The hostages have been released. Hamas has been brought to their knees. Peace in the Middle East is actually possible. All this because of President Donald J. Trump.
Thanks to the man known for the Art of the Deal all 20 of the living hostages have been released from their barbarian captors.The Middle East is now positioned to trade chaos for commerce and terrorism for trade. The entire region could be transformed.
It is sad that nearly half of America will not recognize this historical moment for the momentous event it is due to TDS and their irrational deep hatred for a man who has worked for this peace since 2017. He has pursued, and won, Ronald Reagan’s strategy to victory.
The world thanks our president. We don’t deserve him.
For the third year in a row the hummingbirds won the Halloween costume contest
I think not, as retailers have already moved on to hawking Christmas decorations and trinkets.
And I see another Federal judge has determined that the President cannot exercise the powers granted to him. I heard one talking head say “If he (Trump) wants to stop the chaos he should stop defunding the police.” On what planet do these people even reside?
Have a good week, pray for peace and enjoy the probably-last-of-the-warm-weather if you live north of the Mason-Dixon line. As an aside, how many of our historically illiterate youth do you think have a clue what the Mason-Dixon line is?
Sure, summer is officially over. Fall is settling in and It won’t be long till the bounty of summer tomatoes is gone until next year. Don’t miss their last hurrah. Accordingly, in a rare burst of energy, and with a surfeit of late summer produce from the farmers market, I made dinner last night. I fixed this dish as an homage to the fleeting season, I pass it along as my contribution to your weekend happiness and well being.
I think the last time I made this concoction was when I originally posted it back in 2020, there had been much water over the dam since then. It’s got a lot of ingredients but none of them require much prep and the cooking is simple. I seldom have the energy to do much of anything let alone cook so if I can do it you can do it. Trust me on this, the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts.
So if you find yourself lucky enough to have a lot of tomatoes and zucchini I highly recommend you throw this together.
Be sure to toast some good bread to soak up the succulent juices. The recipe makes a lot so you can freeze half of it to enjoy on a cold winter evening when you’re feeling lazy but most likely you’ll eat it all before it ever sees the freezer.
1 pound ground spicy sausage - I’ve used Italian sausage in the past but only had Bob Evans breakfast sausage this time and used it with some red pepper flakes. I might like it even better.
1 small sweet onion, diced
2 medium zucchini, thinly sliced into rounds
4-5 medium heirloom tomatoes or regular, roughly chopped (big chunks work well, skin and all)
2 teaspoons paprika
kosher salt and pepper
1/2 cup red wine (I only had white)
1-2 large handfuls fresh baby spinach (or more, it shrinks a lot)
1/4 cup fresh basil, roughly chopped
1 block halloumi cheese, sliced - you can use fresh mozzarella and it will be fine but halloumi is especially good and elevates it to another level
1 cup heirloom or regular cherry tomatoes
toasted ciabatta bread, for serving
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Heat a large, oven safe skillet over medium high heat. Add the sausage and onion and cook until the sausage is browned all over, about 8 minutes. Add the zucchini and cook 2-3 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and any juices left on the cutting board. Add the paprika and season generously with salt and pepper. Stir in the wine. Add the spinach, cover and simmer 5-10 minutes or until the tomatoes are soft and have released their juices. Stir in the basil. (I add the spinach and basil after the tomatoes cooked down as it only takes a minute or so)
3. Arrange the halloumi in an even layer over the sauce. (I put mine in individual casseroles) Sprinkle the cherry tomatoes over top and transfer to the oven. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is golden and the sauce has thickened slightly. Serve warm topped with fresh basil and toast for dipping.
You will have all next week to enjoy righteous retribution. For now, slow down and smell the tomatoes.
The world is too much with us - William Wordsworth
RIP Charlie
If asked what I miss most about my youth my response is the optimism. It’s easy to be unwaveringly upbeat before life and experience have beaten you down repeatedly. Life’s successes,victories, achievements and joys are tempered by disappointments, defeats, heartbreaks and losses. It’s a rare individual that arrives at their septuagenarian years without some degree of cynicism and some loss of optimism.
Before you know it it’s the autumn of your life.
Optimism alludes us when our time allotment is running out and days and opportunities are limited. And then along comes a Charlie Kirk. He was the epitome of optimistic: an intelligent, fearless, charismatic man who would take on all comers willing to participate in civil discourse. He routinely beat the left ideologues, who couldn’t win an argument in an empty room, with rationality, logic and good humor while they resorted to canned responses and ad hominem attacks.
Thank you Charlie, for restoring my faith in the upcoming generations and returning optimism to this world weary soul and many like me.
Rest well good and faithful servant, we’ll take it from here.
I’m so old I remember when college campuses were considered safe harbors for intellectual debates over controversial subjects. Disagreement was not only tolerated, it was expected. Even unpopular ideas were analyzed and argued with out fear of retribution. Free speech was understood to be a right and a privilege practiced by student and faculty alike.
Fifty years hence anyone on campus who doesn’t strictly adhere to the left’s orthodoxy is ridiculed, shouted down or canceled. Academic freedom, open discourse and institutional neutrality are concepts that once were admired but now receive lip service at best.
Charlie Kirk tried to change that; he tried to get people to engage their brains to question and think about critical issues. The left’s dogma does not hold up to this standard and as always, when they can’t win the debate they must silence the debater.
Charlie once said he wanted to be the Rush Limbaugh of his generation; that he was, briefly. God sent us Charlie Kirk to continue and enhance Rush’s message. Trust He will send someone to fill Charlie’s shoes as well, possibly thousands of them.
Only a master class troller can get the left to defend so many indefensible positions so often for so long. They have so much hate they’ve lost touch with reality .
…Trump is once again baiting his political opponents into defending the indefensible. He has a singular talent for making the Left clutch onto wildly unpopular positions and take the wrong side of clear 80-20 issues. It's political jiu-jitsu at its finest…
Trump knows that when he floats these proposals, Democrats and their corporate media allies won't respond with nuance. They'll respond with knee-jerk outrage -- just as they did in 2020, when Trump sent federal agents to Portland to stop violent anarchists from torching courthouses. The media framed it as martial law; sane Oregonians saw it as basic governance…
This dynamic plays out again and again. When Trump highlights the border crisis and the need to deport unsavory figures like Mahmoud Khalil and Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Democrats defend open borders. When Trump attacks gender ideology indoctrination in schools, Democrats double down on letting teachers hide children's "transitions" from their parents. When Trump condemns pro-Hamas rioters in American cities, Democrats can't bring themselves to say a word of support for Israel's war against a U.S. State Department-recognized foreign terrorist organization. When Trump signs an executive order seeking to partially recriminalize flag burning, Democrats defend flag burning.
Call it the art of the 80-20 issue. Along with his sheer sense of humor, Trump's instinctual knack for picking such winning battles is one of his greatest political assets. And this time, the winner won't just be Trump himself -- it will be Chicagoans and Baltimoreans as well.
The August heat, the political hypocrisy, journalistic dishonesty - is anyone else feeling a bitstabby these days?
If so, I have the perfect tool kit for you.
Practical, portable, legal (for now) and effective. Just use judiciously.
Set also doubles as a useful picnic accessory. And since summer is regrettably – for some of us – coming to an end that could be a good thing.
So stick your feet in the sand, your stablery into some melon or potato salad, your scooplery into a big bowl of ice cream and watch your anxiety and agitation melt away. Summer’s too short to go without the essential utensils.
Although a lot of the therapeutic effect has been negated by the constant liberal outrage performers ala the Sydney Sweeny eugenics “controversy” the outrage culture has devalued a scream to the point it isn’t worth more than a Biden buck.
As Marshall McLuhan noted decades ago “moral indignation is a technique used to endow an idiot with dignity.”
I would like to report it’s no longer working.
The vegetables are oppressing me!
And it’s all Trump’s fault; he’s trying to squelch our freedom of speech, put minorities back into a racial caste system and destroy the pillars of democracy. The Nazi!
Whelp, it’s time to visit our Western bunker. Well past time actually, we haven’t been back since April of ‘22. Yep, 3+ years – for many reasons, all related to cancer. I finally feel strong enough (I think) to make the trip and deal with the physical and emotional trepidation. So, we’ll be in Park City for the next few weeks. It’s glorious this time of year with warm days and cool nights and very little rain. That part will be grand.
My apprehension revolves around all the maintenance and repair projects that we know about - and who knows what we don’t – combined with my inability to do much of anything. We hired a very reliable neighbor to check in on the house every week so it’s not as if it’s been totally ignored, which is fortunate as he discovered the furnace not running on one visit in the middle of winter. I shudder to think of what would have happened had he not checked at the right time. Still, the “to do” list is long’ and much of what has to be done must be contracted out, as old age, old joints, old vertebrae and poor health change everything, as many of you know. It’s hard to swallow as it seems we were able to do almost everything ourselves just yesterday.
Such is life. We will be busy with contractors for everything from window washing to major stucco repair. Plus we need to meet with some realtors to find out what’s involved in proceeding with a sale, another daunting job as we have had this home for 25 years and now have nearly as much “stuff” here as we do in Michigan. It will be a long process.
Anyway wish us well, we will be busy and time will go fast. I know there’s only so much that can be accomplished, especially on my part, in such a short time period but you have to start somewhere. This is just the first of many trips to get things in hand and I’m very grateful to finally be well enough to begin the process.
As they say, “life comes at you fast.”
Be prepared. Stay resilient my friends.
And may you stay, as America’s best minstrel wishes, Forever Young.
May your hands always be busy May your feet always be swift May you have a strong foundation When the winds of changes shift May your heart always be joyful May your song always be sung And may you stay forever young May you stay forever young
It’s been awhile and I definitely owe you a health update. I won’t bore you with the details but overall I seem to be doing well-ish. I have scans every three months and MRIs (brain) every 4 months and since the return of esophageal cancer and subsequent radiation last November everything has come back clear, including last week’s scan. MRI not due till September. But things currently good enough that my oncologist has even given the green light to taking a bit of a break (4-6 weeks) from the infusions, That will be quite wonderful as they make me feel crappy for a week at So once again, a heartfelt thank you to everyone for your powerful prayers, intercessions and hopes on my which time it’s nearly time for another another. I think August will be a fine month to be infusion free.
I will always have significant balance issues as well as a raft of other not-so-life changing maladies but like many others here, I wake every day grateful to still be on this remarkable planet despite our bodily infirmities.
What currently plagues me is “cancer related fatigue,” a diagnosis you get when doctors cannot explain the symptoms any other way. What I can tell you is that it is quite debilitating. I am making small, incremental progress which gives me great hope. So once again, I would like to thank all of you who have offered powerful prayers, intercessions, hopes and good wishes on my behalf.
So as summer marches unrelenting on it’s time to get out there and make hay while the sun shines!
These balmy temperatures won’t last forever.
Since I finally have the strength to putter around the kitchen again when the heat wave wanes a bit perhaps I’ll feel like baking something - perhaps a peach pie to mark the season.
Note: it’s perfectly fine to use Pillsbury pie crusts. Especially in the summer.
So I hope we all enjoy what’s left of these dog days of summer by living our best life possible.
Frankly I’m much less concerned with whether Epstein killed himself or kept a list of pervs than I am about a bunch of high level elected and unelected functionaries who undermined the will of the American electorate.
Does anyone still believe justice will be served? Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results, on the other hand, Trump is a different animal. He doesn't often let his sworn adversaries off lightly so perhaps we will shift to a new paradigm.
Convictions and jail terms would be sweet but minimally we should get a do-over.
Mamas, please don’t let your babies grow up to Marxists. Take them to a 4th of July celebration as often as you can, no matter where, no matter when.
I hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July celebration and enjoy all your presents.
P.S. That 2011 Harvard “study” that taught every leftist in America to rebuke the 4th of July should tell you everything you need to know about leftists, “studies,” and higher education at institutes like Harvard.
President Trump would never ask you to do something he wouldn't do himself, whether it’s driving a garbage truck or flipping burgers.
So per the DOGE request Mr. President, list 5 things you accomplished last week:
Closed the border; zero illegal crossings
Brokered the end of the bloody 30 year war between Rwanda and the Congo
Obliterated Iran’s nuclear program and negotiated a cease fire between Iran and Israel
Won his Supreme Court case regarding birthright citizenship which states definitively that federal judges have no authority to issue universal injunctions.
Confirmed NATO members commitment to a 3.5% of GDP contribution and an increase in spending on their own defense
And of course the Democrats object to America making the world safer. We live in strange times. Pray for our troops. Pray for our president. Pray for us.
Finally we’ve run into someone who’s even less filtered with his tweets than Donald Trump.
I get why Elon is upset and I guess he thought he could change the legislative process by sheer power of will. He’s not into delayed gratification and clearly not used to taking no for an answer. Trump on the other hand is all too familiar with “no” and accordingly has structured his Big Beautiful Bill as a budget reconciliation that requires only 51 votes vs. the usual 60 and limits debate to 20 hours. There are restrictions as to what can be included in a reconciliation bill but let’s not get lost in the weeds. Suffice it to say that in order to get the tax cuts, the border funding and economic growth and investment incentives certain things had to go. I guess Musk doesn't trust that Trump can or will get additional cuts codified with future legislation. I don’t know if I do either the way the Republicans are, but it’s what we can get for now; as they say, it is what it is. I’ll take it as down payment.
As the infamous Frank Underwood noted in House of Cards: “Proximity to power deludes some into thinking they wield it.” When Elon realized it does not he got himself into a snit. Trump is a pragmatist and knows what he can get, Musk is a visionary who sees what is needed. We need both so I hope they patch this up, but I doubt they will. Egos, you know.
Here’s a shocking headline: “Anti-Semitism on the rise in America” The propaganda machine is working and the useful idiots are filling their role as planned.
Who could have predicted where Antifa, the “antifascist” terror group, would end up? They are about as antifascist as they are anarchists. If we had a functioning media everybody would know that.
Since Hollywood seems short on creativity these days I have a thought: instead of another (woke) reboot, remake or sequel to movies like Ghostbusters, Shrek, Top Gun, Mission Impossible or any of the Marvel comic books, how about an un-woke remake of something like The Diary of Ann Frank. Instead of all the histrionic, hyperbolic bloviating about Trump being literally Hitler it would be wise to educate the younger generations what actual tyranny, genocide and evil always results in.
And remember, despite the left’s insistence otherwise, the only person who is “literally Hitler” is Hitler.
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." —Winston Churchill
As we do on this day each year, we pause to remember the men and women who died fighting for our freedom.
We stand by humbly, gratefully, silently, to honor their sacrifice.
We remember…
We mourn for those lost…
And we mourn for those they’ve left behind…
As we reflect once again on the the steep price of freedom.
By all means, enjoy your picnics, parades and celebrations today – it is a holiday after all. But do pause to remember and honor all the brave Americans across the centuries who have sacrificed their lives in the fight against tyrants, tyrannies and terrorists; the enemies of freedom who will always be amongst us and will always be a threat to liberty. God willing, America will always be there to vanquish freedom’s adversaries.
Wishing all a tranquil, thoughtful and reflective Memorial Day this year.
As we do on this day each year, we pause to remember the men and women who died fighting for our freedom.
We stand by humbly, gratefully, silently, to honor their sacrifice.
Originally posted Memorial Day 2018
And because Lantern posts this every Memorial Day but is not able to this year, I’ll post it for him:
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow Between the crosses row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.
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