What happens when THREE BUSLOADS of Union Goons are brought to a Town Hall?

Have a look at gatewaypundit to find out.  Short version : apparently Rep. Tim Bishop’s  actual constituents were numerous enough that it didn’t do Bishop much good.

“Psycho Donuts much better than Psycho Medications”

Check out Is Something Not Quite Right With Stan , for the voice of one of those that the High Sheriffs of Political Correctness claim to speak for :

From what I can gather from all the web articles and those so called mental health advocates; there has been quite a Brouhaha going on about this Donuts Shop in Northern California calling itself “Psycho Donuts” –

NAMI and like organizations have actually made this some type of laughable social correctness pet issue.

I have to wonder now if BIG PhRMA is concerned people will stop taking their mind poisons; and instead take the donuts options for all those new DSM-V diagnosis? There is little doubt they would end up much healthier, with less disabling side effects, and with much less weight gain on donuts verses the Psych Drugs Model.

Plus the cost difference could actually make Health Coverage for every American a distinct Possibility. Maybe President Obama should look into this as an effective cost saving measure when selling his shaky health reform package to the House of Representatives?

Anywise, you would think those so called silly clowns at NAMI and like front organizations for PhRMA would have better things to do than complain about donuts.

(more)

Donut Guide for El Lay!

I came across this list of “exotic” donut shops in the LA area.  I guess someone came down with a case of Psycho Donut envy.  Anyhoo, the list includes a presonal favorite of mine, Stan’s Corner Donuts.  Stan’s is the home of the (formerly Rece’s) Peanut Butter Donut… a donut suffed with peanut butter and covered with chocolate icing & chocolate chips.  A meal in itself!

Psycho Donuts franchises?

psychologo

Wow… so soon?

I guess it helps when you get so much free publicity, but still…!

Well, good luck guys!

More Commenty Fun! (or, Fat Times at Ridgemont High!)

In reply to The ridiculous contoversy of Psycho Donuts (examiner.com), Melany,  a Well Meaning Oppressor generate another “scoking” What-If scenario :

Family member name affected by mental illness: Travis. When did mental illness become part of pop culture? When the civil rights act was first implemented, there were idiots who thought it was moronic too. It your concern is the taste of a donut, then why does the name of facility matter. I guess you do not believe in equal rights for fat people too. I see that you are chubby and clearly like donuts, so what would happen if we created a donut shop called Chubby Fatso, which would include your segment of the population? Would your feelings not be hurt? It may seem like not a big deal to you, but those of us who battle the stigma each day, dont want society making a joke of those we love fatso.

Let’s go down the list :

  1. Having  a “family member” “affected”  by “mental illness”  doesn’t make you a spokesman for anyone.  Sorry.
  2. Mental illness has been part of  “pop culture” from before it was called “Mental Illness”.  Look at  King Lear, Victorian Novels.  Poe.  Fritz Lang.  Alfred Hitchcock. The Joker. Twilight ZoneMonty Python’s Flying Circus.
  3. It’s always fun to assume that since some people though something good (ie, the Civil Rights Act) thought it was “moronic”, anything thought to be moronic is therefore good.   Lots of things were thought to be “moronic”, too : Slavery, Nazism, Communism, racism, phrenology, etc, etc.
  4. I note this in a lot of these Psych protester types – they tend to make attacks personal;  “I see that you are chubby…”. They just don’t seem to grasp that there are many things that are only offensive if directed at individuals.
  5. Finally, the “shocking” idea of a restaurant that invokes “fat”-ness.  Oh my.  There couldn’t possibly be examples.

Time for a celebration of Culinary Fattitude!

Try the Double Chili-Cheese!

Try the Double Chili-Cheese!

Bob's Big Boy

Bob's Big Boy

heartattackgrilllogo

Heart Attack Grill

Heart Attack Grill

Chubby's

Chubby's

To close, let’s go international!

Chubby Maid Café

Chubby Maid Café

More later, maybe… this is fun!

Yet Another Psycho Donuts Opinion

The ridiculous contoversy of Psycho Donuts (San Jose Independent Examiner)

Obama Staffer Flies Cross-Country with Special Treat!

His taste in beer is lacking, but Obama is a doughnut gourmet!

His taste in beer is lacking, but Obama is a doughnut gourmet!

(It’s possible he’s just sucking up to cops after the “incident“, but I think his donut-eating is sincere.  Just my opinion, though.)

Keep your “Offendedness” off our Free Speech

I think that one of the major aspect of this Psycho Donut “controversy” that draws my attention is the degree to which some Americans have lost their understanding of our basic rights. The rights of free speech and the right to own property have always been two of the cardinal rights under our Constitution and core to our society.

People are now willing to junk the very foundation of our society in the name of being “offended”. The astounding thing in the case of Psycho Donuts is that the “offense” is so microscopically trivial that it… crazy. Someone calls a half-shaved coconut / half crushed-peanut donut “bipolar”. So what? It harms nobody.

Delicious FREEDOM, Baby!

Delicious FREEDOM, Baby!

Now, I know that the folks that have gotten themselves all worked up over this will claim that somehow this don’t leads children to suicide, etc, etc. They are always quite vague as to how this happens. Essentially, they just assume that it does. Because it must; it allows the Offended to assert that their “rights” are being violated.

Well, maybe a better way to put it would be that it allows them to assert that the rights of someone else are being violated. That someone else is usually conveniently offstage… or better, an abstract group, such as “the children”. The Offended Person has somehow decided that s/he speaks for that group.

Even if the Offended One is a member of that group, it’s arrogant to simply assume that one speaks for everyone else. Did everyone get together and elect you King of the Bipolars or Spokeswoamn for “the children” or “Grand Poobah of Head Trauma”? No? OK, speak only for yourself, then.

The problem here, is these folks take their Offense and use it to stamp on the actual rights of others. I’ve seen a couple examples online recently, Here’s a snip of one:

This is demented and should be stopped by the licensing body in California that must have human rights requirements of their own. The business however offensive to the impaired among us has been operating for months.  … I am not an attorney but I do have years of legal training. There is some levity and outrageous supporting opinions reduced to writing on the Internet. If I were the owners or the vocally or written supporters in a situation that potentially because state charges have been filed could conceivably evolve into a Federal Discrimination case furthered by the Justice Department and the ADA, a lot of donut people may be taking the stand for a long time.

and further :

Maybe someone with clout should get a law firm and proceed to the Justice Department and file a Discrimination Complaint. The complainant does not have to fear a counterclaim in this instance and and may not be, under federal law hindered or restrained from the filing.

Creepy thing 1 : Notice how even individuals who voice support for the target of the Offended should be harassed by legal and governmental means?  And the writer considers that to be a Good Thing?

Creepy thing 2 : Notice how the term “human right” is being twisted for the sake of convenience?    What “right” is being violated by donuts and internet free speech?

Creepy thing 3 : Notice how the goal is to ruin a small business, it’s customers and well-wishers?

Craigslist Posting For Donut Protest

(craigslist postings go away after 60 days, so I thought I’d preserve this event posting here.)

8/2: Noon to 2pm – Help Stamp Out Freedom – Protest Psycho Donuts!!!! (campbell)


Date: 2009-08-01, 9:29PM PDT
Reply to: event-rnpsp-1301332445@craigslist.org


Psycho Donuts is a business in Campbell, CA that says it is a “fun mental institution” and a “lighthearted insane asylum”; has a padded cell where customers can have their photos taken wearing a straightjacket; has doughnuts called “Massive Head Trauma”, “Feng Shui”, “Psycho Panda” & “Bipolar”; has “group therapy” table where people can sit and we like to pretend that there are “shock treatment” areas so it sounds like, ooooooo scaaaaary. Oh yeah, there’s a Bates Motel sign, and we really don’t like the films of Alfred Hitchcock.

Stereotypes are no joke! So we choose to act like them to show you how serious they truly are!

58,000 people are confined in mental institutions in the US and one of these days we might well join them! I mean really, we are willing to stomp on the freedoms of others, in order to fell better about ourselves. Doesn’t that say something to you?

Stereotypes CAUSE discrimination & stigma ruins lives – so please, please, please help us to spread stigma but inflicting it upon a small business serving the people of Campbell, Ca.

When did we decide it is OK to ridicule people who are different? Last Tuesday, just before we planned this event.

For over two months, many local disability organizations have tried, without success, to educate Psycho Donuts business owners and ask them to close their store, fire their employees and put on hairshirts and ashes. We’d like them to sow salt in the earth, so nothing will ever grow on the land again, but were flexible on that. Even STILL, they have refused, saying “Because donuts have no feelings, they won’t be upset that we’re making fun of them.”

This is shameful. Donuts have more feelings than many people. Science has proven this time and again.

In addition, the Campbell City Council, the Campbell Chamber of Commerce, the Santa Clara Mental Health Board and Campbell’s State Legislators have been approached by the same local disability organizations, asking them to broker a meeting with the business owners, but they have said there is nothing they can do. Something about a thing called “the first amendment” or “first commandment” or first something. We’re NOT SURE. It is DISCRIMINATORY to use clever words like that to confuse us.

Anyway – shame on the City of Campbell for allowing this to happen! Really! Even though we just indicated that there is nothing they CAN do! SHAME!!!!!

There IS something YOU can do – JOIN US on Sunday, August 2nd @ 12 noon sharp

We need large numbers in order order to send a LOUD and clear massage to the owners of Psycho Donuts and to the leadership of the City of Campbell that we have our FEELINGS HURT and think very poorly of the people of Campbell. We won’t stand for this kind of badness against people. We will actually kind of wander around shouting through bullhorns and such-like. We find that our legs cramp up a lot if we just stand.

Wear comfortable Tin Foil Hat and bring “drinkables”. T-shirts and signs will be provided; we don’t care what YOU want to say, we want you to say what WE WANT YOU TO SAY. You understand, we’re sure. If not, well…. it’s not important that you do. Just show up.

  • it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 1301332445

Silicon Valley Roller Girls face off against LA

tn-001_421cb706e808f5

Info from upcoming.com
The South Bay’s own Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby League, Silicon Valley Roller Girls (San Jose, CA), will be hosting their second annual Hot August Fights. Back by popular demand, this year the Dot.Kamikazes of SVRG will face off against Angel City Derby Girls Rocket Queens (Los Angeles, CA). Hot August Fights will take place on Saturday August 8, 2009 at San Jose Skate (397 Blossom Hill Rd., San Jose). Doors open at 6 p.m., and the bout gets underway at 7 p.m.

This is an all-ages bout featuring half-time show; raffle prizes; and more. Come and show your support for your local derby girls by donning your green and black. After the bout, join the ladies of SVRG and ACDG for an after party at Jacks in San Jose. For more details about the bout and SVRG, please check our website and blog.

Tickets are currently for sale online at Brown Paper Tickets: $15 for adults and $6 for kids. Tickets at the door are $17 for adults and $8 for kids; babies in arms (two and under) are free. A portion of the proceeds from the bout will be donated to the John Muir Cancer Institute.

Effective 7/31/09, tickets are also for sale at Psycho Donuts, 2006 Winchester Blvd in Campbell, and at Streetlight Records, 980 S. Bascom Ave in San Jose. Tickets are available at the advance ticket price, without the service charge of purchasing them online!

… also, freakin’ ETHIOPIANS!

I didn’t even know there was an Ethiopian Review.  From “We Should All Be So Crazy”  :

Of course, by decrying what Psycho Donuts are doing, organizations like the National Alliance for Mental Illness have brought massive local and national publicity to the bakery as well as attention to themselves. As the saying goes, maybe they’re all crazy — as a fox.

… another party heard from

Mark Whittington writes, on Associated Content :

The controversy appears to be that of Jordan Zweigoron’s right to run a business and name his products whatever he wants to name them and people such as Oscar Wright who think that naming fattening food after mental conditions is somehow socially stigmatizing. One would want to have some kind of hard numbers that calculate the number of mentally ill people who do not seek treatment because of the social stigma and the number who do not do so because of some silly confection named CocoMarbles. One is not sure what term can be applied to people with the need to be perpetually angry at someone or something, like a strangely themed donut shop. That might make a name for a pretty potent confection.

Exactly right.  For all their emoting, folks like Oscar Wright and NAMI simply don’t make their case.

Psycho Donuts on Fox News

Click here for the video.  Before seeing this, I didn’t realize that Oscar Wright has never set foot in the donut shop.  At least he wasn’t pushing the “it’s all about the children” line.

I wish ol’ Oscar would explain how these donuts are supposedly creating “confusion”, “fear” and “discrimination”… he just keeps asserting it.

Good News : Mental Health Community not all Sheeple!

Contrary to what some would have us believe, not everyone with a professional,  personal or emotional  stake in the realm of mental illness  blames all problems on donuts.  ABC News reports there is some diversity of opinion here.   It’s a shame they didn’t ask around more…  they could have found some interesting views.

Heck, at Sunday’s  Donut Protest, I saw a guy who actually had bipolar being scramed at by the self-styled representatives of the “Mental Health Community”, because he dared disagree.  One woman told him that based on that diagnosis alone, he should be on their side.  I guess having a mental disorder means that you can’t have your own opinion.  One man called him a “lost soul”.  Nice.

Local Boys Do Good!

You know you’ve really made it when you’re in the Weekly World News (“The World’s Only Reliable News”)… and our local donut shop has acheived that distinction!

batboyneedsdonutsnow

… and in other news, why is the media silent about the shocking story of Obama’s half brother?

Mad, I tell you! Mad! MAD!!!

"Moo hoo hah hah hah!"

"Moo hoo hah hah hah!"

Well, so far 65% are laughing and 12% bored according to the imbedded poll on the local NBC affiliate’s webage (“Psycho Donut Theme Making People “Mad”).

It’s fairly interesting how “the National Alliance for Mental Illness” worked the local media to get some free advertising for their protest, which in turn gave Psycho Donuts lots of free advertsing.

Those not familiar with Campbell don’t realize how obscurely the doughnut shop is placed.  It’s in an itty-bitty strip mall, between a Subway and a laundromat.   It’s very hard to notice.  A few dozen people milling around with signs probably got the shop a bit of extra notice from the passing motorists… but I strongly suspect that the “march” through the Campbell Farmer’s Market got Psycho Donuts tons of free publicity.  I bumped into some friends that said they were going to pop by for a donut after buying their veggies.

This seemed to be an especially good day for video-makers.  I arrived very late in the game, but it seemd like folks were being interview all over the place.

The Circus will be in town this weekend…

Apparently the Assorted Nuts will be protesting Psycho Donuts this weekend.  Should be some entertainment for a warm, sunny day.  I’ll have to remember to bring a cold drink that goes with donuts.

Psycho Donuts really should start selling iced coffee…

Nami the Clown

Nami the Clown

Update: Psycho posting on craigslist.  (To be transcribed at a later date.)

Make Donuts, not War!

So let me see if I understand this. The protestors are mad over the shop’s name and theme? Really? It’s a donut shop, get over it. They showed some young woman who could barely spit out a complete sentence talking about how it was disrespectful to the soldiers coming home with head trauma. Um, no it isn’t. I don’t know the owners, I live on the other side of the country from this shop, and I can tell from here it’s just their shtick and that they mean no disrespect to anyone. Where in that shop does it say they are making fun of disabled soldiers? Where in the shop does it call out the fact they are making fun of any mental patients?

(From “Time to make the donuts” on the Stop Destroying Our Country blog.)

Dough Boy

Psycho blogger compares John F Kennedy to a doughnut

No, really.  He did.  Even when posting ALL IN CAPS LIKE HE’S YELLING, he still doesn’t surpass the ice pick page for sheer over-the-to-ness.

Here’s a handy guide for the perplexed :

Fig. A - Pastry

Fig. A - Pastry

Fig B - Pastry

Fig B - Pastry

Fig C - President

Fig C - President

Fig D - Pastry

Fig D - Pastry

Fig E - President (full of pastries)

Fig E - President (full of pastries)

Fig F - Pastry pretending to be President

Fig F - Pastry pretending to be President

I hope this clears everything up.

The Super Bowl of Hyperbole!

OK, granted our favorite stalker’s Godwin FAIL is technically much more hyperbolic (he directly references an entire country and millions of deaths)… but he shrinks away from specifics.

The good folks at “Peers Envisioning and Engaging in Recovery Services” have generated some of the following text, regarding Psycho Donuts :

Featuring a “padded cell” exploits the worst historic abuses of the mental health system, where people with mental health disabilities were sometimes starved, tied to beds, beaten, and subject to “ice pick lobotomies,” electroconvulsive shock treatments, and immobilizing medications.

And also …

Finally, after a life of institutionalized abuse, people with mental disabilities were dumped into unmarked, sometimes mass graves, deprived of all human dignity. “Psycho Donuts” is located just 12 miles from the former Agnews State Hospital, where over 8,751 people were buried in unmarked graves. But “Psycho Donuts” doesn’t just reference history.

Sorry, but I haven’t seen an “unmarked grave” doughnut there.  It might be cool for Hallowe’en, though.  Still, the point here is that the donut shop in question doesn’t “reference” the hospital in question.  Heck, the vast majority of residents of Silicon Valley know nothing about it, unless maybe they work for Sun. People going to the doughnut shop surely aren’t thinking of lurid tales of ice picks.

This is a good example of what I’ve been seeing; it seems like the people that are getting worked up about these doughnuts are reacting to images inside their own head.  Not in the heads of doughnut makers, or customers, or “the children”.

“Cops and Donuts” takes “unthinkable, terrible” concept… and runs with it!

A commenter on another blog, who goes by the name of “hymes“, when reacting to a condemnatory description of Psycho Donuts suggested :

Would they have water boarding for kids or even “the hole” as in prisons for kids in any donut shop?

Well, the awesome people over at Cops and Doughnuts, the 100% cop-owned doughnut shop in Clare, Mi have realized the dream!  Can it get any more awesome?

The Hole

The Hole

The Hole - Inside

The Hole - Inside

The Hole - key hook

The Hole - key hook

A disturbing point made in the Psycho Donuts “debate”

At a certain point in the discussion, Oscar Write quoted some study or other that stated the 66% of parents expressed “concern” with “medication”.

He said it like it was a bad thing.

It seems that there is a fair amount of evidence that children are being over medicated these days, so surely any parent worth their salt would be concerned about medicating their child. It just stands to reason.

Anyhow Wright was using this as yet another example of some bad thing that could somehow be attributed to the “stigma” that can somehow be blamed on donuts.

Funny petition page…

Take a look at this petition; under the “demands” are only pictures.  Apparently, they are demanding donuts and Nazism.

Scary… no wonder only 8 people signed.

Delicious “Cancer Ice Cream”

My neighborhood donut shop caused quite the stir for a while … an d still seems to in some online quarters.  So I’ve been watching the “fun” for a while now. A common trope seems to be to compare “mental illness” to AIDS or cancer. Today, I saw yet another variant in the comments here :

(Rachel Weldon) … I know, let’s start a “Chillin with cancer” ice cream shop & see what people think. You could have bald nurses & people hooked up to fake IV’s of Chemo. Funny? Lighthearted? Obviously not. Mental illness is a debilitating disease, which causes many people to lose their loved ones, their freedom, and in worst cases their lives. . .

A couple of things occur.

First, a “Chillin’ with Cancer Ice Cream” shop isn’t funny (at least as described).  “Psycho Donuts”  and “Heart Attack Grill” are funny.  Funny kinda just is.  If someone thinks about it, then declares that, yes, it has all of the proper elements of “funny”… he probably isn’t laughing.

Second, we are told that 26 Percent of US Adults suffer from “mental illness”… and some claim that is a conservative estimate. If that is the case, then the cancer comparison simply goes out the window.  It’s simply a fact that 1/4 the population of the USA is not experiencing anything close to dying of cancer.  So the analogy is simply false.

icecream_2962c

Some impressions on the Psycho Donut “debate”

Well, Psycho Donuts owner Kipp Berdiansky and Oscar Wright had their chat this morning at 6:30 am on local channel, KTVU.   This is a result of a few local groups  having decided to become offended by local Donut Shop, Psycho Donuts.  (The protesters seem to have gone away at this point, having been reduced to posting yelp spam and blog rants.)

Here’s a few impressions.

Oscar Wright didn’t seem to really be able to tie his argument together; he seemed to think that merely saying that 3 kajillion kids would have mental health problem X.  Since he had a vague notion that Psycho Donuts would somehow worsen problem X, he simply assumed that all right-thinking people would therfore see that the donut shop was very, very bad.  It’s the kind of argument that people that already agree with you will accept, but has not power to convince, or even explain.

An example :  “1 out of 5 children per year(!) consider suicide” … was given as a reason why the “images children are bombarded with” need to be controlled.   Then, wee’re meant to leap to the conclusion that a big part of these “images” is … having a donut or two.   No reasosn are really given, they are links in a chain of assumption.

The assertion that things must be done “for the children”.  Helen Lovejoy killed the raw force of that argument years ago; unless some kind of evidence is given to indicate that “the children” are being harmed, it’s very easy to laugh off.

For the last several minutes of the discussion, Wright tried to get Berdiansky to agree some kind of The Grand Sixty Day Plan he’d cooked up.  First, he asked if Berdiansky would agree to “talk off air”, when that seems agreeable, more an more was added (it started to sound  like Wright wanted a series of meeings with many, many people).  Next, he wanted the meetings to be about making a plan to change the dout shop… which kind of an arrogant thing to ask from a business owner (“Hey, let’s split the difference on how you run your business.”)  Apparently Wright was a regional administartor in California’s Small Business Administration bureaucracy.  Maybe that kind of  background gets one  in the habit of seeing businesses as owing you concessions.

Oh, at the end of sixty days, Wright wnats to issue a joing press release. Huh.

Berdiansky asked Wright to share soem of his suggestions out in the open (they were, after all, both on TV to inform the public). Wright expressed  reluctance to come forward with his “plan” for changing Psycho Donuts – he said he wished to avoid the “sensationalism” of discussing it on TV in “one or two minutes”.

With all due respect for Rosy Chu, this is a show being shown at 6:30 am, with probably dozens of viewers. What would be the harm in giving a rough idea?  I live in Campbell; I don;t think that blood woukld flow in the streets if Wrights Ideal Donut Shoppe concepts turned out to be lame.

More later, pr’haps…

« Older entries