Here is some rhetorical annihilation from just this week by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), by far the best U.S. congressman at the moment. He's having an exchange with the CEO of Amtrak:

Massie: Mr. Gardner, can you describe to me the state of Amtrak's vaccine mandate program?

Gardner: So we have a general mandate for vaccine for new workers.

Massie: Are you aware that the efficacy of the vaccine wears off after six months? Quite a bit.

Gardner: So I think depending on which vaccine and what time and what period, certainly the vaccines have limited efficacy, but we require new employees --

Massie: Let me ask you a question. If somebody got the first initial doses of the vaccine 20 months ago, would that comply with your vaccine mandate?

Gardner: Yes, as they were vaccinated.

Massie: Do you believe that two doses 20 months ago has any effect on the currently circulating variants of the virus?

Gardner: From from what I understand from the public health, I do believe vaccines have a beneficial effect on public health.

Massie: You believe a COVID vaccine that was taken 20 months ago that targeted a variant that is no longer circulating has an effect on preventing the spread of COVID now? Can you give me some scientific basis for that? Because I think it's based in mysticism, disproven myths and superstition.

And in fact, I'm glad you mentioned public health and what we know about public health. The CDC this summer said that after eight months, that the effectiveness of the of three doses is somewhere between 20 and 0% against the currently circulating variants. That's after eight months. Your vaccine mandate is so ridiculous. You're saying if you got the jab 20 months ago, then you're good to go. And in the meantime, you do have an exemption according to your website: somebody can be tested every week. Every week. Why would you test somebody who's had who's not had the vaccine, but you wouldn't test somebody who had a vaccine that is no longer effective, according to the CDC? Do you have any scientific basis for doing that?

Gardner: Yes. Again, we're following the guidance from the CDC. We're following the best public health guidance we can get. Our goal here is simple, which is to try and ensure the health of our employees and the health of the traveling public. We've done a good job throughout the pandemic to do that. Our ask here is simple. We are looking for employees when they come new to the company that they be vaccinated and boosted for COVID 19. So we can help to play our part in --

Massie: But you don't care. I get my time's expired, but you don't care if it works or not. And I would like to submit to the record...a CDC update on COVID 19 Vaccine Effectiveness during Omicron, published June 28, 2022, that shows just what I said.

So as you would expect, the Amtrak CEO makes precisely zero effort to make sense of any of this, falling back instead on assurances that he's following the so-called public-health agencies.

In a not-unrelated matter, a day or so ago I sent out a link to something called the Self-Reliance Festival. I promoted it by saying, in effect, you can either rely on the people who brought you lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and potentially World War III, or you can acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to rely on yourself.

Hard to argue with that, since those are indeed the choices.

So in today's email, let me close by reminding you of my 30-minute crash course in how to run a simple online business along the model of my own, which can help you rely less on The Man, and which can make you Fauci-proof should it ever come to that again:

http://www.tomwoods.com/crashcourse

Tom Woods