The effort today to mislabel suppressing votes from minorities, which has turned states like Georgia and Arizona into Democrat states, as "voter integrity laws" is no more valid than the argument that the Civil War was about "states rights" and not about protecting slavery as an institution.
P.S.
New York Times article on the history of restricting voting methods.
The Columbia Mall (OK, I know technically it is the Mall in Columbia) has gone through a number of changes since it first opened. More of its features are outside of the main mall building. With a movie complex and restaurants behind the Mall, many of the people parked in the parking lot are not in the Mall. Some of the anchor department stores are no more. Now the Lidl grocery store will be an anchor where the Sears store once was. It remains to be seen if this type of change will make the Mall more viable in a time of online shopping.
P.S,
The Mall will soon be a mass vaccination center.
#hocoblogs
As we move to reopen our country the possibility of issuing vaccination passports is following the pattern of a cultural divide just as mask-wearing has been. Those conservatives that have been reluctant to mandate masks are now opposing issuing of passports to persons who are fully vaccinated. Government control is seen as too much "big government" even as it provides a means of opening up our economy. Other countries like South Korea don't seem to have the same hesitancy to developing the passports as they once developed a national testing program that has reduced the impact of the virus in their country.
While the Biden administration has not indicated planning a national passport program it seems as if the private business community will develop their own systems. Our country hasn't apparently learned the lesson that uncoordinated systems have a poor chance of addressing the spread of the virus. Our fear of "big government" in a pandemic has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths in the United States. The role of government in placing the needs of our broader society above our individual freedoms is at the heart of our political divisions today. Vaccine passports are only the latest example of that cultural and political division.
Texas Association of Funeral Directors has recently come out with strong support of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's action lifting of the mask mandate and opening up Texas. Concern within the Association that there would be a drop in business with the development of the vaccines was lessened as Abbott's pro-business philosophy extended to funeral homes. Some Texas funeral homes are running a limited-time sale (until the end of the pandemic) of 50% off for all preplanned funeral contracts. As one funeral director said, "Act now before Texas starts electing those damn pro-life Democrats!"
P.S.
Not to be outdone the Texas branch of the National Rifle Association has been urging Gov. Abbott to sign legislation requiring every Texas resident over the age of 12 to be the owner of at least one gun. Anyone refusing to obey the gun law will be required to relocate to that liberal haven of Austin, which isn't part of the real Texas.
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