That Religious Law Business

Let's say that you ran a Jewish bakery and did cakes for customers.  One day....a guy walks in and he wants a Nazi cake....with the expression "Work Makes You Free" on the top (the expression used in death camps).

You politely refuse.  He threatens with a court order, then takes you to court because you refused him as a customer.

Let's say that you ran a simple Amish cake business (note: you are Amish in this scenario, if you were wondering), and a gal comes in who wants a cake made with the comment "Happy Birthday, your loving whore" on top of the cake in icing. Your Amish tradition is such....you refuse to take the order.

You politely refuse.  She threatens with a court order, then he takes you to court because you refused her as a customer.

Let's say that you ran a simple plain bakery and a guy comes in and wants you to make a cake with the expression written in icing on top "F**K Obama".  You think about this for a minute....being a middle-of-the-road guy.....NOT a Republican or Democrat....then say no, you just don't do cakes like that....NOR do you want your reputation to get around that you do sleazy cakes like that.

You politely refuse.  He threatens with a court order, then he takes you to court because you refused him as a customer.

Up in Indiana....folks thought long and hard about where this business of pushing people around in their private business operations and the potential abuse of the court system, then started SB 101...the Religious Freedom Act....which limits what the state and it's judges can do in a case where you turn down a customer.

Fifty years ago....you could refuse anyone.  No shoes....crappy words on a t-shirt.....maggots in the hair....drunk behavior....drugged-up behavior....cursing...etc.  You could make any reason and just say no.....I won't serve you or do business with you.

That worked up until the last decade when people felt you might use sex in some way against someone special.  These days....if you asked for a bondage-like message on a wedding cake, with whips and handcuffs.....some folks might be disturbed about that and want to refuse to make the cake.  Submission of the wife to the husband?  Someone might want a cake with that scenario figured into the situation.

Yeah, we got creative, and 'stupid'.

There are guys who used to come up on a Friday afternoon with their private business and shut down everything at 5PM (two hours ahead of the normal quitting time).....so employees would have a chance to attend a kid's football game that night.  They made decisions on their own "dime".  In today's world.....folks would get all disturbed about some private business owner making his own decision and want to inflict law into the mess.

Today, I read that the Seattle folks and Washington state folks.....got all disturbed about the Indiana law and have banned state travel to Indiana.  Pretty serious.  But then you'd ask this stupid question....in twenty years....what formal meeting or business gathering in Indiana did they ever have or attend?  What.....maybe two meetings in twenty years and maybe a dozen state or city folks attending?

It's a gimmick.  You laugh over the results and figure their best punch.....was a fairly lame punch with no effect.  Indiana folks retaliating and forbidding travel to Seattle and Washington state?  Well....same results.

States act like they are some foreign third-world country....like Peru, and they can make thing happen of great consequence.  Well....no.....it's just not that way.  And all of this over gays?  Would they get tough if Nazis wanted their cakes done in a special way, or anti-American-Indian people wanted their cakes done in a special way?

All of this brings me to this final observation.  Is there anything wrong with folks getting a plain Duncan-Hines cake mix deal....and making a plain old chocolate cake....without anything on top except 'happy birthday' written in icing? A plain four-dollar cake?  Yeah.  All this political chatter....when you really don't need to get hyper about special cakes.  That's it.

Breakfast at McDonalds All Day?

There's a rumor out today of a test going on at one McDonalds in the US (in San Diego as the story goes)....where they intend to take a number of breakfast items on the menu and just keep them up all day long.

Over the past year.....McDonalds has hit some business peak and gone a step backwards.  The CEO was let go a month ago and they are in the mind to take aggressive steps to regain business.  But this gimmick of breakfast all day?

I have had breakfast at both McDonalds and Burger King over the past few years.  To be honest.....it's my absolute last choice.  Other than the sausage biscuit at both.....it's a one-star breakfast in my mind.  There's no real taste and the quality just isn't noticeable.  I might give a thumbs-up on the pancake menu but that's a marginal thumbs-up.

Making a difference? I'm guessing around some retirement communities....there might be some interest in this idea, but I doubt if you'd sell some breakfast item after noon to more than twenty people.

The other day here in Germany.....I walked by a Subway location and they had introduced a breakfast menu.....an odd selection but there were a dozen people standing there....sipping coffee and eating some kind of egg-sausage combo.

Threatening the business angle of Waffle House?  No....it's hard for McDonalds to meet the greasy quality, salty texture, and fatty nature of my favorite breakfast enterprise.  I admit....it doesn't matter....6AM, noon or 6PM.....I'd still order the breakfast menu at Waffle House.  Maybe McDonalds figures you'd eventually get addicted to their gimmick.