT live their lives. Just don’t force your values on me. They would not like it if I forced my values on them so why can’t they provide me the same considerations? They are selfish assholes in my opinion.
I always worry about precooked meat having a “warmed-over flavor” and ruining whatever I put it in. Please let me know if the Keystone does.
@Ray Thompson
You shouldn’t have to have any reason to shoot or not shoot any wedding. It’s your call, and it’s none of anyone’s business why or how you make your decision. Forcing you to shoot a gay wedding if you don’t want to do it amounts to slavery.
@Chad
I’ve never experienced that. In fact, I wasn’t aware the phenomenon existed until I read the page you linked to. I’d be very surprised if there’s any problem with the Keystone canned meats. Barbara doesn’t smoke and has much more sensitive taste buds than I do, so I’ll see what she thinks.
Forcing you to shoot a gay wedding if you don’t want to do it amounts to slavery
True. But the LGBT people want to force any business to do transactions with the LGBT community regardless of the reason for denial. Any denial of doing business the LGBT will be construed as racist and make the business owner subject to a lawsuit.
There is no difference between me, a flower shop, cake shop, tuxedo rental etc. If I decline to do business with someone because I don’t like them, don’t like their lifestyle that should be my choice, not the state or federal government.
The LGBT community is using their lifestyle as a legal ramrod to get their way, to force everyone to notice them and cower when approached by an LGBT customer. I refuse to photograph a LGBT wedding. My reason is that I don’t feel qualified. But unless I specifically state that reason and just say “No” I could be subject to a civil lawsuit. Better to just say “The cost will be $20,000”. If that does not work and the couple agrees to the cost, I could learn a lot in a few days for that kind of money.
@BOB
“The government cannot refuse to recognize marriages between people of the same sex,…”
I disagree, simply because the government has chosen to define “marriage” as a union between two people of opposite sex. At that, they came late to the party, because religions and societies (unconstrained by formal government) had done that way far first.
However, the government does NOT have the right to constrain parties entering into private or public agreements or contracts which do not substantially impinge upon the state. If gays, straights, or whole platoons of them want to (separately and severally, as consenting adults of the same species (or even different species, like men and women)) enter a contract that is pretty well identical to the terms of marriage, either current or traditional, then they should be free to do so. In fact, a number of straights are now doing so, redefining the debased currency of modern marriage back to the traditional form by means of contract – by pre-nuptial agreements which agree to things like loyalty, honour, care, and fidelity, with penalties for breaking the contract. Whether or not it gets called a “civil union”, if the terms are pretty-well identical to those of marriage as far as the state is concerned, then any concessions it applies to marriage should also apply to such private unions. However, the gay lesbian transgender whales shouldn’t have the right to debase the currency of the term “marriage”, since that is trampling all over the rights of the people who have invested a lot of time, effort and emotion into the term. Come to that, they shouldn’t have the right to debase the term “gay” either, and I resent them for it. There is no adequate single-syllable or even single-word substitute that works in “toujours gai (or gay), archie, toujours gai”. Their selfish political alliance works by trying to subvert and subsume normalcy, and I don’t like it one bit. My personal and definitely non-PC opinion is that if they want a snappy three-letter term to describe themselves, “SAD” would be much more appropriate (and I speak from moderately extensive knowledge of quite a few of them, a SAD proportion of whom are misfits, confused and depressed).
This is not to say I can’t get on with homosexuals of either sex – I have and I can work and live closely in friendship with them. I just want them to pay me the same courtesy and leave my life the hell alone, and the radical politicised elements of their lifestyle won’t leave me in peace.
There certainly are plenty of sneaky ways to avoid doing business with a particular demographic. It’s sort of the reverse of marketing to a specific demographic. For example, if you want to increase sales amongst 18-25 year old white males then you would do some research into the products they prefer and the advertising they respond to. So, if you wanted to avoid doing business with that same demographic you would simply not sell the products they prefer and avoid the advertising channels they pay attention to. It’s a bit more complicated than that as demographics overlap a lot on their likes and dislikes. Also, it’s not 100%, but it’s a completely legal way to give the cold shoulder to whichever demographic you do NOT want patronizing your business.
To use the LGBT example. I would take the fact that the majority of them seem to lean far left and put one of those, “This business supports the 2nd Amendment. The legal carry of firearms is permitted in this entire establishment” signs in the window. Most of them would do a U-turn before ever walking through the door.
The government doesn’t get to choose to do that, because that would constitute gross discrimination. The government shows favoritism to married couples in all kinds of ways. If they get rid of those laws, fine.
I find myself agreeing here with Dr. Bob, Mr. Ray and Mr. Chad. Nice work, fellas.
NPR/VPR was doing a short nooz bit on the Indiana thing this morning and I was trying to be a good do-bee and look at all sides of the argument but reading youse guys’ posts here just now cleared it all up for me nicely.
And I like the idea of prominently displaying one’s own political/religious leanings on one’s biz to make it clear to one and all and thus probably ensure one gets the customers one wants and doesn’t get the others.
Sun and blue skies here today, temp probably in the 40s. Stacking firewood and planning the raised-bed garden stuff.
Don’t assume that all gay people are in-your-face about it. In my experience, most gays just want to live their lives without interference. So don’t think of the obnoxious ones as “gay protesters” when in fact they’re progressive protesters who just happen to be gay. I don’t like the obnoxious ones any more than you guys do.
“Don’t assume that all gay people are in-your-face about it.”
Ditto religious peeps.
OFD don’t like no obnoxious bozos, neither, whether religious, gay, or reverse rayciss.
I agree with Ray that LGBT movement is making a spectacle of their issues, demanding special attention rather than just living their lives. Like other groups, the noise comes from a small, irritating minority.
On the other hand, the “It’s all about meeeee” attitude is one shared by far too many people. As I’m sure Ray can attest, this is most especially true for their weddings.
I’ve mentioned that my wife runs a whisky club. We have a really nice venue, and have had several weddings here. The people were all club members, meaning that we knew them and they knew us. They are all fundamentally nice people. Even so, every single wedding was its own unique nightmare. They are always super-complicated, with sometimes pretty crazy ideas.
Timing is always important, but the guests themselves think nothing of deviating from whatever schedule is planned. Just as an example, I vividly remember a particular ice-cream wedding cake. The instructions were to take it out of the freezer 30 minutes ahead, which we did. Then the presentations began to run late, so it was sitting there on display, on this beautiful stand, quietly melting. We’re making signs to the person theoretically in charge, to move things along before it becomes wedding soup…
Everytime we do a wedding, my wife says “never again”. A couple of years go by, a nice person asks, and…
The one rotten apple rule.
I’m in La Quinta, CA with MrsAtoz on a gig. Wow, my wife says this is one of the richest zipcodes in the US. It looks like it. Even the lawn keepers drive Caddys. MrsAtoz is advising, mentoring and playing peacekeepter for the school district here. The politics and back stabbing are so convoluted I can’t even comprehend it. All these people make over six figures off the tax payer and give short shrift to the students. Of course, no one can be fired. They can only be forced to retire at a hefty pension plus benefits, or have their contract bought out for hundreds of thousands of dollars. MrsAtoz is getting $4 grand, but should get $40 grand to help these buffoons. I could never do this. I’d be locking and loading in 5 mikes.
It has been my observation lately that people keep forgetting the second half of that aphorism.
One rotten apple spoils the whole bunch.
Esp wrt bad cops, “it’s only a few rotten apples…”
nick
” I could never do this. I’d be locking and loading in 5 mikes.”
I couldn’t do Mrs. OFD’s gig, either. I’d be likely to kill my co-trainer half the time, and probably several students from each class they teach every time. I guess it’s also good that my cop days are long over and done with.
What I did to prep yesterday:
Went across to a neighbouring town and bought some groceries while there; plus some more at local IGA when I returned. This really counted as weekly/fortnightly grocery shopping rather than prepping, except for a month’s supply of mature cheddar and some bulk laundry detergent. Should have hit Aldi’s while I was across there, but I just ran out of steam.
Ordered $310 (including packing and shipping) of bulk grains and herbs. Lot of various beans, some 1Kg packets just to try this brand; plus bulk lots of adzuki beans, lentils and split peas; bulk oregano, mixed herbs, celery seed, black peppercorns, dried onion and garlic, other smaller lots of herbs and spices.
Good on you.
What we did for prepping today: stacked more firewood, began setting up raised beds, planned additional raised beds and other garden space, and I figured out where to set up at least one RaspberryPI-connected surveillance camera with web access from anywhere. I already have my first PI set up without a monitor, keyboard or mouse as a headless ultra-secure email server, also accessible from anywhere in the world. And have researched some additional home defense gear and procedures and continued semi-tactical mods on a couple of firearms.
Gotta catch up on my online courses as I’m behind now, but you gotta make hay while the sun shines up here; also got some bills paid, finally.
“As empires collapse, they turn inward, and subject their own populations to the same ill treatment to which they subjected others. Here, America is unexceptional: the number of Americans being murdered by their own police, with minimal repercussions for those doing the killing, is quite stunning. When Americans wonder who their enemy really is, they need look no further.”
“But that is only the beginning: the precedent has already been set for deploying US troops on US soil. As law and order break down in more and more places, we will see more and more US troops on the streets of cities in the US, spreading death and destruction just like they did in Iraq or in Afghanistan. The last license to kill to be revoked will be the license to kill ourselves.”
http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2015/03/license-to-kill.html#more
Suicide as a crime– you are denying the state a taxpayer, you are destroying the state’s property, you are denying the state any future offspring and their tax farming potential.
nick
This brings up a good question: how to punish suicides for their crime? If you levy it on their children you’re not really punishing the offender. In Ye Olden Days in Merry Old England they would bury suicides under a crossroads, so that everyone else who had to keep on living would be walking over them again and again. This only works to shame them if they’re aware that those folks are walking above.
Maybe Lord Science will find a way to pursue the buggers into the next life and make it miserable…
Maybe Lord Science will find a way to pursue the buggers into the next life and make it miserable…
Keep their loved ones alive and do not let them join them in the afterlife: “The World of the End” by Ofir Touché Gafla:
http://www.amazon.com/World-End-Ofir-Touch%C3%A9-Gafla/dp/0765333570/
MrsAtoz is advising, mentoring and playing peacekeepter for the school district here. The politics and back stabbing are so convoluted I can’t even comprehend it. All these people make over six figures off the tax payer and give short shrift to the students.
And this is different from any other public school system in the USA? Just about all of the school districts that I have seen are about the adults, not the kids. It is sad.
“The Survivalist (Battle Lines)” by Dr. Arthur T Bradley
http://www.amazon.com/Survivalist-Battle-Lines-Arthur-Bradley/dp/1500647497/
Book number five of a five book series with a sixth book to be released in June. These are POD books with mine printed on March 17, 2015 in Kentucky. Nice covers and 5 or 6 full page illustrations.
Our plucky non-infected survivors are fighting just about everyone except the town of Boone, NC. The mentally damaged survivors of the Superpox-99 virus are eating everything in sight and turning very dangerous subhumans. The non-mentally challenged survivors are laying low and just trying to keep from getting killed by the government.
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars (233 reviews)
“all of the school districts that I have seen are about the adults, not the kids. ”
Man o man am I learning this. I have to get up before the sun to get the kids to school. Why do they start so early? Why, so we can reuse the busses to get the older kids later.
Why do I have to pay for school based aftercare to fill the time from 2pm when they are released until after work? Because we start so early, they must be dismissed early. Oh, and busses.
The list of people eligible for the special enrichment programs in the district has lots of people on it before it gets to me, the tax payer. Notably, the children of anyone who works for the district have priority. I considered driving a bus part time so I could jump the queue with MY kids. Some of these kids don’t even LIVE in my district, and their parents don’t pay taxes here either. Everything about it is set up for their benefit, not the kids.
nick
Don’t even get me started on the mandatory volunteering the parents must do. Methinks that word doesn’t mean what you think it means.
nick
or the additional fundraising.
FWIW, I pay school taxes in 2 districts, and in one of them I pay twice. And the upshot is that I can’t get my kids taught in a safe clean school in their primary language, english.
simply because the government has chosen to define “marriage” as a union between two people of opposite sex
As long as those two people have gone to the courthouse, filled out a form, and paid a tax. And in Florida, at least, it’s illegal for a preacher (or anyone else who can perform marriages, like a notary) to perform a marriage ceremony absent that form.
<em“The Survivalist (Battle Lines)” by Dr. Arthur T Bradley
“Angles of Attack” next month and Book #4 “Chains of Command” possible for Christmas. Yay!
Why do they start so early?
My Twins HS started at 6:45. I’ve driven them about 99% of the time to school since pre-K 4. In Uni, got driver’s license, I sleep in. Yay!
We worked the Houston school district extensively before Katrina. After Katrina, they got some gasbag PhD who decided “all problems will be fixed in HS”. I wonder how that is working out.
The LGBT community rather than quietly live their lives are making a spectacle of their choice of partners.
The vast majority of the LGBT community lives quietly and wants nothing more than to be allowed to do so. However, there are a few activists that are in the business of stirring the pot all the time. And, just as importantly, there are SoCons that have decided to hang all the evils of society on the LGBT community, demonizing them all out of proportion. The exact types of attacks that were used against blacks in the 50s and 60s as the civil rights movement started up are now being directed at the LGBT community, especially the transsexuals.
As for civil unions as an alternative to marriages for gays or the secular, we banned them in Texas by constitutional amendment. Of course, the plain reading of the amendment also banned marriage since it was drafted by one of the um, less legislatively experienced members of the SoCon wing of the Republican party and passed in a rush. It was a rush job because polling showed that by the next biennial session of the Legislature, they might not have gotten the amendment passed by the voters. It probably wouldn’t get passed today even in Texas. Probably moot as the Supremes likely will declare straights-only marriage as a violation of equal protection (perhaps not of the gay couples, but of their children since substantial marriage benefits accrue to children of married couples).
It all really gets so tiresome, the constant politics, complaining, whining, demanding, etc. from minorities and really tiny minorities, out of all proportion to their numbers. And yet we in the majority have bent, and still bend over backwards for them all. Trillions spent on one minority in particular with little to show for it except spit and venom and resentment. And since then, more professional grievance whores by the swarm, coming at us from all corners all the time. As was said on Taki’s weekly summary of nooz events last week, they’re really, really pushing it lately.
They ought to ponder the words “backlash” and “blowback.”
@OFD, it sure feels like it’s coming. I know I’m getting tired of being blamed for the people’s ills, while footing the bill.
If someone wants to label me, I’ll just say “so what?” They can shout it louder and I’ll just say “so what?” Words are losing all their meaning with repetition. And who really cares what someone I despise thinks of me? If I’m feeling particularly mean, maybe I’ll laugh before saying “so what?”
There is lots of rumbling and mumbling both IRL and on the web. Read the comments on St Louis websites re: Ferguson. A segment of the population that would really just like to be left alone to live their lives in peace is finding themselves reviled and attacked, and seems to be coming to the realization that it’s as well to be hanged for a sheep as a lamb. This is unfortunate, as the resulting violence will be brutal and I’m not sure where we’ll end up.
The same thing seems to be happening on a worldwide scale. People keep poking the monster with a stick, and it couldn’t be bothered. Well, it’s starting to be bothered. Pray it doesn’t rampage.
nick
I keep telling the people closest to me that I sincerely hope and pray it doesn’t blow up but I fear it is anyway, and more so each day.
I also see it happening worldwide but figure we won’t have time or inclination to worry much about it elsewhere.
And yet they keep poking and pushing and poking some more and while they’re pondering “blowback” and “backlash,” they might ponder the very late General Yamamoto’s words concerning sleeping giants and riflemen behind every tree, etc.
You don’t wanna leave us the hell alone? You gonna keep poking us? Pissing us off? Is this some kind of test?
I look at a certain half-dozen sites daily now and find like-minded peeps out there are prepping more in terms of small-unit tactics and long-range patrols and guerrilla-type activities than are working up home-canning recipes and making soap in the backyard tub. And lots of them have already learned ways of circumventing State surveillance, too.
Bracken’s stuff may not be far from the mark on how things are starting to go down here.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/04/eric-peters/hands-up-freeze/
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/04/no_author/get-ready-for-martial-law/
But hey, grow them carrots and rutabagas in between modding your AR10:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/04/no_author/the-vegetable-garden-cheat-sheet/
Every time my daughter comes home from school with one of those fundraising packets I throw it right in the trash.
I considered driving a bus part time so I could jump the queue with MY kids.
I would only do this if you can control yourself when someone throws a beer can at the back of your head.
Beer cans now are made of aluminum; back in high skool one of my buddies threw a mostly full beer can at another buddy’s head, and back then the cans were made of steel or sumthin, ’cause it put a nice big gash right between his eyes, knocked him on his butt and we hadda rush him to the ER while we were all kinda trippin’ on acid. He got a bunch of stitches but we went right back to drinking beers and smoking doobies until daylight the next day.
Hardcore.