The Fallacy Of Court Neutrality

Paul Krause today has an article explaining why it is that our Supreme Court constantly rules leftward, never rightward on cases.  The article, entitled The Fallacy Of Court Neutrality can be found at the American Thinker. In a nut shell, the problem begins with a judicial theory of stare decisis which deems that in deciding case law, deference should be given to previous decisions.

The problem with stare decisis and the mainstream conservative juridical philosophy is that it accepts, prima facie, the uniform, universalist, and progressive anti-Constitution that has been coercively imposed over the United States in the twentieth century. It is unsurprising that it is always Republican Court nominees who become liberals. The logic of stare decisis demands it. A clearly unconstitutional ruling, so long as it was imposed over the country by the Supreme Court, becomes the new constitutional precedence to affirm and build from. Any challenge to this anti-constitutional constitutionalism — how's that for a contradiction? — is met with opposition as being radically destructive.

Here's the thing about stare decisis; it should be followed if the previous decision is decided correctly. If it has not been, then the Court, in its analysis, should go back to the Constitution to determine what the framers intended. Since the Constitution has a built in means of amending it, though it is admittedly a difficult process, any ruling that changes the original meaning of the Constitution is, or should be rendered illegitimate.

Of course, this is why the Democrat members of the Senate are so anxious to determine if a proposed candidate supports the theory of stare decisis, because it in turn supports their attempt to transform the country into a Socialist state.

As always, please go read the whole article.  A number of rulings have come down recently, and our so called Republican justices have been disappointing, to say the least.  Only Justice Thomas remains true to originalism.

Where Is This Generation's Washington or Grant

I have warned readers several times about a white paper that circulated through the Navy, maybe 20 years ago now, that spoke about a pending war with China.  The paper seemed to suggest that the war would take place about now.  Now, I always discounted the timing, since predicting the timing of things is often off, while the events themselves are predictable.  But there are a number of things coming together which suggests we may yet be at war with China in 2020.

The first thing to report is a post at the Smallest Minority. The title of the blog comes from Ayn Rand who noted that the smallest minority is the individual. Kevin, the blog author, has written one of what he calls his "uber posts" in which he points out how much of our culture has been ceded to the Marxists. Of course, go read the entire thing when you have time, because it is important as background. However, the immediately relevant part is this:

In 1960 former CIA agent W. Cleon Skousen published The Naked Communist where he examined the purpose of Soviet "Active Measures." He listed 45 goals, a list that was read into the Congressional Record in 1963 by Democratic Congressman Albert S. Herlong Jr. of Florida. These 45 goals are as follows and please don't skip this part:

1. U.S. should accept coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. should be willing to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament by the U.S. would be a demonstration of “moral strength.”

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extend long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China and admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev’s promise in 1955 to settle the Germany question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the U.S. has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces.

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the U.S.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions, by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for Socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations that are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV & motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all form of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings,” substituting shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural and healthy.”

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a “religious crutch.”

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the grounds that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American founding fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man.”

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of “the big picture.” Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture – education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand or treat.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce. 

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special interest groups should rise up and make a “united force” to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally Reservation so the U.S. cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike. (I had to look that last one up.)

Go over that list and see which are already accomplished and which are well on their way to being accomplished -- good, bad or indifferent. Remember, this was 1960 - sixty years ago. Most of these 45 goals are directed at "demoralization." Judging from that list, they accomplished their goals, probably beyond Stalin's wildest imaginings.

Note that I have emphasized certain items only because the are especially egregious, but all of then are either completed, or are well one the way to completion. And those that promoted them KNEW what they were doing, KNEW they were following a plan to undermine this country.  That makes them traitors to the founding and to the Constitution which they swore to uphold.

Next item comes from the American Partisan Go read the whole article. But the main salient points are that China is providing automatic weapons to Antifa and BLM: that these weapons are being smuggled in - they even specify where they can be found. Furthermore, that Governor Newson of California is facilitating the scheme to allow the Chinese to invade the US and sweep across the country to exert Chinese control of the US/ The Chinese are also using the Mexican drug cartels to create chaos and facilitate their plans.

Have I not point out often how easily fully automatic weapons can be smuggled into the US along with drugs?  Here you have an example of it.

Finally, lending credence to the above posts is this, form the American Thinker entitled As The Crisis Deepens, Q Says Rise or Die

The next few weeks and months leading to the election may be turbulent beyond anything we've yet experienced. Q has repeatedly asked us to "put on the full armor of God" as we battle an enemy without mercy. This world war looks different from previous wars because the enemy uses infiltration, not invasion. But their decades-long strategies have allowed them to take control of almost every institution and sabotage the people's ability to respond.

Already, Q maintains, the enemy has coordinated with China to maximize the harmful impact of the lab-created COVID virus. Q directs our attention to the momentous date of January 15, 2020, when a historic trade deal with China was signed, in which China lost billions via clawback. Also, on that date, the impeachment articles, which had been deliberately withheld, were delivered to the Senate, and the first case of COVID-19 landed in the United States at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

"Do the Chinese like losing?" writes Q. "Do the Chinese want POTUS removed/replaced P_elec_2020? Do the Chinese want BIDEN installed P_elec_2020? Is this about the virus OR THE ELECTION?"

Gentle readers. it is well past time to harden our mindsets.  While we can not see people as being evil, we can acknowledge  that they have chosen evil, and as such, must be confronted.  I don't know where we are going to find him, but we desperately need another Washington or Grant to lead this country.  We also need to dedicate ourselves to His will, establish a renewed Covenant with the Almighty.   We each must commit to do what He would have us do.  We must commit to the Truth, and reject anything that is not ture.

God is our only hope

David Solway has an article today at the American Thinker today that paints a particularly dark picture of what we conservatives face. The article can be found at the site The Devil's Pitchfork: Seeking The Origin Of Our Present Troubles Solway explores the history of socialism in America and posits that its beginnings may have been at the founding, but then discounts such theories as utter nonsense. Here is the way Solway puts it:

The progressivist campaign to destroy America is three-pronged, the tines of the devil’s pitchfork, namely: de-individuation, de-historicizing, and what I’m tempted to call pre-eminent domain (the power of the state to take more than one’s physical property). In other words, it is a war against three intimately related phenomena: self-governing personhood, historical memory, and the possession of property, whether intellectual or private property as understood by John Locke.1 Thus our ideas are no longer our own but state-injected bromides, history has been co-opted in the service of a political fantasy, and ownership is the prerogative of the state.

...snip...

Where did all this come from? A starting-point is always elusive -- one recalls the lone provocative idea of deconstructionist Jacques Derrida, namely, that origins always recede. Was the Revolutionary War a blunder that has come to haunt a nation of immature colonists? Did the Founding Fathers sow an abstract and hypocritical ideal into the fabric of the Republic? Was slavery an original sin for which there is no redemption? Were these the origins of America’s cultural malaise? We may as well return to the singularity at the Big Bang or to the Garden of Eden and the first bite of the apple -- as revived in a computer company logo. All such explanations are, to be candid, utter nonsense. They are mere hypotheses, unmoored theories, with no basis in empirical fact. One recalls another pertinent Yogism: “In theory, there is no difference between practice and theory. In practice, there is.”

We can say that the early communist John Dewey’s theories of child-centered (or whole child) “progressivist education” exerted a salient bearing on the infantilization of American pedagogy -- “snowflake” psychology is a distant relative of this academic heresy. A more immediate cause can be found in the rigorously leftist Frankfurt School (aka the Institute for Social Research), a collection of émigrés from Nazi Germany -- Max Horkheimer, Theodore Adorno, Erich Fromm3 and Herbert Marcuse among the most significant -- who by their presence and/or writings infiltrated the echelons of higher education and eventually came to dominate its curriculum. The hordes of ignorant, lifelong-indebted, disposable epigones rioting in the streets are the legacy of these socialist ideologues.

Solway admits that he has no solution to the problem we find ourselves in, and which is largely of our own making. For we allowed the communists and socialists in our midst to gain the high points of our culture and infect school teachers, law professors, and other professors with the virus of communism. That in turn has led to the notion of a "living constitution." It has led to ignorant masses of young people carrying the banners of the BLM and Antifa terrorists currently rioting, looting, maiming and murdering innocents, destroying businesses, and tearing down statues.  It has undermined the rule of law.  It has also undermined the idea of private property, of intellectual property, indeed, of an individual's rights to the benefit of the fruits of his own labor.  That, in turn, leads ironically back to slavery for millions of us.

I suppose it is an artifact of the dismissal of the lessons of history that Leftist professors and journalists are likely to be among the first ones thrown up against the wall and shot.  Communist leaders fear anyone who might have the intellectual power to point out their utter hypocrisy and lies.  Pol Pot shot anyone who wore glasses.  In the age of communism, anyone who stands up will be decapitated.  Anyone who speaks out, who objects to the supposed "peoples policies" will be punished.  Oh, and if you are religious, you are also marked.  In communism, the state is god.  To recognize the God of creation as superior to the state, whose Law one can not violate without convicting oneself, is a distinct no-no.  That is why any true believing communist is an avowed atheist.

So, Solway has no solutions.  But I will offer what I think is the only one.  Our founders called upon Divine Providence in writing the Declaration of Independence, a document which I encourage you to read again.  It refers to God in many ways, as the Creator, as Nature's God, and of course as Divine Providence.  These names show a respect for our Heavenly Father that is often lacking in today's world.  I believe with all my heart that He has inspired not just the Bible.  He has inspired a number of other writings throughout history, and the Declaration of Independence is one of these.  As a result, I encourage everyone to pray for our nation, our President and our representatives.  Pray that they do the right things.

God is our only hope.  He may yet save us.

Update:  Meanwhile, to add to yesterdays post about things we all can do, here are some more from Francis Porretto at the blog Liberty's Torch

What methods other than argument are available to us?

t’s a good question, given the state of the law and the depressing left-wing colonization of major Internet institutions. Violence, for the moment, is off the table – but not necessarily so forever. However, three measures that don’t involve violence – always in the proper meaning of the word, never in the meaning attributed to it by the special snowflakes among us — have hardly even been tried:

Unconcealed contempt;

Open derision and mockery;

Ostracism

All three of these things are quite legal, along with another that’s seldom even contemplated: refusal to hire on the grounds of political-ethical posture. (Cf. Robert Conquest’s Second Law of Politics.) However, they all require a hardening of mindsets and attitudes that will challenge many in the Right.

There is a saying: God helps those who help themselves. We should pray, always. But we also must do those things we can do. There's another saying: Luck comes to those who are prepared. A word to the wise.

Fighting Back Against The Left

If you have been reading The Federalist you perhaps noticed John Daniel Davidson's article on the need for conservatives to begin pushing back against the Left and the cultural civil war they have declared against America. As he points out in today's article, entitled 5 Ways You Can Fight Back In The Cultural Civil War, this article puts some specifics to the earlier article. Mostly, he is talking about using our economic power to harm Leftist organizations by spending our money elsewhere.

It can seem overwhelming.  I often feel it is hopeless myself.  An example, Mrs. Polykahr wanted to switch to a different telephone carrier because of the savings we would enjoy.  Little did I know that the company donates to Planned Parenthood, and thus, I was contributing to Planned Parenthood.  When I found out, I tried to switch, only to discover that switching would cost me big time.Such are the dilemmas that confront conservatives trying to use their spending power to effect change.  On the other hand, there are some things you can do that cost nothing.

Some examples may be in order. 

4. Google Also Hates You, So Stop Using It

If things like privacy and free speech are important to you, you might want to rethink how much you rely on Google products and companies. Gmail, for example, tracks your purchasing history from the receipts in your Gmail inbox. YouTube, which is wholly owned by Google, routinely censors conservative content under the guise that it’s “hate speech.”

Google of course has all kinds of double standards for conservatives. Earlier this month Google threatened to pull ads from The Federalist—not for anything we wrote, but for our comments section, which—you guessed it—violated their guidelines on hate speech. (The irony is that the comments section of YouTube is one of the most vile, hateful places on the internet.)

Also, you don’t have to Google everything. You can use Bing, Yahoo!, Searx, Qwant, DuckDuckGo, or any of the many other search engines out there. And you don’t have to use other Google products, like Gmail. There are a host of alternatives to Gmail, which honestly doesn’t even work that well. So get creative about not relying on Google for every little thing you do online.

Duckduckgo is a good search engine. I derive no income from them, so consider my endorsement as coming from a satisfied customer. If you use a VPN to limit the many many spys tracking you online, you might also try Epic. Epic sometimes goes out, but has the advantage of not tracking your history, and not letting anyone else do so. Oh, and don't buy anything from Amazon. But please read the whole article for more excellent suggestions. Incidentally, you don't have to follow every suggestion all the time, and you can wean yourself slowly.

So there you have it.  Go try one or more of these suggestions for actions you can take.

Why Forced Masking Doesn't Work, And It Would Be Counter Productive If It Did Work

You may have gotten the idea that my anti-mask stance is caused by my curmudgeonly nature, my natural instinct to not follow the crowd.  I must admit that these are true enough, but I am not alone...not by a long shot.  Scott Morefield has written a compelling article entitled The Most Powerful Argument Against forced Universal Masking That You Won't Read In The Establishment Media.

Anytime things go from widely disputed to sudden, virtually-overnight national “scientific consensus,” it’s probably a good idea to be a wee bit skeptical. So it goes with the forced universal masking issue. We’ve obviously run quite the gamut on this, from being told not to wear them at all while the pandemic was at its peak -- and everyone and their neighbor was crowding and swapping moisture particles in Lowe’s and Walmart aisles across America -- to the now almost cultlike, lockstep message from politicians, the media and every leftist still too frightened to come out of their basement that not wearing masks in every possible setting is pretty much the equivalent to stabbing grandma in the heart.

It’s all a farce, of course -- absurd theater forced upon us by people who would have probably believed in witches a few centuries ago. Now that the Karen-caucus has managed to browbeat most Republican lawmakers and even President Trump into some degree of at least verbal submission, they apparently expect the rest of us rubes to take their word for it and follow along. They think if they condescendingly say the words “I wear the mask to protect you and you wear the mask to protect me” enough, everyone will mindlessly obey. And if you don’t, they want to use the force of law to punish you severely.

I have to repeat that if I do not have the virus, then who am I protecting, and from what am I protecting whoever it is? The same thing goes for the other guy. If he doesn't have the virus, how is he protecting me? In any case, Morefield then goes on to outline the pros and cons of mask wearing, coming down mostly on the side of not wearing a mask if one is not sick in the first place. Oh, and if you are sick, you really should be quarantining yourself until you are well. But Morefield promised us a powerful argument, and here it is;

However, what most advocates ignore is one key observation that makes forced universal masking an insane and unnecessary policy choice in most situations, and that is this: even if masking worked, wasn’t dangerous at all and was not seen by millions as a pernicious tool of social control, I see no valid reason why we would want to stop the spread of the virus at this point.

There, I said it. The most powerful argument against universal masking is that it could in fact work to slow the spread of coronavirus. Please stay with me. I’m not saying we shouldn’t protect those who are vulnerable to the virus. Had we properly protected those in nursing homes, for example, we could have saved half the people who actually have died from this thing. Nevertheless, the facts are these: the virus is spreading at a rapid rate, but deaths have not spiked and have even decreased. The average age of those who are getting it is significantly younger than it was two months ago. And we’re not sure about this yet, but it also seems to have mutated into a weaker version that is more transmissible but less lethal than the version we saw in April.

We don't really want to slow the spread. The numbers are somewhat variable, but between 30% and 40% of the population needs to contract the virus, and have recovered. to establish herd immunity. The idea of a vaccine is nice, but the truth is that there may never be a vaccine. After all, the common cold is a coronavirus, and nobody has succeeded yet in discovering a cure. Indeed, it is an old joke that the man who did discover such a cure would be wealthy beyond his wildest dreams. Herd immunity is our best hope. And the sooner we achieve it, the fewer lives will be lost to this new coronavirus.

Please go read the whole article.  It is definitely worth it..

Why Mask Mandates Are A Socialist Attempt To Make Us All Say What We Don't All Believe

In every group, it seems, there is a Karen, using whatever they can to signal their virtue by calling out those they think are not virtuous.  The latest way to virtue signal is to loudly shout about the latest dictates from our mini-Cuomo, Governor Cooper.  Our local tyrant has decided that there shall be a statewide mandate to wear masks whenever in public.  This news is dutifully reported by masked talking heads on the local news channels.

So, let me explain, again, why I find this mask wearing both unhelpful and a socialist way to make us say things we don't truly believe, but we also don't want to get crosswise with the local constabulary.  I contend that this is the true reason why it is being mandated, and not to protect the public, or prevent the spread of the virus.

Wearing a mask in the open air, while keeping reasonable distances does no good, except as a way to virtue signal.  Furthermore, most of the masks are...how should I put it...as useless as tits on a boar hog.  Cloth masks, which of course are washable, are also sieves for the virus.  I have read that such masks may be at most 7% effective.  But of course, as soon as you put them on, they become filled with a load of bacteria and viruses, not to mention various bodily fluids.  Paper masks are also not that effective, should be changed often, and of course, if you are a man with facial hair, probably about as effective as...well you get the idea.  Masks should be properly fitted to be effective.

Of course, Karens will point out that if one doesn't wear a mask, one simply doesn't care about others.  Really?  If I do not have the virus, then who, prey tell, am I endangering?  If I am not sick, then I can not spread the disease to someone who is particularly vulnerable.  But, again I think those most vulnerable should know their own condition and take necessary precautions.  It is not up to everyone else to know the individual situations of everyone else they meet.  But if they did have such a responsibility, then they would have to wear more extensive containment systems, assuming again that they were sick in the first place.  Is this beginning to seem a circular argument?

Oh, but here is where the arguments for masks start to spiral in on themselves.  The proponents of masks will point out that you don't know you are sick.  You might have the virus, and not know it.  To be sure, there is the famous case of Typhoid Mary. However, every time I go to work, they take my temperature, which is usually somewhat on the cool side. If I were sick, wouldn't I have even a mild temperature?  After all, the invasion of a virus generates a response from the immune system that results in some, if even mild, inflammation.  It is only by going through some level of inflammation that the body can generate antibodies.

Now, if you really want to see how to control infections, here is some Covid-19 Protection Advice From A Dentist.

So imagine my bewilderment in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic at all the politicians, pundits, and talking heads who've suddenly become experts in infection control — not to mention all the lay people wearing masks of every conceivable design and standing six feet away from others, as if six feet were some magic number. Poor sheeple — they think they're safe, they're following the "science," and far be it from me to disabuse them of their imaginary sense of security.

As I was saying, I'm just a dentist — with forty-five years of studying and practicing infection control — and here's how I see it. We live in a sea of bacteria, viruses, and Spirochetes (Lyme Disease, syphilis), a veritable Grand Central Station of pathogens, all of them vying to take us down. They're on doorknobs and newspapers, in our air and water, and emanating from the mouths (and other orifices!) of our fellow human beings.

One way to protect yourself from these ubiquitous bugs is to raise your immune status. Eat better, exercise more, get your sleep, and manage your stress. Like the USS Enterprise from Star Trek, you want your shields up at full capacity and the warp engines working. Run yourself into the ground with bad habits or bad thoughts, and you get sick.

I won't give advice on diet here, except to say that certain doctors have a lot of clinical patients to show that NOT eating some items reduces inflamation, which helps to control weight, makes moving easier, and improves your immune system and its response. 'nough said.

You enter a treatment room, and after several minutes of witty repartee with your patient, you wash your hands thoroughly with warm water and soap, and long enough to hum the theme song to Gilligan's Island. Then you carefully put on a mask, protective goggles, and gloves. Done right, the patient's protected from you, and you're protected from the patient.

Now, here's the exciting part. When you're done abusing the poor patient's molars, all your PPE is contaminated, chock-full of pathogens and bodily fluids. You throw your mask and gloves away and leave your goggles to be disinfected by the assistant who later cleans up the operatory. Because you just touched your contaminated PPE, you wash your hands again before leaving the room, this time humming the theme to Mr. Ed. A horse is a horse, of course.

And you do this again and again and again, going through boxes of gloves and masks every day, and spending thousands of dollars on high-tech goggles so there's one pair in every room. If your dentist walks around the office with glasses or loupes hanging from his neck, he ain't doing it right. If he doesn't wash his hands at a sink, but instead rubs a little Purell on them, he's faking it. I've probably spent 10–15% of my time on the planet washing my hands — so much so that my arm hair ends exactly where an latex glove would begin. But my infection control protocol works. I've treated coughing, hacking, sneezing patients for entire winters without catching a cold.

So, if you want to do something more that just virtue signal, which I have always found to be...well...as useless as...you get the idea...then try you might want to consider following the advice given here:

Wash your hands,

Keep your areas clean,

If you are sick don’t go to work but go to the doctor and

Don’t hang around with people you know are sick.

Oh, and by the way, that hand sanitizer that has become ubiquitous everywhere...don't bother.  Sanitizing is not the same as sterilizing.  Sanitizing is like mowing the lawn.  It tends to cut down the amount of bacteria and other things on you hands, but it doesn't get rid of them, and bacteria reproduce pretty fast. Sterilization, which most people think they are doing by using hand sanitizer, kills every living thing on the surface of the object.  it is usually accomplished by placing the object in an autoclave.  If you did it to your hands, and if you could stand the pain, your hands would now be as dead as a brick. and would be totally useless.   And using hand sanitizer doesn't really clean your hands.  Instead, even using just water is more effective.  After all, you don't really want to get rid of the bacteria on your hands.  They are a part of your micobiome, and help to protect you more than that useless mask.

Conservatives Need To Push Back

I have been busy, so today I have two very different posts to highlight for you, gentle reader.

The first comes from the American Thinker written by J. B. Shurk and entitled Conservatives Are Treated Like Second Class Citizens, And That's Dangerous . Shurk raises again the fact that our Constitution is a sort of social contract in which citizens give up certain sovereign rights to the government in return for the government protecting those rights.

I have a question. What use is a federal government that refuses to protect our basic constitutional rights? Twitter and Google and Facebook are censoring and demonizing conservative political speech, and nobody does a thing. Democrat mayors and governors are bankrupting American citizens by preventing them from engaging in simple commerce, and they're getting away with it. Street mobs across America are causing millions of dollars in property damage, destroying priceless historical monuments; killing police officers; and targeting random, unlucky citizens based on the color of their skin, and the press cheerlead the madness and defend the murderers and arsonists as heroes. John Kerry just the other day threatened the United States by declaring that if Democrats don't win the election in November, they will insist on "revolution."

Revolution? How else can you describe this incendiary cocktail of mob violence and flagrant denial of conservatives' constitutional rights, aided and abetted and kept volatile by Democrat mayors who applaud the mayhem, Democrat prosecutors who refuse to enforce the law, and Democrat-aligned corporations who happily treat conservatives as second-class citizens? The whole point of the Constitution is to create a social contract whereby each citizen hands over the legitimate use of force to the federal government in exchange for the promise that certain inalienable, God-given rights be guaranteed. When the federal government fails to protect Americans' free speech and religious worship and does nothing while Democrats in local offices and on the streets deprive Americans of their property and livelihoods under the color of law, shouldn't the federal government be afraid that Americans from Maine to New Mexico might one day wake up and say, "All right, contract cancelled"?

The above are the opening paragraphs of Shurk's article. In it he lays out the basis of his complaint, which he then discusses in greater detail in the paragraphs that follow.  He points out that all three of the branches of government have betrayed the average American in favor of a Leftist (not liberal) policies.  He notes that the tech giants have systematically kicked conservative voices off their platforms.  These platforms are the equivalent of the public square, and should not discriminate.  The have become publishers and should be treated as such.  The Supreme Court has routinely treated us to Unconstitutional rulings pleasing only Leftists.  Governors have taken the opportunity of Covid-19 to place us under house arrest, dstroy our businesses, and force us to wear masks with no real authority, and one sided scientific reasoning.

Please go read Shurk's article.  It has more, much more about the dangers the U. S. government is courting by continuing to push these policies.

But, speaking of governors of states taking on tyrannical powers that were not anticipated by the legislators that set up more limited emergency powers, there is another article at the American Thinker by Judith Acosta entitled Until We Have Faces: The American Niqaab Here in North Carolina, our own mini-Cuomo, Governor Cooper has instituted a requirement to wear a mask in public. This despite the news media's insistence that the protests, rioting, looting, and vandalism, where few people were masked, and where nobody was observing social distancing practices, that there appears to be no effect of thse on the incidence of Covid-19. If the news media is correct, it calls into question the usefulness of masks and social distancing.

All this is brought up by the article, but there is more to it too. When everyone is required to wear a mask, everyone becomes the faceless 'other," the faceless "alien."  In Muslim countries, women are required to wear the niqaab, which covers her entirely, making one woman look just like every other woman.  Instead of having an individual personality, every woman is reduced to being an object.  And that is how Leftists look at Americans.  Note the language difference.  We refer to people as individuals.  Each one of us is endowed with certain unalienable rights granted to us by our Creator.  Leftists call us "the masses."  To them. we are widgits in a machine.  Masking us helps them to make of us what they dream.

A while back, a colleague and I were talking about the effect of the niqaab on children in Muslim countries. Although we were on opposite ends of the spectrum politically, we agreed wholeheartedly that covering the mother’s face (and anyone who looked like the mother, meaning all women) was fundamentally, psychologically, and spiritually destructive in the extreme. The one who birthed, caressed, and fed you was as personal and recognizable as a mass-manufactured tent. Ultimately what happens is that women are literally objectified, meaning, they are things, “others,” and, as such, dangerous or, at best, utilitarian.

...ship...

This is a harbinger of a few things that are deeply troubling to me –and should be to you. Because despite the fact that fewer people have become ill in this pandemic than during an average flu season, and despite the medical data that show not only the futility of a rag over the face but the potential harm, and despite the fact that herd immunity suffers from artificial “flattening of the curve,” people are persisting in the illusion that a facial covering can make them safe.

...snip...

What’s the point of all this covering? To answer it, like following the trail of money, you have to follow the trail of policies. What pleases the left? Look at Russia, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba:A mass of needy, broken souls who place their offerings and ersatz prayers at the feet of Congress in the hope that the government will save them. Even more tragically, a group of souls who no longer believe they are souls and can no longer recognize the soul standing right next to them.

Acosta also comments about the destructive effect on our personal relationships with these masking requirements. Please read the Acosta's article. All this suggests that conservatives need to be pushing back against the current changes taking place in our communities.