Is there anything America’s political class is doing to undermine the nation’s geopolitical standing that a paid foreign agent of a hostile power could do better? The answer is: they would have a hard time improving upon an obscure provision of the 2007 “Energy Independence and Security Act” that prohibits the U.S. Department of Defense from purchasing any fuels that yield higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions than petroleum.

During the colonial period, men were defined by the quality of their community involvement and fatherhood. Marriage and fatherhood were seen as being among the highest aspirations in a man’s life. Today the highest aspirations of many men are career achievement and personal leisure and it is against these they seek to balance marriage and family. I am afraid that our culture in general has reduced the role of fatherhood (along with marriage itself) to something nonessential or unnecessary.

We stand at the edge of the abyss. We know not what will be; only that it will not be what it has been. This century-long series of debilitating wars sapped our will to reproduce just as technology gave us birth control and lax morals gave us abortion. This unholy trinity turned into a demographic time bomb that ensures the eventual submerging of the peoples of the West beneath waves of immigrants swarming in to take their place. The moral rot swilled out from Hollywood, and a reality show culture exemplified and condoned by the political elite inspires and reflects a hedonism that would have made Caligula blush.

Christian apologist C.S. Lewis wrote, “We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.” Beyond the short-term political reality that Wisconsin presents a bleak forecast for Democrats in 2012 – liberalism itself (or “progressivism,” as the left euphemistically prefers) is terminally ill.

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In this so-called age of technology dozens, if not hundreds of new words have cropped up. But like a painting, some you like and some you dislike. Today’s column concerns where spelling is going and some of my dislikes. When I read of 13-year-old Maria Braga-Henebry’s recent accomplishments at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in National Harbor, Md., I think I felt as proud for this Garretson gal as were her parents. In round 2 she correctly spelled “basmati.” When I saw this word I had to go to my Webster to see what it meant, but to no avail. It wasn’t there. I had to go to Google to learn it is a type of rice.