Nearly all political sentiment for the past decade has been mediated through the lens of prior reaction to Donald Trump. Those who like the American president, or at least aren’t fixated on him, tend to give his actions in government a fair assessment. So, in the case of the American raid on Caracas to arrest Nicolás Maduro,...
Fraud investigations are engulfing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, but that isn’t the only issue demanding attention in that state. The state’s election system is being exposed for vulnerabilities that undermine transparency and confidence in democracy. Recent reporting has brought renewed attention to just how permissive Minnesota’s election framework has become. The state allows voters to...
In late January, the State Board of Education will begin the process of reversing decades of declining literacy by considering a preliminary list of required readings for Texas public schools. This charge was delivered to the SBOE by the Legislature in response to disappointing state and national assessment results and university educators sounding the alarm...
After a year of debating and finally passing a new curriculum for Texas public schools, it seems like the day after Christmas is a good time to re-visit this piece I wrote in 2024 about cultural illiteracy and the importance of understanding the role Christianity plays in the foundation of our western culture. “Sermon on...
Set at a New England boarding school around Christmas 1970, Alexander Payne’s 2023 film, The Holdovers centers on the school’s three holiday “holdovers”, that is, those who are unable to leave campus for the winter break. Occupying the empty campus during the frigid northeastern winter is Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti), a cranky, unmarried classics teacher...
The House just took an important step toward restoring sanity to America’s health care system by voting to support the Republican health care plan. While critics will reflexively attack the vote, the reality is that the right is finally confronting the real drivers of high health care costs. It rolls back costly federal mandates, expands...
Throughout 2025, I joined the Cardle & Woolley Show every Friday morning on Talk 1370 Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. Starting with the inauguration of President Donald Trump’s second term and an epic session of the Texas Legislature, 2025 has been an epic year, changing the course of history in...
In It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey’s great ambition is not wealth or status. It is something far more ordinary and far more powerful: the ability for working families to afford a home, put down roots, and build a future together. Bedford Falls thrives not because of grand social programs, but because ordinary people can buy modest homes...
At the beginning of Home Alone, Kevin McCallister is not dreaming of independence or adventure. He is frustrated, overlooked, and angry enough to wish his family would simply disappear. It is a familiar childhood impulse, played for laughs and quickly resolved by the warmth of family reunion. But in today’s Texas households, new artificial intelligence tools...
Texas adopted Hoover’s blueprint a century ago. Today, the bill is due in higher prices and lost liberty. Progressive-era policy rears its head in Texas housing. A century after Herbet Hoover put housing under government management, innovation has faltered, consumer choice has dwindled, and costs have exploded. Popular sentiment casts Herbert Hoover as a do-nothing,...
Recently, we exposed how the Texas Council for the Social Studies (TXCSS) and its parent, the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) have derailed past attempts to bring a high-quality History education to Texas students. The TXCSS, however, is not the only organization meddling in Social Studies reform. The American Historical Association (AHA) holds...
Imagine one of your loved ones is the victim of a violent crime. Now imagine weeks, months and years go by without anyone being brought to justice. Without enough officers to investigate cases and too few crime analysts to process forensic evidence, cases stall and backlogs grow. This devastating scenario is a reality for far...