Ending fossil fuel usage is only a dream, at this point in time

Green Energy Mania (GEM) desires that we do away with fossil fuels immediately, without regard to whether the preferred types of green energy sources are available in the necessary quantities to meet the present and future needs of Americans and the rest of humanity.

Few people believe that burning materials to make electricity is a good idea, if there are other ways of producing it. There are, however, lots of people who believe that the GEM goal is so important that it needs to be forced on Americas right away, without regard to the reality that we are nowhere close to being able to produce enough electricity by wind, solar, nuclear, et al, to handle the needs of Americans.

This attitude produces many problems, such as rules and restrictions that were created that affect the production of fossil fuels, reducing their availability and increasing their price.

Furthermore, while the US is at the top of the list of nations reducing CO2 emissions, there are other nations, like China and India, that couldn’t care less about that, and are increasing their use of fossil fuels. Why are we punishing ourselves with expensive and inconvenient restrictions when the reductions they produce are made irrelevant by the increasing excesses of other nations? 

Perhaps the only thing good about Putin’s Russian attack on Ukraine might be that it has highlighted some of the fallacies of the GEM mindset. Not so long ago — 2020, to be exact — the United States had gained the status of being a net energy exporter. And then, Joseph Biden became President of the United States, and willingly gave that up through executive orders that hurt our fossil fuel production and usage.

We must sensibly balance our wants against our needs. No matter how badly people want to end fossil fuel use, we have no choice but to depend upon them until cleaner methods are able to meet our needs. And even more sensibly, let’s use our own fossil fuels, not those of other countries.

Buying oil from places like Venezuela, whose oil is the dirtiest in the world, and America-hating Iran, the world’s top sponsor of terror, is just foolish.

And when we start smartly using our own fossil fuels as needed, let’s stop foolishly making that more difficult and expensive by getting rid of rules and restrictions. Let’s finish the Keystone XL pipeline that will make it safer and faster to get fuel from Canada for use here.

On that topic, Global Energy Institute President Marty Durbin said last year that her organization “opposes President Biden’s action to revoke the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. The pipeline — the most studied infrastructure project in American history — is already under construction and has cleared countless legal and environmental hurdles. This is a politically motivated decision that is not grounded in science. It will harm consumers and put thousands of Americans in the building trades out of work. Halting construction will also impede the safe and efficient transport of oil, and unfairly single out production from one of our closest and most important allies.”

“Several extensive regulatory studies conducted over the past decade as part of an unprecedented regulatory review concluded the pipeline would enhance the American economy while protecting the environment,” according to the Global Energy Institute.

Those that think not using a pipeline, and transporting fuels instead by trucks and trains — which burn fossil fuels while moving those fuels, putting lots of CO2 into the air, which a pipeline does not do — are not thinking clearly.

The Keystone XL pipeline would deliver over 800,000 barrels of oil a day. Its construction supports over 13,000 Canadian and American workers in the building trades.

And, while the U.S. and some other nations are working to phase out the use of coal for electricity production, others are increasing its use.

Citing data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Heartland Daily News, published by The Heartland Institute, reported that “Global coal demand fell by 4 percent in the pandemic year 2020, the biggest decline since World War II, but coal demand surged in 2021 as economies rebounded from the 2020 lockdowns. The IEA projects coal use will rise at an annual rate of 6 percent through 2024, surpassing its previous all-time high for use sometime in 2022.”

“According to the IEA,” the Heartland report continued, “the gap between the political commitments to meet net zero carbon dioxide emissions and the realities of the electric power demand and the increasing use of coal to satisfy it, is widening.”

We need fossil fuels, and will for some time to come. And, other nations are going to continue to use fossil fuels, regardless of what the U.S. and other nations decide to do, or what they may think is needed. 

Some nation or nations will benefit from producing those products. Why should that not be the U.S.? We will benefit from the jobs created, and the income produced, and we might as well enjoy the cost savings that using American fossil fuels will provide to us.

America is a much weaker nation today than it used to be

Many of us living today were born at a time when a family most often consisted of a mother, a father, and one or more children. The father — and sometimes the mother, also — worked to support the family. The children grew up in an atmosphere where things like a basic education, a close-knit family that survived on love for each other and respect for others, preparing to get a job and probably getting married and having a family of their own, were normal. And children were then prepared to repeat the cycle.

This age-old process produced a stable, mature society that helped America, which was brilliantly designed, develop into the leading nation in our world. And today there are still many people who are raised that way and will continue to live that way.

But through recent decades, this process has been weakened, and some of the influences that weakened it have come directly from our federal government. 

Today, America is a much weaker nation than it used to be, in many ways. Many people seem to be unaware of that, and others are unconcerned with the state of things. Will America follow the same path as Rome? Will it be destroyed from within because its people do not know, or have abandoned the governmental and social structures that made it great?

In addition to the Roman Empire, Babylon and Greece fell. Many of us watched as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (the Soviet Union, or USSR) fell apart. These once-great nations did themselves in. They were careless with their strength and glory, and they abandoned what helped them grow, and destroyed themselves.

There is a story from the early days of the United States. In Philadelphia in 1787, as delegates to the Constitutional Convention were leaving Independence Hall, from the crowd of interested onlookers a woman approached Benjamin Franklin. She asked, “well, Doctor, what do we have, a republic or a monarchy?” Franklin replied, “a republic, if you can keep it.”

Great nations evolve. They start from meager, often negative beginnings; they gradually grow to a level of freedom, security and comfort.

But then devolution begins. After time, comfort leads to forgetting the past struggles and the need to conserve what made them what they are. Seeking abundance takes control. With abundance comes an attitude of superiority, accompanied by greater apathy for the processes that brought development and success. That leads to selfishness. Selfishness leads to societal division and discord. And eventually, discord brings collapse. 

How far down that road has America traveled? What are the signs? Here are some.

A. Government is too big, costs too much and is too involved in our daily lives.

The federal government website tells us that “There are roughly 2 million civilian government jobs at more than 120 federal departments and agencies, not including the U.S. Postal Service.”

A federal department rules over education, which should be a local and state responsibility. Government inserts itself in other areas where it is not needed, wanted, or supposed to be. Ten thousand new IRS employees, they say, are “needed” to process tax returns, or for whatever purpose the government may direct.

Many government agencies are encouraged to put into effect rules with the force of law. But in America, only Congress can make laws. And then government agencies are sometimes ordered not to enforce the law, like on the southern border, allowing illegal entry of people, drugs and gangs. And at the state and local level, district attorneys in several states are not prosecuting some or many crimes.

In a Gallup poll last September, 52 percent said government is doing too many things, and prefer lower taxes and fewer government services.

B. Some military leaders think “equity” among races is more important than having the most qualified people functioning in the most effective military possible. Shifting attention from readiness to identity equity is dangerous. Mortars, bombs and bullets do not seek targets evenly by race, they seek available targets, perhaps made easier by this new wokeness. Military personnel must be united against a common enemy, not against those in other sub-groups because of race or other irrelevant differences.

C. One political party is straying from, and working to be rid of, some of the principles established more than 200 years ago. Members of Congress have discussed doing away with the filibuster and the Electoral College, which protect minority interests and the interests of smaller states from the tyranny of the majority; and stacking the Supreme Court to achieve dominance through law-making by judges and justices. 

On that subject Justice Clarence Thomas said in Utah Friday, “Are we leaving [our children] a mess or are we leaving them a country? Are we leaving them chaos or are we going to leave them a court?”

D. Social media companies believe they have the power to censor speech that does not toe the line of their preferred set of ideals. Large corporations buy up competitors, making life easier and more profitable for themselves, but not necessarily better for the people.

The signs are there, if we just honestly look for them. And then work to reverse them.

Here is a recipe for restoring the quality of public education

There is a lot of controversy over things that are occurring in public education today. Things like rewarding excellence among students has taken a back seat to “equity,” which is making sure that all sub-groups share pretty much equally in benefits, whether earned or not. 

As an example, some schools have eliminated advanced math courses for all students because some sub-groups are not equally represented among students taking those courses, which punishes those high-achieving students. Some students are good at math, while others are not. And others may be good at history, languages, or the arts, and high achieving students deserve the opportunity to progress as far as they may want to in their areas of strength. 

Many high schools have multiple valedictorians, so as to not hurt the feelings of students who fell slightly short of winning the honor. There are other issues, as well, such as the invasion of Critical Race Theory in the curriculum.

An email last week contained a video that addressed this and other issues with public education by presenting an approach that focuses on what is really important in education, and how to get back to that focus. The points of that video, along with some quoted material follow.

It began with this introduction from the presenter: “If every high school principal gave the following speech, America would be a much better place.”

Then, speaking as the principal of a high school, he began: “To the students and faculty of our high school, I am your new principal, and honored to be so. There is no greater calling than to teach young people.”

He then explained the important changes coming to the school. 

1. This school will no longer honor race or ethnicity. He said the color of one’s skin, where their ancestors came from and how they got here, doesn’t matter. “The only identity this school will recognize is your individual identity: your character, your scholarship, your humanity.  And the only national identity this school will recognize is American.

This includes after school clubs that cultivate narcissism, an unhealthy preoccupation with the self, “while, the purpose of education is to get you to think beyond yourself.”

“This is an American public school, and American public schools were created to make better Americans. If you wish to affirm here an ethnic or racial identity, or a national identity other than American, you will have to attend another school.”

2. It does not matter whether English is your native language, what matters is that you leave this school writing and speaking English as fluently as possible.

It is the duty of the school to be sure that students are prepared to successfully compete in the job market, therefore students must leave this school with excellent language skills.

Other languages will be taught, he said, noting that unfortunately many or most American-born people speak only English.

3. Everything in this school will reflect learning’s elevated status. There will be a dress code for faculty and students. Students will address teachers by their title — Mr., Mrs., or Miss — not by their first names. They are your teachers, not your friends, and will be regarded with due respect.

4. No obscene language will be tolerated on this school’s property. This will help students learn the difference between “the elevated and the degraded,” and “the holy and the obscene.” In other words, you will show proper respect for each other.

5. We will end all self-esteem programs. “In this school, self-esteem will be attained one way, the only way self-esteem can be attained: by earning it.” Consequently, “graduating classes will have only one valedictorian, not eight.”

6. I am reorienting the school toward academics and away from politics and propaganda. Such topics as racism, sexism, Islamophobia, homophobia, global warming, tobacco or gender identity will not be part of the school atmosphere. And no time will be spent trying to convince any students that they are victims because of their particular circumstances. “This school will have failed if any of you graduate without considering him or herself inordinately lucky — lucky to be alive, lucky to be an American.”

He noted along the way that if these new rules did not sit well with some students, “this is not the right school for you.”

The principal then asked all to stand and join him in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to our country, adding that since many of them did not know the words, teachers would hand them out.

This video was created and distributed by Dennis Prager, an American conservative radio talk show host and writer. He is co-founder of PragerU, a non-profit organization that creates short videos on political, economic, and philosophical topics, such as this emailed video.

The importance of education to the future of America cannot be over-stated. Whether through unknowing influences or outright subversion, many public schools no longer adequately teach our young about the nature and substance of our country.

If this is not corrected very soon, millions more young people will be unable to understand what America is all about, and why its original principles must be continued into the future.

Biden has been more of a help than a hinderance to Russia

The big news of the last week is the Russian attack on its neighbor, Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin is doing this for one of two reasons, Russia observers tell us. 

One reason they say is that Putin is afraid. He is scared to death of democracy, which Ukraine is reportedly working toward. And he fears that Ukraine could become a part of NATO, which he views as a threat to Russian communism. This, despite NATO having said it does not want to admit Ukraine to the organization.

The other, the more likely reason, is that Putin desires to re-establish the former Soviet Union by retaking those nations that were freed when the communist state fell in 1991, a goal he has firmly expressed in the past.

While the threat of a Russian attack was building, the nations of the world, including the United States, did nothing more than issue mild warnings. Sanctions were threatened, some serious ones, but would not be put in place until after an attack. Sanctions as a deterrent to war were not thought to be useful. Last week, Russia began the attack. 

One of the most serious sanctions would be blocking Russia from participating in the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) banking system. This action has been described as a “Financial Nuclear Weapon.” As this is being written, “selected” Russian banks have been taken out of SWIFT, but not all of its banks.

“For the U.S. and its European allies, cutting Russia out of the SWIFT financial system would be one of the toughest financial steps they could take,” NBC News reported, “damaging Russia's economy immediately and in the long term. The move could cut Russia off from most international financial transactions, including profits from oil and gas production, which account for more than 40 percent of the country's revenue.”

The U.S. buys a good bit of oil and gasoline from Russia. Forbes reported, “The United States imported more gasoline and other refined petroleum products from Russia than any other country in 2021.”

According to Federal Customs Service records, the United States is the single largest buyer of Russia’s heavy-oil products, and during the first five months of this year, U.S. refiners bought nearly 20 percent of Russia’s heavy-oil exports.

That complicates things for the U.S. in placing sanctions on Russia to force the end of the war against Ukraine, especially if one of those sanctions is completely blocking Russia from participating in SWIFT.

This situation exists a fairly short time after the U.S. became a net energy exporter in 2020, after increases in the production of crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids.

President Joe Biden had barely lowered his hand after taking the oath of office last year when he took actions that put the U.S. in a situation of supporting Russia, and at the same time making our country somewhat dependent upon it.

One action was stopping completion of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have moved 830,000 barrels of oil per day to the U.S. from Canada. That would have substantially increased domestic energy production, perhaps to a level where buying oil and gasoline from Russia would no longer be needed.

A second action was stopping oil drilling on federal lands, thereby lessening the amount of domestic energy production. 

And Biden helped Russia directly by removing the U.S. opposition to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that benefits Russian energy sales, and will double Russia’s delivery of energy to Europe, bypassing pipelines in Ukraine and Poland in the process, a substantial financial benefit for Russia.

We have seen the price for a barrel of crude oil rise from $21.04 per barrel in April of 2020, during President Donald Trump’s administration, when energy independence was finally achieved after several decades, to more than $100 per barrel as of last week.

Biden has been more of a help than a hinderance to Russia when being a stalwart figure of opposition would have been much better. This mild stance followed his criticism of former President Trump’s tenure. 

In 2019, Biden said of Trump, “It’s going to take a hell of a lot of work to make up for all of the damage he’s done internationally and nationally.” Then, it seems, Biden said, “hold my beer!”

A cartoon post on Facebook put forth this question: What sanctions can Biden place on Russia?” To which the following answers were provided: Shut down their pipeline. Create supply chain nightmares. And, basically drive their economy into the ground. You know, like what he’s done to us.”

Somehow, that one escaped the censors’ knife.

Putin has put his nuclear forces on alert. This outrageous move ought to cause the most timid national leaders to get serious about the Putin threat.

Thus far, in opposition to his thuggery the world has effectively only stuck out its tongue at Putin. What he deserves, and requires, is to be knocked cold.

Censorship is dangerous, especially as science is very rarely settled

Those who resisted the often-conflicting advice from health experts about how to fight the COVID virus, particularly after more than a year of hearing it, were condemned for “not following the science.” And we have heard for years from some people that the science of climate change is settled, and that we must accept those assertions as fact.

It is the reality, however, that science is rarely settled, that there is always the possibility that new information will be discovered and that some theories will be proven wrong, or need to be amended, as a result.

Without getting too deep into the scientific method, Baen Books (baen.com) explains that “science is a process of examination and exploration, not a ‘fact,’ pronouncement, or conclusion. In essence, science consists of formulating a hypothesis from observed facts, creating experiments to prove or disprove the hypothesis, observing the results of the experiments, then making a conclusion to accept or reject the original hypothesis on the basis of those observations.”

One well known example of how scientific theories are wrong and are corrected is the centuries-old theory that the sun, moon and stars revolved around a stationary Earth, or “geocentrism.”

Here is how this “fact” was established:
Question: Why does the sun always rise in the East and set in the West? 
Observations: The sun, moon and stars always follow the same rotation around the Earth. 
Conclusion: The Earth is the center of the system of the sun, moon and stars.

This view of the universe was scientifically sound for its day and age, hundreds of years ago, and thus “settled science.” But centuries later — in the 18th and 19th Centuries — it was thought likely that the sun, not the Earth, might be the center of the system. Heliocentrism entered into and eventually dominated thought on the essence of the solar system. We now know that the planets and their moons revolve around the sun. The settled science was wrong.

Thus, science is very often not settled, and there are frequently different ideas about what is and what isn’t correct that should be examined.

With that in mind, consider the way social media have responded to ideas about COVID that were divergent from the “approved messages.” Those posts were labeled as “false information” by the “fact-checkers” of social media platforms, such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. As a result, they were labeled or blocked on the charge that they contained “harmful” or “dangerous” information. This was done ostensibly “to protect the public.”

But often these platforms were simply keeping opinions contrary to the preferred message from their audience. And not infrequently, those censored messages were actually true and correct. Among information that was correct and helpful, but forbidden, were points about wearing masks, the supposed benefits and risks of vaccination, and natural immunity gained from having had COVID. 

In America, one of our wonderful assets is that we have the freedom of expression. Through freedom to express our ideas, “settled science” may be discovered as incorrect or incomplete, and be improved by new information. New ideas may be presented at any time, and be open to debate, and perhaps lead to better understanding.

Censorship, even when imposed by private entities like social media, is wrong, unless the censored material is unarguably dangerous or harmful. This is so because we are blessed with freedom of speech, and that includes unpopular speech and even bad speech. And also, because even the most heavily supported ideas may be wrong, or in need of being improved upon. Furthermore, keeping unpopular ideas hidden may itself be dangerous.

Many ideas that do not agree with the approved messaging are censored by social media sites. There is a discussion regarding whether a “platform,” which such sites are, can arbitrarily decide what is “false information.” We expect newspapers and other news purveyors to make sure their content is correct, but platforms are not held to that standard, and are intended for open dialog.

You cannot have a useful discussion about important topics if only some information is allowed in the discussion. Social media sites, as platforms, are not supposed to regulate speech, unless it is truly dangerous. Political differences, or mere differences of opinion, are out-of-bounds for being blocked by social media “fact-checkers.”

And while, social media sites may have important information on them, they are not the only place people ought to go to find it. Social media have no business considering themselves as authorities on anything. That is not their role.

Social media must stop playing God, and let people have their say, right, wrong, or undetermined, so long as they do not allow inciting violence or other dangerous activity.

Of course, one reason — perhaps the main or only reason — social media sites engage in censorship is because they have a political purpose, and open dialogue thwarts their efforts to have their ideas win out in the court of public opinion. After all, it is easier for your side to win the argument if it is the only side put forth

But good ideas will win on their inherent content, without needing to censor opposing ideas.

The federal government is growing more intrusive under Joe Biden

First, the FBI was instructed to go after parents who are concerned about their children’s education. This followed news of meetings of school boards where parents spoke out about elements of their children’s education that were at odds with traditional educational curricula.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo that called for the FBI and DOJ to “address the rise in criminal conduct directed toward school personnel.” This move was described by Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton as an excuse to target parents who are opposed to Critical Race Theory, also known as CRT, and other left-wing teaching materials. This, he said, was done at the behest of a prominent liberal education group, the National School Boards Association.

Fitton said that the memo “compared these parents to domestic terrorists and suggested using the Patriot Act to target them,” and that the Biden DOJ is “targeting average Americans going to school board meetings and complaining about Marxist propaganda brainwashing going on in our nation’s schools.”

“Just like that, you had AG Garland essentially issue an all hands on deck command to the national security establishment to target parents that were ‘threatening’ school board members,” Fitton continued. This move, he said, is “designed to intimidate parents [who are critical] of critical race theory extremism, transgender agenda extremism and the other threats to the safety, security and privacy of their children.”

In doing this, the federal government is attacking a basic operation of our democracy — freedom of speech — he concluded.

While parents were angry that schools had inserted lessons on topics that they not only disagreed with, but were unaware of — and rightly so — there was little evidence of actual violence or real threats to the safety of any school board members or school personnel.

Perhaps Garland, as the nation’s top law enforcement officer and a former judge, is unaware of the state and local law enforcement agencies that actually have jurisdiction in such matters, were there to be evidence of actual violence or intimidation.

Then the Department of Homeland Security sent agents to California in case some truckers decided to form a protest near the stadium where the Super Bowl was to be played, and "potentially block roads in major metropolitan cities" protesting vaccine mandates and other issues.

As reported by ABC7 in Los Angeles, “The agency said the convoy could begin in Southern California as early as this weekend, possibly disrupting traffic around Super Bowl LVI, and reach Washington in March in time for the State of the Union,” citing an Associated Press bulletin.

The report continued, saying, “The White House says the department is ‘surging additional staff’ to the Super Bowl, just in case (emphasis added).”

This action was taken before any actual trouble occurred, and without being asked by local authorities for help. Yet again, the federal government inserts itself into local/regional events, ignoring that there are local law enforcement agencies that could and should address them.

For a protest to make a difference, it must get the attention of those who have implemented the subject of the protest. The Canadian trucker protest has done that, significantly hindering the delivery of needed materials. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has only dug in his heels, refusing to lift the mandates the truckers oppose, despite the problems the protest has caused.

All the while one of the federal government’s legitimate and major areas of concern — the southern border — has been ignored, allowing hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens to enter the country with little or no involvement by federal authorities, other than assisting them in getting into the country through its reckless border policy of inaction. And then flying and busing them in the dark of night around the country to unsuspecting American cities and towns.

“We the people” are fed up with lots of things these days. Government overreach, at all levels, has finally put that last straw on the camel’s back. Resistance to vaccine mandates and vaccine passports has caused a mass protest in Canada and a significant protest in France, as well as some other countries.

Here in the U.S. many are fed up with the continued forced wearing of masks, particularly for young school children. This begs the question: Do masks really work? Well, some do and some don’t. 

For the purposes of stemming the spread of Covid, cloth masks — a very common choice — do not work. But any mask excels in harming the health and development of young children. And vaccines also do not work to prevent catching and spreading the virus.

Where the wearing of masks and getting vaccinated are concerned, that is where the defensive statement “my body, my choice” actually is relevant.

Over-the-top denial of people’s freedoms to ostensibly fight the Covid virus has at last passed the threshold, and people are standing up to the authoritarian control policies of federal, local, and state governments. 

A major benefit of the United States is the guarantee of a broad array of personal freedoms. Seeking those freedoms led to the war against Great Britain that allowed the colonies to establish the most free nation in history, and many Americans are unwilling to let that go.

America is being torn apart from within by bad politics, leftist policies

Watching America collapse or, more accurately, be torn apart from within, is very disturbing. The country has had challenges before. Some of us remember the turbulence of the sixties. The Vietnam War, the hippies and the Civil Rights Movement all had things stirred up. But the country settled down after a while.

Today, the large number of “Americans” who do not know why our system of government is superior to the others, because they were not taught about it, did not learn about it when they were taught, or who just don’t accept it, is truly troublesome.

Barack Obama’s pledge to “fundamentally transform the United States of America” if elected should have started a revolution against that concept. Instead, due to the large number who disagree with and/or don’t understand our nation’s founding principles, it fired up a lot of people who agreed with that idea. Today we are seeing where that mindset has led us.

Our country is divided more than it has been since the Civil War. One political faction wants to change many things, frequently because “times have changed.” Things like doing away with the Electoral College that protects minority interests and getting rid of the Senate filibuster that helps discourage the introduction of highly partisan legislation, and makes it easier to pass one-sided legislation. 

It has also discussed packing the Supreme Court with liberal activists to make laws rather than to correctly interpret laws. This will strengthen and maintain leftist power in Washington for a long time.

And even though Joe Biden won the 2020 election with 81.3 million votes — the most ever — and with the highest voter turnout percentage since 1900, it wants to change election laws to “increase voter turnout.”

The other side, however, wants to protect and defend the brilliant concepts of the Founders that made America superior to every other governmental form yet conceived.

This conservative faction understands that the principles of the U.S. Constitution do not change with the winds of time, or the preferences of political parties. And it understands why they should not change. 

The “conservative” justices on the Supreme Court and other courts work to maintain founding principles, and to save the republic from the suicidal tendencies of the socialist/communist radical left.

Laws that protect people must be followed and protected. And people that cannot or will not live and act in compliance with those laws must be punished. The safety of the populace is of utmost importance in the workings of a good government.

Fortunately, the disastrous results of defund the police, no bail/low bail, and not punishing some crimes are being seen for the irrational blunders they are. Yet millions among us still want to change direction from that which brought us a strong nation, and they are having negative effects on our country.

Education, which has been made far less effective because of the fear surrounding the Covid virus, now is home to a movement, mostly in secret, to improperly change the history curriculum. Some of this occurs at the school board level, some at the school level, and some at the instructor level. And it has spread into other subject areas.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) has been sneaked into classrooms, and rather than teach children that each of them is a valuable individual, it classifies them as either an oppressed person, or an oppressor. The distinction depends not on individual character, but on skin color. 

Instead of encouraging kids to understand and get along with each other, CRT pits groups of kids against each other, further intensifying the discord we see.

Some school boards deny parents their right to express concerns at meetings, and deny them requested materials. Some board members tell parents “I don’t work for you.” Teachers unions resist the importance of getting back into the classroom, and restoring the learning environment.

Reactions to the Covid variants have had devastating effects on the country, and much of the world. Combined with the other issues, things are truly upside-down.

Advice from the scientists has been all over the board. Some of that is a normal part of learning to deal with a new disease. But two years in, there is beginning to be resistance to the control mechanisms put into effect to protect us. 

Governments and businesses mandate vaccinations. Vaccines are designed to keep people from getting a disease. Vaccines in the past have done that. The Polio, Tetanus and Measles vaccines, for example, prevent contracting those diseases. 

Some people use those vaccines to justify forcing Covid vaccinations. But there is a big difference. Covid vaccines do not prevent catching or transmitting Covid. They reportedly reduce the effects of the virus, but do not prevent catching or transmitting it.

And then there is the selective censorship by social media platforms that impede the free exchange of important ideas. It is aimed primarily at conservative politics, and the “approved” Covid messages.

Comments contrary to the approved message were taken down, labeled as “false information” by the self-appointed media judges. Much of that information, however, proved to be correct.

Free speech is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. Without the free expression of ideas — good and bad ideas — we are doomed.

Biden’s reasoning for who to appoint to the Supreme Court is flawed

So, President Joe Biden gets to pick a nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. Back on the campaign trail he pledged to choose a black woman for the position. Why? Because, he said, it’s time.

If there is any good news in this situation, it is that with 99.9 percent certainty his selection, if approved, will not affect the balance on the Court. 

Replacing Justice Stephen Breyer, one of the three liberals on the Court, will almost certainly result in the nomination of a liberal/progressive, keeping the activist — “make law from the bench” — number at three, against six who usually follow the strict constructionist or original intent philosophy when interpreting the U.S. Constitution and laws.

America was once a nation where one earned his or her place on a court bench, in a hall of fame, or at the top of a rating or activity through merit. We are now, more and more, selecting people based not upon their abilities and accomplishments, but on their race or gender. This system is referred to as “equity.” It is more about evening out numbers than seeking out the best.

And there is the possibility that the person Biden nominates may feel that she got the nod only because of her race and gender, not because of her positive attributes.

If we are going to start picking justices for the Court based upon these new criteria, when will the time be for a Hispanic male, an Asian man or woman, or a transgender person? And who will decide when the time is right?

Many or most times — and filling this Supreme Court vacancy is one of those times — the proper choice is the most qualified person. That may well be a black woman. But it might be someone else.  And, if no others are even considered, how can we the people be sure that we are going to have the best possible person nominated for this crucial position?

Every Justice on the Court should be someone trained in the law, who understands and is devoted to the task of upholding the principles of the U.S. Constitution and the laws of the land as written and intended. There are already three on the Court who try to make law from the bench.

The nominee should be someone who has held a judgeship long enough to be familiar with the job, and without regard to their race, gender, political preferences, or the wishes of the woke.

Hopefully, Biden will nominate a black woman with abilities and qualifications equal to Clarence Thomas — who is a black man and one of the greatest Justices of any color, ever — and others seated on the Court.

From SCOTUSblog.com, which has covered the U.S. Supreme Court since 2002, here is some information on potential nominees: “Two potential nominees therefore stand apart from all others: Leondra Kruger, a justice on the California Supreme Court, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.”

“Both are well known to the White House team that will lead the nomination process,” the blog continues. “Kruger is a former Department of Justice attorney. Biden recently appointed Jackson to the court of appeals.”

The report goes on to say that “The president’s bottom-line calculus may reduce to the following. Jackson was recently confirmed by the Senate, making a Supreme Court confirmation process likely to go smoothly. Kruger has never faced Senate confirmation.”

That distinction matters, because if Democrats lose control of the Senate later this year, that would be important if hearings on the president’s nominee were substantially delayed until after the election, or if the first nominee is rejected. A candidate that has cleared the Senate previously would likely speed the process.

Several other names have also been mentioned for the position.

And exactly when did Biden catch the fever for choosing justices based upon the race and/or gender?

His disapproval and opposition to current Justice Thomas in his 1991 nomination hearing gathered headlines. As the then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chair, Biden actually tried to discredit Thomas as a crazy libertarian and reckless judicial activist.

“I assure you I have read all of your speeches, and I have read them in their entirety,” Biden said after Thomas’ opening statement. “And, in the speech you gave in 1987 to the Pacific Research Institute, you said, and I quote, ‘I find attractive the arguments of scholars such as Stephen Macedo who defend an activist Supreme Court that would’ — not could, would — 'strike down laws restricting property rights.’”

Thomas responded by denying what Biden accused him of, but Biden didn't buy it. “Quite frankly, Biden said, “I find it hard to square your speeches with what you are telling me today.”

So, while opposing a well-qualified black man 40 years ago, who despite Biden’s opposition was confirmed, he now believes a black woman should be the next associate justice because “it is time.” 

Time will tell whether Biden intends to nominate the next potential justice for the best reasons, as polls show Americans want. But given his support for the radical left’s agenda, we should not hold our breath.

Maybe CO2 isn’t the huge problem we have been told that it is

Two videos have come to light recently addressing Earth’s climate. One is by the World Cycles Institute (WCI), and the other by an Australian geologist and college professor named Ian Rutherford Plimer.

The WCI specializes in analyzing various cycles, such as currency and money, revolutions and wars, governments, markets, and our climate.

Unlike what we see and hear most often these days, presenter Peter Temple began by saying we need “a little dose of reality, because it’s getting colder and dryer, and it’s all because of the sun, and the planets.” He then addressed the cycles of Earth’s temperature over the last 11,000 years.

The video had a chart showing the history of alternating periods of warming and cooling. It showed that we are currently in the “Modern Warm Period,” the most recent of seven throughout the history of the chart.  Two of the longest periods of warming were much warmer than it is today, and occurred long ago. “In fact, the trendline shows that it’s gradually getting cooler,” Temple said, with the chart showing that peak temperatures of the warming periods have been going down. This trend, he said, is because the sun is cooling, adding that no astrophysicist disputes that fact.

Temple then said that we are entering a cooling period. How do we know this? He cited the work of Dr. Raymond Wheeler, whose team of about 200 scientists in the early 1900s researched climate temperatures from 600 BC forward. That research, using tree rings and sun spot records, discovered major cycles of temperatures and rainfall throughout the period of research. Those cycles are roughly 100, 172, 515 and 1,030 years long.

Interestingly, the warm and cold periods matched up precisely with the rise and fall of great empires, which rose in the warming periods, and fell during the cooling periods.

Wheeler’s cycles predicted extreme weather at about the year 2000, followed by a cooling period and long-term drought. Temple then says that is what is now happening. “A recent drop in solar activity is warning of a much colder time coming ahead,” he said.

In fact, Russian astrophysicist, Habibullo Ismailovich Abdussamatov, who is head of the Russian section of the International Space Station, predicted not long ago that a mini ice age is on its way.

Temple then showed a chart from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with data gathered from Greenland ice cores, which he said supports Wheeler’s cycle theory.

Temperatures consistently turned colder every 172 years, and the last of those cycles was in 2007. Temple says that the Earth is going to get a lot colder and dryer, and this period may last several hundred years. This will be accompanied by a major financial collapse, he said, which is a feature of the 172-year cycles.

Ian Plimer appeared in an interview on Sky News a year ago, and responded to a question about the idea that instead of our end being hastened by global warming, we are actually headed toward an ice age by saying that, as Temple noted, our climate is cyclical.

“We are getting towards the end of a warm period … and we are heading for the next inevitable ice age,” Plimer said.

“We have had six major ice ages during which we’ve had glaciations -- that’s when the ice expands -- and warmer periods when the ice retreats. All that happened before humans were on planet Earth, and every single major ice age started when we had more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than now,” he said. “And to use the words ‘climate emergency’ indicates that you have absolutely no knowledge about the past.”

Responding to a question about the “link between humans and global warming,” and whether these claims are correct or not, he replied, “No one has ever shown that human emissions of carbon dioxide drive global warming.”

He then asked anyone with such proof to show him the scientific papers that prove it. Citing the fact that so many people live in cities rather than in rural areas, they have not experienced nature in the same way as those who live in the more rural areas.

“So, we have a city-based population that doesn’t read the scientific literature, and has had no life experience [about climate], and they are telling us the ‘chicken little’ story that the sky is falling in. Well I’m sorry folks, there is a very, very large amount of scientific evidence out there that shows that we live in exceptionally boring times. And we’re just having cycles of climate come and go.”

He then cited the major factor in our climate that makes it warmer and cooler without our permission: the sun.

In the email he was quoted as saying that a four-day eruption of a volcano in Iceland negated every single effort we have made in the past five years to control CO2 emissions on our planet.

And, as with every similar explanation that contradicts the climate doom narrative, many have criticized him.

There are experienced scientists that provide strong arguments, backed by data, that we are not about to destroy the Earth with CO2.

Federal control of elections, and getting the filibuster out of the way

Good Congressional legislation that benefits the country and its citizens will have broad bi-partisan support. If a bill has strong support from one side, but little or no support from the other, it likely is good for the majority and/or bad for the minority.

Many bills, perhaps most, have only one party supporting them, the party in the majority, and are hotly contested.

A bill currently with this partisan split is the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, named for the late Georgia congressman and civil rights leader. The “voting rights” bill has strong support from Democrat majority, but strong opposition from the Republican minority.

As reported by Politifact, “Supporters say the bill would renew the power of the federal government to oversee state voting laws and protect minority voters at a time when more GOP-led states have passed new restrictions. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT., who introduced the bill, said it would ‘ensure that the Voting Rights Act continues to have the effect long intended: to protect the right to vote.’”

The report continues, “But Republicans say the John Lewis bill is federal overreach and would make it too easy for plaintiffs to challenge state election laws that Republicans say are designed to prevent fraud. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, has called it ‘unnecessary’ and said that ‘it's against the law to discriminate in voting on the basis of race already.’”

Republicans view their election laws as mechanisms to reduce fraud, and Democrats view them as efforts to restrict voting to certain groups. Democrats see their election laws as making it easy for people to vote, while Republicans view them as mechanisms that make fraud and cheating easier.

The Democrat bill will transfer much of the control over elections that now resides with the states to the federal government. The system of federalism under which the United States was formed left much power to the states, deliberately not giving the federal government total control. The control of election procedures resides with state legislatures.

In addition to trying to federalize control over elections, Democrats also are now talking about eliminating the Senate filibuster, or eliminating certain of its uses. The filibuster, however, is a mechanism that both protects the Senate minority from being run over by the majority, and also helps to encourage the introduction of bills that will have bi-partisan support, which do not encourage a filibuster. 

Some Democrats now favoring the changing or elimination of the filibuster have done an about face from just a few years ago.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, who in 2017 as Minority Leader spoke to the Senate, saying there should be a "firewall" around the legislative filibuster. "Let us go no further down this road," he said. "I hope the Republican Leader and I can, in the coming months, find a way to build a firewall around the legislative filibuster, which is the most important distinction between the Senate and the House."

He and other Democrats condemned efforts by Republicans to challenge the filibuster back then. Here are some of their comments:

From Schumer: 

• “They want to make this country into a banana republic where if you don’t get your way you change the rules.”
• “Change the rules in midstream to wash away 200 years of history.
• “Ideologues in the Senate want to turn what the founding fathers called the cooling saucer of democracy into the rubber stamp of dictatorship.”
• “It’ll be a doomsday for democracy.”

President Joe Biden, D-DE, when he was in the Senate: 

• “It raises problems that are more damaging than the problem that exists.”
• “You’re going to throw the entire Congress into chaos and nothing will get done.”
• “Nothing at all will get done.”
• “It is ultimately an example of the arrogance of power.”
• “Ending the filibuster is a very dangerous thing to do.”
• “It is a fundamental power grab.”

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-IL: 

• “That would be the end of the Senate.”
• “You can’t change the rules in the middle of the game.”
• “Preserve checks and balances so that no one party can do whatever it wants.”

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-NJ: 

• “You cannot change the rules in the middle of the game because you do not like the outcome.”
• “Partisan power grab that will stomp on the rights of the minority and leave fundamentally changed for the worse.”
• “I will not stand by when a party drunk with power tries to overturn 200 years of precedent.”

Sen. Chis Coons, D-DE: 

• “I’m committed to never voting to change the legislative filibuster.” 
• “The one most important rule that requires compromise requires working across the aisle.”

Sen. Cory Booker, D-NJ: “The legislative filibuster should stay there and I will personally resist efforts to get rid of it.”

Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA: “I don’t think that we ought to be coming in willy-nilly and changing the rules.”

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY: “If you don’t have 60 votes yet, it just means you haven’t done enough advocacy and you need to work a lot harder.”

Isn’t it interesting how politicians forego their support of important things when they get in the way?

China presents the most serious threat America faces today

President Joe Biden “dropped an ominous note into his remarks to American service members at a Virginia military base last May, telling them that his Chinese counterpart believes Beijing will ‘own America’ inside the next 15 years,” as reported by the New York Post.

“We’re in a battle between democracies and autocracies,” Biden told troops at Joint Base Langley Eustis in Hampton. “The more complicated the world becomes, the more difficult it is for democracies to come together and reach consensus.”

Biden said that China’s President Xi Jinping “firmly believes that China, before the year [20]30, ’35, is going to own America because autocracies can make quick decisions,” although he did not elaborate on what was meant by “own America.” 

A story reported by Fox News in June a year earlier provided some details of what China has been doing, from the American Security Institute, listing five areas where China has focused its attention.

Medicine: China produces 97 percent of U.S. antibiotics and about 80 percent of active pharmaceutical ingredients used in American drugs, giving the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) absolute control of potentially life-saving medicine. 

Food: In 2017, the United States imported $4.6 billion in agricultural goods from China. A Chinese firm has also purchased Smithfield, the world's largest pork processor and hog producer. Smithfield provides more than 40,000 American jobs. It partners with thousands of American farmers.

According to the U.S. Agriculture Department, by the start of 2020, Chinese owners controlled about 192,000 agricultural acres in the U.S., worth $1.9 billion, including land used for farming, ranching and forestry.

Education: The Chinese government's theft of intellectual property has been known for decades. More recently, U.S. authorities have discovered China is funding American university researchers, who don't always disclose that support.

Technology: The manufacturing of smartphones and other household items is heavily reliant on China, which controls most of the rare earth minerals that make those items work. China is seeking to build 5G networks in the United States, which could potentially feed sensitive data to the CCP.

Media: Chinese firms have bought control of 8,000-plus American theater screens and other media platforms. Thus, China can project a positive image, and block unflattering depictions of its government, in terms of both creative production and mass distribution.

The story continues, telling us that Chinese firms and investors own a controlling majority in nearly 2,400 U.S. companies. These are in the areas of aerospace, automotive, energy, entertainment, food, health care, machinery, mining, and technology.

Among these are: AMC Entertainment (entertainment), Cirrus Wind Energy (energy), Complete Genomics (health care), First International Oil (energy), G.E. Appliances (technology), IBM—P.C. division (technology), Legendary Entertainment Group (entertainment), Motorola Mobility (technology), Nexteer Automotive (automotive), Riot Games (entertainment), Smithfield Foods (food), Teledyne Continental Motors and Mattituck Services (aerospace), Terex Corp. (machinery), Triple H Coal (mining), and Zonare Medical Systems (health care).

"Under China's Communist Party dictatorship, private companies are forced to bend to the government's will," the report states.

This situation has only grown worse since those stories came out. You may remember some more recent stories about Chinese operatives being caught with their fingers in the pie.

"The first priority is to reclaim our critical supply chains so that we can become self-secure instead of reliant on the Chinese government," Will Coggin, managing director of the American Security Institute, told Fox News.

U.S. lawmakers are acting with increased concern on this issue, and both Iowa and Minnesota have passed state laws restricting foreign ownership of farmland in their states. 

While it is good that the Congress and some states have started to address this situation, it requires much more attention and action than what we have seen thus far. What can be more important to the United States than maintaining ownership and control of these vital areas of our economy, and the jobs and products under their control?

In addition to prohibiting or strictly regulating foreign ownership of U.S. companies, we should intensify efforts to bring domestic manufacturing of many products we no longer produce here, or now produce less of, back into the country.

The possibility of China having developed a heat-seeking hypersonic missile adds to the growing threat from the communist nation. The existence of such a weapon, sources say, would be a significant change in how warfare is conducted.

U.S. officials reacted to strong indications of a Chinese test of such a missile last August with surprise and shock, saying they were unaware that hypersonic missile development had reached this level. And, they suggested that our development of hypersonic missiles is far behind.

Hypersonic missiles travel at low trajectories at speeds over 15,000 mph, making them more difficult to track, and are capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

Chinese officials have denied testing such a missile, and insisted that nuclear weapons would be used only in self-defense, not as an offensive weapon. But the United States, and most other countries, say hypersonic missiles would not be practical, unless nuclear war was on the table.

Even if China does not intend to “own America,” we should not allow any nation to have so much control over our businesses, and especially not to be further advanced militarily than we are.

How is Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan working out for us?

Joe Biden’s been in office almost one year. How is his “Build Back Better” plan working? How long should it take to make a pretty good situation better?

Inflation is skyrocketing. “Prices for U.S. consumers jumped 6.8 percent in November compared with a year earlier as surging costs for food, energy, housing and other items left Americans enduring their highest annual inflation rate in 39 years.” So said the Associated Press earlier this month. Prices of some products have doubled, and others have more than doubled. 

Among reasons, the AP said, are that “Employers, struggling with worker shortages, have also been raising pay, and many of them have boosted prices to offset their higher labor costs, thereby adding to inflation.” And, while many workers have gotten raises, inflated prices often negate the higher wages they now have.

A CNN report in December said that “Biden now sports the lowest net economic rating of any president at this point through their first term since at least Jimmy Carter in 1977.”

“In the latest CNN/SSRS poll, Biden comes in with a 44 percent approval rating to 55 percent disapproval rating among registered voters on his economic performance.”

One bright spot, however, is that jobs are being added at a high level, despite all the negatives in the economic data.

Many goods are in short supply, as ships sit off the coast waiting to unload for many days longer than normal. Yes, other ports have expanded or opened up to assist with the problem, but a long and broad list of supplies are still backlogged, including some foods, baby supplies, men’s and women’s products, and other things people need. This is a good reason to start again producing many goods in the U.S.

While lower taxes and government spending support a strong, positive economy, we are seeing both higher taxes and more government spending being enacted and proposed. Biden and Congress had their way on two spending bills, adding more than $3 trillion to the National Debt.

And legislation that Biden supports will move control over elections to the federal government, changing a process that was initially controlled by the states by design of our Founders.  This will eliminate “the most popular and proven safeguards that preserve Americans’ confidence in democracy,” according to Real Clear Politics.    

How are Biden’s plan for ending the pandemic going? "I am not going to shut down the economy, period," Biden said. "I'm going to shut down the virus; that's what I'm going to shut down." Yet, there have been more Covid deaths in 2021 than there were when he criticized how the pandemic was being handled in 2020. And this after he inherited Covid vaccines produced in record time.

Gasoline prices, which were under $2.00 in most places last year, are now near or above $3.00 everywhere, and as high as $5.00 a gallon in some places in California. 

Biden shut down the XL Pipeline here at home that would have moved oil more safely, quickly and less expensively than trucks, but he approved a pipeline that benefits Russia. In addition to negatively affecting US oil production and distribution, shutting down the XL Pipeline also put many Americans out of work.

Crime has gone through the roof in several cities/states. Is that Biden’s fault? No, he didn’t start it, but he hasn’t done much if anything to stop the crime wave. 

His Attorney General, Justice Department and the FBI, instead of focusing on the factors that lead to increased crime, are focused elsewhere: replacing state and local law enforcement in watching parents who are complaining about schools and school systems that indoctrinate their children. And, yes, indoctrination in schools does happen.

The federal governments involvement in keeping an eye on parents, and agents presence outside of school board meetings, serves as intimidation to parents, who are now afraid to speak out on a subject they have every right to speak on.

The debacle in rushing out of Afghanistan left 183 people dead, including 13 American military personnel. In the rush to leave, we abandoned thousands of Afghani allies and Americans trapped there, and a fortune in military equipment, which is now in the hands of the Taliban.

The New York Post reported, “The Taliban has seized US weapons left in Afghanistan worth billions — possibly including 600,000 assault rifles, some 2,000 armored vehicles, and 40 aircraft, including Black Hawks, according to reports.” A more sensible plan for leaving without chaos was ignored.

The southern border is essentially non-existent. The border catastrophe has allowed tens of thousands of illegal aliens to cross the southern border easily, without being controlled by authorities, without anyone knowing whether they are vaccinated, or if they are drug dealers, gang members or child smugglers, etc. 

And while people are allowed to enter the country illegally without being checked for vaccinations, American citizens cannot go do many things, like get on an airliner, without showing evidence of up-to-date vaccinations!!!

All of this bad news in his first year in office calls for Biden’s three-B plan to be renamed: “Biden Blunders Bigly,” or “Building Backward Better” are two possibilities.

Marriage and a traditional family are still the bedrocks of a stable society

In a few days, a new year will be upon us. And after the disaster of 2020, and the nearly-as-bad 2021, we can all hope for a much better 2022.

We might wish for a return to normal, but that is a bit too optimistic. Maybe we can be satisfied with several steps toward normal.

There is a long list of the things that need to be rolled back to where they used to be. We have seen how crime, destruction and death have risen since foolish ideas like defunding or reimagining the police were put into place in some cities.

Another mistake is destroying our history instead of learning about it and learning from it. And, the so-called cancel culture that attacks people with the goal to destroy them for no better reason than that they don’t agree with them about something is irrational.

But a very important way to fight off these destructive ideas is to rebuild our culture through an emphasis on marriage and the traditional family, as well as how we educate our children. Much of the damage to our culture can be traced to these areas.

The devolution of the family is something that started years before the pandemic came along, and has continued to devolve during it. It is something that desperately needs to be reborn.

Those of us who were fortunate enough to have been brought up in one of those traditional families understand just how important they were, and are.

Marriage and the traditional family are bedrocks of a stable society, and were a critical part of what made America the world-leading nation it became. Today, we see that the traditional family and its stable rules of the road have fallen by the way-side, and that has had a serious negative impact on our culture and our lives.

In 1960, 73 percent of children lived in a two-parent household with parents in their first marriage, another 14 percent lived with two parents who had remarried, and only 9 percent lived in a single-parent home, a Pew Research Center study tells us.

Through the years, those statistics showing 87 percent of children living in a two-parent home have taken a beating. In 2014, only 46 percent of children lived in a two-parent, first-marriage household, 15 percent were in a two-parent re-married family, and 26 percent were in a single-parent household. Things have not improved over the last seven years.

In the 60s, Pew’s study said, “babies typically arrived within a marriage, today fully four-in-ten births occur to women who are single or living with a non-marital partner.” And then there are the millions of babies who were conceived, but never born because of abortion.

The traditional family put children in a stable setting in which most learned valuable life lessons. That stability occurs far less today. That does not mean that today’s parents do not love and take good care of their children. It simply means that the benefits of the traditional family are available to fewer children today.

And whatever the situation is for children and their parents, education from elementary grades through high school and college have changed, too. And not for the better.

In many elementary and secondary schools, tried and true methods of learning how to read, write and do arithmetic have been done away with. Some schools have done away with GPAs and class rankings. And some colleges have abandoned ACT and SAT requirements to enter their institutions. 

Many schools today underhandedly push Critical Race Theory on their students, teaching them that, depending upon their skin color, they are either an oppressor or are oppressed. 

Some advocate the idea that math, as traditionally taught, is racist. And, believe it or not, some are trying to encourage children suffering from gender dysphoria to go through the dangerous process of changing genders before they are even old enough to consider such decisions. 

Some schools are trying to impose equality of outcomes on students — referred to as “equity” — instead of encouraging them to earn rewards through hard work. These efforts to treat everyone as if they are the same, as if everyone has the same level of skills in all areas, are destroying the idea of excellence. 

If everyone is assumed to have the same abilities, if everyone’s’ strengths and weaknesses are hidden under a blanket of equity, people will never fully develop their strengths. How will our country be able to reach the high levels of performance needed to measure up to the rest of the world if, while other nations focus on achieving excellence, we focus on preventing it?

If we cannot achieve our highest possible level of performance, aggressive nations with negative intentions — like China, Russia and Iran — will gain control of the world, and we will be at their mercy.

America must refocus its attention on being the best it can be, which is what made it the best in the world. 

By refocusing on those fundamental concepts that provide stability, like marriage and family, and an education system that is focused on helping every student achieve to their highest levels, we can begin to recover what has been lost.

Our elections must be made more secure ahead of the mid-terms

An Associated Press review of potential cases of voter fraud in the six battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — found fewer than 475 cases. That number would have made no difference in the 2020 presidential election, according to an article on apnews.com.

The review was directed toward the six states that were disputed by former President Donald Trump.

Most Americans will likely be pleased with this determination. And while this review found a tiny fraction of the vote fraud needed to prove a stolen election, it also reminds us that the election systems in the 50 states are not fraud-proof, and with the mid-term election coming up in less than a year, we would be smart to examine our election procedures and methods and make them more secure.

By contrast, The Lincoln Institute published a report saying, “the fact of the matter is that the 2020 election had hundreds of thousands of votes counted that should not have been, and the distribution of those votes could have affected the outcome in several closely-decided states.

Many will choose to believe one; many will choose to believe the other. Which one is more accurate?

With tens of millions of people voting in thousands of polling places, and with tens of thousands of election workers in those polling places, it would be a miracle of epic proportions if there weren’t any problems or crimes. Therefore, we can acknowledge, without calling an election stolen, that there is fraud, abuse and carelessness in every election. The only question is, how much?

The AP review focused on only six states and found an average of 79 issues in each state. How many other examples of fraud existed, but were not discovered?

Here are some methods of cheating in elections, according to The Heritage Foundation:

• Forging voter signatures on candidate ballot qualification petitions.

• Voting in someone else’s name in person or through absentee ballots.

• Registering and voting under a false identity or in a district where the individual does not actually reside.

• Submitting fraudulent, altered, or forged absentee ballots.

• Registering in multiple locations within a state or in different states to vote multiple times in the same election.

• People voting even though they’re not eligible because they’re felons or noncitizens.

• Paying, coercing, or intimidating people to vote for certain candidates.

In addition, the U.S. Constitution mandates that election procedures are to be controlled by state legislatures. Officials in four of the battleground states mentioned previously — Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — changed election procedures in the 2020 election by circumventing legislative action. Assuming the best of intentions on the part of the wrongdoers, these changes were nonetheless illegal/unconstitutional. Were any election results — local, state or national — affected by these actions?

In a case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008 where the Court upheld Indiana’s voter-ID law by a 6-3 margin, Justice John Paul Stevens, who is not a conservative justice, said in the majority opinion that “flagrant examples of such fraud … have been documented throughout this Nation’s history by respected historians and journalists … that demonstrate that not only is the risk of voter fraud real, but that it could affect the outcome of a close election.”

“Absentee ballots are the tools of choice of vote thieves,” Heritage noted, “because they are the only ballots cast outside the supervision of election officials and outside the observation of poll watchers, destroying the transparency of the election process that is a fundamental hallmark of a healthy democracy.”

Heritage produced the “Election Integrity Scorecard — Assessing the Status of State Election Fairness and Security.” Here are some of the results. Finishing in first place, with a score of 83, is Georgia. Coming in last, with a score of 26, is Hawaii. Virginia scored 67, and placed 15th, while West Virginia placed 30th, with a score of 54.

In its discussion of the condition of our elections, Heritage reported, “In 2012, the Pew Foundation released a report on the voter registration systems maintained by the states. The report found that:

• Approximately 24 million — one in every eight — voter registrations were either no longer valid or significantly inaccurate.

• More than 1.8 million deceased individuals were listed as voters.

• Approximately 2.75 million individuals were registered in more than one state.”

These weaknesses invite fraud, and must be corrected. 

The list of things one cannot do in America without a valid photo-ID is long, and includes: buying alcohol or cigarettes; opening a bank account; applying for food stamps, social security, and many jobs; and get on an airliner. Photo IDs are generally pretty easy to acquire, and every voter should be required to have one.

Elections are too important to have security methods weakened, for example, just to make voting easy. The easier it is to vote, the easier it is to cheat. If Americans have to sacrifice a little convenience in the name of election security, so be it.

Our elections must be made more secure. That is fundamental in a democratic republic like the United States, where the people select those who serve them in all levels of government. We cannot depend upon an honor system to guarantee free and fair elections.