“Fresh off a record 18 gold medals at the February Winter Olympics, Norway heads into the March Winter Paralympics holding the most cumulative golds in the history of those games (140). But its international sports successes are not confined just to those performed on snow and ice, both of which are plentiful in Norway. The country of just 5.6 million people also fields winning athletes in soccer, tennis, golf – and even Olympic beach volleyball. This record is all the more notable for Norwegians’ unconventional approach to developing high-caliber athletes: When introducing children to sports, schools, parents, and local sports clubs seek to build on their innate joy in the fun and friendship of physical activity. Youthful curiosity and interest in exploring a variety of sports are encouraged, through high school and up to college age. National guidelines forbid competitive teams, scorekeeping, or ranking for children below age 12.” (02/27/26)
“If it’s February, then some liberal white dude is probably telling you about Black history and he’s probably totally missing the point, going on about how far someone else’s people have come and how far the nation that brought them here in chains has come along with them. If it’s March, then this pale-faced genderfuck bitch is probably just waking from a seasonal depression coma to chase liberal white dudes off her stoop with a broom and apologize to the neighborhood for the inconvenience.” (02/28/26)
“It is the most significant economic and sociological challenge we face. It’s worldwide. It has been worsening for decades. And there is no reason to expect the trend to change. People are not having as many children as they used to. Almost all the developed countries are below the ‘replacement rate’ of 2.1 children per woman of childbearing age. (The U.S. number is 1.6.) Overall, two-thirds of the world’s population now lives in countries below the replacement rate. If a country is below the replacement rate, its population will eventually peak and begin to decline.” [editor’s note: “Worsening” implies that it’s necessarily negative. It isn’t – TLK] (02/28/26)
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Anne Strickland
“Britain’s national debt is now rising by more than £500 million a day. Every single day. It’s the kind of figure that should prompt a national emergency, but instead it’s been met with the kind of collective shrug that suggests we’ve all decided it’s someone else’s problem. Future Chancellor, future Parliament, future generation. Someone will sort it eventually, surely? Half a billion pounds doesn’t really sound like a real number to most people though. It’s too big, too abstract. So let’s translate it into something that matters.” (02/27/26)
Source: Common Dreams
by Alvin Thomas & Conial Caldwell
“It is 1955 and the hot Mississippi sun is blazing overhead. Miles away in Chicago a Black mother is having a conversation with her 14-year-old son. She tries to impress upon him the often subtle but dangerous realities of what it means to be Black in America, and how one misinterpretation, one lie, could result in his death. That boy is Emmett Till, and in her memoir, Death of Innocence, Mamie Till-Mobley reflects on ‘The Talk’ she delivered to her son before his historically tragic trip to Mississippi. This version of The Talk dates back to American chattel slavery and has been passed down for generations in Black families, shaped by ongoing racial violence and unequal treatment.” (02/28/26)
Source: The American Conservative
by Harrison Berger
“In an April 10, 2024 post on Truth Social, then-candidate for president Trump urged Republicans in Congress to ‘KILL FISA,’ referring to the U.S. law establishing procedures for foreign surveillance. ‘IT WAS ILLEGALLY USED AGAINST ME, AND MANY OTHERS. THEY SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN!!!’ Yet now that he has entered the White House for a second term, Trump is seeking to extend those spying powers he once denounced. As POLTICO reported last week, the Trump administration, in an effort led by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, is quietly pressing Congress to approve a ‘clean’ extension of Section 702 surveillance authorities, potentially through 2027.” (02/27/26)
“Trump’s incoherent State of the Union address on Tuesday featured his usual stroke-victim diction and his patented blend of stupidity and dishonesty. Fact-checking his claims is laborious, because he speaks almost exclusively in simpleton’s superlatives, and it also is pointless, inasmuch as the people who most need to know the facts are not much inclined to listen to them, being, as they are, members of an especially tawdry and shameful cult. … but it may be that the dumbest and most dishonest claim of the night was that J.D. Vance’s newly announced fraud commission will, if it does its job, produce a ‘balanced budget overnight.'” (02/27/26)
“With the launch of attacks on Iran, some have already declared the strikes unconstitutional. That includes the immediate condemnation of Rep. Thomas Massie. The precedent, however, favors the president in this action, though the attack triggers obligations of notice and consultation with Congress. I am highly sympathetic to those who criticize the failure to seek declarations of war from Congress before carrying out such operations. Indeed, I have represented members of Congress in opposing such wars. We lost. The courts have allowed presidents to order such attacks unilaterally.” (02/28/26)
“For decades, France has been urging Europe to become more independent of the United States in the security arena. But most Europeans paid no heed to this useful proposal. They grew fat and happy under the U.S. security umbrella during the Cold War, and especially after the Soviet threat receded. Most European nations spent too little on their own defense, instead using the savings to compete with U.S. companies and run expansive social welfare programs. The European Union added another layer to Europe’s already overregulated economies. Although the Biden and Trump administrations have successfully pressured those countries to increase defense spending incrementally, they need even greater funding increases if they want to achieve greater independence from the now clearly unreliable United States.” (02/27/26)
