Larry, we actually agree that it's the utter right of the theater owner not to play a movie he doesn't agree with. Now if people want to whine about his decision or the movie distribution companies want to stop doing business with him because they want, in the spirit of free enterprise, to control what products they're putting out in his theater, that's their right too.

The theater owner wasn't forced under gunpoint or governmental action to show the movie right? Seems his rights were completely protected there. All hail free enterprise.

You'd be interested to know that I'm a firm supporter of business owner rights to conduct business as they see fit, to hire and fire people they simply don't like, to refuse to allow workers to unionize. I really believe that most business owner abuses end up hurting them in the end, that a satisfied workforce is generally good for the big picture.

I once argued with Tom Leykis on his talk radio station. Tom, a fellow atheist, had on a business owner from somewhere in the deep South. The owner required his employees to go to daily or weekly prayer meetings. Leykis was furious with the guy and thought that he should be prosecuted. I took a different look at it. First, why in the world would a quality employee put up with that kind of a control-freak boss. More than likely his company would end up with a bunch of worker-bots, morons that refused to be original in thought and action. I said that free enterprise would eventually do in the idiot boss, that progressive companies would love that kind of competition. I certainly would want my competitors to fill their workforce with a bunch of mindless clones.

As for the workers that were objecting to the prayer meetings....duh! Why in the world would you remain working for someone that had no regard for your own beliefs and feelings? Somehow our work ethic has shifted to this ideal that we're all entitled to have whatever employer we end up with treat us exactly as we wish to be treated. Nice wish but hardly real life. Not sure I'd start up my own company these days. If I hired someone that it became apparent was a complete and utter asshole within a few days, it would take months of paperwork and counseling for me to fire his ass to prevent being sued. My workforce could unionize and demand wages and benefits that the marketplace and costs simply would not support. I've seen the strongarm tactics unions can use to force those things on companies that I thought were bending over backwards to be progressive and fair.

Free enterprise is exactly that with all the risks of any other kind of freedom. Well hell, that was a change of topic.