Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed into law the “Parental Rights in Education” bill. It has been controversially and wrongly labeled the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by its opponents. 

But what the law puts into place is not controversial for parents. It prevents official instruction in gender and sexuality including references to transgenderism and gender identity for students in grades K through 3. Furthermore, it bans inappropriate instruction on these topics for students in older grades as well.

As you can imagine, the cultural mavens are not happy with this.

The bill will be challenged in court and Governor DeSantis knows it. It’s a no-lose situation for him. If the law stands, his signature is on it. If it is successfully challenged, he did what he could to defend the rights of parents. And we need look no further than Governor Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, to figure out if defending the right of parents is a successful campaign strategy. It is and it ought to be.

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I attended Disney’s most recent annual shareholder meeting and listened intently when activists confronted CEO Bob Chapek about what they saw as the company’s insufficient panic about Florida’s egregiously mislabeled “Don't Say Gay” bill.

Chapek reported that he had already been discussing the bill with Governor DeSantis to help ensure that it would not be “weaponized” against gay and trans youth, but of course that wasn't enough. 

Then he said Disney planned to meet with DeSantis again, but of course that wasn’t enough. Then he offered to give shareholders’ money to Human Rights Campaign and other activists groups, but that wasn't enough and HRC threw the money back in Disney’s face. 

Disney pointed out that they have endorsed the various proposals which HRC has demanded over the years, but that wasn't enough. 
 

It's time for Disney and the rest of corporate America to wake up and realize that IT WILL NEVER EVER BE ENOUGH! These groups are unappeasable, so it's time to stop trying to appease them.

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We ought to expect a more sincere apology from Will Smith and Chris Rock—one that has both men admit the enormous mistakes they made at the Oscars Sunday night. 

First, jokes about physical appearance are rarely funny—usually only made when made by the targets themselves. To try for a laugh at Jada Pinkett’s hairstyle in light of her medical condition—or any time—is low for a comedian. Even if Rock didn’t know. Comedians have concluded long ago there is no floor. They are wrong. Rock was wrong. 

Will Smith could be forgiven anger—even a confrontation, but striking Rock, that was very and very publicly wrong—like almost every bar fight in every bar we have ever heard of or seen. 

Shame on both men. An apology tour from both of them would be welcomed. 

Rock and Will Smith have demonstrated yet again, public figures are unworthy of the admiration we often give them.

Think twice before you invest more in a public figure than you ought to.

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On November 12, 1940 Winston Churchill gave a eulogy for his predecessor—Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. 

“It fell to Neville Chamberlain,” Churchill said, “in one of the supreme crises of the world to be contradicted by events, to be disappointed in his hopes, and to be deceived and cheated by a wicked man.”

The lesson from the 1930s—relevant for us today—are that it’s impossible to rely on the word of tyrants. Hitler was a tyrant. Stalin was a tyrant. President Xi Jinping of China is a tyrant. Vladimir Putin is an evil tyrant. Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, another evil tyrant, who’s acquired a record of mayhem and hatred — just another tyrant.

But President Biden won’t let the facts about Xi, Putin and Khamenei stand in the way of a new “deal” with Iran. This looming nuclear “deal” with Iran is “mind-boggling,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell, on my show.

Indeed: Xi, Putin and Khamenei are wicked men. 

We should not allow ourselves to be deceived by them today.

Appeasement did not work for Chamberlain. It will not work for Biden.

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For decades, NATO built a massive arsenal as a counterweight to Soviet and then Russian imperial aggression. Could just one percent of it actually defeat Vladimir Putin in a war? That’s what Volodymyr Zelensky promised in an urgent request for support in his fight to free Ukraine from Russian conquest.

Five weeks ago, that would have sounded absurd. Now, however, Ukrainian forces have proved their mettle not just by stalling Russian advances but effectively counterattacking as well. A successful attack on a Russian resupply ship in Berdyansk last week could well threaten the Russian positions around Mariupol—the city that has been battered by Russian artillery for weeks. 

Kyiv remains unconquered too, despite two massive Russian thrusts to the capital. The Ukrainian military has not just stopped the Russians but have begun to cut them off and grind them down. 

Zelensky is not asking Americans or other Westerners to die for Ukraine. He just wants the weapons that will allow Ukrainians to once again live in peace in their own sovereign land. That’s worth the one percent investment.

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We’re now in the season which the church has historically called “Lent.”

The word is just a shortened version of the word for Lengthen, because it accompanies the end of winter and the lengthening of daylight. But Lent also rhymes with repent. During almost all of human history, when calamities, pandemics, wars, depressions, inflations occurred people wondered whether God had been offended.

But we’ve got all that backwards now: Rather than asking whether God is offended, we tend to gin up our own offense. Instead of covering ourselves with sackloth and ashes, we cover ourselves with self-serving internet memes.

Whether the things that are happening to us now are judgments of God, I don't know. But I do know that calamities certainly can be judgments—and we have much to repent of.

This is not a time for finger pointing: it’s a time for fingers to be interlaced in prayer, including prayers of confession and repentance. This lent, don't let a crisis go to waste.

Let’s use our troubles to change our lives for the better.  

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President Biden erred in announcing that he planned to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court. It’s wrong to exclude people from consideration for any job just because of their race or gender.
But elections have consequences and Ketanji Brown Jackson is President Biden’s choice. She deserves to be evaluated on her merits and her record—without the lies and life-destroying tactics Democrats have employed in recent years.

Among the questions Judge Jackson should answer: Will she defend the Supreme Court’s legitimacy by opposing court packing, as Justices Breyer and Ginsburg did? Does she share the left’s belief in a “living Constitution,” that is, that the meaning of the Constitution can evolve over time—almost always, it seems, in accord with a justice’s policy preferences?

Because elections matter and Joe Biden is President, Judge Jackson will likely soon be Justice Jackson. But every hearing is a chance to help the American people understand why good presidents—who’ll appoint good justices—matter.

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Late last week at the CDC erased over 72,000 previously identified deaths from COVID-19 rolls, including over 30 percent of previously designated pediatric deaths. They said these patients died of Covid. Now they’re rolling it back.

A brief and ambiguous footnote announced the change but not the scope of the adjustment, nor the actual errors involved.

This has finally embarrassed the CDC’s top echelons into action. In a new e-mail to staff, CDC director Rochelle Walensky has suddenly taken an interest in “remedying the data gaps” for COVID-19.

The CDC did nothing to correct the obvious data collection issues when high numbers bolstered Joe Biden’s political arguments for mandates and restrictions. It’s likely no coincidence that the CDC is now trying to fix those issues and get lower numbers now that voters are fed up with Biden’s mandates.

The CDC and the Biden administration have earned the deep skepticism of American voters on COVID-19.

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I recently attended the Apple, Inc. Annual Shareholder meeting. A shareholder with concerns about ways in which Apple might have been colluding with the government of China in suppressing free speech put a proposal on the ballot before shareholders, asking Apple to be transparent about their removal of apps at the request of governments. The proposal didn’t tell management which apps to ban or not; it simply asked Apple to give a report to shareholders about this at reasonable cost. Apple opposed the resolution. It also opposed a resolution calling for a report about forced labor in the supply chain.

Apple CEO Tim Cook routinely issues pronouncements about what he alleges is wrong with America on race and gender and LBGTQ issues—but he refuses to even report to his own shareholders about Apple’s relationship with some of the worst human rights abusers in the world.

Apple should stick to computer engineering—while showing the transparency shareholders expect on their engagement with China.

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For generations, seeing the Disney label on children’s entertainment has been tantamount to a seal of approval. Moms could be confident that Disney content would reinforce the lessons they teach at home: Virtue is its own reward, be brave, truthful, loving, patriotic—and good will triumph over evil in the end.

Sadly, that assumption is no longer operative. Disney seems to be pursuing a different, more progressive agenda. Last week, its CEO spoke out against a Florida law that’s been wildly mislabeled by the left as the  “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

Actually, all it does is prohibit teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity to children in kindergarten to third grade.

Moms and dads ought to be paying attention: Why would an entertainment company that specializes in children’s entertainment oppose such commonsense legislation designed to protect children?

The trust of parents has been the fuel that built the Disney empire. 

That trust is fast eroding.

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