“Punishment is justice for the unjust.”

–St. Augustine.

Today I share thoughts with you dear readers on government spending and overreach. Enjoy.

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Today’s leftists are possessed by the spirit of France’s 18th-century guillotine-loving revolutionaries

BY:          Victor Davis Hanson, The New York Post (September 6, 2026).

Trump and MAGA did not operate in a vacuum in the decade between 2015 and his re-election in 2024. His formal opposition was no longer the liberal Democrats of old but rather a new, far more radical manifestation. In their mission to fundamentally change the nation, they were more suited to 18th-century revolutionary France than 21st-century America. 

The nature of the two-party system, of course, is to find ways to counter and even discredit the opposite party. Yet since the end of the Civil War, these disagreements had played out within accepted boundaries. But the decade of Trump, from 2015 to 2025, unleashed a hysteria unseen in over 160 years, one in which Democrats sought to destroy — not merely defeat — the candidate, then president, then ex-president, then candidate again, and finally re-elected President Trump.

What were the ideologies and motives that inspired their uniquely fanatical opposition? 

One characteristic of the new radical Democratic Party was its pivot from solidarity with the middle classes to a movement of the wealthy and professional cadres as self-appointed protectors of the subsidized poor — a movement that reflected the 21st-century sources of influence and wealth within the Democratic Party.

Yet like the Jacobin movement of old, the new elites of the radicalized Democratic Party rarely felt that they should themselves be subject to the consequences of their own radical ideologies — whether climate-change taboos on personal energy use, open borders, defunding the police, etc.

Take, for example, the most radical firebrands of the new Democrats — Reps. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Mayor Mamdani. They were all either children of the upper-middle classes or had claimed to be multimillionaires while in Congress or had arrived as immigrants from the ruling elite of their prior, usually illiberal, homelands — all in ways impossible for ordinary citizens. 

Leftist elites proved ecstatic supporters of fringe issues — reparations to African Americans, transgendered athletes competing in women’s sports, and banning natural gas appliances. Such boutique obsessions either were of little relevance to or actively alienated the middle class and minorities. 

The radical transformations started as early as the 2016 campaign. In their rhetoric, Democrats under once-moderate Hillary Clinton had become veritable Jacobins — the modern counterparts of French Revolutionary fanatics, as they substituted lawfare, radically transformed balloting laws and procedures, and weaponized federal agencies as their guillotine.

The left did not care whether a Trump position dovetailed with their own, was in the interest of the country or was popular. Instead, if they saw Trump’s fingerprints on a policy, they opposed it. Destroying this supposedly demonic public menace was worth appearing hypocritical or at odds with public opinion. 

Never in their wildest imagination did the new Jacobins believe that they were tearing down protective norms and erecting in their place dangerous new precedents that might boomerang on themselves, especially if the supposedly permanently inert Trump ever returned to power. 

So the new Democrats were oblivious to the ancient warnings of the historian Thucydides, who chronicled the horrific left-right cycles of revolution on the island of Corcyra (modern Corfu) during the Peloponnesian War and the sheer folly of demolishing legal and cultural norms that would shortly be missed by those who destroyed them:

“Indeed men too often take upon themselves in the prosecution of their revenge to set the example of doing away with those general laws to which all alike can look for salvation in adversity, instead of allowing them to subsist against the day of danger when their aid may be required.”

In 2020, an addled Joe Biden, in a Faustian bargain, had been nominated to provide a moderate veneer for this new hard-leftist Democratic Party. This Biden facade was necessary to conceal what became, after 2020, the most radical political agenda in modern presidential history, one implemented by this same Jacobin apparatus, which would never have been able to realize such dreams transparently or in normal times. 

Aside from rampant inflation, massive deficits and DEI fixations, the most shocking of the new left-wing Democratic policies was the complete erasure of the southern border — a nihilism whose aim even neutral observers in retrospect could never really understand.

Under Biden and his Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the border simply and by design became nonexistent. Unfortunately, the influx occurred in an era when the tenets of the old melting-pot assimilationist and integrationist model had largely been damned out of existence.

During and after 2020, this same sort of Jacobin nihilism extended to almost every corner of American life. Mass looting and shoplifting in major blue-state cities were either lightly or not at all punished. In California and other blue states, stealing less than $950 worth of merchandise had been by ballot proposition officially deemed a misdemeanor, effectively precluding arrests, bookings, arraignments and jail time. That fact became well known to discerning criminals, and the impunity spread de facto nationwide following the death of George Floyd. 

On a larger scale, the overall blue-state model that had emerged over the last two decades reached its logical breaking point. With huge voting pluralities, Democratic lawmakers had been free to put into practice some of their most radical immigration, crime, fiscal and diversity agendas.

Cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Baltimore and Portland had become synonymous with high taxes, eroding infrastructure, weaponized jurisprudence, huge unfunded pension obligations, unserviceable entitlement costs, poor public schools, high crime, lawless homeless populations and assorted green, antibusiness and DEI regulations.

All this surrealism proved utterly unsustainable, and it, too, fueled the Trump renaissance, given that there was no sign the Democratic Party would repudiate its neo-socialist drift and tack back to the center. 

The blue-state paradigm reflected a new medievalism, with the few very rich, the many poor and a declining number in between. States dominated by the Democratic Party that claimed to rectify inequality were the most asymmetrical in wealth distribution in recent memory. Blue congressional districts had more inequality than their red counterparts.

After the turn of the millennium, elites in our coastal cities, east and west, were newly enriched by free trade and the ensuing huge globalized worldwide audiences and markets. Those in high tech, finance, entertainment and elite universities suddenly enjoyed billions rather than millions of consumers and clients. 

The resulting spectacular wealth — $9 trillion in market cap in Silicon Valley alone — encouraged a romantic, top-down mindset. All the old civilizational challenges of food, shelter, transportation and energy development were now assumed to be permanently solved by this new professional class, without any investigation about whether their nostrums had actually improved the lives of the rest of society. A functioning society was taken for granted, as if running on autopilot. 

In short, the elites conducted their social experiments and put their agenda of high taxes, radical green mandates, lax law enforcement, hyperregulation and woke sermonizing into practice without injury to themselves. In contrast, the lower classes were the proverbial lab rats who suffered the consequences. 

As Americans en masse fled blue states for red, the left was not particularly bothered. Instead, the attitude of California and New York was a nihilist tone of “good riddance.”

As one Silicon Valley fixture, Shankar Singham, put it, “If everyone in the middle class is leaving, that’s actually a good thing. We need these spots opened up for the new wave of immigrants to come up.” 

The later election of the unapologetic Zohran Mamdani only confirmed the notion that the flight of capital was more or less welcomed. 

Two core realities defined the new elite leftism. First, in their hubris, the privileged left assumed that human nature was malleable and fluid. Like the Marxists of old, they would invent, through mandated massive government intervention and investment, a “new American” whose mindset and behavior met their progressive requisites and produced a brave new world to come. 

Second, central to the such social engineering was the idea of exempting the rulemaking elite themselves from the new fiats, reminiscent of the prerogatives of the Communist Party nomeklatura in the Soviet Union. 

The old liberalism of the 20th century that had embraced traditional values was now rare in the new scolding Democratic Party that fixated on the boutique and trivial while ignoring the existential. 

In the left-wing fixation on Trump and his white voters as supposed racists, the left cast all reason, all history to the wind. In the meantime, the new Democratic Party did not grasp that the more obsessed they became, the less popular they appeared, or that Trump might have deliberately trolled them to achieve just such an effect. 

Therefore, over a decade, any failure of the Democrats to destroy Trump was met not with introspection but with renewed zeal as they blindly raced headlong to their self-made near ruin — and the nation’s. 

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Can We Throw Off the Yoke of Government?

Government—and those who feed off it—slowly but inevitably become our masters.

BY:          Allan J. Feiffer, The American Thinker (September 4, 2026).

In June 1788, when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution, America was born. In 1789, its entire payroll reportedly fit on a single ledger page, consisting mainly of customs officers, marshals, postmasters, and clerks. By 1800, the federal civilian workforce had grown to 125 people. By 1901, it had reached 231,000, including the Post Office. Today, the federal civilian workforce numbers approximately 2.7 million. Add another 1.7 to 2 million contractual employees, and the number is around 4.5 million—and this doesn’t count anyone in uniform. Next, count those in state and local government: another 20 million Americans! For perspective, there are only about 100–103 million full-time private-sector workers and 25 million people employed directly or indirectly by government; in round numbers, that translates into one out of every five Americans working for government. That imbalance is economically indefensible.

The size of the government workforce is only the first part of the story. Working for the government is often considerably more lucrative than working in the private sector. Federal employees receive significantly more total compensation than comparable private-sector workers, particularly those without a college degree. The average federal salary is an astounding $112,000. Add benefits, and total compensation rises to $150,000–$175,000. Federal employees work 210–225 days a year, compared with 235–245 days in the private sector. They receive heavily subsidized health insurance, a defined-benefit pension, and job security that is nearly impossible to match. State and local employees generally enjoy a similar advantage. Private-sector workers remain exposed to layoffs, changing market conditions, rising health care costs, and the possibility that their employer simply decides their position is no longer necessary. Government employment operates under a different set of rules, a consequence of a lack of a profit motive. Those rules matter because government compensation ultimately has to be financed by the productive economy—through taxation, borrowing, or inflation. When government spending grows faster than the supply of goods and services, prices rise because the government is injecting more money into the economy than the economy can absorb.

The difference becomes even more apparent over the course of a career. A federal employee under the General Schedule receives within-grade increases simply by staying around. Those increases occur at predetermined intervals, in addition to annual and locality pay adjustments. Most state and local governments have similar arrangements. Private employers frequently reward experience, but they decide whether the additional cost is justified. Government compensation systems make these decisions automatically, treating pay increases as entitlements rather than cost‑benefit judgments. A government employee can accumulate compensation advantages simply by being a warm body. The private employee often has to change employers, negotiate, or demonstrate increased value to obtain a comparable increase.

Government employees typically receive more paid time off through holidays, sick leave, vacation, parental leave, and administrative leave. Many state and local employees also work fewer hours than the conventional 40‑hour private‑sector week, some as few as 32 hours. This does not mean every government employee is lazy. There are dedicated public servants whose work is difficult and/or essential. The issue is the structure. If an employee receives full-time compensation while working substantially fewer hours, the effective cost of that labor is higher. If an agency employs more people than it needs, costs expand commensurately. That cost eventually shows up in taxes, borrowing, reduced public investment, or slower economic growth for our country. And sometimes the consequences are more serious than an inefficient budget.

Graphic: X Post

In March 2026, an Air Canada Express jet landing at LaGuardia collided with a fire truck that had been cleared to cross the runway, killing both pilots and injuring dozens. The subsequent investigation revealed that two air traffic controllers had left work without permission about an hour early, a practice the FAA characterized as systematic time‑clock fraud. Their departure contributed to understaffing at a critical moment, leaving one controller to manage multiple responsibilities during an emergency. Air traffic control depends upon trained people being where they are supposed to be when they are supposed to be there. The LaGuardia accident demonstrates what happens when staffing, work schedules, or accountability don’t rise to what the public assumes it is paying for.

Sometimes government inefficiency is measured in lives.

Government is no longer simply an institution Americans entrust to perform certain functions; it has become an enormous self-serving economic ecosystem. Every new program creates new positions. Every expansion of government creates permanent new spending, leading beneficiaries to acquire a direct economic interest in preserving the system that benefits them. Allowing government employees, either directly or through unions or dedicated PACs, to make campaign contributions or provide in-kind services creates an incestuous relationship between government employees and their elected leaders, leading to indefensible loyalties. 

That does not require corruption; it reflects ordinary human proclivities. A government employee prefers continued government employment, while a contractor dependent upon federal contracts opposes cuts. An organization receiving government grants defends the program providing them.

Every expansion of government creates another constituency interested in maintaining it. This helps explain why government grows more easily than it contracts, as employees know they’re unlikely to find similarly lucrative employment in the private sector. Over time, government consumes an ever larger share of the pie, creating the yoke.

The government of 1789 could fit on a ledger page. Today’s government employs or financially supports tens of millions of people. That transformation did not occur overnight; it grew incrementally. One program, one agency, one new benefit, one more layer of administration was never seen in its totality; it was just too easy to add them, never looking back. The obvious answer: Zero‑based budgeting. Frightening to government leaders because it would reveal waste and inefficiency they would be forced to address. 

Eventually we wound up with 25 million government employees, millions more dependent upon government contracts, and an enormous system whose beneficiaries have a manifest interest in preserving it. The yoke was built slowly, by people who believed they were doing good. But a burden is no lighter just because it was created with good intentions. The weight of that yoke is felt not in Washington but by the citizens who fund it and suffer the other losses that an inefficient government inevitably imparts. If Americans want a freer and more prosperous future, they will have to confront a difficult reality: reducing government means changing the incentives of millions who now depend upon it. Before we can throw off the yoke, we must recognize how heavy it has become and accept the necessity to address it. Otherwise, government—and those who feed off it—slowly but inevitably become our masters.

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Where all government spending comes from

Let’s not be naïve about this.

BY:          Jay Davidson, The American Thinker (August 29, 2026).

We hear about this right and that, about the needs of the many that can be met only through government spending.  We elect politicians whose stated goal is to pass new laws and new spending initiatives for our benefit.  But do we ever question where the money comes from that our government spends?

Let’s take the example of tariffs, although we could just as easily substitute taxes or fees.  Let’s ask who really pays the tariffs our government is imposing on imports.

First, corporations don’t pay tariffs.  They pass them on to customers in the form of higher prices.

Second, consumers pay the tariffs.

Third, all of the tariffs imposed on domestic imports are paid by American consumers.

Fourth, therefore, tariffs are just another tax on American citizens. 

Finally, all tariffs, taxes, and fees are taken from the person who earned the money and transferred to our government.  Every dollar our politicians spend is a dollar taken from the private citizen and voter.

Customs duties had been the federal government’s fastest-growing source of revenue through 2025, driven by a rash of new tariffs imposed by President Trump, including IEEPA (International Emergency

Economic Powers Act) tariffs that accounted for roughly half of collections.

The Republican Party of my youth would recoil at the current philosophy of more taxation, more spending, and more government intervention in our lives.  Yet that is exactly what most politicians have done.  Is there a difference between Democrats and Republicans in this tax-and-spend mentality?

Okay, maybe a few more Rs object to tax and spend, but not the majority.  While the Rs stumble in confusion, the Ds are going socialist and communist. What happened to the center, the moderate, the independent spirit of our forebears?  The ones who said, Leave us alone; we will take care of our own.  We don’t need your federal hands in our pockets, and we don’t need another law, rule or regulation?

Here is another maxim: All federal revenue is taken from the private sector, from private citizens.  Every penny taken through taxes, fees, or tariffs comes out of the pocket of citizens. Even the debt our government incurs is paid for by the citizen.  Government is not capable of making money; it subsists by taking. 

All federal income generation (taxes, fees, tariffs, debt) is used by members of the federal government (politicians and bureaucrats) to facilitate government spending.  Just how effective has that spending been?

We citizens have three rights, and only three: life, liberty and ownership of property.  All taxes, fees, and tariffs take from the earner and funnel the takings into a highly inefficient government bureaucracy.  Is this not an impingement on our inalienable right to ownership?

Since when does a bureaucrat know better what to do with money you earned through your own labor?  Yet that is what we do every time a politician increases government revenue through spending. 

Here is another maxim: Every law, rule, and regulation is control over the individual by his government.  How ironic is it that our government takes (taxes, fees, tariffs) from us in order to control us (laws, rules, regulation)?  And we let them.

There is no right for one person or entity to impose his will on another.  We all have the right to liberty, to free will, to our own choice.

This not a cry for anarchy.  Quite the opposite — this is a plea to adhere to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.  We are all independent and sovereign beings endowed by our creator will three inalienable rights.  It is time for less government and more individual freedom — liberty. 

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The difference between rights and entitlements in American political life

A right that requires another’s labor is an entitlement, not a right.

BY:          Christian Vezilj, The American Thinker (September 2, 2026).

In today’s political environment, the term “rights” is used so casually and so often that its original meaning has almost vanished. Politicians talk about having a “right to housing”, a “right to affordable food”, a “right to free healthcare”, a “right to childcare”, a “right to transportation”, and even a “right to a livable wage”. Since these expressions are so constantly repeated, they have become familiar and even seem moral. However, familiarity does not mean that they are true, and repetition does not make them align with the American founding.

The Founders made it plain that rights originate from the Creator, not from the government or from other citizens. A right is one that you have simply because you are a human being; it is inherent, natural, and entirely self-contained. It does not necessitate anyone else giving up their labor, their money, their skills, or their property if you are to exercise it. What is a real right is something that you can enjoy without making anyone else take any action.

The core of natural rights is the list of rights set out in the Declaration of Independence: the right to life, the right to liberty, and the right to pursue happiness. The Bill of Rights follows the same pattern. Every amendment protects a freedom that does not require another person’s involvement. Freedom of speech does not require anyone to listen. Freedom of religion does not require anyone to fund your church. Freedom of the press does not require anyone to buy your newspaper. The right to bear arms does not require anyone to purchase a firearm for you. Due process does not require another citizen to sacrifice their property or time. This distinction is not a minor detail. It is the foundation of American liberty.

Yet modern politics often blurs this line. When politicians declare that citizens have a “right” to free healthcare, free housing, free childcare, or free transportation, they are not describing rights. They are describing entitlements — benefits that require government to take from one group and give to another. These entitlements may be debated, supported, opposed, expanded, or limited. But they are not rights in the Founders’ philosophical sense.

A right that requires someone else’s labor is not a right. It is a claim on another person. It is a demand that someone else must work, must pay, must provide, or must sacrifice so that you may receive. And if government enforces that claim, it must do so by confiscation — taking the fruits of one person’s labor and transferring them to someone else.

This is not the American understanding of rights. It is a different philosophy entirely, one rooted in the idea that government exists to manage society, allocate resources, and guarantee outcomes. The Founders believed the opposite: that government exists to protect individual liberty, secure property, and prevent coercion.

The American vision is simple and profound. Rights come from God. Property comes from labor. Charity comes from choice. Government’s role is not to provide for citizens but to protect their freedom to provide for themselves. When government begins to guarantee goods and services under the banner of “rights,” it transforms citizens from free individuals into recipients of state-managed benefits. It replaces personal responsibility with political dependency. And it replaces natural rights with political entitlements.

The language of rights matters because it shapes citizens’ expectations and the power of government. When everything becomes a “right,” nothing remains a right in the original sense. The word loses its meaning. And the government gains authority to redistribute, regulate, and control in the name of fulfilling these newly invented “rights.”

The Founders understood that freedom requires limits — not on citizens, but on government. They built a system where individuals could pursue their own happiness without forcing others to surrender theirs. That is the American promise. And it remains true today: a right that requires another person’s labor is not a right. It is a political entitlement, and it must never be confused with the God‑given rights that define American liberty.

GFK

“In doing what we ought we deserve no praise, because it is our duty.”

–St. Augustine.

Twenty-five (25) years ago, it was a beautiful Tuesday morning in the United States. Americans awoke, took their children to school, went to work, and looked forward to the day. Before the morning was over, 2,977 innocent Americans were dead. At the hands of Muslim terrorists, operating in our country.  R. I. P.

Our nation swore we would never forget the events of that horrible day. Yet as I write this, a mosque sits just blocks from the site of the World Trade Center, New York City’s Mayor is a Muslim, Dearborn, Michigan is a majority Muslim city, and the Democrats have nominated a Muslim for the United States Senate.

I fear that we have forgotten what happened on September 11, 2001. I fear that we have not learned the lessons of that day, and the so-called “War on Terror”. I fear for the fate of our country.

GFK

“O Lord, help me to be pure, but not yet.”–St. Augustine.

Today begins the Chatmoss Men’s Member-Guest golf tournament. It is always a VERY BIG TIME. John and I hope to capture lightning in a bottle, and return to the shoot-out, this time finishing first. Second was nice, but also unsatisfying. Maybe this will be our year!

Below is an article on Islam. It raises provocative points and questions, particularly in relation to our society’s current state. As has been pointed out in The Observations on previous occasions, Islam is not compatible with Western Civilization, freedom and liberty, or our Constitution. Islam’s history, if studied, demonstrates its dangers and evils. Please read carefully, and contemplate carefully where we are going in the United States.

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The Questions We Must Ask About Islam

A Muslim reformer’s warning about Western timidity, Islamist extremism, and the defense of civilization.

BY:          Shmuel Klatzkin, The American Spectator (September 5, 2026).

Exploring the murky depths of my laptop this last week, I came upon a provocative pamphlet from about a decade ago, perhaps.

It’s provocative in a very good sense. The author, Dr. Tawfik Hamid, wrote passionately about the topic at hand, a passion that was palpable. Hamid is an Egyptian MD who identifies himself as a moderate Muslim. In the pamphlet, he was making the case that we must see what people mean when they invoke the name of Islam. Hamid found the need to do that, having joined an Egyptian jihadist group in the Eighties, which he then left as the result of the moral awakening that led him to be a Muslim reformer.

Every participant in this civilization needs, as best they are able, to amass a basic competence and awareness of the long history of the clash between the religions and the peoples of the Middle East.

Here in the pamphlet, Hamid derides those Western accommodators who act as if morality requires their groveling before the jihadists he repudiates. Hoping only to be liked and affirmed, Hamid says that instead they legitimate the cruelest and most violent expressions of Islam instead of making common cause with those who embrace civilization and religious and cultural freedom.

Hamid’s pamphlet shows a cartoon dialogue between Mr. Tolerance and Osama bin Laden.

In one frame, Mr. Tolerance says to Osama: “I think we should begin stoning women to death for committing adultery in order to show respect to your culture and sensitivity to your religious values!” Astonished and pleased, Osama tells his fawning co-dependent the raw details of the agenda of the Islamists, and at each step, Mr. Tolerance strives to out-rationalize Osama in order to get his approval.

Hamid saw early on the cancer of oikophobia, a term Roger Scruton defines as “the repudiation of inheritance and home.” Hamid loves his home and will not tolerate it being polluted by horrific doctrines and squalid actions. He challenges us to combat our own timidity and oikophobia, stand tall on the principles of our civilization, and to ask some direct and searching questions of those who have not clarified what they mean when they invoke Islam. He asks us not to be afraid of those who bully the conversation by dismissing even the most fair-minded criticism with the cry of Islamophobia.

Hamid here proposes a list of clarifying questions to help us determine whether the version of Islam being invoked by its proponents is worthy of our support or our opposition. What is at stake is nothing short of our civilization with its aspiration to ordered freedom in which all  find strength and inspiration in their religion to build a peaceful and abundant world. We can and must discern which values are in tune with the best that civilization aspires to, and those whose atavism and depravity should be evident and draw condemnation from Muslim, Jew, and Christian — and any civilized person — alike.

Here is the list in Hamid’s own clear and concise words:

Please support peaceful Muslims by asking Islamic organizations, associations, and local mosques to clarify their position in an unambiguous manner in their media outlets in regard to the following violent concepts:

• Apostates: Killing Apostates
• Beating women and stoning them until death for having extramarital sex
• Calling Jews pigs and monkeys
• Declaring wars to spread Islam
• Enslavement of female war prisoners to have sex with them “Ma Malakat Aimanikum”
• Fighting Jews before the end days and killing all of them
• Gay killing

Our Western civilization has taught us that we cannot let the extreme, the ignorant, and the malevolent set the rules of our conversation. Our work is partnering in creating societies able to be ruled by the consent of the governed. We build a culture in which we internalize a morality that does not rely on force in the first place but in great self-evident principles and models.

Whether in the schools of Athens or in Jerusalem, for thousands of years we have examples of people listening to each other on momentous issues and together making civilization.

That listening leads to mutual enrichment, provided that we learn to admit our basic humanity by active and vibrant humility. Unlike the fanatic, we know we only know a piece of the puzzle, just like everyone else. But what I know, others may need to know as well, and what they know, I may well need, too. And how will we know what is needed and what is not if we do not talk to each other, truthfully, wholeheartedly?

This is the hard-learned, distilled lesson of the First Amendment — we cannot force our core certainties on others. They must be self-evident if they are to be accepted without resistance. We put our core certainties off the government’s table — the core, irrefutable truths from Above beckon us with an invitation stronger than any government’s coercion.

Our religion bids us to restrict our government’s power to furthering the civil society, and it sanctifies the covenant by which we empower our government to do that.

The years since Hamid wrote this pamphlet, a growing number of Muslims have found it possible to express similar sentiments in the media, in public places and in the halls of power. After years of the Ottoman revival of murderous ethnic and religious hatred to defibrillate their dying empire; after the alliance forged by the founder of Palestinian terrorism, Amin al Husseini, with Adolf Hitler in order to eliminate the Jews in vain pursuit of national redemption; after decades of Nasser’s pan-Arabism, which marginalized and reduced to insignificance the multitude of ethnicities that had been spread quilt-like over the Middle East for centuries; after the half-century of Khomeinism re-igniting the fire of Jew-hatred after it had been stained by Nasser’s humiliating failures in the wars he sought — after all this, a long-hidden spark of Islam is coming to light and seeking to offer a better alternative and end the century-long dominance of hateful resentment and exterminationist aspirations.

There really are people who hate. They will try to paralyze the civilizational conversation they do not seek and will not tolerate. They do so by means they have studied and know are effective:  accusing you of being the hater, trying to turn you into a “Mr. Toleration,” a flaccid sycophant of anyone who will reassure him of his own goodness, no matter the price.

Some things are worth hating. Because the haters have polluted the discussion, turning concepts upside down, seeking to wear you out like any vexatious litigator, like any psychopath, we need to break through their manipulation and re-establish the life-giving civilizational conversation. Hamid shows us one very good way to do that: ask fair questions that are pointed and focused and share the answers publicly.

There is no substitute for seeking the truth. Every participant in this civilization needs, as best they are able, to amass a basic competence and awareness of the long history of the clash between the religions and the peoples of the Middle East. This clash is now a world clash, striking nations all over the world from within and without. When propaganda chokes the space in which the discussions need to take place, the Hamids of this world are not heard, the progress his views have made is not recognized, and a slothful, self-indulgent media disheartens those who seek the cause of civilization and its necessary great discussion.

I intend to use this space in the coming weeks to offer quality readings that will help. This conflict is not in the least confined to “a faraway place between people of whom we know nothing.” It is here in our homeland and in homelands of our civilizational allies.

First in my list is a work by the late British historian, Sir Martin Gilbert, under whom Larry Arnn of Hillsdale College worked in researching and setting down the last six volumes of the authorized biography of Winston Churchill. It is a book of essential history, clear, jargon-free, readable, and fair. It is not meant to be the last word, but for many, it may be the first in welcoming them to a true discussion after years of sloganeering and propaganda.

More anon!

GFK

“Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.”

–St. Augustine.

My Member-Guest partner and long-time friend John Bays arrives in Southside today. Once again, we are teeing it up in a Member-Guest golf tournament.

Over the years John and I have met with mixed success. We have, on occasion, won our flights, played in shoot outs for the title, finished 2nd, and we actually won it all one year at Maryland Golf & Country Club (much to the chagrin of the much more talented [on paper, at least] runners up). We have drank martinis, Scotch, red wine, and beer, consumed copious amounts of crab balls, smoked cigars, and survived the sleep deprivation our post round revelry has imposed upon us. Bottom line: We have fun.

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The Commentaries on the Laws of England, commonly known by the informal name Blackstone’s Commentaries, is an influential 18th-century treatise on the common law of England by Sir William Blackstone, originally published by the Clarendon Press at Oxford between 1765 and 1769.  The work is divided into four volumes, on the rights of persons, the rights of things, of private wrongs and of public wrongs.

The Commentaries were long regarded as the leading work on the development of English law and played a role in the development of the American legal system.  They were in fact the first methodical treatise on the common law suitable for a lay readership since at least the Middle Ages.  The common law of England has relied on precedent more than statute and codifications and has been far less amenable than the civil law, developed from the Roman law, to the needs of a treatise.  The Commentaries were influential largely because they were in fact readable, and because they met a need.  As such, they were used in the training of American and British lawyers long after the death of Blackstone.

The Commentaries are often quoted as the definitive pre-Revolutionary source of common law by United States Courts.  Opinions of the United States Supreme Court quote from Blackstone’s work whenever they wish to engage in historical discussion that goes back that far, or farther (for example, when discussing the intent of the Framers of the Constitution). 

 Sir William Blackstone wrote and believed that individuals have the right to possess weapons suitable to their condition and degree, and such as are allowed by law, framing this as a public acknowledgment of the natural right to resist oppression and preserve oneself when legal protections fail. 

But Blackstone while Blackstone believed it to be a “right” of Englishmen to defend themselves, he characterized it as an “auxiliary right”. By contrast, the Constitution’s Framers believed the “right to keep and bear arms” to be a fundamental right–from God–which government was obligated to protect, and which was not to “be infringed.”

Today, as reflected in the article below, Great Britain has rejected Blackstone’s view that possessing weapons is even an “auxiliary right”. Which is an infringement of rights historically practiced in Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea, and Venezuela under Chavez and Maduro. Citizens are so much pliable if they cannot fight back.

Today law abiding Britons cower in fear, incapable of defending themselves against the criminal element, and in danger of being punished it they were to attempt to defend themselves. Do not think it can happen here?

In the Commonwealth of Virginia, the right to keep and bear arms is under serious attack by Governor Abigail Spanberger (D.) and General Assembly Democrats. The right is virtually dead in California, New York City, and Chicago. Get pulled over in Maryland for speeding, admit that you have a gun in the car, and get ready to go to jail. Even if you are a properly licensed gun holder in another State, and you are just passing through “The Free State”.

Our freedoms and liberties are gifts from God. These gifts were secured by the blood and treasure of those brave Americans who fought the British Empire during the Revolutionary War.

The right to keep and bear arms, to defend one’s self, not just against the criminal element, but conceivably against a tyrannical government is dear. Indeed, without the right to keep and bear arms, you have no right to free speech, religion, property, or due process.

Remember these things the next time you hear a political candidate or elected official tell you that he only supports “reasonable, common sense, gun control measures”. He is lying. He will tell you he is an avid sportsman, and wants to protect hunting and sports shooting. The rights of Englishmen to defend themselves, the Constitution’s right to “keep and bear arms” was not to secure your rights to shoot Bambi, or clay pigeons. This right is to defend yourself against the world, including, if necessary, your own government.

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The British Nanny State: No Guns Allowed

In Victorian London, Dr. Watson carrying a service revolver was unremarkable. In modern Britain, self-defence is treated as a crime—and the state prefers it that way.

BY:          William Grice, The American Thinker (August 28, 2026).

A Study in Disarmament

“Have you any arms?”

“I have my old service revolver and a few cartridges.”

“You had better clean it and load it. He will be a desperate man, and though I shall take him unawares, it is as well to be ready for anything.”

I went to my bedroom and followed his advice. When I returned with the pistol, the table had been cleared, and Holmes was engaged in his favourite occupation of scraping upon his violin.

— Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet (1887)

It is difficult to imagine a scene more alien to the modern British nanny state.

Not because Arthur Conan Doyle’s London was safer than ours, but because Watson’s possession of a service revolver is treated as entirely unremarkable. 

Sherlock Holmes asks whether he has arms. Watson replies that he does. Faced with a desperate and potentially dangerous man, he is told to clean the revolver, load it, and bring it with him.

Since the Dunblane Massacre in 1996, however, the UK Parliament has passed extraordinarily restrictive Firearms Acts that effectively banned private handgun ownership across Great Britain.

Speaking on The Joe Rogan Experience, Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe MP argued, “they don’t want the public to have guns… we now have a society that needs radical change and we need to release the individual.” 

Cue much shock and horror from the chattering classes and mainstream media.

Yet, aside from joining the Armed Forces or police, ordinary Britons are completely disarmed, and public weapons training is all but strangled by government mandate.

Granted, a privileged few are allowed weapons: landed gentry boasting Shotgun Certificates, gamekeepers begging police for Firearm Certificates, and some target shooters at clubs.

But past the wall of red tape lies a clear rejection of liberty. The UK’s laws treat the ideal that a free citizen has the right to arm himself and his family against danger as completely illegitimate.

Laughably, enthusiasm for armed policing has collapsed within the force itself: a direct result of putting a police marksman on trial for murder after he stopped a black gang member, Chris Kaba, who was using an SUV as a weapon against police. Color me shocked.

For context, it was a getaway car tied to escalating violence: masked me fired a shogun outside a primary school the night before and, earlier, Kaba had shot a man in both legs at a nightclub.

A good thing Sherlock wasn’t on the case, then, for if A Study in Scarlet were set in modern Britain, Holmes’s famous line wouldn’t be “You had better clean it and load it,” but “You had better hide it, Watson, or the Armed Crime Unit will be raiding 221B before we even catch the cab”!

Firearms, Foreigners, and the Channel Fantasy

As a boy I fired a 20-gauge double-barrelled shotgun in Devonshire, and I’ve had plenty of trigger time on the British Army Reserve’s SA80 L85A2/A3, and it’s a bloody fun rifle. Low recoil, built like a brick, and easy enough to strip, clean, and zero, these rifles all happily take a beating and still perform well during Annual Combat Marksmanship Tests.

I’ve played with the semi-automatic L98A2 variant, too, though Heckler & Koch only ironed out the mechanical gremlins in the big boy’s version, I believe.

Escaping the UK’s suffocating gun laws, in any case, I’ve also managed to have a blast with the Glock 17 and a CZ 452-2E ZKM, bolt-action rimfire rifle out in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand.

However, from 5.56mm NATO to 9mm rounds, even down to humble .22 rimfire, the authorities in London regard such pursuits with disdain when undertaken by white Britons.

The irony is deafening. Europe is being flooded daily with military-aged male illegals from the Middle East, Africa, and parts of South Asia, while Anglo-Saxons have no Second Amendment rights.

Men who revel in sexual violence towards non-Muslim women, as exemplified by Pakistani rape gangs, or carry out deadly terror attacks across Europe in defence of their “holy” Qur’an.

Moreover, until recently, such men, if granted protection, could even bring pre-existing spouses and children to the country without meeting the salary requirements or paying any visa fees. They never even applied for an entry visa but are still provided free room and board in hotels.

British citizens who marry foreign nationals, by contrast, must generally meet that £29,000 minimum income requirement and pay substantial visa fees. Naturally.

Genuine refugees, whether Afghan schoolgirls, Christian Karenni in Burma, or South African Boer families fleeing persecution, are completely crowded out by this predatory invasion.

Perhaps it’s no surprise the UK Government doesn’t want an armed populace then.

After all, community militias equipped with SA80s could deliver effective section fire up to 400 metres from recreational speedboats and defend the Channel, leaving politicians red-faced.

Deliberate fire at 10 rounds per minute would easily suppress and halt enemy people smugglers.

Then again, under such a fantasy scenario, rules of engagement would likely compel Border Force, Port and Maritime Regiments, and the Royal Navy to prevent such community action.

After all, nothing offends the modern British state quite like self-defense, especially pre-emptive; when human rights lawyers like Lord Hermer rule the roost, self-preservation becomes the real crime.

American Freedom

In America, the Founding Fathers understood what London’s political class forever refuses to admit: a disarmed populace is not a peaceful society, but a conquered one. A dying democracy.

The Second Amendment isn’t really about clay pigeons; it is the ultimate check on state overreach and a declaration of individual liberty. Here in the UK, we have lost that freedom.

It doesn’t matter whether you are a policeman, teacher, clergyman, doctor, or serve in His Majesty’s Armed Forces. Law-abiding citizens in the UK face strict restrictions on weapons.

Meanwhile, foreign criminals in South London and Islamists still acquire illegal firearms.

Full Second Amendment rights might go too far for Britain, in my opinion, but granting them to emotionally mature, active community members would be a net positive.

Considering our demographic changes and the nature of recent attacks, this should certainly extend to all native-born women.

One need only consider the case of the Sudanese migrant, Hadi Alodid, to understand why; the sub-human attempted to behead a man with a kitchen knife in Belfast and gouged out his eyes.

This is one of countless horrors, and by disarming Anglo-Saxons (while abandoning border control), London is forfeiting its legitimacy, little by little. The people have had enough.

Some Americans don’t know how precious their Bill of Rights really is. 

The right to keep and bear arms.

GFK

“What does love look like?  It has the hands to help others.  It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy.  It has eyes to see misery and want.  It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men.  That is what love looks like.”

–St. Augustine.

Today—September 8—in 1987, I arrived for work at a large international law firm in Washington, D.C.  And so my legal career began. 

It was an exciting time to be in Washington, D.C.  President Reagan was “mak[ing] America great again”.  Cell phones and email were virtually non-existent, so you did not have to worry about a constant barrage of communications.  People dressed nicely, and the wearing of tattoos was restricted to strippers, Hell’s Angels, and drug dealers.  People engaged in civilized debate.  The economy was booming, freedom was on the rise, at home and abroad, as the dreariness of the Carter years faded in memory.  It was excellent!

Though concentrated over the years in D.C., my legal career has taken me to virtually every corner of the United States, from federal courtrooms in New York to Los Angeles, Chicago to Denver, Dallas to Richmond, and all manner of other courts in large cities and small towns in between.  I have represented the largest corporations and the smallest, most vulnerable individuals among us.  And I have loved every minute of it. 

I am blessed to be able to do what I have always wanted to do, and on most days, I am pretty darn good at it.  The legal profession is a noble calling, and with God’s grace, I hope to do it for the rest of what I pray will be a long life.

President Trump posted a picture on social media showing the State of New Mexico renamed as the State of New America. Leftist heads are exploding across the nation. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

Representative Jaimie Raskin (D. Md.) told NBC News that if the Democrats gain control of the U.S. House of Representatives, they will immediately move to impeach, not just President Trump, but also War Secretary Pete Hegseth. Sigh.

Democrats are blaming data centers and Republicans for rising electricity prices. Governor Abigail Spanberger (D. Va.) is a particularly vocal critic. Well, Democrats are wrong. Better yet, they are lying. According to President Obama’s top economist, Michael Greenstone, the rise in electric rates are due to the “green” mandates imposed by the Obama and China Joe Administrations. Worse, the “green” mandate were designed to raise electric rates, to discourage consumption, to save the planet by lessening carbon emissions. Socialism at its best.

Democrats have whined and complained about President Trump’s renovations at The Kennedy Center, calling them unnecessary. A federal judge even blocked the closing of The Kennedy Center for renovations. Well. Late last week, a large portion of The Kennedy Center’s roof collapsed, with the rubble falling into the Grand Foyer. Years of Democrat neglect of the facility has put its very continued existence in peril. Instead of criticizing President Trump, a little gratitude is in order.

“The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.”

–Leon Trotsky.

For radical Democrats, there is no greater justification than their own election. If President Trump is not stopped, impeached, and removed from office, it will be the “end of our democracy”! Frankly, if these people ever take control, it will be the end of the Republic.

“The language that used to be on the sign and website described the Memorial correctly.  Ezekiel’s sculpture did sanitize slavery, and it did mythologize the Confederacy.  And so as a historian, I’m deeply disturbed by the removal of that language and by plans to restore the statue — especially because they’re of a piece with the censoring and slanting of history at other federal sites.”

–Stephen West, Catholic University historian.

The Washington Post is outraged–OUTRAGED!–that the Trump Administration removed a plaque from Arlington National Cemetery that criticized the Confederacy and its role in The Late Unpleasantness. China Joe’s Administration had placed the plaque there. Now an injustice has been rectified.

Frankly, as a native Virginian, I am outraged–OUTRAGED!–at a bunch of Leftist Yankees coming down here and telling us what is wrong with us, our history, our forebears, and our views and values. Mr. West is free to return to New York.

“Ramzi Kassem said he was inspired by 9/11 — not to join the fight against terrorism, but to defend the terrorists themselves.  He doesn’t even belong in this country, much less in our government.”

–New York City Councilman Vicki Paladino (R. Queens).

Comrade Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D. N.Y.) signed an executive order in recognition of the coming 25th anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attack. He then gave the pen to his chief counsel, Ramzi Kassem, who once represented an al-Qaeda terrorist who helped plan the 9-11 attack on the Pentagon. Comrade Mamdani is an enemy of this country. Absolutely deplorable.

U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico (D. Tx.) released a commercial showing himself eating dinner at Cracker Barrel. No one looks more out of place, than this faux Christian vegan. It reminds me of Robert Kennedy campaigning for his brother John in West Virginia, where he called out in a local bar, “Bartender, beers all around. And a Courvoisier for me.” But much less authentic. Robert Kennedy was not pretending. James Talarico is.

U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D. Mi.) claims that “Muslims built America”. That is a lie.

Actually, Muslims seem intent on tearing down America. Two (2) office towers in lower Manhattan, New York come to mind.

Boston, Massachusetts Mayor Michelle Wu (D.) proclaimed that “Somalis built Boston”. Uh, the very 1st Somali did not arrive in the United States until 1920. Boston was founded in 1630, 290 years earlier.

Ohio State University is paying a $2.1 million fine for receiving and not reporting Chinese funds for research. China is not our friend.

Florida banned illegal aliens from enrolling in State universities and colleges. WINNING!

Southern Living magazine taste tested and ranked commercially sold white sandwich breads. I really try and not eat white sandwich bread. At least since I was a little boy, and discovered whole wheat, multigrain, sourdough, rye, and pumpernickel.

Iran fired missiles at 2 U.S. Navy warships. No damage was done. In retaliation, the Navy fired on 3 Iranian tankers. Two (2) of the tankers were permanently disabled, and the 3rd was sunk. MORE WINNING!

At the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, New York, tennis star Aryna Sabalenka stopped a match because, apparently, the stadium smelled more like weed than your neighbor’s van with the Dio album cover airbrushed on the side. What is wrong with people? You are smoking dope at a tennis match?

Try smoking a cigar at a tennis match. You will end up in the Queens, New York lock-up.

In college football, Rutgers hosted the University of Massachusetts, which held the nation’s longest losing streak, at 16 games. Rutgers was a 30 point favorite. UMass won by 16 points. Oh, my!

USC took another bite of cupcake, beating Fresno State 39-0. Maryland beat Hampton (oh, come on! Dick Kent, call your alma mater). Oregon just got by Boise State. Purdue, Ohio State, Minnesota, Indiana, Penn State, and Michigan State won. Michigan lucked out in winning [barely] over Western Michigan. Wisconsin was demolished by Notre Dame.

SMU beat Florida State in Tallahassee, Florida. Coach Prime started the season with a win, winning a rather strange game against Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia. Wake Forest dominated the University of Akron in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Miami humiliated Stanford in Palo Alto, California. Cal lost to UCLA. Syracuse beat New Hampshire. VPI beat VMI. Duke beat Tulane. And Cincinnati beat Boston College.

Auburn beat Baylor. Oklahoma blanked UTEP 51-0. LSU humiliated Clemson 51-10. Ole Miss edged Louisville. Alabama beat East Carolina. Georgia, Texas, Tennessee, and South Carolina all won.

Utah beat Idaho 66-3. Apparently the Utes could not find a college football team to play. The University of Central Florida also played a cupcake, beating Bethune 73-6. Kansas beat down Long Island University. BYU, West Virginia, and Iowa State won. Those Big 12 teams sure know how to schedule.

The new, mathematically challenged PAC 12 debuted (it has only 9 member schools, 8 of which play football). Oregon State battled, but ultimately lost to Houston. Colorado State beat Wyoming. San Diego State beat Portland State. Washington State lost to Washington. Utah State lost at home to Idaho State, in a most pitiful effort.

Congratulations to Team Great Britian & Ireland on winning the 51st Walker Cup. They won 13 1/2 to 12 1/2. It was the first U.S. Walker Team loss since 2015.

National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell’s contract was extended for another 4 years. That truly is a shame.

Former New York Giants receiver Arthur Marshall has died at age 57. R. I. P.

Former Chicago Bear running back Matt Suhey has died at age 68. R. I. P.

GFK

“Pray as though everything depended on God.  Work as though everything depended on you.”

–St. Augustine.

Today I am in Chatmoss, the most lovely spot in Southside Virginia. This week is the annual Member-Guest golf tournament. My long time playing partner John Bays will be here on Wednesday. Hopefully, we will be hoisting the winners’ trophy on Saturday. Most likely, we will be hoisting martini glasses full of gin.

“There is no worse material poverty, I am keen to stress, than the poverty which prevents people from earing their bread and deprives them of the dignity of work.”–Pope Francis

“Honor lies in honest toil.”

–Grover Cleveland

“All wealth is the product of labor.”
— John Locke

“No great achievement is possible without persistent work.”
– Bertrand Russell

“There is no substitute for hard work.”

— Thomas A. Edison

Today is Labor Day.  The very notion of celebrating “Labor Day” was once envisioned as a day to advance the rise of Marxism and collectivism through the guise of celebrating the American working man.  Unfortunately for the Left, American workers have always striven to succeed, and believed [correctly!] that they could advance in the economy based upon their merits.  Thus the Left was thwarted, as the sin of envy has never taken hold amongst our citizens the way it has in other so-called “advanced” countries such as France. 

Sadly today, there are fewer American working men, and the sin of envy is rising among the indolent.  The labor force participation rate is at a historically low point.  Men in the prime working ages (25-55) are increasingly spending their time outside the workplace, living in their parents’ basements, not getting married, playing video games, watching internet porn, and living off government benefits.  This is a terrible development, which is being encouraged by the Democrats’ increased social spending which subsidizes idleness and sloth, and discourages industry.  This is a product of America’s generous and unconstitutional welfare State.  It is a trend which must be reversed.

There is dignity in being self-sufficient.  There is dignity in work.  There is dignity in providing for yourself and your family.  There is no dignity in sitting on the couch playing video games, and brushing pizza crumbs off the fabric.

We need a societal change.  In 2026 America, poverty is a choice.  That choice needs to be eliminated.  We need to make it uncomfortable to be lazy and unproductive.  We need to quit subsidizing those who wish to live in a drug and alcohol induced haze.  We need to encourage, nay, we need to demand, that every able-bodied man engage in work, and support himself and his family.  These expectations are Biblical in nature, and these expectations are what saved the Jamestown colony from extinction in 1608-09, and, similarly, the Plymouth colony, some 14 years later.

The world owes no one a living.  Socialism is a lie, a failed ideology which has caused more poverty, angst, and death in this world than all the wars combined. 

Beginning this year, let’s make Labor Day great again.  Let’s make it a rallying point for putting more men back to work, and for them to become self-sufficient.  This change alone would do more than any of Zohran Mamdani’s, Gavin Newsom’s, Elizabeth “Lieawatha” Warren’s, or Bernie Sanders’s vaunted (and flawed) government initiatives to grow our economy.  This change alone would go a long way to changing people’s hearts, in a positive and sustaining way.  The change alone would renew the promise of the American dream.

If you are going to wear white, I hope you got it done the weekend.  Come tomorrow, white is no more until Memorial Day 2027.  Yes, Frank, this includes you.  But not your golf shoes.

And please; do not send me any correspondence concerning “Winter white”.  There is no such thing.  I don’t care what your favorite fashion magazine writes.  White is white is white.  See you next May.

GFK

“Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.”

–St. Augustine.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ENGLISH! YOU ARE JUST AS PRETTY AS YOU WERE WHEN I MET YOU. AND YOU REMAIN THE MOST INTERESTING PERSON IN THE ROOM, WHEREVER I MAY BE.

Today, September 6, is English’s birthday.  She will join me in Southside later this week for an extended celebration. Her birthday always occurs during  Chatmoss Member-Guest week.  English is a very good sport, as this has been going on for the last 23 years.  She always takes it with good grace, and I will be thrilled to have her here.  Because, English is the love of my life, the mother of our daughter, and my best friend.  It is her birthday, but I am the one receiving the gifts.  Happy Birthday sweetheart!

Dudley is less of a good sport.  He will be here too, but grumpy about it.  It is not that Dudley does not like Chatmoss; rather, Dudley dislikes riding in the car.  And going to Chatmoss means a 8-10 hour round trip.  Nevertheless, he will settle down in his favorite comfortable spot, where English will pamper and love him.

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Today in Church we continue reading from S. Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia. We might recall that the reason for this letter was to admonish the Christian community in Galatia. He had established a Christian presence in this Roman province on either his first (southern Galatia) or second (northern Galatia) missionary journey to Asia Minor (now modern Turkey).

However, since his departure, the young Christian community had been co-opted by those claiming apostolic authority, but who were in fact promoting a Judaic form of Christianity, imposing adherence to the Mosaic Law on all converts. These were the so-called “Judaizers.” They were a perennial distraction to the Apostle’s work, and a cause of much conflict in the spread of the Gospel.

Previously in this epistle, S. Paul argued that the rite of circumcision, required to enter into the Abrahamic covenant, had been superseded by the rites of the New Covenant. The sacrament of Holy Baptism not only replaced the rite of circumcision but opened the doors of grace to both men and women. Further, S. Paul argues, all of the requirements of the Old Covenant have been fulfilled in Christ. (This point is made clearly in the Epistle to the Hebrews.) The inauguration of the Kingdom of Heaven brings to an end the necessity to follow the precepts of the Mosaic Law as a requirement of the Christian faith.

S. Paul then makes a distinction between the ceremonial law and the moral law. While Christians are no longer obligated to follow the ceremonial law (as this was fulfilled in the perfect offering of Our Blessed Lord upon the Cross), the moral law still stands and becomes the foundation for our “walking in the Spirit.”

In the Epistle for today, S. Paul turns to the struggle that takes place within the Christian – that between the Spirit of God given to us in Baptism (and sealed in Confirmation) and our fallen human nature that draws us towards sinful behaviors. We have a choice: we can either “walk in the Spirit” and find authentic freedom, or we can give into concupiscence and become enslaved to our baser passions.

When we respond to grace, either through the Sacraments, prayer, the reading of Scripture or the encouragement of other Christians, the Holy Ghost builds a moral character based on virtue, and drives out the vices that would seek to drag us down to hell.

It is important also to note that S. Paul includes the possibility of a Christian forfeiting his inheritance in Christ. S. Paul warns that our salvation is in jeopardy should we quash the voice of the Spirit of God by following our own baser passions. Holding on to mortal sin and being unrepentant will bar us from entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. This is explicitly stated in his first letter to the Corinthians, which we read on Trinity IX.

In Baptism, we are united with Christ in His death and become dead to our former fallen nature. In this great Sacrament, we “have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” Our weakened nature makes absolute victory over our passions anything but a foregone conclusion, but it is possible! Desiring to do what is right is where we must begin. God will do the rest.

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Responding to the claim that ‘the Jews killed Jesus’

God loves the Jewish people

BY:          Everett Piper, The Washington Times (August 30, 2026).

The antisemitism of the horseshoe right continues to run rampant.

By way of example, one proponent of Tucker Carlson’s view that modern-day Israel is the worst of all nations known to man posted the following to my Facebook page: “You keep arguing that we should read our Bibles. Please quote one book, chapter, and verse that says Christians must support the Christ-rejecting nation of Israel.”

Challenge accepted. Here is just a start.

“All the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.” (Genesis 13:15)

“I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant. … And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:7-8)

“I will give [this land] to you as a possession, and I will give it as an inheritance to your offspring after you.” (Genesis 48:4)

“My covenant with [Israel] shall endure. … I will not withdraw my faithful love from him or betray my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or change what my lips have said. Once and for all, I have sworn an oath by my holiness; I will not lie to David. His offspring will continue forever.” (Psalm 89)

“He remembered his holy promise, and Abraham, his servant … the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac. He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance.’” (Psalm 105:9-11)

“I will plant [the Jews] on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them, says the Lord your God.” (Amos 9:15)

“They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever.” (Ezekiel 37:25)

“This is what the Lord says: The one who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of moon and stars for light by night; Who stirs up the sea and makes its waves roar, The Lord of Armies is his name: If the fixed order departs before me — this is the Lord’s declaration — only then will Israel’s descendants cease to be a nation forever.” (Jeremiah 31:35-36)

“So, what advantage does a Jew have? Considerable in every way. … If some are unfaithful, will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness? Absolutely not. Let God be true, even though everyone is a liar.” (Romans 3:1-4)

“Has God rejected his people? Absolutely not! Do not boast that you are better than the branches. … You do not sustain the root, but the root sustains you.” (Romans 11:1-18)

“For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” (Romans 11:29)

Finally, there is the quintessential verse as cited by Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, on “The Tucker Carlson Show,” for which he was relentlessly mocked: “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.” (Genesis 12:3)

These verses are just the tip of the iceberg. Dozens upon dozens of passages in the Psalms and the Prophets, as well as the entirety of the New Testament from Romans to Revelation, make the same point very clear: When God makes a promise, he keeps it.

Whether it be land for the state of Israel or salvation for the Body of Christ, God does not break his word.

Many will respond by parroting the likes of Candace Owens and Nick Fuentes and argue that it is only dopey dispensationalists who believe such eschatological nonsense. Do not be distracted by such mockery. Christians need not be pigeonholed into such manmade theological camps.

Scripture says what it says, and two things can be true at the same time. God can keep his promise to the Jews while also extending salvation to the world, through Christ. God is God. He can do both.

A final note to the smug supersessionists who walk among us: As to your claim that contemporary Israel is a sinful nation and has forfeited God’s promises as a result, where does it ever say that in the Bible?

Sure, it’s true that, by and large, Israel is a “Christ-rejecting” nation, but where does it ever say that the Jews are any more guilty of this sin than you or I, your nation and mine?

I have news for you: It wasn’t Israel that killed Jesus any more than it was Rome or Greece or you or me. “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. … None are righteous; no, not one.”

Maybe, just maybe, it is time to start looking in the mirror and stop looking out the window and screaming about “the Joooos.”

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Mamdani Proves Chesterton Correct

By Patricia Hershwitzky (September 2, 2026)

Neither a monopolistic, anti-Christian capitalist nor a hardline atheist communist respects the human person.  Both piggish capitalists and tyrannical politicians anoint themselves gods, abuse individual persons, and depress inalienable rights and freedom.   Particularly since the dawn of the Industrial Age, which dramatically flipped the economy from rugged ruralism to mechanized urbanization, connivers from both camps have ensured only a few own or control most of the fruits of labor. Mega tightfisted corporations restrict the advancement and liberties of the majority of their employees.  They frequently squash or absorb small start-ups in all areas of the economy.  Opportunistic governments burden budding independent, small businesses, as well as their citizens, through myriad regulations and taxation, so the majority of the populace gets zapped by both extreme powers.  

 
This glaring reality reared its ugly head most recently with New York Mayor Mamdani’s declared intrusion into the small grocery store business of his city in a way that threatens to destroy numerous independent and smaller bodegas and other individually owned markets by the hammer of manipulative government.  G.K Chesterton might be gnashing his teeth if he were alive today.  “The Catholic Worker” Servant of God Dorothy Day would likely be printing stories in her newsletters deploring this blow to the spirit of subsidiarity and God given rights of workers.  How?  A bit of background first:

 
The plight of the “assembly line” employee caught the attention of one particularly astute Pope in the late 1800s.  Pope Leo XIII’s superior Church encyclical on genuine social justice: Rerum Novarum (1891) sparked debates about a socio-economic structure that best balanced the rights of both the business entrepreneur and the average family man attempting to survive if not thrive,  in an increasingly dehumanizing work environment, it should not surprise that even then Catholics flirted with socialist solutions.  Clever minds magnified the Pope’s empathy for the working man, and we still see that one-sided perspective today, though he also defended private property ownership.  In other exhortations, Pope Leo XIII and other great Popes denounced communism.  Still, tension between government and the citizen and corporate tycoons and the average worker intensified.   We also witnessed massive attacks on persons, families and Faith through numerous tyrannical governments that starting emerging especially in the early 20th century under the falsehood of uplifting the people.

 
Some prominent early 20th century Catholics attempted to strike a balance with an economic theory known as Distributism.  In a nutshell, champions like G. K. Chesterton—prolific Catholic writer and apologist— formed an ideal of subsidiarity, as outlined in Catholic teaching,  that called for widespread ownership of production (agricultural and manufacturing).  In other words, the more that average, local workers owned, controlled, and hopefully grew their own justly profitable enterprise, the better.

 
Chesterton would be joined by many others who insisted on keenly balancing the rights of laborers with due justice for those who provide means for production and employment.  The superlative reason and logic of G.K. Chesterton, and the decades long advocacy for workers by Servant of God Dorothy Day,  along with complementary input by other Catholics who understood the distinction between excessive capitalism and godless communism, framed a sound balance between public and private sectors.  These wholly Christian idealists proposed an economic perspective that defended and promoted workers’ rights to success and ownership,  whether on the farm or in the city against ruinous monopolies or suffocating government. (Chesterton favored redistributing farm land for the benefit of the many, and one can only imagine his dismay at whole corporations and even other nations controlling so much of it.)

A model of such, to some degree, is found in New York City, wherein a number of conscientious and bustling persons addressed a need for localized food access, including those known as bodegas, serving immigrant populations.  Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond their control, inflation and other negative factors reared its ugly head, and they are not experiencing barriers to delivering goods at affordable prices.  Here was a perfect opportunity for government to assist, but that is not what has happened.  Mayor Mamdani’s horrific scheme would have government overtake their consumer base.   What Mamdani and his city cohorts are  doing is as wrong as any nationalist farmland gobbler or mega franchise puppet master.   

 
How is New York City government any different than mega supermarkets that have wiped out so many local markets while forcing able persons—not infrequently more talented than the corporate managers—to work for minimum wages?  How many intelligent and capable risk takers could be participating in “spreading” opportunity and wealth for personal growth and well being but will now be absorbed as cogs in the larger machine of our economy?  

Yet, that is not the worst of it.  Consider that if Mamdani succeeds in this ill conceived take over, the eventual disappearance of the the small grocery stores and bodegas will not just end dismally for the city.  These state controlled stores have never historically succeeded, but when they collapse, only the bigger chains like the Walmarts, Safeways, and Aldis will be able to rescue the delivery of food goods to the local population.  So, the fate of the conscientious smaller grocer will be thrust from one extreme to the other—from communism to already wealthy capitalists.  Of course, the average consumer is thereby also deprived of choice, even as their taxes will increase to cover the cost of government interference.  A double if not triple whammy.

Let us recall and restudy the religious, intellectual, and advocational leaders who crafted the principles of Distributism because they deplored both excessive state intervention or intrusion into businesses and capitalist overlords securing, hoarding, and profiting by manufacturing and distribution of goods and services in top down control.   Distributism promoted (and still does)) the redistribution of the means of production to as many people as possible.  Though imperfect, like any theory, it is still the best one to ponder and infuse throughout our society.

 
I am praying for intercession by all holy souls, but including Pope Leo XIII, Dorothy Day and G.K. Chesterton who understood that power, no matter how benign it may disguise itself, or regardless whether in the private or public domain,  is always a treacherous threat against the common good.

____________________________________________________________________

An Angel with an Umbrella: When Rain Became a Blessing in Disguise

BY:          Christy Romero (September 2, 2026).

“We are called to let go and allow Him to take control. He will send us all we need, and we must humbly accept the help of others.”— Julie Dortch Cragon, Talking to God

I am not a morning person. Waking up early to go for a walk requires an enormous sacrifice.

Usually, my husband is the one who pushes me out the door. He is my complete opposite—a determined morning person who loves to walk. Once I’m finally out of the house, I actually enjoy it. I love those morning walks with him: the quiet conversations, the shared prayers, and yes, even the occasional disagreements.

A month ago, my husband fractured his foot, leaving him unable to walk. This has been really hard on him, as well as on me, because I temporarily lost my favorite walking partner.

Heading out alone has been tough, but I found motivation by offering up my walks for his recovery, and using the time to listen to some really inspiring faith podcasts which feed my soul.

One morning last week, I woke up a little later than usual. By the time I was ready, the sun was already shining. I was very tempted to skip the walk altogether, but I knew I had to overcome my morning laziness and get myself to the golf course where I usually walk.

As I parked, I paused to pray. I offered up my walk for my husband—who would give anything to be walking beside me—as well as for a friend in the ICU after a stroke, another friend paralyzed in an accident last year, and a third one recovering from pancreatic cancer surgery. Carrying their suffering in my heart, I was ready to tackle the walk.

Stepping out of the car, I noticed a dark cloud looming to the east, so I headed west. I hadn’t gone a block before it started to sprinkle. “It’s just one cloud, keep walking,” I told myself.

Another block in, the skies completely opened up. Within minutes, I was drenched from head to toe. I took cover under a tree—which I knew was a bad idea, even without signs of lightning. I looked up toward the heavens, but the black cloud had expanded so much that I couldn’t even see a patch of blue sky.

“Seriously, Lord?” I said out loud. “I left the comfort of my bed, offered up my walk for all these people who would give anything to be here, and this is how You repay me?” I felt a bit like the prophet Jeremiah, crying out in frustration: “You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped” (Jeremiah 20:7).

Since the tree wasn’t offering much shelter anyway, I decided to turn around and head back to the car. Amid the downpour, I heard a voice shouting. Assuming it wasn’t meant for me, I kept walking with my head down. But then I clearly heard in my native language: “Señora, le ofrezco una sombrilla!” (“Lady, let me offer you an umbrella!”)

I turned around. Parked in a nearby driveway, at a house that’s being remodeled, was a humble construction worker sticking an umbrella out the window of his car. I was already soaked to the bone—an umbrella couldn’t undo the damage—but his kindness touched me deeply. I walked over, took the umbrella, and thanked him with all my heart.

By the time I reached my car, the torrential rain was already subsiding. Sitting in the driver’s seat, watching the sun break through the clouds, a quiet realization washed over me. God had permitted the rain so I could experience a holy moment from a complete stranger: an angel with an umbrella.

And maybe… just maybe… He was also protecting me from something I couldn’t see.

It made me think of the stories from September 11th—like the executive who survived because dropping his child off at preschool made him late to work. How often do we view life’s little disruptions as curses when they are actually quiet protections?

The next time your kids are slow getting ready, or you are stuck in traffic, or you can’t find your keys, try not to stress or get angry. You might be exactly where you need to be. The next time a black cloud threatens your plans, thank Him anyway because maybe… just maybe… the dark cloud might just be a blessing in disguise.

I had hoped to pay it forward by passing the umbrella along to another drenched walker, but by the time I pulled out of the parking lot, the sun was shining brightly. No one needed it anymore. But the lesson remained: we so easily overlook the quiet miracles around us, yet a small, simple act of kindness can shift our entire perspective.

It took an unexpected downpour—and an angel with an umbrella—to remind me of that truth.

GFK

“Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.”–St. Augustine.

The U.S. economy created 169,000 new jobs in August, more than 3x the projections. WINNING!

The Trump Administration will cancel a school’s tax exempt status if they employ affirmative action in their administration. In other words, if schools discriminate on the basis of race, they will have to pay taxes.

Hey! If it was good enough for Bob Jones University . . . .

The Communist Party USA has endorsed California’s proposed wealth tax. SURPRISE!

At this year’s Burning Man festival–a veritable orgy, where drug addled hippies and wannabes gather in the Nevada desert to engage in all sorts of hedonism–a group of Christians were evicted, removed from the premises in the middle of the night. It seems that the presence of the pious was harshing the buzz of the pagans.

A new poll shows that, among New York City residents, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is more popular than Comrade Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D.). Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

The majority of U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico’s (D. Tx.) campaign cash has come from . . . California. Well, what do you know?

Southern Methodist University has canceled an “Unapologetically Muslim” youth conference organized by CAIR-Texas that was scheduled to bring high school and college students to its Dallas campus, citing Texas’s designation of the Council on American-Islamic Relations as a “foreign terrorist” organization.  That is good, BUT . . . what idiot booked this conference in the first instance?

“We did not come here to coexist.  We are superior to everyone else and will not be surpassed.  No one is above us.  If other religions want to live with us, they have to worship Allah.  The Prophet Muhammad said, ‘Islam is always superior and should never be surpassed.’  Islam is raised high and nothing is raised above Islam.  We can’t think of Islam that it came to live with these other religions in the sense that Islam is a religion among those religions and they have a share with the truth and they have a share of justice and they have a share of the correct worship.  Islam came to correct all of that . Islam came to remove the oppression of all those religions.  And it is the only truth and it is the only way to justice.”

–a Chicago, Illinois based Islamic scholar.

Huh.  Then why did U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D. Mi.) say this:

“Nobody is pushing for Sharia Law.”

Is he ignorant?  Or is he lying?

There is a coming ideological war between Islam and the West.  Either we choose to stand up for our country, our culture, and our Judeo-Christian heritage, or we fall.

Former conservative cable news host Tucker Carlson endorsed Abdul El-Sayed for election to the Senate, stating that he would not vote for Republican Mike Rogers “at gunpoint”. Tucker Carlson called Mike Rogers “a tool of Israel”, and praised El-Sayed for “taking on AIPAC” (the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee).

If Islam ever takes over America, Tucker Carlson will be among the very 1st infidels to die.

Richmond, Virginia Democrats want the General Assembly to lower the blood alcohol level for a presumption of drunk driving from .08 to .05. Why not just lock up everyone who gargles with Listerine and then drives to work?

Southern Living magazine rated Boars Head the best sliced commercially sold cheese. Runner up was Sargento’s.

Beer thieves have struck again! This time in Great Britain, where 70,000 pints (2 tractor trailer loads) of Guinness were stolen from a Liverpool distribution center. Oh, my!

The Full and Equal gathering, celebrating 50 years of progress toward full LGBTQ++ inclusion in The Episcopal Church, is taking place Sept. 3-5, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Thank goodness The Church is still celebrating sin!

Now before someone gets in a snit over that last observation, let me be clear. The Church is for sinners. To grow and repent. The Church is not for throwing a party to celebrate the commission of sins. Are we clear?

The U.S. Coast Guard stopped a fishing boat off the coast of California. It did not find any fishermen or fish. But it did find drug smugglers with $3 million worth of marijuana on board. HA! Senator Tim Kaine (D. Va.) was not available to comment on the development.

The United Nations has directed Great Britain to erect statues of Africans, and of Britons of African descent.  This “reparatory justice” guidance was created by the UN’s Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).  The committee insisted that Britain and other former slave-trading nations had a moral and legal “obligation to repair” the damage of slavery.  To help atone for slavery, former colonial powers have been told “public spaces should honour the contributions of people of African descent”, which could include installing artworks and statues.  Sigh.

U.S. OUT OF U.N. NOW!

The Canadian government awarded millions worth of contracts to the son of Iran’s former vice-president, despite an ongoing investigation into allegations he helped the Islamic Republic evade sanctions and develop missile systems, documents obtained by Global News reveal.

Since founding two companies in Alberta, an Edmonton resident named “Sal Ghafouri” has received more than $2 million in federal and provincial contracts, including from the RCMP and Department of National Defence, public records show.

But according to newly released records, Ghafouri is actually Mohammad Reza Ghafouri Fard, an Iranian who has been the subject of a long-running Canadian investigation into his alleged work for Iran’s military and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The son of Hassan Ghafouri Fard, an Iranian politician who served as the country’s vice president, Ghafouri was “involved in the research and development of Iranian military technologies.”

Before immigrating to Canada in 2013 and going into business as “Sal,” Ghafouri allegedly helped develop a guided anti-aircraft missile system and a jamming tool to “confront American aircraft” for the Iranian military and Revolutionary Guard, or IRGC.

But, but, but . . . the Canadians are so nice! They are our friends! Hmmmmm.

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert is out at the end of the season. Perhaps she can use her spare time to figure out just what constitutes a woman.

Wake Forest University All American defensive back Alphonso Smith has died at age 40. R. I. P.

____________________________________________________________________

Complaints of White privilege are a losers’ lament

Also a way to make White liberals feel superior

BY:          Don Feder, The Washington Times (August 30, 2026).

From the basketball court to the Smithsonian museums in Washington to Cambridge University in Britain, accusations of White privilege are becoming as thick as flies on a decaying carcass.

In July, a congressional hearing erupted in outrage after the revelation that a Smithsonian online publication referred to politeness and objectivity as “defining characteristics of White supremacy culture.” So remember, if you do not want to be accused of racism, be as obnoxious and irrational as possible.

In an Aug. 8 Women’s National Basketball Association game between the Chicago Sky and the Indiana Fever, Chicago player DiJonai Carrington, who is Black, hit White Fever player Sophie Cunningham across the face and neck so hard that she knocked her to the floor.

For this flagrant foul, Ms. Carrington was ejected from the game. She later posted on Instagram the words, “WHITE PRIVILEGE” (all caps), tagging the Indiana Fever.

This is absurd. Black athletes dominate professional sports, including basketball.

Is White privilege responsible for minority quotas in education and employment? Did White privilege give us Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Juneteenth or Black History Month? And when is White History Month anyway?

Also in August, former Cambridge University professor Jason Arday, who was Black, died after being exposed as a plagiarist and compulsive liar. Arday was Baron Munchausen in a cap and gown.

His lies were so preposterous and his plagiarism so outrageous that a White academic who was guilty of similar conduct would have been summarily dismissed and sent to do research in the Arctic Circle.

Instead, Arday was allowed to resign. His death led to claims that he had been persecuted — that those who had the audacity to expect honesty and integrity from scholars regardless of race were responsible for his suicide.

Of course, there were the predictable charges of racism. We were told that bigots could not accept this talented young Black man’s success — appointed a professor of sociology at one of the world’s most prestigious universities at the tender age of 37.

In reality, Arday’s race was a combination hall pass and get-out-of-jail-free card. Neither his colleagues nor the university wanted to question his obvious plagiarism or his preposterous lies. In his memoir, he claimed that he ran 30 marathons in 35 days.

His publisher, Simon & Schuster, never fact-checked the claim.

Charges of racism or White privilege color many of our political debates.

Proponents of open borders claim that the sole purpose of immigration enforcement is to keep people of color out of the country and that it has absolutely nothing to do with public safety.

So if hordes of blond-haired, blue-eyed Scandinavians were living here illegally, upon discovery, each would get a Cadillac and Caribbean cruise for honoring us with their presence?

Crime is another area where charges of racism collide with reality. Cashless bail — whereby criminals awaiting trial are released on their own recognizance — has led to countless atrocities. Proponents of the reform argued that minorities were disproportionately impacted by cash bail. That might be because they disproportionally commit crimes.

Of the 7,964 cases of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter recorded in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports in 2019, 3,650 were committed by Whites, while a majority (4,078) were committed by members of a group representing 13% of the population.

The ultimate victims of the White privilege scam are Black Americans. Why strive if you will always be held back by White privilege? Whatever happens, it is not your fault.

However, if White privilege is a reality, why are there so many White failures and Black success stories?

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was raised by a single mother and his maternal grandfather in the segregated South. His grandfather taught him the importance of hard work and self-reliance. Instead of embracing victimhood, he took responsibility and went on to become one of the great Supreme Court justices of our generation.

White privilege is the greatest scam going. It is an all-purpose excuse for personal failure and bad behavior. At the same time, it makes White liberals feel all superior for courageously acknowledging their supposed entitlement.

As punishment for exposing Arday’s plagiarism, Nathan Cofnas, a White academic, was suspended from his position at Ghent University in Belgium. More White privilege?

GFK

“God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.”

–St. Augustine.

A proposed Constitutional Amendment limiting the number of seats on the U.S. Supreme Court to 9 (the current number) failed. Naturally, the vast majority of Democrats opposed the Amendment.

The number of justices has remained constant at 9, for more than 157 years. Democrats want to change the number to 13, because the current Court adheres to the Constitution, instead of inventing “rights” and distorting the Constitution. Because the Democrats cannot enact their policies through legislation, hence the need for the courts to side with them against the American people.

“Oh my God!  It’s so exhausting.  Over and over again.”

–Left wing podcaster Leigh McGowan, on CNN.

Miss McGowan is apparently very tired of hearing about illegal aliens committing murder and other heinous crimes against American citizens.  Where is our understanding and compassion?

“It’s exhausting for you because your daughter wasn’t the one strangled.  But it’s not exhausting for the parents of Americans who watch their children get murdered by illegal aliens.”

—Federalist reporter Brianna Lyman, responding on CNN to Leigh McGowan’s frustration.

I would like to point out that the CNN panel discussion was focused on how awful ICE is, because a Haitian illegal alien committed suicide because a judge forced him to wear an ankle bracelet so ICE could track his whereabouts. 

For the Left, illegal aliens receive all their compassion. American citizen

Failed South Carolina U.S. Senate candidate, Representative Ralph Norman (R.) is advising undecided voters to write him in on November’s ballot, instead of voting for U.S. Senator Darline Nordone. What a loser! Ralph Norman lost his race for Governor earlier this year, finished second to Darline Norman in the Senate primary, and ultimately lost in the run-off. Apparently he cannot imagine not getting a government paycheck. Sigh. Ralph Norman is the John Cornyn of South Carolina.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled that a mother could not take her daughter to church, over the father’s objections. Moreover, the mother was directed not to read Bible verses to the child, or allow the child to read The Bible. What the . . . whatever happened to religious freedom?

In Lake Elsinore, California, a woman angry that her order was taking too long, charged into the local In-N-Out restaurant, armed with a large piece of wood. The woman swung the club wildly, chasing most all the staff into a back storage room, when a brave fry cook confronted the woman, carrying only a spatula. The fry cook parried with the woman, fending her off with his spatula, until he was able to disarm and hold her until police arrived. How ’bout that?

The movie The Passion of Christ is being re-released on September 10, through September 17. The re-release is in preparation for next year’s release of 2 movies which will focus on what happened after Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.

After more than 12 years, Maria Bartiromo is out at FOX News. Wow.

In 2025, Ford Motor Company killed the electric Ford 150 pick-up truck. The company lost so much money on every sale, and determined that EVs were not the future. So what happened, as Ford just announced it was going to introduce an electric Ford Maverick pick-up truck in late 2027. Sigh. I thought Ford was a for-profit company.

The newest Buc-ee’s opened in Benton, Arkansas. Beaver nuggets for all!

McDonald’s is bringing back its spicy chicken nuggets, for a limited time only. Why not all the time?

Kentucky Fried Chicken has a new dipping sauce. Hot ranch is a blend of garlic and ranch dressing with chili powder. Hmmm.

USA Today has compiled a list of the top 10 college football stadiums in the country. Ranked #1 is Auburn University’s Jordan-Hare stadium. Will Smith agrees with this pronouncement.

Despite losing his drivers license for 5 years, Eldrick Woods can still drive

Feminist activist Gloria Steinem has died at age 92. R. I. P.

GFK

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”

–St. Augustine.

Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll has resigned. He issued a statement praising the leadership of, and changes implemented by, Secretary of War Hegseth. There’s a story you won’t find on cable news or in The Washington Post.

The U.S. House of Representatives censured Representative Chuck Edwards (R. N.C.) for inappropriate behavior towards his female staffers. Sigh.

The House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning socialism. All but 8 Democrats voted against the resolution. Sigh.

“I fear Senate Republicans are undermining congressional races across the country by refusing to fully embrace the movement that put them in power.

MAGA voters did not elect Republicans so they could manage the decline of America with slightly lower taxes.

They elected Republicans to secure the border. Deport illegals. Restore law and order. Rebuild the military. Protect religious liberty. Stop the transgender insanity. And dismantle the Deep State. We elected Republicans to secure the ballot box. We elected Republicans to put Americans first.

In other words, they elected Republicans to enact the Trump agenda.

So here’s my warning to the Republican Establishment: You had better decide which side you’re on.

Because if Republicans lose Congress and President Trump’s agenda is stopped dead in its tracks, MAGA voters are going to start asking questions.

And the first question will be this: Did the Democrats defeat President Trump — or did Republicans stab him in the back?”

–columnist Todd Starnes.

Hunter Biden said he was “48% gay”. I’m sure that his wife, Melissa Cohen, is thrilled.

Pamela Cisneros, 49, stabbed Erin Piacenti, 32, and Tak Kam, 68, Monday afternoon in New York City’s Times Square. Afterwards, video showed her being surrounded by police and threatening to kill them with a large knife in each hand. When she lunged at police officers with her knives, 2 officers shot her dead.

Erin Piacenti, a young mother, celebrating her 2nd wedding anniversary is dead. Tak Kim is hospitalized in serious condition, but is expected to survive. And Pamela Cisneros, the deranged attacker is dead. A senseless tragedy all around.

The reaction of Pamela Cisneros is . . . interesting. Her brother insists that she was not violent and would not have hurt anyone, all evidence to the contrary. Her mother criticized the police, wondering why they did not just grab her by the arm and take the knives from her. Why did they have to shoot her? Sigh. Because we already had enough dead bodies. We did not need to add to the body count.

San Diego, California City Councilwoman Marni von Wilpert (D.) is running for Congress, promising to return the country to China Joe’s Golden Age. She is in favor of DEI, claims that American oppresses women and minorities, and pledges to solve the problem of so many businesses being owned by white people. Good golly Bob!

Florida has banned Flock surveillance cameras on its highways. Good!

Private companies that wish to contract with the City of Chicago, Illinois are required to 1) provide data on the racial and sexual composition of their workforce; and, 2) any contracts, involvements, or dealings with ICE. Number 1 is illegal and unconstitutional. Number 2 is just obnoxious and stupid.

Senator John Cornyn (R. Tx.) continues to play the role of sore loser, refusing to support primary winner Attorney General Ken Paxton (R. Tx.). Texas Republicans are not pleased.

U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico (D. Tx.), speaking before the Sierra Club, said capitalism is an “oppressive system” that “contributes to climate change”, and supports “white supremacy”, calling for capitalism to be “dismantled”. The gift that keeps on giving.

All Saints Cathedral is an LGBTQ+-affirming congregation in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with an average Sunday attendance of about 70.  Micah Cronin joined its staff as dean.  And he is thought to be the first transgender dean of any Episcopal cathedral and also one of the youngest.  Because “he” is a “she”.

Fun fact: There is no such thing as a “trans”.  God made man and woman.  You are one or the other, and you cannot choose to change your sex.  But All Saints Cathedral thinks otherwise.  Which is why it welcomed the mentally disturbed Micah Cronin as dean.  It also explains why its Sunday attendance is so puny. 

Canada is not happy about the U.S./Venezuela oil deal, as it lessens any leverage Canada has in trade negotiations. That is such a shame.

The United Nations said on Monday that countries are legally obliged to consider reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and other measures to address what it says is the enduring legacy of racial discrimination.  The heck with the United Nations.

U.S. OUT OF U.N.!  NOW!

The owner of the Los Angeles Rams has purchased baseball’s Los Angeles Angels. Interesting.

Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback and current CBS announcer (?) Tony Romo plead no contest to drunk driving. He apologized, and was appropriately punished. He should not lose his job. At least not for that infraction.

Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick accused the National Football League of “performative racism”. He has a point.

The NFL’s social justice campaigns and messaging are performative.  Painting “End Racism” in the end zones and approving “Black Lives Matter” on helmets were ways for the league to signal its virtue.  They were public-relations decisions, perhaps even financial ones, designed to avoid potential backlash from sponsors and consumers.

But Colin Kaepernick is a hypocrite. The former quarterback has spent the past decade performing, pandering, and spreading propaganda.  His entire claim to activism is fraudulent.  Most notably, Kaepernick participated in a Netflix docuseries in which he compared the NFL scouting combine to a slave auction. Yet despite the slave auction comparison, Colin Kaepernick desperately sought to rejoin the NFL. Sigh. Colin Kaepernick and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell deserve each other. The NFL can do without either of them.

Eldrick Woods entered into a plea agreement involving his DUI charges. He was found guilty of reckless driving, and lost his drivers license for 5 years. The roads are so much safer.

Former N.Y. Jets assistant coach Kippy Brown has died at age 71. R. I. P.

GFK