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Jewish World Review March 23, 2012/ 29 Adar, 5772 Left-Wing Ice Cream By Greg Crosby
I think lots of people who pay attention know that the Ben & Jerry Ice Cream company supports left-wing causes - for many years. Liberals who know this are okay with it and those of us who are not liberal simply don't buy that brand of ice cream. Years ago when I first found out that Ben & Jerry were using a percentage of their profits to support Progressive and socialistic endeavourers I decided then and there that there was plenty of other ice cream brands I could buy without supporting a company with an ideology that I don't believe in. However there are many (millions) of people who just don't pay attention to such things and have no idea that their money goes to Leftist political causes every time they buy Chunky Monkey or any other flavor by Ben Cohen & Jerry Greenfield. Ben & Jerry's are proud to be liberal ideologues - just go to their web site and see for yourself. I say let them be as liberal as they want. But every perspective customer should know where their money is going whenever they buy a product from a company with a hard-line political agenda. So to all those who may not have been aware of what you're helping support when you buy B & J Ice Cream, stay tuned, you just might learn something. Remember nut job Cindy Sheehan, the "anti-war activist" and darling of the Left who protested at President Bush's ranch and who still speaks at anti-American rallies around the country and quotes from Chairman Mao? Well, Ben Cohen's foundation funded the multi million dollar PR machine for Sheehan's activities. Cohen's foundation also helps ANSWER, a neo-Marxist group that promotes Islamic terrorism. And the Ben & Jerry's company itself has its own foundation, which you fund when you buy their ice cream. The list of recipients of this fund includes groups who give support for illegal aliens, community organizing, an anti-marriage group, and a foundation that helps teachers turn elementary and middle school kids into far-left critics "of their social and political landscape." One of B & J's most famous flavors is Cherry Garcia named after Jerry Garcia, a druggie rock musician with The Grateful Dead. A regular LSD user, Garcia became one of the symbols of '60's "drop out and drop acid" movement. What a wonderful character to honor with his own flavor of ice cream! Back in 2009 Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream came out with a new flavor, Hubby Hubby (changed from Chubby Hubby ice cream) in solidarity with gays who had attained legalized marriage in Vermont (home of Ben &Jerry's). And last fall Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream came out with a statement supporting the Occupying Wall Street crowd. But now it gets even better! As of a few weeks ago Occupy Wall Street (OWS) now has an official corporate backer - that's right, those wacky ice cream guys. OWS's corporate benefactor is the so-called Movement Resource Group, a funding venture backed by the left-wing founders of Ben & Jerry's ice cream as well as other "social justice" lefties. The group has raised some $300,000 so far, and plans to raise around $1.8 million to revive the moribund Occupy movement. Isn't that weird? And all this time I thought that OWS was AGAINST those rich corporations. I guess if the rich corporation is giving you money then that makes it all hunky-dory, right? No hypocrisy there. Thanks to B&J, the Occupy Wall Street thugs have effectively gotten a "corporate bailout." Dispensing funds to a broad spectrum of left-wing groups, from ACORN to the Tides Foundation, the ice cream makers have never seen a contradiction between their commercial success and their intense loathing of free-market capitalism. No hypocrisy there. In recent years their foundation has endorsed the "Earth Charter," a document that blames capitalism on the world's environmental, social and economic ills. The charter declares that "the dominant patterns of production and consumption are causing environmental devastation, the depletion of resources, and a massive extinction of species" and blames capitalism for causing the "gap between rich and poor." When Ben & Jerry's issued their statement of solidarity with the Occupy protesters on their web site last fall they praised them for raising issues of "fundamental importance to all of us," and pronouncing themselves "honored to join you in this call to take back our nation and democracy." Ben and Jerry's also endorsed the movement's grievances, bemoaning the fact that "corporations are permitted to spend unlimited resources to influence elections while stockpiling a trillion dollars rather than hiring people." Interestingly that opposition to corporate money in politics doesn't seem to apply to Ben & Jerry's, which is now trying to spend millions to influence the political process through OWS. Maybe it's time for B & J to name a special flavor after their beloved Occupy Wall Street mob. Street Filth Fudge or Vulgarian Nut Swirl are two possible flavors that come to mind. You know, you can flavor garbage with a million ingredients, and it will still be garbage. As for me, I'll take vanilla. But I'll take it from another company, thank you.
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© 2008, Greg Crosby |
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