Galveston County Judge Mark Henry says the county won't follow in Harris County's footsteps regarding the closure of bars and restaurants. Henry says the order is "illegal," and is not something he is contemplating. [More]This is a tangentially-related expansion of a conversation I attempted to start yesterday, and also extends to the Bay Area closure of "nonessential" businesses, including, evidently, gun stores. (Speaking of which, I am informed there are no SF gun stores, but that's beside the point as the story I linked to said "6 counties," and there are plenty of stores there.)
Add to that objections I am seeing elsewhere about tyrannical abridgement of the right to peaceful assembly, and we have a situation where that old cop-out, "agreeing to disagree," won't cut it.
At what point am I contagious and dangerous enough to justify you shooting me if I come any closer?
I'm sure some would say "Right now" just over ideology.
I invite relevant insights.
[Via Jess]
The rules incorporated into our founding documents were never intended to map out what we must do in every possible scenario. The founders intended for us to use our wits and common sense to thread in between their guidelines and our reality. Sometimes it works better than others. But they were also well aware of the flaws in the plan.
ReplyDelete"But should the people of America once become capable of that deep simulation towards one another, and towards foreign nations, which assumes the language of justice and moderation, while it is practising iniquity and extravagance, and displays in the most captivating manner the charming pictures of candour, frankness, and sincerity, while it is rioting in the rapine and insolence, this country will be the most miserable habitation in the world. Because we have no government armed with the power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, and licentiousness would break the strongest cords of our Constitution, as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." -- John Adams
"But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself." -- Federalist 51 (probably Hamilton or Madison)