I Just Want a Chicken Sammich

I fly to Boston 6-8 times a year on business. Jet Blue has the best service between Richmond and Boston. Direct flights, new airplanes, personal in-flight TV's, and very good prices.Jet Blue is my first choice when I fly to Boston.

It is my bet that Jet Blue CEO David Barger is a pretty liberal guy. My bet is that he and I would disagree on many issues. It is a fact that Jet Blue sponsored a convention held by the radical fringe web site "The Daily Kos". I disagree with a great deal of the garbage posted on The Daily Kos. Any idea how much this has impacted my willingness to fly Jet Blue? If you answered "none" please move to the head of the class.

Now here comes Dan Cathy, the president of Chick-Fil-A. I don't know a whole lot about Dan. I know that I love his company's product. I don't agree with his statement that he believes in a "bibilical interpration of marriage", but I also don't have an idealogical litmus test for the leadership of businesses I patronize. I find it sad and pathetic that nitwits like Thomas Menino, the mayor of Boston or Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel want to keep Chick-Fil-A out of their cities because they don't like the company president's definition of marriage. Really? Do they check the politcal philosophies of all the business owners in their cities? Are catholic-owned businesses who are adamently pro-life as unwelcome as Chick-Fil-A in Boston? When the mayorship turns over do we review what businesses can and which ones cannot stay in Chicago based on their views on tax policy? When did politcal alignment with state and local government leadership become a prerequisite to doing business in a locality? I wonder if folks who don't have a job in Boston and Chicago care about Dan Cathy's view's on marriage?

It is a little annoying to me when folks like Thomas Menino and Rahm Emanuel talk about protecting the freedoms and rights of "the people" when in reality, they only mean the the people with whom they agree politcally. If they don't want to eat Chick-Fil-A sandwiches because they don't like the politics of the company executives, have at it (As a big fan of the Chick-Fil-A sandwich, I can tell you they are on the losing end of that bargain) but they have no standing to keep Chick-Fil-A from opening businesses in their cities.What are they afraid of, it's just a chicken sammich? How can they possibly defend such a position with any modicum of credibility? Chick-Fil-A has a track record of stewardship and is operating with the bounds of the law. However they are not going to be allowed to operate in Boston or Chicago because of Dan Cathy's definition of marriage? Have we really stooped to this level of silliness?

I am going to fly Jet Blue and I will carry on an order of Chick-Fil-A chicken minnies to have on the way. Politics is already too intrusive on my life. I don't need it interfering with my decision to fly an airline that provides great service at a great price and chicken sandwiches that are more than delicious. If Thomas Menino and Rahm Emanuel would get off their high horses for a minute, they would see the folly of their positions.

Everyone Gets a Scooter

Have you seen the commercial on TV for The Scooter Store? I hate that ad more than any commercial on TV....ever. The pitch from The Scooter Store is that if you want a scooter or power chair, you can get one at "little or no cost to you". However, these products are not free, in fact they are pretty darned expensive. So the unspoken truth behind these hideous advertisements is that you can have an expensive product paid for mostly or fully by someone else.

 Now we are seeing ads from our government for "free" health services. Mammograms, bone density checks, adolescent counseling, etc all available at no cost thanks to the new healthcare law. Really? Free services? I must have missed the part of Obamacare where healthcare providers don't charge for their services. Maybe I overlooked where GE was providing its MRI equipment free to hospitals and clinics across America. These things aren't free. Thanks to Obamcare, they will be paid for involuntarily by someone else.

 I have also noticed that social welfare programs like food stamps are being advertised as "benefits", like they are something we should all hope to get from our employers next year. Let's all make sure we take advantage of the government handouts...oops, I mean benefits, because they are "free".

 Food stamps are benefits? Scooters are free to anyone who needs them? It's okay for someone else to pay for my health services? What is wrong with us that this is okay and an expected?!? Have we become so morally bankrupt, so greedy, and frankly so lazy that we only want what we want as long as someone else pays for it? We have evolved past subsistence farming. We have a specialized economic model where people freely buy goods and service from each other in a free exchange. Well, we had that model, until goverment giveaway programs made it possible for some clown on TV to offer free scooters. I guess my only question is which clown is worse, the one on TV giving away scooters that those who pay taxes have to buy or the clown in the White House giving away health care that is free to some, but not to most.

I never thought I would say this, but we are broken as a country and as a people when this is okay. The only silver lining I see is that as a kid I always wanted a scooter and never got one. I guess someday, I will get my scooter, no matter how much it costs us all.