The other day, I ran into a young couple with an infant, who live in a rural part of the U.S. I happened to overhear the father saying that the quality of public education where they live is “terrible,” and that they’re thinking about home schooling. And so, as if it were any of my business, I asked him by what metric the schools in his area are, in fact, terrible.
He responded, “LGBTQ,” by which I’m sure he meant indoctrination into the idea that non-traditional sexuality is OK. He went on to qualify: “Now, that’s public schools. Private schools can at least be held accountable.”
Now, at this point I had my answer, and I had the good sense simply to thank him and politely cut the conversation off, but a few thoughts remained on my mind:
• Your kid isn’t walking and talking at this point. It seems that you’re trying to solve a problem that doesn’t actually exist.
• Let’s say that seven years from now he’ll be in third grade. How much interest do you think he’s going to have in learning about homosexuality at that point? How much interest do you think his teacher will have in introducing topics that are irrelevant and confusing in young students’ lives, like sex education?
• Do you seriously believe that discussion on this topic “grooms” kids to become gay? How did you become straight? When your blood serum testosterone hit a certain level, perhaps when you were 12 years old, you took on a sexual identity, quite independent of something you had seen on TV or in a movie.
• Are you suggesting that public school teachers have more latitude and less accountability as to how and what they teach than instructors in private institutions?
• If they have the financial means, parents can put their kids through private schools, and yes, those schools have distinctly different approaches to politics, religion, philosophy, and the overall approach to educational. If you want your kid to learn that the world is 6000 years old because the bible tells us so, you’ll need a deeply religious school, one that explicitly rejects science, to fulfill that task. In general, however, private education tends to be more liberal in terms of teaching techniques and subject matter than our vanilla public schools whose curricula is the joint work of thousands of bureaucrats.
Friends say I have too much time on my hands. Perhaps they’re right.
When Parents Say that Public Education Is Terrible, What Do They Mean?
No one seems to understand Trump’s motivation here. Did it have anything to do with the $400 million gift aircraft?
Does Qatar fear attack from Alberta or Saskatoon?
The Qataris say they need to be prepared to help achieve peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. I’m suspicious, though I’m no expert in military logistics. We’re talking about a 6000-mile plane ride.
What? I’m confused. “Trump’s Statement” of a few months was that “Gas prices are (present tense) under $2.”
It would have been interesting if one of the gaggle of reporters surrounding him could have asked the obvious question: “That’s great, sir, but can you name a single state in the union whose gas prices are under $2?
It would have been a tense moment, for sure, but don’t we have any self-respect?
Over the past few months, and especially since the murder of Charlie Kirk, the right-wing news sources are telling us that most of the politically related violence is coming from the left, in particular from the left-wing “terrorist associations,” e.g., Antifa.
If you look at some coverage on the subject, however, you’ll learn that this is simple false. Here’s a bit from a PBS piece:
PBS: Policymakers and the public need reliable evidence and actual data to understand the reality of politically motivated violence.
Craig: No, they don’t. Are you serious? Are we to believe that Donald Trump is sending federal troops to democratically-led cities based on “reliable evidence and actual data?” This is a sick joke.
PBS: From our research on extremism, it’s clear that the president’s and Miller’s assertions about political violence from the left are not based on actual facts.
Here’s more from the PBS article:
After the Sept. 10, 2025, assassination of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, President Donald Trump claimed that radical leftist groups foment political violence in the U.S., and “they should be put in jail.”
“The radical left causes tremendous violence,” he said, asserting that “they seem to do it in a bigger way” than groups on the right.
WATCH: Extremism scholar analyzes influence of rhetoric on political violence
Top presidential adviser Stephen Miller also weighed in after Kirk’s killing, saying that left-wing political organizations constitute “a vast domestic terror movement.”
“We are going to use every resource we have … throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks and make America safe again,” Miller said.
Political violence rising
The understanding of political violence is complicated by differences in definitions and the recent Department of Justice removal of an important government-sponsored study of domestic terrorists.
Political violence in the U.S. has risen in recent months and takes forms that go unrecognized. During the 2024 election cycle, nearly half of all states reported threats against election workers, including social media death threats, intimidation and doxing.
WATCH: Trump conspiracies inspire threats against judges, jurors and election workers
Kirk’s assassination illustrates the growing threat. The man charged with the murder, Tyler Robinson, allegedly planned the attack in writing and online.
This follows other politically motivated killings, including the June assassination of Democratic Minnesota state Rep. and former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband.
These incidents reflect a normalization of political violence. Threats and violence are increasingly treated as acceptable for achieving political goals, posing serious risks to democracy and society.
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