I Reserve the Right to Refuse Service to Masked Customers
I am sure there are better places to eat in northern Texas where the restaurant owners understand why people would want to wear a mask.
Natalie Wester and her husband, Jose, went to hang out in North Dallas suburban sports bar with some friends on September 11 – LOVE BY LIFE
“He (owner) added that his restaurant (pictured) is a private business and has (he) the right to refuse service to customers wearing a mask.”
He said: “I’ve spent my money on business, my blood, sweat and tears in this business, and I don’t want masks here. The overall response to masks in the United States is ridiculous right now.”
Not sure why they did not leave the bar anyway after hearing the noise in the bar and the crowd. However, this is not really the issue though, now is it? Sound familiar?
“I reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.”
(whispering . . . “especially if you are black, gay, foreign, etc.).”
Some detail on the wearing of masks.
The 6 things doctors wish patients knew about masks | American Medical Association (ama-assn.org)
Unmasking the surgeons: the evidence base behind the use of facemasks in surgery (nih.gov)
The business owner got one thing right, the uproar to the wearing of masks is ridiculous on the part of those who refuse to wear them.
I’ve spent my money on my life, my blood, sweat and tears in my life, and I don’t want maskless here. The overall response of anti-masks in the United States is ridiculous right now. Seriously, is this the only sports bar in North Dallas? Take your money elsewhere and tell all your friends to do the same. Post warnings on social media.
Yes, this bar owner is recklessly endangering others who don’t patronize the bar when his customers infect others, and each infection has the potential to produce the next COVID-19 variant. So he is a public health menace.
Much like the parents that refuse to have their children vaccinated for HPV in the belief that such protection would encourage adolescent sex have long been a pubic health menace. I have no insight into the applicable neurotic fear attached to mask wearing though. Oddly enough, here in VA wearing masks in public was illegal until temporarily rescinded to combat the pandemic. We have no Fat Tuesday carnival here, so the Frito bandito was not allowed to mask.
Joel:
When I traveled Asia for weeks at a time, it was common practice for people to where face masks. Much of it was due to air quality. In the morning the air was acrid outside in China cities. I was in Shanghai on the worse air quality day ever.
If it wasn’t facemasks with the owner, it would be something else. The underlying current here is he has some prejudices.
@run,
But if you don’t wear a face mask in Shanghai, the only person affected by that decision is you. If you don’t wear a face mask in the time of plague, you endanger others. There’s a huge amount of daylight between these two decisions.
well, if not wearing a mask is so dangerous to others, why are these masked people so hot to get into a crowded restaurant where no one is wearing a mask.
except them.
except when they are eating?
Coberly,
Some people are so bored with their own home life that they need to get out and socialize to break the monotony of their existence. Those engaged in a constant struggle for life or those engaged in warfare learn an appreciation for boredom that most Americans lack in life, but some have the good fortune to acquire in their final moments leading up to their death.
I take irony supplements every day.
so bored they need plastic toys, fast car fantasies, and artificial sex. i think life is just not hard enough for them, except for their boring job. although one of the torments of poverty is not having anything to do, or any way to do it, or time away from a grinding job to do it.
there must be a happy land between mind numbing poverty and mind numbing “wealth.”
i’d guess that “The Great Gatsby” is a fair picture of mind numbing wealth. Many other pictures of it from 19th century literature. Thing is, we have reached an era where even ordinary people have more material wealth than the wealthy of the last last century….except for the freedom from mind numbing jobs.
Just to be clear, I wear a mask. I also don’t go to restaurants.
Further, I agree that the anti maskers are insane…far worse than the anti-vaxxers, who have a remote but colorable fear of the vaccine.
But there is a difference between refusing service to blacks, and refusing service to mask wearers. It is easy to say,”Okay, we’ll go somewhere else.” Or even smarter to say, “you are right, we shouldn’t be going “out” at all under present conditions. [or, in another context, “okay it’s easy enough to find a gay caterer.”] In a coummunity where oppression of black people was not sytematic and crippling, I would like to be able to say… “okay, we’ll go to the black restaurant downtown. Food is better there anyway.” but that was not the situation in American then, and might not be the situation today without Federal enforcement of anti racism laws.
If you are going to demand “consistency,” demand it about important things.
Re Joel: yes, it is at least arguable that by not requiring masks the proprieter was facilitating the spread of the virus, and that might justify a Federal law requiring all places of public accommodation, including churches, to require masks, or even vaccination. That is not the same issue being discussed here… no reason not to discuss your issue here, in fact I encourage it. But good to try to be aware of the difference.
“that might justify a Federal law requiring all places of public accommodation, including churches, to require masks, or even vaccination. That is not the same issue being discussed here”
LOL! Please point out where I, or anyone on this thread, posted anything about Federal laws. Take all the time you need.
Coberly,
You said ” I would like to be able to say… ‘okay, we’ll go to the black restaurant downtown. Food is better there anyway.” That is completely correct to say here in the Richmond, VA metro area and most of the SE US. Along the Gulf Coast (a.k.a., Golf Coast) then there are some great restaurants run by folk that are white-ish’ i.e., Cajun and Creole. North of here then one should eat at home unless they want just a pizza.
again, I think this is information if i ever want to go out to eat in Richmond. Just took a chance of being misunderstood re the apparent similarity between saying “eat somewhere else” to a masked person and to a black person .
did have some nervous fun once when young going to a real chinese restaurant with a chinese-russian friend (who did not look chinese).
the restaurant did not throw us out, but they didn’t look happy about us being there.
coberly:
I have to approve new people and by you changing your name, I have to do such or leave you in the “trash.”
Run
I don’t know where “did” came from. See my reply to you below (in a separate comment).
But let me say here that I believe the black..and white…people who put their lives on the line for blacks to be treated like human beings back in the fifties and sixties are heroes. I hate tohave to say that because it sounds like something a politician would say with such a complete lack of sincerity that you want to slap him upside the head and say, “now say it like you mean it.”
but the professional victims nowadays who complain about trvial or imaginary instances of “disrespect” or “racism” leave me as cold as the current outbreak of white people demanding their “freedom” , I’m pretty close to punching out the next person who coughs on me in the grocery store, but what would that accomplish?
Coberly,
I got your original point loud and clear, but it made me think about Richmond and how it has changed since I first moved here. White flight has made Richmond a better place to live socially despite the loss in city funding for cops and schools. When out to dinner last Saturday evening with my wife’s sister and her husband after a couple of beers I commented on how boring most of the restaurants in Richmond were aside from the soul food. My wife’s kinfolk think Ruth’s Chris Steak House is a great place to eat, so indirectly I was commenting on their own lack of taste.
Also, we rarely dine out (even before the pandemic) other than when commanded to do so by my wife to socialize with her family. Since I do all of the grocery shopping and all of the cooking at our house, then my wife does not mind.
I have been to a few rare restaurants in my life where the food was memorable. not worth going out otherwise..but not really a good idea to keep going to the same great restaurant or keep looking for the next.
on the other hand if you get tired of your own cooking, or just tired of cooking, an ordinary restaurant can be a luxury.
had some problems being sneered at for my lack of taste so I try to remember that “taste” is a matter of taste.
These morons all think they are “special” and therefore entitled to act out like the sociopathic assholes they are. They have always been around; the difference is that Trump and the current Republican party including its propaganda arm are telling them that their conduct is okay even laudable. Not surprised that it occurred in Texas–my other guess would have been Florida.
Mask wearing or no mask wearing, these parents need counseling. No purpose in taking you 4 month old immunocompromised child into a restaurant. Yes, the restaurant people are ignorant, but they need to work on their parenting skills.
EM:
At first, I thought what you thought. The twitter person’s dialogue led me to believe such. I read a different article which said they left the baby with a sitter. Otherwise, I agree with your “not taking a baby into a super noisy bar.” I fixed a link which will detail the story better.
My point mostly is finding the same attitude amongst those who own some piece of whatever demanding sovereign rights once you enter their domain. If you do not want to allow masks, ties, caps, shoes, undies, etc.; post it outside before entry.
Given, we have a pandemic going on and this owner has a bug up his a** about masks, I would review his establishment on google and mention the attitude displayed. Forewarned either in print or at the door of entry is far better. My Vulcan mind-meld sometimes fails me and I cannot tell what the person opposite of me is thinking.
Thanks. I retract my statement. I thought the child was with them.
EM, even if they didn’t take the kid with them, they brought back anything they might have picked up to him. Vaccination does not mean you cannot catch it. It never did, and delta makes it much more likely. For parents who know their child has immune issues, going out into that environment was a little foolish, even with masks.
True on getting Covid and the child
Agreed. It’s not as bad, but it is not good.
Jane:
This is a good explanation of how the Covid vaccination works and its limitations. Back when I started to research this and how the Covid virus attaches to the ACE2 receptors innumerable times from replication, and the body over reacts to the attack. Its off of MedPage and expands and maybe even corrects what I have just said too. We Can All Benefit From Helping Patients Understand Breakthrough COVID
joel
you may not realize that “take all the time you need” is an insult.
you also may not realize that “find where I said” does not resolve the issue of what you implied, and have said in other threads. not does it consider that in a blog i may have been addressing the audience.
you have expressed contempt toward me in other threads over a long period of time. when i respond, either in kind, or just in exasperation, you always hold up your injured paw, which i suppose is your way of addressing the audience.
EMichael
here I was about to celebrate the fact that you agree with me. then you retract it. i agree with Jane.
@Dale,
When you lie repeatedly about me, which you have done, you earn my contempt. Here, you hold up your injured paw, which I suppose is your way of addressing the audience.
Actually, I don’t know if your false statements about me are lies or merely signs of dementia.
I regret having responded to your post on this thread. I should have ignored it. I’ll return to ignoring your posts, starting now.
terry,
hard at first to know which morons you were referring to. morons don’t need to think they are special. and they are likely to think you are the one who is sociopathic since they have so many friends who agree with them…and you think you are so special you can just walk in and spoil their party.
i can’t eat with a mask on anyway.
though i really hate to appear to agree with joel, i thought i was agreeing with him that a federal law prohibiting being unmasked in a crowded room would be justified, he changed his mind…perhaps, preferring to insult me than admit i was agreeing with him, he denied ever saying any such thing…
so if you, terry, will allow me to think of the masked ones as …well, your words… i will agree with you about the unmasked ones. except of course that “sociopathic” does not mean exactly what you seem to think it means.
Coberly, First I think you are a smart guy even when I disagree which is not that often. I was referring to the bar owner and my understanding of sociopathic is not caring about others—not just low empathy, but the total lack of it. Some have argued that super successful capitalists are necessarily sociopaths. I am not a super successful capitalist so I do not know but I guess I think/ hope sociopaths are not very successful human beings. I have dealt with guys—I assume it is a guy and white my biases are showing—all my life from bullies in school to adversaries in the courtroom and now get to deal with them on a volunteer board and with my grandkids school boards. I am sick of these losers and like you I would like to go to restaurants again. Although I did not serve in the military, my friends and family have, I have always paid my taxes and despite protesting various government policies, I have always wanted my country to succeed and the sociopathic assholes who do not should be drawn and quartered IMHO. Maybe the parents do not deserve praise but the bar owner deserves condemnation, again IMHO.
Terry
I guess I should be more careful. I don’t want to disagree with someone who agrees with me mostly. [but i don’t pretend to be smart. just sometimes a little more careful than other times.]
i was reacting to the vitriol, and to the general feeling i get around here that it is okay to feel vitriol and perhaps to act on it. like you and everyone else I feel vitriol, but i have found in my life that it always bacfires one way or another.
and i was trying to out that the people you were talking about would not think they were being anti social, but that the masked family were.
and here I tend to agree with them…not about the masks, i agree with you entirely about that. but the masked people were pusing there way into a place where they were not wanted and feeling like the victims because they were not wanted. i think they went looking for exactly what they got.
as for sociopath.. i think the word applies more to the sneaky person who cheats you or takes advantage of you in some way and feels no remorse, if not pleased with himself for putting one over on you. people who don’t give a damn about traffic laws, or butting in line…may be sociopaths, but the fact that their’s is public behavior and they are not personally, as far as i know, enjoying hurting you while pretending to be your friend, makes me think they are something else. normal human aggression not tamed by fear of authorities or a grown up sense of responsibility for others….i don’t know. other people might see this as sociopathic..i don’t know what the psychologists would call it.
the people in the bar were not quite any of these things. they did not believe the masks prevented disease. they believed the masks are some insidious assault on their personal freedom. more like your average 30’s german being part of a group madness… the sociopaths there were the Leaders and SS… but again, I don’t insist i have the right words. just looking at apparent differences.
i do get very angry at people like the bar folk, but i also get tired-angry at the victimization seekers. there are many, many people like both groups, but i think the true sociopaths are their leaders and bosses and yes, probably the very rich…. true sociopaths are more successful than you might think.
oh, can’t leave without making some people hate me: one way of “not caring about others” is to think you are “right” or “smarter than they are” and therefore you are justified in doing anything you want to them…in the name of race purity or public health or safety from witches…it’s all the same in every time and clime, just the names have changed…so ordinary people can hurt people who can’t fight back and still feel good about themselves.
i hopw this helps as between us at least a little.
Coberly,
There are far more thoughtless assholes in the world than there are sociopaths. Simply an apparent lack of empathy for the other or the lesser is not at all the same thing. That sort of thing is addressed in variations of behavior within the context of transactional analysis roles (e.g., frustrated child) or social pecking order. Sociopaths can be subtle and deceitful, but their behavior and social role is fixed. They are predators.
typo:
“pushing their way in” not “pusing there”
Terry
here is a website that outlines diagnosis of sociopath
Sociopath: Definition, vs. Psychopath, Test, Traits … – Healthline
well, it didn’t come out right, but you can find it from here if you are interested.
we could talk about it without getting angry. may not be worth the time.
i just note that the bar owner was not thinking he was hurting anyone. maybe just the opposite. of course, a sociopath might think just that… self deception is not unknown in sociopaths. but in general we see a lot of behavior that “doesn’t care about others.” since a lot of this is “socially detemined” behavior (mob psychology) I don’t think the word applies to the bar owner. is does apply to the Trumps.. all of them… and to the politicians and other liars who foment this.
and you’ll never get rid of them by yelling at them. you can’t even warn your friends about them. you can, but they won’t listen.
https://www.healthline.com › health › mental-health › s…
https://www.healthline.com › health › mental-health › s…
Cob,
Oh, I replied above before I saw this where you obviously looked into it yourself.
Ron,
I regard everything you say as information from a reliable source.
I can be wrong, and don’t mind being corrected…though I may not agree with the correction. Here I don’t think you were correcting me as much as giving me information to fill in the picture. Yes sociopaths are predators. Some not nice people are also predators, but not necsarily sociopaths. There was a time when it seemed to me that every lady who went to a psychologist was told her husband was a narcissist. Helps to establish rapport with the client, i guess.
Cob,
Great. That “every lady who went to a psychologist was told her husband was a narcissist” gave me a big grin. The biggest problem with psychology has always been psychologists. Something about getting paid for it replaces the science with various self-serving motives; they will take either money or sex in payment for their breach of trust. Of course, it is not all of them, but just way too many of them.
Joel,
in effect you have always ignored my posts. You react to what you think I said, not to what I said. I have never lied about you or to you. What would be the point? I don’t know or say anything about you outside of what you post here. Anyone can check to see if I am lying about that.
I do disagree with you. And sometimes I paraphrase what you say to make what it means, not to you, but in effect…. what it’s effect would be in the world. People can check that themselves. too.
Joel
you might look back and try to see where I said that you or anybody else on this thread posted anything about Federal laws.
No, I am the one who said somthing about Federal laws. I said that I thought the probable spread of the virus from unmasked gatherings might justify a Federal mask mandate.
I thought you would agree with that. But you chose to believe that I must be lying about you.
Texas is a freedom to infect state. In a civilized polity, running an infection hot spot would be illegal and the operator subject to fines and other penalties. If nothing else, the place would be closed, but in some places, one’s right to punch someone else in the nose is more important than one’s right not to get punched in the nose. (A lot of freedoms are like this: freedom to enslave, freedom to kill, freedom to kick off buses, …)
Kaleberg
Right. and so obvious it makes you wonder if something else might be going on.
Run
thank you for not leaving me in the trash.
when did i change my name?
i wrote to AB the other day from a different computer before i realized that might be a problem for AB.
but I never heard of “did” before it appeared in front of the comment marked “waiting for moderation. any idea where it came from? certainly not me. wouldn’t even know how to do it, or how one of my typos could have done it.
Ron,
yes. but remember that a lot of these are lady psychologists. they aren’t in it for the sex, I think, but for the gender.