Friday, June 14, 2024
Good morning.
It’s Flag Day, which a generation or two ago had a more straightforward connotation than it does today.
No, I’m not talking about Gay Pride flags or Intifada flags or the insurrection flags that the left alleges are flying over Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s house.
I’m talking about the Grand Old Flag, the one Betsy Ross sewed. The one we officially celebrate on Flag Day. The same one 2,501 American GIs died fighting for 80 years ago last week on the beaches of Normandy, on the first day of the largest amphibious military operation in history.
I visited the American cemetery there once where the dead from that carnage are buried, and it’s a sobering experience. Row after row after row of perfectly aligned white crosses. More than 9,000 in all.
It’s a place I’ll never forget as long as I live. It’s a place every American should visit, young people especially. That freedom isn’t free has become a cliché in their lives and mine, but for that greatest generation, it wasn’t. They understood the price that was paid.
“And the American rangers began to climb.”
Those were the words President Ronald Reagan said on June 6, 1984, the 40th anniversary of D-Day. Peggy Noonan, who’d penned them as Reagan’s speechwriter then, wrote a column last Saturday recalling his famous speech at Pointe du Hoc, where Army Rangers sought to scale an insanely insidious cliff. A cliff so steep that upon viewing it, I couldn’t imagine how anyone could climb it, let alone under Nazi gunfire.
“They shot rope ladders, pulled themselves up,” Noonan writes in her column. Two hundred twenty-five Rangers had come there. Then Reagan’s words:
When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. After two days of fighting, only 90 could still bear arms. Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there. These are the boys of Point du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs.
Noonan, in her column, recalls that poignant moment: “The ‘boys,’ in the front rows, began to weep. They had never in 40 years been spoken of in that way, their achievement described by an American president, who told all the world what they’d done.”
These were the surviving comrades of American boys who gave their last full measure. Those who lived and had to bear under the weighty command: “Earn it.” In a world that does not understand the meaning of sacrifice in the least, they surely did.
Now, from the sublime to the ridiculous. Yes, we’re talking about the news media, once again.
At the conclusion of last month’s report, I made a declaration that some of you may have thought was dubious, that much in the new news media is not only liberating but a source of hope.
Hopefulness from media – how can that be? But it’s true. I hope to persuade you of that very fact in this edition.
While entrenched media offers an unrelenting feed of pessimism and negativity – the same old tired claptrap you’re familiar with, that the United States is racist and verging toward theocracy, that Western civilization is evil, that Hamas terrorists are civilized – new media sources offer alternative viewpoints, the likes of which you’ll seldom get from the New York Times, NBC or NPR.
These alternate viewpoints are radically different from the typical self-loathing, hand-wringing messages that dominate old media and social media.
In this new media ecosystem, you’ll find inspiration and truth. I’d like to highlight three examples today, from British author and journalist Douglas Murray; NCAA champion women’s swimmer Riley Gaines; and professor Joseph Loconte. These speeches offer welcome relief from the distortion that dominates mainstream media.
By contrast, here is this week’s “distortion journalism” offered up by Rolling Stone magazine and amplified in the New York Times.
Since conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito (a Roman Catholic) authored the opinion two years ago which reversed Roe vs. Wade – the draft of which was leaked beforehand by a court insider who was neither identified nor punished – the progressive left has sought to discredit him. A month ago, the flap was over flags supposedly flown at the Alito home by his wife (Martha-Ann) which to those on the left showed sympathies toward Donald Trump. They then demanded that Alito recuse himself from Trump cases.
The latest flap was caused by a liberal activist (Lauren Windsor) who thinks America (laughably) is in danger of becoming a “Christian theocracy.” Last week she infiltrated a gala at the Supreme Court, secretly taping herself trying to goad Alito, wife Martha-Ann, and Chief Justice John Roberts into untoward remarks.
When neither justice said anything newsworthy, Windsor purported they had, which Rolling Stone dutifully published as an 1,800-word screed.
There are so many things wrong with this scam, it’s hard to know where to begin. For starters, it’s illegal in many states (including Pennsylvania) to tape a private conversation without the person’s consent. Though it may be legal wherever the venue was, it’s grossly unethical for a “journalist” to falsify her identity and pose as someone she is not.
Then there’s the tortured use of this supposed gotcha moment. Nothing Alito said was newsworthy, and surely not meriting the Rolling Stone “expose.” When Windsor suggests on the tape that people of faith “have got to keep fighting for [victory], to return our country to a place of godliness,” Alito responds matter of factly: “I agree with you.”
His mere polite acknowledgment that America might aspire toward “godliness” (Windsor’s words, not Alito’s) was enough to cause elevated heartbeats in the Times newsroom, where the ethical breaches this case presents should have given it pause. Instead, it breathlessly amplified the Rolling Stone report. The Times said Alito had endorsed leading “… the country on a more moral path.”
What could possibly be more threatening to our collective life and liberty than a more moral path? Such is the level of derangement that engulfs mainstream news nowadays.
As the Wall Street Journal astutely observed in its lead editorial on Wednesday: “The fact that her story led the news on Tuesday says more about the media’s obsessions than anything else.” It sure does. Calling the scam “contemptible,” it further observed: “The sorry truth about our present political moment is that harassment by the left is shrinking the public space in which Justices, or at least conservative Justices, and their families can operate.”
Which is why we need alternatives for our news. That’s how lies get exposed and corrected, via alternatives which promote a vetting of the facts. Those alternatives have thankfully taken root in the new media ecosystem. And I submit to you these new sources are more reliable and truthful than the hyperbolic, hyperventilating nonsense that now dominates old media and social media.
So let’s begin our three-video panorama of the new media landscape with exhibit one, as evidence of the liberation it provides. As you’ll discover, the truth shall indeed set us free (as Jesus himself says in John 8:32)!
One of the new journalists I admire is a Brit by the name of Douglas Murray. The author of bestsellers The Strange Death of Europe and The Madness of Crowds, his most recent book is The War on the West: How to Prevail in an Age of Unreason. A graduate of Oxford’s Magdalen College (pronounced Maudlin, where C.S. Lewis was an Oxford don a century ago), Murray exhibits Lewis’ fondness for old books and old speeches.
The Free Press publishes his regular Sunday column “Things Worth Remembering,” featuring great speeches from famous orators that are worthy of remembrance. Recent columns (on Demosthenes, Margaret Thatcher, Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie, Queen Elizabeth I, William F. Buckley) demonstrate his wide command of subjects.
As the speech he delivered to the Manhattan Institute in May proves, Murray not only studies oration – he’s an accomplished orator himself. The occasion was his acceptance of the institute’s annual Alexander Hamilton Award, for Murray’s “unwavering defense of Western values.”
The speech is 23 minutes long. View it and see if you don’t come away feeling inspired. Which is fairly astounding given the difficult situations he describes, including covering warfare in Ukraine and Gaza, plus recent reporting on our own fentanyl epidemic.
On full display is his Brit wit.
“I’m slightly nervous because I’m not used to friendly crowds,” he deadpans at the start. Big laughter. “I think it’s a first so please bear with me if I stutter or lose my train of thought.” The Manhattan Institute honoring him that night is conservative, and Murray, as a conservative journalist, is regularly targeted by the woke mob for his “racist, colonialist” views.
But he is undeterred. That’s something all three of our subjects have in common: courage, in the face of threats and intimidation.
Murray continues: “I think of all the people I’ve seen in Iraq, Ukraine, northern Nigeria – where the Christians are under such terrible and almost ignored persecution – and many other places. But I’ve never seen as much of the best and the worst of humankind as I have in the past six months in Israel and Gaza.”
Faced with such barbarism, his takeaway – the lesson he highlights in his speech – is the sacrifice that must be made to choose life and defend it.
Citing passages from Deuteronomy 30:19 (I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants might live) and Psalms 118:17 (I shall not die, but I shall live), Murray says his experiences in Israel and Gaza changed him. It caused him to reflect not only on the atrocities he’d seen but the heroism displayed by young Israelis defending their country against extermination.
Choosing life, he concludes, means defending it against all costs.
In stark contrast to young Brits and Americans, most of whom polls say would not defend their countries if invaded, young Israelis have shown such undaunted courage that it gives him hope.
He cites the story of one young woman who reenlisted in the Israeli army after the October 7 attack. “Her parents begged her not to, but she said that she had to. She was killed on her first day … Her parents shared with me the note that she’d left for them, in case she didn’t make it. In it, she said how sorry she was, but ‘I wanted to live life, and now I want you to live it for me.’”
Murray has learned that “life has to be fought for and cherished. And that’s what Israel has been up against: a cult of death, a cult that wishes to annihilate an entire race, and which, after dealing with that race, has made it very clear what it wants to do with Christians, everyone in Britain, everyone in America, and everyone else next. They don’t hide it at all. We are merely stupid in not believing them.”
The second video in our panorama of the new media landscape comes from swimmer turned activist Riley Gaines.
In this story, too, those who are advancing the transgender agenda, especially in women’s sports, don’t hide at all what they are doing. On the contrary, they are flaunting their newfound power, as male swimmer “Lia” Thomas did when he exposed his male genitalia before all the other women swimmers in the same locker room who competed against him – and, of course, lost.
Gaines was the one person who didn’t lose.
I’d heard of Riley’s story from events two years ago, which she describes in her new book, Swimming Against the Current: Fighting for Common Sense in a World That’s Lost its Mind.
But hearing her story in person two weeks ago, at the Pennsylvania Family Institute’s banquet in Cranberry Township, made me angry.
Video of that event was not taken, but she told her story a few days earlier to Ben Shapiro on his Sunday Special interview show. The video from her appearance is below.
Riley’s story angered me because of the absurdity of how unfair it was. She is, indeed, fighting for common sense in a world that’s lost its mind.
First there’s the sheer lunacy of a 6-foot-4 male who towered over his female competitors yet was permitted to compete against them merely because he claimed to be one. There’s also the cowardice of officials who let it happen. Riley conveyed her story with precision and power to a rapt audience.
She was introduced by conservative state representative Joshua Kail (the son of Bob and Karyn Kail, of our congregation), as part of a program orchestrated by Michael Geer, founder and president of the Pennsylvania Family Institute (and a recent podcast guest of ours).
Here is Riley’s story in her own words from that night (which she repeats in the Shapiro interview).
The practice schedule of a competitive swimmer at the University of Kentucky was grueling: six hours in the pool every day, three before 8 a.m. and three more after classes before dinner. Then hit the books, ice your aching muscles, and do it again for four years. She and her teammates swam about 10 miles every single day.
It wasn’t until late in 2021 that a swimmer emerged who hadn’t been on anyone’s radar. “She” was demolishing the competition, beating other female swimmers by body lengths.
“I’m talking to my coaches. Who is this? We had no idea. And we continued to stay in the dark until an article came out … It said Lia Thomas is formerly Will Thomas and swam three years on the men’s team for the University of Pennsylvania [where he ranked no higher than 554th in the nation among men], before deciding to switch to the women’s team …”
“When I read this, of course I was shocked. We were all shocked. This was so far-fetched, it was never even a realm of possibility. … I thought the NCAA would see it that way too, but lo and behold, they did not.”
About three weeks before the 2022 Women’s Swimming Championship in March, the NCAA said Thomas’ participation was non-negotiable. “We were told we had to accept this with a smile on our face,” she recounts.
Riley and other competitors had to go through “sensitivity training” beforehand in which they were threatened with retaliation (up to and including the loss of scholarships) if they protested Thomas’ participation in any way.
Then, incredibly, in the event Riley swam against Thomas – the 200-meter freestyle – they tied down to the hundredth of a second!
Riley explains what happened immediately afterward: “We go behind the awards podium, the NCAA official looks at both Thomas and myself, Thomas towering over me, and the official says, ‘Great job you two, but you tied and we only have one trophy, so we’re going to give the trophy to Lia. Sorry Riley, you don’t get one.
“And when I asked the dreaded question – why – the question no one dared ask all season, they clearly weren’t given a script of how to answer. Actually, I appreciated his honesty because this official said, ‘I’m sorry, but we’ve been advised that when photos are being taken, it’s crucial that the trophy’s in Lia’s hands.’”
That podium moment “was when I really realized the severity of what was at stake if we didn’t speak up.” Essentially, the potential evisceration of women’s collegiate sports.
In the two years since, she has become a forceful advocate for gender reality in competitive women’s sports.
Riley suspended her post-graduate education in dental school. She’s currently on a “Take Back Title IX” bus tour across the nation with other prominent female athletes (including former women’s tennis star Martina Navratilova, who is gay). They oppose the Biden administration’s 1,500-page rewriting of the landmark Title IX civil rights law, to redefine sex discrimination as including gender identity.
“I certainly believe that the tide is turning. Truth and sanity, they always prevail,” Riley says. One sign of this: 24 states have now enacted legislation protecting categories in women’s sports on the basis of biological sex, not gender identity.
Though she’s endured many threats and harassment along the way – including a bizarre incident at San Francisco State University where trans activists held her and even police hostage – she credits her faith for providing courage to carry on.
“By no means did I feel prepared,” she said in her talk. “But I was wrong in my assumption that God calls those who he prepares. Because that is not what He does. He equips those he calls.”
The third and final video in our panorama of the new media landscape comes courtesy of Dr. Joseph Loconte.
I first became acquainted with him about a year ago when he was a guest on our podcast. “Professor Joe” is engaging, fun, affable, especially when speaking about C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, on whom he’d written the bestselling book A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War, which was the subject of our podcast conversation.
Loconte is also an expert on the 17th century English political philosopher John Locke, who formulated many of the ideals – individual freedom and natural rights – that were written into the Declaration of Independence. His main area of inquiry is Western civilization, and the ideals and institutions that shaped it, which he has taught at Grove City College as well as the New College of Florida.
Joe was in his finest form on the day I heard him, which is to say: able to make history come alive for his listeners, as you’ll see and hear in the video below. The title of his talk was, “Western Civilization: Is It Worth Defending?” Joe explains with great insight why it is worth defending.
Loconte begins his talk with perhaps my favorite historical subject of all-time: Winston Churchill. And it’s hard to argue with the hinge point he began with: Churchill’s famous speech to the British Parliament and people, on June 18, 1940.
You know the speech. “The Battle of Britain is about to begin,” Churchill says (minute 37 in the video – Loconte saves the climactic moment of his talk until the end, but introduces the speech at the beginning).
The audio recording of that speech continues as Churchill says:
Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of our institutions and our empire. …
But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister and perhaps more protracted by the likes of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth lasts for a thousand years, men will still say: This was their finest hour!
Hitler’s Blitzkrieg had vanquished all of continental Europe. Just two weeks before, British dinghies and ships had finished evacuating some 350,000 soldiers from Dunkirk in France. Churchill faced as grim a situation as any British leader had ever faced. And all around him, people were bickering over whom to blame.
“Churchill will have none of it,” Professor Joe says. “If we open up a quarrel with the past, we shall find that we have lost the future.”
Loconte then pivots to the central question in his talk: What is Western civilization? What are its elements? To whom do we moderns owe a debt of gratitude for its ideals and formation?
“Our educators, lawmakers, journalists and knowledge class, they have come to regard our inherited beliefs, traditions and institutions as illegitimate concepts,” Loconte says.
“According to this view, our history is just a story of unrelenting imperialism, racism and oppression. The United States, we’re told, as the leading nation in the West, is largely a force for evil in the world. … We have opened up a quarrel with our past, and if we don’t do something about it, friends, we’re going to lose the future.”
The people who seek to cancel Churchill, Reagan, Thatcher and many others likely have little understanding of the debts we owe to them, and to a long lineage of historical figures, stretching all the way back to ancient Greece. People like Socrates and Rome’s greatest statesman, Cicero. There’s Locke, too, from whom the right to protest derives.
“They gave us a republic, friends,” Loconte explains. “I know the scourge of slavery and racism was deeply embedded in the American experiment from day one. It was not eradicated by the families at Philadelphia. I get that. I know it. But think about this. The Declaration and Constitution together, like no other political documents from the world, put the institutions of slavery on notice all over the world. Its days would be numbered.
“And that I believe, friends, that’s why leaders like Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and the Reverend Martin Luther King, praised our founding documents as ‘promissory notes for a government based on human equality and human freedom.’ As Doctor King put it, the goal of America is freedom. So the combination of political and religious doctrines, the bond between natural law and natural rights, between reason and revelation, is produced.”
Had it not been produced – and had Britain not held fast against Nazi aggression – there would have been no D-Day. The world would have been a vastly different place.
“It’s a sobering thing to remember that fascism, a disease of the mind, originated from within our civilization, from within,” Loconte says. “Like a parasite, it sought to destroy the moral foundations of the West.
“Today, friends, the West confronts new forces of disorder, new dreams of the utopian future, new forms of perverted science, new assaults on biblical religion. And once again, they’re coming from within our civilization. So the question is this:
“Can we stand up to them? Do we have the strength?”
With God’s help, I surely hope we do. For our sake and the sake of generations to come.
That’s my report for June. I’m taking a break this summer from both O’Bservations and our podcast, as I depart from the paid staff of Beverly Heights and ease into my new role as “communications hobbyist.”
See you in September!