I have been in Texas for a couple of days now and it is odd.  I am in Houston and environs and except for a few billboards desperately trying to make Talarico look normal, you could not tell an election is just days away.  It stands in sharp contrast to back home in Tennessee where yards signs are more common than litter.  I wish I could opine that such meant Paxton was a forgone conclusion, but I do not have enough data to actually formulate an opinion, I just know it is quite odd.  It also worries me a bit as this election matters – a lot.. . .

Teacher friends report to me that kids either refuse or cannot to read anymore.  There is increasing pressure on high school literature class to use short excerpts of great works rather than have kids read entire novels.  Apparently, in California, college freshman cannot do introductory math.  Some major universities are more thought police than curiosity builders.  The state of education in this nation appears to be awful.. . .

As the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has developed, the narrative has become, Russia=Bad Guy, Ukraine=Good Guy.  I think this is based mostly on the fact that Russia was the initial military aggressor in the conflict and echoes of Soviet dominance of the region.  But the fact of the matter is that there are no real good guys in this conflict, only greater and lesser bad guys.  We are formally allied with neither nation, though there is far more of a natural affinity for Ukraine than Russia.  Our role in the conflict is based on our best interests, not loyalty to one side or the other.. . .

It is tempting and easy to want to parallel France and America.  Both fought revolutions around the same time to throw off what they viewed as monarchical tyranny.  But the revolutions were quite different in character and the outcomes even more different.  I have seen far too many opinions in the last 48 hours trying to draw parallels for America in the unrest (to say the least) that was visited upon France over the weekend.  That is a mistake.. . .

Way too many people these days think that some political outcome represents an existential crisis.  I cannot help but wonder if they have thought about what actually constitutes an existential crisis.  A massive meteor strike may have created the extinction of the dinosaurs, but even an event that immense did not end existence.  Besides, the dinosaurs lacked our adaptive abilities.. . .

It was one of those weeks.  I looked at the list of set aside articles this morning and it is lo-o-o-o-o-o-ng.  So we are just going to dive right in.. . .

I realize that headline probably just lost me a lot of readers – the kind of people that cannot bring themselves to state the name of the President of the United States out loud.  But I am willing to take that risk – mostly because taking risks is what did, in fact, make America great.  Right now, thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people in Southern California are without power.  “The temporary outages are intended to reduce the risk of electrical equipment sparking wildfires during strong winds.”  California continues its rapid decline because its primary goal is to reduce risk, not take it.. .

Lots of lefties are trying to paint a picture in which Republicans have zero chance in the forthcoming election.  Most of the people I listen to (there are no “experts” here) indeed think the House is a forgone conclusion, but the Senate is up for grabs.  But the game at this point is to depress turn out for Republicans and so the stories designed to produce just that outcome continue.  One thing you can say for sure, Democrats and the left generally, are competing in this election with passion, reason not-so-much, but passion for certain.. . .