There are many modern conveniences we take for granted. Near the top of that list is light. To be more precise, we take for granted artificial light, except when our lights go out. But light as a product illustrates the benefits of modern technology.

A story in Human Progress explains how “light has turned from something too precious to use into something everyone can afford.” It used to take 10 hours a day for six days to produce 1,000 lumen hours of light. To put that in perspective, that is equivalent of “one modern light bulb for just 54 minutes.”

When candles came along, this provided light for wealthier people but was prohibitively expensive for the common person. By the 18th century, candles made from the waxy substances in the head cavities of sperm whales were less time-consuming. But they were still expensive, not to mention terminal for the whales. George Washington even calculated the annual cost to him for the opportunity to have five hours of reading per night.

The light bulb changed everything. By 1900, 60 hours of work could provide 10 days of light. Twenty years later, 60 hours of work could pay for five months of light. Today, that same amount of work can produce 52 years of light.

“The amount of labor that once bought 54 minutes of light now buy 52 years of light. The cost has fallen by a factor of 500,000 and the quality of that light has transformed from unstable and risky to clean, safe, and controllable.”

Sadly, many in other parts of the world don’t have access to that light, which is even more reason for us not to take it for granted.

Political correctness has been around for decades. But Victor Davis Hanson wonders if it is often used to mask failures in business and government. We certainly have seen major institutions over the last two years go woke. The leaders spend a great deal of time sermonizing and virtual signaling perhaps to distract from their failures.

He calls that the “Bloomberg effect.” The city of New York has difficulty clearing snow from the streets. Perhaps that is why the mayor spent time lecturing us about global warming and the dangers of super-sized soft drinks.

The CEO of Delta Airlines lectures the state of Georgia about supposedly racist voting laws that require a valid ID to vote. This is the same type of ID necessary to board one of his planes. Hanson suggests the public try to call Delta’s consumer helplines to fix all the problems travelers have with his airline.

We’ve seen an epidemic of well-compensated professional (and Olympic) athletics lecture the country on it various sins of racism, sexism, and the usually affiliated -ism and -ologies.” But is there any connection between their wokeness and the public’s lack of interest in sports?

Universities are the bastion of woke ideology. But Hanson wonders, “Is the general knowledge of the college students superior to his counterpart of five, 10, or 20 years ago?” Did all those experimental course and majors produce better writers, speakers, thinkers, and scientists?

These are just three of a half dozen examples he uses to illustrate his point. His point “is not to berate our institutions, but to warn them.” Either this focus on wokeism is diminishing their product, or else they are using political correctness to mask their failures and incompetence.

The last bastion of common sense and traditional values has been the military. But we are hearing some disturbing comments from several US generals and others in the upper echelon of the military.

One of the guests on my radio program suggested that military leaders might not advance above the rank of lieutenant colonel unless they embraced the new woke mindset of the Pentagon. That may or may not be true, but it might explain why we are hearing military leadership talking in ways we have never heard before.

General Mark Milley is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and apparently believes our biggest enemy isn’t overseas but right here within the military. He promised to root out white supremacy from their ranks and wants to “understand white rage” by reading more about critical race theory.

The withdrawal from Afghanistan has been a disaster, even if the White House and some in the media try to put a positive face on it. Yet, on the day 13 service members died, what was a communication from the military? Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston sent out a tweet reminding Americans that “diversity is our strength.” This virtue signaling was the military’s effort to commemorate Women’s Equality Day.

By contrast, a Marine lieutenant colonel was relieved of his command for his video criticizing military leaders for the Afghanistan withdrawal. That would be some of the same top brass that constantly criticized former president Donald Trump for four years with impunity. General Michael Hayden compared Trump’s border facilities to Nazi death camps, and more recently the retired general retweeted a suggestion that unvaccinated Trump supporters should be put on planes back to Afghanistan.

These are a few very unfortunate examples of type of military leadership we have today.

Rod Dreher has been writing about the plight of Princeton professor Joshua Katz. He has been attacked by students, faculty, and administration over his public dissent of attempts to give additional benefits to Princeton faculty of color (additional salary, sabbatical semesters).

Dreher, as you may remember, is the author of the book, Live Not by Lies, that describes the similarity of Communist countries that attacked anyone who engaged in dissent from the totalitarian orthodoxy. That was what he called “hard totalitarianism.” Today, he argues, we have “soft totalitarianism” practiced on college campuses, by social media platforms, and by woke companies.

Professor Katz is a distinguished Classics professor with tenure. Therefore, it is harder for the university to cancel him. Instead, the university directs incoming freshmen to read about him on the university website, “in which Professor Katz is introduced to them as one of the most evil people on campus.”

The same week this article appeared, there were notable examples of people being cancelled. For example, Army General Michael Flynn was notified by Chase Bank they were going to cancel his credit cards because he posed a “possible reputational risk to our company.” Once that story hit the news, the company claimed their letter was a mistake.

Candace Owens received an email from a COVID testing facility refusing her service because of her politics. Of course, she could merely go to another clinic to get a COVID test. But we also know that you are NOT allowed to decline to bake a cake (Jack Phillips) or provide flowers (Barronelle Stutzman) for a same-sex wedding ceremony.

These are just a few examples of how “soft totalitarianism” is surfacing in nearly every part of American society.

Abortion is back in the news for a variety of reasons. This fall, the Supreme Court will hear the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization based on the Mississippi pro-life bill. Also, the Texas legislature passed a “heartbeat bill” that became law. And Nancy Pelosi announced that the US House of Representatives will vote on the “Women’s Health Protection Act” attempting to enshrine abortion law.

Many of us feel like we have been here before. In 1992, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Casey v. Planned Parenthood, but the court merely reaffirmed a modified version of the 1973 abortion decision of Roe v. Wade. In 2020, a Supreme Court appointed by two pro-life Republican presidents decided not to change the abortion law. Yet, there are some that believe this time might be different.

Charles Cooke makes the case that. “The problem is Roe. The problem has always been Roe. It is not this or that law; it is not this or that precedent; it is not this or that state or legislator or governor.” Why does he say that? “Because, legally, Roe has always been utter nonsense – and because, deep down, we all know it.”

Listen to two pro-choice legal scholars. John Hart Ely argued that the abortion decision was indefensible in every conceivable way that a Supreme Court decision could be indefensible. It was a “super-protected right” that “is not inferable from the language of the Constitution.” Harvard professor Laurence Tribe observed, “One of the most curious things about Roe is that, behind its own verbal smokescreen, the substantive judgment on which it rests is nowhere to be found.”

Over the next few months, we will be hearing about abortion laws and rulings. But we might want to pause and consider that the original abortion decision of Roe is really the problem.

If you look at some of the COVID numbers, you will find that the statistics defy the spin placed on it by politicians and the media. That’s the argument that Charles Cooke uses in his latest commentary. All you need to do it look at the chart linked to my commentary to see that any spin by Democrats or Republicans or media personalities is wrong.

His opening statement is also his conclusion. “Two presidents. Fifty states. One-hundred-and-ninety-five countries. A multitude of different approaches. And still, there’s no rhyme or reason to this pandemic.” If you look at the COVID death rate per 100,000 by state, you don’t find any pattern. The spin we get from politicians and the media would have you believe that blue states would all be bunched in one area of the chart and red states would be bunched in the other. That is not what you find.

Some liberal media commentators would have you believe that “red states are bad and blue states are good.” Another writer says the “north is good, and the south is bad.” Charles Cooke has an answer for all those comments.

“If it were, what could possibly account for the death-rate pairings of New York and Mississippi? Of Alabama and Connecticut? Of Michigan and Arkansas? Of Texas and Delaware? Of Idaho and Colorado?”

Or consider what is happening in Israel. I was supposed to be leading a tour to Israel. That’s not happening even though Israel has had heavily enforced lockdowns, mask mandates, and the most successful vaccination program anywhere. Yet the first country to fully vaccinate a majority of its citizens now has one of the world’s highest daily infection rates.

As I have said in previous commentaries, we need a bit more humility when making statements about the pandemic. And I might add, we should ignore all the spin which has been proven to be false.

A recent article based on a Herzog Foundation survey concluded that Christian schools vastly outperformed public schools. That shouldn’t be too surprising since students in Christian schools usually outperform students in public schools. But a closer look at the survey showed the results were measuring parental satisfaction rather than student performance.

We have had more than a year of lockdowns and online education. A month ago, I quoted from a report from McKinsey & Co. that discovered that the student shutdowns harmed the educational progress of students. Students were (on the average) four months behind in reading and five months behind in mathematics.

This latest survey found that parents in Christian schools were far more satisfied with their child’s education than parents of children in public schools. Four-in-five (80%) of parents of children in Christian schools were satisfied, while only a majority
(55%) of parents in public schools were satisfied with more than four in ten (41%) who were unsatisfied with the child’s education during COVID.

The survey found that during the pandemic, Christian school parents found it easier to manage their child’s time, communicate with teachers, manage their child’s assignments, and were better able to keep up their child’s morale than parents of children in public schools.

Christian school parents also reported their schools were open even as nearby public options were closed. More than a quarter (26%) of Christian schools never closed, while a mere 8 percent of public schools never closed.

Now that school is in session, we are hearing more and more about mask mandates and possible lockdowns. These recent surveys and reports are a sobering reminder of the negative impact the past school year has had on student performance and the benefits of Christian education to both students and parents.

Once several Democrats returned to the state legislature, Texas was able to pass an election reform bill. A recent commentary by Dr. Merrill Matthews lays out some facts about election fraud.

One problem is the deceptive way the media covers the issue. Reporters and TV anchors will say there is no evidence of “widespread voter fraud.” That’s not the issue. I have heard everyone from Russ Limbaugh to Barack Obama express doubt there is widespread voter fraud. Instead, critics of the voter laws are pointing to what could be considered targeted voter fraud.

Texas isn’t one of those states where voter fraud is considered rampant. Nevertheless, the Texas Attorney General’s office cites 534 cases of “successfully prosecuted election fraud offenses” since 2005. There are also 510 pending cases against 43 defendants and 386 currently active election fraud investigations.

Some of the more prominent cases involve government officials. He provides one example from Texas but also mentions another case out of Southern California. In that case, a city councilman and others were charged with obtaining fraudulent votes in a runoff election that was decided by one vote. In previous commentaries, I describe elections that were so tainted, the elections had to be run again.

The title of his commentary is “Voter Fraud is Real, Just Ask the Dead Voters.” He cites a case where a city council candidate committed massive election fraud that including registering a dead man to vote for him. The candidate was a Republican.

Dr. Matthews concludes by reminding us of the joke that “only dead people vote for Democrats.” In this case, “a dead man may have voted for a Republican.” Here’s a better slogan: “Make it easy to vote and hard to cheat.”