The Center of Yum!

There's been much speculation about what the new Louisville downtown arena would be named, and now the wondering is over: Louisville-based Yum! Brands has become the naming sponsor for the building, which is now called - wait for it - the KFC Yum! Center.

Kind of a kooky name - rather unwieldy - but I'm sure we'll all get used to it. I predict people's habits will devolve into simply calling it either the "KFC Center" or the "Yum Center" in the end. We'll see which. (I prefer "Yum Center" myself, and without that pesky exclamation point.)

I haven't heard PETA's reaction to this turn of events yet, but something tells me there'll be no joy at vegan central tonight. I did notice some waggish Cards fan on a message board note, "When PETA throws red paint on us as we enter the KFC Yum! Center it won't matter because we'll already be wearing red!" A-hyuk.


But what I want to know is, will they be giving away free KFC on opening day in November? (Hint, hint, hint.)

The Search for the Colonel's Bronze Head

From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

A bronze bust of Col. Harland Sanders was stolen from the KFC on Chestnut Street in Berea on Jan. 24.

Four young men had been the only customers during the time frame that the bust disappeared. After they left, an employee "discovered that the colonel had left also," said Capt. Ken Clark of the Berea Police Department.

Restaurant manager Cassie Tipton, said the bust was present in the lobby when an employee was cleaning that area Sunday afternoon. She left the lobby and when she came back, the bust, valued at about $1,200, was missing, Tipton said.

The four young men were high school or college age and left in a silver passenger car. Anyone with information should contact Berea police at (859)986-8456.

Gosh, I just can't imagine who would want to steal a bust of Colonel Sanders. If I were the police, I'd make inquiries who might have a motive in wanting to attack KFC in such a petty and childish way, and maybe research whether there are any local members of militant anti-KFC groups out there.

(Especially ones that have recently protested a Colonel Sanders statue in nearby Corbin.)

PETA Coming to Corbin

The Cult of PETA, in their blind zeal to use KFC as a scapegoat for their radical and sociopathic agenda, have done it again.

They had no problem with proposing a "crippled chicken" statue emblazoned with a libelous "KFC Cripples Chickens" motto, but now they're preparing to organize a protest rally over a statue of Harland Sanders in his hometown of Corbin.

Previously, PETA has pulled such morally tasteless stunts as sneaking a fake gravestone into Cave Hill Cemetery near Sanders' grave.

PETA don't seem to understand that all of the things which they wring their hands about regarding KFC's business practices today, even if they were true (which they aren't), have nothing whatsoever to do with Colonel Sanders, who sold the small company in 1964. Though Sanders' likeness is still used to this day as a cartoonish mascot for the brand, this is no reason to cast aspersions on this man's reputation, and to hound him posthumously for alleged events that, even if true, happened long after his watch.

PETA has also blanketly insulted the entire city of Louisville, calling it the "Cruelty Capital" - just because KFC's parent corporation, Yum! Brands, happens to be headquartered here.

PETA's "Crippled Chicken" Statue

Those anti-carnivore extremists PETA - who criticized President Obama for swatting a fly this year - are launching yet another volley in their neverending campaign against the Louisville-based Kentucky Fried Chicken chain. They've applied for a permit to erect a statue of a cartoon chicken covered in blood and walking on crutches, bearing the words "KFC Cripples Chickens".

Read more about it on my Louisville Mojo column!

Kentucky Grilled Chicken targeted by PCRM

A health-extremist organization called Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which has previously targeted McDonald's, Burger King, Chick fil-A, Chili's, Applebee's, Outback Steakhouse, and TGI Friday's over a naturally-occuring substance called PhIP, has now added KFC to its hit list.

What's the fuss about? Well, PCRM is alleging the chain has failed to warn its customers that its grilled chicken contains a carcinogen: PhIP, an amino commonly found in grilled meats of all kinds. That's also including when you grill meat yourself at home, so pretty much everyone on the planet who isn't a vegetarian has ingested plenty of this stuff, by their own hand, in their own home. So why pick on fast food restaurants?

The answer is: because PCRM has a definite anti-meat agenda and probably would like nothing better to see meat-eating abolished in America. Fast food restaurants, often scapegoated, are an easy target to start building towards this goal. Don't take my word for it, peruse PCRM's wacky website and see what you think. Also take a look at their press release about their attack on KFC, and note the overt scare-language like "dangerous carcinogen" (isn't that redundant?).

Appallingly, the press release even admits that only twelve samples of the KFC product were tested, and from only six locations. That doesn't even come close to being statistically significant, and is completely unscientific. For those who wish to obtain more detailed information, you have to do some digging around and find the PDF of their report.

According to consumerfreedom.com, the PCRM is a front group for PETA, which certainly clarifies things. They also quote the American Medical Association giving the PCRM a public ass-kicking back in 2004:

"The general approach used by PCRM takes selective data and quotations, often out of context ... In response to a Resolution passed unanimously at the recent AMA House of Delegates meeting, the American Medical Association calls upon the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine to immediately terminate the inappropriate and unethical tactics your organization uses to manipulate public opinion."

Of course, I can't totally support consumerfreedom.com either - as with most things, the truth lies somewhere in between the two extreme viewpoints. Consumerfreedom.com defends some things I can't get behind at all, like High Fructose Corn Syrup (which I believe is very bad but often consume it anyway) and NutraSweet and Splenda (which I regard as poison and won't touch - EVER). But consumerfreedom.com's position is that even when things are bad for you, the public should still be allowed to consume them if they really, really want to - and I tend to agree.

And according to Activist Cash:

PCRM is a fanatical animal rights group that seeks to remove eggs, milk, meat, and seafood from the American diet, and to eliminate the use of animals in scientific research. Despite its operational and financial ties to other animal activist groups and its close relationship with violent zealots, PCRM has successfully duped the media and much of the general public into believing that its pronouncements about the superiority of vegetarian-only diets represent the opinion of the medical community...

Often appearing in a lab coat, PCRM president Neal Barnard looks the part of a mainstream health expert. He also churns out a steady stream of reliably anti-meat and anti-dairy nutrition research. Although his “results” generally conclude that a vegan diet (practiced by a tiny fraction of Americans) will solve any of dozens of health problems, the mass media eats them up. And PCRM is media-savvy enough to take advantage.

But Barnard was trained as a psychiatrist, not a nutritionist. His nutritional advice boils down to one basic message: don’t eat meat, or anything that comes from animals.

I have no plans to stop eating KFC, nor do I intend to stop grilling at home.

PETA Protests Kentucky Derby with 256 Headstones

Those kooks at PETA were at it again during Derby, erecting 256 headstones at the Kentucky Derby in some sort of misguided protest about the ethical treatment of race horses.

"Bodies may not be buried at Churchill Downs, but with so many horses having drawn their last breath there after having been run to death, it might as well be a cemetery. And for two days it will be, when PETA erects 265 headstones outside the racetrack this week.

Why 265, you ask? We are including 263 headstones to represent the horses who have died on the track since last year's Kentucky Derby and whose names we know, one headstone for the approximately 832 other horses who have died but whose names are not known—because racetracks are so bad at reporting breakdowns and deaths—and one headstone for the approximately 12,000 thoroughbreds who are sent off to slaughter each year."

Donkey Basketball

According to an article in the Lebanon, KY Enterprise, a "Donkey Basketball" event planned for Marion County's Lady Knights basketball team, has been cancelled. Council members expressed second thoughts about the event, based on new concerns that the sport is allegedly cruel to animals.

I'm betting these council members got their information from Wikipedia's page on the subject, which comes up first in a Google search. The page reads from start to finish like a total advertisement for the kooks at PETA and their skewed position, rather than a meaningful and informational article about Donkey Basketball itself.

I can certainly see an incompetently-managed donkeyball game being hard on the animals, but I don't necessarily think we can say all instances of children riding donkeys while attempting to shoot basketballs into hoops is an evil and abusive crime.

Personally, I could care less about basketball; I just think it's a shame the kids didn't get to ride donkeys.

PETA Wants Big Brown Castrated

Those wacky kids at PETA are at it again.

They're calling for Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown to be castrated, against the wishes of the horse's owners, Michael Iavarone and Richard Schiavo, who are preparing to make him a high priced stud sire at Three Chimneys Farm. Their thinking, as far as I can tell, is that any offspring of Big Brown may be more likely to have the same kind of accidental injury as his parent. (If that logic seems fuzzy, remember that PETA is the same organization who handed out leaflets to little children that said "Your Mommy Kills Animals".)

There's been no word as far as I know that Iavarone and Schiavo are taking PETA's protest seriously. Myself, as a card-carrying member of the Kentucky-centric Old Order of Transylvanian Gentlemen, I can't support anyone who calls for the end of racetrack betting, nor anyone who disparages the holy name of Colonel Harlan Sanders.

The USA Today story is here.