QUARANTINE BLOG # 217

November 2, 2020

In QB 212 I talked about the odds of someone winning the lottery twice with the same numbers.  One of our readers made a suggestion.  Here is my response https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qZebIBKqkc.

👉 Tomorrow is election day (vote early, vote often).  The following comic strip, Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant, has an important message about “demokratia” (democracy).  Read closely the next to last panel.

And Maeve talks to Arn, who is the threat to Rory, and after Arn sleeps on the couch, he sees the error of his ways.  If elections were only that simple.

👉  One more pre-election piece.  After the results of the election are counted, there will be a lot of discussion – there always is – about the popular vote and the Electoral College.  Here is a piece (actually selections from the whole article, because the original dealt with the 2016 election of Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton) written by Jeff Jacoby for the Boston Globe, November 15, 2016, titled, In Defense of the Electoral College.

“The Constitution is indifferent to national popular voting trends. This is a nation made up of states, not the undifferentiated population as a whole. Those states have different political, economic, and cultural interests — Massachusetts and Arkansas are not interchangeable — and the Founders designed a federal system that respects each state’s identity and autonomy. The Electoral College, as part of that system, ensures that voters in a handful of densely populated urban regions cannot hand the presidency to a candidate that a significant majority of the states oppose.

“Remember, it was the states that created the national government. That’s why it takes a consensus of the states, not merely a popular majority, to elect a president or amend the Constitution. That’s why we have a Senate, in which states, not voters, are equal — and why that undemocratic Senate is empowered to ratify treaties, confirm judges, and try cases of impeachment.

“The American presidency isn’t won by amassing raw votes. The Constitution was crafted to thwart pure majoritarianism, which the Founders knew was apt to lead to a tyranny of the masses. In the immediate aftermath of a bitter campaign, the losing side can be forgiven for not rushing to extol the virtues of the Electoral College. But its virtues are considerable. No one becomes president without commanding the support of many states. It’s no guarantee of presidential wisdom, courage, or honesty. But it does confer constitutional and political legitimacy. In a nation as polarized and diverse as ours, that’s no small thing.”

👉  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Friday the resumption of cruise ship operations in U.S. waters (Hallelujah), but it will be some time before passengers can actually board them again (Oh darn).  The CDC’s “Framework for Conditional Sailing Order” doesn’t say exactly when passengers will be allowed to board cruise ships again, but it does give a “framework of actionable items” that cruise lines should follow.  

“During the initial phases, cruise ship operators must demonstrate adherence to testing, quarantine and isolation, and social distancing requirements to protect crew members while they build the laboratory capacity needed to test crew and future passengers,” the CDC said.  Then, cruise ship operators will have to prove their ability to reduce the risk of the spread of the virus by operating mock voyages with volunteers pretending to be passengers.  I wonder if they will need mock special interest lecturers?

👉  I just threw up in my mouth.  Actually, I did it several days ago when I read the following piece, published by yahoo.com.  In case you had any doubt, politically correctness is out of control.  This is just the latest example.

The Girl Scouts organization tweeted congratulations to newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.  And then deleted it.

The offending tweet?  “Congratulations Amy Coney Barrett on becoming the 5th  woman appointed to the Supreme Court since its inception in 1789,” the since-deleted tweet read alongside an image of Barrett and the four other justices who came before her: Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan.  That’s it!

One Twitter response from Kendall Brown: “I’ve got to say, as a queer, disabled, lifelong Girl Scout, this bums me out hard.  This isn’t about partisanship, it’s about what Amy Coney Barrett’s place will mean on the court for MILLIONS of Girl Scouts – namely, losing our rights and having our lives jeopardized” (emphasis in the original).

The Girl Scouts clarified that it was “not our intent” for the tweet to be viewed as a “political and partisan statement,” explaining that it is a “nonpolitical, nonpartisan organization.”  Well then, why did you take it down?

As my stomach turns, I write: We are heading for a new outbreak of the Dark Ages when no one can express an opinion of any kind without someone objecting, and the original expressor is forced to back down, when principles are only as strong as the resistance to the latest protest against them.  Many years ago I remarked that when Edward Gibbons’ The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is updated to The History of the Decline and Fall of American Civilization, Chapter One will be about social media (with large footnotes about the 24 hour news cycle, rushing to say something, even though they have no idea if it is true or not, and then rarely, if ever, saying, “We were wrong”).

👉  A couple of chuckles before we close:

👉  Today’s close is from “Weekly Verses:”

“I urge, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone – for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness” (1 Timothy 2:1-2 NIV).

God wants us to be a praying people.  But more than that, God wants us to pray for people.  The blessing of that kind of prayerful life is that we get to live peaceful and quiet lives full of godliness and holiness.  So pray, dear friend in Jesus, pray as if world peace depends upon it, because it does!

Majestic and Holy God, your greatness is beyond my mind to grasp, but your grace reaches me and teaches in a new way each day.  Forgive me when my prayer life has not been passionate.  Forgive me for letting my prayers focus only on what is wrong.  Use your Spirit, O God, to ignite a hunger in my soul so that I come to find satisfaction only in you and your presence.  Through Jesus Christ I pray.  Amen. 

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