What's in a name? President Trump should not have renamed Mount Denali

I lived in Anchorage, Alaska, as a young man. On clear days, I would see Mount Denali, North America's highest peak, rising to the north more than 100 miles away. 

Almost no one in Alaska refers to this majestic summit as Mount McKinley, although that was its official name for nearly a hundred years. Why would they? Denali is an Athabaskan word meaning the Great One, and President William McKinley had nothing to do with the mountain or with Alaska, for that matter.

In an act of bureaucratic hubris, the federal government renamed Denali to commemorate President McKinley in 1917, but Alaskans never got on board. In 1975, Governor Jay Hammond formally requested the  U.S. Department of the Interior to reinstate the mountain's name as Denali.

Unfortunately for the Alaskans, President McKinley hailed from Ohio, and an Ohio congressman opposed the change. Then, in 2015, 40 years after the feds received Governor Hammond's request, Sally Jewell, President Barack Obama's Secretary of the Interior, did the right thing and changed the mighty mountain's name back to Denali.

Then, in January 2025, President Trump was sworn into office as our nation's 47th president and changed Denali's name back to Mount McKinley. 

That was a mistake.

Alaskans are not happy about President Trump's preemptive decision, and they've raised many arguments in protest. I believe, however, that Hudson Stuck, who, with three other men, was the first to reach Denali's summit, articulated the best reason for reclaiming the mountain's Athabaskan name.

In The Ascent of Denali, Stuck's account of his historic climb in 1913, Stuck wrote this:

[L]et at least the native names of these great mountains remain to show that there once dwelt in the land a simple, hardy race who braved successfully the rigors of its climate and the inhospitality of their environment and flourished . . . .

Indeed, for our nation to recognize North America's highest peak as Denali is to do no more than acknowledge what is right.  Alaska Natives lived and thrived in a harsh land for millennia before the Europeans showed up. The Native name of Denali is the mountain's proper name.

Note. I omitted an offensive Eurocentric phrase from my quotation of Hudson Stuck. 

Mount Denali: The Great One

Maine Governor Janet Mills defies Trump's ban on transgender high school sports: Is this the hill you choose to die on?

Earlier this month, President Trump signed an executive order making clear that schools and colleges that allow biological males to compete in women's and girls' varsity sports violate Title IX. Education institutions that continue this practice, Trump's order declared, would be denied federal funding.

Most Americans welcomed an end to a bizarre policy adopted by various varsity sports associations that allowed biological men to compete against women and girls in such varied sports as shot put competition, swimming, and pole vaulting. In essence, Trump's order announced that the emperor wore no clothes, and people who believe that only girls should be allowed to compete with other girls in school sports no longer need fear being branded as transphobic.

The NCAA immediately jumped on board, announcing  it would comply with Trump's executive order.  Henceforth, the NCAA announced, only athletes who were assigned female at birth could compete in collegiate women's sports. 

However, the reaction to Trump's order was mixed at the high school level. Some high school sports associations revised their policies about transgender sports competition to comply with the Trump directive. Others vowed to continue allowing biological males who identify as female to compete with real girls in varsity sports.

 

For example, the Maine Principals Association declined to comply with President Trump's executive order, and a biological male who identified as female was recently named the state champion in the girls' pole vaulting event. Laural Libby, a Maine State legislator, revealed that this transgender athlete had competed as a male in a previous year and had only tied for fifth place.

President Trump, aware of Maine's defiance, confronted Maine Governor Janet Mills at a governors' conference in Washington and warned her that Maine would lose federal funding if it refused to comply with his executive order. Ms. Mills did not back down. "See you in court," was her response.

Here are my thoughts. Banning biological males from competing against girls in varsity sports is a simple matter of fairness.  Congress adopted Title IX in 1972 to ensure fairness toward women and girls in school sports, and politicians and educators who interpret Title IX as permitting transgender participation in girls' sports are engaging in sophistry.

Moreover, states choosing to litigate the transgender sports issue in court are wasting their money on lawyers. Who believes biological males will be allowed to compete in women's sports when this litigation is concluded? Trump's executive order will ultimately prevail in the courts, and this controversy will die away.

So why is Governor Janet Mills defying President Trump's executive order? In my view, Mills is engaged in expensive virtue signaling-- willing to risk the loss of federal education funding for her state to publicize her opposition to Donald Trump. 

If so, Mills should pick another issue to fight about other than transgender sports competition. I strongly suspect that the majority of her constituents are opposed to biological boys competing against girls on Maine's athletic fields. In fact, I'm sure they think it's nuts.

Governor Mills has chosen the wrong hill to die on. She may not care about her political future since she is 77 years old, in her second term as governor, and prohibited by the Maine Constitution from running for a third consecutive term. 

However, her foolish stance on transgender participation in girls' sports will be remembered by the voters as a crackpot notion of the Democratic party, which could turn Maine into a swing state or even a red state in the coming years.

My feeble Catholic testament against the death penalty. Capital punishment coarsens us all.

Ten years ago, Pope Francis spoke out against the death penalty. Addressing a delegation from the International Association of Penal Law, the Pope said this: "All Christians and men of good faith are therefore called upon today to fight . . . for the abolition of the death penalty--whether it is legal or illegal, and in all its forms . . . ."

In speaking out against capital punishment, Pope  Francis followed the example of Pope John Paul II, who condemned the death penalty as "both cruel and unnecessary." 

In 2018, Pope Francis revised the Catholic Catechism to make clear that the death penalty is "inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person." Therefore, the Catechism instructed, the Catholic Church would work "with determination to its abolition worldwide."

Catholics confront the reality of capital punishment every time they attend a Mass or contemplate the crucifixes that many Catholics display in their homes. Christ died a horrible, gruesome death--hung naked on a tree and forced to lift his nail-implanted feet just to breathe until he finally died of blood loss and asphyxiation. 

Surely, as Catholics, we are called upon to oppose any kind of execution by the instruments of government, whether by hanging, firing squad, electrocution, or lethal injection. In the way that he died, our Savior calls on us to respect the dignity of life--every life, even the life of the most hardened criminal. After all, Christ reassured St. Dismas on the cross that he would join Christ in paradise on the day of his death.

Catholic opposition to capital punishment is also a way of honoring all our saints and martyrs who died horrible deaths for their faith. Indeed, some of them died deaths by methods even more cruel than the cross.  During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Catholics were publicly hanged, drawn, and quartered, which meant that they were first hanged by the neck, taken down while still conscious, and then eviscerated and sometimes even castrated while still alive.  Their bodies were then pulled apart (quartered) to the delight of watching crowds. St. Edward Campion was executed in just this way.

Capital punishment, whether in its most benign or most malevolent form, degrades the societies that practice it, including the United States.  Our detractors point out that Catholics are far more vociferous when opposing abortion than we are when speaking out against capital punishment. Unfortunately, they are right.

Those of us who are Catholic should follow the examples of Pope Francis and Pope John Paul II and speak out publicly against the death penalty. Let us be guided by  Catechism, which clarifies that capital punishment is contrary to our Catholic faith.

Pope Francis opposes the death penalty.

 

I don't need y'all treating me this way: Tom Hanks insults the Heartland on SNL anniversary special

I've been to Georgia on a fast train, honey.
I wa'n't born no yesterday.
I got a good Christian raisin' and an eighth-grade education.
Ain't no need in y'all a treatin' me this way.

Georgia on a Fast Train

Billy Shaver, songwriter

Sung by Johnny Cash

Tom Hanks gratuitously insulted white Americans in SNL's televised 50th-anniversary celebration a few days ago. In a sketch titled Black Jeopardy, Hanks played a Forrest Gump-style white guy with a hick accent and MAGA hat. To drive home the point that MAGA Republicans are racists, Hanks's character pointedly refused to shake hands with a black man.

Perhaps Hanks sensed folks living in Flyover Country have stopped attending Hollywood movies and figured it was safe to make fun of the rubes. If so, he's right. I'll never watch another Tom Hanks film.

Hanks is clueless about a significant cultural shift across America. He probably thought he was ridiculing a marginal group when, in fact, it is Hanks and the coastal elites who are marginalized.

Hanks, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and a host of wealthy celebrities and media luminaries were just fine with a nation headed by Joe Biden,  a demented crook, and his giggling idiot sidekick, Kamala Harris. After all, the elites are wealthy; the system works just fine for them.

The rest of us, however, are concerned about fentanyl flowing across the southern border, Social Security checks going out to dead centenarians, and the senseless war in Ukraine. People who buy their own groceries are alarmed by the spike in food prices.

Millions of Americans are waking up to the fact that Anthony Fauci hoodwinked us with the COVID vaccines. No wonder Fauci thinks he needs Uncle Sam's security protection.

It's time for people in Flyover Country to boycott the vacuous cultural garbage being spewed out by people who hate their audiences. The richness and vitality of American culture is in the Heartland, not Manhattan or Hollywood.

To put it another way, "Stupid is as stupid does," and the coastal elites are stupid to disdain the people who made them successful. And that, as Forrest Gump might say, is all I have to say about that.

Kiss my ass, Tom Hanks

Why would anyone oppose Trump's efforts to end the Ukraine war?

We must all hang together, or most assuredly, we will all hang separately.

Attributed to Benjamin Franklin 

President Trump is trying to end the Ukraine war, which has brought incalculable misery to both the Ukrainians and the Russians.

I say incalculable because the war's advocates are not telling the truth about military and civilian casualty rates. Nor have they acknowledged the enormous environmental harms caused by the war.

Trump's Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, rattled Ukrainian President Vladimir  Zelensky by observing that Ukraine will probably need to cede some territory to get a peace deal. However, Hegseth was only stating the obvious. 

No credible authority believes Russia will consent to relinquish Crimea. Nor will Vladimir Putin give up the predominately Russian-speaking districts of the Donbas--where fighting has gone on for ten years.

Hegseth also made waves when he said that talking about NATO membership for Ukraine is unrealistic. Again, Hegseth was only stating the obvious. It would be insane to make Ukraine a NATO member now. Indeed, no NATO country is strongly pushing for immediate Ukraine membership. 

Every American should be grateful for Trump's energetic efforts to bring the stupid Ukraine war to a speedy conclusion. Yet, Democratic politicians are spewing vicious vitriol at the President while having no plan of their own to end this disastrous conflict.

Senator Richard Blumenthal's criticisms were particularly odious. He objected to Trump's characterization of Zelensky as a dictator who was doing a "terrible job" of running the war.

"What world is he living in?" Blumenthal asked. 

[Trump's remarks were] not only contrary to the facts and the truth but utterly despicable, a disgusting betrayal of a country that has bled and fought and died for freedom. The president's surrender is pathetic and weak.

Perhaps it was therapeutic for Senator Blumenthal to insult the President, and I'm sure his hissy fit played well with progressive Democrats in New Haven. Nevertheless, what's the Connecticut Senator's plan for ending the slaughter in Ukraine?

Does Blumenthal want the U.S. to follow President Biden's strategy, which was to ship money and weapons to Zelensky in perpetuity?

Will Zelensky's corrupt and venal regime prevail if we keep sending cluster bombs, uranium-enriched artillery shells, antipersonnel mines, Abrams tanks, and F-16s to Ukraine? Or will we eventually stumble into a nuclear war?

I favor putting the Democratic Party's deranged attacks against President Trump aside for a while and supporting his efforts to stop the Ukraine war. There will be plenty of time to slander him as a Nazi after the killing stops.

Senator Blumenthal and cronies

Shut Down the U.S. Department of Education: Why the Hell Not?

 When Kinky Friedman ran for Texas governor in 2006, he had a compelling bumper-sticker slogan. "Kinky Friedman for Governor. Why the Hell Not?"

I found Kinky's message persuasive and voted for him in the Texa primary.

I feel the same about President Trump's campaign promise to shut down the U.S. Department of Education. Why the hell not?

Critics warn that closing DOE would mean the elimination of the Department's Office of Civil Rights (OCR), which investigates discrimination claims against colleges and schools. Without OCR, they warn, we're likely to see an uptick in race and sex discrimination and the harassment of gay and transgender students on college campuses.

I reject that argument. 

OCR's investigatory and enforcement authority has long been a threat hanging over U.S. higher education. Still, it hasn't prevented the emergence of racism and antisemitism at the universities --particularly elite institutions like Harvard and Columbia. In fact, colleges are displaying more bigotry than at any time since the McCarthy era.

DOE's defenders also point out that the Department needs to administer the federal student loan program and distribute college loans.

I reject that argument as well. 

DOE has done a terrible job overseeing the student loan program. The higher education community has complained for over a decade that the federal student aid application form (commonly called the FAFSA) was unduly cumbersome and complicated for students and their parents to fill out. In 2020, Congress passed the FAFSA Simplification Act, directing DOE to create a simpler financial aid form.

DOE tackled the issue but didn't release the newly designed form until December 30, 2023, three months after students needed it. Consequently, the college admission process was delayed all over the U.S., with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) finding that:

Delays, glitches, and other issues led to a 9% decline in submitted FAFSA applications among first-time applicants and an overall decline of about 432,000 applications as of the end of August [2024].

Of course one mistake, even a massive screwup like the FAFSA debacle, is not a justification by itself for closing a federal agency. Nevertheless, over the years, DOE has shown itself unable to properly monitor the venal for-profit college industry or to rein in college costs, which have gone up year after year partly due to massive infusions of federal cash.

I agree with the Trump administration that education is a state responsibility that should not be overregulated or controlled by the federal government.

If Trump manages to close down DOE, I don't think its disappearance will adversely affect American education. Freed from onerous federal regulations, the colleges might even cut the cost of tuition. 

Now, that would be a miracle.

Andy's Custard is Dead to Me: Reflections on the Decline of the American Work Culture

 My hometown had an old-fashioned Dairy Queen when I was a kid, one of those vintage establishments that required customers to stand on the sidewalk and direct their food orders to a soda jerk through an open window.

Anadarko's Dairy Queen sold "soft serve," not real ice cream, but delicious nevertheless.  A small soft-serve cone only cost a nickel, which fit my childhood budget. If I was broke, I could always find at least three empty soda bottles I could redeem for two cents at the grocery store. And voila! I had the scratch to get a soft-serve cone.

My local Dairy Queen only sold two food items: a chili dog, which cost fifteen cents, and a footlong chili dog, which cost a quarter. The footlong came encased in a paper wrapper with a printed ruler attesting that the footlong chili dog was indeed twelve inches long. Truth in advertising!

My favorite food item at the Anadarko DQ was the soft-serve chocolate malt. A chocolate milkshake cost twenty-five cents during my childhood years, but the malt was pricey--thirty cents!

The extra nickel was worth it, however, because the tablespoon of powdered malt transformed an ordinary milkshake into the nectar of the gods.

Growing up, I consumed a couple hundred soft-serve chocolate malts, and I don't recall the soda jerk ever getting my order wrong. The powdered malt and chocolate syrup were always in the drink I ordered.

Now, chocolate malts cost a lot more than thirty cents. Andy's Custard, which I once patronized, charged me $6.95 (including sales tax) for a malt about the same size as the malts I slurped at the Anadarko Dairy Queen a half-century ago. 

I didn't begrudge the cost because Andy's custard is premium quality. Nevertheless, I insist that my seven-dollar malt includes malt flavoring.

The server at Andy's gets my order right about 60 percent of the time. Other times, however, I get a chocolate milkshake, not a chocolate malt.

This is unacceptable to me. When I pay seven dollars for a chocolate malt, I want a chocolate malt.

I do not mean to single out Andy's Custard. My experience there is similar to my experience in all kinds of fast-food establishments. Too often, the person who takes my order has a faraway look, and I know he or she is not listening to me. I'm distracting my server from TikTok or a text message conversation about last night's keg party.

Same phenomenon in the grocery store. I was in Albertson's a while back, and the cashier was having a personal conversation on his hands-free cell phone. He never acknowledged my presence or paused his phone chatter. I was a distraction from his social life.

COVID wrecked the American work ethic. When the federal government began paying people more not to work than to show up and do something useful, people asked themselves why they should exert themselves just to have money in their pockets. Just send me a check!

This new attitude hurts our whole society. When I order a chocolate malt, it's no big deal if the Andy's Custard worker gives me a milkshake. It's more serious, however, when the Social Security Administration tells the American people it can't say for sure when it will implement the directives of the Social Security Fairness Act.