Rules are only for the little people.

California Governor Newsom is at it again: breaking rules that he wants to punish us for breaking. And he gets away with it. Sure, he gets a lot of bad publicity, although not enough. But no one has charged him with anything.

What Newsom did was completely reasonable. He went maskless both in posing with Magic Johnson and, at times, while watching a football game. He even gave a good reason: while posing with Magic, he wanted to be “gracious.”

Here’s what he said that was completely unreasonable: he said that that was the only time he went without the mask. It wasn’t. Newsom lied.

Newsom was right to break the absurd mask rule. He’s wrong to let a government official working under him dictate such a rule. What about the rest of us who want to be gracious, the rest of us who want to have human interaction regularly with members of our species?

There’s an old line that you might think fits: “Practice what you preach.”

But it doesn’t fit. Newsom should preach what he practices. He practices disobedience of his rules. He should either preach disobedience for others or get rid of the rules.