Ocassional Thoughts of an Independent Progressive Atheistic Humanist
The founder and CEO of Papa John’s Pizza, John Schnatter said during a shareholders conference call last week that if the Affordable Care Act wasn’t repealed it would add up to 14 cents onto the cost of a pizza. It’s good too know that Papa John thinks 14 cents is far more important than affordable health care for his minimum wage workers.
There has been a lot of ink and electrons spent about the controversy over Chick-fil-A and its CEO supporting anti-gay groups and causes. I’ve known for a couple of years that Chick-fil-A was not a friend of the LGBT community and have chosen not to spend my money at any of their stores. There has been the typical conservative backlash. My feeling is if you support LGBTs then don’t spend money that will be used to hurt them.
The controversy got started earlier in the month when owner Dan Cathy made public statements against gay marriage which also brought out the fact that the company donated millions of dollars to anti-gay groups. The public relations dust up caused the Jim Henson company to pull out of a kids meal promotion and the outrage overflowed onto many articles in print and on the Internet from the LGBT community and its allies.
On June 7th the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) reaffirmed their policy to deny membership to LGBT people. There was a chance they would reconsider but the consensus of a secret committee decided it was “absolutely the best policy” for the organization. Once again religious right bigotry trumps the actual American values that the BSA claims it is teaching to the boys.
Earlier this month a German court banned the practice of circumcision on the grounds it causes bodily harm to babies. The decision upset Jewish and Muslim communities in Germany because they claimed making the ritual criminal violated their religious freedom. While I believe that circumcision on babies shouldn’t be performed by the medical community unless the child consents or it is medically necessary, I’m not sure if the practice by religious practitioners should be made criminal.
The other day, George Zimmerman, the over zealous member of his neighborhood watch, who shot and killed an unarmed teen named Trayvon Martin, was released again on bail. I tweeted that I guess it paid to shoot an unarmed teenager and become the darling of the GOP. A person replied back to me that I should be reminded of presumption of innocence and a fair trial. I don’t think the person knows what presumption of innocence means. In the Trayvon Martin case the facts aren’t in doubt.