"Why Can’t They Just Attend Church Over Zoom?" - Sacrificing Essential Liberty to Purchase a Little Temporary Safety

Throughout the pandemic, churches have emerged as a persistent flash point between public health mandates and constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms. As time goes on, the government has turned to increasingly authoritarian measures to browbeat churches into compliance.

Yet far from sparking a public outcry, there is a disturbing consensus of opinion, repeated endlessly by politicians, the media, and the frightened public, that these pastors and their church attendees are selfish and dangerous, and have brought this authoritarian hammer on to themselves. “Why can’t they just attend Church over Zoom?”

Who's in Charge? The Rule Makers, Power Brokers, and Influencers of Lockdown Wonderland

Is this the third lockdown to end all lockdowns, or the fourth? How many layers of masks do I need to wear to buy groceries today? And why is it safe to buy a cup of coffee at Costco, but not at the coffee shop?

We no longer live in a liberal democracy grounded in evidence-based policymaking, logic, and human rights. We've fallen down some kind of rabbit hole into a hellish nonsensical Wonderland where the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the Queen of Hearts are making the rules.

We can argue at length about why this nightmare began and who nudged the ball to get the panic rolling. But the more important question at this stage of the game is: Who's in charge now, today? Who has the authority to make this nightmare stop?

To answer those questions, I'm going to take you on a little tour down the rabbit hole to show you the tangled web of rule makers, power brokers, and influencers that are propping up this never-ending Hellscape. As the layers peel away, the more bizarre the story gets. And the answers that emerge are going to make your head spin. Nothing in this Wonderland is quite as it seems.

1776 vs 1789: The Two Bloody Revolutions That Defined How We Think About Wealth in the Modern World

The American and French Revolutions were based on two fundamentally opposite ways of thinking about wealth. These two viewpoints produce two completely different societies and the conflict about which is right forms a long-running debate that goes back centuries. At its heart, it’s a debate about how wealth is created and how it should be divided between the citizens of a country.

10 Practical Tips To Regain Our Freedom w/ retired Police Inspector Len Faul

Len Faul from Police On Guard For Thee draws on his experence and knowledge of the police system to tell us how we can free ourselves from the horrific public health measures that our politicians and health authorities are using to strip us of our constitutional rights and freedoms. 

This is a brief follow-up interview to our recent conversation on YouTube to go over his Top 10 recommendations to make it easy to find his tips and take action.

STOP THE LOCKDOWN: Retired Police Inspector Len Faul (Police On Guard For Thee) | Interview

Len Faul is a retired former Inspector with the Toronto Police. He agreed to sit down with me for a YouTube interview to talk about how he and a group of active and former police officers are working to stop these unconstitutional public health measures and how we, the public can get involved to support their efforts and get our voices heard.

(Video) Bystander at the Switch: The Moral Case Against COVID Lockdowns

Do you remember the grade school moral dilemma called the "Bystander at the Switch"?

COVID lockdowns pose the identical dilemma, only this time it's not a game and it's played with real lives. When humanity invented universal human rights, they were meant to stop us from pulling the switch.

(link to YouTube video)

Bystander at the Switch: The Moral Case Against COVID Lockdowns

Do you remember the moral riddle taught in grade school called the "Bystander at the Switch" (also known as the Trolley Problem)? It was a story about a runaway train hurtling towards a cluster of people stuck on the tracks ahead. But you have the option to pull the switch and send the train down another track with a smaller number of people on it. You have the option of saving some lives by sacrificing a smaller number of others. Do you pull the switch?

In grade school the riddle was posed as a moral dilemma. But it's not. There was only ever one correct choice. We invented universal human rights to make it clear that no person or government has the right to pull the switch to send the train down another track towards a sacrificial group of victims. 

On Taming Sheep and Nations During COVID

Opinion is Not Evidence, Ignoring Science to Follow Gut Instinct

(Part 1 of Face Masks: A Placebo with Harmful Side Effects)

(This is the first article in a series exploring the science, psychology, and unintended consequences of COVID-19 face masks.) 

Part 1 - Opinion Is Not Evidence, Ignoring Science to Follow Gut Instinct

Part 2 - Droplets and Aerosols, Why Catching the Sneeze Doesn't Reduce Viral Transmission

Part 3 - The Tragedy of Protecting the Vulnerable With A Placebo

Part 4 - Spreading Fear and False Expectations, One Mask At A Time

Part 5 - Mask Laws and the End of "My Body, My Choice"

~ ~ ~

Our health officials (and the media) have relentlessly promoted face masks as a common-sense solution to reduce the spread of COVID-19. The messaging has been so effective that one jurisdiction after another has adopted mandatory mask laws. Why wouldn't they if wearing them is all upside with little downside? Mask critics are easily dismissed with a little shaming. "So, they're a little uncomfortable, get over it, you could save another person's life!"

If only it was that easy. 

Droplets and Aerosols, Why Catching the Sneeze Doesn't Reduce Viral Transmission

(Part 2 of Face Masks: A Placebo with Harmful Side Effects)

(This is the second article in a series exploring the science, psychology, and unintended consequences of COVID-19 face masks.) 

Part 1 - Opinion Is Not Evidence, Ignoring Science to Follow Gut Instinct

Part 2 - Droplets and Aerosols, Why Catching the Sneeze Doesn't Reduce Viral Transmission

Part 3 - The Tragedy of Protecting the Vulnerable With A Placebo

Part 4 - Spreading Fear and False Expectations, One Mask At A Time

Part 5 - Mask Laws and the End of "My Body, My Choice"

~ ~ ~

In part 1 of this five-part series about face masks, I discussed how the politicization of the COVID-19 virus has led our health authorities to prioritize opinions over evidence, causing them to turn their backs on decades worth of randomized controlled trials, which clearly demonstrated that face masks are not an effective tool to reduce the spread of respiratory viruses. 

In this article I will explain why they don't work, despite our initial gut instinct that they should.

Spreading Fear and False Expectations, One Mask At A Time

(Part 4 of Face Masks: A Placebo With Harmful Side Effects)

(This is the fourth article in a series exploring the science, psychology, and unintended consequences of COVID-19 face masks.) 

Part 1 - Opinion Is Not Evidence, Ignoring Science to Follow Gut Instinct

Part 2 - Droplets and Aerosols, Why Catching the Sneeze Doesn't Reduce Viral Transmission

Part 3 - The Tragedy of Protecting the Vulnerable With A Placebo

Part 4 - Spreading Fear and False Expectations, One Mask At A Time

Part 5 - Mask Laws and the End of "My Body, My Choice"

~ ~ ~

In part 1 of this series, I showed how our health authorities are ignoring decades of robust scientific evidence demonstrating that face masks don't reduce the spread of respiratory viruses in favor of opinions that they do. In part 2, I explored the basic physics of the droplets and aerosols produced by coughing, sneezing, and breathing, which explained why face masks cannot reduce the spread of a respiratory virus despite our gut instinct that they should. And in part 3, I showed how our misplaced confidence in face masks and air filtration caused us to recklessly expose many of our most vulnerable citizens to contaminated air spaces, leading to thousands of entirely preventable deaths.

In this article I will discuss how face masks are contributing to a self-reinforcing cycle of irrational fear. A placebo is not harmless if the psychological effect of wearing this placebo contributes to an unjustified level of panic not proportional to the threat. And, even more importantly, a placebo is not harmless if the illusion of safety offered by this placebo gives people unrealistic expectations of being able to avoid the risk altogether. Then, when this misplaced faith in masks fails to stop new infections and deaths, the public (and policymakers) erroneously blame "irresponsible" citizens, which leads to an escalation of authoritarian enforcement of ineffective health measures that dismantle our civil liberties and ruin our lives.

Mask Laws and the End of "My Body, My Choice"

(Part 5 of Face Masks: A Placebo With Harmful Side Effects)

(This is the fifth and final article in a series exploring the science, psychology, and unintended consequences of COVID-19 face masks.)

Part 1: Opinion Is Not Evidence, Ignoring Science to Follow Gut Instinct

Part 2: Droplets and Aerosols, Why Catching the Sneeze Doesn't Reduce Viral Transmission

Part 3: The Tragedy of Protecting the Vulnerable With A Placebo

Part 4: Spreading Fear and False Expectations, One Mask At A Time

Part 5: Mask Laws and the End of "My Body, My Choice"

~ ~ ~

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." ~ Benjamin Franklin, 1755

A mandatory face mask is not just a piece of cloth strapped to your face. The laws making face masks mandatory represent a fundamental shift in the social contract between citizens and their governments. They have made individual autonomy negotiable, subject to the needs of our nations, the fears of our neighbors, and the whims of our leaders.

The Tragedy of Protecting the Vulnerable With A Placebo

(Part 3 of Face Masks: A Placebo with Harmful Side Effects)

(This is the third article in a series exploring the science, psychology, and unintended consequences of COVID-19 face masks.)

Part 1 - Opinion Is Not Evidence, Ignoring Science to Follow Gut Instinct

Part 2 - Droplets and Aerosols, Why Catching the Sneeze Doesn't Reduce Viral Transmission

Part 3 - The Tragedy of Protecting the Vulnerable With A Placebo

Part 4 - Spreading Fear and False Expectations, One Mask At A Time

Part 5 - Mask Laws and the End of "My Body, My Choice"

~ ~ ~ 

In part 1 of this article series I explained why our health authorities turned their backs on decades of medical evidence when they wrongly assumed that face masks are capable of reducing the spread of respiratory viruses. In part 2 I discussed the basic physics of why the large droplets produced by coughing and sneezing don't meaningfully contribute to spreading the virus while the aerosols that are responsible for spreading the virus are too small to be filtered by masks. 

In this article I will explain how our misplaced faith in masks (and air filtration in general) is dramatically increasing the risk of death among our most vulnerable citizens in long-term care homes. The mistaken focus on air filtration prevented health authorities from implementing other effective measures and led to dangerous policies that put many of our most vulnerable citizens in harm's way by locking them in contaminated air spaces with other infected COVID patients. 

Carrots and Sticks Go Viral

Marks on the ground for where to stand,

Lines in the stores so we don’t get out of hand,

Punished in the park for where we sit,

Praised for wearing masks so no-one gets bit,

Now all that’s missing is biscuits, clickers, and chaining,

This ain’t a health exercise, it’s dog training!

COVID-19 Lockdown

The Epidemiological Data Shows it is Unnecessary, Extremely Risky, and Harmful to Those Most in Need of Protection

The rapidly-growing body of epidemiological, virological, and forensic data from around the world shows that, in our fight against the COVID-19 virus, we have taken the precautionary principle to absurd extremes, completely out of proportion to the risk we face. We are in the process of throwing ourselves off an economic cliff to escape a virus that, while not to be taken lightly, is revealing itself to be far less of a threat to the majority of our population than first anticipated.

Our health policies are not being adjusted to match the emerging data. The lockdowns have not been repealed and our politicians and public health officials are not being confronted by the obvious questions raised by this data. The public deserves to see what epidemiologists, virologists, and forensic scientists are learning about COVID-19 before we continue to submit to the significant restrictions and economic devastation that our leaders are unleashing upon us.

So, over the coming paragraphs I will go through this publicly available data on COVID-19 to explain why our lockdown is unnecessary, extremely risky, and even harmful to those most in need of protection from the virus.