02/29/2024 Weirs Times

Though it seems unlikely in the Twenty-First Century, back in 1852, three of the major candidates for President were all natives of New Hampshire. (L to R) Franklin Pierce, John P. Hale and Daniel Webster.

A Webster Convention in 1852 And one For PierCe And HAle

by Robert Hanaford Smith, Sr. Contributing Writer

It was indeed an unusual year for New Hampshire politicians in that out of four major candidates for President of the United States, three of them were natives of New Hampshire.

In July of the year 1852 a notice appeared in many newspapers across the United States. The notice read as follows: “A NATIONAL UNION CONVENTION- will be held in the city of Phila-

delphia, on the first day of August, 1852, for the nomination of Daniel Webster for the Presidency of the United States, and a suitable candidate for the Vice-Presidency, for the support of the Union party of the Nation, in November next. Delegates from ten States now hold themselves in readiness for this step; other States are requested to choose suitable representatives without delay. Friends of the Union, and of its great champion! You are now called upon to

give evidence of your devotion to the cause which has enlisted the talent of the most eminent, and the sympathies of a mighty nation. The immediate formation of local Webster Union Associations is earnestly recommended.”

The Union party was begun in the year 1850 and would be the third party that Daniel Webster was affiliated with, having previously been with the Federalist Party and the Whigs. The Union Party was formed as

a consequence of the Compromise of 1850 which was thought to have delayed the secession of southern states from the Union for about a decade, but did not prevent it. The Union was a group of northern and southern conservatives who made an effort to avoid civil war.

I have read different opinions on whether or not Daniel Webster really wanted to be the new and shortlived party’s candidate for President of the U.S.A. There

Boat Certificate Class In Wolfeboro

On Saturday, March 9 and Saturday, March 23 from 9am-4pm, the New Hampshire Boat Museum (NHBM) will host a NH Marine Patrol Boat Certificate Class.

Designed for ages 16 and older, the class covers various topics, including boat navigation, boat safety equipment, and invasive aquatic species along with laws and rules. On New Hampshire waters, anyone 16 years of age and older who operates a motorboat with more than 25 horsepower must have a valid boating education certificate.

“This is the time of year to get your certificate so you are ready for boating season before it begins,” said NHBM Executive Director Martha Cummings.

The cost is $40. To register, visit nhbm.org/boatcertificate.

Founded in 1992 by antique and classic boating enthusiasts, NHBM offers engaging experiences and practical education both on and off the water for people of all ages.

Stop China’s Purchase Of U.S Land And Companies

To The Editor:

Congress has to pass the 2024 Farm Bill which includes a provision to provide oversight and the restriction of foreign companies and governments from purchasing U.S. farmland. In particular it must address purchases by companies and other entities from China and other adversarial countries.

Although these companies might only own a very small percentage of U.S. farmland, recent purchases by Chinese companies have increased in recent years, including the purchase of Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer.

Several Chinese companies have tried to purchase farmland near U.S. military bases. In 2021 a Chinese company tried to purchase land about 12 miles from the Grand Forks, ND Air Force Base. The base houses top secret intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and communication facilities. The deal was killed by intervention from the Air Force. Prior to the Grand Forks effort another Chinese company tried to purchase land near the Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas, but lawmakers killed the deal.

We have to stop allowing companies in countries like China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela from purchasing our farmland and corporations. These countries are ongoing threats to our national security.

Donald Moskowitz Londonderry NH

Need Pullers At The Oars

To The Editor:

Imagine a Mosquito at a nudist colony that knows what to, but doesn’t know where to start. Kudos to State Rep. Michael Granger and the 5 cosponsors that know where to start! Introducing HB1294 to Nullify the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in NH will preserve state sovereignty and nullify (EPA) regulation enforcement. Rep. Granger needs your help to educate his colleagues to overcome decades of disinformation that has saturated our culture with doomsday scenarios. Among many other frightening projections, remember 1969’s Population Bomb dangers Paul Ehrlich predicted; “The battle to feed humanity is over. In the 1970’s and 1980’s hundreds millions of people will starve …!” Prophetic nonsense, in 1975, from Nigel Calder of International Wildlife, warned: “The threat of a new ice age must now stand along side nuclear war as a likely source of wholesale death and misery for mankind.”

Encroachments on our liberty ignited by loud voices of fear created the EPA. Environmental hysteria propagated EPA implemented false solutions, ostensibly, to save the environment with an underlying cause to control people. The result: bureaucratic laws supersede our Bill of Rights protections. Fear of government must once again be viewed as Washington did: “…It’s a dangerous servant

and a fearful master.” If government uses phony science and fear against the people then certainly we can use the fear of truth about the EPA to save our liberty.

Americas survival needs pullers at the oars in the liberty boat. Consider this a call for emergency action. I am now using their tool of fear to motivate action from the reader. Freedom needs help to continue for posterity. Your involvement to help push “nullification” of the EPA’s unconstitutional usurpations of power will not stop accidentally. We need to confront these encroachments on our liberty by placing phone calls and email demanding NH legislators pass HB 1294 to stop EPA unconstitutional law. Ponder the thought of edicts from the EPA mandating another lockdown. We need to build a fire in the minds of our State Reps and Senators with true facts to help Rep Granger pass HB 1294. Tell them our Bill of Rights have no emergency exceptions. Tell them they have the authority and duty to interface for “we the people” to protect our God given inherent rights. Please watch this short video for more information: youtube. com/watch?v=QwMzRPI04OE

Russ Payne Merrimack, NH.

tHe dArker side oF MolAsses

The Simple Feast The Simple Feast Simple

by Eric N Gibson Contributing Writer

The Simple

While making this week’s recipe it got me to thinking about a story my dad told me when I was younger. “Yep! They say on a hot summer day, you can still smell the molasses wafting down the street.” We never lived in Boston, but the story has always intrigued me because I love molasses. Well, when putting together the recipe that a friend had sent me for Maple Pecan Bars I ran out of Maple Syrup. Some quick thinking of what to substitute for that last quarter cup, I said, “MOLASSES!”

Now, little did I realize the flavor profile would

The Boston Molasses Disaster, was a disaster that occurred on Wednesday, January 15, 1919, in the North End.

pleasantly change from not only maple but to both maple AND molasses. And, in so doing, this would send me on a quest to discover more about: The Darker Side of Molasses… It was a balmy January day, by comparison. Dock workers busied themselves carrying out their routine daily tasks; loading and unloading freight cars and moving supplies in and out of ware -

houses. Nobody paid much attention to the few children darting hither and thither, just your common variety street urchins of the time picking up bits and scraps. The guys over at FireHouse 31 were up on the second floor leisurely eating their lunch over a game of cards. The groaning and thumping of the elevated train could be heard rumbling over its tracks.

But wait, didn’t that train just go by? Another one this soon? Not likely. And that sound, it was a rumble, almost like thunder. And, was that a gunshot? Then another. And another. It sounded like the “pop-pop-pop” of a machine gun. But not too many would recognize machine gun fire, unless you were a veteran of the recent war. And Thunder in January?

by Mike Moffett Contributing Writer

One of the wonders of modern times is the ability to go to YouTube and search for cool sports things to watch at one’s convenience. Basketball fans can go to that platform and do a search for “Caitlyn Clark” and enjoy a visual cornucopia of hoop highlights that could make one’s head spin. But that head spinning wouldn’t compare to the spin moves deployed by the University of Iowa sharpshooter who recently became the all-time women’s college basketball scoring leader.

Clark’s 35-foot bomb against Michigan moved her past the University of Washington’s Kelsey Plum’s career total of 3527 points. Clark finished with 49 points as well 13 assists! Also, some rebounds and great “D.” Everything but a slam dunk.

Clark’s penultimate basket to set the record was certainly a long shot, one that LeBron James would be proud to convert. But long shots are de rigueur for the Hawkeye maiden, who once hit 13 trifectas in a high school game.

Comparisons to alltime men’s college basketball scoring leader Pete Maravich were inevitable. Pistol Pete averaged 44.2 points per game over just three seasons for Louisiana State University. Clark played for four seasons. Besides playing only

three years, Maravich also played before the three-point shot, making his point total all the more impressive. That his dad, Press Maravich, was the LSU coach certainly didn’t cramp his style.

Maravich played in a Southeastern Conference bereft of black players, but his numbers are what they are. He played before the information age, but I did get to watch him on national TV once in 1970 when he dropped in 60 against Kentucky. Amazing.

“Pistol Pete” finished his NBA career with the Celtics in 1979-80, Larry Bird’s first year. While he played before the information age, you can still YouTube him and find some wondrous basketball artistry.

Clark happens to be white, which shouldn’t rate mention, except that racialists like former women’s basketball standout Sheryl Swoopes have sought to diminish her accomplishments. Bird endured some of the same stuff. But he, like Clark, let his accomplishments speak for themselves.

With the Paris Summer Olympics coming up this summer I figured we’d maybe see Clark in action on an international stage. So I checked the American women’s roster.

Aliyah Boston, Napheesa Collier, Kahleah Copper, Allisha Gray, Chelsea Gray, Brittney Griner, Rhyne Howard, Sabrina Ionescu, Betnijah Laney, Jewell Loyd , Arike Ogunbowale, Kelsey Plum, Breanna Stewart, Alyssa Thomas, A’ja Wilson, and Jackie Young.

And Diana Taurasi, playing on her sixth Olympic squad.

But no Caitlyn Cooper. A pity.

Recall that the first Olympic men’s basketball Dream Team in 1992 did include one college player—Duke’s Christian Laettner. I wish that Clark could similarly be added to the 2024 women’s team. Just drop Brittney Griner. But it’s not my call. Still, in this information age, I’m sure we’ll still see plenty more Caitlyn Clark hoop magic in the coming years.

To include on YouTube.

Sports Quiz

Where did 41-yearold hoop “grande dame” Diana Taurasi go to college? (Answer follows)

Born Today

That is to say, sports standouts (and leap year babies) born on February 29 include Montreal Canadien hockey Hall-of-Famer Henri Richard (1936) and golf whiz and N.H. District 2 State Senator Tim Lang (1964).

Sports Quote

“Why can’t we as NBA players have a stake or some sort of equity in the WNBA? Those players are our sisters.” – NBA star Kyrie Irving

Sports Quiz Answer

University of Connecticut

State Representative Mike Moffett was a Sports Management Professor for Plymouth State University and NHTIConcord. He co-authored the award-winning “FAHIM SPEAKS: A WarriorActor’s Odyssey from Afghanistan to Hollywood and Back”

Caitlyn Clark and Pete Maravich.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

*A FLATLANDER’S OBSERVATIONS

senior tAx deduCtions

We recently had our taxes done by a professional. It is something I recommend, especially as you get older.

by Brendan Smith Weirs Times Editor

Now that I am in the latter half of my sixties, I found out that there are a lot of extra deductions I can take just because of my age.

Of course, there is the standard extra deduction you get for just making it to sixty-five (eat your heart out youngsters) which most of us older folks know about already. But many aren’t aware of some of the other great tax deductions we can take simple because we lived long enough. And new ones are being added every year.

For example:

FACEBOOK FRIEND DEDUCTION – If you are over fifty you are most likely still using FaceBook since most of the younger crowd has gone to other social media sites to get away from people over fifty. But did you know that if you are sixty-five and older you can take a deduction for every friend you have on Facebook and count them as a dependent? A dependent is considered to be someone who cannot get through a normal day without you, or others like you, commenting on or “liking” one of their posts. (It is important to note that the IRS will be monitoring Facebook accounts since a “friend” who doesn’t chime in at least three times a month to tell you how wonderful you look on a selfie, even though you don’t really look all that great, will not be accepted as a dependent. So be aware.)

WAITING ROOM DEDUCTION

– Did you know that you can deduct a certain amount for each five minute period that you are in a doctor’s waiting room beyond the scheduled appointment time? I always wondered why so many

older folks seemed so calm by their long waits. Now I know they were raking up the big bucks in their heads. A recent addition to this deduction was included in 2023 that also adds in the time spent in the exam room before the doctor comes in. This was added after the great waiting room scandal in Illinois where patients were moved from the waiting room to the exam room before the scheduled appointment time, only to spend hours sitting on an uncomfortable exam table and being forced to look at old posters of how the endocrine system works. (Never mind being tempted to find out what that weird looking gadget on the wall actually does.)

TRYING TO FIGURE OUT STUFF ONLINE DEDUCTION

–

This is a handy and often not publicized standard deduction where anyone over sixty-five can take a deduction of five hundred dollars for time wasted trying to figure out how to navigate a computer app that has replaced an old app that you had just spent the good part of a year finally figuring out and now that you did you have to start all over and why did they have to update the stupid thing after I spent all that time figuring out the old one???

THE BOOK COLLECTORS’

DEDUCTION – This deduction is actually for everyone, but it seems to benefit us older folks the most. For every physical book you buy as opposed to the digital version, you can deduct five percent of the price of the book from your taxes. I told a younger colleague about this one and he didn’t believe it existed until he looked it up on his phone. (I did very well with this deduction.)

THE NEWER CAR DEDUCTION

– Again, this is a deduction for everyone, but it seems to benefit the older generation the most. Now that cars are basically computers, practically every function can be recorded. Each year around tax time you can bring your car to the

dealership and they can verify that about ninety percent of the apps on your car have not been used since you couldn’t figure out how to use them or didn’t bother in the first place since just stepping on the gas and the brake was really all you cared about. For each app that was never used but you were forced to buy since it was standard with the car and raised the price to stupid levels, you can deduct five percent of the cost of that app on your taxes.

SIDE EFFECTS DEDUCTION –

Make sure you listen very carefully to words in the drug ads on TV instead of focusing on the photos of people with life-threatening illnesses who seem to be having the time of their lives. This year the IRS is randomly calling folks over sixty-five and quizzing them on what the side effects of certain drugs are that are advertised on TV. You will be rewarded with a one hundred dollar deduction (up to fifteen hundred dollars) if you can name each side effect. I have been carefully studying and memorizing the hundreds of ads we are bombarded with daily in preparation for a big deduction should I get a call and you should as well

These are just a few of the dozens of little publicized tax deductions that can benefit those of us over sixty-five. The IRS doesn’t really make a big deal about promoting these because they are counting on folks forgetting a lot about them because, well, they are sixty-five and over. That is why I recommend a tax professional to help you make sure you take advantage of each and every one.

Good Luck!

Brendan is the author of “The Flatlander Chronicles,” “The Best Of A

tHe rACist roots oF PlAnned PArentHood And its legACy oF deAtH

by Hal Shurtleff Director/Camp Constitution

For years people have urged me, including my wife, to write a book. I would usually respond with “Why write a book when I can promote books already in publication and better than anything I can do.”

Back in 2011, we started Camp Constitution Press and reprinted a chapter of a book titled “From Farm Boy to Financier” by Frank Vanderlip. The chapter concerned the secret meeting at Jekyll Island Georgia where the plot to create the Federal Reserve was hatched. Mr. Vanderlip was one of the attendees. Since then, we have reprinted and published a number or books including Color, Communism and Common Sense, On the Supposed Change of Temperature in Winter by Noah Webster. (That’s right, Noah Webster refuted global warning back in 1810.) and First Scout for General Patton written by my late friend from Laconia Bob Kingsbury. But since my visit the Harvard Medical School library in January of 2020, I need to publish what I discovered and uncovered.

It isn’t a massive tome-only 98 pagesand it consists mainly of transcribed letters between Margaret Sanger and Dr. Clarence Gam-

ble with pictures of the originals. It also contains a little known speech by Martin Luther King titled “Family Planning: A Special and Urgent Concern” which was read by his wife Coretta in 1966 at Planned Parenthood’s First Annual Margaret Sanger Award Ceremony. King was the first recipient of the award. The Corporate media will not make any mention of how King and many other black leaders collaborated with avowed racist Sanger to promote birth control and later abortion in the black community.

I had learned about Margaret Sanger’s “Negro Project” in the book Grand Illusions: The Legacy of Planned Parenthood by George Grant back in the late 1980s. Some years later, while doing some research for an article on Planned Parenthood, I found a copy of the letter written by Sanger to Dr. Gamble dated December 10, 1939, which Sanger writes about the “Negro Project” and the need to elicit the sup-

port of black doctors and clergy. She wrote: “We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the minister is the man who can straighter out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.” Her supporters, which are legion in the United States. tell us that this has been taken out of context. But in her book The Pivot of Civilization, Sanger advocated for “the elimination of human weeds” and for “the sterilization of genetically inferior races.” The fact that she had white supremacist and KKK member Lothrop Stoddard and Dr Ernst Rudin, the Nazi in charge of Germany’s forced sterilization collaborating with her, belies the claims of her apologists-one of which is Hillary Clinton. In 2018, I noticed that the letter address of the letter to Gamble was Adams St in Milton, Mass. a mile or so from Lower Mills,in Boston’s Dorchester section. In November of 2018, we

sponsored some speaking engagements for Rev. Steve Craft, our camp chaplain in the Boston area. I asked Rev Craft if he would like to be in a video across the street from Gamble’s former home and read the letter with commentary from the both of us. On Friday November 30, we did so. While recording the video it dawned on me that George H. W. Bush was born a short distance from the Gamble residence. Prescott Bush - H.W.’s fatherwas Planned Parenthood’s first treasurer. Interestingly enough, we got word that H.W. died that same day. The video is available on Camp Constitution’s YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/ N3Hak6fw8CM?si=WRdgmkQnPpdhi4D

I subsequently learned that Dr. Gamble’s papers were housed at the Countway Library-Harvard University’s School of Medicine’s Library, the largest medical school library in the world located in Boston. I visited the library in January of 2020, and while I wasn’t able to find any letters between Bush and Gamble, I did find a batch of letters between Sanger and Gamble.

Dr. Gamble was an heir to the Proctor and Gamble fortune. His grandfather was a cofounder of the company. He grauated from Harvard Medical School in 1920 He, like most of Sanger’s associates, was a supporter of eugenics and force sterilizations. He was an integral part of both the Negro Project and

Puerto Rican

P utin i s P us H ing W H ere t H ere ’ s M us H

by Ben Shapiro Syndicated Columnist

This week, Vladimir Putin finally -- allegedly -- murdered his chief political rival and critic Alexei Navalny. Navalny’s death followed an attempt by Putin’s operatives in 2020 to kill him by poisoning; Navalny survived the attempt, worked with online specialists to unmask the actual agents responsible for the poisoning and then returned to Russia, where he was promptly arrested on trumped-up charges and sent to a Gulag in the far north.

Now, Navalny is dead.

And Putin isn’t stopping there. This week, the Russian government announced an arrest warrant for Navalny’s brother, Oleg, on unspecified charges; Putin’s agents likely murdered a Russia defector to the Ukrainian side, who was found riddled with bullets in Spain; Putin’s government arrested a Russian-American dual citizen on treason charges for giving some $50 to a group called Razom for Ukraine, which sends medical and hospital equipment to the beleaguered country.

Meanwhile, Putin is stepping up his international outreach efforts. This week, Putin invited the terror group Hamas to Moscow to talk, along with fellow terrorist lead -

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our sneAky PHones

by John Stossel Syndicated Columnist

The government and private companies spy on us. My former employee, Naomi Brockwell, has become a privacy specialist. She advises people on how to protect their privacy.

In my new video, she tells me I should delete most of my apps on my phone.

I push back. I like that Google knows where I am and can recommend a “restaurant near me. I like that my Shell app lets me buy gas (almost) without getting out of the car.”

I don’t like that government gathers information about me via my phone, but so far, so what?

Brockwell tells me I’m being dumb because I don’t know which government will get that data in the future.

Looking at my phone, she tells me, “You’ve given location permission, microphone permission. You have so many apps!”

She says I should delete most of them, starting with Google Chrome.

“This is a terrible app for privacy. Google Chrome is notorious for collecting every single thing that they can about you ... (and) broadcasting that to thousands of people ... auctioning off your eyeballs. It’s not just advertisers collecting this information. Thousands of shell companies, shady companies of data brokers also collect it and in turn sell it.”

Instead of Google, she recommends using a browser called Brave. It’s just as good, she says, but it doesn’t collect all the information that Chrome does. It’s slightly faster, too, because it doesn’t slow down to load ads.

Then she says, “Delete Google

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un sHoWs strong suPPort For ukrAine sovereignty

by John J. Metzler Syndicated Columnist

In a powerful vote of confidence for Ukraine’s sovereignty and continuing independence, both the UN Security Council and General Assembly met to show political strong support for the embattled country, two years after the 2022 Russian invasion.

Speaking before the Security Council, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres stated, “Two years on, and a decade since Russia’s attempted illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Autonomous Republic of Crimea…the war in Ukraine remains an open wound at the heart of Europe.”

He stressed poignantly, “It is high time for peace, a just peace.”

Addressing a packed and tense meeting of the fifteen member Council, Guterres lamented, “Our world is at a chaotic moment.” The Secretary General voiced deep concern over the danger of the conflict escalating and expanding “is very real.”

“No one wants peace more than the Ukrainian people,” advised French Foreign Minister Stephane Séjourné, Speaking powerfully and succinctly United Kingdom Foreign Secretary David Cameron intoned, that two years since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a unprovoked invasion of a sovereign UN Member, “My question to Putin is simple: Why?” “How many ridiculous explanations have we now had for the invasion?”

Cameron added, “Mr. Putin believes he can take territories, redraw borders, exercise force to build his empire, wondering if the Council will “let this stand.”

Echoing Churchillian sentiments, David Cameron stressed, “We must not falter. We must stand firm.”

U.S. Ambassador Linda ThomasGreenfield followed with a stinging rebuke of Russia,“Today, despite President Putin’s best efforts, the world continues to bear witness to Russian brutality, Russian hypocrisy and Russian cruelty.” She said the “senseless war” has worsened global food insecurity, impacted global energy, caused incalculable damage to the environment, and undermined the global non-proliferation regime.

The American Ambassador stated

bluntly, “Let us be exceedingly clear here: if Russia puts down its weapons today, the war will end; if Ukraine puts down its weapons, Ukraine would be over.”

Russia’s Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia counterattacked rhetorically stating “In this proxy war…Ukraine is losing.” Meanwhile he claimed, the European Union has become a “satellite of the U.S.”

Earlier in a highly unusual move at the start of the meeting, Russia’s Ambassador interjected a Point of Order claiming “the list of speakers is crowded with non-members of the Council calling themselves the Foreign Ministers of European Union countries. However, in that bloc, with rare exceptions, there are no indepen-

Intrigue

• Replicates how our “normal” auditory system works.

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words and speech more intuitively and naturally.

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This series of Letters From God is an attempt to put the thoughts of God as revealed in the Scriptures.

Letters From God Letters From God

him, “In him was life and that life was the light of men.” And “The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.”

QUESTION:

(John 1:4,9).

Isn’t Progressivism Or Socialism A Christian Concept?

At first glance they may seem to be similar, but the usual practice of socialism is vastly different from what I have designed for those who trust me and bear the name of my Son, “Christian.” The political philosophy in vogue in your country today is that which was espoused by Karl Marx. His philosophy was adopted by the Russian people and it led to the overthrow of the prevailing governance of the monarchy led by Tsar Nicholas II. There are many things to notice about this takeover and the “fruit” or ultimate denouements of its practice in many countries since its inception. Few, if any, can be justified as compatible with Christian concepts.

First, you must understand that its founder, Marx, espoused atheism. Christianity calls all human beings to recognize that they are not God and that to enjoy life, which I have bestowed upon them, they must bow in reverence and submission to me their God, the source of life. I sent my son Jesus, to walk among you and ultimately to give his life to pay the penalty for your sins, which separated you from me and the life which only I could give. I asked John to write this of

Without being in a relationship with me, the source of life and light, that is only possible through my son, who gave his life to rescue you from the dark reality of death both temporal and eternal, no government can succeed. This is true particularly of atheistic governments.

Next, consider the death that this atheistic form of government has been marked with since its inception. Beginning with the brutal murder of the Tsar and his family, the state persecution & execution of any who practiced religion, espoused the family and resisted total government takeover of their property is staggering. In Russia and other governments who followed in kind, the numbers are in the millions. Your own historians of the carnage estimate 61 million in the Soviet Union, 78 million in China and roughly 200 million worldwide in the 20th Century alone. My son Jesus said, “I came that you might have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10). There is no similarity.

Next, consider that consistently, those who prospered were not the average citizen but the elites who promised a panacea but delivered poverty and futility. You must understand that there is something terribly wrong with the human heart. It is selfish and sinful.

Before the flood that I brought as judgment on the earth, due to the pervasive and vile sin on the earth, I had written, “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” (Genesis 6:5).

When any atheistic philosophy of governance gains ascendency, those who reign may espouse to the populace that they wish to “serve” their people but invariably they expect to “be served” by the people. This tragic human disorder fosters the conditions of human suffering at the hands of elitists who hold power and the purse.

Many like to use the outpouring of love and support for the new Christians who remained in Jerusalem after the feast of Pentecost to the ideals of socialism. Having just come to faith, over 3,000 stayed to be discipled and learn the essentials of their newfound Christian faith. Feeding and caring for such a large group led to generous giving by the existing Christians. It says of them, “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.”

(Acts 2:44-45).

This is not socialism for a number of reasons. It was not forced upon them or deceptively conned from them by elites. It was given by individuals as they were led by their own generous hearts, which I placed in them when they trusted me and

received my son, Jesus. It did not involve divesture of all their property or fruits of their labor to be given to a governmental pool to distribute. Those 3,000 would leave soon thereafter to return to their own homes and jobs to sustain themselves and then help others as they had been helped. This was not socialism but godly sharing with others in time of need.

Has this atheistic, socialistic, human concoction every worked? Look at history and you will see utter failure. I would ask you as well, to look at your country today, as it is trying to replicate socialist government in the name of helping the average citizen. Has it produced more prosperity for the people? Are the number of poor decreasing or increasing? Are the elitists living better than those they purportedly seek to “care” for and serve? Is there more or less violence in your streets with respect to this attempt at transitioning away from your Constitutional Republic? Is this radical turn embracing me, your Creator God and my son, Jesus your Savior or systematically seeking to remove us? Is this movement committed to nurturing families, which I have established to be the “greenhouse” of healthy and godly living? Is it seeking to bring people together or rend them apart through encourag -

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DR. THOMAS A. FAGAN, DC

(603)

Our mission is to improve your life by helping you hear be�er. Hearing more allows you to connect more with the people around you.

Your hearing is vitally important. The ACHIEVE trial demonstrated that hearing loss causes structural changes in the brain, including reduced cortex thickness. However, people who wear hearing aids had 48% less cogni�ve decline, compared to those who need them. Also, the rate of cogni�ve change was 3 �mes slower, when wearing hearing aids.

The ACHIEVE trial is a study of older Americans with hearing loss. It was conducted over 3 years, under the direction of Dr. Frank Lin, MD, PhD, who is with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The information learned and the results of the

Use of hearing aids is nearly risk free and can only have posi�ve benefits. Contact us today to measure your hearing and learn more.

trial are relevant for all of us. The results relate to how we communicate with those around us and also to the development of Alzheimer’s and dementia. These conditions are the result of brain deterioration. The trial looked at the effects of hearing loss and hearing intervention.

The process of hearing depends on encoding auditory information coming in to the ears. The encoded information is then sent to the brain where Central auditory processing decodes the information. From infancy, your brain creates a “map” of sounds. It learns to recognize meaning from those sounds. When hearing loss occurs, the sounds coming in don’t resemble the sounds on the map. The brain then has to use visual recognition and thinking to sort out what the sounds are supposed

to be.

Reduced hearing, results in changes in brain structure, even with mild hearing loss. The cortex is the working part of the brain. Reduced activity in the auditory cortex leads to increased language activity in other areas of the brain. This means that your brain compensates for hearing loss by shifting from using the area designed for hearing, to using areas that are not intended for understanding sound. This is part of why sound seems unclear and it takes longer to understand a spoken message.

changes leading to dementia. Thus, hearing loss contributes to accelerated brain deterioration. It causes increased cognitive load which results in cognitive impairment, reduced memory and dementia. For every 10dB hearing gets worse, there is more than double the risk of developing dementia.

The two biggest causes of Alzheimer’s and dementia are microvascular disease and hearing loss. Hearing loss creates nearly constant, extra effort for the brain. The effort of listening overwhelms the brain’s resources that otherwise could have helped prevent pathological

Hearing loss also causes social isolation. Often, people who find it difficult to hear, chose not to try to communicate. They chose to stay home, or not to participate in social activities. This isolation leads to poor diet, lack of exercise and less adherence to medical recommendations. It also leads to loneliness, reduced self-esteem, reduced sense of well-being and leads to an increase in inflammation. This is associated with many adverse health issues including cardiovascular disease, declines in mental cognition and mortality.

Professionals have understood that use of hearing aids could reduce the cognitive load of processing degraded sound. The ACHIEVE Trial was created to determine if hearing aids provide increased brain stimulation and also improve social engagement.

The ACHIEVE trial recruited 977 older adults who were evenly divided into those who received binaural hearing aids and those who did not. Those

Laura Robertson Audiology Specialists

iMMune suPPort during tHe Cold seAson

Why be sick? Many plants and mushrooms support the body and reduce illness severity and length. I am hearing about this 100 day cough….what is that?? Having immune trouble? Here are some of my favorite herbs to use during this time of year. This is not even close to an exhaustive list of potential herbs for the Cold Season, but is a good start.

Immune Stimulants

Herbs that directly affect the immune cells, nudging them to do their jobs. My favorites: Medicinal Mushrooms. Powder forms are fine, whole double extracted mushrooms are better, eating them is THE BEST. Oyster mushrooms grow in NH and are harvested all season. Eating mushrooms stimulates White blood cells and increases the innate immune system’s surveillance mode. Other good ones are Maitake (aka hen of the woods) which grows on the base of the oak tree when nights start to get cooler. There are many mushroom mixes out there for sale, I sell several types and blend in different things from mushroom coffee to immune tonics. Some of the others I sell are Rei-

shi, Lion’s Mane, Shiitake, Artists Conk, and Red-Belted polypore. Elderberry. The berries are picked and dried in the late Summer used in tea or decoctions and extracts. I make a tea blend with it, like my Immuni-tea with astragalus, rose hips, eleuthero, and orange peel. It’s a MUST for the home apothecary. Elderberry has known affects on viral intrusion into a cell, which basically means it stops a virus from entering into a cell, namely the flu virus. Astragalus, like eleuthero, is considered an adaptogen (helps a body deal with stress) and is loaded with polysaccharides helping to keep immune cells strong. Vitamin C in rosehips and orange peel help removed free radicals and is itself considered an antiviral.

Immune Support

When I talk about immune support, I’m talking about herbs to help fight a pathogen,

whether viral or bacterial. These herbs do this in many ways, but basically they help kill pathogens. Some of my favorites:

Berberine-containing plants like Oregon Grape Root and Goldenseal. I don’t use goldenseal very often due to its endangered status, but when I do use it I use the leaf.

Oregon Grape Root and Barberry Root are good alternatives. Berberine is making the rounds for its blood sugar reducing actions, but its use as an antimicrobial is wellknown. Sweet Annie aka Sweet Wormwood contains quinine derivatives which we KNOW stops viruses, just like Cinchona Bark. Both are in my Corona with a Lemon Tea to fight off the Corona virus.

Osha Root and Lomatium Root both help kill off viruses and bacteria, open lungs, and are a must for respiratory virus season.

Sara Woods Kender Sacred Tree Herbals

by Dr. Brooke Mills Crossroads Chiropractic

In today’s fast-paced world, finding moments of peace and tranquility can feel like a luxury. From parent duties, work, entrepreneurship, events, birthdays and managing personal health, oftentimes I feel stressed by just thinking about the to-do list, let alone trying to do it all. I have found

that by incorporating mindfulness, gratitude, and stress management techniques into my daily life I can cultivate a sense of calm and resilience as I work to accomplish all of my tasks and balance my responsibilities. Let’s explore the benefits of these practices and practical tips for incorporating them into your routine– after all, it can only help, right?

Mindfulness, the practice of being fully present and aware of the present moment, has gained popularity in recent years as a powerful tool for re -

ducing stress and enhancing overall wellbeing. By tuning into our thoughts, feelings, and sensations without judgment, we can cultivate greater clarity, focus, and emotional balance. Mindfulness can be practiced through meditation, deep breathing exercises, or simply by paying attention to everyday activities with intention and awareness. Grab a cozy spot in the morning, evening, at your work desk, or anytime you find yourself in need of a “regroup” and silence your internal dialog. Personally, quieting my brain is a challenge and opting to play a guided meditation practice can be extremely helpful.

● Start your day with a mindfulness meditation or breathing exercise to set a positive tone for the day ahead. Look for a free five-minute guided meditation on Spotify or Youtube, there are millions to choose from to have a different experience everyday!

● Cultivate a mindfulness practice during everyday activities such as walking, washing dishes, or commuting by paying attention to your senses and being fully present in the moment.

Gratitude is another powerful practice that has been shown to have profound effects on mental and emotional wellbeing. By cultivating a mindset of gratitude, we can shift our focus from what we lack to what we have, fostering feelings of appreciation and contentment. Research has

found that regularly expressing gratitude can lead to improved mood, increased resilience, and enhanced relationships. Simple practices such as keeping a gratitude journal, writing thank-you notes, or reflecting on the things we’re thankful for each day can have a transformative effect on our outlook on life. I love teaching kids about keeping a “gratitude card” with them every day by writing 3 things they are grateful for each morning and placing it somewhere they will be reminded of it, such as their back pocket, backpack, notebook or wallet. Bonus points if you add to it throughout the day!

● Keep a gratitude journal and make it a habit to write down three things you’re thankful for each day or opt for a daily gratitude card to remind yourself of the things you’re grateful– it will literally rewire your brain to think more positively and reduce stress.

Medical research estimates as much as 90 percent of illness and disease is stressrelated. Stress management techniques are essential for navigating the inevitable challenges and pressures of modern life. While it’s impossible to eliminate stress entirely, we can learn to manage it more effectively by adopting healthy coping strategies. This may include regular exercise, adequate sleep, healthy eating habits, and time spent in nature. Ad -

tiMe For tenney MountAin

“Anyone been to Tenney this season?

We were on our skis at the top of the slope waiting for our turn to race in our Monday night race league at Pats Peak when this question was asked. None of my teammates had visited Tenney yet this season but it seemed like everyone had a good story to tell about skiing there in the past.

My hiking and snowboarder pal Becca went there last Saturday and raved about the snow conditions and that she had a wonderful time.

Matt said he could go tomorrow but he couldn’t leave until after his morning dentist appointment. I said I was game to go and I’d pick him up on the way.

Tuesday morning sometime before 11 am the parking lot attendant waved us into a line of cars parked at an angle in the middle of the lot. We made it. We dressed in the car and carried our skis and ski boots up to the lodge. The lodge sits above the parking lot and above the base terminal of the summit chairlift.

Tenney has a long history beginning in the 1930s but lift service and dreams of building a ski area came true when 10th Mountain Division Veteran Sam Hall and his partner John French purchased the land in

Tenney Mountain in Plymouth, NH has 48 Trails and 1,400 vertical feet of fun! Look at the snow on Tenney’s Shooting Star Trail. Tenney has made major improvements and the skiing and snowboarding is very good right now. Tenney offers fun groomed trails, glades, a terrain park, snow tubing and uphill skiing. The big White Mountain views from Tenney’s slopes will fill your eyes with happiness--Sandwich Mountain, the Tripyramids, Mount Tecumseh and so many more. It’s time to visit Tenney Mountain.

the 1950s. It opened in 1960 with surface lifts and by the mid-1960s a chairlift carried skiers up the mountain.

On the way to the ticket window we saw the nice mural honoring Sam Hall and his accomplishments.

Lift tickets are a refreshingly excellent value–weekdays $45 and holidays & weekends $65. We paid and we were handed RFID cards. Yes we could have and should have bought our tickets online on their website. It would have saved some time. But I wasn’t thinking about tickets

when we made our last minute plans. I certainly will reload my RFID card online next time we go.

We put on our ski boots and stashed our boot bags on the storage shelves near the ticket desk. Out the door we went and clicked into our ski boots and skied the short drop down to the lift.

I waved my arm where my RFID card was zipped and the gate opened. Matt had a little trouble, it wasn’t reading and then it finally did? This happened for the first

two runs. He laughed when he realized he had a RFID card from Jay Peak still in his card pocket. The unit was trying to read both cards and that didn’t work. RFID cards need to be kept separate. Once the only card in his pocket was the Tenney card it worked like a charm.

What a wonderful job they did upgrading the chairlift. New blue paint, wonderful seat cushions and the wood slats on the backrests of the chair are lovely. The ride is steady and maybe it is just under

MILLS from 12

ditionally, relaxation techniques such as progressive muscle relaxation, guided imagery and visualization, or yoga can help calm the mind and body and reduce the physiological effects of stress. It is always important to remember that if you don’t make time for your wellbeing, your body will make you take time.

● Take regular breaks throughout the day to practice deep breathing or progressive muscle relaxation to reduce tension and promote relaxation. Do a self body “scan” noticing tension in the body and mentally relaxing that area, reducing physical tension held in the body.

● Practice mindful eating by savoring each bite, paying attention to the flavors and textures of your food, and eating without distractions.

● Prioritize self-care activities such as exercise, hobbies, and spending time with loved ones to recharge and rejuvenate.

By incorporating mindfulness, gratitude, and stress management techniques into our daily lives, we can cultivate a greater sense of calm, resilience, and wellbeing while ultimately feeling more equipped to do more. Whether it’s through meditation, gratitude journaling, or simple relaxation exercises, taking time to nourish our minds

and bodies can have a profound impact on our overall quality of life.

Let’s embrace these practices and cultivate a life filled with peace, gratitude, and joy even during the craziest of times

Dr. Brooke Mills is a native of Concord, NH and a graduate of Sherman College of Chiropractic. Dr. Brooke currently serves as the Executive Director of the Foundation for Vertebral Subluxation Research and is a lead chiropractor at Crossroads Chiropractic. Dr. Brooke has served on nine international mission trips and was awarded the Gold Presidential Volunteer Service Award.

ACHIEVE from 10

who were fit with hearing aids received mid-level technology instruments, or better. They received in-person care, treatment and counseling to understand their hearing and the use of their hearing aids. They were only seen by Doctors of Audiology. In addition to traditional audiometry, they were also evaluated for understanding speech in noise, had Real Ear testing of their hearing aid function and answered specific questionnaires. They were evaluated with the HHIE to measure their perceived need for hearing help and with the COSI to learn their personal needs and goals for hearing. These folks were seen every 6 months for the 3-year period of the study. The hearing aids were worn 7-10 hours per day, or longer.

Those who did not get hearing aids received 4 health education sessions with a certified health educator and then returned every 6 months for further information.

All participants received a comprehensive neurocognitive evaluation, administered annually, to look at language and memory function. They received annual hearing evaluations and answered detailed questionnaires.

The ACHIEVE trial showed that the participant’s perception of their communication challenges were significantly reduced with hearing aid use. Participants also became more socially active and indicated they were less lonely. The study demonstrated

a 48% reduction in cognitive decline for those who wore hearing aids, when compared to those who did not.

This study showed that hearing intervention may reduce cognitive change within just 3 years, particularly for those considered at risk for cognitive decline. In addition, MRI measurements demonstrated that those who wore hearing aids experienced measurably better thickness of their brain’s cortex, compared to those who did not.

At the conclusion of his presentation, Dr. Lin stated that hearing aids are under-used, are without risk, reduce self-perception of communication frustration and lessen loneliness. They may substantially reduce cognitive decline in those considered at risk. Hearing changes across the life span. Lin recommended hearing testing on an annual basis, to track when changes begin and how fast they progress. He indicated it is important to test hearing every 6 months for those 80 and over. Treating your hearing impairment with hearing aids is a no-harm intervention that clearly benefits many people by reducing auditory fatigue and cognitive load. Hearing aids allow people to better connect with those around them and improve the resiliency of the brain to fight Alzheimer’s and dementia.

KENDER from 11

Expectorants and Anti-catarrhals

Expectorants helps expel mucus from the lungs, and anti-catarrhals help relieve sinus issues. Mullein leaf wins hands down as a lung sedative and expectorant. I like the root too. Elderberry has expectorant qualities and I love Oregon Grape Root for sinuses and lungs. Other favorites are Elder Flower, Honeysuckle Flowers, Cayenne, and Osha root for sinuses. I make an extract that is a bit spicy but will clear up the sinuses quite nicely.

Fever Reducers

I RARELY use fever reducers, but they are good to have on hand just in case the fevers get super high (103 sustained for hours). Fevers are the body’s way to kill pathogens and disrupting this process inhibits the body and can prolong a sickness. My favorites are: Yarrow flowers, Catnip, and Elder Flowers. In tea is a perfect way. Add a bit of raw local honey and sip. Herbal fever reducers are called diaphoretics or anti-pyretics and help to disperse heat in the body.

Don’t forget about eating well! I make a Bone Soup stock mix that is a MUST for this time of year. I use medicinal mushrooms mixed with nettles, seaweed, burdock root…. make stock with it and then make soup. It’s DELICIOUS.

Sara Woods Kender is a Clinical Herbalist and Reiki Master, Owner of Sacred Tree Herbals in Meredith. 169 DW HWY, Unit 1. www. sarasherbs.com

BIRDS For The

New England’s Wild Birds & Their Habitats

A tiMe oF trAnsition

by Chris Bosak Contributing Writer

Late February and early March is somewhat of a transition period for birdwatching in New England.

The highly anticipated spring migration, which won’t hit its peak until late April and early May, starts with a trickle around mid-March, most notably with American woodcocks and eastern phoebes. Some consider the early male red-winged blackbirds the start of spring migration, but many of these blackbirds overwinter in New England so it’s tough to say if they are arriving in February or have been here all along.

On the other hand, a lot of the winter birds we have enjoyed seeing over the last few months have either gone further south, returned north, or, unfortunately for some, perished in the cold New England winter. Many birds that try to stick out a New England winter, either due to getting lost on their migration route or opting to forego migration altogether, underestimate the power and longevity of our winters and don’t make it to spring.

For me anyway, late February and early March is the ideal time to look for ducks.

Long-time readers of this column know that ducks are one of my

favorite types of birds to watch, so I like to take advantage of this time to get my fill of fowl before they fly off to their breeding places.

By late February, there have been enough prolonged thaws that some lakes and rivers, and even some ponds, are entirely or at least partially open water. Many ducks fly south only as far as they need to for the winter and these waters are like magnets for various types of fowl.

The lake (really a large pond) where I walk frequently was filled with people ice skating and ice fishing only a few short weeks ago. Now there are open areas of water that are holding ducks such as hooded mergansers, ring-necked ducks, American black ducks, and, of course,

mallards. The larger bodies of water are host to ducks such as common mergansers. Rafts of common mergansers can number hundreds of individual birds and are quite impressive.

I visited my brother recently in Erie, Pennsylvania, and we took a trip to Presque Isle State Park, a peninsula that juts into Lake Erie. The small and shallow inland waters were frozen solid, but the lake itself and bay were open. After driving around and seeing birds such as bald eagles and screech owls, we parked and took a walk to an area called Gull Point.

After a walk of 20 minutes or so along the frozen dunes, we arrived at a large opening. In the spring and summer, much of this area is closed to protect nesting shore-

birds. In the winter, however, it is open and well worth the 20-minute effort it takes to get there. To start with, a mixed flock of snow buntings and horned larks flitted among the open area looking for seeds to pick off the tops of dried weeds and grasses.

The real attraction at Gull Point in the winter, however, is the view of the bay a fairly short distance away. A spotting scope is needed to really appreciate the spectacle, which is a huge raft of ducks that include a wide variety of species.

Within two minutes of peering through my scope, I picked out dozens of greater scaup, bufflehead, American wigeon, red-breasted mergansers, canvasback, and a lone redhead. It was an amazing mix of divers and

Scaup can be seen in huge numbers on large bodies of open water in the winter in New England.

Sacred

St.

30

St. André Bessette Parish

Mass Schedule at Sacred Heart Church

Saturdays: 4pm; Sundays: 7:00, 8:30 & 10:30am

DAILY MASSES:

Monday, Wednesday & Thursday: 8am, Tuesday: 5:00pm

All Masses Livestreamed at www.standrebessette.org

Reverend Marc B. Drouin, Pastor

Planning a wedding is a lot of work, which is why many brides rely on their planner, family, and friends to offer helpful, stress-free wedding tips during the entire process. Surviving wedding stress and preventing potential problems can be achieved with enough time and the right plan of action. Continue reading to discover five ways to combat stressful wedding situations.

It’s down to the wire, and you find yourself pulling out your hair because the florist is slow at returning your calls, the tailor is taking too long to alter your gown, and you can’t decide which dish to serve at the reception. It’s enough to make anyone go crazy, but surviving wedding stress is possible.

Even if you have a wedding planner, you’re still facing hurdles of your own when it comes to surviving the wedding stress, trying to make sure that everything flows smoothly on the big day. But what do you do when unexpected issues arise? Have you considered your plan of action and which stressfree wedding tips you’ll rely on if something goes wrong? In these instances, a hands-on approach to the problems you’ll encounter will solve everything right then and there.

So, with all the potential problems that can happen before and during your wedding day, how do you handle, manage, and overcome wedding planning stress? Here are a few

of the best stress-free wedding tips that brides swear by to get them through the wedding planning stages.

Stay in Control with These Stress-Free Wedding Tips!

1. Surviving wedding stress involves giving yourself enough time to plan. Your wedding is what you make of it. If you allot no more than six or seven months for an extravagant affair, chances are it may look like it was rushed. With extra time, you can plan, make changes, hire the right vendors the first time around, and choose the best venues that match your budget (because you can shop around). And if you’re in a rush to get married, opt for a simpler cer-

TIPS from 17

emony and reception - one that’s affordable but doesn’t cause you stress in the long run.

2. Remember that a holiday wedding, while beautiful, is more stressful. Not only do you have a wedding to plan, but you have to worry about the added stress from the holidays. At Thanksgiving, for instance, you’ll have guests coming in from out of town, and you’ll worry about a big dinner, while at Christmas, you’re focused on buying gifts and decorating--all at the same time. This is not to say

that surviving the wedding stress (and holiday stress) can’t be done; holiday winter weddings are some of the most elegant, joyous events. But you need to keep in mind that you will have added stress to deal with. Make sure you have a dependable wedding planner who can offer valuable stress-free wedding tips as well as many helpful friends who have the time to help you plan your big day.

3. Hire the right wedding planner - and get knowledgeable stressfree wedding tips. This is a given when it comes to surviving wedding stress. Of course, some brides do not hire a wedding planner, and that’s fine. Planners simply provide a sort of stress buffer for you and your family so that you can concentrate on other elements of the wedding. You’ll have the opportunity beforehand to inter-

PHOTO COURTESY ROB CLIFFORD CLIFFORDPHOTOGRAPHYNH.COM

TIPS from 18

view wedding planners in your area to see if they can accurately align with your wishes and carry them out as you see fit. Plus, you can evaluate his or her personality to see if it’s someone you can work with on a regular basis.

4. Surviving wedding stress when one of your vendors goes MIA. Yikes! This is a tricky situation. You’ve planned for months that your vendor will show up at the time agreed upon. But it’s the day of the wedding -- what can you do now? If at all possible, try to find a replacement; this may not be feasible since it’s truly last minute. A missing vendor does not spell immediate doom however. Here’s your chance to save the day - if the florist doesn’t show up, make a pit stop at the local grocery store and buy

all the flowers you can. If the DJ cancels, enlist a friend to bring along an MP3 player with music everyone can dance to. And if the minister calls out sick, there’s a possibility a notary (in some states) can marry you, or you can have an eloquent guest perform the ceremony. After all, once you have that license in hand, you’re officially married regardless.

5. One of the best stress-free wedding tips for you (and your family) is to avoid being a ‘bridezilla.’ Stress can bring out the worst in anyone, and tackling and surviving wedding stress is the most difficult. And no one knows it better than the friends and family of the bride, who may witness a change in her demeanor over time. There’s no need to subject your loved ones to your emo-

tional outbursts. Always give yourself time to reflect and relax. You don’t have to spend every waking moment making plans. Trust your friends to help you when it comes to planning the wedding and surviving the wedding stress; don’t go it alone.

Managing and surviving wedding stress is not easy. There are so many things that might make you want to call the planning off. Just remember that one of the most helpful stress-free wedding tips out there is to make sure that you allow yourself enough time to plan and make the day right. This is, after all, your wedding day, and while everything will not go the way you planned, keep a smile on your face and appreciate the many people who made the time to celebrate with you.

PHOTO COURTESY ROB CLIFFORD

CLIFFORDPHOTOGRAPHYNH.COM

Not likely. However, within just a handful of seconds none of this would matter. In fact, it would become clearly

evident to most everyone within a three block area that they would be in a fight for their very lives as one of the most bizarre catastrophes in

United States history was about to play out in Boston’s North End. It was January 15, 1919. Unseasonably warm, unlike just a few days before when the mercury was barely pushed above zero, this day at shortly after noon, temperatures were in the lower 40’s. Just off of Commercial St. adjacent to Boston Harbor there stood a holding tank 50 feet high and 90 feet in diameter. This holding tank was not like the tanks of today. No LPG, no oil, no chemicals per se. No, this tank was different. It had an unmistakably sweet aroma, while mild in winter, it was particularly noticeable in the summer. And, it held a dark brown sticky substance. In fact, at different times of the year, not only kids but residents of all ages could be seen holding cups and vessels up to the cracks of this tank, collecting the sweet sticky residue that seeped uncontrollably from around rivets and small cracks. The substance? MOLASSES! And at full

FEAST from 3 See

capacity, this vessel held 2.3 million gallons of it. And on this day, the tank was nearly full, having been topped off with a shipment of fresh warm molasses just a few days before.

Now, to hear this holding tank creak and groan was nothing new. Most who inhabited the area thought little of it as they eked out a daily living. The tank having been built in 1915, after four years of moaning and groaning, people were becoming accustomed to it. And the added benefit of having a bit of “free” molasses for your Saturday night beans? Well… who’s going to complain too loud? Too, the unfortunate reality was, even those from this part of Boston who may have had gumption enough to sound off at city hall wouldn’t have gotten an ear, their names just didn’t resonate with “the Brahmin Caste”.

The tank, constructed in 1915, by a company called Purity Distilling Company, by 1917 was owned by United States Industrial Alcohol Company (USIA). The molasses was used in the making of alcohol, which was used not only for distilled spirit production but also in the making of munitions for the war effort. While the U.S. remained “neutral” up to April of 1917, the war in Europe had been raging since the summer of 1914 with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. The Great War was a huge economic boon for the U.S., producing war material for anyone willing to pay the price.

FEAST from 20

However, the construction of this holding tank was shoddy. Done on the cheap to maximize profits and get things done quickly. The metal was, upon a “post mortem” investigation, deemed too thin, unable to endure the stress and strain placed upon it by temperature fluctuations of the 2.3 million gallons of molasses it held at full capacity. Cracks were observed at numerous rivet points from which molasses leaked. Add to this the stress placed upon poor quality rivets. When these and other concerns were brought to the company’s attention, executives would brush these aside claiming, “the tank is still standing” and they would have joints and leaks caulked. At one point, complaints were so numerous that the company even had the tank painted a dark brown in an attempt to hide the leaks. It was a recipe for disaster in the making.

For those who knew the language, the tank spoke volumes, warning anyone who would listen that she didn’t feel well. She cried out, weeping, knowing that someday she would not be able to keep it together any longer. That day came on January 15, 1919. As the stress of weather related heating and cooling worked on her joints along with the topping off of warm molasses she received a few days before, she began to “buckle”. With a groaning rumble unlike that of the elevated rail near her, and rapid

See FEAST on 22

ACKERLY’S

Grill & Galley

83 Main Street, Alton 603.875.3383

Akerlysgrillandgalleyrestaurant.com

Stoneface - IPA

Woodstock - Double Brown

Great Rhythm - Pale Ale

Baxter - Coastal Haze

603 - Amber Ale

COPPER KETTLE TAVERN

At Hart’s Turkey Farm Restaurant

233 D.W. Hwy, Meredith 603.279.6212

hartsturkeyfarm.com

Henniker - Working Man’s Porter

Concord Craft - Safe Space

Stoneface - IPA

Moat Mtn - Blueberry

603 - Winni Amber Ale

+6 More On Tap

D.A. LONG TAVERN

At Funspot 579 Endicott St N., Weirs 603.366.4377 funspotnh.com

Mast Landing - Windbreaker

Drowned Lands - Soil & Citra

Unibroue - La Fin Du Monde

Barreled Souls - Munro

Feathered Friend - Magpie

Stoneface - Duderino

+6 More On Tap

FOSTER’S TAVERN

403 Main Street

Alton Bay, NH 603-875-1234

fosterstavernbythebay.com

Bud Light

Tuckerman - Pale Ale

Aqua Vue Haze -Muddy

Road Brewery

Sam - Seasonal

Allagash - White

Maine - Lunch IPA

+2 More On Tap

JOHNSON’S TAPHOUSE

At Johnson’s Seafood & Steak

69 Rt 11, New Durham 603.859.7500

eatatjohnsons.com/ newdurham

Lone Pine -Brightside

Widowmaker -Blue Comet

Shipyard -Smashed

Pumpkin

Jack Abby -Red Tape

Muddy Road -1762 Porter

Northwoods -Autumn Buzz

+30 More On Tap

MORRISSEYS’

Porch & Pub

286 S. Main St., Wolfeboro 603.569-3662

Morrisseysfrontporch.com

Morrisseys’ 20 Year Lager by Great North

Smithwick’s

Guinness

Harp

Concord Craft Safe Space

+11 More On Tap

PATRICK’S PUB

18 Weirs Rd., Gilford 603.293.0841 Patrickspub.com

Patrick’s Slainte House Ale

Great North - Moose Juice

Guinness

Clown Shoes - Bubble Head 603 - Winni Amber Ale

Tuckerman - Pale Ale

+9 More On Tap

THE WITCHES BREW PUB

At The Craft Beer Xchange

59 Doe Ave., Weirs Beach 603.409.9344

FB @craftbeerxchange

Moat – Miss V’s Blueberry

Ayinger – German Marzen

1911 – Black Cherry Cider

Jack’s Abby – Blood Orange

Able Ebenezer – Burn the Ships IPA

Mighty Squirrel – Cloud

Candy IPA

+30 More On Tap

gunshot-like reports piercing the air as rivets flew like bullets, people’s worst fears, nightmares, became a reality. Two million three hundred thousand gallons of a sweet dark brown “tar” roared through the streets of the North End. Fractured sheets of steel sheared like scythes

anything in their way as a wave of black gooey molasses; some say a wave as high as 25 feet moving at a speed of 35 miles per hour, coated and consumed anything in its path.

Before it was over, numerous buildings in a two block radius, including FireHouse 31 and the warehouse where freight cars were

being tended to were gone. Supports, uprights for the elevated train, were destroyed, bent like toy girders of a child’s Erector Set. Houses were pushed off their foundations and moved down the street while others were reduced to splintered rubble. People, cars, trucks, horses and wagons, were all

MAPLE MOLASSES PECAN BARS

Adapted from Elaine Moore’s Maple Pecan Squares recipe by way of Sydney Wilson Yield: About 30-36 (depends upon the size desired) Time: About 1 hour

SHORTBREAD CRUST INGREDIENTS

1 ½ Cups Flour

¼ Cup Brown Sugar (packed)

½ Cup (1 stick) Butter Softened

-SHORTBREAD CRUST PREPARATION-

- Combine flour, brown sugar, and butter in a bowl and mix with a fork until a fine consistency like bread crumbs.

- Pour mixture into a 9x13 baking pan, evenly spread and press firmly into the corners and sides, and bake for 15 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Remove and set aside.

MAPLE MOLASSES FILLING INGREDIENTS

2/3 Cup Brown Sugar (packed)

¾ Cup Maple Syrup

¼ Cup Molasses

2 Eggs Beaten

2 Tbsp. AP Flour

¼ tsp. Salt

½ tsp. Vanilla Extract

1 ¼ Cups Pecan Pieces

-MAPLE MOLASSES FILLING PREPARATION-

- Combine Brown Sugar, Molasses, and Maple Syrup in a small sauce pan and bring to a simmer stirring often. Simmer for 5 minutes and continue to stir.

- In a bowl, have ready the two beaten eggs.

- Slowly pour the heated sugar mixture into the eggs while stirring constantly.

- Add in the flour, salt, and vanilla while stirring to combine until smooth.

- Pour the sugar and eggs mixture over the shortbread base.

- Evenly sprinkle the pecan pieces over the filling and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

- Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan. Cut into squares.

swept away, some were quickly rescued while others succumbed to their injuries, unable to move in the quickly cooling viscous mass of gooey wreckage.

In total 21 people perished in what has become known as the Great Molasses Disaster of 1919 with 150 more suffering injuries. After a lengthy lawsuit spanning years USIA (the parent company of Purity Distilling Co. ) was found negligent for not having a real engineer oversee the project when the tank was first built. One Hundred nineteen plaintiffs were awarded a total of $628,000 dollars ($11.1 million in 2024 dollars). The lawsuit also brought about

stricter construction codes, engineering and safety codes for building projects, and recognized standards for engineering certification.

Unlike the Great Molasses Disaster of 1919 these Maple Molasses Pecan Bars were anything but a disaster. In fact they were a pleasant surprise, having both the Maple flavor and that hint of robust Molasses that most will enjoy. Sandwiched between a shortbreadlike cookie crust and a topping of pecan pieces, this bar is a treat for the sweet tooth that hides in each of us. I found them to be just right for this… Simple Feast. Enjoy!

FEAST from 21

seems to be no doubt that he would have liked to have served in that capacity but had failed in previous attempts and apparently no one really expected the Union party to win in 1852 against the Whig party’s Winfield Scott, the Democrat’s Franklin Pierce, or the Free-soil’s candidate, John Hale.

Daniel Webster has long been a favorite native son of New Hampshire. He was born on January 18, 1872, or 152 years ago, yet is still held in high esteem as a prominent person in the history of New Hampshire. Daniel was the ninth child of Judge Ebenezer Webster of Salisbury, New Hampshire, and the grandson of Ebenezer and Susannah (Bachelder) Webster. Susannah Bachelder would be a descendant of Rev. Stephen Bachelder, considered to be the founder of Hampton, N.H. Judge Ebenezer had five children with his first wife, Mehitable Smith and five with his second wife, Daniel’s mother, Abigail Eastman.

I wrote a previous article where I emphasized that Franklin Pierce and John P. Hale, both New Hampshire men were both candidates for President in 1852. I neglected in that article to mention that Daniel

Webster also ran in that election though he was not practically in the running for the office because he died eight days before the vote was taken. He did still receive some votes as the candidate for the Union Party which some would insist was an indication of how unpopular the other candidates in the race were. Franklin Pierce was the Democratic candidate, John Hale was that of the Free Soil Party, and Winfield Scott was chosen by the Whig Party. He would be the last of the candidates to run under the banner of Whig, and the Democratic party would find their main opponent in the next national election to be of the Republican party.

Before running with the short-lived Union Party Webster had been a leader of the Whigs, along with Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky, but was passed over for the Whigs 1852 nomination for President in favor of General Scott. New Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce handily won the 1852 election with a total of 1,601,274 popular votes which translated into 254 electoral votes. Winfield Scott received 1,386,580 popular votes and only 42 electoral votes. New Hampshire’s John P. Hale received 155,210 popular votes and no electoral votes.

Though Webster was the recipient of some votes, probably mainly from Massachusetts where he had for years made his home after moving there to pursue his profession as a lawyer. The fact still remains though that on the ballot in the general national election for President of the United States of America in 1852 there were three natives of New Hampshire and one of them won!

Daniel Webster was known for his oratory skills going back to his youth and particularly during his schooling at Dartmouth College which he entered when he was but 15 years of age after spending part of a year at Phillips Exeter Academy. After Dartmouth he taught school and studied to be a lawyer, going to Boston to learn in the office of a Boston lawyer.

Moving to Portsmouth in 1807 Daniel ran his own law firm and also was married to a clergyman’s daughter, one Grace Fletcher.

While still a citizen of New Hampshire he was elected to public of-

fice as a member of the United States House of Representatives where he served from 1812 until 1818. After moving to Boston he would again successfully run for a seat in Congress, serving from 1823 until 1827, and making himself one who has served in that capacity from two separate states.

Webster’s speaking abilities served him well as a lawyer and he became known as one of the best in the country; moreover he served effectively in the House of Representatives and in two separate stints as a United States Senator

from Massachusetts. He also served as Secretary of State under three Presidents, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, and Millard Fillmore.

Two years after his first wife died Daniel married Caroline LeRoy. He died on October 24, 1852 at his farm in Marshfield, Massachusetts.

If you haven’t visited the birthplace of Daniel Webster you have probably, somewhere along the way, maybe in school, seen a picture of the house he was born and raised in. His father, Ebenezer, is probably overshadowed by his

son, but he, too, lived a life worth remembering. Captain Ebenezer Webster served in several military operations including serving with the famous Roger’s Rangers during the French and Indian War. He also fought under General Stark at the Battle of Bennington.

Ebenezer Webster served the town of Salisbury in the position of moderator of the town meetings for many years, and as selectman, town clerk, member of the state house of representatives and member of the state senate.

SMITH from 1

General Winfield Scott - 1852 Whig presidential candidate,

Cartoon criticizing 1852 Democratic and Whig Presidential candidates ( Pierce and Scott ) and showing other potential candidates.

Yours truly and Matt riding the double chairlift to Tenney Mountain’s summit. The seat cushions are comfy.

15 minutes to the top. No lift line! We picked a cold perfect day to ride this lift. It was sunny with little wind and

we were both glad we dressed warmly. For our first run we went left off the lift and zoomed down Morning Glory! Groomed edge to

Matt at the top of the Dandelion Trail where there is a big view of the Groton Wind Turbines.

edge the packed powder and loose granular snow underfoot made for nice turning. We enjoyed the natural waves and rolls of the slope.

Tenney has a terrain park with rails and jumps.

On the rides up we enjoyed the view. It looked like snow flurries north of Mount Stinson and we could see and hear the Groton wind turbines above on the ridge. The wind turbines were spinning in the light wind.

There was snow in the glades but conditions were just a tad

too firm for me to dare venture on this day. I have some fond memories of skiing the glades here on a big powder day in the late 1990’s. When the temperature gets above freezing soon I bet there’ll be lots of people back in the trees.

My favorite trail of the day was Shooting Star! Great snow, fun terrain and a fun

headwall drop. The trail around the headwall drop is named Chicken Out. We liked it too.

There were more skiers and snowboarders riding the triple chair. It’s shorter and has plenty of nice blue square rated trails. Tiger Lily and Trillium have nice pitches and ski nicely.

The views East while

Tenney has a terrain park with rails and jumps.

skiing at Tenney are grand. With snow flurries blocking out the view to the north the sky to the East was clear and blue. Sandwich Mountain is prominent with the Tripyramids right behind it and Mount Tecumseh further north.

So many mountains to see.

We stopped for a late lunch and to warm up.

Even though the menu and the sit down dining at the Backcountry Bar and Grill was inviting, we chose to grab cheeseburgers with fries and hot chocolate. The meal was satisfying and good. We sat a table near the big stone fireplace complete with a Mr. Moose mounted above. Matt noted there might be more people in the restaurant than on the ski slopes.

You don’t have to be a skier or snowboarder to enjoy the restaurant. On Monday nights they have been offering line dancing. Wednesday through Saturday they are open late. Matt and I made an effort to try to ski a different trail every run.

We didn’t have enough time todo it. They have 48 trails and almost all of them were open.

On our last run we did find the Terrain Park. It had some rails and jibs and jumps. Not my style but some snowboarders were thinking hard about doing tricks.

I am so glad that Matt and I decided to go ski Tenney. It was Matt’s first time skiing here. I sure hope we get some more snow because we want to come back for some spring skiing in

the trees. Have Fun.

Hopefully the new owners, The North Country Development Group, will have lots of snow and good fortune to operate the ski area for decades to come.

Tenney Mountain is

What a pretty day to ride the chairlift to the summit of Tenney Mountain to ski and snowboard. This old school lift provides plenty of new school fun skiing and snowboarding!

located in Plymouth’s from I-93 take exit 26 and drive 3.7 miles on Route 25 and then head south 1.8 miles south

on Route 3A. Look for the entrance sign to Tenney Mountain.

Amy Patenaude is an avid skier/outdoor

enthusiast from Henniker, N.H. Readers are welcome to send comments or suggestions to her at: amy@weirs. com

PATENAUDE from 24

a program that used Puerto Rican women as guinea pigs to test the birth control pill. In 1946, Gamble founded the North Carolina Human Betterment League. In 1957 he founded what is now known as Pathfinder International which gives “reproductive health” and services in Africa and Asia.

The book also has short biographies of people mentioned in

the correspondence including Albert Lasker, the man who was the primary funder of the Negro Project. Lasker was knoAwn as “The Father of Modern Advertising.” Lasker was a Republican and his wife Mary, a close colleague of Sanger, was a Democrat. They both lobbied for socialized medicine and federal funding of medical research. They created the Lasker Foundation.

If you go to the Lasker Foundation’s website, you will find glowing praise of its founders. I contacted the foundation asking for a statement on its racist roots, but I never heard back.

We were pleased and honored to get many endorsements for the book including actress Stacy Dash who starred in the move “Roe v Wade,” former abortion nurse Julie Wilkinson who played the abortion nurse in the movie ‘UnPlanned: The Abby Johnson Story,’ and Ed Martin of the Phyllis Schlafly Eagles. I dedicated the book

to my late friend Dr Mildren Jefferson, the first black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School. In the wake of the infamous but now repealed “Roe v Wade,” Dr. Jefferson said: “I am not willing to turn this great land of ours into just another exclusive reservation where only the perfect, the privileged and the planned have the right to life.”

Sanger has been suc-

cessful beyond her wildest dreams. The black population in the United States is at a steady thirteen percent. In New York City almost half of black pregnancies end in abortion, and every single black Democrat in Congress supports abortion. While the founders of the modern Pro-Life Movement were primarily Catholic Democrats, as of this writing, there is only one Pro-Life Democrat in

Congress-Henry Cuellar. There are many pro-abortion Republicans as well. The first two states to decriminalize abortion were NY and CA-both led by Republican governors. We hope that our book helps to shed some much needed light on this dark chapter in our history and earnest prayer is that God will change the hearts and minds of those in the abortion industry.

The book is available for $15 on Camp Constitution’s website https://campconstitution.net/product/ the-racist-roots-ofplanned-parenthoodand-its-legacy-ofdeath/ on Amazon.

Rev. Steve Craft with the former home of Dr. Gamble in the background.)

Dr. Jefferson with Hal Shurtleff in1995.

SHURTLEFF from 6

Maps.”

“But I need Google Maps!”

“You don’t.” She replies, “You have an iPhone. You have Apple Maps ... Apple is better when it comes to privacy ... Apple at least tries to anonymize your data.”

Instead of Gmail, she recommends more private alternatives, like Proton Mail or Tuta.

“There are many others.” She points out, “The difference between them is that every email going into your inbox for Gmail is being analyzed, scanned, it’s being added to a profile about you.”

But I don’t care. Nothing beats Google’s convenience. It remembers my credit cards and passwords. It fills things in automatically. I tried Brave browser but, after a week, switched back to Google. I like that Google knows me.

Brockwell says that I could import my credit cards and passwords to Brave and autofill there, too. “I do understand the trade-off,” she adds. “But email is so personal. It’s private correspondence about everything in your life. I think we should use companies that don’t read our emails. Using those services is also a vote for privacy, giving a market signal that we think privacy is important. That’s the only way we’re going to get more privacy.”

She also warns that even apps like WhatsApp, which I thought were private, aren’t as private as we think.

“WhatsApp is endto-end encrypted and better than standard SMS. But it collects a lot of data about you and shares it with its parent company, Facebook. It’s nowhere near as private as an app like Signal.”

She notices my Shell app and suggests I de-

lete it.

Opening the app’s “privacy nutrition label,” something I never bother reading, she points out that I give Shell “your purchase history, your contact information, physical address, email address, your name, phone number, your product interaction, purchase history, search history, user id, product interaction, crash data, performance data, precise location, course location ... “

The list goes on. No wonder I don’t read it.

She says, “The first step before downloading an app, take a look at their permissions, see what information they’re collecting.”

I’m just not going to bother.

But she did convince me to delete some apps, pointing out that if I want the app later, I can always reinstall it.

“We think that we need an app for every interaction we do with a business. We don’t realize what we give up as a result.”

“They already have all my data. What’s the point of going private now?” I ask.

“Privacy comes down to choice,” She replies. “It’s not that I want everything that I do to remain private. It’s that I deserve to have the right to selectively reveal to the world what I want them to see. Currently, that’s not the world.”

Every Tuesday at JohnStossel.com, Stossel posts a new video about the battle between government and freedom.

dent national foreign policies.” Accordingly, Moscow’s envoy claimed baselessly, “there are no Foreign Ministers, just officials who pretend to be such. The bloc’s entire foreign policy is in the hands of Brussels, which in turn is in the hands of Washington, D.C.” (sic)

But it was the voice of Free Ukraine which rose above the political fracas; Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, stating, “Russia’s name is synonymous with aggression, war crimes and barbarism.” Minister Kuleba went on to say stemming first and foremost from its presence in this chamber’s seat, the Russian Federation is occupying the place of the Soviet Union, which no longer exists, and the legal transfer of its Council seat never occurred.

He stressed “This is an example of how a small fraud led to a global catastrophe.” He advised “We continue to insist that Russia has no legal right to be present at this table, and the future reform should correct this historic mistake that led to deadly consequences.”

Thus far the dire cost of conflict; many thousands killed on all sides, over 6 million Ukrainian refugees and 4 million Ukrainians internally displaced, with 14.5 million people inside Ukraine needing urgent humanitarian assistance.

While there’s strong political support from the United States and Canada, European Union countries, parts of Latin America and East Asian status such as South Korea and Japan, notable was the quiet absence of many African and non-Aligned countries and Russia’s political groupies.

In media comments

outside the Security Council, Foreign Minister Kuleba was flanked by over fifty Ambassadors and Foreign Ministers showing solidarity with his embattled Eastern European country battered by Moscow’s military bludgeon. This truly impressive commitment was nearly unprecedented in the UN.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameroon told correspondents that Ukraine matters; “If we somehow let Putin eak out a win of course that’s bad for European security, disastrous for Ukraine’s security, but it’s also bad for American security.” He added, such a win “would be celebrated in the Kremlin but celebrated by the Chinese leadership too.”

“None of us will allow our Ukraine to end,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said during an separate address in the capital Kyiv.

John J. Metzler is a United Nation correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He is the author of Divided Dynamism The Diplomacy of Separated Nations; Germany, Korea, China.

ing racial and class warfare, creating an environment for elites to move into and take over with authoritarian control?

Do you really believe you can prosper by rejecting me and defying my design for life? Don’t allow self-serving human philosophies to turn you away from me and my son who is, “the way, and the truth and the life.” (John 14:6).

You, like many others before you, will be deceived unto death.

I love you, God.

These letters are written by Rev. Dr. Sam Hollo of Alton, NH.

dabblers, telling me that food was available for both types of ducks. A bit further in the distance, a huge raft of American coot bobbed among the rippling waters.

It won’t be long before these ducks head to their breeding grounds. Now is the perfect time to find and admire them.

BOSAK from 15 LETTERS from 9

METZLER from 7

STOSSEL from 7

ers from Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian Authority. He also received plaudits from far-left corrupt Brazilian president Lula Da Silva, who refused to condemn Russia for Navalny’s death but found time to accuse Israel of perpetrating a new Holocaust in the Gaza Strip. And, of course, last week he hosted Tucker Carlson for an interview, in which he laid out his historic grievances against NATO and Ukraine; Carlson then followed suit by issuing a series of videos praising Russian metro stations and supermarkets, claiming that Russian food prices should “radicalize” Americans into de-

spising their leaders.

Putin feels unbound. And he should.

Joe Biden is a weak leader with no centralizing principles. He has slow-walked aid to Ukraine since the beginning of the war; he has insisted on continued funding for the war while refusing to articulate what an end to the war would look like; he has refused to even justify the war to Americans beyond simply repeating the word “democracy” over and over -- empty rhetoric that no longer tugs at the heartstrings in a complex world where the U.S. has non-democratic allies of its own. Biden refuses to take serious action on the

southern border in order to achieve the Ukraine aid package he insists he desires; he even refuses to negotiate with the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, on the issue. He seems to prefer tearing into Republicans for their insufficient zeal in funding Ukraine. All of this focus on Republicans allows Biden to elide the split in his own party -- a split between Wilsonian interventionists and Noam Chomsky anti-Americans, who believe the United States to be a malevolent force in the world.

Meanwhile, Republicans are split, too.

There are essentially four camps into which the Republican Party has split: neo-conservative interventionists, a remaining rump from the Bush years, who have historically supported nation-building efforts in far-flung regions with the goal of cultivating democratic allies even in inhospitable places; realpolitik devotees, who seek to assess each foreign conflict and all foreign aid with an eye toward hard American interests, ranging from the economic to the military; isolationists, who oppose all American interventions, both economic and military, on principle, believing that foreign policy generally represents a

betrayal of priorities closer to home; and anti-Americans, who meet with the Chomsky-ite left in a perfect example of horseshoe theory made real.

Putin sees all of these splits. He sees the fact that Americans are distracted by domestic concerns, pried apart by competing narratives of the country, at each others’ throats over everything from the definition of sex to the role of the government in everyday life -- and split even on the question of whether America is a force for good or ill in the world.

Vladimir Lenin once supposedly said, “Probe with bayonets. If you find mush, you push. If you find steel,

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Putin is probing. And he’s finding nothing but mush.

Ben Shapiro is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author; his latest book is “The Authoritarian Moment: How The Left Weaponized America’s Institutions Against Dissent.” To find out more about Ben Shapiro and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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by Parker & Hart

PUZZLE CLUE: RULING PARTY

SUDOKU

MAGIC MAZE

THEME THIS WEEK: GRAINS & OILSEEDS

Answers On Page 27.

The Winklman Aeffect

by John Whitlock