person0

Yeah, and my 5 year old son has had three strokes. I'm willing to take my chances with the virus.

It didn't actually bother me. I was saying that more for anyone else who might be lurking about. 😉

I didn't suggest that masks don't work. In fact, I will happily and readily admit that it is reasonable to expect they would, and I need no evidence. I argued that asymptomatic spread is being used as a rationale for mandates and that, so far, the science is indicating that asymptomatic spread isn't actually happening. That means that people who have symptoms should probably be wearing masks (or better - just stay at home), but those who do not have any symptoms are not accomplishing anything. Hence, the general asymptomatic populous should be able/allowed to choose for themselves if they want to wear one or not.

Your friend is wrong. Private businesses absolutely have the right to mandate the use of masks. Individuals like your friend are acting wrongfully. Advocating for individual liberty and being obedient to the requests of a private organization are not mutually exclusive. The statement he is making is that it is okay to ignore the rules of a private organization (which it isn't). Individuals do not have the right to impose their beliefs on a private entity. People like your friend lessen the efforts of those who respect private businesses and also advocate for individual liberty, and against government mandates.

You have the right to your opinion. The idea of mask mandates are because of asymptomatic spread. Consider these two recent research studies that conclude that asymptomatic spread is not measurably happening to any statistically significant degree. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0843-2 Even with 30 min of breathing in close contact with the measuring devices in laboratory settings, even for those who had symptoms, the majority did not shed detectable virus. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7219423/ Admittedly, this was only one patient, but even with a median of 4 days contact, none of those studied became ill with the virus. The point? Given that there is ample contrarian evidence about the effectiveness of masks, I believe we should teach people correct principles and let them govern themselves.

Okay, well the death rate of the flu in any given year is expected to be up to 2.3% of all death's. Death's from random accidents is around 6 to 7 percent each year.

Are you sure you read the numbers right? I will admit, the graphic can be a bit confusing. 8.66% means that it is estimated that 8.66% of total 2020 death's will be from COVID-19. That isn't a super large number, especially when you consider that ~25% of deaths will be from heart disease and ~20% of death's will be from cancer. The graphic states, "IF you die in 2020" not, "IF you get COVID-19." Total USA death's in 2020 is estimated to be ~ 2,649,916. That would mean 8.66% of that (~229,483) would be the maximum anticipated deaths from COVID-19. Sure that is pretty hefty, but that is still only 0.07% of the total population of the US. Sure. However, there are two completely separate arguments in play. One is whether or not one should wear or not wear a mask; the other is whether or not one should be forced to wear a mask. I am only arguing against government officials forcing people to wear a mask; that is the only question that involves oppressive control.

Church leaders only have the authority to require masks on Church property, not anywhere else. If you want to suggest it isn't that simple, it would be much more useful if you presented your case. I don't understand the benefit of simply stating your disagreement without any elaboration; how can I understand what you might mean?

If local leaders require people to wear masks, they should wear masks; if local leaders do not require people to wear masks, you do not have the right to expect other people will wear them; you are, however, free to exercise your freedom of speech and politely ask them if they will oblige. Yeah, but how much risk is key; technically everyone is at risk of being struck by lightning, too. Those between the ages of 0-69 have a combined average risk of 0.08% (I know because I actually downloaded the CDC data and did the math myself). Broken down, those between age 60-69 have a risk of about 4.6%, those between 50-59 only about 1.8%; the highest risk is for those 70 and above. By the way, that is IF you catch the virus in the first place. Here is a nice little info-graphic I made last week. Be sure to understand it, the data is about IF you die this year; I took the real data of COVID-19 death's and total deaths of all kinds to formulate this information. The data is based on the expectation that this year the US is on track to have ~ 2,649,916 total death's of all kinds (interestingly that is substantially reduced from the pre COVID-19 projection of ~2,939,303 expected deaths. Anyway, here you go: It really is that simple.

The workers still have a choice. The business can choose to stay open; the employees can choose not to take the risk of working; customers can choose whether or not to go. Each person possesses the freedom to choose for themselves.

Sadly, true. I like this idea very much. It is certainly an improvement to the desecration and destruction happening now. Regardless, I doubt it would be well received by the radicals.

I think they should all stay up, but with an addition; place a placard detailing the positive reasons for why the statue was erected and also the negative or controversial actions or characteristics of the individual. Regardless, I am okay with cities voting to replace or remove statues, but I'm not okay with vandals tearing them down.

I saw this the other day. It was great!

I don't get out much these days (pun intended) but from what I have seen and heard, the newfound worry over the spread of disease is merely an attempt to publicize the blatant hypocrisy of the left and the incompetence of their so called 'medical professionals'.

I love it!

This is what my Brother-In-Law sent me today: There are certainly flaws in the premises involved, but I finally understood what he meant by systemic racism. This particular perspective of systemic racism is exacerbated by leftist policies.

Yup. I suggest an easy fix would be to replace most university education with vocational training. Especially on-the-job vocational training, with gradual certification. People can do the work and get paid to learn and get better, and they can choose how to what professional extent they wish to go. This already works extremely well for programmers; it can work well for others too! I can imagine this is at least partially true, in practice; however, I disagree that racism is at the core. I really appreciated learning from former Officer Tatum's perspective on this topic in general.

These are great 🙂 I actually posted mine in this forum because I don't post things on facebook. Sadly, there is too much risk in the workplace environment. 😞

I agree, but let it be noted, that while I was mostly one-sided in my humor, I did make fun of the other side in the memes with the old man and the white guy trying to decide which button to push. Those where two of my favorites, honestly, haha.

What exceptions? Out of the 1004 people killed in 2019 by police officers, less than 250 were black and only 9 of those black men were unarmed. Does that make it okay? It depends on the circumstance. General racism toward black men by police officers is a blatantly false perception, it is not reality, and statistics do not support it. Anecdotal evidence is the only thing supporting the idea of generalized racism towards the black community. It is hard to reduce something that is already so minuscule. The perception of racism is what is pervasive, because people are taught to perceive it. Asian Americans are the most negatively impacted group by Affirmative Action. Aside from that, your statement has no bearing on the fact that it is a systemically racist policy and it demeans minorities and literally ingrains into law the racist belief that they are too stupid to make it on their own and so we must dumb things down to give them a leg up. Yeah, I call bull. Qualified Immunity is bad law, but has nothing to do with racism. It is an inherent negative impact to the civil liberties of anyone who interacts with the police. Okay; agree to disagree on that one. Protesters are fine and in their right, but rioters and looters are evil and don't care at all about what happened. George Floyd was not a victim of racism, and to suggest he was takes away from the real problems, like under-trained, under-accountable and overly-pompous police officers. The lack of quality police officers is exacerbated by the fact that mass publication of inaccurate perceptions of racism is turning quality candidates away. People are rightfully afraid of losing everything over the false perception of racism.

@Godless, My memes are meant as comedy/parody. Yours don't seem to have comic intent. Am I missing something? Aside from that, is your first meme in reference to BLM? If so, the core of their movement is not that racism = bad; they want reparations in various forms and are hiding behind the guise of racism = bad. Almost everything they have asked for would be an inappropriate response to past or current racism. I'm really confused by your second meme. Institutionalized racism is 100% fact and needs to be eliminated. A prime form of this is found in Affirmative Action laws. Riots have nothing to do with racism. BLM is only focused on racism against blacks, not everyone. True racism in this country exists, but is rare; most often, events/actions are merely interpreted as racist and people are being taught to do so. As terrible as what happened to George Floyd was, it was entirely due to improper action by police officers who have been arrested and should be punished properly; I haven't seen one iota of evidence to suggest any form of racism was involved.

Please take these as they are intended: 100% serious! 😉

I think I may be the exception to the rule on this one. If I were a betting man, I'd say that more than 50% of my face-book friends do not share my beliefs. Perhaps that's why I pretty much never post anything! Haha!

I didn't vote for Trump last time, because I thought he was lying and would actually end up being a leftist, so I went third party. That said, I'm definitely voting for him this time; I feel he has proven enough that he truly cares about our country and wants it to remain the greatest country in the world, and is implementing good policies. Were you planning to vote third party this November? Just curious.