The notion that children are psychologically harmed by gay marriage is ridiculous.

Straight parents can fuck a kid up more than they ever could.

heh, the wiki has already been updated.

But, I'd imagine that the uproar matters to him, not one whit. He's a conservative Catholic, in a conservative Catholic country, NOT in the US. Where he may find trouble is in the byzantine laws of the EU... he has plants all over the place there, and maybe this will bit him eventually.

So annoyed as I just bought some today.

He's entitled to his opinion. Buyers are entitled not to buy from him. I feed my kids his Barilla Plus all the time-like most kids they love noodles, and these are marginally healthier than other noodles.

And seriously, this is surprising? He's Italian. They tend to be catholic. The whole "let's ask someone obviously traditional about their personal values and get mad when they state them" thing is getting old.

This is the way it should be; no, I don't mean being against gay familes or such. I mean I would much rather the President, CEO, or whatever voice his REAL opinion so that I know whether or not he is an idiot.

This is one thing that the PC crowd (i.e. the thought police) has done - caused of lot of people to NOT voice their real opinions because they might offend someone.

In one sense, I would much rather deal with the bigots in white sheets than the bigots who are nice to your face; but will stab you in the back in a heart-beat. With the white-sheet idiots I know who I am dealing with - the two-faced bastards, you don't always know until it is too late.

As far as boycotting Barilla pasta - yawn. I don't care.

"I have no respect for adoption by gay families because this concerns a person who is not able to choose," he said.

Like gay people chose to be gay. I get what he's saying. Adopted children don't have the luxury of choosing their parents. (But on the other hand, who does?)

The kids don't get to say, "I think I'd like a nice, traditional family, with a mommy and a daddy with 1.7 kids, and a little dog, and a white picket fence."

So, what should gays do who wish to open their homes to a child who needs one? Should these people curb their parental inclinations because two daddies is just too icky? And the kids who would otherwise be adopted should just suck it up and languish in an orphanage until their eighteen?

Guess it's better than becoming the live-action version of "Heather Has Two Mommies."

Don't we hate carbs on this blog anyway?

"The whole "let's ask someone obviously traditional about their personal values and get mad when they state them" thing is getting old." ~ momof4

"This is one thing that the PC crowd (i.e. the thought police) has done - caused of lot of people to NOT voice their real opinions because they might offend someone." ~ Charles

This kind of "gotcha" journalism is designed to force everyone to go along with PC dogma.

First, go find someone who holds a less-than-PC opinion and then get them to express it publicly - then demonize them and organize a boycott of their enterprise so everyone else knows not to cross the high priests of the new morality.

No quarter is given to anyone who expresses an opinion not directly in line with the PC orthodoxy, no matter how well-reasoned, grounded in religious or philosophical thought, or rooted in tradition.

This is designed to lower the opposition to the implementation of PC policies and to keep the opposition's influential CEOs and business people quiet.

Disagree with affirmative action? You'll keep quiet lest you (and your organization) be accused of racism.

Disagree with gay marriage? You won't express an opinion because you don't want a boycott of your business, or worse, loud protests outside your establishments.

Disagree with anthropogenic global warming? You dare not say a word, lest you be accused of being as evil as a Holocaust denier or a slavery defender.

Don't think your company's advertising needs to display every kind of diversity there might be? That's just silly. Everyone knows you need to have a whole array of commercials with gay families, mixed-race families, soy milk and kale smoothie drinking vegan families, hybrid car driving families, single mom families, recycling families, families where the kids are in charge and the father is a dumbass, any kind of family except a traditional one doing traditional things ... or else.

This way, when the next round of PC laws and regulations are handed down, the now-tame sheep who might have stood in opposition to them will merely skulk into the corner and grumble about someday moving to Belize.

Barilla's remarks were said in a radio interview.

From Reuters:

"In the interview, Barilla said he opposed adoption by gay parents, but was in favour of allowing gay marriage, which is not legal in Italy. His comment about advertising was in response to a direct question about whether he would ever feature a gay family in his company's commercials."

"If gays 'like our pasta and our advertising, they'll eat our pasta, if they don't like it then they will not eat it and they will eat another brand,' he said."

The question never needed to be asked (except to provoke a controversial response).

And Barilla was an idiot to answer it the way he did ... and then to expand on his answer. Unless you really like the taste of your knee, stop when you hit your ankle.

Who cares that Barilla only shows only traditional families in its advertisements? It's a pasta company trading on the image of country living and big family dinners with mom and pop in the warmth of hearth and home. It's pasta. Eat some and shut up about the socio-political ramifications of whether the family in the ad has one or two dads.

I'm all for gay rights, but if you read this guy's entire comment he's not trying to get them banned -- in fact he's even in favor of gay marriage (which is not yet legal in Italy, but probably will be soon, since they now have it in equally-Catholic Spain).

So I'm with Conan. There are better targets for today's Two Minutes of Hate than Barilla.

Mine is the food-nanny-statists. Sorry, clinky.

Conan: And Barilla was an idiot to answer it the way he did...

He should have taken a hint from the late Judy Garland. When she was told that a huge portion of her fans were gay people, she replied, "I couldn't care less. I sing for people."

Barilla might have been better served by simply saying something like, "Do gay people eat pasta?" He could have deflected the question without having to tip his hand.

Moody Judy did her duty by simply saying that she couldn't care less. Despite the fact that her statement won her saint-like status among a lot of her gay fans, she actually didn't say anything with it. Nothing she said suggests that she supported homosexuality, only that she wasn't the least bit bothered that the records she was selling were being purchased by a disproportionate number of gay people.

For all anyone can glean from that statement, she could have hated gays with a murderous passion (not that I believe she did). She's simply saying that she doesn't care who her fans are. They're buying her records. She makes money. What does she care who buys them?

She gives a concert, and people buy tickets. Should she really worry about the demographics of who's buying them in a sold-out performance?

Barilla could have easily avoided sharing his opinion on gay marriage. But at least he's a man of conviction. I have to respect that. He's a damned fool, but I have to respect his willingness to lay it all on the line.

If I was a shareholder, I'd care. He damaged the brand. As a consumer, I like his pasta and am going to continue to buy it. Kudos for not bowing to pressure from the militant fringe, and marketing the way he thinks best. It's pasta, not a lifestyle.

Companies are in business to provide products and services consumers want. If you want politics, you have politicians. Companies should stay out of politics that do not impact their business. Likewise, people with causes should stick to politics.

I don't care about ANY of this. People are gonna do and say what they're gonna do and say, and get vilified anyway. Me, I still watch Blazing Saddles any time it's on TV, except commercial TV, because they censor the n word. On the cable movie channel, it's there in all its glory. Mel Brooks = genius. I'm one of the most "politically incorrect" people you'll ever meet. That said, I have absolutely nothing against gays, blacks, asians, one-eyed-eight-legged-flying-purple-people-eaters or pretty much anyone else except for the islamist fanatics that are hell-bent on killing everyone and everything in sight. Bottom line is, there is always SOMEone SOMEwhere who isn't going to like SOMEthing SOMEone says. But in any case, they just need to get over themselves.

Da Vinci pasta is better anyway.

Flynne, it's official. I'm in love with you.

If people were to be flies on the wall in our home, they'd think my husband and i were the most vile people in the world the way we let it fly. But the reality is, our friends and family say they feel more at home in our house than anywhere else because we don't shy away and act PC. Everyone gets it in equal proportion and we get it as good as we give it. And, we all agree... and asshole is an asshole no matter what race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, species, etc... they are.

This is just another example of that "gotcha" journalim (and I use that word lightly) that pisses me off. Why the fuck do people care so much what a company's "stance" is? Why must they even have a stance? You either like the product or you don't. That's all I need to know. Trust me, if they were dealing in unsavery behaviours, the public would find out and they'd be out of business in no time. But I'm not going to boycott him because he disagrees with me on gay marriage... because THAT'S NONE OF MY BUSINESS. He's Italian Catholic. What did people expect?!

All these people - The gays, the women, the muslims etc etc who want special references to them all the time, how do they think they are going to get it by always demanding something special for them all the time? I mean, do the gays really think that demanding that all brands show gays in their advertising will get them support from the mainstream? I think as long as they stick to their limits and say don't discriminate against me, they will get something, but demanding something special all the time and whining that you are not highlighting me all the time will only cause everyone to go against them.

Me, I still watch Blazing Saddles any time it's on TV, except commercial TV, because they censor the n word. On the cable movie channel, it's there in all its glory. Mel Brooks = genius.

Richard Pryor co-wrote the screenplay for Blazing Saddles. Which helps explain why that movie rose above Brooks' over-reliance on borscht belt humor (along with Young Frankenstein - co-written by Gene Wilder).

Who said anyone demanded special references to them?

If they don't want special references to them, then why are they asking the question of putting them in the ads? It screams of attention seeking behaviour.

Um, Italy is not a "conservative Catholic country." It's a culturally Catholic country, where Catholic moral norms are given at most lip service. I lived in the most conservative and religious part of it 25 years ago, and they were only nominally Catholic then. It was rare to find a 15 year old virgin, and those kids are now 40 and running things.

They are not, however, particularly open-minded about homosexuality. I don't know how "Catholic" this is per se, as it seems to cross a lot of denominational lines in most other countries. I suspect Barilla is merely a product of his time and place and not necessarily a representative Italian or a representative Catholic.