Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf is on the prowl.
Despite being exposed for his contemptuous April demand that PA residents “read a book” after ordering them virtually imprisoned at home, after being exposed for engaging in political mask-theatre and laughing about it with PA Health Department head Rachel Levine, after his previous lockdowns of businesses and personal liberties were smacked-down by the Federal District Court for Western PA, this nanny-ne’er-do-well of the Keystone State just issued a new “order” telling people that – among other threats – he will send the cops into their homes, and punish them if they DARE have people over and don’t wear masks.
On Tuesday, November 17, the PA health bureaucrats burned some tax cash to tell all their avid Twitter fans the great news: they were targeting resident rights some more, stating, in part:
Strengthening masking order. Masks are still required. Indoors: masks now required anytime you’re with people outside of your household, even if you’re socially distant. Applies to all indoor facilities + if you have people in your home not part of your household.
So, contrary to the Fourth Amendment, which requires police to obtain a warrant from a judge specifying the people to be searched and the items sought, despite the First Amendment protection of free assembly, despite the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, and despite a federal court already ruling Wolf’s previous diktats unconstitutional, he and his thuggish government pals will have people enter your home whom you didn’t invite.
All to supposedly stop the spread of a virus the fatality rate of which – even if one accepts the government-inflated numbers – is roughly the same as the seasonal flu.
Oh, and beyond the fundamental question of rights being crushed by the government, on the practical issue of the masks? Perhaps Governor Wolf could do what he contemptuously recommended his state residents do – READ.
That would be the new Danish study just released showing that the N95 mask has no statistically significant effect at stopping the spread of the Wuhan Coronavirus SARS COV19.
That way, he could have his underlings stop engaging in threats against people who simply are engaging in voluntary association.
Indeed, in addition to his threats about home gatherings, Wolf has tasked those bureaucrats with even more tyrannical and absurdist policing. As the PA Health Department also tweeted Tuesday:
Issuing order requiring anyone who visits PA from another state to get tested w/in 72 hours before entering PA. Pa'ians who traveled to other states must follow same rules when coming home. Does not apply to those who commute to/from another state for work or medical treatment.
So, as it is in New York, thanks to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s bizarre edicts, Pennsylvania residents can come and go, into and out of the state, but if one stays “too long” (how long, they don’t say) or comes from another state, they have to submit to a virus search, which is, of course, contrary to the Bill of Rights. Evidently, the virus doesn’t go after interstate commuters unless they stay in another state longer than a day or two.
Makes perfect sense.
And, as The Spectator notes:
The state already has a mask order for when you leave your home, and occupancy limits on bars and restaurants.
The lesson to be drawn from Tom Wolf and his sycophantic employees is clear:
Liberty is under attack.
Voluntary association and private property are things Wolf does not recognize, and, perhaps, things he doesn’t understand.
As Thanksgiving approaches, as Americans continue the tradition of the Pilgrims of Plymouth who, in the 1620s, realized that collectivism nearly destroyed them and they thanked God for granting them the wisdom of acknowledging Natural Rights and private property, and as Christmas approaches, and we recognize God’s blessing of individual free will and the need to employ it in order to fulfill one’s soul… We see those who stand in opposition to these bedrock human principles.
The world is watching how each Pennsylvanian will respond, and how those of us outside that state will act to defend liberty.