Puffs

Happy New Year. Hope 2023 is off to a good start for all of you.

There are millions of reasons to give thanks for our benefits while starting this year, 2023.

There are also probably as many reasons to worry about the future as hardships are sure to be part of our future.

Last week I read an article written by Mr. George Will in which he proposed four fixes for our U. S. Congress. I’m going to use some of what he says to start this year off. I don’t agree with everything he says, but often I do enjoy his writing (wishing I was as good).

Many situations in America are a direct result of what happens in our Congress. While they are certainly not responsible for all the problems we encounter these days, they share the blame as much as anyone. To paraphrase his opinion:

No. 1: A quote from Oliver Wendell Homes said: “We need education in the obvious more than investigation of the obscure.”

The reason for pointing out this little phrase was the proposal that Congress write better laws. In recent years there has been a basic shift of power from Congress to the executive branch because of decisions by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court will make a decision on a particular issue but then the Executive branch of the government decides upon how that law is carried out. (And, that is not always the way Congress intended.)

The Supreme Court should say what the laws is, rather than leave that interpretation up to the administrative state.

No. 2: The second point Mr. Will was making is that Congress should take more responsibility for the work it does.

An example, an argument can easily be made that ‘most’ Congressmen did not have a great understanding of what was in that thousands of pages budget bill they passed just before the end of 2022. The Administration branch will have all of its regulations drawn up and what happens may not be close to what was intended.

In essence that is what happened when Mr. Obama called senator by senator to find out what each wanted in the congressional bill that eventually ended up being our national medical care program. Obama got what he wanted (the medical care provisions) and individual senators often got what they wanted. But the timing and confusion ended up with hardly anyone knowing the full extent of the law. The leader of the House of Representative even noted: “We have to read the law to know what is in it).” As if they were not the ones responsible for writing the law to start with.

No. 3: Emergency powers: we currently have 42 simultaneous emergencies declared and never terminated by a recent president.

“These executives triggered the expansion of their powers under some of the 136 laws by which Congress has authorized special powers for the president when he or she declares them needed to cope with an ‘emergency’ that he or she has discerned.”

No. 4: Education: As many colleges and universities are becoming “temples to a single political dogma” more care should be taken that our money is spent carefully and wisely.

For example should Congress continue huge piles of money for schools such as Stanford University who recently instituted an “Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative?” Among other items it advised against identifying Americans as “Americans,” in case some in our hemisphere object to the title.

Correction of four little items will not make our world ‘perfect’, but it would contribute to a better world.

A O

Seems to me we’ve lost a number of people recently from our midst, both locally and across the world.

We know our local men (fathers and farmers) and women (wives and mothers) and will most likely miss them the most.

However, on the world’s scene men such as Pope Benedict XVI will also be missed, just not on the same personal level.

I bring up Pope Benedict because I find it interesting to the understanding a little of the differences between ‘Conservative’ and ‘Liberal.’

The 95-year-old Pope and Pope John Paul II both grew up during the terror of Nazi Germany and all the sins and wrong-doings of that Liberal government. The two Popes learned the virtues of Conservative practices that were better than what was being offered by the more Liberal elements in society and the church.

Pope Benedict did not serve as Pope for a long time, but his 95 years of service is worthy of reference and example.

A O

Finally, in talking about Congress and the courts as I started this week, I read in last week’s paper of an ‘appeals court’ decision just before the New Year.

In Florida an appeals court voted 7-4 “that the St. Johns County School Board did not discriminate against transgendered students based on sex, or violate federal civil rights law by requiring transgender students to use gender-neutral bathrooms or bathrooms matching their biological sex.”

Gosh, that sounds simple enough. The court saying what the law says, no need for some administration body to make a decision.

A O