If Boolie and Teddy were living in Arkansas, they could have been eloping.

Ben and I arrived at day care yesterday evening to pick up the kids, and it turned out Julia had herself a little adventure during the day. She’s just turned two, but has figured out how to open the day care lady’s front door. And the front gate. So, while the day care lady was making lunch, she got her little boyfriend, two-year-old Teddy, and led him out the front door. And down the lawn. AND ACROSS THE STREET.

The fine legislative body of the great state of Arkansas is debating whether being pregant or not is a technicality. They recently passed a law…

It authorized women “not pregnant” to obtain parental consent to marry. That would remove from Arkansas law any minimum marriage age, allowing even infants to marry if their parents OK it.

Well that’s not what I was thinking cried a lawmaker…

“It is a technical error,” said Rep. Will Bond, the Jacksonville Democrat who sponsored the bill. “The intent was to establish a floor to marry at 18 years of age.”

I remember a time at a board meeting (the chairman held the majority stock) there was some struggle how to phrase a motion that the chairman needed. Finally the impass was broken when another of the board members said, “I move what he was thinking.”

Kinda the same deal here.

The best quote came from Sen. Dave Bisbee…

“Did your mother explain to you the difference between being pregnant and not being pregnant ? It’s not technical,” he said in an interview.

Here’s the kicker…

“I do not want unelected people changing our acts,” he told Madison during a lively discussion in the Senate offices Thursday afternoon. “‘ Not’ is never a drafting error.”

Imagine, he said, if he were to draft a bill saying Arkansans “shall not jaywalk,” then begged the commission after the bill’s passage to remove “not.”

I move what he was thinking.