Mask-ism

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Hello everybody, I'm Dennis Prager. I hope you had a good—

as meaningless as the holiday is, but I spoke about that yesterday when I was on, actually. Hope you had a good weekend. So the, the bishop in Los Angeles was murdered in his home, turns out, by his, uh, his housekeeper's husband who had done some work for him. Oh, auxiliary bishop. Yeah, he's apparently quite a beloved man in, in his community.

And the, the man Carlos Medina shot him to death. 65-year-old married man.

How many 65-year-old married men murder people? It's a very strange story. It's a terrible story, obviously.

And of course, the usual—

he is mentally ill.

I, I don't buy the mentally ill argument as much as most people do, but it certainly is an interesting question.

And I, I don't—

I always question myself, do I have an axe to grind here? Is there a political point I want to make, and therefore I'm skewing the data or the evidence In this case, as in most, I am simply pursuing what I would like to believe is a pursuit of truth. Since the vast majority of mentally ill people don't murder anyone, and not everybody who murders is mentally ill, why do we keep saying mentally ill?

The man acts strange. That, that was the latest. He acted strange.

The, the, the issue is very obviously complex, but it's very troubling. We've had mentally ill people all through American history, but we haven't had as many shootings and So something, something must have changed. Now, some people say it's psychiatric drugs, and it would be interesting to know, was he on any? And if he was on any, was it a new prescription? But putting that aside, is mental illness and a sociopathic Conscience, are they mutually, not exclusive actually, yeah, are they mutually exclusive?

Yes, that's right.

Is the conscience and mental illness. You're mentally ill, your conscience doesn't work. That is the argument of those who say it's mental illness. That's what we hear constantly, mental illness. Maybe we're giving a green light to people who are troubled to kill, to murder, by telling them, look, you're mentally ill. The normal rules of decency do not apply to you. You're mentally ill. Maybe that's a message that we're sending out. None of this I know for sure. I'm only saying that it seems to end all moral questioning as soon as we read, oh, he was mentally ill, or he had mental problems. Everybody listening to this program knows people with mental problems. Everybody I work with here at the station, for example.

That was just a piece of dark humor to lighten up the moment. I know that the gentle Gentile Giant appreciated my dark humor. Not sure about Rick. Rick did? Uh-huh. Just, you just didn't smile even. Uh-huh.

Anyway, it's, it's, it— you murder a man who has employed your wife and I presume was liked if not loved by her. You have worked for him. So at that point, you might argue, well, that proves the man snapped.

That's another new term that we have.

He snapped. He was incapable of, of controlling his desire to murder this man who had befriended his family.

Huh.

Well, I'll tell you this, I do believe— oh, I can't wait to read to you.

Oh, thank you, Dennis, for reminding Dennis what the governor of Pennsylvania said about capital punishment. Wow, that is worthy of its own show.

Now, I, I believe that this man should be put to death. I also believe that if more of these people were put to death, there would be less murder. See, there are so many things that aren't argued, like masks and lockdowns. They weren't argued. Or, or therapeutics like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. They weren't argued. We live in the age of non-argument. You're dismissed. End of issue. You don't think young people should have gotten the COVID vaccine? You're an anti-vaxxer. We don't argue with you. So we don't argue any, any, any of the issues around capital punishment. You really believe it's not a deterrent? I can't think of a stupider argument than punishments don't deter. Of course they don't deter everyone. Do they deter anyone? Let's see, $341 fine in California.

I think that's the sum. What is the sum, Sean?

You all, you know all, for driving in the diamond lane if you don't have a passenger. Isn't it $341, some bizarre sum, something like that? So anyway, the argument is, oh, that will deter you from driving in the diamond lane, but killing you will not deter you from murder.

Oh really?

Half the reason for punishment is deterrence. Oh, it's now up to $490.

Oh, I better stop. By the way, I don't drive in the diamond lane if I don't have a passenger.

Don't start me on talking about things that are not argued. How many people in any of your states, any of you listening, how many people in other places— it's called HOV, high occupancy vehicle— how many people who have a passenger have foregone another car deliberately in order to have a person in the car with them? How many people really do that? The answer is close to zero. If the whole thing's phony, it's a— it's a— again, the non-argued. Well, anyway, we have lost our capacity—

well, I don't want to overstate this. Maybe we haven't. Maybe I should retract what I was about to say. I was about to say we have lost our capacity to be angry over every murder.

I haven't, by the way.

When I say we, I'm thinking of the collective, but I'm angry. I hope that these people are punished by a good God. Last night I had a dialogue with Eric Metaxas, one of the important Christian thinkers of our time. Author of really major works on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, that was the most famous book he wrote, and it's a classic, the Protestant minister who defied the Nazis and the Nazis murdered. And Martin Luther and the anti-slavery movement in Britain And now a very powerful letter to the American church. We had a dialogue last night in my annual Ask a Gentile, Ask a Jew. I think it should be named Ask a Christian, Ask a Jew, but there's nothing I can do. I don't set the title. So we had a dialogue of about 1,000 people at a church in Pasadena, and The moderator, terrific man who broadcasts locally, asked about heaven and hell, and I'll tell you my answer.

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Talking to you about the tragic murder— oh, so many tragic murders. And then the constant, 'Ah, he's mentally ill.' Now I'm telling you about the issue of capital punishment. And then I mentioned that last night Scott Farrow asked us— he was the wonderful moderator— Eric Metaxas and myself, and he asked about heaven and hell. And I said something that I think, hmm, I don't know how everybody reacted. There were 1,000 people there. And obviously I never know how everybody reacts, but I don't even know if the majority were comfortable with what I said.

I don't know.

I'm not saying they weren't.

I'm sure many people listening—

I'm sure that when the left wing picks up this statement, they will broadcast it. And they don't argue, they mock, which is their intellectual level.

I said I hope there is a hell.

Now, I didn't say I hope there's an eternal hell. It's not my— I don't know how long God keeps. I don't know if there's even a time. There's no time outside of this life in any event, so I don't know what eternal means in that, in that instance. But anyway, I, I, I—

all I know is if people who do terrible things to other people are not punished then God has made a truly evil world.

Then I would say that I would lapse into Aristotle's unmoved mover, that there is a God who doesn't give a hoot about how we behave. But I don't believe that. I think God does care about how we behave, and Therefore, he punishes those who do evil and rewards those who do good. That is my basic theology. It's called ethical monotheism. There's a very powerful law in the book of Exodus, which you can study with my volume of commentary on Exodus. I have 3 volumes of 5 done, published: Genesis, Exodus, and Deuteronomy. And I point out there's a very interesting law there that if an ox gores a man to death, you kill the ox.

But it's not the ox's fault. Why would the ox be killed?

They could say, well, some people just do it like we do it today. If a dog attacks a human, we put him down. That it might be because the animal is wild and dangerous. But there's another reason. The untimely death of a human being is a very big deal in the Hebrew Bible. Very big deal.

And it cannot go without a consequence.

I've told the story on a couple of occasions.

Many, many years ago, a woman called my show.

I have no idea how it arose.

But she said that she and her father, or her family, were in the business of raising ostriches. And it somehow came out that one of the ostriches had actually killed her father. And my immediate response was, did you kill the ostrich?

And she said no, it wasn't the ostrich's fault.

And so I, I wasn't giving her a hard time, but I, I, being very biblically trained in my brain about values, I said, so wait a minute, I am just curious, do you mention to people who visit, oh, that's the ostrich that killed my dad?

And I, I I didn't give her a hard time at all, but inside of me there was this, if you will, biblical reaction.

That ostrich shouldn't be living.

It degrades your father's death.

You can't go on as if nothing happened. That's with an animal. How much more so with a human being?

Doing, doing the, the killing. So some reflections on the notion of this guy who killed this auxiliary bishop in Los Angeles, who knew him for years and whose wife had walked the bishop's dog for 10 years, just go in and murdered him.

He should be killed. The society would be a better society if many murderers were put to death.

So listen to this, if I can find this for you. Oh, this is really something. Let's see, Governor— I'm going to put this in. Governor—

rarely I, I do this.

On live, but I didn't know I would talk about this now. And if I can't find it, I will, uh— Shapiro says he will not sign death warrants, calls for end of capital punishment in Pennsylvania. Now let me see if, uh, if this has the article about his sighting, his 7-year-old or 8-year-old son. I guess this is not, uh, you know, this is not the article that has it.

So he cited his son.

I always get a kick out of this when politicians learn from their 8-year-olds, or 15-year-olds for that matter.

This is the new world because the non-wise really do believe their 8-year-old has wisdom.

And some 8-year-olds have wisdom if they've been given wisdom by their education, but excuse me, they should not— they're not the source of wisdom except for people who are not particularly wise. They— young people need to be given. It's the gift that older people are supposed to give. Well, it's quite a thing he learned from him. Back in a moment.

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Hi everybody, I'm going to finish the, uh, the issue with the governor of Pennsylvania later. Right now I have a man, and I know it embarrasses him, but, uh, I, I only say it if I believe it. I believe he's an American hero. I don't use the term often, and he is Dr. Joseph Ladapo. He's the Surgeon General of the state of Florida. I know him from his California days, and he is as wonderful a human being as he is a great leader and doctor. And it gives you an idea of, of the greatness of Ron DeSantis that he would choose Joseph Ladapo to be the Surgeon General of Florida.

So, Dr. Ladapo, welcome back.

It's been too long. Welcome back to the show. And it's great to see you. And by the way, you can see the doctor if you, if you watch the show, it is, it is watchable.

Anyway, I want to get to your very important statements here that you released.

So tell us in a nutshell, the paper or statements that you just released about the effects of the COVID vaccine.

Yeah.

Dennis, it's great to talk to you. And I know we were talking a little bit ago, but I am really grateful that we got to meet and spend time together in California. Before we moved out here to Florida.

Thank you.

So always a pleasure. I look forward to the next time, Dennis.

Thank you.

So last week we released a statement and it was, it was an analysis of vaccine adverse event reporting data from Florida. And what we showed was something that has been shown nationally. No one had looked at Florida before. But after introduction of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, there was a 1,700% increase in the adverse events reported and an over 4,000% increase in the number of life-threatening adverse events reported.

And that's compared to a 400% increase in the total number of vaccines given. So this disproportionate increase in adverse events compared to the actual number of vaccines administered and compared to the past in terms of, you know, 10 years of reporting using this system.

So I know you can't give a data answer, but what I— what do you surmise? Do you think that it would be different in any state of the union?

No, no, I think every state probably looks exactly the same. Some variation, but essentially a massive increase in adverse events reported. And the CDC wants people not to believe their eyes, that it's just because more people knew about the system or something like that. But that is, while possible, extremely unlikely. You just are very unlikely to see such a massive increase in reporting from more knowledge. And during the same period of time, there was no increase in flu reports. So there was no increase in flu, nothing.

That's right.

So, so if the issue was knowledge of, of the VAERS reporting system, you'd have it for flu.

You'd expect, right? Right. But no, nothing. No, I mean, and it really is just more supportive evidence of what so many people just on the street recognize, plus scientific studies that just show that these mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, they're not like any other widely used vaccines. They are just so much riskier. They are, they're unsafe products.

So here, here's what really interests me. How are doctors reacting to you in Florida?

You know, I only hear from the really happy ones or the really unhappy ones.

Okay, that's fair.

So yes, that's true.

So that's, that's what I've received. I mean, so I definitely get warm messages of gratitude from doctors who appreciate our integrity here in the Florida Department of Health because we're not, you know, we're actually being straight with people. And then for the people that don't like the implications of the message, I get the shut up and stop talking, not what could be wrong with your data or what's the other explanation other than these vaccines being riskier than other vaccines. It's just, shut up, I don't like you. So, so that, that's been the reaction.

All right, I have a lot more if you could stay on, and I want to promote your book even though I know that's not why you came on, but I, I do want to do that.

I'm speaking to the Surgeon General of the state of Florida, Dr.

Joseph Ladapo. We'll be back in a moment. In a sick state, morally sick California, Florida is transformed into a healthy state morally and intellectually, and in terms of truth, the most important value in the human species. One of the reasons is Joseph Ladapo, the Surgeon General, who actually was here. He was at Stanford. He's, he's a doctor himself, and he is the Surgeon General of Florida, as I noted. And he has released a report showing the unique— I believe that that would be correct, please correct me, Dr. Ladapo, if I am wrong— increase in, uh, in—

what would, what would the term be? For what is happening? Is it adverse reactions?

Is that just the—

is that the term we would use?

Right, right. Adverse events is the, is the technical term. And it's, it's the case that just because it happens after a vaccine obviously doesn't mean it's because of the vaccine, but if it's being reported at a rate that's 1,700% higher than it is in the past, something is awry.

Yes, exactly.

I just want to note to everybody that he is the author of a book, Transcend Fear: A Blueprint for Mindful Leadership in Public Health.

So It leads me perfectly to a real issue in my mind, and that is when I went for a checkup recently at the hospital that I have actually had 4 surgeries and all 4 were successful, and I'm very grateful to this hospital for what they've done for my life. They were all on my back. They were all, you know, spine-related stuff. But serious stuff in one case as well.

And they were terrific, and I'm grateful to them.

So I walked into my cardiologist's office, and the moment he saw me and my wife, he took his mask off and he said, oh God, thank God it's you, Dennis.

I don't have to wear this idiotic mask all day, which angers me because patients in this— in hospitals in in California, or at least in my county, LA County, can't see their doctors, that can't see their nurses, and they can't see the patients often. So first of all, I want to establish correctly, in hospitals in Florida, are doctors and patients and nurses required to wear masks?

Right, so in many hospitals Unfortunately, the answer to that question is yes, because it is a policy that is dictated by the hospitals who are in it, if you will. They're part of this cartel in general that pushes mask ideology and all that craziness. I've heard that that may be changing thanks to the lawmakers in Florida. Not certain, so we'll see when they come in session. But that is the case right now, that at many hospitals, unfortunately, they are choosing to impose that on employees and on patients despite the absence of randomized clinical trial evidence.

Are you familiar with this Cochrane study on masks?

Oh yeah, yeah.

So why, why isn't that dispositive? Why don't people read that? It's, it's a widely admired study, Cochrane in general. Why isn't that dispositive? Why don't hospitals say, okay, they don't work, it's a terrible thing that people don't see a face the entire time they're a patient here? What did you mean— this was a very suggestive word— what did you mean by cartel?

Well, actually, to answer your question, it's one and the same. So why don't they care? Why aren't they responding to the Cochrane Review? Well, because the Cochrane Review was a scientific review, and this is an ideological crusade. And that's why data doesn't matter. And that's why evidence doesn't matter. That's why common sense doesn't matter. And that's the cartel.

Okay, so I really need to expand this notion.

It's a cartel of— composed of whom?

So, so I would say that my impression is that these actions and these decisions are coordinated. Am I in the rooms or on the phone calls when those decisions are made? I'm not, but that is my strong impression based on my experience as a professor in the past, as someone who has worked with many clinics and hospitals in clinical studies prior to my role as Surgeon General, and from my observations over the last 3 years during the pandemic. These are coordinated decisions. I myself am part of organizations that make position statements on things like the COVID-19 vaccines or masking or social distancing that don't align with evidence but are the position of the organization. So yeah, it's a, it's a cartel that's unified by ideology.

Okay, I know I'm pushing this, but I think it's so important.

What is the ideology?

You know, I, I, I heard of Marxism but not maskism. Well, I, I mean, I think many of us are familiar with maskism now. I mean, it was— that's— it's That's definitely an ideology.

It's an ism.

It's an ism. Yes. Yeah.

That's amazing.

And Dennis, I would love to do your question justice, but it's the kind of thing I could do justice in person and not, not in a video.

Okay.

That's fair.

Well, I would hope to do that. If you have just a few more minutes, I would like to end the hour with you if that's possible. I'm speaking to the Surgeon General of the state of Florida, Joseph Ladapo, and I would also deeply recommend his book, Transcend Fear. Back in a moment. My friends, a food shortage could be coming. I can't believe I'm saying this, but it's true.

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It is not often that I say to you I could have this guest on all 3 hours of my show and I still wouldn't exhaust my questions. He's one of the reasons that Florida is thriving. The Surgeon General of the state of Florida, Dr. Joseph Ladapo— I can't get this out of my mind, Dr. Ladapo. I just want to understand on the masking in hospitals, which you, you and anyone who's following the data knows is, I think, worse than useless because I think it hurts patients care. Not to see a face is a terrible thing. I tell you frankly, I'm doing— thank God I don't need one, but I would do anything not to enter a hospital at this point. It would really have to be something extremely serious for me to do so. When—

one final word— when you said cartel and ideology, do you mean the hospitals or do you mean the politicians?

I mean the leadership of the hospitals.

Wow. Oh, for sure.

And I—

this goes back to my UCLA experience too, as, as you know, I was writing articles that were published in the Wall Street Journal and getting a good bit of attention and causing a lot of grief for leadership at UCLA. And I was involved in conversations with leadership. So for sure, yes.

Okay, finally, uh, back to your, your Surgeon General report there in Florida.

What would you recommend to your fellow Americans now with regard to getting a booster or a COVID vaccine to begin with?

I think at this point in the pandemic, there's— it's hard for me to imagine an individual who would be likely to experience an overall benefit from these mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, particularly considering their safety profile. Immunity is very wide. It's upwards of 90% in terms of people who have had COVID and the safety I mentioned, which is a big factor in a benefit-risk decision. And then you have to remember also that when the CDC says that the folks who got boosters are doing better, The studies are confounded. They're not clinical trials. These study designs have major problems that have been identified in rigorous work. And basically that problem is that the people who get boosters are different from the people who don't in ways that they're just unable to account for.

We'll have to do a part 2. I thank you for your time. I, uh, I look forward to seeing you again. It's, it's an honor and a joy. Dr. Joseph LoDavo.

You too, Dennis. Thanks, man.

Thank you. Well, if you missed the dialogue interview I just had with the Surgeon General of Florida, that alone should have you subscribe. To PragerTopia. That's— that is truly—

that was an amazing half hour.

This truth-telling professor of medicine who is now the head of medicine, or whatever you would say the Surgeon General of a state is in Florida. He recommends that you, uh, most people not get the vaccine based on scientific data. I have urged that for years now.

The lockdowns were damaging, and what I found particularly of interest was asking him I didn't know what answer I would get.

I thought the reason that you have to wear a mask in hospitals in California, or at least in, in my county, Los Angeles County, is that the crackpots, the fanatics, the unscientific people who love power and use it irrationally, like Barbara Ferrer, who heads the Public health. Public health is a farce. It has become a true— it's as big a farce as women's studies, gender studies, and the like. Public health, like, like schools of education, if they all shut down, we would be healthier and we would be better educated. In other words, the education establishment hurts education and the health establishment hurts health.

That's the state of affairs that we're in. But I thought that if you have— that you're having to wear a mask in a hospital in LA County, where again I reside, was the result of county regulations. It turns out that even in Florida, where the Surgeon General knows what a farce it is—

not farce, it's much worse than a farce—

how damaging it is to have everybody wear masks in hospitals. It is damaging. In other words, your hospital is hurting its patients with this policy.

My— I have a deep contempt for the people who run these hospitals.

It has changed from deep gratitude to deep contempt.

I still have the gratitude for all the good they have done for me. I will never forget that. But I didn't realize that fools run hospitals. I did not realize that. And, and apparently bad fools in many cases. The, uh, the not allowing people to be with dying relatives during, uh, during COVID uh, masks or no masks, that, that they had to die alone. The cruelty inherent in so much of American medicine is really painful to think when you think that most people do that particularly compassionate people enter medicine. It's baloney. Uh, sheep enter medicine as a general rule, but sheep enter most professions as a general rule. But I have lost any romanticization of doctors and, and health.

So he says it's a cartel.

It was a remarkable statement from the Surgeon General of Florida.

Cartel run your hospital, runs your hospitals. And but I don't— I still don't get it. He says it's ideological. What is the ideology of masks? Maybe some— somebody listening knows the answer to that. What is the ideology? It's a bad thing and doesn't work. There is no justification morally or medically for having people wear masks in hospitals outside of surgeons performing surgery. Why is it being done? I'd like somebody to find this out. Why? Of course, I don't expect the LA Times to pursue this. The LA Times agrees with it. The media stink. The media are handmaidens of the left. But why does the left want you to wear masks? Isn't that an interesting question? What does wearing a mask in a hospital setting, what is being deprived of your loved ones when you're dying while Why is that a left-wing position? Other than the left is always wrong and is vile. Maybe that answers it. A lot of people stink. The human condition is a very mixed bag, to say the least. Maybe that's just all you need to know. Leftists stink and anything they do hurts people. That is enough to understand the left.

Not liberals.

Liberals just vote for them, but they don't think exactly like them. It is also— it is something I will go to my grave realizing but not fully understanding. Why doesn't this bother most people? Why are you sheep-like okay with putting on a mask if you go into a hospital? And God forbid as a patient, and never see a nurse or doctor's face. Why is that okay with you? And who are these people that set this policy?

If they—

if the Surgeon General and Governor of Florida cannot undo this, who can?

I should like to remind you again He doesn't think that you should get a booster or a vaccine because he has the data to support that. I think it's up at DennisPrager.com. New Cochrane study on masks and COVID. We now have the most authoritative estimate of the value provided by wearing masks during the pandemic.

Approximately zero. The most rigorous and extensive review of the scientific literature concludes that neither surgical masks nor N95 masks have been shown to make a difference in reducing the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses.

This verdict ought to be the death knell for mask mandates, but that would require the Centers for Disease Control, the CDC, and the rest of the public health establishment to forsake the science. And unfortunately, that's— he puts it in quotes— the science. Follow the science.

The left lies with the ease with which you breathe.

They don't follow the science, they follow ideology.

If it hurts people, they love it. Isn't that amazing? Hurts children, keep children out of school, we love it. Kick, kick soldiers out of the army who won't get vaccinated. They love it. Do we have a better army for it?

Do we have a better Air Force for it?

The left supported masking 2-year-olds on airplanes. Do you not understand? These people are a mixture of idiocy and cruelty. These leaders and their acolytes in the media seem as determined as ever to ignore actual science. That is right. Before the pandemic, clinical trials repeatedly showed little or no benefit from wearing masks in preventing the spread of respiratory illnesses like flu and colds. That was why in their pre-2020 plans for dealing with a viral pandemic, the World Health Organization, the CDC, and other national public health agencies did not recommend masking the public. The gold standard for medical evidence is the randomized clinical trial, and the gold standard for analyzing this evidence is Cochrane, the world's largest and most respected organization for evaluating health interventions. Funded by the National Institutes of Health and other nations and other nations' health agencies, it's an international network of reviewers based in London that has partnered with the, you, with the WHO, and Wikipedia and medical journals have hailed it for being, quote, the best single resource for methodological research, recognized worldwide as the highest standard in evidence-based healthcare. It has published a new Cochrane review of the literature on masks. The 15 trials compared outcomes of wearing of surgical masks versus wearing no masks, and even versus N95 masks. The review conducted by a dozen researchers from 6 countries concludes that wearing any kind of face covering, quote, probably makes little or no difference, unquote, in reducing the spread of respiratory illnesses.

Oxford's Tom Jefferson, the lead author of the Cochrane Review, summed up the real science on masks. Quote, there is just no evidence that they make any difference, full stop. Yet public health officials, in violation of the first do-no-harm principle, continue recommending or mandating masks without good evidence of their effectiveness or any pretense of cost-benefit analysis. Masks are still required in many hospitals and other institutions. Despite all the data showing that COVID-19 poses virtually no risk to healthy children, the CDC continues to recommend masking all students in communities where infection rates are rising. That hospitals don't follow the science should bother you a great deal.

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You better stop the things you do.

So the universally admired studies done by Cochrane show that masks are worthless, and yet you still have to wear them in hospitals and any medical facility. Why? No one has an answer. I just spoke again. Go to pragmatopia.com to get any of my shows without commercials. pragmatopia.com. It's a great gift as well. It's very inexpensive. You should really hear what he had to say. He calls them cartels. He's got the most important thing— well, the two most important things for a good world. He seeks truth and he's courageous. By the way, seeking truth is the same as courageous. That's what courageous means— seek truth. The left is a world of lies. Like masks work, like men give birth, they just assert it.

The CBS— this is amazing, listen to this.

While the WHO advises against masks for children under 6 and the European Union advises them for students under 12.

The CDC—

things are worse in America, they're worse. The left has conquered more in America than in Europe. The CDC cruelly recommends masking everyone from age 2 on up.

They're, they're really bad, bad seed out there at the CDC. The CDC's director, an immense fool named Rochelle Walensky, remains determined to ignore the best research on masks, as she made clear in a congressional hearing earlier this month. Quote, our masking guidance doesn't really change with time. Isn't that a great line? I thought she follows the science. That's such a left-wing lie. They don't follow the science on global warming. They don't follow the science on COVID.

They don't follow it on vaccines.

They don't follow it on masks. Please, they don't follow the science on gender, right? You have male chromosomes and male genitalia and a male brain, but you're not a male if you don't think so. That's follow the science. She said when asked how the new review from Cochrane would affect the agency's policies This is an important study, she conceded, but the Cochrane Review only includes randomized clinical trials.

And as you can imagine, many of the randomized clinical trials were for other respiratory viruses.

The woman is a consummate liar. She lives in a world of deceit. She is more proof about how weak the human conscience is.

She sleeps well at night lying about masks.

Oh, they only proved it in randomized trials about other viruses, not necessarily COVID. Oh, I see.

Viruses differ in terms of mask effectiveness.

Earlier in the pandemic, the CDC justified its newfound enthusiasm for masks in a press release hailing, quote, the latest science, unquote, from a case study of a hair salon in Missouri. Wearing a mask prevented the spread of infection from two hairstylists to their customers, the CDC proclaimed. A preposterously sweeping conclusion to draw from a small observational study that lacked a control group and had other obvious limitations. Most of the salon's customers were never even tested for COVID. On national television, Walensky touted another study of schools in Arizona as proof that masks dramatically reduced the spread of COVID But the study's methodology was so clearly flawed and the results so out of line with rigorous studies that other COVID researchers dismissed it as, quote, ridiculous, so unreliable that it probably should not have been entered into the public discourse.

That's Rochelle Walensky of the CDC.

Okay, I was right, conservatives were right, and as always is the case, the left was wrong and hurt you and hurt the country.

But liberals will continue to vote left because they're brainwashed into believing conservatives are bad people. Democratic governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania said he would not enforce the death penalty, said it on CNN, and he was asking the legislature to abolish it. Listen to his reasoning. This is what goes for profound among college graduates on the left.

I found myself— please, you got to hear this, this is priceless.

I want to tweet this out.

I found myself unable to ever seek the death penalty. In a private conversation I had with my then 8-9-year-old son, he asked me, you know, Dad, how is it that killing someone as a punishment for them killing someone else, how is that okay?

And you know, Jake, he said to Jake Tapper. I couldn't look my kid in the eye and answer that question. Wow, what a public admission of being a dummy. You can't answer your 9-year-old's question, how is it different taking the life of a murderer than, than the murderer taking the life of his victim?

You couldn't answer that?

When I say college makes you stupid, I don't throw out lines that are cute.

I mean it. Most people leave college thinking less clearly than they entered. He, this fool who was the governor of Pennsylvania, is a perfect example. Hey Dad, what's the difference between the government killing somebody and the person who they killed is killing somebody?

Uh, gee, I don't know.

I don't know. Whoa, I do, and I'll tell you. Well, hello everybody. Welcome to the Ultimate Issues Hour on the Dennis Prager Show. Oh, look at that, it says Ultimate Issues Hour. Is this the first week that we have that up? Second? Third? Twelfth? About the twelfth? So fourth month is 16th, and I've just noticed it.

Okay, fine.

I think that's rare.

I think it's very impressive that I noticed it within 4 months, just for the record.

Hi everybody, Dennis Prager here, Ultimate Issues Hour, third hour every Tuesday. So I'm gonna discuss a subject I have brought up many times in the course of my public life, which has been public since I was 21 years old. I am as passionate about this as I was then. I have absolutely not moved one iota in my passionate support for capital punishment for premeditated murder. I am more resolute about it than ever. I believe that the opposition to it was an indication of the moral decline of the society which we are now witnessing today. And the reason that I am raising it on this Ultimate Issues Hour is what I read to you last hour, the staggeringly stupid comment that shows what a simpleton the governor of Pennsylvania is. He's, he's seeking to abolish capital punishment in Pennsylvania. And he explained this last week on CNN to Jake Tapper: I found myself— I found myself unable to ever seek the death penalty. In a private conversation I had with my then 8-9-year-old son, he asked me, you know, Dad, how is it that killing someone as a punishment for them killing someone else How is that okay?

And you know, Rake, I couldn't look my kid in the eye and answer that question. Oh, I have a fantasy. I'm going to share with you a fantasy that I could have exchanged places with Jake Tapper for 5 minutes. And I would have then said, really? You couldn't look your kid in the eye and answer that question? You don't have one iota more insight into life and logic than your 9-year-old son?

You don't see the difference? By the way, this is common rhetoric among the abolitionists of capital punishment.

What's the difference between the murderer and taking his—

the state taking his life? It's state murder.

That's what they call it, state murder. Got to go to college to come up with a moronic idea like that.

State murder, not state killing, not state justice.

State murder.

As I mentioned last hour, I would like to ask all the opponents, like Governor Shapiro of Pennsylvania, was Israel a murderer when it executed Adolf Eichmann, the overseer of millions of Jews' deaths, the man who coordinated the Holocaust? Would you equate what he did? A son of Ben Shapiro.

How ironic. It's the opposite. Josh Shapiro. That's the governor.

A son of Josh Shapiro.

I know you never heard of Adolf Eichmann. After all, you go to an American school. Why would you learn something like that? There's not much you learn, but Let me tell you who that man was. Now, do you think that there's no difference between Israel executing Eichmann and Eichmann coordinating the murder of close to 6 million Jews? 6 million?

How about 6? 6 million is actually The human brain shuts off at a certain number. 6. How's that?

6. If the state killed a man who murdered 6 people, is it in the same moral category as that person?

So I am going to explore this issue on the Ultimate Issues Hour. There is such a dearth of moral arguments on the other side, it really behooves me to figure out why do people oppose capital punishment. Now, the— there are some who do it because, only because, an innocent might be killed, which that I acknowledge is an argument I can respect.

I reject, but I can respect. Every other argument I do not respect. And I— but I reject the other one on the likelihood of executing someone with the— now that we have DNA and other forensic evidence, the, the odds of executing an innocent are very, very close to zero.

And so you'll say, but just in case it happens once, we should allow every murderer to live. I don't buy that. Social policies tragically always—

or not always—

many involve the death of innocents. When we raise the speed limit, we inevitably have more innocent people die. By allowing people to drink alcohol We have thousands of people die a year from drunk drivers. Why don't we ban alcohol?

After all, they did 100 years ago. Why, why not, uh, why not ban it again?

You can't have a social policy based on it might kill an innocent. Then you would— the society would would be absurd.

Aside from that, though, I have a theory on why most people, especially those who are on the left, are opposed to capital punishment.

And that is, they don't hate evil. They hate good people. They hate Christians, for example. Most American Christians are pretty good people.

And I get away with saying it because I'm a Jew, not a Christian. And they really hate them.

The average Trump supporter is a pretty decent human being. They hate them. They don't hate murderers. Leftists do not hate murderers unless the murderer was a Nazi.

Than they, than they hate him.

In other words, they, they don't hate murderers, they hate ideologies.

Now, there are certain ideologies I hate too, but they don't hate evil.

And that's why— this is why Josh Shapiro's son, 9-year-old son, could think this way. Evil is taking a life. It doesn't matter whose life. Here's another answer Josh Shapiro might have asked. Uh, do you, do you think that when our military killed the Nazis, Nazi military, they were doing the same thing morally that the Nazi military was doing?

They were both killing. Hey, son, this is why you have to think clearly, and your question was not clearly thought through.

That's how my dad spoke to me. It's one of the reasons I think clearly, because he told me when I didn't. The problem with Josh Shapiro is he doesn't know that it's not clear, so he was persuaded by his then 9-year-old son.

This is what goes for thought in America today. Jake Tapper, I'm sure, went, "Oh, of course. Oh, I hear you, Governor. Yes, yes, Governor. That is profound, Governor." So why do you think people are opposed to capital punishment? The religious argument has no basis whatsoever. That's the one that bothers me the most, believe it or not, because I hate using religion when religion is so clear on the subject.

1-800-PRAGER-776. Would you have had an answer to Josh Shapiro's son? 877-243-7776. Hello everybody, I'm Dennis Prager.

Dennis Prager.

I revisit capital punishment because I'm so passionate about the issue and because the governor of Pennsylvania said something that is so typical of opponents of capital punishment, the lack of coherent and depth of thought. It's mind-numbing. Dennis Prager telling CNN's Jake Tapper that his 9-year-old son said to him, Dad, what's the difference between taking a guy's life who killed somebody and his killing somebody? And he said, I had no answer for my son. By the way, this whole thing, that whole thing is so instructive because that's why So many people on the left like Shapiro want to keep lowering the vote age because they in their hearts don't think they have more wisdom than the average 15-year-old.

In this case, 9-year-old.

And it's true, they don't.

One of the most obvious aspects of all leftists is their childishness in the way they think and react.

Not all liberals. Liberals are just weak.

Don't think clearly. But they're not of the low moral status of the left.

Look, the shock was how good America was until recently.

Goodness is the aberration, not badness. I know that, so I'm sad about what's happening to America, but I can't say I'm shocked. Ronald Reagan was sort of a prophet. We're always one generation away from losing freedom. We forgot to teach it. So the kids learned totalitarianism at school, especially college. Remember the Parkland, uh, Parkland school shootings in Florida? This is from October.

The parents of a victim of the 2018 mass shooting at Parkland High School slammed the Thursday jury recommendation to spare the shooter.

We came here today and it wasn't even a doubt in my mind that this would be the death penalty, Lori Alhadeff, the mother of Elisa Alhadeff, said after the jury recommended that the shooter Nicholas Cruz spend life in prison. I'm beyond disgusted of what happened, what occurred. And again, what is the death penalty for if not for the murder and killing of 17 people?

Good question.

But people like—

well, all the whole Democratic Party is against it. They don't believe in fighting evil unless the evil is ideologically in the camp of those they hate.

All right, let's see here.

This is an interesting sounding one. Pierre In Glendale, California. Hello.

I'm here. Can you hear me?

You're there and I can hear you.

Excellent. Thanks for having me on. Um, I'm a huge fan, regular member. Uh, let me give some, uh, grace to Kimberly, your screener.

She's a gem.

And I will move forward.

Kimberly is not our screener, but our— but it's okay.

I'm sorry.

No problem.

Okay. Uh, whoever it was, what a gem, right?

I agree with that.

Thank you.

Uh, so yes, to the, uh, topic of the penalty, my brother, younger brother, I am one of three sons, he will serve the rest of his life in prison. Very sad. I do not want that. However, He has done things I have no idea about, which, um, consists of murder. So murder is— it can't go unexcused. Uh, the death penalty is to be a deterrent and a ramification for breaking the law. Law exists for a reason. And that's my thing. So I love my brother, but as much as I want him out on the outside, if they said today, hey, would you allow your brother outside? I would say, please let him out. But he did something apparently horribly wrong. I can't prove that, but they apparently have.

So, so you You love him and even would like him out of prison, but you would, you would understand if he were given the death penalty?

Absolutely.

Okay, that's what I, that's what I thought you were calling to say.

Well, that's the way a moral person thinks.

I have my feelings and I have my values, and you don't let them You don't let the feelings override your values. The left does. Well, it's hard to say because their feelings and their values are synonymous. Okay, let's see here. Scott in Dallas, hello.

Hey Dennis, great to speak with you.

Thank you.

Uh, just a quick point, um, and so I guess a very twisted irony that just about everybody I know or speak with that's anti-death penalty is also pro-abortion.

That's right. The— that is generally correct.

Yes.

The reason that they would answer is though murder is, is only of a human and They don't believe that—

well, I was going to say they don't believe that the human fetus is a human, but they do if the mother wants it. The— there is no rational thought in the pro-choice side. It is fascinating.

It's, it's a germ, it's a pimple, It's a rat, it's a feather, it's a pumpkin if she doesn't want the baby. It's a full human if she does. There is no parallel to that in moral thinking in the world that I am aware of. Your human status derives from one person on Earth.

God, it's mind-boggling.

By the way, they also say about us, oh, you're against abortion, but you're for the death penalty.

To which one might say, that's exactly right, and why does that strike your somewhat infantile mind as contradictory?

Well, I thought you're pro-life.

That's right. That's why I'm the pro-death penalty. That's exactly why I'm for the death penalty. It sustains the value of human life, as it says in the Good Book. And it is a good book. It's an even better book than the New York Times editorial page.

Hello everybody, Dennis Prager here. Based on the comments by the governor of Pennsylvania, who being a Democrat is likely not to think clearly.

And I don't mean this as an insult. I know it's an insult, but I don't mean it as an insult. I believe it to be true. It is— I don't think it is possible to think clearly and support the Democratic Party. You might be kind and fine and responsible and loving and and any other sweet adjective, but you cannot think clearly, especially a Democratic politician. He could not answer his 9-year-old son's question: what is the difference between taking a murderer's life and the murderer— the murderer's murder? And he said, I couldn't look him in the eye because I had no answer. And that man is a governor of a state in the United States of America. He had no answer. He sees no moral difference between taking the life of a murderer and what the murderer did. That's what I mean. It is not possible to think clearly and be a Democratic politician.

And a lot of people buy that stuff.

This is the world of feelings. And I said earlier, the left doesn't hate evil. It hates its opponents, but it doesn't hate evil. That's a big part of it. Uh, okay, York, South Carolina, and Alan, hello.

Hi, Dennis.

I called in, I wanted to remind you and the listeners too of the 1979 presidential debate, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. And in that debate, Jimmy Carter said, on the way to the debate tonight, I asked Amy what she thought. You know, he couldn't say the word nuclear, he said nuclear proliferation. And it was widely thought by everybody I knew and some of the media that him quoting a 10-year-old in a presidential debate lost him that debate. And it was so, so silly, you know, just silly.

That is a very— yes, it's a very, very interesting point. I believe you.

I don't remember it, but I mean, I remember his citing that, but I don't remember the reaction. But I believe you that that was the reaction.

What, what does a child's view have to do with anything? However, the entire left-wing world is a child's view.

That's why the, uh, this young Swedish teenage girl is a hero on the left. They think she's a moral giant. This is interesting.

Do we have 15, 16-year-old moral giants on the right? I can't think of any.

This is an interesting, an interesting question, I think.

Uh, let's go to Michael, Fort Worth, Texas.

Hello.

Hello, Dennis.

Hi.

Um, it is a real honor and, uh, treat to speak with you.

Thank you.

Um, I guess, uh, my question is, so my wife and I agree that the death penalty is a good idea, but we disagree on why. She believes that, uh, laws are written for the utility of them, basically to prevent, uh, future murders. And she believes that a death penalty helps prevent future murders. But in my opinion, Uh, even if it didn't, it would still be right and just. So I guess you're both—

I agree with both of you.

They're not mutually exclusive.

Yeah. And, and I, I, I do believe that it does prevent, um, future murder, but there are— I remember in college people would argue with me about all the time, well, the study says actually it does nothing.

And that's right.

You know, that's, by the way, that's a perfect example of where college teaches you not to think. Just find a study. And as if the people who conduct the studies don't have an interest in the results. They're all disinterested robots who are only pursuing truth. I know all the arguments about the death penalty not being a deterrent. I argued in the debate team in high school precisely that. I took the anti-capital punishment side, and I remember, oh, while they were hanging pickpockets in the late Middle Ages in England, there were people being pickpocketed.

That was the proof.

We'll return.

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