YOUR CLAIM TO EXPERT AUTHORITY IS UNDERMINED WHEN YOU DO OBVIOUSLY STUPID STUFF: Governments incur fury by banning safe activities during coronavirus lockdown.

If my sons were to sit on the banks of my local creek in Maryland and cast in a hooked worm, trying to catch a trout or a bass, it would be illegal, even though it has about a 0% chance of spreading the coronavirus. Fishing always requires distancing to avoid lines crossing, and on the average day my sons go fishing there, they see about zero other people.

I cleared a copse of bamboo from my backyard this week, and when I tried to drop it off at the county dump, I was told I wasn’t allowed to thanks to Maryland’s stay-at-home rules. I have much more bamboo than I can fit in all my bins/baskets/buckets, so I wanted to do a dump run today and use curbside pickup for the rest tomorrow. Not allowed.

Here’s the thing: Driving bamboo stalks from my house to Rockville and dumping it at a very, very spaced transfer station poses no possible risk of spreading the coronavirus. When I pressed the governor’s spokesman on this yesterday, he pointed to Gov. Larry Hogan’s stay-at-home order and its exemptions for “essential” activities.

(Had I instead hired a crew of gardeners to clear my bamboo, the state would have allowed them to dump it. I doubt this is safer.)

The problem is that the people running things aren’t very bright, and often have hidden agendas. The more you make those things clear, the less authority you have.