I'm having to shoehorn this week's REALITIES into the paper during significant technical changes, so I have to keep it short.

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A response to Kelly Scoles' letter:

Hi Kelly,

Sometime soon I'm going to list all of the evidence I can find to substantiate the claim that America is a Christian nation. That will take more space than what is available to me today. But you say, "I cannot forget the silly thing about St. Augustine [Fla.]." Clearly, you do not appreciate the traditional power of "Dibbs," which can be traced to a time in antiquity, even before my childhood, when a man's Dibbs! was his bond, when Dibbsters everywhere had a sense of hopeful certainty and security in cultural transactions. But it's true, the tradition of Dibbs is slightly disfavored today as a surety measure. That's too bad because it was a quick, easy, and cheap way to establish a dubious right.

It is certainly true that our Constitution does prohibit the establishment of a state religion. But, as usual Kelly, you join those many folks who don't understand this clause, you misinterpret the meaning. The word "establishment" here has nothing to do with the "separation" of church and state as liberals typically misunderstand it. On the contrary, the Founders each encouraged religion. The "establishment" they rejected was like the religion in England at the time, where the religion was legally "established" as being the official state church, the upkeep which was (and is today) paid for out of national taxes. An English subject, for example, could not practice his religion if he were Catholic. Catholics, particularly during Elizabeth's reign (particularly priests), could be hunted, arrested, and "drawn and quartered" if caught in country. Most people believed in God and took religion seriously in those days.

As a kid I enjoyed asking people to identify the "longest word in the English language" said to be Antidisestablishmentarianism, a political position that originated in 1850s Britain. "[This] position opposed proposals at that time to remove the Anglican Church's status as the established church of England, Ireland, and Wales." The so-called "wall of separation between church and state" was a term coined by Thomas Jefferson, referring to these "official" state churches, as in England. The Antidisestablishmentarianism folks won the argument, and the "established" church remains there to this day - but never in America. Except for the "Dibbs" reference, all last week's history on St. Augustine, Florida is accurate.

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Last week's State of the Union extravaganza was indeed a "pow, pow, pow case" (Peggy Noonan) for Biden. Methamphetamine and its cousins do have that pow effect. The State of the Union resurrection of Joe Biden's mind was both spectacular and short-lived. His next day hangover shows that feisty performance was truly off the shelf. I bet they kept some Narcan handy.

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Your last remark "...only cobwebs will remain" sadly seems more appropriate viewing this nation's future as military support for Ukraine and Israel are abandoned. True, by every standard financial measure, we can't afford to assist any of our allies. But, by golly, we're determined to show God just how to heal His weather patterns, transmogrify His human creatures, and popularize pornography for children. We have become a proud and foolish people who are headed into unprecedented disaster near this year's election. We've been practicing the art of unpreparedness too long. The present administration has washed away the patrimony for 10 million American citizens with a torrential flood of criminal aliens. We've cast our freedoms before the enemy.

If, like Belshazzar, we are weighed in the balance and found wanting, maybe Artificial Intelligence can save us?