Winter continues to envelop our little corner of Virginia. It is cold. Bitter cold.

English and I are going over to the Chilly Hollow Brewery today, to attend a kick-off of America’s 250th anniversary. It is sponsored by the Clarke County Historical Association, a group with which our family is proud to have enjoyed a long association.

Today I share an article from Mr. Everett Piper. It draws stark contrast between The Bible, and the Koran. Please enjoy.

No, the Bible does not promote violence like the Quran does

Christians understand the difference between descriptive and prescriptive literature

BY:          Everett Piper The Washington Times (January 11, 2026).

Last week, in this column, I wrote of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s decision to be sworn into office with his right hand placed on the Quran. I then asked some questions every logical observer should ask: Does Mr. Mamdani believe what this book teaches? For example, does he believe in its explicit endorsements of child slavery, forced marriage, institutionalized misogyny, forced conversions, capital punishment for sexual immorality and the beheadings of nonbelievers?

I went further. Is Mr. Mamdani an advocate of violent jihad and the military conquest of the Christian world? After all, the specific copy of the Quran on which he chose to take his oath was published during the time of the Ottoman Empire, when Islam’s military expansion was at its peak.

Why did Mr. Mamdani choose this specific edition of the Quran? Was it to highlight and extol Islamic imperialism? If not, why not?

Most readers understood why these are reasonable questions and why we would be foolish not to ask them. After all, the mayor’s chosen scriptures are replete with verse after verse that promote the aforementioned things. It is also irrefutable that the present behavior of millions of Muslims around the world seems to confirm that they take these Quranic instructions and the corresponding history of Islam quite seriously.

Some critics, however, responded to my column with some indignation.

“But what about your Bible?” they asked. “It also promotes slavery, misogyny, military conquest and the execution of nonbelievers. Most of this stuff is also allowed if not encouraged by your Christian God, so who are you to judge Muslims?”

How should we respond?

Frankly, this argument is very foolish. How many Christians do you know who believe in child marriage, capital punishment for adulterers, forced conversions or the beheadings of those who leave the faith?

I’ll ask it again: How many Christians do you know who believe this?

The answer is zero. Why? Because Christians understand the difference between descriptive literature and prescriptive literature.

Christians understand that the Bible is written in many genres and that God has revealed his truth through poetry, prose, prophecy, parables and, as I said above, both descriptive and prescriptive literature.

We know that over the centuries, God has communicated with humanity in the context of our brokenness and sin, and we understand the obvious: Just because the Bible describes David’s adultery with Bathsheba and his subsequent murder of her husband Uriah doesn’t mean God is prescribing that we go do the same.

The church has understood this interpretive principle for 2,000 years and has applied Scripture accordingly. For example, no Christian believes the Old Testament’s “war verses” that describe the Canaanite conquest are teachings for how we are to treat our neighbors and live today. No Christian thinks God’s description of how he judged an evil people who were literally sacrificing their children in the burning furnaces of Moloch is intended to trump the Sermon on the Mount or the story of the Good Samaritan.

So, no, child slavery, forced marriage, misogyny, legalized wife beating, beheadings and forced conversion at the point of a sword are never promoted in the Bible. Is some of this stuff described? Yes. Is it prescribed for followers of Christ? No. Never.

The opposite is true for much of Islam (as much as 80%, according to some Pew research). Why? The answer lies in the “doctrine of abrogation,” an Islamic principle that holds that the later verses in the Quran always abrogate (i.e., trump and supersede) the earlier ones.

Guess what. The Quran’s violent verses are the later ones, which is the exact opposite of Christianity.

Don’t let anyone tell you the Bible teaches the same thing as the Quran and that both books promote murder, slavery, rape, the subjugation of women and “death to the infidel.” It’s simply not true, and 2,000 years of Christian faith and practice prove it.

Has Western civilization stumbled a time or two over the millennia? Yes, but it’s Christian morality that has always been the correction, not the cause.

One final note on the matter of “imperialism and colonialism”: Isn’t it a bit ironic that any junior high reading of history shows that the most imperialistic and violent colonizer of the past 1,000 years was Islam? As I mention above, the Ottoman Empire serves as the quintessential proof thereof.

In fact, it was only after 500 years of Islam’s violent expansion across much of Europe, Northern Africa and the Mediterranean Middle East that Pope Urban II, at the behest of Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, finally launched the Crusades to stop the butchery. Thank God he did, or we would all be living in a country much more like Iran than the United States of America.

GFK

“Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions.”

“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

“When you’re 20 you care what everyone thinks, when you’re 40 you stop caring what everyone thinks, when you’re 60 you realize no one was ever thinking about you in the first place.  You have enemies? Good.  That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”

“Fear is a reaction.  Courage is a decision.”

The above-quotes were all uttered by Winston L. S. Churchill, one of the greatest men to ever live, and arguably the greatest Englishman.  He was a journalist, soldier, author, member of Parliament, Lord of the Admiralty, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Home Secretary.  He served as Minister of Munitions, Secretary for War and Air, Secretary for the Colonies, and President of the Board of Trade.  He was Prime Minister of Great Britian (twice), and he won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his history of World War II.

But for Winston  Churchill, the world would be very different now.  Britons would likely be speaking German, and the United States an isolated, poor, and defeated country.  Winston Churchill spent many a year in “the wilderness”, warning his countrymen of the dangers of Adolph Hitler and the rise of fascism in Europe.  Very few listened, and many of those who did dismissed his warnings.  If Winston Churchill had died on August 31, 1939, no one but his family might ever have remembered him.  But on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, and the world’s most terrible war began.  Neville Chamberlain had no choice but to confront reality, and he had no choice but to bring Churchill into the government, as Lord of the Admiralty.  By 1940, Neville Chamberlain was gone, and Winston Churchill became Prime Minister at Britain’s, and the world’s, most perilous hour.

With the fall of France, and the British retreat from Dunkirk, Great Britain stood alone, as Germany dominated all of Western Europe.  The situation appeared hopeless, as fears of a German invasion grew, and German bombers gave no quarter to the English cities, bombing them mercilessly.  In the face of almost certain defeat, Winston Churchill rallied his fellow countrymen to defiance, defense, and eventually, offense.  Great Britain was able to hang on until relief could come from the United States, seemingly on Churchill’s strength of character alone.

To read Churchill’s writings is to be drawn into the thick of events as they happened.  To read about Churchill is to be transported back to a time where brave men acted with common sense, determination, and courage. 

The Observations strongly recommends any books about Winston Churchill written by either Martin Gilbert or Andrew Roberts.  Or by Winston Churchill himself. The knowledge gained from their scholarship not only reveals the past but provides lessons for our present and future.

Winston Churchill died at age 90 on this date in 1965.  We may never see his likes again.  But we can learn from his time on Earth, and it would profit all of us to do so.  May God Bless his soul.

Today we examine the efforts of one of our country’s least appreciated Founding Fathers, Thomas Paine. Often referred to as Thomas Jefferson’s favorite author, Thomas Paine’s pamphlet, Common Sense, was an inspiration to those fighting for liberty from the British Crown. Enjoy!

WHEN COMMON SENSE WENT VIRAL

BY: Will Sellers, The American Spectator (January 4, 2026).

Two hundred fifty years ago on January 10, 1776, Thomas Paine published his influential pamphlet, Common Sense. In today’s words, its publication went “viral” as it was re-printed and distributed throughout the American colonies.

[H]is approach to government was so radical that he was treated with disdain in the United States, Great Britain, and France.

At the time of its circulation, the colonies were in a state of flux. British troops were engaged in active combat against colonial militias and both sides had taken significant casualties. But not all the colonies were in active rebellion. In fact, some colonial leaders sought reconciliation, but everyone realized the military conflict had irreversibly altered the colonists’ relationship with their mother country.

The next steps were uncertain, and no single idea of a way forward captured the imagination of the colonists.

Into this purgatory of crisis of conscience entered Thomas Paine and his thoughts about King George III, Parliament and the idea of monarchy.  In many ways, Paine was a Johnny come lately to the American cause. He had only immigrated to the colonies in late 1774 and had not experienced anything but the growing animosity between the colonists and Britain. He had not seen the initial autonomy of the colonies nor felt the symbiotic relationship between local, colonial government and the crown.

Paine was in trouble and not welcomed in Britain. He was a strident critic of his government and advocated any number of radical causes including the elimination of the monarchy. In fact, he spent so much time on political advocacy that he lost his position as a tax collector and the business he inherited from his wife failed. Facing debtors’ prison, he was forced to sell assets and with such financial instability, he became separated from his wife.

Fortunately, Paine was introduced to Benjamin Franklin in London and was encouraged to emigrate to Philadelphia. So, as many others had done, he left his financial and domestic troubles at home, crossed the Atlantic and came to Pennsylvania for a fresh start.

His arrival in Philadelphia came just as the Boston colonists were rattling sabers at Red Coats’ occupation of their town. Once fighting at Lexington and Concord started, Paine was in a unique position to assess and then encourage colonial independence. In the first full year of coming to America, he experienced the anxiety of the colonists with their relationship with Britain. He had witnessed the military conflict in Massachusetts and was in the middle of a political vortex of the colonist’s consideration of what direction to pursue.

Common Sense came at the ideal time as all colonists were questioning not only their relationship with the King and Parliament, but how they would organize to govern and protect themselves. If the road to independence was not clear, Paine provided a shining path.

As a newcomer, Paine published the work anonymously, identifying himself only as “an Englishman,” believing that the appearance of English authorship would confer greater legitimacy on his argument.

His work hit the right nerve. Within a few months more than 100,000 copies of the 47-page pamphlet were in circulation throughout the colonies. Paine’s work seemed to finally supply the organizing principle of independence to the colonists.

Rather than make the distinction that the British Parliament and not King George was the root cause of the colonists’ predicament, Paine directly attacked the King. Lambasting George III was not based on specific actions, but on the idea of the monarchy itself. Paine was a republican and 250 years ago, that meant no hereditary monarchy. Viewing all men as equal he argued that kings were historically the source of trouble for people and should be eliminated.

He further argued that independence was the only course of action to take and that the colonists must separate themselves from the evils of a king, seek self-government, and form a new society.

While the colonists were weary of the king and chaffed under his decrees, they largely blamed the king’s ministers and viewed King George as getting bad advice from poor counselors. Paine disabused the colonist of this notion and pointed out the entire problem was having a king to start with.

His arguments provided a logical basis to consider that being independent of Britain was the only way to resolve the conflict. If people had doubts about the colonists’ end game with their relationship with Britain, Paine gave them moral authority to pursue complete separation.

But Paine’s prescription after independence was a radical government that was more populist and closer to a pure democracy. This ran counter to many of the traditional colonists who had experienced the pre-revolutionary, benign neglect from Britain and simply wanted that again. The more established colonial leadership, while willing to replace the king, wanted to maintain the structure of state centered, colonial government. Many thought that Paine went too far.

Paine’s writing continued to support the Revolution, but once it reached a favorable conclusion, Paine returned to Europe and caught the spirit of the French Revolution. In London, he advocated for the right of the people to overthrow their government. This did not sit well, and Paine was convicted of sedition. He fled to France and was instrumental in supporting that revolution too. But his writings became so radical that he was arrested and was slated for execution. Fortunately, American ambassador James Monroe intervened to save Paine from the guillotine.

Paine would return to what was now the United States, but he became wildly critical of his former friends when he realized they did not fully embrace his ideas of government. As a radical to the end, he could never find comfort with the U.S. Constitution and the stability of divided, co-equal government.

When he died, hardly anyone attended his funeral. While he was a catalyst for shedding the colonists of a king, his approach to government was so radical that he was treated with disdain in the United States, Great Britain, and France. Quite an accomplishment, but a sad ending to such an important advocate for American liberty.

GFK

“Today is your day!  Your mountain is waiting.  So . . . get on your way.”

–Winnie The Pooh.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KENAN! You are still a youngster.

The United States has established a Board of Peace, which will oversee the Gaza resolution, and seek to resolve other international issues. Twenty-two (22) countries have joined. Notably, Great Britain and other European countries did not, expressing concern that the Board of Peace could undermine the United Nations. Too late. The United Nations undermined itself years ago.

President Trump pointedly criticized Canada as “ungrateful”, due to Prime Minister Carney’s recent actions, and statements disparaging the United States. Mr. Trump has a point; the Canadians, like Europe, have been free riders under America’s security umbrella for decades. Canadians could not defend themselves against a band of angry Eskimos. But with the United States’ guarantee, they are safe to hurl insults and policy brickbats at us.

The House of Representatives voted to repeal a China Joe Administration regulation that locked up and prevented the development of rare earth minerals in Minnesota. At last, good news concerning Minnesota.

Virginia’s Governor, with the full backing of General Assembly Democrats, is rejoining the Regional Greenhouse Gases Initiative. The compact among, largely Northeastern, States, claims to address “climate change”. What it does is mandate changes on everyday people’s lives, raising energy prices, and restricting choices. Another blow to Governor Spanberger’s “affordability” agenda.

Virginia General Assembly Democrats are angry that The Virginia Military Institute eradicated DEI at the school. Stated differently, Democrats are angry that VMI is operating on the merit system, instead of a racial spoils system. So now General Assembly Democrats are threatening to cut off all funding to VMI. SHAME ON THE RACISTS IN RICHMOND!

Piling on, Delegate Michael Feggans (D. Va. Beach) introduced legislation to abolish VMI’s Board of Visitors, and place the Institute under the governance of Virginia State’s Board of Visitors. Good grief! Union General Philip Sheridan did less damage to VMI in 1864 when he set the school on fire.

VMI is not the only target of racial discrimination. Democrats have introduced a bill that discriminates against white men in government contracting.  For discretionary contracts under $100K, white men are barred from even being considered unless there’s literally no competition.  And even then, this bill allows agencies to award contracts to women or minority-owned firms that are 5% more expensive than a bid from a business owned by a white man. SHAME ON THE RACISTS IN RICHMOND!

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon quickly responded to the proposed bill, warning Virginia Democrats that it was unconstitutional, illegal, and would be challenged. And it is. Interestingly, it was in the case of City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson, that the United States Supreme Court ruled minority set aside contracts unconstitutional. But then again, Virginia Democrats never learn.

The Observations warned Virginia voters that Abigail Spanberger was no “moderate”, and that if Democrats captured control of the Commonwealth’s government, things would quickly go South. It gives us no pleasure to write, “we told you so”. Set forth are just a few of Democrat priorities for this year:

– New 4.3% sales tax on Uber Eats, Amazon, etc deliveries.

– New sales tax on admissions to a wide variety of businesses.

– Create two new higher tax brackets of 8% and 10% on people making over $600K.

– A new 10% tax bracket for anyone making over $1M.

– 3.8% investment tax on top of state income taxes.

– Raise the hotel tax.

– New personal property tax on landscaping equipment.

– Ban gas powered leaf blowers.

– Guarantee illegal aliens free education.

– Make it illegal to approach somebody at an abortion clinic.

– Extend the time absentee ballots can be received after election day to three days

– Allow people to cast their votes electronically through the internet.

– Expand ranked-choice voting.

– Extend the deadline for ballot curing to one week after election day.

– Redact the addresses of political candidates from FOIAs.

– Add Virginia to the National Popular Vote Compact for presidential electors.

– Make it illegal to hand count ballots.

– $500 sales tax on firearm suppressors .

– “Assault weapons” and large capacity magazine ban.

– 11% sales tax on all firearms and ammunition.

– Prohibit outdoor shooting of a firearm on land less than 5 acres.

– Lower the criminal penalties for robbery.

– Ban the arrest of illegal aliens in courthouses.

– Remove mandatory minimum sentences.

– Allow localities to install speed cameras.

– Replace Columbus Day with “Indigenous Peoples Day”.

Most all, if not all, of this will be enacted into law. Who is going to stop it? Welcome to California East. Sigh. I miss Coonman.

Heck, I miss California. Better weather.

The University of Maryland School of Medicine is looking to “decolonize” the study of medicine. What in the world does that mean?

At St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Lansing, Michigan, parish leaders are recruiting and training young people to advocate against the right to keep and bear arms. Stated differently, the Church is recruiting and training young people to advocate against a God-given right. Not to personally decide not to exercise that God-given right, but to prevent others from exercising their God-given rights. It does not sound quite Christian to me.

Billie Eilish condemned President Trump’s immigration and environmental policies. Huh. Who is Billie Eilish?

Smithfield Foods acquired Nathan’s Famous hot dogs. Great. First the Chinese controlled our ham and bacon, and now they control our hot dogs!

Congratulations to H-E-B grocery stores! The San Antonio, Texas based chain was rated #1 in the United States, for the 5th time in the last 9 years.

Vernon Parker, master chef at The Hubbard Peanut Company of Sedley, Virginia, purveyors of the finest peanuts, has died at age 83. Mr. Parker was the company’s 1st employee, having worked there since he was a teenager. R. I. P.

Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst has died at 70. R. I. P.

We conclude the work week by sharing the following article by historian, author, and Reaganite, Craig Shirley. For those of a certain age, this will cause some regret and pain. But it is important to know the facts, and be aware of what goes on in our broken society.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute’s hard left turn

Say it isn’t so, Ron

BY:          Craig Shirley The Washington Times (January 13, 2026).

In 1980, when George Bush won the Iowa caucuses and candidate Ronald Reagan was out of money and momentum, I was approached by the Fund for a Conservative Majority about running a high-dollar, independent expenditure to help boost Reagan in the next six primary states, starting with New Hampshire.

We helped Reagan turn around his campaign operations while Bush was well ahead in the polls. Reagan went on to win the Republican nomination, the election and historic recognition as one of America’s greatest presidents.

Forty-five years later, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute has gone the way of so many other formerly conservative institutions, such as the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund (now the Wallace Foundation), the MacArthur Foundation and the Smith Richardson Foundation. It has turned aggressively left, completely forgetting its reason for existence.

The foundation has thrown Reagan’s own conservatism onto the ash heap of history to embrace leftism and monied elitism and all they entail. Recent board member additions, for example, are wealthy donors and cronies who want their names on the foundation’s letterhead but have no association with Reagan, his legacy or conservatism.

Alia Tutor, the wife of a wealthy California construction executive, and John Momtazee, a media investment banker, have no relationship to conservative causes of any kind. Susan McCaw, Elaine Chao and Condoleezza Rice, all prominent figures in the neocon Bush 43 administration, have been added over the years.

Walter Benjamin was right when he said, “You could tell a lot about a man by the books he keeps.” The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum has censored most conservative books about Reagan from its online gift shop and disinvited conservative authors (me, for one) from its conferences while inviting myriad liberals who have no expertise on Reagan to appear at the library.

My six books on Reagan are now gone from the library’s site, including “Rendezvous With Destiny,” which was cited as one of the five finest campaign books ever by a Wall Street Journal columnist. So too are several of Kiron Skinner’s books and books by Martin Anderson and Annelise Anderson, close aides to Reagan.

Also missing are significant books by Nobel Prize laureate Milton Friedman, Ken Khachigian (one of Reagan’s favorite speechwriters), Newt Gingrich, Art Laffer, Peter Schweizer and Peter Robinson, another Reagan speechwriter, as well as other conservatives.

Yet “The Triumph of Nancy Reagan” by ultraleftist Karen Tumulty is prominently displayed. A little-read and badly reviewed book by Trump hater Chris Christie is for sale.

I am especially disturbed by all this, as I am a longtime champion of Reagan’s legacy. My wife, Zorine, and I worked for Reagan. I wrote many op-eds, papers and books on him and his times. Over the years, the library has often called on me to defend Reagan’s reputation.

When Ronald Reagan Jr. wrote a half-baked, silly book about his father’s brain surgery, the library called me to mount a public campaign casting doubt on the book’s credibility. Yet that book is currently for sale at the library.

When a vial of Reagan’s blood was stolen during the 1981 failed assassination attempt, the library asked me to create a public pressure campaign to have the blood turned over to Mrs. Reagan, where it belonged. We were successful.

When Bill O’Reilly wrote his book about Reagan having Alzheimer’s symptoms during his presidency, the library called to ask that I again mount a public campaign, this time to undermine the credibility of the book. We were wildly successful. With several historians, we wrote op-eds disproving Mr. O’Reilly’s controversial accusations while persuading George F. Will to appear on Mr. O’Reilly’s show to dispute the claims.

When would-be Reagan assassin John Hinckley Jr. was released, the library asked me to again write and make media appearances ripping Mr. Hinckley and the Clinton-appointed judge who set him free. I did. I also facilitated the donation of a Reagan staff assistant’s diary that documented the president’s time in the hospital after that attempt. It’s still on display at the library.

When the library needed to boost its campaign memorabilia displays, I gladly lent items. I also donated a large number of copies of my book “The Search for Reagan” and research materials.

In my book “Last Act,” I defend Reagan’s legacy against the lie that he had Alzheimer’s while in office. No one tells this lie anymore. I received many letters from Nancy Reagan over the years thanking me.

I have spoken many times at the Reagan library, but those days are now, sadly, over. This summer, when the library hosted a conference on the “Age of Reagan,” I called to offer my services, thinking the library had failed to invite me. An intern informed me that, although I was welcome to sit in the audience, I wasn’t needed for any panel because I was “too old.” At the time, I was a year younger than Reagan when he ran for president in 1980. Ageism is not very politically correct.

Apparently, the library was embarrassed by the whole affair, as a list of the participants is no longer available on the website. Still, the panels were loaded with liberal academic types.

I was proud and happy to do all this for the library, and I never thought about charging a dime. None of those now sanitizing and cleansing the place of Reaganism would have a job without my efforts in 1980. They might now be working as greeters at Walmart.

This is all doubly ironic to me, as Reagan dedicated his life to promoting conservatism and defeating collectivism — a labor of love. As he once said, “The conservative movement believes that government is not the solution to our problems.” The modern iteration of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute is not the solution either.

The final irony? President Trump is carrying on the Reagan agenda far better than the foundation named in honor of Reagan.

GFK

Congratulations to Vice-President Vance and Mrs. Vance on the announcement that they are expecting their 4th child. Best wishes and prayers to Mrs. Vance for a safe and healthy pregnancy and birth.

“I don’t want to curse, but those of us who escaped places like that, the one place where we thought we would never experience this is the U.S. [sic] god**mn States.  And we should all be ashamed that it is the United States that is allowing for this to take place, and it is being . . . broadcast to the rest of the world, where people are calling and saying, ‘Are you sure this is America?’  I am ashamed, and we must do everything that we can to bring back the America we all escaped into.”

–Representative Ilhan Omar (D. Mn.), expressing her contempt for the United States, its laws, and its people.

Ilhan Omar should be ashamed. She should be ashamed for her statements, her conduct, and her unbelievable ingratitude. She was granted asylum to come here, and ever since she has shown her contempt for this country. She has broken immigration laws, is neck deep in the welfare fraud scandal in Minnesota, has shown no love or respect for our history, Constitution, or laws, and she claims to represent, first and foremost, the interests of Somalia in Congress. She is a despicable, disgraceful excuse for a human being.

What will it take to deport this horrible person back to where she came from? What?

Socialist Minnesota State Senator Omar Fateh (D.) wants to establish Somali neighborhoods in Minneapolis as “no go zones” for white people. In the United States of America.

Also in Minneapolis, a group of anti-ICE demonstrators stormed a church, disrupting services, chanting and protesting, and physically assaulting the parishioners and the building. All because the demonstrators believed that one of the church pastors was “pro-ICE”.

Former CNN host Don Lemon was among those in the anti-ICE mob who disrupted the church services. Mr. Lemon justified his presence and participation on the fact that the church parishioners were white supremacists. Sigh. Of course.

“The protest is fundamental to American society.  This country started in a protest.  It’s freedom of expression.  People have a right to lift up their voices and make their peace.  And none of us are immune from the voice of the public.  So I, quite honestly, I think that you’ve got the First Amendment freedom of religion and First Amendment freedom of expression – and I think it’s just something you’ve just gotta live with in a society.”

–Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, reacting to the anti-ICE demonstrators disrupting a church service.

Hmmm. So Christians just are going to have to live with demonstrators interrupting their church services. I wonder what Mr. Ellison’s reaction would be if this happened at a mosque? Keith Ellison is Muslim.

Neither Governor Tampon Tim (D.) nor Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D.) uttered 1 word in condemnation of the church disruption and desecration. Not. One. Word.

But Mayor Frey did find time to call the presence of ICE agents in the city an “invasion”. He called for the courts to intervene to stop a civil war. Mr. Mayor, you and your ilk started this “civil war”.

California Assemblyman Laurie Davies (R.) introduced legislation that would add “political affiliation” to the State’s “hate crimes” law. Sigh. Has it really come to that?

A lawsuit filed in California seeks to disqualify Representative Eric Swalwell (D.) from running for Governor, or from continuing to hold his Congressional seat. You see, there is a residency requirement for holding such offices, and it turns out that Eric Swalwell is not a California resident. He owns no real property. He leases no real property. The only real property he owns is in Washington, D.C., and he claims that as his primary residence. Mr. Swalwell, who claims to represent Alameda County in Congress (East Bay Area) lists a Sacramento address as his California residence. That address is his lawyer’s office, not a residence. Oh, my! What will it be Eric, mortgage fraud, or resignation from Congress?

Eric Swalwell dismissed the claims about his residency as “nonsense”. He further stated that listing his attorney’s office as his residence is “common practice”. Hmmmm.

“I am in support of abolishing ICE.  What we see is an entity that has no interest in fulfilling its stated reason to exist.”

–Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D. N.Y.).

Apparently Comrade Mamdani has fixed all of New York City’s problems, therefore he has time to address other areas of the United States.

“There is a concerted effort to re-segregate America.”

–An unhinged former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder (D.), speaking on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, about the Trump Administration.

Episcopalian clergy across the United States are urging parishioners to address growing authoritarianism through “protesting faithfully”. What growing authoritarianism? ICE agents are executing faithfully the laws of the United States, against criminals who have no right to be in this country. These laws were passed by the Congress, and have been on the books for decades. But it is “authoritarian” to enforce the law? NO!

A statement by an associate priest in Staunton, Virginia said that the Church does not take partisan stands. Really? It is just a coincidence that every time the Church takes a stand, it is on the side of the Democrat Party?

Sailormen, Inc., one of the largest Popeye’s Chicken franchisees, is filing for bankruptcy. The filing will affect 131 Popeye’s stores.

Southern Living magazine ranked Jiff Creamy Peanut Butter as the nation’s best peanut butter. EXACTLY RIGHT!

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D. Ca.) went to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he beclowned himself. First, he bashed the United States because . . . Orange Man Bad. Then he bashed European nations for not standing up to the United States because . . . Orange Man Bad.

In 2026, the United States has entered into the most profound and searing debate about the moral foundation for America’s actions in the world since the end of the Cold War. The events in Venezuela, Ukraine and Greenland have raised basic questions about the use of military force and the meaning of peace. 

The sovereign rights of nations to self-determination appear all too fragile in a world of ever greater conflagrations. The balancing of national interest with the common good is being framed within starkly polarized terms. 

Our country’s moral role in confronting evil around the world, sustaining the right to life and human dignity, and supporting religious liberty are all under examination. And the building of just and sustainable peace, so crucial to humanity’s well-being now and in the future, is being reduced to partisan categories that encourage polarization and destructive policies.

–Statement issued by Catholic Cardinals Blase Cupich of Chicago, Robert McElroy of Washington, and Joseph Tobin of Newark. 

Can these foreign policy geniuses name a more moral country in the conduct of its foreign policy than the United States, since its inception, up until today?  We’ll wait.

United Nations (U.N.) Chief António Guterres criticized the United States for its abduction of Nicolas Maduro, and for seeking to obtain Greenland. Well. Terrorism and domestic oppression in Iran? Nothing to see there. Hamas terrorists attacking their own citizens, as well as Israelis? Nothing to see there (but it is Israel’s fault). China, the largest communist country in the world, which employs slave labor and threatens its neighbors with force? Nothing to see there. South Africa? Nope. Nigeria? Nada. But the United States? Ah, there is the “Great Satan”!

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

After the national college football championship game, Miami quarterback Carson Beck refused to shake hands with Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza. Classless.

Knuckle ball pitcher for the Chicago White Sox, Wilbur Wood, has died at age 84. R. I. P.

GFK

“Kamala, you don’t know what you mean to Jackson, Mississippi.  You don’t know what you mean to Mississippi.  You don’t know what you mean to America.  And, in recognition of your many, many firsts, in recognition of all of the accomplishments that you have made . . . I signed a proclamation declaring Jan. 14, 2026, Kamala Harris Day in Jackson, Mississippi. We need you now, more than ever.” 

–Jackson, Mississippi Mayor John Horhn.

What accomplishments? Please name one. Just one.

“Democratic leadership has declared that “affordability” will be their defining theme this session. Unfortunately, simply labeling something as an affordability initiative does not make it so.

We are already seeing this play out across a range of proposals—higher mandated wages, paid family leave programs, universal public-sector collective bargaining, green energy mandates, new taxes, and renewed attacks on Virginia’s successful data center industry. These initiatives are being branded as affordability measures, but in reality, they will increase costs for families, employers, and taxpayers.

There’s a simple truth that too often gets ignored in Richmond: when government mandates higher labor costs, higher energy costs, and higher taxes, those costs do not disappear. They are passed along—to consumers at the grocery store, to families paying utility bills, and to small businesses trying to make payroll. Calling those policies “affordable” does not change their real-world impact. Words don’t change reality.”

–Excerpt from a statement by Virginia Senator Mark Obenshain (R. Harrisonburg).

Senator Obenshain’s statement should resonate, not just with Virginians, but with all Americans. Virginia is his immediate concern, but the principles enunciated by Senator Obenshain are equally applicable at the federal government level. For example, the federal Affordable Care Act is not “affordable” at all. Costs keep going up, and the insurance and health markets are distorted due to government intervention.

The Democrats’ solution? Spend more money. Where is that money coming from? The federal government is already $38+ trillion in debt. The American people are already overtaxed. If you confiscated all the wealth of America’s billionaires, it would not solve the debt problem. It would not even run the federal government for more than a few days.

The solution is less government spending, less government regulation, less government taxation of hard-working people. Free up our country’s economy so that the people–NOT government–prosper.

“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked. “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”

–Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (1926).

The President levied higher tariffs on 8 European countries who are opposing his attempt to annex/purchase Greenland. WINNING!

How come it is okay for Denmark to rule Greenland, but if Greenland comes under the United States’ jurisdiction, that is imperialism and colonialism? That makes no sense. Hmmm.

In Minneapolis, Minnesota, ICE agents enjoyed a leisurely lunch at a local Mexican restaurant. The agents then left, returning that evening after the restaurant closed, arresting the kitchen help, who were all illegal aliens. The Left is outraged! How dare the agents eat Mexican food, and then arrest the illegal aliens who prepared it! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

Also in Minneapolis, anti-Islam activist Jeffrey Lang protested at City Hall, and was preparing to burn a Koran, in order to protest the increasing Islamification of the United States, when a mob attacked him. The mob beat him with sticks, flagpoles, their fists, and stabbed him with knives. Thankfully, Jeffrey Lang was wearing body armor.

When Mr. Lang finally broke free, the mob pursued him, damaging his automobile, and robbing him of his identification and money.

There were no arrests in the beating and robbing of Jeffrey Lang. Because no police were present at the scene. Not one (1). At a planned, permitted protest at City Hall. Unbelievable.

“They’re going to lose their immunity, they’re not gonna be able to drive.  I will take your driver’s license.  Good luck walking to work, a$$holes.”

–Representative Eric Swalwell (D. Ca.), promising to revoke drivers licenses issued to ICE agents, if elected Governor.

This is so messed up.  California issues drivers licenses to illegal aliens, but Mr. Swalwell threatens to revoke them from federal law enforcement agents?  For enforcing valid federal laws?

“And in Virginia, our hardworking, law-abiding immigrant [illegal alien] neighbors will know that when we say — we’ll focus on the security and safety of all of our neighbors, we mean them, too.”

–Governor Abigail Spanberger (D. Va.), during her Inaugural Address.

Governor Spanberger means to turn the Commonwealth into a “sanctuary” jurisdiction.  Her very first act as Governor was to repeal Governor Youngkin’s (R.) executive order directing law enforcement to cooperate with federal authorities on immigration enforcement.

You think that things look good in Minneapolis? Wait until Governor Spanberger and her Leftist minions bring Minneapolis to Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads. It will make Minneapolis look like a Labor Day picnic.

Bad news for Virginia Military Institute alumni and friends. Governor Spanberger appointed Coonman to the Board of Visitors. He wasn’t quite able to destroy VMI as Governor, but now he gets a 2nd chance on the governing Board.

GFK

“Oh, Bear!” said Christopher Robin. “How I do love you!” “So do I,” said Pooh.”

–A.A. Milne, Winnie The Pooh.

It has been 3 days since Holland returned to Dallas. It is very quiet in our house. Even the martinis are a little sad.

Yesterday, English and I drove over to Purcellville to pick up some things at Harris Teeter, and for some lunch. As we drove by our golf club, we noticed that there was a foursome on the 7th green. It was 33 degrees. Which means when this group started, the temperatures were in the 20s. I love the game of golf, but . . . that is just nuts.

“Every time a cop attempts to make an arrest, they are required to do so with fists and legs and bats and rocks hitting them until either they give up or until a full-scale riot breaks out.  Either way, they will pay for every single person they put their hand on.  Don’t film, act.  A call for confrontation.”

–Statement by an anti-ICE group, calling for violence against federal law enforcement agents.

Have you noticed that there are no anti-ICE riots or related disturbances outside Democrat led “sanctuary cities”? You do not see anti-ICE riots in Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, South Carolina, Georgia, or Florida cities. But in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Minneapolis, New York City, Chicago, Boston, and Seattle? Yes you do. So what people are for the rule of law, and what people are for mob rule? You know the answer.

Los Angeles, California has approved the establishment of “ICE free zones”. A meaningless, empty gesture.

New York State is passing legislation that would allow citizens to sue ICE in New York State courts for “civil rights” violations. Another meaningless, empty gesture which will be quickly neutered by the federal courts.

Minneapolis, Minnesota Mayor Jacob Frey (D.) refuses to cooperate with ICE in the matter of apprehending an illegal alien who killed a young woman while driving drunk in the city. Mayor Frey insists that the woman’s death was not a big deal, since it was not murder. She’s still dead, Mayor Frey. At the hands of an illegal alien committing a criminal act.

In fact, neither Mayor Frey, nor Governor Jazz Hands (D. Mn.) ever uttered a single word in sympathy for the victims of illegal aliens’ criminal acts. Not. One. Word. Disgusting!

The Department of Justice launched a criminal investigation into Mayor Frey and Governor Jazz Hands for conspiracy to impede federal law enforcement. LOCK THEM UP!

In response to the news of the DOJ’s criminal investigation, the Minnesota Department of Corrections issued a statement that it honors all federal detainer requests, including ICE detainer requests. That is a lie. They do not. The Minnesota Department of Corrections routinely ignores ICE detainer requests, and releases violent illegal aliens into Minnesota communities.

To all members of the Trump administration.  The incitement and engagement in state violence against the American people is a serious crime.  Donald Trump will leave office long before the five-year statute of limitations expires.  You are hereby put on notice.

–Statement issued by Representative Hakeen Jeffries (D. N.Y.).

This is a threat. Democrats are going to prosecute “their political enemies” if they regain power. It is the duty of every American to ensure that the Democrats never regain power.

“We will arrest you.  We will handcuff you.  We will close those cuffs.  We will put you in a cell.  We will set your bail and I’m going to ask for it to be appropriately high.  We will take you to trial and I’m going to do everything in my power to convict you and we will make sure you serve your entire sentence because Donald Trump has no power, whatsoever, to pardon you.  That’s the way the law works.”

–Philadelphia, Pennsylvania District Attorney Larry Krasner, threatening ICE agents if they mount operations in the city.

That is not how the law works. Not at all.

It is interesting that Larry Krasner never wants to put anyone in jail. That is, unless they are a federal law enforcement agent.

A U.S. Senate committee hearing found Senator Josh Hawley (R. Mo.) asking a medical doctor–a Democrat invited expert witness–a very simple question; “Can men become pregnant?” Very simple question, well within the field of knowledge of a medical doctor. Indeed, well within the field of knowledge of any living person. The doctor witness did not answer the question. Senator Hawley asked the question a total of 12 times. The medical doctor never answered the question. What a sad state of affairs we find ourselves in, in 2026.

A lawsuit has been filed against former U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D. Az.), alleging that the Senator broke up a family. According to the complaint’s allegations, Senator Sinema carried on an affair with her security guard, turned him onto the drug ecstasy, and galivanted around the country partying and . . . . Huh. Who knew a U.S. Senator could be so much fun?

Louisiana employed a DOGE like commission, and the results are in: the commission found $1 billion in savings across 17 different State agencies. WOO HOO!

In New York State, it is illegal for couples to dance in restaurants. Illegal. But New York State wants to solve the problem by creating a “license” to permit dancing. Now that will require a restaurant to apply to the bureaucracy for permission, and to pay a license fee, but . . . why do we permit the government to regulate every aspect of our lives? You need a license to dance in a restaurant?

In Jacksonville, Florida, Jennifer Cruz observed ICE agents, assisted by Florida State troopers, arresting illegal aliens. Miss Cruz pulled over, and stopped her automobile. She got out, marched over to a State trooper, and punched him in the face. When asked why she would do such a thing, Miss Cruz responded that she disagreed with the enforcement of federal immigration laws. Okay. State troopers arrested Miss Cruz, charging her with several felonies. There were no riots, and no protests. Because in Florida, the police do not play around.

In Rocky Mount, Virginia, a monument is being erected to celebrate “colored soldiers” that served in The Late Unpleasantness. To be more specific, the monument will celebrate “colored soldiers” that served in the Union Army. In the Commonwealth of Virginia? No. I cannot–will not–support this. No. This is wrong.

Virginia General Assembly Democrats are advancing legislation which would require public schools to teach that the January 6, 2021 riot was “an unprecedented, violent attack on United States democratic institutions, infrastructure, and representatives for the purpose of overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election.” No alternative versions or suggestions will be permitted. Uh, huh. And the George Floyd riots were justified and “mostly peaceful”. Indoctrination at its finest.

In advance of France’s promised military flotilla to protect Greenland from the evil United States, European nations sent an advance team. Germany, Sweden, Norway, France, and Great Britain all sent troops to Greenland. The force totaled 34 soldiers. That is, not 34 soldiers from each country. The total from all the countries is 34. Great Britain only sent 1 soldier. What a laughable demonstration of weakness.

Meanwhile, Denmark’s foreign minister that President Trump’s concerns about growing Chinese and Russian menaces to Greenland are “reasonable”. Hmmmm.

For all the criticisms directed at President Trump for his desire to acquire Greenland, it should be noted that it is not an original idea with him. The United States expressed interest in acquiring Greenland as early as the mid-1800s. Both Presidents Truman and Eisenhower offered to purchase Greenland. Funny, but I do not hear a lot of criticism directed at those 2 presidents, 1 Democrat and 1 Republican. Hmmmm.

Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney has cozied up to China, signing a trade deal which will drop Canada’s 100% tariff on Chinese electric automobiles down to around 6%. This will have the effect of destroying Canada’s automobile manufacturing industry. Seems stupid, correct? But Mr. Carney is driven by a belief that President Trump is turning the United States into an authoritarian country.

Whoa! Wait, what? Mr. Carney believes that President Trump is transforming the United States into an authoritarian country? Newsflash, Mr. Prime Minister; China IS an authoritarian country. It has been since . . . forever. It has always been an authoritarian country, whether under the Emperors, or the Communist Party. Mark Carney is a dumba$$!

Indiana beat the University of Miami to win the College Football Championship. Congratulations.

University of Miami quarterback Carson Beck admitted that he does not attend class, and has not done so for 2 years. Huh? While he claims that having graduated from the University of Georgia, he is working on other degrees at Miami, he insists that he is leaving school. Why not? He is not attending class! Student athlete my Aunt Maude!

One would think that with all that free time, Carson Beck might have played better. One would think.

GFK

“Do your duty in all things, like the old Puritan.  You cannot do more; you should never wish to do less.”

“A Union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets has no charm for me.  If the Union is dissolved and government disrupted, I shall return to my native State and share the miseries of my people, and save in defense will draw my sword on none.”

“The education of a man is never completed until he dies.”

–Robert Edward Lee (1807-1870)

Today is the 218^th birthday of a favorite son of Virginia, and one of, if not the, greatest military tacticians in American history, Robert Edward Lee.  Born at Stratford Hall in 1807, Robert E. Lee was an accomplished man.  He was a military man, serving in the United States Army in the Mexican-American War, and suppressing John Brown’s rebellion at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia.  He was an engineer, supervising the construction of forts and harbors for the United States Army.  He was an educator, serving as Superintendent of The United States Military Academy at West Point, and later as President of Washington College (now Washington & Lee University).  And he was a Virginian, refusing to take up arms against his home country after President Lincoln offered him command of the Army of the Potomac to quell the “rebellion”, resigning his commission instead. 

Robert E. Lee is best remembered for his service in the Confederate military.  He assumed command, first of the Army of Northern Virginia, and then of all Confederate armies, in the ill-fated War of Southern Independence.  Only a man of daring and talent could have held off the well-supplied and far larger Union Army for four (4) long and deadly years, nearly attaining an ultimate victory on more than one (1) occasion.

But for all his accomplishments as a military figure, Robert E. Lee should be remembered as a man of peace and reconciliation.  He refused the opportunity to recede into the hills of Western Virginia and fight a guerrilla war, and instead surrendered at Appomattox without any expectation of mercy.  He then retired to Richmond, where he awaited what was surely his fate, a trial on charges of treason; a fate that thankfully never arrived.  Despite having lost his home and being destitute, he refused all offers of riches, as manufacturers, insurance companies and banks clamored for his services.  Indeed, it was not until he was offered, and accepted, the presidency of a struggling Washington College did Robert E. Lee find his life’s final work and established his lasting legacy.  At Washington College, President Lee sought, not only to revive a failing institution, but also to educate young men of the South and the North, and in so doing, effect reconciliation amongst that generation of men. 

Robert E. Lee succeeded at his final task beyond all hopes and expectations of the Trustees.  He threw all of himself into this work, reviving Washington College’s fortunes, establishing its journalism and law schools, and creating an atmosphere of scholarship and behavior governed by but one simple rule; that one rule being that students were expected to behave as gentlemen, in all things great and small.  Though he served as President for only five (5) short years, Robert E. Lee’s influence permeates Washington & Lee University to this very day.  It is every student’s desire to attain and meet the very high standards he set so long ago, as well as every student’s everlasting disappointment that we all fall short of the great man on whose shoulders our presents and futures were built.

After the War had ended, Robert E. Lee applied for his citizenship, as provided for by President Andrew Johnson.  Secretary of State William Seward received his application, but having no intention of processing it, set it aside, where it lay undiscovered until 1970.  In 1975, Senator Harry F. Byrd, Jr. (I. Va.) introduced Senate Joint Resolution 23, to grant Robert E. Lee his United States citizenship.  That resolution was passed by both Houses of Congress, and signed into law by President Gerald R. Ford.  In his remarks at the signing ceremony held at Arlington, President Ford stated:

“. . . Once the war was over, he [Robert E. Lee] firmly felt the wounds of the North and South must be bound up. He sought to show by example that the citizens of the South must dedicate their efforts to rebuilding that region of the country as a strong and vital part of the American Union . . . As a soldier, General Lee left his mark on military strategy. As a man, he stood as the symbol of valor and of duty. As an educator, he appealed to reason and learning to achieve understanding and to build a stronger nation. The course he chose after the war became a symbol to all those who had marched with him in the bitter years towards Appomattox.  General Lee’s character has been an example to succeeding generations, making the restoration of his citizenship an event in which every American can take pride.” 

 Happy Birthday to a great Virginian, and a great American.

Below is an article from Doug Bandow, published in The American Spectator, related to the issues of Confederate names on buildings and statues. Please enjoy.

After whom should one name a school? The United States faces enormous economic, political, and international challenges. However, that isn’t what captured public attention in Harrisonburg, Virginia, during a trial that ended shortly before Christmas. Residents fought over the Shenandoah County School Board decision to restore the names of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson to two local schools. The battle has been as emotional and bitter as any sectarian struggle abroad.

Good men and women sometimes fight for bad causes. Such was the case of Lee and Jackson.

Reported the New York Times, “On a crisp, cold morning in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia this month, a federal judge listened as lawyers argued over racism, the Confederacy, and who deserves to be honored through historical memory.” Judge Michael Urbanski said he was not likely to render a quick decision. The losers will undoubtedly appeal. And the bruised feelings will persist much longer.

In recent years Confederate figures have become the Devil-du jour, with a concerted campaign to down statues, rewrite battlefield descriptions, redesign flags, eliminate historical mentions, and rename schools, streets, and bases. Lee, who more than any other figure came to represent the famed “Lost Cause,” may have suffered the most. His childhood home in Alexandria, Virginia, went on the market in 2021 with no mention of its historical significance.

West Point, from which Lee graduated with distinction and of which he served as superintendent, eradicated mentions of his distinguished tenure. Washington and Lee College, which would not have survived had he not rejected opportunities to profit from his fame and instead devoted himself to education, faced demands to drop his name. Moreover, his statue in Charlottesville, which triggered violent demonstrations in 2017, was not just lowered, but destroyed. One of the protestors celebrated: “It feels like witnessing a public execution.”

Lee would likely view the controversy as justifying his opposition to commemorating Confederate heroics during the Civil War. He responded to a request to join a group planning monuments for the Gettysburg battlefield: “I think it wiser, moreover, not to keep open the sores of war but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, to commit to oblivion the feelings engendered.” The campaign to essentially deify him was led by his former subordinate Jubal Early only after his death.

However, Lee is not the only historical target. Even Union commander Ulysses S. Grant, whose battlefield victories ensured abolition, has been targeted for being a slaveholder. It is increasingly difficult to name much of anything after any historical figure. After all, the process of history is rather like the making of laws and sausages, which famed German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck once compared. Who in the past, at least until very recently, can withstand modern scrutiny?

Bismarck is an obvious case. He was a massive historical figure, but, alas, no liberal. However, in treating human beings across Europe and beyond as lifeless pieces in an oversize game of Risk or Diplomacy he was no different than other European statesmen, including those from allegedly liberal democracies, who were no less nationalistic and militaristic, as well as callous and even cruel.

Consider the figures represented in busts and statues, memorialized in books and films, and bestowed upon organizations and buildings across Europe. Visualize nation builders, victorious statesmen, military conquerors, and patriotic exemplars. How many of them would pass muster today? France’s famed military museum, Les Invalides, features Napoleon Bonaparte’s sarcophagus, surrounded by celebrations of his victories, which consigned tens or hundreds of thousands to death. In 2021 French President Emmanuel Macron visited to lay a wreath commemorating the late emperor’s death.

Then there is American history. Many revolutionary leaders, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Patrick Henry, and John Marshall were slaveholders. What seems monstrous to us today was commonplace then. Even the sainted Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt had feet of clay or worse. Wilson was a racist and white supremacist. He reestablished segregation in the federal government. He also took the U.S. into World War I, a terrible conflict in which the country had no legitimate role, needlessly sacrificing 117,000 American lives.

FDR established concentration (though not death) camps for Japanese-Americans and rejected Jewish refugees as war clouds gathered in Europe. As the war raced to its hideous conclusion he agreed at Yalta for the return of all Soviet citizens to Joseph Stalin’s tender mercies, which turned into “Operation Keelhaul” that ensnared even Russians who had fled the Bolshevik Revolution decades before. Nor was Roosevelt a model of personal or political virtue.

In contrast, two figures featured in the Harrisonburg battle, Lee and Jackson, seem almost minor in comparison. By the end of the Civil War Lee, not President Jefferson Davis, symbolized the Confederacy and offered a hope for victory. However, Lee never sought such a role. Like the vast majority of Americans in both North and South he was a racist who expected rule by whites. He criticized slavery but, again, like most Americans, could not imagine freeing slaves and making them equal citizens. His impoverished family never owned slaves. His only direct experience with the institution was unhappy, coming as executor to his father-in-law’s estate. The latter’s slaves were property and could be freed only after the estate’s debts were paid, which Lee did. (His management has become a matter of controversy, but criticisms of him have never been corroborated.)

Lee opposed secession. He took up arms for Virginia, not the Confederacy, and only after his state seceded and was threatened with invasion. In rejecting command of the Union army he wrote Gen. Winfield Scott: “Save in the defense of my native State, I never desire again to draw my sword.” He was not alone in feeling greater loyalty to his state than country. Lee made the very sensible argument that political relations should be voluntary: “I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than a dissolution of the Union.… Still, a Union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets, and in which strife and civil war are to take the place of brotherly love and kindness, has no charm for me.” Notably, Unionist Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, expressed similar views.

Recent scholarship concludes that the Civil War resulted in a death toll of around 750,000, more than eight million as a proportion of today’s population. How can that be justified to coerce one’s countrymen to remain in the same political compact? Tragically, most Unionists never imagined the price to be paid. After the brutal and bloody 1864 Overland Campaign, Sen. Henry Wilson of Massachusetts stated: “If that scene could have been presented to me before the war, anxious as I was for the preservation of the Union, I should have said: ‘The cost is too great; erring sisters, go in peace’.”

Lee proved to be a fine soldier, the greatest of the conflict in my view, though the so-called “Marble Man” has come under his share of criticism of late. As the war neared its end he recommended that the Confederate government arm — and emancipate — slaves. That would have destroyed the institution. He rejected advice to disperse his army and inaugurate guerrilla war, surrendering instead. He urged southerners to take a loyalty oath to and seek a pardon from the Union authorities. He consistently worked to restore national comity.

The great irony of Lee’s military stewardship is that it was his success, more than that of any Northern commander, that made emancipation inevitable. Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party were devoted to containment, not abolition, even after combat began. They sought to bar slavery from the territories, halting its expansion, but planned to preserve it where it remained, expecting its ultimate extinction in time. Indeed, President Abraham Lincoln reversed early emancipation endeavors by the likes of Gen. John Fremont in Missouri.

Such a position became untenable, however, as the war dragged on. Had Gen. Joseph E. Johnston not been wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines, which led to Lee’s appointment to command what became the celebrated Army of Northern Virginia, Johnston probably would have yielded Richmond to Gen. George B. McClellan’s forces, with a devastating impact on the Confederacy’s war effort and morale. Instead, Lee fought off multiple Union commanders. The cost in blood and treasure rose to staggering heights as the war proceeded, radicalizing Northerners, who came to believe, thankfully, that the institution had to be totally destroyed. Especially since slave labor freed up white Southerners to fight. Hence abolition became a war aim.

There is much to admire about Lee beyond his Civil War stewardship. Nevertheless, it is understandable that blacks in the U.S., in particular, focus on his defense of a slave republic. Unfortunately, what we see clearly today most Americans, in both South and North, saw only through a glass darkly then.

Necessary is mutual understanding. First, no figure’s memory need be treated as immutable and inevitable. As America evolves and history develops, there is nothing wrong with choosing new names or erecting new statues. Better, however, that the process be conducted with a positive focus, on what today best represents America, Virginia, or the city of Quicksburg, where the controversial schools are located, rather than negative, such as charging Lee and Jackson defenders with racism.

Second, local communities should be left to make their own decisions. Allow Charlottesville to tear down a Lee statue while Quicksburg names a school after him. It pained me to see the end of Richmond’s famed Monument Avenue, with its dramatic statues of Lee, Jackson, Davis, and J.E.B. Stuart — which offered a highlight when I ran the Richmond marathon years ago — but it was within the city’s right to remove them (other than the Lee statue, which was owned by the state).

Third, circumstance matters. A state flag should be a symbol of unity and represent all residents, avoiding division. Historical connections, such as Arlington Cemetery, on property left to the Lee family, should be preserved and explained. Battlefields belong to Americans who fought on both sides; their respective stories, good and bad, should be presented without bias or malice.

Fourth, common sense is essential. De minimis connections to ugly historical events are inevitable since history is littered with ugly events. For instance, the Audubon Society is named after the celebrated birder and painter, John James Audubon. He was, like so many other Americans, a slaveholder, but not a particularly important or malicious one. Demands that the organization change its name in response make little sense.

Fifth, compromise is possible. A little goodwill among combatants in the ongoing history wars would go a long way. There are reasonable, often powerful, arguments for reconsidering historical symbols. However, as TAS’s Scott McKay pointed out, there also has been plenty of ill will, ideological cant, and mob mentality in the revisionist campaign, especially during its height in 2020. For instance, though Washington and Lee College retained Lee’s name, the school took some steps to downplay the Confederate symbols. Charlottesville could have sold or gifted the downed Lee statue to a heritage group, to host on private property. Destroying it was a calculated and hostile political act.

Good men and women sometimes fight for bad causes. Such was the case of Lee and Jackson. However, history is filled with flawed people backing flawed causes, who nevertheless have much to teach us. In a world that constantly seems on the brink, we must seek to better understand the past so that we do not repeat it.

GFK

Today you are you!  That is truer than true!  There is no one alive who is you-er than you!

–Dr. Seuss.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARTHA FARRELL!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELLI MANN!

These 2 lovely ladies enjoyed special days yesterday. And neither look a day older.

Well, it is official. Virginia is now governed by a pasty-faced commie, a pro-Hamas Indian, and a criminal lawyer (NOTE: not a criminal defense lawyer, but a criminal!). It is going to be a long 4 years. Virginians will soon look back at Coonman’s tenure as the good ole days.

Thankfully, neither the Governor, Lt. Governor, nor Attorney General have worked a day in the private sector. So we do not have to worry about having pro-free market, growth, and freedom policies imposed upon us. It will be all BIG GOVERNMENT, all the time. Because government knows best. Right?

It has been 20 years since former Vice-President Al Gore released his movie, An Inconvenient Truth. The movie alarmingly predicted the consequences of global warming, predicting the end of the Earth if man did not make significant changes. The North and South Poles would melt, the polar bears would become extinct, worldwide temperatures would rise, bringing droughts and famines. The seas would rise, wiping out coastal cities and housing. The future was bleak unless man dedicated himself to living according to 17th century standards and comforts.

Democrat politicians and other Leftists surged to support Al Gore’s prophecy. In his 2008 speech accepting the Democrat Party’s presidential nomination, Barack Obama pledged that he alone had the power to lower sea levels and “heal the planet”. Democrat policies from that point on were dedicated to a “Green” agenda, and the punishment of the American people, stripping them of their modern existence.

So what do we know today? There are more polar bears than there were 20 years ago. There is more ice at the polar caps than there was 20 years ago. The planet is thriving. Our coastal communities are safe. We did not all die.

How did Democrats respond to the global warming crisis all these last 20 years? First, they insisted that cooler temperatures were anomalies. Second, they renamed “global warming” as “climate change”. Third, they kept living their comfortable and opulent lifestyles, all the while demanding that the American people do with less. Barack Obama has 2 seaside mansions. Commiela just bought 1 seaside palace. Al Gore, John Kerry, Bill Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and other Leftists continued to fly around the world on large private jets, insisting that they “offset” their climate footprints, and so mitigated their actions’ harm to the planet.

So what have we learned in the last 20 years? That the socialists and communists will do and say anything to rule our lives. That the socialists and communists will live in luxury, while consigning us to live in near poverty. That the socialists and communists believe that all wealth belongs to them, and only they are smart and superior enough to designate wealth’s use.

We have also learned in the last 20 years that Al Gore was wrong about everything. Worse, he and his Leftist comrades lied about everything. Would a true believer buy multiple seaside mansions, exposing himself to financial ruin, and even death? Of course not. By their actions, the Leftists reveal themselves. They are liars and tyrants, deserving of scorn and derision.

GFK

GFK

There is an ongoing debate about what it means to be an American, and whether or not the United States is, or ever was, a Christian nation. Below are 2 articles addressing these notions. Enjoy.

A Christian Nation If You Can Keep It

The Trump administration acknowledges the important role religion plays in American life and history.

BY:          Charles J. Russo, The American Thinker (January 2, 2026).

When discussing the nature of the fledgling United States in 1787, Elizabeth Willing Powel, an influential socialite in Philadelphia, asked Benjamin Franklin “[w]ell, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Franklin famously responded that the United States is “a republic, if you can keep it.”

At the dawn of 2026, a similar question lingers amid controversy over the nation’s religious status following recent remarks by President Donald J. Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance. More specifically, it thus seems fair to ask, without putting too much emphasis on Christmas, whether the United States is a Christian nation. We can respond enthusiastically “yes, if we can keep it.”

At the same time, I must hasten to add that the recognition and acceptance of the United States as a Christian nation, a notion with which most American Christians agree, does not mean other faiths are, or should be, excluded because all religions are welcome in our democratic republic. Rather, my position is that an acknowledgement that even in the increasingly religiously pluralistic United States, a nation founded at least in part on an imperfect notion of freedom of religion typically reserved for members of the dominant Christian traditions in the American colonies, religious freedom remains a fundamental right, a first among equals.

Vice-President J.D. Vance made the first of the two statements that generated controversy about religion on December 20, 2025, in a speech at Turning Point’s USA’s AmFest in Phoenix, Arizona. Vance declared “we have been, and by the grace of God, we always will be, a Christian nation,” adding fuel to the controversy over the status of Christianity in the United States.

A week later, reacting to President Trump’s religious Christmas greetings, on December 27 the woke editors of  the Washington Post published a column, “Trump aides’ official religious messages for Christmas draw objections.” The Post decried Trump’s words as a departure from recent government practices such as under the faux Roman Catholic Joseph Biden who openly violated many key the teachings of his professed Church, especially on matters involving sexuality, and nominal Christian Barack Obama, who had an ornament of Mao Zedong, hardly a supporter of Christian or any other religious values or freedom, disgracefully displayed on White House Christmas tree in 2009.

The Post preferred the secular, non-Christian messages of the previous administrations which typically focused on seasonal joy, peace, or Santa Claus imagery. The Post’s editors apparently refuse to celebrate December 25, the day on which Christians, representing 62% of the American population, according to a 2025 Pew Research Center report, celebrate Christmas Day, a federal holiday, honoring the birth of Jesus Christ.

Responding to the Post’s baseless criticisms, President Trump retorted that “[t]he First Lady and I send our warmest wishes to all Americans as we share in the joy of Christmas Day and celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” Along with President Trump’s commemorating Christmas, officials at the Department of Homeland Security posted salutations on X proclaiming “Christ is Born!” and “We are blessed to share a nation and a Savior,” along with religious images such as a manger scene and crosses on its website.

Not surprisingly, the prejudice of woke anti-Christian media outlets exemplified by the Post and/or the unfounded fears of others on the Left warning that the attitude and actions of the Trump administration will lead to an unclearly defined “Christian nationalism,” to the exclusion of other faiths aside, nothing could be further from the truth. Rather, this manufactured controversy is about how critics at the Post and elsewhere ignore religious freedom and Christianity’s contributions to American life.

The Trump administration’s respectful, positive attitude toward Christianity calls to mind philosopher George Santayana’s prescient observation that “those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” In other words, because the American Founders were at least partially motivated by the need to escape the tyranny of state-imposed religion, most notably in England, in pursuit of religious freedom, they adopted the First Amendment, according to which “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” 

Among the many times the Supreme Court recognized the importance of religion is 1952’s Zorach v. Clauson. Justices William O. Douglas’ opinion upheld the practice of New York City officials who allowed public school students to leave class early to attend sessions provided by educators from the faiths of their parents to receive religious instruction. The Court reasoned that “[w]e are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.”

Critics who oppose mentions of religion in American public, especially Christianity, rely on the repudiated so-called wall of separation between Church and State. Often credited to Thomas Jeffersons 1803 “Letter to the Danburry Baptist Convention,” this metaphor was actually created in 1644 by Roger Williams, a Puritan pastor in Massachusetts. The Supreme Court first used this metaphor in 1878’s Reynolds v. United States in upholding a federal statute banning polygamy in the then Utah Territory, explaining that while people are free to practice their faiths, those beliefs must comply with American law.

The Supreme Court did not use the wall metaphor again until 1947 when Justice Hugo Black, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, introduced it in Everson v. Board of Education as a Trojan Horse of sorts in allowing New Jersey to provide publicly funded transportation for students in faith-based, largely Roman Catholic schools. However, the wall morphed into a Trojan House because the Court used it for decades to deny most aid to religious schools, often displaying anti-Catholic animus.

In 2016 the Supreme Court repudiated the wall’s anti-religious discrimination, granting equal treatment to faith-based institutions and individuals. At the heart of its judgment, writing for the Supreme Court in Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Comer, Chief Justice Roberts emphasized that “the exclusion of Trinity Lutheran Church from a public benefit for which it is otherwise qualified, solely because it is a church, is odious to our Constitution all the same, and cannot stand.”

Consequently, the Court, and the Trump administration independently acknowledged the important role religion plays in American life and history.

Moving forward, hopefully people of good will accept that neither the Constitution nor the Supreme Court forbid Christianity from playing, and continuing to have, an important place in American life as long as all religions are treated fairly and equally. To this end, in 1968’s Epperson v. Arkansas, invalidating a law from Arkansas mandating the teaching of the Genesis account of creation in all of the state’s public educational institutions, Justice Abe Fortas, author of the majority opinion, noted that “[t]he First Amendment mandates governmental neutrality between religion and religion, and between religion and nonreligion.” 

In light of Fortas’ comment, the objections of the Washington Post notwithstanding, it is hard to see how Trump’s wishing Christmas cheer or Vance’s remark could be viewed as violating the First Amendment’s protection of religious freedom. Rather, Trump’s warm words merely displayed courtesy and good cheer of the Christmas season to others, qualities sorely lacking in our public discourse, while Vance’s reflected lived reality in the United States.

____________________________________________________________________

A Nation of Englishmen, Actually

A woke new thesis claiming that the U.S. is a blank slate of origins and defined by different ethnic groups, is nonsense.

BY:          Matt O’Brien, The American Thinker (December 30, 2025).

Politico recently published an article titled, “Immigrants Once Avoided Some Regions of America: That’s A Big Reason We’re So Divided” by Colin Woodard, the director of the Nationhood Lab at Salve Regina University’s Pell Center of International Relations and Public Policy. And like many academics before him, Woodard asserts that he has figured out why Americans are polarized on the immigration issue.

For a variety of reasons, however, the good professor has completely missed the boat.

Woodard argues that America actually consists of nine distinct “nations,” that were “built on massive differences in ideas about freedom, identity and belonging that go back to rivalries between this continent’s competing colonial projects that date back three and four centuries.”

According to Woodard, “Those colonial projects had different experiences with immigrants and immigration,” and that has created a polarized debate about immigration policy.

He further contends that, “On one side are ethnonationalists who assert that only the people with the right lineage and faith can belong to America. On the other is the civic nationalist tradition where anyone who shares the universal ideas about human freedom in the Declaration of Independence is a potential American.”

At first glance, Professor Woodard’s approach may seem novel.

In reality, it is neither novel nor even particularly creative. He simply throws a new coat of paint on the same tired tack taken by countless others, reducing any concerns about assimilation or the soundness of mass migration policies to mere racism. And to reach this foregone conclusion, he emphasizes insignificant divisions while ignoring profound unifying factors.

The “nations” that Woodard contends are the products of diverse influences actually share more commonalities than differences. They are all inheritors of the Western moral, political, legal, intellectual, and religious traditions. Western culture, as noted by Christopher Dawson in his Religion and the Rise of Western Culture, is a product of Judeo-Christian thinking.

The majority of Woodard’s groupings are also distinctly English in nature. Thus, Woodard errs grievously when he classifies Puritans, Quakers, and English gentry as distinct “colonial projects” giving rise to regional cultures so divergent that they must be considered “separate nations.” English Puritans, Quakers and Anglican members of the gentry emigrated under the same comprehensive British plan to settle North America. And the societies they built, while displaying minor, regional variations, were based on shared moral, social and civic traditions. Colonial Boston and Savannah had more in common with each other than they did with colonial Montreal.

In short, American culture is the product of overwhelming English influences, a thesis persuasively argued by historian Russell Kirk in America’s British Culture. And the United States is nothing, if not the product of English political thought, the Common Law and Anglican moral theology.

According to Kirk, “So dominant has British culture been in America, north of the Rio Grande, from the seventeenth century to the present, that if somehow the British elements could be eliminated from all the cultural patterns of the United States — why, Americans would be left with no coherent culture in public or in private life.”

And therein lies the fundamental flaw in Woodard’s thesis. It depends on the notion that the United States, in its best incarnation, is a blank cultural slate whose defining political ideal is a color-blind, civic nationalism that is not tied to the political, social, moral, or religious ideals of any particular forebear. According to Woodard, this concept of America is laid out in the “universalist” principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence.

But that is utter nonsense. The Declaration of Independence, far from being a statement of universalist political thought is a uniquely English document. Its core political tenets are drawn from the Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights. Its legal justifications are purely common law. And its moral principles are primarily Anglican. Rather than being a statement of some novel political philosophy, it was an affirmation that the Thirteen Colonies intended to govern themselves according to the moral, social, legal and political principles understood throughout the English-speaking world.

Throughout most of its history, the United States proudly embraced its identity as a Western nation of English origin. And the American commitment to English social, civic, political, legal, and spiritual ideals led to the exceptional levels of success and prosperity experienced by the United States through the end of the Cold War.

As Dr. Kirk observed, the internal coherence of the United States has always been dependent on the fact that “many millions of newcomers to the United States have accepted integration into the British-descended American culture with little protest, and often with great willingness.”

By contrast, America began to stumble only when she began throwing open her borders both to large numbers of foreign nationals and foreign ideas. Thus, America’s debate about immigration is not one taking place between the forces of racist ethnonationalism and color-blind civic nationalism.

Rather, it is a dispute between those who understand that a nation that welcomes migrants in large numbers can only survive if it requires new arrivals to assimilate into the common culture that binds the polity – and those who do not.

The United States has recently found itself mulling over whether Spanish may be used to document official acts, and whether Sharia law may be applied in U.S. courts. Faced with that kind of existential shift, it is not racist, but eminently reasonable to ask if we should be importing fewer migrants from alien cultures and more from countries that are culturally, politically, and economically similar to our own.

Rather than nine divergent nations, America has always been one nation, under God and indivisible. If it wishes to remain that way, it will reject baseless theories like those of Dr. Woodard and unabashedly embrace the British traditions that made it what it is today.

GFK

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

–Winnie The Pooh.

Good morning Dru! I trust that you were not too traumatized by Boopie Miller.

English, Holland, and I enjoyed a celebratory dinner last evening in Purcellville. Shrimp stuffed with crab meat, steak tartare, and crisp, cold martinis. Woo hoo!

And dessert; what a surprise. The waiter brought out a birthday cake with lit candles. I assumed that I had ordered a cake for Holland, as she has an upcoming birthday. Wrong. It was for me. I have an upcoming birthday, and Holland had spent all day making her Father a cake. Carrot cake with a date caramel filling, and traditional cream cheese icing. It was unbelievable! Professional in appearance, delicious in taste, I was completely overwhelmed, surprised and pleased. Goodness!

Dinner was a lot of fun, but somewhat sad, as tomorrow Holland flies back to Dallas to finish her undergraduate studies at Southern Methodist University. It doesn’t seem that long ago that she matriculated as a freshman. Then again, it seems like just yesterday that we dropped her off at Powhatan School to begin her academic career. And then there were the glory days of St. Timothy’s, as Holland excelled on the lacrosse playing field, and in the classroom. Where does all the time go? I waited for years for this particular moment to arrive, and now I miss what I once had. My little girl who used to beg to sit in her Father’s lap, and just be hugged. Sigh.

We enjoyed a nice Christmas and New Year’s with Holland. I am hoping to spend time with her on the golf course before she takes on law school in the Fall. Because soon enough, she will be on her own, and not coming home. And we will miss her.

The United States seized yet another Venezuelan oil tanker. WINNING!

One would think that eventually, Venezuela would figure this out, and stop sending out the oil tankers. One would think.

The United States is pausing processing immigration visas from 75 foreign countries, in relation to rampant welfare fraud. Good. We already have enough criminals in this country.

Senator Elizabeth “Lieawatha” Warren (D. Ma.) called for Democrats to “double down” on their progressive policies. Because Democrats did not impose enough punishment on the American people during the China Joe years?

The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit overturned a lower court ruling that protected pro-Hamas agitator Mahmoud Khalil from arrest and deportation. Send him back to wherever he came from. Now.

Bill and Hillary Clinton defied Congressional subpoenas, and refused to appear for depositions related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Republicans are vowing to hold a vote holding them in contempt, and referring them to the Justice Department for prosecution. Sigh. Nothing will likely happen. But it would be so nice to see the Clintons finally carted off to jail.

“I am outraged to hear a New York City Council employee was detained in Nassau County by federal immigration officials at a routine immigration appointment.  This is an assault on our democracy, on our city, and our values.  I am calling for his immediate release and will continue to monitor the situation.”

–New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D.), bloviating about ICE’s detention of an illegal alien.

California Democrats are steaming full speed ahead with their proposed “wealth tax”, which would confiscate, for now, 5% of the wealth of “the rich”. Of course “the rich” will eventually be redefined to include anyone with a job. But for now, the wealth tax is to apply only to billionaires. Understandably, successful people are fleeing California to avoid this wealth confiscation. Estimates are that California has lost more than $1 trillion in ordinary income tax receipts annually, already.

Having put themselves in this precarious position, one would imagine that California Democrats might rethink the idea of a wealth tax. But no. Indeed, just 1 Democrat has retreated, and that would be Governor Hair Gel (D.). The man who has never seen a tax hike he did not like, has now decided that perhaps the wealth tax is not a good idea. But then again, he is running for President. Would that have something to do with his change of heart? Most definitely. Is Gavin Newsom really against the wealth tax? No.

“We allege that the obvious targeting of Minnesota for our diversity, for our democracy and our differences of opinion with the federal government is a violation of the Constitution and of federal law.”

–Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D.), announcing his lawsuit to prevent the federal government from enforcing federal immigration law in the State.

Holy nullification! What’s next? Will Tampon Tim order the National Guard to fire upon Camp Ripley?

A State cannot stop federal law enforcement from enforcing federal law within its borders. Keith Ellison is wasting everyone’s time.

FOX News host Griff Jenkins:      “You’re seeing it in real time.  You are aware that 18 U.S.C. § 111 makes it a federal crime to impede, interfere, or even assault officers.  And we see the protesters crossing the line of protesting, throwing rocks, hitting cars, and interfering in the federal government’s view of their operation of carrying out federal immigration law enforcement.”

Minneapolis, Minnesota Mayor Jacob Frey:        “. . . They are going to stand up for their neighbors.”

So to be clear; it is okay to commit federal crimes if you are “stand[ing] up for [your] neighbors”? What a novel defense.

“Armed, masked, undertrained ICE agents are going door to door, ordering people to point out where their neighbors of color live.”

–Tampon Tim (D. Mn.).

That is just a bald-faced lie.  Governor Jazz Hands is turning up the temperature, encouraging his radical Left wing base, and is urging on more “resistance”.  He is an insurrectionist.

Three (3) illegal aliens from Venezuela have been arrested and charged with the attempted murder of ICE agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota. An illegal alien fled from ICE, ramming his automobile into a parked car, and then attempting to flee on foot. When apprehended by ICE agents, he responded violently, and was joined by other illegal aliens who beat the ICE agents with metal snow shovels and broomsticks. The illegal aliens were just standing up for their neighbors.

A student disc jockey at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell’s campus radio station called for the assassination of Vice-President Vance. Cue the visit by the United States Secret Service. This will not end well for the student.

James Fishback (R.) is running for Governor in Florida. He’s an odd sort, adopting all sorts of odd positions and stunts to gain attention. His latest is a head scratcher; Mr. Fishback wants to impose a 50% tax on all income earned by Floridians through modeling on the website “Only Fans”. Now how in the world does Mr. Fishback believe this will earn him votes?

Virginia Democrats want to impose “paid sick leave” on all employers, irrespective of size. Employees may accumulate up to 40 hours of “paid sick leave”. Because the government knows best how to run your business.

The Winchester, Virginia City Council voted to study the feasibility of having a casino. What a terrible *#)@! idea. Because casinos have done so much for Charles Town, West Virginia.

“I have told the clergy of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire that we may be entering into that same witness.  And I’ve asked them to get their affairs in order, to make sure they have their wills written, because it may be that now is no longer the time for statements but for us with our bodies to stand between the powers of this world and the most vulnerable.”

–Episcopal Bishop for the Diocese of New Hampshire, Rob Hirschfeld.

Is anyone surprised that Episcopalians across the United States are describing federal law enforcement as “fascists”, “terrorists”, and “Nazis”? Is anyone surprised that an Episcopal Bishop is advocating for the faithful to place themselves in harm, to violently obstruct the faithful execution of the nation’s laws? Of course, no one is surprised! Disappointed, but not surprised.

Singer Jenny Lewis got “married” to Bobby Rhubarb, her pet dog. The bride carried a wedding bouquet, and wore a white wedding dress at the ceremony. Sigh. What is wrong with these people?

The Aldi grocery store chain is expanding. The chain will add 180 new stores this year.

Toymaker Mattel is introducing “autistic Barbie”. A Mattel spokesman said it was a continuation of the company’s desire to expand “diversity and inclusion”. Sigh.

The estimated death toll in Iran is 12,000, as the Ayatollahs are struggling to remain in power. People all over the world must pray for the Iranians to be delivered from this tyranny.

The Iranian government took credit for the Butler, Pennsylvania assassination attempt on Donald Trump, and threatened to carry it out again, this time successfully. Some people do not know when to shut up.

French President Emmanuel Macron threatened to send troops, ships, and aircraft to Greenland, at Denmark’s request, in order to protect the island from the United States. Ooooh, boy! Now President Trump’s done it! He has aroused the passions of the cheese eating surrender monkeys. The world trembles at the threat.

Federal prosecutors are pursuing criminal charges against NCAA Division I basketball players and gamblers for point shaving in games. This is just awful. College sports are in a bad enough position without this newest scandal.

After 19 years, Mike Tomlin is out as coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Wow.

Former Baltimore Ravens head coach, John Harbaugh, will be the next head coach for the New York Giants. Good move for the Giants.

Olympic gold medalist Jim Hartung has died at age 65. R. I. P.

Cartoonist Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, has died at age 68. R. I. P.

GFK