“Look up, you whose gaze is fixed on this earth, who are spellbound by the little events and changes on the face of the earth.  Look up to these words, you who have turned away from heaven disappointed.  Look up, you whose eyes are heavy with tears and who are heavy and who are crying over the fact that the earth has gracelessly torn us away.  Look up, you who, burdened with guilt, cannot lift your eyes.  Look up, your redemption is drawing near. something different from what you see daily will happen.  Just be aware, be watchful, wait just another short moment.  Wait and something quite new will break over you: God will come.”

– Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Holland Koontz returned to Texas on Saturday evening. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and enjoyed a pleasant time all last week, together as a family. It is an increasingly rare occasion. Even Dudley enjoyed Chatmoss, reveling in all the attention given him.

This Thanksgiving I was reminded of the late, great Rush Limbaugh’s annual discussion of the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving.  Rush pointed out that more than ½ of the Pilgrims died in the 1^st year, due largely to starvation.  The problem lay with The Mayflower Compact which called for the common ownership of all property in the colony.  Everyone shared equally in everything.  No one was penalized for not working, and no one was rewarded for working harder.  Stated differently, The Mayflower Compact imposed socialism on the Pilgrims, which, predictably, led to disaster.  The Pilgrims’ leader, William Bradford, who would go on to become The Massachusetts Bay Colony’s 1^st Governor, scrapped that portion of The Mayflower Compact, and instituted private property rights.  Immediately the Pilgrims’ fortunes improved, as all were incentivized to work and produce.  The result was a bountiful harvest which led to their Thanksgiving feast following the harvest.

But socialism was not first tried in Massachusetts.  Rather, it was first tried in the Jamestown colony, in Virginia.  When established in 1607, there was no incentive for work, or penalty for sloth.  The colony nearly perished, and when Captain John Smith arrived in 1608, the whole of the settlement begged to return to England.  Captain Smith refused, and instituted the very reforms that William Bradford would institute some 13 years later.  Captain Smith, borrowing 2^nd Thessalonians, declared “He that will not work, shall not eat.”  Fortunes reversed, and the colony began to thrive.  And by virtue of Captain Smith’s wisdom and leadership, Jamestown became the 1^st permanent English settlement in the New World.

In conclusion, Virginia beat out Massachusetts twice in the early history of our country.  Virginia not only celebrated the 1^st Thanksgiving, it was also the 1^st to reject socialism.  Take that, New England!

“This Thanksgiving, we mourn the Indigenous people killed by European settlers and the United States in order to steal their land.  From here to Palestine, we stand in solidarity with all Indigenous people as they fight for freedom on their own land.”

–U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib (D. Mi.). 

Yes, yes, yes. Those poor American Indians. Let us give them their land back. Starting with Dearborn, Michigan.

“This Thanksgiving, I’m thinking of our neighbors with an empty seat at the dinner table.  Those with loved ones abducted & deported from their families.  Those we lost due to gun violence, mass incarceration, & more.  A more just America is possible, if we fight for it.”

–Representative Ayanna Pressley (D. Ma.), lamenting the absence of illegal aliens and criminals at Thanksgiving.

Did you enjoy turkey, ham, roast beef, duck, or some other meat at your Thanksgiving dinner?  If yes, congratulations, you are destroying the planet!  Yes, according to Bloomberg News, eating meat is unethical, irresponsible, unhealthy, and just plain wrong.  Then again, I do not read or view Bloomberg News.  Please pass the roast beef!

“Everyone at the dinner table today, especially MAGA, please give thanks to the undocumented immigrants that picked and packed the food you’re enjoying.  They deserve our grace.  Happy Thanksgiving!”

–Former San Antonio, Texas Mayor and Obama Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Julian Castro (D.).

Forget the drain on the economy, social services, and the lawbreaking by illegal aliens.  Think hard about Julian Castro’s words.  He is grateful for people he views as indentured servants, a laboring underclass.  And he is not alone.  Democrats generally view illegal aliens as a source of cheap labor, and a vital and loyal block of support for their socialist income redistributive policies.  Got to get those lawns in Beverly Hills, Washington, D.C., and Martha’s Vineyard mowed, and the Chardonnay grapes in Napa picked! 

“Make your own dinner, MAGA, make your own sandwiches, wipe your own tears, troll among yourselves with Elon and leave us alone.  You’ve got your heart’s desire: the president you dreamed of, and worship, instead of Jesus.” 

–Former MSNBC host Joy Reid, who will never get over the fact that Commiela will never be President of the United States.  Just like Hillary.

President Trump pardoned the White House Thanksgiving turkeys, Gobble and Waddle. He did not use an autopen.

President Trump announced a pause on all immigration from Third World countries. It is a start.

The Treasury Department announced that tax benefits and the ability to wire money abroad would be denied to illegal aliens. Another good move. Why was this not done sooner?

“What gives me hope, and I talk to service members all the time.  They tell me that I don’t appreciate enough and the public doesn’t appreciate enough that while Congress is not a check on the president anymore, and the judiciary at the Supreme Court is hardly a check, military members have told me, ‘We can be a check.'”

–Representative and gubernatorial hopeful Eric Swalwell (D. Ca.), lying through his teeth in an effort to be considered relevant.

Eric Swalwell would not recognize a soldier if he were air dropped into a war zone.  The man is clueless.

How clueless if Eric Swalwell? He is suing the Trump Administration for pursuing criminal federal fraud charges against him, claiming it is a naked attempt to sabotage his gubernatorial campaign. No. It is because Eric Swalwell committed a crime. And now he is just making it easier to prove it.

“Donald Trump is going to be gone in a couple of years.  And if you’re part of the military that is going after sitting senators, sitting members of Congress, and part of the weaponization of government, there will be consequences, without a doubt.”

–Senator Ruben Gallego (D. Az.), as part of a profane rant in reaction to the news that Senator Mark Kelly was being investigated for possible violation of the Uniform Military Code of Justice.

Do you get that? Investigate and punish a Democrat, and we will get you when we regain power. The Democrats are behaving more like the Gambino family than a political party. Apparently some people are “above the law”.

Senator Elissa Slotkin (D. Mi.) called for the abolishment of the Constitution’s presidential pardon power. She expressed concerns that President Trump would “abuse” the power. You mean like President Autopen did? Where was Senator Slotkin when Hunter Biden was pardoned for all crimes he may have committed since China Joe became Vice-President?

The United States Department of Justice sued the State of California, alleging it is violating the United States Constitution, Amendment 14’s guarantee of equal treatment for all citizens. Currently, California colleges and universities charge out of state applicants significantly higher tuition and fees, while allowing illegal aliens to benefit from lower in State tuition and fee rates. California is wrong. Hopefully the courts, and the Golden State, will mend its ways.

Protesting union workers picketed at Los Angeles International Airport, and even blocked an airport entrance, forcing Thanksgiving travelers to abandon their cars, and walk long distances, with their luggage, to terminals to catch their flights. Is it any wonder the public generally looks upon unions with disdain?

In Georgia, an appointed special prosecutor moved to dismiss all criminal charges against President Trump, arising from the 2020 presidential election. Fani’s folly is over.

“We cannot incarcerate our way out of violence.  We’ve already tried that, and we’ve ended up with the largest prison population in the world without solving the problems of crime and violence.  The addiction on jails and incarceration in this country?  We have moved past that.  It is racist, it is immoral, it is unholy, and it is not the way to drive violence down.”

–Chicago, Illinois Brandon Johnson (D.).

Mayor Johnson is just . . . wrong.  Chicago has tried leaving the criminals free to roam the streets, and that has not worked out.  Incarceration may not rehabilitate the criminals, but it sure will keep them from preying on innocent Chicago residents.

Cook County, Illinois has just established a permanent minimum income government guarantee for residents. This will surely cause more poverty, because it is a truism that if you want more of something, subsidize it. Mayor Johnson is wrong on this too.

The New York City Council is advancing an ordinance that would require property owners to notify the City government and a list of qualified non-profit organizations of their desire to sell real estate prior to putting the real estate on the market, giving the City government or the non-profit organizations first opportunity to purchase it. Communism 101.

Last Wednesday, 2 National Guardsmen were shot at 17th and I Streets, NW, just above The White House. One died on Thanksgiving Day, and the other remains in critical condition.

The immediate reaction of the mainstream media was to blame the National Guard and, of course, President Trump. MSNBC and CNN made it clear that the National Guard’s mere presence was a triggering event that caused the shootings. That is, of course, ridiculous.

The shooter was an Afghani, brought into this country by China Joe in the aftermath of the disastrous Kabul evacuation. He lived in Bellingham, Washington, initially set up at the expense of the American taxpayers.

The shooter then drove cross-country from Bellingham, Washington to Washington, D.C., for the purpose of executing his terrorist plot. He ambushed the Guardsmen, shouting “Allahu Akbar”, and would have assailed others, but for the quick work of 2 other Guardsmen.

In Washington, D.C., the National Guard has made the city far safer for its law abiding residents. A safety and calm have been restored. It is still far from desirable, but it is measurably better due to the willingness of these brave soldiers to lend their efforts to local law enforcement.

The shooter is an Islamist, a man who was not vetted, and never should have been let into this country. He betrayed this nation’s generosity, in a most vile, despicable, and evil fashion. Upon conviction, his punishment should be swift and severe, including the imposition of the death penalty if applicable.

The University of Minnesota has declared a “whiteness epidemic”. According to the University, white people are responsible for perpetuating “systemic racism” in Western Culture. Sigh.

NOTE TO THE GENIUSES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: Western culture was established by white people. It is not “racist”. Indeed, Western culture is the most tolerant, welcoming, and non-racist culture in the world. GET OVER YOURSELVES!

A Portland, Oregon State judge ruled that as a condition of keeping custody of her 12 year old daughter, she must not allow her to attend the mother’s Evangelical Church.  Other conditions imposed include the mother not permitting her daughter to read the Bible, meet with any of her old chapel friends, or attend any weddings or funerals held at any church whatsoever, not just her customary one.  The judge based her ruling on the testimony of an expert witness, Marxist sociology professor Dr. Janja Lalich, who testified that Christianity was a cult.

We wish we were kidding. We are not.

L’Auberge Provencale is a wonderful French restaurant in Clarke County, just South of Berryville, Virginia. In a brazen act, a couple stole $48,000.00 of wine, while pretending to be on a scouting trip for a wealthy Canadian client, a wine connoiseur, and wished to inspect the restaurant’s wine cellar. The woman was detained and arrested. The man got away with 6 bottles of very rare (and very expensive) wine, and remains at large.

As an aside, a regular and loyal customer was at the bar when the heist happened, and gave chase to the fleeing man, driving his $200,000.00 Porsche. The customer’s pursuit ended when he crashed his Porsche into another car, coming in the other direction on U.S. Route 340, thus allowing the man to make a clean getaway.

Kentucky Fried Chicken is introducing a “Gravy Flight” to its menu. Patrons can sample the chain’s Signature Brown, Southwest Cheddar, and White Peppercorn gravies.

Airbus grounded 6,000 planes, due to a software glitch that caused the planes to lose altitude in flight. Next time, buy Boeing.

Alibi Bar in Altrincham, England has established rules for its patrons. There is a dress code, including no torn jeans or baseball caps allowed, and no single patrons are permitted entry after 9:00 p.m. Some are outraged, but Alibi’s owner insists that it is part of establishing a safe and comfortable place for patrons. It is refreshing. Good for Alibi.

Great Britain’s Justice Secretary, David Lammy, has decided to abolish the right to a jury trial in most all criminal matters. The right to a jury trial is as old as the Magna Carta from 1215. It is central to the liberty interests of all Britons. But Secretary Lammy is not exactly British. He was born in England, but to Guyanese immigrant parents. He is a product of the Third World, and is seeking to impose Third World values on the oldest English-speaking country, and proponent of Western Culture.

The United States has closed Venezuelan airspace. Something bad is about to happen.

Jammie Booker won the “World’s Strongest Woman” contest in Austin, Texas. Jammie Booker is a man. Sigh.

Auburn University hired Alex Golesh to be its new head football coach. Coach Golesh was formerly head football coach for the University of South Florida. Surely he will be an improvement over Hugh Freeze.

Former NFL running back, and assistant University of Colorado football coach Marshall Faulk will become Southern University’s new head football coach. Good luck!

Oregon State named University of Alabama assistant football coach JaMarcus Shephard as its new head football coach. Good luck!

Texas stunned Texas A&M, denying the Aggies a trip to the SEC championship game. Ole Miss beat Mississippi State, despite Mary Hazen’s best efforts and enthusiastic cheering. Georgia beat Georgia Tech. Florida beat Florida State. Oklahoma got by LSU. And despite Auburn’s efforts in the Iron Bowl, Alabama prevailed. Alabama will now play Georgia in the SEC championship game.

Boise State topped Utah State. New Mexico edged San Diego State in 2 OTs. Fresno State beat San Jose State. Hawaii romped, ending Wyoming’s miserable season. UNLV beat Nevada. Boise State and UNLV will face off for the Mountain West Conference football championship.

SMU lost a heartbreaker in the last seconds, to Cal. Duke beat Wake Forest. UVA dominated VPI, mercifully ending the Gobblers’ miserable season. Notre Dame beat Stanford. N.C. State destroyed UNC, bringing an end to Season 1 of The Jordan Hudson Show. Miami pummeled Pitt. Clemson beat South Carolina in a most forgettable game. Virginia will now play Duke in the ACC championship game.

East Carolina won. James Madison won.

Navy beat Memphis. North Texas State won handily. Tulane also won, and will play North Texas State in the American championship game. Rocky will be flying down from New York to 1) escape the cold; and, 2) cheer on the Mean Green.

Indiana crushed Purdue. Ohio State snapped its losing streak against Michigan, and will now play Indiana in the Big 10 championship game. USC beat UCLA at the Coliseum. Oregon beat Washington. Iowa scored 40 points in beating Nebraska; normally it takes Iowa 5 different games to score a total of 40 points.

Arizona beat Arizona State. Texas Tech humiliated West Virginia, handing the Mountaineers their worst home loss since the late 1800s. BYU prevailed, as did TCU. Houston beat Baylor. Kansas State ended Coach Prime’s Buffaloes’ season.

LSU hired Lane Kiffin to be its next head football coach. LSU made a big mistake.

Lane Kiffin has no loyalty to anyone other than Lane Kiffin. He was horrible at Tennessee, Alabama, USC, and the NFL’s Oakland Raiders. He is the most narcissistic, self-centered, selfish SOB in coaching.

Having failed spectacularly at USC, Lane Kiffin was banished to the dregs of college football, but worked himself back up, and was given an opportunity by Ole Miss. By all measure, Lane Kiffin rebuilt the football program into an SEC winner. But there ends the good feelings.

With his team on the bubble of possibly making the SEC championship game, and making the College Football Playoffs, Lane Kiffin has publicly waxed and waned more than Shakespeare’s Hamlet. He publicly auditioned for the LSU job, and for the Florida job, before Florida lost interest in his musings. All the while, his team had games to play. School officials and alumni who strongly backed him were embarrassed.

In the end, Lane Kiffin was always leaving. But he did not go quietly into the night. Lane Kiffin demanded that Mississippi let him coach the Rebels through the season’s end. Ole Miss’s officials rightly denied his demand. Then Lane Kiffin showed exactly what he was about, threatening Ole Miss with poaching its remaining coaching staff and football players, and taking them with him to LSU if Ole Miss did not accede to his demands. Again, Ole Miss rightly said no. Enough.

Lane Kiffin did yeoman’s work at the University of Mississippi. But it no longer matters. Because Lane Kiffin no longer matters. He portrayed himself as a changed man, who had learned from his previous mistakes. His behavior the last several weeks unmasks him as an unrepentant narcissist. His word is worth nothing. He has no loyalty to anyone or anything.

Lane Kiffin is a big fake phony. LSU is about to learn that the hard way. Just as did those as USC, Tennessee, Alabama, . . .

Sarah Beckstrom has died at age 20. She was a member of the West Virginia National Guard, who volunteered to leave her home and protect the citizens of Washington, D.C. She died protecting people she never met or knew, all due to the crazed actions of an Islamic terrorist who had no business being let into this country. Sarah’s government failed her. But Sarah did not fail her country. She served honorably til her death. May God Bless her soul, and comfort her family and friends. R. I. P.

Frank Urban “Fuzzy” Zoeller, Jr., former Masters and U.S. Open champion, has died at age 74. R. I. P.

GFK

“At this Christmas when Christ comes, will He find a warm heart?  Mark the season of Advent by loving and serving the others with God’s own love and concern.”

–Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

“But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.  And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, ‘Abba, Father.’  Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child.  And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.”

— Galatians 4:4-8

Today is the First Sunday [and First Day] of Advent.  Advent is the beginning of the Church’s liturgical year.  It is a time of preparation and waiting for the birth of our Lord Savior Jesus Christ.  The preparation for Christ’s coming is observed in 3 instances: the divine Incarnation at Bethlehem, the perpetual sacramental presence in The Eucharist, and his Second Coming and the ultimate Day of Judgment.  This year Advent begins on Sunday, November 30, and runs through Wednesday, December 24.

May all our readers be moved to mark Advent in preparation for Christmas.  May all our readers be touched by the miracle of Christmas, and the promise it brings to the World.

GFK

Welcome to the Thanksgiving edition of The Observations.  There will be no further publication until December 1, so that I might spend time with my family.  Please accept my best wishes for all of you and your families at this very special time of year.  May God Bless us all.

“After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.”

–Oscar Wilde

“ALMIGHTY God, who hast blessed the earth that it should be fruitful and bring forth whatsoever is needful for the life of man, and hast commanded us to work with quietness, and eat our own bread; Bless the labours of the husbandman, and grant such seasonable weather that we may gather in the fruits of the earth, and ever rejoice in thy goodness, to the praise of thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

–Book of Common Prayer (1928)

“There is one day that is ours. Thanksgiving Day is the one day that is purely American.”

–O. Henry

“If you think about a Thanksgiving dinner, it’s really like making a large chicken.”

–Ina Garten

“Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.”

–Erma Bombeck

“Over and over I marvel at the blessings of my life: Each year has grown better than the last.”

–Lawrence Welk

Thursday, November 27, is Thanksgiving Day.  It is a uniquely American holiday

The very first Thanksgiving was held at Berkeley Plantation in Virginia, on December 4, 1619.  Men who had suffered the difficulties of the sea voyage from England to the Virginia colony knelt in prayer as their first act in the New World.  They gave thanks to Almighty God for delivering them safely to this wilderness.  Some four hundred (400) years later, that first Thanksgiving is still celebrated and commemorated here in Virginia.

Of course uninformed Yankees still spread the lie that Squanto and the Massachusetts Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving.  Even the “new math” recognizes that 1619 occurred two (2) years before 1621.  Yet year in and year out, the Pilgrims get all the glory.  Sigh.

While Presidents from Washington forward often issued proclamations of thanks to God for his blessings upon our country, the first official national Thanksgiving proclamation was given by President Lincoln on August 3, 1863, setting August 6 as a national day of Thanksgiving, during the throes of The Late Unpleasantness.  America was engaged in a titanic struggle, and Lincoln sought the unification of all under Providence.  The President’s Proclamation read, in part:

“Now, therefore, be it known that I do set apart Thursday, the 6th day of August next, to be observed as a day for national thanksgiving, praise, and prayer, and I invite the people of the United States to assemble on that occasion in their customary places of worship and in the forms approved by their own consciences render the homage due to the Divine Majesty for the wonderful things He has done in the nation’s behalf and invoke the influence of His Holy Spirit to subdue the anger which has produced and so long sustained a needless and cruel rebellion, to change the hearts of the insurgents, to guide the counsels of the Government with wisdom adequate to so great a national emergency, and to visit with tender care and consolation throughout the length and breadth of our land all those who, through the vicissitudes of marches, voyages, battles, and sieges, have been brought to suffer in mind, body, or estate, and finally to lead the whole nation through the paths of repentance and submission to the divine will back to the perfect enjoyment of union and fraternal peace.”

Thanksgiving occurred on various dates until 1941, when Congress designated November’s fourth Thursday as a set date, which we celebrate today.  This official act codified President Roosevelt’s 1938 Proclamation which designated November 24 as America’s official day of Thanksgiving.  That Proclamation, issued during the Great Depression, read:

“Our Fathers set aside such a day as they hewed a nation from the primeval forest. The observance was consecrated when George Washington issued a Thanksgiving proclamation in the first year of his presidency. Abraham Lincoln set apart ‘a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.’ Thus from our earliest recorded history, Americans have thanked God for their blessings. In our deepest natures, in our very souls, we, like all mankind since the earliest origin of mankind, turn to God in time of trouble and in time of happiness. ‘In God We Trust.’  For the blessings which have been ours during the present year we have ample cause to be thankful.  Our lands have yielded a goodly harvest, and the toiler in shop and mill receives a more just return for his labor.  We have cherished and preserved our democracy.  We have lived in peace and understanding with our neighbors and have seen the world escape the impending disaster of a general war.  In the time of our fortune it is fitting that we offer prayers for unfortunate people in other lands who are in dire distress at this our Thanksgiving Season.  Let us remember them in our families and our churches when, on the day appointed, we offer our thanks to Almighty God. May we by our way of living merit the continuance of His goodness.”

In my lifetime, no President invoked more the Founders, our country’s mission and history, than did Ronald Reagan.  A great man, who sought guidance from divine Providence in tackling problems that others said could never be solved, he embodied the spirit of the colonists, Presidents Washington, Lincoln and Roosevelt, in his own Thanksgiving Proclamations, some of which are excerpted below:

1981

“Thanksgiving has become a day when Americans extend a helping hand to the less fortunate. Long before there was a government welfare program, this spirit of voluntary giving was ingrained in the American character. Americans have always understood that, truly, one must give in order to receive. This should be a day of giving as well as a day of thanks . . . .”

1982

“I have always believed that this anointed land was set apart in an uncommon way, that a divine plan placed this great continent here between the oceans to be found by people from every corner of the Earth who had a special love of faith and freedom. Our pioneers asked that He would work His will in our daily lives so America would be a land of morality, fairness, and freedom . . . .”

1984

“This year we can be especially thankful that real gratitude to God is inscribed, not in proclamations of government, but in the hearts of all our people who come from every race, culture, and creed on the face of the Earth. And as we pause to give thanks for our many gifts, let us be tempered by humility and by compassion for those in need, and let us reaffirm through prayer and action our determination to share our bounty with those less fortunate . . . .”

1986

“One of the most inspiring portrayals of American history is that of George Washington on his knees in the snow at Valley Forge. That moving image personifies and testifies to our Founders’ dependence upon Divine Providence during the darkest hours of our Revolutionary struggle. It was then — when our mettle as a Nation was tested most severely — that the Sovereign and Judge of nations heard our plea and came to our assistance in the form of aid from France. Thereupon General Washington immediately called for a special day of thanksgiving among his troops . . .

Today let us take heart from the noble example of our first President. Let us pause from our many activities to give thanks to almighty God for our bountiful harvests and abundant freedoms. . . . And let us ever be mindful of the faith and spiritual values that have made our Nation great and that alone can keep us great. . . .”

1988

“Thanksgiving Day summons every American to pause in the midst of activity, however necessary and valuable, to give simple and humble thanks to God. This gracious gratitude is the “service” of which Washington spoke. . .

People from every race, culture, and creed on the face of the Earth now inhabit this land. Their presence illuminates the basic yearning for freedom, peace, and prosperity that has always been the spirit of the New World . . . .”

Despite the meme of the daily newsfeed from Washington and New York, and the utter incompetence emanating from our federal government, we are blessed to be able to gather with friends and family, and to celebrate and give thanks for all our blessings. 

 We still live in the greatest country ever to grace the Earth’s face.  And despite problems that may seem daunting, we have within our power to reclaim and assert all that is decent and good about our country, our history, and our lives. 

Moreover, we are not facing the privations and struggles that our forebears faced on their arrival in the New World.  We are not beset by the possibility of starvation, hostility from American Indians, or the harshness of the elements.  We are not isolated more than a year’s travel from our homes.  We are home. 

Americans need to live our lives, and be grateful for our blessings, including living in the freest, strongest, most prosperous society to ever exist on this Earth.  Let us keep our faith, remember where we came from and realize that with God’s help, we can achieve everything with His Grace.

Please remember the purpose of this day, and keep it close to your hearts.   May God Bless us, each and every one.  May God always Bless this, our country, the last best hope for man on his Earth.  Happy Thanksgiving!

GFK

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

–Winnie The Pooh.

Holland and I played golf yesterday. It was a beautiful day, and we wanted to get a round in before the rain projected for the rest of the week. We played well. We had fun.

Today, English and Dudley descend upon Chatmoss. We are very excited to see them both. Dudley even got a bath so that he is a pretty and clean dog for Thanksgiving.

“. . . life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws.  On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.”

–Frederic Bastiat.

Frederic Bastiat recognized that the role of government is to protect our natural rights rather than control them. Capitalism, grounded in liberty and personal responsibility, remains the greatest engine of opportunity the world has ever known. It is still the best path forward for our children, our communities and our country.

“But the early Church didn’t hide. It evangelized nations, shaped laws, established moral norms, and built a civilizational conscience.  Our ancestors weren’t ashamed of public faith; they knew a people’s beliefs always form their culture.  The real innovation is the modern idea that public life should be scrubbed free of Christianity, as if secularism were somehow holier, cleaner, or more neutral.  It isn’t.  It simply substitutes Christian order with whatever ideology shouts loudest.

And in America today, the loudest voices belong to movements openly hostile to the Church.  [Some ignore] the reality unfolding around us.  Mosques grow as churches empty. Imams speak with certainty, even open hostility, while Christian clergy apologize for daring to sound sure of anything.  Young men and women who once found purpose in Christianity now gravitate toward substitutes that promise meaning but rarely deliver it.

[An insistence that] ‘Jesus came to build a church, not a government’ sounds pious, but it ignores the obvious: governments always exist, and Christians always live under them.  The question is whether believers will shape the character of their nation or surrender it to secular elites who think faith is fine — as long as it stays behind closed doors.

* * *

Christian nationalism isn’t a threat to America.  A faithless America is a threat to itself.  A nation that loses its Christian roots will not float gently into secular harmony.  It will drift toward whatever force fills the void.  Today, that force is a mix of aggressive anti-Christian ideologies and a rising Islamic presence more united, more disciplined, and far more willing to shape the culture than we are.

Christian nationalism is not the problem.  It is . . . a reminder of what many of us seem to have forgotten.  A reminder that Christianity built this country.  That faith shaped its laws, its people, and its philosophies.  And now, in an age of decline, Christians must decide whether public faith is something to retreat from, or something to defend before it disappears entirely.”

–John Mac Ghlionn, The American Spectator (November 23, 2025), excerpts from “A Passionate Defense of Christian Nationalism.

From before our country’s founding, beginning at Roanoke Island, and then the 1st permanent English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, to the Pilgrims arrival at Plymouth, Massachusetts, God and Christianity have been a guiding force in our society. Our rights come from God, and it is difficult to dispute that the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution were not the products of divine inspiration. Presidents from George Washington to Ronald Reagan, and even to Donald Trump (who is far more comfortable with Christianity than the “very devout Catholic”, China Joe) have recognized the importance of our country’s Christian culture. If we ever cede our Christian influence over government policies, and over our society’s culture, it will not bode well for our country’s future.

The Department of Transportation wants airline passengers to start dressing better. Sigh. Don’t we all?

Senator Mark Kelly (D. Az.) blasted President Trump’s reaction to the video put out by him and other Congressional Democrats, urging military members to reject illegal orders. Senator Kelly claims that the President’s condemnation “politicized” the issue, and could lead to violence against Democrats. Oh, please.

The Democrat video was nothing but political. It was an effort to undermine the President’s authority, and to foment mutiny among the ranks. Every Democrat in that video admitted that no illegal orders have been issued. So why make and release that video? POLITICS! Trump Derangement Syndrome rules The Evil Party!

“If this [investigation] is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won’t work.  I’ve given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies who care more about their own power than protecting the Constitution.”

–Senator Mark Kelly (D. Az.).

The Department of War has initiated an investigation into Kelly, who was a Navy Captain, over this seditious video. Senator Kelly faces a possible court martial. His actions warrant an inquiry, and likely require his court martial, and dishonorable dismissal.

The Observations is familiar with Senator Kelly. He is a blowhard, and a pompous ass. He can bluster all he wants, but he knows that military members, even retired military members, cannot behave has he has done.

Representative Eugene Vindman (D. Va.) demanded the release of the transcript of a 2019 telephone call between President Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salem. Mr. Vindman wants to dredge up the past in another effort to attack the President. More TDS. More politics.

Why not demand the release of the transcript of the conversation between General Grant and General Lee at Appomattox? The terms were awfully generous. Was there a quid pro quo? Let’s launch a Congressional investigation. Representative Vindman, the corpulent member from Ukraine, can lead the charge.

A federal judge dismissed the criminal cases against James Comey and Letitia James, ruling that the interim Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia was not properly appointed. I have yet to read the opinion, but have serious reservations about the ruling based upon what I know of the law. But assuming arguendo that the ruling was correct, this raises serious questions about Attorney General Pam Bondi’s competence. The Observations called for her resignation earlier this year. We have not changed our minds.

Democrat Attorneys General sent a letter to the Trump Administration, demanding that food stamps be provided to illegal aliens. Uh, no. No way, Jose!

Georgia is considering eliminating its State income tax. Testifying before the Georgia legislature, Arthur Laffer (he of the “Laffer Curve”) told lawmakers that since 1960, every State with an income tax has seen both its domestic private production and its total tax revenue decline. There is a lesson here, both on the State and federal level. What you tax, you get less of. Economics 101.

The “moderate” Virginia Democrats are again revealing who they really are. First, the Democrats want to permit felons to vote as soon as they exit the prison doors. Second, they want to sue gun dealers and manufacturers if someone uses a firearm to commit a crime, involving bodily harm or not. Third, they want to ban “assault” weapons (whatever they are). Because it is the gun’s fault. And felons are just who we need to involve in order to achieve a better society.

Virginia Democrats also want to require a photo ID when making a gun purchase. Huh? Isn’t that “racist”? Virginia Democrats insist that it is “racist” when a photo ID is required for voting!

The Observations predicts that the Spanberger governorship will bring longing for the days of Governor Coonman. We hope we are wrong, but things do not look good at the present.

In downtown Chicago, Illinois, more than 300 people violently rioted. At least 8 people were shot, and 1 killed. There were numerous violent assaults on responding police. In response to the riot, many Chicago residents are demanding that Mayor Johnson (D.) “bring Trump in!” Hmmm. It surely cannot hurt.

In North Dakota, it will now be a felony for doctors to perform abortions, except to protect a pregnant woman’s life or health, or in the case of rape or incest in the first six weeks of pregnancy. Patients are protected from prosecution, but doctors who violate the ban could face up to 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

“No man ever went broke overestimating the ignorance of the American public.”

–P. T. Barnum.

“Many people are gullible, and we can expect this to continue.”

–P. T. Barnum.

Rainbow Wool is partnering with the online homosexual “dating” app Grindr, to sell sweaters made with wool from homosexual sheep. Of course, in the animal kingdom there is no homosexuality, as it is a choice made by humans, but still, you have to admire the creativity of the business. Selling something that really does not exist to people who refuse to acknowledge their own free will and actions. It is a perfect statement on the depravity of a large part of our culture.

In Thirsk, North Yorkshire, England, a man was fired from his job, after it was reported that he hoisted the Union Jack flag in the town. Please understand; it is perfectly acceptable to fly a Palestinian or LGBTQ++ flag in Great Britian, but the British national flag? It is verboten! Too exclusive and nationalistic! Sigh. Great Britian is doomed.

Florida State decided to bring back head football coach Mike Norvell next year, rather than pay him a $54 million buyout. That is a lot of money to endure another losing season.

“I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson.

“I am grateful for what I am and have.”

—Henry David Thoreau.

“If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough.”

—Meister Eckhart.

May we always remember to practice gratitude, in everything we think, speak, and do.

GFK

“We didn’t realize we were making memories, we just knew we were having fun.”

–A.A. Milne, Winnie The Pooh.

Holland Koontz arrived in Chatmoss! I picked her up at the Greensboro, North Carolina airport on Saturday afternoon. It had been too long since I had seen my little girl!

THANK YOU FR. BARNETT! Fr. Barnett conspired with Holland to bring me a surprise home–Starship everything bagels with chive cheese! How ’bout that?!?! New York’s best bagel straight from the heart of Texas! Delicious. Simply delicious. The very best bagel!

The United States is imposing fines on illegal aliens for every day that they are present in the country illegally. Pro-alien advocates are outraged! How dare an illegal alien be punished for their criminal actions! So the advocates are suing the Trump Administration, claiming that the fines are unconstitutional. Spoiler alert: the fines are valid.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D. R.I.) is whining about the State Department’s refusal to pay for him to attend the global warming conference in Brazil last week. Senator Whithouse pointed out that the China Joe Administration paid for a large delegation to attend last year’s conference. So? That was then, this is now. The “climate change” scam gravy train is over.

The United States House of Representatives voted on a resolution condemning socialism. Ninety-eight (98) Democrats voted against it. Socialism’s new home is in the Democrat Party.

After being pressed by the media, the Democrats who urged our military to ignore unlawful orders admitted that there have been no unlawful orders issued by the Trump Administration. Then . . . what was the point of the advertisement?

The Democrats are deranged. President Trump lives rent free in their heads, and they cannot help but lash out blindly in their rage. Sad.

Representative Eric Swalwell (D. Ca.) is running for California Governor. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

Gubernatorial hopeful Swalwell’s 1st “brilliant” idea is to “max out democracy” by allowing people to vote with their telephones. What could possibly go wrong?

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R. Ga.) is resigning from Congress. A smart move on her part. Good luck in your new ventures.

The United States Supreme Court put on hold a lower court order, which found that the Texas redistricting was racially biased and unconstitutional. WINNING!

The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit put on hold a Chicago federal district court’s order that ICE release some 600+ illegal aliens. Thank goodness!

In Fort Worth, Texas, a federal judge has ruled that men, including “trans” women (who are just men in drag), must be segregated from women in prison. Legal “experts” are noting that this is a “landmark” ruling, as no other federal court has so held. How far have we fallen as a society, that it is a “landmark” ruling that men and women must be kept separately while incarcerated? Does it really take a federal judge to impose common sense?

A federal judge in Washington, D.C. has ruled that President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C. was “illegal”. No it is not. The President commands the D.C. National Guard. Congress has not objected to the deployment. The Mayor agrees with, and consents to the deployment. The deployment of the National Guard has made Washington, D.C. a remarkably safer city, and many lives have been saved. But this judge–appointed by China Joe, no less–thinks she knows better.

Another clueless federal judge ruled that the Internal Revenue Service cannot share address and other contact information with ICE. Can’t let those taxpaying illegal aliens get deported, now, can we?

How stupid is it to claim that the federal government cannot tell the federal government what the federal government knows? That is just plain dumb.

In New York City, a mob of anti-Semitic, anti-Israel agitators surrounded the Park East Synagogue, yelling for the elimination of Israel, and death to all Jews. PLEASE NOTE: the agitators were not pro-Hamas. The agitators were calling for wiping Jews off the face of the Earth, while Jews were attending religious services in their synagogue. This is not free speech. This is terrorism. This is incitement to riot and violence. This should not be happening in America.

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani (D.) condemned the Park East Synagogue disturbance, blaming the entire situation on the Jews. You read that correctly. A bunch of anti-Semites threaten Jews worshippers with violence at their synagogue, and the incoming Mayor blames the Jews. Way to go, New York voters. You really picked a winner this time.

Readers will remember that Somalis in Minnesota reacted badly to the announcement of reviews and investigations into federal welfare programs, calling the investigations “racist”. Well, it turns out that in Minnesota, hundreds of thousands (millions?!?) of dollars have been funneled through Somali aliens to Somali terrorist groups. Yes, your food stamps are funding Somali terrorists, not starving children.

President Trump called for the end of protected status for Somali aliens conferred upon them by China Joe. Just send them back to where they came from. Now! And send Representative Ilhan Omar (D. Mn.) with them.

Where is Governor Tampon Tim (D. Mn.) is all this scandal? The money was administered by the State government agencies. Tim? Tim? Oh, Tiiiiiiim!

“I hate the city . . . the bachelorettes . . . country music, I hate all of the things that make Nashville!”

–Congressional candidate Aftyn Behn (D. Tn.), who is running in a special election to represent . . . Nashville, Tennessee.

In Washington, D.C., pro-Hamas demonstrators vandalized the Columbus statue at Union Station, and engaged in performative theatre, where they wore Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu masks, drinking blood and eating human organs. Unbelievable. These people are just plain disgusting.

In Virginia the march to the Left continues, as the Democrats are vowing to eliminate the Commonwealth’s right to work system. Democrats want to force employees to join unions as a condition of employment, whereby their required union dues will be recycled into Democrats’ campaign coffers. Some wages may rise, many jobs will be eliminated, businesses will not expand in, or relocate to, Virginia. And employees will be forced to subsidize political messaging with which they may not agree. Tyranny is on the march.

Governor-elect Spanberger (D.) vowed to fill university governing board positions “on Day 1”. Huh. They are only vacant because the Democrats found a friendly judge in Fairfax County to dismiss Governor Youngkin’s (R.) appointees. Abigail Spanberger is a fake, phony fraud.

Kempsville High School [Virginia Beach, Virginia] assistant Principal John Bennett and his brother, Mark, were arrested at the Norfolk, Virginia airport. The 2 men were traveling to Las Vegas, Nevada in order to attend a training session on how to combat ICE agents, using violence if necessary, assassinate ICE agents, and disrupt ICE operations against illegal aliens.

The University of Notre Dame has dropped the school’s historic Catholic mission from its staff values and adopted a “refreshed” set of generic concepts like “community” instead, though it will still identify as a “Catholic research university.”  The Catholic school’s list of staff values previously included requiring that one “Understands, accepts, and supports the Catholic mission of the university and fosters values consistent with that mission.”  Now, the list has been watered down into generic requirements that staff “treat every person with dignity and respect” and “work together.”

Instead of staff being required to “understand, accept, and support the Catholic mission” of the university and “foster values consistent with that mission,” the staff is now encouraged to simply “treat every person with dignity and respect” and “work together.”  Sigh.  I never thought the day would come when Notre Dame would not be a Catholic school.

The National Education Association–the nation’s largest teachers union–is hosting a training session on December 2-4 called “Advancing LGBTQ+ Justice and Transgender Advocacy” aimed at dismantling “strategic racism and transphobia”. The training session will be conducted at “an undisclosed location”. Leaked materials for the training session indicate that the NEA blames all Republicans and MAGA for the problems suffered by these groups. 

Cracker Barrel is parting way with its DEI consultant. It was a very expensive relationship.

Hamas announced that it was pulling out of the Gaza peace process. Surprise? Not at all. Completely expected.

Hezbollah in Lebanon is gearing up to launch a new military offensive against Israel. Sigh. There is no making peace with these groups. They must be destroyed.

SMU had a “statement” win against Louisville, downing the Cardinals 38-6. Duke topped UNC and Jordan Hudson. Pitt upset Georgia Tech in Atlanta, knocking the Rambling Wreck out of the ACC title game. Syracuse did not play (though Notre Dame did). Stanford beat Cal in “The Big Game”. North Carolina State beat Florida State in Raleigh. Florida State head coach Mike Norvell was required to walk back to Tallahassee after the embarrassment.

Oklahoma beat Missouri in a defensive battle. Tennessee beat Florida. The rest of the SEC feasted on cupcakes. Jim Farrell, you people should be ashamed.

Ohio State beat Rutgers. Washington crushed UCLA. Oregon pulled away from USC, ending all hopes of the Trojans advancing to the College Football Playoffs. Wisconsin beat Illinois. Iowa edged Minnesota. And Michigan reminded Maryland that September is long over, as the Wolverines tuned up for their game against the Buckeyes next week.

Nevada beat Wyoming. Boise State cruised past Colorado State. UNLV downed Hawaii. New Mexico beat Air Force. Utah State beat Fresno State.

James Madison slipped by Washington State, in Harrisonburg. Louisiana beat Arkansas State. Old Dominion, Appalachian State, and Troy won.

East Carolina lost, as the Pirates missed their most valuable fan, Dru. Dru decided it was more important to get on a bus with a bunch of Hokies and travel more than 3 hours to watch chicks play basketball. Dru, you let the boys down.

BYU and Utah won. Houston and Kansas lost. Coach Prime’s Buffaloes expired.

Previously unbeaten Harvard lost to Yale. The loss resulted in the 2 schools sharing the Ivy League title. Dartmouth and Princeton lost, as did the Cornell anti-Semites.

Italian singer Ornella Vanoni has died at age 91. R. I. P.

Former Wake Forest and NBA star Rodney Rogers has died at age 54. R. I. P.

“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”

— e.e. cummings.

It’s a short work week. Make the most of it.

GFK

Tomorrow is the 100th birthday of William F. Buckley, Jr. Bill Buckley was a prolific writer, a deep thinker, a Renaissance man, who played the harpsichord, wrote spy novels, ran for Mayor of New York City, and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, all while presiding over National Review magazine, the [then] voice of the American conservative movement.

It is hard to imagine the United States today without Bill Buckley’s intellectual influence. He was a deep and profound thinker, who advised many, from Senator Barry Goldwater (R. Az.) to President Richard Nixon (R. Ca.) to Governor and President Ronald Reagan (R. Ca.). He engaged in civil debate with many, particularly those with whom he disagreed, in his Firing Line debates, which were aired by PBS. He encouraged and aided young people to learn, think, and become engaged in the political processes of our country. Bill Buckley was Charlie Kirk before Charlie Kirk was born.

I offer below a tribute to William F. Buckley, Jr. It is a speech by Clark Judge, originally given at The Catholic Bill Buckley Conference, held at Portsmith Abbey School on June 6, 2009. The speech was reprinted in The American Spectator on November 21, 2025. Below that is an article on the rise and fall of his magazine, National Review, which was written by Francis Sempa, and published in The American Spectator on November 17, 2025. And below that is a speech by Neal Freeman, a former National Review writer and associate of Bill Buckley, which was given earlier this month at The Buckley Prize Dinner in Palm Beach, Florida, and which was reprinted in The American Spectator on November 20, 2025. I hope you enjoy all.

Buckley at 100: Catholicism, Communism, and Conservatism

A warrior for morality, democracy, and freedom.

At this conference, we have talked about Bill Buckley as a man of faith, a man of letters, a man of creativity.  That creativity included founding National Review magazine, becoming the central figure in a new kind of debate television with Firing Line, authoring thousands of columns and articles, dozens of books, founding the New York Conservative Party and the American conservative movement.

But let me suggest that his greatest creative act — at least his greatest act of creative intellect — was the introduction of a Catholic sensibility into the main currents of American political thought.

Yes, Catholics had been major players in American politics since the 1840s, as the Irish and later the Italians, still later other Catholic ethnic groups, transformed the new nation’s urban governance. But these Catholics acted as what academics like to call practitioners.

Catholic political thinking was largely on the left and not at all consequential, even in the development of America’s major left-leaning political movements. The Progressives of the early 20th Century were mainly Protestants and of the managerial mindset that gripped so many Protestant reformers of the time. The authors of the New Deal were also primarily Protestant — heirs of the Progressives, with large measures of British and German socialism thrown in. Left-oriented Catholics were tagalongs.

Bill introduced a Catholic perspective into the American discourse at the same moment that the old Protestant establishment’s confidence in the American experiment and America’s place in the world was wavering.  And through that Catholic sensibility, he brought clarity to the great issues of his time.

Clarity about the moral nature of the struggle with communism.

Clarity about the moral superiority of free markets to collectivism.

Clarity about the essential link between a traditional moral order and the long-term prospects for democracy and freedom.

Clarity about communism was a central theme of God and Man at Yale. The Cold War was not just about strategic tensions, a standoff with another nuclear power.  Though much of the Yale faculty had forgotten it, Bill argued, the Cold War was at its root a moral struggle — about the nature of man and society, of freedom, and of free will.

We have heard at this conference McGeorge Bundy’s odious putdown of the book — a not-so-veiled anti-Catholic sneer. But one thing Bundy got right was that Bill’s understanding of the communist challenge was informed by his Catholicism, reflecting a quality of moral insight almost entirely lost on the Protestant establishment of the day.

Similarly, in Up from Liberalism, the contempt Bill displayed for Eleanor Roosevelt and William Sloane Coffin derived not just from their New Deal collectivism but also from their lack of clarity about communism.

And years later in Let Us Speak of Many Things, a compilation of his speeches, Bill included the text of debate remarks in which he takes apart an earlier Norman Mailer speech — one that reflected too much of the literary and political establishment’s thinking of the 1960s and 70s — noting with disdain Mailer’s callousness towards communist butchery and his utter lack of a moral sense about communism.

Bill had that sense — and restored it to American thought just as others were losing it.

Bill brought similar clarity to the role of the market in our national life.

He showed the acuity of his technical understanding of finance in The Unmaking of a Mayor. The appendix collects the position papers he wrote for his candidacy, including one on New York’s fiscal situation. In 1975, when New York went bankrupt, politicians and journalists alike — including, for example, the much-celebrated Ken Aulleta, chronicler of the bankruptcy — insisted that no one could have predicted the crisis. They conveniently forgot — if they had ever bothered to know — that Bill Buckley had diagnosed its causes and forecast its coming a decade earlier.

Bill had read Hayek, von Mises, and Friedman. Their writings influenced his commentaries long before they were widely known within the American intelligentsia.

To them, Bill added a moral understanding of markets.

He argued that the free market was best for achieving social justice. He challenged the notion — popular again today — that government provides a wider and fairer distribution of wealth and a more humane material standard of living. He noted that market-oriented countries did much better on all these scales than socialist ones and that the freer a country’s markets, the more socially just its economy.

He elucidated numerous, often surprising, examples of the market’s morality.

Sometime in the 1970s, for example, in New York City, local liberals got themselves into a rage about the financial distress of a certain classical music radio station. It was a sign of the market’s callousness, they fumed. These liberal champions of the people argued, in essence, that market responses to the people’s tastes demonstrated the market’s ethical inadequacy. Bill replied that, in fact, the marketplace of New York radio advertising was not neglecting but favoring the city’s classical music stations. It was allocating a larger share of revenues to those stations than their share of the radio listening audience alone would have justified. Instead of ignoring classical music, he said, the market was delivering it a subsidy.

This was an economic and moral sophistication far beyond the capacity of the liberal elites of the era.

You may recall the story of New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s meeting with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev during Khrushchev’s visit to New York.

Rockefeller told Khrushchev that immigrants had come to America for freedom. Khrushchev snorted, No, they didn’t. They came for jobs. I was almost one of them, he added. Rockefeller had no response.

Bill Buckley knew that all those jobs and the better lives and social justice they enabled were the fruits of freedom. After Khrushchev’s shoe-pounding performance at the United Nations, he rented Carnegie Hall for a rally and a reply, finishing his speech calling out a vow directed to the Soviet leader: “We will bury YOU.”

For me, one photo captured the gulf in acuity between Bill and the American Establishment of the mid-1960s. It appears in The Unmaking of a Mayor. It was taken during one of the televised debates pitting Bill against Republican nominee John Lindsay and Democratic candidate Abraham Beame. Beame is making what looks in the photo to be — and knowing Beame, almost certainly was — an earnest but utterly banal point. Lindsay’s furrowed brow bespeaks his struggle to comprehend. Next to him, chin on one hand, fingers of the other tapping in boredom the turned-off microphone, Bill stares out with heavy eyelids that announce just how far ahead of the rest of the class his now wandering mind is.

Bill’s clarity about the essential link of morality and democracy, and freedom, was told in the pages of National Review innumerable times throughout the decades.

Here I want to take issue with something E. J. Dionne said last night. E.J. is a fine man and a graceful writer, but perhaps he has become too caught up in the early Bradford Oakes novels. He referred to Bill as a kind of monarchist, or at least one whose thought betrayed monarchical tendencies.

It is a strange conclusion to draw about the founder of one of the few enduringly successful third parties in the nation’s history, a party created to challenge all the political aristocracies of the day… one who ran for political office to begin the unseating of those aristocracies… who helped his brother become a U.S. senator on a platform of challenging those aristocracies… who was instrumental in the election of the 20th Century president least linked to any of the then reigning American political establishments of either political party: Ronald Reagan.

Bill was as determined and shrewd a practitioner of American politics as any of the Irish or Italian pols of the great urban machines of yesteryear. But unlike them and so many others, he used politics as a platform for clarifying the moral underpinnings of popular government and markets and the great global struggle, in sum, of an enduringly free society.

Where would we be today without his clarity?

Where would America be?

Where would the world be?

Unlike many who have spoken here, Bill was not a large factor in my career. I’ve written in recent years for National Review Online, but not for National Review magazine. He never edited my copy. He didn’t help me get a job.

As a high school student, I watched him debate during his run for mayor, and those televised debates began my turn to conservatism. A year later, friends and I drove to New Haven to see him face off against Tom Hayden in an auditorium at Yale. But I did not truly come to know him until after my years as a White House speechwriter.

Bill influenced me mostly through his writing, editing, and public speaking. And in that I am like those who have come to this conference through a Portsmouth Abbey School connection rather than the Bill Buckley connection… and like most of the millions of young people he reached throughout his career.

We know him not as an intimate, not as a colleague, but as a teacher — a teacher for us all.

Through the application of Catholic moral sensibility and Catholic styles of discourse, his teaching clarified during pivotal decades the political thought of the United States — and, I believe, will continue to clarify that thought for as long as there is a United States.

____________________________________________________________________

National Review Turns 70

A look back on a conservative institution.

Seventy years ago, on Nov. 19, 1955, a new conservative journal of opinion announced that it stood athwart history yelling “Stop.” National Review soon became the flagship journal of the modern conservative movement. The masthead of that first issue included Editor and Publisher William F. Buckley Jr., senior editors James Burnham, Willmoore Kendall, Suzanne La Follette, Jonathan Mitchell, and William Schlamm, associates and contributors L. Brent Bozell, John Chamberlain, Frank Chodorov, Max Eastman, Medford Evans, Eugene Lyons, Karl Hess, Russell Kirk, Frank Meyer, Gerhart Niemeyer, Freda Utley and Richard Weaver. It was the beginning of an intellectual and political journey that 25 years later led to the election of Ronald Reagan as president of the United States.

Buckley even made being a conservative “cool.”

In retrospect, the Reagan presidency was the high point of National Review’s political and social influence. It’s been downhill ever since. But more about that later. The journey from fledgling conservative magazine to the Reagan White House was fascinating. And the key to the magazine’s political success was William F. Buckley Jr., who became a public intellectual and well-known celebrity — writing syndicated columns that appeared in hundreds of newspapers, writing non-fiction books and spy thrillers, hosting Firing Line on PBS where conservative ideas were otherwise absent, running for mayor of New York, and becoming the voice of “respectable” conservatism. Buckley even made being a conservative “cool.”

Buckley had help, of course. James Burnham was the dominant intellectual voice of National Review and conservatism’s leading anti-communist strategist. Frank Meyer, as Daniel Flynn notes in The Man Who Invented Conservatism, attracted great writers to the Books, Arts and Manners section and promoted fusionism to encourage conservative political coherence. Russell Kirk brought Burkean tradition and order to the movement. Whittaker Chambers, for a brief time period, outlined for readers what was at stake in the Cold War. Will Herberg and, later, Michael Novak melded God and conservatism. Richard Weaver brought the South’s voice and its conservative traditions into the fold. 

Buckley kicked out the kooks from the movement and forced them to the fringe where they belonged. He appealed to the nation’s youth by birthing the Young Americans for Freedom at his home in Sharon, Conn., where the group issued the Sharon Statement in September 1960, as a declaration of conservative principles.

National Review entered the national political arena in 1964 with its support for the Goldwater campaign, which lost big at the polls but introduced to the nation the conservative political voice of Ronald Reagan. Two years later, Reagan was governor of California, two years after that, he became presidential timber. And by 1976, Reagan and the conservative movement had effectively captured the national Republican Party. In 1980 and 1984, National Review’s candidate won two landslide presidential elections.

There was, to be sure, internal divisions among NR’s writers and staff. Burnham, the political realist, was often opposed by Meyer, the counterrevolutionary ideologue. Bill Rusher wanted to form a third party when Nixon founded the EPA, left the gold standard, pursued détente with the Soviet Union, and launched the opening to Mao’s China. There were clashes between traditional conservatives, libertarians, and the growing neoconservative movement. It took the disaster of the Carter presidency to bring them all together for Reagan.

By that time, there were other conservative journals contributing to the movement: Human Events, The American Spectator, Commentary, and others. Conservative think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation formed policymakers who filled the ranks of the Reagan presidency. National Review, however, was the heart and soul and mind of the movement.

When Reagan’s policies helped bring down the Soviet empire and end the Cold War, it was a victory for National Review, too. Since November 1955, Burnham and others had promoted an offensive strategy of victory — a strategy that Reagan implemented to defeat the “evil empire.”

They forgot — or never understood — James Burnham’s political advice that NR should support the most right-leaning electable candidate.

Victory can lead to magnanimity (as Churchill counseled) or hubris. In National Review’s case, it led to hubris. The neoconservatives who joined National Review to help Reagan win the Cold War soon looked for other enemies to slay. First came the Gulf War in 1991. Then humanitarian intervention in the Balkans. Then NATO enlargement. Then the Afghan and Iraqi wars and the Global War on Terror. NR mostly cheered on Bush 43 as he sought to remake the Middle East in America’s image. By that time, Burnham was gone, and Buckley had moved away from daily supervision of the magazine.

As John Judis, a Buckley biographer, noted, NR’s founder opposed the growing neoconservative influence of the magazine. The neocons were busy fighting World War IV, while Buckley sided with Jeane Kirkpatrick in wanting the U.S. to return to being a “normal country.”

Under Rich Lowry’s editorial guidance, NR joined with neoconservatives to support extending America’s “unipolar moment.” But as so often happens, hubris led to nemesis. Afghanistan and Iraq became foreign policy debacles. NATO enlargement helped fuel Russian geopolitical aggressiveness.

The failed Bush 43 presidency resulted in Obama’s presidency, which combined foreign policy amateurism with domestic policy radicalism. And after eight painful years of Obama, National Review began its final descent to irrelevance.

During the 2016 election season, NR effectively became a never-Trumper journalistic organ. Its editors devoted an entire issue to “Against Trump.” It was the result of a snobbish, insular political deafness to the rising populist movement in the GOP and the country at large. Trump just wasn’t their kind of conservative. He was “anti-intellectual” and crude. The policy-wonkish Rich Lowry and Jonah Goldberg, and others at the magazine, gradually slipped into Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS).

They forgot — or never understood — James Burnham’s political advice that NR should support the most right-leaning electable candidate. That candidate in 2016, 2020, and 2024 was Trump. But issue after issue of NR included anti-Trump screeds. And it hasn’t changed even after Trump’s remarkable victory in 2024.

So, here’s wishing National Review a happy 70th birthday. I was a subscriber for 40 years until the current editors squandered the great legacy of William F. Buckley Jr.  Perhaps 70 is a good age at which to retire.

___________________________________________________________________

NR Turns 70: A Different Perspective

Thanks to all of you for supporting our sometimes lonely cause.

Thanks to my editors for inviting me to write for National Review — Bill Buckley for 25 years, John O’Sullivan for another nine, and Rich Lowry these past 28 years.

You all know Rich, and most of you remember Bill. Let me say just a word about John. John O’Sullivan had one hellaciously tough act to follow. Following Bill Buckley at National Review was, in the British context, the equivalent of following Addison at the Spectator or Chesterton at the Weekly. Yet, John managed to carry it all off with his customary aplomb. Thank you, John.

As some of you may know, John is the only Commander of the British Empire — so designated by Queen Elizabeth herself — to have served as editor of an American political magazine. Some of my colleagues at NR worried about John’s divided loyalties. I never did. From day one, it seemed clear that John‘s stewardship of the magazine was far superior to his stewardship of the empire. Sorry, John.

As you know better than most, no Buckley event could be considered complete without at least one mildly Anglophobic jape.

Thanks also to the governor and the first lady of my home state of Florida. I met them when they were dating. You could warm your hands by their love for each other — and by their love for our country.

Your name came up in a conversation last week, Ron, with one of the Buckley Fellows at Yale. He’s doing a book on conservatives at Yale. When I asked him how his research was going, he said that he had identified three students who were more conservative the day they graduated than they had been the day they arrived — Brent Bozell in the ‘40s, me in the ‘60s, and you in the ‘90s. I wished my young friend well, but I fear that his book will soon take its place on that shelf reserved for the World’s Thinnest Books. Great British Chefs. Hilarious Mormon Gags. Famous Italian War Heroes. And the like.

It is my privilege tonight to offer a personal tribute to our man Buckley, born 100 years ago this month. I will speak, as Bill would have described it, synecdochically. I will speak of two days in his long and astonishingly productive life — the day I met him, and the day, 44 years later, when I said goodbye. 

I met him in 1963.

I was sitting at my desk at Doubleday and Company, one of the junior-most executives at what was then the largest book publisher in the country. The phone rang, and the caller identified himself as Bill Buckley. I drew a blank. Bill Buckley had not yet become Bill Buckley. He said, “I’ve just finished reading your piece on Governor Rockefeller and found it to be, ughhhhh, arresting. I wonder if you could join me for dinner to discuss it.”

Sure.

I showed up at the appointed hour to find that there would be four of us for dinner. Bill and I, Bill’s wife Patsy, and the young publisher of National Review magazine, William A. Rusher.

Patsy made a strong first impression. She was six feet tall. Supermodel photogenic. Vassar-educated with a wit that carried the sting of an angry hornet. An improbably good cook. A chauvinistic Canadian girl from the real Canada, where they drill for oil and dig for coal. Patsy migrated across our northern border and became the doyenne of New York society.

Bill Rusher had worked a stakhanovite schedule through high school, which got him into Princeton, where he excelled, which got him into Harvard Law School, where he excelled again. When he landed a partner-track job at a big New York firm, his single mom, possibly for the first time in 25 years, was able to exhale. Her only child, Billy, was going to be all right. Which he was. Until the day he quit the white-shoe law firm to join Buckley’s ragtag band at National Review. Rusher moved to the 35th Street office and seized control of the provisional wing of National Review.

As I was soon to learn, William A. Rusher signed incendiary interoffice memoranda with his initials, leaving recipients with the impression that they had been issued by the War Department.

How did that evening go? We spoke of books and boats and ballistic missiles. We took on the Oxford trilogy of PP and E — philosophy, politics, and economics. We spoke without pause. We became four peas, one pod.

At ten o’clock sharp, Bill Rusher, a man of iron habit, excused himself and went home. Along about one o’clock, Patsy, a young mother with things to do in the morning, excused herself and went upstairs to bed. I don’t know how long I stayed, but I do remember this. When I left Bill’s place, I walked down Fifth Avenue to the Doubleday Building, I went to the men’s room and shaved. And I marched into Nelson Doubleday’s office and resigned. I was going to work for National Review.

Why did I leave a promising career? Why did Bill Rusher? Why did the rest of the NR Irregulars?

Because Bill Buckley proposed to change the world. Some of us thought he might just do it. And we wanted to help.

The shocking twist to this tale of impetuous youth is that — in the event — it happened in exactly that way. Bill changed the world, and some of us like to think we helped.

Bill changed our politics. When he entered the public arena in 1951, America’s two great political parties were competing feverishly to give their presidential nominations to the same man. The ideologically androgynous Dwight D. Eisenhower. Bill got to work. From 1964, when he was still in his 30s, until 2012, four years after his death at the age of 82, every Republican nominee for president was either a Buckley conservative or somebody who pretended to be one. My lingering image of the 2012 primary was that iconic photo of Mitt Romney lugging around his go-to campaign prop — a three-legged stool.

Bill changed our economics. With Bill in his protégé’s ear at every step along the way, Ronald Reagan cut the personal tax rate from 70 percent to 28 percent. That was a victory for the enterprising individual, long overdue. That was a victory for the economically marginalized, for whom growth is the only way up and out. That was a victory for the cause of freedom, which never has enough friends.

And Bill changed our place in the world. There has been lively debate as to who was most responsible for America’s victory in the Cold War — that by-now almost forgotten, century-long, close-run, blood-soaked struggle for the world. Some said that it had been George Kennan, the architect of the West’s containment policy. I believe it was George Kennan who said that. Some said that it had been John Paul II. But we have the testimony of Frank Shakespeare, my longtime colleague on the National Review board, that the great Giovanni Paulo had dismissed that notion with a wave of the papal hand.

Some said that it had been Ronald Reagan. But not Ronald Reagan. Twice in my presence, Reagan deflected credit to his own mentor, to a man 14 years younger than himself. In Reagan’s judgment, it had been Bill Buckley who, decade after decade, had reified the hard spiritual case against communism.

Let me add a personal note. It was my good fortune to be the guy standing next to Bill Buckley when he became Bill Buckley. He changed my place in the world. Early on, he introduced me to the girl who would become my bride, the irresistible Jane Freeman. (That news prompted one of my leftwing cousins to call ours an arranged Taliban marriage. As we approach our 60th anniversary, Jane and I have come to regard the Taliban marriage as an underrated social institution.) Over the course of many years, it was Bill’s generosity of spirit that allowed me to prosper in his friendship. He was, at first, my intimidating boss, and then my professional colleague, and then my valued partner and, soon enough, my close friend. Ask yourself. Were you ever lucky enough to have a boss with that kind of emotional range?

Bill Buckley was a good man, a godly man. But of course, he was not a perfect man. One example — and I mention it only because it has grated on me for years. I have now read in nine books — most recently in the deeply researched volume from Sam Tanenhaus — that Bill Buckley was a great sailor.

It would not have required deep research to learn two things about Bill Buckley the sailor. First, that his skills were of a surprisingly low order, and second, that he was utterly fearless. That was not always a happy combination for ocean racing. Bill was not a great sailor. He was to the ketch and the sloop as he was to the piano and the harpsichord. An aspirant. Bill was a great writer about sailing.

There. We have concluded the fair-and-balanced section of my remarks.

In late 2007, Bill missed our regular catch-up session. I called to check on him, inviting him to visit us in Maine. After what seemed like a very long pause, he said, “Mon vieux, I have terminal emphysema.” Bill Buckley did not use words imprecisely. I thought a bit and said, “Okay, we’ll bring Maine to you. Hold lunch for us Thursday.” Jane and I pulled some lobsters, scavenged a few bottles of his favorite Alsatian white, and barreled down the road to Stamford, Connecticut. It was a chilly day, but sunny, and we sat out on his lanai overlooking Long Island Sound. We drank some wine and laughed and talked about the good days, of which there had been a great many.

Toward mid-afternoon, he tired. He said he needed a “snort of oxygen.” He started to rise from his chair, but then slumped back down, a look of distress crossing his face. He was mortified, as he put it, to learn that a book he had given me actually belonged to a British friend. Could I be sure to get it to him? He mentioned a woman with whom we both had worked for many years. He regretted that cross words had passed between them. Would I please remember to tell her he loved her? He had promised a mutual friend that he would write a letter for a grandson seeking admission to Yale. Bill, mortified again, had forgotten the boy’s name. Might I be willing to fill in?

One by one, this man who had known popes and presidents, this man who had bent the arc of so much history, worked his way through a list of slights unattended and courtesies unreturned, not one of them rising to the level of a social misdemeanor. These were the most important people in the world. These were his friends.

He died a few weeks later. His caretaker told me that Bill had been out in the drafty old garage he used as a makeshift office. Preparing, no doubt, to meet one last, unreasonably self-imposed deadline.

Two days later, I received a letter from National Review’s office in New York. It was Bill, thanking me for some forgettable favor and, more generally, for a lifetime of friendship. It was apposite, perfectly so, that Bill Buckley should have expended some of his last breaths dictating expressions of gratitude. His life with words had been long and promiscuous, but he remained steadfast in his attachment to the word “gratitude.” It became the title of his favorite book, which took the form of a love letter to the land of his birth. He was grateful to his friends, to his family, to his church, to the United States of America.

My suggestion tonight is that we — all of us — should return that gratitude in equal measure.

Thank you.

GFK

Earlier this week, in The Wall Street Journal, the article by William McGurn appeared on November 17, 2025. The topic concerns affordability, and addresses the matter by viewing all sides of the political spectrum. Please enjoy.

‘Affordability’ Costs a Bundle

Republicans need a free-market answer to Democrats’ turn toward socialism.

---

By 

William McGurn

In his 1968 book, “The Joys of Yiddish,” Leo Rosten defines chutzpah this way: “that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.”

Today in Washington, we have a new example. It comes in the form of Democrats who have spent years making life more expensive for Americans—and who propose “fixes” that reflect the same government-first thinking that made things unaffordable in the first place. Does anyone really believe that the answer to what ails us is more government spending or yet another government program?

This should be an opportunity for President Trump and Republicans. They could point out that most of the time Democratic proposals to make things affordable simply shift who gets stuck with the bill. Where were the Democrats now hollering about affordability during the four years when President Biden was spending, regulating and otherwise expanding government in ways that priced the American dream out of reach for millions?

Take one example. When Mr. Biden entered the Oval Office in 2021, the median age of first-time home buyers was 33. Today it is a record 40. For many families, that means they can’t even think about buying a home until their children are grown.

As we went to press, the president was preparing to speak at the McDonald’s Impact Summit Monday evening, addressing franchise owners and suppliers. It’s a good venue for him, as America saw last year during the campaign when Mr. Trump worked a McDonald’s drive-through. This time it’s part of his response to the Democrats’ affordability message.

The Democrats have an answer, but it’s wrong: socialism. It wasn’t that long ago that Bernie Sanders was a gadfly from Vermont. But with the Democratic Socialists of America’s Zohran Mamdani’s decisive election as mayor of New York City—and fellow socialist Katie Wilson triumphant in Seattle—these socialists are threatening to transform the Democratic Party in their image. On Sunday on Fox News, a Democratic former chief counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, Julian Epstein, summed up where the party is.

The problem with the Democratic Party “is that all the energy and charisma is with the socialist left,” Mr. Epstein says. “The moderates are a dying breed. . . . Right now moderates have no leverage, they have no organizing principles, they have no ideas, and that’s why the party is going increasingly left.”

Republicans have their own challenges. For one thing, no one is going to confuse Mr. Trump with Adam Smith. What the country today needs is less government, lower taxes and lighter regulations to unleash the creative energies of the American people. But instead of so bold an agenda, Republicans offer better management, which isn’t enough.

Mr. Trump has had incredible achievements in his push to get America back to work. But he hasn’t hesitated to intervene in the economy, notably by imposing tariffs. Last week he was compelled to roll back duties on more than 200 agricultural products, including coffee and beef, because they were proving counterproductive.

It makes for a confusing message. The classic free-market approach is to recognize that government’s job is to create the conditions for Americans to better themselves. The government ensures a sound currency, the rule of law and space for people to use their talents in the marketplace. We elect Republicans (or we used to) not because they better manage the economy but because they know it is hubris to assume that the smart people with political power can pick winners and losers and what the right price should be.

Look at the three markets that affect American families most: education, housing and healthcare. It would be hard to find markets that have had as much government involvement as these. And what a disaster that has been—especially in the Democratic strongholds of America’s big cities.

Take ObamaCare. When Congress was considering the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Americans heard reassurances that even its most ardent defenders couldn’t believe. Remember how ObamaCare would “bend the cost curve”—i.e., slow the rate of growth? How about “if you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it”? How the bill wouldn’t add a dime to the deficit?

None of that turned out to be true. So here we are, 15 years later, and Congress is debating whether expanded subsidies, sold to the public as a temporary measure during Covid, should expire.

Americans are better off now than we were under Joe Biden. But there lingers an unease over whether the American dream is really back. Americans aren’t going to like being told they are better off if they don’t feel it in their own families.

GFK

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO Dick Kent, devoted Terrapins alum.  And HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO Dick and his beautiful bride, Darlene, on the occasion of their 47^th year of marriage!  They are a lovely couple. Pillars of the community!

Today, 22 years ago, at 7:00 p.m., at St. Paul’s K Street, in Washington, D.C., I was honored and humbled to enter into holy matrimony with the love of my life, English.  Our wedding was presided over by our good friend, Fr. Edwin Barnett, before God, our parents, and some parish friends.  It was a glorious day, a life changing event, and the beginning of the happiest days of my life.  I probably do not deserve all that I have received as a result of English’s willingness to join with me, but I am grateful.  And I am not giving any of it back.  I look forward to today, tomorrow, and every day, as we go through life together.

Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D. Fl). has been criminally indicted for stealing federal disaster funds, laundering the funds, and then converting them to her personal use. Oh, my!

Another federal judge–an Obama appointee, no less–has ruled that the President cannot deport illegal aliens from Syria. Of course he can’t; he did not ask the federal judges for permission.

It turns out that the China Joe Justice Department, particularly the Federal Bureau of Investigation, withheld evidence from Congress investigating the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. How has it gotten to the point that this news is not shocking?

Disgraced Democrat Larry Summers has left Harvard, over his Jeffrey Epstein ties. Which Democrat will be next?

Connecticut is addressing the housing affordability clause by enacting a socialist scheme that will raise housing prices, reduce supply, and lower existing home values. Quite the hat trick! The legislation will allow the State government to dictate how many people of every income level can live in a town, and in a neighborhood, period. Local zoning laws will not be a barrier. So if you live in tony Greenwich in a modest $4 million home (in Greenwich, that is modest), you might one day to wake up to the construction of a public multifamily housing project next door. Because it is not fair that poor people have to live in urban areas. They deserved leafy, upscale neighborhoods too, and by golly the government will pay for them to live there.

The Connecticut legislation would also mandate that homeless people be allowed to live on public sidewalks, in parks, and in front of your Greenwich home, and there is nothing that your local town government, or you, can do to stop it. Public safety and health? Not a concern. Get over it.

Governor Kathy Hochul (D. N.Y.) has given $66 million to radical Left wing groups that conduct overt political operations to defund the police, close prisons, abolish ICE, decriminalize prostitution, promote open borders, target minors with transgender ideology, promote anti-Israel extremism, impose crippling climate mandates on new housing — and increase taxation to pay for it all.

Wildfire devastated Los Angeles, California is still not issuing rebuilding permits. Housing is at a critical shortage. And now the Los Angeles City Council wants to tighten its rent control ordinances. Hmmm. How will that help? It will not.

The Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas metro area issues more building permits in a year than does the entire State of California. Think about that for a moment.

Carmel, California has banned pickleball, due to noise concerns. I know some people with whom this would not go over very well. Thankfully for them, they do not live in Carmel.

Well, it has begun. Virginians voted in the Democrats, and now come the consequences. General Assembly Democrats are preparing a scheme whereby you would have to obtain a license from the Commonwealth in order to purchase a gun. This scheme is designed to discourage and prevent gun ownership in Virginia.

Do you need a license–a permission slip–to speak? Publish a newspaper? Attend church services? Own property? Hire a lawyer? No. These are rights for which no permission is required. But when it comes to the right to keep and bear arms, the Democrats demand that government provide permission for you to exercise that right. This Virginia Democrat scheme is not just unconstitutional; it is tyrannical.

Yesterday, Episcopal churches nationwide observed Transgender Day of Remembrance by holding special worship services and prayer vigils to memorialize transgender individuals who’ve been targeted or murdered for being who they are and to raise awareness of violence against trans people. What horse hockey!

There is no such thing as a “trans” person. And those people who sadly believe themselves to be a sex other than what they actually are, are to be helped, cared for, and rehabilitated, not enabled. But the normalization and celebration of sin is a societal norm in 2025. And The Episcopal Church USA loves to normalize and celebrate sin.

“An unexamined life is not worth living.”

–Socrates.

It’s Friday, only 2 more work days until Monday! Enjoy your weekend.

GFK

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

–Winnie The Pooh.

Today I awoke in beautiful, bucolic Southside Virginia. I am already more relaxed than I normally am in Northern Virginia. On Saturday, Holland will arrive from Dallas, Texas, and English will be joining us on Tuesday, as we plan to spend our family Thanksgiving in Chatmoss.

Yesterday, I visited at the Pro Shop. Frank, Robert, and P.C. were there. It was a pleasant way to spend time in the morning.

Tom Webster went out with John Favero and Tom Mahoney for a round of golf. Tom might well have taken a few dollars off those boys.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted to force the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files. So did the Senate. Yawn! Much ado about nothing.

Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D. N.Y.) solicited campaign funds from Jeffrey Epstein. Is that not interesting?

The House rejected a Democrat bid to stop consideration of a motion of censure against Delegate Stacey Plaskett (D. V.I.) for her texting with Jeffrey Epstein while questioning witnesses during a House Committee meeting. If successful, the censure motion would remove Delegate Plaskett from the House Permanent Select Intelligence Committee. KICK HER OFF!

But the censure motion failed. Because Republican leadership made a deal whereby Delegate Plaskett would not be censured. What a load of manure! Score another one for The Stupid Party.

Senator Raphael Warnock (D. Ga.) regularly blasts gun owners, and accuses Republicans of “distorting our values” because of their support of the right to keep and bear arms. Senator Warnock wishes to disarm Americans. So it is ironic indeed, that in the last 9 months, Senator Warnock has spent $360,000.00 on armed personal security. Hypocrite! Rules for thee, but not for me!

A group of Congressional Democrats, including Senators Mark Kelly (D. Az.) and Elissa Slotkin (D. Mi.), released a video urging U.S. military members to resist President Trump, and refuse all unlawful orders. The Democrats do not identify a single unlawful order, but urge resistance. The Democrats are actively fomenting rebellion among our military. This is so very wrong. Despicable is not a strong enough word to describe their actions.

Another group of 130 Democrats signed on to a legal brief urging the United States Supreme Court to overturn a West Virginia law banning boys from competing in girls sports. The signatories include Representatives Hakeem Jeffries (D. N.Y.), Nancy Pelosi (D. Ca.), and Puddin’head. What a joke!

It is pure insanity to pretend that boys can be girls, and vice-versa. It is ridiculous and dangerous to permit boys to compete in sports with girls. And it is just plain stupid to think that a law that recognizes the differences between boys and girls is unconstitutional.

A 3 judge federal court rejected Texas’s redistricting map. In a 2-1 decision, the court held that the redistricting illegal constituted racial discrimination–not against minority voters, but against minority lawmakers. Sigh. That is a horse hockey reason, without legal basis. The Constitution does not guarantee lawmakers’ seats based on their skin color. Ridiculous!

Texas is appealing the decision to the United States Supreme Court. Let’s hope the justices overturn this travesty of judicial “reasoning”.

In another stupid federal court decision, a New York federal judge–an Obama appointee–upheld New York State’s ban on ICE arresting illegal aliens at courthouses. So now New York courthouses are sanctuaries for illegal aliens.

“I’m a supporter of stacking the Court.  I’m also a supporter of, I mean, the Senate can write its own rules . . .  I firmly believe if we held Supreme Court justices to the same standard that we hold other federal judges, there’s a compelling case for the impeachment and removal of at least two justices.  It’s very frustrating to me that there are Democrats in the Senate that either do not understand or don’t want to understand the power they actually have . . .  If we retake the Senate, get the majority—fingers crossed—we need to use every single lever of power that we have to deal with the Supreme Court.”

–Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner (D. Vt.), who has utter contempt for the Constitution, the rule of law, and our nation.  He has no idea what he is advocating, he just hates President Trump and his supporters.

The Somali “community” in Minneapolis, Minnesota is crying “racism” over the Trump Administration’s reforms of, and investigations into, federal welfare programs. Of course they are. Maybe these folks should return to Somalia. And please take Representative Ilhan Omar (D. Mn.) with you!

Michigan’s Deputy Chief public schools superintendent was asked at a State legislature committee hearing, how many genders are there. He could not answer the question. Beyond embarrassing. No wonder Johnny cannot read.

“We demand that every country in the world make war on Israel immediately and until such time as Israel has submitted permanently and unconditionally to the government of Palestine everywhere from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.”

–the wording of a petition initiated and circulated by University of Kentucky law professor Ramsi Woodcock.

Professor Woodcock was fired, and he is suing the University of Kentucky, claiming his free speech rights were violated.  The hell with that.  Deport the man to Gaza, whether he is from there or not.  Disgusting anti-Semite!

In Dearborn, Michigan, Jake Lang attempted to burn a Koran, when Muslims knocked it from his hands. A struggle ensued over possession of the Koran, and violence broke out when Mr. Lang slapped the Koran with a strip of bacon. The police got involved, and arrests were made.

If you can burn an American flag, why can’t you burn a Koran? The Observations does not advocate for burning either. But both speech expressions should be treated equally, under the law.

Starship Bagels of Fort Worth, Texas was judged to make the nation’s best bagels at the 2025 BagelFest, held in Queens, New York. Yup! A bunch of New Yorkers awarded the title of best bagel to Texas bakers.

I expect a full report from Fr. Barnett on Starship Bagels. Please try an everything bagel with chive cream cheese. Just a light schmear, please. Thank you!

After 69 years, The Family Drive In Theatre in Stephens City, Virginia is closing for good. The end of an era.

Actor and comedian Eddie Murphy revealed that he had paid the burial expenses of some famous friends, who died broke and without funds for a decent funeral, including Redd Fox and Rick James. A kind gesture.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a terrorist supporting front group, has been paying $1,000.00 to individual agitators calling for Israel’s destruction on American college campuses. What the . . . ? Why is CAIR still allowed to operate in the United States? And no, this is NOT a free speech issue!

The Observations wishes to reiterate: Islamism is incompatible with the United States, our Constitution, freedom, liberty, and American values. And no, former President George W. Bush, Islam is not a religion of peace!

President Trump agreed to sell Saudi Arabia F-35 fighter jets. A prudent decision.

British Constable Lorne Castle was involved in the arrest of multiple gang members engaged in a knife fight at a McDonald’s restaurant. Constable Castle tackled a gang member who assaulted an elderly man and was trying to escape. As the gang member kept reaching for his knife, struggled against Constable Castle, and cursed him, Constable Castle instructed him to “stop screaming like a b*tch”. For his lack of courtesy and civility shown to a dangerous, knife wielding gang member, Constable Castle was fired. Good grief!

Can you imagine what would have happened to Constable Castle if he had served the gang member with cold tea during an interrogation? He likely would have been imprisoned in the Tower of London for inflicting cruel and unusual punishment!

VPI hired fired Penn State football coach James Franklin to be its new head coach. Will this work out? Things really cannot get worse in Blacksburg. So maybe it will.

Former San Diego Padres pitcher and Cy Young award winner Randy Jones has died at age 75. R. I. P.

“Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.”

― Harper Lee

Thanks for reading.

GFK

“The Congress will push me to raise taxes, and I’ll say no, and they’ll push, and I’ll say no, and they’ll push again.  And I’ll say to them: ‘Read my lips, no new taxes.’”

–George H. W. Bush.

“I want a kinder, gentler nation.”

–George H. W. Bush.

“If the American people knew what we have done, they would string us up from the lamp posts.”

–George H. W. Bush.

“All Americans must recognize that the face of terror is not the true faith – face of Islam.  Islam is a faith that brings comfort to a billion people around the world.  It’s a faith that has made brothers and sisters of every race.  It’s a faith based upon love, not hate.”

–George W. Bush.

President Ronald Reagan left office in 1989, with American prosperity and confidence at an all time. Freedom was ascendent, and the Soviet Union was on the brink of its eventual collapse. Mr. Reagan’s Vice-President, George H. W. Bush rode Mr. Reagan’s legacy to victory in the 1988 presidential elections, promising to continue Mr. Reagan’s policies.

George H. W. Bush lied. He did not continue Mr. Reagan’s policies. He never intended to do so. Because George H. W. Bush was a “Rockefeller Republican”, with the spine of a wet spaghetti noodle. He lasted 4 years in office only because that is the prescribed presidential term. He was terrible, and gave the nation “Slick Willie” as president.

George W. Bush was the apple that did not fall far from the tree. He may have pursued some conservative policies, but like his father, he was, and is, no conservative. He too is an establishment Republican.

Like former Senator Robert Dole (R. Ks.), the Bushes were but tax collectors for the Democrat welfare state. They never imagined doing anything different in Washington, D.C., than had ever been done before. George H. W. Bush’s comment about a “kinder, gentler nation” caused Nancy Reagan to ask, “kinder and gentler than who?” It was an obvious slight to President Reagan. But even dumber was George W. Bush’s statement that Islam was a religion of peace. All evidence to the contrary. And now, lo, and behold, we have an Islamist as incoming mayor of New York City.

Ronald Reagan was a great president, and a great man, because he had firm principles; principles from which he never wavered or wandered. He accomplished much.

Donald Trump is the greatest president since Mr. Reagan. I would not hazard to guess what his principles are, but he accomplishes much because he is determined to do great things for our country. He really cares about the plight of the American people, and refuses to play the Washington insider game. And that is all to his credit.

We need to continue to move forward with leaders who are not afraid to act, who are honest and forthright about their beliefs, and who are motivated by a love of country and the American people.

I would not say that the Bushes do not love our country. They clearly, demonstrably do. But the Bushes are timid people, not cut out for being leaders. They are followers. Their tenures left our country weaker and poorer as a result of their policies. Their main belief was always that they should be in power, because . . . of course they were! They were Bushes! And that is far from sufficient.

The conservative-moderate wing of the American electorate need to reject any more Bushes, Doles, Romneys, etc. These people are not going to implement the ideas necessary to rescue our country from the rot that set in, beginning on January 20, 1989.

We need more Reagans, more Trumps, more Jacksons, more Coolidges. We need leaders who have vision and spine. We need leaders who are humble servants, not presiding tyrants (I am looking at you, Democrats).

The article below was written by Scott McKay, and published in The American Spectator on November 14, 2025. The article discusses the above-themes. Enjoy.

Bush Republicanism Can’t Win the Votes We Need to Save America

It is the MAGA coalition that can, which includes the young male vote.

I’m not a political pro. I don’t claim to be.

I’ve worked races. When Bob Livingston ran for governor of Louisiana in 1987, I was 17 years old and volunteered for him. Before it was over, the campaign had me supervising a crew putting up yard signs all over the New Orleans area. That’s how far back I go.

I’ve written speeches, I’ve advised candidates in lots of levels of races. I run a PAC. I have political experience going back a while.

But I’m a writer and a pundit by trade, not a political pro. So I don’t claim to know everything. All I can offer is impressions formed from years — if I say decades, that’d make me an old man, and I refuse to make such an admission — of watching the process play out, mostly from the outside but sometimes from the inside.

And what I can say with as much certainty as anything I’ll ever put in these pages is that you can’t win elections with only the people who agree with you on everything.

It doesn’t work. It never works. When America was a virtually homogenous country in which white-guy property owners were the only ones voting, getting even those people to create a consensus on the major issues of the day was more or less impossible. And it’s certainly not going to work in the America we inhabit now.

Winning elections requires building coalitions.

Winning elections requires building coalitions.

And the Republican establishment, which seems to be hell-bent on recapturing the party now that JD Vance seems to be setting himself up as the leader in waiting in advance of the 2028 presidential cycle, utterly stinks at both.

A couple of weeks ago, John Daniel Davidson knocked out a spot-on column at The Federalist identifying the attacks on The Heritage Foundation’s Kevin Roberts over the latter’s defense of Tucker Carlson — this was in the aftermath of Carlson’s more-or-less cordial interview of Nick Fuentes — as an effort to strip away allies of Vance and take him down. 

Davidson had that perfectly correct, and everything we’ve seen in the Carlson-Fuentes-Ben Shapiro-Roberts free-for-all on the Right ever since has lined up with his theory.

Particularly when you discount this kerfuffle according to the obvious context, which is that most of the people involved are podcasters and influencers who are trying to stay ahead of an algorithm that rewards controversy and nastiness, whether that algorithm resides on YouTube, Rumble, X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or whichever other social media platform through which these guys harvest their clicks.

This has been blown up into a battle over whether “antisemitism has taken over the Right,” or whether Nick Fuentes is going to be the new Rush Limbaugh, as the conscience of the conservative movement.

All of this is fake. What isn’t fake, though, is that the Republican establishment residing in Washington is desperate to recover its relevance from the MAGA crowd, which makes up the lion’s share of the GOP’s voters.

Most of the MAGA crowd are actually disaffected Bush Republicans. They joined Donald Trump’s coalition for various reasons, but the most prevalent of those is that Bush Republicanism was a fabulous failure.

There was an interesting debate at X not long ago over whether Reagan conservatism failed . . . .

But there’s a circle to be squared here, and it’s that Reaganism ended in late January of 1989 as the animating philosophy of the Republican Party, and the Bush “New Coke” version of what became known as conservatism took its place.

And it took some time, but the Bush crowd gave away basically everything Reagan won.

Which is why MAGA ate Bush Republicanism.

And MAGA is a coalition of all kinds of people.

Among them are young Americans and, particularly, young white male Americans. Lots and lots of them.

If you’re Generation X or older and you’re white and male, what you remember about your teens and 20s is that you’d calibrate your politics in order to get dates. It wasn’t so hard to do, of course; you’d mouth a platitude or two about things like equal pay for equal work, and that would get you in the door most of the time.

But over two or three or four decades of political, cultural, and even economic decline, everything has changed for the worse where this younger generation is concerned. And the millions of young white males who came together to elect Donald Trump in 2024, despite a profound, deep, and well-placed cynicism about politics and practically everything else, come from a very, very different set of experiences than we older folks have.

Worse experiences. And at the hands, I’m sorry to say, not just of the Left but of the Bush Republicans.

So it shouldn’t be a shock that the kids will vote for Trump, and probably for Vance, but not for Winsome Earle-Sears or Jack Ciaterrelli.

And maybe not for your Republican nominee for Congress next year.

Because, they ask, what’s the point?

The sale hasn’t been closed with those kids, you know. They’d vote for Trump because the alternative, Kamala Harris, is the personification of every negative experience most of them have had in America.

She’s the preachy, incompetent female who insists she’s as good as all the men, when she’s relied on men to elevate her at every stage of her career, not on merit but on something else.

They didn’t call her Heels Up Harris for nothing, you know.

She speaks in the kinds of jargony gibberish they’ve had to endure all through an educational experience that turns out to be wholly inadequate to the professional challenges they face in an environment where Corporate America is actively trying to price them out of the job market with foreign workers of every stripe and status imaginable. Not to exclude openly discriminating against them with woke DEI hiring and HR policies. You’ve got to be considerably more hard-working, smarter, and more technically competent as a white man just to get in the door of corporate America today, and once you’re there, you then have to immediately submit to endless arrays of diversity and sensitivity training, struggle sessions, and countless other digs at your character and identity.

Interestingly enough, this has forced many, if not most of them, into the small business world where they then get to experience all the joys of being regulated and jobbed by an economy rigged by the same woke and failing corporations that rejected them in the first place.

On Thursday, I had the Clay & Buck Show on the radio in my truck, and a caller — an unemployed engineer recently turned out of a corporate job — told the story of a former co-worker who had come to the Chicago firm where he’d worked fresh off the plane from Mumbai. This co-worker, said the caller, had worked it out based on what an apartment cost back home, and the exchange rates that a one-bedroom apartment in Chicago would cost him about $450 a month, and used that mistaken impression in his salary negotiations.

So he was hired at a pittance, and an American lost his job. And the co-worker then found out he couldn’t make ends meet at the minimum wage salary he’d negotiated and unsurprisingly asked for a raise. The answer? Work at the rate you agreed to, or we’ll have you deported.

This is what Generation Z is living with. There are 750,000 or so H-1B visa holders here, and in what should be lucrative white-collar jobs, they dominate because they work for almost Third World wages.

This is a generation of young men that faces structural economic challenges that no Americans have seen since the Great Depression. Its experience with academia — run by an educational establishment which is monolithically female and feminist and which has buried masculinity with medication and “zero tolerance” discipline at the lower levels and a plethora of openly cultural Marxist, intersectional curricula at the higher levels, such that young men are increasingly checking out of college altogether — is more negative than any of the preceding generations.

And culturally, it’s more disadvantaged than any of its predecessors.

Gen Z males were denied a John Wayne, a Chuck Norris, a Sly Stallone, and an Arnold Schwarzenegger. They didn’t even get a Bruce Willis. More of them than any of their predecessors had to grow up without a father figure at all, and had to figure out their masculinity in a mine field.

But they’ve got access to all the recorded media since Edison. They aren’t ignorant of history. In fact, they know all about John Wayne and Chuck Norris, and it’s not lost on them that those role models, and the American experience of the 1950s through the 1990s, which produced those icons, have been denied them.

Of course they’re angry. And of course they’re resentful. And of course they’re questioning all of these “timeless truths” that the political establishment has insisted they bow to.

So when an Andrew Tate or Nick Fuentes comes along and offers a transgressive challenge to that orthodoxy and is promptly shouted down and — I use this term advisedly, as I’m simply adopting the argument for conversational purposes — persecuted for the transgression, to many of these kids that’s a signal that the establishment which they blame for destroying the America their grandparents once had fears the transgressors.

And they find that sexy.

Because of course they do. Our generation used to thrive on rebels, not fear them.

Some 40 percent of American women under 45 surveyed by Gallup say they’d leave America if they could. That’s the dating pool these guys live in. They’ve dealt with that kind of rejection all their lives, and it’s why they don’t approach women anymore. Tell them they should try, because the worst that can happen is she’ll say no, and they will give you a reasoned argument why you’re wrong. They can show you the countless TikTok videos of women screeching about the unattractive young man who hit on them and gave them the ick factor, and the social media destruction unlucky young guys lacking in game have endured.

She can make it a lot worse than just saying no. And if you’ve been given few cultural tools and even worse signals, the chances of it being a lot worse are not zero.

Throw in the dating apps and the horrific swipe left/swipe right binary dating culture is reduced to, plus the outrageous materialism of modern feminism which reduces men to payers of bills (and how the Zoomer guys priced from the workforce by foreign labor when not hunted out of existence in corporate America going to build the kind of equity which gets them on the right side of that equation?) and our Gen Z males are starting to run across the same experience their counterparts in China face, but for different reasons.

China’s one-child policy resulted in the mass abortions of a huge portion of the female children in the past two generations, so the math doesn’t work out for its younger men. In America, it’s the culture and economics that increasingly don’t work out.

Is it a lost generation? Miraculously, no. But it’s a generation of seekers. They want a way forward, and they’re committed to nothing. Why should they be?

And to save America, we’re going to have to lock them into our coalition.

By whatever means necessary.

This column isn’t intended to defend Carlson against Shapiro. If that’s what you’re taking from the above, shame on you. Read it again.

Nor is it intended to excuse poor attitudes or underperformance.

But right now, we cannot afford to dismiss anyone as a loser. We need a very big tent. Our opponents in the civil war, which is defrosting in our national microwave, have made it very clear how this all ends if they win. 

It ends in a ditch. With a bullet.

We’re the ones fighting to keep that all-too-common reality from happening. We sent Charlie Kirk — it’s much fairer to say he sent himself, but our side staked and supported him — to college campuses just to talk to people and win converts.

They shot him dead for it, and now they offer wisecracks about “kirkholes” on social media as not-so-idle threats in an effort to shut us up. 

This is a fight to save, and maybe restore, some semblance of the America these kids have been denied. And we’ve got to enlist them in this fight when our only real currency with which to do so is that their grievances against the Left are greater than those they harbor for the Bush Republicans.

By a little bit.

Talk to Kevin Roberts, and he understands this. But they’re trying to get rid of him, just like they’re trying to cancel these other people.

Rather than engaging and converting — and then turning out in all the election cycles — the people our coalition can’t win without. And if we can moderate some of the excesses of our new friends, it’ll make us morally superior to the modern Left to boot.

We don’t have to listen to the Bush Republicans anymore, and we shouldn’t. There is far too much at stake.

Thank you for reading. And remember Ralph Waldo Emerson’s admonition, “Without ambition one starts nothing.  Without work one finishes nothing.  The prize will not be sent to you.  You have to win it.”

GFK