I recently published a relevant article about the political culture that produced Kevin MCarthy. As I said in my article, “Kevin learned from The Lords of Bakersfield how to weaponize faith and family values to turn men into puppets.” The article was so long, I left out a couple dozen more “well-known” politicians also hiding in the Lords’ closet. These closeted men are the Lord’s secret weapons – magic bullets that can be counted on to vote as they are told.

That sentence set me back. I think the opposite is true. In a rising tide, the only people who do not rise are those with anchors chained to their feet. If the tide keeps rising, those chained to anchors must use every ounce of energy they have to keep their faces above the water line, just so they can breathe.

A couple days ago, the NYTimes offered a good example of assimilation… Here’s What It’s Like to Take the Classic Learning Test Florida’s public university system is expected to approve the Classic Learning Test for college admissions. An alternative to the SAT or ACT it is known for its emphasis on the Western canon and Christian thought. Here’s a mini-quiz, taken from a sample test, with one reading passage and 10 questions.

If that was your way of saying you were ahead of me, you would be right. If that was meant as insult, you’ve successfully put me in my place, beneath you. Either way, your mind is blowing up. What we think, feel, know and believe are rarely aligned, and often contradictory. Reaching agreement within ourselves requires skills very few of us possess. I have discounted belief long enough to regret it. Such is the case with a belief in a just world presented in this article. It never occurred to me that people might actually believe this country was just. If that is true, that explains injustice far better than thought, feeling or knowledge ever has – or could.

Obviously, it is impossible for me to know if you contributed to the situation – or not. That said, what you are describing was once so common it was considered a normal, even expected response to divorce. Unfortunately, this form of “punishment” was a powerfully effective way for “society” to…

Perhaps a parent's perspective would be of value. As a parent, the historical ignorance I encountered among K-12 teachers was shocking. Unfortunately, teachers teach what they’ve been taught– and that is the root of the problem. White supremacy is rooted in ignorance, and yet, white supremacist history is the only…

I am looking through a different lens (not disagreeing). During the late 1800s and 1900s American politicians and the "upper-class” used anti-immigration rhetoric for two purposes. The first was social engineering: anti-immigration rhetoric forced immigrants to assimilate as fast as possible. Under pressure to protect their families from beatings, hunger…

I don’t want to muddy the waters here, but damn, I hadn’t heard anything about DeSantis’ overhauling Florida’s alimony laws. An old friend of mine was married at 18 and divorced at 33. Since then, he has been sending his ex-wife alimony checks every month. Today, Dexlan is 77 years…

This is the sharpest, soundest, most accurate political analysis I've run across yet.