The best argument I have ever heard against Executive Orders on Covid Response

From a judge in an Illinois court:

“Before I rule, I’m advising everybody in this room, no public outbursts or displays. The court is still in session until you are told otherwise. Since the inception of this insanity, the following regulations, rules or consequences have occurred: I won’t get COVID if I get an abortion but I will get COVID if I get a colonoscopy. Selling pot is essential but selling goods and services at a family- owned business is not. Pot wasn’t even legal and pot dispensaries didn’t even exist in this state until five months ago and, in that five months, they have become essential but a family-owned business in existence for five generations is not.

A family of six can pile in their car and drive to Carlyle Lake without contracting COVID but, if they all get in the same boat, they will. We are told that kids rarely contract the virus and sunlight kills it, but summer youth programs, sports programs are cancelled. Four people can drive to the golf course and not get COVID but, if they play in a foursome, they will. If I go to Walmart, I won’t get COVID but, if I go to church, I will. Murderers are released from custody while small business owners are threatened with arrest if they have the audacity to attempt to feed their families.

These are just a few of examples of rules, regulations and consequences that are arbitrary, capricious, and completely devoid of anything even remotely approaching common sense.

State’s attorneys in this state, county sheriffs, mayors, city councils and county boards have openly and publicly defied these orders followed by threats to withhold funding and revocation of necessary licenses and certifications unless you obey.

Our economy is shut down because of a flu virus with a 98 percent plus survival rate. Doctors and experts say different things weekly. The defendant cites models in his opposition. The only thing experts will agree on is that all models are wrong and some are useful. The Centers for Disease Control now says the virus is not easily spread on surfaces.

The defendant in this case orders you to stay home and pronounces that, if you leave the state, you are putting people in danger, but his family members traveled to Florida and Wisconsin because he deems such travel essential. One initial rationale why the rules don’t apply to him is that his family farm had animals that needed fed. Try selling that argument to farmers who have had to slaughter their herds because of disruption in the supply chain.

When laws do not apply to those who make them, people are not being governed, they are being ruled. Make no mistake, these executive orders are not laws. They are royal decrees. Illinois citizens are not being governed, they are being ruled. The last time I checked Illinois citizens are also Americans and Americans don’t get ruled. The last time a monarch tried to rule Americans, a shot was fired that was heard around the world. That day led to the birth of a nation consensually governed based upon a document which ensures that on this day in this, any American courtroom tyrannical despotism will always lose and liberty, freedom and the constitution will always win.”

I especially like the bolded phrases above.  King Inslee of WA, read this and understand!

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #98-Delicate Colors

Others have mentioned that life is fragile.  This blogger begs to differ.  On our Planet Earth, not only is Life not fragile, there is no niche anywhere on Earth that is not occupied by some form of Life.  Living things have been found from the deepest deep-sea trenches under the oceans, to the volcanic craters of active volcanoes both below the seas and on islands in Hawaii and Indonesia; to the hot springs of Yellowstone, to the highest peaks of the Himalayas, to the deserts of Africa and Central Asia.

I live in the Pacific Northwest, surrounded by temperate Rain Forests.  In places like these, Life is so profuse, layers upon layers have their own kinds of living things.

NurseLog

This is a “nurse log” at the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge on the Olympic Peninsula.  The logs all have mosses growing on them.  You can see the big hole in the fallen log-inside that hole are insects.  Insects also populate the moss on the logs.  You can see other plants growing out of that log.  It’s quite remarkable how many layers of Life there are in, on, and around that fallen log.  Eventually, big trees will grow on top of that fallen log, and the insects and bacteria will consume it.  Many of these logs are found to have holes in them, made by woodpeckers hunting for the insects that live there.

Down on the beach below, even the rocks have their beautiful color variations.

Rocks

And the various grasses.  These are very hardy grasses, growing in a sometimes-harsh environment of salt water and nearly-constant wind.

beach grasses

And sometimes, in the midst of these delicate colors, something very bright stands out.

OrangeFlowers

Welcome to Life on Earth.  How fortunate we are to live on this beautiful planet, with living things all around us.

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Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #97 – Pastimes

One of my favorite things to do when I’m out and about is bird-watching.  I have a 1960s Roger Tory Peterson Field Guide to Western Birds, and I keep a “life list” in the back, checking off the birds I have seen.  I especially like traveling, and seeing birds that we don’t have here on the West Coast.  We’ve been to Alaska and Hawaii, and the East Coast of the US.  We also took a trip to Israel in 2007, and I made sure to buy a bird book so I could identify unusual birds that I saw.  But, to start with, we get some pretty interesting birds right here in our back yard in Everett, Washington.

WinterWarbler

This little bandit is a Townsend’s Warbler, and he comes by most winters, to eat at our suet feeder.

IMG_0097

This is a Varied Thrush, basically a Robin in different clothing.  That’s an insect in his beak-they are carnivores (remember the Robin and his worm?).

sparrow facing

A bit farther from home, I caught this White-crowned Sparrow at the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge on the Olympic Peninsula last year.  He sat very still for me to take his picture.

PelicansInFormation

I saw this flotilla of Pelicans off the deck of the Crystal Symphony in San Francisco before our cruise to Hawaii in 2018.  A perfect “V”.

Brazilian Cardinal

Then, when we got to Hawaii, I found this Brazilian Cardinal on the grass at Pearl Harbor.  That red cockade really attracts attention.

Egrets

Back in Honolulu, I captured this pretty pair of Egrets.

Masked Booby

This is, I think, my best “catch” on that trip to Hawaii.  On the way home, I saw this Masked Booby flying off the side of the ship, hunting for fish.  This bird is rarely found on land, and it’s a real treat to see one at sea.

BaldEagle-Juneau

And last, but definitely not least, in Juneau, Alaska in 2016, I caught this Bald Eagle, master of all he surveyed.  Actually, Bald Eagles are quite plentiful here in the Pacific Northwest, and we see them cruising over Silver Lake by our house.

Bird-watching is a valuable pastime, something you can do any time, just about anywhere.

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Voices from the Lockdown

Voices from the Lockdown

In my travels through the Wall Street Journal last week, I heard the following voices, calling out of the Wilderness that is “Coronavirus Lockdown”, variously enforced in most of the United States, by Governors and Mayors who don’t like the US Constitution very much.  They issue various decrees upon their Subjects, forcing them to stay in their homes, give up their livelihoods, and shut their small businesses.  Here is what the people say:

The virus is especially lethal to the elderly.  I can say, because I am 73 years old, that I don’t give a darn.  Mr. M.A.S. in Maine

 

I concurred almost entirely with your editorial until I got to the closing comment: “isolate society’s most vulnerable”.  Almost to the biblical four score, I recognize I am in that category.  However, my wife and I still drive our own cars (or did until the “stay at home” order), have many organizations in which we are active, enjoy going to our children/grandchildren’s home (local and out of state), look forward to gathering with friends, and are engaged in our church.  Thank you, but while I will be prudent, I am not ready to be involuntarily “isolated”.  Mr. J.A.B.C. in Virginia

 

Universal poverty isn’t an acceptable solution to any problem that I can think of.  Mr. R.B in Pennsylvania

 

And from Peggy Noonan’s column entitled: Scenes from the Class Struggle in Lockdown:

Since the pandemic began, the overclass has been in charge–schientists, doctors, political figures, consultants–calling the shots for the average people.  But personally they have less skin in the game.  The National Institues of Health scientist won’t lose his livelihood over what’s happened.  Neither will the midday anchor.

 

Here’s a generalization based on a lifetime of experiencd and observation. The working-class people who are pushing back have had harder lives than those now determining their fate. They haven’t had familial or economic ease. No one sent them to Yale. They often come from considerable family dysfunction. This has left them tougheror harder, you choose the word.

 

The overclass says: “Wait three months before we’re safe.” They [ordinary people] say “There’s no such thing as safe.”

And then the Governor of Michigan describes the ordinary people demonstrating against the lockdown as “racist and misogynistic”.  What does that make her?  Her livelihood is not at stake, and she always appears perfectly made-up and coiffed, while her subjects are denied haircuts.

Once again I say:

Defy Tyranny.  Break the Lockdown.

Bubble-wrapped America: Hairdressers are afraid to re-open their salons in Washington State

The always-alarmed Press has got Americans so afraid of dying of the Wuhan Coronavirus that they have convinced some hairdressers in the Pacific Northwest that they would be in mortal danger from their customers, if they re-open their salons in the next “phase” of His Royal Highness Jay Inslee’s plan to re-open the Washington State economy.  A hairdresser (afraid to be identified in the news account) has begun a petition to delay hair salons’ permitted opening until “Phase Four”, sometime in the middle of the summer.  These cowardly so-called professionals insist that the Government Mandate that ALL salons not open until very much later, instead of making their own decisions on whether they feel comfortable in re-opening.

Leftists.  If there’s something that makes them feel bad, they insist that Government protect them and everyone else from it.  Although, this stricture might make some have second thoughts.

For example, employees are required to use PPE like gloves, gowns, goggles, face shields and masks depending on the service.

The hairdressers who signed the petition are worried about a shortage of PPE (personal protective equipment) to keep them Safe from their customers.  Because they are concerned, they insist that the State deny ALL hairdressers the right to open their own salons with precautions taken.

It’s all about Safety.  Are they really ready to earn zero income until mid-summer?  What happens when the unemployment funds run out?  And do they care nothing for their customers who have already gone months without a haircut?  Do they simply expect their shaggy-headed clients to wait for them to feel Comfortable, and Safe?  I hope not, because I will find someone to give me a haircut when I need it.  And if I need to change salons, I will do so (although I expect the salon I use to open at the first possible moment).

By the way, His Royal Highness isn’t denying HIMSELF a haircut, is he?  Regulations for Thee but not for Me.

Defy Tyranny.  Break the Lockdown.

Skimmers! We Have Skimmers (and Terns, and Gulls)

In October of 2012, Hubby and I went to New Jersey, where he was born, to attend his family Catholic church’s 120th anniversary.  On that trip, we drove out to the Jersey Shore, and spent a nice day at Cape May.  It was absolutely beautiful for October; bright and sunny with temperatures in the 70s.  We almost had the whole beach to ourselves.  Well, the “almost” included a big flock of seabirds. There were Black Skimmers, Forster’s Terns, and other seagulls.  Here they are.

Flock from afar
Seabirds, Cape May

And, closer-up:

terns and Skimmers

See the Terns in the foreground, white with the black eye-patch.  This is their winter plumage.

Walkin' on the beach
Skimmers, sea birds on the beach at Cape May, NJ, October 23, 2012

And even closer, aren’t they cool, just marching right up the beach?

Also found at Cape May…

IMG_1346

There is a whole long street of these beautiful houses.  They are “summer rentals” so were mostly empty in October.

Now, we were there about five days before Superstorm Sandy hit.  I have always wondered how those houses made it through the big storm.