I now declare all bowling alleys shall have 8 pins instead of 10

Indianapolis/Marion County released new Covid rules effective Monday. Like many of the pandemic edicts, these are rooted in neither scientific facts nor common sense.

I will concede the pandemic is real and that we should all wear masks for the sake of argument. You can harbor your own opinions and that is not the subject of this post, rather I want to examine the capricious and nonsensical orders themselves.

Restaurants may now have eighty percent capacity for indoor dining. Is that eighty percent based on a real scientific study or just a “We can’t let just everybody in” mentality? 

Bars can only have 25% capacity. Can anyone explain the difference between six people sitting at a table eating and possibly drinking a beer in a restaurant and six people sitting around a table and drinking a beer in a bar? Is there something special about a bar that makes the virus more virulent? And live music is banned. I guess music makes the germs excited and more likely to breed and infect innocent youth? Now rock and roll not only leads to teen pregnancy like your great-grandparents claimed, but will make us sick? Seriously? Are there any facts behind these edicts at all? 

Just winging it is not an recipe for economic success. Want to know why downtown Indianapolis is empty? Look no further than Mayor Hogsett’s rules. Feelings are not how reasonable people govern. 

Some will argue that people sit around for hours in a bar, while a restaurant is turning tables regularly. I would argue that filling the tables with new guests increases the exposure for everyone - staff and other customers, compared to groups who are more static. 

I’m not going to a bar anyway. I didn’t pre-pandemic. I just don’t understand the logic behind the rules. If I owned a bar in Indianapolis I would be on be phone with the Mayor demanding answers. “Because I said so” might work with your four year-old. I do not believe it should suffice with the taxpayers.