Posted on 06/16/2005 9:48:36 PM PDT by CHARLITE
In between promoting mega-lunatic conspiracies theories about how supposedly the Bush Administration itself knocked down the WTC on 9/11 to make the poor al-Qaeda terrorists look bad, one of the biggest bugs up the Left's bonnet is McDonald's. They love to picket the Mac outfit and declare anti-McDonald's Days. NutWatch Leftists who have never fasted for a day in their lives love to insist that shutting down fast food joints will help alleviate world hunger. The non sequitur is the main tool of leftist analysis. Their French comrades-in-sissy-berets consider McDonald's to be a bigger threat to civilization than al-Qaeda.
I am not sure whether it is because McDonald's caters to non-vegetarians or just because it does serves the sorts of food that leftist preppies and yuppies do not eat. Take it from me - tofu is not a food!
Anyways, the latest assault by the Yuppie Left on Bill Clinton's beloved trough and the favorite eatery of the working class consists of a series of films in the Michael Moore style, trying to make McDonald's look bad, under the banner McLibel. The latest film opened a few days ago in 4 US cities. (Hey, and you can't tell US that Mikey Moore does not indulge that belly of his with quarter pounders!) The burger MacMeisters have been the target of assorted leftist "writers", like Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation (as well as Reefer Madness).
A few years back, two radical environmentalists, a former postman and a gardener from London named Helen Steel and Dave Morris got themselves sued for libel by McDonald's in a classic SLAPP action. They lost and were hit by the court for 60,000 pounds sterling in damages. They had been handing out leaflets making false charges against McDonald's and its products.
They kept appealing until they took their case to the European Court of Human Rights, which overturned their conviction in February 2005. In their invitation for folks to come watch the new silly McFilm, Helen and Dave write, "As the global junk food chain prepares to 'celebrate' its 50th anniversary on April 15, more than ever people need to hear the case against McWorld so that they can judge for themselves."
The new film just released in the US is named McLibel, directed by one scary-looking Franny Armstrong, trying to turn the Steel-Morris team into heroes and bash the poor burger flipper company. It is being hailed by the NutWatch Left as "journalism" and as a "documentary". The New Internationalist liked it. An earlier version of the film, McLibel: Two Worlds Collide was released in 1997. The film was pulled by both the BBC and Channel 4 and never shown in the UK. Franny claims that she was inspired by Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. She also made a film about how impoverished Indian peasants should be denied electrification by preventing dam construction.
A reviewer of the films wrote:
'To the environmental lobby, McDonalds is an icon of conservative carnal values, as much to blame for putting meat onto its menu as for any alleged damage to the environment. After all, opium fields and the international drug trade are far more hazardous to the ecosystem and financial inequalities of third world countries, but you will never see environmentalists demonstrating outside heroin shooting galleries waving placards saying "Medellin Drug Cartel Endangers Us All"....Of the seven imputations in the pamphlet, the defence of truth failed for five, and the matters the defendants were able to prove were true were not exactly earth-shattering.We learnt that hamburgers, like beer and heroin, are not very nutritious, that forests are cut down to make fast food as well as legal documents, and that advertising is designed to lure children into wanting to visit McDonalds. '
All this just the latest round in the war by the wackos against fast food. Their weapons include filing mind-numbingly stupid class action suits to harass the fast food chains, supposedly for making people fat and making unscrupulous trial lawyers rich. McDonald's has been winning these, but the cost is enormous and ultimately is passed on to consumers.
I gotta admit - I do not ever eat at McDonald's, but I defend to the death YOUR right to do so and to chose how much cholesterol you wish in your diet without asking any Moonbats for permission.
So what is next on the agenda of the Legal Left? A group of legal activists, including Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe, demanding from Hollywood film companies cash compensation for depriving them of business opportunities and displacing them from neighborhoods during the filming of various movies.
Stay tuned!
About the Writer: Dr. Plaut is a professor of business administration at the University of Haifa, and the author of "The Scout," available from Gefen Publishing House at: http://www.israelbooks.com/bookDetails.asp?book=43.
What a bunch of upappreciative pricks..
The Kroc Foundation left a sizeable (HUGH) endowment to the leftists at NPR and this is how they show their gratitude?
McDonalds = Crap.
I'll take a Johnny's burger over that any day (OKC FReepers would know). Ah, to be back in the Sooner state once again....
They will not be satisfied until they have denied us every last little pleasure on earth......... But,but,but....Tofu is good for you and you will not be destroying the planet and your health
MM could be an expert on McDonald's,... He's eaten enough Big Macs to feed a medium sized nation; but it's McDonald's fault they forced him to do it.
Now, now...Mickey Ds was the shizznit back in the 70s and 80s when the fries was cooked in beef fat and the food was under the heat lamps in styrofoam containers.
McDonald's caved into political correctness, that's why they suck now.
Explains my opinion--I've only eaten at McDonald's since around '87, or whenever I was old enough to take in solid food.
Really?
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