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A friend of mine from back east once told me what he said was wrong with the country.

“Readers are leaders,” he said. “Unfortunately, our leaders don’t read.”

I was reminded of that sharp-eyed observation this week after a federal judge in Florida struck down the CDC’s widely hated mask mandate for travelers.

The reaction to the mandate reversal by the pro-mask zealots and their allies in the liberal national media was hysterical, angry and predictable.

You can bet the mask worshipers are rooting for the Department of Justice to successfully appeal the judge’s ruling and reinstate the CDC’s rule.

But like most Americans, I’m rooting and praying for the permanent death of the mask mandate, which should have happened a long time ago.

I’m vaxxed and boosted. I don’t care if you’re wearing a mask or not, and you shouldn’t worry about me.

If you still believe the myth that a cloth mask keeps you safe from a virus, be my guest — wear a pair of masks and a plastic helmet 24/7. Just don’t treat me like I’m a granny killer.

U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle struck down the CDC mask mandate because she concluded the public health bureaucracy had overstepped its legal authority by imposing it early last year.

Based on the misleading and biased coverage by the liberal media — which apparently didn’t actually read her decision or ignored what it said — you’d have thought the judge had ruled that wearing a mask is now illegal everywhere in the USA.

She didn’t.

What she did was simply return the decision to wear or not wear a face mask to the individual, where it always belonged.

The opponents of recent bills passed in Texas and Florida have the same lazy reading habits as the mask worshipers.

They and their allies in the liberal media immediately railed in unison against the Texas bill, as if it outlawed all abortions in the state.

But if they had been honest, or had bothered to actually read the law, they’d know the bill prohibits abortions in the state only after 15 weeks and makes the usual allowances for cases of rape, incest and the health of the mother.

Ditto regarding the misbehavior of the opponents of the newly passed bill in Florida, the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law.

The bill outlaws the teaching of what is essentially the elementary school equivalent of Sex & Gender Studies 101 to little kids in public schools.

If you read the law, it says, sensibly, that public school teachers are not allowed to teach kids from kindergarten to third grade that it’s OK for them to choose to be a boy or girl, whichever they want, or, if they aren’t sure, both.

Contrary to the claims of its opponents, the Florida bill does not prohibit teachers from saying the word “gay.”

What it does is leave it up to parents to teach their kids about gender and sexual orientation — not LGBTQ+ activists intent on indoctrinating children in their pet gender theories.

The far left don’t care what the bills in Texas and Florida actually say.

They just spout their familiar claims of being discriminated against or victimized and their soulmates in the liberal media, as usual, let them get away with it.

The media, as they do so often, are failing the public in their coverage of the bills in Texas and Florida.

Not only are journalists picking sides, they are too much in bed with the left to point out that the opponents of the bills are misrepresenting, exaggerating or deliberately lying to the public about what’s in them.

It’s very hard for me to believe there are parents out there who really think it’s fine and dandy to teach their first graders that it’s OK to be bisexual if they want.

As far as I’m concerned, the teachers who feed this poison to little kids are no better than child abusers. And the liberal media are complicit in their crime.

Michael Reagan, the son of President Ronald Reagan, is an author, speaker and president of the Reagan Legacy Foundation. Send comments to reagan@caglecartoons.com and follow @reaganworld on Twitter.