Foreign threats should make U.S. leaders search for unity (Jan. 3): The Jan. 2 Washington Examiner headline “China unveils plan to ‘take over’ Latin America” should focus attention.
That bracing story is just one of the worrisome international developments that should impel leaders in both parties to moderate their agendas. Facing such foreign threats, this nation needs reasons for, and examples of, political unity…. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, no combination of foreign threats to the United States and the West has been as dangerous as that which we face in 2022 and immediately beyond….
Facebook de-platformed a children’s book on Reagan (Jan. 4): At some point, the financial bottom line of tech giants surely will suffer from their habit of earning hatred from half the population.
Facebook, Twitter, Google, and others appear to have made an art of discriminating against conservative viewpoints. It’s gotten to the point where conservatives in the marketplace, not to mention like-minded lawmakers, are likely to make those companies pay. The latest flashpoint for conservative ire, now thankfully fixed, was Facebook’s initially “permanent” ban of a children’s book publisher called Heroes of Liberty….
Rolling out a dishonor roll of roll-related lawsuits (Jan. 5): If you’re offended that Tootsie Rolls contain sugar and fat or that a brand of bread rolls called King’s Hawaiian is made in bakeries outside of Hawaii or that the Mrs. Smith’s brand of pies doesn’t contain enough butter in their crusts, well, then, step right up to the courthouse.
That’s what various plaintiffs did in 2021 in three examples of what the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform called the “Most Ridiculous Lawsuits” of the just-completed year. They are joined by the suit filed by two reckless golfers against a golf course because they crashed carts while playing. And the suit demanding $5 million from Folger’s because a woman said she couldn’t produce the suggested numbers of cups of coffee from one of the brand’s canisters.
Oh, and then there’s the awful crime committed by Pop-Tarts, which puts other fruit products in addition to strawberry in its strawberry-flavored pastries. Please, don’t tell comedian Jerry Seinfeld about this one: It’ll make his head explode.
The problem is, this nation’s litigiousness (along with the laws that do not adequately dissuade frivolous suits) creates situations that really aren’t funny. Oftentimes, even a suit that ends up failing can cause the defendant to run up so much in legal fees that it puts him or her out of business. …
