When I ponder the politics of this last year, I think of growing federal debt, rising interest rates, Critical race theory, DEI requirements, radical progressives in Congress, wars, and a president in cognitive decline. But this time of year I’m often drawn back more than thirty years to a dark period of my life that taught me to see the most precious blessing.

As a child, I admired politicians. They were smart people, tackling difficult problems as they served their city, state, or the nation. Then I learned more about history, and read books like 1984, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451. I’m much more cynical today. I still respect a few of our leaders, but they must earn that respect. I don’t give it.

Police State is a one-hour, fifty-minute docudrama written and directed by Dinesh D’Souza, Debbie D’Souza, and Bruce Schooley, and stars Nick Searcy and Dan Bongino a former New York City Police (NYPD) officer, who then served as a Secret Service agent, and is now a radio commentator.

Every day, the government allows thousands to enter this country illegally. Women and girls are routinely raped and sex trafficked while crossing. Drug cartels move massive amounts of narcotics into the county along the very porous southern border. Over the years, many concerned citizens have urged officials to take stronger action—and now they have. The Biden Administration has ordered a German Christian family to leave the country.

What if the government decided you should only drink two beers a week or that you shouldn’t own a rifle or gasoline-powered car? All of these restrictions and many more have been proposed or enacted, but how could the government enforce them? They could make them illegal, but prohibition and the war on drugs prove that some people would ignore the law. What if the government could make money not work if someone tried to buy a prohibited item? The book of Revelation talks about a time when no one will be able to buy or sell without the mark of the beast. When I was young, the idea that any government could control every transaction seemed impossible to me. But today, with modern computers, digital banking, artificial intelligence, and cryptocurrency it is more than possible it’s almost here.

The Founding Fathers believed that people should be elected to public office, serve for a few years, and then return to their private professional lives. Today, we have a president who has held public office longer than most Americans have been alive. But he is not alone, many politicians make it a career serving in the House, then the Senate, and moving on to other positions in the government. While professional experience often improves decision-making, it doesn’t appear to help in politics.

Lewis County is one of the most conservative areas in Washington State. Sixty-two percent of its citizens voted for Trump in 2016 and Sixty-five percent voted for him in 2020. When Trump supporter Joe Kent ran for congress in 2022, Lewis County voters helped him oust moderate Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler in the primary. But, despite those conservative credentials, it seems that nowhere is safe from progressive nonsense.

Like most people, when I meet a candidate it is usually at a rally or similar gathering. Security personnel and a throng of voters surround them. That makes it tough to ask questions. I might be able to ask one or two but there won’t be any discussion. I’ve grown adapt at surfing the internet for information about candidates. However, I recently had the chance to sit down and talk with congressional candidate Joe Kent at length.

Electricity is an amazing tool but, we are totally dependent upon it. I’ve been lucky where I live, the power rarely fails. However, a few years ago I awoke to a very cold house. The electricity had gone out during a nighttime snowstorm. Fortunately, my wife and I were prepared with plenty of stored food, a woodstove for heating and cooking, and a hand pump on our well. It did get cold as the fire in the stove burned down in the night but, we had plenty of blankets. We were fine, but not everyone had prepared. Thankfully, the outage only lasted five days. Imagine life without power for a month or longer. Would you survive?

Part Two of our Family Communication Series

It has been a week, and the power is still down. Water is scarce, and the food in your fridge has spoiled. You’re trying to eat everything in the freezer before it goes bad. The nights are growing colder. The local radio station is only on the air for a few minutes each day. You’re worried about friends and relatives and have growing fears about your own survival. How will you find food or medicine? How do contact those you love or call for help?

I didn’t want to see the Sound of Freedom. It’s a troubling film about a topic that decent people don’t usually discuss. But good people need to know that slavery is alive in the modern world and this multi-billion dollar crime network is growing. Each year hundreds of thousands of children are bought, sold, and used. This industry makes billions of dollars in profit for the criminals that traffic underage boys and girls.

Part one of our Family Communication Series

You wake up one morning and the power is off. Out of habit, you click on the TV, but the screen remains black. Your computer turns on but doesn’t connect to the internet. Your cordless phone is dead. Your mobile phone has service, but you can’t connect with anyone. Hopefully, you can hear news using a battery-powered radio. But, what if the news is bad? Help won’t come for days. An electromagnetic pulse (EMP), either natural or manmade, could shut down power for months.

This blog has always focused on the culture and politics of the United States. I’ve never discussed climate science, or any other science, before and I don’t intend to make it a habit. Most conservatives already know how they feel about global warming or what they now call global climate change. However, sometimes a topic, or a rant, just seems to flow from my fingers onto the screen. Suddenly, everything is there and all I need to do is press publish. That is just about what happened with this post.

Elise Ketch is not the typical person I report on in this blog. She has described herself as politically progressive and works for an organization that advocates for dismantling capitalism. Earlier in her life, she served as a Diversity and Inclusion representative for the Honors College of Virginia Commonwealth University. Later, she served on the Dean's Diversity board. I’m certain there are many topics on which we would disagree. However, in her current employment, Ketch is the Digital Content Creator for the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising. The PAAU bio of Ketch states that she is best known for her zine, “A Young, Femme, Gay Leftist Handed You this Pro-Life Zine.” Yes, Elise Ketch is pro-life.

When transgender woman Dylan Mulvaney became an influencer for Bud Light, I wondered how long it would take Jeremy Boreing to start his own craft beer company. That hasn’t happened—yet. Boreing is the CEO of the Daily Wire, a conservative media company we have repeatedly featured on this blog. When Harry’s Razors pulled their advertising from the Daily Wire, Boreing started Jeremy’s Razors, When Disney fired Gina Carano because of her conservative viewpoint, the Daily Wire hired her and started making movies and, when the Hershey Chocolate Company celebrated International Women's Day by featuring a transgender woman, Boreing launched his own brand of chocolate using the IHateHersheys.com domain.

For the last seven hundred years the terms sex and gender have been synonyms. However, recently the world has gone crazy, and now, on many college campuses, if you ask how many genders there are the students would be hard-pressed to answer. For most of us, sex and gender still refer to a person’s biology. The LGBTQ movement would like to change the definition of gender into what people think, or believe, is their sexuality. They demand that society should accept that gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, pansexual, asexual, genderqueer, aromantic, cisgender, genderfluid, pangender, non-binary, and hundreds of such terms should now be used to describe gender. Wikipedia currently lists 110 possible genders.

It sounds like many fans think horror movies have started to get lazy. Movie viewers say this because horror movies lean on jump scares and exorcism films have become repetitive. Nefarious utilizes none of that and oddly it’s a Christian horror/thriller movie written the hard way with no gore or cheap jump scares—and it works.

Recently my local community college decided it would host a “Queer Prom” and drag show. As far as I know, the college has never sponsored a prom for any other group but, apparently, they thought this would be a great idea. As word spread, dozens of people volunteered to write letters but didn’t know to whom. Also many were uncertain about how to write an effective letter.

Jacob's New Dress is a short picture book of twenty-nine colorful pages aimed directly at young children. The title gives away much of the story. The protagonist, Jacob, is a very young boy who enjoys playing dress-up. However, when he plays he enjoys being a princess. For Halloween, he dressed as a witch. He even made a simple dress using a towel. Many of the LGBTQ children’s books that I review contain graphic sexual content or images. This book does not have that but is it appropriate for a public or school library?

I recently went back to school. Well, sort of. I’m taking a class called Constitution Alive!, A Citizen’s Guide to the Constitution. During my high school days, teachers never did more than mention the Constitution. In college, I majored in political science and studied the philosophy of government, international relations, international law, and economics but, not the Constitution. There are less than 5,000 words in the entire document. I’ve read longer chapters in a book during an evening but, when I graduated from college I had never read this founding document of my country.

There was a time when a teacher asking students to write sexual fantasy stories would have faced firing or criminal charges. That time is not today. Current school teachers seem to be infatuated with sex, sexual orientation, gender preferences, pronouns, and identity. In this blog, I’ve written about books like Gender Queer and Let’s Talk About It that have been used in class and are in many libraries. These books are inappropriate for school-age readers but, they are merely the tip of the iceberg.