Duck! and Gather

UPDATE: Mackey didn’t create the title for his opinion piece. Instead, the WSJ editors did. But that doesn’t change my position on this one. Lie down with dogs, and you get fleas.

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I was wasting another evening, surfing for sports news, when I stumbled upon a story in the SF Chronicle about the Whole Foods boycott. This story began last week when the CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey, published an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal entitled The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare.

What an unfortunate title! Had the guy simply titled the piece something like “John Mackey’s personal views on health care reform”, then I doubt that any attempted boycott would have gotten traction. I mean, while Mackey’s views on the subject line him up with the ring-wing nut-jobs, the way he expresses these views in this piece does not seem terribly offensive.

But Mackey did choose that unfortunate title. And in doing so, he inextricably linked Whole Foods with Sarah Palin and her ilk.

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