Outright violation of inherent, inalienable rights? Yes.

But do note: this is nothing new, really. *sigh* Doncha know, constitutional “protections” of rights are merely suggestions? And with the Great Toilet Paper Panic of 2020, now that the Constitution is now seen as simply a convenient substitute for TP by governments throughout the land, such quaint, outmoded ideas as “inherent rights” are simply to be dispensed with for convenience’s sake. This is nothing new, though. After all, when Newt Gingrich–that *cough* great defender of the Constitution *cough*–was reportedly asked a couple of decades ago whence the constitutional authority for the so-called “war on drugs” since the only constitutionally-authorized ban on the manufacture, import, distribution, sale and use of _A_ drug (alcohol–Volstead Act) had been mooted by the repeal of the 18th Amendment, Gingrich is reported to have replied simply, “It’s different now.”

Yep. The difference is that the Constitution is viewed as either a document to deliberately twist into saying what it does not (lies, damned lies, and political lies) or as TP with which to wipe one’s lips clean of fecal matter.

Affliction Becomes Benefit

Some folks are more prone than others to vertical ridges in fingernails as they age. Oh, anyone can experience them because of nutritional deficits or some physical malady, but mine are apparently age and genetics related. I can recall as a young boy times spent with my maternal grandfather’s mother. Spending time with Great Grandmother was an enriching experience for me in many ways, but one lil thing has remained fascinating to me over the years: her hands. She was always doing interesting things with her hands: needlework, paging down pages in her Bible as she read (sometimes aloud for me, though I was close and reading along), sharpening her always-at-hand pen knife, and even trimming her nails with that very sharp pen knife.

And then there were her nails. Yep. Ridged just like mine are now, like Dad-Dad’s (maternal grandfather) were, like my older sister’s are. I have dealt with mine by checking my nutrition (no problems there), by making them less brittle with applications of different kinds, and. . . by trimming them as short as possible in order to minimize the real problem with ridged nails: frequent splitting and chipping.

And how has this become a benefit in recent days? Ease of keeping things really clean under my fingernails (because there’s hardly any “under my fingernails” to clean, for one thing).

So, a lil piece of heritage coming around to being a benefit.

Sweet!