Shining the Light Through Letters: A Few Examples

Here are a few sample letters from yesterday’s 2 Vital Signs letter-writing parties...

Dear President Trump, 

I want to commend you for your tireless work on behalf of the American people in the areas of the economy, defense, immigration, law and order, and in many other ways. We so appreciate that you endure the continuous “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” from so many on the left. Thank you and keep fighting. You are prayed for daily.

You have done more for the pro-life movement than any president -- thank you. However, I do know you “signaled” compromise on the Hyde amendment and I needed to write with a strong encouragement for you to NOT concede anything to the Democrats on this critical matter. In addition, I urge you to push HHS Secretary Kennedy to ban the horrendously dangerous abortion pills. These are terrible for unborn babies, of course, but they also can be downright deadly for moms. Mr. President, you can cement your place as the “great defender of the defenseless” by pursuing these things with greater zeal. Thank you.

Again, we pray for you daily that you would seek God, hear His voice, and obey Him with courage, wisdom, and strategy. 

With great appreciation and respect, John Malek

Dear Congressman Flood,

I’m asking you to do all you can to support the House version of Senator Josh Hawley’s Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act. Mifepristone and misoprostol are both highly dangerous to women (though the truths about this has been carefully and maliciously hidden). At the very least, these drugs need to be stripped of their protection from American lawsuits from the harms (including death) they are causing to women.

Perly Schoville

Dear Senator Fischer,

Recently, a dear friend and neighbor who has been part of our crew that travels to Colorado every summer to hike a 14er, finally received his green card. This was after 10 years of waiting and praying and trying to do everything right! 

His case highlights the bizarre condition created by the Biden administration where illegals flooded into the United States in uncountable numbers -- illegal aliens that also included the most vile, barbaric, and anti-American criminals. Well, President Trump finally acted to stop that travesty and we, like almost all Americans, are deeply grateful to him. 

However, we now need to pursue the parallel action of ensuring justice AND America’s healthy future; namely, reducing the foolish, counter-productive red tape and ideological bias that keeps valuable, pro-American immigrants from making this country their legal and beloved home. Let’s get this done ASAP, okay?

Denny & Claire Hartford

Dear Vice-President Vance, 

I can’t thank God enough for your winning the election as our Vice-President. Your kind of leadership is what makes this country so richly blessed. And we pray that God continues to protect you and give you wisdom and courage for the task. The enemy of our soul is roundly defeated whenever we Christians put our faith and trust in almighty God. The key to God’s favor is to stay humble so He can pour out his blessings to all who respect Him. 

Love in Christ, Don Kohls

Governor Pillen,

I want to commend you for your continued support of pregnant moms and their unborn children. In addition, your advocacy for sane and fiscally responsible legislation is greatly appreciated. And finally, thank you also for working to keep men out of women’s sports. All of these things are deeply appreciated. With much respect,

John Malek

Dear Mr. Musk,

Thank you for all you have done to help fight fraud and corruption and wasteful spending. I know you took a lot of criticism and even endured great financial loss because of your patriotic service. I am so thankful for what you did with DOGE and all of the hard work and sacrifice since then. Please keep up the good work! Thank you.

Hope Golden

Dear Secretary of War Pete Hegseth,

Thank you immensely for your sincere, urgent, humble, real, and beautiful prayer on March 19th that you modeled for all Americans regarding our prayers for our troops. I thank the Lord that God has placed you in this position for this crucial time. May our Lord bless you richly and your service to our country. 

Sincerely, Debbie Pederson

To the staff at Immanuel Village, especially Vicky and Sammy,

Just a quick thank-you for your ongoing and ever delightful friendship to the ministry of “When Swing Was King.” It is such a delight to present the shows there and you girls are always so helpful and encouraging and fun to work with. We know your impact is profound in so many ways there, but we certainly are grateful for your services to us! 

(The card was signed by everyone at both letter-writing parties. In addition, there were several other letters or cards that were signed by the entire assembly.)

Dear Congressman Bacon,

A few points: 1) Please fight for the Hyde Amendment;

2)  Please co-sponsor the House version of Senator Hawley’s Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act and vigorously act in its behalf;

3) Please support the President’s bold moves against the drug cartels even as you fight the pernicious dangers of legalized marijuana here within our country.

4) Please support enthusiastically the SAVE Act and all other efforts against voter fraud. 

Denny and Claire Hartford

To CBS News, 

Your efforts to revitalize the network by cutting inefficient programs and staff and your move to bring CBS News away from orbiting solely around a liberal pole are to be heartily praised. Also, your recent expose of the massive hospice fraud in California was terrific. It was an excellent example of the type of quality journalism and healthy concern for American values that CBS News once exemplified. Way to go!

Denny and Claire Hartford

Dear Secretary Rubio, 

I’m so thankful that God has raised you up into this leadership position. I pray for you daily and I know He hears our prayers. May His Holy Spirit give you the wisdom and encouragement to navigate the crazy waters our nation has found itself in. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May His light shine upon you and give you His peace. 

Don Kohls

Dear Justice Thomas,

We write with deep and abiding gratitude for the bold, brave, and wise leadership you have shown on the Court. Your efforts have, without a doubt, gone a long way in preserving American ideals -- for at least a while longer! Thank you so much!

As an encouragement I send along an inspirational poem by the pen of William Cowper.

Blessings, Denny and Claire Hartford, Omaha, Nebraska

Dear Department of Homeland Security,

We are so pleased to see the effectiveness of the new U.S. policies regarding illegal immigration. Way to go! However, I write to urge that the parallel action also become of grand importance; namely, easing the legal confusion and waiting times for welcoming all of those immigrants our nation DOES need -- people who love America’s historic ideals and want to be a part of our grand country!

Denny and Claire Hartford

Dear Mr. Sasse,

We are just two of the many, many people across the country who hold you in very high esteem and appreciation. We did so when you were one of our Senators here in Nebraska and we do so now with your impassioned, visionary, and wise counsel to Americans regarding politics, culture, family life, and the liberating gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you, dear brother. Stay the course for our Lord; our redemption draws nigh! 

Denny and Claire Hartford

Dear Mr. President,

Among the many things for which we are most grateful to are your steadfast, bold, and pro-American moves in our military and economy and border security. Thank you! We are also pleased that your efforts are succeeding in protecting American lives from the critical dangers of illegal drugs coming in from foreign thugs. But Mr. President, we are also aware that the culture is under grave danger from marijuana -- that extremely mind-numbing, soul-corrupting drug that is so much more powerful (and available) than the “flower power” days of my misspent youth. Please keep after that danger as well. 

Denny Hartford

Dear Mr. President,

The latest report reveals the heart-wrenching crisis of the persecution of Christians around the world. Indeed, that persecution is the most violent and widespread ever in the earth’s history and there looks to be nothing stopping it getting worse -- nothing unless the USA gets serious about interceding in behalf of those innocent people under the sword of harassment, terrorism, imprisonment, and murder. America’s intercession must include clear and bold speech from US leadership which will better enlighten (and warn) the world about what is happening. But the victims of persecution (and the cause of justice itself) also deserve U.S. intercession which uses our strategic positioning and economic might to punish the murderers and manipulators. 

Please, President Trump, use your influence to move ever forward America’s defense of freedom of faith and conscience around the world. Thank you so much!

Denny & Claire Hartford

Chemical Abortion -- An Open Letter

Dear Senator Fischer,

We’ve had a lot of talk about “nibbling around the edges” when it comes to the scourge of chemical abortifacients, particularly the widespread use of mifepristone (the powerful drug now responsible for the majority of abortions in the U.S.) but finally, Senator Hawley is directly addressing the primary issues with the Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act. 

This bill seeks to rightly strip mifepristone of its longstanding approval from the Food and Drug Administration. After all, it is a profoundly powerful poison out that most barbarically kills reborn boys and girls as well as leaving women to face such severe complications as heavy bleeding, sepsis, and worse, usually without any genuine medical oversight. It is a lucrative business for abortionists, but a tragic and evil one.

As Senator Hawley emphasized, “Only Congress can address this situation. Only Congress is placed to regulate the flow of interstate drugs. Only Congress can withdraw the FDA’s approval rendered way back in the Clinton administration for this drug that has proved to be inherently dangerous and inherently prone to abuse. Only Congress can act. Congress should act. And we are here today to call on them to act.”

Senator Fischer, please join him quickly as a co-sponsor of the Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act and work enthusiastically for its passage.

Thank you.

The Top Five Plus (March 21)

1) “Pompous: Europe in a moral quagmire between benefactor US and evil Iran” (Conrad Black, Brussels Signal)

From the article -- This is a very distressing degeneration of the Cold War Alliance in which eminent statesmen including Churchill, Adenauer, de Gaulle, Thatcher, Mitterrand, de Gasperi, Andreotti and Mulroney all pulled their weight and played their part. Western Europe is increasingly a moral wasteland of declining population, stagnant economies, and the lack of the moral solidity even to prevent waves of destitute people with none of the constructive motives of authentic immigrants from swarming into Europe with no more thought for the jurisdictions they are entering than the Goths, Huns, Saracens and Vandals of the fifth century.

It appears that mere envy at the relaunch of America under Trump, with accelerating economic growth, collapsing crime rates, the end of illegal immigration, the debunking of green extremism, and the shaping up of the American military into an instrument of extraordinary power and precision, has driven much of Europe into the quagmire of moral relativism between their American benefactor and the evil terrorist state of Islamist Iran. One would have expected mere opportunism to produce better judgment than that.

2) “Our New Ungracious Immigrants” (Victor Davis Hanson, American Greatness)

From the article-- I grew up in rural California surrounded by hard-working immigrant farm families from Armenia, India, Japan, and Mexico. Their work ethic, love of America, and productive farms were models for U.S. non-immigrants. Such immigrants explained why the San Joaquin Valley was the most productive and richest agricultural region in the nation.

My own Swedish grandfather, disabled by poison gas while fighting on the Western Front in World War I, loved all things Swedish, but not nearly as much as his beloved America. Four Hansons fought on the front lines of World Wars I and II. One was disabled, and another was killed on Okinawa. And all felt blessed that their parents and grandparents had gotten to America.

But recently, something has gone terribly wrong with immigration—an open border, of course, but also a change in legal immigration as well as student visitors.

During World War II, Japanese Americans fought heroically in horrific conditions in Italy in the famous 442nd Regimental Combat Team and 100th Infantry Battalion—even as their families were interned in the Western United States. Few native-born Americans were more loyal or patriotic than the Japanese Americans.

And now?

While America is at war with Iran and de facto with its terrorist proxies, crowds of immigrants, visitors, and foreign students in New York scream anti-American slogans as they cheer on our enemies in theocratic Iran and its terrorist proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas.

Are we surprised, then, when Islamic terrorists begin hunting down Americans on our own soil?

3) “The Horrific Legacy of Paul Ehrlich: The apocalyptic professor who was wrong about almost everything, and still managed to change the world.” (Aubrey Harris, American Spectator)

From the article -- Ehrlich, of course, was the author of the tiny paperback book that took the world by storm in the 1970s. The Population Bomb claimed, quite simply, that the “battle to feed all of humanity is over.” The globe was vastly overpopulated, and the result would be widespread death in the coming decades. People would starve — so many people that, “by 1985 enough millions will have died to reduce the population to some acceptable level, like 1.5 billion people.” 

The timing of the book was perfect. We were coming to the end of the post-war baby boom, and humanity had recently been forced to reckon with the potential for its imminent end via atomic war. Ehrlich’s message struck a nerve — one that NBC’s Johnny Carson recognized when he decided to have the scientist on The Tonight Show more than 20 times. 

And yet, more than half a century later, most of us can safely say Ehrlich’s predictions were mistaken (although the New York Times insisted in his obituary this week that they were merely “premature”). Global hunger rates are much lower than they were in the 1970s (today, just one out of every eleven people goes hungry), and the population of the earth is more than double what it was when he published his book. If anything, we’re more concerned about underpopulation, rather than overpopulation. (READ MORE by Aubrey Harris: We Could Be Doing Something About Our Birth Rate Problem. But We Aren’t.)

Unfortunately, The Population Bomb wasn’t just an obscure scientific paper with no impact. It sold millions of copies, and its arguments were seized by groups like the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the Population Council, the World Bank, the United Nations Population Fund, and other programs, which threw enormous amounts of funding into making sure babies weren’t born. 

In China alone, hundreds of millions of children were aborted when the government coerced their mothers into doing so. In India, proof of sterilization was required to obtain water, electricity, ration cards, medical care, and other basic amenities — a policy that was so successful that, in 1975, “more than eight million men and women were sterilized.” In the Philippines, birth control pills were dropped from helicopters over remote villages.

Was Ehrlich really responsible for all this?

Maybe not directly, but these kinds of policies didn’t come out of nowhere. They were born in a global intellectual climate shaped by men like Ehrlich, who proclaimed that drastic measures were necessary for human flourishing.

Related articles: “Population Doomster and False Prophet of Ecological Apocalypse Paul Ehrlich Has Died: The author of The Population Bomb was never right but never in doubt that the world was about to end.” (Ronald Bailey, Reason)...“Death of a Charlatan: Paul Ehrlich was a useful idiot, a facile clown.” (Scott McKay, American Spectator)

4) “America Can’t Be A Welfare State And A Republic At The Same Time” (Jim DeMint, Federalist)

From the article -- In a healthy society, widespread interdependency is pervasive. People depend on each other in many ways. Family members support each other, especially when one member is suffering. Employees depend on their employers for their livelihoods and vice versa. The poor are often served by churches and volunteer organizations. Citizens depend on their government for protection and safety, and government depends on its citizens for funding and election support.

These forms of interdependency are the glue that holds families, communities, and nations together. But when healthy interdependency is replaced with a one-way dependence on government by its citizens, societal cohesion disappears. Unity deteriorates into suspicion and entitlement. 

In a constitutional republic where citizens elect their representatives, vote to restrain government growth and spending, and hold government officials accountable for their actions, those same citizens must avoid becoming dependent on government for their basic needs — including income, food, housing, and health care.

Dependence on federal and state governments for personal needs creates conflicting interests for both elected officials and voters. Elections become bidding wars between candidates who promise more and more from government. Dependent voters lose interest in limited government and vote for the candidates who promise to give them more stuff. Government spending and debt continually ratchet up as fraud and corruption increase exponentially. This is what is currently happening in America.

5) “HHS Official Urges Medical Residents to Stand on Conscience against Abortion, but HHS Policy Offers Scant Protection” (Joshua Arnold, Washington Stand)

From the article -- U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Brian Christine encouraged medical residents to refuse to participate in procedures that would violate their consciences. The comments offer a refreshing contrast with the Biden administration, which often sided with the medical establishment in pressing abortion on medical providers. But HHS policy needs to catch up.

“If your deeply held religious convictions [are attacked] — say that you can’t engage in some activity, for instance, abortion, or a sex-rejecting procedure — stand strong in that,” Christine counseled medical residents in a recent interview with The Daily Signal. “Refuse to do that. And, again, reach out to the proper authorities and individuals at their institutions.”

The grisly backdrop to these comments is the medical establishment’s successful campaign to force medical schools to require abortion training.

The effort dates back to 1994, two years after Planned Parenthood v. Casey, when the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) adopted a mandate that “experience with induced abortion must be part of residency training” for all OB/GYN training programs. Before this, abortion training was available, but medical residents had to opt in to such training, instead of having to opt out. Additionally, while individuals with a moral or religious objection could opt out, medical training programs with a moral or religious objection (such as those run by Catholic or Protestant hospitals) could not.

As a recent congressional letter noted, “ACGME is the only accrediting body for GME [obstetrics and gynecology] programs in the US and thus there is no other option for training programs or residents.”

Other Excellent Articles from this Week

* Relating to the Joe Kent resignation as head of the National Counterterrorism Center are these two articles: “How Kent Went” (Scott Johnson, Power Line) and “President Trump Just ENDED Joe Kent’s Entire Career With One Brutal Screenshot of an Old Tweet” (Jim Hᴏft, Gateway Pundit)

* “‘These People are Crazy:’ Climate Science and the Cult of Self-Loathing” (Terry L. Headley, Watts Up With That?)

* “When Obama And His Party Need To Suppress The Vote, It’s OK” (I & I Editorial Board)

* “After Four Jihad Attacks in Two Weeks, Guess What It's the International Day to Combat” (Robert Spencer, PJ Media)

* “Why the nation of Churchill is no more: A former diplomat blows the whistle on anti-Israel bias and Islamist entryism.” (Melanie Phillips)

The Top 5 Plus (March 14)

 1) “Senator Hawley Introduces the Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act” (Sarah Holliday, Washington Stand)

From the article -- At a press conference, the Missouri senator unveiled his new legislation, the Safeguarding Women from Chemical Abortion Act. This bill seeks to strip mifepristone — the drug responsible for the majority of U.S. abortions — of its longstanding approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). According to recent data from the Guttmacher Institute, chemical abortions made up 63% of all abortions in 2023, with the trend only accelerating in the years since.

Hawley didn’t hold back, blasting the FDA for letting mail-order shipments flood the country, wiping out state-level protections for the unborn and leaving women to face severe complications like heavy bleeding, sepsis, and worse — commonly without any real medical oversight. “It is time for Congress to do something about this racket,” he declared. “And it is a racket. It is time for Congress to ban the use of mifepristone for abortion, and it is time for Congress to give the victims — the survivors — … the right to recover.”

As Hawley emphasized further, “Only Congress can address this situation. Only Congress is placed to regulate the flow of interstate drugs. Only Congress can withdraw the FDA’s approval rendered way back in the Clinton administration for this drug that has proved to be inherently dangerous and inherently prone to abuse. Only Congress can act. Congress should act. And we are here today to call on them to act.”

2) “CBS News Investigation Uncovers Massive Medicare Hospice Fraud In L.A. County” (Bryan Hyde, American Greatness)

From the article -- An investigation by CBS News has discovered massive Medicare fraud at more than 700 out of 1,800 licensed hospice providers in Los Angeles County. The scam utilizes stolen Medicare numbers to fraudulently enroll healthy seniors in hospice with fake terminal diagnoses, billing Medicare an average of $29,000 per patient without delivering care, to the tune of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.

About 31 percent of hospice and home health companies in the U.S. are registered in L.A. County but when investigators visited the addresses listed, they found no clinics, patients or healthcare workers. Instead they found multiple red flags, including multiple hospices in one building, high rates of terminally ill patients later discharged alive, excessive billing, and staff shared across multiple companies...

Let’s put this in perspective. The population of residents age 65 or over in California is estimated at 6.3 million while Florida estimates its population of 65+ residents at 4.9 million. Public records show 2,279 Medicare-certified hospice organizations in California with just 208 such Medicare-certified organizations in Florida. This raises serious questions as to why California would have more than 10 times the number of Medicare-certified hospice organizations than Florida when it has less than twice the population of 65+ residents...

This latest revelation of potential Medicare fraud shows that the problem of scammers enriching themselves at taxpayer expense extends far beyond Minnesota, which has been under scrutiny for the past few months over the alleged theft of billions of taxpayer dollars via social services.

It also reveals the silver lining that a mainstream news organization is finally willing to do investigative reporting on suspected fraud rather than leaving the heavy lifting to citizen journalists like Nick Shirley, who blew the lid off taxpayer fraud in Minnesota and then turned his sights on California.

3) “The Long Game: How a Network of Catholic Integralists, Russian Ideologues, and Media Provocateurs Are Systematically Dismantling the Evangelical Foundation of the American Right” (Insurrection Barbie)

From the article -- The men and women at the center of this operation are not primarily interested in the 2026 midterms or even the 2028 presidential election. They are interested in a question that will take a decade or more to fully answer: Who controls the ideological and theological DNA of the Republican Party’s base?

For seventy years, that answer has been evangelical Protestant Christians. Roughly 30 percent of the American electorate, 80 percent of whom vote Republican, motivated by deep biblical conviction, organized through tens of thousands of local churches, and bound together by a theological commitment to the Bible have been in the drivers seat of the conservative movement. Remove it, or transform it, and you have a different party. Not a party with different policies. A party with different gods. That is the actual objective.

I am going to map out what I think is the most sophisticated attack in modern political history and all of its corresponding vectors — institutional, intellectual, theological, generational, and media — and explain how each one feeds into a single ten-year project: the replacement of evangelical Protestant political theology with a Catholic integralist or ethnonationalist framework that views Jews, Israel and Protestants not as covenant partners but as adversaries of Christian civilization.

4) “The Global Elites Lose Again: Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland keeps surging ahead. Border control and sane energy policy may be in Europe’s future after all.” (Heather Mac Donald, American Greatness)

From the article -- So what makes the AfD so toxic? Its cardinal sin is to argue that mass third-world migration is destroying traditional German culture and identity. It is to point out that Germany’s open-borders policies are saddling the country with a crime- and terror-prone, welfare-dependent, culturally alien population that consumes taxpayer resources while only intermittently giving something back to German society. Its crime against democracy is in calling for the enforcement of laws already on the books regarding the deportation of criminal aliens and other migrants who have no right to remain in German society. At its core, its heresy is to assert that a country has a right to decide its level of immigration and resulting culture change, rather than that level being determined by the will of the migrants themselves.

These AfD positions do not threaten due process, popular sovereignty, or other democratic values. If the AfD is nonetheless antithetical to democracy, as we are told, then democracy at present means above all else a commitment to maximum demographic replacement. Speak out against unchecked immigration from the Third World, and you will be branded not just as a racist and xenophobe but as a threat to democracy itself, since democracy is now defined as the embrace of policies that erode national identity. (Such erosion is sought only in Western countries, however.)

5) “Complimentary Living” (Denny Hartford, Director Vital Signs Blog)

From the article -- No, there’s no doubt about it. The conscientious student of the Bible realizes that “complimentary living” is a serious thing to pursue for compliments are a precious, important, and inspiring gift. We should most definitely be handing them out more than we do. They have a beneficial effect to others even when they might seem small and insignificant. Robert Breault, the famed operatic tenor, once wrote, “There is no effect more disproportionate to its cause than the happiness bestowed by a small compliment.” And Mark Twain agreed with the sentiment. He wrote, “I can live for two months on a good compliment.” Oh, yes, even the very small compliment has a dynamic effect. 

And once we realize that basic truth, to refrain from “complimentary living” is a serious omission of our light-bearing, salt-spreading, love-sharing duties as Christ’s ministers. We are commanded over and again in the Scriptures to love our neighbors, to bless and honor them, to thank and encourage them, and, when deserved, to praise them for jobs well done. So to fail to perform these duties is disobedience. It is a form of hoarding -- selfishly hiding away in the cellar those compliments, kind words, expressions of gratitude that would richly bless others and “encourage them to love and good deeds.”

Other Exceptional Articles from this Week:

* “Assisted Suicide Becomes A Leading Cause Of Death In Canada: ‘More Than All Other Countries Combined’” (Decision Magazine, via Harbinger’s Daily)

* “How Disabled Can You Get?” (John Hinderaker, Power Line)

* “No more Obama-Biden timidity, it is time for America to assert itself again” (Gerard Baker, Brussels Signal)

* “‘Culture Of Death’: Pop Star Jokes About Fan’s Abortion, Encourages Others To Do The Same” (Daily Citizen via Harbinger’s Daily)

* “Birthright Citizenship, Birth Tourism, Mass Immigration Threaten to Erode the U.S., Say Experts” (S.A. McCarthy, Washington Stand)

“Complimentary Living”

“Complimentary Living”

(Denny Hartford, Director Vital Signs Ministries)

“Praise is warming and desirable. But praise is an earned thing. It has to be deserved like an honorary degree or a hug from a child. A compliment, however, is manna, a free gift.” (American poet Phyllis McGinley)

As Phyllis McGinley suggests above, a sincere compliment is a gift we give to others, a special gift that has the power to encourage others and help lighten their burdens. Compliments reflect a servant-oriented life that generously expresses kindness and goodwill as we selflessly delight in the virtues, skills, and demeanor of those whose lives touch ours for the good. Indeed, giving the gift of compliments should be a normal part of our relationships -- and part of our winsome witness of loving in word and deed. 

Think of Jesus’ compliments to Nathaniel, to Mary Magdalen, to the widow who gave her mite, to the Roman centurion, to the Syrophonecian woman, to Mary of Bethany, to the churches in Revelation, and to all the saints who will one day hear, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” And note also the many compliments we read of in the ministry of Paul and the other writers of New Testament letters as they followed the lead of their Lord’s example by expressing praise, appreciation, admiration to other believers.

No, there’s no doubt about it. The conscientious student of the Bible realizes that “complimentary living” is a serious thing to pursue for compliments are a precious, important, and inspiring gift. We should most definitely be handing them out more than we do. They have a beneficial effect to others even when they might seem small and insignificant. Robert Breault, the famed operatic tenor, once wrote, “There is no effect more disproportionate to its cause than the happiness bestowed by a small compliment.” And Mark Twain agreed with the sentiment. He wrote, “I can live for two months on a good compliment.” Oh, yes, even the very small compliment has a dynamic effect. 

And once we realize that basic truth, to refrain from “complimentary living” is a serious omission of our light-bearing, salt-spreading, love-sharing duties as Christ’s ministers. We are commanded over and again in the Scriptures to love our neighbors, to bless and honor them, to thank and encourage them, and, when deserved, to praise them for jobs well done. So to fail to perform these duties is disobedience. It is a form of hoarding -- selfishly hiding away in the cellar those compliments, kind words, expressions of gratitude that would richly bless others and “encourage them to love and good deeds.”

Certainly, many of the reasons that we do not engage in “complimentary living” relate to our pride, fears, envy, a sense of competition, ingratitude, lack of humility, and so on. There’s also a problem of ignorance. Because of poor teaching and a lack of role models in our past, we haven’t learned the social skills necessary to effectively stimulate our fellow believers to pursue “further love and good deeds.” We thus need motivation (and frequent practice) to learn how to best express praise and thanks to others for the purposes of lifting their spirits, encouraging them in the Faith, strengthening friendships, and making our witness to the world more winsome. We will get to some specific examples of how to do that in a moment.

But first a word about flattery. Granted, the Bible does warn against flattery. But those passages condemn the false-hearted man who uses kind words and other gifts as a bribe or a seductive trap. Language can be perverted by base motives as when compliments are used to dishonestly move people to like us, or to distract from our bad behavior, or to try and manipulate people into doing us favors. God forbid such exploitation. But again, the sin in such cases is not the spoken blessings. It is the flatterer’s motives and purposes that are wicked, not the compliments themselves. We must not, therefore, avoid words of lovingkindness, esteem, and gratitude merely because they can be misused by manipulative people. Rather it is our spiritual duty to “love in truth” and thus honor others with words that come from honest, sincere, and servant-oriented hearts.

Okay, now for a few specific applications. Consider the following scenario. The Christian committed to a “complimentary living” walks into someone’s house and is looking for ways, not only to bless and encourage his host, but also to build a stronger foundation for their friendship. Therefore, he regards his surroundings before saying, “Oh my, what a lovely and inviting room this is. And an interesting one too. That photograph, for instance, is stunning. Is there a story behind it? And those figurines in the breakfront, they are also quite fascinating. What’s the deal with those?” What might you imagine to be the response from such a pro-active complimentary introduction? The homeowner would quite reply, “I don’t think anyone has ever asked me about the figurines or about the photograph on the wall. And that’s always been a bit of a disappointment. You see, I suppose we all decorate our homes in a way that we hope will be attractive and interesting to visitors, yet no one ever seems to notice. So, thank you so much for noticing and being interested...and for complimenting me on them. I really appreciate it.”

What a blessing it is -- a simple, but way too rare a blessing -- to take notice, to express sincere interest, to pass along compliments.  And that goes for compliments expressed in hundreds of other ways. The lady with a chic new hairstyle. The young man’s diligence in mowing his grandpa’s lawn. A sibling’s thoughtful birthday card. The cook’s beef stew. The elderly woman’s smile that lights up a room. You get the idea. And don’t forget that before the spoken accolade, showing your attention to the other person is in its own place quite invaluable. As Ann Sophie Swetchine observed over a century ago, “Attention is itself a tacit and continual compliment.” 

Now please keep in mind that, though I take nothing away from the legitimacy of praises for a person’s orderly garage, someone’s fingernail polish, or the humorous piece of bric-a-brac they won at the county fair, the compliments which are the most important and lasting of all are those which note with appreciation the practice of biblical virtues. Indeed, the highest compliments (like the ones you read of so frequently in the Bible) point to a person’s godly character and action: perseverance in prayer, faithfulness, generosity, obedience, holy behavior, purity of thought, purity of doctrine, courage, preaching the good news, abiding in Christ, endurance, sacrificial love, care of the needy, wisdom, remembering God’s providential care, laying up treasure in heaven, and so on. To be sure, these passages provide excellent motivation and direction for how best we engage in “complimentary living.”

And speaking of the best compliments, let me share something which illustrates the importance of our selecting the most relevant, and motivational compliments possible. Many years ago, Claire and I created a couples game that involved spouses trying to match their respective answers to questions about their history, opinions, aspirations, etc. It always made for a fun evening but one which was also provocative and enlightening. For instance, one of the questions we asked in the game was, “What compliment does your spouse most like to hear from you?” Well, we played this game with maybe 150 couples over the years but, surprisingly enough, only 3 or 4 times did the responses of the married couples match to this question. Isn’t that something? It didn’t mean, of course, that the spouses were failing to pass along to one another any compliments at all. But it did reveal that the compliments each most desired to hear from each other were going largely unsaid. 

Example? The husband might have frequently been complimenting his wife on her beauty and/or her gracious spirit while she praised her husband on his ability to fix things around the house and his generosity. Yet, the answers to the game’s question revealed that the wife would have preferred even more to hear her husband praise her for her dedication to pro-life ministries or her patience and skill in teaching their children to read. And, despite the love and admiration and gratitude the husband knew was given him by his wife, he still yearned to hear her express appreciation for his courage or his consistency in Bible study or how closely his work ethic resembled that of his father’s. In other words, all compliments are not equal. Therefore, we must carefully watch and listen to others so that we are more in tune with their spiritual adventure. And, as we do so, our compliments (as well as our words of challenge or correction when needed) will be more relevant, more welcome, more profound.

One final thing. How should you receive a compliment? Well, you should definitely avoid offending your brother in Christ by thoughtlessly dismissing his kind words. How often it happens that, in an attempt to be humble (or perhaps, merely to appear to be humble), people treat heartfelt compliments as insignificant or, worse still, as illegitimate. At all costs, avoid doing that. For instance, do not disrespect a brother’s compliment by shrugging your shoulders and saying, “No problem” or “No big deal” or “Well, I had nothing better to do.” And don’t play the sanctimonious Pharisee with a response like, “Oh, my misguided brother, praise not the arm of flesh! For I am nothing but a profligate sinner, a low-down knave in whom there dwelleth nothing good. No, be not deceived; if there was anything of value in my deed, it came not from me but from the gracious kindness of God Who condescended to use such a worm as I. Therefore, tempt me not to pride by thy honeyed phrases but rather confess there is naught in any of us that is worthy of a compliment.” Yipes! 

Much more appropriate, humbler, and more loving responses to sincere compliments are things like “You’re more than welcome. I was honored to do it and I’m really pleased I was able to be of help.” Or “I’m so glad you liked it. That makes my day.” Or a simple, sincere “Thank you.”

Okay, let me wrap this thing up. And I’ll start with is 1) My earnest compliments to you for patiently reading through this whole article! 2) I heartily encourage you to be more complimentary to others. Pay attention to them so that when you do speak kindness into their lives, it is of the most relevance and value. 3) Be liberal and frequent in your praises. Don’t be like those described by American humorist Kin Hubbard, “Some folks pay a compliment like they had to go down in their pocket for it.” And finally, 4) Let your compliments be sincere, kind, and designed for a person’s spiritual good. Concentrate on expressing thanks and encouragement for things relating to character and virtue.

“Everybody likes a compliment.” (Abraham Lincoln)

"Why So Much About Heaven?"

“Why do you suppose God gave us so much information about the future? Why does the Bible end with vivid descriptions of the new heaven and the new earth?

Because nothing is more relevant to how we live today than what we believe about tomorrow. God didn’t fill the Bible with details about the future just to satisfy our curiosity or to spark theological debates. He gave us these promises to strengthen our lives today.

The truth is that heaven is transformational. Yes, we will be transformed when we enter our eternal home, but I’m talking about today! Heaven transforms us now. It works in our hearts and minds. It gives us perspective. It makes us hopeful, steady, forward-looking. It infuses us with strength, comfort, confidence, and a sense of purpose. The Bible’s teaching about heaven is like a rocket booster, pulling us forward toward the most meaningful life possible.” (David Jeremiah, “The Promise of Heaven,” page 258)

And note this important reminder of the next Vital Signs Saturday Brunch coming up on Saturday morning, March 28 beginning at 10 and ending before noon. As usual at our brunch parties, the meal will be delicious and plentiful, but the primary blessing of the event will be the heavenly fellowship you’ll experience with like-minded Christians. And, in this case, I mean heavenly in a very literal sense because the subject to be discussed that morning is just that -- heaven! Please consider joining us. 

The Top 5 Plus (March7)

1) In the Number One spot this week, I'm simply going to provide a link to Harbinger's Daily where on the opening page, you can find the link to several up-to-the-day reports of Operation Epic Fury as well as many superb articles of analysis and commentary.

As you might guess, I’ve found several enlightening articles related to Operation Epic Fury that I think you would find of great interest and help. Here are a few: “Just War Expert Defends Trump’s Iran Attacks” (Joshua Arnold, Washington Stand) --- “Ten Thoughts on Operation Epic Fury and Its Aftermath: Why the strike on Iran was legal, overdue, and a strategic earthquake.” (Scott McKay, American Spectator) --- “America’s Strike on Iran Is Disastrous for China, Analysts Say” (Dan Hart, Washington Stand) --- “The 1,400-Year-Old Sunni-Shia Islamic Religious Split Is Shaping the Iran War” (Ira Still, Washington Free Beacon) --- “4 Ways Christians Can Pray for the Situation in Iran” (Joshua Arnold, Washington Stand) --- “Who Wants This War? Answer: Winners!” (Lee Smith, Tablet)

2) “Escalating Crisis: USCIRF 2026 Report Exposes Severe Religious Freedom Abuses in 29 Countries” (Sarah Holliday, Washington Stand)

From the article -- The report, far from being purely analytical, painted a picture of escalating persecution that demands urgent U.S. action. And at the heart of USCIRF’s report was its recommendations:

Urge the State Department to designate 18 countries as Countries of Particular Concern (CPCs) for particularly severe abuses, such as torture, prolonged detention, genocide-like policies, and destruction of religious sites.

New additions include Afghanistan (Taliban’s strict enforcement targeting minorities), India (anti-conversion laws fueling mob violence against Muslims and Christians), Libya (morality policing and persecution of Sufis and others), Syria (post-regime change sectarian massacres against Alawites, Druze, and Christians), and Vietnam (intensified crackdowns on independent faiths).

Redesignations cover longstanding violators like Burma (Myanmar), China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, Nigeria (designated by President Trump in October 2025), North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.

The report also pushed for 11 countries on the Special Watch List (SWL) for severe — but not yet “particularly severe” — violations, maintaining Algeria and Azerbaijan while adding Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Qatar, Turkey, and Uzbekistan amid backsliding in registration laws, blasphemy enforcement, and minority discrimination.

3) “Planned Parenthood’s New Strategy: Subsidizing Abortion with Botox” (Ellie Gardey Holmes, Washington Stand)

From the article -- Planned Parenthood abortion clinics have faced a reckoning since they were blocked last year from receiving Medicaid reimbursements by way of a provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. But the nation’s largest Planned Parenthood affiliate, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, is rolling out a novel strategy to keep the cash flowing so that it can subsidize its mission of aborting children. 

Some of its clinics are now providing Botox, a neurotoxin that minimizes the appearance of wrinkles. The affiliate is also planning to add additional cosmetic procedures. These include dermal fillers — which are injected into lips, cheeks, or jawlines — and laser hair removal. Planned Parenthood Mar Monte clinics are becoming, in effect, medspas to prop up child killing. 

Stacy Cross, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, told The Wall Street Journal this week, “We know we have to face reality to keep our doors open. … That’s where these new services come in.”

4) “America’s Imperial Judiciary: Tocqueville feared mob rule; instead, America now confronts an unchecked judiciary willing to override law, precedent, and the people to block a sitting president’s agenda.” (Raw Egg Nationalist, American Greatness)

From the article -- Hidden at the bottom of the soul of the American lawyers,” said Alexis de Tocqueville, perhaps the keenest observer of American democracy, is “a great repugnance to the actions of the multitude, and a secret contempt of the government of the people.”

Far from being a bad thing, for Tocqueville at least, that secret contempt was a valuable tool. A necessity, even.

An aristocrat by birth, Tocqueville knew democracy was inevitable. There was to be no return to the way things were before the American and French Revolutions. And yet, he believed, the aristocratic principle had to be retained somehow if politics were not to descend into mob rule and tyranny....

America in 2026 is not a healthy, functioning democracy. But Tocqueville’s great fear, mob rule, has not been realized. Instead, we’re seeing exactly what can go wrong when the aristocratic principle goes unchecked—a possibility Tocqueville does not seem to have anticipated.

Judicial contempt for the will of the American people, the executive powers of the president, and indeed the law itself is now running out of control, and there seems to be no way to stop it.

5) “Why Islam Seeks Shelter Under the Banner of the Left” (Dimpee Brar, Federalist)

From the article -- The success of the Red-Green Alliance does not lie in the might of Islam or the truth of its doctrines, but in the visible weakness of the West. What passes in polite discourse as “progress,” “social justice,” and “democracy” is, in fact, the open expression of anti‑Western hatred dressed in the moral language we once reserved for liberty and right. We still have eyes, but we have educated them not to see.

The so‑called “Red‑Green alliance” is not a partnership of equals. It is a disguise: Islam in leftist drag. The left and Islam do not share a positive account of the good life; they share a common enemy. The left condemns the West as oppressive, racist, colonial, patriarchal, capitalist. Islam condemns it as impious, decadent, rebellious against its god. They converge not in what is to be built, but in what is to be destroyed.

Other Recommended Articles from This Week

* “Defending Western Civilization Is Not Bigotry, It’s Wisdom” (Joseph Backholm, Washington Stand)

* “14 Pro-Life Alternatives To IVF For Infertile Couples Who Desire Children” (Chaney Gooley, Federalist)

* “Reshaping Scripture: Why the Church Must Stand Firm Against Cultural Compromise” (Lance Halseth, Harbinger’s Daily)

* “Blue State Failure is Destroying Federalism and the Constitution” (Chris Bray, Federalist)

* “Why Are So Many Nurses Left-Wing?: Psychologist Derald Wing Sue’s racialist ideas have deeply influenced the helping professions.” (Forest Romm, City Journal)

The Top 5 Plus (February 28)

1) “The Biggest Loser of Trump’s 2026 SOTU: The Unborn” (Suzanne Bowdey, Washington Stand)

From the article -- As far as theatrics go, Donald Trump’s sixth State of the Union had everything a showman could want — the golden boys of Team USA, the heart-wrenching moments of grieving parents and miraculous recoveries, the drama of Democratic protests, and the president’s answering antagonism. But for all that’s been written about the record-setting night, the biggest takeaway may not have been what was said, but what wasn’t. In a speech of 10,599 words, not one was about life.

For conservatives, the lack of even a single mention of the unborn in an almost a two-hour running commentary of the last year was disappointing for a host of reasons. This is a man who, in the recitation of his greatest second-term achievements, omitted what a lot of Americans would consider some of his finest. After four years of Joe Biden’s social extremism, taxpayers are no longer living under a government that forces them to finance the culture of death -- in most programs at home and overseas. His administration has done everything from protecting conscience rights, defunding Planned Parenthood, rolling back policies that force insurance companies to cover abortions, stopping the grotesque practice of fetal tissue at NIH, and even turning off the spigots for free abortions for illegal immigrants.

But Tuesday's vacuum on life, one of Trump’s core first-term issues, says a lot about the president’s recent reluctance to engage in key aspects of this debate — when, unfortunately, it’s raging the fiercest.

2) “Israel’s Forgotten Christians” (Robert Nicholson, Providence)

From the article -- Much of the recent coverage of Christians in Israel suffers from a basic analytical flaw: it focuses almost exclusively on the places where the fewest Christians actually live.

Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza dominate the conversation. These communities matter, but they are not representative. More than 70 percent of Israel’s 188,000 Christians live elsewhere—primarily in the north, especially in Galilee—and their absence from the discussion has distorted the picture beyond recognition.

The Christians of northern Israel are not marginal figures. They play an outsized role in education, medicine, and business. They are overwhelmingly laypeople, yet media coverage fixates almost entirely on religious officials. One might be forgiven for concluding that Christianity in Israel is a clerical caste rather than a living community of families, professionals, and citizens.

If these northern Christians are mentioned at all—and usually they are not—they are treated as an afterthought, stripped of agency and relevance. The result is an account of Christian life in Israel that is incomplete and misleading.

3) “AI, Addiction, and the Soul of a Nation: A Biblical Warning for Our Time” (Bob Maginnis, Washington Stand)...

From the article -- OpenAI recently released a 37-page report, Disrupting Malicious Uses of AI, documenting how criminals and state-linked actors are already exploiting generative AI to conduct fraud, impersonation, and influence operations. Romance scams are now scripted by machines. Fake legal identities are fabricated with bureaucratic precision. Foreign adversaries use AI to refine propaganda and calibrate narratives for maximum psychological impact.

None of this is theoretical. The architecture of deception is being rebuilt, brick by digital brick.

But the deeper danger lies beneath those headlines.

These AI tools are being deployed inside social media ecosystems that dozens of state attorneys general allege were deliberately engineered to be addictive. Internal documents disclosed in litigation against major platforms reveal that executives understood how algorithmic feeds stimulate dopamine responses — particularly in adolescents — yet continued optimizing for engagement over truth. We built platforms designed to capture attention at any cost. Now we are arming them with persuasion machines.

That is not a technology story. That is a civilization-level moral crisis.

Related articles: “Souls in the Algorithm: What AI Is Doing to Us - and What the Church Must Do about It” (Bob Maginnis, Washington Stand)...“Even the Best AI Scenario Is the End of Everything We’ve Ever Been: AI is not merely another technological leap -- it may be the moment machines begin to eclipse the very human talents that built our world.” (Edward Ring, American Greatness)

4) “The Disturbing Doctor Touring the Country to Promote Her Career of Third-Trimester Abortions: Sella had no doubt she was killing babies, and she loved it anyway.” (Ellie Gardey Holmes, American Spectator)

From the article -- Abortion doctor Shelley Sella is so proud of her 20-year career killing babies that she is traveling around the country in a sort of victory tour. Calling herself, in celebratory fashion, “the first woman to openly practice third-trimester abortion care in the U.S.,” Sella has spent the past year promoting her new book and evangelizing people into supporting late-term abortions. Her book, titled Beyond Limits: Stories of Third-Trimester Abortion Care, tells the stories of six babies she killed. And, yes, she herself calls them “babies.”

Sella has headlined events in Washington, Illinois, Missouri, Massachusetts, Arizona, and Wyoming, and has appeared in such publications as New York Magazine, the Nation, Time, and Mother Jones...

In her book, Sella explains that her desire to perform abortions emerged from a radical feminism. Evidently, she was so passionate about her love for abortion that only the prospect of killing babies who could survive outside the womb excited her. This so thrilled her that she spent 20 years commuting by plane from California to work in late-term abortion clinics in New Mexico and Kansas.

Sella told Mother Jones that she is outraged by state constitutional amendments that guarantee a right to abortion up to the point of viability. “Now’s the time,” she said, “to push back on viability and gestational limits, because Roe has been overturned.” Roe, Sella explained, was “problematic” because it allowed for restrictions post-viability. “So to think, ‘Let’s go backwards and restore Roe,’ to me, is wrong thinking. We have an opportunity to think big.”

5) “Teen Marijuana Use Doubles Chances of Future Psychotic Disorders, Study Finds” (Dan Hart, Washington Stand)

From the article -- Dr. Ryan Sultan, a psychiatrist and cannabis researcher at Columbia University, described the results of the study as “very, very, very worrying.”

The new JAMA study is merely the latest datapoint in a body of evidence of marijuana’s health dangers stretching back at least a decade. After California legalized the recreational use of the drug in 2016, cases of cannabis-induced psychosis that required emergency room visits increased by 54% within three years. In 2019, the American Psychiatric Association found that there was a “strong association” between use of the drug and the “onset of psychiatric disorders.” In April 2022, a team of researchers found that if marijuana use were eradicated globally, it would result in a 10% reduction of all schizophrenia cases.

Other studies have laid out clear evidence showing the multi-faceted array of serious health risks associated with marijuana use. In July of last year, a major study that sifted through a cadre of 24 other studies found that regular cannabis use is associated with a twofold risk of serious cardiac problems, including death due to heart attacks. That study, along with another one from November 2023, found that regular marijuana use raises the risk of heart failure by 34% when compared to non-users. Dr. John Ryan, a cardiologist at the University of Utah Hospital, remarked that he has witnessed numerous “heart attacks in otherwise healthy people who use marijuana regularly.”

Related article: “Adolescent cannabis use linked to doubling risk of psychotic and bipolar disorders” (Edited by Sadie Harley, reviewed by Robert Egan, Medical Press)

Other Excellent Articles from the Week:

* “Why People Don’t Like Talking About Politics” (John Halpin, Liberal Patriot)

* “The Dating Emergency: America’s dating crisis isn’t just personal -- it’s cultural, fueled by tech, feminism, and lost manners, and threatens both romance and the nation’s future.” (Katya Sedgwick, American Greatness)

* “The Anti-Zionism Exception: A court decision just carved Jews out of civil rights law” (Matthew Segal, Tablet)

* “UK Police Officers Worked With Muslim Assault Gang” (Catherine Salgado, PJ Media)

* “The Middle East: A Stack of Fake Narratives, An Attempted Fake ‘Palestinian State’ and the Real Threat to the West” (Guy Millière, Gatestone)

The Top 5 Plus (February 21)

1) “The Unholy Alliance Between Islam And The Radical Left Is More Emboldened Than Ever”  (Erick Stakelbeck, Harbinger’s Daily)

From the article -- The mask is now off completely. As America marks the 250th anniversary of its founding, the unholy alliance between Islam and the radical left is becoming very bold, publicly proclaiming that they intend to take the United States in a new direction—from faith, family, and freedom to socialism, Sharia, and separation.

Zoran Mamdani personifies this movement. His brand of Islamo-Communism now reigns over our nation’s financial capital and largest city. 25 years after 9/11, the New York City Mayor is quoting Mohammed and the Koran in Arabic to defend open borders.

2) “Why Exactly Did They Destroy the Border? Biden’s border chaos wasn’t accidental—it was a political strategy to reshape America’s electorate and expand left-wing power.” (Victor Davis Hanson, American Greatness)

From the article -- Why would any president destroy the U.S. southern border?

The Left typically “pounces” on anyone daring to suggest that the Biden administration had green-lighted illegal immigration to gain new constituents for agendas that otherwise were without broad public support. The Left smears critics of open borders as racist conspiracists spreading the “Great Replacement Theory.” Yet for years, Democrats and leftists themselves had written triumphalist books with titles like The Emerging Democratic Majority. And often they crowed that “Demography is Destiny.”

A few left-wing globalists even boasted of a new borderless world, in which anyone could live anywhere he wished. Not too long ago, Texas State Representative Gene Wu (D-Houston), chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, jumped the shark to say out loud what is usually left unsaid about the Democrat agenda:

"The day the Latino, African American, Asian, and other communities realize that they share the same oppressor is the day we start winning, because we are the majority in this country now. We have the ability to take over this country and to do what is needed for everyone."

The same unapologetic left-wing weaponization of illegal immigration is occurring in Europe. Sheer numbers there have already radically changed the demography—and political constituencies—of the continent.

3) “‘Ignoring Human Nature’: Using Biblical Reasoning, Rubio Pinpoints Why Globalism Is A Recipe For Disaster” (Breanna Claussen, Harbinger’s Daily)

From the article -- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s powerful message at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) has garnered well-deserved attention. Standing before a room of European and Western leaders, Rubio boldly exposed the folly of globalist policies and how they have been used to undermine sovereignty, national strength, and the Judeo-Christian foundation of Western civilization.

One particular statement was truly profound, and its tremendous accuracy stems from being bred out of a Biblical worldview. Discussing the collapse of communism in Germany, Rubio warned that the celebration of this success in the West quickly morphed into an ill-conceived fantasy about the future of nations.

“The euphoria of this triumph led us to a dangerous delusion: that we had entered, ‘the end of history;’” Rubio emphasized, “that every nation would now be a liberal democracy; that the ties formed by trade and by commerce alone would now replace nationhood; that the rules-based global order – an overused term – would now replace the national interest; and that we would now live in a world without borders where everyone became a citizen of the world.” This globalist mentality, he stressed, “was a foolish idea that ignored both human nature and it ignored the lessons of over 5,000 years of recorded human history. And it has cost us dearly.”

4) “The Best and Worst Presidents: The PragerU Survey -- The old presidential scorecards failed. A new survey shakes up the list.” (Paul Kengor, American Spectator)

From the article -- I’ve been in academia long enough to remember the dark days of presidential rankings by groups like Political Science Quarterly and the New York Times. These “surveys,” particularly the one done by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., made you want to scream. Academic political scientists pride themselves in conducting scientific surveys with large enough sample sizes to gain accuracy of, say, plus or minus 1-3 percent on a political question. But leave it to left-wingers — about 80-90 percent of the professoriate — to stack the deck with a small group (a few dozen) of likeminded left-wing academics to “rank” presidents from best to worst. Predictably, the likes of Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson and Woodrow Wilson would show up among the top, while Republicans like Ronald Reagan and Calvin Coolidge were bottom dwellers.

These surveys were nothing but surveys of the sympathies of left-wing academics. They didn’t tell you a damned thing about the reality of best and worst presidents. They told you about the biases of professors. And yet, predictably, the liberal press touted these “studies” as if they deserved to be chiseled on Mt. Rushmore...

PragerU has posted a compelling ranking. It asked 155 scholars for their assessment of each and every president, using a scale of 1-10 to judge various criteria. To be sure, those surveyed slant to the conservative side, but there’s still more diversity in this group than anything by the Schlesinger jokers. The results are very interesting, and most of those reading this column will appreciate them.

Related -- See the PragerU survey yourself right here.

5) “Was Climate Change the Greatest Financial Scam in History?” (Stephen Moore, RCP)

From the article -- Environmental scholar Bjorn Lomborg recently calculated that across the globe, governments have spent at least $16 trillion feeding the climate change industrial complex.

And for what?

Arguably, not a single life has been or will be saved by this shameful and colossal misallocation of human resources. The war on safe and abundant fossil fuels has cost countless lives in poor countries and made those countries poorer by blocking affordable energy.

Since the global warming crusade started some 30 years ago, the temperature of the planet has not been altered by one-tenth of a degree -- as even the alarmists will admit. In other words, $16 trillion has been spent -- a lot of people got very, very rich off the government largesse -- but there is not a penny of measurable payoff.

But it's much worse than that. In economics there is a concept called opportunity cost: What could we have done with $16 trillion to make the world better off?

What if the $16 trillion had been spent on clean water for poor countries? Preventing avoidable deaths from diseases like malaria? Building schools in African villages to end illiteracy? Bringing reliable and affordable electric power to the more than 1 billion people who still lack access? Curing cancer?

Other Excellent Articles from the Week:

* “Basketball in the Last 60 Seconds: Ben Sasse on Mortality, Meaning, and the Future of America.” After his stage 4 cancer diagnosis, Ben Sasse reflects on faith, mortality, and redeeming the time - then takes on Congress, higher education, and our fragmented, attention-starved republic. (60-minute Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson episode)

* “When our church was invaded: A miracle triumphed over the madness at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minn.” (Jonathan Parnell, World)

* Discover the Network’s summary of the life of Jesse Jackson.

* “Newsom Confesses His Disturbing Role in the Euthanization of His Mother: ‘It was horrible,’ Newsom said of his mother’s killing.” (Ellie Gardey Holmes, American Spectator)

* “Virtually All Countries Support Voter Photo ID – So Why the Filibuster?” (John R. Lott Jr., RCP)