the road less travelled
I have been told to take a new drug (three times), for a variant it wasn’t designed for, from a company I don’t trust and for a new disease that we still don’t fully understand. And I’m told it is totally safe by politicians whom I rarely believe, who don’t care and refuse to listen or debate the evidence. – Tim Ordei
From here.
How to Lie with Statistics is a book written by Darrell Huff in 1954. Admittedly I haven’t read the book, but it rose to prominence in recent years due to being on Bill Gates “Summer Book List” from 2015. While it was surmised by critics that Bill Gates may have wanted to use this for its literal meaning, the book is intended to make people aware of how true statistics can be misused to create incorrect conclusions.
It’s much like a video. People think if they see things on video then it must be true. But often things that have a huge impact on the context of a situation are not on the video. They are either out of view, or happened before the camera started rolling.
Back on the 13th of September the UK Office for National Statistics released a report entitled “Deaths involving COVID-19 by vaccination status, England: deaths occurring between 2 January and 2 July 2021“.
On the 1st of November the report was re-released to include the data from 2 July to 24th September 2021.
The first main point in the first released report was as follows:
If you were wanting to show the effectiveness the Covid-19 vaccines, then this an excellent statistic to have. This hammers home that this vaccine clearly reduces the risk of death from Covid-19. The vaccine must be very effective as these two figures of 51,281 and 640 throw quite a stark contrast.
When this data started being collected only 0.68% of the UK population was vaccinated. It wasn’t until April that this went above 10% and then June before this went above 50%. As of week 26, the last week of the data from the first report, this percentage was 59.4%.
As the vaccination rate is changing over time, I thought it would be helpful to map this. Thankfully you are able to download the full data sets from these reports with this information broken down. I was able to compare, 1) the unvaccinated population as a % of the total population, against 2) the unvaccinated Covid-19 deaths as a % of the total Covid-19 deaths. I did the same for the fully vaccinated. UV = Unvaccinated, FV = Two Dose vaccinated. There is also data for partially vaccinated people that is not shown in these graphs.
As you can see, the percentage of Covid-19 deaths amongst unvaccinated people follow very closely the percentage of unvaccinated people in the population. For fully vaccinated unsurprisingly we have the same situation where the percentage of Covid-19 deaths follows the percentage of population. In fact with fully vaccinated chart the visual appears to be more of a close correlation.
These rates following closely is what you would expect to see if Covid-19 affected all people equally. This is not what you would expect if the vaccine were effective. If the vaccine were effective then as the vaccine rates increase the percentage of deaths in the fully vaccinated should stay low. Especially when we have been told from the ‘pulpit of truth’ that vaccinated people, while they may still catch Covid-19, will not have severe illness nor die.
The reason that there is a huge number of unvaccinated deaths, when compared to vaccinated deaths, is primarily because most of those deaths happened earlier on, before people were able to be vaccinated. You can see from the worldometer graph below that the main peak of deaths happened right at the start of this data window. It drops away to almost zero through the middle before picking up a little at the end. The window for the data from full data set from the second report is within the blue square.
Some people will then say “Hey, you can’t say that! The overall deaths have dropped so this must be because of the vaccine”. However it is not difficult to disprove this.
As you can see clearly in the graph above, the deaths per day have almost bottomed out before the vaccine rate starts to rise around week 12. In fact 42,000 of these deaths occurred before even 5% of the population were vaccinated. The drop in deaths is far more likely attributed to a lockdown. This data starts on the 8th of January 2021. The UK entered it’s third National Lockdown on the 6th of January 2021.
I have had difficultly finding the exact numbers of administered vaccines by type in the UK. But I have found in this BBC article how many doses the UK have ordered. The Pfizer vaccine used in New Zealand seems to be a major player in the UK’s vaccination program.
In report #1, the first main point listed above compares the 51,281 total deaths involving Covid-19 with the 640 deaths in people fully vaccinated. Interestingly an equivalent main point comparing these same figures is completely missing from report #2.
Why would the main point listed in a report, not be repeated in a subsequent report? Likely this is due to the fact that the deaths in the interim were 1,268 unvaccinated and 3,896 fully vaccinated. More than 3 times as many vaccinated people died than unvaccinated over this 12 week window. This is not a figure that we see mentioned in the summary.
Comparing 56,445 total deaths involving Covid-19 with 4,536 deaths in the fully vaccinated doesn’t quite have the same stark contrast. Maybe the editor could mention how the data makeup has changed significantly, or, yeah-nah we’ll just leave it out.
Along with the main point in report #1 mentioned above, there were 4 other main points. 3 of these main points talk about breakthrough cases or deaths. According to dictionary.com a breakthrough case is “an instance in which a person becomes sick with a disease despite having received the vaccine for that disease. In other words, the vaccine fails to prevent the person from becoming infected.“
It goes on to say “Please note: No vaccine is 100% effective, but breakthrough cases are extremely rare. In the US, breakthrough cases of COVID-19 are reported to have occurred in less than 1% of all those vaccinated—as low as .01% in some studies.”
With 640 out of 51,281 we can talk about breakthrough cases as only 1.25% of deaths were in the vaccinated. However with 4,536 out of 56,445, it’s a bit more difficult. This is now more than 8% of the total covid-19 deaths. And more tragically, over 75% of the deaths within the last 12 weeks of this data set have been breakthrough deaths. So, while disappointing, it’s unsurprising that any mention of breakthrough deaths is completely missing from the main points in report #2. In fact, the word breakthrough is not mentioned at all in the second report, after 25 appearances in the first. Again, we’ll just leave that out.
I’m not saying that the vaccine is entirely ineffective. I’m certainly not saying that there is no data out there that is showing benefits. But I would say two things are abundantly clear.
It is absolutely BS to think that everything the government says is “truth”. Governments tell us that they are our source of truth. They are not worthy of the same label of “misinformation” they would happily smear on all who disagree. They are however still politicians, and are highly selective about what information is presented in order to manipulate perception.
It is also BS to think that the vaccine prevents death in a significant way as we have been told. First we were first told the vaccine stopped transmission. When this eventually be came an indefensible position, there was a quick change to ‘the vaccine prevents illness and death’. However this is now also an indefensible position, with the last week of the UK data painting a different picture. With 75% of the population being vaccinated, more than 75% of covid-19 deaths are in the vaccinated. And this is not new, this trend has been happening for the last year. Our leader has told the “team of 5 million” that if they get vaccinated then they won’t get severely sick, or die, and this is just not true!
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Some readers of Sojournal may be disappointed that for months now we have moved away from our typical content and focussed on issues covid, particularly the mandates and the tyranny that is being imposed on a once free people. I make no apology for this. Nor are words like tyranny out of place, contrary to the opinions of well-meaning friends who think I’ve gone off the deep end. I am not a slave, and I will not be dictated to by a deity grasping state about what I will put in my body. To hell with that. And I mean that quite literally – that grasping authoritarianism is reminiscent of the evil one himself and clearly signals its diabolical origins. So covid dominates, because this is the issue of our time. This is where the battle currently is, and to ignore it is a dereliction of duty for those who claim to be followers of the king. Unfortunately in too many churches in New Zealand, covid and the issues arising from it have been studiously ignored and ‘spiritual’ matters focussed on. All hell (literally) seems to be breaking loose in our little country, and many under-shepherds of Christ seem content to lull the sheep into a false sense of security rather than train them up for battle and prepare for persecution. Some have even joined the enemy.
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In our previous look at the Wesminster Confession of Faith we completed the first chapter “Of the Holy Scriptures” with highlighting how Scripture is to be the supreme judge in matters of religious controversy. This week we commence the second chapter of the confession which is entitled “Of God and of the Holy Trinity”.
I. There is but one only living and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions, immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute, working all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will, for His own glory, most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him; and withal most just and terrible in His judgments; hating all sin; and who will by no means clear the guilty.
In this first part of the chapter we are presented with a number of truths. Firstly we are presented with the fact that there is only one true and living God. The framers of the Confession spend no time proving the existence of God. God is, and it is the fool who denies his existence (Psalm 14:1). Besides, His works and Word testify to Him most clearly as the framers of the Confession discussed in chapter 1.
Next, we are presented with the attributes of God. Theologians often draw a distinction between incommunicable and communicable attributes. Those which are incommunicable are attributes of God alone (such as eternity or immutability) and those which are communicable are attributes that his creatures can share to a lesser degree, such as being and wisdom. We won’t explore all of them, but a smattering will suffice for today’s post.
God is described by the framers as infinite in being and perfection. What does this mean? His existence is free from any limitations. Unlike us, He is everywhere present fully. He is a ‘most pure spirit’, which as the catechism puts it means ‘he has not a body like men’. He is invisible, which is why Russian cosmonauts shouldn’t be surprised they don’t find him in space. His being is pure spirit and when described in Scripture as having a strong arm or eyes, we are merely being given metaphors to help us understand Him. So as a spirit, we can say He is invisible and has no body or parts. But what does it mean that He has no passions? Does it mean that God is emotionless? Clearly the Scriptures do not support this picture of God. We see God rightly expressing compassion, love, wrath and forgiveness. A great little discussion on this term is found here. Essentially what is meant is that “God is not passive, not acted upon or overruled by any other power or influence.”
Listed next are some of his attributes. Immutable means God is unchanging. Change would suggest becoming better or worse and clearly, this cannot apply to the God of the Scriptures. In Him “there is no variation or shadow due to change“(James 1:17). Incomprehensible means that God is not like us. We cannot comprehend him apart from his gracious revelation of himself to us, and even in that, He condescends to the level of our finite understanding. Almighty is what we sometimes describe as omnipotent. God is not constrained and can do as He pleases. Most holy reminds me of the throne room scene in Isaiah’s vision where the seraphim are proclaiming God’s holiness over and over. This highlights his infinite purity and utter transcendence.
The phrase ‘working things to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will, for His own glory‘ reminds us again that God is almighty. He has a will which is righteous and not tainted by sin, and he works all things (yes that means all, even the bad and even the insignificant) so that his perfect will is done and glory is brought to His name.
Towards the end of this first section, we are reminded of God’s love, grace, mercy, patience (long-suffering) and his willingness to forgive sin and reward those who diligently seek Him, but conversely, his just judgment and hatred of sin. He will by no means clear the guilty, which is precisely why His Son Christ had to bear our guilt. These words ought to be a reminder to all to diligently seek God through His son Christ to find forgiveness and his grace and mercy.
For a long time I’ve been aware of the role media has in shaping public opinion. I remember the lead-up to the anti-smacking bill, civil unions and the more recent homosexual ‘marriage’ law and the cannabis referendum in 2020. Mainstream papers and television news blatantly promote their views and fashion their reporting to create their desired narrative. What’s more disconcerting than this fact is that so many Kiwis are hoodwinked by it, thinking they are getting largely unbiased ‘news’.
Unfortunately, our prostituted media have outdone themselves through the Covid ‘pandemic’. The insistence on calling anyone opposed to the covid vaccine or the government’s no jab no job rules ‘anti-vaxxers’ and almost daily smears against the unvaccinated combined with their attempts to underreport numbers at anti mandate protests or describe the protestors as far-right or white supremacists has, unfortunately, had its effect on the compliant Kiwi population. Sometimes the claims are just plain ridiculous. Just why the Maori ‘community’ would be interested in white supremacy I fail to understand. Perhaps our leaders are insinuating Maori are stupid and need a maternalistic state making sure racists don’t encourage them to make medical decisions for themselves. But the only stupid ones are those who believe and take on board these ridiculous smears without investigating for themselves.
Which brings us to the National Party of New Zealand. What a disgrace. You would think that we would have leaders intelligent enough to see through the government propaganda. But no. Men like Luxon seem to promise nothing more than more competent authoritarianism. “Labour is driving New Zealand over a cliff at 100km/h. Vote for us, we’ll spend less on the car, slow things to 50, and make sure everyone has their seat belts on!”
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Just before Solzhenitsyn was exiled to the West, he left his motherland with a world-class essay called “Live Not by Lies”. It was his parting exhortation to his Soviet brethren, imploring them to refrain from cooperating with the lies of their leaders. This bold and confronting piece has some brilliant lessons to teach us today. The lesson I learned from Solzhenitsyn here was that the first and most basic step towards our liberation from tyranny is to refuse to participate with the lies.
Over the past two years, our nation has been bombarded with lies from our government and its media. Back in September of 2020, our Prime Minister said that there would be no forced vaccinations and that those who chose to opt-out would face no penalties. Newshub even said that it was “conspiracy theorists” who were promoting the idea that there would be mandatory vaccines.[1] In August of 2021, Auckland went into a “one-week” lockdown in order to “go hard and go early”, in response to one COVID case in the community.[2] That “one week” was a lie. It actually ended up being more than fourteen weeks before restrictions were lifted. Then in November of 2021, there was the secretive passing of COVID legislation without consultation[3] and the complete curbing of the Bill of Rights.
While all this is happening, throughout the past two years, there has been vicious censoring of any and all dissent. World experts are being banned from Twitter and we are unable to even link to their material,[4] doctors are fired and punished for rejecting the mainstream narrative.[5]
Now, I know enough about human nature to see what is going on here. Every other time I see one side trying to viciously silence opposing views, it is always because the ones doing the silencing have no ability to respond to their objections. This is why the Critical Theory loonies want to label all conservatives as racist, homophobic bigots, and why our government wants to pass its Conversion Practices Bill. This is why the doomsday climate folks want to cancel any scientists who challenge their false prophecies. This is why the elites want a monopoly on the narrative regarding everything from elections down to gender.
People in power always find it easier to silence their opposition through the exercise of force. The last thing they want is for everything to be exposed in the light and for people to make up their own minds. If that isn’t what is going on here, then why are they acting like it is?
In New Zealand in 2022, human nature is not so different from that of Russia in 1974. People are much the same. Like them, people here have willingly gone along with the foolish mandates and become state actors. Punishing and disciplining the non-compliant. Out of cowardly self-preservation, men have abandoned principle and embraced the lies. They have thrown people to the crocodiles, hoping to be the last ones eaten. Men have capitulated and compromised hoping that they would not have to pay the price. But there is always a price to be paid. The cowards of our day won’t pay the price of straying from the herd, or social exclusion, or losing their job. However, they will pay the price of losing any strength of character that they might have had. They will squander the liberty and freedoms that their ancestors fought and died for. They will pay the price of diminishing their own soul.
“We have so hopelessly ceded our humanity that for the modest handouts of today we are ready to surrender up all principles, our soul, all the labors of our ancestors, all the prospects of our descendants—anything to avoid disrupting our meager existence. We have lost our strength, our pride, our passion… We hope only not to stray from the herd, not to set out on our own, and risk suddenly having to make do without the white bread, the hot water heater, a Moscow residency permit. We have internalized well the lessons drummed into us by the state; we are forever content and comfortable with its premise”
The price one pays by making himself complicit with the sins of the state is not worth it. What does it profit a man to gain the world and forfeit his soul? This is not the time for cowards. Our children are watching us. They are learning from us. Unfortunately, many men are teaching the next generation to have spines of jelly.
“We cannot escape the environment, the social conditions; they shape us, “being determines consciousness.” What have we to do with this? We can do nothing… Some will counter: But really, there is nothing to be done! Our mouths are gagged, no one listens to us, no one asks us. How can we make them listen to us?”
Counterfeit masculinity excels at making excuses whereas true masculinity voluntarily takes on responsibility. In our climate, there is no shortage of excuses. “This shouldn’t be the hill to die on”, “It’s not a gospel issue”, and “It’s the law, we have to obey”. Oh, and let’s not forget the ol’ faithful “but Romans 13”.
Weak people love excuses, and they love pointing to the fact that they have not been given any specific command to address this specific injustice. Many who recognise the wickedness of the vaccine mandates will glibly go along with them, reasoning to themselves that it is not their problem to deal with. Or hoping that it will pass before too much damage is done.
This mindset is the exact opposite of what was modelled to us by our Lord. From his example, we see that men are called to imitate him by willingly giving of their strength for the sake of others. Christian men should voluntarily spend themselves, give of themselves, face harm for the sake of others. Christian leaders should be the first to face retribution for the sake of their people. This is the example given to us by Christ. Yet today, countless churches and Christian institutions have played ball with the state. Countless good people have lost jobs and faced social exclusion while their leaders have folded and bended to meet the ever-changing standards.
If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work? (Proverbs 24:10-12)
By God’s common grace, there are many everyday people who are doing the right thing and refusing to participate in the two-tiered discrimination of our government. Gym owners, café owners, and restaurant owners. In God’s kindness, many non-Christians have seen through the deceit before our church leaders. At this point, there is no excuse for Christian leaders to be participating with the lies.
“And therein we find, neglected by us, the simplest, the most accessible key to our liberation: a personal nonparticipation in lies! Even if all is covered by lies, even if all is under their rule, let us resist in the smallest way: Let their rule hold not through me! And this is the way to break out of the imaginary encirclement of our inertness, the easiest way for us and the most devastating for the lies. For when people renounce lies, lies simply cease to exist. Like parasites, they can only survive when attached to a person.”
For anyone wishing to live by principle and protect the integrity of their soul, life will be difficult. If you have principles that you have resolved to live by, then severe punishment can always be right around the corner. Those who have such principles will know exactly what I’m talking about when I say this. If you have resolved never to support or promote the LGBT agenda in any way, then your career could implode when HR asks you to wear the rainbow badge for all of June. If you have resolved never to discriminate in your church or Christian institution, you are now stuck facing the wrath of the state. A thousand other examples of potential danger exist for those of us who seek to live by our principles. Compromised men know nothing of this for they will constantly bend and mould their principles to fit their current situation so that they too never “technically” violate them. In reality, they never violate their principles because they have none.
Yes, at first it will not be fair. Someone will have to temporarily lose his job. For the young who seek to live by truth, this will at first severely complicate life, for their tests and quizzes, too, are stuffed with lies, and so choices will have to be made. But there is no loophole left for anyone who seeks to be honest: Not even for a day, not even in the safest technical occupations can he avoid even a single one of the listed choices—to be made in favor of either truth or lies, in favor of spiritual independence or spiritual servility. And as for him who lacks the courage to defend even his own soul: Let him not brag of his progressive views, boast of his status as an academician or a recognized artist, a distinguished citizen or general. Let him say to himself plainly: I am cattle, I am a coward, I seek only warmth and to eat my fill.
In sum, the third vital lesson from the gulags is this; don’t be cattle, don’t be a coward, don’t seek only self-preservation. Live not by lies. Let the rule of lies hold not through you!
[1] https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/09/coronavirus-jacinda-ardern-confident-enough-kiwis-will-get-covid-19-vaccine-for-herd-immunity-without-being-forced-to.html
[2] https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/coronavirus-go-hard-and-early-than-light-and-long-new-zealand-pm-on-snap-lockdown-2512930
[3] https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018822626/rushed-laws-a-constitutional-disgrace-law-prof
[4] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10364679/YouTube-Twitter-delete-Joe-Rogan-interview-scientist-helped-invent-MRNA-vaccines.html
A little late, but better late than never!
