Rebuttal to Anonymous Comment

Yesterday I received an anonymous comment. After a little research, I was able to deduce who authored the comment. It was Audra, or someone at her residence.

Why is it that nobody who sends me negative comments signs their name to it? I suspect it’s because they are embarrassed by their behavior. Perhaps they fear my rebuttal? Whatever the reason, I find it quite cowardice. If you are going to send negative comments to me, at least have the guts to take credit for them.

I love a good debate but this comment is so poorly written, that there is really nothing to debate. Not being one to back down from confrontation, I will defend my views. Are you ready for some fun? Here we go.

Audra, Audra, Audra, how lovely to hear from you also. Since you were so gracious to send me this lovely comment on my blog, I feel I must give you the same courtesy I gave Adelle, and respond.

I will break it down for you, just as I did for your sister. After all, I can’t show favorites.

First of all, I will post your comment in its entirety. Then I will break it down to make it easier to understand.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Boycott Costco!":

NEVER-NEVER -NEVER!!!!!! COSTCO IS AWESOME!!! IF YOU DID RESEACH ON every COMPANY OUT THERE THEN YOU WOULD NEED TO BE LIKE THE AMISH AND GROW YOUR OWN FOOD and make your own clothing!!!! EVERYBODY Can get their hands on achohol if they want. The next door neighbor can go to a state run liquor store and pick a bottle of hard liquor and his 10 year old kid can drink some when his parent is NOT looking! IT Doesn;t matter where it is SOLD!!!MY GOODNESS!!! WHAT IS THE BIG FREAKING DEAL????
CAN YOU WRITE SOMETHING PoSITIVE instead of BASHING PEOPLE!!! Find something GOOD in the world that is going on! There IS SO MUCH!!!!

Posted by Anonymous to My Two Cents at November 19, 2010 12:16 PM

First of all, must you scream? If your comment was football game, you would be flagged for excessive use of capitalization and exclamation points. Not to mention poor grammar usage and spelling. Before you write a comment meant to be published, perhaps you should consult a dictionary and use spell check. Okay, on to my rebuttal.

Audra: NEVER-NEVER -NEVER!!!!!! COSTCO IS AWESOME!!!

My response: That’s fine. It was merely a suggestion. You still have your agency. If you choose to support a company that wasted close to $5 million to spearhead/finance an initiative which would allow for the sale of hard liquor in grocery stores, convenience stores, and other retail outlets, such as Costco, so they could make more money, that’s your prerogative. I personally have a moral objection to increasing retail outlets for hard liquor from 340 state liquor stores to over 3300 private businesses.

Let me remind you of something President Hinckley said, “We believe that the Church should remain out of politics unless there is a moral question at issue. And in the case of a moral issue we would expect to speak out on our view.”(Gordon B. Hinckley, “Words of the Living Prophet,” Liahona, Jun 1997, 32)

Of course, President Hinckley was referring to the Church speaking out on moral political issues. All the more reason for us, as members of the Church, to speak out individually. I consider Costco’s overwhelming support of initiative 1100 a moral issue.

That’s why I wrote this blog post. After all, the last time I checked this was my blog, I titled it, “My Two Cents”. That should give you a clue that perhaps my opinions might be expressed on my blog. If you don’t like reading my opinions, then by all means, stay off my blog.

Audra: IF YOU DID RESEACH ON every COMPANY OUT THERE THEN YOU WOULD NEED TO BE LIKE THE AMISH AND GROW YOUR OWN FOOD and make your own clothing!!!!


My response: Okay, so what does that have to do with my blog post entitled “Boycott Costco!”? Apparently you didn’t understand the gist of my essay. Let me explain it to you. It was about boycotting Costco because of their overwhelming financial/political support of initiative 1100. It had nothing to do with “every company out there” nor anything to do with Amish people or growing your own food or making your own clothing. You might want to reread it.

You really shouldn’t be dragging the Amish people into your malicious comment. As far as I’m aware, they are a decent, hard-working, moral group of people.

By the way, I did my research on this specific subject. If you would like to do research on “every company out there” and have evidence to support your claim, feel free to e-mail me or create your own blog and post it, and I will look at it. I know for a fact that there are many companies who practice business morally, ethically, and honestly. Therefore, your claim is ignorant and baseless. I don‘t dispute that there are other companies that care more about making a dollar than care about people‘s lives. This blog post wasn’t about them, it was about Costco.

Generalizing your claim to include, “every company out there” is rash and ignorant. How could you ever back up such a claim? I think scientifically, and in science, you must always have evidence to substantiate your theory or claim.


Audra: EVERYBODY Can get their hands on achohol if they want. The next door neighbor can go to a state run liquor store and pick a bottle of hard liquor and his 10 year old kid can drink some when his parent is NOT looking!

My response: It’s true, Audra, people can get a hold of alcohol if they want it. Are you arguing that we should make it easier, less expensive, and more convenient for people to obtain hard liquor? Because that’s what Costco wanted to do. If you took your own advice and did your research, you would understand that I-1100, had it passed, would have cost lives. By making hard liquor more easily accessible, especially to underage drinkers, i.e. teenagers.

People are opportunistic. If hard liquor is more easily accessible, people are much more likely to purchase, use, and abuse it. But you go right ahead and defend a company that cares more about money and profit than human lives and the further degradation of our society. Keep shopping there. Give them lots of money so they can put millions of more dollars into campaigns so that they will be able to sell hard liquor and make a profit at the expense of people‘s lives.

What does your next-door neighbor’s 10-year-old kid have to do with anything? My essay had nothing to do with bad parenting, or sneaky children.

Audra: IT Doesn;t matter where it is SOLD!!!

My response: Are you serious? In the words of John McEnroe, “you cannot be serious”.  Once again, Audra, you are showing your ignorance. If you had done your research you would understand that it does matter where hard liquor is sold. Read the following from a local news source.

“Initiative 1100 Is a Major Threat to Public Safety that Will Cost Taxpayers Hundreds of Millions

Proposed measure puts our children and communities at risk by eliminating sensible regulations and allowing more than ten-fold increase in outlets selling hard liquor

With the State Auditor estimating that teens’ access to hard alcohol will increase by over 400% if Initiative 1100 passes, a growing coalition of public safety officials and others – calling on voters to “Keep Our Kids Safe” – today denounced Initiative 1100, a proposed statewide measure to privatize liquor sales.

“I see people all the time who come into the Hospital after a car accident caused by alcohol,” said Sharon Ness, a Tacoma-area nurse. “Why on earth would we ever want to sell liquor in the same stores where we sell Cheerios? Allowing hard liquor to be sold in neighborhood convenience stores, gas stations and thousands of other outlets across the state is bad for our health and bad for our kids.”

Currently, there are 340 outlets across the state licensed to sell hard liquor. Since any outlet now selling beer and wine will be allowed to sell hard liquor under I-1100, the number of outlets will skyrocket to more than 3,300 if the initiative passes, as controls over the distribution of liquor are wiped out.

“Making hard alcohol more accessible by selling it in convenience stores is a potential threat to the public’s health and to the safety of our communities,” added Kelly Fox, Olympia Firefighter and President of the Washington State Council of Firefighters, who over his career has been a first responder at the scene of many tragic drunk driving accidents.

According to a recent report from the State Auditor, under its current system Washington maintains a 94% compliance rate with no-sale to minors. However, other states with privatized sales have a compliance rate of 75%, meaning that roughly one out of every four underage kids who walk into a convenience store to buy liquor walk out with a bottle in hand. That represents a 400 percent increase in the rate of non-compliance. In addition to making alcohol more accessible to minors, I-1100 would also harm kids by eliminating hundreds of millions of dollars of state revenue from alcohol sales that is currently used to support public safety, education and children’s health care.”-Kirklandviews.com

Audra, do you honestly think it is no big deal to increase the number of hard liquor retailers from 340 to over 3300? Do you not think that will dramatically increase liquor sales? Therefore increasing the societal woes associated with alcohol consumption. Get real.

I could understand if you said you are still going to do business with Costco for a myriad of reasons, as I said before, you have your agency. But actually defending Costco and their support of initiative 1100 by your erroneous claims that it doesn’t matter where hard liquor is sold, and “everybody can get their hands on alcohol” is unfathomable.

Audra: MY GOODNESS!!! WHAT IS THE BIG FREAKING DEAL????

My response: Is it really necessary to use euphemistic profanity? If you can’t express yourself without using such language, perhaps you should work on expanding your vocabulary. It’s obvious that you have anger issues by your excessive use of capital letters and exclamation points. Perhaps you should see somebody about that.

Do I really need to explain to you why initiative 1100 is bad? Honestly, it doesn’t take an Einstein to figure out the harmful effects of alcohol and why we shouldn’t increase the accessibility tenfold. I especially shouldn’t have to explain it to a member of the church. Is it that difficult to understand the correlation between I-1100 and Costco?

Audra: CAN YOU WRITE SOMETHING PoSITIVE instead of BASHING PEOPLE!!!

My response: Shouldn’t a question end with a question mark, not exclamation points? But I digress.

If you are referring to my claim that Costco should be boycotted because of their involvement with initiative 1100, then you might need to consult a dictionary regarding the definition of bashing. I was merely stating my opinion, and moral objection to a company for spending $4.8 million so they could make more money at the expense of others.

If you are referring to my post entitled, “Halloween and the Sabbath Part Two”. I was merely responding to your sister’s comment to me. Which, by the way, was doctrinally incorrect. If you consider teaching and defending the Gospel of Jesus Christ as bashing, then once again, consult a dictionary... or a psychiatrist.

In actuality, my blog contains predominantly positive writings. If you actually read it, you would see that. Who are you to tell me what to write on my own blog?

Audra: Find something GOOD in the world that is going on! There IS SO MUCH!!!!

My response: Audra, perhaps you should take your own advice. Do you consider this ill written, incoherent, disjointed, baseless comment you sent me to be a good, positive writing? Before you write another ignorant comment, perhaps you should consult my previous post entitled, "Dr. Lou". As I said before, if you don’t like what I say on my blog, then don’t read it. It's quite simple.  And the next time you send me a comment, have enough courage to sign your name to it.

That’s my two cents.