Food Choices, Please...

I recently authored a thread on the redflagdeals.com food forum about halal chicken, and how the Popeye's chicken chain has seemingly changed their whole selection to only offer halal chicken. I was just curious as to whether this was a corporate standard (based on the responses thus far, it sounds like it is). Well, I can say that I won't be eating at Popeye's Chicken anymore. I don't like establishments that will slowly change things to suit one group / demographic of people, essentially ostracizing the rest of the consumers. In this case, Popeye's appears to be targeting the muslim food consumers, which is fine if that is what their direction is, but in so doing, I suspect that any new customers gained will be offset with customers who will no longer buy from them as they are no longer given a choice. Based on a number of responses so far, that is in fact, what is happening.

Now, I know what you may be thinking - what is the big deal? Chicken is chicken. It doesn't taste any different, I know. This issue is addressed right in the Bible (1 Corinthians, I believe) about eating meat sacrificed to idols. Now, I realize that the Bible's stance is that food is food, but each person should go with what their conscience and convictions indicate. In my case (and this may evidence my weaker maturity in these matters), I choose not to eat kosher or halal meats as I am not comfortable with the fact that these have gone through ritualistic killing (single slash to throat, bleed out animal) and blessed by a rabbi or imam. It would be nice if establishments realized that their clientele is as different as the food they serve and offer some variety. Not everyone who goes to Popeye's wants halal chicken, no matter what the logical reasoning one can give to serve it anyway. Similarly, not everyone wants kosher meats when they go to restaurants. I know Pickel Barrel (a large, Jewish-owned chain of restaurants in Toronto) offers kosher items, but at the very least, it is distinguished from non-kosher items, which, to their credit, they still offer (the last I checked).

I guess it's no different than some computer stores like Tiger Direct only offering certain brands for sale (trust me, they don't sell all brands). I tend to avoid Tiger Direct as well. No one likes to be pushed to buy in a particular direction, whether it is a consumer electronic item, or a food product. I am neither muslim nor jewish, so I am exercising my choice not to buy products that have gone through other faith rituals with which I neither subscribe nor to which I adhere.

Politically Correctness Gone Rampant

So I'm sitting in my car on the way to work this morning and they are talking on the Bill Carroll show (CFRB - awesome station) about how in Britain, the educators are starting to not discuss the holocaust as part of history class, for fear of offending the muslim students.

I almost swerved my car into a lamp post when I heard this, and desperately tried to call in, but the lines were, not surprisingly, tied up.

Is it me, or am I sensing that people these days are afraid to speak the truth for fear of offending people. Frig, the holocaust happened, millions of people died. How can you possibly try to alter history to try to appease a minority group? Thankfully, a couple of muslim folks called into the station and vetted their outrage at how the teachers lay down and went with the school boards' proposals. Whatever your opinion of Israel or what's going down in the Middle East right now, you can't conveniently omit real parts of history, as ugly as they are. Besides, if I was Jewish, I'd be the one who was offended that such an atrocity is now being covered up by the educational system.

If it was a holocaust denier saying the same thing, he/she'd be charged under the hate speech part of the criminal code. Yet when education systems do it, it's OK??

Makes me more and more want to save up my pennies to send my boy to private school, rather than the politically correct left-leaning education system that seems to be so prevalent in so many countries.