The Top 5 Plus (September 12)

1) “Lindsay Clancy, Roe, and the Left’s Constitutional Order -- Several generations of girls have been raised to believe that a woman's independence and mental health constitutionally override any dependent's claim on her.” (Stephen Soukup, American Greatness)

From the article -- This past week, the nation was, once again, bitterly and politically divided over an episode that should, by all rights, have had nothing to do with politics. The courtroom proceedings involving a woman accused of killing her own children and then attempting to kill herself should have been “news” only to those morbidly fascinated by human nature at its worst and most vulnerable moments. Instead, however, the omnipresence of politics in our society turned the trial of Lindsay Clancy into a national obsession for a few days, at least. Left-leaning women lined up in support of the murderous mother, insisting that she was not legally responsible for those murders, that she had suffered a bout of postpartum psychosis and, therefore, did not have the capacity to understand the iniquity and severity of her actions.

Right-leaning commentators—men and women—reacted in turn to the fervency of Clancy’s supporters. Murder is murder, they insisted. Moreover, the evidence suggested premeditation, not a psychotic break. Of course, what really bothered those on the right, Clancy’s detractors, was the very existence of those on the left, Clancy’s supporters. The fact that there exists an organized, animated, and sizable contingent of people who would consciously choose to lionize a child-murderer and to lend her their political, spiritual, and financial support served as proof that there is something profoundly wrong in our society, something ugly, something monstrous.

Part of this, of course, is the familiar story of the politicization of everything, the incidental but defining characteristic of classical, post-Enlightenment liberalism that turns every issue or disagreement into a competition between factions. A bigger part of it, though, is the direct, intentional politicization of everything having to do with women, which started as a cultural movement in the 1960s and morphed into the creation of an entirely new constitutional order.

Related articles: “The warped feminism of the Lindsay Clancy fan club: A mother who strangled her own children to death does not ‘represent’ all women.” (Georgina Mumford, spiked!)... “Exposing A Culture That Has Renamed Evil As ‘Mercy’” (Daniel Cohen, Harbinger’s Daily)...

2) “The National Security Question We Should Be Asking” (Casey Harper, Washington Stand)

From the article -- The question is: We don’t make many of our most important goods in the U.S. anymore. Isn’t this a major national security threat?

Of course, there are other national security questions:
How do we deal with the threat of nuclear North Korea?
Is Turkey really our friend long term?
How do we stabilize the Middle East?
How do we respond to a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan?
How do we prevent Russia’s invasion from plunging into NATO?

But plenty of people are asking those questions. The question I never hear asked is mine: is the global supply chain a crucial weakness in the event of a conflict with a superpower, especially China, which has far more production capacity than us?

This question began brewing during the COVID-19 crisis when you couldn’t find hand sanitizer, Lysol spray, and for some reason toilet paper on grocery store shelves. Then we learned that the vast majority (over 90%) of our masks were made in the U.S. Now, I have grown to hate those masks, as you likely have too, but it certainly illustrated the point that regardless of how great our nation was, when a crisis came, the store shelves were empty of what we wanted most.

3) “The Enemy Invasion of Our Schools: Chinese, Russian, and Islamic agendas are increasingly evident in America’s K-12 schools and colleges.” (Larry Sand, American Greatness)

From the article -- In reality, China is likely home to the world’s most tyrannical government, guided by a totalitarian ideology and ruled by the Chinese Communist Party. It deprives citizens of their rights on a sweeping scale and systematically curtails freedoms to retain power. As the U.S. State Department explains, “People in China cannot practice the religion or belief of their choice. They cannot express their opinions openly or form or join groups of their choosing without fear of harassment, arrest, or retribution. Members of minority groups are subject to mass arbitrary detention, Orwellian-style surveillance, political indoctrination, torture, forced abortions and sterilization, and state-sponsored forced labor.” Notably, the Chinese government systematically detains and persecutes both Uyghur Muslims and Falun Gong practitioners.

But the ominous assault on our students is not limited to China. Since 1996, Emzari Gelashvilli, a former Georgian intelligence official who reviewed KGB operational archives, has documented the systematic use of active Soviet measures to infiltrate Western educational institutions.

His findings show that the ideological transformation of American and other Western universities is not the product of organic domestic political evolution alone. At a minimum, it reflects external actors’ successful exploitation of institutional vulnerabilities—chiefly the Soviet Union’s intelligence apparatus, whose documented objectives align with the outcomes now visible on many U.S. campuses.

4) “The Left Is Dragging America Back to the Dark Ages” (Victor Davis Hanson, Daily Signal)

From the article -- Now let’s switch to the modern period. All of us now can call anywhere in the world in seconds on our iPhones. Anything you want to know, past, present, future, you can just get on a cheap computer and ask an artificial intelligence program from the many free platforms. You can watch movies, you can watch entertainment on satellites. Anything you want is at your fingertips. 

The nation itself is exploring space. We’re getting close to conquering cancer. I can attest to that. Computers allow you to write without even speaking. You can, unfortunately, compose a whole term paper or a book with AI. You can make a movie with AI. 

Yet at the same time that’s happening, look at what’s going on in Berkeley here in California or Los Angeles. We’re seeing outbreaks of medieval diseases that we thought had been conquered years ago, given our sophisticated knowledge of sewage and water treatment. We had a typhus breakout in Los Angeles. We had leptospirosis, a rat disease, in Berkeley. 

You look at the homeless camps all over our major cities. People are just out in the open fornicating, urinating, defecating, injecting drugs. There’s tons of feces that has to be removed, and it’s so strange in this modern medievalism.  We have sophisticated researchers who go into a hospital in Chicago or go to a cancer center in San Francisco and have to check the bottoms of their shoes to make sure they don’t have feces as they go into their space-age laboratories. 

5) “How Christian Physicians Are Being Screened Out by the Medical Establishment” (Zachary Patton, Washington Stand)

From the article -- Spanning throughout the U.S. and within the midst of the country’s medical education and residency programs, a silent ideological cleansing is occurring. For centuries, the Hippocratic Oath has existed as medicine’s north star of morality, an unwavering promise to preserve human life. Today, that honored commitment has become a career-ending liability.

Taking on the guise of standardized bioethics, accreditation boards and residency matching programs have begun systematically filtering out doctors who don’t fit the mold — largely those who are Christian due to their pro-life tendencies — all before they take their first step into an operating room.

What once stood as a respected tradition of statutory conscience protections, such as federal Church Amendments, is slowly being dismantled without Congress batting an eye. Rather, the medical establishment has come to rely entirely on subtle gatekeeping. Months before a student even considers applying for a residency match program, the intense filtration begins in medical school admissions via Multiple Mini Interviews and contextual ethics scenarios. While made to effectively measure communication and empathy levels, these rubrics often reward compliance with secular criteria, framing moral objections by treating physicians to elective procedures as failure to demonstrate professional flexibility.

The pressure only grows once the graduate medical education level is reached, where specialty programs are required by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education to provide training in family planning and other elective operations. While federal law protects a resident’s right to refusal, exercising it often means risking administrative relations and peer hostility.

Other Important Articles from the Week
(with a couple dropped in from Vital Signs Blog)

* “California Pastor Jack Hobbs Warns: Christian Apathy Is Enabling The Islamic ‘Culture War’ In America” (Erick Stakelbeck, Harbinger’s Daily)

* “What Happens to MAGA When Trump Is Gone? Donald Trump has remade the Republican Party in his own image. But history suggests that political movements rarely survive intact once their founders leave the stage.” (Victor Davis Hanson, Free Press)

* “The Assertion That Bible Prophecy Is ‘Tertiary’ Has Caused Considerable Damage Within The Body Of Christ” (Jonathan Brentner, Harbinger’s Daily)

* Remembering 9/11 (Denny Hartford, Vital Signs Blog)

* "The Biblical Case for Work" (Denny Hartford, Vital Signs Blog)

Remembering 9/11

On this the 25th anniversary of the horrific terrorist attacks by Islamic jihadists on the United States -- attacks which murdered nearly 3,000 people and created immense and long-enduring waves of fear and grief -- I’m not only remembering those despicable events this morning but also considering how very little America and the rest of the Western world learned from them. Let me write down a few of my reflections.

1) I was in southern Poland when the mass murderers struck. I was part of a small team serving handicapped people and their families by making friends, sharing the gospel, and distributing much-needed wheelchairs and walkers. We were doing so through the graces of Joni Eareckson-Tada’s Wheels for the World ministry. We had concluded most of our work for the day and had just begun a meal with some town officials when shocked faces and whispered conversations suggested something terrible had happened. But no one told us anything; well, except in learning the meeting was canceled due to a great tragedy occurring back in the United States. The locals suggested we go back to our hotel. 

Imagine hearing this and then walking back through the little town shadowed by unknown fears and sorrow and speculation. Had there been an earthquake or tornado swarms? An assassination? We were at a complete loss. Then, finally we arrived at the hotel where there were a few Poles who spoke English. But before they tried explaining, they openly wept, embraced us, and then pointed us to the television screens where we saw the films of the airplanes striking the Towers. The reality turned out to be more dire, more wicked than anything we had imagined. And there were a lot more horrors to come. 

Miraculously, I was able to make telephone contact with Claire fairly quickly and there was much comfort in that. But, as the hours and days stretched on, there was much more to learn, to mourn, and to try and deal with. And we had to do it apart from one another for there were no planes flying into the U.S. They wouldn’t be for many days to come. Therefore, our team decided to go ahead and complete the ministry tasks before us. Claire had to “play the medic” with friends and family stateside while also praying, getting accurate information to pass on to me, and fighting the paralyzing shock which came from sitting too long before the television’s endless replays of the attacks. It would be another 10 days or so before I got back to Nebraska to be with her.

2) My remembrances of these awful, awful days will always brightened a bit by the recall of Poland’s remarkable outpouring of sympathy and solidarity and tender friendship towards the United States...and to me personally. Everywhere we went there were tears and embraces and flowers and attempts to say in English “I am so sorry” and “We are praying for you” and so on.

I was to eventually learn that there was no nation that even came even close to expressing the love and loyalty and spiritual kinship to America as did Poland in that time. And being one of those blessed to experience in direct and abundant ways their tender hearts, I thank the Poles from the depths of my heart.

3) There was a lot made in those first days about the terrorist attacks serving as an awesome alarm, a trumpeting judgment, an ominous warning to America and the West about our indifference to God and to the low stupidity of mere secularism as a way of life. And, as Claire explained to me over the phone, there were people going suddenly to church, there were more references to God even by politicians and media agents, and more of an honest recognition of our nation’s spiritual unpreparedness. But what happened? Well, it was a very shallow, very brief awakening indeed. And by the time I arrived back into the country, everything was back to its dead normalcy. It turned out that even the shock of these historically unique and unimaginably barbaric terror attacks was not enough to persuade us to get right with Almighty God. In fact, the powers that be were soon twisting these demonic attacks into a bizarre tapestry of symbols and slogans, religious syncretism, empty (and coldly ironic) platitudes about unity and brotherhood, and over-the-top praises of our brave, tolerant, enduring, and free-spirited selves.

Oh yes; there were a few brave and faithful voices calling out for genuine repentance and close attention to the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ: Franklin Graham, Jack Hibbs, John MacArthur, Greg Laurie, and others. But most Christian leaders, including the local pastors, failed to take this dramatically open door to teach the truths about the wages of sin, the exclusivity of the gospel, and the brutal and wicked blasphemies which pervade the “peaceful” religion of Islam.

4) And that last point introduces my 4th theme of these reflections this morning. My friends, we must admit that a combination of a) an unconscionable ignorance of the tenets of Muslim religion, b) an unconscionable ignorance of the history of Islamic militancy, and c) a rank cowardice to take a stand for truth that kept America and the West from honestly, effectively dealing with 9/11. For we can read what the Koran openly teaches. We can read the history books detailing Islam’s attitudes (and actions) toward the non-Muslim world. And we can look around us to see how far the evil character of Muslim jihad has invaded the West in just the last 3 generations.

If the Muslim inspired mass murders of 9/11 cannot awaken us to what Islam is and what Islam demands, what on earth will? If Europe (including the United Kingdom) tolerates (and sometimes even embraces) Islamic extremes -- sharia law, forced conversions, honor killings, genital mutilation of women, rape, and lazy individuals leeching off the fruits of Western civilization until they’re completely used up -- who will ever draw a “no more surrender” line? And as goes Europe, so too is going Canada and Australia...and the United States of America. 

Alas, the slogans of 9/11 ring terribly hollow now. For rather than dealing with the horrid realities, we are electing vehemently anti-American Muslims to public office, allowing loudspeakers to sound their strident calls to prayer throughout the day, requiring citizens to observe Muslim holidays, and so on. And, all the while, acting with straight faces like Islamophobia is a real thing while ignoring the waves of anti-Semitism and anti-Christianity that are engulfing the world. Good grief. 

So...my reflections on the anniversary of 9/11? They are intense; they are sad; and they are not very optimistic. But then, I joyfully remember this overarching fact -- because I have trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior, I am a citizen of another country, another kingdom and He has settled my eternal future in the New Jerusalem which He will bring out of heaven as eternity begins. And because of that glorious future, because of the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit available to me right now, and because His Word is solid and effective in directing my steps now and until He takes me home, I can live my life as a light-bearing ambassador for the Lord Jesus in any culture, any circumstance. Thank You, Lord. Revive Your people and cause us to walk in Your ways. 

The Biblical Case for Work

In observance of

Labor Day...

* We are workers because we’re created in the image of God.

* We are called to perform our work for the Lord. It is a part of our worship. And we must depend on Him for strength and success in our work.

* We work now under difficult circumstances but that’s not God’s fault. No, it’s our fault because of our introduction (and continuance) of sin in the world. One day, when the curse is lifted and all creation is reconciled to God, our work for Him will be fully adventurous and fulfilling and delightful as it was originally designed to be.

* All work, if done for God, pleases Him and moves forward His kingdom.  There are no divisions between types of work just as there is no true division between the secular and sacred.  He is Lord of all.

* The Bible teaches in both example and precept a strong work ethic.  It condemns laziness and lack of planning.  It also condemns the exploitation of labor.

* Work, properly performed, is an ennobling thing -- a virtue that God applauds and will reward in the life to come.

* One motive of work is to be able to help others in need.

* We are taught the seriousness of being a skilled worker.  This includes care, learning, wisdom, planning, and preparation.

* We are to continually invite the Lord to be in our work.

* The frequent emphasis on the performance of good works in the Lord’s Name isn’t just about “religious” activity. It includes our occupations, our ministries, our housework, our lawn work…all of our work.

The Top 5 Plus (September 5)

1) “Owning A Child’s Mind?: Nebraska Court Considers If Government ‘Education’ Is Unconstitutional” (Alex Newman, Harbinger’s Daily)

From the article -- Do compulsory education and government-school funding violate the U.S. Constitution and the free-speech rights of parents as enshrined in the First Amendment? A Nebraska court is considering that very question right now. The implications could be far-reaching. 

A pair of Lincoln families have finally put into a courtroom what Columbia Law School Professor Philip Hamburger has been arguing for years: the government-school monopoly is not merely a bad policy. It is an unconstitutional machine for substituting the government’s speech for the speech of parents.

On August 13, as children across Nebraska headed back to class, the New Civil Liberties Alliance filed Jacobsen v. Spellerberg in Lancaster County District Court. Plaintiffs Justin Jacobsen and Timothy and Joanna Menter are challenging the state’s combination of compulsory schooling and public-school-only funding.

Represented by the organization Hamburger founded, they contend that Nebraska abridges their First Amendment right to educate their own children.

2) “Anyone Who Knows The History Of Islam And The West Knows This Doesn’t End Well” (Erick Stakelbeck, Harbinger’s Daily)

From the article -- They say that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. We’re seeing this in real time in 2026 when it comes to the rise of Islam in the West.

Muslim populations in Europe, Canada, Australia, and right here in the United States are growing at a rapid clip—so is the building of mosques. What makes this mass immigration so unprecedented is that these new Muslim arrivals have been welcomed in by their host countries. Despite approximately 1,400 years of confrontation between Islam and the West and jihad after jihad launched against non-Muslims, today’s so-called Western leaders apparently think this time will be different.

If you understand Islamic history, you know how dangerously wrong they are.

The armies of Islam roared out of the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century. They violently conquered much of the known world, from the Middle East and North Africa to South Asia and swaths of Europe. They drove as far as central France before being turned back and reached the gates of Vienna twice.

Rome was sacked by Muslim armies. Sicily, Hungary, Greece, and the Balkans all came under Islamic control. The crown jewel of Islam’s European conquests was Spain, which was ruled by Muslims for nearly 800 years before they were finally expelled in 1492.

3) “Who Has Been Driving That Big Rig Looming Over You on the Highway?” (Eileen J. O’Connor, American Greatness)

From the article -- How surprised were you to learn that the person behind the wheel of that 80,000-pound tractor-trailer towering over you at a high rate of speed on the highway might be an illegal alien who neither reads nor speaks nor understands English, including rules of the road and street signs? You probably figured that someone operating that enormous, powerful, potentially dangerous, and important segment of the transportation industry has been trained in accordance with standards set by a government agency, and that a government official has verified that to be the case.

Only after social media began featuring videos of the carnage caused by foreign nationals who clearly had no business operating big rigs did the public awaken to the fact that laws intended to promote highway safety were either ineffective or not enforced or both.

How has this happened? The short answer is four levels of complete and utter government failure:

-- the complete and utter refusal of many states to comply with federal law;

-- the complete and utter failure of the responsible federal agency to detect and deal with that refusal and impose the penalties the law provides;

-- the complete and utter failure of the relevant agency’s Inspector General to detect the agency’s failure;

-- the complete and utter absence of Congressional oversight.

More detailed answers can be found in an August 5, 2026 investigative report by FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. It is titled License to Kill: Uncovering the Anti-Borders Takeover of the National CDL Program.

Related articles – “Trump admin shuts down 270 driving schools in fraud crackdown: The administration shut down hundreds of driving schools for granting licenses to illegal immigrants” (Anders Hagstrom, Fox Business)...“Sean Duffy says nearly 300 truck driving schools have been shut down nationwide” (Rubin Report staff)

4) “The Jason Arday Scandal Proves Woke Isn’t Over” (Helen Andrews, American Mind)

From the article -- Optimists have lately claimed that wokeness was a fad that has gone out of style. To their credit, there has been evidence to support this. “Woke 1 was crazy,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in August on ABC News. “Rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric we would use today.” Progressivism’s biggest champions seem eager to distance themselves from its recent excesses.

But the Jason Arday scandal shows that wokeness is not over, not by a long shot. The fact that Arday held a well-paid position at one of the world’s most prestigious universities is a telling sign that wokeness is alive and well.

More telling still is that powerful and otherwise seemingly intelligent people, such as the autism specialist Simon Baron-Cohen, have leaped to defend Arday. It would have been easy for people on the Left to acknowledge his blatant fraud and dismiss him as an isolated case whose offenses have no bearing on the broader issue of DEI in higher education. They did not.

The lesson for the Right is that there is much more work to do to dismantle wokeness, and it will not simply be a matter of doing more of what we have been doing so far. The power centers of wokeness are not just holdouts we haven’t gotten around to eliminating yet. They are strongholds that have been impervious to our tactics.

5) “The Exclusivity of the Cross” (Franklin Graham, Decision)

From the article -- In July 28, I had the privilege of proclaiming the eternal promises of the Gospel at Washington National Cathedral during the memorial service for U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham.

The senior statesman from South Carolina, who died unexpectedly on July 11 from an aortic tear, was remembered as a tireless advocate for faith and freedom and a defender of the U.S. Constitution and Israel. I was glad to hear his longtime pastor at Corinth Baptist Church in Seneca, South Carolina, share about the late senator’s profession of faith in Jesus as his Savior and Lord.

I stood in the same church where my father preached some 25 years ago following the horrific 9/11 terrorist attacks on our homeland. I said that for those who have been to the foot of the cross in repentance and believed in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, death is not the end but instead the beginning of eternity in the presence of Almighty God.

Standing before members of our nation’s executive, legislative and judicial branches of government, I lifted high the Name above all names—Jesus Christ—as I read from God’s inerrant and infallible Word about a glorious eternity for those whose lives are surrendered to Christ.

Other Important Reads from this Week:

* “De-grading America’s Children: Grade inflation, along with dumbed-down curricula and tests, persists throughout U.S. schools.” (Larry Sand, American Greatness)

* “The Mutation of Womanhood: American universities and social networks, increasingly dominated by radical-left ideology, are now cultivating revolutionary women in significant numbers.” (Sasha Gong, American Greatness)

* “The Chinese Dragon Lurks Beneath the Pacific: China's Atomic-Powered Submarines, With Nuclear-Tipped Missiles, Can Reach US Cities, Pacific Rim” (Lawrence Kadish, Gatestone Institute)

* “Health Insurance Costs Are Soaring. Here’s Why: Costs have more than quadrupled as consumers lost control over  healthcare spending.” (Deane Waldman, M.D., American Spectator)

* “The Progress(ives) War on Reliable and Affordable Electricity” (Geoffrey Pohanka, Real Clear Energy)

The Top 5 Plus (August 29)

1) "'Antisemitic Dictator': Turkish Military Entrenchment In Syria And Erdogan’s Ongoing Plot To Annihilate Israel" (Breanna Claussen, Harbinger's Daily)

From the article -- The goals of Turkey are not shrouded in mystery. Turkish President Recep Erdoğan and officials within the nation have spent years openly calling for the invasion and annihilation of Israel as well as the “liberation” of Jerusalem from the Jews. In a fiery speech, Erdoğan recently called for an end to the Jewish State and the “Promised Land delusion.” “With Allah’s permission, we will never allow this,” he declared, adding that Israel’s destruction is the “duty of humanity.”

In efforts to carry out that objective, Turkey is working to position itself in Syria, moving incrementally toward the border of the Jewish State...

Arutz Sheva, in a timely op-ed titled “The Mask of NATO Has Fallen: Turkey is revealed as a mortal threat to Israel and the West,” emphasized the absurdity that Turkey maintains NATO protections, calling it an “act of strategic suicide for the Western world and a direct, existential threat to the survival of Israel.”

“For nearly half a century, the political capitals of the Western world have indulged in an unpardonable strategic delusion,” the article began. “They have meticulously maintained the comfortable fiction that Turkey is an indispensable, if somewhat recalcitrant, North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally. They have systematically turned a blind eye to imperialist expansionism, systemic domestic tyranny, and the methodical projection of radical Islamist influence across the globe.”

“Today, that luxury of strategic willful blindness is utterly shattered,” the writer underscored. “On the ground, this ideological enmity [of Turkey] has manifested as a direct, aggressive military escalation aimed at altering the regional balance of power. Turkey is expanding its military presence across Syria and pushing as close to Israel as possible. The geopolitical intent behind these troop movements is transparent to any serious military analyst. Through the establishment of illegal occupation zones, fortified outposts, and the integration of radical Syrian militias into auxiliary forces, Ankara is creating an unyielding territorial foothold. Israel’s targeted strike on Abu Dhur airport in Idlib was a warning shot across the Turkish bow, not a Syrian one. It was a direct, unambiguous signal that Jerusalem recognizes the encroaching menace on its northern border and will not permit an aggressive military cordon to tighten around its territory.”

“The time for diplomatic appeasement, transactional compromises, and willful blindness has passed,” the article continued. “Western nations must confront the reality of the Turkish threat… before the strategic damage becomes irreversible.”

2) "Were the Bombs of August 1945 ‘Demonic’?: The atomic bomb was not created by demons, but by scientists trying to end a war before even more people died." (Victor Davis Hanson, American Greatness)

From the article -- First, the bombs were originally envisioned to stop the Third Reich and end the costly conventional Allied bombing campaign over Germany (over 80,000 dead British and American airmen, along with some 15,000 bombers lost). But producing a deliverable bomb took far longer than anticipated and was realized only after Germany surrendered.

Second, the military, the Truman administration, and the American public were still in a state of shock over the devastating losses suffered at Okinawa, declared secure just six weeks before Hiroshima. The invading U.S. land, sea, and air forces had suffered 50,000 casualties, including 12,000 dead—in what had initially been expected to be the least costly of a half-dozen bloody American amphibious landings.

Before Okinawa, planners believed they had learned from the overconfidence that had nearly proved to be catastrophic at Iwo Jima, Peleliu, and Tarawa. Yet despite those lessons, a weakened Japanese military, and total U.S. air and naval supremacy, Okinawa became the deadliest island operation of the entire Pacific war. And because it was the last major land battle, stunned U.S. planners in summer 1945 shuddered about what might come from a planned invasion of the entire Japanese mainland. As a general rule, the closer the Americans got to the Japanese homeland, the more they died.

Okinawa had been defended by about 120,000 Japanese soldiers and Okinawan conscripts, most of whom fought to the death. The defenders had launched about 2,000 kamikaze suicide-attack aircraft—each a veritable cruise missile—sinking 26 ships and killing nearly 5,000 Navy personnel.

Given some 2.3 million Japanese troops on the home islands, fully mobilized for an American invasion and backed by 12,000 combat aircraft (including 9,000 kamikazes), as well as a militia of some 25 million combatants, American planners believed the invasion of the Japanese homeland would easily cost one million casualties—the equivalent of 20 Okinawas.

3) "Europe in Free Fall" (Guy Millière, Gatestone Institute)

From the article -- The European Union has also proliferated stifling regulations that place a heavy encumbrance on businesses. Restrictions on gas and electricity production, combined with a drive for a rapid and extremely costly transition to "renewable energy", have resulted in natural gas prices in Europe that are now three to five times higher than in the US, and electricity prices that are 2 to 4 times higher than in the US. To survive, many European companies have relocated production outside Europe.

International investment is turning away from Europe. Nine of the world's top ten tech companies are American; the tenth is Taiwanese.

Although heatwaves have been affecting Europe for more than two decades, the continent remains resistant to air conditioning, viewing it as an expensive luxury (AC consumes costly electricity).... In 2003, a heatwave in Europe killed more than 20,000 people. Almost nothing was done to prevent a recurrence, so in 2026, another heatwave has already claimed 25,000 lives.

Pessimism about the future — fueled by the questionable narrative berating "man-made global warming" and the hyped-up fear that the planet may become uninhabitable — is on the rise in Europe.

Most new immigrants in Europe come from the Muslim world and appear to have no interest whatever in assimilating or becoming more westernized. Many are emphatically discouraged from doing either by the leaders of their communities, for instance, by "honor killings...." There appears to be a growing demand among immigrants, in fact, to make Europe more like the Third World countries they abandoned.

The proportion of Muslims in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden has been increasing decade after decade – with consequences that anyone even slightly versed in history could have expected. Warnings have gone unheeded.

4) "Lies, Damned Lies, And A $40 Trillion Debt" (I & I Editorial Board)

From the article -- It has been amusing to watch mainstream journalists (who’ve largely ignored the national debt crisis until it hit a nice round number of $40 trillion) try to explain how it’s all the fault of Middle East wars and tax cuts.

Somehow, the fact that federal spending has increased by nearly 300% over the past 25 years never enters the picture.

Instead, we get endless accounts about how President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act will add $4 trillion to the national debt, and how previous tax cuts by Trump and George W. Bush are supposedly responsible for more than a third of the current debt.

The Wall Street Journal puts it this way: “Wars, the bursting of the dot-com bubble, and tax cuts sent budgets off course in the early 2000s.”

False. False. And False.

5) "How Cambridge became the epicentre of Western self-loathing: The uni that liberated the world now employs a woman who called on Muslims to make weapons for jihad. God help us." (Brendan O'Neill, spiked!)

From the article -- Next time someone asks me what I mean by ‘suicide of the West’, I’m going to tell them that Cambridge University has a professor who once said Muslims should build ‘advanced weaponry’ for the coming ‘jihad’ to elevate Islam ‘over all other [religions]’. I’m going to let them know that at one of the highest seats of learning in Christendom, on the same dappled lawns walked by William Tyndale, Isaac Newton and Alan Turing, there now skulks an academic who once said ‘Allah’s reward’ will be ‘immeasurable’ for those who make ‘machinery for jihad’. For there it is, in all its snivelling idiocy and decadence: the West’s death wish.

Her name is Farah Ahmed. She’s an assistant research professor in Cambridge’s education faculty, the same department that employed the late fabulist, Jason Arday. Only where his wacky life story had been highly embellished, Ahmed’s is all too real. She was once an activist in the virulently bigoted Islamist outfit, Hizb ut-Tahrir. It was during her mingling with those homophobic, Jew-hating religious supremacists that Ms Ahmed wrote lovingly about ‘jihad’ while lamenting the ‘corrupt tradition[s]’ of the West. Never mind Allah’s reward – Cambridge’s reward for the woman who once spouted such medieval drivel has been an assistant professorship.

Other Excellent Reads from the Week

* "Children Last: While American education collapses, Randi Weingarten turns the teachers’ union into a permanent political campaign." (Spyridon Andrews, American Greatness)

* "'They Are Against the Principles of the Country They Live In': The Islamization of Europe" (Robert Williams, Gatestone Institute)

* "Is There a ‘Mean Girl’ Culture in the White House?: The Natalie Harp leaks show what happens when resentment rules the workplace." (Anne Hendershott, American Spectator)

* "Fauci’s Egomania Destroyed Lives Both On A Large Scale And On A Personal Level" (Margot Cleveland, Federalist)

* Welcome to Britain. Remember Not to Rape Anyone:The government’s official response to concerns about sexual violence by asylum seekers amounts to structural sexism." (Louise Perry, Free Expression)

The Top 5 Plus (August 22)

1) “The Demonic Possession of Liberal Women: Leftist women are at war with Christianity.” (Lou Aguilar, American Spectator)

From the article -- But too many traditionalists still believe the feminist hatred of them is  political not spiritual. They can’t or won’t make the necessary leap of faith to see the true face of the enemy behind the decreasingly female form. The women he possesses don’t have the same reluctance. If they cannot destroy God, they’ll destroy the God-fearing, and the family, the last best hope for Western Civilization. Even with the help of a false god whose worshippers would enslave them.

Unfortunately, the same power has captured many of the religious who would traditionally oppose it. Observe the once mighty Church of England with its caricature of an Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, a pro-choice former midwife. Although she has been less pro-Muslim immigration than the current Catholic Pope.

An online petition launched by LifeSiteNews has gathered tens of thousands of signatures calling on Boston Archbishop Richard G. Henning to excommunicate Governor Healey for her abominable bill. Henning will probably do nothing, given his progressive superiors in the Church, all the way up to the Vatican. Though his highest Superior may appreciate it. But what Healey and her coven need is not excommunication. It’s exorcism.

Related articles: “Why All Leftism Is Now Far Left: How identity politics conquered progressivism.” (Itxu Díaz, American Spectator)...“DSA Praises Fidel Castro in 100th Birthday Tribute, Denounces Marco Rubio as ‘Genocidal’” (Jarrett Stepman, Daily Signal)

2) “The Unmaking of Jason Arday -- Whatever else can be said about the ‘Jason Arday Affair,’ he was not the victim.” (Roger Kimball, American Greatness)

From the article -- I say “his” book, but it was only incidentally his. A “book doctor” called Eve Claxton was listed as co-author, and it soon emerged that another co-author was that prodigious scribe, AI. More digging revealed that Arday’s dissertation was lifted largely from a 2009 PhD thesis by a Brunel University student, Paula Zwozdiak-Myers.

But the plagiarism was, I noted, only the tip of the midden. There was also Arday’s unbridled fabulism. Among other things, he claimed to have run 30 marathons in 35 days. As revelations mounted, Cambridge at first circled its wagons and dismissed any criticism of its prize black scholar as a “vile campaign to undermine his credibility.” But no, Arday did all the undermining himself. Like Belshazzar at his famous feast, he could see the writing on the wall. And the writing had more or less the same import as that the Babylonian king saw inscribed before him by a ghostly hand. I am told that “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin” means something like “You have been weighed in the balance and have been found wanting.” Arday’s similar message could be summarized more briefly: “The jig is up.”

Overwhelmed, Arday resigned his chair. I am not sure whether it was a sense of humor or merely chutzpah that encouraged him to leave the composition of his letter of resignation to AI, but there seems little doubt that AI was the “onlie begetter” of the missive. Alas, on Friday, August 14, the humiliation became too much. The police were called because Arday was found “unresponsive.” He was pronounced dead on the scene, an apparent suicide.

Who was to blame? A curious subhead to a story in The Wall Street Journal seems to me to get the question completely wrong. “Jason Arday’s academic rise and fall set off a debate about whether he was a plagiarist or victim of a racial witch hunt.” But that is a false dichotomy. There is no doubt that Arday was a plagiarist. And far from being the victim of “a racial witch hunt,” he was the victim of his own lies and intemperate behavior. And let’s not forget that his fabulations were directed not only at aggrandizing himself. He was also perfectly happy to play the race card to damage others, as when he complained to the police that journalists who were investigating his credentials were guilty of harassing him. The police duly opened a four-month-long investigation into a journalist who was simply going about his job.

Related articles: “Who’s really to blame for Jason Arday’s death?” (This unspeakable tragedy demands a reckoning with the cult of DEI. (Tom Slater, spiked!)...“The sanctification of Jason Arday: The narrative being spun about his tragic death is an affront to reason and a free media.” (Tom Slater, spiked!)...Simon & Schuster’s Disgrace (Washington Free Beacon Editors)

3) “Escaping the Educational Industrial Complex: It’s time for parents to take full control of their children’s education.” (Larry Sand, American Greatness)

From the article -- Parental unhappiness is certainly understandable, given that the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), aka the “Nation’s Report Card,” showed that in 2024, 12th-grade students scored their lowest in reading and math in decades. In math, 45 percent of high school seniors scored “below basic,” the lowest level since 2005. In reading, 32 percent scored “below basic,” the lowest level since the exam’s inception in 1992.

Among 8th-graders, 38 percent scored “below basic” in science, meaning they couldn’t recognize basic facts, such as the fact that plants need sunlight to grow.

At the same time that test scores are sinking, many teachers spend valuable class time exploring wokeism and related nonsense, and teachers’ unions refuse to allow bad teachers to be fired. The question then becomes what a parent should do to address this untenable problem.

If a school choice program or an effective charter school exists, a parent can send their children there. However, what if no choice options are available?

The answer is to take full control of your child’s education. While this may give many parents pause, homeschooling is a deeply American tradition. Contrary to stereotypes, it is no longer a niche practice but an accessible, effective, and reasonable option for parents seeking greater control over their children’s instruction.

Related article: “The New Tactic Of Gov’t Education: Parents Are The ‘Oppressors’ And Children Must Be ‘Liberated’” (Alex Newman, Harbinger’s Daily)

4) “Islam’s Trojan horse: We must ask Muslim immigrants if they will respect the Western way of life.” (Thane Rosenbaum, Jewish News Service)

From the article -- In Nolan’s film (though not in Homer’s text), Odysseus, the wily warrior who conjured the entire Trojan horse scheme, is left traumatized by its aftermath—the slaughter of all those Trojan men, women and children.

We’re told never to look a gift horse in the mouth. Yet, the craftsman of that ultimate equine gift, Odysseus, knew that it’s probably good practice to more heavily scrutinize a gift. One never knows whether it may contain a surprise from which the beneficiary may never recover.

Contemporary Europeans know a little something about booby-trapped gifts. The West has been led to believe for well over a century that immigration is a national gift to give and receive. The mass infusion of talent and energy, the innate quest to seek the opportunities that free nations offer, to join in the service of nation-building and self-improvement, can only enhance the collective experience of the country.

But Europeans, and perhaps soon Americans, now know that immigration can also make a country worse. If the new arrivals are not properly vetted; if their arrival was not motivated by the pursuit of happiness but rather a mission of conquest; if they flash a grateful, friendly face at the border that changes into one more fierce at the local mosque, a national threat materializes, internally, without the mess that military invasions produce.

Related articles: “Hating Israel Fatigue” (Victor Hanson, Blade of Perseus)...“Wise up, America! The war of conquest against the West involves both Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood.” (Melanie Phillips, Jewish News Service)

5) “The Fall of Fauci” (Phillip W. Magness, Civitas Outlook)

From the article -- Dr. Anthony Fauci’s fall from grace is now the cautionary tale that many of us have been telling since early 2020. It starts with entrusting broad powers to a single person who, in this case, called himself  "the science" while actually disavowing it, and with the well-being of the American public, to increase his own wealth and power.  

It is estimated that Fauci's net worth exceeds $12.5 million. His diaries, released to the public two weeks ago, boast of appearing on magazine covers, attending A-list parties, being fawned over by the media, and having donuts named after him. They also claim he’s the reason governors locked down their states. What a towering image. 

Fauci's diaries show that he was the main force behind cultivating that image. The roots go back more than 40 years, when he became head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). But no more. In last week’s hearing before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, it all came crumbling down in full public view. 

Related article: “The Lawless And Corrupt Actions Of Men Won’t Stay In The Shadows For Long” (Breanna Claussen, Harbinger’s Daily)

Yet More Excellent Articles from the Week

* “I was a sports columnist at the Seattle Times for 11 years. This is why I resigned.” (Matt Calkins, Substack)

* “Tossing and Turning: Those who put basic human realities up for grabs are shocked, shocked to find that everything else is now up for grabs too.” (Anthony Esolen, American Greatness)

* “America and the Europoor” (John Hinderaker, Power Line)

* “Those illegal migrant ‘rape’ booklets shame the British state -- If asylum seekers need to be told not to sexually abuse women and children, what are they doing in the UK?” (Hugo Timms, spiked!)

* “The Church Is Growing -- But Is It Healthy?” (Sarah Holliday, Decision)

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)