by Tom Woods

These are the CDC's own numbers, I repeat, so you and I can't be accused of using obscure sources, or whatever other excuse the crazies normally use.

The results: completely random. If you can see a pattern here between lockdown stringency and health results, please show it to me, because I sure don't see it (if the chart is too small to read, click on it and a larger version, or at least one you can maximize, will appear):New Mexico is the fourth highest. You may not remember, because you're not the fanatic I am, but the media once trumpeted New Mexico as a success story. It was one of their drearily predictable "Here's how [insert name of state] beat the coronavirus" stories. And of course it was the usual thing: they followed the useless "public health" protocols, etc.

And yet there it is at number four.

(I would also adjust this chart for obesity levels, because I think we’d get a clearer picture still.)

Iowa, the “state that doesn’t care if you live or die,” in the words of The Atlantic, is all the way down at 27.

And of course the major story is Florida, at 36!

California, the land of bizarre, irrational, and endless restrictions, is at 39—a trivial difference from Florida, and in any case Florida’s all-cause mortality figures turned out better than California’s.

Remember when people were screaming at Florida for defying all the recommendations? If you had asked them where they expected Florida to wind up when all was said and done, precisely zero of them would have said #36. It would have been at least top five, if not number one.

In other words, the crazies were wrong, period, and we win. All the destruction and disruption was for nothing.