Good Morning! 

Writing to the Polish-Lithuanian General Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura Kosciuszko in 1808, President Thomas Jefferson observed:  

“Great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities.” 

We begin with news of last night’s vote in the United State Senate affirming that principle: 

1. Attempt by Democrats to curb Senate filibuster falls short 

From the Washington Examiner: 

Senate Democrats who hoped to curb the filibuster in order to pass two partisan election overhaul bills were thwarted by two centrists in their own party in an expected outcome that highlighted persistent intraparty divisions. 

Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona upheld their pledges to preserve the filibuster, voting against a change in the rules supported by all other Senate Democrats that would have required those who wanted to block the election legislation to engage in a nonstop floor speech. 

he legislation would roll back red-state voter integrity laws and expand federal oversight of election and voting district changes in some states. 

Republicans blocked the election overhaul bill with the filibuster earlier Wednesday evening, prompting Democrats to embark on their attempt to change the rule. 

  1. Youngkin Is off to a Good Start, But Parents Need to Keep Up Counterrevolution  

From The Daily Signal

Last year, we witnessed an unprecedented revolt by parents and other Americans against the left’s attempt to insert race-based indoctrination into classrooms and all aspects of life. The election of Glenn Youngkin as governor of Virginia in November was emblematic of this parents-led rebellion, and it looks like the movement will continue at full steam in 2022. 

If first steps are any guide, the new governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia has fully grasped what brought him to the executive mansion in Richmond. His initial actions, as well as those of newly elected Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, have been bold and demonstrate a determination that fits the historical moment. 

Winning creates its own momentum, and as the Latin proverb says, “Fortuna audaces iuvat”—fortune favors the brave. Americans and their elected officials will be emboldened by forthright leadership and will reward it.  

This feedback loop is exactly what is needed to reverse the strong quick gains made by the proponents of critical race theory on the heels of the months-long political insurgency that the Black Lives Matter organizations unleashed on the country in the second half of 2020.  

  1. Transgender ideology is trampling Title IX

From The Washington Examiner

In 1972, female athletes scored a huge victory upon the signing of Title IX. Women and girls who longed for equal treatment under the law and had worked to achieve their dreams in athletics were finally protected in doing so. 

In 2022, those dreams are being shattered, and the law that was signed to protect them is being violated. Biological males are crushing females on the athletic field, destroying their records in the swimming pool, outrunning, outlifting, and outcompeting them at every level. 

The recent controversy surrounding a University of Pennsylvania swimmer invites the question of how we ended up here. How do we live in a country, born on equality and opportunity, where such blatant unfairness is acceptable? 

The answer to these questions is simple: “Conservatives” have failed to conserve our fundamental values, allowing the Left to seize every institution in our country, from higher education to the Department of Justice to the corporate media. The Left’s control over these institutions has allowed them to penetrate their false, and actually regressive, narratives throughout society, including their illogical message that protecting girls’ sports is somehow discriminatory. 

RELATED: 

Parents Group Claims Saint Paul Public Schools Indoctrinating Preschoolers On Transgender Issues 

From The Daily Caller

A parents group claims that a Minnesota school district is indoctrinating toddlers about pride and other “equity” agenda items. 

Saint Paul Public Schools is partnering with two organizations, AMAZE and OutFront Minnesota, to purportedly push materials discussing gender identity on children as young as three, according to a release by Parents Defending Education (PDE). 

One document released by PDE from AMAZE included books aimed at preschool-age children, including “When Aidan Became a Brother,” “I Love My Colorful Nails” and “My Princess Boy.”   

The first book is about a young girl who transitions to become a boy, according to AMAZE’s handout. The second book tells the story of how “a boy who loves to paint his nails different colors” is bullied, while the third title is about “a little boy who loves the color pink, sparkly things, and being a princess” and was “written by his mom.” 

  1. Jordan Peterson: Why I am no longer a tenured professor at the University of Toronto 

From the National Post: 

I recently resigned from my position as full tenured professor at the University of Toronto. I am now professor emeritus, and before I turned sixty. Emeritus is generally a designation reserved for superannuated faculty, albeit those who had served their term with some distinction. I had envisioned teaching and researching at the U of T, full time, until they had to haul my skeleton out of my office. I loved my job. And my students, undergraduates and graduates alike, were positively predisposed toward me. But that career path was not meant to be. There were many reasons, including the fact that I can now teach many more people and with less interference online. But here’s a few more:

First, my qualified and supremely trained heterosexual white male graduate students (and I’ve had many others, by the way) face a negligible chance of being offered university research positions, despite stellar scientific dossiers. This is partly because of Diversity, Inclusivity and Equity mandates (my preferred acronym: DIE). These have been imposed universally in academia, despite the fact that university hiring committees had already done everything reasonable for all the years of my career, and then some, to ensure that no qualified “minority” candidates were ever overlooked. My students are also partly unacceptable precisely because they are my students. I am academic persona non grata, because of my unacceptable philosophical positions. And this isn’t just some inconvenience. These facts rendered my job morally untenable. How can I accept prospective researchers and train them in good conscience knowing their employment prospects to be minimal? 

Second reason: This is one of many issues of appalling ideology currently demolishing the universities and, downstream, the general culture. Not least because there simply is not enough qualified BIPOC people in the pipeline to meet diversity targets quickly enough (BIPOC: black, indigenous and people of colour, for those of you not in the knowing woke). This has been common knowledge among any remotely truthful academic who has served on a hiring committee for the last three decades. This means we’re out to produce a generation of researchers utterly unqualified for the job. And we’ve seen what that means already in the horrible grievance studies “disciplines.” That, combined with the death of objective testing, has compromised the universities so badly that it can hardly be overstated. And what happens in the universities eventually colours everything. As we have discovered. 

5. Religious beliefs shouldn’t be subject to ‘verification,’ Justice Neil Gorsuch says in dissent 

From the Christian Post: 

A pair of ministers seeking a tax-exempt status shouldn’t be subject to a government “verification” process, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch argued Tuesday.  

The Supreme Court denied a request for oral argument in the case of New Life in Christ Church v. City of Fredericksburg, which centered on whether Josh and Anacari Storms can claim a tax exemption for their residence. 

The couple are college ministers who minister to students at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and host Bible studies and worship events.  

City officials had concluded that they could not claim tax-exempt status for a parsonage, contending that the Storms family does not fit the exact classification of a minister according to the Presbyterian Church in America, which includes a requirement to be ordained and a prohibition on female ordination. 

Gorsuch took exception to the nation’s high court denying the appeal in a written dissent, arguing that the Storms should have been eligible for the tax-exempt residence. 

“The church tried to explain that the City misunderstood its traditions and practices. The church responded that, yes, women can and do serve as ministers,” wrote Gorsuch. 

  1. Free Masks and Tests? It’s a Lie. There is No Such Thing as Free.

From The Daily Citizen

In the world of advertising and marketing, the word “free” has a way of drawing consumers like moths to bright flames. 

We now learn the government will be mailing out 400 million “free” N95 masks to help slow or curtail the spread of the virus. Masks will be available for pickup at pharmacies and other predetermined locations. 

We’ll leave the efficacy and wisdom of mask wearing to others, but this much is certain and indisputable: 

In reality, there is no such thing as “free” when it comes to the government. They have no money to give or funds to purchase anything. Vaccines, tests and kits given away are paid for by you and me. And if we don’t pay for them now, you can be sure we’re going to pay for them later – with interest.

The perpetuation of the “free” mantra is a psychologically manipulative technique designed to ingratiate and foster goodwill. After all, who doesn’t like the rich uncle who writes large checks? It might be considered generous charity when a friend or relative provides it – but beware the subtle, coercive and increasingly common practice of federal, state and local entities dolling out dollars and other items. 

The apostle Paul wrote to the church at Rome, “But by the free gift of God’s grace all are put right with Him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free” (Romans 3:24). 

As Christians, that’s the one truly free gift this side of eternity, provided at no cost to every believer. 

  1. Marching Toward a Different Future

From First Things

The annual March for Life in Washington began in 1974—and it’s hard to think of a more admirable or consistent public witness to the dignity of the human person being given for so many years by so many people of all races, religions, and social classes. The March has taken place in fair weather and foul. Senior public officials have addressed it; others have assiduously (or contemptuously) ignored it. Over the past decade, the March has grown larger and younger—facts ignored in the anorexic press coverage of what is usually Washington’s largest gathering of citizen-activists. The March for Life is fun, serious, pious, and a bit chaotic. For those who participate, it’s a powerful booster shot, re-energizing the marchers and their supporters for another year’s work of building a culture of life in the United States. 

This year’s March for Life, the 49th, will be different. 

At the end of its current term, presumably in late June 2022, the Supreme Court will hand down its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The Dobbs case gives the Court its best opportunity in decades to reverse the mistake it made in the 1973 decision Roe v. Wade, and then re-affirmed in the misbegotten (indeed bizarre) 1992 decision Casey v. Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania. That mistake—discovering a “right to abortion” somewhere in the interstices of the United States Constitution—has been a festering wound in the American body politic for almost a half-century. 

  1. CBS Sports Refuses to Air Advertisement for ‘The Business Bible’

From The Daily Citizen

CBS Sports refused to air a commercial for The Business Bible during the Hula Bowl, the college football all-star game played last Saturday, January 16, in Orlando. 

Just one year ago, CBS Sports hired Senior Director of Workplace Culture and Diversity Initiatives Ndidi Massay to bring “diversity and inclusion” to the company. Evidently some folks didn’t get the message about real diversity, as the company was not inclusive toward an advertisement for a company producing a Bible for Christian men and women in the business world.  

Journalist Todd Starnes, who broke the story, said, “The Bible is the best-selling book in history. For CBS Sports to turn away a paying customer is hardly the best business practice. Sounds like CBS sports executives should consider reading The Business Bible.” 

He wrote, “The network has gone to great lengths to pride itself in its tolerance and diversity,” but said that claim now “rings hollow.” 

The Business Bible was one of the sponsors of the Hula Bowl, along with Five Guys, Newsweek, Wilson, DoubleTree by Hilton and other businesses. 

9. Chick-fil-A is Coming to Town, and Liberal Activists Aren’t Happy About it 

From The Daily Citizen: 

It’s a seemingly never-ending saga that pits the Chick-fil-A spicy deluxe sandwich vs. LGBT activists. As if on replay, Chick-fil-A announces a new location, and liberal activists immediately protest, offended that the chicken sandwich company is expanding near them. 

The Daily Citizen has chronicled numerous such instances, and now we’re relaying one more. 

On Jan. 3, 2022, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority announced that the current buildings at Brookdale South service areas on the Garden State Parkway will be demolished and rebuilt. In the new facilities, several new restaurants will be opened including Chick-fil-A, Burger King and Starbucks. 

But in our highly polarized and politicized culture, where individuals make dietary decisions based on a company’s political views, town officials in Bloomfield, New Jersey are expressing outrage at the decision. 

“I just can’t feel comfortable eating, giving money to someone who’s opposing my rights,” Bloomfield Councilman Rich Rockwell said, according to News12. “For that to be on a publicly funded, state agency highway, that seems inappropriate to me. The Turnpike Authority has a core value of diversity.” 

  1. Sotomayor Attends Supreme Court Arguments Remotely To Protect Herself From Exposure To Constitution 

From the Babylon Bee (Satire): 

Citing the need for extra precaution and safety, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor announced her decision to hear the high court’s oral arguments from a remote location in order to protect herself from exposure to the U.S. Constitution.