Cancel culture and wokeness will destroy our country

August 12, 2021

The enabling tool of what we call “cancel culture” or “wokeness” is language. People are put in categories to which names are assigned, and this supposedly captures who they are and what should be done with them politically. Unfortunately, the whole business of racial identification and categorization is not about advancing the quality of the human condition and human dignity but about progressive politics. The left puts people in racial categories as instruments toward their political agenda. In 1977, the Federal Interagency Committee on Education produced a five-race ...

A Tonkin Gulf incident in the Gulf of Oman?

August 10, 2021

A week ago, the MT Mercer Street, a Japanese-owned tanker managed by a U.K.-based company owned by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer, sailing in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Oman, was struck by drones. A British security guard and Romanian crew member were killed. Britain and the U.S. immediately blamed Iran, and the Israelis began to beat the war drums. Last Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said action against Iran should be taken “right now.” Tuesday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned Israel could “act alone.” “They can’t sit calmly in Tehran ...

The Juniata River Valley’s visit from Pa.’s ‘Robin Hood’

August 7, 2021

We have all heard the story of the Medieval outlaw Robin Hood. A folk hero of sorts, a highly admired rebel who was out to “even the score” between those of wealth and those who were poor. He was always outrunning the law and is credited with always treating women, the poor and the downtrodden with respect and courtesy. What you might not have known, is that there was an infamous “Robin Hood” of Pennsylvania, David Lewis, whose stories made him larger than life and his travels led him through the Juniata River Valley. He was born in Carlisle in 1790, and at the age of 10, moved ...

Freedom in the coming time of madness

August 6, 2021

Sadly, we are approaching a time in America during which our elected public officials will assault the liberties we have hired them to protect. Whatever the cause, the government will soon blame its failures to contain a virus on a small portion of the population and then impose restrictions on the inalienable rights of all of us. We cannot permit this to happen again. During the Civil War, when President Abraham Lincoln thought it expedient to silence those in the northern states who challenged his wartime decisions by incarcerating them in military prisons, he was rebuked afterward ...

It’s time to overturn Roe v. Wade

August 5, 2021

In May, the Supreme Court put abortion on the docket for its upcoming session by agreeing to hear Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The high court’s decision to hear this case registered on the seismometer of every American that carefully follows the abortion issue. It means that Roe v. Wade, which has defined abortion reality in the country since 1973, is open to review and could be overturned. The Mississippi law in question, which bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, was struck down by an appeals court in 2019. The state then appealed to the Supreme ...

Americans are in debt and the vultures are circling

August 4, 2021

Americans are now deeper in debt than at any other time in our nation’s history. Especially acute are mounting debts on past-due mortgage payments, student loans and medical bills. In fact, medical debt is one of the most often-mentioned causes of personal bankruptcies in the U.S., and the situation has only gotten worse during the pandemic. So, is it any wonder that criminal minds would turn to scams to exploit those suffering from financial woes? “Do not hang up,” the robocall voice sternly instructs. “Your case has been referred to law enforcement for nonpayment. A ...