Whatamess

You may recall, some weeks ago on this very blog, I sang the praises of a fast food chain called Whataburger. If your memory doesn't reach back that far, or you are averse to clicking on links because they inevitably land you on a site that will cause your computer to send your entire 401K to an offshore account in the Cayman Islands, I will refresh: I was pleased and happy that the CEO of that Texas-based burger-based food emporium was sticking by its guns metaphorically by not allowing their physical counterpart to be carried in their restaurants. Preston Atkinson introduced his decision thusly:  "We have to think about how open carry impacts our 34,000+ employees and millions of customers," and he went on to explain how open carry customers were making people uncomfortable. He was taking a stand in a time and place that might have proved to be quite unpopular, given the open carry debate that seems to emanate from the Lone Star State. 

Imagine the collective surprise we had when this past week a pair of police officers were denied service at a Lewisville location of Whataburger. Officers Michael Magovern and Cameron Beckham were looking for a late night snack after working security at a construction site. The employee at the counter told them "We don't server police officers." They went to Dairy Queen instead. 

Dairy Queen has had its own brush with the open carry discussion and demonstrations, but they currently seem to consider badged law enforcement with guns in holsters in a different category. For their part, Whataburger was quick to issue a statement condemning the actions of what we can only assume from previous experience with the drive-thru at Arby's was a joke. Not a funny joke, but since humor is subjective, we can only assume that someone out there is getting a big laugh from pushing that whole "we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone" sign to their own extremes. It certainly seems like a bad way to spend that hard-earned Employee of the Month capital. For the time being it would be my suggestion to stay away from the Lewisville Whataburger. Something tells me they might not be getting quite as much police presence.