HAPPY BIRTHDAY SALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Know Your Medal of Honor Recipients:

Private Thomas Sletteland (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on April 12, 1899, near Paete, Luzon, Philippine Islands. His citation reads:

Single-handed and alone defended his dead and wounded comrades against a greatly superior force of the enemy.

Private Andrew J. Sloan (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on December 16, 1864, at Nashville, Tennessee. His citation reads:

Captured flag of 1st Louisiana Battery (C.S.A.).

Specialist Fourth Class Donald P. Sloat (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on January 17, 1970, at Hawk Hill Fire Base, Quang Tin, Republic of Vietnam. His citation reads:

On the morning of Jan. 17, 1970, Sloat's squad was conducting a patrol, serving as a blocking element in support of tanks and armored personnel carriers from F Troop in the Que Son valley. As the squad moved through dense up a small hill in file formation, the lead Soldier tripped a wire attached to a hand grenade booby-trap, set up by enemy forces. When the grenade rolled down the hill toward Sloat, he had a choice. He could hit the ground and seek cover, or pick up the grenade and throw it away from his fellow Soldiers. After initially attempting to throw the grenade, Sloat realized that detonation was imminent, and that two or three men near him would be killed or seriously injured if he couldn't shield them from the blast. In an instant, Sloat chose to draw the grenade to his body, shielding his squad members from the blast, and saving their lives. Sloat's actions define the ultimate sacrifice of laying down his own life in order to save the lives of his comrades. Specialist Four Donald P. Sloat's extraordinary heroism and selflessness are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service, and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.


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I would like to wish my Labor Day Cousin Sally a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!! I hope she has a GREAT day! What better way for all of you to wish Sally a “Happy Birthday” than to donate to my Walk to End Alzheimer’s?! Sounds like a plan to me!


So a week or so ago (I think) there was a big to-do over a law in Indiana that seemed to upset a lot of people. Before I talk about this, I should probably tell you that I haven’t actually read the law… Honestly, if you want me to start doing research before I give you my opinion then I want you to start paying me for my opinion. Since my opinion (so far) is given for free, I won’t take the time to read before I “speak”. Really, I doubt my approach is all that different from people on the various news outlets.

Anyway, it would seem (from what my friends at MSNBC told me) Indiana passed a law telling businesses to discriminate against gays. Some of the people said that the law just gave businesses the right to discriminate… but I’m pretty sure the overall assumption was that if those evil businesses had the right to do it, then of course they would do it. I’m going to let you in on a dark little secret of mine… I’m all for letting private businesses discriminate based on just about anything (age, race, sex, who you like to have sex with). Some people will say this is because my… demographic, if you will (fat white guy) isn’t usually on the “no shop list”. Believe it or not, though, I have been discriminated against before… I think… maybe… ok, not really, but it was close. I went to a fundraiser in Orangeburg, SC for Alzheimer’s research (an event I attended for 6 or 7 years… this was probably the 3rd or 4th year at the time). Let’s just say… it was easy to spot me at these events (I’ll spell it out for you, Teresa Lynn… I was usually the only, or one of the only, white person there). Anyway, like I said, this was about the 3rd or 4th year I had attended and I walked up to the door with my then boss and her boyfriend (both also white). We go to the door and the young lady taking tickets looked at us and said, “You’re at the wrong place”. Now there was a party around the corner with people who mostly looked like us so I’m sure she thought we were looking for that party… but we’d just given her our tickets. I politely explained that, nope, we were here for this fundraiser/party and I pointed out that we had tickets. She then asked who sold us our tickets (I think she was just in shock to see white people… but, then again, this wasn’t my first time there so you’d think she would have remembered me). Funny thing here is that I had sold us our tickets. Kind of, at least. I had a contact with the family who put on the fundraiser and she had sent me tickets to sell (if I could). I got the doctor I was working for at the time to buy a table and here we were. So I told her that and told her where we were from and then name-dropped a bunch of people and she let us in. I admit, it wasn’t all that bad. It’s not like we walked up and she yelled “Go away honkey!” (though that would have made for a much better story). Still, it’s the best I’ve got (that I can remember, at least). But back to my secret, I really felt this way back when I managed a Red Wing Shoe Store. It was a smallish store (me and sometimes one or two other employees… sometimes I was the only employee) that didn’t always have “busy” days. I had a spreadsheet where I would keep track of the number of shoes we sold each day. Early on, there were days when we wouldn’t sell any shoes. Heck, there were days when we wouldn’t even have a customer walk into the store! It was on those days when I would sit there and wish that, 1 – discrimination was legal and 2 – my competition would discriminate against minorities. Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand why people don’t want stuff like that to be legal. I guess I just have more faith in the market than others. I admit the market didn’t always work back in the day for black people (something I’ve never figured out), but I don’t see that happening these days. Money talks… and the way I see it, a business has to REALLY feel strong about something to not want to take your money. And if they really feel that strong, then do you really want to give them your money?

Like I said, I get why people don’t want legal discrimination… but what about the case that probably played a part in Indiana passing this law? The photographer who was sued because she didn’t want to take pictures at a same-sex wedding… why can’t her punishment be not getting that business. Heck, tell your friends and maybe they (even the straight ones) won’t use her either. Don’t be a little bitch and sue. Is she the only photographer in the area? (If so, I’ll withdraw my “bitch” comment). For all I know, the same-sex couple knew her feelings before-hand but still tried to hire her just so they could then sue her. I’m pretty sure there are some non-discrimination laws for hiring that don’t apply to businesses with fewer than X number of employees (like maybe 4 or 5… maybe more). Maybe (very) small businesses like that should also be allowed to pick and choose who they do business with? How many would actually turn business away? How many other small businesses would quickly pop up to grab a piece of the market that the other business was turning away? Just some food for thought…