Rep. Andy Ogles: "Muslims don't belong in American society"

 Rep. Andy Ogles

151 Cannon House Office Building

Washington D.C. 20515

Dear Rep. Ogles:

I know that you would never say that “Muslims don’t belong in American society.”  I know that someone is trolling you in order to discredit you and make you look like a bigot.  You need to come out with a firm denial that you said that.  

I think it is really nasty when people use the Internet or social media to discredit our Republican politicians.  I have friends and relatives in Tennessee, and I know that people in that great state are fine and reasonable people who would never insult millions of their fellow Americans.  Speak out and explain that you are a victim of a terrible smear.

Sincerely,

Roy Christman

Goliath's Curse

That’s a book by Luke Kemp, published last year by Alfred A. Knopf.  The subtitle is The History and Future of Societal Collapse..  I asked the Palmerton Library to order a copy, and I am almost finished with it.  (It’s 445 pages long with another 100 pages of end notes and the index.).  

If you read one book this year, read it.  On the other hand, if you want to continue whistling a happy tune, betting on football games, and thinking life is good, run from this book.  It will made you very afraid. 

Should President Bonespurs salute a soldier"

In a word, no.  Although the President is Commander-in-Chief, the President is in civilian clothes.  According to armed forces regulations, the President is not required to salute.  In the past, generals who became Presidents, like Washington and Eisenhower, did not use the hand salute when meeting soldiers.  

The first President to salute troops was President Reagan, who during World War II made propaganda movies.

I will say this.  When the President is wearing a baseball cap and dead soldiers are being unloaded from the plane and passing in front of him, it might just be appropriate for him to take off his cap.  

 

Just to remind you how a real leader speaks

     We shall not flag nor fail.  We shall go on to the end.  We shall fight in France and on the seas and oceans; we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air.

     We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be; we shall fight on beaches, landing grounds, in fields, in streets and on the hills.  We shall never surrender and even if, which I do not for the moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, will carry on the struggle until in God’s good time the New World, with all its power and might, sets forth to the liberation and rescue of the Old.

Winston Churchill June 4. 1940

And then there is this:

“And sadly, there will be more [deaths] before it ends.  That’s the way it is.”

Donald Trump, earlier this week

 

Religious exemptions for measles vaccines

Spartanburg, South Carolina, is experiencing the largest measles outbreak to hit the U.S. since 2000.  One of the reasons is that people are getting “religious exemptions” for vaccinations for their children.  I’d say this was really Darwinian natural selection at work, except that it is happening to children who have no voice in the matter.

Let’s get something straight.  You do have freedom of religion.  You also have the right to be stupid, as many voters demonstrate far too often.  On the other hand, your religion may be restricted if it harms children or other people.  

Yes, if you are an adult, you may handle poisonous snakes in church.  If God loves you, maybe the snake won’t bite, although my advice is not to carry this too far by pinching the snake’s tail.  On the other hand, if you are a believer in “spare the rod and spoil the child” and then beat your kid with a bull whip until his back is lacerated and running with blood, you will be arrested for child abuse.  And you damn well should be. 

Let’s take this to its ridiculous limit.  Child sacrifice may have been permitted, even mandated in Mayan times, but NOT TODAY.  You can be cited if your kid is not in a proper seat belt, no matter what your religious belief.  You should not have a legal right to put your kid in harm’s way by denying that kid life-saving medical treatment.  I don’t give a damn what your religion says.

Kristi Noem and the Arrival of Spring

 Yesterday the first red-winged blackbirds of the season were feeding in our back yard.  The snow is almost melted.  A warm rain is falling tonight.

And Kristi Noem is no longer head of the Department of Homeland Security.  Now there’s a breath of fresh spring air.

Abusing women online

Germany, as you may know, has tough social media rules.  J. D. Vance has called those policies “Orwellian” and “lunacy.”  The Trump administration thinks that rules against antisemitism and racial slurs undercut free speech.

Now Secretary of State Rubio has banned two women from the group “Hate Aid” from entering the United States.  The group helps women demeaned on the internet. 

Rubio says the women are part of a “global censorship-industrial complex,” whatever that is, and if the women entered the U.S. it could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

This is the same administration that tried to get Jimmy Kimmel off the air, that put out a list of words and phrases like “transgender” and “climate change” that could no longer be used in government documents, that wants to remove certain books from schools and libraries, and that went after college students who carried signs in support of Palestinians.  Yeah, that group, so quick to defend free speech as long as it involves demeaning women.

I was about to write “amazing,” but it isn’t.  It’s the Trump administration.

See Adam Satariano, “Barred over Helping Women Abused Online, New York Times, (Mar. 4, 2026), p. B1, B6.