Just last week I ranted — and yes, it was a rant so I won’t try to make it sound pretty. Well, maybe rant is prettying it up . . . okay, I whined about the newest sensation in American fairness — cumulative voting.
If you didn’t read it (shame on you), the gist was this. In the town of Port Chester, N.Y., some voters were able to vote up to six times for one candidate. You had to be Hispanic to get the voting bonanza privilege. I was appalled and clearly stated my case as a highly trained and professional scribe can do.
End of story . . . until I received this e-mail from a reader called Rob Richie.
‘Don, As an FYI, everyone in Port Chester already had six votes to cast for their six seats. The only change was to allow everyone the opportunity to allocate votes as they wish. A majority of all voters ? including a majority of white voters ? gave more than one vote to a candidate.
‘Why force people to vote for six different people when many would prefer to focus their votes on fewer than six people??
I don’t know — one man, one vote, one issue/candidate seems like a good reason, though. Thanks for reading, Richie.
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I am sure everybody thought I was being an alarmist when I rang Don’s Official Bell of Fear last month. To jog your memory, I let everyone know there’s a new mosquito virus in town and it’s a dandy — if only because of it’s name: Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE for those like me who can’t put together that many syllables in a single spoken sentence.).
Well, I wasn’t just being true to my yellow journalist tendencies. This past Friday, the Michigan Department of Community Health confirmed two EEE cases. In a press release the state stated, ‘A 61-year-old man is home recovering from the illness while a 41-year-old man is in intensive care in a Kalamazoo County hospital. Both human cases have a history of local exposure to mosquitoes. These are the first human cases reported in Michigan since 2002. No further details about the two cases are being released.?
First, that is very rude of the state to whet our appetite for sensational news, then slam the door shut on the juicy details.
Two, ‘na-nee-na-nee-poo-poo? I am not just an alarmist. I was correct to let you all know what could be flying around you . . because, well there are more than a few equine-type critters in these parts.
Three, according to the state, EEE is one of the most dangerous mosquito-borne diseases in the U.S., killing one third of those hospitalized with the infection, and often leaving survivors with lasting brain damage.
Four, 18 horses in the state have tested positive. If you have a horse, signs horses are infected include depression, fever, weakness, sweating, dehydration, seizures, abnormal facial expressions, not feeding, head down, stumbling, blindness and circling. Often, the horse is down and unable to get up. Get your ponies vaccinated.
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The other week I ranted (okay, if you must, whined) about the City of the Village of Clarkston’s stupid name and how badly they have bungled many things. To let folks who don’t live in Clarkston know, a petition will start going around to dissolve the city.
I’m all for this . . . I like Independence Township resident Dan Kelly’s idea to dissolve the city and change the name of the township to Clarkston (thus matching the school district and post office designation). This is the perfect time to get rid of government duplication and to bust up community fiefdoms. Kelly made this suggestion about five years ago.
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Something new . . . how unfortunate that there are those among us who do not want the citizenry to take an active role in their government. Just last Friday, Oakland County Clerk Ruth Johnson uncovered apparent evidence of fraud involving the so-called ‘Fake? Tea Party and one of its candidates.
Apparently, there is an effort across the nation to have people get on ballot as a members of the ‘Tea? Party. The idea being folks who attend Tea Party gatherings will cast their lots with the fake Tea Party candidates, taking away votes from Republican candidates during this November election. (Think what Ross Perrot did to George ‘The Dad? Bush in 1992).
Divide and conquer is the strategy. Machiavellian is the philosophy. Crappy is the word.