LGBT Burger King had a
Queer idea. Burger King, trying to isolate the 1-3% of the
population that is gay in nature has really pissed off a lot of people with
their queer idea and packaging. Burger King, making McDonalds and Wendy's
stronger in the burger wars. The liberal progressive marketing
campaigns have always failed, ask J. C. almost broke and gone Penny. The
Obama, social and culture change doesn't work and Burger King executives have
joined the ranks of Cracker Barrel, J.C. Penney, McDonalds, and others that try
to play the Obama - Clinton - Holder social game. and Chase bank is joining the
progressive crowd in the recognition of the homosexual, the spies best friend,
these days. The ISIS Taliban Al-Qaeda and even the Russians (Putin) use
the homosexual and extortion to enter sensitive areas of government and
business. As Target takes aim at gun owners, no gun policy inside stores,
they too will pay a dollar price for their progressive (french) b.s. attitude
like Starbucks. Americans that strongly believe in the U.S. constitution
will not spend a dime at Burger King, J.C. Penney, Cracker Barrel, Target,
Starbucks and other places that support the gay life, the Obama progressive
agenda and other queer ideas. Some say we should support the LGBT community but
the majority says no to gay marriage, no to gay special interest groups and no
to the DNC that treats the gay's like they do Negro's and Latino's, just voting
blocks, somebody to bribe with public money.
With state-level gay
marriage bans toppling like congregants at a Pentecostal revival, it makes
sense that more and more corporations would be courting the LGBT community. The
most recent corporation to cash in is Burger King, which played it safe with a
local item—called the Proud Whopper—available at only one store on the route of
San Francisco’s Gay Pride Parade.
The Proud Whopper came
packaged rather ostentatiously (what did you expect?) in neon rainbow striped
paper. Other than that, it was the exact same Whopper. As if to transform this
minimal effort into positive marketing, the wrapper had “we are all the same
inside” written on it. See? Because a Proud Whopper is nothing more than a
regular Whopper in a garish costume. And a homosexual is nothing more than a
heterosexual in a rhinestone thong and roller skates … who likes men.
Now, if I were a member
of the homosexual community, this move by Burger King would offend me on many
levels. One one level, it would offend me almost as much as the opportunistic
surge in “faith-based” movie divisions. Does anyone think Starbucks or Nike or
Subaru or Burger King give a flip of the burger about homosexuals? I’ll give
you a hint. They don’t.
They are businesses, and
as such, they want to maximize their profits by gaining loyal customers. They
leverage their ad campaigns for positive exposure while attempting to limit the
backlash from other potential or actual customers. So Subaru knows that they
have the absolute loyalty of the River Arts District in Asheville, most of
whose occupants already sympathize with the LGBT cause. So Subaru keeps driving
that gravy train, knowing that they won’t lose many customers if they tip their
hat to homosexuals (and they might even gain a few more customers as the LGBT
cause gains in popularity). This goes for all businesses.
Chick-fil-A (or “Chick-fil-hate,”
according to the Subaru-driving hipsters of the RAD) knows that it can “take a
stand” against homosexuality and actually increase the loyalty of its core
customers. That’s a business decision. It’s time people realized that—in the
vast majority of cases—politics, ethics, religion, and other purportedly
ideological disciplines have been completely overrun by pragmatic market
concerns. Whether on the right or the left, companies make political statements
for marketing reasons. So let’s not be so quick to condemn or congratulate a
corporate entity for its apparent political positions.
But there’s another
level to the Proud Whopper that should be offensive to homosexuals: what it
says about homosexuality is in direct contrast to what they say about
themselves. If “we are all the same inside,” then the only distinction between
a homosexual and a heterosexual is outward appearances—also known as behavior.
If there is no ontological difference between homosexuals and heterosexuals,
what are homosexuals griping about? Because we don’t let them dress
flamboyantly enough in public? The Proud Whopper actually confirms what
traditionalists have said all along—that homosexuality is a difference in
behavior, not nature.
Burger King’s message to
homosexuals is, “Have it Your Way.” But they can’t have it both ways. Either
diversity is something to be celebrated and we should all be happy for the
differences among us, or else the differences between us are the cause of our
dissension and we need to emphasize how we are all really the same. This is a
crucial issue with the LGBT cause because things like the Gay Pride Parade and
self-imposed earmarks of ostentation indicate that the LGBT community is more
interested in its own exceptionalism than it is in “fitting in” with the rest
of us.
I find that troubling on
many levels. Because while they fight to promote their own exclusive
uniqueness, they are also fighting for mainstream normalcy. This is one reason
why the Proud Whopper may not have the effect Burger King was banking on:
“In the past, most
brands have been outreaching to the LGBT community through the LGBT media and
it was almost a safe way of doing it because the only people seeing it were
LGBT people,” said David Paisley, senior research director at Community
Marketing and Insights, a market research firm focused exclusively on the LGBT
community.
“What we’ve really
learned over the last couple of years is the best way to reach the LGBT
community and impress the LGBT community is through mainstream media outreach,”
Paisley added. “What the LGBT people have been saying is don’t segregate us so
much. We expect to see us in your mainstream advertising, not all the time, but
once in a while.”
“Don’t segregate us.”
But also, “We refuse to be integrated.” And there’s the rub. If LGBTs refuse to
be segregated, but they also refuse to change, what does that mean? It means
that either our culture and civilization must change to accommodate them, or
they must be removed from our culture. There is really no other way around it.
And, given the current trend, it’s looking like American culture will be
rainbow-colored long before we refuse to allow normalcy to be dictated by a
tyrannical minority.
THE HOMOSEXUAL WHO WRECKED
AN EMPIRE
His queer
pleasures drove him to treason—and started a world war!
By STEFAN
v. S. RUBELCU
THE APARTMENT was a decorator’s dream,
luxuriously tricked out with all kinds of feminine frills and heavy with the
sickening sweet odors of perfume and incense. Almost daintily, the figure in
the lush room touched a manicured finger to a baroque wooden floral decoration
on the pearl-inlaid wall panelling. Noiselessly, a door slid open, disclosing a
capacious closet crammed with obviously expensive female apparel.
Racks of
jasmine-scented silken kimonos fought for space with mounds of frilly lingerie.
Other shelves held the sheerest of silk stockings, and there was a large rack
of hand-crafted high heeled shoes occupying the left side of the secret
compartment from floor to ceiling.
Many a
woman would have swooned with delight at just a fraction of this voluptuous
display of dainties. Yet, ironically, this was not the wardrobe of some
courtesan or wealthy beauty.
It was
the boudoir of a man who delighted in dazzling young Army officers and
orderlies—a man whose mission in life was to corrupt them in order to satisfy
his homosexual passions.
This was
the home of Alfred Victor Redl, a man who lived two lives.
Outwardly
he was a virile, much-decorated Colonel on the General Staff of the proudest
army in Europe, chief of his country’s Counter-intelligence Corps, respected
confidant of an Emperor and his heir.
Behind
the scenes he was a purple pansy who delighted in posing for photos in the nude
while engaged in shocking perversions—and one of the most infamous traitors in
history. His betrayal of Austria’s top secret war plans helped to spark World
War I, and brought about the ruin of his country and the downfall of a dynasty
that had ruled for more than 600 years.
Here,
from official records, is one of the most fantastic cloak-and-dagger operations
in history—the story of the homosexual who betrayed an Empire.
Redl was
the son of a poverty-stricken railroad freight clerk at Lemberg (Lwow), then
part of the vast Austro-Hungarian Empire. At the age of 15 he enrolled in a
cadet school and eight years later was commissioned a lieutenant in the
Imperial Army.
A torried
love affair with a circus cutie left him with two unsolicited decorations:
gonorrhea and syphilis. The treatment for VD in those days was rough and
exceedingly painful. For gonorrhea there were burning injections of silver
nitrate and copper sulphate for several weeks, as well as excrutiating probing
with a metal catheter to keep the urinary tract open. For syphilis there were
daily massages with mercury ointment and several years of mercury pills.
Long
after the physical discomforts abated, the psychic scars remained. For the rest
of his life Redl shunned women, found satisfaction only in perverse sex
practices with men.
Ruthlessly
ambitious, he rose rapidly in the army. At 28 he won a coveted appointment to
the War College. Promoted to Captain, he was sent to Russia to serve his
apprenticeship as a spy in the nation regarded as Austria’s most potent foe. On
his return he was assigned to the Intelligence Bureau of the General Staff at
Vienna, where he soon achieved a reputation as a brilliant officer.
Thus at
the age of 36 Captain Redl was a soldier with a bright future—and a dark,
secret present.
There was
a private villa on the outskirts of Vienna where gentlemen of means and exotic
tastes gathered to engage in indescribable orgies with male prostitutes. Redl
often attended these orgies, posed for lewd photographs which he treasured
under lock and key in his desk to refresh his memory between sessions.
Sybaritic
living, expensive gifts to his favorites and occasional blackmail forced him to
live far beyond his means. He was over his head in debt.
He
managed to hide his secret vice from his colleagues and superiors in Vienna—but
it soon became known to a black-bearded, beady-eyed little man in Warsaw, on
the other side of the border. As chief of the Czar’s espionage center, Colonel
Nikolai Stepanowitsch Batjuschin made it his business to keep completely
informed on the private life and personal eccentricities of all members of the
Austro-Hungarian General Staff.
A Russian
agent brought Captain Redl a proposition —and an ultimatum.
Colonel
Batjuschin wanted certain top secret documents from the classified files of the
General Staff. He was willing to pay handsomely for them. If Redl refused to
provide them, convincing proof of his homosexuality would be immediately sent
to the Chief of Staff of the Austro-Hungarian army.
Forced to
choose between treason and certain ruin, Redl chose treason. During the next
ten years he delivered war mobilization plans, reports on the deployment of
armies, blueprints of fortresses and details of new weapons to the Russians. It
was a simple task for an officer in his position to extract classified
documents from the files, photograph them and return them to the files. The
photos, sealed in innocuous envelopes, were mailed to various spy drops in
Paris, Zurich and Norway.
By return
mail Redl received regular remittances of money far exceeding his salary. This
enabled him to live on an even more lavish scale
than ever
before. He took a large new apartment, bought an expensive fire-engine-red
Daimler complete with liveried chauffeur, maintained a stable of high-stepping
horses. To explain his sudden affluence, he invented a legacy from an imaginary
rich uncle.
However,
Redl was intelligent enough to realize that he was living on the brink of a
precipice. The moment his usefulness was over, Colonel Batjuschin would not
hesitate to expose him and turn him over to the tender mercies of a
court-martial. Casting around for a means of averting this fate, he came up
with an interesting thought: Surely the Russian spymaster had some secret
weakness or vice he was hiding from his superiors!
He
assigned agents to investigate Batjuschin. They discovered that the Colonel,
too, was living far beyond his means. He made up the deficit by falsifying his
accounts. Thousands of rubles vouchered as pay for foreign agents actually went
into his own pockets.
Incognito,
Redl arrived in Warsaw for a showdown. He told Batjuschin what he had
discovered, exhibited the proof of wholesale embezzlement his agents had
uncovered. The Russian surrendered.
“I
suppose this puts an end to our convenient arrangement,” he said.
“Not at
all,” Redl quietly replied. “Except that from now on we deal with each other as
equals.”
Patriotism,
honor and loyalty were empty concepts, he declared. Each of the two scoundrels
wanted to enjoy life after his fashion and to advance his career. So a deal
would be mutually profitable. From time to time Batjuschin would send him the
names of Austrians on the payroll of the Russians. In exchange, Redl would
betray to him Russian agents working for the Austrians.
They
shook hands on this new twist in cynical treachery. During the next 12 months
Redl (by means of information supplied by Batjuschin) tracked down and
convicted 12 spies working for the Russians. Among them were a Lieutenant
Colonel, a Major and a Captain in the Austro-Hungarian army, and a
highly-placed employee in the War Ministry at Vienna. His superiors were
astounded; during the previous five years only three Russian spies had been
caught and convicted.
Rapidly
promoted as the result of such achievements within a few years, Redl was a
Lieutenant Colonel, chief of Austrian counter-espionage and deputy chief of
Army Intelligence. He was decorated by the Emperor, accompanied His Majesty on
maneuvers, was acknowledged to be the outstanding expert on espionage in
Europe.
Meanwhile
he had acquired a new lover, a 14-year-old boy whom he presented publicly as
his “nephew.” He put the boy through cadet school, after graduation had him
assigned to the finest cavalry regiment in the Empire, showered him with
expensive gifts—two diamond rings, a string of fine horses, a high-powered
automobile, a fine apartment and a princely allowance which enabled his protege
to live in proper style.
All this
took money. In spite of his increased salary and the regular sums he earned by
betraying Austrian secrets to Batjuschin, Redl once more found himself caught
up in the financial rat-race. He solved that problem by simultaneously selling
classified documents from army files to the Italian and French military
attaches in Vienna.
Early in
1913, while Redl (recently promoted to Colonel) was on special duty at Prague,
disaster struck.
Major Max
Ronge of Austrian Army Intelligence received a communication from his ally and
counterpart in the German Army, Major Walter Nicolai. It forwarded a letter
addressed to “Herr Nikon Nizetas”, care of General Delivery, Vienna. The letter
had remained unclaimed in the Vienna post office for several weeks, then been
returned to the city shown on the postmark, Berlin.
German
censors had opened it It contained 6,000 crowns (about $1,500) in banknotes and
the addresses of two known spy centers, one in Paris and the other in Geneva.
Major
Ronge set a trap at the Vienna post office, but “Herr Nizetas” did not show up.
A month later two more letters addressed to him arrived at General Delivery.
They contained a total of 14,000 crowns (about $3,-500). Ronge replaced the
letters, assigned two detectives to the post office.
Three
weeks later “Herr Nizetas” claimed his mail. The clerk stepped on a buzzer, but
the detectives were slow to respond. By the time they got to the window their
quarry had signed his receipt, picked up his letters and disappeared in a cab.
Luckily they were able to trace the cab to a hotel. And there they learned from
the doorman that the gentleman who had gotten out of the cab was Colonel Alfred
Redl.
The
detectives at once telephoned Major Ronge. He was incredulous. It was
ridiculous to suppose that the distinguished head of Imperial counterespionage
was himself a spy! However he ordered them to keep an eye on Colonel Redl.
Meanwhile he sent an aide to pick up the signed receipts at the post office.
Redl’s well-known handwriting was unmistakable.
Later
that evening, when Redl emerged from the hotel, two detectives followed at a
discreet distance. From constant practice he had eyes in the back of his head
and soon spotted the tail. He realized the game was over; somehow he had given
himself away. Agents would soon be at his apartment in Prague, and it was full
of incriminating evidence. As he walked he removed some papers from his wallet,
tore them up and threw them into the gutter. A detective retrieved them and
took them to Major Ronge. • One was a receipt for a registered letter addressed
to a spy drop in Paris. The other was a money order dispatched to Redl’s
“nephew” at a garrison just outside Vienna.
Shortly
after midnight four officers knocked on the door of Redl’s hotel room. The
Colonel admitted them. “I know why you are here,” he said. “I am guilty. I want
only to judge myself.” On interrogation, he confessed that he had sold war
secrets to Russia and said he had no accomplices. One of the officers put a
pistol on the table and they filed out. Redl picked up the pistol, put the
muzzle in his mouth and pulled the trigger. The suicide of Colonel Redl
“because of mental exhaustion caused by overwork” created a minor sensation.
The General Staff tried to hush the scandal. But when a search of his apartment
turned up shocking proof of homosexuality and espionage the newspapers got hold
of the true story and the fat was in the fire. Public opinion was outraged;
there was an uproar in the Austrian Parliament. Lieutenant Stefan Hromodka,
Redl’s “nephew”, was tried by a military court and found guilty of “unnatural
prostitution.” He was sentenced to three months hard labor and dishonorable
discharge from the army.
A year
later, when the first World War broke out, Austria tasted the bitter fruits of
Redl’s betrayal.
Thanks to
the information he sold, Russia broke the back of the drive into Poland,
captured several fortresses and occupied eastern Hungary. To stave off complete
collapse, Germany had to take over and reorganize the Austrian Army.
By the
time the war ended Austria had suffered the highest casualties (in proportion
to men engaged) of all the armies in the field. Some 90 percent of its
troops—nine out of every ten men—were either killed, captured or wounded.
By terms
of the peace treaty the
great
Austro-Hungarian Empire ceased to exist. Out of its prostrate body was carved
five new nations: Austria, Hungary, Czecho-Slovakia, Poland and Yugoslavia.
All this
was the work of one traitor. Count Sternberg told Parliament: “Redl denounced
each Austrian spy. He delivered our secrets to Russia and hindered our learning
Russian secrets through spies. So in 1914 Austria and Germany remained ignorant
of the existence of 75 Russian divisions, more than the whole Austro-Hungarian
Army. Hence our desire for war and our defeat.
“If we
had seen clearly, our generals would not have driven the high court officials
into war.”
This
homosexual not only betrayed the Empire—he dragged all of Europe into one of
the bloodiest wars in history. • • •
