Well, here’s an interesting story. A dog-walking service in Missouri just ended their commercial relationship with the Moyers family, because the mom posted a viral photo of a Girl Scout selling cookies outside a marijuana dispensary in Colorado on her Facebook page. The mom thought it was funny; the owners of the dog-walking company, devout Christians, did not:
“[We] were upset by the pic with the Girls Scouts selling cookies outside of a government-funded drug house because they knew a bunch of whacked-out dope fiends would buy a bunch of cookies,” said Tom Ziegler, co-owner of Pack Leader, Plus, told the Moyers in an e-mail. “We think this is appalling and not funny or cute.” And so the Zieglers decided to end their business relationship with the Moyers.
“We have a zero-tolerance policy,” Tom Ziegler tells us. “We don’t tolerate any drug users or people who think drugs are OK. Just like we wouldn’t tolerate child molesters or rapists, we don’t tolerate drugs.” Ziegler further explains that it’s simply his faith and his beliefs, and he won’t bend, not for man or government.
Does this qualify as religious liberty? It sure is sincere. But does a business have a right to withhold services from those whose views – or mere Facebook posts – it finds abhorrent? The implications seem pretty broad to me. A pacifist business could refuse to serve service-members; a Catholic business could refuse to serve the divorced. A Christian business could refuse to serve atheists. We’d be living in a pretty crazy world if this really metastasized, as even Antonin Scalia has noted.
Today, we covered more of the CIA’s campaign to prevent its war crimes from being recorded in the history books for what they were. One key figure is Robert Eatinger, a former lawyer for the torturers who is now the general counsel for the entire CIA. That tells you something. We also explored some of the worst CIA ideas in the past – and boy, there are some doozies. Since the CIA was unable to predict the Arab Spring and caught completely by surprise in Crimea, it’s a fair question to ask why they exist at all. I’m beginning to see the wisdom of John B. Judis.
The first “don’t smoke up and drive” PSA arrived. We surveyed analysis of the latest data on the progress of the ACA; we worried some more about Russia’s designs on Ukraine; and Matt Yglesias got a very natty new suit.
The most popular post of the day was The CIA Forces A Constitutional Crisis; followed by The Christianist Closet?
One more thing: marriage equality comes to Britain tonight for some. Money quote from one of the women who will be celebrating (see the photo above):
“I’d been out as lesbian since the early 1970s and it felt like I was becoming a full citizen. It was equality, I never ever expected full equality in my lifetime. I never expected to marry someone I love.”
Neither did I.
See you in the morning.
(Photo: Sue Wilkinson (L) and Celia Kitzinger address the media outside the High Court in central London, 31 July 2006. The British lesbian couple lost a bid to win legal recognition in Britain for their marriage in Canada. After a struggle in the courts, they will be married in Britain tonight. By Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty.)
The Dish 