When the CDC changed its guidance about masks and the coronavirus this Summer, the only casualty wasn’t the CDC’s credibility.

The biggest losers were students in kindergarten through grade three, the grades where students learn to read in order to later read to learn.  They also learn speech and social skills in those young grades, and hopefully good humor and graciousness. Masks set back each of these efforts.

The Wall Street Journal featured a column titled “The Case Against Masks for Kids” by Dr. Marty Makary a pro­fessor at the Johns Hop­kins School of Med­i­cine and Dr. Cory Meissner, chief of pe­di­atric in­fec­tious dis­eases at Tufts Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal that persuasively made the case against masking kids. On my radio show, Dr. Fauci committed to revisiting the issue. Millions of parents hope he does so quickly.

There is no science supporting masking for children, only fear. Absent that evidence, kids should go back to school with smiles that can be seen.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are watching an inglorious end to a storied New York political dynasty:

Andrew Cuomo has officially resigned New York’s governorship.

It should be a great day for women. When powerful left-wing politicians can be held responsible for their predatory behavior, we’ve come a long way from the Clinton years.

But as awful as Cuomo’s alleged sexual harassment is, he’s actually escaping accountability for even graver wrongdoing: the deaths of some 15,000 New Yorkers in nursing homes that he forced to accept covid patients. After that, he covered up the true death toll among the elderly.

Aside from Cuomo himself, no one’s behavior’s been more shameful than that of our legacy media. Just a year ago, the press was fawning on Cuomo, praising his leadership and coining the term “Cuomosexual,” – even though, if New York were a country, it would have the worst coronavirus death rate on Earth.

Now, few are mourning Andrew Cuomo’s demise. In politics, fortune is fickle. But sometimes, it seems, there is a definite cosmic justice.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

G.K. Chesterton is reported to have said “When a man stops believing in God, he doesn’t believe in nothing; he believes in anything.”

That came to mind recently when I logged on to HBO/Max streaming service and saw there at the top of the screen an option which helps me choose which movies to watch based on my astrological sign!

HBO is as close to an atheist channel as we have—home to Bill Maher—one of America’s most aggressive atheists and the “His Dark Materials” franchise which is seen as an atheist alternative to Narnia. 

But not believing in God leaves programmers at HBO believing in anything, including the ludicrous superstition that the position of the constellations at the moment of your birth somehow magically implants into you certain permanent personality characteristics. 

So, HBO, and parent ATT and affiliate CNN—whatever else you do—spare us the condescending lectures about “science denial” while you try to cash in on silly superstitions.

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National Public Radio announced an ethics policy update. Its journalists can now participate in activities that advocate for the “freedom and dignity of human beings” both on social media and in person.

Who knew so many NPR employees were eager to oppose assisted suicide and support pro-life causes? Just kidding, of course. The article announcing the change specifically referenced Black Lives Matter protests and gay pride parades.

NPR has always leaned left. In recent years, like most of the mainstream media, it’s frequently crossed the line into outright partisanship. The bias has been so blatant that even left-leaning writers like Matt Taibbi have criticized it.

If it were an independent web site, that would be unfortunate, but none of our business. But as taxpayers, you and I pay for NPR through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. And someone needs to explain to me why my tax dollars should subsidize a bunch of hard left activist reporters.

I’m Carol Platt Liebau.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The CDC’s new guidance recommending masking even for vaccinated people in some areas officially jumps the shark. Their justification is that the delta variant is more transmissible than the original variant of Covid.

But here are the facts: Although the Delta variant is much more transmissible, it’s a lot less deadly. In fact, a study by Public Health England found there were no deaths from the Delta variant among vaccinated people under 50; the death rate was only .08 percent among the unvaccinated under 50.

This new masking “guidance” is as ridiculous as the CDC’s insistence that our children should wear masks back to school. For children, the pandemic’s death rate has been the same—or even less—than the seasonal flu. And for this, we’re teaching them they need to mask up and be afraid.

It’s shameful.

Politicians love crisis. It lets them seize power and hold onto it. 

Enough is enough. It’s time to be brave and take our lives back.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is Ed Morrissey of HotAir.com for Townhall.

When the Washington Post’s editors call out a Democratic president on constitutional violations, everyone should take notice. Joe Biden and the CDC reinstated a moratorium on evictions despite a Supreme Court order forcing a deadline for Congress to act. That action “was almost certainly illegal,” the Post’s editors declared, and pointed out the obvious—that Democrats would be screaming over such defiance if it came from Donald Trump.

Biden took this step under pressure from fellow Democrats who painted themselves into a corner on the eviction moratorium. Despite a 32-day warning, Congress and the White House never bothered to take up the moratorium after the Supreme Court’s deadline. Biden and Nancy Pelosi ignored it until the last moment, and then tried blaming everyone else but themselves for the debacle. Their neglect puts millions of housing units, their residents, and their owners at risk of financial collapse.

It’s an alarming and disturbing failure of leadership made worse by Biden’s violation of his oath to the Constitution.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Every year from April to July the publicly traded corporations hold their annual meetings. This year, my team and I made a point to attend as many as we could—challenging the pattern of corporations dabbling in divisive political causes which are well beyond management’s responsibility.

And we learned a lot. 

First—with very few exceptions—only the hard left has been showing up. Conservatives didn’t show up and lose. We simply forfeited. 
                                  
Second, even one or two people can at least change the debate when it comes to gigantic multi-billion-dollar companies. 

And last—many CEOs themselves are fed up with activists pushing them around and are only trying to protect themselves from reputational assaults. 

Conservatives need to get out of gripe mode and into engage mode. Plan to use the authority you have based on what is already in your 401(k) next time around, because woke capitalism isn’t going to fix itself. 

Investors hold the final authority, and it’s time to use it. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thanks to American investment and innovation, we produced at least three COVID-19 vaccines that have a real-world effectiveness of over 99 percent against hospitalization and death. Those vaccines are now readily available everywhere in the country, and half of the nation has become fully immunized.

The CDC now wants these Americans—and all Americans—to mask up all over again. The CDC’s own data on breakthrough cases, even while the Delta variant dominates, shows that vaccinated people have nearly no risk at all from exposure.

By demanding that the vaccinated wear masks, the CDC erodes the incentive among the hesitant to get the vaccine, while setting incentives that practically guarantees perpetual mask mandates—a point that has not gone unnoticed by many on the right.

Rather than coddle the entire nation with universal mask mandates, the proper policy should be to put the burden of choice on the shoulder of each individual and family.

That, after all, is a more American approach.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has new reason to worry about his future, and California voters have reason for hope about theirs. A new poll from U.C. Berkley shows a jump in support for recalling the governor, with the electorate evenly split on the question. 

Recalls should be reserved for cases of absolute incompetence or corruption. Newsom has offered both in his response to the pandemic.

He locked down the warm-weather state, which forced social interaction indoors where transmission risks are highest, rather than keep outdoor venues open. 

He imposed onerous mask and distancing mandates, while conspicuously violating them himself on multiple occasions.

And Newsom has kept schools shuttered while sending his own children to in-school learning at private schools.

His shameless elitism deserves the strongest possible rebuke from voters. The incompetence with which Newsom has managed this pandemic adds to the urgency of replacing him. California voters have a real opportunity to send a message about accountability to the governing class.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It appears there’s a basic agreement between congressional Republicans and the Biden administration about a one trillion dollar infrastructure bill. There shouldn’t be. Our baseline of spending is already at historic highs, plus there were several Covid relief bills adding up to several trillion dollars. It’s becoming clear that what financial economist, Rob Arnott said to me on a recent episode of my podcast, Meeting of Minds with Jerry Bowyer is true, neither party is fully committed to small government:

“My core political principles are really simple: It’s personal liberty, economic freedom, respect for the constitution, and limited government. For 2020, I don't know which party showed respect for any of the four.”

It’s a bad sign for the future. The American fiscal freight train has discarded its own brake lever. 

If we are going to avoid the kind of debt and currency crises which have brought other countries to their knees, it’s going to take some willpower.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.