It’s known as the “Waffle House Index,” a term coined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to determine the severity of a local disaster.
If local Waffle Houses are open and serving a full menu, FEMA officials can breathe a bit easier since that indicates power is on and life is somewhat normal. But when the menu is limited – or the restaurants are closed altogether, it’s all hands-on deck.
In recent days, the Waffle House Index came to mind as well-established secular commentators made headlines for sounding more conservative than liberal.
When the proverbial culture waters are rising, you can get a sense of its depth by how often or acutely traditional progressives break ranks.
Writing in today’s New York Post, Piers Morgan rightly questions the leadership at Columbia University, which has literally been taken over by radical, antisemitic protestors.
“It’s become a disgraceful hotbed of toxic terrorism-supporting insanity and its lunatic students have literally taken over the asylum,” writes the former CNN host. “I’ve watched this escalating mayhem, one thought has kept recurring to me: Where the [expletive] are their parents?”
This is the same Piers Morgan who years ago attacked Ryan Anderson, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and the founding editor of the online journal Public Discourse. Morgan called Anderson “offensive” for holding to a biblical position on marriage.
Morgan has also excoriated the “trans” delusionists who contend men who identify as women aren’t crushing and ruining women’s sports.
“Is it fair that trans athletes are now demolishing women born with female biological bodies at women’s sports. Is that fair?” Morgan has asked.
Real Time host Bill Maher, also known for skewering conservatives and conservative beliefs, has been likewise enraged at the rising levels of antisemitism.
The acerbic commentator referred to the “privilege-y” protestors on college campuses and said what we’re seeing is what happens when “activism merges with narcissism.”
“Someone needs to tell the people who block traffic in the name of a cause, no one likes you,” he cracked. “And you’re probably hurting your cause.”
Dr. Phil McGraw, an ubiquitous television personality known for a variety of programs, is probably the least political of the three. Over the years, he’s been all over the map on a wide array of issues. But in a recent message delivered at Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, the popular psychologist warned about the “woke mob” threatening culture – and lauded the importance of church communities to confront them.
“The church brings something to the family unit that causes cohesion, that causes values to be thought of and talked about and prayerfully considered,” he said.
“If you are married and you do have two parents in [the] family and you are going to church, that’s your best shot of those children going into a lifestyle that will be drug-free, alcohol-free, abuse-free, divorce-free, that’s your best shot. Family in America is under attack. We need to fight back with the tools we have, and one of the tools that we have is our active relationship with God.”
As FEMA tracks the churn of waffles to monitor disasters, perhaps conservatives might consider establishing the Triple M Index – Maher, Morgan and McGraw – three men who seem to be getting what radicals continue to miss.
Images from Getty.
