Welcome back to Good Life, a newsletter about navigating our modern culture and staying sane in the process. This week, we discuss the party I went to over the weekend without my children and how that inevitably led back to them.

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I was at a party over the weekend when I found myself in a conversation with a woman who told me that she and her husband had decided early on in their marriage that they wouldn’t have any children. But after a couple of years, her desire for children came on strong. They ended up having a girl about two years ago.

The couple had agreed that their daughter would be their only child, but now she finds herself wanting more children. As you probably guessed, my answer was to, of course, have another. I told her what I tell most people: One is the biggest adjustment. Two is easier than one. Three is the hardest. Four is the easiest.

There is something about even numbers where everyone has a buddy that makes things easier. I can only speak to what it’s like raising four children, but I have watched most of my sisters successfully raise more, and I feel like my statement holds up no matter the number.

She seemed a little shocked that I’d suggest to her to have another child. Maybe it’s because I was a perfect stranger, but I had a feeling that wasn’t really the reason. It seemed more likely that I had given her a completely different answer than most of her female friends and relatives.

I was about to walk away, partially because my drink was in desperate need of a refill, but also because I never want to offend people if I can avoid it, and unsolicited advice to strangers feels like a quick way to do that. But as I began politely exiting the conversation in search of another dirty martini, she began telling me how her nanny had warned them that they were raising their daughter wrong. She locked eyes with me as if to say, “Please stay, I need help.”

After a couple of failed attempts to grab my husband’s attention to either rescue me or refill my dirty martini, I gave in.

“Tell me exactly what your nanny said to you,” I responded.

She then explained that her two-and-a-half-year-old had been acting out, and their nanny warned her that they were being too easy on their daughter. She told them they would have to be stricter parents or they’d ruin the girl. Maybe it was the look on my face, but she immediately added that they had already started being stricter with her and had noticed a difference in her behavior.

“What do you think?” she asked. It’s not that she used the term gentle parenting, but it was clear from the examples she gave that they had fallen into that category.

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I told her she is lucky to have another woman in her life willing to tell her the truth. Children need clear direction and distinct boundaries in order to thrive, especially at a young age. As they get older and start understanding how their decisions have consequences and what it means to live with the effects of those, you can give them more freedom. But until then, they will never know what a right decision looks like compared to a wrong one unless they teach her.

I explained that when I was pregnant with my first daughter, my grandmother gave me the best advice that has proven to be correct with every one of my girls.

“Mary, either you are in control, or they are. And you have to decide if you want chaos or peace in your home. If you let your children run all over you, don’t be shocked when it feels like everything is falling apart or that motherhood seems overwhelming. Children have no idea what they are doing. It’s our responsibility to teach them.”

Since she is a girl mom, I played up what a blessing it is that, as mothers, we get to be there for them as they grow into being women. We know what it means to be female. Our daughters will never have to wander into it blind because they have us. But if we don’t start building trust with them when they are young, we will lose them long before they reach puberty.

It helped that another woman was talking with us who agreed with my advice. It’s always easier when you have a little backup in situations like this.

By the time our conversation was over, she seemed intent on having another child, which, of course, made me really happy. Children are always a blessing, and more children being born is always a good thing.

I have one teenage daughter and another who is on the cusp of her teenage years. This is when motherhood gets more difficult. Some days everything runs like a well-oiled machine, and others it revolves around their emotional stability and reinforcing the parent/child dynamic in the house. Just this week, I had a moment where I had to remind my eldest daughter who was in control and that she could trust me when I correct her that I am not doing it to be mean or hurt her. I’m grounding her back into the family because this is where her safety lies.

The only reason the struggle sessions don’t drag on for days is that my husband and I began building a relationship filled with trust and love the moment she was born. She knows that she will get called out for bad behavior, and we expect her to pay the consequences. But she also knows that no matter the situation she finds herself in, we will be there to guide her and pick up the pieces with her. She will never have to figure any of this out on her own.

The best thing we can do as parents is love our children enough to guide them on how to live well.

Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to goodlife@dailycaller.com

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I’ve been pretty disappointed with Congress and the Trump administration’s posture towards mass deportations. We were promised that all illegal immigrants would go back, but early on we were told that they’d be focusing on criminal illegal immigrants. Then that turned into not policing certain economic sectors like agriculture. Well, Congress has a bill that will grant illegal immigrant agriculture workers and some hospitality industry workers amnesty. Amber Duke breaks this all down here: Unfit to Print: CORPORATE AMNESTY

Speaking of illegal immigrants: Did you hear that it’s impossible for them to be registered to vote, much less actually vote in our elections? Well, once again, not only is it happening, but Democrats are now admitting that thousands are registered. State of Wednesday: THE THING THAT NEVER HAPPENS KEEPS HAPPENING

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Welcome back to Good Life, a newsletter about navigating our modern culture and staying sane in the process. This weekend, we discuss the futile pursuit of happiness that comes with chasing glory.

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JJ Watt was one of the biggest stars in the NFL and married Kealia Watt, one of the biggest stars on the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team. JJ competed at the highest level and will likely be a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame.

I remember seeing interviews with players saying they were relieved when he retired because it made their job easier knowing they didn’t have to line up on the opposite side of him. His wife, Kealia, also led an accomplished life on the field, playing soccer, including an NCAA national title and the record for the fastest first goal in USWNT history.

The two are undeniably incredible, but they aren’t close to being the same. I think that’s why I have a problem with how Real Salt Lake, a men’s MLS team, and JJ Watt handled a social media post made on Thursday.

The Watt family visited the team’s stadium on Wednesday, and naturally the social media team posted a photo of them walking out of the tunnel. The caption was short and sweet: “Welcome to the Riot, @JJWatt and fam,” complete with a little heart-eyed emoji.

Apparently this was offensive. JJ Watt quoted the post, taking a shot at the decision not to name his wife and her accomplishments. It’s important to point out that all the team did was tag him in it. They didn’t say anything about his career or fame. Regardless, the move turned into a firestorm of JJ listing a bunch of his wife’s accomplishments and the team groveling in return with a book-length apology listing a number of career highlights Kealia had.

It’s not that I have an issue with JJ wanting to elevate his wife and her awards, but the post was perfectly fine and wasn’t disrespectful in any way, so it left me extremely confused. Are we really at a point in our societal breakdown where we can’t recognize that an individual’s status within relationships is uneven and that’s ok?

Women will always crave affirmation. I think this is as true now as it has ever been. We like hearing people heap praise on us. It’s a motivator for us to excel. You’re a great student. You have a beautiful voice. Wow, that piece was well-written. You’re a great mother. In our moments of weakness, it’s little comments like this that help keep us pushing forward.

So, as I said, I don’t have a problem with JJ praising his wife publicly, and I have no way of knowing whether, behind the scenes, Kealia threw a fit about them only tagging her husband in the post and not her. Still, I have my suspicions that JJ’s overreaction had something to do with Kealia being upset.

It’s ok if you are called Mrs. Watt or, in this case, “fam.” Even without the championships and accolades, this moniker is proof enough that you’ve accomplished something incredible in this world. Not only do you have a man who has pledged his life to honor, protect, and provide for you, but the love between you and him has borne fruit.

There is something I often tell our daughters that I think would have been helpful for Kealia. When you are lying on your deathbed, it won’t be your NCAA national championship award or the media praise that will be praying for you and keeping you company. It will be your family. To discount that and require a public acknowledgment of your worldly trophies feels backward.

It’s not that you can’t or shouldn’t pursue greatness. It’s not a sin to use the gifts God has given you to the best of your ability, but in the end none of it matters. It fills your years but not your heart.

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Welcome back to Good Life, a newsletter about navigating our modern culture and staying sane in the process. This weekend, we get back to old times because I have a story to tell.

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I’ve been on a pretty political kick lately for my newsletter. Sometimes it’s a little unavoidable, given the nature of my job, which requires that politics consume my life five days a week. However, I’m returning to my old roots today because I have a story I need to tell y’all.

If you’ve been a longtime reader (by the way, thank you because I’ve enjoyed every minute of growing this thing with y’all), you know that I mainly see this newsletter as a way to explain why I parent or handle marriage the way that I do. Our world seems completely insane at the moment, so I write about stories from my life in hopes that my younger cohort can see there is another way to live that brings beauty and structure to their lives.

This brings me to my week. But before we get into that, here’s a little message from our sponsor.

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My husband has been gone all week. This is (unfortunately) a pretty normal occurrence. He travels a lot for work, which makes for an exhausting week for our girls and me. There’s no one here to lend a helping hand or shoulder any of the parenting decisions that arise.

We are one of the few families who don’t send our kids to summer camps because we think it’s important to treat summers as a chance to connect. The school year sends us in a million different directions, and we firmly believe that summer is the perfect opportunity to relax and reset. Still, my oldest daughter had the opportunity to take an AP Biology class this summer, and we accepted it.

While this is a bit out of the norm for us, we felt it would be a good opportunity for her to bring home an easy A that would bolster her overall GPA. I don’t think any of us were prepared for the reality that she would be required to teach herself the material. Four days a week, she studies at home, and on one day she goes in for her lab. She’s never had to work in this type of structure, so it’s been an adjustment.

This week has been particularly difficult for some reason. She’s had a hard time concentrating and is overall feeling insecure about her ability to succeed. To me, this is all insane because she’s incredibly intelligent, to the point where I know that she is smarter than I am. Still, it’s been a struggle to get her to complete her work.

My husband wasn’t scheduled to come home from his trip until Friday night. I was prepared to handle this moment solo. I spent the week balancing writing in my office and keeping her on task. When Thursday came around, it was like pulling teeth trying to get her to focus. At one point, I threatened that if she didn’t get it together, I was going to make her pull up a chair at my desk and she’d have to work under my constant supervision.

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Welcome back to Good Life, a newsletter about navigating our modern culture and staying sane in the process. This weekend, we discuss how one little lemonade stand reminds us that America’s story continues after 250 years.

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The Washington Post ran a story about three young brothers living in rural Michigan who were taking part in a time-honored American tradition but were blocked by regulations and state bureaucracy until they decided to take a stand.

Ethan Mielke, 13, Seth Mielke, 11, and Jonathan Mielke, 8, had spent three summers running “Triple M Goods,” their modest lemonade stand at the local farmers’ market. They sold homemade lemonade for 50 cents to adults and 10 cents to kids. As you can imagine, their profits were not life-changing. At the end of each summer, the three brothers walked away with about $100 to $200 each. Still, it was their first foray into entrepreneurship, a bedrock of American culture.

Then, midway through last summer, the rules changed when their local farmer’s market had a change in management. The boys learned that they would need a temporary food-service permit from the local health department to continue running their lemonade stand, which would cost them $57 every two weeks.

Over a full season, which lasted from June through September, the brothers would have to pay $400 to operate Triple M Goods. This meant almost all of their profits would go to paying for the permit. For most children, that would have been the end of it. The stand would have closed, another small American dream quietly shelved by unnecessary bureaucracy. But these brothers did something profoundly American and fought back against government overreach.

Their mother told the boys that they should contact their local state representative for help. The three brothers wrote letters to state Rep. Cam Cavitt and hand-delivered them to him at a local community coffee hour he hosted.

Cavitt told The Washington Post that the brothers made quite an impact on him and alerted him to an issue he had no idea was happening in his state.

“They were very well-mannered and polite, they had firm handshakes and looked me in the eyes,” he said.

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“I think it’s unfair,” he said. “This is a lemonade stand. We all grew up with lemonade stands.”

Cavitt could have easily brushed the kids off, but thankfully he didn’t. He sponsored House Bill 6007, legislation that would exempt minors selling non-alcoholic, non-refrigerated beverages from such permits, provided their annual earnings stayed under $5,000.

Despite being a “little bit uneasy,” the three brothers testified before the House Regulatory Reform Committee in Lansing, Michigan. They took turns describing their experience and explaining why protecting the lemonade stand was so important. The state House unanimously passed Cavitt’s bill, which is currently in the state Senate.

Their mother said the boys were eager to watch the House vote on the livestream at home.

“They were pretty excited,” she said. “It was a pretty neat experience for them to see how the process works when you have an idea or want a law changed.”

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Cavitt is hopeful the bill will pass before the end of the lemonade season so the boys can get back to doing what they love, adding that this is proof that the system can work if Americans join in.

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Welcome back to Good Life, a newsletter about navigating our modern culture and staying sane in the process. This weekend, we discuss big families and political baby bumps.

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For the last couple of weeks, I’ve had my entire family in town, which includes my three pregnant sisters. Pregnancy isn’t new in our house. My five sisters and I have brought 23 children into this world, with three more on the way. Every year, there is a newborn baby or a pregnant sister, so it’s easy for me to forget that others might find it shocking.

Somewhere along the way, our society has forgotten that big families bring big joy. A lot of women from a certain generation started telling their daughters that two was enough, three was pushing it, and anything more than that was untenable. I have four, and while that’s small potatoes compared to the rest of my sisters, I still get comments when I go out.

Just last night, I took the girls to dinner by myself, and a man stopped me to say that he had two daughters and that was enough. He couldn’t believe I’d have more. “They are so emotional. You must be a patient woman,” he said, laughing. These comments get on my nerves, not in a feminist girls-rule-the-world kinda way, but in a I-would-take-all-the -emotional-breakdowns-over-being-sad-and-alone kinda way. So I looked at him with a sweet southern smile painted across my face and responded, “I’m actually not, but they love me anyway.”

If there was ever a time I wished I could have more children, that moment was it. It’s completely insane to walk up to parents and tell them something like that, even if you are joking. We are responsible for raising the next generation of Americans, for passing down our morals and legacy. The future of our country and the world revolves around the business of having children. He should have thanked me for the service I undertook.

I’ve been playing the scenario over and over in my mind, and each time my retort is meaner.

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Welcome back to Good Life, a newsletter about navigating our modern culture and staying sane in the process. This week, we discuss Texas, terrorism, and the desperate need for justice.

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When the George Floyd riot hysteria swept across the nation, I, like millions of Americans, watched in horror as left-wing activists burned down our cities. I had never seen anything so violent in my life. At the time, my husband’s job had taken our family from Texas to Oklahoma. I was in a strange city with little to no support system and four little girls.

We lived in Tulsa at the time, and while Seattle, Portland, and other cities were under siege, the left capitalized on the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot and began demonstrating outside our home in historic Midtown. While this wasn’t where the original riot took place, we still found ourselves in the middle of it. I remember making sure all the girls were inside with the windows and doors locked. We didn’t show any signs that we were home.

There was looting and vandalism; police had to deploy tear gas to keep the so-called demonstrations from overtaking the city. It was one of those moments where I worried about the future for our girls. And the craziest part is that it was small and docile in comparison to what was happening everywhere else.

The reason I am reliving this moment is that I live back in Texas now, and the violence across our country has continued. Last year, on July 4, a group of 11 Antifa rioters descended on the Prairieland ICE Detention Center. Like in Seattle and Portland, they had a clear plan of action to commit mass destruction and terror.

This case involved a violent nighttime attack on a federal immigration detention facility. The group threw fireworks and explosives at the facility, vandalized vehicles and a guard shack, and the ringleader, Benjamin Hanil Song, opened fire on Alvarado police officers, shooting one of them in the neck. They used the encrypted messaging app Signal to share their plans and reconnaissance. They had 11 firearms, body armor, and first aid kits ready for gunshot wounds. And, of course, they were using black bloc tactics in an attempt to conceal their identities. Prosecutors called them a North Texas Antifa cell.

The Prairieland case in Texas is actually worth celebrating because it’s one of the few times the feds went after an Antifa-linked group with real teeth, leading to the first federal terrorism-related convictions and sentencing of individuals affiliated with Antifa in U.S. history.

For once, the material support law was used, and it worked. But at the same time, it’s nowhere near enough, and that’s the frustrating part.

President Trump designated Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization back in September 2025. That was supposed to mean something. Americans were supposed to see mass action against the violent extremists terrorizing our country. But months later, Prairieland stands out as almost the only case where they brought terrorist charges and took a group to trial over it.

Think about what the domestic terrorism definition actually says. It covers acts that are dangerous to human life, break criminal laws, and look like they’re meant to intimidate civilians, push the government to change policy through fear, or mess with government functions through destruction or attacks.

The Prairieland case is not the only time Antifa planned an attack meant to intimidate and cause mass destruction. It’s not even the first time that the violent group has acted to shut down federal immigration enforcement.

Andy Ngo’s extensive reporting on how Antifa operates in the U.S. highlights the coordination and violence.

Portland had over 100 straight nights of attacks on the federal courthouse. Fireworks were used as bombs, lasers deployed to blind cops, rocks, bottles and fiery objects thrown on buildings with people inside. Federal officers were injured. It was coordinated and clearly aimed at making the feds pull out or change how they do their job.

What happened in court? A bunch of people got charged with standard crimes. Some cases were dropped, but many were resolved with pleas to misdemeanors. Very few, if any, faced terrorist charges that would go after the people organizing or supplying gear to the violent radicals that kept it going night after night.

Same story in Seattle with CHOP/CHAZ. They literally took over city blocks, creating “autonomous zones.” And while the media called it a love fest, people got shot and killed inside that zone. It was an open attempt to say “government rules don’t apply here.” Again, it was not treated as terrorism-level network activity, despite it being very obviously the case.

Just since Trump has been back in office, we’ve seen attacks and blockades at ICE facilities in places like New York and Minnesota. The pattern keeps repeating because we aren’t doing enough to dismantle the networks.

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I’m not saying every protester with a sign should get terrorism charges. But when you have organized, repeated violence with planning, weapons, and clear goals to stop government functions through fear, the federal government has a responsibility to protect its citizens from terror.

The Prairieland case is the first time we are seeing action against this terrorist organization acting on U.S. soil, and we should celebrate the combined 450-year sentences received by the violent rioters involved. But this can’t be a one-and-done situation. Because right now it’s one big example in a sea of cases being treated as no big deal. I’ve gotten a taste of justice, and I want to see all those responsible for terrorizing innocent people brought before me. I want the hive destroyed.

Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to goodlife@dailycaller.com

Heard It Through The Grapevine

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Welcome back to Good Life, a newsletter about navigating our modern culture and staying sane in the process. This weekend we discuss my experience at the World Cup and how it made me feel about America’s future.

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The World Cup is in full swing in the U.S., and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the reactions from international fans to our country. There have been so many viral moments of Scottish, German, Japanese, and English national fans in awe of how great America is that it almost doesn’t feel real.

Of course, I love this country and still believe it is the greatest in the world. But there is still a tinge of an inferiority complex that rears its ugly head when Europeans come to town. Will they see the beauty, culture, and traditions the same way I do? Or will they look down on us because, despite being 250 years old, we are still a young country in comparison?

So I had to join the crowd to see for myself.

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Welcome back to Good Life, a newsletter about navigating our modern culture and staying sane in the process. This week, we discuss how some girls are combating high rent and loneliness in the city that never sleeps.

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We are starting to look at colleges for our oldest daughter. While we still have years before she leaves the house, getting into a good college is becoming increasingly difficult for regular Americans. Now, if she were in a protected class — black, Hispanic, immigrant, gay — I wouldn’t be so worried. But alas, she’s just a regular American who can trace her lineage back to before the American Revolution, so figuring out her future has to start a bit early.

And if it’s not enough to stress about whether or not she’ll get into her top school, I wonder what will happen to her after she gets there. Ideally, I want her to attend a Catholic college where she’ll be among faith-filled students who share similar morals and values. But there is really only one such college in Texas that fits the bill, and more than anything, I don’t want her moving out of state.

So what happens to her if she goes to a … state college? Well, I’ve thought about it, meaning I’ve had a lot of sleepless nights and nightmares about it, and decided to table the worrying for when I get closer to that moment. That was until one of my friends sent a recent Wall Street Journal piece about what women are doing to combat the sky-high rent in New York City. And it got me thinking.

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Welcome back to Good Life, a newsletter about navigating our modern culture and staying sane in the process. This week, we discuss the continued fall of France.

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The French Revolution occupies a sacred place in the contemporary narrative as the dawn of liberty and human rights. The storming of the Bastille, the Declaration of the Rights of Man, and the overthrow of the Catholic Church and the French aristocratic regime were the necessary ruptures that birthed the modern world.

It was a good thing, actually, to murder the ruling class, defile churches, and kill tens of thousands of clergy and other innocents. The dechristianization campaign, aimed to replace Catholicism (the soul of France for over a millennium) with civic cults, was simply France’s big glow-up.

I wonder if the revolutionaries could have seen what France would become, how many would have stopped the Reign of Terror from ever happening, throwing their own necks into the guillotine.

What happened in 1793 is happening again in 2026, just with a new coat of paint and a different slogan.

During the revolution, Église Saint-Laurent, an ancient parish church with roots dating to the 6th century, was one of many Catholic churches violently seized and replaced by the Cult of Reason, which placed so-called liberty and state worship at the forefront of its religious orthodoxy. The cult transformed the church, which had served pilgrims and the faithful for centuries, into a “Temple of Reason.”

Today, the same sacred space faces another invasion by a successor cult: a far-left orthodoxy centered on LGBTQ ideology, identity politics, and secular hedonism. France has allowed it to be repurposed as a stage for the Nuit Blanche festival’s ideological performance, directed by LGBTQ activist Barbara Butch.

During Nuit Blanche, Paris’s all-night art festival, Église Saint-Laurent hosts Sous la peau du ciel (”Under the Skin of the Sky”), an immersive sound installation of people’s desires for love, diversity, and inclusion.

If that name rings any bells, Butch played a central role in the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony, where she presided as a DJ over the now-infamous deliberate parody of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper featuring drag performers, dancers, and a near-naked figure evoking Dionysus. Butch herself admitted at the time by posting (then deleting) a comparison on social media with the caption referencing “the new gay testament.”

Butch embodies the evolution of the revolutionary spirit. Where the Jacobins sought to replace Christian ritual with civic cults, today’s cultural figures like her seek to infuse historic religious sites with a hyper-secular vision of “love” that has very little room for traditional Christianity.

The worst part about this is that, apparently, the priests and the diocese responsible for protecting Saint-Laurent signed off on the festival’s use of it.

The revolution marked not France’s ascent but its fall, a self-inflicted wound whose effects are seen in the country’s current struggles. Nothing is more emblematic of this than reports of six Catholics being arrested while praying outside Église Saint-Laurent while protesting the festival.

A group of Catholics gathered in front of Église Saint-Laurent to oppose the event. They peacefully prayed outside its doors, bringing awareness to the profanity taking place inside a consecrated church. Of course, left-wing French media, ever subservient to the new revolutionaries, framed the protesters as being linked to the far-right.

Christianity has long been removed as the state religion of France, so anyone can elevate oneself to the level of deity. During the revolution, man’s reason, liberty, etc., became god. Today, it’s man’s sexual identity that takes the throne. There are other sects of this same radical orthodoxy. For example, immigrants, sexual deviants, gender non-conformists, and Muslims can all practice their religions publicly in the street, no matter how violent, disruptive, or hedonistic they are. But peaceful Catholics praying outside their own historic church? Handcuffs.

I’m not saying pre-revolutionary France was some golden age. There was poverty, injustice, and corruption. But before the revolution, France was able to develop a culture that produced cathedrals, saints, and thinkers who shaped Western civilization. Spiritually, it hollowed out the country. France went from “Eldest Daughter of the Church” to one of the most aggressively secular nations in Europe. And Saint-Laurent has been a quiet witness to all of it.

The same thing happened here in the U.S. under the sexual revolution. We removed our Christian identity, elevating sexual pleasure and physical openness. What was born out of this is children being taught about adult sexual practices in elementary school.

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I read the other day about a conversation a woman overheard between her daughter and her friends. The children had no idea what a priest or pastor was, who Jesus was or why he was important. Even if you aren’t Christian, there is a simple understanding of Him and these terms. We’ve returned to first principles, even here in the U.S.

The reality is that the wounds of revolution never fully heal. The cycle of desecration and loss will keep going because the revolutionary impulse repeatedly seeks to repurpose rather than receive its inheritance. And even if by some miracle a part of their inheritance survives the terror, the people left to rule over the ashes have no idea what to do with it. They will be drawn to it without ever understanding why.

Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to goodlife@dailycaller.com

Heard It Through The Grapevine

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Welcome back to Good Life, a newsletter about navigating our modern culture and staying sane in the process. This week, we discuss The New York Times being the scum of the earth and Graham Platner’s secret life.

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Like most everyone else in the nation, I have been following the drama-filled campaign of Democratic candidate Graham Platner. Everyone calls him the Nazi-tattooed Senate hopeful from Maine. He’s a champagne socialist who pretends to be one of the “working-class” because he runs an oyster farm and once worked as a bartender, when in reality he had a pretty posh upbringing.

And while all of these things are unsettling to some degree, unfortunately, in our political climate, lying about your background doesn’t really move the needle that much with voters. All the negative coverage in the world isn’t going to stop some from voting for him.

Still, when I heard on Thursday that a major story was going to break from the New York Times about the secret life of Platner, I was waiting with bated breath to find out what new horrors would be unveiled. But as the story captured the political world’s attention, I couldn’t help but be enraged.

The New York Times, which once labeled my column “far-right,” published allegations from a former girlfriend of Platner’s detailing years of abuse. But instead of doing the story any justice, they sanitized it. They added hedged phrases like “nobody could corroborate,” despite the woman providing detailed diary entries and witnesses who backed up her statements.

There was way less evidence in the public hanging of Supreme Court Justice Bret Kavanaugh, which the New York Times willingly participated in. But of course, those of us on the right know why the Times did what they did to this story. Platner, despite all of his serious character flaws, is one of them. Kavanaugh is not.

The New York Times once again proved why Americans have largely demoted elite media: they simply aren’t trustworthy.

And while that was upsetting, there was something deeper irritating my soul.

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Welcome back to Good Life, a newsletter about navigating our modern culture and staying sane in the process. This week, we discuss America’s 250th birthday and why it’s so important that we don’t screw up the celebration.

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We might as well get straight into this. The celebration for America’s 250th birthday is extremely disappointing. I’ve been trying to stay as positive about it as possible because I want this to be a national unifier, something that brings the country together and makes us excited to be American again. However, last week’s debacle over artists canceling on the America 250 concert and the Trump administration’s decision to turn it into a Trump rally is concerning.

I’ve been captivated with Trump since he rode down those golden escalators. I’ve watched just about every one of his political rallies once they began livestreaming them. But even I don’t want to watch Trump talk for 90 minutes, telling the same jokes and bloviating about his administration’s supposed wins for the country.

That’s not the point of the celebration. We are supposed to be uniting the country. And whether Trump supporters like it or not, the reality is that half the country loves him and half the country wants him dead. So watching another one of his speeches isn’t going to draw large swaths of Americans from all walks of life.

It’s June 3. There isn’t much time before July 4. Still, if they act quickly, there is a way to salvage this and turn it into something that could captivate Americans. I saw a lot of people online complaining about the original lineup being filled with has-beens, which I think is a little unfair. We all know how polarizing the Trump administration can be, and the left is extremely violent. Not only does it not make sense for headliners to put their careers on the line for this, but it could be a fatal decision if a far-left agitator becomes activated to strike.

Still, someone (I think it was Matt Walsh) asked why they didn’t get talented, regular, no-name artists to perform at the concert. And that got me thinking: We have a president who ran a successful reality show. Why not lean on his expertise in that arena and create an “America’s Got Talent”- or “American Idol”- type contest that is livestreamed nationwide to find talent for the concert?

The way I see it working is to put out a massive casting call to all 50 states. They could broadcast the auditions to ramp up the national buy-in and allow Americans to vote on their favorite artists. Each state sends a winner to perform at the concert. That gives enough talent to produce a great show and helps unify the nation, solving both problems.

I am sympathetic to the cause. I understand how hard it is to put on something like this, but I can’t support just giving up. And that is exactly what it seems to be when a concert turns into a Trump rally.

If you read my post for Memorial Day, you know I feel like our nation is dying. Americans are desperate for normalcy. We are searching for a reason to forget the oppressive economy, the Iran War, and constant negative news cycles. America’s big birthday is the perfect opportunity for this, but we are wasting the potential.

We have very few chances left to resurrect the patriotism needed to carry on another 250 years. With our country so divided, it’s imperative that we do this. The left believes that American culture is based on ideas. The right believes that it’s based on heritage. Not only are these two things incompatible, but neither is fully correct.

Take Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico’s girlfriend as the perfect example. Brianna Menard descends from Michel Branamour Menard, founder of Galveston and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. This would make her a 6th- or 7th-generation Texan. For all intents and purposes, her ancestry makes her Texas royalty. However, her political views are insane.

Brianna is a far-left vegan whom her great-grandfather would likely disown if he were still alive today. She’s dating a man who claims that the Virgin Mary was pro-choice, that kids should be allowed to chop their body parts off for the transgender ideology, and has made statements like “God is non-binary.”

He supports strict gun control and a bloated, out-of-control federal government that should control everything from healthcare to local education. None of this is compatible with a healthy country. We learned during the COVID-19 pandemic that the more power Americans gave the federal government, the worse our lives got.

In short, his ideas (which Brianna supports) are terrible. And yet, by the right’s “heritage” definition, she is an authentic American.

I think two things can be true at once. America has an immigration problem, both illegal and legal. They’ve come over to our country, refused to assimilate, and gained power through our electoral system. In this case, the right has the correct idea that we shouldn’t allow this to happen. This power should only be accessible for those with blood, sweat, and tears fertilizing our land. However, we have another just as equally toxic problem in that there is a large portion of “heritage Americans” who are just as harmful to our way of life, like Brianna and Talarico.

There is no simple solution to either of these. Immigration is arguably the easiest one to tackle, but it would require mass deportations and/or forced assimilation, which the courts and Democrat-controlled cities make virtually impossible to do. But how do we get the heritage Americans who no longer believe in the legacy that their ancestors left behind to buy back in?

The answer is certainly not another Trump rally. Most of these people are conditioned to scoff or have some other visceral reaction to his voice. Nothing he says will sway their minds, which is why it’s so important we resurrect the concert with something that everyone gets excited about.

For lack of a better term, we are going to have to trick them into celebrating this year. Country music made a comeback, even with the left, because our national culture accepted it. There is no reason why we can’t make patriotism “cool” again.

I think the reason I feel so let down by this is that I desperately want my children to grow up in the country that formed me. I want them to see their neighborhood adorned with American flags, Main St. with red, white, and blue covering every lamppost, and their community celebrating as one people. There is so much that disconnects us, forcing us to pick tribes. America 250 shouldn’t be a part of that.

Whether my idea of a reality show audition is feasible or not, there has to be something better than a political rally. We deserve more than that. Our forefathers gave us the greatest country ever formed, and we owe their sacrifice and boldness to celebrate the last 250 years with a hope-filled promise for the next.

Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to goodlife@dailycaller.com.

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Welcome back to Good Life, a newsletter about navigating our modern culture and staying sane in the process. This weekend, I ask you what you have done to honor the sacrifice of our fallen.

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Memorial Day is coming up, and it has me reflecting on a great many things. Of course, at the top is the ultimate sacrifice our military members make when they lay their lives down in the service of our country. But also, what have we done to honor that sacrifice?

Every year, veterans remind everyone that this holiday is a somber celebration of our dead. While it’s nice to say “thank you for your service,” what they really want is for us to remember the fallen.

Somewhere around 1.1 million U.S. military personnel have died in wars and military conflicts since the American Revolution. These lives ended in service of a cause greater than themselves.

There’s this pretty viral X account, The American Cultrist, that has ramped up its patriotic postings as we build toward America’s 250th anniversary. One stopped me in my tracks. He posted photos from the 1976 Bicentennial parades. The streets were overflowing with people vying for a chance to see the marching band come through. There were hot air balloons decorated with the stars and stripes, and flag banners lined the streets.

I’ve been searching for something like this to take our girls for Memorial Day this weekend, and haven’t found anything that comes close to matching the grandeur.

Pat Buchanan wrote “Death of the West” in 2002, saying, “In half a lifetime, many Americans have seen their God dethroned, their heroes defiled, their culture polluted, their values assaulted, their country invaded, and themselves demonized as extremists and bigots for holding on to beliefs Americans have held for generations.”

I saw this quote on my timeline the other day and thought it was the perfect explanation for how the 1976 Bicentennial parade pictures made me feel. The reason I can’t find the equivalent of the parade is that we’ve allowed our culture to die.

We like to blame our elected officials for the decline, but it’s really our fault. We know our country is dying. We can see it every time we step outside our doors, and yet the elected officials responsible still receive an 80 percent approval rating.

Take Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, for example. The man has governed over the replacement of Texas residents for over 11 years. In that time, the state has become home to the largest Indian and Muslim populations in the U.S. Our communities are broken. The school systems have become leftist indoctrination camps. The Texas Way is being held together by a few of us who still believe. But for the most part, it’s on life support. And yet, he’s won every Republican gubernatorial primary since 2014.

This is happening all over the country and has been for decades.

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Welcome back to Good Life, a newsletter about navigating our modern culture and staying sane in the process. This week, we discuss one man who is looking to provide more than just nostalgia for families at dinnertime.

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I’m obsessing over this guy, Tim Sparks, in Pennsylvania, who is buying up Pizza Hut franchises and remaking them into the image of the old Pizza Hut, the one we all loved. Everything is modeled to look, feel, and taste as it did in the 90s.

While a part of this is definitely a hit of nostalgia that is needed as our world grows more chaotic, and it’s true that every generation looks back to their childhood, craving the innocence that has been lost, I think there is something here that is more profound than just kitchy booths and classic lamps drawing me in.

Sparks was interviewed by the local CBS news station about the decision to bring back Pizza Hut’s old glory. Of course, he mentioned how excited customers were to see the red cups, booths, and salad bar back in commission. But he said that after the allure of nostalgia wears off, he notices families putting down their phones and connecting. Sparks said this is what is driving him to own more than 80 locations, with plans to buy more.

“If we can get them in here as a family, they do tend to put their phones down and actually have conversations and speak with each other. I’m not gonna tell you I know how to fix the world, but I do think that family is a good place to start,” Sparks said.

The outlet pointed to other franchises, like Burger King, bringing back old packaging as the reason for Spark’s success with Pizza Hut. But as I said, I think it’s much more than that. It’s not every day you hear a CEO say that he wants to help fix the world by strengthening the family bond. The thrill of nostalgia may bring them in the door, but that isn’t enough to get them to put down their safety blanket (their phone) and actually talk to each other.

I think families are desperate for reasons or ways to disconnect from our world and reconnect with each other. But there are fewer and fewer options provided by corporations to do so.

In a perfect world, and I’ve written about this many times, families would rekindle the tradition of eating dinner together around the table every night. Even with our crazy schedule, we make it a point to close our night with the table set and a family meal. It’s the best time to rewind the day with your children, learn about their troubles and triumphs, and coach them through whatever is weighing them down.

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But not everyone is doing this, and I don’t necessarily fault them for it, even if I wish they would make the compromises to ensure this happens. In our modern world, it’s more likely than not that both parents are working. This typically means 8-5 at their first job and 5-10 at their second job, taking the kids around to their activities and doing homework. Dinner is an afterthought. It’s either on the go after one child goes to volleyball and the other soccer, or everyone is grabbing a plate and running off to their rooms to finish the rest of their homework before bed.

Because of this, most families are in survival mode, just praying they get through another long week without crashing out. And some might argue that children have too many activities, and they’re probably right. I’ll be the first to admit that when we signed up for volleyball, basketball, and soccer in the same season, I thought it was a good idea until I realized that at least two days a week we wouldn’t get home until 9 pm. Still, even on those nights, we ate dinner together as a family. And while I know it is possible, it’s hard, which is why most families opt for the easier way.

I’m used to private equity firms buying up everything I love in this world and making it worse. You can’t go to a family-owned grocery store, dentist office, or pediatrician anymore because, like locusts, these firms have located green pastures and sucked them dry.

Everything feels sterile and devoid of humanity. You are no longer part of a loyal customer base that needs to be courted and tended to like a member of the business’s family. Instead, you are just a number on a profit margin spreadsheet.

This makes what Sparks is offering so unique. He could have created a Frankenstein’s monster version of Pizza Hut nostalgia to sell to the masses and probably make a bundle doing it. But his interview made it feel like he understood that families are in desperate need of care, and he’s giving it to them in the best way he knows how: food.

Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to goodlife@dailycaller.com.

Heard It Through The Grapevine:

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Welcome back to Good Life, a newsletter about navigating our modern culture and staying sane in the process. This weekend, we will discuss the Mother’s Day tradition of actually spending time with your children.

Enjoying this newsletter? Share it with your friends and family! And if you’re one of those friends or family members, you can sign up to get your own copy every week right here.

I wanted to join in on the Mother’s Day discourse this week, but didn’t because if you read Tuesday’s newsletter, you would know that I was dealing with quite the Spelling Test issue. So, despite it being almost a week since the actual day, I have something I’d like to add.

A lot of mothers seem to hate Mother’s Day, which I can sympathize with to an extent. They claim it carries a heightened obligation to enjoy whatever their husbands and children have planned, even if it is farthest from what they want to do. In all fairness, it does, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

Some moms explained that they combat this by allowing their husbands to book a hotel. Not for the family. It’s an overnight staycation just for the moms to enjoy. They post videos of themselves in robes doing their skincare routines while waiting for their room service to arrive. This is bliss, they tell everyone.

“I don’t have to put my kids to bed or answer any questions. I get to eat my food without sharing it. No one is coming up and interrupting my shows. I’m not breaking up any sibling fights or cooking anyone meals.”

I don’t begrudge them their relaxation. Being a mother myself, I’ll be the first to admit that getting a break every once in a while is a must. Being the chauffeur, chef, schedule-keeper, and emotional regulator of the home is taxing. The toll is seen in our messy buns and tired eyes.

However, Mother’s Day isn’t really about mothers when your children are little. I know. I know. The name of the holiday literally has “mother” in it, but just bear with me so I can explain.

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Welcome back to Good Life, a newsletter about navigating our modern culture and staying sane in the process. This week, we discuss walking the hard road with our children.

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There are so many moments as a parent when I have flashbacks of when I was younger. I’ve lived long enough now to have experienced similar situations from both sides of the equation. This week, I had one of those moments with one of my daughters.

Our schedules have been insanely busy between sports, end-of-the-year activities, and traveling, so some of the typical weekly routines have fallen by the wayside. One of those, which I am not exactly proud to admit, is ensuring that the girls finish their homework and study for their tests. I’m not hands-off by any means. I stayed on top of the so-called important subjects, like math and science. Still, my daughter’s weekly spelling list was the farthest from my mind.

All of my girls make straight As and read well above grade level. I honestly hardly ever think to ask them if they’ve studied for their spelling test or practiced their words. Two weeks in a row I received an email from the teacher about spelling. So I did what any parent would do and asked if she could retake the tests in hopes she could redeem herself.

I was on her all weekend.

“Have you studied your spelling list?”

“How many times have you written those words?”

“Are you ready for the make-up tests?”

On the way home from school Monday, something told me that I would have to take a more active role in this. I had asked my daughter again if she was prepared for the spelling tests scheduled for Tuesday. Her response left me doubting whether she had even looked at the words, much less memorized them.

Much to my dismay, when I started quizzing her, the results were nowhere near what they needed to be. With the two tests combined, she needed to correctly spell about 43 words. She missed more than half.

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We spent hours working on this. Writing the words three times each. Verbal quizzing. Taking a mock test. Grading it. Repeat.

At one point, I looked over to the other side of the table after yet another failed attempt at a perfect score to see little tears quietly dropping from her cheeks. I hadn’t yelled at her or made derogatory remarks. It was just pure exhaustion and disappointment leaving her body.

Everything in me wanted to give up. I wanted to hold her and tell her that none of this matters anyway; AI is taking over, and who cares if you can’t spell simultaneously? Spellcheck is going to fix that for her! But that’s not what she really needed, and I knew that, so I pushed these feelings aside and helped her soldier on.

We worked until she spelled every word correctly, verbally and in writing. She was finally ready. I congratulated her on pushing through, told her we would take one more test in the morning before school just to refresh her memory, and then sent her to bed.

I couldn’t sleep that night. I stayed up for hours thinking about her. I hated seeing her cry. I remember living through these moments as a kid and crying just like she did. It can weigh on your self-confidence when you study and still don’t make the grade you are looking for.

I almost talked myself out of retesting her in the morning, but ultimately decided that while that would be easier on my heart, it’s not what would best prepare her for the test.

When morning came, I let her wash her face, eat her breakfast, and put on her uniform before I reminded her about the final quiz. She looked a little apprehensive but didn’t refuse. She ripped another piece of paper out of the notebook and sat down.

Accompanying.

Accumulate.

Conscientious.

One by one, I listed off the words as she quietly wrote them down. We had this part down to a science. When I asked her the last of the 43 words, we both looked at each other hopefully. She handed me the paper back, but I had a feeling she was going to do well, so I told her I wanted her to grade it herself.

At the end of the first list, she looked at me, beaming. A perfect score. She wrote 100% at the top of the page and flipped it over to prepare to grade the second test. When she was done, she wrote another big, fat 100% at the top of the page.

“I DID IT!” she screamed at me.

We started high-fiving each other and jumping up and down. Then she pulled me in for a tight hug and laid her head on my chest. Tears were rolling down her face again.

“Thank you, Momma,” she whispered.

I wiped her face and pulled her back into me. I told her how proud I was of her and how much I loved her.

As parents, we often have to force our children to do hard things. This whole experience had little to do with teaching her how to spell these words, but letting her know that the consequence of not doing the work didn’t make it go away. Instead, it caused her to do twice the work in less time. It also taught her that she was capable of doing it, even though it seemed like she would never get there. She did.

And sometimes the best thing we can do for them in these moments is to remember what it was like when we were their age, experiencing the same emotions, and quietly walk the hard road with them.

Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to goodlife@dailycaller.com

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Welcome back to Good Life, a newsletter about navigating our modern culture and staying sane in the process. This weekend, we discuss when Gavin Newsom apparently decided he didn’t want to be president after all.

Enjoying this newsletter? Share it with your friends and family! And if you’re one of those friends or family members, you can sign up to get your own copy every week right here.

Did you hear that the South has risen again? California Gov. Gavin Newsom seems pretty upset about the Virginia Supreme Court ruling against the unconstitutional gerrymandering state Democrats pushed through in April. The map would have shifted Virginia’s delegation from a 6D-5R split to something like 10D-1R.

Democrats spent the last two weeks patting themselves on the back for erasing Republican representation in a purple state. They claim Republicans started this fight. Republicans blame New York Democrats for firing the first shot. Regardless of what triggered this all-out fight to control House district maps, the Virginia Supreme Court poured water on all of the Democratic Party celebrations Friday, prompting Newsom to post an insane attack on the GOP.

“Confederate states are rushing through rigged maps to erase Black districts off the map. If this doesn’t make you angry, it should,” he posted.

One might assume that his post has nothing to do with Virginia, but the timing is too coincidental for that to be true. He is likely upset that after Republican-held Southern states began erasing racially biased House maps (making it more favorable for the House GOP), Democrats’ best chance at closing the gap was for Virginia Democrats to win their court case.

Still, instead of being honest about it, he is effectively calling Republicans racists for removing so-called black districts. There is no other way to explain why he’d use the term “Confederate states” if not to invoke slavery and the Civil War.

And the low-hanging fruit debate would be to call out the hypocrisy of forcing states to create race-based districts in the first place. But I’ll leave that alone. Because what’s more interesting is that Newsom has been very clearly and publicly running for the Democratic presidential nomination for the better part of the last four years.

Newsom has been nothing if not calculating.

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