Paladin saw a bit of the Upper East Side of Manhattan this week, in the breezy sunshine of late summer. Mid-day, midtown walking hither and yon without clapping a mask over his face. The sheep were not amused. He gave up counting the dirty looks he got.

Despite the Chinese Virus vanishing by every measure day-walking vampire Manhattanites free of their apartment coffins have been totally corralled and herded into their mask pens. Everyone wears a mask, everyone—delivery boys, chicks in hot yoga pants, blousy blondes past their freshness date, lithesome men of metrosexual persuasion, Korean grocers, POCs of every age and description—oh, wait, not that Big Mama on 93rd street, she was having none of it, and scowled at everyone wearing the Blue Badge.

But overall, East Side Manhattan is a totalitarian mask state with uniformity unmatched since the swastika armbands at Nuremberg. The only people who seem to have forgotten the mandatory compliance are construction worker types.  Leave it to the hairy apes, the troglodytes and knuckle–scrapers to strike a blow for freedom.  They didn’t care if Paladin masked up, wore a pink tutu, or moved to Jersey. New Yawk. Fuggedaboutit. Whatevah.

Everywhere you look the Mask Up signs nag you into submission. Every corner, every lamppost, doorway, entranceway, elevator, the hectoring signage so pervasive you’d think the Wuhan Flu was the bubonic plague. But this mask thing isn’t really about prevention anymore, it’s about obedience and New Yorkers are nothing if not obedient to their overlords who never shy away from telling them what to do.

Except for this cop who got “Karened” by some busybody on the Subway.  The Copper is lucky if he’s got a job today, but as an essential worker on the very front lines of the pandemic, he’s calling bullshit. The blue surgical masks so popular in New York city aren’t doing dick.

And the man in blue knows it.

The specs are pretty simple: “Surgical masks will not prevent the wearer from inhaling or exhaling viruses or bacteria. They provide absolutely no protection for either the wearer or anyone nearby. They create a very dangerous false sense of security for everyone. They also force the wearer to rebreathe carbon dioxide, which will, over time, reduce the wearer’s blood oxygen level. That can become very dangerous, especially for older people.”

Face it, they never did dick.

And they ain’t gonna do dick, neither. But never undervalue the whole fashion thing:

Pretty in Pink

Meanwhile back in the real world, at a local Target down in Ft. Lauderdale, “Twisted Sister’s “We’re not going to Take it!”rocks the aisles as masks are thrown to the four winds. In FLA people take up the burden of freedom, while in Manhattan they’re sheep. And sad sheep at that.  There is no joy in Mudville as the mighty DeBlaz has struck out.

My Black Cloth 

This one really keeps me safe. Really. Even from the pages of the NY Post a Virtue Signal must go out like the searchlight for Batman over Gotham.  Idaho Pastor who bucked mask mandate now in ICU battling COVID-19. That’s a kind of Retribution–Porn-Twofer. The hayseed lives in Idaho, the Spud State.  Clearly, he’s a pudknocker and gasp, a Christian. Pudknocker & Christian.  Twofer.

Clearly the NY Post thinks they’re performing some kind of cautionary tale by holding the Padre up to ridicule. Hey, NY Post—Fun City is going to die an ugly ‘Rona death at the hands of DeBlaz and Gub Coma long before those dangerous, psalm–signing pudknockers in Idaho meet their maker.

But leave the five boroughs and things brighten considerably. The masks are discarded except for close interiors.  Reflecting what VGirl readers long ago figured out—that for the first time in history, ordinary people know more real news than do the people in control of America’s major newsrooms.  

Conformity is Good

As Paladin left Manhattan, he drove under the electronic sign at the entrance to the RFK (formerly Triboro) Bridge. Paladin glimpsed the writing before it flew over his head, the signage saying something like:

Wear the Mask – Sign of Respect.

Respect?

Sorry New York, no respect—as you have precious little for yourselves. You let your corrupt liberal Prospero in the guise of a Mayor and a Governor, plural—Prosperi—choreograph your very own Masque of the Red Death. The two Prosperi killed the weakest of you, the elderly and infirmed, while bullying the strongest among you, the young and healthy into being weak. Compliance is not worthy of respect. You’re sheep.

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Featured photo: “The Blue Badge of Dread – 20 Somethings Running from the ‘Rona.”  All photos used in this article are the personal property of the author.