It's supposed to give you good luck if the first utterance of the first day of a new month is "Rabbit rabbit". (Of course this superstition originated at a time when your word processing app would not flag this phrase as a potential duplicated word error.) You may have a soft spot in your heart for small furry rodents but I have nothing but animosity for those hosta nibbling marigold destroyers. They have literally gnawed their way through my garden this season.
In other news...
Voting rights is a big issue these days. In Massachusetts, the Democratic heavy legislature is considering expanding voting access, including same-day registration. I am a fan of voting rights, but I am also a fan of free and fair elections. The country is torn by division on voting rights. If I were Emperor, my rule on voting rights would go something like this: 1. Since only citizens can vote in national elections, proof of citizenship must be shown at the time of registration, and proof of identity would be required at the physical polling places. Proof of residency is not proof of eligibility. Automatic voter registration would be banned. All ballots and election materials will be printed in English, since all naturalized citizens would be required to read and understand English.
Brady is back. The so-called GOAT and his fellow turncoat Gronkowski will be playing the Patriots on Sunday night. The hype around the confrontation between Brady and Pats coach Belichick has reached fever pitch. Brady and Gronk are dead to me. I will watch the game, hoping that the new young quarterback Mac Jones has an awesome night. I decry the current adulation of individual personalities in sports rather than recognizing and promoting team efforts.
Fall is here. The tomato plants have been chopped down, the basil's gone by, the garden is looking sad and tired. The two experimental cannabis plants are bent under the weight of ripening buds. I have begun harvesting some of the most mature limbs, which have split from the main stalk. There is a rather labor intensive process for drying and "curing" the buds. I am really unsure about what I will do with the end product. I haven't smoked a joint since the "Abby Road" album, back in the early 70's. Maybe edibles? Stay tuned.
5 comments:
Well, we are fortunate that you are not Emperor, at least as far as voting rights goes. (If you wanted to ban all executions, though, that would be another story.) I place your voter prescriptions in the category of Libertarian think, i.e., on first hearing it all sounds reasonable, but scratch a centimeter below the surface it becomes clear that it is oblivious to how things work in the real world. What you propose would, in fact, exclude many Americans who do not fit into the "white, middle-class, suburban" box. A more inclusive voting regime would engender easy-to-use processes (like automatic voter registration)to increase participation, not circumscribe it. For instance, the widespread use of mail-in ballots spurred by the pandemic increased voter participation significantly, which rid us of DJT, thank god (although it may be a temporary victory as voter suppression bills are enacted across the country). Remember, almost no voter fraud has been identified from the expansion of voting in the 2020 election. You are trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist. On another note, Belichick drove Brady out of town; that's where to focus your enmity. Do you also despise Mookie? Oh, BTW, call me when the brownies are fully baked!
How come no one thinks verifying citizenship in order to register to vote in national elections is important? I do not support increasing voter registration for people who can't read, or who are not eligible.
Again, virtually no voter fraud was uncovered in the last election, so current registration laws must not be so easy to evade. Don't mess with something that ain't broke (unless you want to expand participation with same-day and/or automatic registration). I think blind citizens may take exception to your reading requirement, as might my grandfather who read Yiddish newspapers - or does that count as being able to read? And no one is suggesting registering ineligible people. You must be watching too much Fox News - or talking to George - to trot out this misdirection tactic. BTW: the only fraud that I heard of was people voting using their dead parent's mail-in ballot ... to vote for Trump!
Thank you for clearly repeating your position for those who might not have read your original comment. Your Grandfather needs to learn English to understand what is pertinent to elections. Blind people are well accommodated, if they can prove citizenship. Ineligible people are automatically included in automatic registration. Do you agree that only citizens should be registered to vote in national elections?
My grandfather listened to the radio and was more informed than many who could read English (which, by the way, is not the official language of the US and is, therefore, not an appropriate voting requirement), but rarely did. As soon as you mandate people have "pertinent" info in order to vote, the politicians in power will define what is pertinent. Would you be comfortable if Trump mandated all voters must know the details of his many conspiracy theories when registering? A slippery slope, my friend.
Although some advocate for allowing certain non-citizens to vote, I have not been convinced that that is a wise thing to do.
Finally, you can have auto registration and restrict it to eligible citizens only. But If you let a few ineligible people in, but also millions of eligible folks, I'd say that's an acceptable trade-off.
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