Pretty much situation normal round here…we keep thinking that while we are suffering from a lot of things during the corona like not seeing friends, visiting the Elks, and the like…one thing we aren’t suffering from is having good food. Seems like every meal we pretty much hit it out of the park no matter who’s doing the cooking. Scallops, lamb, crab cakes, steaks, smoked turkey…yeah, we’re really suffering.

Neil ran down to the eye doctor yesterday morning…he’s got an infection in his eyelid so he’s got some antibiotics and some ‘roid drops to put in to ease the swelling and itching. It’s getting better and is pretty minor but I figgered I should update his status since I mentioned it last time.

I’m really disgusted with how people these days seem to think that laws just don’t matter…they’ll sue over them and find a friendly judge to rule in their favor who might be overruled by other courts but in the meantime they get their way. Or we’ll have leaders that issue Executive Orders because it’s just too darned difficult to get Congress or the legislature to actually do their jobs…then depending on your political persuasion either those EOs assume the force of law because they fit your political views or they’re sued over trivia like not getting public comments before the new regulations get published.

Or they loot and burn cities over whatever the injustice of the week is…attacking cops and public buildings and then get all butt-hurt when the cops use force to stop the riot. Many of the injustice of the week things are actually valid…although not always as valid as the rioters claim…and sometimes the cops probably do over react…but then believe it or not when a cop goes to work his primary goal is not to shoot a black guy during his/her tour but to be alive and unharmed at the end of his tour to go home to his/her family.

Anyways…just a few examples from just the past 3 or 4 days in the news…and I’m not even going to include any of the riots.

Now I have a passing familiarity with the Constitution…and it says that states are responsible for the time, place, and manner of holding elections (it specifically talks about Senators, Representatives, and Electors for President but by extension the responsibility goes to all elections) but that Congress may make or alter such regulations.

Let me state up front that there is nothing wrong with voting by absentee ballot…and further there is nothing wrong with voting by mail…assuming the individual state has set their voting rules up this way. It is correct however…that the possibility of voter fraud is higher with voting by mail since most states do not do an adequate job of providing election security. In our opinion…voter ID is a good thing as it ensures that only citizens who are properly registered vote and that they do so only once. We have our Democrats demanding that every vote count and our Republicans who want to ensure that only citizens vote once each…and Democrats stating that voter fraud mostly doesn’t exist. That might even be factually correct…however we should still take precautions to prevent it from happening…just like we take precautions to keep minors from buying alcohol or cigarettes or to ensure that folks with DUI convictions don’t have a valid drivers license…but I’m starting to go down a rathole so back to the point.

States are responsible for voting practices, procedures, and timelines. So down in GA…there’s a law established by the legislature that states that the deadline for receipt of any mailed in ballots is the close of the polls on Election Day. That’s the law…and I’m all in favor of the legislature and governor changing it if they so desire…but it is the law. A group named the New Georgia Project…decided they didn’t like this law so they filed a federal lawsuit demanding that the deadline be extended along with other voting changes including a prepaid postage return envelope, allow third parties to collect and submit ballots, require that invalid ballots be communicated to the voter so that they could fix it even if this was past the deadline, and additional demands. Now it seems to me that…under the Constitution that says the state is responsible for making these determinations that the correct avenue was to have a legislator sympathetic to their cause introduce legislation to change the rules…but nope, they decided to use the federal lawsuit route instead.

Amazingly enough…US District Judge Eleanor Ross actually agreed with them as far as the decline goes but she declined to order most of the changes…instead she merely required that ballots received by 7PM 3 business days later be accepted and not declared invalid as required by state law.

Just who does this judge think she is to substitute her judgement for the requirements in the Constitution? I’m really confused about what authority she thinks she has to over rule the state law on the deadline…she can’t declare the state law unconstitutional since the Constitution leaves the rules completely up to the states…but she decided that this “narrowly tailored remedy” was appropriate because voters “might be disenfranchised if they mailed their ballots too late”. Seems to me that mailing the ballot too late is the voter’s fault and not the state laws fault…but what do I know.

Similarly…down in TX…the state law regarding absentee ballots generally restricts absentee (AKA mail in) ballots to voters over the age of 65, disabled voters, and those that will not be in their county of residence on Election Day. Now one side might not like those rules…but again, under the Constitution the state sets the rules so the rules are what they are and there are legal avenues to getting the rules changed.

However…down in Harris County TX…the election board unilaterally decided to ignore state law and announced that they will be sending a mail in ballot to every registered voter.

Again…who do those people think they are…you don’t just get to decide the law doesn’t apply and ignore it. The state government has sued the county over the plan so I guess we’ll see what happens there as well.

In Atlanta GA; the CDC has issued a “sweeping nationwide ban on evictions due to the corona virus”…that supposedly will reduce the spread of the virus. The problem is…under what legal authority does the CDC which is responsible for disease control have the authority to issue a nationwide ban on evictions…that seems out of the purview of their responsibility. The President did issue an EO back in early August to consider if a temporary halt in evictions would aid in reducing the virus…but considering whether it might help doesn’t seem to give them regulatory authority to issue this order. Again…we’ll have to see what happens here. It might actually be a good idea…but the CDC can only do things they are legally allowed to do and I don’t see how this falls under their bailiwick.

Out in the city of San Francisco…there was a citywide EO in effect that requires that beauty salons, barbershops, and bars remain closed…so that puts a legal requirement that they remain closed…which means no customers allowed. Despite this…Ms. Pelosi decided to have her favorite salon give her a was and blow out earlier this week…and she’s on video in the salon getting her done sans mask…which violates another local guideline that mandates masks in public.

So I ask again…who does she think she is that the law on getting her hair done and wearing a mask doesn’t apply to her? Unfortunately…it’s San Francisco and she’s a liberal from a liberal state so I’m sure that nothing will happen. Her office claims that “she followed the guidelines as given her by the salon”…so essentially she’s blaming the salon and not her willful ignoring of the law.

People need to learn to follow the law…and that they don’t get to unilaterally decide to overrule them…my guess is that the decision in GA will be overturned and the suit against Harris County TX will succeed since the state law is the law…but we’ll see. Ms. Pelosi…she’ll get away with it because she’s important and has to appear on TV. The CDC thing…no idea on that one. The Democrats won’t sue over it since that’s what they want anyway…but whether the CDC can issue such a nationwide order I’m not sure but don’t think so.

One of the websites that Neil checks out frequently is one called digg.com…they aggregate news articles from around the web and are…mostly…not politically biased. One of their ongoing sections aggregates a series of advice/relationship columns…think Ann Landers or Dear Abby and you’ll have the flavor of them. Anyways; from this week’s selections.

• “Am I a jerk for taking a bath in my neighbor’s apartment without his knowledge”…this person has a key to his neighbors apartment that he was given while his neighbor was out of town on holiday. The key was never returned…so when the neighbor with the key had an “important work presentation” and his shower was broken he used the neighbor’s key to enter and use his bathtub. He brought his own shower gel, shampoo, and rubber duck so he thought it was just fine…and so enjoyed the experience (since he had no tub in his apartment) so that he has continued to go twice weekly on Tuesday and Friday to use his neighbor’s bathtub. Unfortunately…the neighbor died and he didn’t know it until the neighbor’s brother came in and found the tub visitor “naked on the toilet”. I guess the brother freaked out so the tub visitor wanted to know if he’s the asshole for doing this. Advice columnist evaluation…Yes, you are.
• A person in some sort of middle management position over an employee he calls John (and John happens to be transgender and was formerly known as Sally…note that we don’t believe there’s such a thing as transgender, you are male or female, determined at birth, and can’t change it…although there are a few genetic mutations that result in ambiguous gender. We don’t care if you want to be a woman and dress in men’s clothes or vice versa…but it’s just dress up, putting on make up or cutting your hair doesn’t change gender.)…wonders about a situation he has. Seems that another employee Lizzy transferred into his department…and discovered that Sally is now John…and she insists on using Sally as the name. John has complained to HR about it…who told him she is not harassing him from being trans so she’s not breaking the rules. Lizzy says that she has no problem with trans people but is “using the name he was given at birth out of respect and honor to his mother”. She’s been asked to use John by both John himself and the supervisor…but refuses. So…John has started calling Lizzy Elizabeth instead of her preferred Lizzy…which she hates. She’s complained to him, the supervisor, and half the office about this…John simply replies that he is “using the name she was given at birth out of respect and honor to her mother”…the supervisor’s question (despite the supervisor thinking the situation is hilarious) is whether he should force John to use Lizzy while accepting that she can use Sally. Advice columnist answer…No.
• And the final one this week…a thirty something straightish (whatever that means) woman who is in an open relationship with a thirty something straight man…an open relationship means that they can date/have sex with others outside other relationship. She further states that both she and the man are in long standing, stable, open marriages…just not to each other. In other words…she and her husband are fooling around with this other woman and her husband with the full knowledge of all 4 of them. Anyway…apparently the other couple is having marriage difficulties…imagine that…and they are undergoing couple’s counseling to determine whether they should stay married and/or cease their open marriage activities. The questioner states that the real problem is that the other wife feels threatened by her…although how she supposedly knows this is not stated. Her question is whether she has a right to demand that she be included in the couples counseling the other couple is having because they will be “talking about her behind her back”. Advice columnist answer…butt out and let them hash out their own marital problems on their own…the fact that you don’t want to “lose the intense relationship she has with the other woman’s husband” is irrelevant.

I had to wonder just what is wrong with these people.

Interesting things found on the net.

Cyas.