After a federal judge ruled that the Biden administration’s mask mandates violate federal law, organizations rushed to declare that they no longer required them to be worn, despite the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC’s) continued recommendation that people wear them.

In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote:

“We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”

The kinds of theories politicians, news organizations, and others are coming up with to explain why prices are going up are mind-blowing. Some are blaming it on Russia, others on price gouging by corporate America (or corporate Europe or corporate whatever), some on the supply disruptions that stemmed from the pandemic, etc. The most imaginative conspiracy theorists think Gazprom, the Russian gas company that supplies the European market, deliberately depleted European storages so as to soften up those countries’ politicians ahead of the invasion of Ukraine—the idea being that they would think twice before getting involved on the side of the Ukrainians. Gazprom, therefore, sparked off the energy crisis that was then accelerated by rising Chinese demand and pushed other prices up. Although some of these factors and others have played a part, they are by no means the primary cause of the price inflation we are seeing.

Clifford Thies provides his top-ten list of Cold War songs, and it is a treat. But it is more than delightful. It’s a knockout.

How did today’s high inflation in the U.S. get started?

There is a debate among economists about the causes of the high inflation that defines Joe Biden’s presidency. On one side are President Biden’s economists, who claim their policies are not responsible. On the other side are economists whose arguments are supported by a growing mountain of evidence that says otherwise.

In the first order of its kind, a federal district court has held that a warrant used to identify all devices in the area of a bank robbery, including the defendant’s, “plainly violates the rights enshrined in [the Fourth] Amendment.” The court questioned whether similar warrants could ever be constitutional.

When the federal government wants to spend money in a hurry, it does it badly. Very, very badly.

That’s the top lesson to take away from 2020’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program (PUA). Together, these programs are described as “the biggest fraud in a generation.” Here is NBC News‘ coverage of the ongoing crime story:

Last Tuesday, in his first White House appearance in five years, former President Obama referred to Joe Biden as “Vice President Biden.” That was supposedly “a joke,” but Biden wasn’t laughing. Literally, nobody wanted to talk to the Delaware Democrat. For his part, the former president touted the 12th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare. That invites a review. 

After reading a new book, C.S. Lewis advised, it was a good idea to pick up an old one. As readers should know, two of the best old books have made a comeback in a single volume. Chronicles of Wasted Time, by Malcolm Muggeridge, first emerged in The Green Stick (1972) and The Infernal Grove, in 1973. Regent College Publishing has now combined the volumes, which speak to many current issues, including events in Ukraine.

Muggeridge studied natural science at Cambridge University but made his mark in journalism as the Moscow correspondent of The Guardian. In 1932, he heard rumors of a forced famine in Ukraine and went to have a look for himself. Muggeridge witnessed starving families begging in the streets and the Soviet secret police herding people into railroad cars. While this went on, Walter Duranty of The New York Times wrote that there was no famine and all was well in Ukraine, which he knew was false. Muggeridge called him the worst liar he had met in all his years in journalism.

You know, we are at an inflection point. I believe, in the world economy — not just the world economy, in the world. It occurs every three or four generations. As one of — as one of the top military people said to me in a secure meeting the other day, 60 — 60 million people died between 1900 and 1946. And since then, we’ve established a liberal world order, and that hadn’t happened in a long while. A lot of people dying, but nowhere near the chaos. And now is a time when things are shifting. We’re going to — there’s going to be a new world order out there, and we’ve got to lead it. And we’ve got to unite the rest of the free world in doing it.