The Panhandler on Siegen Lane: The Student Loan Crisis and Reflections on Dorothy Day

I took the Siegen Lane exit off of Interstate 10 a few days ago and saw a panhandler standing at the end of the exit ramp. He held a sign that read: "Hungry, Need Food, Please Help." He was young, clean, and apparently well fed. Watching from my car, I saw him take a long, luxuriant drag from his cigarette.

I couldn't help but smile and think of my late mother. My mother hated panhandlers, and she especially hated panhandlers who smoked.

There are plenty of jobs available, she would say. That Siegen Lane panhandler could be working at McDonald's instead of standing on the street begging for money. And a smoking panhandler, she would point out, obviously has money for cigarettes--money he should be spending on food.

My mother was especially infuriated by panhandlers who promised to work for food. She often threatened to call their bluff by offering them a job raking leaves or some other menial chore. She didn't think anyone would accept her offer.

No--in my Mom's view--actually working is anathema to a panhandler. Panhandlers would rather loaf around on a street corner waiting for a handout than rake leaves for a meal.

I disagreed with my mother. Anyone who stands on a street corner on a hot Louisiana day is working--there's nothing easy about that.

Moreover, I discovered through experience that most panhandlers would thank me graciously if I gave them a couple of bucks, and many said, "God bless you." I think two bucks for a sincere "God bless you" is a fair transaction.

How about those smoking panhandlers? Should we boycott them?

Dorothy Day would say no. I recall reading that Dorothy once gave a homeless woman an expensive ring that had been donated to the Catholic Worker, and she was criticized for it. People said the homeless woman would pawn the ring and spend the money on drinks, and that it would have been better for Dorothy to sell the ring and use the proceeds to pay the woman's rent.

Dorothy replied that the woman could sell the ring and use the money however she liked. She might pay the rent or spend the money on a Caribbean vacation! That would be her choice.

If we insist on categorizing the needy into the deserving and the undeserving, we will wind up helping no one. Congress doesn't want to help overstressed student-loan debtors because some borrowed too much money to attend college, and some made poor choices in choosing their majors--art history instead of business, for example.

So what? Millions of former college students are burdened by crushing student loans they will never repay. Why not provide them with some assistance instead of stewing over whether or not they deserve help?

I confess, I don't always follow my own advice. I don't help every panhandler who approaches me. I definitely don't like being accosted at night by a panhandler in the Walgreens parking lot. But that guy standing on a hot street corner waiting for a motorist to roll down the car window and give him fifty cents--I say let's help him out a bit.

And so--when I saw that clean, young, and apparently well-fed panhandler standing at the roadside on Siegen Lane, I gave him two dollars.

I admit, however, that my mother's spirit came welling up within me as I handed over the money. "Those cigarettes," I chided, "will kill you."

***

 I first posted this essay in 2013.

A Retrospective Tribute to the Alaska Territorial Guard

When I was a young lawyer in Alaska many years ago, I took my young children to see the Fur Rondy Parade in Anchorage.  Conditions were not ideal on that winter day. The sky was overcast, and the temperature had dropped to 20 degrees below zero.  

The day was so cold that the marching bands sheltered inside moving school buses.  Band members would open the bus windows and stick their horns out into the frigid air just long enough to complete a tune. Then they would retract their instruments and slam the windows shut.

I judged the weather too harsh for my children to endure, so I parked the family car in an alley where we could view the parade without leaving our vehicle.

Parade participants were bundled up in arctic gear. I recall the beauty queens perched on the hoods of fancy automobiles. Their skirts were short, but their legs were encased in insulated survival pants.

About halfway through the parade, I saw a platoon of Alaska National Guard soldiers wheel around a corner, marching briskly with their M-1 rifles at port arms. They were all wearing camouflaged white jump suits, and they wore fur caps on their heads. They did not look like they were cold.

All the soldiers in that platoon were Alaska Natives, mostly Inuit, the best I could tell, and some Athabaskans.

I was suddenly moved by a burst of patriotism, and I admired these men who had sworn to defend Alaska with their lives. Did they have grievances against the white outsiders who took over their ancestral land and hauled away its natural resources--timber, gold, copper, and oil?

Perhaps they did, but on that cold day, their rugged, patriotic spirit was all I could see, and all that the soldiers wished to communicate.

Before Alaska achieved statehood in 1959, the Alaska National Guard was called the Alaska Territorial Guard. During World War II, the Inuit and Athabaskans were called up and armed to defend against the Japanese invaders who had gained a foothold in the Aleutian Islands.

I doubt that a single Alaska Territorial Guardsman held back or asked why he should risk his life in defense of the United States. Like young men all over America who enlisted in the military after Pearl Harbor, the Natives stepped up to do a dangerous job that had to be done.

President Trump will soon meet President Vladimir Putin at Elmendorf Air Force Base on the outskirts of Anchorage, Alaska. The two world leaders will search for a way to end the war in Ukraine.

It is a fitting place to meet, for American territory comes closest to Mother Russia in Alaska. Indeed, the nations are less than 3 miles apart in the Bering Straits, and the distance can be walked when the Bering Sea freezes over in winter.

Americans should pray for peace as Presidents Trump and Putin meet this week. They should also say a prayer of gratitude for the Alaska Territorial Guardsmen who rose to their duty during the Second World War.

 

Alan Dershowitz Should Leave Martha's Vineyard and Vacation in Mississippi: Fewer Soup Nazis and Better Food

Last month, Alan Dershowitz, a retired Harvard Law professor and famous conservative,  was refused service at Good Pierogi, an eatery on Martha's Vineyard. Reportedly, a vendor at the West Tisbury Farmers Market refused to sell Dershowitz a pierogi because of Dershowitz's political views. 

Indeed, according to a recent news report, Dershowitz was denied service a second time when he returned to the food vendor and again asked for a pierogi.

This is not the first time a conservative has been denied food service for political reasons. From time to time, Republicans have been ushered out of restaurants in Washington, D.C. because the staff disapproved of Republicans' political views. Thus, it is no surprise that a conservative is denied service on Martha's Vineyard--an exclusive playground of the liberal rich.

Professor Dershowitz should vacation elsewhere. He might try Florida, where a restaurateur has offered him free pierogis for life.

Liberal snobs have apparently forgotten that Black Americans were banned from white-owned restaurants and hotels in the South as late as the 1960s. Indeed, it was not until Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that racial discrimination in places of public accommodation was stopped.

Even then, some Southern restaurant owners refused to obey the law. Ollie McClung, owner of Ollie's Barbecue in Birmingham, Alabama, argued that the law did not apply to him because his barbecue joint wasn't engaged in interstate commerce.

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court rejected McClung's argument. Race discrimination at Ollie's Barbecue imposed significant burdens on "the interstate flow of food," the Court ruled, and on African Americans who traveled from state to state.

The 1964 Civil Rights Act doesn't prohibit a restaurant from refusing service based on a customer's political views. Given what happened toAlan Dershowitz on Martha's Vineyard,  the law should be amended to bar viewpoint discrimination in restaurants, hotels, and all places of public accommodation.

In the meantime, I speak for all Mississippians when I say that Alan Dershowitz is welcome at any eatery in the Magnolia State. He may not be able to find a pierogi, but we serve some damn good barbecue. 

Food vendors should not be allowed to deny service because of a customer's political views.

90-Second Book Review: You are My Sunshine by Robert Mann Reveals a Connection Between Country Music and Louisiana Politics

 You Are My Sunshine: Jimmie Davis & the Biography of a Song is Robert Mann's insightful examination of Louisiana's official state song and the Louisiana politician who claimed to have composed it.  In addition, Mann's book explores the relationship between country music and Southern politics in the 1930s and 1940s.

Like most Americans, I had long assumed that Louisiana Governor Jimmie Davis wrote "You Are My Sunshine," but in fact, he did not. As Mann relates in his book's first chapter, Davis and Charles Mitchell purchase the song's copyright from Paul Rice in 1939, along with the right to list themselves as the song's authors. 

At the time of the transaction, Davis was an up-and-coming star in the world of country music, which in the 1930s was more commonly called hillbilly music. After Davis and Mitchell purchased the song, "You Are My Sunshine" became famous worldwide and was eventually recorded by over 200 artists, including Johnny Cash, Bing Crosby, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Ray Charles.

Davis was also an aspiring Louisiana politician who would serve two terms as governor of Louisiana. As a singer and country music performer, Davis honed a folksy public speaking style and became a facile radio performer. Like Wilbert "Pappy" O'Daniel, who campaigned for the Texas Governorship with the Lightcrust Doughboys, Davis recruited his own country band to accompany him on the campaign trail.

As Mann explained, Louisiana politicians were split into two hostile camps in the 1930s and 1940s: the Long faction and the anti-Long forces. Neither group had a rigid political agenda beyond keeping the rival faction out of power. Davis was elected to the governorship in 1944, partly because both the Long and anti-Long parties found him palatable, and voters saw him as a unifier who could bring harmony to Louisiana's fractious political culture.

Davis was elected to a second term as governor in 1960. Unfortunately, his tenure was marred by his state's adamant opposition to school desegregation.  When a federal judge ordered the desegregation of the New Orleans public schools, Davis "sent a squad of State Police troopers to New Orleans to enforce a state-ordered school holiday."

As Mann pointed out, Davis was not branded as a virulent racist in the stamp of Alabama Governor George Wallace and other Southern governors of the time. Still, he was an implacable foe of integrated schools. Indeed, Davis allied himself with Leander Perez, the district attorney in Plaquemines Parish and a rabid racist whose opposition to the desegregation of Catholic schools was so strident that the Catholic Church excommunicated him.

Mann's book sketches the portrait of a flawed and complicated man. The son of a poor sharecropper in Quitman, LA, he discovered a way to advance himself through country music. He was among the first poor Southern boys who clawed their way off the farms to create a unique style of American music: Bob Wills of Kosse, TX; Elvis Presley of Tupelo, MS; Hank Williams of Mount Olive, AL; Johnny Cash of Kingsland, AR, and many others.

Louisianians should remember Jimmy Davis as a country music and gospel music star and forget his second term as Louisiana governor. He was a gifted country music artist who could not rise above the prejudices of his time.

Beto O'Rourke Can Take his West Coast Politics and Stick 'Em Where the Sun Don't Shine: The Texas Redistricting Battle

You can take your like and shove 'em on up the line.
People in Texas don't care if the sun don't shine.

Charlie Daniels

"Texas"

Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently called a special session of the state legislature to draw new boundaries for the Lone Star State's congressional districts. The legislature is controlled by Republicans, and the redistricting process is expected to conclude with more districts going to Republicans in the next election.

Democratic legislators cried foul and more than a dozen fled the state to prevent the legislature from raising a quorum. Many sought refuge in blue states--California and Illinois in particular. California Governor Gavin Newsom and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker welcomed them with open arms, accusing Texas Republicans of unfairly gerrymandering district boundaries to benefit their party.

As several commentators have pointed out, the blue states are masters at gerrymandering, with Illinois being the gerrymander in chief. Illinois redrew congressional district boundaries in 2020, which resulted in fewer Republican victories in the 2022 congressional elections.

Wealthy West Coast progressives have poured millions of dollars into Texas election battles, hoping to make Texas as blue as California.  In 2018, Robert Francis O'Rourke, a totally unqualified progressive candidate, raised an astounding $80 million in his unsuccessful bid to unseat Senator Ted Cruz in the most expensive Senate campaign in history. Much of this money came from wealthy Californians.

O'Rourke recently formed a political organization called Powered By People to raise money to help absent Texas legislators pay their expenses during their out-of-state holiday. Ken Paxton, Texas Attorney General, sued O'Rourke and his organization, accusing them of illegal fundraising in violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

A few days ago, a Texas judge issued a temporary restraining order barring O'Rourke and Powered By People from aiding the recalcitrant Texas legislators. Among other restrictions, the judge's order prohibited the defendants from:

Using political funds for the improper, unlawful, and non-political purposes of (1) funding out-of-state travel, hotel, or dining accommodations or services to unexcused Texas legislators during any special legislative session called by the Texas Governor, or (2) funding payments of fines provided by Texas House rules for unexcused legislative absences. 

Ultimately, I believe Governor Abbott and the Republicans in the Texas legislature will prevail. At the end of the day, congressional district lines will be redrawn to give Republicans a better chance of prevailing in upcoming elections. 

Texans are tired of out-of-state money pouring into their state to undermine traditional Texas values. If the wealthy West Coast progressives are unhappy with the new district boundaries, they can take their unhappiness and stick it where the sun don't shine.

 

It's the Brisket, Stupid: Offset Barbecue and Francis Smokehouse Serve Very Good Texas-Style Barbecue

Barbecue, like love, is a many-splendored thing. And, like love, it manifests itself in many forms. Memphis barbecue is distinct from Carolina barbecue, which differs from the Kansas City style. 

Nevertheless, barbecue is strictly a Southern phenomenon. There is no such thing as Boston-style barbecue, and if you order barbecue in a New  England restaurant, you will likely be served Yankee pot roast smothered with a sauce made from a catsup base.

I've eaten barbecue all over the South, and it is all pretty good. However, Texas barbecue stands alone; when it's made right, Texas barbecue is the food of the gods.

What makes Texas barbecue unique from other regional varieties? What gives the Texas variety its almost mystical aura?

Texas barbecue is different because the Texans know what to do with beef, and by beef, I mean brisket. The Texans prepare brisket by cooking it with indirect heat and hardwood smoke at a low temperature for a long time--up to 12 hours. When brisket is cooked correctly, the end product is a moist, fat-infused meat with a thin, crispy crust.

Yes, you may be saying, but brisket can be prepared the Texas way anywhere on the planet. Theoretically, a Texas-style barbecue restaurant could operate in Greenland.

That may be true. But if the Texas barbecue style can be made anywhere, why can't we eat Texas barbecue in New England? 

There are three reasons.

First, it's hard to get the right wood for smoking meat outside of Texas. The ideal wood for smoking barbecue is mesquite, which doesn't grow in the United States outside the Southwest. It could be imported, but what New Englander wants to spend money shipping mesquite chips to Boston? 

Second, it's tough for a non-Texan to accept that a good brisket can take eight, ten, or even 12 hours to prepare. 

Third, most non-Texans are under a delusion that barbecue requires a lot of sauce. And that's simply not true. Indeed, Texas purists insist that putting sauce on a brisket is akin to smothering a filet in catsup.

I've sampled barbecue in Louisiana for years and finally despaired of eating Texas-style barbecue anywhere east of the Sabine River. Recently, however, I found two Louisiana barbecue joints that smoke beef briskets worthy of being labeled Texas style.

Offset Barbecue on Government Street in Baton Rouge is the real deal. Offset proclaims it serves Texas barbecue, "where Southern smoke 'meats' Lone Star flavor." As its name implies, this joint smokes barbecue with an offset firebox that slow-smokes brisket through indirect heat. Offset's brisket is as good as the premier barbecue joints in Texas--and that's saying something.

Francis Smokehouse and Specialty Meats in St. Francisville, Louisiana, also serves Texas-style brisket. I've eaten this restaurant's sliced brisket sandwich several times and always request a fatty cut of meat. The brisket is perfect. 

A couple of more comments about these Louisiana barbecue emporiums. First. I like the dining atmosphere at both outlets. Offset serves its food from a takeout window, and customers eat their meals at sun-shaded picnic tables in an atmosphere of understated elegance.

 Francis Smokehouse has decorated its dining area with deer mounts, a minimalist approach to interior decoration that I find appealing. The serving staff is as cheerful and friendly as they can possibly be.

A final word. Offset and Francis Smokehouse both serve good sides, which is also essential. It's not easy making Texas-style potato salad or coleslaw, but both restaurants got it right.

Image credit Offset Barbecue

Rape Pays Off For Hamas: Canada, France, and U.K. to Recognize a Palestinian State

 On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists crossed from Gaza into Israel and killed more than a thousand people, mostly civilians. Hamas also raped Israeli women, tortured helpless victims, and burned some Israelis alive. Hamas abducted more than 200 people and killed some of them in captivity. 

As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear, Israel cannot tolerate people who engage in such savagery. Israel has been fighting Hamas ever since the October attack, but Hamas still clings to life, protected by the surrounding Palestinian civilian population and an intricate network of tunnels.

Of the approximately 250 hostages Hamas captured on October 7, about 50 remain in captivity. Perhaps no more than 20 Israeli prisoners are still alive.

 Palestinian civilians have endured great suffering as a direct result of Hamas's acts of rape and mass murder. Many are starving, and thousands have been killed by Israeli ground and air attacks.

Without question, Israel's war against Hamas has created a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The leaders of several nations have condemned Israeli tactics, with some accusing the Jewish state of genocide.

Three major Western nations--Canada, France, and Great Britain--are preparing to recognize a Palestinian state in the misguided belief that Palestinian statehood will hasten the end of suffering for innocent civilians in Gaza.

Israel and the United States object to this move, correctly pointing out that recognition of Palestinian statehood rewards Hamas for its acts of barbarism. Recognition also gives aid and comfort to the pro-Hamas protesters on American college campuses.

In my view, the recognition of a Palestinian state by three of the United States' NATO allies is an act of cowardice that will only encourage Hamas to continue holding the handful of hostages it has not yet killed.

Photographs of the living Hamas hostages are heart-wrenching and disturbingly similar to photos of Jews held in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Indeed, Hamas antisemitism is equivalent to Nazi antisemitism. 

Hamas must be utterly destroyed, whatever the cost. Unfortunately, the craven acts of cowardice by Britain, France, and Canada will prolong the suffering of innocent Palestinians and the hostages that Hamas has so far allowed to live.

Prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp

Froma Harrop, Queen of Snark, Calls RFK Jr a Crackpot

 Having lost the presidential election, the Democrats have retreated into sneers, profanity, and snarkiness. Jasmine Crockett is the profanity princess, Stephen Colbert is the King of sneers, and Froma Harrop is the Queen of snark.

In a recent column, Harrop set her sights on Robert F. Kennedy. Jr., President Trump's Secretary of Health and Human Services. Froma labeled Kennedy a "crackpot" and an intellectual "subdelta."

Harrop said Trump put Kennedy in charge of "a world-renowned medical powerhouse" for two reasons. First, RFK Jr. "was well-suited to tear down another revered American institution." Why would Trump want to do that? Froma didn't say. "Ask a shrink," was her snarky response.

Second, Harrop claimed that Trump had found Secretary Kennedy "entertaining." She then jumped from this vacuous observation to attacking the entire Kennedy family, which, she charged, had wrongly claimed the status of royalty.

The Kennedys can be justly criticized on a number of fronts. Nevertheless, Harrop and the Democrats had nothing bad to say about them when virtually the entire Kennedy clan travelled to Washington to torpedo Bobby Junior's presidential campaign by endorsing Biden for a second presidential term.

Biden. Now there's a real intellectual subdelta!

Nowhere in Harrop's snark attack did she criticize any substantive decision that Secretary Kennedy has made. How could she?

RFK Jr. is attacking America's obesity crisis, calling out Big Pharma, focusing on the alarming rise in autism and diabetes, and pushing the processed food industry to remove harmful additives from the nation's food supply. Does that sound like a crackpot to you? Me neither.

Froma Harrop, like Stephen Colbert, Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid, and dozens of other denizens of the legacy media, has become irrelevant. Americans aren't listening to her anymore. She should keep quiet until she has something intelligent to say.

Froma Harrop, Queen of Snark

90-second Book Review: Four Winds by Kristin Hannah is a Fine book About The Dust Bowl Years

 Kristin Hannah's novel, The Four Winds, published in 2021, is a fine book on the Dust Bowl years in America's Heartland.

I like the book for two reasons. First, Hannah's description of what it was like to live on a Dust Bowl farm is harrowingly accurate. I wasn't born until after the Great Depression, but my mother grew up on a farm in northwestern Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl years. Her description of that time confirms the accuracy of Hannah's narrative.

The sky turned black when the dust storms rolled through, and visibility was restricted to just a few feet. Although my mother's family stuffed bits of newspapers around the windows and door sashes to keep the dust out of their farm home, it got in anyway, covering every surface with a layer of fine, gritty sand.

My grandfather had a small herd of cows but no forage. Finally, he was forced to sell them to the government for a pittance. 

To reduce the glut in cattle, government shooters came onto the family farm, gathered up grandfather's cows, and shot them. My mother saw that happen, and she remembers a line of cars filled with scavengers who followed the shooters and harvested the meat.

My mother's family often went to bed hungry. The drought made it impossible to grow a vegetable garden, and their fruit trees died for lack of water.

My grandfather came to Oklahoma from Nebraska in a covered wagon, and he prospered for a few years when the price of wheat was high. He owned three horse-drawn harvesting machines. I remember those old relics rusting away in front of his home.

As a child, I imagined those machines as Christopher Columbus's ships: the Pinta, the Niña,  and the Santa Maria. And I remember walking through one of my grandfather's pastures. No cows; nothing but sagebrush and sand.

The Great Depression broke my grandfather's spirit. He spent his last days sitting in a rocking chair and masticating Swisher Sweet cigars like chewing tobacco. I don't recall ever having a conversation with him.

I also liked Hannah's book for its description of the reception the Dust Bowl refugees got when they migrated to California. My mother's family stuck it out, but over a quarter of a million Oklahomans migrated to California in the 1930s.

Californians tried to keep them out, and when they got in anyway, California's big landowners hired them to pick fruit, vegetables, and cotton for starvation wages. Whole families worked all day just to buy their daily food.

Any review of Four Winds must include a comparison with John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Grapes of Wrath. Both books have a feminist theme. Elsa Martinelli, Hannah's protagonist, goes to California as a single mother with two children. By the novel's end, Elsa becomes radicalized and helps organize a farm workers' strike.

In The Grapes of Wrath, Ma Joad assumes the leadership of her extended family after the menfolk break under the strain of their flight to California. When the going gets really tough, Steinbeck implies, you gotta rely on the women to survive,

Every American should read The Grapes of Wrath and The Four Winds to understand rural Americans' desperate lives during the 1930s. They should also see John Ford's epic movie, The Grapes of Wrath, which won two Academy Awards in 1941.

It is fashionable today to view all Americans living in the Heartland as "white Christian Nationalists" who have prospered by exploiting people of color. Of course, that's not true. Most people in  Flyover Country work hard, practice their religion, and lead modest lives.

Moreover, the descendants of the Dust Bowl refugees claim a heritage of suffering, exploitation, and unbearable hardship--as harsh as any American has suffered in the twentieth century--regardless of color. This is my heritage, and I'm proud of it.

90-second food review: Ode to Jim's Barbecue in Waskom, Texas (and a Shout-Out to T.S. Eliot)

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

T.S. Eliot 

Years ago, I regularly traveled back and forth from Dallas to Baton Rouge. It was a grueling seven-hour drive on Interstate 30 and Interstate 49, with state troopers lurking in the wooded median strips, fiendishly designed to be perfect speed traps.

For years, I searched for a good place to eat on my weary travels, a country diner close by the highway that served comfort food at a reasonable price.

 Unconsciously, however, I  was looking for a 1950s diner like the cafes I knew in rural Oklahoma when I was a kid. I wanted to find a place that smelled like frying onions and hamburgers sizzling on a greasy grill. I wanted a country restaurant with a juke box playing songs sung by Lefty Frizzell.

Unfortunately, I only found fast-food chain restaurants: McDonald's, Burger King, Whataburger, and Dairy Queen.

One day, I stopped for gas in Waskom, Texas, the last Texas town on Interstate 30 before you cross the border into Louisiana. There, partially obscured by a McDonald's, I spied Ed's Barbecue with a sign that advertised barbecue and fried catfish. Could this be the end of all my exploring?

I entered, and a cheery waitress greeted me with an expansive invitation to sit wherever I liked. The joint looked right. A framed image of John Wayne hung on one wall alongside a vintage photo of Hank Williams performing on The Louisiana Hayride, an iconic radio show broadcast out of Shreveport, Louisiana, in the 1930s.

I quickly perused the menu and ordered a cheeseburger and a glass of sweet iced tea. In the long tradition of Texas roadside restaurants, my waitress addressed me with a string of endearments: sweetie, honey, and darlin'.

I remember my cheeseburger came fully dressed with a generous side of fries.

During my visit, I entered the men's room and saw an image of Don Knotts' Barney Fife holding up a single bullet for inspection. Undoubtedly, this pleasing washroom decoration had been curated by a high-end interior design firm in Dallas.

My burger was excellent, and my sweet tea was prepared just as I like: so sweet that I would be a pre-diabetic by the time I finished my meal.

I paid my bill and bought a jar of pickled tomato relish from a stack piled next to the cash register. As my waitress handed back my credit card, she asked the golden question:

Would you like a go cup for your sweet tea, sugar pie?

I realized then that my lifetime of aimless searching had brought me back to where I started, a little Southwestern town. And this was where I belonged--not in the  Harvard Faculty Club or a stuffy university, but in Ed's Barbecue Restaurant, chowing down on a cheeseburger, catsup-drenched French fries, and a large glass of sweet iced tea.

 

 

Downwardly Mobile Millennials Voted for Zohran Mamdani, and That Makes Perfect Sense

 Zohran Mamdani won the recent Democratic primary in New York City's mayoral race,  handily defeating  Andrew Cuomo, the epitome of the Democratic Establishment. Many commentators were surprised by the types of voters who supported Momdani--Jews, for example, and the wealthy elites in Manhattan. After all, Zohran is sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and has referred to some Israeli military actions as genocide. He has called for higher taxes on the rich, especially the ones living in "whiter neighborhoods."

Reihan Salam, writing for the Wall Street Journal, theorized why one particular segment of New Yorkers voted for Mamdani: downwardly mobile millennials. Salam defined downwardly mobile millennials as individuals born between 1981 and 1996 who are less well off than their parents or who perceive themselves as less well off.

Roughly 40 percent of millennials, according to research Salam cited, live in "high-cost, hyper-competitive metropolitan areas," where owning a home and paying off student loans can be "distant dreams."

Millennials in NYC and other Democratic strongholds often have college degrees and graduate credentials from prestigious universities, where they were groomed to believe they were preparing for high-paying jobs in glamorous industries and to take their rightful place among the urban elite.

Things haven't worked out so well for urban millennials. Housing costs are astronomical in NYC and other progressive Democratic strongholds. The job market for upscale jobs is fierce, and many millennials can't find jobs that allow them to pay off their student loans and still buy a home. 

Moreover, the crime rates are high in the blue cities, and the renter class bears the brunt.

No wonder so many urban millennials have turned to leftist politicians who promise to soak the rich. I say go for it!

However, Momdani supporters who are angry at the rich should reserve some of their rancor for the elite universities that charge outrageously high tuition for worthless diplomas, especially degrees in liberal arts, humanities, and the social sciences.

A few people who take out loans to get a degree from Swarthmore, Vasser, Columbia, Harvard, etc., can go to the Big Apple or other progressive cities and scramble to the top. Michelle Obama, for example, got her sociology and African American Studies degree from Princeton and is doing just fine.

However, many people who try to make the big time by taking out student loans to get a prestigious degree and going to New York, Chicago, or other expensive, crime-ridden cities, aren't doing as well. And it is these people who are voting for Zohran Mamdani and other leftist wingnuts.

If I were a millennial living in Manhattan on a salary of $90,000 a year, paying $4,000 a month in rent and $1,000 a month on my student loans, who would I vote for to be New York's next mayor?

 I'd vote for Zohran Mamdani.

Image credit Jonah Rosenberg/New York Times

"It's so cold that Bill and Hillary Clinton are sleeping together": CBS Cancels Stephen Colbert and It's the End of the World

For years. I was a big fan of The Late Show and watched it most nights when David Letterman was the host. When Stephen Colbert took over in 2015, I continued watching because I liked Colbert's comedy routines on The Colbert Report.

In time, however, I stopped watching The Late Show because Colbert got less and less funny. His monologues became snarky, and he mostly directed his witty barbs at Republicans.

Now, CBS is canceling Colbert and The Late Show franchise. Colbert makes $20 million a year, but his show was losing $40 million. You do the math.

Nevertheless, the Progressive Left is scandalized by Colbert's firing. The Writers Guild is calling for an investigation, and 200,000 people signed a petition accusing CBS of yielding to political pressure from the Trump administration. 

Senator Elizabeth Warren went so far as to point out that Colbert's termination "just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump[is] a deal that looks like bribery."

Colbert supporters demonstrated in the streets of New York City, chanting "Keep Colbert! Dump Trump!" One demonstrator said protesters were calling out "fascist censorship" against a Trump critic.

Here's my take. The legacy news and entertainment industry has been more liberal than the American public for half a century. Even as a kid watching the evening news on my family's Hallicrafters TV, I knew Walter Cronkite was a Democrat. Nevertheless, like most Americans, I trusted him to report the news fairly and objectively.

Likewise, Saturday Night Live and the late-night talk shows were populated by liberal Democrats, but they made fun of everybody--both Republicans and Democrats. I recall David Letterman observing that it was so cold that Bill and Hillary Clinton were sleeping together. And I remember Chevy Chase mocking President Gerald Ford for his clumsiness on SNL, and Dan Akroyd mimicking President Carter's apology for "flip-flopping on my flip-flop."

Those days of nonpartisan comedy are over. Now, Americans are in the streets demanding that Stephen Colbert, a sanctimonious sexagenarian, be reinstated to his $20 million gig on CBS, and Senator Warren hints darkly of bribery.

I miss the old days when Americans laughed at everyone in power--laughed at their pomposity, their hypocrasy, their venality, and their petty foibles that revealed their humanity. Don't you?

"Your revolution is over, Mr. Lebowski. Condolences. The bums lost." The Democrats Hope to Regain Power Through Chaos

I have a lot of friends who are Democrats, and they're idiots.

Jamie Dimon

 Remember that great line from the Coen Brothers' classic movie The Big Lebowski? "Your revolution is over, Mr. Lebowski. Condolences. The bums lost."

So it is with the Democratic Party. The bums lost. Despite all their skullduggery, their Russiagate scam, their malicious lawsuits, and the conspiratorial lapdog media--despite all that--Donald Trump won a second term.

And now the Democrats are in meltdown mode, reduced to spewing F-bombs and singing "We shall overcome" in the halls of Congress.

I agree with Jamie Dimon; the Democrats are idiots. President Trump has labeled AOC as being a person with a low IQ, but how smart are any of the Democratic leaders? How smart can they be if they continue to hang on to their transgender sports agenda after the NCAA and the U.S. Olympic Committee threw in the towel?

The Democrats have given up on regaining political power through the Democratic process. Like the Bolsheviks and the Nazis, the Democrats are counting on violence and chaos to grab the reins of power.

And violence and chaos are coming. We won't see elected Democrats throwing rocks at ICE officers, but they'll give aid and comfort to those who do. We won't see powerful Democrats deliberately destabilizing the economy, but their hysterical opposition to honest efforts to reduce fraud and waste will have the same effect.

The Democrats seem to believe they can drag down the Trump administration under a tide of litigation and bombast and somehow regain the power they had during Joe Biden's administration.

That ain't gonna happen. 

Americans have been bamboozled by the legacy media and sleezy Democratic politicians for almost ten years, but they've finally figured it out. Joe Biden was a corrupt, cognitively impaired president throughout his term of office while shadowy insiders ran the country into the ditch. Russiagate was a treasonous scam based on false documentary evidence and lies promulgated by an unscrupulous and deceitful intelligence committee, which may have been orchestrated by Barack Obama. 

The people of Flyover Country will never submit to be governed by this gang of criminals and caitliffs again. The Dems may think they can regain power through chaos and violence, but they are sorely wrong.

"Your revolution is over, Mr. Lebowski. Condolences. The bums lost."

Froma Harrop Says That Debt Driven By Inflation Could Sink the National Economy: Yah Think?

For years, Froma Harrop has been a reliable spear carrier for the progressive Democrats, so when she speaks on a national policy issue, you can assume she is speaking for the Democratic establishment. Thus, it is noteworthy that her recent op ed essay sounded the alarm over rising consumer debt.

People are buying groceries and consumer goods under "Buy Now, Pay Later" programs that allow them to pay off their purchases in four monthly payments. Why don't these folks just charge their purchases on their credit cards? Harrop asked. Probably because their credit cards are maxed out.

Harrop also observed that car loan delinquencies are up, which is especially worrisome because the last thing people want to lose is their cars. 

And a high percentage of student borrowers are behind on their student loans. Harrop noted that 25 percent of the federal government's $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio is in danger of default, and 31 percent of student borrowers are delinquent on their monthly payments by 90 days or more. 

Harrop didn't mention the residential housing market, but there's also trouble in that segment of the economy. Everyone rejoiced when mortgage rates sank below 3 percent, but now they hover around 7 percent. 

In Florida, the bellweather state for residential housing, sales have slowed, and in some Florida markets, sellers have been forced to cut their prices to attract buyers. This trend is showing up in other states.

The federal debt is rising too- currently at $36 trillion, with interest payments absorbing more and more of the federal budget. Like the weather, Congress talks endlessly about the national debt, but lawmakers are not doing much about it.

Harrop believes the Trump administration is only making the nation's debt problem worse, and she may be right. Trump has been filibustering the Federal Reserve, hoping to bully Jerome Powell into lowering interest rates, which might only fuel more inflation.

Harrop's essay surely parrots the Democratic establishment's views, but what did the Democrats say about debt when Joe Biden was in office? Did they complain about all the military equipment the Army abandoned in Afghanistan--equipment that had to be replaced at great expense when the U.S. helped the Ukrainians fight the Russians? Did the Dems express concern about the federally funded NGOs that were transporting illegal immigrants into the United States and then putting them up in expensive hotels? Did Democratic congresspeople make any effort to reduce the cost of federal Medicaid programs, which now insure one-fifth of the American population?

The answer to all these questions is no. Now that the Democrats are out of power, they're complaining about inflation,  consumer borrowing, and the astronomical national debt--problems they are cheerfully blaming on President Trump.

Anti-ICE Protesters Arrested on an Ohio River Bridge: Don't Try That in a Small Town

Well, try that in a small town

See how far you make it down the road

Around here, we take care of our own

You cross that line, it won't take long

For you to find out, I recommend you don't

Try that in a small town.

"Don't Try That in a Small Town"

Performed by Jason Aldean

Protesters gathered on the Roebling Bridge a few days ago to protest the detention of a former hospital chaplain by ICE agents. The bridge spans the Ohio River and is a vital link between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky.

Some protesters stayed on the pedestrian path, and some obstructed traffic in the roadway. Police officers from Covington, Kentucky, arrived to deal with the disruption, and fifteen people were arrested.

Video of the event shows a Covington police officer hitting a protester repeatedly, and that officer was placed on administrative leave. A woman was also thrown down and restrained.

Police officers who use excessive force when making arrests should be disciplined. On the other hand, we can't excuse people who resist arrest or assault the police. 

From the video I viewed, I can't determine who was in the wrong during the scuffle on the Roebling Bridge. It may be months before the incident is sorted out.

This, however, I do know. Anti-ICE protesters have repeatedly vandalized property, set fires, and assaulted police officers in West Coast cities and have largely gone unpunished.

Folks in Flyover Country aren't as tolerant of disruptive protests as those on the Coasts. So, if you have a hankering to throw rocks at police, loot buildings, or set cars on fire, you should express yourself in Los Angeles or Seattle, where the Covington, Kentucky police have no jurisdiction.

Don't try that in a small town.

Don't Worry About Zohran Mamdani: How Bad Can He Be?

 Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic mayoral primary, and New Yorkers to the right of Joseph Stalin are in a panic. 

Mamadani promised to raise taxes on "whiter neighborhoods" like the one he lives in, but he assures us that he's not a racist.

He alarmed NYC's Jewish voters with his call for globalizing the intifada, but he's backed away from that phrase and denies being antisemitic. 

I don't think things will change much in the Big Apple if Zohran becomes mayor. He can't be any worse than other blue city mayors: Karen Bass of Los Angeles, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, and Latoya Cantrell, whom New Orleanians lovingly refer to as Latoilet.

New York was already in the trash can before my dear old Mamdani showed up, and an outflow from the city was well underway. Sean Hannity recently urged New Yorkers to move to Florida, where the weather is better, taxes are lower, and crime rates are less alarming. But New Yorkers have been fleeing south for decades.

In my view, the number one reason to take the last stage out of New York is not taxes or weather. Rather, people should scram from NYC to escape a corrupt justice system--a system that is willing to prosecute people who pose a threat to the leftist Democratic machine. Just ask Donald Trump or Eric Adams.

Someone who runs afoul of Letitia James or Alvin Bragg could wind up being criminally prosecuted and could even do jail time. Even if a person defeats a politically motivated criminal case, that person could be driven into bankruptcy by the attorney fees. 

Even little people are at risk of being prosecuted unjustly. Daniel Perry was charged with criminal homicide after he defended fellow passengers from a mentally deranged man who had been threatening subway riders for years.

I suffered a stroke two years ago and need to walk with a cane, which signals to the world that I'm vulnerable. What if someone attempted to shove me onto the tracks at a New York subway station and I  injured my assailant by hitting him in the nuts with my CVS cane? I'd probably be more likely to be prosecuted for assault than the guy who tried to kill me.

Little people have been evacuating NYC for years for all the obvious reasons. Now, wealthy people- people with the resources to live comfortably and safely in our nation's largest metropolis--are getting out too. High taxes and onerous regulations are part of the motivation. Still, a corrupt and politically driven criminal justice system is undoubtedly a significant reason for businesses and rich people to pull up stakes.

It's only a matter of time before the New York Stock Exchange moves to Dallas and the Rockettes move to Chattanooga.

I'd walk a million miles for one of his smiles--Mamdani!