Politics Life Issues Are a Lost Cause When your allied institutions lose their power, how do you effectively oppose something that has two-thirds popular support? Merry Christmas: Illinois has become the latest state in the Union to add medically assisted suicide to its panoply of modern horrors. Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Medical Aid in Dying Act into law on December 12, which will allow adults with a terminal diagnosis of six months or less to seek death. Twelve states and the District of Columbia now allow some form of assisted suicide, and seven more are considering legalization measures.  This is a social revolution in the Western world; legalized suicide raises serious questions in the Anglo-American tradition of law, not to mention the practicalities of a program that now accounts for roughly 4 percent of all deaths in Canada. Yet it is happening quietly—very quietly. One might reasonably expect the opinion pages to be full of raging debate. But by my (possibly fallible) count, the New York Times (headquartered in a state where there is an assisted suicide bill under consideration!) has run two opinion pieces addressing the issue all year. The more conservative Wall Street Journal has run several, but it has hardly been a thematic issue. Few national politicians have articulated any opposition to assisted suicide. The leading men of the right, President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance, have never even mentioned it. What does it all mean, Mr. Natural? Well, laying aside Freudian or Spenglerian speculations about the increasingly literal death drive of Western culture, it concretely means that social conservatism as conventionally understood is politically kaput. The culture war is over; the Christian right lost soundly. Pope Leo and Chicago’s Blase Cardinal Cupich [NB: “CARDINAL” IS IN THE CORRECT POSITION] personally lobbied Pritzker against signing the latest bill. It didn’t matter. The governor’s own account of his meeting with the pope didn’t even mention the assisted suicide issue, but instead advertised a broad agreement on “values.” Perhaps Pritzker was lying; perhaps in his mind assisted suicide didn’t even rise to the level of a substantive difference of opinion. The Catholic Church, for better or worse the leading bastion of social conservatism on life issues in America, has no clout even in the environs of one of its largest and most historically powerful sees. And, in fairness to the politicos, they are just following the crowd. Medically assisted suicide is hardly something that is being foisted on an unwilling public; Gallup found in 2024 that 71 percent of Americans support direct euthanasia, and 66 percent support assisted suicide. Those are what you call losing numbers.  This leaves social conservatives in a sticky situation. Pro-life groups, traditionally focused on abortion, have been all but completely neutered by the pyrrhic victory of the Dobbs decision. As evidenced by the controversies over life-issue language in the 2024 Republican platform, the candidates’ positions on the abortion drug mifepristone, and the party’s official enthusiasm for in vitro fertilization, the GOP is already ready to move on from pro-lifers. The old gang is helpless and friendless in the face of this new assault on the sanctity of human life, an antiquated phrase that in 2025 sounds a bit like a nasty punchline. It’s not a matter of losing the game. Pro-lifers are barely capable of putting a team on the field. Nobody cares. So what can they actually do? Well, as we wrote in February, they can get a whole lot meaner with their tactics: It is also worth reconsidering the terms of the pro-life movement’s pact with the GOP. Pro-lifers should see themselves for what they are: a minority partner in a largely indifferent or hostile coalition. How do other such groups work? The “Make America Healthy Again” strain of the Trump coalition has carved out its power base, although banning Red 3 is not high on most Americans’ list of concerns. To take a negative example, black interests continue to keep affirmative action on the Democratic menu, despite that policy’s enduring and widespread unpopularity. These interest groups get their slice of the pie by offering votes, or, implicitly, by threatening to withhold them. The pro-life movement should consider more aggressive organizing activity in primaries and at the state level, more electioneering, to use the dirty word, than it has hitherto done. It is astonishing that it needs saying, but, in a notional democracy, the best way to advance your interests is by bloc voting. Principles have lost. Mass appeals have lost. What remains is political trench warfare and a radical reevaluation of how these policies are sold to the American people. But until something happens, it seems unlikely that pro-lifers will gain more than tactical victories in the foreseeable future—and even these will require a harder, more bitter fight than the movement has been willing to countenance so far. The post Life Issues Are a Lost Cause appeared first on The American Conservative.

Politics Vance’s and Vivek’s Dueling Visions of America Conservatives should reject Ramaswamy’s abstractions. It’s that time of year. A time for Christmas carols, honey-glazed ham, and a rant from Vivek Ramaswamy that infuriates the American right.  In the 12 months since the last such outburst, Ramaswamy, an anti-woke Republican and son of Indian immigrants, has managed to regain clout on the right. He’s running for Ohio governor and seems a lock for the GOP nomination, and last Friday he received a prime-time speaking slot at AmericaFest 2025, a conference organized by the conservative group Turning Point USA. The speakers’ list for that event was a Who’s Who of American conservatism, but the absence of three prominent right-wingers—the late TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk, white-nationalist streamer Nick Fuentes, and President Donald Trump—set the event’s context and engendered its unexpected gravity.  Despite the fog machines and fireworks, this was no mere pep rally, but an arena of real political contestation. The speakers jockeyed for influence in the wake of Kirk’s assassination this September and ahead of Trump’s exit from the political stage three years hence. Several positioned themselves between Fuentes and the radical left as moderate, yet principled, conservative voices. By the end, a fundamental debate had emerged, a debate about the nature of America itself. On Sunday night, Vice President J.D. Vance put forward a vision of American identity that was both unifying and authentically conservative. “Americans are hungry for identity,” Vance said. He blamed economic globalization, left-wing elites, and censorious “tech overlords” for accelerating the destruction of community and tradition. And he promoted a revival of Christianity as “America’s creed” and the historic “anchor of the United States of America.”  The speech should be interpreted in light of the vice president’s other recent reflections, including his July 2024 nomination speech. “America is not just an idea,” Vance said then. “It is a group of people with a shared history and a common future. It is, in short, a nation.” And this February, during a speech at the Munich Security Conference, Vance presented America as being part of a cultural bloc that also encompasses Europe, referring to “our shared civilization.” That’s a very different view of America than Ramaswamy’s, which is alien to the conservative moral imagination.  While Ramaswamy articulated his views at AmericaFest 2025 (and in a recent New York Times op-ed), many right-wingers first became aware of them a year ago, when he delivered a Boxing Day sermon on X that amounted to a defense of U.S. corporations that favor foreigners over Americans in hiring. Americans aren’t inherently dumber and lazier than foreigners, Ramaswamy explained, but their circumstances have made them that way: “Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long.”  In reaction, conservatives fumed, objecting not only to Ramaswamy’s implicit contention that Americans, on average, can’t excel at high-skill labor, but also to his use of scare quotes around “native” in the phrase “native Americans.” That term normally refers to American Indians, but right-wingers have used it to describe Old Stock Americans descended from the country’s original settlers, a usage with racial connotations in our era of mass migration. It was this conception that Ramaswamy plainly had in mind.  Ramaswamy’s implicit dismissal of the idea suggested he rejected any vision of American identity connected to ancestry, kinship, and heritage, the traditional ingredients of nationhood and natural objects of patriotic attachment. That vision is a conservative alternative to the liberal one of Americans being brought into a merely artificial relation by chance proximity, liberal ideology, and government-issued documents. During this year’s rant, delivered on-stage to young right-wingers fed up with squishy Boomer conservativism, the audience didn’t need to imagine Ramaswamy wagging his slender finger, nor to infer that he adhered to liberal dogmas on the question of nationality. Again he mocked a term that has gained purchase with right-wingers, in this case, “heritage Americans.” But unlike last year, Ramaswamy also elaborated his own ideas about American identity.  The speech was an explicit meditation on “what it means to be an American.” The answer provided: to “believe in ideals,” especially color-blind meritocracy. Ramaswamy scolded the far right for believing that a citizen could be more American or less American depending on how deeply rooted in the country they are. In the speech’s most quotable line, he rejected their ancestral pride: “No, I’m sorry, our lineage is not our strength.” In Ramaswamy’s telling, Americans are unique in comprising not so much a nation as a liberal ideological project. Of course, he didn’t put the point in quite that way, but it’s the clear inference one draws from several passages, including this: You could go to Italy, but you would never be an Italian. You can move to Germany, but you would never be a German. You could pack your bags and live the rest of your life in China or Japan; you would never be Chinese or Japanese. But you can come from any one of those countries to the United States of America and you can still be an American. Where to begin? First, one thing America conspicuously has in common with Italy and Germany—but not with China or Japan—is that its political elites have betrayed its people, flooding the country with young men from alien lands, maligning any American who bemoans this unprecedented calamity, and perverting the country’s history to depict it as belonging to whichever foreigners manage to penetrate its borders. The entire Western world faces this crisis, an extinction-level event for the nations affected. Yet Ramaswamy attempted to differentiate the U.S. from its civilizational partners by treating this development as a long-standing, salutary fixture of American life arising from the nation’s very identity. Ramaswamy’s speech, in addition to being fundamentally liberal, was incoherent. He condemned the “online right” for offering a non-binary conception of American identity according to which Old Stock Americans were more American than newcomers. Yet his own standard of nationality—belief in certain “ideals”—suggests that U.S. citizens who reject those ideals are less American than those, like Ramaswamy, who affirm them. In defining American-ness as belief in certain abstract ideals, Ramaswamy mixed up what philosophers call the essential and the accidental: He mistook accidental properties, which America merely happens to possess, for ones essential to its nature. Imagine a family that, taking pride in their strong work ethic, concluded they should kick out the daughter for laziness and replace her with a diligent stranger. Ramaswamy’s idea is no less absurd and, if honestly implemented, would lead to tyrannical enforcement of liberal ideology. Of course, American values, though “accidental” in the philosophical sense, are integral to the self-conception of Americans. But Ramaswamy denigrates those values by treating them as abstractions that anyone can adopt through mental assent. In fact, American values are unportably embedded in a particular community life. Consider: Ramaswamy often praises “free enterprise,” which he depicts as uniquely American, but the free-market system that enriched the nation would have imploded had Americans proved scammers and money-grabbers rather than builders and honest traders. The Trump administration has gone much further than right-wingers expected in alerting Americans to the crisis of mass migration and the fragility of Western civilization. Vance especially has given this theme eloquent expression. Thanks to his efforts, the vision of American identity that Ramaswamy favors is one that conservatives, finally, have managed to leave behind. Given the urgency of the crisis that Westerners face, we can’t afford to bring it back. The post Vance’s and Vivek’s Dueling Visions of America appeared first on The American Conservative.

Do you have relationships where you bond over venting about other people or common problems? Some people love getting together to vent about their exes or family members, just to commiserate and get things off their chest. You see this a lot in offices, where employees go out to lunch to vent about their boss or a fellow employee who gets on their nerves.Others may constantly get together to vent about politics or current events. It’s healthy to get things off your chest, but when does it go too far and make you and your friends feel worse than before?Kalia Lopez and Kyle Hagge recently discussed the topic on The Morning Brew’s Per My Last Email podcast, and this type of venting, known as co-rumination, becomes a problem when people constantly vent without seeking real solutions. — (@) Co-regulating versus Co-ruminatingDr. Han Ren, a popular therapist on TikTok, says the key is to distinguish between co-regulating and co-ruminating. Co-regulation is when we turn to people in our support group to calm down and cope with intense feelings. Co-rumination only intensifies the negative emotions. “I think it's imperative that we stay mindful of the difference because at the end of the day, we want to share our pain to be resourced and to feel better,” Dr. Ren says. “So think of it like this, co-regulating means supporting each other's nervous systems and energies and bodies and emotions, whereas co-ruminating is staying in our thoughts and fears and worries and kind of doom piling on worst case scenarios.” @drhanren This came up in my consultation group this week when all of us were feeling pretty demoralized. It’s helpful to name these feelings and processes, it makes us feel less alone with them. It is bonkers out there, which makes it bonkers in here too. Therapists and healers, it is especially important that we stay resourced and anchored these days. Move your body. Drink your water. Pace yourself. There are two ways to figure out whether co-miserating is healthy or counterproductive. The first, according to Miriam Kirmayer, Ph.D., at Psychology Today, is if you can't stop talking about the same topic. Do you complain about Rachel in accounting every day? Do you text your friend about your ex every time they post something on social media? Although it may be satisfying in the moment, it’s reinforcing a negative cycle. Start looking for solutionsThe key to stopping co-rumination is to turn your vent sessions into something positive and focus on solutions. That can be hard because it feels so good, in the moment, to get things off your chest.“Ask yourself if there is something you can do to change or improve the situation right now. Can you actually do something to resolve the problem in some small way? Perhaps it involves having a frank discussion with a colleague to clear up a misunderstanding. Or maybe it’s apologizing for something you wished you hadn’t said to a partner in the heat of an argument,” Kirmayer writes. “Often, taking a step towards actually doing something about the problem you’re facing can be much more helpful than venting, not to mention empowering.”Ultimately, it can feel great to sit with your coworker and to complain about the latest thing your boss did at lunch. Or, vent to your bestie about how your sister undermined you for the umpteenth time. But there comes a point when you’re only throwing gasoline on the fire. If you’re not talking about solutions, then you’re only making your problems worse.

The yuletide tune “Baby It’s Cold Outside” has had quite the fall from grace since its debut in 1944. Listening to it through a more modern, progressive lens, it’s understandable why folks might find it…less than charming. And let’s not forget that classic Key & Peele sketch that practically solidified its creepy implications. Well, now there’s a new parody in town, only this one hilariously makes the once “problematic” much more 2025 appropriate. Comedic country western duo The Doohickeys (Haley Spence Brown and Jack Hackett), who previously went viral for their funny cover of Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5,” have now altered “Baby It’s Cold Outside” to make the male completely innocent. But as the song goes on, the script gets completely flipped and homeboy becomes the victim. Watch: See on Instagram Well that was a hoot, wasn’t it? People in the comments sure thought so. “SO clever and funny! I love this AND I love the original x”“I thought this was going to piss me off, it actually made me chuckle…nice twist.”“From now on, this is the only way I want to hear this song ? well done!!”“This is top tier creativity.”Blame it on the original song’s inherent catchiness, or the way it can take on many different interpretations of relationship dynamics, but the Doohickey’s cheeky cover is not the first, nor will it likely be the last. - YouTube www.youtube.com It’s probably worth noting that many experts have set the record straight with the actual context of the original. The song, created by Broadway legend Frank Loesser (Guys and Dolls, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying), was a diddy he and his wife performed together at parties long before it hit the radio.The dynamic between the two characters is anything but predatory. Rather, it’s a coy, consensual flirtation, spoken through subtle innuendo to navigate the societal constraints of the time that made it socially taboo for an unmarried woman to stay overnight with a man, even a fiancé. The polite refusals, like "I ought to say no," masked the woman’s genuine desire to stay due to the cold and attraction. In the scenario, the man is actually helping his lady friend out by offering a few excuses to stay. - YouTube www.youtube.com Even the “what’s in this drink” line (which is arguably the most controversial) was not nearly as nefarious as it sounds today. In actuality, Loesser was making a nod to a common alibi people used for acting uninhibited. “It’s not about a date rape drug being put in a drink,” Karen North, whose great uncle was a producer of several Loesser shows, told NBS News. “It’s about a woman coming up with an excuse to stay because she’s had too much to drink and is referring to alcohol.”Perhaps comedy writer Jen Kirkman said it best in 2018, when she wrote, “If you want to be outraged, be outraged about what the song is actually about - the double standard in regards to sex that women face and how nothing much has changed. And then enjoy the song. It’s a delight.”3. of this song is NOT that it’s about forcing a woman into sex. If you want to be outraged, be outraged about what the song is actually about - the double standard in regards to sex that women face and how nothing much has changed. And then enjoy the song. It’s a delight. ?— JEN KIRKMAN (@JenKirkman) December 1, 2018 The Doohickeys certainly seem to embody that last part. Be sure to give 'em a follow on Instagram and TikTok. And also check out their new Christmas album, Merry Happy Whatever, on Spotify!

Parenting is a dynamic and challenging endeavor often learned through a lot of trial and error. OK, mostly error. But luckily, billions of people have been through it before us and have learned a few great tricks through their own mistakes so we don't have to make them ourselves.Here are some of the best parenting "cheat codes" that reduce tantrums, ease kids' anxiety, and make life easier on us parents. Don't end up like Ron Swanson. Giphy 1. Make (almost) everything a gamePsychology Today says, "Play is a cheat code for parenting—it helps parents co-regulate, teach skills, and build deep connection."The old-school, authoritarian parent would just force their kids to do chores through threats and consequences. More parents now are turning chores into a game: "Let's see how many toys we can pick up before this song ends!" or, "I hid a sticker in your laundry, you'll have to put it all away to find it."The kids will be more cooperative and you'll have fun together: Win-win.2. Try the Broken Record techniqueTired of arguing with your kids when they push back against your "No"? Don't yell, just be a broken record.Parenting coach Carol Canineu who posts under Mom Out of Office explains in a recent post:"Pick a simple, clear response ... Stay calm and repeat it exactly the same way ... Don’t argue, don’t change your tone just hold your ground. If I get frustrated and waver, of course they think I might change my decision too! But when I stay consistent? Fewer arguments, way less yelling, and way more peace." See on Instagram 3. Make liberal use of binary choicesKids love feeling a sense of freedom and independence. Think about it, being told what to do and when to do it all the time would get pretty demoralizing after a while, right? That's why a lot of experts and parents swear by giving their kids choices, but not just any choices: choices that lead to a desired outcome. Here's an example."It’s not 'time to go to bed' it’s 'do you want to go to your bed upside down, or on daddy’s shoulders?' Toddlers LOVE control. Works every time, 89% of the time," one user writes on Reddit.4. Take a pictureTaking kids to the store is a great way to get time together, but the problem is that they always want you to buy them something. You can stand firm, but you'll run a high risk of arguments and tantrums.Next time, try this:"If your kid wants something in the store and you cant or don't want to buy it for them, offer to take a picture of it so they can remember it for later. Saved me a lot of tantrums," another parent added in the Reddit thread.5. Make time for "Special Time""Special Time" is a concept popular in therapy for kids with ADHD and is designed to reduce attention-seeking behavior by giving the child frequent doses of focused, positive attention.But it can be useful and have positive results for anyone who feels like they're not getting enough "quality time" with their kids. Just 10 minutes of hyper-focused (no phone, no screens) time spent playing or doing an activity together with no distractions or interruptions goes a long way. In fact, the best Special Time usually involves the parent being a relatively passive participant — just be nearby, focused, and positively engaged by saying phrases like "You're doing such a great job!" and "I'm really enjoying playing with you."Canineu uses a similar technique she calls "I see you." See on Instagram 6. Cut everything into finger foodIt's amazing watching a kid go from turning their nose up at a piece of chicken to happily gobbling it down once its been cut into a bite sized piece.All hail the pizza cutter!"Pizza Cutters are an amazing tool. Little toast strips? Pizza Cutter. Tacos or quesadillas? Pizza cutter. Green beans, pepper strips and even fried eggs all are so much easier to cut into finger food with a pizza cutter. I can't believe i wasted 3 months messed around trying to cut things with knives," one parent write.7. Move toys around An old toy in a new location is a new toy. Photo by Nick Nice on Unsplash Toy rotation is an incredible hack for kids that crave novelty. When they're bored of their toys, bring some old ones out of the closet, or move the same toy into a different room."An old toy in a new location is a new toy," one user writes.8. Never askThe way we say things is important. Just take it from this parent who wrote, " NEVER ask a child if they want to do something that isn't optional. ... Never say 'do you want to go to bed?' Or 'do you want to go potty?' Always ... 'time to go to bed!'"Even adding a harmless "OK?" at the end of a request dilutes its power. When you phrase a demand as a question, you may not like the answer.9. Utilize convenient liesParents agree it's wise to take advantage of your young kids' naivety while you can:Tell them the noisy toy ran out of batteries. Explain that the ice cream truck playing music means they're out of ice cream. Make it work for you while you can with little white lies.10. Hold their wrist, not their handCanineu says young kids are notorious for chasing after shiny objects. Their little, sweaty hands can be slippery when crossing busy roads and you never quite know when they'll yank out of your grip and go running to see a friend or catch a squirrel.Many safety experts agree with her when she recommends a more secure alternative: Get a firm grip on their wrist. See on Instagram 11. Protect the socksThe smaller the child, the more infuriating it is doing their laundry. One great tip from a new mom on Reddit can help make things just a smidge simpler."Laundry tip - use a mesh wash bag for the little socks. Then they're all together when the load is done."If only the mesh bag could fold and put everything away for you...12. Master transitions with a timerMost kids struggle with transitions, whether it's ending play because it's time to eat, getting dressed and leaving the house, or even being cooperative for family plans the next day.Many parents find a timer to be an invaluable tool. The beep at the end of the timer is objective and final, and saves you from being the bad guy. It also represents a quantifiable amount of time ("You can play for five minutes and then we need to leave") that even kids can understand."Timers for transitions. I thought he was too young to really get it, but we started OT for some sensory issues and the therapist used a timer to tell him when we are done with an activity. He LOVES it. Now he asks for a timer anytime we need to stop doing something. I can’t believe I never tried it before," one user wrote.13. The perfect response to "I'm bored"Back to Canineu, she recently discovered an excellent response when her kids tell her they're bored. (And no, it's not "Hi Bored, I'm Mom!")She recommends trying the Wow Method:Say “Wow! That’s awesome! It’s a great chance for you to get creative. ... What’s something you wish you knew how to do?”"At first, my daughter just stared at me. Nothing. Crickets. But then she said she wanted to learn how to make coffee in the coffee machine. We tried it together, and soon she was making it by herself. Before I knew it… she had turned our kitchen into a full-on coffee shop. And wow… it became one of her favorite ways to play. She’s now my personal barista: taking orders, pouring imaginary lattes, and loving every minute," Canineu writes. See on Instagram There's no magical hack or cheat code that can make raising kids a breeze. Every day is filled with obstacles and new challenges. But not everything has to feel difficult all the time. All parents could use a few easy wins, and fortunately most of us are willing to share our best techniques with the rest of our village for the greater good.

Getting warm and cozy indoors is one of the joys of the winter season. But the cost of heating your home or apartment can quickly get expensive. According to a December 2025 report by the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association (NEADA), heating costs are expected to rise 9.2% the next three months, and will bring the average cost to heat a home in the United States to $995.Cutting heating costs can save you a lot of money. And frugal people have found brilliant ways to keep their homes heated without paying extravagant heating bills.On Reddit, frugal people shared their advice for how to lower heating bills without being miserably cold. From better insulation to heat sources, these are 19 of their best tips for cutting heating costs. - YouTube www.youtube.com "Small degree changes can do a lot as well, e.g. going down to 68°F." - ShiroxReddit"The least expected source of draft for me were electrical outlets. I'd done the work to use shrink wrap over windows etc etc. And then I'm just there in bed one night, and I could feel the most annoying draft blowing on my face... I went crazy trying to find it. The tiniest little gaps can have huge consequences. Recommend a temperature gun to ID where you're losing heat. It'll help triage problems and keep you from needlessly doing things that aren't helping! My library lends out thermal cameras and other things that lets you see where your energy and heat leaks are. Y'all might want to check your local library. :)" - Taco_Bhel, iBrarian"Heat your body, not the airspace. Put on layers, wear socks and slippers. Cover drafty windows with plastic sheeting. Drop your thermostat down to 65° (or lower). Use a heated throw blanket for sitting around when necessary but don’t run it all night long. Get a down comforter for your bed that will retain your body heat." - anythingaustin"Learn to live with 68, then 66, then 64. 62 isn't worth it imo, for both comfort and pipe freeze possibilities." - antsam9"Turns out most of my misery was tiny gaps. The worst offender was the front door. At night, with the lights off, I could see a faint line of light at the bottom. I added a simple door sweep, and for the sides I used adhesive weatherstripping (I had to redo one section bc I placed it wrong the first time, classic). I also made a dumb little “draft sausage” with an old towel and some rice in a sock for the bedroom door, which looks kinda goofy but works. For the living room window, I didn’t do anything fancy, just checked the latch, tightened a loose screw, and put a thin foam strip where the sash meets. The weirdly satisfying part was re-testing after each thing: you hold your hand near the edge and it’s like… oh, THAT’S what normal feels like. No more cold ghost touching your ankles. I’m not pretending my place is suddenly a cozy cabin, but my sleep has been noticeably better because I’m not waking up at 3am feeling that sharp chill from the window side. Also my heat feels more “steady”, not blasting then disappearing. If you’re in the same boat, I’d honestly start with the unsexy stuff before buying another gadget: check doors, check window latches, look for light lines, feel for airflow with your hand. Just do it safely and don’t block vents or anything. I wish I’d done this like 3 winters ago, instead of rage-adjusting a thermostat and acting surprised when nothing changed lol." - ventuscalmlight"Electric vest or pad that can run off of USB that you can change the battery is another option." - antsam9"Seal the windows with the window film. It might be too cold now for it to adhere properly without you turning the heat to 70 and using a hair dryer to warm up the surface. Seal the cracks first with molding draft clay." - antsam9 @comestayawhile Use these items to save $$$ on your heating bill! ? It’s freezing here today, so I’m doing everything I can to keep the heat inside and the cold OUT! ? linked on my Amazon and LTK #homehacks #winterprep "Increase thermal blocking capacity by reinforcing window curtains with an extra layer of felt blanket. I bought well used old comforters that were light weight on the biggest windows (damn Chicago bay windows)." - antsam9"Save the heat that you generate. If you run a heater (expensive) run it only in the smallest room. If you run the dish washer, don't set it to dry, let the door open so it can humidity the room and give some warmth after washing." - antsam9"Humid air holds onto heat better, so get a cold air humidifier (hot ones harbor more bacteria)." - antsam9"Invest in wool socks and a alpaca fur beanie and nice gloves. You'll be wearing these often. Inside." - antsam9"I got a thermal camera for my phone, cheap used off of Facebook market and looked for cold spots and used spray foam insulation to increased the insulation. If I couldn't, I would strategically place carpet, blankets, furniture, etc to prevent heat leaking." - antsam9"Drop the temp and layer up like people are saying. Also I just ordered the clear plastic window insulation kits off amazon for my own house. 'Duck brand'. Super useful and efficient. Just install over windows and it locks in a ton of heat." - SectorZed"My long gone grandma always had an old bleach bottle filled with hot water. She dragged it around throughout the day and jammed it in her bed to warm it up too. I have done this for our kids at our chilly lake cottage. Works like a charm on a cold rainy day." - ketoLifestyleRecipes"You might want to get a ceiling fan as well. It will distribute heat and cold more evenly and reduce the influence of warm and cold spots." - cosmoscrazy - YouTube www.youtube.com "It all starts with insulation and humidity. If its humid - get a dehumidifier, dry air is much easier (cheaper) to warm up. Make sure to always use your range hood when cooking and extractor fan when in the bathroom. Slap some of that 3M plastic film on your windows, put up some thick curtains if you can. Your windows are gonna be losing most heat (either via air leaks or just heat exchange due to a much lower R value than a wall). Also chuck some door snakes down on your exterior facing doors (balcony door, and maybe front door unless your building has a heated hallway)." - dinkygoat "Lots of people recommending an electric blanket but I prefer an electric mattress pad with a good quality comforter. With this combo you won't run into the situation of overheating and waking up sweaty during the night (which happened all the time for me with an electric blanket). Crank up the mattress pad before you go to bed, then once you're in, you turn it down to low, and the comforter will retain the heat instead of generating it." - monsterlynn"My utility company has a free 'Focus on Energy Comfort Pack'. It has window film, a door sweep, weather stripping, and little insulated pads to go behind outlet covers on external walls. It also had a plug in LED night light and a hot water heater temperature gauge. Super frugal as it was all free. The main window I wanted to cover was the kitchen window because former owner "bumped out" the kitchen a couple feet to the edge of the roof line and that window is so drafty. I made a huge difference but took up most of the window film. I like being able to open some other windows occasionally even in winter (though not in our current single digits) so there is only one other I've considered covering." - wi_voter"I used the leg from an old pair of jeans and two pieces of pool noodle. Made a cylinder that fits the two pool noodle pieces, then just slips under the bedroom door. Basically a draft stopper on either side. Works great, had it for a few years now. I like a cold bedroom, with no heat source in the room, my bedroom is at least 10°F colder than the house without causing drafts." - __wildwing__

Years of bickering over the meaning of American conservatism and the identity of the American Right, which had already escalated in the conspiracy-filled aftermath of coalition lynchpin Charlie Kirk’s horrific assassination, reached a fever pitch at Turning Point USA’s recent AmericaFest conference in Phoenix. The question conservative leaders now confront is straightforward enough: Where do we go from here? It ought to be axiomatic that if one seeks to conserve everything, then he will actually conserve nothing at all. It is imperative — indeed, indispensable — that leaders answer this question correctly and act accordingly. The conference began, following introductory remarks from Kirk’s widow, Erika, with a tour de force speech from Ben Shapiro. The longtime podcaster, columnist, and author condemned the Right’s “frauds and grifters,” those “charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle but actually traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty,” and those useful idiots who have refused to take any stand whatsoever amid the explosion of conspiracism because of rank “cowardice.” A number of subsequent speakers, from charlatans like Tucker Carlson to cowards like Megyn Kelly, attempted — in defensive, ham-fisted fashion — to respond to Shapiro’s tone-setting invocation. The basic case against Shapiro’s appeal — a position I share — was best articulated by Vice President JD Vance in the conference’s closing keynote speech. The veep noted that he “didn’t bring a list of conservatives to denounce or to deplatform” because “Charlie invited all of us here” and “believed that each of us, all of us, had something worth saying.” Therefore, we should not be engaged in “canceling each other.” True enough. But that’s something of a red herring. No one in the movement, to my knowledge, has called for “deplatforming” or “canceling” Carlson or the antisemitism-peddling podcaster Candace Owens — or even neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes, for that matter. Between YouTube, Rumble, Instagram, and TikTok, video content creators have ample platforms at their disposal. Substack and Elon Musk’s social media free speech haven, X, provide similar myriad opportunities for the dissemination of written content. Given the sordid state of much of the elite institutional press, that is good and as it should be. So, what, then, is being debated here? Many on the Right seem to have unfortunately misinterpreted and overlearned the relevant lessons of the Big Tech-driven cancelation and deplatforming battles of the late 2010s and early 2020s, which saw many conservatives wrongly “shadow-banned” or deplatformed for challenging prevailing orthodoxies on issues such as COVID vaccines and Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop. I have long been an active participant in those debates — I have written about those issues at great length and debated them at many universities. But those debates were about how we ought to think about free speech in an age when the town commons of yesteryear has moved online. Those conversations had nothing to do with what viewpoints are or are not rightly viewed as being within the conservative fold. That is an entirely separate question, of both principle and prudence, as to which philosophies, viewpoints, and individuals ought to be viewed as part of the American Right’s noble efforts to protect and preserve the republic from hostile forces, both foreign and domestic. Blithe, lowest-common-denominator appeals against “cancel culture” might garner some plaudits, but in this context, they fundamentally miss the mark. What is called for at this perilous moment for the Right’s leaders is not to casually hand-wave away all disagreement as part of the proverbial marketplace of ideas, but to show basic decency and judgment in discerning what is and is not part of the Right as it steels itself for the many battles ahead. In many other contexts, this inquiry is simple. Take “post-birth abortion” — i.e., infanticide. That’s obviously not part of team civilizational sanity. Should tax dollars go toward genital mutilation “surgeries” for minors? Beyond the pale. In no context can these views, and the individuals who espouse them, be considered part of the Right’s effort to preserve the United States — and, by extension, the broader West. Honest leaders must apply the same logic toward viewpoints and individuals that, for their past work or for any other reason, are viewed as “right”-coded. Owens supporting medieval-style blood libel about Jews and accusing Erika Kirk of complicity in her husband’s assassination? In no sense is such psychotic bigotry and induced brain rot part of the Right’s mission. Carlson offering apologia for sharia law and criticizing famed World War II martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a personal hero of Charlie Kirk’s, as a lousy Christian? That is insane — and directly opposed to the solemn task of Western civilization preservation. It ought to be axiomatic that if one seeks to conserve everything, then he will actually conserve nothing at all. Leaders of any movement dedicated to cultural conservation must therefore be willing and able to exercise judgment in determining what is good and must be conserved, and what is bad and must be discarded. In a Heritage Foundation speech delivered the day before his fusillade in Phoenix, Shapiro referred to this as “ideological border control.” We might also just call it common sense. READ MORE from Josh Hammer: Chanukah Is Relevant for Everyone — but Not in the Way You Might Think Don’t Go Wobbly on China The Welcome Demise of Climate Change Catastrophism To find out more about Josh Hammer and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM  

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