“Love God and Jesus, who was crucified for us, from the depth of your heart, and never let the thought of Him leave your mind.”

— St. Clare of Assisi.

This Sunday goes by several names in various places. In the Western tradition, it is knows as Lætare Sunday from the opening words of the Introit, “Rejoice ye with Jerusalem…” The Introit continues: be glad for her, all ye that delight in her: exult and sing for joy with her ,all ye that in sadness mourn for her; that ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations. In England, it is known as “Mothering Sunday,” taken from the text of the Epistle: But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. The two terms are actually linked as we think about the heavenly Jerusalem, and the Church, “the mother of us all.” (This Sunday is also Mothers’ Day in the UK.)

This epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians is appropriate for Lent as it reminds us both of the Lenten journey and our own spiritual pilgrimage. The forty days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Day recall the forty years the Hebrew people spent in the wilderness, traveling from captivity in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land. They recall the forty days Our Lord spent fasting, praying and facing temptation in the desert. 

The Epistle reminds us that in our spiritual journey, we are being lead from the slavery of sin to the freedom of our heavenly home. By God’s grace, we are moving from a life of self-indulgence and alienation to one of selflessness and communion with God and with others.

While we might associate these struggles particularly with Lent, they are actually with us throughout our entire earthly journey. The wilderness of Lent is to be found deep within our selves, where we continually face the temptations and trials of daily life.

St. Paul reminds us that in the same way that our earthly mother gives us birth, nourishes us and guides us in our younger years, so does the heavenly Jerusalem (the true City of Peace) nurture and lead us in our spiritual lives. Our Lord gave us the Church on earth to minister the grace of the sacramental life, essential to our spiritual sustenance. This is to be found in the local parish, the outpost, as it were, of the universal Church established by Our Lord upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2.20).

Here we find both Word and Sacrament to nourish and guide us on our journey. And yet, there are many who neglect this essential gift. The busyness of life, the demands of family, and sometimes just laziness prevent us from participating in our Sunday obligation. Or sometimes we imagine that we don’t really need the grace of the Eucharist, that we find all that we need in our personal life of prayer. 

But Scripture is clear on this matter: And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching (Hebrews 10.24-15).

The task of the Church, and more especially our local parish, is to “mother” us, with Word and Sacrament, with discipline and teaching. We cannot complete this journey on our own, beset with the temptations, trials and even the demons that cross our path. Our Lord gave us the Church, the repository of the Sacraments, to aid us in our journey; to make certain, in fact, of our success in that journey. And we neglect so great a gift at our own peril.

During the remaining weeks of Lent, we still have the opportunity to enter into the spirit of this penitential season, to join with our parish family at the altar as well as at the Stations of the Cross. The celebration of Easter will be a hollow celebration unless we, following the example of Our Lord, have entered into the wilderness of Lent. For only when we are truly tested will we come to know the victory Our Lord has won over the “sin that so easily besets us.”

____________________________________________________________________

Below are some thoughts on faux Christian Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, as well as 2 thoughtful articles on the duplicity of the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference’s stance on illegal immigration, in contradiction of the Catholic Church’s teachings, and a final article on the importance of mass deportations. Enjoy.

____________________________________________________________________

“* * *

But what is interesting about Talarico’s religion is that when you take a closer look at the positions he holds, one thing becomes clear: This man does not worship Christ. He worships the state. Every solution he proposes has little to do with empowering believers to take on America’s problems and everything to do with putting the government in the position of God.

* * *

People like Talarico profess faith in Christ and the Holy Spirit. But when it comes to solving America’s problems, none of those concepts come into play. When people are hungry, the government should feed them. If someone is sick, the government should control their healthcare. The poor should turn to government for their needs.

Yet, I’ve not seen one clip where Talarico advocates for Christ followers to work together to deal with these issues. Every single solution I’ve heard him present is about government, not the people — or God. His brand of political theology would minimize the role Christ told us to take on while maximizing the state. This vision, drawn to its logical conclusion, would create a society in which we turn to Washington, D.C. instead of our Creator.

Is this not the idolatry the Bible warns of? 

Yes, the poor must be helped. The sick must be healed. The hungry must be fed.

But Christ instructed us to fill these needs, not the government. He never told us to outsource our Christian duty to a gaggle of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats in the Capitol. 

Folks like James Talarico are working desperately to convince Christ followers to place their trust in the government, not God. They use Christ’s teachings to deceive people into believing that granting ultimate authority and power to the state is what Jesus commanded. Unfortunately, far too many believers are falling for it.”

–Jeff Charles.

__________________________________________________________________

The Bishops and the Border

Immigration advocacy of US Bishops undermines law and order.

BY:          S.A. McCarthy, The American Spectator (February 21, 2026).

I worry at times, writing this column, that I may sound like a broken record, harping on immigration issues and the Catholic Church’s teachings on the subject ad nauseum. But America’s Catholic bishops clearly have no such qualms; indeed, it seems as though their excellencies issue some new (often whiny) immigration missive every other week, horrifically misrepresenting the Church’s age-old teachings on matters of national sovereignty, borders, and the moral responsibilities that immigrants and refugees owe to their host nations. Well, last week was one of those weeks.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) on Friday published a statement authored by Bishop Brendan Cahill of the Diocese of Victoria in Texas, complaining of President Donald Trump’s plan to increase detention housing capacity for arrested illegal aliens. “These plans are deeply troubling,” the bishop wrote, making veiled references to the mass internment of Japanese nationals during World War II. “The thought of holding thousands of families in massive warehouses should challenge the conscience of every American. Whatever their immigration status, these are human beings created in the image and likeness of God, and this is a moral inflection point for our country,” he continued. “We implore the Administration and Congress to lead with right reason, abandon this misuse of taxpayer funds, and to instead pursue a more just approach to immigration enforcement that truly respects human dignity, the sanctity of families, and religious liberty.”

What might a more just approach be in Cahill’s mind, I wonder? What might be a better use of those taxpayer funds? Perhaps funneling tens of millions of dollars per annum into the USCCB’s coffers (see here, here, and here) while the bishops and their cronies distribute cellphones and pre-loaded debit cards to newly-arrived illegal aliens at the southern border, before shuttling the unvetted arrivals further into the U.S. How many young American women could have been spared rape and brutal murder had the USCCB refused the thirty pieces of silver the previous administration offered?

Mass detention centers of the sort that Cahill is moaning about could be rendered unnecessary if the deportation process were to be streamlined. Holding tens of thousands of foreigners at a time would not be necessary if they were to be quickly processed through the immigration courts, ushered onto planes, and shuttled back to wherever they came from in the first place.

Instead, a veritable army of NGOs has besieged the nation’s Article III courts with lawsuits, which are almost invariably decided by left-wing activists put on the bench by Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Injunctions and restraining orders are issued and murderers, rapists, child molesters, human traffickers, wife-beaters, drug dealers, gang members, and fraudsters are kept from being shipped back to their landfills of origin, necessitating further detainment and, thus, the Trump administration’s rapid expansion of detention capacity.

However, those refugees have an obligation, the Church further instructs, to respect the laws and customs of the nation offering refuge and to assimilate.

While I am unaware of any such lawsuit formally joined by the USCCB or its “Catholic” satellite organizations, the bishops have been active participants in the wave of anti-immigration enforcement activism presently afflicting a portion of the nation’s population.

When activist provocateur Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed in Minneapolis last month after striking an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent with her SUV, Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis was quick to issue a statement, while the Jesuits’ America magazine published an essay implicitly accusing ICE of racist practices and policies.

When an illegal alien assaulted 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley, attempted to rape her, and bashed her head in with a rock, no bishops issued any statements. When 37-year-old mother-of-five Rachel Morin was raped, beaten to death, and then raped again, no bishops issued any statements. When two illegal alien adult men sexually assaulted and strangled 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray to death — you guessed it, silence from the U.S. bishops.

The Catholic Church has very clear teachings on the subjects of immigration, treatment of refugees, borders, national sovereignty, and cultural heritage and homogeneity. Nations who can afford to, the Church instructs, ought to welcome refugees, those who are fleeing genuine persecution, war, or severe disasters. Climate change, an impoverished economy, or being hunted down by a rival gang do not really qualify as life-threatening humanitarian crises, sorry.

However, those refugees have an obligation, the Church further instructs, to respect the laws and customs of the nation offering refuge and to assimilate, as far as is reasonable.

This commandment has been broken time and time again by those who wantonly trample the first American law that they encounter and continue — whether for months, years, or even decades — to evade law enforcement, unlawfully take jobs and houses that right-wise belong to their American hosts, and even prey upon welfare programs paid for by American taxpayers and meant to support Americans.

The bishops mention none of these responsibilities. Instead, they treat the United States like a free hotel and complain when the government spends millions of dollars providing beds for criminals. Meanwhile, they and their allies denounce just American laws and, in their efforts to prevent the deportation of illegal immigrants, help create the very demand for expanded detention centers they deplore.

When it comes to immigration policy, the U.S. bishops might do well to read Cardinal Robert Sarah’s The Power of Silence.

____________________________________________________________________

The Church’s Misguided Mercy

The USCCB’s push on immigration undermines national stewardship.

BY:          S.A. McCarthy, The American Spectator (March 7, 2026).

Surprise, surprise: the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference (USCCB) is at it again, watering down the Catholic Church’s teachings to support its own (highly profitable) immigration agenda. Following Kristi Noem’s ouster as Homeland Security Secretary, the USCCB’s Migration Chairman, Bishop Brendan J. Cahill of the Diocese of Victoria in Texas, announced the bishops will press Noem’s replacement to implement “just immigration policies.” At issue, of course, is the sealing of the U.S. southern border and the mass deportation program promised by President Donald Trump.

“Without commenting on the qualifications of any specific individual, my brother bishops and I remain committed to dialoguing with all leaders in every administration, as well as Congress, in support of just immigration policies that recognize the God-given dignity of all involved,” Cahill said, according to EWTN News (formerly Catholic News Agency). “We will continue to urge an approach to immigration enforcement that is targeted, proportionate, and humane, always respecting each person’s inherent dignity, the sanctity of families, and religious liberty.”

Sounds good, right? But the USCCB and its members have consistently castigated the Trump administration’s efforts to secure an America for Americans. Does the Catholic Church actually teach that nations are to be nothing more than receptacles for the murderers, rapists, child molesters, drug dealers, fraudsters, and opportunists of the third world? Emphatically no.

The policy of the USCCB is not one of “justice,” it is not one of virtue. It is rather a policy of self-service, of robbery, of waste, and of harm.

Paragraph 409 of the Compendium of the Catechism nicely summarizes Catholic teaching on government policy, including immigration policy: “The most complete realization of the common good is found in those political communities which defend and promote the good of their citizens … without forgetting the universal good of the entire human family.”

The first human duty of rulers is to their people. This does not mean that rulers have a moral obligation to brutalize others, but it most certainly does not mean that rulers should allow their own people to suffer for the sake of strangers. Americans have a moral responsibility to offer refuge and aid to those less fortunate, when it’s possible to do so.

They have no obligation to do so at the expense of their own homes, livelihoods, families, safety, security, and nation.

The nation is, in the words of Pope Pius XII, a “sacred inheritance.” Those who care for the nation have been given that responsibility by their ancestors, those who cared for the nation before, who in turn received that stewardship from their own ancestors, and it is up to those who currently care for the nation to preserve and safeguard that inheritance for their own descendants. There is an obligation that each generation owes to the next, stronger and weightier than any obligation owed to the tired, the poor, the huddled masses, the wretched refuse of far-flung lands.

Mass migration, as the past several decades, and past several years in particular, have demonstrated, is a scourge upon the nation, robbing citizens of the inheritance that their ancestors struggled and strove to preserve for them, and robbing future generations of the nation that their own forefathers built for them. The policy of the USCCB is not one of “justice,” it is not one of virtue. It is rather a policy of self-service, of robbery, of waste, and of harm. The bishops should be ashamed of themselves.

____________________________________________________________________

In Defense of Mass Deportations

Reneging on Trump’s promise is not the midterm winning strategy Republicans are promising.

BY:          S.A. McCarthy, The American Spectator (March 13, 2026).

It is difficult to overstate how significantly political discourse has shifted on the right over the past decade. When businessman, real estate mogul, and reality television personality Donald Trump first showed up on the political scene in 2015, his comments on immigration sparked backlash, with even some from within the GOP’s ranks deriding him as racist and xenophobic. In the 1990s, Patrick Buchanan’s warnings against mass migration were largely ignored and sidelined, and now Trump rose like a specter of Buchanan spouting the same immigration alarmism. Yet Republican voters managed, in 2016, to reject the whims of the donor class and not only choose Trump as their presidential nominee, but send him to the White House.

In 2015, Republicans still campaigned on the threat of socialism and the need for small government and big tax breaks. The national debt was a major talking point, as was job creation. Few were willing to address the existential threat that mass immigration, including illegal immigration, posed to the U.S.

Fast forward to 2024, nearly one decade after Trump rode that golden escalator. The Republican National Convention that year was packed with voters waving signs that said, “Mass Deportations Now!” This was not a fringe group of Buchananite holdouts hoping that their theatrics might prompt at least 30 seconds’ discussion of the issues they considered important; this was the bulk of the GOP voter base cheering on one of Trump’s core campaign promises: the mass deportation of illegal aliens from the U.S. interior.

Now, after a little over a year of far too many headlines centered on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and far too few actual deportations effected, GOP leadership is plotting to abandon the mass deportation agenda that largely propelled Trump to a historic victory: a second White House term, flanked by a Republican majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, both the electoral college and the popular vote, all after nearly a decade of being smeared as Adolf Hitler reincarnate. Trump supporters had long been castigated as “fascists” or even “Nazis,” but after Joe Biden took office in 2021, political persecution began, with January 6 protestors and everyday pro-lifers being arrested and imprisoned and prominent Trump allies being blacklisted, censored, and debanked. Yet Trump’s base not only shouldered these burdens, but voters turned out in massive numbers to send “Hitler” back to the White House.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) suggested this week that “a little hiccup” in polling with Hispanic voters on Trump’s “overzealous” immigration enforcement will prompt a “course correction” on the mass deportation front. Uh oh.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Legislative, Political, and Public Affairs James Blair went even further, clarifying in a social media post Tuesday that mass deportations are on their way out. Instead, only “violent” illegal aliens will be targeted for arrest and deportation. The millions upon millions of others who violated American immigration law, took jobs that belong to Americans, took housing that belongs to Americans, and have evaded law enforcement for years — they can stay. According to Axios, Blair has privately advised congressional Republicans to drop “mass deportations” from their campaigning ahead of November’s midterm elections. Oh no.

Citing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) insiders, AF Post reported that incoming Homeland Security Secretary and outgoing Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) is expected to “shelve” mass deportations and largely shift DHS’s focus to arresting and deporting violent illegal aliens. Yikes.

A “course correction” that results in nixing the mass deportation program promised by Trump would be disastrous for Trump, the historic coalition he has formed, the Republican Party as a whole, and the American people. First of all, mass deportations were and still remain incredibly popular. In a 2024 CBS News survey, over 60 percent of Americans reported their support for deporting “all undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S. illegally.” (Emphasis added.) According to a 2024 Gallup poll, 55 percent of Americans endorsed “deporting all immigrants who are living in the United States illegally back to their home country.” (Emphasis added.) A Scripps News survey that same year found 54 percent supported mass deportations.

But that was nearly two years ago! Public opinion may be fickle, but on an issue of such grave importance as the survival of the nation, it has proven to be somewhat more stalwart.

An October 2025 Harvard-Harris poll found that 56 percent of voters still support “deporting all illegal aliens.” (Emphasis added.) Even the New York Times couldn’t avoid finding 54 percent support for mass deportations in a September-October 2025 survey. Even after a controversial and high-profile ICE operation in Minneapolis, mass deportations remain popular. Last month’s Harvard-Harris poll found that while 75 percent of voters back the arrest and deportation of illegal aliens who have committed crimes within the U.S., a sizable majority (nearly 60 percent) back “deporting all immigrants who are here illegally.” (Emphasis added.)

Reneging on the promise of mass deportations will have catastrophic consequences for the GOP and will be read as betrayal by the American voters who suffered political persecution, legal retaliation, and ostracization for years over their support for Trump’s agenda — not to mention the many women and children who have been raped and murdered by illegal aliens, the American fathers who cannot support their families because illegal aliens are willing to do the same job for a fraction of the pay (often producing only a fraction of the quality), the American families who cannot find a home because all of the apartments have been rented at inflated prices by illegal aliens and all the single-family homes are being bought up by major investment firms who then rent them out at inflated costs to illegal aliens.

American voters went through hell to put Trump back in the White House, almost entirely on the strength of his mass deportation pledge.

American voters went through hell to put Trump back in the White House, almost entirely on the strength of his mass deportation pledge. There were plenty of reasons to vote for Trump in 2024, of course, but millions of American citizens recognized that the country which their forefathers had fought, bled, toiled, sweat, and even given their lives to settle, define, build, expand, preserve, and pass on to future generations was (and still is) being choked to death by mass immigration. An about-face on mass deportations will shatter the historic coalition built by Trump and decimate any chance the Republican Party might still have at retaining the White House in 2028.

Politics aside, allowing millions (estimated tens of millions, actually) of illegal aliens to simply invade the U.S. and then settle down and face no repercussions, no consequences, no deportations will mark the end of America as a nation. At that point, America will become nothing more than a mission statement: If you agree, more or less, with a certain set of ideas or principles, then you can live and work here and make plenty of money to send back to your home country in untaxed remittances. That is not a nation.

A nation is a people who share a flag, a history, a culture, a morality, a religious ethos (if not a strict religion). There are Americans who can trace their presence in the New World back to the Mayflower Pilgrims and the Plymouth Colony, to the Jamestown settlers, to the unsung heroes of the Revolutionary War, to the fathers and sons and brothers who fought in the Civil War. Does their heritage and history mean nothing? If anyone from the third world can violate the first U.S. law they encounter and profit from it, with impunity, then yes, the heritage that Americans spent 250 years building and cultivating and safeguarding is meaningless.

The U.S. Constitution, the nation’s foundational legal document, clarifies that the U.S. is not an international jobs market nor merely a “propositional nation.” The cornerstone of the preamble — “for ourselves and our posterity” — makes abundantly clear that the U.S. is its own nation, its own, who have spent the better part of the past 250 years curating and defending a shared flag, history, culture, morality, and religious ethos, protecting the American homeland to entrust to the care of the next generation of Americans, not to hordes of “new arrivals” who do not share a flag, a history, a culture, a morality, a religious ethos, or even a language with Americans.

Abandoning a policy of mass deportations will not only hurt the GOP politically; it will effectively end the United States of America as a nation. Oh well, 250 years was a good run.

GFK

“The Church has always taught that all our penance without Christ’s passion is not worth a pea.”

 — St. Thomas More.

Today I am sharing some random thoughts I have, through articles I have read recently. For example, I detest Daylight Savings Time. There is a wonderful commentary on it. I wholly support the U.S./Israeli attacks on Iran, and I am sharing commentary on the President’s power to make war versus Congress’s power to declare war. Astute readers know that the 2 powers are not the same. The President does not need Congress’s permission to engage in military hostilities. Congress has the power to restrict the President’s military actions. And both branches need to cooperate for the good of the country.

And finally, there is a story about Patrick Henry, one of America’s greatest all-time orators. A patriot, Governor of Virginia, and the namesake of 2 Virginia counties and 1 community college, Patrick Henry left his mark on early America. All Virginia schoolchildren learn of his famous speech, ending with the infamous phrase “Give me Liberty or give me Death!”. But this story is about Patrick Henry’s short lived tenure in the Continental Army. Enjoy.

Controlling the clock

Daylight Saving Time is a monument to bureaucratic inertia and a recurring demonstration of state power.

BY:          Steve Hric, The American Thinker (March 10, 2026).

At its heart, the sun is the only clock that has ever truly mattered. It is the elemental, unchangeable force that governs life, agriculture, and the fundamental rhythms of human existence. Yet, for over a century, governments have engaged in a peculiar form of hubris: the bi-annual manipulation of time itself, known as Daylight Saving Time. While sold to the public as a commonsense tool for energy conservation and wartime efficiency, the history of DST reveals a far more troubling pattern. It is the story of a flawed, illogical idea that became a recurring instrument of state control, proving that when given a choice, centralized power will often opt for the most disruptive solution if it best demonstrates its own authority.

The foundational premise of DST is so illogical that it borders on the absurd. If the goal were simply to align human activity with daylight to reduce energy consumption or increase productivity, the solution is straightforward: businesses, factories, and schools could simply adjust their operating hours. A factory could declare “summer hours” from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM and revert to a 9-to-5 schedule in the winter. This targeted approach is efficient, flexible, and voluntary. It allows individual sectors to adapt as needed without inflicting systemic chaos.

Instead, the architects of DST chose to change the “total clock.” They embraced a sledgehammer solution, forcing every citizen, system, and industry onto a new, arbitrary timeline. This is akin to redefining the length of a mile to make a commute seem shorter.

The choice was not one of logic, but of control. It established a precedent for a top-down, one-size-fits-all mandate that disregards the complexities of a modern, interconnected world. The consequences of this choice are not trivial. For global industries like maritime shipping and aviation, which run on the standardized and immutable clock of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), DST is a recurring nightmare. It introduces a layer of chaos that costs millions in delays, scheduling recalculations, and contractual disputes. A ship’s carefully planned arrival at high tide can be thrown off, a flight crew’s legal duty hours can be instantly violated, and a passenger’s international connection can be severed, all because a local government decided to “f*ck with the sun.”

The true nature of Daylight Saving Time is revealed not in its flawed logic, but in its political history. Its implementation and expansion in the United States do not map to moments of rational problem-solving, but rather to moments of crisis that were used to justify the dramatic expansion of federal power. This is not a coincidence; it is a pattern.

1. Woodrow Wilson and World War I: The first nationwide implementation was a product of the Progressive Era, an ideology that believed in using the “scientific” power of centralized government to manage society for the national good. War provided the perfect justification.
2. Franklin D. Roosevelt and World War II: FDR, who oversaw the greatest expansion of federal power in American history, instituted year-round “War Time,” a totalizing federal action for a total war.
3. Lyndon B. Johnson and the Vietnam War: The Uniform Time Act of 1966, which sought to end the confusing patchwork of local observances, was a classic “Great Society” program. It imposed a single federal standard, reflecting the era’s belief in centralized solutions, all while a major war provided the backdrop for calls for national efficiency.

This pattern transcends party lines, exposing a shared governing philosophy. Republican Richard Nixon, whose presidency oversaw the creation of the EPA, OSHA, and the removal of the gold standard, did not hesitate to impose emergency year-round DST during the 1973 oil crisis. He was a pragmatist of federal power, proving the impulse is inherent to the state itself, not a single party. The history culminates in its most cynical chapter under George W. Bush, whose 2005 Energy Policy Act extended DST. Despite decades of data showing negligible energy savings and significant disruption, the federal government’s instinct was not to fix or abolish the failed program, but to expand it — a symbolic political gesture masquerading as a solution.

Ultimately, Daylight Saving Time is a monument to bureaucratic inertia and a recurring demonstration of state power. It is a solution in search of a problem, a tool that creates more chaos than it resolves. The simple, logical act of adjusting a work schedule was passed over for the arrogant, complex, and disruptive act of changing time itself. The reason is now clear: one is an act of practical freedom, the other an act of control. And for over a century, control has won. 

__________________________________________________________________

The President Doesn’t Need Permission to Defend America

The Constitution does not require Congress to approve every defensive strike.

BY:          Mark Goldfeder and John Spencer, The American Spectator (March 7, 2026).

On Thursday Congress will vote to limit President Trump’s ability to carry out further attacks in Iran. The criticism surrounding the launch of Operation Epic Fury, mostly from the left, follows a predictable script: “No declaration of war.” “No vote.” “Unconstitutional.” Some of it is sincere, some of it reflects selective readings of history. But the premise that a president is legally paralyzed when Americans are under threat unless Congress grants advance permission is entirely wrong, and has never been how the constitutional system operates.

If Iran or its proxies are attacking U.S. forces, targeting Americans abroad, or setting the conditions for imminent harm, the President does not need to wait for a roll call vote to defend the country. Article II vests the President with Commander in Chief authority precisely because national defense sometimes requires speed, secrecy, and unity of command. Congress has long structured statutory frameworks around that reality.

This is not an “imperial presidency.” It is the basic design of American constitutional defense powers. For decades, executive branch lawyers of both parties have articulated the same principle: the President may use force unilaterally when he reasonably determines it serves important national interests and does not rise to the constitutional level of a major, prolonged war.

Presidents of both parties have acted under this framework when U.S. personnel and core national interests were threatened. Debate has often followed. That tension is not constitutional breakdown, it reflects the separation of powers functioning exactly as intended.

The central question is not whether the President has authority to respond to Iran . . . . The central question is whether Congress will exercise its own constitutional responsibilities.

The present debate has also mischaracterized the stated objectives of the mission. The President did not frame it as a project of political transformation. In fact, he articulated defined security objectives: ending Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, halting expansion of its ballistic missile arsenal, preventing development of longer-range missile systems capable of reaching the United States, neutralizing threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, and degrading networks responsible for killing Americans.

Those objectives are tied directly to U.S. national security. They are not abstract aspirations. They are threat focused.

Iran’s record toward the United States has been operational and lethal. Proxy networks have killed Americans. U.S. forces and facilities have been targeted. Assassination plots have been disrupted. When both capability and demonstrated intent are present, the President’s defensive authority is not theoretical. It is grounded in protecting American lives and preserving strategic freedom of action.

A nuclear armed Iran would constrain U.S. options and increase the risks associated with defending American personnel and interests. Preventing nuclear breakout is therefore not a humanitarian claim but a strategic calculation. Deterrence theory has long recognized that once an adversary achieves protected nuclear status, the cost and complexity of prevention rise significantly.

Regime change, as stated by the President, would be a byproduct if it occurs, not the strategic objective. The objective is threat elimination directly tied to U.S. interests. That distinction matters both legally and strategically. It separates limited defensive action from open ended nation building.

As it relates to urgency and imminence, according to US. officials, in the hours leading up to the operation the U.S. had indicators that Tehran was going to launch a strike against American assets in the region. The President decided he was going to act to prevent those launches from occurring. The law does not require the Commander in Chief to wait until American lives are lost to prove a point about process.

The War Powers Resolution reflects the same constitutional equilibrium. It assumes presidents may introduce U.S. forces into hostilities without prior authorization and then Congress can impose reporting requirements and time limits. It does not categorically prohibit action; it regulates it after the introduction of force.

To be clear Congress retains immense authority. It funds the military. It may authorize sustained campaigns or restrict them. It may condition appropriations, require transparency, impose limits, and terminate engagements. If lawmakers conclude that an operation actually exceeds constitutional or statutory bounds, they possess the tools to respond. The Constitution does not, however, require the President to suspend defensive action during unfolding threats in order to secure advance legislative approval.

“America First” in this context means American power used decisively in service of defined American interests. It does not eliminate the constitutional balance between the branches, it reinforces it. The President acts to address immediate threats. Congress determines whether operations expand, contract, or continue over time.

The central question is not whether the President has authority to respond to Iran. Under established constitutional practice, he absolutely does. The central question is whether Congress will exercise its own constitutional responsibilities with clarity about objectives, scope, and duration, and without attempting to usurp or undermine executive authority.

This debate should be grounded in constitutional structure and defined national interests. It should not be distorted by claims that defensive authority disappears in the absence of prior legislative approval.

____________________________________________________________________

Dispatch from 1776: Insulted by his military rank, Patrick Henry quits the army

For some, this resignation — at a moment of crisis — shows exactly why Henry was not suited for the military. Too temperamental. It’s said that General George Washington, who knows Henry better than others, did not think him fit for a high command.

BY:          Dwayne Yancey.

Patrick Henry is undoubtedly the greatest orator of our age.

In one of his earliest cases, he swayed a Hanover County jury to deliver a ruling that amounted to an intentional insult to the Anglican clergy — back pay of just a single farthing.

Just last year, he thundered those famous lines: “Give me liberty or give me death!” In truth, he may have actually said something else, but this is how the story is being told, so Henry gets the credit whether he said those precise words or not.

Patrick Henry arguing the “Parson’s Cause” by George Cooke, circa 1834. Public domain. Original in the collection of the Virginia Historical Society.

No one in Virginia has done more to rally Virginians and embolden them to stand against royal authority. As long ago as 1763, in his closing arguments in the so-called “Parson’s Cause” over how much the Colony owned its ministers, Henry intimated that King George III was a tyrant. In 1765, during the tumult over the Stamp Act, Henry came close to suggesting that the king be assassinated “Caesar had his Brutus; Charles the First his Cromwell; and George the Third . . . may profit from their example!” 

When blows finally came, it was to Henry that Virginia turned to take up arms. He led the force that marched on Williamsburg when the royal governor, Lord Dunmore, seized the gunpowder from the town’s magazine and temporarily spirited it aboard a British vessel, allegedly for “safekeeping.”

More recently, Henry has led the recruiting and organizing of the Virginia militia as the Colonies have careened toward open rebellion against Great Britain. But is Henry truly a military man?

We may not get to find out.

Henry does have his detractors, who often think him too headstrong, too volatile even. 

When Dunmore fled the capital of Williamsburg, and Virginia was left without a government, it was natural that the Committee of Safety put Henry in charge. However, that committee also kept a tight rein on Henry because some of the moderate members didn’t always trust his radical instincts.

When Dunmore set up operations in Hampton Roads late last year, the committee could have sent Henry to lead the Virginia military to roust him out. Instead, Henry’s rivals sent William Woodford of Caroline County. That choice can’t be disputed because Woodford’s force, augmented with some troops from North Carolina, won a great victory at Great Bridge that ultimately chased Dunmore out into the harbor.

The subsequent burning of Norfolk has left our great port city in ruins but given Virginians — indeed, all Colonists — a vivid demonstration of the dangers we face. 

Over the course of the past month, someone — we don’t know who — has published a series of essays in The Virginia Gazette that make the case for why the time may have come for the Colonies to separate themselves from the king completely.

The anonymous author is signed simply “An American,” but the style and tone match up perfectly with that of Henry, so now we know where he stands, not that it was hard to guess.

Now the time has come to fight — if not for independence, then at least for something.

Henry, though, won’t be among them.

The Continental Congress wants to organize a truly national army. With that goal, the First Virginia Regiment that Henry organized has now been accepted into the Continental Line. However, its commander — Henry — was only offered the rank of colonel.

Insulted, Henry refused to accept what he considered a demotion and will stay home instead.

For some, this resignation — at a moment of crisis — shows exactly why Henry was not suited for the military. Too temperamental. It’s said that General George Washington, who knows Henry better than others, did not think him fit for a high command. Henry has never led troops into battle, not that many have, of course. Washington has made it clear that he will not follow the British custom of awarding officer positions based on social status but will instead award them only on merit. 

That has left Henry sulking, although his critics whisper that the new Continental Army might be better off without him. Unfortunately, that’s not the view of many of the men he recruited — and say what you will about Henry, he was a masterful recruiter. Many wanted to quit the army if Henry could not, would not, lead them. To Henry’s credit, he has talked them out of that. 

Still, this incident shows the difficulties that we Colonials face in organizing a resistance to the most powerful military on the planet. Aside from the lack of arms and the lack of trained men, we must contend with the pettiness of politics and personalities.

While we may never know whether Henry is overrated or underrated as a military commander, we know his political talents quite well. He had to sit out the Virginia convention that met in December due to his military service — the military must be subordinate to the civilian power — but another convention is set to meet in the spring, with elections in April. We expect Henry to offer himself for political service, and we’d expect him to win, so his powerful voice won’t be stilled for long.

A man of Henry’s talents should not be sidelined, but, as with a mechanical tool, must be used in the proper way to be useful.

GFK

“Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.”

—Psalm 25:4-5.

Today would have been my Mother’s 94th birthday.  If she were still alive we would all be celebrating in Southside.  Tonight would have been dinner at the Club.  My Mother loved going there, as she got to visit with all her friends.  Sadly, they too have all passed on.  That would have saddened her.  And I am not quite sure she could have accepted the departure of Rusty as a bartender.  But she would have had a grand time.  She was a genuinely happy and content woman, who loved God, her family, and friends.  And she would be so pleased with Holland, and what a mature young woman she has become.  Holland was my parents’ favorite grandchild.

I miss my Mother.

GFK

“Behold, Jesus Christ crucified, who is the only foundation of our hope; He is our mediator and advocate; the victim and sacrifice for our sins.  He is goodness and patience itself; His mercy is moved by the tears of sinners, and He never refuses pardon and grace to those who ask it with a truly contrite and humbled heart.”
— St. Charles Borromeo.

There has been much criticism from the Left on the U.S./Israeli attacks on Iran. “A war of choice” (thank you, Senators Kaine (D. Va.) and Warner (D. Va.)), “illegal” and “unconstitutional” (thank you Hakeem Jeffries (D. N.Y.), most every other elected Democrat), and “a violation of international law” (thank you, U.N. Secretary General). To which The Observations replies, Pbbbbbbbbbbbbttttttttttttt. Who cares?

Below is an article by Douglas Murray, which presents the other [correct] view of this conflict. I hope you find it to be of value.

Unlike past presidents, Trump delivered on his promise to eliminate our enemies

BY:          Douglas Murray, The New York Post (March 5, 2026).

Perhaps we forgot what it’s like when politicians act on their promises. 

Perhaps our enemies ­forgot as well. 

For decades, American presidents — Democratic and Republican — have said the theocratic dictatorship in Iran cannot have nuclear weapons. 

For decades, those same administrations were strung along by the ayatollahs. 

American negotiators — like their European counterparts — sat through years of negotiations.

And every time, the revolutionary government in Iran got closer to the bomb. 

Well, not this time. 

As Trump envoy Steve Witkoff described in an interview with Fox News this week, even during last month’s negotiations, the Iranians were playing their old games.

The Iranian team sat down opposite Witkoff and Jared Kushner and boasted about how much enriched uranium they had.

The Iranian team wanted America to know they had the capacity to make at least 11 nuclear bombs in a matter of days. 

Perhaps the Iranians had become used to weak and ineffectual foreign governments.

Perhaps they thought this administration was like all its predecessors.

Perhaps they imagined this administration in Washington is like all those governments in Paris and London that said they were against crazed fanatics having nuclear weapons but never intended to do anything about it — apart from sitting around another conference table in Geneva. 

Lessons learned 

Well, now the regime in Iran has finally learned a lesson. 

As a Post editorial this past weekend said, Trump’s critics used to like to try to taunt him with the acronym “TACO” (Trump Always Chickens Out). Now they and the ayatollahs in Iran have learned the meaning of another acronym: FAFO (Fool Around, Find Out). 

How long did the regime in Iran — and its apologists in the West — expect to get away with the same playbook of excuses and lies? 

For decades they pretended that one of the world’s most oil-rich countries needed nuclear power only for civilian energy purposes.

They pretended that the regime wasn’t enriching uranium to weapons-grade levels.

Then, as late as recent weeks, they had the gall to tell their US counterparts that the regime did indeed have vast stores of uranium ready to make nuclear weapons — but that this was their right. 

They had a choice.

But the ayatollahs decided to learn their lesson the hard way. 

To date, the U.S. led attacks on the regime and its infrastructure have been outstandingly successful.

In the first strikes this past weekend, the ayatollah himself was taken out, along with much of his senior leadership. 

In the days since then, more than 2,000 primary targets have been hit in Iran. 

Of course, the remaining military and political leadership in Iran has tried to lash out.

But they have done so in the most self-destructive ways possible. 

They have attacked American military bases.

And they have attacked almost every other country in the region.

Of course they have fired missiles at Israel— the “Little Satan” to America’s “Big Satan,” in the words of the late ayatollah.

But they have also fired rockets and drones at the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq, Azerbaijan and even Cyprus, a member of the European Union. 

Many of these attacks have been anticipated.

Many of the missiles and drones that the flailing Iranian regime has been firing have been shot down. 

To say that the radical terrorist regime in Iran is now weak and isolated is to vastly understate things. 

‘Panicking’ regime 

Kurdish fighters in Iraq and Iran appear to be preparing for a ground war against the regime in Tehran.

I have been with these groups in the past and they include some formidable fighters.

The remaining regime in Iran would be right to be panicking. 

The mission of the government in Washington, DC, is now to follow through on a promise that previous American governments failed to keep. 

This administration said it would prevent the ayatollahs from getting a nuclear bomb.

And it is now doing everything it can to achieve that. 

Not only by making sure the world’s deadliest weapons aren’t in the hands of the world’s most dangerous regime.

But so that the madmen who have run Iran since 1979 are not around to fire them. 

Of course, there are many legitimate concerns that some Americans will have.

They might fear that America is going to be dragged into some long-term conflict.

But Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio— among others — have made it very clear that this is going to be a short and limited war. 

What is more, the Trump administration has made it clear that the future of Iran is in the hands of the Iranian people.

If those people — who have been oppressed by the radical fanatics for the last 47 years — can seize their country back, they could have an amazing future.

As could the whole region and the wider world. 

Imagine the difference if the world’s foremost sponsor of terror were no more.

Imagine the difference in America if death squads could not be sent from Tehran to try to assassinate American presidents, former US government officials and others. 

Imagine what the future of the Iranian people could be like if instead of being repressed or chased into exile, the people of that country could actually own their own destiny, 

The crown prince of Iran in exile has made it clear that he is willing to oversee an interim coalition government.

One that could unite the different factions. 

Critics of the Iranian royal family say they don’t want a hereditary monarchy.

But the person being lined up to take over from the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the ayatollah’s own son. 

So much for opposition to hereditary rule! 

America can help guide some of this transition.

But it does not need to get bogged down in it. 

For now, we can be proud of America’s heroic pilots as they carry out a long-held promise.

A promise that America made to the world.

And a reminder to that world that when America makes a promise, it sticks to it.

GFK

“Christ has gained for us not only new dignity in our life on earth, but above all the new dignity of the children of God, called to share eternal life with him.  Lent invites us to overcome the temptation of seeing the realities of this world as definitive and to recognize that ‘our homeland is in heaven’ (Philippians 3:20).”

— Pope John Paul II.

The Department of Homeland Security is still closed. Thank you Democrats!

Do you feel safer knowing that with sleeper cells likely in the United States (admitted by Obama and China Joe), and with radical Muslims in our country’s major metropolitan areas, the people who work for our nation’s internal security are going without pay? Because of a Democrat temper tantrum?!?!

Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D. N.Y.) insists that the Department of Homeland Security will not be funded until ICE is forbidden from enforcing federal law at “sensitive locations” such as . . . “polling places”. Hmmm. What would an illegal alien be doing at a polling place?

Elon Musk’s DOGE was ridiculed, attacked, belittled, and scorned. The professional, permanent Washington establishment resisted DOGE with every bit of energy. The Congress has not permanently enshrined DOGE’s spending cuts. But DOGE was NOT a failed effort. Since DOGE began work, the federal workforce has shrunk more than 12%. That is more than 278,000 federal employees no longer making Americans’ lives miserable. That reduction is not nothing. It is a very good start.

The Trump Administration announced that loans will not be available only to qualified American citizens. Foreign nationals and non-citizens need not apply. WINNING!

Under China Joe, the State Department was engaged in a project called “queering the maps”. Huh? Upon questioning before a Congressional committee, Representative Brian Mast (R. Fl.) asked Undersecretary Sarah Rogers what that meant. Mrs. Rogers replied that the China Joe State Department was trying to make the maps “more gay”. What? How do you make a map “gay”? Sigh.

When oil was at $29.00 a barrel, President Trump wanted to refill the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Senator Charles Schumer (D. N.Y.) single handedly blocked the use of federal funds for that purpose. Oil currently is at $100.00 per barrel.

“Muslims do not belong in American society.”

–Representative Andy Ogles (R. Tn.).

Commiela wants to lower the voting age to 16. Sigh.

Jesse Jackson, Jr. criticized former Presidents Obama and China Joe for delivering their speeches at his father’s funeral. Mr. Jackson accused the pair of making the funeral service about them, and their politics, as opposed to his father. He has a good point.

When the Obama Center opens this June, President Trump will not be among the invitees. Democrats are classless. As usual.

CNN’s Jake Tapper is concerned about the effect the bombings in Iran will have on the health of the ordinary Iranian citizen. He must be joking.

“It’s a moral abomination.  And yes, it’s tactically stupid.  They, you know, they bombed a submarine and just let the sailors drown to death . . . Even the Nazis didn’t do that during World War II.  Apparently, even the Nazis collected people from the water.

* * *

 This is insane rhetoric, insane behavior from people who don’t give a damn.  Donald Trump has never given a damn about Iranian lives.  I see people in the diaspora cheering on this war, and I feel bad for them because Donald Trump screws over everyone, and he’s going to screw over the Iranian people as well.  He’s a guy who has deported Iranians back to that government to be tortured or oppressed.  He doesn’t care about the Iranian people.”

–Former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan, speaking on MS NOW, spreading lies and hatred about the U.S./Israeli efforts and President Trump.

New York City is mandating that apps like Door Dash and Instacart install pop up screens that will demand the user to provide a tip. The screens will pop up prominently, and block the user’s view, preventing the user to check out until a proper tip is given. Sigh. Look for Door Dash and others to flee New York City’s micromanagement.

Outside Grace Mansion–the New York City Mayor’s residence–demonstrators protested “Islamification”. In response, Muslims appeared and tossed real bombs at the crowd. And unsurprisingly, Comrade Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D.) was not up to the moment. He condemned that demonstrators against Islamification, but uttered not a word in condemnation of those Muslims who sought to murder them. Good grief.

Comrade Mayor Mamdani followed up his deplorable behavior concerning the demonstrations and bombings with a dinner. In celebration of Ramadan, Comrade Mayor Mamdani hosted Mahmoud Khalil, the pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic alien protestor who, but for Leftist federal judges, would be back in Algeria by now. Nothing quite says “party” so much as having a terrorist at your dining room table.

AND IF THAT IS NOT ENOUGH, Mayor Comrade Mamdani attended an event at a Staten Island mosque whose Imam has called for Hamas to obliterate Israel, and cheers regularly in support of the Intifada. New York City has a terrorist Mayor!

“They’re not safe.  No one is safe because finally our mayor has recognized that these are radical Muslim Islamic ISIS driven terrorists and they are in our midst.  And we can thank the Biden and Obama administrations.  For these cells being allowed to cross on into our borders and be in our city in many cities across the United States of America.”

–New York City Councilman Joann Ariola (R.) commenting that Jews and Christians are not safe in New York City.

Muslim prayer rugs were placed at the base of a FDNY memorial honoring the firefighters who were killed in the Muslim terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.  DISGRACEFUL!

Democrats always claim that they only want to tax the “rich”, but somehow, it never stops there. Now in New York City, the Mamdani socialists reveal that taxes need to be raised on the middle class. And in New York State, there is a pressing need to lower the inheritance tax from $7.5 million to $250,000.00. Because Big Government needs Big Money.

A man in Suffolk County, New York was arrested after police found a gun collection in his home, consisting of 22 guns. A Democrat Suffolk County judge was “alarmed” at the size of the collection, and actually set bail more than 2 times that requested by prosecutors. Good grief! I have a friend in Northern Virginia who probably has enough guns to equip a Marine brigade. There is nothing alarming about, unless, of course, you are a “girly man” who thinks guns are “scary” and is easily frightened.

Various California cities are exploring how to regulate self-checkout stations at retail outlets. Why? Why must government stick its nose into everything?

Los Angeles, California is on schedule to raise the minimum wage to $30.00 per hour. And businesses in Los Angeles are already laying off employees, rather than pay that wage. This is what happens when economic reality sets in.

Ohio State University President Walter Carter resigned after disclosing an “inappropriate relationship” with a woman seeking access to government funds for her private business. Sigh.

Virginia Democrats are poised to enact several bills purporting to restrict ICE operations in the Commonwealth. Shades of Jefferson Davis! Of course these bills are unconstitutional. States do not get to regulate federal law enforcement.

Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger (D.) is outraged that the War Department is cutting financial and other ties with William & Mary over its DEI, and other, “woke” policies. Maybe Virginia’s Democrats should embrace American values, rather than socialism, racism, and sexism.

Chick-Fil-A is introducing a new bacon, jalapeno ranch sandwich. The sandwich is available with original, spicy, or grilled chicken breasts. For a limited time only.

The Southern Inn in Lexington, Virginia is out of the restaurant business. Really?!? Folks like Scott Barr, Russell Shearer, John Bays, me, et al. are not happy about this development. How do things like this happen?

Iran apologized to its Middle Eastern Arab nations, asking forgiveness for its missiles fired at them. It promised never to do it again. The next day Iran fired 16 missiles at the United Arab Emirates. The UAE shot down 15 missiles, while the 16th plunged into the sea.

An Iranian man was convicted by a jury in federal court in New York City for conspiring with the Iranian government to assassinate President Trump. And others.

Iran warned European nations that it will retaliate against them if they assist the United States and Israel in the conflict. Well, no danger of that.

Has Iran selected a dead guy as its Supreme Leader? The government announced that Mojtaba Khamenhei succeeded his father as the Supreme Leader. But a few days prior, it was reported that he died in an air strike at the meeting to choose his father’s successor. And the other day, when he was introduced to the country as the new Supreme Leader, minions trotted out a framed picture of Mojtaba Khamenhei. The man has not been seen in public. Does he even exist?

The Yemeni Houthis are threatening to intervene in the conflict on Iran’s side. Let Saudi Arabia deal with these terrorists. The Saudis had them under control until China Joe reigned them in, and let the Houthis run wild.

Great Britain’s ruling Labour Party is considering banning dogs, in order to appease its growing Muslim population. DOGS? YOU WANT TO BAN DOGS?!? Among the 67 dogs listed on the banned list are Great Danes, Daschsunds, Shi Tzus, St. Bernards, and Basset Hounds. BASSET HOUNDS?!? DUDLEY IS INCENSED!

Seriously. These nutjobs want to ban dogs. Incredible.

During this year’s Los Angeles, California marathon, runners were given the option to stop running at mile marker 18, and collect their medals if they were “having a bad day”, and did not want to run the whole 26 miles. Oh, for goodness sakes!

Country Joe McDonald, anti-Vietnam War activist famous for the I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag, and whose band played at Woodstock, has died at age 84. R. I. P.

Actress Jennifer Runyon has died at age 65. R. I. P.

Boston lead singer Tommy DeCarlo has died at age 60. R. I. P.

Conservative political activist David Keene has died at age 80. R. I. P.

Former New York Jets running back Matt Snell has died at age 84. R. I. P.

GFK

“Lent comes to us as a providential time to change course, to recover the ability to react to the reality of evil which always challenges us. Lent is to be lived as a time of conversion, as a time of renewal for individuals and communities, by drawing close to God and by trustfully adhering to the Gospel.”

— Pope Francis.

Texas State Representative James Talarico (D.) is the Democrat nominee for the United States Senate. He defeated Representative Jasime Crockett (D.), purportedly because he is more “moderate”. Perish the thought, he is not.

Mr. Talarico is always referred to as a “moderate” Christian minister, whose background can finally (!) turn Texas “blue”. But is he really a “moderate” Christian? Witness the following quotes:

“Defending trans Texans is something we have to do every day at the state capitol.  So when I use the word woman, it should not be understood as an exhaustive term.  But, rather, as a lens through which to understand, examine, and interrogate patriarchy.”

“God is non-binary.”

“Modern science obviously recognizes that there are many more than two biological sexes, in fact there are six.”

Mr. Talarico uttered these comments and more. Are these quotes the comments from a “moderate” Christian?

Mr. Talarico is a homosexual, who sees no sin in his lifestyle. He has claimed that atheists are more “Christian” than most Christians. Are these hallmarks of moderation?

Mr. Talarico urged the China Joe Administration to put abortion clinics in every federal courthouse, and every national park. He also wanted to make abortion doctors and their staffs federal employees, so as to protect them. Are these ideas “moderate”?

Mr. Talarico also wants to eliminate billionaires and millionaires, confiscating their monies through taxation, and then redistribute these monies to guarantee the needs of the “needy”. Moderate? Maybe if you are a disciple of Marx and Engels, Lenin, and Bernie Sanders. But in America, no.

James Talarico is a big, fat, phony fraud. He is no more “moderate” than that lying shrew, Abigail Spanberger (D. Va.). But do not expect the media to portray him as he truly is. Texas voters need to beware. Vote this man down. Let me spend his exile from politics with Robert Francis O’Rourke.

____________________________________________________________________

Book of James (Talarico)

It’s official James Talarico will represent the Democrats in November; perhaps it’s a good time to reflect on how nuts he really is.

BY:          Silvio Canto, The American Thinker (March 7, 2026).

It’s official and the Bible reader of Texas, a.k.a. James Talarico, will represent the Democrats in November.  A Bible reader you say?  Yes, he quotes the Bible more often than your Sunday pastor.  Of course, the media does not say that he is a religious fanatic.  They only do that with Republicans.

Anyway, get ready for the Book of James, Talarico style I mean.  Let’s check this, from Charles C. W. Cooke, exposing Talarico’s interesting views:

‘White skin gives me and every white American immunity from the virus. But we spread it wherever we go—through our words, our actions, and our systems. We don’t have to be showing symptoms—like a white hood or a Confederate flag—to be contagious.’

Cooke then has his own commentary:

Since he won the primary on Tuesday, these words have been highlighted as prima facie evidence of Talarico’s unsuitability for public office. In response, his already insufferable fans have cried foul. In their view, homing in on old utterances such as these is uncharitable, unbecoming, and unjust, and it ought not to be done by anyone who considers himself to be a respectable chronicler of contemporary political affairs.

Why ‘disqualifying’? Because they are indicative, that’s why. Because they point to a considered, premeditated, fully conscious extremism that ought to be unacceptable in any American public figure. Only a handful of people in these United States would ever think a thing such as this — let alone say it aloud. The words in question were not rash, or hasty, or uttered under duress. They were volunteered. They represent a window into the soul. They ought to be fatal.

The two most popular rejoinders to this view are that they were issued ‘six years ago’ and that they were offered up during a ‘crazy period.’ But neither of these briefs do anything other than underscore the initial problem. Six years is not a long time. I am judged on my words from six years ago. So are you. So is everyone else.

Yes, it was a few years ago—however, he has not stopped doing stuff like this since.  Remember his “God is non-binary” comment?  Or, relating the story of the angel appearing to Mary?  As I understand Mr. Talarico’s story, the angel asked Mary for her consent or something like that.  The angel understood that Mary had reproductive rights and did not force the young woman to have the baby.

Sorry that’s crazy, and I can’t wait for Mr. Talarico to explain that to all of those devout Catholic Hispanic women in South Texas.

You are going to love the Book of James because it is weird.

___________________________________________________________________

Texas Democrat James Talarico’s ‘moderate’ act exposes his party’s new scam

BY:          Karol Markowicz, The New York Post (March 5, 2026).

Sixteen months after Kamala Harris cackled her way into a loss to President Trump, the Democratic Party seems to have realized its candidates need an image makeover to get voters to forget what their team actually believes.

The name of the game is acting normal and talking like a moderate.

For Democrats, that’s a stretch.

James Talarico of Texas is their bright new “moderate” hope.  He won a US Senate primary election this week largely by touting his Christianity, being respectful to his opponents, and generally presenting himself as the boy-next-door counterweight to his excitable opponent, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas).

Look at this sane man, declared the media.

Time magazine touted his “authenticity” and gushed, “It’s populism and piety, the proletariat and the Pharisees all rolled into a Texas-sized operation.”

The Washington Post highlighted how Talarico was “leaning into his Christian faith in political debate, an atypical approach for a Democrat.”

The New Yorker’s soft-focus photo accompanied a fawning piece that described Talarico as looking “like he’d just finished his paper route and was eager to shovel the church’s walk.”

It did the trick for the Lone Star State’s Democrats.

But the moderate façade may already be crumbling. 

In 2020, Talarico was tweeting about the “virus” of “racism.”

Who had it? White people, he said — all of them.

“White skin gives me and every white American immunity from the virus,” he posted. “But we spread it wherever we go — through our words, our actions, and our systems.

“We don’t have to be showing symptoms — like a white hood or a Confederate flag — to be contagious.”

This is what passes for “normal” among Democrats?

Ironically, Talarico defeated Crockett, a black woman, for the nomination.

Maybe he’s the one with that infection.

In 2021, Talarico, a member of the state legislature, argued in favor of a bill that would allow biological boys to play in girls’ sports.

“God is nonbinary,” he declared on the state House floor. 

“The thing I want us all to be aware of is … modern science obviously recognizes there are many more than two biological sexes,” he went on. “In fact, there are six.”

Believing in six (or more!) genders is insane enough to most of us — but six biological sexes?

The mind reels.

That same year, Talarico very proudly announced that his office was the first to put pronouns on staffers’ business cards.

Democrats are acting like this is no big deal. Who can remember who said what?

Those comments were made six whole years ago, they say, when the Harvard-educated Talarico was but a boy of, ahem, 30.

Part of the equation, of course, is that the leftists want us to forget what they put us all through in the depths of the woke era, when they insisted “Silence is violence” and enforced their unhinged ideas by bullying any opposing voices into submission.

Yet Talarico wasn’t just caught up in the woke moment, he was in the vanguard: He posted about his “contagious” whiteness weeks before the death of George Floyd.

So voters need to look deeper at these “normal” Democrats, because the staid moderate act only lasts so long.

Just look at New Jersey and Virginia, whose new governors both veered sharply left after running “moderate” campaigns.

Garden State Gov. Mikie Sherrill positioned herself as a reasonable, middle-of-the-road candidate. She ran on affordability issues and rarely mentioned immigration.

Upon taking office, she immediately signed an executive order limiting United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity on state property — and started pushing a 7% sales tax hike.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger portrayed herself as a moderate mom on the campaign trail, but she too ended state cooperation with ICE right after her inauguration.

Meanwhile her Democratic legislature is busily prepping a slew of far-left bills for her to sign — everything from raising taxes on services like Uber Eats to banning gas leaf blowers.

She’s also signed legislation pushing an extreme gerrymander of Virginia’s congressional districts, after pledging last year that she had no plans to do so.

Just last month, a CNN poll found that 58% of Americans, an all-time high, believe the Democratic Party has become too liberal.

Democrats badly want to appeal to those voters, who feel like the party has gotten on the leftist crazy train and has zero interest in jumping off.

But they’re skipping the part about running actual normal, sane candidates — in favor of people who can plausibly put on the act.

GFK

“During Lent, we prepare to relive the Paschal Mystery, which sheds the light of hope upon the whole of our existence, even its most complex and painful aspects . . . let us set out with trust on our Lenten journey, sustained by fervent prayer, penance and concern for those in need.”
— Pope John Paul II.

Some dear readers commented on The Observations’ views on Daylight Savings Time. One dear reader commented that he did not care what time we kept, so long as we kept the same time, and did not keep changing the clocks. Understandable. Another dear reader wants permanent Daylight Savings Time because he wants to play golf later in the Summer, to which I reply, get up earlier.

Personally, getting up in the dark yesterday morning, and driving to Church in the dark, was rather depressing. And somewhat difficult. Neither English nor Dudley wanted to get up.

Here is the deal. Daylight Savings Time is bad for your health.

Morning sun is key to maintaining our circadian rhythms, sleep-wake cycles and overall health.  Which makes sense, since we are supposed to be up and active during the day, and resting and asleep at night.  But if we are waking up in the dark, and trying to sleep in the light, our bodies are damaged.  So Congress, please eliminate Daylight Savings Time.  MAHA!

President Trump announced that he will not enter into negotiations with Iran to end hostilities. The United States is seeking “unconditional surrender”. Good!

May I please say that I am sick and tired of Leftists (Democrats and the media) claiming that the United States committed a war crime by bombing an Iranian school, killing 200 students? FAKE NEWS! The school was hit, and did explode, killing 200 students. But it was hit by an Iranian missile which misfired. The school was located adjacent to an Iranian military facility.

One or, maybe two, days of mistaken reporting and claims might be understood. But it has been a week, and the lies are still out there. That can only be understood to be the Left cheering against the United States. Something it does on a regular basis.

Dozens of House of Representatives Democrats refused to vote “aye” on a non-binding resolution affirming Iran as a State sponsor of terrorism. Included in the feckless bunch were Puddin’head, Rashida Tlaib (D. Mi.), Ayanna Pressley (D. Ma.), and Ilhan Omar (D. Mn.).

“I would say our country should be more fearful of white men across our country, because they are actually causing most of the deaths within this country.  And so if fear was the driving force of policies to keep America safe, Americans safe inside of this country, we should be profiling, monitoring, and creating policies to fight the radicalization of white men.”

–Representative Ilhan Omar (D. Mn.), speaking to Al Jeezera, dismissing jihadism as a threat to the United States.

Senator Mike Lee (R. Ut.) introduced legislation in Congress that would permit Americans to carry guns–openly or concealed, nationwide–without the need for a licensing permit. In other words, the Constitution’s Second Amendment would know no internal boundaries. WOO HOO!

The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit overturned a district court order, restricting ICE operations in Chicago, Illinois. WINNING!

“On the day I left office, I handed Trump the strongest economy in the world.”

–China Joe.

HA, HA, HA, HA, HA!

“I’m a hell of a lot smarter than most of you.”

–China Joe, speaking at “Reverend” Jesse Jackson’s funeral.

Oh, my! How many black people can you insult at one time?

China Joe also claimed–falsely–that he appointed the 1st black Supreme Court Justice. He should apologize to the late Lyndon B. Johnson, who appointed Thurgood Marshall to the bench. In 1967. Before China Joe even got near the Congress, much less The White House.

“I predicted a lot about what’s happening right now . . . I’m not here to say I TOLD YOU SO, but we did see it coming.”

–Commiela, speaking at “Reverend” Jesse Jackson’s funeral.

No self-awareness whatsoever. The most useless Vice-President who was picked only for her sex and race, and who served in the most failed Administration in history, is lecturing others. Unbelievable.

Three (3) former Democrat Presidents attended the “Reverend” Jackson’s funeral. Two (2) brought their wives–China Joe and Slick Willie–while Barack Hussein Obama brought his ego.

“Everywhere we see greed and bigotry being celebrated, and bullying and mockery masquerading as strength.  We see science and expertise denigrated while ignorance and dishonesty and cruelty and corruption are reaping untold rewards.  Every single day we see that, and it’s hard to hope.”

–Barack Hussein Obama, delivering a partisan, divisive speech at “Reverend” Jesse Jackson’s funeral.

They [Democrats] turned the funeral into a political rally. It was not about Jesse Jackson. It was about . . . Orange Man Bad. It was the Paul Wellstone funeral on steroids. Mr. Wellstone’s funeral did not turn out very well for Democrats. Neither will Mr. Jackson’s funeral.

“If you want to know why Donald Trump was elected, watch Barack Obama’s attack speech yesterday at Jesse Jackson’s funeral. As he did throughout his presidency, he created a straw man to describe Republicans as bigots who force the American people to ‘turn on each other’.

He said similar crap when he was President and the GOP was the party of Bush, McCain and Romney. It’s the language of bitterness and resentment that makes good people recoil to be described that way.

Obama is one of the most divisive figures in US history, except he is celebrated by the MSM because they are partisans. They take sides and loved and protected Obama.

It’s no wonder a tough, no BS, bull in the China shop emerged. That person was a fed up Trump, who broke the MSM by not caring what they thought. He showed Rs they could punch back against the Ds and win. His rise coincided with the welcome birth, at long last, of conservative media which gave voice to the voiceless who had been forced to consume the prejudices of the MSM.

I can’t stand Obama. He was weak, patronizing, condescending and he put America last. But having listened to him yesterday, I am reminded the only good thing he did was help elect President Trump.”

–Ari Fleischer.

Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for President George W. Bush, is one of the more restrained, moderate Republicans you will ever encounter. If he is this riled up, that should tell you something about Mr. Obama’s speech.

“Come on, Canada, come on, UK, come on, China, you know you wanna do it.”

–Florida resident Joyce Schulz-Killian, begging other countries to attack the United States and remove President Trump from power. 

In Chicago, Illinois, “hate” crimes against Jews rose 58%. Mayor Brandon Johnson (D.) does not care.

A New Jersey Girls Scout Troop set up a table outside of a cannabis shop, in order to sell cookies. Sales were brisk. Apparently the munchies set in for the cannabis shop’s patrons.

In San Francisco, California, street thugs violently attacked the Mayor’s security detail. Oh, wow!

Mississippi public schools outperform California public schools. California’s poverty rate is the highest in the nation, tied with Louisiana. California has the highest unemployment rate in the nation. California is the most expensive State in which to live. And California has the highest taxes in the nation. Hmmm. Here’s an idea; let’s elect Governor Gavin Newsom (D. Ca.) President, so that he can to the whole nation what he has done to California.

“Yesterday, there was a presentation from a group seeking to change how we address organized retail theft . . . It would have been good to make sure that they would study the benefit of shoplifting and of retail theft because perhaps people are relying on that and sort of using that, and maybe it’s assisting them in some way.  These folks were describing people violating the law, but I suppose it could be useful to look into that.”

–Minnesota State Representative Dave Pinto (D.), speaking at a hearing on crime.

Unbelievably, Mr. Pinto is a State prosecutor. But he wants to understand the “benefit” to people who steal? Is he serious? No wonder Minnesota’s government is so rife with fraud.

“For too long, politicians have had too much control over drawing the districts that decide our elections.  That process has allowed political interests to shape districts in ways that don’t always reflect the communities they represent.  The goal [of the proposed redistricting amendment] is to make the process more transparent and more balanced, ensuring that voters have confidence that district lines are drawn fairly.  This amendment represents an opportunity to move away from a system where politicians choose their voters and toward one where voters choose their representatives.  That’s why I’m voting yes on Virginia’s redistricting amendment.”

–Governor Abigail Spanberger (D. Va.).

Sigh. This woman is such a lying shrew.

Virginia ALREADY has a bipartisan redistricting commission which draws the legislative districts “fairly”. It was approved by a constitutional amendment a few years ago. The Democrats supported that amendment. BUT NOW, the Democrats want the politicians to redraw the districts themselves–something Mrs. Spanberger claims to oppose. Parts of Fairfax and Arlington Counties in Northern Virginia will be joined with 4 new Congressional districts extending into the Shenandoah Valley, Southside Virginia, and Tidewater. These Northern Virginia have nothing in common with these other areas of the Commonwealth. The goal is to engage in partisan gerrymandering to give Democrats control of 10 of Virginia’s 11 Congressional districts.

Abigail Spanberger’s statement is truly Orwellian in nature. She thinks Virginia’s voters are too stupid to know that they already have a bipartisan commission to draw legislative districts. She thinks Virginia voters will embrace this Democrat power grab in the name of fairness. War is peace, hate is love, up is down . . . . Abigail Spanberger is a disgusting, lying b***h (rhymes with witch).

Mrs. Spanberger also announced that Virginia is officially rejoining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Look for electricity bills to skyrocket. Affordability.

Virginia General Assembly Democrats are mandating that the events of January 6, 2021 be taught as an insurrection against “our democracy”. No opposing views. No nuance. Teachers cannot deviate from this message, and students may not question it. More Orwell in California East.

Virginia General Assembly Democrats are also mandating that movie theaters shown a quota of movies with subtitles. Ahh, a solution for a non-existent problem.

Democrats love to tell people what to do. You will watch movies with sub-titles!

At the Episcopal Parish Networks conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, speakers, including Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe, urged conferees to oppose both “Christian nationalism” and the Trump Administration. Did the Democrat National Committee fund this conference?

After 60 years, Bruce Johnston is leaving The Beach Boys. Surf’s up!

Steven Hibbert, who played “The Gimp” in the movie Pulp Fiction, has died at age 68. Wow. First, Zed, and now The Gimp. There is a message in there somewhere. Maybe do not mess with Ving Rhames? R. I. P.

Southern Living magazine rated Kirkland’s Gourmet Chocolate Chunk Cookies as the best store bought chocolate chip cookies in the United States. John Bays used to buy these. They are good.

Longtime Green Bay Packers President Bob Harlan has died at age 89. R. I. P.

GFK

“As long as he who fasts, fasts for God, and he who fasts not, also fasts not for God, devotion is as well satisfied with one as with the other.”

— St. Francis de Sales.

As we go through our daily life, we can lose sight of the fact that we are children of God. When we were baptized into the Body of Christ, we were adopted into God’s family. This is neither an abstract nor an allegorical construct. Through the new covenant established by Christ, we are adopted children of God. As S. Paul writes in this Sunday’s epistle: Be ye followers of God, as dear children…

What a tall order! And yet, our calling as God’s children is to imitate Him. As Our Lord Himself teaches in the Sermon on the Mount: Be ye perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Our Lenten experience to date should make clear how difficult, if not impossible, it is to follow this precept. Even with the best of intentions, we fail to live up to our calling as children of God.

But in this Sunday’s Epistle, S. Paul counsels us in a way to avoid sin, especially sins of the flesh. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints. In other words, don’t just avoid these sins, but keep far away from them. In traditional moral theology we refer to this as “avoiding the near occasion of sin.”

While Satan cannot read our minds – only God can – he is a keen observer of our behavior. He notes the sorts of temptations that get our attention and sends them our way with increasing frequency, especially during Lent. This is why we are to refrain from even so much as letting them enter our imaginations.

The Church Fathers used precise language to delineate how we so easily fall into sin. First, they noted, Satan plants the “suggestion” into our minds. Then we take that temptation and entertain it within our imagination. This they called “delectation.” Finally, we act upon the temptation that we have entertained in our imagination, that is, our “consent.” Suggestion comes directly from Satan, delectation from the result of our concupiscence (or fallen nature) and consent through the will. When the will becomes weakened through repeatedly sinning, the greater the chance of forming a sinful habit.

It is all too easy, in our present culture, to be lulled into an amoral stupor. The popular media today is saturated with the antithesis of Biblical morality. I read recently of an up-scale bar in New York City where the large-screen TVs steam explicit pornographic acts. Over time and with increasing exposure, we can find ourselves acquiescing to this debased culture. When we keep God only in our minds and not in our hearts we are the more susceptible to the culture of prime time television and mass media. 

During Lent, we are bidden to spend more time in prayer and in fasting. We do so to allow God to make His presence more real within us. By fasting and abstaining from material things, such as food and television, we learn to focus our attention and imagination on that which is of eternal value.As the days lengthen during this season of the year, and more light fills the waking hours, may this inspire us to allow the light of Christ to more greatly illumine us. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light.

____________________________________________________________________

Below is an article by Don Feder on the insanity of the “trans” movement. There is no such thing as a transsexual. But the movement is very real, and very dangerous. It is a departure from God’s Creation and Word. It is a departure from biology (i.e. science). It is a departure from reality.

Transgenderism: An attack on reality

For the left, facts are meaningless

BY:          Don Feder, The Washington Times (March 1, 2026).

Liberalism is based on a denial of reality. John Adams said, “Facts are stubborn things.” For the political left, facts are meaningless and evidence is irrelevant.

Liberals believe that raising taxes will spur productivity, that guns cause crime, that election integrity is racist and that illegal immigration is a human right.

Yet nothing is more quintessentially liberal than support for transgenderism — the dogma that gender can be separated from biology.

When it’s convenient, liberals insist that we follow the science — on climate change, for instance. On “gender identity,” they demand that we ignore the science that says you can’t change your DNA.

In Pawtucket, Rhode Island, last month, Robert Dorgan, who called himself Roberta Esposito and looked like a cross between a lumberjack and a drag queen, went to a hockey game and killed his son, his ex-wife and his ex-wife’s father before taking his own life.

It was the second transgender mass shooting in a week, including the worst school shooting in Canada’s history.

The past three years have also had transgender mass shootings in Nashville, Minneapolis and Colorado Springs. A report by the Crime Prevention Research Center shows that from 2018 to 2024, transgender people committed active shootings at least 12 times their share of the population.

Advocates insist that a man who thinks he is a woman really is a woman, and vice versa, and that all he or she needs is amputation and medication to lead a perfectly abnormal life.

Because the procedure doesn’t deal with underlying psychological problems, but frequently exacerbates them, the victims of “gender-reassignment” surgery often become bitter, depressed and sometimes violent.

They blame others — including family members, co-workers and classmates — for rejecting their new identities.

Slain conservative leader Charlie Kirk observed: “If you are crazy enough to want to hormonally and surgically ‘change your sex,’ you have a mental disorder, and you are too crazy to own a firearm.” How non-affirming can you get?

Ironically, the man — excuse me, the non-lactating person — charged with Kirk’s murder was in a relationship with a guy who thought he was a gal.

Mass shootings aren’t the only consequences of this sanctioned psychosis. Law and social pressure are used to compel people to fall in line.

There’s power in this mind control. Jennifer Roback Morse, president of the Ruth Institute, an organization fighting the sexual revolution, said, “If you can get someone to say (ex-Olympian) Bruce Jenner is a woman, you can get them to say anything.”

Teachers have been punished for using the wrong pronouns. Women have had their health club memberships canceled for objecting to being forced to undress in front of a man.

Males are allowed to compete in women’s sports, despite their obvious physical advantages. Boys can use girls’ bathrooms.

Men are incarcerated in women’s prisons and allowed to stay at women’s shelters, raising the risk of sexual assault. Taxpayers are forced to pay for “gender-affirming” surgery.

We have created a new vocabulary to avoid offending the reality-adverse, including referring to a man as someone with “male-appearing genitalia” and a woman as a “lactating person.” Liberals blithely speak of “the sex assigned at birth.” (“Your sex assignment, should you choose to accept it.”)

Democrats and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson claim they don’t know what a woman is.

Congressional Democrats have a Trans Bill of Rights, which they are prepared to inflict on us if they get a majority in the next elections. It requires “equal access to services and accommodations” for the gender confused.

Liberals love victims. The transgendered are the newest victim group. If you refuse to affirm their fantasies, then you are a bigot who is fomenting hate against them.

The ultimate victims of this madness are the transgender people themselves, many of whom will never get to experience the gifts God gave them.

On Jan. 30, a New York jury awarded $2 million in damages to a 22-year-old woman against a psychologist and a plastic surgeon who pushed her into getting a double mastectomy when she was 16 so her body would match her “identity.”

A date has been set for a similar lawsuit against the Kaiser Foundation Hospitals by detransitioner Chloe Cole. Other litigation is pending. Perhaps this will put an end to the mutilation of minors.

The transgender ideology undermines the family as it attacks the culture. We should be celebrating men and women who marry and have children, not the gender confused who wander in an alternate reality.

GFK

“The bread you store up belongs to the hungry; the cloak that lies in your chest belongs to the naked; the gold you have hidden in the ground belongs to the poor.”

— St. Basil the Great.

One of the Democrats’ big themes is to complain about the high cost of healthcare, and to blame Republicans for it. That is all horse hockey. The biggest problem with the cost of healthcare is government interference in the market.

Below is an article by Veronique de Rugy, who is a scholar at George Mason University. This is her view of how to begin fixing the problem.

Why Health Care Is So Expensive in America, and What to Do About It

The core structural problem is simple.

BY:          Veronique de Rugy, The American Spectator (March 4, 2026).

America’s health care system consistently ranks as the most expensive in the developed world. It’s not, as some politicians claim, expensive because markets have failed. It’s expensive because the market has been repeatedly blocked from succeeding. Until we’re honest about that, any potential reforms will only address symptoms while ignoring the disease.

The health care market is hindered in many ways, but the core structural problem is simple: The person receiving care is almost never the person actually paying for it. Roughly 90 cents of every dollar is covered by a third party — an insurer or the government.

The arrangement severs the give-and-take relationship between provider and customer that disciplines every other sector of the economy. When someone else pays, no one shops around, no one compares prices, and no one asks whether a service is worth it.

When someone else is paying, there is no reason to restrict one’s consumption. The result is predictable: opaque pricing, resistance to competition and no discipline to keep costs aligned with benefits.

Thus, this is not a debate about who should have coverage. It’s about whether the architecture of American health care creates any living, breathing incentive for affordability.

This fiasco didn’t happen naturally. It was built by the tax code — specifically, the exclusion of employer-sponsored health insurance from taxable income. As Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute has documented, the exclusion is roughly as old as the income tax itself, rooted in early Treasury rulings that predated modern health insurance.

In the early 1940s, wartime wage controls gave the concept practical force. Employers who couldn’t compete to hire workers with wages started using health benefits, which were exempt from the controls, as a workaround. But employer-purchased health insurance did not see robust growth until after wage ceilings were lifted in 1953. Congress then codified the exclusion in 1954, cementing employer-based insurance as the dominant model, a consequence few anticipated at the time.

The tax break is projected to reduce income- and payroll-tax revenue by $487 billion this year. The consequences have been a calamity. Cannon has convinced me that this single provision is the most damaging in the entire tax code. And it’s not just because of the fiscal cost — it is three times larger than the next tax break in the code — but because of the behavior it has shaped over eight decades.

The provision has chained workers to their employers. It has practically eliminated consumer price sensitivity. It’s suppressed wages that could have been paid in cash instead of in the form of health insurance. Altogether, it’s systematically crowded out the direct, consumer-driven health care spending that creates genuine market pressure to limit costs.

Under the ideal tax system — one that taxes income once and only once, with no loopholes, no double taxation and no provisions favoring one activity over another — the employer insurance exclusion would not exist.

However, eliminating the exemption is politically difficult. So for now, the practical baby step is more health savings accounts, which allow individuals to save pre-tax dollars and spend them directly on medical expenses. They put patients in the role of paying customers who compare prices, question the need for certain procedures and seek value.

The evidence suggests that people with HSA-linked plans spend less on care and engage more with wellness programs, though it’s hard to say how much of this reflects the plans themselves versus the characteristics of the people who choose them. What’s clearer is the structural logic. When people are in charge of their own money, they ask the right questions.

Unfortunately, HSA eligibility is restricted to people enrolled in high-deductible health plans and excludes millions of Americans with other coverage who would benefit most from these exact same incentives. The 2025 “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” made genuine improvements by expanding HSA contribution limits and broadening the range of qualified expenses. But the bill left the eligibility restriction intact. Another central structural flaw in our system remains.

The consumer-directed model should follow the consumer, not the regulatory category of their plan. Millions of Americans have opted out of the Affordable Care Act market entirely, choosing short-term plans, health-sharing arrangements, or other alternatives precisely because they want more control over their spending. An HSA regime should reach them too.

Expanding HSA eligibility is not just another bandage-style health care reform. It’s a step toward a more coherent tax code. It will lower prices by allowing individuals to accumulate health care savings over their working lives. It will help restore a direct financial relationship between patients and providers.

That’s good tax policy as much as good health policy.

GFK

“They alone can truly feast, who have first fasted.”

— St. John Henry Cardinal Newman.

The War Powers Resolution floating around Congress failed. Take that Tim Kaine!

Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran
Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran

Bomb Iran (bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran)
Let’s take a stand (bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran)
Bomb Iran (bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran)
Our country’s got a feelin’
Really hit the ceilin’, bomb Iran (bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran)

Went to a mosque, gonna throw some rocks
Tell the Ayatollah, “Gonna put you in a box”

Bomb Iran (bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran)
Bomb Iran (bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran)
Our country’s got a feelin’
Really hit the ceilin’, bomb Iran (bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran)

Ol’ Uncle Sam’s gettin’ pretty hot
Time to turn Iran into a parking lot

Bomb Iran (bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran)
Bomb Iran (bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran)
Our country’s got a feelin’
Really hit the ceilin’, bomb Iran (bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran)

Call the volunteers, call the bombardiers
Call the financiers, better get their ass in gear

Bomb Iran (bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran)
Bomb Iran (bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran)
Our country’s got a feelin’
Really hit the ceilin’, bomb Iran (bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran)
(Let’s nuke ’em, woo-hoo!)

Call on our allies to cut off their supplies
Get our hands untied, and bring ’em back alive

Bomb Iran (bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran)
Bomb Iran (bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran)
Our country’s got a feelin’
Really hit the ceilin’, bomb Iran (bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran)

Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran
Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran

Bomb Iran (bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran)
Let’s take a stand (bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran)
Bomb Iran (bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran)
Our people you been stealin’
Now it’s time for dealing, bomb Iran (bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran)

Song by Vince Vance & The Valiants (1980), sung to the tune of Barbara Ann by The Beach Boys.

President Trump fired Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Mr. Trump named Senator Markwayne Mullin (R. Ok.) as her replacement.

Governor Gavin Newsom (D. Ca.) referred to Israel as an apartheid State, and called for the United States to withdraw all or some of its support for the Jewish nation. As to the former, Governor Newsom apparently does not know what an apartheid State is. Is the man completely ignorant of South Africa’s history? Does he not realize that Israel is the only nation in the Middle East where an Arab–AN ARAB–can vote and hold political office? As to the latter, Governor Newsom is just a terrorist loving anti-Semite. Why, I cannot imagine. Maybe because that is the direction the Democrat Party is moving.

The Baltimore, Maryland mayor’s office spent more than $890,000 on lavish meals and parties — including crab feasts, catered “farewell” bashes and massive tabs at Ravens football games.  Mayor Brandon Scott (D.) blew taxpayer cash on over-the-top perks for staffers — including $52,589 on grub in the Mayoral Suite at Ravens and Orioles games — in a gross violation of the city’s “public funds” rules.  Oh, well.  It was not HIS money.

“White skin gives me and every white American immunity from the virus [of racism].  But we spread it wherever we go—through our words, our actions, and our systems.  We don’t have to be showing symptoms—like a white hood or a Confederate flag—to be contagious.”

–State Representative and U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico (D. Tx.)

Virginia Democrats want to make it optional for people to attend mandated traffic and criminal hearings. You see, life gets in the way, such as lack of transportation, family matters, and other circumstances. So the solution is not to punish people who blow off their court appearances. Gee, we wonder what the effect that new law will be on court attendance?

Virginia Democrats want to make Daylight Savings Time permanent in the Commonwealth. Why? Democrats imposed this on the nation in the 70s, and no one liked it then. They are not going to like it now. Sigh. I hate Democrats. They live to make people miserable.

Last week, Fairfax County, Virginia mom Stephanie Minter was murdered at a bus stop by Abdul Jalloh, a violent illegal alien with at least 40 prior arrests. All those arrests resulted in dismissed charges by the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney, Steve Descano (D.). Mr. Descano also refused to honor ICE detainers on Abdul Jalloh.

In November, Fairfax County police warned Mr. Descano that it was only a matter of time before Jalloh murdered someone. And now, Stephanie Minter is dead, at the hands of Abdul Jalloh.

Governor Spanberger (D.) is trying to protect Jalloh from deportation, by demanding that ICE get a signed judicial warrant before the Commonwealth will release Jalloh into federal custody.

That is not how federal immigration law works, and Democrats like Abigail Spanberger know it. ICE needs only an administrative warrant to seize and hold an illegal alien. And while it sounds so nice and reasonable for Abigail Spanberger to demand a judicial warrant, that is impossible to obtain in this instance. Because ICE cannot get a federal judicial warrant for an illegal alien accused of committing State crimes.

Governor Spanberger and her Democrat fellow travelers allowed a vicious, violent criminal illegal alien to roam the streets of Northern Virginia. Stephanie Minter paid for their fecklessness with her life. Was it worth it Governor? Was protecting an illegal alien from deportation really worth the life of a Virginian?

A reporter at the State Capitol asked Lt. Governor Hashmi (D. Va.) about Stephanie Minter’s death. Mrs. Hashmi refused to answer the question. She uttered not a word, not even a condolence remark. One of her aides shoved the reporter as Mrs. Hashmi smirked and smiled.

Democrats are not on your side. They do not care if you die.

The house seen on television in the series The Brady Bunch is now a historic landmark in the City of Los Angeles, California. Though the interior shots of the house on television were done on a sound stage, the actual house’s interior has been redone to resemble the television house. Oh, my!

Brittany Spears was arrested for drunk driving. This cannot be her 1st time.

A United States Navy submarine sunk an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean. Iran is very upset.

“Force cannot truly solve problems; instead, it often creates new ones and leaves serious long-term consequences.  The real value of military power lies not on the battlefield ⁠but in preventing war.”

–Official statement by Red China on the U.S./Israeli conflict with Iran.

China is sending a special envoy to the Middle East, demanding that the conflict with Iran be suspended, and that the dispute be mediated. Uh, huh. China is in deep trouble, as it gets its oil from Venezuela and Iran. Check that; China used to get its oil from Venezuela and Iran.

In response to news of Lou Holtz’s death, former ESPN personality Keith Olbermann called the legendary coach a “legendary scumbag”. This was in reaction to the fact that Lou Holtz was pro-life, and that President Trump awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Huh. Lou Holtz was a devout Catholic. Of course he was pro-life! You, Keith Olbermann, are the worst person in the world.

Many elected Republicans offered their condolences on the passing of Lou Holtz. Sadly, only 1 elected Democrat official offered a kind word on the passing of Lou Holtz. That Democrat was Illinois State Representative Kam Buckner. How sad that he was the only one.

GFK