Started on Wednesday and finishing up on Saturday morning

Troy Balderson, a Republican and Danny O'Connor, a Democrat are facing off in a special election for the Ohio 12th Congressional district seat in the House of Representatives.  As I write this, 99% of precincts have reported and Balderson holds a slim lead of 1,754 votes.  Joe Manchik, the Green party candidate has received 1,127 votes at this point in time.

Balderson - 101,574 votes

O'Connor - 99,820 votes

Manchik - 1,127 votes

Bear in mind that there are almost 8,500 ballots yet to be counted.  This race is too close to call at this point.

I, like a lot of people, wanted Mr. O'Connor to win.  This is a race to replace Pat Tiberi, who resigned to take a private sector job in January.  The media described his resignation as being due in part to "frustration."  He'd held the seat since 2001 following his election to replace John Kasich.  It should be noted that the Ohio 12th Congressional seat has been held by a Republican since 1938, with the exception of the years 1981 and 1982.

Here are a few things that are interesting about this race.  Back in 2016, Mr Tiberi defeated his Democratic opponent by a wide margin.  251,266 votes to only 112,638.  Compare those numbers to tonight's figures.  Republican turnout for this special election is less than half of what it was in November of 2016.  Contrarily, Democratic turnout for the special election was over 88% of what it was in November of 2016.  It also must be noted that unlike a lot of the districts where Democrats have the best shots at unseating Republicans in November, this is a district with less of an urban population footprint.  

Did the Green party votes cost Mr. O'Connor victory?  We won't know until the final count is in.  Were some of those votes from Republicans who wouldn't vote for Mr. Balderson but also couldn't cross party lines?  Possibly.  Personally I would like to see the Green party abstain from running any candidates in November, so as not to siphon off votes from Democratic candidates.  That isn't realistic though.

If Mr. Balderson winds up winning, it is a pyrrhic victory at best.  He will have to face off for this seat again in November, probably against Mr. O'Connor.  

* * *

Vasillios Pistolis was a Lance Corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps.  He has been administratively separated from the service.  The characterization of his discharge (Honorable, General or Under Than Honorable Conditions) was not disclosed.  He also spent 28 days in the brig prior to be booted out of the service.

His offense?  He took part in the Charlottesville, VA "Unite the Right" rally last August and allegedly bragged on social media about how he "cracked skulls" while there.  Two other Marines were discharged last year for their alleged ties to white supremacist groups.

All of the branches of the military have issued directives prohibiting participation in "hate groups" in one way or another.

This issue runs a lot deeper than these few anecdotal examples, and bears further scrutiny.

On a related note, active-duty personnel are not supposed to take part in partisan political activity.

* * *

Delta Gamma is a sorority that was founded back in 1873.  It did not establish a chapter at Harvard University until 1994.  Now, that chapter will be disbanded, by a vote of the chapter's members.  Why did they do this?  Because of an edict from the university that requires ALL single-gender organizations on campus to either go co-ed; or lose the opportunity for members of those organizations to hold campus leadership positions.  The members of those single-gender organizations would also lose the endorsement of the university in applying for post-graduate fellowships.

Some of the members of Delta Gamma's chapter at Harvard will be forming a new co-ed social group, called Kali Praxi.

I get the desire to strive for real equality that drove Harvard to implementing these policies.  Outside of the Greek communities on college campuses, requiring inclusion is a good thing.  But the Greek system of single-gender fraternities and sororities is a long-standing tradition.  While we hear all about hazing activities gone wrong, and extremely bad behavior by a few, what these organizations do is mostly to better the world in which we live.  I don't have a problem with giving fraternities and sororities an exception to this policy.

* * *

John 8:32 may say "...the truth shall set you free" but that doesn't seem to be the case for Doctor Ricardo Quarrie.  He was a cardiothoracic fellow at Yale New Haven Hospital when he was accused of lying to a patient.  The accusation was made by attorney Joel Faxon who was representing Deborah Craven.  Ms Craven was the victim of what Yale New Haven admits was an error made during surgery.  They removed her seventh rib rather than her eighth rib as planned.

The accusations made by Mr. Faxon in the TV interview can be read here, along with his explanation of how he got it wrong, and his "complete retraction" of those statements

The problem is, you can't repair a person's reputation with a retraction.  When you Google Dr. Quarrie's name, the allegations show up at the top of the search results.  It is akin to newspapers blasting someone inaccurately on Page 1 and then printing their retraction and acknowledging their error on Page 42.  It's nice, but it doesn't accomplish much.

CNN reports that Dr. Quarrie is spending $900 a month for an online reputation company to try to repair the damage to his reputation.  Mr. Faxon should be bearing that expense, but Dr. Quarrie won't be suing him.  Agreeing not to sue was the price of obtaining the statement of retraction.

* * *