...and speaking of overreaching, one of Jeremy Belmont's crazy demands is that if you want the gold seal on his website, you must keep a journal and be able to answer journal questions ala CA journal rules. Most states do not require journals, much less set forth how they are to be kept in the somewhat obsessive manner ala the CA SOS, which JB demands you also know. Now, in my opinion, you're nuts not to keep some sort of record what you have done re notarizations. After all, are you running a business or what? What business doesn't keep track of what actions they've conducted? On the other hand, journal-keeping is set by state law. Legislatures say you will keep a journal; say that it's optional, as in VT; highly recommend it; or say nothing at all. And when no provisions are set forth by the legislature re journal-keeping that does not mean you're free to do whatever you want. This certainly means JB has no business demanding NSAs totally ignore certain state's laws and keep a journal CA-style just cos he says so. He is not the decider. Next, he'll be saying if you want to get his gold seal of approval you have to fingerprint everybody or you must have a seal, when some states don't require seals. But this overreaching does not start or stop with JB, of course. Because CA notaries are the few who are required to collect t-prints, some demand one for every notarization. Problem is, the CA legislature mandated it only for deeds and real-estate stuff and POAs. And then if the person objects to leaving their DNA outside those bounds, the notary refuses to notarize. This brazen sense of entitlement and arrogance is right in line with JB, who has no business overriding state laws by demanding NSAs in non-journal-keeping states keep one. If he ever came down to earth, he'd have plenty to do just "testing" the basics. |