In the wild and weird landscape of 1970s toy culture, where slime, monsters, and DIY kits reigned supreme, few products captured the spooky spirit of the era quite like the Shrunken Head Apple Sculpture Kit. CONTINUE READING... The post Toy Stories: Shrunken Head Apple Sculpture Kit appeared first on The Retro Network.

A basic truth is that nothing stays the same. This is true for any individual or any nation. Each day, you are not the same person you were yesterday. Either you are moving forward or backward. Either you are improving or deteriorating. I often quote historian Arnold Toynbee that “an autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide.” I bring this up because it is an important reminder. Think of the Greeks, the Romans, or the British Empire on which the sun never set. Regardless of what you may think about MAGA, President Donald Trump is a political figure of historic proportions—someone who never ran for or held political office, twice being elected to nonconsecutive terms as president. Why? Because the sentiment of MAGA touches what Americans know is true. Something is wrong. Crucial factors that drove American greatness are getting lost. Americans feel it. Polls tell us. Ongoing dismal numbers regarding satisfaction with the state of the nation, national pride, confidence in every major institution of the country. Now the point: the current government shutdown. What is happening? The Democratic Party is up against the wall. It stands for everything that is destroying the country. If MAGA means we’re in trouble and we need to fix what is broken, the message of Democrats is nothing is broken and we must continue on the same path. What is the same path? That every problem the country faces, every challenge each American citizen faces, can be dispensed with by more government, more programs, more spending. But if more government and more spending is the problem, not the solution, Democrats are in great political trouble. And this is what is happening. The sign of economic health is economic growth. Growth is what creates new jobs, new opportunities, drives down costs, and drives up income and wealth. As I often quote, the average real growth of the U.S. economy was 3.64% annually for the half century from 1950 to 2000. The average from 2000 to 2025 is one-third less at 2.2%. Why? Government is sucking up more and more of our economy. In 1950, the federal government consumed 14.2% of gross domestic product; in 2000, 17.5%; in 2024, 23%. Government produces nothing. The more government takes, the more our resources are diverted from productive uses to nonproductive uses. Worse, this inexorable growth of government has been on the sly. Rather than going directly to the American people and raising taxes to finance all government spending honestly, this was not done because it is political suicide. Ongoing multitrillion-dollar deficits are financed with debt—shifting the tax burden to future generations. So, federal government debt has now reached $37 trillion, more than 20% greater than projections for our 2025 GDP—$30.5 trillion. Is it any wonder that our youth are confused and disillusioned? Democratic leadership knows they are between a rock and a hard place. So, they huddled to come up with some clever way to scare the American people to push for more government. The hot button they chose was health care. We’re all concerned about making health care delivery more efficient. But Democrats want to continue the distortions. As Veronique de Rugy of the Mercatus Center notes, quoting the Paragon Institute, “In 2014, taxpayers covered 68% of Obamacare premiums. By 2020, that figure had risen to 80%” and “taxpayers now cover 93% of [Obamacare] premiums.” Donna Brazile, former Democratic National Committee chair and veteran of numerous Democratic presidential campaigns, proposes in a recent article in The Hill more cute word games that Democrats should employ to hide the truth. Democrats, she advises, should say they stand for “affordability.” But what Democrats mean by “affordability” is use of government subsidies to disguise true costs. Our country needs reality and truth. We’re going broke and need to restore freedom, markets, and efficiencies. This is what made America great. And this is how to Make America Great Again. COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Shutdown Is Smoke Screen for a Democratic Party Bankrupt of Ideas appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The Sunrise Movement just announced a strategic pivot. No longer content to focus primarily on climate change, its leaders now declare their mission is to “stop authoritarianism.” In practice, this means fewer conversations about the environment and more mobilizations against President Donald Trump. Notorious for their full-throated endorsement of the Green New Deal, Sunrise activists regularly protested in prominent congressional offices, most infamously confronting former Sen. Joe Manchin and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Although the group’s tactics have garnered significant attention, its policy goals have hit a brick wall. For those of us who’ve been watching, this redirection comes as no surprise. Sunrise was never truly about the environment—it was about politics. The Green New Deal was less a conservation plan than a vehicle for reshaping the economy along progressive lines, even including provisions guaranteeing universal health care. While it admitted as much then, it is declaring it now: shifting resources from climate to partisan fights under the banner of “saving democracy.” This should be a wake-up call for anyone who still believes that America’s environmental future can be entrusted to the professional activist class. For too long, conservatives have been told that the only way to care about clean air, water, and lands is to accept the Left’s package deal of mandates, subsidies, and ideological litmus tests. Sunrise has now ripped the mask off: The environment was never its end goal. But the environment is our goal. That’s why conservative environmentalists have consistently pushed back against Sunrise’s agenda. We are unapologetically conservative and unapologetically committed to stewardship. We believe that protecting the natural world is an American cause, rooted in the values of responsibility, freedom, and legacy. Our vision doesn’t require sacrificing economic strength or personal liberty. Instead, it embraces solutions that keep our air and water clean, reduce waste and emissions, and preserve what makes America strong. When environmental groups abandon conservation to chase political clout, they leave a vacuum. If conservatives don’t fill that vacuum, no one will. We cannot allow the Left to define what caring for the environment means. Nor can we allow groups like Sunrise to rewrite the script so that climate is merely a pawn in their larger war against the right. The conservative movement has a choice: We can either cede the ground, or we can reclaim leadership on one of the most fundamental responsibilities any society has—the responsibility to leave our nation stronger, healthier, and more secure for the next generation. We’ve made our choice. We are building a movement that doesn’t silo conservation but integrates it into the broader fabric of conservative priorities: energy independence, strong communities, resilient agriculture, and a healthy future for American families. We don’t claim to be ideologically neutral—but we are committed to results. We don’t hide our perspective. We come to the table as conservatives because that’s what makes our environmental work durable and impactful. Because if conservatives don’t lead on the environment, we already know what fills the gap. Sunrise may have abandoned its mission. We won’t. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Sunrise Proves the Point: Conservatives Must Lead on the Environment appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Virginia Depresses Me

And harmful algal blooms could be to blame.

I should be dead. Buried in an unmarked grave in Romania. But God had other plans.As a young attorney living under Nicolae Ceaușescu’s brutal communist regime in the 1980s, I spent my life searching for truth in a regime of lies. I found it in the Bible — forbidden in my country. I answered the divine call to defend fellow Christians facing persecution in an ungodly land.If the United Nations is to mean anything again, it must rediscover the courage that once gave refuge to dissidents like me.For that “crime,” I was kidnapped, interrogated, beaten, and tortured. I spent months under house arrest and came within seconds of execution when a government assassin pointed a gun at me. I survived and fled to the United States as a political refugee.The UN once stood for somethingIn his recent address to the 80th session of the U.N. General Assembly, President Donald Trump said the organization “has tremendous potential — but it’s not even close to living up to that potential.” He’s right.When the United Nations was founded in 1945, its mission was noble: to promote peace, security, and human rights worldwide. It was meant to be a platform for honest dialogue, a beacon for humanitarian action, and a voice for the voiceless.It once lived up to that promise. During the Cold War, the U.N. amplified the voices of dissidents behind the Iron Curtain and gave cover to lawyers like me defending Christians in communist courts. Its support for human rights cases in Romania helped expose Ceaușescu’s tyranny to the world.That international pressure saved my life and countless others.Bureaucracy replaced moral courageToday’s U.N. bears little resemblance to that courageous institution. It has become paralyzed by bureaucracy and corrupted by politics. Instead of defending the oppressed, it often defends the powerful — or looks away altogether.In Nigeria, Syria, and Yemen, millions suffer while the U.N. Security Council stalls over procedural votes. Permanent members protect their allies, veto resolutions, and block humanitarian intervention. Political calculations routinely outweigh moral imperatives.When the institution created to prevent genocide can’t even condemn it, the crisis isn’t merely diplomatic — it’s spiritual.Reform begins with couragePresident Trump has proposed bold changes to restore the U.N.’s relevance. He called for adding permanent Security Council members — emerging powers such as India, Brazil, Japan, and Germany — to reflect modern realities and make the council more decisive.He urged the U.N. to prioritize global security and counterterrorism while aligning its agenda with the legitimate interests of free nations. First lady Melania Trump, addressing the same assembly, launched Fostering the Future Together, a coalition promoting education, innovation, and children’s welfare.These initiatives could help revive the U.N.’s moral voice and refocus it on its founding purpose: defending the oppressed and restraining the oppressors.RELATED: Trump strongly defends Christianity at UN: ‘The most persecuted religion on the planet today’ Photo by seechung via Getty ImagesFaith and courage still matterMy own survival came down to faith. When Ceaușescu sent an assassin to kill me, he pulled a gun and said, “You have ignored all of our warnings. I am here to kill you.”In that moment of terror, I prayed: “Come quickly to help me, my Lord and my Savior.” Peace replaced panic. I began sharing the gospel.That armed killer, confronted with God’s word, lowered his weapon, turned, and walked away. Today, he is a pastor — serving the same faith he once tried to destroy.The lesson is simple: Hearts can change. Institutions can too. But it takes conviction.If the United Nations is to mean anything again, it must rediscover the courage that once gave refuge to dissidents like me. It must speak for the enslaved, the persecuted, and the forgotten — not for dictators and bureaucrats.God spared my life so I could keep fighting for truth. The U.N. was part of that story once. It can be again — if it remembers why it was born.

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