The Baltimore Bridge Collapse & Astoria, Oregon

 

The Francis Scott Key truss bridge was the third longest span of any continuous truss in the world, and the total length was 8,636 feet long. It was the second-longest bridge in the Baltimore metropolitan area, after the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

The Astoria-Megler bridge in the Pacific Northwest is the longest continuous truss bridge in North America and the second longest in the world. It is four miles in length and carries traffic from Astoria, OR to Point Ellis near Megler, WA.

If the Abortion Pill: Why Not Most Drugs?

 

The Supreme Court seems likely to allow an abortion pill to be available over-the-counter, instead of requiring a prescription.

I am a committed opponent of the FDA: I hate that patients are not allowed to make our own decisions when it comes to medication (but we are encouraged to do so in all kinds of less-healthy ways, “natural” drugs and behaviors, including promiscuity). And so I wonder… is there a silver lining to be had here? Might the government allowing patients to self-prescribe certain drugs without a doctor’s prescription be extended to allow many more on the same legal basis?

MSNBC is a Cult

 

As one of the 99.9% of Americans who never or rarely ever watch MSNBC, my viewing habits were unaffected by the reports of the hissy fits triggered by the hiring and then firing of a failed RNC chairwoman.  The pull of bias at MSNBC has so completely collapsed into itself like a cognitive black hole that there is not even room for a token punching bag RINO on staff.

I used to tune in occasionally.  I was interviewed by Chris Matthews regarding a topical issue way back when the network was brand new, back when he was still using a blue-collar, regular-guy Democrat persona based on his former staff work for Tip O’Neill.  That version of Chris Matthews disappeared into the bias black hole long ago.

This week on The Learning Curve, guest co-hosts Charlie Chieppo and Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Barry Anderson interview UCLA’s classical historian, Prof. Ronald Mellor. Dr. Mellor delves into the enduring influence of Tacitus, the great Roman historian, on both America’s Founding Fathers and contemporary understanding of politics and government. He discusses Tacitus’s insights on the early Roman emperors, unchecked authority, moral judgment of leadership, and the decline of the Roman Republic, as well as ancient lessons for modern governance. Prof. Mellor closes with a reading from his book, Tacitus.

Jeff is joined by Congressman Jim Jordan (OH-4, R) to discuss some of most essential elements of a leader, as well as some of the most pressing challenges facing American today. They discuss government-sponsored threats to the First Amendment,and the challenges presented internationally by Russia and China.

Host: Jeff Sikkenga

Progressive Rabbis Support the Underdog: Hamas

 

Over the years I’ve had many conversations with friends, Jewish and non-Jewish, about the overwhelming number of Jews who are Progressives. Although in some ways, their commitment is perplexing, since many of the Progressive values must result in some cognitive dissonance for liberal Jews. But I’ve explained that many of them believe in supporting the underdog—the people who are oppressed and rejected by the larger society.

When the massacre of October 7 in Israel occurred, there was a great outcry in the Jewish community, in the U.S. and abroad. Reformed, conservative and orthodox Jews in the United States and in Israel raged about the Hamas attack. But one small group—progressive Rabbis— which has taken the view that the Palestinians in Israel are the oppressed, continue to decry Zionism and criticize Israel for its response to October 7. What is happening to these leaders of Jewish communities?

Well, That Didn’t Last Long…

 

McDaniel at the 2018 Young Women’s Leadership Summit (WikiMedia Commons)

I think it was only yesterday that I saw that Ronna McDaniel, former Chair of the Republican National Committee got a job as a contributor at NBC News.  I probably wouldn’t have even known she got the job, except that a bunch of the on-air talent was throwing a fit over her hiring.

DOJ’s Antitrust Crusade against Apple

 

With much publicity, the Department of Justice has launched a new broadside antitrust suit against Apple, an American company with a multitrillion-dollar market capitalization and an array of products that are widely used throughout the world—including by this author—to great acclaim. To read the government complaint is a dizzying experience because it is a real challenge to sort out the wheat from the chaff.

According to the DOJ, Apple stands invincible because it adopts a policy of excluding all market comers, who can gain admission only with Apple’s consent. This consent always comes with stiff fees, for Apple “demands up to 30 percent of the price of an app whose content, product, or service it did not create,” only to pile on yet another 30 percent in fees on customers at the back end of the production chain. Yet DOJ never asks why Apple does not use its supposedly inexhaustible market power to jack up prices even further. Are these customers the pawns of Apple, as the Department of Justice claims, or is the government’s general charge overinflated so long as Android is in play, highlighting both its own advances and insisting that it is easy to switch and transfer data to its open-source Linux platform?

The Challenge of Finding – and Talking With – G-d

 

Prayer is not meant to be a one-way conversation: when we get inside our own heads, we are trying to condense our own thoughts, and listen very intently. In this way, prayer (along with its cousin, meditation), has been compared to very slowly and carefully twiddling the knobs on a shortwave radio, trying to detect, and then hone in on, a specific signal.

There is actually a series of subtle hints in the Torah that tell us how conversations can be had with G-d. The first is that the voice of G-d comes to Moses from between the two gold keruvim, angels, on top of the holy ark. Those angels are reaching for each other, telling us that G-d’s voice is found where two entities seek to have a connection, a relationship. G-d can be found in the yearning that we each have for connection.

News From an Undesirable Organization

 

“RFE/RL has been declared an “undesirable organization” by the Russian government.”

If you are in Russia or the Russia-controlled parts of Ukraine and hold a Russian passport or are a stateless person residing permanently in Russia or the Russia-controlled parts of Ukraine, please note that you could face fines or imprisonment for sharing, liking, commenting on, or saving our content, or for contacting us.

Lawfare: The Corruption of our Legal System

 

The abuse of our legal system for insidious purposes seems to be growing every day. The political rewards for the Left are abundant, and the costs for the Right are horrendous. And yet the outcomes from these acts continue, with no end in sight. This is where we find ourselves:

The newest buzzword in our politics is lawfare, or using the legal system as a weapon against a political opponent. It sits before us now as a spectacle of political gluttony. How many lawsuits, court motions and judgments against Donald Trump can the Democratic Party chow down? More disturbing is the high price the American system may pay for this excess.

Viva la France!Viva la Difference!

 

I admit I am stunned. Out of France, incredibly, comes a report ordered by the French Senate, analyzing the practice of transitioning adolescent patients with gender dysphoria.

The bottom line conclusion:  This practice is the one of the greatest ethical scandals in the history of medicine.

An update on gene medicine: Speaking the words of life to make the blind see

 

So in the last few years there have been some serious advancements in genetic medicine that I have recently learned about. My first reaction was surprise that I didn’t hear about these earlier while being ceaselessly bombarded by political minutiae. Every darn day it’s Trump and Biden and Congress not doing anything. But while that’s happening or not happening as per Congress, scientists and doctors are boldly healing diseases that have never been healed before. It’s like Star Trek up in the lab.

Geordi La Forge (WikiMedia Commons)

A Family Saga in the American Southwest

 

The Oakley family lives in a farm along Little Hatchet Creek, New Mexico Territory in the postwar years of the American Civil War. They raise hogs, achieving modest prosperity selling bacon and ham in El Paso.

Little Hatchet by Phil Oakley, opens in the 1880s along the Little Hatchet Creek and runs through the 1920s. It follows the fortunes of the Oakley clan in New Mexico and Texas.

Father, James, is a Civil War veteran. A former Confederate officer, he and his wife Rebecca left Arkansas to settle along Little Hatchet Creek, raising a family along with the hogs. As the book starts the family includes five sons and two daughters.

Ike’s Genocide

 

I watched part of a tiresome interview of the always excellent Douglas Murray in which the interviewer continued to use hackneyed, intellectually lazy “genocide” to describe the Israeli war of survival against Hamas. I wondered why any network would hire a journalist too dim to realize when they are being made to look foolish by a much smarter interviewee and then remembered it is now the hiring norm in the industry .

It also occurred to me that if “genocide” applies whenever civilian casualties accrue, then General Dwight Eisenhower was a genocidal monster.  The D-Day invasion at Normandy was preceded by many thousands of tons of bombs dropped and intense naval shelling. The landings and airborne drops turned into a large scale desperate battle over the entire peninsula lasting for weeks.  An estimated 20,000 French civilians were killed, hundreds of thousands injured and most made homeless. Ike had to know this was a likely outcome.

Quote of the Day – Free Speech

 

Everyone is in favor of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some people’s idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone else says anything back, that is an outrage. – Winston Churchill

Was Winston Churchill a time traveler? Because this quote is more certainly true today than it was during Churchill’s lifetime.  This week, no less than a Supreme Court Justice stated in oral arguments, “My biggest concern is that your view has the First Amendment hamstringing the government in significant ways.”

Not-So-Aimless Love

 

Billy Collins was born 83 years ago, on March 22, 1941.  I don’t know a lot about him (I’ve made avoidance of modern poets a hallmark of my literary experience), but he was beloved of a dear friend of mine and–on occasion–I can see why.

Above all else, Collins’s poetry was accessible.  Sometimes funny.  Heartwarming, and heartbreaking.  This one in particular (full poem at this link), last stanza:

After I carried the mouse by the tail
to a pile of leaves in the woods,
I found myself standing at the bathroom sink
gazing down affectionately at the soap.

Out of the Running for Parents of the Year

 

Spring break in Florida is not just for college students. The “only two beers” phrase came up in their arrest. A mom and dad, or mom’s fiancé, took a trip to Florida and were found passed out on the beach.

They didn’t know where their children were when deputies found them. The children were found safe at nearby hotel swimming pool.

Celebrating Manhood

 

I just re-read Shane, by Jack Schaefer. I started reading it to our 10-year-old son. He might still be a bit young for it, his attention soon turned to the Fellowship of the Ring (not that I mind that).  So I finished the story myself. 

When I first read it in sixth grade I remember being captivated by the action and as fascinated in the character of Shane as the novel’s narrator, young Bob. Now, 30 years later, I see deeper into the story. I see the interactions between all the adults. I see the love that binds Shane to the Starretts and they to him. Most of all, I see a story about manhood.

Papers, Please

 

I have to renew my Texas driver’s license this year.  The last few times I have been unable to renew by mail (as in the somewhat distant past) because of an endorsement for driving oversized fire trucks. That requires me to show up in person.

This time, however, I have to show proof of citizenship.  I recently sent off my passport for renewal, so instead of my passport I need a birth certificate.  My wife was suitably impressed when I pulled out certificates for both of us from the important documents folder I keep in the gun safe (in a fire resistant bag, in the fire resistant gun safe; nothing is truly fireproof).  It looks like my passport will show up before my May drivers license appointment, so the birth certificate goes back in the safe.

But here is the point:  a federal judge ruled that there is nothing wrong with illegals voting in local elections (District of Columbia,in this case).

In which the SS Tighty Whitey becomes a wreck and strands Gilligan and company on an island with a lot of vines and bamboo. Meanwhile in the news…. one of these days, Alice… to the moon! (Or at least to The Diner.)