Not Sour Grapes At All

The World Net Daily is so far over the edge you sometimes wonder if it isn't a bunch of lefties trying to make fun of conservatives, something like The Onion. Nobody really thinks that way, do they? Just when you start laughing out loud, though, you realize that yes, there are people who think it's for real.

It will not surprise you to learn that WND is not enthusiastic about the court's ruling yesterday.

See, the judges threw out the referendum because there weren't enough petition signatures. They needed five percent of registered voters. There were enough if you only counted active voters in the denominator of the percentage, but not if you counted all registered voters, as required by law. Here's how you become inactive: you don't vote in the last two general elections, and then they send you a letter to see if you're still here, and if you don't respond to that they call you inactive. You're still registered, you can walk in and vote during an election, but administratively I think it makes it easier for the Board to focus their attention on active voters.

More than two hundred inactive voters signed the petitions to relegalize gender identity discrimination. The World Net Daily has a great idea for spinning this, they would like you to believe all of them were dead.

Maryland's highest court has endorsed Montgomery County's plans for coed restrooms and showers, concluding that a challenge to the new law had to fail because there were not enough signatures on the referendum petitions to represent dead voters.

Opponents of the law say they are reviewing their options for continuing their challenge to the extraordinary law that essentially leaves private homes and private clubs as the only locations where a person would not have the "right" to use the restroom or shower room designated for whatever gender that person feels on that given day.

"The court's ruling today is a loss for democracy, a loss for Montgomery County and a loss for common sense," said Dr. Ruth Jacobs, president of Maryland Citizens for a Responsible Government. How dead voters lead to mandatory coed restrooms: Court says challenge to 'discrimination' ban failed because dead voters not represented

An interesting fact came out in one of the Circuit Court hearings over the summer. Montgomery County might have an unusually high number of inactive voters because voting status is affected only by participation in general and not primary elections. This county is so Blue that whoever wins the Democratic primary election automatically wins the general election, too -- there are zero Republicans in elected positions in Montgomery County now. None. So lots of people don't even bother with the general elections, they only vote in the primaries.

Here's what the CRW's Ruth Jacobs told the WND:

"Amazingly, Equality Maryland demanded that inactive voters who have likely died or moved out of state be considered in the calculation to determine the number of valid signatures needed. This simply demonstrates that they will go to any lengths to prevent living, breathing county residents from determining public policy," Jacobs said.

Equality Maryland sued to have the Board of Elections follow the law -- the law of the land says you need five percent of registered voters, including active and inactive. This has already all been fought out in court cases, there is no question, the lawyers on both sides cited all kinds of precedents that had nothing to do with Equality Maryland. The law says registered voters, and inactive voters are registered. Maybe some have moved away or died, I don't know, the Citizens for a Responsible Whatever didn't complain when the county counted inactive voters' signatures on their petitions, they just didn't think it was fair to include them in figuring out how many signatures they needed.

Unless, do you think? Maybe two-hundred-something dead people signed the petitions. Maybe this explains it, the heartlessness, the brainlessness -- the shower-nuts are zombies! Aaaaa, run for your life, everybody!!!

Oddly, this article includes the famous eight-second videotape of Dana Beyer informing some signature-getters that they were going to be asked to leave the Giant store where they were set up, it says she was "apparently trying to intimidate" them. In the video the petition people don't seem to notice her.

This WND article amounts to a caricature of a caricature. Look at that first sentence: this Maryland's highest court has endorsed Montgomery County's plans for coed restrooms and showers ... You tell me that isn't some dirty hippies making fun of the conservatives. How could anybody be like that for real?