I Have a Dream

With credit and apologies to Martin Luther King, I have my own dream of what could be. In a sense, what follows is MY version of a Utopian society…not the Dystopian society the Left is pushing.

I dream of an America that stands together, (including for our National Anthem!) as it once did during the Second World War. People from all walks of life, from every background, color, creed, faith, national origin are ALL proud to be American, grateful for the opportunity and freedom we have, bonded together through citizenship in a democratic republic we all believe in and cherish, and where educated, grammatically proper and syntactically correct American English is the national language.

I watched the movie “Miracle” the other night, the story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team’s beating of the unbeatable Russian hockey team and our gold medal win. The period leading up to that triumph was a time of great trouble: the winding up of the Vietnam War, Watergate, the Iranian hostage crisis, the welfare state was growing like gangbusters, the rapid breakdown of traditional families and a continuation of what occurred in the 60’s – a growing fracture between Left and Right.

At that moment, in that hockey rink in Lake Placid, NY, all of America was united irrespective of where we stood on the ideological, political, or societal spectra. Oh that we could bottle and distribute that patriotism and pride today! The same pride we all felt as we heard the words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

I dream of an America with leaders who uplift, who inspire, who seek the betterment of all our citizens and who assert with dignity and nobility America’s rightful role in the world as the “beacon on the hill”. In my lifetime, I’ve watched and listened to a slew of presidents, political, religious, academic, military and business “leaders” pontificate and (with apologies now to Shakespeare) “strut and fret their hour upon the stage” telling tales like idiots, “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Sometimes the rhetoric resonated with enough people that it became, (to use a modern term), a “meme”, and our nation’s course was altered accordingly. Sometimes it just drifted away on the wind and was “heard no more.” Today our politics is more than ever gutter politics. Both the Left and the Right are talking down and at one another rather than with one another. The public, at least those who bother, are watching this “s-show” and shaking their heads, rolling their eyes and asking themselves, “can’t we do better than this?” I hasten to add, as I often do, however, that while both sides participate in these deplorable political antics, you’d have to be willfully blind or just plain stupid to not see that the Left has deepened and putrefied the gutter beyond anything the Right or any grade-school educated person could ever have imagined!

I dream of an America where children are once again taught about its greatness, about its Judeo-Christian roots and underpinnings, about the sacrifices and struggles of those who, imperfect though they were, united together to build this nation and establish it as the greatest engine of freedom, peace and prosperity the world has ever known. Those lessons we learned in grade school about the founding and early history of America, about 2+2 being 4, not 5 (“but Johnny, that was a good try and I’m so glad you feel empowered to give that answer”), those trophies that we received because we WON, not because we showed up, are not QUAINT! They’re an accounting of what made America great (.sic) not to be trampled upon with New Math, 1619 projects, multicultural and globalist, anti-national revisions to history, and poisonous, Leftist, “nobody should have any more than anyone else”, dystopian idiocy.

I dream of an America where traditional views of right and wrong are once again firmly established in our practices, laws, regulations and politics, where principles of equal opportunity rather than equal outcomes are engendered and manifest, where we don’t compromise, alter or eliminate these principles and harm and offend the vast majority of our people because some minority professes to be victimized by their application. One can argue that there is no black and white, but the Leftists would have you believe that there are no standards…that each and every one of us ought to be the arbiter of what is good, what is evil, what is right and what is wrong. Peaceful marches and protests (ones that don’t disrupt commerce, travel and the lives of those who are not involved) are RIGHT. Riots, looting, assault, battery, disturbance of the peace even… are WRONG. The taking of responsibility, restraint and continence are RIGHT. Infanticide and abortion as contraception is WRONG! Practicing and exhibiting manners is RIGHT. Anything goes is WRONG.

I dream of an America where our legal system is purged of distortion and justice is meted out with equanimity and without political bias, where laws are respected, and people understand and expect to abide by them not from fear of judgement and penalty, but because they’re just and benefit all of us. We were taught as kids to respect police officers, firemen, heck, even “our elders”! Today the Left wishes to destroy respect for just about anything! Weaponized law, weaponized politics, weaponized regulations…all these were started and have been fomented by the “it’s all about me” Leftists who were the hippies of the 60’s, the losers who sought to “tune in, turn on and drop out” and who now form the core of what is known as “the Deep State”. How could the Left use the law to persecute (some might say destroy the lives of) its opponents while allowing its own scandalous, obvious and disgusting violations of law go unpunished?

I dream of an America:

                Where the rights and thoughtful, not shrill views of all are tolerated but where unlawful and aberrant behavior is not!

                Where ALL lives matter!

                Where faith is restored in FAITH!

                Where we can earn an honest day’s wage for an honest day’s work.

                Where government isn’t the source of philanthropy but individuals, families and communities look after one another.

                Where technology, systems and artificial intelligence don’t substitute for people communicating directly with one another, where human beings answer the customer service 800 number, speak English and are empowered to solve problems rather than belch canned scripts like “I’m sorry you’re having a problem with…I’m here to help with that.” And where REAL intelligence in REAL humans deliver REAL results, and where parents “just say no” to 10 year olds demanding their own iPhones.

                Where drugs, alcohol, pornography, social media and other addictions are dealt with head-on, not excused, tolerated and talked about endlessly.

                Where the real racism and bias inherent in the hypocritical Left’s actions are exposed and expunged so that real fairness of opportunity can prevail.

                Where men can once again be men and are not automatically accused of being misogynists; where women don’t feel they have to act like men (and behave like misandrists!) and where it’s ok for traditional roles of bread-winning and child-rearing to prevail again.

                Where shame is felt for shameful behavior.

                Where government no longer tries to engineer social justice through housing mandates, but allows communities to form freely and the pick-winners-and-losers-robin-hood-taking-from-Peter-to-buy-the-vote-of-Paul no longer takes place.

                Where the rights of those who seek to obey the laws, focus on caring for themselves and their families, and work hard to be contributing members of society are not permitted to be trampled by the obnoxious, repugnant behavior or those who break the laws and seek to impinge on or take from others what is not rightfully theirs, and who do so with impunity.

                Where honest capitalism is not denigrated but celebrated, but where crony capitalism is rooted out, exposed and eliminated.

                Where limousine liberals and people who have no idea of what real suffering is remove their hypocritical, self-righteous, virtue-signaling signs from their lawns and instead, take a weed whacker to the overgrown grass and mess by the side of the road.

                Where our schools teach kids reading, writing and arithmetic again instead of indoctrinating them in multicultural, gender-confused, anti-American drivel.

                Where the term “marriage” is returned to its religious definition, but where the ability of same-sex partners to enjoy the same legal rights as married couples is codified in our laws and where LGBTQ militants no longer try to shove their preferences and ideology down others’ throats.

                Where our military and law enforcement, as well as all other public service occupations are purged of incompetents and bad apples, our churches and the Boy Scouts are purged of pedophiles, our colleges are purged of socialists and marxists.

                Where we can calm down, lower the speed and decibel level of our lives, aspire to be good and do good, do what is right, and actually “all get along”.

Their Platform is Chaos

Who but limousine liberals unaffected by government policy either through exemption (e.g. Leftist politicians) or due to inoculating wealth (e.g. Hollywood celebrities or tech tycoons)… the intellectually indolent, the perpetual victims, the “low information voters” as Rush Limbaugh calls them (a euphemism for illiterate or cerebrally lazy people easily swayed by demagoguery), the race-baiters or the grievance acolytes… could possibly support the Democrats in 2020?

Really, no-one who has any self-respect – who cares about principles such as meritocracy, excellence, achievement, probity, self-reliance, self-determination, traditional sexual identification, traditional education, traditional family structure, that life (or at least the potential of life) begins at conception, that there is a God (or at a minimum a set of eternal rules of right and wrong that are immutable and transcend all generations)…could support the Democrats in 2020!

I had a conversation the other day with my Board-certified internist during my annual physical exam who, when asked for his opinion on the Wuhan Virus pandemic, started to recite the scripts of WHO, CDC, AMA, Johns Hopkins, and other canned platitudes. Little did he know at first that I spent several years running an early intervention healthcare company based on epidemiological research. When I began to confront him, gently mind you as he was about to check my prostate, with the emerging evidence that the Wuhan plague/pandemic is no worse than a bad flu and cited evidence of how faulty is so much of the data on which decisions are being made and regulations being promulgated, did he start to back off and admit that “we just don’t know.”

I was going to let him off the hook until he said, “I’m concerned, however, about the Second Wave.” At that, I asked him the question, “What is the metric that will allow kids to go back to school normally, that will allow us to stop wearing face diapers, that will signal an end to the crisis?” I was gratified that he conceded that should the Democrats prevail in the coming election, everything will all be over beginning November 4th, not because he’ll vote Republican, but because it was an admission that most of what underpins the rhetoric and discourse is political.  I then ran down the list of disastrous economic and societal consequences the government response at all levels has wrought and then, fortunately, found common ground with him as we delved into a cost-benefit discussion and both agreed that rational decision making and critical thinking was sorely needed.

My half hour session went an hour. A nurse had to bang on the door of the exam room to remind my Doc he had another patient waiting.

As I left the office I got to wondering about how it is that a highly-educated, highly-skilled physician could be persuaded to lazily rely on and spout institutional pablum. I concluded that the damage caused to all our institutions: medical, educational, social, religious, economic, even family structures has created so much chaos that even the smartest among us are overwhelmed by the tsunami of, frankly, BS that has invaded every facet of our lives. Out of sheer enervation even the strongest of us have had to pause from the fight to catch our breath. Meanwhile, the ability of the Left to sew chaos through outright deceit, lies, projection (especially projection) and carpet-bombing with idiocy has continued unabated. The megaphone in the hands of the Leftist media, regrettably, doesn’t take much electrical power.

This is precisely what the Left wants to do. Create so much chaos that only THEY can fix things. Only THEY will be able to unravel the mess…so long as they are granted unlimited power to do so. For that is their goal…POWER! I didn’t used to believe it. I thought there were Democrats who were classic liberals, who believed in the American way of life but wanted to ensure that we looked after those who truly were less fortunate, were REAL victims… No more. Now the Democrats just lust for power as they arrogantly, absurdly believe that if they control everything and everyone they’ll move us all toward their utopian fantasy. That fantasy is the stuff of socialism/communism and while they know it’s a fantasy, it isn’t about actually creating a utopia. It’s about POWER, the thing Leftist politicians must have much as water or oxygen.

We must shake off our weariness and continue to fight to expose the Left’s dysfunctional, delusional, adolescent enchantment with and pipe-dream of utopia and their deplorable thirst for power.

In a small way, having that extended conversation with my doctor made me feel like I was able to get off a few rounds in that fight.

Tactics of the Left

John Hawkins is one of my favorite conservative authors. In an essay penned back in October 2017 he listed, presciently, how the Left was then destroying and would in the future destroy our culture. With full credit and attribution to Hawkins, who’s full essay is available on Town Hall, here’s a summary:

First, to quote his introduction (Note: I’ve replaced the term “Liberalism with “Leftism, “Liberals” with “Leftists”:

There was a time when we used to be a nation that pushed freedom, responsibility, decency, patriotism and hard work. Some of us still believe in those things, but because of Leftism, much more destructive values have seeped into our culture like toxic waste. There are many ways that Leftists have degraded our culture, but these are the worst of the worst.”

And here’s his list:

1.            The Politicization of Everything.

2.            Political Correctness.

3.            Victimhood.

4.            Leftist Feminism.

5.            Tribalism.

6.            “Non-Judgmentalism”.

Today, one has only to open one’s eyes and ears to see these weapons on display. I would add to his list:

7.            Atheism. While I believe that the only Being in the universe who can prove to you whether He exists or not is God, faith is a very individual thing. By way of contrast, Atheism is a collective imposition of an ideology that doesn’t just eschew faith, but condemns and seeks to eradicate it. It’s obvious that the Left, by seeking to destroy faith, is seeking to replace God with its own brand of religion.

8.            Saturation. The Left seeks to dominate the airwaves in every form and in every medium so as to crowd out, squash, eradicate any dissent.

9.            Falsehood. “Creative Misrepresentation” is the euphemism that Leftist intellectuals use to describe the outright lying and deception used to advance their poisonous ideology. This should be obvious to any paying-attention individual.

10.          Projection. Have you ever noticed that the Left screams at the top of their lungs accusations at the Right that represent precisely what the Left is doing? There is no end to the hypocrisy and deceit they will use to achieve their ends.

11.          Hijacking the Vocabulary. “Choice”, “Social Justice”, “Democratic Socialism”, “Extremism”, “Investment (a.k.a. ‘taxation and spending’), “Science”, “Fair Share”, “The Wealthy”, “Balance”, “Liberal”, “Progressive”, “Racist”, “Undocumented Immigrant”, “Domestic Terrorist”, “Universal Background Checks”, “Assault Rifle”, “Diversity”, “Inclusion”, “Affirmative Action”, “Globalism”, “Climate Change”, “Resistance”, “Human Rights”, “Tolerance”, etc. All of these terms and countless others have been utilized, twisted, turned into Orwell’s Doublespeak, used as euphemisms or been completely destroyed and replaced by the Left.

12.          Revising History. The 1619 Project, the tearing down of historical figure statues, Howard Zinn, the vilification and attempted discrediting of historical leaders like the Founding Fathers…need I say more?

I expect if I thought about it long enough I could expand this list considerably. No matter. My readers know exactly what I’m talking about anyway, and could similarly add to it. The key is to fight, advance and not retreat in the face of these Leftist tactics.

We must pick our battles, yes, but not shun the fight.

I’m At a Loss for Words

Dear Readers and Patrons of Grumps Report,

I truly am at a loss for words. The emotions coursing through me at this moment are so powerful that I expect anything I write might not reflect what I think and feel even a couple of weeks from now. I’ve run out of adjectives and adverbs to describe the emotions: sadness, fear, disgust, hopefulness, resolve, patience and impatience, anger, compassion, hate and love, just to name a few.

Physically, I’m fine. I had a routine medical procedure last week that required me to visit my doctor. I thus had a COVID test and am negative. I don’t know whether I’ve got antibodies. I’ve stopped watching and reading the news on this topic because my economist/banker/businessman’s critical thinking training has me so put off by the so-called experts, even many whom I’ve trusted and relied on in the past, that I’ve shut them all out.

Spiritually and emotionally I’m sickened by what I see happening to our country. Having grown up in the 60’s witnessing all the rebellion and profligacy of that decade, I never saw anything like the soul-crushing necrosis I’m seeing today. I’m of course referring to the rioting, looting and what’s almost worse, the cowardice, demagoguery and genuflection on the part of Leftist politicians to what truly is domestic terrorism. In the 60’s it was easy to write off the chaos and attribute it to fringe lunacy. The great majority of Americans, while silent, appreciated what we had and were mostly bystanders to what was generally accepted to be foolishness or youthful exuberance. The vast majority of us still cherished and appreciated all that was good about America.

Today we’re seeing the fruits of the dark underbelly of the 60’s, amplified and expanded thanks to the internet and decades of indoctrination by the same losers who lacked self-control and self-discipline then. They now populate academia, law, and above all, government. Even the military and law enforcement haven’t been spared. There are neurotic, unproductive or barely productive adult children in virtually all our institutions.

I’ve already said too much. I will now go back to my bucket-list pursuit of reading all the Great Books. In them I find refuge, wisdom and truth that transcends all the nonsense bombarding me from all directions every minute of every day (were I to allow it).

Keep your seat belts fastened and your seat backs and tray tables in their full upright position. It’s going to be a bumpy ride for some time to come.

But this too shall pass.

Tiggers

The stock market has crashed. Unemployment is skyrocketing. The number of confirmed Wuhan Virus (that’s what I call it) cases is growing exponentially. Grocery store shelves are bare. Gun sales are going through the roof. Office buildings in Manhattan are empty. People are walking around with masks. Schools are cancelled. The internet is bogging down because so many people are home its vaunted capacity (bandwidth) is proving to be inadequate for the demand. California is “locked down”. Hell has broken loose.

However… “The wonderful thing about Tiggers is, tiggers is wonderful things. Their tops are made of rubber, and their tails are made of springs. They’re bouncy, flouncy, trouncy, pouncy, full of fun, fun fun. The wonderful thing about Tiggers is, I’m the only one.” Substitute Americans for tiggers and you’ll have a hint as to why despite the misery and impending doom I’m optimistic for the future.  

My thoughts…

1.            As bad as the pandemic is, it’s not as bad as you think. Simple arithmetic coupled with basic critical thinking points to the conclusion that greater than 99% of everyone who contracts the disease will recover, and we don’t know of course how many people WILL or WILL NOT contract it. Thousands get sick and many die each day from heart disease, cancer, jaywalking, ‘regular’ flu and chronic lung disease from smoking, etc. As of this morning, ~a quarter of a million people WORLDWIDE have been confirmed to have the virus, ~10,000 people WORLDWIDE have died from the virus, and ~86,000 have recovered. These numbers are DWARFED by regular flu.  In the U.S., ~15,000 people have confirmed cases and ~100 people have died. This flu season alone (roughly from October 2019 to the present) 31MM people IN THE UNITED STATES (!) have had the flu. Somewhere around 275,000 give or take have had to be hospitalized, and as many as 30,000 (vs. 100) have died from run-of-the-mill flu! (See  https://www.health.com/condition/cold-flu-sinus/how-many-people-die-of-the-flu-every-year for a plain language discussion.) Translation – this isn’t anywhere near as bad as the media and politicians would have you believe.

2.            Despite what you hear or see, the government is doing the right things. They may not in all cases being doing things right, but the medical, logistical, economic and societal response is “gettin’ ‘er done”. I expect the response is even overdone if you look at the statistics in the previous paragraph. So, for example, NOT EVERYONE NEEDS A TEST! If you get sick, sure, go get a test. But it’s self-centered, selfish and “looking out for number one” just to confirm you’re NOT sick, and may deprive someone who really needs to be tested from getting the help they need. Testing is NOT a cure, and satisfying statistical number crunching is nowhere near as important as preventing and treating the actual disease. Mobilization and coordination among all the health care agencies, departments and the private sector is exactly what is needed, and again, no matter what you hear, there are very competent people who care about others and this country hard at work on the problems. Have some faith in them!

The backstopping of employers in various ways and the anticipated support given to individuals and families is being matched by lenders, landlords, tax collectors… you name it. Everyone’s in this and making accommodations following the lead of the federal, state and local governments.

Just remember that “the government” is made up of people who have the same hopes, dreams, fears, constraints, problems as everyone else in the country. The vast majority are working their asses off to help and do what’s right within their on organizations and spheres of influence. I had to go to the department of motor vehicles the other day. Everyone there had taken a large dose of patience pills and I was both shocked and thrilled to see how both the people behind the counter and in front of it were behaving.

The government, of course, is damned if they do and damned if they don’t, but on balance, its response to this crisis has been overwhelmingly appropriate and helpful. Its communications, despite the handwringing and teeth-gnashing of a “if it bleeds it leads” media has been solid, optimistic, informative and suitably cautionary as to get virtually the whole nation (except the Florida beach Spring Break party animals) to respond as it should. This all happened in a matter of days, unlike the responses during the H1N1, SARS, MERS and other pandemics.

3.            Gas prices and interest rates are falling. The one commodity everyone needs is fuel, and the stimulating effect of a drop in gas prices to the ~$2.00 – ~$2.50 level is incredibly impactful on regular budgets. This will benefit us all, except of course for oil producers. But Washington is on to the Russian and Saudi’s game to try to destroy our energy-independent status and crush our shale industry, and are NOT going to let them get away with it. Similarly, we’re not standing idly by while China spews its propaganda and stomps its feet and blames our military for what they caused or worse, threatens us with withholding drugs such that we become “awash in a sea of Coronavirus”. We’ve thrown the bull#%*& flag on that already and will continue to rub China’s nose in the mess they’ve created and left on the world’s floor. Xenophobic? No, just highlighting the truth in the face false accusations.

4.            One of the silver linings in this mess is the awakening that has occurred among government, industry and the American people that we must no longer be held hostage by foreign manufacturers and suppliers. The Globalist agenda has been thoroughly trounced by this exposure of its flaws, and bringing our manufacturing and supply chains home may result in higher priced goods, but we’ll all benefit in the long run.

5.            Kids are getting educated again. Home schooling is exposing the inadequacies, biases and absurdities of the current state of our education system. Parents are waking up to what is being taught, and what is NOT being taught to our children. I predict that for whatever time period home-schooling prevails, our kids will get a BETTER education than what they’re getting at school, and teachers will be astonished when students return at how far they’ve advanced. You heard it from me first.

6.            Neighbors are helping neighbors. Our little local email chain is lit up with offers of help and assistance. People are getting outside and checking on each other from afar (i.e. more than six feet). Kids are teaching parents and grandparents about Facetime, Skype and Zoom. And Animal Planet is running shows about carefree kittens and puppies. Come on…how much better is it to watch than the gloom and doom on broadcast tv?

7.            People are learning who their leaders are. Not the ones with the titles, but the ones who are true leaders as opposed to managers and demagogues. True leaders step up in times of crisis and go to the front of the crowd, carry a light and turn back to shout encouragement and instill confidence in others. People who may have labored in the shadows or punched well below their weight are now emerging as the shepherds of our society. This separating of the leaders from the followers can only be a positive development.

8.            The Silent Majority is silent no more. Having to adapt to the situation, conservatives and the Right who normally are head down working and caring for themselves and their families are speaking up and speaking out. They are not just throwing the BS flag on politically correct nonsense, they are ignoring social engineering and all its related evils and practicing true philanthropy and real, beneficial community activism.

9.            Complacency is evaporating. It’s amazing what being forced to rely on fundamentals and things that matter will do to a spoiled and coddled population. In the face of what’s going on, do people really care what the Kardashians think?

10.          Faith is making a comeback. It’s sad but true that there are no atheists in foxholes. We’re rediscovering our faith despite not being able to attend Church. And whether it’s one religion or another, it’s the common principles of right and wrong, goodness versus evil and a belief in a set of universal truths that are moving back into the public consciousness. This is a good thing.

11.          Families are getting to know one another again. Yes, we’re cooped up and hunkered down. And things get testy at times as we bumble around in each other’s way. But for many of us, we’re forced to seek virtue: patience, understanding, caring for one another, and learning anew about each other. It doesn’t take a village, it takes a family, and families are binding together out of necessity and love.

And finally, THE MOST IMPORTANT REASON I’M OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THE FUTURE is that America has the most natural and other resources of any nation on earth. We can produce enough of EVERYTHING to take care of ourselves and help the rest of the world to boot. We have the smartest people. We have a spirit of “can do” that is unparalleled on the planet. Many nations think we’re brash, loud, obnoxious, overly proud and nationalistic and hate us for our bad manners and profligacy. So be it. I’d rather live in the United States than in any other country. We will not only get through this, but emerge stronger than ever and once again, we’ll be the city set on a hill letting our light so shine as to be a beacon of freedom and prosperity to the entire world.

I’m a pragmatist, and I recognize the challenges that lie ahead to recover from this mess. But I believe with every fiber of my being that things are going to be better than ok, and sooner than the so-called experts predict. I’m not suggesting we all go Hakuna Matata on this, but let’s put things in perspective shall we?

May God continue to bless us. And may God continue to bless America.

Considering Homeschooling

The Leftist indoctrination and brainwashing of our children has intensified to the point where parents who love them and care about our Nation’s future should seriously consider homeschooling, private or parochial schools. Not every family can afford private or parochial schools, however, so homeschooling may be the only realistic alternative.

Making the decision and committing to homeschooling would represent a tectonic shift in a family’s life to say the least. Dual incomes and $1000 iPhones has replaced living within our means, the traditional norm of father providing for the family, mother tending the hearth and nurturing the children, and the schools educating and preparing our youth to become productive achievers in our society.

Homeschooling would decidedly alter the current paradigm. Your taxes would still be paying for those teacher retirement benefits (largely), your income would drop and costs will rise, but it may be the only way to counteract the destructive ideology that has infused the curriculum and that is the real driving force tearing our country apart and causing our country’s decline.

I’ve only begun to research this topic, but virtually everything I read about the practice, in terms of preparing children for the world they face and equipping them with the tools they will need to survive in their future, is positive, even laudatory.

Mom usually takes on the homeschooling challenge and not all of our daughters and daughters-in-law are either educationally or emotionally able to do so. But for those who are, though it may mean abandoning or putting their careers on hold and running a different race than the one called “keeping up with the Jones”, it could be the most rewarding and fulfilling occupation of their lives. I don’t think it’s an overstatement to suggest that a generation of well-taught-through-homeschooling or private schooled kids could save the future of America.

One of the websites I found to be a useful introduction and guide to homeschooling is Mary Ann Kelley’s The Home School Mom. It lists many of the benefits of homeschooling, among them:

Academic flexibility. Homeschooling can work whether a child is ahead, behind, strong-willed, creative, challenging, quiet, gifted, or active.

Meeting current needs now. You can prioritize a child’s mental, emotional, behavioral, and physical health.

Meaningful learning. Avoid teaching to the test, testing mania in general, and arbitrary minimal standards.

Foster less peer dependence. Less early exposure to drugs, alcohol, sexual activity, and bullying.

Build a sense of safety. Parents can take their own steps to keep their children physically safe, and children can feel secure. (Grumps note: this also means safety from indoctrination and brainwashing!)

The full description of benefits can be found here.

I might add that taking on the responsibility for educating one’s children would of course force parents to become more educated themselves, and lifelong learning for us adults is a good thing too!

The education lobby will weep, wail and gnash their teeth, of course, and as the homeschooling trend continues to accelerate the assault by the Leftist-infused teacher’s unions will be ferocious. But consider these facts taken from research done by Brian D. Ray, Ph.D of the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) and published in January of this year:

  • “There are over 2.3 million homeschool students in the United States. That is, there were an estimated 2.3 million in spring 2016, and this was up from one estimate of about 2 million home-educated children (in grades K to 12) during the spring of 2010 in the United States. It appears the homeschool population is continuing to grow at an estimated 2% to 8% per annum over the past few years.”
  • “The home-educated typically score 15 to 30 percentile points above public school students on standardized academic achievement tests.”

As I wrote earlier, I’ve barely scratched the surface of this subject, but as a grandfather increasingly worried about my kids’ and grandkids’ future, as well as the future of America , I urge everyone to seriously consider abandoning the current educational rat race and provide the second most important thing (love comes first!) parents can provide their children: a sound education.

Social Score Manipulation

I was alarmed by an article I saw recently regarding how Silicon Valley, i.e. the tech companies, are trying to build a social scoring system similar to the one created by the Chinese to control their population. A social “score” would, essentially,  label you on how well you adhere to political correctness.

Think of the consequences of the following:  Some twenty something kid develops a computer program that collects every bit of data on you from the internet, including privacy-invading captures of emails, texts, voice mail messages, credit reports, and of course Facebook and Instagram posts. An algorithm (basically, a complex series of equations and instructions) then decides whether the dossier it has compiled on you adheres to the social orthodoxy prescribed by its mostly Leftist creators. You are assigned a score which, if insufficiently high, could prevent you from obtaining insurance, a mortgage, a car loan, weapons to defend yourself and your family (nor just firearms but think, pepper spray!). Continue down this path and medical care could be rationed based on your score. Your ability to obtain a drivers license, or fly on an airplane could all be impacted by your ‘score’. So too could your ability to check into a hotel, or get your kids into a private school, camp or music program.  How about your internet speed being throttled up or down based on your number?

This is Silicon Valley tyranny of the highest order.

Artificial intelligence…what the computer geeks call computer programs that mimic human thought processes through complex “if-then” rules, is just that…ARTIFICIAL. It’s not REAL intelligence! It’s data manipulation, whether the data is valid or not, whether it’s true or not, whether it represents reality or not, whether it is complete or not. While the geeks would argue its totality represents who you are, I submit individual human beings cannot be represented by a set of numbers.

Instead of real human beings using real intelligence, computer programs are making assessments based on monte carlo simulations of the propensity of an individual to be or do certain things. It’s unadulterated nonsense. People aren’t average. People are individuals, but the Leftist gurus of Silicon Valley would have you believe they can categorize you and collect people into pens like livestock. They use terms like “community” and “social justice” to connote egalitarianism, but it’s really manipulation, brainwashing and population control to achieve the Leftist utopian dream.

And we’re letting it happen. The fact that I’m typing this on a laptop and that I’ll use an intenet connection to first save it in a cloud repository, then publish it on this website in the hope that people, especially my family, will read it some day and be positively influenced by it…is a trade-off. I have no illusions that there are computer algorithms that are mining my posts for key words and phrases that already categorize me at least as a neanderthal but at worst, as a old white guy white supremacist. And the thought that the government and commercial institutions would ever adopt policies to allow or deny me freedoms or products and services based on where I fall on this social scoring spectrum, is unsettling to say the least.

It used to be we’d gather our families together for Sunday dinner and at that table learn the wisdom of our elders. The patriarchs and matriarchs would instruct and seek to influence us, and by example, teach us about the world, right and wrong, how to conduct ourselves, how to find happiness in our lives.

Today, we write blogs, and emails, and texts. Our conversations are about movies and sports…in some families politics is no longer an acceptable subject, and if one member of the family is either agnostic or atheist, religion too is a subject off the table.

We are so paranoid about offending even our own family members that in a sense, the Left has won. My children can’t discipline their kids for fear some social worker will show up their door and haul them into some judicial hearing on child abuse! Have the thought police so intimidated us that we have abrogated our responsibility to impart our values to our children and grandchildren to Sesame Street, the Leftist indoctrinators in their schools and colleges?

Some of us “old people” say, “It’s their world, and their problem.” I, on the other hand, ask, “Will we stand by and watch our kids’ world devolve into an immoral and totalitarian cesspool without speaking up, without using every opportunity to point out the craziness, the manipulations and fallacies of the demagogues and those who seek to impose their will on and exercise power over us?”

We can either choose to be silenced and cower, or stand and fight for the traditional values that have proven throughout history to be the greatest driving force of mankind’s prosperity.

A Lost Generation

Once again someone has said it far better than I. Cal Thomas has hit the nail on the head. He describes in eloquent and persuasive terms what I have been saying, often sub-optimally, about the deterioration of traditional values, especially in today’s twenty-somethings…

In his piece entitled “Lost Generation abandoning traditional values” Thomas accurately describes the problem our nation faces from the attitudes of Generation Z. He cites a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll as lending credence to this assertion and then goes on to summarize, beautifully, everything I’ve been trying to say. Some excerpts from the Cal Thomas article:

“There are people in every generation who believe the generation following theirs is either going to the dogs or will ruin the country.

The founders and subsequent generations — perhaps excepting the Gilded Age and the horrors of slavery — mostly believed in the virtues younger people either now reject or approach with indifference.

How can this be? What has happened between the World War II generation, which gave so much so their children and grandchildren might enjoy the blessings of liberty, and the current generation, which seems cool to what once seemed to matter most?”

Generalizations are always problematic, but I have lived long enough and witnessed the general decline to make some.

Prosperity is one explanation. People who make more money than previous generations and possess a lot of stuff seem less inclined to participate in community (how many of us know our neighbors, who are here today and move tomorrow?). Stuff and the personal satisfaction of achievement lead to a decline in one’s need for God — too much money, too little purpose.

Politicians become a god-substitute and politics their religion. Creeping secularism has affected theological truth to the point where people can believe whatever they want — or nothing at all — and escape correction. Heresy, even apostasy, has infiltrated many churches.

Then there is culture. Younger people are exposed to what we collectively call “media” more than any previous generation. Most of what constitutes culture proceeds from a singular worldview that denigrates, or does not promote, patriotism, belief in God and values previous generations not only took for granted, but instilled in their children.

Unrestricted abortion has cheapened how many young people view the value of human life. For growing numbers of the young, marriage has become passé as children witness the pain of their parents’ divorce and decide that living together without a formal, legal or spiritual commitment is better than risking the cost and pain of ending a marriage. For some, children are viewed as a financial burden and an intrusion on adult lifestyles.

Sociologists and historians will tell us these things are cyclical, like weather. That has been true in the past when spiritual revivals often followed a fallow period of faithlessness and a focus on self. I’m not sure that cycle will repeat with younger people, given what they are taught at public schools and in liberal universities.

The values that shaped and sustained America through economic downturns and wars had to be taught and instilled in the next generation. Today’s younger people, as reflected in the poll, seem intent on making their own rules (if they can be called rules) and creating their own gods.

They will eventually learn the impossibility of it all as their substitutions will fail them. The question is can America survive when our moral, spiritual and patriotic foundations are destroyed? If you don’t love your country, what’s the point of having one?”

To illustrate precisely what Thomas is talking about, following is a sample of the comments to his article on the comment blog Reddit. THIS is what we’re up against. Profanity has been edited by me.

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aethsyn • 13h   

F*** traditional values.

58

pegothejerk • 13h          

They mean conservative values, traditional American values include genocide, cheating, broken treaties, protesting, rampant immigration, wars, poverty for most, etc.

I’d say those things are still here. The youth just isn’t into their bull***t religious dogma, rhetoric, and manipulation.

43

teyhan_bevafer • 12h    

Same author, earlier column:

God designed norms for behavior that are in our best interests. When we act outside those norms—such as for premarital sex, adultery, or homosexual sex—we cause physical, emotional, and spiritual damage to ourselves and to our wider culture. The unpleasant consequences of divorce and sexually transmitted diseases are not the result of intolerant bigots seeking to denigrate others. They are the result of violating God’s standards, which were made for our benefit. — Cal Thomas, “Immutable Morals”

What a f***ing sicko. Perfect for FOX

26

MSgtJohnCWoods • 12h              

Now I’m curious what insane, kinky s**t he’s into.

8

Continue Thread

Kkooopp • 9h    

Haha. Pedophile priests shaming us regular sinners.

3

casualphilosopher1 • 12h            

I wonder how his fellow Fox News columnists feel about that. I don’t think many of them follow his standards.

-2

VioletBeauregard:flag-va: Virginia • 13h

Gen X, Millenials, and Gen Z are “rejecting traditional values?”

More accurate headline is “Every generation younger than Baby Boomers is sick of patriarchal bulls**t.”

58

BilltheCatisBack • 12h   

I take offense. I am a Baby boomer hippie flower child and my generation really started the rejection of the traditional values. “ The times they are a changing. “

6

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gringostroh • 13h           

F**k Cal Thomas.

35

TedCruzsAnalFissure • 13h          

In his flabby face

9

Taman_Should • 12h     

“But muh traditional values!” they said, when slavery was abolished.

“But muh traditional values!” they said, when women got suffrage.

“But muh traditional values!” they said, when schools desegregated.

“But muh traditional values!” they said, when Martin Luther nailed on the church door.

12

1991560SEC • 12h          

I wonder why people are turning away from Christianity? Maybe because their “God” is a disgusting hateful p**k and so are his followers? Jesus and his kind ways and teachings about the poor and decent are dead to these a**holes. Look in the mirror Cal, YOU are the f**king problem.

17

__Parallax__ • 11h         

Modern “christians” have more in common with the pharisees and money changers than they do with the disciples of christ

8

heyhey922 • 13h            

This article is basically just Fox News crying over that millennials are entirely lost for the GOP and Gen Z currently look exactly like millennials.

15

jratcliff63367 • 13h        

Traditional values of hate against people of color and the LGBT community? Yeah…let’s hope so…

24

Tylorw09:flag-mo: Missouri • 12h            

Where my country hatred gone?

2

Cobrawine66 • 12h        

I’m happily abandoning “traditional values”.

7

archerjenn:flag-tx: Texas • 13h  

F**k Fox News.

None of these things sound bad to me.

21

Boleen • 13h     

Traditional American values such as Trump’s cheating on all three wives?

13

segvcore • 13h 

Cal Thomas! I’d forgotten about that sick f**k. Surprised he’s still around, not surprised that Fox pulled him up out of their gimp box.

13

Ill_Try_To_Be_Civil • 13h             

Yeah, I thought he was dead. He was exhausting and odious 20 years ago.

5

poloniumpanda:flag-us: America • 10h  

Says the party that sacrifced all they claimed to stand for to fellate trump and the Russians.

5

AthaanShadar • 13h       

Enlightened generation abandoning traditional american racist values

8

grandtheftdragon:flag-id: Idaho • 12h    

The fruits of traditional values abandoned us. What incentive is there for people under 35 to view “traditional values,” (whatever that is codeword for) to hold up in the same light as our forebears?

4

StopTheAltWhite • 12h 

Yeah, it’s called “crony capitalism eating up all income in America for the 1%.”

5

NormP • 12h     

A Fox News pundit talking about having values.

4

milqi:flag-ny: New York • 11h     

Wow. This entire piece reads like an angry grandpa on too much hooch.

3

prodigalpariah • 11h      

Racism misogyny and xenophobia?

3

mclumber1 • 13h            

Cal, don’t you support a guy who likes to “grab em by the p***y”?

7

Tylorw09:flag-mo: Missouri • 12h            

And who has been divorced 2 times!

Let’s read about Cal’s views on divorce…

God designed norms for behavior that are in our best interests. When we act outside those norms—such as for premarital sex, adultery, or homosexual sex—we cause physical, emotional, and spiritual damage to ourselves and to our wider culture. The unpleasant consequences of divorce and sexually transmitted diseases are not the result of intolerant bigots seeking to denigrate others. They are the result of violating God’s standards, which were made for our benefit. — Cal Thomas, “Immutable Morals”

3

tehmlem • 12h 

If there’s a lost generation it’s the boomers who took the values they were taught and warped them into a hateful, bigoted parody. Who abandoned freedom of expression, equal rights, and the highest standard of living in the world in favor of tradition, exclusion, and deprivation.

4

Ssider69 • 10h  

News flash….every generation changes their values. I’m not yet an old guy…but hardly young. I don’t think my peers would have shown up in large numbers to face off against neo Nazis (I often wonder exactly what it is those “boys” are so “proud” of). For that matter a HS student standing up to the jeers of very powerful adults in order to speak out against mass shootings in schools (btw, the grown ups that insulted this kid must be real proud of themselves…way better than popping a toddlers balloon!)

And that is patriotism. It is the act of trying to make your nation a better place.

2

schoocher • 9h 

GOP traditional “values”:

Patriotism: We all work together for the benefits of multi-nat corporations and the super-wealthy.

Religion: There is no god but my God and not other way to worship him then with my ingrained belief system of hate, intolerance, and greed.

2

GhostBalloons19:flag-us: America • 9h  

Traditional = Conservative which is a world view based on hate, fear and the status quo. So yeah.

2

Amartist19 • 13h            

What values? Racism? Bigotry? This country doesn’t seem to have any.

2

shelbys_foot • 13h         

The founders and subsequent generations — perhaps excepting the Gilded Age and the horrors of slavery — mostly believed in the virtues younger people either now reject or approach with indifference.

Seems to me they’re rejecting the New Gilded Age and the horrors of Trumpism.

3

hotbrownrain • 13h       

Props for choosing greed as the primary cause but beyond that Cal Thomas is a f**king chump.

2

deviltrombone • 13h     

“Cal” is Nadsat for “s**t.”

2

dogswontsniff • 9h         

Ah yes the hack from the newspaper. Smug, ignorant, intolerant ass.

1

LucidCharade • 3h          

[…]traditional American values like slavery, segregation, and internment camps. Those Ni****s and Japs should have known their place beneath us white men!

I finished that thought for you Cal, no worries. This one is free of charge.

ComradeGibbon • 2h     

TIL: Cal Thomas is still alive.

ViskerRatio • 13h            

Note that the ‘traditional American values’ they’re really talking about is valuing other people by participating in a community rather than merely pursuing self-absorption and narcissism.

And that should be worrisome for anyone. Not just from a “keep off my lawn” standpoint of old fogies, but from the younger generations who are going to fritter away their youth on pointless pursuits while not establishing the relationships they need to sustain themselves in old age.

-24

MSgtJohnCWoods • 13h              

valuing other people

By caging children, blocking health care access, institutionalizing racism, demeaning women and stripping their autonomy….

15

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ME24601:flag-pa: Pennsylvania • 11h     

valuing other people by participating in a community rather than merely pursuing self-absorption and narcissism.

*As long as said people fit one’s preconceived notion of who belongs to said community

The younger generation, meanwhile, wants to bring more people into the tent rather than force them to stay apart.”

While there are those who argue, “It’s their world, let them have it,” I choose to at least speak up, like Cal Thomas, and warn of the potential collapse of our country and our civilization. It’s spitting in the wind, perhaps, but I’d rather go down fighting in the hope that in some small way a remnant of the time-honored, proven principles I call traditional values will be preserved in my children and grandchildren.

Educational Indoctrination

What is happening in our schools is beyond shocking. A whole generation has been brainwashed to believe things we and our parents would have written off as lunacy.

A firsthand account by a public school teacher in Gross Pointe, Michigan of what’s going on in the halls, academic lounges and in kids’ heads these days alarmingly summarizes what we should find frightening if we care about our children and grandchildren. The article, entitled “Worse Than Ever: Government Schools After 35 Years“, by Lawrence M. Ludlow (American Thinker, August 15, 2019) describes what he found upon returning to the classroom after a hiatus because the local high school was unable to replace a retiring Latin teacher.

The first clue was the difference between the certification process in 1982, when he previously taught, and 2018. In his own words: “The 1982 certificate only listed the courses I could teach.  In contrast, the 2018 version had a 300-word “Code of Ethics” that amounted to a profession of faith in collectivism, egalitarianism, state schools, and diversity (typically limited to superficial things like skin color and gender, not ideas).”

His next exposure was to the students themselves, who were woefully deficient in English grammar much less ready to study Latin. In what was supposed to be a superior school system, many students didn’t bring books to class, complained incessantly about homework, expected to receive high grades regardless of proficiency and performance and the Principal was instituting a process whereby students would not be compelled to take any more than one test in a day! And this kind of education was supposed to be college preparatory!

The warping and rewriting of history, the Leftist brainwashing on the topics of socialism versus capitalism, communism versus democracy, globalism versus nationalism, nepotism versus meritocracy, redistributionism versus self-reliance, moral relativism, collectivism versus individualism, the blatant promotion of gender dysphoria, group identity, victimology and outrage culture…THIS is what’s being taught to our children and grandchildren in elementary and secondary schools and on college campuses today. (I will leave for another time the attack on boys and boyhood, men and manhood.) Oh yes, occasionally the three R’s are thrown in, but increasingly, this kind of harmful, Leftist nonsense permeates every subject.

It’s no wonder that home-schooling is taking off. It’s no wonder the competition for private school slots is cutthroat. And despite ever increasing spending per capita, it’s no wonder “Johnny [still] Can’t Read.”

Where does the fault lie, and who’s responsibility is it to fix this problem?

As regards fault – I chalk this up to the natural impact of what I call the “fat and happy syndrome.” Briefly, I submit that the Boomers, recipients of the peace and prosperity won by the Greatest Generation and not having to struggle through a Great Depression, allowed boredom, indolence, envy, drugs, moral depravity and many other societal ills to infect a “fat and happy” population.  “Free Thinking”, “Free Love”, anti-establishment rhetoric and the abandonment of God or thousands of years of right and wrong moral yardsticks resulted in a new educational approach. The result, “New Math” (remember?) and now, the Common Core panacea. In short, the hippies took over academia.

Regrettably, George Bernard Shaw was right. “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.” With exceptions, for example shop and trade-school teachers who pass on truly useful skills and learning, academicians are so caught up in complying with the orthodoxy established by teacher union leadership, publishing or perishing the “proper” material in the case of college professors, or crushed by the collective mob if they try to deviate from the dogma, that there is little chance of a return to the basics.

As for the solution. Somehow, and by smarter people than I, we must eliminate the ability of teacher unions to impose their Leftist canon on our system. Whether we do this by abolishing teacher unions altogether (and ALL government employee unions by the way) or through some other means, we must break up the monopoly and MAKE OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM GREAT AGAIN.

I also suggest that those parents who can place their children in private schools do so. If unable to do so, I urge them to strongly consider home-schooling. Something like 2 million school-age kids are being home-taught today, with extraordinary results as compared to public schooling, and that figure is growing exponentially.

Finally, I urge parents to demand that their children reduce their obsession with social media and technology and create opportunities for them to interact in healthy ways with one another. Supervised play dates for the youngsters, organized sports (left me emphasize here the importance of competitive TEAM sports), participation in interpersonally engaging, non-technical social activities like music and theater, science and outdoors clubs for adolescents.

It’s been argued that our ability to influence our children ends about the age of 8. While that’s debatable, those of us who have raised children know that somewhere around the onset of adolescence we become the enemy and what we say is far less important than the current “meme”.

Yet judging by what I see in college and twenty-something, even thirty-something age kids today, when reality bites and they’re forced to become increasingly self-reliant…they become receptive to guidance and influence once again. All of sudden they discover that their parents have grown up. (As an aside, there is nothing more heartwarming than hearing our own words coming out of the mouths of our older children as they instruct their younger siblings, or their children!)

I urge us to find ways of resisting the temptation to become our children’s friends as they morph into grown-ups and, hopefully, adults, but rather continue to set an example for them, teach them correct principles, and help them understand what was right and what was wrong about the subject matter they were just exposed to over the previous 12-16 or more years.

If they haven’t learned them already, teach them about skepticism and critical thinking. Teach them the manners, decorum and civility that they didn’t receive during their ‘formal’ education. Teach them self-reliance and how to rise on the basis of merit, not political maneuvering or nepotism. Teach them about determination and perseverance. Teach them thrift and self-discipline, and teach them by example whenever possible, the difference between Right and Wrong, and Right and Left.

I submit that the blatant Leftist indoctrination of our children and grandchildren in today’s schools and colleges (whether public or private) is the REAL DOMESTIC TERROR threat in our country. May we who believe in Traditional Values be strong enough and wise enough to arm and teach our loved ones how to fight this scourge.

So, It’s Like, Vocal Fry and Upticks You Know?

I can’t stand it anymore! At a restaurant the other night I felt like jumping up and grabbing the two millennials at the table next to ours by the throat and screaming “Stop it!” Between the gravel in their throats and the upticks at the end of sentences that each had a minimum of three “likes” in them, my wife and I cringed. It actually ruined what would have otherwise been a very nice dinner at our favorite dining spot. (If you don’t know what vocal fry and upticks are all about, just do a search on YouTube.)

It’s everywhere, not just in public but also in the workplace. What was particularly jarring was that the girls were talking about their college experiences and their schools were two of the best in the nation! How faculties can allow their students to graduate high school much less college without an ability to string two coherent and grammatically correct English sentences together is shocking and lamentable!

In our day, the filler words were “you know”. “It was nice at the beach yesterday, you know?” “I can’t understand, you know, how she could have said that.” “You know” was annoying, but I guess we were blessed that the painful vocal fry and uptick problems weren’t so common.

There were regional accents of course: Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens; Midwest; Minnesotan; Texas; Boston Brahmin, Southern and Deep Southern. None were offensive. They were quaint. At times, incomprehensible, but quaint, not grating!

Today, however, I often feel like I’m in a foreign country. Mind you, it’s not the actual foreigners and recent immigrants with whom I have trouble communicating. It’s most often those born here whom I can’t understand!

Other pet peeves…

Starting a sentence with “So”. I don’t know whether it’s supposed to make the speaker sound smarter, whether it’s just another filler phrase, or whether it’s like a cat that hunches down, sticks its butt in the air and flicks its tale before pouncing, but this too is such an annoying corruption of our language!

“Right?” It’s incredibly annoying to hear people end their sentences not just with an uptick but the word right, right?”

Oh, and there are the slightly more sophisticated but equally obnoxious phrases, “Let me be clear”, “To be completely honest”, or “At the end of the day.” You get the idea.

Perhaps it’s because my wife is English that I’m more bothered than most about the deterioration of our grammar and diction. You know the Brits… whether they’re from Chelsea and speak “frightfully” or are from London’s East End and speak like Eliza Doolittle before her transformation in My Fair Lady, or the chimney sweeps in Mary Poppins, they always sound so much more educated and serious than we. Let’s be fair, however. The way they speak and spell English can also be troublesome! But, as she constantly reminds me whenever we get into a spat about the proper way to phrase something, “Just remember, we gave you the language!” End of conversation.

Back in the stone age of 1972 William F. Buckley gave a guest lecture at my college. The auditorium was filled with 60’s vintage, recycled hippies and liberal academics. After laying out the ‘conservative case’ he took questions. The showboating engaged in by the Leftists as they asked pointed and mostly insulting questions was classic drivel. I’ll never forget, however, the extraordinarily deft way that Buckley calmly used incisive, fact-supported arguments, words and language to thoroughly gut each and every one of his antagonists. His mastery of English was incomparable. He also had that great side flick of the tongue to accompany his responses, and when the moderator finally submitted to the shellacking being dealt out, ending the session, the handful of us in the audience who weren’t 60’s radicals or poor attempts at imitation thereof stood up and loudly and unapologetically applauded!

While we’re trying to take back our country from Leftists, let’s try to restore American English to its proper, beautiful state…the English as written by our Founding Fathers. The English we heard spoken by the likes of Lincoln, Reagan, and William F. Buckley. And let’s try to restrain ourselves from wringing the necks of the valley-talk kids around us!