Author Archives: Dana Pico

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Alabama gets stupid about capital punishment A waste of time and money

Sometimes I have to wonder about the utter stupidity of some people. Willie B Smith III was sentenced to death in Alabama for the 1991 murder of Sharma Ruth Johnson in Birmingham. Mr Smith and his cronies abducted her at an ATM, forced her to withdraw $80 in cash, at which point they took her to a cemetery, upon which Mr Smith shot her in the back of the head.

The too-few readers of The First Street Journal know that I am opposed to capital punishment, but that is not the point of this article.

Mr Smith was scheduled to be executed, and requested that his pastor accompany him into the death chamber. The Department of Corrections refused, and Mr Smith’s attorney sued. The Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued an injunction stating that Mr Smith had a right to have his pastor present. Alabama could have simply granted Mr Smith’s request, and proceeded with the execution, but no, the State had to get all high and mighty and appeal to the Supreme Court, where the state lost. From The Washington Post:

Supreme Court says Alabama cannot execute inmate without his pastor present

By Robert Barnes | February 12, 2021 | 8:12 AM EST

The Supreme Court said late Thursday night that Alabama could not execute a death row inmate without the man’s pastor by his side, and indicated that other states must find a way to honor final requests for a spiritual adviser in the death chamber.

The court’s order came an hour before Alabama’s self-imposed deadline of executing Willie B. Smith III, convicted of a 1991 robbery and murder. A lower court had put the execution on hold, and Alabama asked the Supreme Court to step in.

But the request divided the court’s conservative majority. For the first time since she joined the court in October, Justice Amy Coney Barrett sided with liberal colleagues in a capital punishment case, saying federal law requires states to make accommodations for prisoners like Smith.

Barrett joined an opinion by Justice Elena Kagan that said a federal law protecting the religious rights of prisoners set a high bar Alabama did not meet.

There’s more at the original.

I have to ask: why did the state not simply allow Mr Smith’s pastor into the execution chamber? If the pastor agreed to perform that onerous duty, and agreed not to be disruptive, there was no practical reason not to allow this. Faced with the injunction from the Eleventh Circuit, the State had to know that its legal position was shaky, and that if the Supreme Court declined to end the injunction, the execution date would pass with Mr Smith still breathing.

And that’s what happened. Mr Smith is still alive. As an opponent of capital punishment, I think that’s a good thing. More, it exposes just how stupid states can get when it comes to capital punishment. Pennsylvania, for instance, has 142 people on death row, but has actually executed only three men since the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1974 . . . and all three men “volunteered,” voluntarily dropped all of their appeals to just get it over. Despite all of the additional costs that come with a capital sentence, the Keystone State has not been able to put anyone to death against his will!

Governor Tom Wolf (D-PA) is an opponent of capital punishment, but does not have the authority to commute death sentences without the recommendation of the state Board of Pardons and Paroles. He can, and has, refused to advance any capital sentences toward execution. But, don’t blame Governor Wolf too much; the previous Governor, Republican Tom Corbett, a strong supporter of capital punishment, signed 47 death warrants during his four years in office, and there were still no executions during his term. Is not stupidity involved in maintaining capital punishment in the Keystone State?

California has 711 people on death row, but has executed only 13 since 1976, and the last one was in 2006. Is not stupidity involved in having capital punishment in the Pyrite State?

Alabama? Well, the state has been successful in carrying out executions, 67 of them since the restoration of capital punishment. But with the stupidity, and yes, stupidity is the right word, shown by Jefferson Dunn, Commissioner of the Department of Corrections, it’s amazing that he’s been so successful. It would have been far more efficient, and less expensive, to have simply granted Mr Smith’s last request. By doing that, the state would have been able to carry out the sentence; by fighting it, the state lost, and failed to carry out the execution.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who dissented from the decision not to vacate the injunction, wrote:

Because the State’s policy is non-discriminatory and, in my view, serves the State’s compelling interests in ensuring the safety, security, and solemnity of the execution room, I would have granted the State’s application to vacate the injunction.

But the Court has a different view and denies the State’s application. Given the stays of execution here and in Gutierrez v. Saenz, it seems apparent that States that want to avoid months or years of litigation delays because of this RLUIPA (Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act) issue should figure out a way to allow spiritual advisors into the execution room, as other States and the Federal Government have done. Doing so not only would satisfy inmates’ requests, but also would avoid still further delays and bring long overdue closure for victims’ families.

In other words, Justice Kavanaugh said to states which still have the death penalty, don’t be stupid!

As the Post noted, while we know that Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Clarence Thomas and Kavanaugh sided with Alabama, the votes of Justices Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito are not mentioned. At least one of them must have voted along with Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, Steven Breyer and Amy Barrett, to form a majority.

The easiest non-stupid thing to do would be to simply eliminate capital punishment. It’s actually cheaper to imprison someone for life than it is to execute him. And Alabama’s stupidity in this case is just one more in a long list of dumb behavior the courts have had to adjudicate as states have tried to put people to death.

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The sad, sad decline of The Philadelphia Inquirer

I ran across a photo if the masthead of The Philadelphia Inquirer from February 25, 1953, and noticed the ‘taglines’ that it used: “Public Ledger” and “An Independent Newspaper for All the People”. By Public ledger, the Inquirer was setting itself up as Philadelphia’s newspaper of record, which Wikipedia defines as “a major newspaper with large circulation whose editorial and news-gathering functions are considered authoritative.” That Wikipedia article named four newspapers of record for the United States: The New York Times (Founded 1851), The Washington Post (1877), The Los Angeles Times (1881) and The Wall Street Journal (1889). First printed on Monday, Jun1 1, 1829, the then Pennsylvania Inquirer is older than any of them. “An editorial in the first issue of The Pennsylvania Inquirer promised that the paper would be devoted to the right of a minority to voice their opinion and ‘the maintenance of the rights and liberties of the people, equally against the abuses as the usurpation of power.’”

Boy has that changed! As has happened to other great newspapers, the newsroom of the Inquirer was captured by the young #woke, who forced the firing resignation of Executive Editor and Senior Vice President Stan Wischnowski over the headline Buildings Matter, Too.

“Devoted to the right of a minority to voice their opinion”? Yeah, that failed, too, as the Inquirer closed comments on the majority of its articles, stating that:

Commenting on Inquirer.com was long ago hijacked by a small group of trolls who traffic in racism, misogyny, and homophobia. This group comprises a tiny fraction of the Inquirer.com audience. But its impact is disproportionate and enduring.

Really? How do they know? How can they be sure that these views do not represent more than a “tiny fraction” of their audience? Have they really done the research, or was it just that the #woke didn’t like the idea that the riff-raff could express their opinions? “An Independent Newspaper for All the People”? No, the Inquirer has now become a non-profit newspaper for the left.

There’s a reason I’ve called it The Philadelphia Enquirer, mocking its name by using the same spelling as the National Enquirer.[1]RedState writer Mike Miller called it the Enquirer, probably by mistake, so I didn’t originate it, but I thought it very apt.

Before I retired, I used to pick up a copy of the Inquirer at the Turkey Hill in downtown Jim Thorpe, on my way to the plant. I read it, as did my drivers, though they sometimes said I should have picked up the Allentown Morning Call instead, being somewhat closer to local news. I read a lot of stories in the Inquirer, about the killings of Philadelphia police officers, I noted how the newspaper didn’t really care much about the murders of young black men in the city, but has the killing of cute little white girl Rian Thal splashed through the paper for days.[2]That site search for Rian Thal returned 3,128 results! Think the Inquirer was obsessed much, or were they just printing what the editors thought their readers wanted to see?

So, I’m sad to see what the Inquirer has become. They write about “gun crime” as though an inanimate object somehow jumps up and shoot people all by itself, because it’s just too politically incorrect to note that that “gun violence” is disproportionately committed by black Philadelphians. The editors have dozens and dozens of articles claiming that #BlackLivesMatter, when it has become obvious, to anyone who reads the newspaper, that black lives don’t matter, unless they are taken by a white police officer.

Despite the fact that I said I wouldn’t, I finally subscribed to the digital edition of the Inquirer, after Mrs Pico kept telling me to do so rather than try to get copies of stories for free and then have to manually type them into my blog articles. But the paper has gone downhill, even from just ten years ago.

References

References
↑1 RedState writer Mike Miller called it the Enquirer, probably by mistake, so I didn’t originate it, but I thought it very apt.
↑2 That site search for Rian Thal returned 3,128 results! Think the Inquirer was obsessed much, or were they just printing what the editors thought their readers wanted to see?
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After more than half a year of mask mandates, the CDC now wants us to have double mask mandates! Not just no, but Hell no!

As the rollout of the vaccines against COVID-19 has begun — though, even qualifying in Tier 1C, the local Health Department can’t say when I’ll have an opportunity to receive it — people have been looking forward to a return to a normal life. Tom Brady celebrated his seventh Super Bowl win by, Horrors! not wearing a mask, and the left were aghast!

Now, after months and months of mask mandates, the government is urging double masking. From The Wall Street Journal:

Double Masks Offer Significantly Better Protection, CDC Study Finds

By Betsy McKay | February 10, 2021

Upgrading your mask can really make a big difference, according to a study published Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Wearing a double mask or fitting a single mask more closely on the face substantially reduces the risk of infection with the Covid-19 virus, the study, published in the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, found.

In a series of laboratory experiments using headforms and machines to generate aerosols, the CDC found that wearing a three-ply cloth mask over a three-ply medical or surgical mask blocked 92.5% of particles from a cough.

That was much more effective than a single mask. A surgical mask alone blocked cough particles by 42%, and a cloth mask blocked them by 44.3%.

Many medical and engineering experts say people need to upgrade their masks because new variants of the virus are spreading around the country, particularly one that is significantly more transmissible than the currently most common strain. Other studies have shown benefits from wearing double masks or using mask fitters, devices which tighten the fit.

Still other experts say that people should wear N95 masks, which are used primarily in hospitals and are certified to filter out at least 95% of small particles.

N95s? We’re now seeing reports that there has been a surge in fake N95 masks, including those in Washington state, the prestigious Cleveland Clinic, and Minnesota.

The CDC is trying to accomplish two goals: convince people to wear a mask at all–since many aren’t doing that currently–and offer options on its website that can help them improve or find a good fit, said John Brooks, chief medical officer of the agency’s Covid-19 response.

“Masking is one of our most potent means for not only the epidemic and its effects on human health and the economy, but also for slowing viral evolution,” he said. “We are looking at all the ways we can enhance our prevention measures.”

After well over half a year — so much for fifteen days to flatten the curve, though others said it might take several weeks more than that — now we are being told that, hey, we aren’t wearing our masks right, and we aren’t wearing the right masks in the first place.

Will it sound paranoid if I say that this seems like more of an attempt at control of the population than anything else?  I’m just waiting for Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) to change his mask mandate to a double-mask mandate.[1]LOL! The Governor’s mask mandate includes descriptions of the face coverings to be worn, and what is included would not come close to the CDC guidelines: “For the purposes of this order, … Continue reading

There’s more at the original, detailing aerosol projection rates by single and doubled masks. After reading it, I have to ask: if doubled masks blocked more vaporized moisture than single ones, why wouldn’t tripled masks be even better? Perhaps if we just stopped breathing altogether?

We’ve seen ‘health care professionals’ tell us that we need to wear masks and not kiss during sex — which makes me wonder if they’ve ever engaged in sexual intercourse themselves, since they don’t seem to understand how people actually copulate — and wear masks even inside your home. Let’s face it: nothing we do will ever be enough. They want us to save our lives by not living our lives.

We’ve known since early on in this pandemic that the various restrictions on people lives were leading to increased mental health issues, and drug overdose deaths have greatly increased. A significant increase in suicides has also been blamed on the restrictions placed on people due to COVID-19.

Unemployment skyrocketed and poverty soared, as government forced many businesses to close.

From Business Insider, on December 9th:

  • On Monday, Moody’s Analytics found millions of Americans are, on average, nearly $6,000 behind on rent payments, according to a Washington Post report.
  • The figure paints a bleak picture for what could happen come January 1, when eviction moratoriums expire and billions in back rent are due.
  • Some estimates — like one from advisory firm Stout — puts as many as 20.1 million tenants in the US at risk of eviction. That’s equivalent to the population of the state of Florida.

At what point will we realize that the ‘cure’ has been worse than the disease? Probably not before the authoritarians issue even more draconian orders trying to control our personal lives and choices.

References

References
↑1 LOL! The Governor’s mask mandate includes descriptions of the face coverings to be worn, and what is included would not come close to the CDC guidelines: “For the purposes of this order, a ‘face covering’ is a material that covers the nose and mouth and is secured to the head with ties, straps or loops over the ears, or is wrapped around the lower face. It can be made of a variety of materials, including cotton, silk, or linen, and ideally has two or more layers. Face coverings may be factory-made, homemade, or improvised from household items such as scarfs, bandanas, and t-shirts.” I do, at least, applaud his use of the Oxford comma.
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Bad causes attract bad people Grifters gotta grift!

This isn’t from an evil reich-wing source, but the liberal Associated Press:

How a leading anti-Trump group ignored a crisis in its ranks

By Steve Peoples and Brian Slodysko | February 11, 2021

WASHINGTON (AP) — Last June, the Lincoln Project was on a high.

Led by several prominent former Republican consultants, its slickly produced ads attacking President Donald Trump made it perhaps the best known of the so-called Never Trump organizations. The group tried to claim a higher moral ground in an effort to purge Trump from the GOP. Money flowed in by the tens of millions of dollars from donors eager to help.

But within the organization, a grave threat was emerging.

In June 2020, members of the organization’s leadership were informed in writing and in subsequent phone calls of at least 10 specific allegations of harassment against co-founder John Weaver, including two involving Lincoln Project employees, according to multiple people with direct knowledge of the situation. The email and phone calls raise questions about the Lincoln Project’s statement last month that it was “shocked” when accusations surfaced publicly this year. It’s also the first known suggestion that Weaver targeted a Lincoln Project staffer.

There’s more at the original.

Many have publicly mused about how co-founders George Conway, Steve Schmidt, Reed Galen, Jennifer Horn and Rick Wilson could not have known about Mr Weaver’s activities. Twenty-one young men, including one who claims that things began when he was just 14, have accused Mr Weaver of sending unwanted sexually provocative messages, sometines including solicitations for sex, often in exchange for the promise of career help, to which Mr Weaver admitted once caught.

The Washington Post reported:

Weaver has been on a medical leave of absence from the Lincoln Project since last summer and said he would not return to the organization.

On Sunday, the Lincoln Project noted that Weaver was never around other members.

“The totality of his deceptions are beyond anything any of us could have imagined and we are absolutely shocked and sickened by it. Like so many, we have been betrayed and deceived by John Weaver,” the group’s statement said. “We are grateful beyond words that at no time was John Weaver in the physical presence of any member of The Lincoln Project.”

Oh, really?

On Twitter Sunday, (the American Conservative’s Ryan) Girdusky — who broke the story earlier this month — blasted the Lincoln Project’s statement as false, saying the group had been made aware of the allegations when he was reporting them out last year.

Girdusky, who has also worked as a political consultant for about 15 years, told The Washington Post that Weaver’s past was like a “worst-kept secret” and that several men reached out to him after Weaver followed him on Twitter last May.

“Three young men DMed (directly messaged) me and said, ‘Please be careful, this is what he did to me,’ and sent me their DMs with John Weaver,” Girdusky said.

Girdusky said several of the men who told him privately about Weaver’s behavior had also contacted Lincoln Project members as recently as last August “and it was ignored across the board.”

Steve Schmidt, a co-founder of the group, told the New York Times that they had heard “chatter” last summer Weaver could be in relationships with men, but denied they knew it was inappropriate.

Uhhh, Mr Weaver was married, so Mr Schmidt had to know that such relationships were “inappropriate.”

The Post article detailed Mr Weaver’s behavior and how the Lincoln Project denied any knowledge. The Associated Press article went further:

Since its creation, the Lincoln Project has raised $90 million. But only about a third of the money, roughly $27 million, directly paid for advertisements that aired on broadcast and cable, or appeared online, during the 2020 campaign, according to an analysis of campaign finance disclosures and data from the ad tracking firm Kantar/CMAG.

That leaves tens of millions of dollars that went toward expenses like production costs, overhead — and exorbitant consulting fees collected by members of the group.

“It raises questions about where the rest of the money ultimately went,” said Brendan Fischer, an attorney with the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center in Washington. “Generally speaking, you’d expect to see a major super PAC spend a majority or more of their money on advertisements and that’s not what happened here.”

The vast majority of the cash was split among consulting firms controlled by its founders, including about $27 million paid to a small firm controlled by Galen and another $21 million paid to a boutique firm run by former Lincoln Project member Ron Steslow, campaign finance disclosures show.

Emphasis mine.

The AP article was careful not to accuse the Lincoln Project of actual illegality, but noted that several of the members had serious financial problems, problems which seemed to be at least partially resolved by the success of the organization:

The Lincoln Project parted with one co-founder, Horn, last week, claiming in an unusual public statement that she was seeking a $250,000 signing bonus and a $40,000-a-month consulting contract. Horn declined to engage publicly, but public records reveal that the unexpected success of the Lincoln Project has extended a lifeline to some founders who have spent much of the past decade under financial distress.

Financial help also came to Messrs Weaver and Schmidt.

There has been a lot of coverage on Mr Weaver’s sexual messages, and even the AP article spends a lot of bandwidth on them, but, at heart, the Lincoln Project turned out to be a corrupt organization to benefit its founders financially. Yes, the evidence indicates that the members lied about what they knew and when they knew it concerning Mr Weaver, but that appears to be the least of it.

The AP article refers to Mr Conway as “conservative attorney George Conway,” but in his hatred for Donald Trump, he showed that he is no conservative. Supporting Joe Biden just to get rid of President Trump also meant supporting Mr Biden’s policies. Mr Conway, and the other #NeverTrumpers, have wound up supporting:

  • Characterizing conservatives as ‘extremists’ and supporting them being banned from social media;
  • Supporting President Biden’s allowing the ‘transgendered’ into the military, including the government paying for their medical ‘transition’ costs;
  • Supporting President Biden’s moves to allow illegal immigrants into the United States;
  • Supporting President Biden’s policies allowing the ‘transgendered’ to be treated as the sex they claim to be, including in athletic competitions;
  • Supporting President Biden’s rejoining of the Paris Climate Change agreement;
  • Supporting President Biden’s attempt to rejoin the Iran nuclear weapons agreement;
  • Supporting President Biden’s not just unlimited abortion license policies, but supporting having the federal government pay for abortions;
  • Canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline; and
  • Supporting legislation restricting our Second Amendment rights.

All of these things, and more, come with supporting Mr Biden’s presidential campaign!

Bad causes attract bad people, and supporting Joe Biden, because he is a nicer guy than Donald Trump, is a bad cause. Not everyone who supported Mr Biden is necessarily a bad person, but it certainly seems like his cause has attracted more than his share of bad people.

I don’t have to like Mr Trump as an individual; I’ve never met the man, never met any President, and the odds are vanishingly small that I ever will. His personality means nothing to me. What matters in a President is his policies, because it is his policies which affect every American, and President Trump’s policies were far, far better for the United States than those of the guy who succeeded him.

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One does not “err” on the side of supporting religious freedom; one errs if he does not support religious freedom! Andy Beshear has made going to church a political as well as religious act

Should I dishonor the courage of my ancestors by blithely accepting the religious restrictions unconstitutionally placed on us by callous state Governors, over a disease from which 98% of people recover?

Richard Warren left his family, his wife and children, in England, as he boarded the Mayflower, to brave a sea voyage to a hostile and unknown continent, due to the religious oppression under King James I. “James was strict in enforcing conformity at first, inducing a sense of persecution amongst many Puritans . . . .” The voyage had its hazards, as the Mayflower’s sister-ship, Speedwell were greatly delayed in departure:

Carrying about 65 passengers, the Mayflower left London in mid-July 1620.[13] The ship then proceeded down the Thames to the south coast of England, where it anchored at Southampton, Hampshire. There she waited for the planned rendezvous on July 22 with the Speedwell, coming from Holland with members of the Leiden congregation.[8] Although both ships planned to depart for America by the end of July, a leak was discovered on the Speedwell, which had to be repaired.[14]

The ships set sail for America around August 5, but Speedwell sprang another leak shortly after, which necessitated the ships’ return to Dartmouth for repairs. They made a new start after the repairs, but more than 200 miles (320 km) beyond Land’s End at the southwestern tip of England, the Speedwell sprang a third leak. It was now early September, and they had no choice but to abandon Speedwell and make a determination on her passengers. This was a dire event, as vital funds had been wasted on the ship, which were considered very important to the future success of their settlement in America. Both ships returned to Plymouth, where twenty Speedwell passengers joined the now overcrowded Mayflower, while the others returned to Holland.[15]

They waited for seven more days until the wind picked up. William Bradford was especially worried: “We lie here waiting for as fair a wind as can blow… Our victuals will be half eaten up, I think, before we go from the coast of England; and, if our voyage last long, we shall not have a month’s victuals when we come in the country.”[16]:343 According to Bradford, Speedwell was refitted and seaworthy, having “made many voyages… to the great profit of her owners.” He suggested that Speedwell‘s master may have used “cunning and deceit” to abort the voyage by causing the leaks, fearing starvation and death in America.[17]:

Richard Warren, my first American ancestor, finally sent for his family in 1623, once the colony had become sufficiently safe and self-sustaining. He and his wife Elizabeth, my great(x9)-grandparents, risked their lives, with far, far greater chances of dying — half of the Mayflower settlers died within the first year — than COVID-19 has inflicted upon us, all for the freedom to worship God as they saw fit. Should I, twelve generations later, dishonor their courage, and the sacrifices of their friends and neighbors, by blithely accepting the religious restrictions unconstitutionally placed on us by callous state Governors, over a disease from which 98% of people recover?[1]One of my sisters tested positive for the virus a couple of months ago, but was mostly asymptomatic, and was again negative about ten days later.

I believe that it is wise to take precautions, and it is wise to take the vaccines when they become available.[2]Due to my age, 67, I am in Tier 1C, but while the local health department has me “on the list,” they have no idea when it will actually be available.

But taking precautions should be an individual decision, and the state should have no power, no authority, to suspend our constitutional rights to fight the disease.

I rarely missed Sunday Mass before the virus struck. But Governor Andy Beshear’s (D-KY) unconstitutional suspension of our First Amendment rights, by ordering churches closed, has had the effect of making me much more militant when it comes to our constitutional rights. The Bishop of Lexington, John Stowe, went right along with the Governor, and ordered the priests of the diocese to close their parish churches. When the churches were finally reopened, starting on Sunday, May 24, 2020, I was right there to attend Mass, and I have not missed Sunday Mass since. Governor Beshear has, at least for me, added the political element of resisting authority, to going to church.[3]Actually, the Governor so graciously allowed churches to reopen on May 20th, which was a Wednesday.

From The Hill article cited in my initial tweet:

Conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is defending the controversial statements he made regarding coronavirus restrictions late last year, saying he “was not surprised by the reaction.”

In a USA Today article published on Sunday, the 15th anniversary of his confirmation to the Supreme Court, Alito said the parts of his speech that drew controversy had been taken from his recent opinions, with some repeated verbatim.

“Virtually every substantive point in the Federalist Society speech was taken from one of my published opinions or an opinion I joined,” the justice, nominated by President George W. Bush, said in a statement to the newspaper.

During a speech to the Federalist Society in November, Alito said: “We have never before seen restrictions as severe, extensive and prolonged as those experienced for most of 2020.”

Alito at the time argued coronavirus restrictions had become a “constitutional stress test.” In particular, the justice bemoaned the effect that restrictions have had on religious events.

“I’m a judge, not a policymaker,” Alito told USA Today, adding that he was not criticizing policies, but pointing to the questions they raised.

It’s good to see a Supreme Court Justice who values the First Amendment, who at least partially understands that our freedom of religion is paramount. Sadly, the Justice seems to have gone along with some of the restrictions, as long as they have not been more onerous than those placed on other public events.

Governor Beshear had lifted his church closure order after a federal judge invalidated it, graciously ‘allowing’ churches to open again immediately, when he had planned to allow that starting on May 20, 2020. Sadly, Bishop Stowe did not allow his diocesan priests to open their parish churches until the date the Governor had previously selected. I have no doubt that the Governor would have ordered churches closed absent the previous ruling, in that he ‘asked’ all churches to to suspend all in-person gatherings at their churches for four Sundays, November 22nd through December 13th, a period which would have included Thanksgiving.

To me, the freedom of religion and the First Amendment in general are our most important liberties, the things which make the United States different from all other countries. Too many people, too many people! just blithely ignore our liberties, sheepishly nodding their heads when government tries to restrict our rights, because their reasons are oh-so-noble, oh-so-reasonable.

Well, I’m sorry, but there is no such thing as a ‘reasonable’ restriction on our rights. If they can be ‘reasonably’ restricted, then they aren’t rights anymore.

References

References
↑1 One of my sisters tested positive for the virus a couple of months ago, but was mostly asymptomatic, and was again negative about ten days later.
↑2 Due to my age, 67, I am in Tier 1C, but while the local health department has me “on the list,” they have no idea when it will actually be available.
↑3 Actually, the Governor so graciously allowed churches to reopen on May 20th, which was a Wednesday.
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Thank the Lord for fossil fuels!

During our first winter back in the Bluegrass State, we had only electric heat. When what the Weather Channel called Winter Storm Hunter hit, we lost sparktricity . . . for 4½ days. My wife went to stay with our daughter, in Lexington, but I had to stay on the farm to take care of the critters.

The coldest it got in the house was 38º F!

But it sure wasn’t pleasant. While the water was still on, there was no hot water. There was just enough warm water that first morning to take a quick, sort-of OK shower, but that was it.

Our house is an eastern Kentucky fixer-upper, and the kitchen was the first thing to be redone. Mrs Pico wanted a gas range, and that was planned all along. We knew our electric water heater was near the end of its service life, so we planned on replacing that with gas as well. Then, remembering the unheated house, we decided to add a gas fireplace as well. The fan won’t work without electricity, and while the range top will work, the oven will not.

So, will we lose power again?

It’s a little hard to see the county lines, in the red area, but that’s where we are, kind of in between the Berea and Jackson city names.

At any rate, what my, sadly, late, best friend used to call the Lexington Herald-Liberal is telling me that we’re due for another ice storm. The forecast is a bit iffy: we could get snow as well as freezing rain, probably light tomorrow morning but getting worst Wednesday afternoon.

Alas! Mrs Pico has to work Thursday and Friday, and as a hospital nurse there’s no ‘work from home’ for her. My F-150 does have four-wheel drive, but four-wheel drive works far better in snow than it does on ice; nothing works well on ice. The county has pretreated the road, and while we live in relatively flat river-bottom farmland, there are a couple of not-nice places on the way to the hospital.

At any rate, I have asked William Teach of The Pirate’s Cove to watch this site, in case I’m out of communication for a few days.

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Guilt by Association Trumps Freedom of Speech and the Right of Peaceable Assembly Kentucky State Police Captain "reassigned" after attending Capitol Kerfuffle, even though he broke no laws himself

It’s not just those who stormed and entered the Capitol building itself who are being punished; some of those who attended the rally but broke no laws are being hammered as well.

Kentucky State Police’s Top Recruiter Reassigned For Attending D.C. Trump Rally

By Eleanor Klibanoff | February 5, 2021

Kentucky State Police Captain Michael Webb, from the KSP website.

The Kentucky State Police trooper who was reassigned after attending the Jan. 6 Trump rally in Washington, D.C., was the agency’s top recruiter.Capt. Michael Webb was reassigned on Jan. 8 from his position in the recruitment branch to the Inspections and Evaluations Branch, his personnel file shows.

A week after the rally, KSP issued a statement saying one trooper, who was not named, had been temporarily reassigned after attending on personal time with his family. When asked about Capt. Michael Webb’s assignment status, an agency spokesperson pointed back to that statement.

“KSP is reviewing the employee’s participation. It is the right thing to do to protect our nation, democracy, agency and all KSP employees,” said acting KSP commissioner Phillip Burnett Jr. in the statement. “This is the same review process our agency follows any time there is questionable activity involving any law enforcement personnel within our agency.”

Several people with ties to the agency who declined to be named confirmed Webb was reassigned for his attendance at the rally.

KSP’s statement said the trooper attended the rally but did not enter the U.S. Capitol, where rioters stormed the building while a joint session of Congress met to certify the election of President Joe Biden. Five people died, including a woman shot and killed by Capitol police and a Capitol police officer beaten by the mob. Documents and lecterns were stolen and dozens have been charged, including at least nine from Kentucky. Former President Donald Trump was impeached, for a second time, over his role in inciting the riot.

Note that: Captain Webb attended the rally, but even the Kentucky State Police say he did not enter the Capitol. He was, therefore, exercising his freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, but he’s being punished anyway.

Further down:

Brian Higgins, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and former police chief of Bergen County, New Jersey, said law enforcement agencies are grappling with how to proceed.

He said officers have a right to participate in the political process, but any actions an officer takes, even off-duty, reflects on the agency.

“Law enforcement has really been under the microscope,” he said. “So if there was ever a time for a police officer to be cautious in his or her actions, now’s the time, because everybody’s watching.”

Let’s tell the truth here: had he been attending a #BlackLivesMatter rally while off-duty, one which turned violent and destructive but he was not a participant in the vandalism, nothing would have happened to him.

But Professor Higgins told the truth in one regard: “everybody’s watching.” The left are using every means at their disposal to find out who has political positions with which they disagree, and try to get back at them. As we noted yesterday, the left get upset even when Trump supporters do something nice for them.

Vida Johnson, a professor at Georgetown Law School and expert on white supremacy in policing, said it would be a mistake for law enforcement agencies to dismiss the rally at the Capitol as routine political activism. Even before the rally turned violent, she said, the goal was to challenge the validity of legally cast ballots and stop Congress from certifying the election. Many attendees wore white supremacist or Nazi regalia and carried Confederate flags.

You know that, when you cite someone as an “expert on white supremacy in policing,” you are telling us that she is hugely biased against the police. She stated that “many attendees” wore or carried symbols the left find offensive, but there is no indication, anywhere in the article, that Captain Webb “wore white supremacist or Nazi regalia” or “carried (a) Confederate flag.” There are no claims that he wore his KSP uniform or identified himself as a KSP officer. Apparently guilt by association trumps freedom of speech and the right of peaceable assembly.

The left claimed that President Trump was a horrible, horrible fascist, but it is the left who are censoring people and stomping on their rights.

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He’s out of office now, but #TrumpDerangementSyndrome still rules the minds of so many

Me, snowblowing the front sidewalk in Jim Thorpe, PA, December 29, 2012. Click to enlarge.

When I lived in the Keystone State, my neighbor, Pete, and I used to clear the snow from sidewalks down the entire block. Why? Well, the home to my right was unoccupied for a couple years, and the next two down were occupied by people far more elderly than me. (I was 63 when we moved away.; Pete was in his fifties.)

If it was only a couple of inches of snow, I’d shovel. More than that, and I’d use the snowblower.

I do not know for whom my block neighbors voted. President Trump carried Carbon County in both elections, 65.13% to 31.05% in 2016, and 65.37% to 33.34% in 2020, so the odds are that they voted the right way, but I have no way of knowing for certain. All that I knew, at the time, was that the snow needed to be removed, even though I’m an evil reich-wing conservative, and President Trump was in office my last winter there!.

“Journalist” Virginia Hefferman, however, had a problem with supporters of President Trump being kind to her. Hat tip to William Teach for the article.

Column: What can you do about the Trumpites next door?

By Virginia Heffernan | February 5, 2021 | 3:00 AM PST

Virginia Heffernan

Oh, heck no. The Trumpites next door to our pandemic getaway, who seem as devoted to the ex-president as you can get without being Q fans, just plowed our driveway without being asked and did a great job.

How am I going to resist demands for unity in the face of this act of aggressive niceness?

Of course, on some level, I realize I owe them thanks — and, man, it really looks like the guy back-dragged the driveway like a pro — but how much thanks?

These neighbors are staunch partisans of blue lives, and there aren’t a lot of anything other than white lives in neighborhood.

This is also kind of weird. Back in the city, people don’t sweep other people’s walkways for nothing.

Well, maybe that’s the problem: perhaps Miss Heffernan is so used to the discourtesies of city life, that she just can’t comprehend that life in a small town or rural area is different. One of the verses in Rocky Top goes:

I’ve had years of cramped-up city life
Trapped like a duck in a pen
All I know is it’s a pity life
Can’t be simple again.

When Pete and I took care of our neighbors’ sidewalks, we weren’t asking for money. We just did it because it needed to be done, and we were in better shape than some of the other people living there.

Maybe it’s like what Eddie Murphy discovered in that old “Saturday Night Live” sketch “White Like Me.” He goes undercover in white makeup and finds that when white people are among their own, they pop free champagne and live the high life. As Murphy puts it: “Slowly I began to realize that when white people are alone, they give things to each other. For free.”

Well, one thing about Miss Heffernan’s paragraph is correct: the people for whom we cleaned the sidewalks were all white. Jim Thorpe is 95.7% non-Hispanic white, with another 2.35% Hispanic white. But had any of my neighbors been black, I wouldn’t have somehow just skipped doing their sidewalks and driveways.

Miss Heffernan continues with a few paragraphs about how ‘nice’ Hezbollah are to the people they like, and even how ‘polite’ the Nazis were to people they liked in Occupied France.

So when I accept generosity from my pandemic neighbors, acknowledging the legitimate kindness with a wave or a plate of cookies, am I also sealing us in as fellow travelers who are very polis to each other but not so much to “them”?

Loving your neighbor is evidently much easier when your neighborhood is full of people just like you.

Donald Trump lives on, living rent free in the heads of the left

Really? Her statement assumes that we wouldn’t be polite to neighbors who weren’t just like us.

The other side of my duplex had a sort of checkered history. In 2010, it was bought by a young lesbian couple from Philadelphia, as a vacation home. People who know me know that I strongly believe the Biblical law concerning homosexuality, but, shockingly enough, I didn’t picket their house, I didn’t give them the stink-eye when I saw them, didn’t treat them anything other than politely.[1]On July 4, 2010, I needed to paint the fence between our two yards, something which involved me going into their back yard. When I knocked on the door, to ask permission, with white paint obvious on … Continue reading

What do we do about the Trumpites around us? Like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who spoke eloquently this week about her terrifying experience during the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, Americans are expected to forgive and forget before we’ve even stitched up our wounds. Or gotten our vaccines against the pandemic that former President Trump utterly failed to mitigate.

Did she mean the “terrifying experience” about which Miss Ocasio-Cortez lied? The one in which she was in an entirely different building?

My neighbors supported a man who showed near-murderous contempt for the majority of Americans. They kept him in business with their support.

But the plowing.

On Jan. 6, after the insurrection, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) issued an aw-shucks plea for all Americans to love their neighbors. The United States, he said, “isn’t Hatfields and McCoys, this blood feud forever.” And, he added, “You can’t hate someone who shovels your driveway.”

At the time, I seethed; the Capitol had just been desecrated. But maybe my neighbor heard Sasse and was determined to make a bid for reconciliation.

Well, who knows if her neighbors heard what Senator Sasse said? It seems that Miss Heffernan heard it, but really, really, really wants to ignore it.

So here’s my response to my plowed driveway, for now. Politely, but not profusely, I’ll acknowledge the Sassian move. With a wave and a thanks, a minimal start on building back trust. I’m not ready to knock on the door with a covered dish yet.

I also can’t give my neighbors absolution; it’s not mine to give. Free driveway work, as nice as it is, is just not the same currency as justice and truth. To pretend it is would be to lie, and they probably aren’t looking for absolution anyway.

Bitter much? Miss Heffernan’s article was published on February 5th, after President Trump lost his bid for re-election, and after he left office, yet she is still tremendously pissed off that her neighbors supported, and presumably voted for, Mr Trump, so bitter than she cannot just accept a neighborly act as being, well, neighborly!

But I can offer a standing invitation to make amends. Not with a snowplow but by recognizing the truth about the Trump administration and, more important, by working for justice for all those whom the administration harmed. Only when we work shoulder to shoulder to repair the damage of the last four years will we even begin to dig out of this storm.

So, she is considering ‘thanking’ her neighbors by lecturing to them that they were oh-so-wrong to have supported President Trump, and she thinks that will somehow get them to see everything her way, and move into sweetness and light?

It never seems to occur to her that her Trump-supporting neighbors might see the next four years as what will lead to damage, not the previous four.

Her neighbors do something nice for her, and her proposed response is to piss on their legs, but then politely tell them that it’s just raining. Her neighbors just did something nice for her, and she thinks she should take them some nice brownies . . . made with Ex-lax.

Conservatives have called it #TrumpDerangementSyndrome, and Miss Heffernan certainly seems to have it. Donald Trump is gone now, out of office, and unlikely to ever return; even if he wants to run again in 2024, he’ll be 78 years old.

But Mr Trump lives on, living rent free in the heads of the left. The Democrats have gone ahead and impeached a President who is already out of office, and pushing ahead even while knowing that there will not be enough votes to convict him. The Democrats are calling him the first twice-impeached President; it won’t be long before he will be the first twice acquitted President.

References

References
↑1 On July 4, 2010, I needed to paint the fence between our two yards, something which involved me going into their back yard. When I knocked on the door, to ask permission, with white paint obvious on me, one of them answered, herself holding a roller with red paint. She said, “Well, you have white, I have red, maybe we can go paint Jen blue.” I knew she was joking, as they were but half my age, but I was so surprised that I mumbled something that essentially said no.
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A Futile and Stupid Gesture

One of the great lines from the movie Animal House was Eric “Otter” Stratton’s, after all of the fraternity Delta Tau Chi members had been expelled, and their draft boards notified that they were all now 1-A and eligible for conscription, “I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part.”

And so we come to my alma mater, the University of Kentucky, and Sigma Alpha Epsilon. ΣΑΕ was already in trouble with the University for violating COVID-19 protocols and, Heaven forfend! drinking alcohol.

Double Secret Probation . . . .

From the Kentucky Kernel:

Fraternity suspension linked to burglary investigation, parties

Natalie Parks | January 31, 2021 | Updated: February 1, 2021

Documents from Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s student conduct hearing reveal new details in the fraternity’s suspension, including members’ involvement in a burglary case and violations of COVID-19 protocol that the hearing committee said showed “an extreme disregard for human life.”

SAE’s student organization status was revoked in December following a student conduct hearing and appeals process.

According to an initial incident report, fraternity members broke into a Lexington house in September and were confronted by police. In emails obtained by the Kernel through an open records request, University of Kentucky administrators called the incident “pretty severe.”

UK police said the conflict began over a rental dispute. The house involved was owned by the mother of an SAE member and rented by a redacted individual.

“SAE members claimed that [redacted] told the landlord that they were SAE so that they could rent the house, and upon finding this out, SAE members told the landlord. [Redacted] claimed that SAE was upset that they attempted to rent the house when SAE’s lease was in limbo,” said the incident report, submitted to the acting director of the Office of Student Conduct on Sept. 25, 2020.

The report describes the following conflict as a “large physical altercation involving UK [redacted].”

At 2:30 a.m. on Sept. 25, 30 – 40 SAE members entered the house by breaking a window and knocking down a door while “allegedly armed with golf clubs and other dangerous instruments.” Blood would be found inside, and various items damaged.

8 – 10 residents were inside and cornered by SAE members.

“SAE members broke a TV, threw beer bottles, and cornered [redacted] in the house, making threats and pushing/shoving,” the report reads. When Lexington police arrived, SAE members fled to another house where they barricaded themselves inside and refused to open the door.

My younger daughter, an Army veteran and IT professional, told me about this one, so I just had to share it!

Looks like it’s time to watch Animal House again!