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Donuts. Is There Anything They Can’t Do?
By Jeff Fecke | January 18, 2009
So as you may have heard, Barack Obama is going to be sworn in as our nation’s 44th president on Tuesday, and while that’s an important historical event, it’s also a reason for America’s businesses to use the moment for some free publicity. Not exactly shocking — it’s that kind of can-do pandering that has made America what it is.
So Krispy Kreme decided that they would give away donuts on Tuesday, because it will attract business, and because of some boilerplate:
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. (NYSE: KKD) is honoring American’s sense of pride and freedom of choice on Inauguration Day, by offering a free doughnut of choice to every customer on this historic day, Jan. 20. By doing so, participating Krispy Kreme stores nationwide are making an oath to tasty goodies — just another reminder of how oh-so-sweet ‘free’ can be.
Seems pretty innocuous, doesn’t it? Well, not if you’re an anti-choice zealot. You see, Krispy Kreme dared to use the “C” word — choice — and That Will Not Stand:
”The unfortunate reality of a post-Roe v. Wade America is that ‘choice’ is synonymous with abortion access, and celebration of ‘freedom of choice’ is a tacit endorsement of abortion rights on demand,” the group’s president, Judie Brown said in a statement.
Really? “Choice” is now synonymous with “abortion rights” — the two mean the same thing?
Awesome! That means that anytime the right wing talks of “school choice,” they’re suggesting that we’re creating schools where our kids can have abortions at will! Who knew?
Seriously, of course, the right wing’s outrage meter’s needle is currently buried beyond “Impotent Rage.” The American people seem to actually like Barack Obama, and seem genuinely relieved that George W. Bush is finally, mercifully leaving office. Anti-choicers can count, and know what an Obama presidency means for their goals of eliminating abortion rights — and frankly, they can count, and realize that South Dakota’s defeat of an abortion ban — again — is a signal that frankly, America doesn’t actually want to outlaw abortion.
And so they’re reduced to getting upset about pretty basic, straightforward language in a press release by a donut company. I’d almost pity them, if I wasn’t enjoying the Schadenfreude so much.
Topics: Abortion | 18 Comments »
January 18th, 2009 at 11:24 am
Keyword robots always produce hilarious results.
January 18th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Jeff wrote:
I’m one of those anti-choicers. Yes, I do want to eliminate abortion rights. But like most pro-lifers, what I’m really interested in is reducing the incidence of abortion. Making a law against it is simply a means to that end.
It’s easy for you to psychoanalyze pro-lifers and make them out to be a petty and frustrated bunch. But you forget that they’re in this because of their own regard for humanity. To them, abortion represents the taking of an innocent human life — get that straight.
January 18th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
there prolly are pro-lifers out there who are honestly committed to the preservation of human life. I don’t know any, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. However, I’m betting those folks aren’t up in arms about free donuts.
Anti-choice publicity hogs on the other hand . . . now there’s a petty and frustrated bunch for ya.
January 19th, 2009 at 12:13 am
How Ironic. This is an excellent example of the incessant hyper-sensitivity that is posted on this blog on an almost daily basis, odd that you can point it out so clearly when it happens to the other side?
That comes from someone who loves the freedom to choose, just not the freedom to choose infanticide. it is another wonderful example of the lefts adeptness at newspeak to label people who want to outlaw murder as ‘anti-choice’ – as if murder should be a choice. Had our language not been bastardized to mean what it does not mean then this ‘issue’ would have never occurred.
January 19th, 2009 at 3:33 am
If proponents of legal abortion are so confident that they are in the majority, why has abortion not been a political issue for almost the last 40 years? Scared you’re going to lose a vote?
January 19th, 2009 at 3:33 am
To clarify, abortion rights have been guaranteed by fiat through a Supreme Court decision (rather than through political means).
January 19th, 2009 at 4:06 am
Because we believe it is a medical issue, not a political one (some of us, anyway). Also, because the Democrats in Congress are cowards.
January 19th, 2009 at 7:13 am
To clarify, abortion rights have been guaranteed by fiat through a Supreme Court decision (rather than through political means).
That could change as soon as this Congress meets.
January 19th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Franklin,
You’re ignoring the elephant in the room: The fact that your allies on the anti-Roe community think that donuts lead to abortion.
January 19th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
I wrote:
In response, Jeff wrote:
You refer to the so-called Freedom of Choice Act? That would not change much, unless it replaced Roe v. Wade rather than reinforced it. Until each and every state has the option of legislating its own policy on abortion — up to and including an outright ban — the people still don’t have their say.
I’ll say this, though: What can be done in the legislature can always be tweaked (or undone) at some later date. That’s not exactly true with Supreme Court decisions, which typically require generations and mass-movements to reverse (through remaking the court, and/or constitutional amendment). When abortion policy is truly determined in the legislative branch — as it should be — there is also no shame in reversing the decisions of previous lawmakers. There is no allusion there to “established precedent” or Stare decesis — just a reminder of who’s in the majority.
Majority rule should have been the determining factor all along. Nothing in the Constitution even remotely mentions abortion; it should always have been a political (rather than a constitutional) matter.
January 19th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Ben wrote:
Hey, that’s not fair. They’re MY allies too, you know. And yes, cultural influences DO have an influence on the everyday decisions of millions of people. Women who abort their kids struggle with that decision every day. It’s not as though they’re resolutely marching into that abortion clinic, fully intent on aborting. I used to be a member of Operation Rescue, and I can remember NUMEROUS women who — as they approached the clinic door — wanted someone to give them a reason not to abort. They wanted to be disagreed with, to be stopped, to be dissuaded. I know this because they stopped and talked with us, and changed their minds, and chose to give birth instead of aborting. You have no idea the subtle influences that our culture has over such decisions: it tends to constantly bleat “do what feels good” and “take the easy way out,” creating a sense that whatever decision we make — about any moral issue — is just A-OKAY. People take solace in that: a feeling that there is no shame in any act, because the culture seems to endorse it.
So you can take your smug little attitude about what “donuts can’t do” and stuff it. Cultural influences are more powerful and influential than you choose to acknowledge — at least when it comes to abortion.
January 19th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Wow, John. You think it’s “smug” that I don’t think donuts contribute to abortion?
I dare you to say that to every person you meet in everday life, that if they fail to recognize the evil that donuts cause society, then they are smug. I dare you to say that… unless, of course, you are a coward. Only you know if that’s the case or not.
January 19th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Ben:
I dare you to say the word “nigger” to every person you meet in everyday life. After all, it’s just a word, isn’t it? Not hurtin’ anybody here! What could be the harm?
January 19th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
The fact that you went there says more about you than I.
You’re both a coward and a white supremacist.
I shake the dust of my feet at you.
January 19th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Ben,
I am not ignoring the ‘elephant’. No one said that donuts lead to abortion. If I missed it, please tell me, the fact is that it happened to be a doughnut company that used the phrase ‘freedom of choice’. It was this phrase that is the issue, not the company and certainly not the product the company produced. The point, which I will try to explain using small words so you will be sure to under stand, is two fold
1) the phase ‘freedom of choice’ has been usurped by the pro-abortion cause. Pro-choice was taken and distorted precisely because ‘pro-abortion’ sounded bad and would not have gotten as much support if they used that term. clever, but destroying my language for a political purpose is evil. I am pro-choice: i.e. I want to be able to choose to smoke, eat trans-fats, keep my kids out of government run schools, drive without a seat belt, run my air conditioner at 40 degrees in the summer etc, etc. (all things liberals oppose) but if I say I am pro-choice everyone would now think I support legal abortions. THAT is bastardizing my language and it is NEWSPEEK – if you don’t know what that is read: 1984 by Orwell.
2)I found it the height of irony that the blog that sees racism and sexism in everywhere would then have any problem that the pro-lifers who take issue with the doughnut promotion. there was a guy who once said: ‘take the plank out of your own eye before you take the sliver out of someone else’
January 20th, 2009 at 12:34 am
Ben wrote:
You don’t know anything about me, mister. My son is half-Asian, you self-righteous idiot.
It’s pretty obvious that you fail to see the point being made. Some pro-lifers object to the use of the phrase “freedom of choice” because they know that it has political and cultural resonance. When was the last time that my Senator, when asked where she stood on the issue of “choice” or “freedom of choice,” answered that she favors the right of all women to choose between Krispy Kreme and Dunkin’? This is not about donuts, Einstein. This is about abortion. The pro-life activists realized that a phrase commonly aligned with the abortion rights movement was used in conjunction with selling a product — and right after we just had a major election, in which the victor supported abortion rights. It’s quite reasonable to conclude that Krispy Kreme wanted to ride the political momentum of the Democrats’ recent electoral successes by co-opting the language behind one of their issues.
As far as “going there,” I assume you mean I went too far in comparing racially polarizing language with language that promotes the option to kill (not just dehumanize, but kill) innocent human beings. Using racially stigmatizing language cheapens the perceived value of a group of people, making society less sensitive to their humanity. When it becomes more socially acceptable to use such language, it becomes easier for society to turn a blind eye to the suffering experienced by the targets of such language. Get it?
When Krispy Kreme Donuts promotes the “right to choose” in order to sell donuts, they’re effectively promoting the legality of dismembering babies in utero. When such actions remain unchallenged, it becomes easier for society to turn a blind eye to the suffering experienced by the targets of such language. Get it?
And for some smart-ass bloggers to come along and claim that this is all about “donuts = abortion” most definitely IS smug, in my opinion.
January 20th, 2009 at 10:24 am
I actually wanted to come back and apologize – I thought my words may have been a bit hasty – but now I realize that I hit a nerve. Good.
January 20th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Your clock is now immaculately clean, Ben. Come again!