Commentators have noted the dishonest reporting of statistics to buttress the false claim that deaths from the coronavirus (hereafter, COVID-19) are far in excess of mortality from the common flu when in fact the opposite is likely the case.  Others have noted that, like the common flu, the most vulnerable cohort from COVID-19 is the elderly.  For example the average age of those who have died of COVID-19 in Italy is 81. 

One thing is clear.  The panic and hysteria are at levels never before seen or witnessed by most people alive today.  It seems like a time of war.  My dad fought in World War II.  However, I was not born until well after it.  I'm a retired prosecutor.  In my retirement, for the past ten years, I've run an event/wedding photography business.  For me, it's a way of reliving stress.  I enjoy photography, and I particularly enjoy connecting with the young couples whom I photograph on their special day. 

One such couple, Nathan and MacKenzie, had hired me to photograph a gathering of 130 of their family and friends for their wedding and reception later this month.  No, Nathan and McKenzie are not in their eighties.  Nathan is 25, MacKenzie 21.  I was looking forward not only to witnessing the love and joy inevitably expressed by the married couple and their family and friends, but also to photographing again at this particular venue, a ten-acre oasis that I had often worked at in the past.  I was indeed shocked when Nathan called me on March 17 to report that the wedding and reception, for which all the invitations had gone out and for which they had planned for over a year, were being canceled on the "Order of the Health Officer of the County of Riverside."

I obtained a copy of the so-called "order" that "prohibits" gatherings of ten or more individuals in the County of Riverside.  According to the text of the decree, "Violation of ... this Order is a crime punishable by fine, imprisonment or both."

The edict exempts gatherings of government officials, including those at the Health Department and their colleagues who drafted the order.  Another curious exemption from the order is those involved in "congregate living settings."  I suppose that's to cover Riverside County, California's resident population of homeless bums, who are stuck living in "congregate living settings" in their feces- and needle-infested encampments.   No, we certainly wouldn't want a health and safety order to deal with that problem.   

Nathan was game about the order and much calmer that I would have been had it been I on the eve of the most special day of my life.  He explained, "Of course we are going to go ahead and get married.  We are going to do a small little ceremony with less than 10 people."

Sure.  Sounds reasonable to me.  After you add in the bride and groom, their pastor, Mom and Dad on both sides, and the best man and maid of honor, it doesn't leave a lot of room for brothers, sisters, aunts, and uncles, let alone longtime friends, to share and witness one of the most momentous days of one's life. 

Being a lawyer, I had to read the entire text of the order.  Apparently, the totalitarian geniuses at the Riverside County Health Department thought of every contingency to protect the public's health and safety when they drafted the order in case someone like Nathan thought he could slip around the edict by simply limiting the wedding party to a paltry nine.  Paragraph 2 of the order states in pertinent part as follows (emphasis in original):

It is further ordered that even for gatherings below this [10], if a minimum social distance of six feet between attendees cannot be maintained ... the gathering is prohibited.

Heaven forbid that, having officiated at scores of weddings over the years, their pastor, from habit and custom should, at the conclusion of their vows, inadvertently blurt out: "You may now kiss the bride," and Nathan, overcome with emotion, should lean within the prohibited six-foot barrier and do it.

Should that unfortunate violation of the public health and safety of Riverside County's citizens occur, we can only hope and pray that members of the Riverside County Health Stasi are present to witness the violation so that MacKenzie, Nathan, and their co-conspirator pastor can be swiftly arrested, fined, and imprisoned for the flagrant violation of the county health officer's order and the health and well-being of the citizens of Riverside County. 

It's interesting.  Rush Limbaugh recently made note of it.  There was this other pandemic called the Swine Flu ten years ago.  Three hundred thousand people hospitalized.  But the media, unlike with the current hysteria over COVID-19, hardly raised a fuss about it.  No shutdowns of restaurants and theaters and wedding venues.  No hoarding of toilet paper and canned goods.  I'm trying to remember.  Who was president during the Swine Flu ten years ago?  Oh, yes, it was the great healer — that Prince of Peace who did so much for world peace that he won a Nobel Prize.

Yes, there is a war going on.  But it is not a war against the latest iteration of the coronavirus.  It's a war against what the left perceives as another existential threat: Donald Trump.

Robert Kirk, a retired prosecutor, suffers from a rare malady that afflicts only a tiny percentage of his fellow Californians: commonsense conservative thought.  To contact, go to www.alienanthro.com.