De peepuls has speakened

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As a bunch of folks found out yesterday, what a person says in public and what they do in private may be quite different things.

An interestingly shaped graph on this subject.

In Mississippi a "personhood" amendment was narrowly defeated. As I understand it, "personhood" is a benchmark set by the Supreme Court on abortion. SCOTUS has said no one has yet defined when a person becomes a person and so abortion is legal.

Mississippi got what it asked for.

I like that.

It may or may not be what the folks wanted.

I also like that.

The same thing happened in elections around the nation. People either voted or did not vote. They got what they asked for. In my state (of confusion mostly), we had no state-wide elections. Some regional and plenty of local issues. The people spoke. 


We had several local issues in my community. I was not the only person surprised when the vote count was announced last night.

Two things did not surprise me.

1) As evidenced by the tallies announced at the precinct vote counts, a lot of people are also liars.

2) Voters are like the mislabeled and apocryphal lemming.

On point 1 - I have dealt with enough people for so long that I rarely trust what I am told by a person. There are elected officials in my county who have stood and said to my face "I will do this" and when it comes time to vote in the board meeting, they do the exact opposite.

Details matter.

"A double minded man is unstable in all his ways," the Bible tells us. Thar's truth in them thar proverbs!

Frankly, I'm used to be lied to. I watch people and see what they do. Then I know how to take what they tell me.

By and large I expect people running for office to lie.

Their lies may be intentional or may be unintentional. An unintentional lie is one uttered when the person speaking doesn't have enough information to appropriately speak. This latter is more the more common lie.

Cynical of me? I prefer to think of myself as pragmatic. I expect them to lie. I plan for this eventuality.

On point 2 - The apocryphal lemming (Phread) charges the cliff and plunges to the sea to drown. Hordes of other lemmings, seeing Phread hauling lemming butt suddenly believe he's on to something and if they don't get with it, they're gonna lose out.

Sharks win!

The lemming instinct is easier. "Let someone do the thinking. We shall blindly follow. For the leader must know what he's doing, because he has immaculately styled hair and that's always the mark quality.

"HEY! Where'd he go? AFTER HIM!"

In my community, especially in one of the local races, lemmings ruled. I expect them to continue to have their way and then complain massively and vigorously when they get their way.

It's easier to complain than think.

In another local decision, Sunday alcohol sales, the referendum passed by 6 votes.

Six votes in an election that had 1,028 votes cast, neither side has a mandate. Today, I guarantee several people are smacking themselves in the head and saying "Why didn't I go vote?"

Commentary made.

With the elections (except for the runoffs) over, the people indeed have spoken, but what did they say?

As best I can figure the people have said "We don't know. We don't want to know and if you try to tell us, then you are harassing us and so you must be wrong. But we reserve the right lie about it and the right to complain when we get what we asked for. We is de peepul and we has speakened."