Althouse: Slate: "The protester who was arrested in Raleigh was charged because she, like everyone around her, had violated public health orders by flaunting social distancing measures."

April 18, 2020

Slate: "The protester who was arrested in Raleigh was charged because she, like everyone around her, had violated public health orders by flaunting social distancing measures."

I'm reading "What the People Organizing 'Reopen the Businesses' Protests Are Thinking/A movement started in part by small-business owners hoping to save their shops has spiraled into something much different" by Molly Olmstead in Slate, and I'd like to take instruction on what people the author doesn't like are really thinking but I got hung up on that one sentence.

I mean, how exactly would you "violated public health orders by flaunting social distancing measures"? Did the authorities forbid people go about proclaiming Whoa! Look at me! I am 6 feet away from everybody — at least! 6 feet, I tell you!! I am so appropriately distant! I am the Queen of Distance!?

Aside from that flaunt/flout gaffe, Olmstead says there are 2 different kinds of motivation for these protests — preserving local businesses and protecting personal freedom. The personal-freedom people tend to be more "stridently political," while the business-oriented folk are "more collaborative and conciliatory."

53 comments:

Laslo Spatula said...: 1. Put deplorables in their place by electing Hillary.

2. Put deplorables in their place by Russia-gate faux coup of the non-Hillary President.

3. Put deplorables in their place by impeaching 'their' President.

4. Put deplorables in their place by declaring emergency measures to take advantage of a crisis.

It seems like the river only goes one way.

Liberty: if you got it, flaunt it.

I am Laslo.; 4/18/20, 9:36 AM
Jersey Fled said...: Yep. Those personal freedom people sure are strident.; 4/18/20, 9:39 AM
cronus titan said...: Some Governors, like Whitmer in Michigan, are enjoying the power trip way too much. Most Governors have focused solely on the public health crisis and been responsible and restrained. Some, like Whitmer, are in over their heads and playing child politics. They see an opportunity to own people they do not like. Northam in Virginia is a special case -- no one takes him seriously and the only reason he still has a job is because the Lt. Governor had sexual assault allegations and the Attorney General has his own racist problem. Before the pandemic, he was just a punch line occupying space until the next election so it would not be a big deal. Well, now it is a big deal and Northam is trying to rebuild himself with virtue signalling on irrelevant issues.

The joke going around Virginia is that Northam takes the position that if an elderly person has COVID, they should be made comfortable on the table while the doctor and family member talk about what to do.; 4/18/20, 9:42 AM
Howard said...: Persecution complex much, Laslo Spatula? I thought all of you people were tuff bootstrappers, not a whining little bitch.

If Trump has taught us anything it's small minds think alike.; 4/18/20, 9:43 AM
Ken B said...: So when when CNN says Trump is “touting” chloroquine they really mean he is teasing it in a nasty way?; 4/18/20, 9:45 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: Ahhh, Howard.

Just mixing up the medicine, as it were.

I am Laslo.; 4/18/20, 9:45 AM
WK said...: Molly can read minds. She knows what they are thinking.

A good attorney could likely get the charge reduced from first degree flaunting to gathering with intent to congregate.; 4/18/20, 9:46 AM
Nichevo said...: Did the authorities forbid people go about proclaiming Whoa! Look at me! I am 6 feet away from everybody — at least! 6 feet, I tell you!! I am so appropriately distant! I am the Queen of Distance!?

Well, Ann, that would be you. The couple telling you to fly home was a natural reaction, and helpfully trying to keep you from the eye of authority. Evers would have no problem jailing you, dissenter that you sometimes are. And Ben Wikler wouldn't be coming to bail you out.; 4/18/20, 9:47 AM
Spiros said...: The police should start arresting "community organizers" who are going door-to-door organizing rent strikes. Some of these creeps are complaining that "people" who don't forgive rent and who don't rent vacant apartments during the outbreak are immoral. This is "typically Jewish behavior." Most of us are Greek or Italian or Indian. We're not Jewish. But at least, the motels are doing a brisk business as the soon to be homeless are locked out of affordable housing.

People. Stop the craziness. New York City has the most tenant friendly laws in the country. Half of its population lives in public housing and the other half pays $ 5,000 per month for sick, little apartments. New York City is routinely described as the "worst landlord" in the country.

And stop soliciting your landlords. They don't want to have sex with you in exchange for rent. What is wrong with you people. That is illegal!!!; 4/18/20, 9:48 AM
gilbar said...: So, Dad? What WAS it that finally started the disintegration of the old United States?

Well, you see dear; there was this flu like virus
HUH? what'd it DO? Kill LOTS of People?
Well, not really More than a regular year's flu; but this one: It made people CRAZY!
Crazy? You mean crazy enough to rebel against the United States?
NO! Crazy enough to make people WANT To Rebel against the United States
WOW! So, this Virus? IT Caused LEADERS to go insane?
Yep, and that's What started the War of Disintegration
So that Virus DID end up killing LOTS of people
Well, if you look at it that way...; 4/18/20, 9:48 AM
Nichevo said...: Howard said...
Persecution complex much, Laslo Spatula? I thought all of you people were tuff bootstrappers, not a whining little bitch.

If Trump has taught us anything it's small minds think alike.

4/18/20, 9:43 AM

I got your persecution complex right here:

https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript

In Congress, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.; 4/18/20, 9:55 AM
West Texas Intermediate Crude said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/18/20, 9:56 AM
Nichevo said...: ...

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

...; 4/18/20, 9:56 AM
Nichevo said...: He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

...; 4/18/20, 9:56 AM
JAORE said...: Pressure builds. The cork trembles.; 4/18/20, 9:57 AM
Nichevo said...: Wait wait Howard, this is the part with the whiny little bitches!
...

Georgia

Button Gwinnett

Lyman Hall

George Walton

North Carolina

William Hooper

Joseph Hewes

John Penn

South Carolina

Edward Rutledge

Thomas Heyward, Jr.

Thomas Lynch, Jr.

Arthur Middleton

Massachusetts

John Hancock

Maryland

Samuel Chase

William Paca

Thomas Stone

Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia

George Wythe

Richard Henry Lee

Thomas Jefferson

Benjamin Harrison

Thomas Nelson, Jr.

Francis Lightfoot Lee

Carter Braxton

Pennsylvania

Robert Morris

Benjamin Rush

Benjamin Franklin

John Morton

George Clymer

James Smith

George Taylor

James Wilson

George Ross

Delaware

Caesar Rodney

George Read

Thomas McKean

New York

William Floyd

Philip Livingston

Francis Lewis

Lewis Morris

New Jersey

Richard Stockton

John Witherspoon

Francis Hopkinson

John Hart

Abraham Clark

New Hampshire

Josiah Bartlett

William Whipple

Massachusetts

Samuel Adams

John Adams

Robert Treat Paine

Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island

Stephen Hopkins

William Ellery

Connecticut

Roger Sherman

Samuel Huntington

William Williams

Oliver Wolcott

New Hampshire

Matthew Thornton

...each of whom had chunks of guys like you in his stool.

Why'd you become a Marine again? To learn how to talk big?; 4/18/20, 9:57 AM
Howard said...: I'm sorry, Ann. I didn't realize I was going to set off a cyclonic brainstorm and one of your numbskulls.

I'm not a trump level troll but I do okay; 4/18/20, 10:05 AM
Nichevo said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/18/20, 10:06 AM
Howard said...: I think if protesters want to getsupport along with the wider population they would be wise to wear proper PPE including masks and disposable gloves I can be cleaned with disinfectant soap and water alcohol wipes etc.

the restart is all about maintaining social distance while decreasing social distance... It's What PPE is for; 4/18/20, 10:06 AM
Nichevo said...: Part of the troll aspect, Howie, is that the trolled be put to effort and trouble in his replies. Generally, you come easy.; 4/18/20, 10:07 AM
West Texas Intermediate Crude said...: It's April 18th.
Nobody still knows anything. We don't know how many people have the virus due to multiple and changing definitions. Hospitals get money from the Feds to diagnose a patient as virus-related. Guess what happens then?
We don't know that the social distancing rules that are being "flaunted" do any good either. Maybe an occasional mild dose of virus from sitting near a person with asymptomatic colonization will help a healthy person develop immunizing antibodies. There are no data on this, and the data we have on other aspects are garbage (see above).
Antibody studies are starting to show that a large plurality of ordinary folks have or have had asymptomatic colonization. What, if anything, to do about them? Nobody knows.
What we do know is that the hair-on-fire, flatten the curve hysteria of early March has turned out to be not even wrong, not even in NYC. Nobody has died for lack of a hospital bed, nobody has died for lack of a ventilator.
We're going to have ventilators coming out the wazoo when this is over, with nobody to ventilate.; 4/18/20, 10:08 AM
Nichevo said...: wear proper PPE including masks and disposable gloves I can be cleaned with disinfectant soap and water alcohol wipes etc.

Don't forget to wash your shoes. Seriously, you can/should wash and reuse nitrile gloves?; 4/18/20, 10:09 AM
Anthony said...: gilbar said...
So, Dad? What WAS it that finally started the disintegration of the old United States?

Well, you see dear; there was this flu like virus
HUH? what'd it DO? Kill LOTS of People?
Well, not really More than a regular year's flu; but this one: It made people CRAZY!

THAT'S IT! Clever virus. I knew it was different somehow. . . . .; 4/18/20, 10:10 AM
Fernandinande said...: Here's a picture of a flaunta.; 4/18/20, 10:10 AM
Drago said...: Not content with simply calling the Constitution of the US a racist document which established a nation that was illegitimate at its founding, Howard also decides that the Declaration of Independence is now also verboten to mention.

Yep. Those "elites" in Boston sure have Howard the Enlisted Marine trained and conditioned well.; 4/18/20, 10:11 AM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: A cop pulled me over for non-essential travel, and I said, “Look at me, I’m Mr. Copper Crime-Stopper pulling you over for driving on a public road!”, and he arrested me for impersonating a police officer.; 4/18/20, 10:18 AM
buwaya said...: Extremism works, over time.
Not for the extremists, normally, but for movement in the direction of their causes.
Conciliatory and reasonable people get somewhere only if there are scary bomb-throwers about, to make the other side interested in dealing with those reasonable sorts.

A lesson of history.

I am living in a region (a nation really) that is an interesting demonstration this. All those ETA gomados (plastic explosive attacks) achieved for these people the effective restoration of their fueros - local rights - that had been taken from them in the 19th century.; 4/18/20, 10:21 AM
Michael K said...: If Trump has taught us anything it's small minds think alike.

Howard, you might want to think about that again. I don't think it means what you think it means.

But then small minds must out themselves, I guess.; 4/18/20, 10:22 AM
buwaya said...: Consider all those 1960s and on manifestations in US universities, admin building takeovers, personal assaults, arson, hostile public gatherings, non-negotiable demands, and etc.

Tactically, futile, mostly. Arguably in the short term counterproductive. But strategically, over decades they were a massive success.; 4/18/20, 10:26 AM
Nichevo said...: Tactically, futile, mostly. Arguably in the short term counterproductive. But strategically, over decades they were a massive success.

Absolutely. Probe with bayonet: if you meet mush, advance. If you meet steel, withdraw.

Columbia University could have saved the world by a: expelling all the student protesters, and b: having the cops drag them out by their hair.; 4/18/20, 10:31 AM
Meade said...: That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

The original Safetyists!; 4/18/20, 10:32 AM
Lucien said...: Those who don’t know flaunt from flout should be made to run the gamut.; 4/18/20, 10:40 AM
Night Owl said...: I'm not a trump level troll but I do okay

(What a sad, sorry little child. Mistook him for a real person once. He's in the scroll-on-by category now.); 4/18/20, 10:42 AM
robother said...: Outlawing flaunting social distancing may be our only defense against the Covid Karens!; 4/18/20, 10:46 AM
reader said...: Maybe we should do a compare and contrast on the meaning of promote versus the meaning of secure - as in, “... promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty...”; 4/18/20, 10:47 AM
CJinPA said...: If non-progressives take to protesting like the Left has, it's a whole new ballgame.

Remember, the Left established the rule: the merits of the protest don't matter. All protests must be accommodated, tacitly encouraged and ultimately rewarded.; 4/18/20, 10:52 AM
Drago said...: Meade: "The original Safetyists!"

Establishing for themselves what safety means to them and how to achieve it...without being dictated to from above.

Sounds about right re:this growing protest movement.; 4/18/20, 10:58 AM
mikee said...: There is a one-step process available to all petty tyrants who need to get the pro-freedom mobs off their backs, but no petty tyrant will ever, ever, ever be able to guess what that simple step is.; 4/18/20, 11:04 AM
rcocean said...: Releasing criminals from jail, while arresting Honest citizens for nothing. Why do people put up with it?; 4/18/20, 11:10 AM
Fernandinande said...: ...their Safety and Happiness.
The original Safetyists!

WRT current events, it's largely cancelled by the next line:

"...Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes;"

Although the Government per se hasn't changed, its practice of shutting down businesses, etc, is a big change and the reason for it is light and transient.; 4/18/20, 11:28 AM
bagoh20 said...: "The original Safetyists!"

Of course they were demanding safety from oppressive government in particular. They were not declaring independence from disease or badger attack, becuase that's just as silly today as it was then. Not that such things are not presumed to be rights by some.; 4/18/20, 11:36 AM
n.n said...: Aerosol and Surface Distribution of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 in Hospital Wards, Wuhan, China, 2020

exposure risk was also present in the upstream area; on the basis of the positive detection result from site 3, the maximum transmission distance of SARS-CoV-2 aerosol might be 4 m.

A recent study implies a minimum social separation of 12 feet, which the precautionary principle suggests should be doubled.; 4/18/20, 12:08 PM
n.n said...: The original Safetyists!

You're an anti-Safetyist. Stay safe. Stay happy. Maintain a social separation of 24 feet.; 4/18/20, 12:10 PM
Achilles said...: Meade said...

The original Safetyists!

Meade still wants to exact his revenge it seems.

Some people are just not suited to live in a free country.; 4/18/20, 12:32 PM
JML said...: This business will get out of control...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZuMe5RvxPQ; 4/18/20, 12:45 PM
tcrosse said...: "Flout" rhymes with "tout", unless it's "tout le monde".; 4/18/20, 12:46 PM
Howard said...: Nitrile gloves wash better than your hands, no roughness. Remember, it's about stopping transfer from hand to mouth nose and eyes. You are not concerned about chemical absorbed through the gloves.

Also, reducing viral load is the main goal. No need going crazy to eliminate entirely.; 4/18/20, 1:03 PM
Howard said...: Yeah, this blog is totally worked up.; 4/18/20, 1:05 PM
Sebastian said...: "Meade still wants to exact his revenge it seems.

Vengeance was the exact term, I believe.

He always struck me as a reasonable guy with a sense of humor. Wonder if he'll take it back.

But far be it from me to suggest anyone in Meadehouse is ever wrong.; 4/18/20, 2:49 PM
Don said...: If we can be arrested for public health “rules,” we can be arrest for anything.; 4/18/20, 3:06 PM
narciso said...: In germany, they put a lawyer in a psychiatric facility, for writing a brief challenging the 'Enabling Act' so I don't think we're far off,; 4/18/20, 3:39 PM
Nichevo said...: Howard said...
Nitrile gloves wash better than your hands, no roughness. Remember, it's about stopping transfer from hand to mouth nose and eyes. You are not concerned about chemical absorbed through the gloves.

Also, reducing viral load is the main goal. No need going crazy to eliminate entirely.

4/18/20, 1:03 PM

Okay, Howard, for my sins I'm going to take you seriously today. I am not concerned for myself, but about transmission to elderly parents for whom I am caring. I'm not enough of an idiot to wash my shoes, but I have started having an indoor pair and an outdoor pair and switching at the door.

This is interesting. I can see-I was in Restaurant Depot Friday poking at some fish and my gloved hand came away slimy. There was a sink handy and I did rinse my hand. At which point either there was water in the glove or a wet sensation...whichever, it passed, fine.

Okay, but usually there is no sink. My general scenario is: drive to the venue. Exit the vehicle. Don bandana and gloves. Shop or whatever, return to vehicle, remove gloves, pull down mask, throw away gloves in car trash or site trash.

Are you saying I can as a practical matter collect and reuse those gloves? I don't intend to touch my car or steering wheel with gloves theoretically full of coronaboogerschnotz. I could however toss them all in a bag, bring home, clean (how? With what? How long?) them, hang to dry, reuse.

Is that what you're saying, or I should wear the gloves all day and wash gloved hands in store restrooms before leaving? Or use hand san before entering vehicle? This seems impractical. Or are you having me on again, that's fine.; 4/19/20, 1:18 AM
Martin said...: Maybe if the "vampire squid*" banks had given the SBA Paycheck Protection money to actual, you know, small businesses, instead of helping big businesses circumvent the rules, there wouldn't be so many of these protests.

* "Vampire Squid" is the wonderful term Matt Taibbi used to describe Goldman Sachs at the time of the 2007-08 meltdown.; 4/20/20, 12:25 AM