The greatest seductress is the allure of power: “If only I had the power,” we think, “then I could do such good things!” I see it all around me, all the time. This instinct is deeply corrupting, especially in the realm of political power.

This is the temptation central to the Lord of the Rings – the One Ring is so powerful and seductive that every strong and good person, from the elves to Gandalf to Boromir, is cognizant of their instinctive lust for power, and the ways in which they could justify acquiring power for The Good. And how that power would, in the end, make them no better than Sauron himself.

This is the shocking part of the Boeing Starliner scandals that hasn’t gotten any media attention: When docking at the ISS, NASA greenlit both approach and docking to the space station even though the Starliner’s thrusters had failed—and there was insufficient redundancy to guarantee a safe docking…

Ren Gill is a hip-hop/rap artist who is unusual in that he is also a classically trained musician who plays guitar, bass guitar, and piano.  In my view, he’s also a genius.  If you know his work, I suspect that you likely agree with my assessment.  If not, allow me to explain.

Ren was born and raised in Wales.  He became obsessed with music when his Dad gave him a guitar at the age of 10.  His music education and career were repeatedly interrupted by medical problems.  He spent much of his 20s in bed, feeling hopeless and miserable, which he describes as a tortuous experience that left him with PTSD.  He was later diagnosed with Lyme disease, which he says continues to plague him in the form of autoimmune problems, digestive problems, and crippling emotional problems.  Another significant setback was the suicide of a close friend, which affected him deeply.  Ren continues to struggle with his health and is currently in Mexico receiving experimental treatments.  

Listening to the lyrics of his music, I think he’s a smoking genius.  Just out of sight brilliant.  He also had emotional problems, even in his youth.  He heard voices in his head throughout his childhood.  He says that even at the time, he didn’t understand how these voices came from within him, but he seemed to have no input in what they said.  And everything they said was negative and critical.  He would sometimes scream back at the voices, in his head.  In addition to these auditory hallucinations, he’s had occasional visual hallucinations.  So Lyme disease may not have helped, and his friend’s suicide may not have helped, but he’s clearly had emotional problems for most of his life.  Which is tragic.  But he has used his struggles as inspiration for some remarkable music.

There are two ways.  Congress actually delegated this power to raise tariffs to the president in an emergency.  Congress could take it back.  Of course Trump could veto any such legislation.  But a vote of 2/3s of each house of Congress could override that veto.

Some Republicans are starting to squeal, so maybe that’s not all that unreasonable a possibility.

I’ve been pondering this essay from Freya India in First Things. Ms. India is an influential voice regarding the experience and circumstances of young women, and she has recently, like a growing number of other writers/thinkers/public intellectuals, drifted toward and into Christianity. She is thoughtful, insightful, and sometimes even quite shrewd in her assessment of culture. Her Substack offers valuable insights into what is going on in the world of young women. Here’s a snippet from her recent piece in First Things:

I sat at a conference recently listening to an older man lecture about my generation’s neglect of our “moral duty” to have children. Rows of suited men nodded along. I kept thinking about the many young women I know who just don’t believe anyone will stick around, who are terrified to start families because theirs fell apart. Who is this meant to persuade? The people the message is supposedly for aren’t even in the room. Those who actually need help will not be reached by theological lectures on marriage or family. What they need right now is someone to give expression to the wound of growing up between two homes, someone who dares to talk about the pain.

For many years, I was intrigued with the tragedies of the Jewish people. My obsession began in grade school, when I heard stories and read books about the Holocaust: the camps, the torture, the medical experiments, the transport trains. Once I entered college, and afterward, my preoccupation with stories continued and intensified after studying in Israel for one year (1967-1968), between the Israeli wars. I rode on the buses listening to the reports that military jets had returned safely. While I was there, there were bombings and ongoing military action. And on my way home from Israel, I visited Dachau, one of the concentration camps—an unbelievable visit. All of these experiences have been central to who I have become as a woman, a Jew and a human being.

But there was one question that I could never answer for myself. Since I didn’t take a scholarly approach to learning about these tragedies, what was my fascination about? Why was I called to watch movies about the Holocaust? About the Warsaw ghetto? About Treblinka? About Auschwitz? What motivated me to read Elie Wiesel’s Night, or Yaffa Eliach’s, There Once Was a World, along with endless other books? Did I get some sort of sick satisfaction from learning about the suffering of others?

Six hundred thousand Wisconsin voters who pulled the lever for Trump in November 2024 abandoned the cause and stayed home on Tuesday.   They didn’t vote in the election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and that apathy handed the court to Progressives.  Trump won WI in 2024 with over 1.6 Million votes.  But only about 1 million voted for the Trump-supported candidate, Brad Schimel.  The liberal Dem won with 1.2 million votes.   Why is that important?   Because plans to redistrict WI will end up before that court, and with a liberal majority 2 House seats now held by Republicans will likely be gerrymandered out of existence.   Given the slim majority, yesterday’s vote could end the Trump agenda in 2026.

Something similar happened in Georgia a few years back.  The 2 current Democrat Georgia senators were also elected because 2020 Trump voters didn’t come out to vote in the special elections for the Senate.

What can a university English Department offer if it must reject not merely the entire canon of the greatest works in the English language, but any notion of excellence or traditional understanding of art?  If everything must be part and parcel of neo-Marxist drivel and anti-Western cant, how does an English Department distinguish itself from Anthropology, Sociology, Philosophy or any other academics struggling to parrot the same sterile ideas in new, publishable forms?

The key appears to be an intentional obscurity, new wordings and an almost militant stylistic that dares the reader to comment on the emperor’s new ensemble under penalty of being called ignorant and bigoted.

I see lots of stories in the rightosphere telling us Democrats are in dire straits and committing electoral suicide by doubling down on unpopular positions. This seems at odds with the observation that the GOP House majority hangs by a thread and Democrats are currently winning off-year state and local elections.

If politics were about making sense, nobody would espouse communism nor vote for posturing loons and thieves.