The Top 5 Plus (November 29)

1) “Thanksgiving: Why It Is America’s Foundational Holiday: How the Pilgrims’ courage, faith, and hard-won lessons still shape the American character.” (Scott S. Powell, American Spectator)

From the article -- Thanksgiving is really the holiday that made the other American holidays possible. Were it not for the Pilgrims having courage, absolute faith in their cause and calling, and the willingness to sacrifice and risk everything, they never would have attempted to cross a vast ocean on the 94-foot Mayflower, a ship of questionable seaworthiness.

The Thanksgiving holiday, which commemorates one part of the Pilgrim story, remains the favorite holiday for many Americans. And for good reasons, beyond enjoying a feast. With our country passing through troubled times, it is worth revisiting the Pilgrim’s five significant achievements, which created the seminal story of America, and reveals remarkable insight into who we are and the qualities of character we need to overcome our present challenges.

And this related article: “A National Day of Gratitude” (Juliana Geran Pilon, Civitas)

2) “A Passionate Defense of Christian Nationalism: Why America’s Christian roots are the last line of cultural defense.” (John MacGhlionn, American Spectator)

From the article -- “Christian nationalism” is just the latest label for something the Church once took for granted: the belief that a Christian people should shape a Christian culture.

Before the critics start shrieking, convulsing, or calling for an exorcism, let me be clear. The Christian nationalism I’m talking about has nothing to do with violence, tribal rage, or the cartoon caricatures the activist class trots out on social media. It’s simply the recognition that American identity, in its traditional and authentic sense, is inseparable from Christianity. A nation reflects its roots. A culture mirrors its creed. Christian nationalism, properly understood, is the cultural expression of Christian belief. Not a call to smash windows or reenact Old Testament battles, no matter how much the professional handwringers wish it were.

Stevens builds his case on the idea that Christian nationalism “is not a religion.” But no serious believer ever said it was. It isn’t meant to replace Christianity. It flows from it. The same way courage flows from faith, charity flows from grace, and — as Church history shows — social order flows from belief. Faith always spills into public life; the only question is whether it shapes society in healthy or harmful ways. Remove Christianity from the public square and you don’t get neutrality. Quite the opposite, in fact. You get the vacuum we see today. One shaped by power, money, identity politics, and a rising Islamic influence filling the space where Christian confidence collapses.

3) “Elon Musk’s zeal for truth reveals the online frauds aiming to divide us” (Glenn H. Reynolds, New York Post)

From the article -- But on Friday Elon Musk, having figured out that a lot of influential X accounts weren’t what they claimed to be, activated an X feature showing where users were actually posting from — and uncovered (at least) a million lies. 

Turns out a lot of users claiming to be disillusioned Trump voters, or anti-Israel Americans, are actually foreign frauds. Like the one that posted: “Trump is Israel First. I’m done with MAGA. I hope Republicans lose.”  

Americans turning on Trump over Israel?   Nope. The account was based in Turkey.

Likewise the woke-right “groyper” movement supposedly elevating white supremacist Nick Fuentes seems to be largely a foreign sham, and “Ron Smith, MAGA Hunter,” a prolific anti-Trump poster with a substantial following, turns out to be from Kenya. 

Many users billing themselves as “Native American” with accounts specializing in divisive racial attacks on white people are actually foreign, and mostly from Bangladesh. And so on, and so on.

Related articles: “Social Media: The Disinformation Capital of the World” (Roger Simon, Substack)...“Geographic Reveal Exposes Fakes” (John Hinderaker, Power Line)...”Elon Exposed the Fake Activists” (John Hinderaker, Power Line)...“How Much of What You Read Is Fake?” (David Strom, Hot Air)...“Journalism Standards, Anyone?” (Cory Franklin, JK)

4) “Defending Faith: America’s Vital Role in the Global Fight for Persecuted Christians” (Virginia Prodan, Washington Stand)

From the article -- We are at a critical moment in our shared history — a moment that calls for our collective conscience, moral clarity, and unwavering commitment to justice. Christians are facing a genocide around the globe.

And while President Donald Trump is championing religious liberty in Syria after hosting the former al-Qaeda fighter turned president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, and declaring Nigeria a “country of particular concern” because of the slaughter of Christians, we cannot be naive.

Christian persecution is already here in America. Our nation is becoming a dangerous place for faithful believers to live. We must stand up now for the persecuted — not only as individuals but as a united front for our brothers and sisters around the world.

Policymakers, churches, and ordinary citizens have a moral responsibility to ensure our nation remains a beacon of hope and freedom for all, especially the vulnerable persecuted for their faith.

5) “The Radicalization of Gen Z: A rootless generation looks for home in dark places.” (Eddie LaRow, American Mind)

From the article -- What is going on with Gen Z?

I’ve written elsewhere that Gen Z is experiencing a kind of church resurgence. That remains true. But at the same time, Gen Z is one of the most polarized generations in American history.

In 2024, Gen Z—led in part by young activists like Charlie Kirk and Scott Pressler—shifted toward Donald Trump. He won 46% of Gen Z voters—56% of young men and 40% of young women. This led many to expect that a younger, more populist generation would shift the country rightward. But now, in 2025, the self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani won 78% of the youth vote in New York City—67% of young men and 84% of young women. Far from being locked into any one existing political party, young people are more divided than ever.

Other Recommended Articles from This Week:

* “Even With Islam’s Alarming Rise, Claims Of A Muslim Antichrist Are Not Grounded In Biblical Truth” (Amir Tsarfati, Harbinger’s Daily)

* “Are murder mysteries Christian?” (Paul Asay, Christian Post)

* “David McCullough’s ‘History Matters’” (Chuck Chalberg, Imaginative Conservative)

* “The Civil War to Define (Refine) MAGA -- MAGA isn’t dying; it’s defining itself.” (Arthur Schaper, American Greatness)

* “The 10 Guiding Principles of MAGA” (Stephen Helgesen, American Thinker)

The Top 5 Plus (November 22)

My apologies, but with 7 “When Swing Was King” presentations last week, fighting the falling leaves, dealing with a root canal last night, prayers at the abortion business, an eye doctor appointment, and hosting a successful letter-writing party this morning, I'm afraid this week’s Top 5 is being posted without excerpts and without the usual 5 extra articles...unless you count all the ones related to Number 3 in my list! Here you go...

1) “Violent Attacks against Christians Spike in Europe, Watchdog Warns” (Jon Brown, Washington Stand)

Related article: “‘Europe is persecuting Christians’ -- The ‘progressive’ blasphemy laws smothering free speech across Europe.” (Paul Coleman, spiked!)

2) “The Left Thinks Western Civilization Itself Is ‘White Nationalist’” (Casey Chalk, Federalist)

3) “The Desecration of Our Heritage: An institution stands by those who would destroy the West’s institutions” (Mike Burke, Commentary) 

Several enlightening articles related to this matter: “When Tucker Quit America: Tucker Carlson has simultaneously rejected the American political system as we have understood it from its founding to today, and sought to be politically engaged.” (Richard Samuelson, Civets)...“Tucker Carlson Goes Full Truther” (James B. Meigs, City Journal)...“A fight for the soul of the right” (Scott Johnson, Power Line)...“All Kinds Of Crazy: Jack Hibbs And Calvary Chapels Become The Latest Targets Of Candace Owens’ Delusion” (Breanna Claussen, Harbinger’s Daily)...“A Tale of Two Pundits: Tucker Carlson and Mark Levin” (Rabbi Michael Barclay, PJ Media)

4) “Read the conservative op-ed the Texas A&M student paper refused to publish” (Justino Russell, The College Fix)

5) “The Left Is Nowhere Near Letting Go Of Its Trans Obsession” (Joshua Monnington, Federalist)

The Top 5 Plus (November 15)

1) “Twenty Million Dead: The Generation Abortion Stole from America” (John MacGhlionn, American Spectator)

From the article -- Imagine an entire generation, then erase nearly a third of it. That’s not a half-hearted thought experiment. It’s a national crime scene, neatly packaged as progress. 

Recent demographic reports reveal a devastating reality. Nearly 28 percent of Gen Z in America were denied the simple mercy of daylight. Between 1997 and 2011, 19.5 million lives were ended before they began. For every classroom, every cradle, every dinner table, an empty space mourns what never was.

The global context is equally grim. Nearly one in three pregnancies worldwide ends in abortion. In England and Wales, the rate has reached an all-time high. What was once framed as a “rare and tragic choice” has become routine — a conveyor belt of convenience turning human potential into medical waste. What looks like liberation is, in reality, liquidation. 

Our culture — decadent and desensitized — plays a central role. Celebrities now speak of abortion not with grief but with pride, turning tragedy into trend. British pop star Lily Allen — one of the defining names of the 2010s — recently confessed she’d had so many abortions she’d lost count. She said it casually, almost proudly, as though ending life were an act of empowerment. Once, that kind of confession would have shocked a nation. Today, it barely raises an eyebrow. A nation that won’t create life is already courting death.

2) “The Tales We Tell Our Children: How Children’s Literature Shapes a Civilization’s Soul” (Jamie K. Wilson, PJ Media)

From the article -- A young girl stands on a mountain of ice, her dress glittering like the northern lights. The world below has judged her, feared her, told her to hide what makes her different. Then comes the moment every parent remembers: she spreads her arms and sings, “No right, no wrong, no rules for me — I’m free.”

For a decade now, that line from Frozen has echoed in bedrooms and playgrounds, in sequined Elsa dresses and YouTube sing-alongs. It’s more than a song; it’s a creed. Every generation has a fairy tale that defines its moral world. For ours, it’s this one, a story in which isolation becomes empowerment, repression becomes villainy, and liberation means casting off every bond of duty or expectation.

There’s a reason the movie Frozen's iconic song ‘Let It Go’ hit like lightning. It gave girls permission to feel powerful, not weak. After centuries of tales where heroines obeyed, endured, or were saved, Elsa burst from the mold and claimed her own sovereignty. It felt fresh, defiant, modern. And yet, under the shimmer, the story carried a quiet inversion. Where older fairy tales taught that freedom comes through virtue, through courage, mercy, and love, Elsa’s anthem taught that freedom comes from rejecting virtue itself.

The transformation was moral, not musical. A generation earlier, Disney heroines longed to belong. Ariel gave up her voice for love, Belle sacrificed comfort for her father, Cinderella kept faith through humiliation. Elsa breaks the cycle by renouncing belonging. “Conceal, don’t feel” becomes “Feel, don’t kneel.” The dragon has been slain, but so has the idea of obedience.

For the little girls who sang it, this was thrilling. For the culture that raised them, it was revealing. The fairy tale had flipped: no longer a guide for how to master the self, but a hymn to self-sovereignty. And in that shift, an entire moral inheritance melted away.

3) “Maybe Totally Legalizing Vice Was Not Such a Great Idea After All” (Kurt Schlichter, Town Hall)

From the article -- Of course, vice invites corruption, and it’s now publicly infecting sports themselves (it has no doubt infected them for a while, with point shaving, thrown games, and the like). It is also resurrecting the mob – I guess when the FBI was busy hassling moms for being mad about sex offenders in their kids’ locker rooms, the Mafia took advantage of the opportunity. The recent busts will be just the tip of the iceberg. Mark my words and move over, Black Sox – this will be a disaster for professional sports.

Then there’s the vice of dope smoking. We stamped out regular smoking pretty effectively; I freak young people out with tales of the smoking section and theaters where you couldn’t see the screen through the haze of burning tobacco. But somehow pot is different. You walk down any urban street and it’s like a Cypress Hill concert; you’re lucky if you don’t wander off the sidewalk and into traffic from the contact high. Even in the most conservative states, you will find dispensaries passing out supercharged ganja with 10 times the THC of the old skunk weed that stoner guy in your dorm used to fire up. Medicinal my tush; the only things it’s treating are boredom and ambition. Really, the smart play would have been legalizing cocaine, since people would at least be motivated to do something useful, like clean up their condo, sell junk bonds, or greenlight “Caddyshack.” Just what America needed – a drug designed to make our citizens lazier, dumber, and less interesting.

Of course, the urge to effectively legalize things that we suppressed for eons of human history because we’re so much smarter than those ancients doesn’t stop at dice n’ dope. No, they have done it for prostitution, too. Oh, wait – that’s a judgmental word. I mean “sex work,” which we should totally pretend to respect lest we shame the people involved in it. Of course, shame is just what’s needed. You should be ashamed of serious gambling. You should be ashamed of serious dope smoking. And you should be ashamed of selling yourself or others for sex. Sorry/not sorry to get all John Lithgow in the original “Footloose” on you, but just because people want to do bad, harmful things to excess does not mean we should make it easy for them. The wrecked lives of the guys condemned by the Draft Kings testify to that. The dead people killed in DUIs, where the “I” came from cannabis, testify to that. And the women forced to march along dirty urban streets selling themselves to skeevy creeps with the cops forbidden from intervening, as is true in California, testify to that.

4) “The Red-Green Axis, Antisemitism, And Bible Prophecy” (Olivier Melnick, Harbinger's Daily)

From the article -- For a while now, Israel and the Jewish people have been caught in a vise that is increasingly threatening their very existence. That vise is known as the red/green axis. Red being the ever-growing Marxist radical left (Communism on steroids), and Green being radical Islam (Sharia Law). Zohran Mamdani embodies the Red/Green axis all in one person. How such a person can exist, combining two opposite sides of an ideological spectrum, remains a mystery to me. It is highly irrational.

This has all the signs of America being destroyed from within! There is a quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln that says, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we lose our freedoms it will be because we have destroyed ourselves from within.” While those were not the exact words he uttered, the quote can be thematically connected to Lincoln’s 1838 speech in Springfield Illinois, at the Young Men Lyceum, “At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” The point is clear, America’s demise will most likely come from within, and Zohran Mamdani might be the first major step toward that!

Yet, there is a greater danger coming from Mamdani’s policies, and that is his utter disdain for Israel and the Jewish people. How 20-30% of New York Jews would vote for him in the primaries is so irrational. It is evident that Israel and Jewish customs and traditions are playing a very small role, if any, in the fabric of modern American Jewry. They have been slowly replaced by social justice, multiculturalism, and tolerance. The erosion of Jewish loyalty has created a vacuum that people like Mamdani will fill in a heartbeat.

And here are a terrific 16-minute video and
other articles related to the new surge of anti-Semitism. 

First, that excellent, very helpful video primer – “Confronting Conservative Antisemitism” (Victor Davis Hanson, Daily Signal). And then these articles: “The Buchanan Resurrection: The MAGA faction trying to erase Trump” (Lee Smith, Tablet); “The False Prophet of the Digital Right: What Nick Fuentes Really Sells: Conservatism must nurture character, not chaos.” (David Sypher Jr., American Spectator); “‘Utter Stupidity’: Conservatives Appalled by Tucker Carlson’s Latest Target” (Isaac Schorr, Mediaite); and “Europe’s moral collapse and the return of antisemitism: A fusion of woke ideology and Islamist activism has hollowed out Europe’s moral compass -- and Jews are paying the price.” (Fiamma Nirenstein, Jewish News Service)

5) “It’s Impossible To Keep Up With The Fall Of Britain” (John Daniel Davidson, Federalist)

From the article -- This kind of official response belies either astounding incompetence or barely-disguised malice. You would think that confronted with thousands of migrants illegally entering Britain from France every week, the government would rightly conclude that France is allowing migrants to cross the English Channel illegally en masse. You would think there would be repercussions for that. But instead, the British people get farcical statements from their political leaders about how the “one in one out” policy is working, even as the boats stream across the Channel.

Meanwhile, the consequences of unchecked migration and non-assimilation are playing out on the streets of increasingly dangerous British cities. Most of the migrants arriving in Britain are from places like Eritrea, Afghanistan, Sudan, and Somalian — societies that have very different views of civic life and of civilization itself. Most of them are Muslim, and upon their arrival they are absorbed into one of Britain’s many growing unassimilated Muslim communities — in Birmingham, Bedford, and parts of London like Tower Hamlets. These are places that only bear a faint resemblance to what they were 20 years ago thanks to mass immigration.

It has become impossible not to notice the change. Last month in Birmingham (a city that’s now a third Muslim), local authorities announced that fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv would not be allowed to attend the teams’ Europa League match against Aston Villa. The official reason given was that police could not guarantee the safety of the Tel Aviv fans. That was true enough, but the full reason, as everyone knew, is that the city’s Muslim population is both antisemitic and violent, and if Jewish Tel Aviv fans showed up in numbers, they would be attacked by a Muslim mob. (As it happened, a few Jewish fans did show up to protest, and police herded them into a nearby steel-ringed basketball court that protesters referred to as a “Jew cage,” even as Muslim fans roamed around chanting, “death to the IDF,” “Allahu Akbar,” and “from the river to the sea.”)

On top of non-assimilation, there is the issue of migrant crime, which is often directed at white British women. Last month, a 19-year-old asylum-seeker from Sudan named Deng Chol Majek was convicted of murdering 27-year-old Rhiannon Skye Whyte, who worked at the migrant hotel where Majek lived. Majek followed Whyte from the hotel to a bus station, where he stabbed her 23 times with a screwdriver, 19 times in the head. Afterwards he went to buy beer and was later seen dancing with other asylum-seekers in the hotel parking lot.

Other Highly Recommended Articles:

* “Nigerian Senator: Trump Is Right About Jihadist Massacres of Christians” (Frances Martel, Breitbart)

* “Let Us Now Read Famous Books -- And no, watching the miniseries version on BBC doesn't count.” (Jim Tonkowich, The Stream)

* “Trivializing Religion Left Us Unprepared for Political Islam” (Shmuel Klatzkin, American Spectator)

* “Florida Attorney General Sues Planned Parenthood for Claiming Abortion Pill Is ‘Safer than Tylenol’” (Katherine Hamilton, Breitbart)

* “Silent Pulpits, Celebrating Evil, And A New Level Of Delusion: Ten Things I Could Never Have Imagined Seeing In My Lifetime” (Jan Markell, Harbinger's Daily)

The Top 5 Plus (November 8)

1) “The Real Battle for America: After 250 years, America needs the church more than ever” (Jack Hibbs, Decision)

From the article -- When was the last time you truly labored in prayer for this nation? I’m talking about heartfelt, persistent, faith-filled prayer. That’s the kind of prayer God calls us to. We are told in 1 Timothy 2:1-2 to pray “for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.” If you want to see change in your country, start on your knees.

Prayer is essential, but it’s not the end of our calling. We are also commanded to take a stand. In Jude 3, we’re urged to “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” That word contend means to struggle, to wrestle, to fight for what matters.

We’re not called to hide. We’re not called to blend in. We’re called to speak up, even when it’s unpopular. The early church turned the world upside down, not because they were polite and quiet, but because they were bold and filled with the Spirit of God.

Look at Elijah. He didn’t just pray that his people would follow the Lord. He stood on Mount Carmel and called down fire. He didn’t shrink back from confronting evil. And neither should we.

2) “The Right’s Nick Fuentes Problem -- and Tucker Carlson’s Role in Mainstreaming It” (Tyler Rowley, American Spectator)

From the article -- Shapiro begins by defining what this fight is not about. It is not about free speech, and it is not about “cancellation.” Fuentes has every legal right to speak, he says, and Tucker has every right to interview him. Shapiro stresses that he has opposed de-platforming Fuentes, even though he considers Fuentes “odious and despicable.” Free speech, properly understood, is freedom from government coercion — not a right to be promoted, signal-boosted, and flattered by major conservative platforms.

What this is about, Shapiro argues, is drawing moral lines. Conservatives once understood that refusing to promote certain ideas — Nazism, open racism, calls for political violence — was not “cancellation,” it was sanity. Choosing not to launder those ideas for a mass audience is itself an exercise of free speech and free association.

To make the stakes clear, Shapiro walks through Fuentes’ own words. Fuentes has encouraged followers to “kill, rape and die” for him. He mocks Jim Crow as no big deal, claims white people are “justified” in being racist and avoiding black Americans, celebrates “Hitler Friday,” questions the Holocaust in cute “cookie” analogies, and repeatedly blames “the Jews” for every war and for secretly running the country. He fantasizes about executing “perfidious Jews” and other alleged enemies once his movement “takes power.”

This is not edgy trolling. It is explicit bigotry and totalitarian fantasizing, wrapped in pseudo-Christian rhetoric and aimed at alienated young men.

Related articles of note: “Why the Two Parties Have Diverged on Fighting Anti-Semitism” (Seth Mandel)...“Tucker Carlson aims to poison us with hatred -- but Donald Trump stands in the way” (Rich Lowry, New York Post)...“If Conservatives Do Not Immediately Sever Ties With Tucker Carlson, He Will Drag The Party Down With Him” (Olivier Melnick, Harbinger's Daily)...“Nick + Tucker: A Two-Man Unite The Right Rally” (Rod Dreher)

3) “Why A Pro-Life Witness Outside Abortion Businesses?” (Denny Hartford, Vital Signs Ministries)

From the article -- Because my honor as a Christian is at stake.  Where such brazen, violent injustice is occurring, how can I refuse the opportunity to testify against it?  Think about it — what does it mean to the reputation of the Church (not to mention her sense of moral priority) if children are brutally murdered in our own neighborhoods without us even raising our voices in principled protest?  How much is our evangelism and discipleship tarnished and weakened if we do not take seriously such charges as Jeremiah 22:3, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Do justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor. Also do not mistreat or do violence to the stranger, the orphan, or the widow; and do not shed innocent blood in this place.’” And Isaiah 1:16-17, “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean. Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Reprove the ruthless. Defend the orphan. Plead for the widow.”

Alas, fewer and fewer American Christians nowadays bother to go to abortion mills to pray and give pro-life witness. That’s an ominous warning of how far we have been cowed by the world around us.  We have become indifferent, callous, distracted, and wimpy.  Nevertheless, the grace of God remains available to us — grace that forgives and cleanses, grace that yields wisdom and strength, grace that yet can bring personal and cultural revolution.

Our marching orders are quite clear. We read them in the Scriptures already listed. And we read them in many others. Psalm 82:3,4: “Vindicate the weak and fatherless. Do justice to the afflicted and destitute.  Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.” Proverbs 24: 11,12: “Deliver those who are being taken away to death, and those who are staggering to slaughter, Oh hold them back.” James 1:27: “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

Giving public witness to the sanctity of life in this darkened and depraved culture is not the easiest thing.  But it remains extremely high in the values expressed by our Lord. And that’s why we engage in a compassionate but firm opposition to the barbaric killing of the little ones and why, by the grace of God, we will continue to do so. Wanna’ come join us?

4) “Stop mincing words” (Michael C. Hurley, American Thinker)

From the article -- The most depressing thing about waking up in the aftermath of Tuesday’s electoral wipeout is not the prospect of communism coming to New York or the normalization of political assassination culture in Virginia, but having to listen to the anodyne analysis of conservative commentators about “why we lost” and the “lessons” that Republican candidates need to learn going forward. To hear Tony Kinnett of the Daily Signal tell it, Winsome Earle-Sears would be the governor of Virginia today if only she had talked more about affordability and energy costs.

Mr. Kinnett is hardly the only conservative pundit seemingly unaware of what time it is. Fox News subjected viewers to a steady stream of political quackery about how candidates need to focus more closely on “kitchen table” issues the next time around.

No, they don’t.

No one, at this late hour, should be unaware of what the stakes are. We are in a spiritual war between good and evil, between the forces of order and the agents of chaos. Full stop. So let’s say so, clearly, without apology or embarrassment. Tell people they’re in a war, and a great many of them will show up to vote. Tell them they’re in a debate over monetary policy and energy development initiatives, and most of them will hit the snooze button and sleep in.

The forces of evil do not fail to understand our program. They are not casting about for a better balance of trade. They know they’re in a war for power, and they intend to win it, which is why they fight so passionately. Abortion isn’t an issue for them. It’s a sacrament. Climate change isn’t a scientific debate. It is a religious world-view that gives their lives meaning and purpose. Politics for the left isn’t an intellectual sport to be conducted within the polite parameters of free speech. It’s an unholy crusade to be won by any means necessary, including censorship, lawfare, defamation, perjury, conspiracy, insurrection and assassination.

5) “Europe’s Urban Decline Exposed” (John MacGhlionn, American Spectator)

From the article -- Twenty years ago, Europe still felt whole. Streets were still. Nights were calm. Many slept without worry. You could wander Marseille’s streets without a thought or lose yourself in Venice’s narrow lanes without a trace of fear. Today, that sense of sanity feels like an artifact from an ancient time. The latest World Safety Index report confirms what most already sense. Europe is no longer secure. France and Italy — once the crown jewels of the continent — now rank below Rwanda and Bangladesh for public safety.

And yet, the political class keeps pretending all is well. They talk about green revolutions and digital rights while the public buys pepper spray.

Once vibrant districts now vibrate with dread. Riots erupt on cue; knife attacks barely draw a headline. The “City of Light” has dimmed to a nervous glow. And Italy, the land that once gave the world law and order, now seems to live without much of either. Tourists still pose by the ruins of the past, unaware that the present is crumbling. Only six in 10 Italians say they feel safe walking alone at night. The country that once ruled empires can no longer rule its own streets.

What unites both nations is more than geography — it’s a shared failure of courage. Paris and Rome, like London, Dublin, Brussels, and Stockholm, have absorbed massive waves of immigration from North Africa and the Middle East. Is it a coincidence that these once-respectable cities now rank among the most violent in Europe? That their streets, once defined by culture and civility, are now defined by rapes, stabbings, and gang wars?

Other Recommended Articles for the Weekend

* “Mississippi Law Enforcement Caught Working with the Cartel -- 20 Officers Indicted for Aiding Drug Smuggling into America” (Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit)

* “Colleges are teaching Gen Z to love socialism: After years of classrooms romanticizing socialism and demonizing capitalism, young Americans are taking that ideology straight to the ballot box.” (Emily Sturge, Campus Reform)

* “Does the Democrats’ Chaos Strategy Work?” (Victor Davis Hanson, American Greatness)

* “Sudan and the Moral Bankruptcy of the Modern Left. To the progressive West, suffering acquires meaning only when it can be traced to guilt. Without that connection, empathy falters.”  (Ali Bordbar Jahantighi, European Conservative)

* “Democrats’ naïve view of Islamists: ‘They’re just like me! They hate America!’” (Glen K. Beaton, Aspen Beat)

"Why Protest Outside An Abortion Chamber?"

October was an unusual month for us and I share a few of those happenings in this edition of the Vital Signs Ministries news letter. But the primary feature of the letter is a brief essay which explains the 5 purposes served in a Christian's peaceful, prayerful protest of abortion chambers. 

Check it out at this link from the VSM website.

The Top 5 Plus (November 1)

1) “When Conservative Leaders Lose Their Way: Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts’ Recent Video Defense of Tucker Carlson Is Deeply Troubling” ( Gregg Roman, Middle East Forum)

From the article -- Let me be absolutely clear: Vigorous debate about Israel is not only acceptable

-- it’s essential. I’ve spent decades engaging with thoughtful critics who question Israeli policies, the extent of American aid, or the strategic value of the alliance. Some of my most productive discussions have been with those who fundamentally disagree with my positions. Roberts himself is entirely within bounds to argue that American support for any ally should be conditional on American interests.

But there’s a canyon-wide difference between policy criticism and platforming someone who denies the Holocaust occurred, celebrates Hitler’s birthday, and believes Jews are conspiring to destroy America.

Nick Fuentes isn’t a foreign policy realist or a fiscal hawk questioning aid packages. He’s a white nationalist who admires Adolf Hitler and spreads conspiracy theories about Jewish control. During his interview with Carlson, he claimed Ben Shapiro tried to destroy him for asking “reasonable questions.” He told Carlson he admires Stalin. He portrayed himself as a victim while building a movement that actively harasses Jewish conservatives.

Carlson didn’t challenge any of this. He nodded along, providing a massive platform for these views to be laundered as legitimate political discourse.

Other important articles related to this: “The Real ‘Brain Virus’ Isn’t Christian Zionism -- It’s Antisemitism” (Chris Katulka, Harbinger’s Daily)...”A Time for Choosing on Antisemitism” (National Review Editors)...”This Is How the Right Dies” (Yehuda Teitelbaum, Substack)...”Heritage Foundation President: ‘Don’t Cancel Nick Fuentes,’ as Stalin Fan Fuentes Tells Jews to ‘Get The F Out of America’” (Collin Anderson, Washington Free Beacon)

2) “Why Are So Many Young Americans Killing Themselves? The spiritual roots of America’s suicide crisis.” (John MacGhlionn, American Spectator)

From the article -- We live in an age of abundance, yet despair continues to spread like a dark cloud. Gen Z has inherited everything — information, access, entertainment — and still feels empty. They scroll, they compare, they perform. They broadcast their lives for strangers but rarely live them. It’s connection without communion, messaging without meaning, motion without purpose. What’s missing isn’t dopamine but direction. 

Faith once gave that direction. It didn’t promise ease, only endurance. It gave people something firm to stand on when everything else fell apart. But belief today has been traded for irony. God is a punchline, the church a museum, and the language of the soul has been replaced by the language of self-help. In that silence, something essential has gone missing — the quiet conviction that life, however hard, still matters. 

The modern creed tells young people they can be anything. It rarely tells them why they should be anything. They’re told to “find their truth,” though truth itself has become a moving target. They’re told to “love themselves,” though few are shown what love actually requires. So they chase pleasure, mistaking it for peace. They crave attention and confuse it with affection. And when both fade, they fall apart.

Social media has accelerated the slide, but the roots go far deeper. This is more of a spiritual famine than a technological failure. A generation has grown up in a moral vacuum, where families fracture, fathers fade, and faith is dismissed as a delusion for the naïve. A culture that prizes comfort over character can’t sustain the weight of pain. When the soul starves, the mind soon follows.

We’ve raised young people to see themselves as cosmic accidents — clever animals with credit scores, born without purpose and destined for oblivion. It’s little wonder so many view the future as a threat, not an opportunity. Climate anxiety has become the creed of a generation taught to fear its own existence. Greta Thunberg, an infuriating figure I have discussed before, is now the mirror of millions — irritable, impassioned, and neurotic to the point of despair. Her trembling fury, once mistaken for courage, now feels like a diagnosis. She embodies the anxiety that has metastasized through millions of young minds convinced the world is ending before they’ve even begun to live in it. The fear has grown so deep that many twenty-somethings now see procreation not as an act of hope, but of harm. A moral crime against the planet. 

3) “Feminism, Feminization Of Institutions, And Cultural Collapse” (Alla Margolina, RVIVR)

From the article -- Andrews argues that this moment—the cancellation of Summers—wasn’t just a skirmish in the culture war. It was a regime change. Not because women were present, but because the method of his downfall was distinctly feminine. Not open conflict, not factual rebuttal—just an overwhelming tide of emotional offense, vibe-check politics, and collective shunning. “I couldn’t breathe,” said one biologist who walked out. And thus began the sacred tradition of treating every intellectual disagreement like a panic attack in progress.

According to Andrews, wokeness isn’t Marxism 2.0 or some clever new ideology. It’s what happens when institutions once dominated by men are slowly overrun by HR culture, emotional arbitration, and a pathological fear of conflict. In short: feminization. The NYT, academia, the courts, medicine, even the sciences -- everywhere you look, feelings now outrank facts, cohesion trumps confrontation, and disagreement is mistaken for violence.

This isn’t about individual women. Andrews herself is one. So is Bari Weiss, who found out the hard way that even moderate wrongthink will get you ghosted by the Slack mob. It’s about group dynamics. Once women hit a critical mass in an institution, it stops operating on the traditional masculine logic of “what’s true” and starts shifting toward “how does everyone feel about this?” And once that shift happens, there’s no going back.

Excellent related articles: “Did The Great Feminization Cause The Great Awokening? The short answer is yes. The question then becomes what then must we do?” (Sasha Stone)...“The Great Feminization” (Helen Andrews, Compact)

4) “Why Male Teachers Left Elementary Schools and Won’t Go Back” (Scott Yenor, Federalist)

From the article -- Men are disappearing from the education landscape in America. In 1970, about 30 percent of America’s elementary teachers were male; by 2021, the number had dipped to 11 percent. Similar or even steeper drops happened at middle and high school levels. The absence of men creates a harmful imbalance in how America’s children are educated. Men, however, did not depart willingly. They were driven out by the increasing feminization of schools, producing a vicious cycle of female-dominated schools.

Many blame exodus on male pride. Education, especially elementary education, is, critics say, “female coded.” Teachers earn less. Jobs in elementary education are not thought to be masculine enough. “We need to break down the gender stereotypes preventing men entering these large, high-growth job sectors” like education, argues the Brookings Institution’s Richard Reeves and others. Teachers, in fact, are paid more today than they were in 1970, in inflation-adjusted dollars. And “stereotypes” (if such they are) were arguably much stronger in 1970 than today.

Feminist ideology and the spiritual dominance of women (what author Helen Andrews calls “the great feminization”) in elementary education dissuades men from even considering work in elementary education. It turns out, not surprisingly, that men make rational decisions in the face of feminized institutions like elementary schools.

5) “How the Church of England betrayed its loyal flock” (Daniel Jupp, TCW)

From the article -- The Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (also known as Gafcon) represent the Anglican faith in Africa. Their response was to declare publicly that they would no longer send delegates to Church meetings in the United Kingdom, no longer consider the Archbishop of Canterbury as first among equals or a seat of authority to which they deferred, and no longer consider themselves in the same communion as the Bishops and clergy of the Church of England within England. Perhaps even more tellingly, they asserted that they were the true Anglican communion, more loyal to the instructions of the Bible and Anglican interpretation of those than priests in England. There’s a subtle but powerful distinction there – they were saying not that they had broken away from an Anglican vision of Biblical instruction and Christian identity but that the Church in England had done so. 

African Anglicans now assert that they are the true Anglicans, and that the organisation within the UK is not. And in terms of the number of people who follow their message, they are right to assert this. 

In losing the African churches and the global, more conservative branch of Anglicanism, the Church of England has lost 80 per cent of Anglicans on the planet. Imagine a company that lost 80 per cent of its customers. Or a political party that lost 80 per cent of its voters. Or a nation state that lost 80 per cent of its territory. These would in each case be recognised as unmitigated disasters.

Other Excellent Reads from this Week:

* “The Left is ‘Bleeding Kansas’ -- America again flirts with its own Bleeding Kansas, a cycle of partisan violence and defiance where lawless zealots are hailed as patriots and the rule of law bleeds away.” (Victor Davis Hanson, American Greatness)

* “Political Bias at Wikipedia and in AI” (John Sexton, Hot Air)

* “Mexican Cartel Killed Pregnant Women to Harvest Babies and Organs for U.S. Buyers” (Ildefonso Ortiz and Brandon Darby, Breitbart)

* “The Slippery Slopes of Assisted Suicide and Abortion” (Chuck Donovan, Washington Stand)

* “Teachers’ Union Sues to Save...Illegal Alien Truck Drivers?” (David Strom, Hot Air)