Boycotting Whole Foods? Shop at the White House!
D.C.'s ethically ostentatious are struggling to figure out how to make do in a world where Whole Foods is anathema:
Adrienne Pine, a professor of anthropology at American University, admits that she's known about Mackey's "right-wing libertarianism" for a while now, but that his Wall Street Journal op-ed was "the straw that broke the camel's back," and the reason she switched from Whole Foods to co-ops and farmers' markets.
But options may soon expand for Whole Foods boycotters in the capital city. At yesterday's health care forum, President Obama indulged in a little entrepreneurial spit-balling:
So, you know, Michelle set up that garden in the White House?
One of the things that we're trying to do now is to figure out, can we get a little farmers' market—outside of the White House—I'm not going to have all of you all just tromping around inside—(laughter)—but right outside the White House—(laughter)—so that—so that we can—and—and—and that is a win-win situation.
Since a couple of the protesters in front of D.C.'s P Street Whole Foods were already sporting "UFCW for Obama" shirts, I'm sure they be thrilled to transfer their custom to the man himself.
Come to think of it, there is a convenient blocked off section of Pennsylvania Ave. right in front of the White House. And I'm sure the Secret Service won't mind at all if Sasha and Malia get out there and hawk some of those spare zucchini.
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The boycott of Whole Foods will work about as well as the boycott of France did.
Adrienne Pine, a professor of anthropology at American University, admits that she's known about Mackey's "right-wing libertarianism" for a while now, but that his Wall Street Journal op-ed was "the straw that broke the camel's back," and the reason she switched from Whole Foods to co-ops and farmers' markets.
Don't worry Adrienne, he'll be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
The proof, he's a socialists. Good job beating this issue into my thick skull. You kept at it, but I was skeptical. Next time I won't question the plot that obama and the unions have ti steal my life and savings funneling it into their sinister co op.
Looking Forward to the Outraged New York Times Editorials -- and the Prosecutions
Military defense attorneys are under investigation by the Justice Department for showing photographs of covert CIA operatives -- secretly shot by "researchers" hired by the ACLU and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers -- to Gitmo detainees in preparation for potential trials, the Washington Post reports:
It is unclear whether the military lawyers under investigation identified the CIA personnel in the photographs to the al-Qaeda suspects or simply asked the detainees whether they had ever seen them. It is also unclear whether the inquiry involves violations of federal statutes prohibiting the identification of covert CIA officers or violations of military commission rules governing the disclosure of classified information, including to the defendants.
Nyuh huh. Guess it takes a Republican administration, pics of non-covert lefty CIA employees, and a disgruntled former Deputy Secretary of State to reveal them, to make something like that really, really clear.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/20/AR2009082004295.html?hpid=topnews
"And I'm sure the Secret Service won't mind at all if Sasha and Malia get out there and hawk some of those spare zucchini."
hope they get a permit first.
I guess Prof. Pine will be giving "World's Smallest Political Quizzes" to every proprietor before she buys anything in the future?
I will shop at Whole Foods more often if cunts like Adrienne Pine aren't there.
So is it racist to tell Obama he better get out there and plow that field garden if his children want to eat?
That Washington City Paper piece is hilarious and also sad.
From Jack Thread link:
Prediction: complete blog 180 for everyone who covered the Plame affair. Righties: You're outing covert CIA personnel! Lefties: They're not covert!
One of the beauties of capitalism is that the political, etc. thoughts of buyers and sellers are irrelevant.
Seems to me that Mackey has done a great thing for his business. The people who will follow this boycott are precisely the customers you don't want: the whiny, demanding, pushy, snotty twats who make it unpleasant to visit his stores.
-jcr
I will shop at Whole Foods more often if cunts like Adrienne Pine aren't there.
I'd only been in Whole Foods two or three times before this. Now, I think I'm likely to become a regular customer. They've got a pretty good butcher counter.
-jcr
Like, gag me with a spoon.
What the District and the inside-the-Beltway suburbs really need are more Shoppers locations. If that fails, maybe
dude, Meijer is the shit. Seriously, that place rules.
The Washington City Paper link is the funniest thing I've read in some time.
This is the greatest thing ever. The hugest idiots will stop getting in front of me at Whole Foods.
Anyone who boycotts Whole Foods because the CEO wrote an opinion piece can starve to death as far as I'm concerned. Dumbasses.
I love the subtle digs at the protesters in the Washington City Paper article.
"There are some problems [with Canada's system]," Husseini says, but "we're more technologically advanced than Canada and we can do it better."
Husseini can't name any improvements off the top of his head, and declines to comment on how an effective store boycott might affect low-level Whole Foods employees.
massive lulz for me.
OT: More libertarians in the news.
I thought only hockey moms from Wasilla did this kind of thing.
Will the president sell food at his little farmer's market or give it away?
Prediction: complete blog 180 for everyone who covered the Plame affair. Righties: You're outing covert CIA personnel! Lefties: They're not covert!
For me the 180 is functional and constitutional:
Our government does not have the constitutional power to tell a defense attorney he can't ask his client about the people who have provided evidence against him. Pass a law saying he can't, and I'll tell you to go fuck yourself. And if I can undermine your enforcement of that law, I'll do that too.
I fucking wish I had pictures of every last CIA operative whose "cover" has been used to justify setting up kangaroo courts where the defendant doesn't get to know about the evidence against them. I'd publish that shit as fast as I could make my fucking fingers type.
"an we get a little farmers' market-outside of the White House..."
Um, we have one. It's called Eastern Market. It's about 24 blocks away. And halfway between the White House and Eastern Market is the weekly farmer's market outside of Teaism, near the Navy Memorial metro stop. I know, I know, those venues don't present an optimal photo-op and pandering exercise, so forget about it.
and the reason she switched from Whole Foods to co-ops and farmers' markets.
The ONLY other options are co-ops and farmer's markets?
Every big city has loads of specialty markets and independent grocers. I'm not saying they are as all-encompassing as Whole Foods, but they have a hell of a lot more variety than the co-ops and farmer's markets. If you suddenly dislike Whole Foods, why take 75 steps back when 3 steps back is sufficient?
Those who can't think, teach.
othing Wrong With EnronCare
? "In Britain, the government itself runs the hospitals and employs the doctors. We've all heard scare stories about how that works in practice; these stories are false."--former Enron adviser Paul Krugman, New York Times, Aug. 17
? "It was a simple thing. Another blood test, some more investigations into whatever flawed gene or missing protein might be the cause of my daughter's troubled life, with her terrible seizures, her blindness, her inability to walk or talk or eat unaided. Over the past 15 years, there have been many such attempts to identify her condition. One year later, we asked the doctor, a top geneticist at one of the world's most famous hospitals, what had happened to the results. His office told us a rambling story about financial restrictions and the need to send such tests to a laboratory in Germany. They said there was little he could do but promised to pursue our case. It was a bare-faced lie. The precious vial of blood had been dumped in storage and forgotten. The following day it was despatched to a laboratory in Wales and 40 days later the specialists came up trumps. They identified her condition, an obscure genetic mutation called CDKL5. . . . The most shocking thing was not the lying. Nor even the incompetence. It was our total lack of surprise at the turn of events, since after 15 years suffering from the failings of the National Health Service we are prepared for almost any ineptitude."--Ian Birrell, Independent (London), Aug. 21
An Insult to Jackasses Everywhere
"TV listings: The Prime-Time TV grid in Thursday's Calendar section mistakenly listed MTV's 'Jackass' show on the MSNBC cable schedule at 7 and 10 p.m. where instead MSNBC's 'Countdown With Keith Olbermann' should have been listed."--correction, Los Angeles Times, Aug. 21
? "Moose With Giant Warts Causes Commotion in Homer"--headline, Anchorage Daily News, Aug. 21, 2009
Anyone notice that both Reinmoose and Warty have been gone today?
Commentary's Rick Richman notes an amusing exchange the other day between ABC's White House correspondent, Jake Tapper, and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs:
Tapper: In a letter sent last week to the White House from the National Association of Postal Supervisors, the president of that union, Ted Keating, said that his union had a, quote, "collective disappointment that you"--meaning the president--"chose the Postal Service as a scapegoat and an example in efficiency." Does the president--has the president seen that letter? Has he responded? Does he regret using the post office as an example of inefficiency?
Gibbs: I doubt he's seen that letter, and I don't have any reason to believe he regrets it, since he repeated it.
Single Payer Action's Sam Husseini doesn't say much about unions, but he loves the idea of the U.S. modeling itself after and improving upon Canada's medical system.
"There are some problems [with Canada's system]," Husseini says, but "we're more technologically advanced than Canada and we can do it better."
Thank God we're more technologically advanced. I just wonder how that happened.
I, for one, don't get it. You you don't like what someone has to say so much that you do not wish to patronize their establishment, what on Earth is wrong with that? If some people no longer want to shop at Whole Foods because they believe their money goes to someone who is opposed to their policy goals, doesn't that just mean shorter lines for you?
Shorter: what is all this libertarian bitching about people using whatever rubric they want in order to choose what place to spend their money?
You know, I never understand that argument. People having the right to do something misguided and stupid, si. People being forced to not do something misguided and stupid, no.
It's not like we don't make fun of people around here all of the time. For instance, no one has asked for the ban-hammer to strike, say, Lonewacko, yet he is mocked and insulted mercilessly.
what is all this libertarian bitching about
A way to fill the emptiness of our pathetic, wasted lives?
ed,
Oh, right. That, too.
Alpha-bits: I will not presume to speak for anyone else, but in my case it is intense amusement that I am expressing.
Don't those people who try to adhere to the "agenda 'o the week" ever just get "please, just kill me" headaches?
"This week I am supposed to boycott WF, but this means that I have to either drive 20 blocks further to shop (thereby increasing my carbon footprint) or patronize a local farmer's market (are those things properly regulated by the FDA?). Of course, I could go to the Walmart 4 blocks away (but then I would be supporting a evil union-busting meta-corporation)....zzzzzzzz! does not compute, does not compute....!"
what is all this libertarian bitching
Where's the bitching? Every post and most of the comments are simply making fun of these boycotters, not bitching about them. Half-baked reasoning deserves ridicule.
Shorter: what is all this libertarian bitching about people using whatever rubric they want in order to choose what place to spend their money?
We're cool with people choosing who to give their custom to. We're also cool with pointing out that the reasons they base their choice on are idiotic.
Because they are free, they are free to be wrong. Because we are free, we are free to mock them.
Everybody wins!
I'm sure the Secret Service won't mind at all if Sasha and Malia get out there and hawk some of those spare zucchini
I was going to make a crack about fresh cherries, but it wouldn't be right. It wouldn't be prudent.
I did my part. I just spent $200 at whole foods on groceries and wine. That'll teach John Mackey to stop spouting that conservative libertarian hooey of his.
I think I just saw Cindy Sheehan shopping at Whole Foods. WTF?
Maybe they can donate the veggies to public schoolkids' lunches, since the USDA so-called "healthy" lunches are pretty much a mystery meat mush and probably contribute to childhood obesity.
In fact, maybe they can send some down to Malia lookalike Jasmine Messiah in Miami, who can't get vegetarian food in her public school lunchroom.
The Gobbler @ 4:50 PM
"Gibbs: I doubt he's seen that letter..."
Of course he has not seen the letter. They probably mailed it to him via USPS.
Of course people have the right to buy or not buy wherever they want to.
Actually, there are better reasons for not shopping at Whole Foods - the prices obviously. But I have a problem with a "health food store" that adds sugar to almost all their proprietary products.
And the butcher counter is turn-off to vegetarians.
Too many of their baked products have white flour.
In fact, opposing nationalized health care is one of the few things Mackey has done that I approve of.
Where's the bitching?
Exactly. I'm very happy there will be fewer smelly hippies when I shop there.
"This week I am supposed to boycott WF, but this means that I have to either drive 20 blocks further to shop (thereby increasing my carbon footprint) or patronize a local farmer's market (are those things properly regulated by the FDA?). Of course, I could go to the Walmart 4 blocks away (but then I would be supporting a evil union-busting meta-corporation)....zzzzzzzz! does not compute, does not compute....!"
true true true!
Can somebody explain to me why urban liberals are so hyped up about "greenspace" and "farmers markets"? If they are so important, why don't they live where those things exist?
I just love the picture. So cute...the God-King's wife and young'uns, pretending to work just like the peasants do.
For anyone with hypertension: Whole Foods' brand wheat bread has 15 mg sodium per slice, vs. about 150 for other brands. Also, for those allergic to corn, and Dave W., it doesn't contain corn syrup.
Professors of anthropology make enough to shop at Whole Foods? Why?
FWIW, we went to Whole Foods an extra time this week, on Tuesday night. There were no protestors at the Lincoln Park store, and empty parking spaces were few. If it weren't for the news, I'd have no idea there was a boycott.
I like the argument in the comments section of the first link, regarding Riggs' bias in the article. Because, if he had been equally biased but not indicated it in text, he wouldn't have reminded progressives that people disagree with them and hurt their fragile self-esteem would have made people trust the article more.
Apparently it's not important to be trustworthy as a reporter and put out reliable facts, it's important to make your readers trust you so that they believe what you say. It sounds like bad advice to give a non-leftist reporter, since it could actually work, but they probably were thinking of the president when they gave it.
Strictly speaking, isn't writing with an obvious bias improving the objectivity of the piece? The position of the writer is a factual element of the story with potential significance, and making it clear is improving the honesty of the piece. Maybe that's why people are abandoning newrags that pitch propaganda under the guise of neutrality for blogs.
Do the people bitching about the author revealing his bias also complain when journalists add the typical "Full disclosure: I'm currently shorting the company I'm portraying as in disarray in the article" bit?
WhackAlone, re: your 4:29 comment and link
brotherben | August 20, 2009, 9:31am | #
here is a story of a gun wielding, Ron Paul supporting, appraisal photographer in Meridian Idaho you may enjoy. Or maybe you won't.
I posted a link to that story yesterday. You are a day late my friend. Having never seen you use a Statesman link, I assume you got the tip from me. Credit and appropriate groveling are expected. Thanks.
Libertarian Girl, I read your posting about the vegetarian kid, and the links... and IMO the *real* reason the White House objected was the story didn't reflect well. The Obamas are selectively protective of their kids, but will trot them out for a photo op when it suits Barry's needs.
I feel sorry for the Obamakids. God knows how screwed up they're going to be... and I don't mean from having to spend at least four years in the White House, I mean the indoctrination their parents are cramming into their noggins.
I hope one of them makes it onto Rock of Love 18 with a bloated Nick Jonas as the 'prize' only to be kicked off the tour bus for Paris Jackson.
Ha ha, Brotherben with the win. Lonewacko hoisted with his own petard.
How stupid is Michelle Obama? Posing for a photo op in a black jumpsuit and holding a shovel, pretending to garden?
Mr. Mackey's millions have clouded his view of the real world. His suggestion to cover the uninsured with voluntary donations show how ridiculous his arguments are. There is a related post at http://iamsoannoyed.com/?page_id=588
Great. Now I have to subsidize his fucking kids with farm subsidies as well. That is if there isn't a DC law against kids selling shit like lemonade on the street.
hmm, you can damned well bet if there WERE a DC law against lemonade stands, it would be suspended if the Obamakids were to set up a stand...
Scratch that. The Obamaparents would never allow their precious muffins to be sullied with the ideas of entrepreneurship, capitalism, and that four-letter word, "profit".
Besides, they'd have to sell the lemonade at government prices, pay union thugs to stand around and bully people into buying the product, and hire Paul Krugman to write a glowing article on the cuuuuuuteness of it all.
"Here's your lemonade, mister. That'll be $5,937.26, please."
Their garden and farmers markets should be required to conform to all federal regulations governing food production and safety.
? "Moose With Giant Warts Causes Commotion in Homer"--headline, Anchorage Daily News, Aug. 21, 2009
I good, hard self-taint kick would probably clear those warts right up.
His suggestion to cover the uninsured with voluntary donations show how ridiculous his arguments are.
Because Americans are so lousy at contributing to charity?
"Here's your lemonade, mister. That'll be $5,937.26, please."
Is that adjusted before or after hyperinflation?
That would be pre-hyperinflation, Groovus.
If they set up a vegetable stand, Sasha and Malia could become the first Obamas ever to earn an honest dollar.