Cafe told to remove 'God Bless America' banner

Fox News.com ^ | June 30, 2016 | Todd Starnes

[Kaslin]

Whenever folks in Penfield, New York get a hankering for pancakes for lunch – they head over to the 5 Mile Café.

The family-owned restaurant is known in those parts for serving breakfast any time of the day (order their homemade corned beef hash).

They are also known for their patriotism.

“We are very patriotic here at the café – all year round –not just this time of year,” owner Jennifer Aquino told me. “We have American flags and patriotic things around the café.”

So Jennifer decided to ask the town for a permit so she could post a “God Bless America” banner on the front of her restaurant. She wanted to display the banner from Memorial Day through Independence Day.

There was just one significant problem.

[Rufii]

The town limit is three weeks———rules are rules.

But the banner is inside the restaurant. One would think that the ordinance would apply only to outdoor advertising.

[Red Badger]

Instead of posting the banner outside the restaurant, she posted it inside. And that was that – until the Orlando terrorist attack.

[Crusher138]

Because rules always respect rights, and therefore must be accepted without challenge. All hail the rulemakers.

Sometimes you're not the rule maker, just the rule enforcer.

In our HOA, the original documents were written that it takes 80% of the homeowners - at a physical meeting - to change the rules. We have 372 homes in our HOA. It is hard to get more than 12 homeowners to ANY meeting. So we are stuck with the rules as written.

If you, as a city, wish to make an exception to your banner policy for "patriotic" purposes, go for it. Fully expect to have it challenged in court and cost the city thousands of dollars defending it. That cost will likely have to be paid with higher taxes, for which you will be blamed. Isn't this fun?

[tuffydoodle]

If it was a rainbow flag then there would be no problem.

[Rufii]

Had they displayed a banner reading, Allahu Akbar! no one would have bothered them, and they could have kept it up forever.

[bert]

it was not in America, it was in New York

[trisham]

Solution. Paint it on the storefront. Then it isn't a banner.

*********************

That's an excellent idea.

[Talisker]

Penfield has a strict banner allotment policy. Businesses are only allowed to post banners for a total of three weeks out of the year. “At one point we had banners all over the town and the town just looked trashy and our residents said enough’s enough,” town supervisor Tony LaFountain told WHEC.

Yeah, right. Banners made the town look trashy, and residents objected and demanded banner clean up.

Bald-faced lies - get yours today!

Let's see, New Years, Easter, 4th, end/start of school, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Ooooopsy, you're out of "banner time" by the end of the year for Christmas - but don't worry, you can't say that name anyway! Hohoho!

[Sacajaweau]

It’s not about the phrase. It’s about the ordinance.

[WKUHilltopper]

“NY still infested with Tories, I see.”

More like demonic goblins.

[Sacajaweau]

All our towns have a sign ordinance. And you have to the board for approval.

[Mears]

“It’s not about the phrase. It’s about the ordinance.”

-

Correct.

If this was a rainbow flag or a banner with a hammer and sickle we wouldn’t even be discussing it.

.

[beelzepug]

Too many of our “betters” telling the little people what they can and cannot do. Are there no potholes to fill?

[Talisker]

In our HOA, the original documents were written that it takes 80% of the homeowners - at a physical meeting - to change the rules. We have 372 homes in our HOA. It is hard to get more than 12 homeowners to ANY meeting. So we are stuck with the rules as written.

LOL, you're "stuck" with nothing - it's EXACTLY the way you want it. And it's WHY no one shows up - if more showed up, you'd have to change the rules until they stopped.

And of course, being a rules follower, y'all file with the SEC when you invest the reserve funds, and issue annual dividends to the residents, right?

Sure you do! LOL!

[trebb]

Wow, that surprises me.

[I want the USA back]

The headline is a fraud. This should not have been posted.

[fungoking]

All are equal under the law.

Tell that to the Clintons

[Crusher138]

LOL, you're "stuck" with nothing - it's EXACTLY the way you want it.

I joined the board because I thought the rules were stupid and that I could change them. You can get a fine in our neighborhood if you have 6 or more weeds 3" or taller. If your garbage can is visible from the street, you can be fined. Stupid crap like that.

Once on the board I discovered that the board is trapped into enforcing the stupid rules. We tried to have one ruled changed, had a physical meeting, but accepted proxy votes, which is allowed. Got the requisite 80% approval. Went forward with the lawsuit (the vote was to allow the board to sue our previous management company for financial malfeasance) and they countered that our vote to allow us to move forward violated the law (our own rules in this case) because we didn't have 80% of the homeowners PHYSICALLY at the meeting. This crap is STILL being fought in court.

No, this is not the way I want it.

BTW, our members each got a $90 dividend check last year.

Stuff it.

[Doogle]

Put it up for 20 days...take it down for one...put back up for another 20

Ta-dah

[connyankee]

NEVER. TAKE. IT. DOWN.
AGAINST THE LAW TO ASK.