The Top 5 Plus (August 15)

1) “The Cultural Revolution Is in Full Swing: Our country’s ethos is being subverted by radicals seeking to transform it.” (Larry Sand, American Greatness)

From the article -- There are myriad examples of woke’s staying power in our nation’s schools, where far-left ethnic studies programs still prevail. In California, the adopted curriculum includes lessons on settler colonialism and the Third World Liberation Front and even uses Black Panther Party newspapers as primary sources. California law encourages districts to develop their own ethnic studies curricula, and many have gone beyond the state model. Some have incorporated materials on the “Land Back” movement, which rejects widely accepted notions of borders and citizenship. These are not fringe supplements, and this content is already in many classrooms.

The teachers’ unions are at the forefront of this fanatical trend. On May Day, the National Education Association issued a toolkit that is essentially an updated version of Marx and Engels’ Communist Manifesto.

As reported by Defending Education, the NEA toolkit contains typical leftist claptrap, including a laundry list of demands for a day of action that stresses “building the Society we ALL deserve.” The union’s agenda includes “stopping the billionaire takeover and rampant corruption within the Trump administration, taxing the rich, and eliminating ICE,” among other measures.

May Day is just one example of students being used as pawns by radicals. Defending Education maintains a “K-12 Student Walkout and Protest Tracker” that documents K-12 student walkouts and protests from 2022 to the present, all orchestrated by left-wing educators.

2) “Socialism And Bible Prophecy: Training Societies To Surrender Freedom To The State” (David Bowen, Harbinger’s Daily)

From the article -- Modern democratic socialists may not advocate Soviet-style communism or the abolition of all private property -- yet -- but many citizens seem to be more comfortable with government-provided healthcare, education, housing assistance, social programs, higher taxation of wealthy individuals, and greater regulation of private enterprise. There is a big difference between government having a legitimate role in society and government becoming the instrument on which society depends for nearly everything.

Scripture recognizes government as a legitimate institution. Romans 13 describes governing authorities as having responsibility for restraining evil. 1 Peter 2 instructs believers in regard to their relationship to governmental authority.

The danger comes when government moves from being the protector to becoming the controller of human life. When government becomes the source of our livelihood, healthcare, housing, education, money, identity, information, and ability to participate in commerce, it possesses extraordinary leverage over the individual.

3) “Making Policy: Marxist Rainbows and Mob Shock Troops” (Peter Huessy, Gatestone Institute)

From the article -- Ever since the time of Karl Marx, communists and their socialist brethren assumed that the envy of financial success would attract the proletariat to carry out a workers' revolution in the rich countries of the West. It turned out, however, that even the poor would like to be rich. In America, instead of locking up the wealthy or stealing their money, the poor tried to figure out how to get rich themselves. Given America's economic liberty, nearly every day, a typical American worker likely hears of some ordinary guy inventing some gizmo or figuring out how to sell millions of the same thing -- and meanwhile getting wealthy.

The ‘Democratic Socialists of America’ winning primaries and elections around the nation are almost entirely foreign-born immigrants or first-generation descendants of newcomers, some even originally illegal aliens. Note that the race, ethnicity and gender of all "people of color" are inherited characteristics: none has any connection to merit. Once proclaimed to be part of the oppressed, you are in that class forever, unable to escape.

Conversely, once described as part of the oppressor class — white and successful — you also can never exit it. You are stuck for eternity, unless you are an exempted billionaire such as George Soros or a multi-millionaire such as Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren or Representative Ro Khanna. They get a special dispensation.

4) “El-Sayed, the Democrats, AIPAC and the war on American Jews: The Michigan primary was a referendum on the Jewish presence in the public square. The consequences of normalizing his antisemitism will impact much more than the pro-Israel group.” (Jonathan S. Tobin, JNS)

From the article -- It would be difficult to underestimate the impact of Dr. Abdul El-Sayed on American politics. His victory in the Michigan Senate Democratic primary over Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) has inspired endless commentary and analysis about the sources of his personal appeal, the shortcomings of his opponent, the state of the electorate and the failures of pollsters to come even close to predicting the results. And it won’t be until we see how he fares against his Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, in the general election, that we will have a better idea of how most Americans—and not just Democratic primary voters—feel about his beliefs.

But there should be no mistaking one thing: Democrats have given a person whose most important issue was demonizing Jewish participation in American politics a narrow plurality. By rallying around him and unifying behind his candidacy, as the defeated party establishment has already done, they are normalizing a hateful position against a segment of citizenry. They are declaring that politics driven by traditional tropes of antisemitism and money is not merely debatable, but a stand they can all get behind if it means winning a majority in the U.S. Senate.

5) “The Unwelcome Return of Sentimental Socialism” (Christine Rosen, American Enterprise Institute)

From the article -- But one aspect of the DSA’s appeal has been too often overlooked, particularly by conservative critics: its appeal as a form of instant community for a generation that often lacks one. DSA supporters are a highly homogenous group: 85 percent of DSA members are white, and 80 percent of them have college degrees. But it turns out that one of the things this knowledge-class proletariat is seeking (besides the abolition of prisons and the end of landlords) is . . . friends?

Reporting from the recent DSA summit, the New York Times noted that “for many of its members, the DSA is both a political and a social home.” One DSA leader told the paper that “the DSA fills the same social function for him that the Catholic Church played for his parents when they were in their 30s.” Another young DSA leader echoed the sentiment: “Our generation is so alienated—when you go to a canvas [canvassing for a political campaign], it’s a huge social affair.”

The Times found similar positive social impacts during Zohran Mamdani’s run for New York City mayor last year, describing Mamdani campaign events (which included organized scavenger hunts, board game nights, singles meetups, and crafting sessions where devotees made beaded bracelets spelling out “Zohran for NYC”) as “a salve” for young people suffering from anxiety. “It’s honestly what I would prescribe for the loneliness epidemic,” one Mamdani supporter said.

Socialism as a cure for loneliness might seem farcical (the jokes write themselves: You’re never alone in a bread line! etc., etc.). But paired with the DSA’s youthful and ironically hip aesthetic, it’s no wonder it’s proved to be an intoxicating brew for a population of young people grown weary of both established political parties. During the DSA summit, at a nearby dive bar, DSA acolytes “punched their fists in the air” and “formed a sea of sweatshirts that read ‘Red Hot Socialist Summer’” while a nearby socialist merch table hawked copies of The Communist Manifesto (which sold out).

Other Important Articles from this Week

* “Witchcraft Courses Rapidly Expand Across University Campuses, Outnumbering Christianity 8 to 1 At Arizona State” (Decision Magazine via Harbinger’s Daily)

* “A 911 Call That Highlights Everything Wrong with the Abortion Drug Debate” (Suzanne Bowdey, Washington Stand)

* “Alarming study finds top chatbots more likely to repeat falsehoods from the left: ‘Truly astonishing’ -- Just Facts tested 100 questions on key political issues and found roughly half of all AI-provided sources were illegitimate.” (Kiera McDonald, Andrew Mark Miller, Fox News)

* “Tucker Carlson Is Playing a Dangerous Game” (Victor Davis Hanson, Daily Signal)

* “Jimmy Lai: Apostle for Freedom” (Jonathan Miltimore, Civitas Outlook)

The Top 5 Plus (August 8)

1) “If The West Won’t Defend Itself, Third World Hordes Will Destroy Us” (Nathan Stone, Federalist)

From the article -- The “Allahu Akbar!” screaming invaders — some 60,000 military-aged Moroccans with nothing but the clothes on their backs — were dumped into Ceuta, Spain to destroy it. The laxer ones did their part by turning the streets into toilets and the fountains into bathtubs (two ways of killing beauty fast). The friskier ones waged war against the city and its people. They set cars afire. They cracked open and looted homes and businesses...

Why is all this important? Because Ceuta is the latest reminder of what the stakes are. It’s not just about borders, or even sovereignty; it’s about civilization. “Civilization” gets thrown around a lot, and people have spilled good gallons of ink defining it. The simplest and truest definition is that civilization is the bedrock of who we are as a people.

Being part of a civilization means that the world is divided between “us”— we who see the world this way, we who believe this, and do things this way — and “them” — everyone else. Greeks are not Romans; Romans are not Frenchmen; and Frenchmen are not Americans.

You can lose a lot of things — influence, power, even territory — but if you can keep your civilization, you’re still in the game. It’s why the Jews are still a people (in the religious sense) and the Carthaginians are not. Lose that, and you lose yourself.

2) “The Current Status of American Schools -- As we head into the new school year, what follows is a brief assessment of the sorry state of public education in the U.S. and what parents can do about it.” (Larry Sand, American Greatness)

From the article -- Student skills are diminishing.  Recently, more than 1,800 math and science lecturers at the University of California signed an open letter outlining a distressing problem. First-year undergraduates, they say, are increasingly arriving without the basic skills needed to succeed. At U.C. Berkeley, they maintain that 20-30% of students taking an early calculus course face “severe preparation deficits.” The challenge has become so great, they add, that instructors are forced to reteach middle-school math.

On a similar note, a shocking report on the University of California San Diego campus finds that the number of first-year students entering with math skills below the high school level has increased nearly thirtyfold over five years, to almost one in eight.

Along with worries about undergraduate math skills, there are long-standing concerns about declining literacy levels. Lecturers warn that literature students cannot finish books.

These problems are widespread. At Harvard, some humanities and social-science professors say they feel compelled to shorten texts, according to a report released in October. Students are entering America’s most revered university with less experience reading complex prose and a reduced capacity for focus and sustainedattention andd are struggling with books they completed with ease just ten years ago.

Chronic absenteeism remains a major problem...In the 2024-25 school year, after recovering from the COVID-19 school shutdowns, the chronic absenteeism rate remained high at 23%.

3) “Misidentifying The Enemy: What Happens When a Nation Can No Longer Recognize Its Allies?” (Daniel Cohen, Harbinger’s Daily)

From the article -- Yet even as Iran demonstrated exactly who it is, much of the public debate shifted away from the regime responsible for the attack and toward Israel, America’s closest ally in the Middle East. Vice President J.D. Vance argued that Israeli influence helped derail negotiations with Iran, suggesting that voices in Israel preferred continued military action over diplomacy. That framing misses the larger point. The agreement did not collapse because Israel objected to it. It collapsed because Iran has repeatedly demonstrated that it uses negotiations to buy time while continuing to pursue its long-term objectives.

This is where discernment becomes indispensable. A nation that cannot correctly identify its adversaries will inevitably begin questioning its allies instead. History is filled with civilizations that spent more energy arguing among themselves than confronting the threats gathering outside their borders. The danger is not merely military. It is intellectual and moral. When a society begins treating warnings as manipulation and allies as liabilities, it loses the clarity necessary to make wise decisions.

Israel’s relationship with the United States has never been based on sentimentality. It rests on shared strategic interests, democratic values, intelligence cooperation, and a common recognition of the dangers posed by radical Islamic terrorism. Those realities should not disappear simply because political narratives become more convenient than geopolitical facts.

4) “What the Fauci Diaries Reveal About America’s COVID Response: The hearings have revived debate over lockdowns, government power, scientific authority, and who should be held accountable.” (Steve Apfel, American Spectator)

From the article -- Fauci’s undoing was to forget that discretion is the better part of valor. Senators, keen to trap him into perjury, desired to nix Biden’s autopen pardon. It’s a crying shame that getting rich while massive misery stalked the land is not a felony. Ditto for sending love notes to himself and logging media stories that really did make him the most famous and talked about celebrity on earth.

Yes Fauci, the vainest of men, disabled a whole generation of school-goers by locking schools. Yes, he lied that Covid came from bats in a wet market rather than a leak from a lab. Yes, he was among the first shutdown adherents. Yes he knew as early as February 2020 that the fatality rate was pretty low...Yes, he deleted emails. Yes, lies tripped off his garrulous tongue. Yes, he approved aborted baby parts used in mice research. Yes and more yeses.

Even so, Governors Gavin Newsome and Andrew Cuomo outdid Fauci by a long chalk in the havoc they sowed, the preventable deaths they caused, and in the business collapse they cold-heartedly supervised. They too should be grilled by Senators.

Though we spare a thought for the commoners, in their hundreds of millions, they weren’t exactly blameless. The greater part, poltroons who caved to PC, were enamoured with a limpid rule of thumb guaranteeing the apocalypse that was Covid...

Related articles: “Fauci Tyrannus: To restore public trust, we must have accountability.” (Jacob Howland, American Mind)...“COVID-19: Fauci's Holocaust” (Kevin Downey Jr., PJ Media)...“Collins and Fauci and the GOP’s Missed Opportunity” (Chuck Donovan, Washington Stand)

5) “The Typhus Rats of Los Angeles: A medieval disease is rocking the vermin-ridden county.” (Christopher F. Rufo, Ryan Thorpe, City Journal)

From the article -- Rats, and the fleas that live on them, can be carriers of deadly diseases—including, most notably, the plague, which, in bubonic form, killed tens of millions of people and laid waste to cities in the Middle Ages. In L.A., however, the main concern is a different medieval disease: typhus.

Since 2009, the number of flea-borne typhus cases in L.A. has increased by a staggering 2,300 percent. Last year, the county recorded more cases than at any point in its history. Some patients have died. Behind the scenes, the authorities responsible for protecting the public admit that they lack the resources they need to get the situation under control.

The rats, meantime, spread disease in predictable ways. They feed on trash, fleas feed on those rats, and the infected fleas bite people, who in turn suffer anything from a mild illness treatable with antibiotics to a sickness that ends in death.

This City Journal investigation—based on interviews with leading rodent experts, on-the-ground reporting, and a review of hundreds of pages of documents obtained via public-records requests—reveals that Los Angeles County has allowed a disease once associated with the Middle Ages to terrorize a major metropolis.

Other Excellent Reads from this Week

* “Abortion Drugs In US Drinking Water: Another Horrifying Consequence Of The Culture Of Death” (Ken Ham, Harbinger’s Daily)

* “Left-Wing Violence Is Being Normalized: Liberal elites created a permission structure for extremism.” (James B. Meigs, (WSJ Free Expression)

* “The Original American Superhero: Young Washington tells an underdog tale for the ages.” (Jack Hunter, Modern Age)

* “Marijuana Overtakes Cigarettes, Alcohol as Most Used Daily Drug in U.S.” (Dan Hart, Washington Stand)

* “The Democrats are a menace to America’s Jews -- Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan’s Democratic primary is an ominous sign.” (Joel Catkin, spiked!)

“Nothing Stays in the Closet Nowadays”

Remember when Hollywood executives sought to cover up the scandalous activity of their stars in order to avoid severe damage to box office receipts?

Today, anything goes. In fact, the executives now holding those high Hollywood posts actually go out of their way to parade, publicize, and promote the most brazen immorality of the folks they have under contract. They have concluded (rightly so, obviously) that scandal actually helps one’s career, so vastly different are the moral standards of the public from days gone by. 

Forget Dorian Gray. Nothing stays in the closet nowadays.

Meanwhile, American Christians continue to drink freely from these polluted waters, desiring hipness over holiness, entertainment over enlightenment, and mindless conformity over the counter-culture lifestyle that Jesus commanded.

It’s a very sad state of affairs.

As an ancient seer put it, “Like a trampled spring and a polluted well is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked.” (Proverbs 25:26, NASB)

The Top 5 Plus (August 1)

You may find of interest 3 very brief Vital Signs Blog posts that I posted earlier this week. You'll find them further down the Vital Signs Blog entries. But for now, here's this week's Top 5 Plus.

1) “Mainstream Education Systems Have Become Modern Marxist Discipleship Centers” (Patricia Engler, Harbinger’s Daily)

From the article -- For years, public education systems have been discipling young people to believe a destructive false gospel. This reality helps explain why youth we know and love may seem to be learning less about reading, math, and science than about activism, sexuality, and liberal ideology. Here’s a quick breakdown of what’s going on and what we can do about it.

Through an approach known as “critical pedagogy,” schools are teaching students to think and act like modern Marxists. This approach has been pervading mainstream education, as a 2015 article in the Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies reveals:

"After several decades of existing on the educational fringe, it is safe to say that critical pedagogy has entered the mainstream in the United States. . . . Academic conferences such as the American Educational Research Association regularly feature hundreds of sessions related to critical pedagogy and there are special interest groups solely devoted to scholarship in the field. Critical pedagogy and its left-centrist derivative social justice is also applied to previously untouched contexts, from teaching math to physical education. Social justice has even been incorporated into business and sustainability degree programs, including the concept of servant leadership."

In other words, schools are teaching students to view every subject through a Marxist lens...Put differently, the purpose is to raise up modern communists.

2) “John Adams made a terrifying prediction. America is close to proving him correct: The national debt is pushing close to $40 trillion with no simple options to fix it.” (Les Rubin, Fox News)

From the article -- "Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide." John Adams, our second president, wrote those words more than two centuries ago, yet they are relevant today. Adams understood that free societies are not destroyed only by foreign enemies. They can also be weakened from within through complacency, indifference and the gradual abandonment of the principles that made them successful.

America's Founders spent years studying history and learning from the greatest political, economic and philosophical thinkers who came before them. They deliberately created a constitutional republic built upon limited government, fiscal responsibility, individual liberty and the protection of the unalienable rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

That framework produced the most prosperous and powerful nation the world has ever known. For nearly 250 years, it has survived wars, economic crises, political upheaval and countless challenges because it rested on principles that valued freedom and restrained government.

3) “Socialism and Islam: A tale of two psychoses -- A dark night is descending over America.” (Eric Utter, American Thinker)

From the article -- The times, they are a-changin’. Rapidly. And not in a good way. Two separate -- and growing -- psychoses are converging in a perfect highly imperfect storm of authoritarianism to existentially threaten the land of the formerly free and brave.

To wit: In 2000, only 28% of Democrats identified as “liberal.” Today, that figure has nearly doubled. The number who claim to be very liberal has also risen dramatically. In fact, a recent survey shows that 1 in 3 Democrats now proudly consider themselves to be Democratic-Socialists. The party has been fundamentally transformed — and quickly. DSA candidates are now running in elections across the fruited plain … and winning. This would have been unthinkable just a couple of decades ago.

Simultaneously, the number of Muslims in the U.S. has also dramatically increased, from perhaps as low as 1.1 million in 2000, to perhaps as many as 4.5 million today. That would be greater than a 400% increase. In one generation.

4) “With No Opposition, Canada Has Become The Most Radically Progressive Nation In The World” (Breanna Claussen, Harbinger’s Daily)

From the article -- If the two examples above were not enough, Canada passed the “Online News Act” in 2023, which resulted in Canadians being blocked from viewing news reports from outside the country on Meta platforms. This, coupled with the Liberal government’s suppression of Conservative news groups within the country, should set off alarm bells, harkening back to regimes throughout history that sought to control the information accessible to their citizenry. Today, Canada is the only nation in a total and permanent “blackout” from foreign news sources through Meta.

Of all the Western nations, Canada stands out in the worst possible way. Within the last decade, the nation has startled the world by arresting pastors, freezing bank accounts of dissenting voices, suppressing press freedom, killing its most vulnerable, and taking direct aim at religious liberty. Even members of the highly progressive European Union have pushed back against what they view as a “dictatorship” steadily emerging in the country.

Despite the astonishing state of affairs in Canada, it is even more shocking to hear the views of many average Canadians, who routinely express delight that their politics are not as “messy” as those in the United States. By making this claim, they fail to recognize that the so-called “messiness” stems from having individuals willing to push back and defend their freedoms and morality—something which is present in varying degrees in all other Western nations.

When all of your politicians are careening down the same treacherous path, there is no stopping the train. 

5) “The Left's Rotating Loyalty Oath: The left's articles of faith keep expiring because they were never sincere in the first place.” (John Tillman, The Political Vise)

From the article -- A little more than half a decade later, climate has nearly disappeared from the left’s top concerns. Last year, researchers at Yale asked American voters to rank twenty-five issues by how much they mattered to their midterm vote. Global warming came in twenty-fourth. Only 1% of respondents named it as their most important issue. In September 2025, the Searchlight Institute, a think tank aligned with Democratic priorities, advised progressive politicians to stop using the term “climate change” altogether. The weather hasn’t changed, nor has the left succeeded in its aim of getting everyone to turn vegan and ride public transit. What has happened is that the environment has ceased to be what animates those who turn the levers of the Political Vise.

What’s the latest test? Israel. This year, from Maine to California, primary season has witnessed vicious Democratic infighting over American aid to the Middle East’s only democracy. And to that party’s most dedicated activists, one name has become dirtier than Blackwater or Big Oil: AIPAC.

I am not here to weigh in on foreign policy. The government of Israel may or may not be above reproach. What strikes me here is less Israel itself than the fact that until very recently, other issues commanded far more attention on the American left. Israel, like climate change and the Iraq War before it, has suddenly become the one political issue about which reasonable progressives (perhaps an oxymoron) are not allowed to disagree. And so for the left, this summer’s litmus test is denouncing AIPAC, a venerable organization devoted to drumming up support for our embattled ally.

Other Excellent Articles from the Week

* “The Damage Caused By Fauci’s Lies Is Incalculable—And The American People Deserve Answers” (Mike Pompeo, Harbinger’s Daily)

* “Turkish F-35 Stealth Fighter Jets: A Grave Threat to Greece, Israel, the West” (Nils A. Haug, Gatestone Institute) 

* “AI Will Save the U.S. Economy: The pace of innovation is unlike anything we’ve ever seen.” (Jordan Schachtel, American Greatness)

* “The Misplaced Fixation with Israel’s ‘Image’ -- The practical problems with spinning the Jewish state.” (Eric Dezenhall, American Greatness)

* “3 Lessons from Secretary Rubio’s Speech about Leftist Terrorism” (Kathy Athearn, Washington Stand)

Real Religion Is Both Other-Worldly AND Historical

“The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.” (Acts 1:1-3, New American Standard Bible)

I love this beginning of Luke’s Book of the Acts of the Apostles, emphasizing as it does Christianity’s grounding in real-time, verifiable history. This is seen most clearly in Luke’s care as a historian, in the trustworthiness of his account to an inquiring friend, and in how he begins his letter by reference to the evidential nature of Jesus’ physical resurrection as shown to so many witnesses and in so many “convincing” ways, including His physical presence, other miracles, and the divine wisdom of His teaching.

Ours is a religion of divine, other-worldly origin, to be sure, but God was pleased to unfold His revelation (and the awesome plan of salvation through the atoning sacrifice of Christ for our sins) in human history. That, in itself, is terrific grace.

By the way, this painting of Luke the physician, historian, and missionary was painted by Giorgio Vasari (1570-1571)

The Trumpets Sound!

Here is a stirring passage from John Bunyan’s classic, The Pilgrim's Progress. It comes from Part Two of that classic allegory and describes what occurs after Mr. Valiant-for-Truth is summoned to the Celestial Gate by the Master. Mr. Valiant-for-Truth makes his will, as it were, then speaks his parting words and departs for glory.

“Then said Mr. Valiant-for-Truth, ‘I am going to my Father’s and though with great difficulty I am got hither, yet now I do not repent me of all the trouble I have been at to arrive where I am. My sword I give to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my courage and skill to him that can get it. My marks and scars I carry with me, to be a witness for me that I have fought His battles Who now will be my rewarder.’

When the day that he must go hence was come, many accompanied him to the riverside, into which as he went, he said, ‘Death, where is thy sting?’ And as he went down deeper, he said, ‘Grave, where is thy victory?’

So he passed over, and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side.”

By the way, the illustration of Mr. Valiant-for Truth comes from an 1894 edition. The figure was designed by Frederick Barnard and the woodcut engraved for the edition by Dalziel Borthers.

Summer Too Hot for You? Here's Sixteen Very Cool Songs to Help You Out.

This list of 16 songs was, by the way, originally compiled back in 2012. But it probably wouldn't be any different if I made made it today. So, here you go...

1) “All Summer Long” -- The Beach Boys. (But, of course, you could toss in here a dozen others from these guys that could also make the list: “I Get Around.” “Surfin’ U.S.A.” “Surfer Girl.” And so on. They are certainly pop music’s version of The Boys of Summer.)

2) “Summer Nights” -- Marianne Faithfull (Moody, romantic. It’s been a favorite ever since the days of my misspent youth.)

3) “Our Last Summer” -- Abba (Like many of Abba’s later songs, this is great music…but music with a message of particular relevance to my generation.)

4) “Theme from ‘A Summer Place’” -- Percy Faith Orchestra (Beautiful music by which to fall in love. And, as I can also attest, by which to stay in love!) (Note also that the Lettermen have an excellent version of this song.)

5) “See You In September” -- The Happenings (Tuneful, fun but also tender, especially for those who remember the pain of summer partings.)

6) “A Summer Song” -- Chad & Jeremy (A Top Ten hit from 1964. Mellow harmony. Meaningful lyrics. A very pretty number.)

7) “Under the Boardwalk” -- The Drifters (Classic New York soul from one of the greatest vocal groups of the early rock era.)

8) “Summer Rain” -- Johnny Rivers (A dreamy 1967 song that was played on hi-fi sets, 8-track tape machines, and late night FM radio programs throughout the flower power years.)

9) “One Summer Night” -- The Danleers (No doubt about it, this is doo-wop magic. The Diamonds had a nice recording of this too.)

10) “Sealed With a Kiss” -- Brian Hyland (A little saccharine perhaps but this 1962 song effectively captures the feeling of a temporary separation that at least one of the parties suspects might end up being more than temporary.)

11) “V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N” -- Connie Francis (Fun and funky. Connie at her playful best.)

12) “Here Comes Summer” -- Jerry Keller (Could it be that I’ve loved this song for over 65 years? Yep. I first heard it played over Denver's KIMN in 1959.)

13) “Wonderful Summer” -- Robin Ward (A one-hit wonder from a pretty brunette who was raised in Nebraska. And though she didn't have any other radio hits, you can hear her voice in the TV theme songs of Batman, The Partridge Family and several others. Also in hundreds of commercials like those touting Rice-a-Roni.)

14) “Summer in the City” -- Lovin' Spoonful (A harder-edged song that any of the others in this list but still a favorite. I hear this song and...presto...I'm back pumping gas at Banner Tire on West Evans in south Denver.)

15) “Hot Fun in the Summertime” -- Sly & the Family Stone (Did I say “funky” to describe an earlier song. Forget it. THIS is funky.)

16) “Summertime, Summertime” -- The Jamies (Sure, it’s almost a nonsense song but with such a catchy chorus that I had to put it in the mix. And who can't help like a song that contains these lyrics: “Well, I'm so happy that I could flip. Oh, how I'd love to take a trip. I’m sorry teacher but zip your lip. Because it's summertime.”)

If you don't remember these songs (or if you’ve never heard them at all), you can find most of them on You Tube. Have fun. And stay cool, kids!

A Major Summer Buzz? The Odyssey.

There’s an awful lot of buzz this summer over The Odyssey. But alas, the attention is not on Homer’s epic poem, one of the genuine wonders of ancient literature. Oh no, moderns never bother with originals. Their egos insist on the new, the novel, and selected revisions of important works that cover their own ignorance and flatter their own ideological and fashion preferences. That's why the buzz going round is not about Homer’s flawed yet noble hero, but rather on Christopher Nolan’s big-budget and extremely splashy (pun intended) movie.

Of course, reading Homer’s classic is itself far too difficult for most people nowadays. Good grief, don’t imagine I’m going to really read a book! Give me instead an awesome flick with blaring sound, cinematic wizardry, and 2026 progressivism. And then, after comfortably being ensconced in a theater for a mere 90 minutes, I can pride myself on not only knowing full well The Odyssey; I can even applaud my own experience of the work as being more authentic, more profound, and more impressive to my peers than all those squares before me that only read a boring book.

An exaggeration? Hardly. But the most relevant thing to note is that whatever the understanding of The Odyssey is for this summer’s moviegoers, it will be a far, far cry from the real thing, the classic poetic work of Homer.

Now you’re right in guessing that I have not seen the film. I was never tempted to. I rarely go to the movies and I almost never watch a movie version of a book. But in the case of Christopher Nolan’s movie, I had more reasons than usual to miss the thing. Among those reasons were Nolan’s oh-so-hip bow to the woke fads so worshiped by the left today: casting a skinny transgender actor as a fierce Greek warrior; casting a Kenya-born actress as Helen of Troy; and, most damning of all, portraying Odysseus as a weak, feminine, vacillating, drug-addled, dishonorable man -- all of which Homer’s Odysseus was not.

Therefore...because I believe Homer’s original poem to be a far more worthy artistic work than the movie which is getting all the attention, I wanted to pass along 2 suggestions of how to respond to this summer's fuss. 

Number One -- dare to read the original. Claire and I are doing so right now. We are, in fact, adding to our understanding, pleasure, and inspiration by also reading The Iliad, Homer’s first work. We are reading them in Robert Fagles’ translations, but any you find available can open the doors to rich adventures. And Number Two -- we are adding to our reading of these exciting texts the free online lectures offered by Hillsdale College regarding The Odyssey. As some of you know, Claire and I have enjoyed many of Hillsdale’s online courses in recent years, but these lectures from literature professor Dr. Benedict Whalen have quickly become among our most delightful. 

Indeed, I’ll go so far as suggesting to those of you who feel a moderate interest in The Odyssey but do not figure that you’d not go so far as to tackle the book, to go ahead and at least enjoy these lectures. You'll find them very interesting...and they just might lead you to the book itself. 

The Top 5 Plus (July 25)

1) “On the Abortion Pill, Follow the Evidence” (Tony Perkins, Washington Stand)

From the article -- Following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in 2022, the Biden administration sought to undermine the decision by expanding access to chemical abortion. It relaxed the FDA’s Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS), removing the long-standing requirement for in-person dispensing and medical oversight.

But another obstacle remained: the Comstock Act, an 1873 federal law prohibiting the use of our mail system to send articles intended for abortion. Rather than enforce that law, the Biden Justice Department issued an opinion concluding that abortion drugs could be mailed unless the sender specifically intended an illegal abortion. In effect, the government said, “Presume lawful use and ask no questions.”

That DOJ opinion remains in effect today under the Trump administration. Unlike the FDA’s REMS policy, which is being challenged in court, the Justice Department can withdraw and replace that opinion without waiting for Congress or the courts.

Related articles: “Blanche Hearing Blows Holes in Trump’s Pro-Life Credibility” (Suzanne Bowdey, Washington Stand)

2) “A Winning Political Strategy? JD Vance Opts To Appease Dangerous Anti-Israel Conspiracies” (Breanna Claussen, Harbinger’s Daily)

From the article -- As antisemitism ingrains itself deeper into the Democrat Party, and many young Republicans follow behind, taken captive by the conspiracies of Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and others, recent statements by Vice President JD Vance have shown that he is more than willing to feed into the trend.

On an episode this week of the “Joe Rogan Experience,” Vance seemed eager to brand himself as the “reasonable moderate” voice, repeatedly calling Israel an ally while simultaneously propping up outlandish theories directed against the Jewish State.

Related article: “The Vance Variable: Veep is the partisan divide on Israel -- In a week when the majority of House Democrats abandoned the Jewish state, the vice president served as a reminder that the GOP's lockstep pro-Israel stand is not set in stone.” (Jonathan Tobin, Jewish World Review)

3) “‘Art’ and the Pathology of our Age: Modern art stopped challenging convention long ago. Now it challenges only common sense and rewards the people willing to applaud the loudest absurdities.” (Roger Kimball, American Greatness)

From the article -- What is it about the word “art”? Pronounce it, and the IQ of susceptible folk is instantly halved. (I’ve seen cases where it is diminished by 87 percent.) Normally sensible people who do not, as a rule, appreciate being made fools of stand idly by as someone tells them that a video of some charlatan climbing naked up a scaffolding while applying Vaseline to sensitive parts of his body is “the most important American artist of his generation.”

Instead of throwing something soft and rotting at such mountebanks, they nod solemnly and reach for their wallets. They are only too eager, when a stiffy arrives from the Museum of Modern Art or some similar establishment, to don the soup and fish and buzz round to the super-exclusive evening event where scores of beautiful people line up to sip the shampoo (David Niven’s word for champagne) and admire a tank full of formaldehyde and a dead tiger shark.

What is it about the word “art” that endows it with this mind- and character-wrecking property? Why does it induce incontinent gibbering, not to mention mind-boggling extravagance, among normally hard-headed souls?

4) “NEA Same Ol’ Same Ol’ -- The latest annual National Education Association convention, as usual, focused on the union’s radical political and social agenda.” (Larry Sand, American Greatness)

 From the article -- Then, in her opening talk, Moss said that teachers must “organize, organize, organize.” Notably, she went off on the new national tax-credit scholarship program, which is set to go into effect next year. She attacked the program, incoherently spouting, “First of all, it’s important our members understand what’s happening. I don’t know if they know there is an intentional plan to destroy public education—and if public education is destroyed, then we have a population whose critical thinking skills are diminished, and it’s easier for an authoritarian government to have influence.” Moss also said that the NEA “can be and must be the most powerful force in America.”

On another note about leadership, Cecily Myart-Cruz, the president of United Teachers Los Angeles, was elected by her union colleagues to serve on the organization’s highest governing body, the NEA Executive Committee.

This is the union boss who, when asked about the learning loss students incurred during the COVID-19 shutdown, replied, “There is no such thing as learning loss. Our kids didn’t lose anything. It’s OK that our babies may not have learned all their timetables. They learned resilience. They learned survival. They learned critical-thinking skills. They know the difference between a riot and a protest. They know the words insurrection and coup.” She even bizarrely suggested that “learning loss” is a fake crisis marketed by “shadowy purveyors of clinical and classroom assessments.”

5) “Zero Sympathy for the Democrats’ Political Death March: After years of empowering the fringe, Democrat insiders are discovering that the monsters they cultivated are now consuming them.” (Scott McKay, American Spectator)

From the article -- Primary season is just about over in advance of the 2026 midterms, and it looks like the old-time party faithful on the Democrat side are awfully disappointed with how things sit.

I could show you lots of other examples of the old-school Democrats coming out of the woodwork to sound the alarm about the Democratic Socialists of America turning out enough radicals to win low-turnout party primaries around the country — and tubing the chances of that massive wave election they’ve all but guaranteed themselves.

Other Provocative Articles from the Week

* “The Church of England has betrayed British Jews – again. General Synod has given oxygen to vile lies about Israel.” (Limor Simhony Philpott, spiked!)

* “Fraud: More Than We Can Imagine?” (John Hinderaker, Power Line)

* “Feds Recover Less Than 1% of $400 Billion+ in COVID Relief Funds Lost to Fraudsters” (Mark Tapscott, Washington Stand)

* "Where is Muslim-American Assimilation Headed? A new poll shows a strong patriotic streak -- but also reason to worry." (Zainab Al-Suwaij, City Journal)

* "America’s Top Companies? -- This survey of the nation’s greatest companies is both nonsensical and evidence of the problems that plague our mainstream media." (Stephen Soukup, American Greatness)