View from the North 40: A news roundup to start the month

When life gives you hard news, read here for the soft and fluffy stuff.

Things get crazy in the capitol

In the nation’s capitol at the end of November Gavin Clarkson, a New Mexico resident, and his fiancee had their request for a marriage license declined by a clerk in the District of Columbia Courts Marriage Bureau.

The Associated Press reports that after Clarkson requested the license and showed the clerk his up-to-date New Mexico driver’s license, the clerk informed Clarkson he would need his international passport to receive said license.

Apparently the clerk didn’t care how much renovation Mexico had completed to earn the title of “New” Mexico, the clerk was determined to be the human wall shielding America from a foreign national.

Because Clarkson insisted that New Mexico is, in fact, one of the 50 states of these United States, the clerk took his request to her supervisor, who immediately acknowledged that, yes, as a foreign national Clarkson was required to provide proof of identity with his passport.

It’s unclear why no one was able to pull up Google Maps on their smart phone to show the courts clerk cartographical proof that New Mexico is a state.

On the other hand, the clerk did listen to Clarkson’s repeated appeal for recognition of New Mexico’s statehood, and she was further swayed by the laughter from the other couples waiting in the office, so Clarkson and his then-fiancee, Marina, finally received their marriage license and an apology from the office.

The real irony here is threefold: 1) Clarkson was already stinging from his Nov. 6 loss in his bid for New Mexico secretary of state as the Republican candidate. 2) He’s an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation, and told reporters that he might’ve had better luck had he shown his tribal I.D. And 3) Clarkson’s newly-wed wife told reporters that the clerk was complimenting Clarkson for his grasp of the English language, but she’s the one with the accent. Marina immigrated, legally, to the U.S. from Argentina in the 1990s, before becoming a naturalized citizen.

Lutefisk is dead, long live lefse

Faith Lutheran Church of Forest Lake, Minnesota, has officially announced the death of their annual Lutefisk Dinner. The church’s pastor, Rev. John Klawiter, wrote an obituary parody to acknowledge the passing of the event that had been dying a slow death. He listed area lutefisk dinners still being held as survivors.

I would put forth lefse as the new queen of Norwegian-American foods.

Nothing more to add. I just wanted to give everyone hope that our world is headed in the proper direction.

If you need more hope …

Government leader in the making

Nine-year-old Dane Best of Severance, Colorado, addressed his local leaders in a town board meeting to strike a law from city ordinance that outlawed snowballs.

Kyle Rietkerk, assistant to the Severance town administrator, told The Associated Press that snowballs were classified as “missiles” in an ordinance that made it illegal to throw or shoot stones or missiles at people, animals, buildings, trees, any other public or private property or vehicles.

In his fight against this antiquated and nonsensical law, Dane inspired his classmates to write letters in support of overturning the ban, and he pleaded their case before the town board.

The board then voted to exclude snowballs from the list of killer projectiles, honoring their importance in social activities of children and playful adults everywhere.

Dane Best for president 2048. He just makes sense.

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And I like his priorities at http://www.facebook.com/viewfromthenorth40.com/.