The term “Potemkin Village” comes from 18th century Russia. Field Marshal Gregory Potemkin ordered the construction of pretty facades so Empress Catherine wouldn’t see the true, grim state of newly annexed Crimea.

How unfortunate the U.S. government has now stooped to the same technique. Before President Biden’s recent visit, border agents and local police cleared El Paso of homeless migrants living in the streets because shelters are full.

The cynicism is breathtaking. Pictures designed to bolster the president’s political fortunes don’t change reality. A humanitarian crisis is unfolding at the border. It’s controlled by the drug cartels bringing in the fentanyl that’s killing our young people. And a record two and a half million illegal immigrants breached America’s southern border last year.

To solve the crisis, President Biden needs to forget the Potemkin Village and the photo ops. Just restore the “remain in Mexico” policy, build the wall and renew our resolve. 

We’ll be watching.

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According to a number of news reports, CVS recently fired a nurse practitioner whose conscience prevented her from prescribing abortifacients to patients. 

CVS had previously offered her religious accommodation as appears to be required by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. She was considered a good employee and had recently received a performance-based raise. It is also reported that other nurse practitioners were willing to administer the drugs and so no patients were deprived of any services. 

So: Why the change? 

CVS was among the corporations pressured to cave into the abortion lobby ever since Roe vs. Wade was put in legal jeopardy. 

The firing was unnecessary and wrong—and it has brought legal exposure to CVS, now facing a lawsuit from the formidable Alliance Defending Freedom.

CVS should apologize and change its policy. Other companies should learn from their mistake.

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A hundred years from now, people will still be reading the works of Joseph Ratzinger, the man who went on to become Pope Benedict XVI, and was laid to rest last week.  
 
They’ll be reading him because he was one of the most brilliant minds of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, in general, and perhaps the greatest Catholic mind of the past 50 years.
 
Benedict understood that the great challenge of our time is a battle of ideas. A battle of ideas about who and what God is, if God is; a battle of ideas about who and what man is, and what man’s place in the cosmos may be; a battle of ideas about faith and reason, and mankind’s ability to apprehend objective truth.
 
As brilliant as he was, he knew the thing that mattered most was friendship with God. His last words on earth were reportedly, “Jesus, I love you.”
 
May they be all of our last words as well.

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New Year’s Eve in Times Square was marred by an alleged Islamic extremist attacking three NYPD officers with a machete. It was a shocking crime—but what’s even more shocking is that the suspect was already on an FBI watchlist.

Shocking perhaps—but not surprising. The accused isn’t the first alleged terrorist to commit a horrific crime while on an FBI list. One of the Boston Marathon killers was, too. And the FBI investigated Omar Mateen twice in the years when he was on the list, before the Pulse nightclub massacre.

The FBI kept busy in 2022, but fighting terrorists took a back seat to politics. The Bureau targeted parents who protested school boards’ covid policies. And the Twitter files have exposed extensive FBI efforts to censor right-leaning Americans.

Enough. We need a federal law enforcement agency dedicated to protecting all Americans—minus the politics.

We need some accountability.

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2022 was a down year for markets, which is a bad sign for the economy. Investors, unlike pundits and politicians, have skin in the game.

So, if they are wrong, they suffer real economic consequences. Markets are better forecasters than economic experts—yes: better than people like me.

When risk-sensitive investments are down much more than safer ones, this is a serious recession signal. The S&P is down roughly 20 percent. Stocks are down more than bonds. Risky bonds are down more than safe ones. Large tech companies are down about twice as much as the S&P.

Consumer discretionary companies—like vacations, jewelry, eating out—are down much more than consumer staples—like groceries, cleaning supplies, and toothpaste. Investors are betting on necessities.

When the best performers of the year are recession hedges, inflation hedges, and tax shelters, it says a lot about where things are headed.  For America, it’s not good.

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There’s a difference between negotiating and hostage-taking. That difference is good faith, a quality found in short supply in this week’s feud in the House Republican conference.

Some 19 members of the Freedom Caucus blocked Kevin McCarthy’s bid for House Speaker on the first ballot. McCarthy had tried to negotiate with the dissenters despite winning the leadership election weeks earlier, offering a series of concessions. Despite McCarthy’s attempts to come to a compromise, the dissenters finally declared that no deal could be made that would allow them to support McCarthy.

Senator Joe Manchin urged McCarthy to withdraw the concessions. “I just hope he doesn’t surrender to the hostage takers,” Manchin remarked. “Don’t pay a ransom.” He had a point.

The concessions should get pulled. If the effort to secure a Speaker moves forward with the concessions, the Speaker will rue day he conceded.

Don’t pay any ransom when it doesn’t free a hostage

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The holidays are a time when family is front and center.

But tragically, a growing percentage of American adults has no living spouse or biological children. It's a result of baby boomers' lower marriage rates, higher divorce rates and higher rates of childlessness than earlier generations.

And that, in turn, is because of the truly big lie—embedded in American culture for almost fifty years.

We've been told real female success is defined by a job. Anything keeping a woman from the workforce has been portrayed as unfair and sexist. Children have been caricatured as burdens, whose arrival spells the end of any fun.

Now we're paying the price—from the women who will never cuddle a grandchild, to the alienated, lonely men, to the children deprived of the extended family that serves as an additional support system.

It's time to expose the big lie—and restore the joy of family.

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In the ancient world, when a king died, the calendar started over. Ancient chronicles mention, say, the “first year of King Cyrus” …or “Caesar Augustus.” It’s called "regnal"—or king-based—dating. But what happens when there arises a king who lives and reigns forever? The calendar never resets. We just entered 2023 AD. AD, “Anno Domini” the year of our Lord. 

Our calendar is based on the best estimates of the birth of Jesus 2,023 years ago, inaugurating a Kingdom which has never ended … and never will. And don't let the academic fad that switched from AD to CE—the “Common Era”—fool you. It just begs the question: What happened 2,023 years ago which created such a stir that our calendars were forever changed? We know the answer. 
 
Happy New Year of our Lord 2023! May the year ahead hold good things for you and yours.

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The House of Representatives has scheduled a vote to elect a new Speaker on Tuesday—January 3. We’ve endorsed Kevin McCarthy and he’s received the overwhelming support of the GOP caucus which nominated him for the job. 

But five Republican members of Congress, led by Matt Gaetz of Florida and Andy Biggs of Arizona, are refusing to say if they will end their opposition to McCarthy. 

The House has important work to do—and the GOP needs to get on with the hard work of governing. The new Select Committee on China must get underway. The hearings into the FBI and Twitter and Big Tech’s collusion with the Democrats to suppress the Hunter Biden story are long overdue. Indeed: Much more should have been organized and ready to go already, so they could start on January 3. 

It's time for the GOP at every level to communicate their displeasure to the obstructionist members of Congress: Get out of the way and let the new GOP majority do its job. 

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You don’t need to be the biggest fan of GOP leader Kevin McCarthy to cringe at what’s happening to him.  Five House members are denying him key votes he needs to become Speaker of the House.

But the five holdouts aren’t just hurting Kevin McCarthy. They’re kneecapping the new Republican Congress. The McCarthy drama signals weakness that Democrats recognize—like blood in the water.

Republicans critical of the monstrous omnibus spending bill should take note. This public posturing facilitates that kind of frustrating behavior by justifying accusations that the House GOP isn’t ready for prime time.

Intraparty disagreement is normal, and often healthy. But responsible people keep arguments behind closed doors, where their Democrat and media opponents can’t capitalize on them. They don’t run to the press and Twitter to attract maximum attention.

It’s time to wrap up the McCarthy election, and for the politicians to fulfill their campaign promises, minus the posturing.

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