But the money graf:
It would have remained a shiny object unworthy of pursuit had it not roiled up a good portion of official Washington, which seemed grateful to be discussing anything except hijacked migrant children. Suddenly, just as the issue of the hijacked children was beginning to bite the administration* severely in the ass, here was an event over which the elite political media could do one of its favorite traditional fan dances: the Question of Civility.The media, which responds to distractions the way mold responds to dampness, has yet to find out if Trump's new "block that border without due process" policy violates international treaties (I think it does) or the Constitution or the law of the land. Geez, finding an international law expert on a weekend is hard, but Red Hen, Red Hen, Red Hen! Cluck, cluck, cluck.
Massive case of ADHD. "We need to focus seriously on the issues." Look , a butterfly. " My cat has a longer attention span than the media.
ReplyDeleteYikes. I think I disagree with just about everything Pierce wrote.
ReplyDeleteThere were plenty of soda fountain owners in the South who really, really objected to the presence of black people on their premises and refused to serve them. 'Normally, it wouldn't be a problem, but these are not normal times.' Any number of owners or managers could have had their white employees take a vote on whether or not to serve those customers.
In my view, that restaurant manager handled this the wrong way from end to end, except that she managed to toss Sanders and Co. to the curb without ruffling the other customers - which, come to think of it, actually was a self-interested small business manager move, too.
What would have been a better way to handle it? The manager could have told her employees, "Quite griping and do your jobs". She could even have said that very civilly.
I was not aware that presidential spokesbabblers are a protected class.
DeleteIs that our vision of a just society? "Thou shalt serve protected classes"?
DeleteI thought it was the conservatives who express disdain for easily offended liberal "snowflakes."
DeleteAs I see it, there are two types of "refusing service". They are not always clear cut in being distinct from each other. The first type would be an employee's right to refuse to do something which is seriously morally wrong, such as a doctor's right to refuse to perform abortions or take part in euthanasia. The second would be more a personal preference, such as refusing to serve a person such as Ms. Sanders, who works for an administration whose policies one disagrees with. The policies may be seriously morally wrong, but by serving food to her the employee is in no way offering material cooperation with evil. I would say the restaurant people should stick to serving food. And vote with their conscience.
DeleteFine with me, as long as the diners drop the snowflake crap and get their leaders to follow suit.
DeleteYeah, I agree that "snowflake" has outlived its usefulness!
DeleteGet enough snowflakes, you have a glacier.
DeleteAfraid we don't agree on who the snowflakes were in that picture.
DeleteIn today's press conference, the Red Hen send-out makes much of her newfound victimhood. We are going to hear about this through November 1918...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/25/sarah-sanders-trump-red-hen-restaurant-671779
However we judge the Red Hen, etc., this is a fight Liberals can't win no matter how justified THEY/WE think it is...[or as some here think, is not].
ReplyDeleteFrom Pierce's article:
ReplyDelete"For the benefit of those people also living in Fred Hiatt’s Land Without History: abortion providers have been stalked. Their children have been stalked. Their places of business have been vandalized. And, lest we forget, doctors who perform abortions have been fucking killed! They’ve been gunned down in their clinics, in their kitchens, and in their churches. They have not been allowed to live peaceably with their families, Fred, you addlepated Beltway thooleramawn. They haven’t been allowed to live at all. I’m no expert, but I’m fairly sure that a bullet in the head is far more uncivil than a complementary fucking cheese plate. "
See, you can tell he's really upset, because he's swearing.
But I'm not sure what the point of the tirade is, except to compare what the Red Hen manager did to the terrorists and the mentally ill who shoot abortion providers? Is that where he wants to go with that?
My octogenarian parents go to within x hundred yards of the doorway of the local abortion provider and pray the rosary amongst themselves. I guess that really is a radical act. But nobody gets shot, or even spoken to uncivilly.
At the risk of introducing obsolete concepts: what about neighborliness? What about national unity? That strikes me as a counter-cultural idea for our times: be nice to people with whom one disagrees politically. Talk to them. Listen to them. Maybe find common ground, things to agree upon. If Catholics and Lutherans can do it, with their history, it's difficult to imagine that a gay server and his farm-to-table manager can't swing it.
And Pierce is wrong about something else: the most civil person in that episode wasn't the manager. It was Sanders and her party. If the crowd I hang around with was refused service for thoughtcrime, it's likely enough that chairs would be thrown.
Jim, In that particular graf, Pierce reacted to this in the Hiatt piece:
ReplyDelete"Those who are insisting that we are in a special moment justifying incivility should think for a moment how many Americans might find their own special moment. How hard is it to imagine, for example, people who strongly believe that abortion is murder deciding that judges or other officials who protect abortion rights should not be able to live peaceably with their families?"
The point being, people upset abortion have actually killed people and burned clinics. Nobody in Sarah's case was treated worse -- everybody, in fact was treated better -- than the slog who seeks food where the sign says "No shirt, no shoes, no service." Hardly equivalence....
Except when "balance" requires that the media find a misdemeanor on the other side when it reports a felony.
And while the Red Hen incident is breathing all the oxygen in the room, House Republicans are doing this.
ReplyDelete