Random stuff I find interesting and you may not.
Raise your hand if someone close to you – friend, relative, co-worker – has been personally touched by divorce. Sadly, I’ve been able to raise my hand for all three at certain points of my life, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you can as well. Perhaps you’ve even been divorced yourself. The prevalence of … Read more
Every Mother’s Day, several enterprising young thought-leaders try to include plant moms and dog moms in the celebration. Thankfully, they’re roundly ridiculed for comparing their pets to human children, or their caretaking experience to the challenges of motherhood. The selfishness of many (although certainly not all) deliberately childless women flares up at the sight of … Read more
Actress, mother of two, and school activist Sophie Winkleman began her recent address on children at the 2025 Alliance for Responsible Citizenship Conference in London by describing a recent scene from a packed London bus. Standing over a young man and a young woman, both intent on their smartphones, Winkleman noticed that each was on … Read more
American schoolchildren learn about Hitler and, possibly, Stalin, but few know much about Mao. And yet, while Hitler and Stalin were deplorable, Mao murdered far more people than either of his European counterparts—and his tactics have made their way to the United States. Mao Zedong was born in a rural village in 1893, but he … Read more
When many Americans think of the 1960s, cute hippie girls and great rock music come to mind. What gets left out is the breakdown of American society: Between 1960 and 1970, the violent crime rate more than doubled and divorces skyrocketed. Here are just a few reasons that the 1960s deserve to be remembered as … Read more
The cold-blooded murder of hundreds of Israelis—men, women, children, and babies—by Hamas terrorists brought a universal outcry of shock and horror from the vast majority of Americans, whatever their politics. There were exceptions, of course. Across the country were scattered rallies for Palestine. At Harvard University, the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) and 30 other student … Read more
Local libraries have become a fierce battleground in the cultural revolution sweeping America. “Drag Queen Story Hour” and the promotion of pornographic materials in children and teens sections have prompted parents around the nation to push back—and some families to withdraw entirely. In fact, last week saw an entire state withdraw. The Montana State Library … Read more
In my younger years, my mother bought a recording of the musical South Pacific. We kids played it so often that we learned most of the songs by heart. This past week, one of the songs, “Cockeyed Optimist,” as sung by Mitzi Gaynor, kept popping into my head. Here are a few lines: “I have … Read more
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, John Adams and Teddy Roosevelt: What do these American Presidents have in common? They were all homeschooled. When we think about traditional education in America we tend to think of public schools, classrooms, and a one-size-fits-all curriculum designed to educate the masses quickly and efficiently. This type of education … Read more
An article about to be published in the Journal of Pediatrics is titled, “Decline in Independent Activity as a Cause of Decline in Children’s Mental Wellbeing: Summary of the Evidence.” The authors are three big names in child development: Anthropologist David Lancy, psychologist David Bjorklund and Peter Gray, a professor in the Dept. of Psychology … Read more
The US Department of Agriculture’s ReConnect program is busily repeating the mistakes of a century ago, for precisely the same politically motivated reasons. The 2022 Infrastructure and Investment and Jobs Act allocates $47.5 billion to fund broadband internet connectivity to the hinterland. The ReConnect program assures us that “e-connectivity for all rural Americans is a … Read more
This article’s title derives from a poem published 50 years ago by actor and film star Richard Harris. Written in free verse, and recorded and released as a record in the days when vinyl was king, Harris’s poem was a cry for peace in Northern Ireland, a land plagued by political and religious violence between … Read more
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has released the scores for this year’s reading and math evaluations. And it’s not flattering. The Nation’s Report Card revealed that math scores for fourth-graders fell five points since 2019, while those for eighth-graders tumbled eight points. This is the steepest decline since testing began over 30 years … Read more
Frequently, when parents bring up concerns about LGBTQ children’s books, libraries cite the fact that these institutions are taxpayer-funded, and therefore can’t censor out any one ideology. So let’s take them at their word and test this claim by asking your library to display books that support a traditional, binary view of gender along with … Read more
Over 40 years ago, “Lookin’ for Love” became a hit country song after appearing in the film Urban Cowboy. The song’s signature line is “I was lookin’ for love in all the wrong places.” Several times in the last few weeks, that honky-tonk tune has inexplicably come to mind, and I found myself substituting the … Read more
“What’s the matter?” I ask a student sitting on a cold cement bench in the courtyard of our school on a rainy March afternoon. He looks very distraught. “My uncle was just found overdosed on the sidewalk in front of our house,” he says. “Fentanyl?” I ask. When he responds in the affirmative, I tell … Read more