Today we present commentaries examining the upcoming mid-term elections, federal government spending and overreach, and the implications of the dangers presented by abandoning government control to the Democrat Party. Enjoy!

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Don’t let voter rage drive America over the cliff

Higher taxes, weaker immigration enforcement and costly government promises carry consequences

BY:          Don Feder, The Washington Times (October 18, 2026).

Suppose you saw someone you love in a car heading for the edge of a cliff, going 90 miles an hour. The driver ignores your repeated warnings to stop. He is so angry that he will not brake despite looming disaster.

A man is tied up in the back seat, whom the driver blames for all his problems, including the price of gas, the housing market and data centers. The driver is willing to wreck the car and possibly kill himself to punish the prisoner. Talk about road rage.

That is what the Nov. 3 midterm elections are about.

The America we love is in that car. The cliff is the elections. Middle-class voters are behind the wheel. At the bottom are the politicians who would wreck us with open borders, soft-on-crime policies, new taxes and an anti-energy agenda.

The latest Rasmussen poll shows that 67% of Democrats favor amnesty for illegal aliens. Texas state Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic Senate nominee, said in a 2019 post that illegal aliens were his “constituents too.”

“Undocumented Americans are folks who work in our businesses, learn in our schools and contribute to our communities — but lack citizenship documentation,” the Lone Star Pollyanna laments. They are also the folks who soak up welfare, engage in fraud, join street gangs, murder our sons and rape our daughters.

Democrats have an incentive to bring in as many illegal immigrants as possible, assuming they will vote for the party that let them in. Under President Biden, the illegal immigrant population of the United States almost doubled.

Democrats want to abolish the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which apprehends the worst of the worst. The activist sheep are currently bleating about a Dominican gang member shot in New York earlier this month. He had been arrested multiple times for offenses, including armed robbery and drug dealing, since he came here illegally in 2022.

Democrats pioneered cashless bail, which has put numerous predators back on the streets. Democratic Socialists of America congressional candidates favor abolishing police and prisons. Law enforcement will presumably be handled by social workers and the Camp Fire Girls.

If you think the cost of gas is high now, just wait until enviro-freak Democrats, who want to outlaw the internal combustion engine, get a hold of the energy sector.

On his first day in office, Mr. Biden killed the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would have brought 830,000 barrels of crude oil a day from Canada. Then he did everything he could to limit offshore drilling.

Even with the Iran war, the average adjusted price of gas under Mr. Biden ($3.89 per gallon) was higher than during President Trump’s second term ($3.43 per gallon).

Although they want to get us all into electric cars, average retail electric rates are significantly higher in blue states, such as California (33.6 cents per kilowatt-hour), than in red states, such as Florida (15 cents per kilowatt-hour).

Democrats will send taxes soaring. “Medicare for All,” free childcare, preschool, college education and public transportation will require massive tax hikes. The Cato Institute estimates that nine of the proposals put forth by the DSA would cost $71 trillion to $211 trillion over 10 years.

Forget the tax-the-billionaires bushwa. If you confiscated 100% of billionaires’ wealth, it would fund the federal government for only eight to nine months.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says we are looking at an array of new taxes to finance Democratic profligacy, including a 32% payroll tax and 25% income tax surtax. You will be riding those free public buses naked.

If you like your health insurance, tough. “Medicare for All” means quality healthcare for none. Look at Britain and Canada. You will love long waiting periods to see a specialist and the rationing of services.

It will be back to diversity, equity and inclusion — “gender-affirming care,” aka castration, guys who look like Yosemite Sam playing girls’ sports, pronoun police, public school indoctrination and the war on Christians and Jews.

You are doubtless familiar with the expression “cut off your nose to spite your face,” which Merriam-Webster defines as “to perform an irrationally self-destructive act out of anger, spite, or a desire for revenge that ultimately harms yourself far more than your intended target.”

By the time our driver goes over the cliff, he will not have any face left.

Do not worry about the man in the back. He is a billionaire. He will survive. Will the rest of us?

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We Are In A Cold Civil War — And We Refuse To See It

And wars that are not recognized are lost.

BY:          W. Galt, The American Thinker (October 14, 2026).

There are many ways to wage war. Today, these non-traditional forms of warfare are commonly referred to as hybrid warfare, which includes non-military means such as civilian operations. Spain has just been subjected to an attack of this nature in the city of Ceuta: a civilian invasion sponsored, encouraged, ordered, and directed by Moroccan intelligence services.

But it does not take such obvious attacks to prove that a state of war exists. A cold civil war is already underway throughout the Western democracies. It is not being fought with trenches and rifles, but through institutions, culture, demographics, courts, the media, and the ballot box. The Left — in Europe and the United States — has abandoned the boundaries of the moderate social democracy of three decades ago and now operates according to a logic of total power. It does not seek to persuade within liberal rules; it seeks to transform society until the inherited order becomes unrecognizable. Those who fail to see this will continue losing, election after election, reform after reform, border after border.

Thirty years ago, European socialist parties and the American Democrat party accepted, with certain qualifications, the liberal framework: markets, individual rights, peaceful alternation in power, and a degree of cultural restraint. Today, that restraint has evaporated. Driven by parties further to their left and by an ideologized base — every right-wing government has, for decades, left education in the hands of the Left, which knew exactly what it was doing, because controlling education means controlling the future — European socialist parties have become aggressively interventionist, woke, and hostile to any firm defense of cultural or demographic sovereignty. The Democrat party has followed a parallel path.

Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are not marginal figures. They represent a current that has shifted the party’s center of gravity toward the most extreme forms of radicalism. Today, their political programs are virtually communist.

Under the Biden administration, agencies such as USAID illustrated the extent to which this agenda was translated into actual policy: funding directed toward gender ideology, diversity, and progressive projects that had little to do with the national interest or neutral humanitarian assistance. This included funding left-wing activist groups throughout the world, including in the United States itself, movements close to terrorist groups, and all manner of enemies of the United States. USAID’s funding of these movements is not merely an anecdote about the misuse of public money; it reveals the real policy of a government beneath its official rhetoric and its more visible policy programs.

If one looks at what USAID did with citizens’ money, only one conclusion can be drawn: the United States government acted against its own country and its own population, in an evident act of betrayal. Those who made it possible should not merely be judged for the mismanagement of public funds, but for treason.

The more than possible electoral fraud of 2020, the repeated attempts on Trump’s life before the elections, and the assassination of Charlie Kirk — none of which could have been carried out without the complicity of elements of the deep state — provide yet more unmistakable evidence of the cold civil war that so many people refuse to see. The aggression always comes from the same side, and so do the victims.

When a political force regards liberal democracy as merely a temporary instrument and believes that its adversaries do not deserve symmetrical rules, it has ceased to be a normal opposition.

It has become a force for civil conflict.

The ultimate betrayal is not merely economic or cultural. It is civilizational. The Left has established a convergence of interests with Islam. They share enemies: the liberal West, national sovereignty, the historical identity of European and North American societies, the Christian religion, and individual freedom. Hatred unites more powerfully than doctrinal differences divide. Today we can see France burning, set ablaze by young left-wing activists and young Muslims who will never integrate and who will ultimately turn against the former as soon as they have sufficient power to do so.

This alliance is not a conspiracy theory. It can be seen on university campuses, in electoral coalitions, in the reluctance to confront the incompatibility of Islamic values with equality before the law, and in the prioritization of “diversity” over cohesion. It represents the surrender of the democratic principle to a bloc mentality: us against them. The American people and the peoples of Europe did not vote to become the subjects of an experiment in cultural and demographic replacement. Yet open or lax border policies, combined with the denial of their social costs, point in precisely that direction.

In Sweden, the left-wing bloc may be able to take power with the help of Muslim votes. In Berlin, communists govern the city with Muslim votes. In the United Kingdom, France, and Spain, left-wing governments or coalitions have maintained or expanded policies that prioritize mass immigration and the most extreme forms of multiculturalism while criminalizing or stigmatizing the concerns of the native population about its identity, security, and demographic future.

Calling someone “racist” for defending the cultural continuity of his own country is the exact reversal of democratic logic. It turns the political opponent into a permanent suspect. When a government treats its majority population as an obstacle and uncontrolled migration flows as an ethical imperative, it is not governing: it is waging a cultural and institutional battle against its own society, which it intends to destroy. The foreseeable result, if this is not corrected, resembles Lebanon or Iran’s post-1979 trajectory more than a stable democracy: fragmentation, loss of trust, erosion of a common legal order, and the eventual subordination of individual freedoms to new majorities or organized minorities.

The moderate Right insists on treating all this as an ordinary ideological disagreement. It believes that dialogue, concessions, and the “center” will be enough. It is mistaken. The difference is no longer merely one of policy. It is existential. Part of the political spectrum operates according to different rules: narrative above facts, identity above citizenship, the enemy above agreement. As long as the Right pretends that this remains a conventional parliamentary debate, it will continue to surrender ground.

We are in a cold civil war because one side has ceased to accept the limits of democracy. The other side has not yet recognized the true scale of the conflict. That is why it loses: in the streets, in institutions, in demographic trends and, often, at the ballot box.

We already know how this ends if it is not corrected. At best, we will have divided, insecure, and culturally unrecognizable societies. At worst, the practical extinction of the European nations and of the civilization that sustained them. The year 2050 is not an abstract date. It is the horizon by which today’s demographic, migratory, and ideological trends will have consolidated irreversibly unless there is a change in awareness and political will.

The Left and its tactical alliance with Islam are not a misunderstanding. They constitute a project of war against all of us and against our civilization. As long as the Right and libertarians deny or downplay it, they will continue to suffer the consequences of a war whose very existence they refuse to acknowledge.

And wars that are not recognized are lost.

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No matter how hard Americans work, the government spends more

America’s debt is $40 trillion, but the left (aided by AI) insists that more taxes, rather than less spending, would help fix the problem.

BY:          Jack Hellner, The American Thinker (August 25, 2026).

No matter how far off CBO projections have been, the media still treat their predictions as gospel. They always tout them as being non-partisan, as if that means unbiased and accurate. What’s astonishing, though, is how often they significantly underestimate the cost of new spending programs and how they always miss the dynamic effects of tax cuts. It might not be a coincidence. CBO employees are part of the deep state, and benefit from big government.

This article, for example, touts a report from 2001 that says CBO projected the debt would be paid off by 2009:

In 2001, the federal government had been running an annual surplus for four years and the Congressional Budget Office even projected that the national debt would effectively be zero by 2009.

That — suffice to say — did not happen. The national debt instead grew, reaching $10 trillion in 2008 and then quadrupling over the next 18 years to this week’s gloomy milestone of over $40 trillion in total debt.

That sounds very erudite and accurate, yet this article admits that CBO’s projection was off by $10 trillion just eight years later. Why would a journalist trust what they say?

The article continues:

Three types of decisions were often made with bipartisan support and drove the debt to such high levels in just a few years, the CRFB detailed in 2024.

The analysis was conducted before Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act — which is projected to add more than $4 trillion to the national debt on its own — yet still found that major tax cuts enacted under George W. Bush and in Trump’s first term are responsible for 37% of the current debt.

The article is terribly wrong, though. It says that only 33% of the debt is caused by spending, and Trump’s and Bush’s tax cuts caused 37% of the debt. Anyone who looks at revenues before and after the tax cuts would see what a lie that is.

Here is a discussion I had on the subject with Gemini, one of the two largest AI sources, with one billion users:

What was the population of the U.S in 2003 and 2025?

290.1 million 2003

341.8 million 2025

That’s a 17% increase.

What was total U.S inflation from 2017 to 2025?

31.44%

What was total inflation in the United States from 2003 to 2025?

75.10%.

What was individual Federal Income tax revenue in FY 2003, FY 2017, and FY 2025?

$794 billion in FY 2003, $1.587 trillion in FY 2017, and approximately $2.66 trillion in FY 2025.

That is up 235% in 22 years or over three times total inflation, following Bush’s tax rate cuts in 2003 and Trump’s rate cuts in 2017.

What was Federal Corporate Income tax revenue in FY 2003, FY 2017, and FY 2025?

$132 billion in FY 2003, $297 billion in FY 2017, and approximately $452 billion in FY 2025.

That’s up 242%, which is three times inflation.

What was total spending by U.S government in 2003, 2017, and 2025?

2.16 trillion, 2003

3.98 trillion 2017

7.01 trillion 2025

Spending increased 224% in 22 years, or three times the inflation rate.

If 2003 spending were adjusted for 17% population growth and further adjusted for 75% inflation, spending in 2025 would have been 4.42 trillion, not 7.01 trillion. The budget would be in surplus with Bush’s and Trump’s tax rate cuts in effect. Out-of-control spending is the entire problem.

Did Trump’s 2017 tax rate cuts add to the federal debt and deficit?

Yes, nonpartisan evaluations from the Congressional Budget Office and fiscal watchdog groups show that the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) significantly reduced federal revenue and added trillions of dollars to the national deficit and debt

• Initial Projections: The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the 2017 tax package would increase budget deficits by roughly $1.9 trillion over its first decade.
• Actual Contribution: Analyses by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget attribute about $2.5 trillion of the national borrowing during that era directly to the tax cut laws.

Instead of answering the question with factual revenue data, Gemini used CBO projections.

Shouldn’t Gemini answer questions with factual data instead of basing them on projections?

Yes, Gemini should and does prioritize factual, real-time data when answering factual questions, but it also uses projections, context, and pattern matching depending on the nature of the prompt.

Basically, Gemini has been programmed with a leftist bias instead of just dealing with facts and analyzing the facts themselves.

Income tax revenue went up 65% in FY 2025 over FY 2017 which was essentially double the inflation rate so how did that raise the debt and deficits?

Even though income tax revenue rose significantly—outpacing inflation—deficits and debt still grew because federal spending increased at an even faster pace.

Thus, Gemini ignored the question but admits that too much spending caused the debts and deficits.

So, isn’t it true that the tax rate cuts paid for themselves and the only reason deficits went up is because the government spent too much?

Major tax cuts do not pay for themselves. Nonpartisan groups like the Congressional Budget Office and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget find that while tax rate cuts can spur some economic growth and recover a fraction of their initial cost, they substantially reduce federal revenue, making deficits significantly larger than they would have been otherwise.

And there’s that bias again. Instead of Gemini admitting that the tax cuts did indeed pay for themselves, it reverted to leftist talking points. Gemini flat-out lied in its answer. Revenue did not significantly go down; it rose rapidly. But the programming means that Gemini’s false analysis means that more naïve people will take it as gospel.

How can anyone say that an increase from $1.9 trillion to $3.1Trillion in eight years when inflation was 32% reduced revenue?

Nominal government revenue grew from $1.9 trillion to $3.1 trillion, but when adjusted for 32% inflation, the “real” purchasing power of that revenue actually declined.

This is another outright lie. Real purchasing power went up 33%

How can a 65% increase in revenue when inflation was less than half that reduce purchasing power?

A 65% revenue increase reduces purchasing power if your business costs—such as supplier prices, wages, rent, and taxes—grow at a rate faster than 65%. Even with low overall consumer inflation, specific business expenses can surge and outpace top-line growth.

So here it covers up a programmed lie by claiming that the government may have higher costs than the rest of the economy.

Hasn’t CBO been notoriously wrong on projections on entitlement costs and programs like Obamacare and the Inflation Reduction Act?

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has faced criticism for significant misses in major legislative projections. Forecasting multi-year economic behavior, dynamic behavioral shifts, and complex policy impacts involves high uncertainty, leading to well-documented discrepancies between initial estimates and realized outcomes for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Inflation Reduction Act.

Instead of just saying yes, there’s obfuscatory wording.

Didn’t spending 76% more when inflation was only 31% cause the entire deficit problem since revenue also doubled the inflation rate?

When federal spending outpaces revenue collection over time, budget deficits grow. While spending growth higher than inflation contributes to a structural deficit, total deficit size is driven by the ongoing gap between total outlays and tax receipts, compounded heavily by rising net interest payments on accumulated debt.

Again, Gemini admits spending is the problem but blames a revenue shortfall. It’s like a 1950s comedy sketch where the husband blames his wife for spending too much, and she counters that he earns too little.

In summary, revenues following tax cuts increased substantially faster than inflation. The tax cuts could not have contributed to the deficit. Gemini clearly knows the facts, but when asked to analyze them or give an opinion, it resorts to a left bias.

It is a shame that the media and other Democrats have always advocated for spending and tax increases. Why would anyone want to increase tax rates when lower rates brought in more money, unless they just wanted a big, powerful government?

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We’ve Handed Government Our Work, and We’re Paying the Price

BY:          Mark Lewis (October 10, 2026).

“Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.” – James Madison

“I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”

– James Madison, the main author of the American Constitution

Our Founding Fathers, as Mr. Madison said in the quotation above, did not put “charity” in the Constitution as a responsibility — power — of Congress or the national government. Thus, the entire American welfare system is unconstitutional, and if anyone disagrees, please “lay [your] finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents” and point it out to me. And prove to me that you know more about the Constitution than the man who wrote it.

The Founders didn’t put “charity” in the Constitution for a quite obvious reason — if the government starts giving out free money, the lazy, shiftless, and selfish (which is far too many of mankind) will line up for miles to get as much of it as possible. And, worse, it might encourage those who are on the fence — in other words, would take care of themselves if necessity dictated, but tempted not to if free money is available — to slide over into the bum class and become unproductive. Don’t put temptation in front of people. That’s just common sense that we have completely forgotten in our secular, selfish, godless age.

In other words, to the brilliant and wise men who wrote our Constitution, government “charity” would produce the exact situation we see in America today: waste, fraud, abuse, and an inflationary monetary system that hurts the hard-working, diligent American — the kind of people a country should want and seek to produce. But rather, we now have a huge parasitic class that drains much-needed resources from society and adds nothing to its production. To our Founders, people, first and foremost, are to take care of themselves and their families, and not look to government to do it.

But times have changed, and we simply live in an age when so many expect government to solve all our problems (New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said it should), so we give it massive amounts of our money. That’s just the “zeitgeist” we’ve been trained to believe; thus it is the accepted, and unquestioned, norm today. Any mention, for example, that people should be allowed to privatize their Social Security or Medicare is immediately met with horrified, cacophonous shrieks of protest by government lovers — and parasites — and never even gets out of the batter’s box, much less to first base. Government is supposed to take care of the “poor”; that’s just accepted “wisdom” today.

But it shouldn’t be government’s responsibility to do our work for us. There are some things government can do very well (like oppress and kill people), but charity is best left in the hands of individuals who are close enough to situations to direct it where it truly needs to go. It isn’t in the least surprising that America’s government “benevolence” is in such a catastrophic mess; that institution (government) is wholly unequipped to prudently handle it. And, of course, it’s also purely political now.

For example, the American government has priced the greatest healthcare system in the world almost beyond reach of average citizens — with concomitant massive waste and fraud — and the more power over that system government gains, the worse it will become.

But government has made healthcare, through laws, regulations, strangulation, etc., so expensive that it is about the only entity now that can afford the costs. That’s exactly what totalitarians want — you dependent upon them, not free to make your own choices and pay for them yourself.

The Democrats love it. If the government is to do all the work, it must have as much of the money, and hence, power as possible. And the Left is about nothing if not about government power. It is also why the Left has done, and is doing, everything it can to destroy the nuclear family. If there is no family to take care of a person, then it has devolved upon government to do it. That isn’t the way it should be, but that’s the way we’ve been taught to think. And too many churches, which should be involved in benevolence, are too busy pleasuring themselves with their multi-million-dollar cathedrals and playpens to do the true work Christianity enjoins upon them. If government is going to do it, why should churches bother with it?

But we’ve ignored Mr. Madison; we’ve rejected our Constitution, common sense, and history, and so we have the bloated, fraudulent disaster that our welfare state has become. Not to mention that millions of people, from all over the world, have come to America to benefit from it. Our Founders knew this would happen if we put charity in the hands of government. Free money is one of the greatest attractions in the world to anybody, but especially to a sub-class of sloths and societal riff-raff with no virtue and who only wish to parasite off others. Nearly every human society in history has had them; current American government policy simply makes it easy for them to exist and expand. And it will eventually bankrupt and destroy the nation. We reap the ignorance we’ve sown.

The genuinely “needy poor” do exist, of course; they always have and they always will, and every religion in the world tells its individual adherents to take care of them, not the government. Jesus never told us to perform our Christian responsibilities through government. We, individually, are to do it.

But, individually, we tend to fall short of this great duty because government inflation has made it increasingly difficult to even provide for ourselves, much less help others. Just what the totalitarian left ordered.

GFK

The U.S. Department of Justice charged 2 former FBI officials for lying to Congress concerning the Hunter Biden laptop investigation. That’s a shame.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency saved Americans $1.6 trillion by eliminating oppressive and unnecessary regulations. WINNING!

Cenk Uyghur, a radical Leftist Democrat broadcaster, claims that the late Senator Lindsey Graham (R. S.C.) was a homosexual. Okay. He also garnered statements from 3 male prostitutes who claim that Senator Graham was a client. Well, that does it. Lindsey Graham is finished, his political career is dead.

What kind of sick, evil person spreads gossip about the deceased? Especially when the deceased devoted his entire life to public service in his nation’s military and the Congress?

“What’s so important for everyone to understand is that the moment you try to compromise the rights of a trans person in America, you compromise the rights of everyone citizen in America.”

–Puddin’head.

Puddin’head is essentially saying if you are against men’s “rights” to compete in women’s sports and invade women’s spaces, you’re against the rights of every American citizen.  If you’re against men stealing women’s trophies and opportunities, if you’re against men injuring women on the court, field, and any field of play, if you’re against full-intact males changing in the same locker room as women . . . you’re against the rights of all Americans. Insanity.

“Understand, when they attack trans girls in sports, they’re also attacking all women’s ability to stand up against their abusers, their rapists, and their assaulters on campuses across America.”

–Puddin’head.

So, if you oppose men being in girls’ sports, locker rooms, and restrooms, you are all for the rape of women?  Hmmm.  Yes, of course, that follows!

“I support the rights of trans women because I’m a girls’ girl.”

–Puddin’head.

Puddin’head says she supports the rights of males identifying as females to compete in women’s sports because I’m a female who genuinely supports, uplifts, and advocates for other women.  How damn dumb is she?  Pretty damn dumb.

Representative Ilhan Omar’s (D. Mn.) is not Ilhan Omar. It is some other foreign name which I cannot pronounce or spell. But interestingly enough, it is the same as her homosexual brother whom she married.

Now, now, now. Where is the proof that the man is her brother? DNA results establish it to a probability of 99.999999999++%. I think that is proof.

And who says in response to the question of whether you married your brother, “Not to my knowledge”? Something is rotten in Denmark. Or Mogadishu.

Democrats are calling for grocery stores to be owned by the government, because food should not be a source of profit. Heaven help us, if this happens, we are all going to starve.

Why is the Democrat Party not pouring resources into the Florida Senate race? According to Democrat Senate candidate Angie Nixon (D. Fl.), it is because everyone knows that Florida is a “racist” State. Oh, wow. And she wants to represent the racists in the United States Senate.

Throughout the American Midwest, Episcopal and Lutheran congregations are merging into 1. They call themselves Lutherpalians. Huh. I know some people in both denominations who are not going to be a bit happy to learn of this development.

A consumer research study found Raising Cane’s to have the best drive thru service, based on food quality and order accuracy. I dissent.

There was a time when I appreciated the flavor of Raising Cane’s chicken. But that was then, and this is now. It is an inferior product.

Muslim gunmen opened fire at a Greek Orthodox Church in Jordan, killing 7 and wounding 34, all of whom were attending a funeral. Sigh. The “religion of peace” strikes again. And please note; Jordan is considered to be among the most tolerant and moderate Muslim countries.

The rioting in France has actually gotten worse, and more violent. President Macron was forced to flee a town where he was speaking. It is a real possibility that the Fifth Republic may fall.

Why did NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell not move the Pittsburgh/New Orleans game out of France? Does he want to expose people to danger?

Appalachian State ended James Madison University’s hopes for an undefeated season. East Carolina blew a 14 point lead, losing to Memphis. Army beat Tulsa.

Boise State beat Washington State. Texas State and Colorado State won.

SMU ran all over Cal. Miami beat up on Pittsburgh. Duke beat Virginia. N.C. State lost to Stanford. Boston College beat Georgia Tech. Syracuse topped UNC. VPI edged Clemson.

Cincinnati upset Texas Tech. Central Florida beat BYU. Utah beat Houston. Arizona State and Arizona both won. Oklahoma State ruined Coach Prime’s weekend, beating Colorado.

LSU beat Auburn. Texas beat Mississippi. South Carolina upset Tennessee. Oklahoma beat Mississippi State. Kentucky beat Vanderbilt.

Northwestern downed Rutgers. Indiana edged Michigan in overtime. USC lost to Wisconsin; stick a fork in the Trojans, their season is done. Illinois beat Oregon. UCLA remains undefeated, beating Michigan State. Minnesota beat Iowa.

Legendary Oakland Raiders running back Pete Banaszak has died at age 82. R. I. P.

Former LSU men’s basketball coach Dale Brown has died at age 90. R. I. P.

The Cincinnati Reds won the 1990 World Series, sweeping the Oakland A’s 4-0. Todd Benzinger caught the fly ball which constituted the final out in that Series. Todd Benzinger has died at age 63. R. I. P.

GFK

St. Anthony of the Desert: “Everyday I say to myself, today I will begin.”

We make choices every day and we are surrounded by many people who would stop us in our tracks.  We look longingly at doors that close, yet we do not watch for what might or could or will happen if we are open to God’s promise.  Sometimes, there are challenges on the road and obstacles everywhere.  None of this stops God.  There are many distractions along the way.  We can only begin to be faithful through grace and it is a daily challenge.

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Today is the Feast of Christ the King. When Pope Pius XI instituted this feast in 1925, he appointed it to be celebrated on the last Sunday of October, immediately before the Feast of All Saints. The placement was significant. The Church proclaims Christ as King not merely of individual Christians, nor even simply of earthly nations, but of the whole created order—the living and the departed, the visible and the invisible. The saints themselves constitute the heavenly court of the King whose sovereignty we celebrate.

But what does it mean to speak of Christ as King in an increasingly anti-monarchical age?

Pope Pius XI faced much the same difficulty in 1925. Europe had witnessed the collapse of ancient monarchies, the rise of aggressively secular political movements, and increasing efforts to remove Christianity from public life. In instituting the feast, the Pope called the Church back to something much older than any particular political system: the witness of Holy Scripture itself.

The Psalms repeatedly proclaim the Kingship of God: The LORD is King, be the people never so impatient. The Prophets likewise look forward to the universal reign of God over the nations. And in the Gospel, Our Lord stands before Pontius Pilate and declares: My kingdom is not of this world.

Those words do not mean that Christ’s Kingdom has nothing to do with this world. Rather, His Kingdom does not derive its authority from this world. It is not another earthly regime competing with Rome or any other political power. Its authority comes from above. Indeed, when Pilate boasts of his authority over Jesus, Our Lord answers him: Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above. This is precisely what makes the Kingship of Christ so radical.

Caesar may exercise authority for a time. Nations rise and fall. Governments and political systems come and go. But Christ’s Kingdom does not depend upon elections, armies, constitutions, or the consent of the governed. His Kingship rests upon the reality of who He is.

The Epistle appointed for the feast makes this unmistakably clear: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.

Christ is King because all things were created through Him and for Him. Every earthly authority exists beneath His authority. Every nation exists within His creation. Every ruler, government, principality, and power ultimately stands beneath the judgment of the One through whom all things were made.

When Pope Pius XI called the Church to proclaim this biblical truth anew, he wanted Christians to be the “salt” and “light” of a culture increasingly determined to exclude God from public life. The more the nations sought to organize human society as though God did not exist, the more necessary it became for Christians to proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord.

That challenge has certainly not disappeared. The feast therefore asks us a rather uncomfortable question: Where does our ultimate allegiance lie? Do we think of ourselves first as citizens of an earthly nation who also happen to be Christians, or as members of Christ’s Kingdom who, for a time, live as citizens of an earthly nation?

Christians may rightly love their country, honor lawful authority, and work for the good of the society in which God has placed them. S. Paul himself commands Christians to respect legitimate civil authority. But no earthly authority is absolute. Whenever the demands of the state conflict with the commandments of God, the Apostles give us the governing principle: We ought to obey God rather than men. To acknowledge Christ as King, therefore, cannot remain merely an intellectual assent to a theological proposition. It demands allegiance.

In the language of our Baptism, it means fighting manfully under Christ’s banner against sin, the world, and the devil. It means submitting our thoughts, desires, possessions, relationships, ambitions, and ultimately our very lives to His rule. We cannot proclaim Christ King over the universe while reserving some small territory within ourselves over which we refuse to allow Him to reign.

And here we encounter the great paradox of Christ’s Kingship. Our King conquers by being crucified. The throne from which He first manifests His glory is the Cross. His crown is made of thorns. His royal robe is placed upon Him in mockery. His hands hold no sword, but are pierced with nails. And above His head Pilate unwittingly proclaims the truth: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.

The kingdoms of this world maintain themselves through power. Christ establishes His Kingdom through self-emptying love, obedience, sacrifice, and victory over death. Yet the Cross is not the end of His Kingship. The crucified King is risen. He has ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father, from hence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

The Feast of Christ the King therefore looks both backward and forward. We look back to the Cross, where the nature of His Kingship was revealed, and forward to the Day when that Kingship will be manifest to all creation. For now, we proclaim by faith what will one day be visible to all: Jesus Christ is Lord.

The Feast of Christ the King is therefore not merely a proclamation of Christ’s universal sovereignty. It is also an acknowledgment of His rule over our own lives. To celebrate this feast is to renew our allegiance to Him and to witness before a broken and suffering world to the greater Kingdom to which mankind is called.

May we pray and labor for the day when every human authority acknowledges its true Lord, when every people and nation recognizes its rightful King, and when, in the words of S. Paul, at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

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LOVE IS ABOUT TREATING EVERYONE WELL

BY:          Fr. Francis Maple

Mt. 22:34-40

If someone should tell you to flap your arms and fly like a bird, what would you do?  Odds are that you would ignore that directive on the grounds that it is impossible.  The idea is absurd.  People cannot fly no matter how fast they flap their arms.  You wouldn’t even try.  Why make a fool of yourself?

That is the attitude some people take toward today’s Gospel reading.  Jesus said, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”  We know that in His language “neighbour” means everyone without exception.  We may be inclined to dismiss that as mere church talk.  Yes, good material for a Sunday sermon, but not for the rest of the week.  In the real world, it does not make any sense at all.  There are some people whom we simply cannot love.  How can you love that one-time friend who stabs you in the back?  How can you love the rude person in the office who takes advantage of every opportunity to get on your nerves?  How can you love that smooth-talking liar who cheated you so shamelessly?  All of us have known a few of these people.  How can we feel anything towards them but resentment, distrust and I don’t like saying this word, even hatred?  We must never say to anyone, “I hate you”, for if we do and we mean it we shall not be forgiven by the Lord.  At best, we can tolerate them and leave them alone, but some would say it is asking too much to expect us to love them.

When Jesus said we are to love our neighbour as ourselves He did not expect us to have warm feelings for all people.  I am not even sure He cared about that, but He cared greatly about what we do to one another.  Therein lies the true meaning of Christian love.

It begins with a conscious commitment.  We often use the expression “falling in love”.  That is a beautiful term.  It is what happens to a boy and a girl on a moon-lit night.  They look into one another’s eyes and fall in love.  It is what happens to parents when they see their baby for the first time.  They are overwhelmed by feelings of devotion.  That little one steals their hearts.  They fall in love with the little one they helped to create.  That too is a wonderful experience, but it has nothing to do with loving your neighbour as yourself.  No one falls into this kind of love.  We may grow into it, but it does not just happen to us.  We choose it with both eyes open.  We knowingly and willingly give ourselves to it.  This is what true love really means.

When two people marry, they promise to love each other as long as they both shall live.  Are these people saying that they will feel warm and tender towards each other every hour of every day for the rest of their lives?  If that is what they mean, then neither one is telling the truth.  They will soon find that out that it is impossible to have warm and tender feelings every moment of their married life.  It is impossible for two people to know how they will feel about each other in five years’ time.  Human feelings are as unpredictable as the weather.

A couple were celebrating their golden wedding anniversary.  A priest asked the wife how they had got through those years and did she ever think about getting a divorce?  She said, “The thought of divorcing my husband never entered my mind.”  Then with a twinkle in her eye, she added, “But I have thought about murder a few times!”

Even in marriage, love is a conscious commitment.  Two people promise to act toward each other in a way they will act toward no one else.  That can be done.  Jesus applies that same logic to us and our neighbour.  He commands us to act towards them in a loving way, regardless of how we feel.  Love makes that commitment.

All of us are fond of certain people.  I am glad we are, but there is no virtue in that.  What about all those other people we are not fond of.  How do we treat them?  Jesus knows it is easy to love those who are fond of us, but He does expect us to love those we are not fond of and who ill treat us.

The last story that He ever told was His parable of the final judgment.  It all had to do with deeds.  Feelings are completely omitted.  He will not say, “I was hungry, and you felt sorry for Me.   I was naked, and you were embarrassed for Me.  I was sick, and you had sympathy for Me.”  All that might be very nice, but Jesus did not even mention it.  The only thing that counted with Him was that the hungry were fed, the naked were clothed, and the sick were visited.

Jesus said, “Love your neighbour as yourself.”  We may try to evade that responsibility by pointing out that some people are utterly unlovable.  Jesus knows that, but He says, “I am not interested in how you feel about people.  My concern is how you are treating them.”  Love is not something we feel about another, but how we treat them.

Lord Jesus, loving everyone can be very hard, especially our enemies, but You showed us how to love them when they crucified You.  You prayed, “Father forgive them.”  Help us to follow Your example and love everyone.  Then we know You will give us a place in Your Kingdom.

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Jesus never preached socialism

Christian compassion calls individuals to give freely rather than politicians to redistribute by force

BY:          Everett  Piper, The Washington Times (October 18, 2026).

Last week in this column, I wrote that Europe and the United States need a Christian revival, not a socialist revolution.

My argument was simple: Socialism is the problem, not the solution. The destruction we are seeing in the streets of France and here in America is caused by the socialist creed, not solved by it. Christianity is the solution.

You do not even need the Bible to make this point. History has shown that, in every case they have been applied, Karl Marx’s assumptions about class conflict, identity-based conflict and forced redistribution end badly. Just look at the 100 million dead at the hands of the socialist regimes of Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Josef Stalin, and Fidel Castro.

If you want life and liberty rather than death and servitude, socialism simply does not work. It has a much worse track record than a constitutional republic built on the Judeo-Christian ethics of Christ and his church.

To this argument, several readers immediately responded that I was guilty of presenting a false dichotomy in pitting socialism against Christianity. “Jesus, after all, was a socialist,” they argued.

Is this true? In a word, no, and those who argue that he was are either ignorant of the Bible or intentionally misrepresenting it.

The fact is that Jesus never taught or advocated collectivism, government largesse or state-enforced redistribution of wealth and private property.

Yes, Christ condemned worshipping money, “for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Yes, Jesus warned that it was “easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven.” Yes, he praised the widow for offering just a single “penny” because she was willing to give all she had to God.

And yes, some first-century Christians sold their possessions to support their fellow believers. Still, none of this smacks of the worldview of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani any more than the Salvation Army’s Christmas bells and red buckets resemble the IRS.

Jesus never taught or advocated for government compulsion. Instead, he always focused on personal responsibility. Charity was the obligation of the individual, not the state. Christ never told his followers to vote for the government to give more money to the poor. He told his followers to do it themselves.

Lawrence W. Reed, president emeritus of the Foundation for Economic Education, says it well: “Christians are commanded in Scripture to love, to pray, to be kind, [to give], to serve, to forgive, to be truthful, to worship the one God, to learn and grow in both spirit and character. All of those things are very personal. They require no politicians, police, bureaucrats, political parties, or programs.”

He continues: “Christianity is not about passing the buck to the government when it comes to relieving the plight of the poor. Caring for them, which means helping them overcome it, not paying them to stay poor or making them dependent upon the state, has been an essential fact in the life of a true Christian for 2,000 years. Christian charity, being voluntary and heartfelt, is utterly distinct from the compulsory, impersonal mandates of the state.”

Is Mr. Reed correct? Is this, indeed, what Scripture teaches? Well, here is just a smattering of what the Bible says on the matter.

The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 9:7: “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

In his Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus calls the traveler “good” because he personally helped the stricken man at the roadside with his own time and money. Nothing in this story suggests that government was the solution to the other man’s needs.

Jesus adds in Matthew 26:11, “The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want.” The key words here are “you can help [when you want].” He did not say, “We’re going to make you help whether you like it or not.”

In Luke 12:13-15, Jesus is approached with a request for redistribution. “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me,” a man asks. Jesus replies, “Man, who made me a judge or divider over you?” Then he rebukes the petitioner for his envy. Does not sound very socialist, does it?

Mr. Reed concludes: “Jesus clearly held that compassion is a wholesome value to possess, but I know of no passage in the New Testament that suggests it’s a value he’d impose by force or gunpoint — in other words, by socialist politics.”

No, Jesus was not a socialist. He taught us, not the government, to do the giving. Nothing in church history or teaching says we are to shirk our responsibility to help our neighbor by passing it on to the state.

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James Talarico’s latest claim about the Bible gets fact-checked in real time

BY:          Billy Hallowell, The Washington Times (October 16, 2026).

Texas Senate candidate James Talarico is known for his bizarre, inaccurate and downright nutty theological proclamations.

Mr. Talarico uttered his latest nonsense during a CNN and Jubilee town hall, telling Jody Hunt, a Catholic woman, that the Bible is silent on abortion — a proclamation that caused many, including Ms. Hunt, to fervently hit back.

“We’re both Christians and the Bible is silent on the issue of abortion,” he said. “It means you and I both have to look at different Scriptures to try to come to a conclusion, but what I think we can do is actually come together on reducing the number of unplanned pregnancies and the number of abortions.”

But Ms. Hunt wasn’t willing to let this claim go — and with good reason. It’s absolutely unhinged from reality and truth, so she fact-checked Mr. Talarico right to his face.

“I just want to add that the Bible is not silent on abortion,” she shot back. “There is the Ten Commandments — ’Thou shalt not kill.’

“And as Catholics, we take great insult, I guess sometimes when it’s [spouted] that way,” she continued.

She made a great point about the nature of killing innocents. The Bible is absolutely clear that terminating the life of another human is inexcusable and violates God’s laws.

As for abortion: It’s certainly true that the word isn’t present in the Bible, but neither are a plethora of other specific issues and sins. Take, for instance, heroin abuse or pornography.

Scripture doesn’t mention specific deadly drugs, but it precludes humans from being drunk. And it doesn’t discuss computer and cell phone smut, but Jesus is clear about lust and sexual sin.

Any semblance of discernment would tell someone to avoid drugs or pornography because of the broader verses that warn against sinning against one’s body and being inebriated.

This is just common sense — and the same reality exists for abortion.

Though the word “abortion” doesn’t exist in Scripture, the concept is most certainly decried throughout the Old and New Testaments. The Bible isn’t silent on the issue. People like Mr. Talarico simply want to ignore these realities and indulge their own sinful understanding of what’s permitted.

But let’s go a bit deeper. As it turns out, there are numerous Bible verses that reveal God’s love, kindness and care for the unborn. One of the most compelling verses is Psalm 139:13 (NIV), which reads, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”

This is an incredibly powerful verse that presents God as caring deeply about the form and future of the unborn, sparking imagery of an artist assembling his or her masterpiece. Beyond that, this particular Scripture shows the innate value God puts into His human creation.

Another verse is Jeremiah 1:5, which offers an even deeper look at the purposes God imbues in human souls well before conception.

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,” the Scripture reads. “Before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

This notion that the Lord foreknows each person aligns with the love and care we see God expressing throughout Scripture — and it certainly flies in the face of Mr. Talarico’s arguments that the Bible is silent on abortion.

The unborn have inherent value even before they are conceived, which is evident from these verses. Ultimately, such Scriptures contradict the “clump of cells” argument that many liberals seek to peddle while selling abortion as a viable solution to unplanned pregnancy.

There’s another story, though, that has always stuck out in my mind and is seen in Luke 1. Mary, Jesus’ mother, goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth after Mary finds out that she’s pregnant with the Messiah.

Luke 1:41 tells us the following: “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” John the Baptist, an unborn baby, was the first to react to the unborn Christ child — and that says something.

So, is Mr. Talarico right that abortion isn’t explicitly mentioned in Scripture? Sure, the term itself isn’t there, but the concept most certainly is decried based on God’s overwhelming love and plans for His creation.

There’s absolutely nothing in Scripture that glorifies or permits killing innocents. In fact, humans are compelled to protect the “least of these” and the most vulnerable.

Liberals such as Mr. Talarico are, at best, confused about such eternal truths. At worst, they’re intentionally distorting the Bible for political means. Either way, their proclivities result in evil claims and policies that damage innocents.

GFK

“Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon.”

–Winnie The Pooh.

Today is a very Virginia-centric publication. First, we have a piece on one of the proposed State Constitutional Amendments, which would destroy the notion of marriage in the Commonwealth. I urge all Virginians to vote “No” on this, and the other 2 proposed Constitutional Amendments. Second, we have a piece discussing Virginia Governor Patrick Henry’s plan to extend Virginia West to the Mississippi, during the War for American Independence. Familiar names such as Daniel Boone and George Rogers Clark appear, as Governor Henry’s plan not only claimed the West and Northwest Territories for Virginia, but also weakened the British grip on the Northwestern Territories (now known as Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Virginia extended its reach West to the Mississippi and North to the Great Lakes. Enjoy!

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A ‘No’ Vote On Virginia Amendment 2 Is A Vote for Marriage

Marriage is not some esoteric thing. It has been part and parcel of the lives of most human beings for millennia.

BY:          John M. Grondelski, The American Thinker (October 17, 2026).

Virginians go to the polls this fall to vote on Amendment 2, a change repealing the state constitution’s current dormant ban on same-sex marriage. A “no” vote is a vote for the truth of marriage and its connection to procreation as well as an affirmation of popular democracy against judicial imposition and straitjacketing the options of future legislatures.

A “No” Vote on Virginia Amendment 2 Is a Vote for Marriage

Virginians go to the polls this fall to elect a U.S. senator, members of Congress, and vote on three state constitutional amendments. Amendment 1 declares abortion-on-demand throughout pregnancy to be a “fundamental right” the state cannot limit. Amendment 3 repeals limits on post-conviction voting by felons. Amendment 2, which has flown somewhat under the radar, is about “same-sex marriage.”

In 2006, Virginia voters changed the state constitution to define marriage as a union of one man and one woman. They approved that change by 57.1% of the vote. What subsequently became Article 1.15(A) of the state constitution defines marriage as a monogamous, sexually differentiated institution and bans the state from adopting alternative models to marriage, e.g., civil unions.

Virginia’s definition of marriage became unenforceable in 2015 when the U.S. Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision invented a “right” to “same-sex marriage.”

If approved, Amendment 2 does two major things: (1) it repeals the 2006 changes to the state constitution; and (2) it explicitly writes “same-sex marriage” into the constitution, requiring Virginia to provide it even if Obergefell ever falls. Let’s take each of these things in turn.

Advocates of Amendment 2 contend the 2006 changes to the state constitution are both vestigial and discriminatory. They are vestigial, they claim, because they are unenforceable: they are dead letters. They are discriminatory, they claim, because sexual differentiation has no inherent connection to marriage. Like race, sex is just an accidental feature not necessarily having anything to do with marriage.

Article 1.15(A) of the state constitution, as currently written, is not so much vestigial as dormant. Yes, it may be legally unenforceable, but that does not mean that it does not express what people understand marriage to be, even if the courts disagree. Constitutions begin, after all, with “we, the people,” not “we, the judges.”

Abraham Lincoln saw this problem precisely as one of democratic legitimacy. Taking dead aim at the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision (the 1857 ruling that said blacks were not persons under the Constitution), Lincoln reminded Americans that if they simply fell into line, they would cease being their own rulers and surrender their government into the Court’s hands.

Marriage is not some esoteric thing. It has been part and parcel of the lives of most human beings for millennia. No western society before the 20th century ever considered sexual difference to be irrelevant to marriage. There is no parallel history to race as a factor in marriage outside of some Southern states with their histories of racism or Nazi Germany with its racial mythologies. To say then that sexual difference has nothing to do with marriage requires one to admit that most human beings have been grossly mistaken about what marriage entails (and does not entail) for most of human history – or at least until the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court enlightened them in 2003. If you believe that, I have some great bridges on sale today at discount prices, just for you…

Most societies have recognized marriage has some connection to procreation, which obviously presupposes sexual difference. That does not mean every marriage leads to children, but it does mean society has generally recognized marriage between a man and woman whose child is the enfleshed fruit of their bodies to be the locus in which children and families prosper. The effort since the Sexual Revolution of the 1960s to relocate childbearing and childrearing to other contexts — then out-of-wedlock, today often out-of-reproduction (surrogacy, artificial reproduction) has not left behind a history of unrivaled successes. In fact, these alternative venues for childrearing are almost uniformly bad for both women and children.

Advocates of Amendment 2 are trying to play the race card and guilt-by-association by invoking history: Virginia’s anti-miscegenation laws banned interracial marriage until the Supreme Court’s 1967 decision in Loving v. Virginia. But, as noted, race never was understood as so central to marriage as sex. Consider: Loving was decided by a unanimous Supreme Court, Obergefell by a very fractured 5-4 majority which, within four years, likely would have not have been handed down.

But Amendment 2 does not just repeal the 2006 changes to the state constitution. It explicitly writes the Obergefell doctrine into the constitution by banning the state from ever taking sex into account when defining marriage. So, even if Obergefell were overturned, Amendment 2 would cement the ruling into state law. If you think Obergefell was wrongly decided, leaving Article 1.15(A) alone expresses your view. Adopting Amendment 2 does not just repeal the old norm; it ensconces the new one. Why straitjacket future legislatures?

The truth is Amendment 2 encompasses a concept of marriage that many would regard as problematic. It is one that sees marriage and parenthood as having only some accidental, maybe serendipitous, connection. It sees marriage primarily as a personally defined interest of the parties and none of society’s business, even though the existence of society depends on marriage. This disconnect between marriage and procreation threatens western societies that have long fallen into demographic winters (America has been below fertility replacement levels since 2008). And it tries to cajole Virginians into falling in line behind a highly divided Supreme Court, in the hope that Americans would simply acquiesce in the redefinition of marriage which, more than a decade after Obergefell, looks like they’re having second thoughts.

For all those reasons, I will vote “no” on Amendment 2.

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Patrick Henry’s secret plan to extend Virginia westward during the revolution

George Rogers Clark gets the historical credit for “the conquest of the Northwest,” as the land between the Alleghenies and the Mississippi was then called. It was Henry who authorized the military action as a secret mission on behalf of Virginia, not the United States.

BY:          Dwayne Yancey (September 15, 2026).

In the fall of 1776, the governor of Virginia had plenty to do. A revolution was underway and to say things weren’t going well was an understatement. The American army, under George Washington, was in the process of being pushed out of New York. Patrick Henry, the first revolutionary governor of Virginia after the British royal governor had been evicted, had to keep an eye on the north in case things went south.

However, Henry also had one in a more unlikely direction — west, across the mountains. On one particular day that autumn of 1776, he probably had both eyes looking straight ahead at the two men who stood before him.

They had been elected in June by some of those western settlers to go to the capital in Williamsburg to meet with the governor and legislators in the General Assembly. While Henry likely didn’t know these men personally, he knew them by reputation.

John Gabriel Jones was the son of Gabriel Jones, a longtime member of the House of Burgesses and a prominent attorney in counties up and down the Shenandoah Valley and even west of the mountains.

The other was George Rogers Clark; he had gone to school with James Madison and been trained as a surveyor. Both profession and ambition had taken him west.

However impressive their family connections might have been, names and reputations meant little on the frontier, so the fact that these men had been sent by their fellow settlers to represent them in the capital spoke to a certain hardiness that both must have possessed.

They had been entrusted with a special mission — to make the case for a new county of Virginia that they wanted to be called Kentucky County.

Both men had something else in common: They were each just 24 years old.

By the end of the year, one of them would be dead. And by the end of the war, the other would be responsible for enlarging the new nation on a scale later topped only by the Louisiana Purchase and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican War.

Two 24-year-olds persuaded Virginia to create new counties in the west

While Virginia’s gentry was consumed by the coming confrontation with Great Britain over taxes and rights, other Virginians were focused on something else entirely: Pushing west beyond the mountains to settle new lands.

The Proclamation Line of 1763. Map by Robert Lunsford.

To be sure, Virginians had almost always been looking west. In 1716, Governor Alexander Spotswood led his famous expedition to cross the Blue Ridge to see what was in the Shenandoah Valley. That western push inevitably brought Virginians into conflict with the Native Americans who regarded those lands as theirs — and also the French, coming down from the north in Quebec, who felt the same way. At the end of the French and Indian War, King George III wanted to hold down the costs of defending his North American empire. He (or his ministers) drew a line through the mountains and told Colonists they shouldn’t go beyond that. He felt his Proclamation of 1763 was both a prudent military and fiscal measure; Virginians regarded the proclamation as just one in a long series of insults and injustices from the crown.

Virginia didn’t have money to pay soldiers during the French and Indian War, so it had paid them with promises of land, which in those days was even better than money. After the war, maybe 1,000 or so men felt they were entitled to land west of the mountains. Some intended to claim it; others were content to sell their claims to what today we’d call real estate developers. Many of those developers, or land speculators, were people with names like Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. Now, with the king’s proclamation, none of them could make use of that land — not the gentry, not the common soldiers. This is what today we’d call a political coalition.

Both chafed at the king’s edict and generally ignored this invisible legal line. There are also settlers who by 1763 were already west of the king’s proclamation line. Colonists tried to move that line further west through treaties in 1768 with the Cherokee and the Iroquois that, in theory, extended settlement to the Ohio River. Other tribes, however, did not recognize these treaties and conflict was inevitable, but we’re getting ahead of the story.

In 1771, the 19-year-old Clark left his home in Caroline County for a surveying trip in these new lands along the Ohio River. He eventually ventured even farther west into the unsettled land known as Kentucky and fell in love with what he saw. He was not alone. The same year that Clark was headed west, a restless hunter and trapper from North Carolina named Daniel Boone was headed east — after two years of exploring that same Kentucky. He came back with such glorious accounts of what he had found that in 1773, a group of 50 people — Boone among them — packed up and headed through the Cumberland Gap into this wild country. They did not get far. They were ambushed by a band of Delawares, Shawnee and Cherokee. Among those killed were one of Boone’s sons. Boone abandoned the attempt. It should be noted that this attempted settlement of the Kentucky frontier was not an entirely white affair: At least two enslaved men were part of that group; one of them (known only as Charles) was killed, the other (known only as Adam) escaped and alerted the others.

“Daniel Boone escorting settlers through the Cumberland Gap,” by George Caleb Bingham. Courtesy of Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

Despite the Boone debacle, Lord Dunmore — Virginia’s royal governor — started issuing land grants in Kentucky in December 1773. The next year, the hunter James Harrod led a party of 31 men down the Ohio River from Pennsylvania and founded Harrodstown, the first official town in Kentucky. Clark, then just 22, aimed to lead another group into these new lands. He had arranged for 80 to 90 men to meet him at the mouth of the Little Kanawha River, what today is Parkersburg, West Virginia. From there, they intended to take a flatboat down the Ohio River and then follow a buffalo trail to the bluegrass country. The natives tribes took exception and attacked some of Clark’s surveying party. This was one of just many violent encounters between settlers and the indigenous tribes. What followed became known as Lord Dunmore’s War. The climactic battle, at Point Pleasant on the Ohio River, resulted in a Virginia victory that cleared the way for more settlement.

Benjamin Logan. Courtesy of Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal.

The following year, 1775, Boone made another attempt at settlement, founding Boonesborough. Meanwhile, Benjamin Logan of Augusta County led a party that established the community of St. Asaph, or sometimes simply, Logan’s Fort.

The point is that in the years leading up to the American Revolution, Virginians (and others, but mostly Virginians) were pushing into Kentucky, which they considered a western extension of Virginia. In June 1776, while delegates were meeting in Philadelphia to prepare a Declaration of Independence, Kentucky settlers met in Harrodstown and elected Clark and Jones to represent them in Williamsburg.

This election was somewhat unorthodox. At the time, Kentucky was a state of mind, not a legal entity. Legally, it was part of Virginia’s Fincastle County, which started in modern-day Montgomery County and went west. When Clark and Jones got to Williamsburg, they found the House of Burgesses had already adjourned, never to meet again. A newly constituted General Assembly convened that fall under the new revolutionary government, but did not recognize Clark and Jones as members. Nonetheless, the two young men were pretty good lobbyists, because the legislators voted to split Fincastle County into three new counties — Kentucky County, Montgomery County and Washington County. Clark also persuaded Governor Henry to spare 500 pounds of gunpowder for this new western county. That December, Jones was on his way to accept the powder, which had been shipped down the Ohio River, when he was ambushed by Mingo warriors and killed.

His war was over. Clark’s was just beginning.

The French had scattered settlements west of the mountains to the Mississippi (and beyond)

This British map shows how the Quebec Act extended Quebec (in green) westward. Courtesy of New York Public Library.

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The lands west of the mountains weren’t entirely vacant. More than 250,000 Native Americans lived there. They weren’t the only ones. The French, who had a thing for fur-trapping and saw the natives as a people to do business with, founded a trading outpost at modern-day Detroit in 1701 and another on the Wabash River in modern-day Indiana in 1702 — long before the British had even explored the Shenandoah Valley. By the time they lost their North American empire in 1763, the French had a string of outposts from their main colony in Quebec all the way to New Orleans. The British took over those east of the Mississippi, the Spanish took the ones to the west. These settlements were isolated, but the populations of Vincennes, in modern-day Indiana, and Cahokia and Kaskaski, in modern-day Illinois, still numbered in the hundreds at the outbreak of the revolution. By contrast, the population of St. Louis, a French city that was now governed by the Spanish on the west side of the Mississippi, was a more impressive 1,297, according to the St. Louis Genealogical Society. While Americans considered the lands west of the mountains quite remote, the most prominent French families in St. Louis considered themselves rather cosmopolitan and often traveled back and forth to Montreal on business, according to the history “French Saint Louis.” The rivers and overland routes between the two French cities, one now owned by the British, the other the Spanish, were a surprisingly busy route for what some regarded as wilderness.

The Virginians who were starting to settle Kentucky County were well aware of this. They were also well aware that Virginia claimed land all the way to the Mississippi. And they were furious that the British government had in 1774 transferred those western lands to French-speaking Quebec. To some extent, that had no practical effect, since neither Virginia nor Quebec had any real control over any of it. Virginia, though, took the move badly; the transfer would deny Virginians the lands they claimed there. Britain, which was trying to minimize westward expansion, was quite fine with that. Britain also hadn’t granted the French-speaking Quebec an elected government, so having those lands officially under a government more firmly under British control was a side benefit. When war finally came,

Colonists along the East Coast wanted to evict the British military from Boston and New York and Charleston and whatnot. However, those Virginia settlers in Kentucky County had a different objective — they wanted to evict the British from everything between the mountains and the Mississippi, however slight that presence might be.

The one who did the most to make this happen was George Rogers Clark, and many of the men who helped him were fellow Virginians.

George Rogers Clark presented Henry with an audacious plan to seize the west

Governor Henry had met this young visitor before. A little more than a year before, Clark had stood before him, making the case for a new county to the west. Now, in December 1777, he was back, with tales to tell, and an even more audacious plan.

George Rogers Clark later in life. Courtesy of National Portrait Gallery.

Clark outlined the military situation as he saw it: The British pulled most of their troops out of the western territory but distributed weapons to Native American tribes they considered trustworthy. The Virginia settlers in Kentucky County spent a lot of time in 1777 dealing with hit-and-run attacks. Clark didn’t like playing defense. Native Americans tended not to venture out much during the winter, so Clark took advantage of the lull in fighting to travel back east to Williamsburg to present an audacious military plan to go on the offensive.

He thought he could float an armed force down the Ohio without being detected. Once at the Mississippi, he could surprise the two settlements at Cahokia and Kaskaski, which would never suspect an American force would range so far west. From there, he could circle back and take the British post at Vincennes. With luck, he might even be able to head on to Detroit and thereby claim the entire Northwest, as it was then known, for Virginia.

Governor Henry was skeptical. “At first he seemed to favor it, but to send a party off to so great a distance appeared daring and hazardous even though the service to be performed might be of great utility,” Clark later wrote in his autobiography, “The Conquest of the Illinois.” The governor quizzed Clark on his contingency plan if things went awry. Clark had that thought out: He’d escape across the Mississippi into Spanish territory.

Henry didn’t dare divulge the plan to the General Assembly; British spies were everywhere. He did share the details with his executive council: George Mason, Thomas Jefferson, George Wythe. They were intrigued. The British defenses were thin and the risk to Virginia was low. Much hinged on how the French settlers who the British had inherited in many of those western outposts would react. Mason, Jefferson and Wythe promised to use their influence to persuade the legislature to give each man 300 acres if they succeeded. If the plan failed, the men would likely be dead.

Publicly, Henry commissioned Clark as a lieutenant colonel and authorized him to raise men for the defense of Kentucky County. Privately, he gave Clark secret orders to carry out the mission. Notice that this was the governor of Virginia authorizing military action, not George Washington or any Continental Army authority. The conquest of the Northwest would be a purely Virginia endeavor. Before Clark left Williamsburg, Henry apparently took him aside for a private chat. He told Clark that “he did not wish an implicit attention to his instructions should prevent my doing anything that would manifestly tend to the public advantage.” In other words: Do what you need to do. Clark was jubilant. “I set out on January 4 [1778], clothed with all the authority I could wish,” he wrote.

That jubilation did not last long.

“Clark soon discovered being authorized to raise an army was easier than actually doing so,” writes historian Tom Hand in “Americana Corner.” Clark’s initial base was in modern-day Pennsylvania, west of Fort Pitt on the Monongahela River. That was the standard starting point for a western journey when the Ohio River functioned as a highway. It was also still disputed territory between Virginia and Pennsylvania, which meant some of the locals who regarded themselves as Pennsylvanians refused to join. Why should they sign up to defend one of Virginia’s counties?

Those further west were also reluctant, but for different reasons. “After three years of war without much progress being made, enthusiasm for joining the army was fairly low,” Hand writes. “To make matters worse, the constant threat of Indian raids in Kentucky and Tennessee caused most men west of the Appalachians to feel they should remain close to home rather than venturing away from the area.”

Clark wanted 350 men. He had to settle for 178. “Most were untrained militiamen with little or no formal military training,” Hand writes. They were simply frontiersmen. Clark also hadn’t told them the full plan. They thought they were signing up to defend Kentucky County, not go farther west. Not until he was ready to depart — from a site known then simply as the Falls of the Ohio but that later became modern-day Louisville — did Clark reveal his secret instructions from Governor Henry.

“Almost every gentleman present warmly espoused the enterprise and plainly saw the utility of it, and supposed they saw the salvation of Kentucky almost within their reach,” Clark wrote. But many soldiers doubted whether there were enough of them to pull off the feat. “The soldiery in general debated the subject,” he wrote. “Some were alarmed” at the distances involved, and the lack of any reinforcements. In the end, though, the men agreed to follow Clark.

They set out on June 24, 1778.

Clark’s chief lieutenants were all Virginians — Joseph Bowman, his second-in-command, was born in Frederick County, the son of German immigrants who initially helped populate the Shenandoah Valley. Leonard Helm (or Helms) was born in modern-day Fauquier County. William Harrod was from the part of Pennsylvania claimed by both Colonies; he considered himself a Virginian and had previously served in the Virginia militia.

For four days, the men rowed down the Ohio. Clark feared to stay on the river much longer for fear of encountering travelers. Near present-day Metropolis, Illinois, he struck out overland for a six-day march through wilderness. “The band that emerged from the woods was a rough looking bunch, hungry, unshaven, and filthy with their clothes in tatters after walking for a week through brambles and branches,” Hand writes. The date was an auspicious one: July 4.

That night, they approached the fort at Kaskaskia. They were amazed to find the front gate open, with no sentry on duty. The Virginians simply walked in, took up positions, then shouted they had taken the fort.  The acting lieutenant governor, Philippe de Rocheblave, a former French army officer, was still in bed when the Virginians burst in and woke him with the news.

“Rocheblave was defiant but the rest of the residents and local militia not so much,” Hand writes. “They were all Frenchmen who had no great love for their British masters and had no objection to their American liberators. Incredibly, Clark’s audacious plan to capture this distant British outpost had been achieved without firing a shot.” The French settlers promptly started ringing a church bell, which they dubbed their “liberty bell.”

The “Liberty Bell of the West.” The French king Louis XV had ordered it cast in 1714 as a gift to Catholic parishioners in the Illinois Country, then part of the French claim to North America. This is what the townspeople rang after George Rogers Clark seized their town for Virginia. Today the bell is in the Kaskaskia Bell State Memorial near Chester, Illinois. Courtesy of Kbh3rd.

While Clark stayed in Kaskaskia and made friends with the French, he sent his second-in-command north to Cahokia. Bowman led 30 men to Cahokia, accompanied by Father Pierre Gibault, the French priest in Kaskaskia. The people of Cahokia likewise welcomed the Virginians.

Well, mostly. The book “French St. Louis” says when one local French merchant expressed hesitation at supplying the militiamen, Clark posted soldiers around his home. Other merchants, though, “saw doing business with Clark as a potential financial windfall and volunteered to supply the Americans,” the book says. Unfortunately, the money that Clark paid with proved to be worthless.

Still, this small band of frontier fighters had extended Virginia’s reach all the way to the Mississippi. But could they keep it?

GFK

“I used to believe in forever, but forever’s too good to be true.”

–Winnie The Pooh.

There are 2 parties in America, the Republican Party and the Democrat Party. The Republican Party is accurately referred to as The Stupid Party, just as the Democrat Party is accurately referred to as The Evil Party. You have a choice to vote for either Stupid or Evil. I can understand not enjoying voting for Stupid. But I cannot understand voting for, or supporting, by not voting, Evil.

“Decline is a choice.”

–Charles Krauthammer.

Too many Americans, whether because of ignorance, malevolence, ego, or just plain indifference are choosing decline. The United States will never fall due to foreign invasion. But the United States is fully capable of falling from within.

If you think that Islam is a religion of peace, Democrats are well intentioned, “global warming” is a threat to our planet, socialism and communism is “cool”, Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza, men can become women, or that President Trump is the worst president ever, then you are a soldier in a Fifth Column aimed at causing our country’s decline and fall.

President Trump secured the release of Stephen Hubbard from a Russian prison. Mr. Hubbard had been imprisoned for 4 years. He was convicted of aiding Ukraine in its war with Russia.

“In all these areas, the court has kind of blinded itself to the very deleterious effects of their rulings on how the political system works.  It has created a democracy that does not work as well as it should.”

–Associate United Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, speaking at Catholic University, lamenting decisions in which the Supreme Court returned electoral power to the States and to the people.

Justice Kagan is certainly entitled to her opinions.  But her opinions are in conflict with our Constitution, and all notions of federalism.  And someone should remind her that the United States is not a democracy, no matter how often the Democrats claim it is so.

“You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about.  That’s why I believe, if we are fortunate enough to win back the House and or the Senate, that’s when civility can start again.  But until then, the only thing that the Republicans seem to recognize and respect is strength.”

–Hillary Clinton.

Former President Bill Clinton went to Florida and lectured voters on how they needed to be civil in their political interactions.  Has he ever met his wife?  She of the “basket of deplorables” fame?

A federal judge struck down as unconstitutional New York State’s ban on citizens’ buying and using body armor. WINNING!

In California, the federal government filed criminal charges against 28 aliens who were registered to vote, and have voted in the past. The federal government has also identified 20,000 aliens who are registered to vote and is demanding that California take steps to prevent them from voting. A lawsuit has been filed, after California made it quite clear that it would not take any steps to prevent aliens from voting in elections. Where is the outrage?

U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín enjoined the Trump Administration from investigating non-citizen voting. You must be joking. Oh, but it is not a joke. The judge is a Biden appointee, who was born in Mexico, worked as an immigration lawyer, and was confirmed by the Senate by 1 vote. Is there anyone who doubts that her background and politics are the reasons for her decision to turn a blind eye to non-citizens (Mexicans) voting? Anyone?

“I think one of the reasons that they were coming after you is they saw the kind of economy and entrepreneurship that you’re helping to build.  They saw suddenly that the CEOs of the future are not all gonna look like me.  The CEOs of the future are going to be from a thousand different backgrounds.  And so, suddenly, you all are creeping up in brilliant fashion.  You’re not just the CEOs and entrepreneurs of tomorrow, but of right now.  You are showing that.”

–Minneapolis, Minnesota Mayor Jacob Frey (D.). addressing a Somali organization in Minnesota.

Yeah.  Somalis have shown real leadership in finding ways to rip off the taxpayers.

If Somalis are such great businessmen and entrepreneurs, why is Somalia such a sh*thole country?

Virginia State Senator Louise Lucas (D. Portsmouth) has been indicted on federal criminal charges concerning drug running, money laundering, bribery, fraud, and the use of firearms in a criminal enterprise. I have known Senator Lucas for many, many years; trust me, it could not happen to a more deserving person.

“I have read the charging document alleging a series of criminal acts by a member of the Virginia Senate.  In our American system of justice, people are presumed innocent until proven guilty, and that is true for Senator L. Louise Lucas.  She and her family deserve the opportunity to present their defense and speak to the allegations presented.  The timing of this indictment undermines the U.S. Department of Justice’s previously longstanding policy of not taking legal actions — to include indictments or significant investigative steps — close to an election and sadly, this timing further erodes the trust the American people deserve to have in the Department of Justice.”

–Governor Abigail Spanberger (D. Va.).

Whatever happened to “no one is above the law”?

A 17 year old boy in McKinney, Texas was arrested for plotting to assassinate Representative Keith Self (R. Tx.), due to his stance for a “Sharia Free America”. But, but, but . . . Islam is a religion of peace!

U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico (D. Tx.) blames all of his incendiary and truly disgusting comments over the years on . . . extremist Republicans. You see, if the Republicans were not so extreme, he would not have had to say them. Uh, huh.

Barbara Bush (W. Bush’s daughter) and Neil Bush (W. Bush’s brother) are backing James Talarico over Ken Paxton for the Texas U.S. Senate seat. OF COURSE THEY ARE! They are Bushes! What did you expect?

Disgraced former U.S. Representative Adam Kizinger (R. Il.) came out in support of U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D. Mi.). Of course he did! He is a Bush Republican!

Topeka, Kansas is partnering with local businesses to offer newcomers $15,000.00 to relocate to that city. I have been to Topeka. I’d rather give it $15,000.00 and stay right where I am.

Last year, Frederick County, Virginia had a $21.1 million surplus. So naturally, Frederick County wants to raise its residents taxes . . . for the children. So does the City of Winchester. Of course.

No matter how much money government has, it always wants more. It can never do with less. Doing with less is what citizens must do.

Sadly, the regional Chamber of Commerce (of which I am a member) supports the tax hike. Sigh.

“As the next governor, we need somebody who’s going to take a holistic view, making sure that those who are making enough money pay their fair share.  But more importantly, we need to be focusing on making everything that much more better when it comes down to how we tax it.”

–Wisconsin Democrat gubernatorial candidate David Crowley (D.).

As Milwaukee County executive, David Crowley raised taxes on county residents every year, and significantly.  If elected governor, he can spread the pain to all Wisconsin residents.

Suffolk, Virginia just banned data centers. Huh. Why not also ban peanut and pig farms? Outlaw growing tobacco? How about no dancing or drinking alcohol on Sundays? Sigh.

Cole’s French Dip, the creator of the French Dip roast beef sandwich, was in business for 118 years when it closed earlier this year. Hungry downtown Los Angeles, California diners scrambled to find alternatives, few of them satisfying. But now, under new ownership, Cole’s is reopening, but with a twist. Instead of the gritty bar atmosphere that defined its previous 118 years, Cole’s will now become a white table cloth restaurant, with a more upscale menu. The French Dip will remain, but will not be the focus.

The Observations wishes the new Cole’s well. But we do not hold out much hope for its success.

Bo’s Bagels in New York City used a sunglasses wearing Everything Bagel as its mascot, to hype its bagels. Small minded Leftists took exception to the mascot, dubbed it a racist “black bagel face”, and went on a social media campaign, trashing Bo’s Bagels. The tirade was sufficient for Bo’s Bagels to withdraw the mascot. Sigh.

A Los Angeles, California based United Airlines pilot has been barred from entry into Israel, after it was discovered he was posting on social media his “love” for Iran, the Revolutionary Guard, and Hezbollah. When is the United States going to bar him? Deport his a$$ to Tehran!

A large caravan of Central Americans are now marching North through Mexico with the intent of crossing into the United States. Caravan spokesmen told reporters that they are hopeful that Democrats will win the mid-term elections, and that is why they were marching. Sigh.

The aliens are spot on that the Democrats will let them in. Sadly, they do not understand the American political scene, because Donald J. Trump will still be President. And what is with Mexico? We should invade and annex the top 1/3 of that country, and turn it into a neutral zone, a buffer for our country, patrolled by the U.S. military.

The NFL’s Atlanta Falcons resurrected for use an old logo. Critics are panning it as a Nazi symbol. Sigh. Yes, of course. The Falcons are a bunch of Nazis. This weekend they will be invading Poland.

During the playing of the national anthem at the Philadelphia 76ers game with the Knicks, LeBron James pantomimed golf swings while the rest of the players stood respectfully at attention, with their hands over their hearts. LeBron James is such a disgusting, selfish moron.

The University of Maryland fired its head football coach, Mike Locksley. It is about time.

Actor Tom Skerritt has died at age 93. R. I. P.

GFK

“Rivers know this: there is no hurry.  We shall get there some day.”

–Winnie The Pooh.

Good morning Holland Koontz! You still owe me a corn dog report. And I want to know all about the fried lemonade.

“Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.”–Ronald Reagan.

There are so many in today’s center right electorate that have forgotten this advice.  Specifically, I am referring to those whom I call the Bush Republicans.  You know the Bush Republicans.  They are the Republicans who demand that the more conservative members of the party support their nominees in the general election, but conveniently forget any notion of party loyalty when a more conservative candidate is on the ballot.  Think John Cornyn in Texas, or Thom Tillis in North Carolina.  In Virginia, older folks will remember the disloyal John Warner and Marshall Coleman.

There was a reason for Mr. Reagan’s 11th commandment.  The time for intraparty competition and debate is during the primary season.  The 11th commandment was not intended to stifle debate.  But it was intended to keep debate focused on policies, not personalities.

The 11th commandment was also intended to promote party unity in the general elections.  A party that fails to unite behind its chosen candidates is a party doomed to lose.

In days gone past, Republicans such as Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater, Gerald Ford, Dwight Eisenhower, Robert Taft, and Bob Dole campaigned vigorously for Republican candidates of all ideological stripes.  They sought victory, not division.

Today, however, we have too many who are uninterested in victory if it means that their personal preferences are not rewarded.  Elected officials such as Thomas Massie, John Cornyn, and Thom Tillis are doing what they can to sabotage other Republicans.  So many supposedly Republican voters are doing the same, smug in their self-satisfaction that they are more virtuous and will not be sullied by voting for candidates of whom they disapprove. 

You do not win by losing.  Refusing to vote for a Senate candidate is tantamount to electing his opponent, who is worse.  And you can claim that you are just setting the table for electing better candidates in the future.  But you are not.  You are kidding yourselves.  Elections are a binary choice in this country.  That is our system.  So if you do not vote for Mike Collins, you are electing Jon Ossoff.  If you do not vote for Ken Paxton, you are electing James Talarico.

Ronald Reagan’s 11th commandment may be a dead letter.  If so, it is due to the weaknesses, egos, and lack of principles by those who came after him.  You know who you are.

What many of these so-called Republicans are doing is whining about how awful President Trump is, even though they voted for him. Even though the President is only doing exactly what he promised to do.

This president basically solved our border crisis overnight — and did it so quickly that many Americans have already forgotten how bad things were.

He’s eliminated $1 billion in spending on DEI and illegal-immigrant programs — and new evidence shows Elon Musk’s DOGE cut 12% of the wasteful federal workforce without the country missing a beat.

A Trump executive order began reining in biological boys’ encroachment in girls’ sports.

He cleaned up Washington, DC, making its monuments sparkle and its fountains flow again, while achieving a 28% drop in homicides.

Some wins get almost no attention: Trump’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has won a record $528 million for victims of DEI-driven employment discrimination.

On the world stage, Secretary of State Marco Rubio defends western civilization, and America’s role in maintaining it, as well as anyone ever has.

With Pete Hegseth at the helm, Trump has redirected our military, making it a lean, merit-based warfighting machine.

Our troops captured Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro and were home in time for supper, a success like we hadn’t seen in decades.

The war in Iran, despite the naysayers, is largely won: We’ve taken out Tehran’s top military brass and shown the regime to be a regional paper tiger, while exposing China and Russia as weak allies.

And yes, Trump on the campaign trail was absolutely open about his intentions toward Iran; those saying they were lied to about foreign entanglements weren’t paying attention.

President Trump has done what no other President has done, and that is to confront, and defeat, Iran. Iran will never have a nuclear weapon under his watch, while Obama and Biden ensured that one day Iran would have a nuclear weapon. The President’s policies, strangling Iran economically, beheading its government’s leadership, and coalescing the Arab nations in opposition to Iran is genius, and will most likely lead to the fall of the Iranian government. Mr. Trump promised again and again that Iran would never get a nuclear weapon, and under his administration it won’t.

Gas prices are extra high in blue states, thanks to their absurd taxes and regulations.

Twelve of the 15 states with the cheapest gas are run by Republicans.

But even though gas prices are relatively high, due to the Iran conflict, they are still lower than under China Joe. Prices will lower sharply after the conflict ends. And has everyone forgotten that Democrats do not want you to be able to purchase gasoline at any price?

But, but, but . . . President Trump is a Putin puppet! Oh, please. Have you forgotten how Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton sucked up to Russia for 8 years? Have you forgotten how Obama stood by and watched Putin absorb the Crimea region of Ukraine? Just like George W. Bush stood by and watched the Russians conquer Georgia. And China Joe invited Russia to make “a small incursion” into Ukraine.

President Trump has given Ukraine more support than did Biden or Obama. But Ukraine is not America’s fight. We do not need to reflexively oppose Russia, because communist expansion is no longer a threat, thanks to Ronald Reagan. We are not at war with Russia; indeed, Russia is not threatening the U.S. or its allies. Ukraine is not our ally, and we owe it nothing. Nonetheless we have been quite generous and Ukraine has been quite ungrateful.

President Trump is not a “conservative”. But he has delivered more wins for conservative policies than any President since Ronald Wilson Reagan. He loves America, and fights every day for our country, not someone else’s country.

You do not have to like his style, mannerisms, or speech. Some things he does make me cringe, while others make me laugh out loud. But in the end, President Trump has America’s best interests at heart. He deserves our support. And he deserves a Republican Congress to finish out his 2nd term.

Quit whining and bitching (if indeed you are). Look at all the positives. And go make this happen on Election Day. It is important.

May God Bless America.

GFK

“It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like ‘What about lunch?’”

–Winnie The Pooh.

President Trump still wants to rename New Mexico New America. HA! Democrats have no sense of humor.

It turns out that Representative Ilhan Omar’s (D. Mn.) failed winery went out of business for good reason. It seems that she and her husband were selling investors empty wine barrels. Huh. Sounds like money laundering to me.

By the way, has anyone seen Representative Omar? She seems to have disappeared. Right after federal agents raided her homes. Huh.

Senator Elissa Slotkin (D. Mi.) is playing the victim card. In the face of a ferocious backlash against her comments calling for the prosecution of Trump staffers and to intimidate young people from joining the Trump Administration, Senator Slotkin is whining that she is being attacked because she is a woman. No. You are being attacked because you are a tyrannical Bolshevik.

“Journalist” Christiane Amanpour has left CNN. No one will miss her.

Comrade Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D. N.Y.) is urging private property owners not to let ICE use their property, garages, and parking lots for staging raids. And he sent them a letter warning them of consequences if they do cooperate with ICE. Wow. I am pretty damn sure that is a crime.

“I think it’s time for us to realize that Israel is not actually our friend.”

–U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D. Mi.).

So says the Egyptian citizen.

“This election is about . . . destroying the MAGA legacy forever.”

–Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate David Crowley (D.).

Nothing about Wisconsin. Nothing. Just irrational hatred for President Trump.

Texas Democrats are hopping mad that Attorney General and U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton visited and worshipped at a San Antonio, Texas church last Sunday. Politicians have no place in churches they are screaming. Oh. Really. The senior pastor at a Dallas Baptist church is the Democrat nominee to succeed Representative Jasmine Crockett (D. Tx.) in Congress. He preaches every Sunday. Ever hear of Senator Raphael Warnock (D. Ga.), a senior minister at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia? Hmmm. How about the phrase “souls to the polls”? Ring a bell?

What Democrats mean is the Republican politicians have no place in churches. Democrats? Well that is another story altogether.

During the last 2 years of the China Joe Administration, and the 1st year of the Trump Administration, Fairfax County, Virginia ignored 2,000 ICE detainers for violent criminal illegal aliens. Rather than turn these criminals over to ICE, Fairfax County released them back into the Northern Virginia community.

Alberta’s citizens voted overwhelmingly to remain in Canada, and stop any movement towards independence. Oh, well. You cannot fix stupid.

“Some outside our borders are working to break us so they can own us.”

–Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, making a poorly veiled reference to President Trump.

The only reason — the only reason — Russia or China hasn’t yet attacked or simply annexed Canada, a huge open country chock full of precious natural resources, is because they know the United States would go to all-out war to prevent this from happening.  Yet Mr. Carney stokes anti-American hatred, and sucks up to China.  Sigh.  Are all Leftists just plain stupid?

“From the high schools of France to the streets of Madrid to the universities of Tirana, young people are telling their governments the same thing: in an age of massive wealth inequality, they want a future they can believe in.

In France, students and teachers are asking for safe schools, enough teachers and smaller classes.

In Spain, for affordable rent and housing.

In Albania, for good jobs and an end to corruption.

J.D. Vance says this is what happens when a nation lets in too many immigrants from the global south.

He is not just morally wrong, but misreading the moment.

The is what happens when nations let wealth and power accumulate in the hands of a few.

This is what happens when young people lose hope in their future.

In America, let us listen to our young. We need an economic and political transformation.

America’s Next New Deal.”

–Representative Ro Khanna (D. Ca.).

France is burning, its government is teetering on the edge of implosion. And Ro Khanna’s remedy is more socialism. Indeed, more socialism in the United States!

Representative Khanna does not condemn the violence. No, no, no. He just wants to take your wealth and give it to the more deserving 3rd worlders.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron’s reaction to the violence, rioting, and looting has been less than inspiring. His first reaction was to acknowledge that the rioters had “legitimate concerns”, and that he would be forming a commission to look into it, and provide a report within weeks. A commission? Weeks? Your nation is on fire, for Pete’s sake!

The news media continues to lie, calling the protests “mostly peaceful”, and the protesters (rioters) “students”. No. These are violent riots, perpetrated by Third World Muslim immigrants who are waving “Palestinian” flags, and make no secret of their hatred for France the country, and French culture. Indeed, they hate all Western Civilization.

Synagogues are being burnt, Jewish owned businesses are being targeted, and luxury stores are being looted. The historic Limoges Town Hall was gutted by fire. Churches that survived the German wars in 1914 and 1939 have been destroyed.

While Paris fires set by rioters were burning, what was President Macron doing? Attending a Celine Dion concert. As the entire South of France is overrun with Muslim terrorists, where is President Macron? Touring the Middle East. He left his country in the middle of a crisis.

Emmanuel Macron is the Gavin Newsom of France.

We are watching a clash of culture. Western civilization versus the barbarism of Third World Islamists. Throw in the socialists and the communists, and we have a full blown civil war on our hands.

There is a warning here for the United States. If you wonder where the Left wants to take us and how bad it can get, all you have to do is look at what’s happening in France on Saturday with the violent riots across the country.

The protests which included students and trade unionists, were upset with, among other things, “high prices and the fraying of a social welfare system.” Translation? This is what happens when a “social democracy” goes all in on welfare and fails.

Tens of thousands took to the streets in protests across the country, in places like Paris, Lyon, Marseille, and Limoges. Then they devolved into violence.

What happens to France? There will be no doughboys going over the top in Flanders’s fields. American GIs are not going to land in Normandy. This time it is up to France to save itself. And it does not look as if it is up to the task.

“Elon Musk is one of the most unintelligent billionaires.”

–Puddin’head.

Oh yes. That dumba$$ Elon Musk just revealed a flying Telsa Roadster. Wow. A stupid man invented a flying car.

Would someone please tell me what Puddin’head has ever accomplished? I’ll wait.

Virginia General Assembly Democrats are lining up to pass and vote for a moratorium on data centers in the Commonwealth, until at least 2030. The Luddites are determined to destroy our economy.

“Wealth inequality has become a danger to our society, and we need to address that.”

–United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, calling for a national wealth tax, and a 100% inheritance tax.

Scott Kirby was paid more than $32 million last year. How much of that is he going to give back? My guess is . . . $0.00.

Fly American.

Tampa Bay will play Milwaukee in the World Series. Neither team has ever won a World Series, so a baseball 1st will occur. The question is, will anyone outside of Tampa or Milwaukee be watching when it happens.

Character actor Richard Riehle, who starred in Office Space and Casino, has died at age 78. R. I. P.

GFK

“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.”

–Winnie The Pooh.

English came home. Dudley and I are happy. We both survived her absence. And now equilibrium and tranquility have returned to our world.

English thoroughly enjoyed her time with Gram and Rufe. She loves spending time with them, and this past weekend was no different. Thankfully, they also love spending time with her.

“The U.S. is $40 trillion in debt with capitalism.”

–Melanie D’Arrigo, former Democrat Congressional candidate and Democrat consultant.

Democrats hate capitalism, because it does not ensure equal outcomes for all people. Capitalism instead, rewards merit, innovation, and hard work.

Wealth inequality is a feature of capitalism.  What is conveniently left out is that it is a feature of economics in general.  No socialist country, communist country, autarkic economy, or complex modern economy has ever eliminated wealth inequality entirely.  Nor has reducing inequality even reliably improved living standards.

Inequality is also a terrible measure in general.  It is nothing but a measure of how much wealth sits at the top of a society relative to the bottom.  It says nothing about whether ordinary people’s lives are getting better.  Wealth is not the same thing as quality of life.  A young American today may hold a relatively little total wealth compare to Elon Musk, yet enjoy a baseline quality of life, healthcare, technology, transportation, food, entertainment, and information, that would have been unimaginable even to the wealthy a century ago.

Why?  Because capitalism’s focus is not on how much wealth someone has, but on making things that were once expensive and exclusive cheaper and more widely available.  In other words things that are exclusive today won’t be in the future.

But why do Democrats argue today that the federal government must guarantee entitlements?  Because, they say, more people need access to healthcare, food, housing, and other basics right now.  Still, these interventions fail at their stated goal.  Rather than making essential goods more widely available, they distort the incentives that would otherwise drive down costs and expand supply.  The result is not an end to scarcity or exclusivity or inequality; it is simply a change in who controls access to those goods, and who pays for it.

If government had stayed out of housing, health insurance, and retirement, standard of living, and accessibility to “basic goods” would likely be higher than it is today.

Capitalism, free markets, are the engine that have continually made goods cheaper and raised living standards across generations. The debt is the product of something else: a government that spends beyond its means, promises benefits it cannot fully fund, and then asks the productive portion of the economy to take the blame for the broken pieces.

Let us briefly discuss “affordability”. Democrats love to claim that they will restore “affordability” if given control of Congress. But they always decline to tell us just how they will do that. Because Democrats are counting on the American people having a very poor memory.

Under China Joe and Democrat rule, inflation shot through the roof, and adding a cumulative 21% to the price of goods. That price level has not receded, and likely never will. By contrast, inflation under President Trump has been much lower, from 1.7-3.7%. Prices are still going up, but not as under China Joe. And wages are growing at a faster rate under President Trump than under China Joe.

How about gas prices? Even with the Iran conflict, gas prices are lower than under China Joe. And the U.S. energy industry is growing exponentially, something that did not happen under China Joe. Remember; Democrats want you to take public transportation, buy electric vehicles, and cease using your air conditioning and gas stoves. Also, please notice that gasoline prices are much higher in Democrat controlled States (California, Illinois, New Jersey, anyone?). By contrast, gasoline prices are much lower in Republican controlled States.

Housing? How is it a governmental function to provide anyone with a house? But what contributes to the high price of a house is government. Government regulation drives up the cost of building houses, when it is not preventing the building of houses.

Democrats insist that by taxing the trillionaires, billionaires, and millionaires, they can provide “free” education, healthcare, and childcare for all. Does anyone really believe that?

Bernie Sanders and Puddin’head rail against the “oligarchs”. Please allow The Observations to identify the 3 biggest “oligarchs” in the United States: the federal government, State governments, and local governments. Government at all levels consume more than 40% of our gross domestic product. Are Bernie and Puddin’head talking about taking money from government? Oh, hell no! They want government to have more money, and more power.

“The work that we can do about winning back the House and the Senate is going to be on a number of things. For example, I believe that we need to expand the Supreme Court.  We need more justices on the Supreme Court so that we can have a court that actually reinforces the spirit and principles behind the Constitution of the United States.”

–Commiela.

The Los Angeles Times admits that the presence of ICE agents at polling places in Southern California will suppress Democrat voter turnout. Hmmm. Are illegal aliens allowed to vote in Southern California?

Yep.  If you cannot win under the rules of the game, just change the rules.  That is the Democrat way.

More on New York City’s plan to eliminate the horse drawn carriage businesses. The City promises not to seize the businesses’ horses so long as the owners use their horses in a government approved manner. Really? Also, the City will not refund the $400,000.00 license fee that each business paid for its medallion to operate. Of course not.

“The problem with fraud and corruption, both of them undermine faith in government, and that plays right into Republicans’ hands.  Do they like fraud?  I would argue they do because it undermines federal.  It makes a reason to cut these programs.  They hate these programs that feed children.  They hate these programs that, you know, work with autistic children.  So, man, what a gift to them.  ‘See, they don’t work.  It’s tax dollars.  Let’s close them down.’”

–Minnesota Governor Tampon Tim, explaining that there was really no fraud in Minnesota run social programs, but if there was, it was a minor amount, and besides, he took responsibility for the fraud by not running for reelection.

New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill (D.) condemned the planned execution of the terrorist former Major Nidal Hassan. She does not want any American soldier to feel guilty over shooting someone. Sigh.

U.S. Senate candidate Sherrod Brown (D. Oh.) once argued that North Vietnam should never release U.S. prisoners of war, holding them instead as “human shields” to discourage American bombing raids against North Vietnam. Sigh. You cannot make this stuff up.

U.S. Senate candidate Adam Hamilton (D. Ks.) is a United Methodist Church minister. In the recent past, the “moderate” Reverend Hamilton has urged his congregation to “repent” for being white, eating meat, and “hating” the LGBTQ++ crowd. Reverend Hamilton also uses church funds to pay to host drag shows for children of his congregants.

U.S. Senate candidate Angie Nixon (D. Fl.):          “They’re spreading lies about me saying I want to abolish prisons . . . Why would I want to do that when I want [her opponent, Senator Ashley Moody (R. Fl.)] locked up and jailed.”

CNN:     “You want your Republican opponent locked up?”

Angie Nixon:      “Yeah basically.  I absolutely want that to happen.”

The federal government paid $62 million to Lutheran and Catholic charities to resettle Somalis in the United States. Forget about the stupidity of taking in people with views antithetical to our own, and who are incapable of assimilating into American culture. Could the monies paid to these Christian charities provide the motivation for their reflexive criticism of the Trump Administration’s immigration policies?

Father Patricio Alfredo Sánchez Molinari was standing at the altar of Nuestra Señora del Perpetuo Socorro Church in Guayaquil, Ecuador on last Saturday, when the large wooden crucifix behind him suddenly fell forward, striking and killing him as he prepared The Eucharist.  Irony of all ironies, Father Molinari’s homily had touched on the spontaneity of death. Oh, wow.

“They took land off people and they were expelled.  And those people understandably said, ‘This is injustice and I want my land back.’”

–Former President Barak Hussein Obama, criticizing Israel and siding with the terrorists who seek its annihilation.

If Barack Hussein Obama truly were a Christian (and not a Muslim), he would know that God gave the land to the Jewish people.  It was called Judea for a reason.  There has never been a nation State called “Palestine”.

Moreover, in what country are Arabs allowed to vote, seek political office, and exercise civil rights?  Saudi Arabia?  No.  Syria?  Uh, uh.  Libya?  Oh, please.  The answer is . . . Israel.

“Our land is not stolen land.  This is our homeland; it’s called Judea.  That’s where Jews come from.  We’ve been attached to it for thousands of years.  The obstacle to peace is not Israel, it’s not our fight for our very right to exist in our own state, it’s the refusal of our enemies, and America’s enemies to recognize the Jewish people’s right to a state of our own, in any boundaries.”

–Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, responding to former President Barack Hussein Obama’s ignorant and inflammatory comments.

Just so.

GFK

“Then, suddenly again, Christopher Robin, who was still looking at the world, with his chin in his hand, called out “Pooh!”  “Yes?” said Pooh.  “When I’m–when–Pooh!”  “Yes, Christopher Robin?”  “I’m not going to do Nothing any more.”  “Never again?”  “Well, not so much.  They don’t let you.”  Pooh waited for him to go on, but he was silent again.  “Yes, Christopher Robin?” said Pooh helpfully.  “Pooh, when I’m–you know–when I’m not doing Nothing, will you come up here sometimes?”  “Just me?”  “Yes, Pooh.”  “Will you be here too?”  “Yes Pooh, I will be really. I promise I will be Pooh.”  “That’s good,” said Pooh.  “Pooh, promise you won’t forget about me, ever.  Not even when I’m a hundred.”  Pooh thought for a little.  “How old shall I be then?”  “Ninety-nine.”  Pooh nodded.  “I promise,” he said.  Still with his eyes on the world Christopher Robin put out a hand and felt Pooh’s paw.  “Pooh,” said Christopher Robin earnestly, “if I–if I’m not quite–” he stopped and tried again– “Pooh, whatever happens, you will understand, won’t you?”  “Understand what?”  “Oh, nothing.”  He laughed and jumped to his feet.  “Come on!”  “Where?” said Pooh. ” Anywhere.” said Christopher Robin.

So, they went off together.  But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest, a little boy and his Bear will always be playing.”

–A.A. Milne, The House At Pooh Corner.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO EDWARD BEAR, better known as Winnie The Pooh! He is 100 years old, and just as popular and relevant to a learned society as ever. If you think that Winnie The Pooh is a children’s story, you are right. But if you think that Winnie The Pooh is only a children’s story, you are wrong. Pick up A.A. Milne’s books, and reread them. You will not regret it.

President Trump waived sanctions on the export and sale of Russian oil. Democrats and some Republicans (looking at you, Thom Tillis (R. N.C.)) are screaming that he is violating the law. The President is not violating the law. Maybe the aggrieved members of Congress should read the legislation that they passed. They might learn something.

Well that did not take long. Katie Zacharia quit her job as White House Press Secretary.

Senator Elissa Slotkin (D. Mi.) wants to intimidate and discourage people from going to work for the Trump Administration by promising to criminally prosecute them once the Democrats take power again. Bolshevik!

Senator Elizabeth “Lieawatha” Warren (D. Ma.) wants to block the merger between McCormick & Company, and Unilever, on antitrust grounds. Senator Warren cited her alarm that 1 company would then control Hellman’s Mayonnaise, Frank’s Red Hot Sauce, Cholula Hot Sauce, and McCormick spices. She wants to protect the American people from what? A monopoly over substandard hot sauces and inferior mayonnaise? Sigh. Senator Warren is not a serious person.

If Senator Warren is so concerned about this merger, The Observations suggests that she switch to Duke’s Mayonnaise and Texas Pete Hot Sauce. Better products.

“The best way to honor these victims is to at long last pass common-sense gun laws that reduce the risks of more children, parents, teachers and staff forced to live in fear of similar nightmares for their schools.”

–Senator Ron Wyden (D. Or.).

A 16 year old boy shot his way into a Bend, Oregon elementary school, where he murdered 3 students and 1 teacher, before a father of a student rushed into the building and shot the gunman dead. Horrific, senseless, tragic. All of it. But what is stupid, crass, and just plain wrong are the statements from Democrat officials like Ron Wyden, for whom every shooting is a call for restricting the rights of law abiding Americans.

Oregon already has a slew of laws relating to guns. It is illegal to have a gun on school property. Last time I checked, murder is against the law. But no, no, no! We need more laws!

AND IF YOU CAN BELIEVE IT, there are actually rumblings about criminally charging the father who shot the gunman and ended the threat. Because his possession of a gun on school grounds is illegal.

Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones (D.) announced that he has formed a voter integrity section within his office. Hmmm. Virginia does not require voter ID, does not check citizenship upon voter registration, and allows early voting pretty much year ’round. This is also from the man who defended violating the Constitution to permit Democrats to eliminate Republican representation in Congress, and is threatening ICE from having a presence at polling stations. So tell us, Mr. Attorney General, what voters and what integrity are you seeking to protect?

Tree Hill is a working plantation east of Richmond on State Route 5. It has been for hundreds of years. Now the owner of Tree Hill wishes to sell the property for development. And the usual suspects are coming out of the woodwork, screaming that it is “stolen land”, and is “sacred”, because Chief Powhatan–a violent enemy of the English settlers, and the father of Pocahontas (the real Indian, not the fake one in the U.S. Senate)–was born there. Sigh. You do not know that. And the land legally belongs to another. One would think that the property rights protected by the U.S. and Virginia Constitutions would allow the owner to proceed. But the usual suspects want to gum up the works. And undoubtedly, some spaghetti spined politicians, or activist judges, will bend their knee to the loudest voices. Sigh.

Did you know that the Texas State Fair had a vendor selling fried lemonade? How in the world does one fry lemonade?

The iconic Plaza Hotel will shut down for 4 years for exterior renovations. No more Palm Court, no more wedding receptions, no more Oak Bar, no more fun for the next 4 years.

McDonald’s restaurants are bringing back Boo Buckets just in time for Halloween. Yawn.

Kentucky Fried Chicken has sold Pepsi products for more than 40 years. Pepsico used to own Kentucky Fried Chicken. But times change, and now Kentucky Fried Chicken is dumping Pepsi for . . . Coca-Cola products. Oh, wow!

“Venice Whaler without alcohol is like a strip club without strippers.”

–an unidentified patron of the historic beachside bar in Los Angeles County, California.

The Venice Whaler, a beachfront bar near the pier, has suspended alcohol sales. Not good.

“We do not accept insults to any of our beloved prophets from Adam to Noah, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad peace be upon them all.  Well done Saudi Arabia.”

–Rahmeh Aladwan.

Rahmeh Aladwan is a doctor in Great Britain. And a Muslim. She congratulated Saudi Arabia for executing people found to have blasphemed Muhammed. And she is calling for such executions for such offenses, worldwide. If Great Britain had any national pride left, it would put Dr. Aladwan on the next flight to Riyadh.

THIS IS WHY THE OBSERVATIONS KEEPS WRITING THAT ISLAM IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH WESTERN CIVILIZATION!

Southern Methodist University will become the first Texas university to field a Division I lacrosse team. In 2028, SMU will become the 6th ACC lacrosse team. WOO HOO!

The Mormons beat the Catholics, as Notre Dame fell to Brigham Young in Provo, Utah. Texas Tech won. Utah struggled with Colorado. Houston beat Oklahoma State.

SMU dominated the public school from Charlottesville’s team in the 2nd half, winning 23-13. North Carolina beat Duke. Boston College beat Pittsburgh. VPI won. Miami struggled with Florida State, needing 2 overtimes and some luck to win. Wake Forest pummeled California. Stanford won. Clemson won.

Auburn shocked the nation and the Georgia Bulldogs, knocking the #1 team from the ranks of the unbeaten. Florida came back to beat Texas in Austin. LSU embarrassed Mississippi State. Mississippi embarrassed Missouri. Kentucky won, as did Arkansas.

Ohio State downed Indiana. Michigan won against Penn State. Oregon slipped by Nebraska. Rutgers beat Maryland. Northwestern topped Michigan State. Washington beat Purdue.

Oregon State beat Washington State. Texas State pummeled Colorado State. San Diego State upset Fresno State.

Air Force beat UNLV. New Mexico downed Hawaii. Wyoming rolled over Northern Illinois. North Dakota State dominated Nevada.

Georgia State got by Old Dominion. East Carolina lost to University of Alabama-Birmingham. Tulane beat Memphis. Appalachian State beat Coastal Carolina in Conway.

Before Game 1 of the WNBA Finals, both teams left the court right before the playing of the National Anthem. As soon as the song ended, both teams ran back onto the court. Sigh. You cannot hate this league of hateful lesbians enough. It is not possible.

Virginia Beach, Virginia City Attorney Mark Stiles has died at age 62. R. I. P.

GFK

Today, we celebrate the Feast of S. Luke the Evangelist. When certain feast days fall on a Sunday, they take precedence over the Sundays after Trinity, although the Sunday itself is still commemorated.

The title “Evangelist” is traditionally given to the four inspired authors who handed down to the Church the written accounts of the Gospel: SS. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The first three Gospels are commonly called the “Synoptic Gospels,” from a Greek word suggesting that they may be “seen together.” SS. Matthew, Mark, and Luke share much of the same material and follow broadly similar patterns in recounting Our Lord’s ministry, while S. John presents the mystery of Christ in a markedly different and more explicitly theological manner.

What do we know about S. Luke?

We know that he was a companion of S. Paul. The “we” passages in the Acts of the Apostles indicate that Luke joined the Apostle’s missionary company at Troas, probably around A.D. 50–51, and traveled with him into Macedonia as the Gospel was carried into Europe (Acts 16). S. Paul affectionately refers to him as “Luke, the beloved physician” (Col. 4:14).

Ancient tradition identifies Luke with Antioch in Syria, one of the great centers of the early Gentile Church. He appears to have been a Gentile Christian and was almost certainly well educated, as the quality of his Greek and the literary character of Luke and Acts demonstrate. Physicians in the ancient world could be either free or enslaved, and it has sometimes been suggested that Luke himself may have been a slave or freedman attached to a wealthy household. We cannot know this with certainty. We can readily imagine, however, how valuable the presence of a physician must have been to S. Paul, who endured beatings, imprisonment, stoning, shipwreck, and innumerable hardships in the course of his apostolic ministry.

S. Luke is traditionally regarded as the only Gentile author of a New Testament book, and he gives us not one but two volumes: the Gospel according to S. Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. Together they form a continuous history, beginning with the conception and birth of Our Lord and continuing through His ministry, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension, followed by the descent of the Holy Ghost and the spread of the Gospel from Jerusalem outward into the Gentile world.

Both books are addressed to a certain Theophilus, whom S. Luke addresses in his Gospel as “most excellent Theophilus.” The title may indicate a man of some social or official standing, perhaps even a patron who assisted Luke in his work. Many identities have been proposed for him, but none can be established with certainty.

What is certain is Luke’s purpose. He tells Theophilus that he has carefully investigated the things handed down by those “which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word,” so that Theophilus might “know the certainty of those things” in which he had been instructed (Luke 1:1–4).

Luke therefore presents us not with abstract religious speculation, but with the mighty acts of God accomplished in history. The eternal Son has truly entered His creation. He has truly taken our humanity from the Blessed Virgin. He has truly suffered, died, risen from the dead, and ascended into glory. And in Acts, Luke shows us that this same risen Christ continues His work in the world through the Holy Ghost in His Church.

In the Epistle appointed for this Sunday, we encounter S. Luke toward the end of S. Paul’s life. The Apostle, imprisoned and facing death, writes the poignant words: Only Luke is with me (2 Tim. 4:11). Those few words tell us something important about the character of the Evangelist. Others had departed. S. Paul knew that “the time of my departure is at hand.” Association with an imprisoned Apostle could hardly have been without danger. Yet Luke remained.

The physician who had accompanied S. Paul in his missionary labors remained with his friend and spiritual father as the Apostle approached martyrdom. According to ancient tradition, S. Paul suffered martyrdom at Rome during the persecution under Nero, probably in the latter half of the A.D. 60s.

Tradition holds that S. Luke continued his own apostolic labors after S. Paul’s death and eventually died in Greece. Another ancient Christian tradition associates him with the painting of icons, particularly icons of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The historical details of that tradition cannot be established with certainty, but there is something remarkably appropriate about it.

For even if we cannot demonstrate that S. Luke painted an icon of the Blessed Virgin with pigments and a brush, we know that he painted her portrait with words.

It is primarily through S. Luke that we hear the words of the Annunciation: Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee.

It is S. Luke who gives us the Blessed Virgin’s response: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.

It is S. Luke who preserves for the Church the Magnificat: My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

And it is S. Luke who tells us, after recounting the wonders surrounding the Nativity of Our Lord, that Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

Perhaps there we find one of S. Luke’s greatest lessons for us.

The Evangelist carefully gathered what had been handed down by the eyewitnesses. The Blessed Virgin treasured what she had seen and heard and pondered these things within her heart. The Church, in turn, has received this Gospel, preserved it, proclaimed it, and pondered it for nearly two thousand years.

Would that we might learn to do the same: to receive the Word of God, to keep it, and to ponder it within our hearts, so that Christ might be formed in us and, through our lives, revealed to those around us.

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It’s Time to Evict the Rent-Free Squatters

BY:          Christy Romero

“Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7

I have a hard time turning off my brain. If I had been born twenty years later, I would have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADD). But in Spain in the 1970s, my teachers just told my mom that I spent more time in la luna de Valencia (Valencia’s moon) than on planet Earth.

Decades later, not much has changed.

Sitting in silent Eucharistic Adoration is a physical workout for my mind. While I try to focus on Jesus, my thoughts treat my brain like an all-you-can-eat buffet. I try repeating a gentle mantra—“Jesus, I trust in You” or simply “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus”—but before I know it, my brain starts mentally reorganizing my closet or going grocery shopping. I call these unwanted mental visitors my rent-free squatters. They don’t pay bills, they refuse to leave, and they love making noise at 3:00 a.m.

The $0.24 Intervention

To help me unwind at night, I always read before sleep. One evening, my Kindle flashed an advertisement for Tame Your Thoughts by Max Lucado. (1) Now, I am a chronic book collector. My Kindle library currently houses at least ten unread books, so I firmly told myself: No. You don’t need another one.

Then a persistent inner voice—one that definitely didn’t sound like my usual brain squatters—insisted: “You need this book. Buy it.” I gave in. Thanks to a sale and leftover digital credits, I paid a grand total of 24 cents. It was the best quarter I ever spent.

Lucado challenges readers to “practice picky thinking” by capturing rogue thoughts before they tear up the drywall of your peace. He highlights an acronym for the enemy’s favorite mental trap: UFO—Untruth, False Narrative, and Overreaction.

• U = Untruth (a lie or inaccurate assumption Satan plants)
• F = False Narrative (the looping script you replay based on that lie)
• O = Overreaction (the unhealthy emotional wall you build as a result)

Beware of 3:00 a.m. Bears

In my case, it’s not so much the UFOs of the past that keep me awake—it’s the UFOs of the future. I have a very active imagination, but instead of using it to conjure peaceful pastures, I fall into Satan’s favorite mental trap. I begin to map out theoretical catastrophes.

Case in point: last night, a giant bear invaded my bedroom.

Earlier in the evening, I made the mistake of watching a cute social media video featuring three bear cubs playing outside a mountain cabin while their mother watched from the bushes. Harmless, right?

At 3:00 a.m., I woke up wide awake, vividly picturing myself walking out of that cabin to take a photo, only to have Mama Bear charge at me. My mind immediately went into overdrive: What do I do? Do I run inside? Do I drop into the fetal position? Do I raise my hand and yell, “In the name of Jesus, STOP!” …and would that even work on a grizzly?

The worst part? I have zero plans to visit bear country anytime soon. But my rent-free squatters don’t care about logic—they just love chaos.

The Midnight Brain Battle

Lucado advises: “Turn nighttime into God time. Those middle-of-the-night thoughts? Rather than toss and turn, turn and pray. He lingers nearby, as close as your next thought.”

I try to put this into practice. When the bear scenario starts playing out, I pray directly to Jesus. If He doesn’t quiet my mind right away, I ask His parents, Mary and Joseph. If that doesn’t work, I call upon the entire celestial army of angels and saints.

At that point, a full-scale spiritual battle ensues in my head. The squatters pull out their fear tactics, while the heavenly host responds with a fortress of prayer. If someone performed an MRI of my brain at 3:15 a.m., they’d rush me straight to emergency surgery.

Serving the Eviction Notice

Through Lucado’s book, I realized the goal isn’t to stop thinking altogether—that’s impossible for those of us hardwired for la luna de Valencia. As Lucado writes, “The fact that we think a bunch is not an issue. The fact that we tend to think unhealthy thoughts—that’s the problem.”

When you wake up in the middle of the night and your brain decides to review every mistake you’ve made since 1996—or map out an escape plan for a bear you’ll never meet—remember St. Paul’s advice to the Ephesians: “Let the Spirit change your way of thinking and make you into a new person” (Eph. 4:23–24).

God led me to that book because I needed to be reminded that He never stops thinking about me—and His thoughts are filled with love, protection, and affection. He has us covered whether we are in the deep woods or in our own backyards.

The next time a lie or an irrational fear sets up camp in your mind, don’t fall for Satan’s trap. Serve it an eviction notice, remind yourself whose child you are, and kick those squatters straight out the door.

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5 top church fathers on our Particular Judgement

Someday, our heart will stop.

Angels will take our soul to stand before our judge and jury—Jesus Christ.

The Catechism says we are judged immediately upon death. Instantly, our soul’s eternity is decided: heaven, purgatory, or hell. The Catholic Encyclopedia states, 

Immediately after death, the destiny of each separate soul is decided by just judgment of Jesus. Although there has been no formal definition, this dogma is clearly implied in the Union Decree of Eugene IV (1439). In short …

• Souls in a state of grace, but needing purification are cleansed in Purgatory.
• Pure, perfect souls are admitted to the beatific vision of the Godhead and
• Souls in mortal or original sin, are consigned to eternal punishment–the quality of which–corresponds to their sin.

Since all of the above is “informal and implied,” uncertainty exists. What do the church fathers say?

Below are five theories proposed over different centuries and circumstances. In short, they speak in unity—our judgment is personal, immediate, just and inescapably true.

5. Awakenings by Augustine

For Augustine, the particular judgment is the great unveiling. Finally, the soul sees what God sees. Self-deception disappears. Earthly excuses evaporate. Every choice we made is seen in the light of God.

St. Augustine says once the soul leaves the body, it experiences the consequences of the life it lived. This should not produce fear, but urgency. Every charitable act, repentance and prayer matters; because our eternity is shaped now.

4. Jerome’s Judgment

St. Jerome lived with a vivid awareness of death—his desk is famously depicted with a skull beside him. Frequently, he meditated on his standing before Christ and urged Christians never to postpone conversion.

At our judgment, success, wealth, popularity and accomplishments evaporate. All worldly distinctions disappear. Our soul’s relationship with God remains.

Jerome’s message is blunt—we should live each day as though we might meet Christ before nightfall. Wise Christians prepare not for a distant meeting, but for the event that arrives in an instant.

3. Chrysostom’s Clarity

St. John Chrysostom pointed to Christ’s parable of Lazarus begging at the rich man’s door as evidence. Souls experience immediate reward or punishment upon death.

• The rich man possessed influence, comfort and luxury; yet found himself in torment.
• Lazarus possessed sores, humility and little else; and was welcomed into Abraham’s bosom.

For Chrysostom, his view is that God’s judgment is not based on earthly success but faithfulness. Wealth does not buy mercy. Earthly power is pointless when facing divine justice. The soul stands before God exactly as is.

The particular judgment reveals how well we have loved God and neighbor.

2. Aquinas’ Assessment

As usual, St. Thomas Aquinas applies theological precision via hair splitting. He distinguishes particular judgment from the Last Judgment.

• The particular judgment occurs upon death to determine the soul’s destiny.
• The Last Judgment at the end of time, publicly reveals God’s justice before all.

Dr. Aquinas emphasizes how Christ’s perfect judgement derives from His omniscience. Humans often misunderstand others’ motives and circumstances. Divine judgment sees all.

Received or rejected, God sees every response, action, intention, opportunity and grace. Nothing is overlooked or misunderstood. Because God knows motives and circumstances, His judgment is just.

1. Alphonsus’ Appeal

No church father reflected more movingly than St. Alphonsus Liguori. He repeatedly urged Christians to imagine standing naked before Christ. Death strips worldly attachments. Honors, ambitions and accolades turn to dust. One question remains. 

What have we done with the graces God gave us?

St Alphonsus writes not to despair but inspire our confidence in God’s mercy. Our Judge Jesus is the Savior who redeemed us. His message is sobering and hopeful—the time to repent is now. The time for mercy is now. The time for conversion is now. Tomorrow is promised to no one.

Truth Triumphs

The church fathers speak in unison. Our particular judgment is not mere examination of deeds. It is a meeting with/of Truth.

• Gently, Jesus shows us a mirror of our soul.
• Every grace is revealed, along with every yes and no.

For the faithful who die with sanctifying grace, this is the best day of our life—if prepared. The same Lord who created and redeemed us, could say, “well done, good and faithful servant.” To others–well–He continually calls us to repent. Confession anyone?

Prayer prior to our Particular Judgment

 Father, when our earthly days are done, how will we behold Your Son?
As death closes weary eyes, receive our souls beyond the skies.
Let truth reveal our hidden hearts & cleanse all stains that sin imparts.
May tears of sorrow bring release & lead us to eternal peace.
O Christ, Judge and Savior dear; dispel all darkness, doubt and fear.

When all our acts are brought to light, be Thou our refuge and our might.
Like saints who trusted in Your grace, may we rejoice to see Your face.
With humble faith and steadfast love, set our hopes on things above.
At life’s last hour Lord, let us be; found faithful in humility.
Then lead us through death’s shadowed sea, to praise Your Name eternally.

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Knowledge Without Joy: The Danger Catholics Rarely Talk About

BY: Rickey Street

Why the Church’s greatest argument may be a face that shows what Christ has done

Introduction
There is a quiet danger in the life of a devout Catholic, and it rarely looks like a danger at all. It looks like diligence, like zeal for the truth, like long evenings with the Church Fathers and the finer points of doctrine. None of these things is bad. Yet a person can study the faith for years and slowly lose sight of what the faith is for.

I have seen this in others, and I have felt its pull myself: Catholics who know a great deal and rarely smile, whose conversations about the Lord sound more like a debate than a love story. The question is whether the joy of the Gospel is still visible in us.

Joy Is Not Optional
Scripture does not treat joy as a bonus for the naturally cheerful. St. Paul writes to the Philippians, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice” (Phil 4:4). Joy is listed among the fruits of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:22). Jesus himself tells his disciples that he has spoken to them so that his joy may be in them and their joy may be complete (Jn 15:11).

The Catechism says that the fruit of charity is joy, peace and mercy (CCC 1829). St. Thomas Aquinas teaches the same, treating joy as the first effect of charity in the soul (Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 28). Joy, then, is not decoration on the Christian life. It is evidence that the life is working: that we are in communion with God and know ourselves to be loved.

Pope Francis made this a central theme of his pontificate. In Evangelii Gaudium he warns against a Christianity that looks like perpetual Lent, and in Gaudete et Exsultate he calls all of us to holiness marked by gladness and good humor. The point is not new. It is the Gospel’s own tone.

The Danger of Knowledge Without Love
Let me be clear about what I am not saying. The Church has always encouraged the pursuit of truth. St. Anselm described theology as “faith seeking understanding,” and the Church has produced extraordinary minds precisely because she believes that faith and reason belong together. We should hunger for truth, study deeply, and never apologize for wanting to understand what we believe.

But St. Paul also gives a sober warning: “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Cor 8:1). Elsewhere he says that even if he understood all mysteries and all knowledge, without love he would be nothing (1 Cor 13:2).

The danger is not theology. It is theology cut loose from its purpose. When the technical side of the faith becomes the whole of it, several things can happen:

• The faith becomes an intellectual hobby rather than a relationship with a living person.
• Conversation becomes combat. Every discussion turns into a chance to win a point rather than to share a gift.
• Mercy shrinks. We grow quicker to correct than to encourage.
• The center drifts. We can talk for hours about doctrine and forget to speak of what Christ has actually done for us: forgiven us, found us, and raised us up.

When the Method Becomes the Master
Nothing here is meant as a complaint against scholastic theology. The Church has long held up the great scholastics, above all St. Thomas Aquinas, as a model of how faith and reason work together. Pope Leo XIII commended his thought to the whole Church in Aeterni Patris, and St. John Paul II described faith and reason as two wings by which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth (Fides et Ratio). The distinctions, definitions, and careful arguments of the schools are real gifts.

But a method is a servant, not a master. It is possible to master the quaestio, the objections, and the sed contra and still forget the One they point to. Pope Francis names this danger in Gaudete et Exsultate, warning against a faith reduced to ideas, a “doctrine without mystery,” in which we think we can capture the whole of God in our categories (nos. 36-46). When that happens, the faith becomes something we manage rather than someone we love.

The scholastics themselves understood this. St. Thomas was known for his devotion as much as his intellect. He prayed before he studied and wept at Mass, and he wrote some of the Church’s most beautiful Eucharistic hymns. Near the end of his life, after an experience at prayer, he set down his pen and left the Summa unfinished. According to the tradition, he told his companion that all he had written seemed like straw compared to what he had seen. This was not a rejection of his work. It was the recognition of a saint that the goal of theology is not the argument but the encounter.

It is also worth remembering that honoring a great theologian does not mean treating every opinion he held as settled doctrine. The Church has named St. Thomas a Doctor of the Church and commended his thought as a sure guide, but she has never taught that everything he wrote is defined teaching. The clearest example is the Immaculate Conception. Aquinas believed Mary was kept free from personal sin and sanctified in the womb, but he hesitated to say she was conceived without original sin, in part because he wanted to safeguard the truth that Christ is the Savior of all. Centuries later, theologians such as Blessed John Duns Scotus showed how Mary could be redeemed by Christ in a more perfect way, by preservation rather than cure. In 1854 Pope Pius IX defined the Immaculate Conception as dogma (Ineffabilis Deus), a teaching now held by every Catholic.

The lesson is not that Aquinas was careless or wrong to think as he did. He was working honestly with the tools and questions of his time, and he submitted his writings to the judgment of the Church. The lesson is that theological opinion and defined doctrine are different things, and that the Church, not any single school or thinker, is the final guardian of the faith. We can love Aquinas deeply while remembering that the faith was never meant to be a system we defend at all costs. It is a living deposit entrusted to the whole Church, and it is held in humility.

St. Bonaventure, another great scholastic, taught the same thing. Study without devotion, he warned, leaves the heart cold, and learning without grace leaves us without joy. The best theology, in other words, ends in worship.

So if we love the technical side of the faith, as I do, the question to ask ourselves is not “How much do I know?” but “Is my study making me more joyful, more humble, and more in love with Christ?” If the answer is yes, press on. If the answer is no, it is not time to abandon study but to put it back in order: kneel first, then read.

Joy as Evangelization
St. Peter tells the early Christians to be ready to give an account of the hope that is in them (1 Pet 3:15). Notice that he assumes the hope is visible. People ask about it because they see it.

Think about how most of us came to take faith seriously, or how others come to. Rarely was it a flawless argument alone. More often it was a person: someone whose peace was unusual, whose kindness was steady, whose gladness did not depend on circumstances. Those looking at the Church from the outside are often not rejecting our arguments. They are asking whether what we believe makes us any different.

If someone watches a Catholic for a week and sees only tension, criticism and heaviness, what have we shown them about the Savior? If they see a person who is serious about truth and evidently glad to belong to Christ, we have given them a reason to ask questions.

What Christian Joy Is, and Is Not
It helps to be precise here, because joy is easily misunderstood.

Joy is not constant happiness. Nobody can be cheerful twenty-four hours a day, and the Church does not ask it. We carry real burdens: grief, illness, family trouble, and anxiety. Christ himself wept at the tomb of Lazarus and agonized in Gethsemane. Joy and sorrow can coexist, because joy rests on something deeper than mood.

Joy is not a performance. A forced smile is not a witness, and the Church is not asking us to pretend. The joy that evangelizes is the real thing: gratitude that has actually taken root.

Joy is not for everyone in the same way. Those who live with depression or other mental health conditions are not failing in faith when joy feels out of reach, and nothing here is meant as a criticism of them. Such struggles are illnesses, not spiritual deficiencies, and they deserve compassion, care, and often professional help. This reflection is aimed at those of us who are healthy enough to choose where we place our attention and have let our faith become joyless by habit.

Joy is rooted in what has been done for us. This is its source. Christ has conquered sin and death. We are forgiven, adopted, and promised eternal life. Remembering this regularly, and saying it out loud, is itself a discipline of joy. As Nehemiah told the people, “the joy of the LORD is your strength” (Neh 8:10).

Practical Ways to Keep Joy Alive
How do we keep study from crowding out delight?

1. Return to gratitude daily. Before opening a theology book, spend a few minutes thanking God for specific things.
2. Keep the sacraments central. The Eucharist and Confession are not intellectual exercises. They are encounters with the person we are studying.
3. Speak about Christ’s work personally. Share what he has done in your life, not only what the Church teaches.
4. Spend time with joyful Christians. Joy is contagious, and so is its absence.
5. Balance study with service. Acts of mercy keep our knowledge honest.
6. Let study lead to prayer. If what we learn does not make us want to praise God, something is out of order.

Conclusion
The Church needs her theologians, her scholars, and her careful students of the faith. But the world will rarely be argued into the Kingdom by minds alone. It is drawn by lives that look like good news.

So let us keep seeking truth with all our hearts, and let it do what truth is meant to do: lead us to the One who is Truth himself, and make us glad. Our joy will not be perfect or constant in this life, but it can be real, and it can be seen. For many people standing outside the Church, it may be the first thing that makes them look twice.

GFK