For a conservative like me, The New York Times is a paradox, a daily tug-of-war between delight and dismay. On one hand, its games—Wordle, Connections, Spelling Bee, and the rest—are a daily ritual I cherish, a mental workout that sparks joy and sharpens my wits. On the other, its news and opinion pages often feel like a lecture hall for far-left ideology, leaving me questioning whether the subscription is worth it. It’s the best of times and the worst of times, all in one app.

Let’s start with the good. Wordle is a daily gem, a five-letter puzzle that demands precision and patience. I savor the moment when the tiles flip green, signaling victory in mostly three or four guesses (but I’ve gotten it in two a few times!). Connections, with its grid of 16 words, is a test of lateral thinking, grouping terms by obscure themes that make me feel like a detective cracking a code. Spelling Bee is my personal Everest—chasing “Queen Bee” status by finding every possible word from seven letters is a thrill that rivals any crossword. These games are apolitical, elegant, and addictive. They’re a sanctuary where I can engage my brain without being preached to, a… Read More

The Huntington Beach City Council’s unanimous appointment of celebrity chef Andrew Gruel last month, to fill the vacancy left by Tony Strickland’s election to the State Senate is a triumph for Surf City. Gruel, a leading conservative voice with a commanding social media presence and regular Fox News appearances, brings a bold, principled perspective to an all-Republican council that has revitalized the city since seizing the majority in 2022. His selection strengthens the council’s commitment to local control, fiscal discipline, and community values, ensuring Huntington Beach remains a conservative bastion in California. With Gruel’s business acumen and unapologetic advocacy, he’s poised to elevate the city’s governance to new heights.

Gruel is no ordinary appointee. Beyond his culinary fame as the owner of Calico Fish House and former founder of Slapfish, he’s a vocal defender of individual liberty and economic freedom. With over 200,000 followers on platforms like X, Gruel has used his YouTube cooking channel and media appearances to champion causes close to Huntington Beach’s heart. He’s lambasted Sacramento’s overreach, calling out COVID-19… Read More

There has been much angst for years over the continuation of minting some American coins. Usage of the penny has gradually evaporated, and it has been years since a nickel buys anything. Someone finally said enough is enough, let’s stop minting pennies, but the nickel should follow as well. All one needs to see for examples of financial irresponsibility is to look at the cost of producing these coins to determine we have had people asleep at the mint. Each penny currently costs 3.4 cents to manufacture, and nickels cost between 13 and 14 cents each. Imagine opening a store and selling things for two bucks that cost you five dollars each. No one benefits from this, unlike the person getting the item you sell for under your cost. Here it is just another unfunded expense piled on to the national debt. I could understand if these coins had some useful function other than to occupy a change drawer slot in a cash register or someone’s piggy bank. It used to be stores would have a little bowl out where people would leave pennies for the next person if they were paying cash for something and didn’t have that extra penny. That quaint custom has… Read More

A recent court ordered audit of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) is emblematic of the problems we face at a federal level and how our governments waste our money with little to no accountability. LAHSA was formed in 1993 as a joint authority of the city and county of Los Angeles to address the issue of homelessness in Los Angeles County. The vast majority of the problems exist within the city limits of Los Angeles. We could probably stop there. Billions of dollars have been spent since then, and the problem of homelessness has only soared. Arguably the Authority’s biggest accomplishment is the renaming of “homeless” to “unhoused.” Symbolic of the Left and the services they provide, they are more successful in changing the nomenclature than solving the problem. The audit was ordered by U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, a Bill Clinton appointee, and performed by global advisory firm Alvarez & Marsal. A lawsuit was filed in 2020 by the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights, a group representing business owners, residents, and property owners. It asserted that the LAHSA was not doing their job to provide shelter and services… Read More

We are often treated to hallucinatory storylines by the legacy media and their allies the Democrats. This one I have not understood at all. We have been told for years by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that our federal government has experienced immense fraud annually of $300 billion or more. That was accelerated by the money flushed out by COVID packages and the trillions of dollars handed out by the Biden Administration. We have a $2 trillion annual deficit yet the attempts to stop the hemorrhaging are perceived as dangerous or authoritarian. President Trump asked this generation’s premier business leader to aid in the fight. Elon Musk was branded the evilest person on the planet. Stories were told of Musk using 20-year-old shock troops to terrify our wonderful public employees and cut programs that were causing death and destruction around the planet. That narrative changed completely on March 27th. Bret Baier, who anchors Fox News’ nightly news show, Special Report, interviewed Elon Musk and seven of his DOGE team leaders. Each leader has a proven track record in business and left significant positions in private industry to help in… Read More

DOGE has sucked up all the oxygen regarding the dismantling of our ridiculously overstuffed federal government. The government has grown out of control as new agencies are regularly birthed with little knowledge of the people funding these agencies – you. Someone has their head on straight in the Trump Administration and they have a plan that should effectively shrink the growth. On February 19th, President Trump signed an executive order to address this issue. The order is entitled Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President’s Department of Government Efficiency Deregulator Initiative.

The Executive Order (EO) addresses what requirements should exist for any rulemaking and enforcement and requires agencies to rescind regulations that are inconsistent with laws passed by Congress. To pursue these goals, the EO requires agencies to coordinate with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) by providing OMB, within 60 days, with a list of regulations that are: • Unconstitutional or raise “serious constitutional difficulties.”

• Based on unlawful… Read More

Filing politically motivated lawsuits against opponents is a troubling trend that undermines our democratic processes. Whether you support President-Donald Trump or not, the use of our courts to discredit, distract, and obstruct a political figure is unprecedented in modern U.S. history. This weaponization of the legal system, commonly referred to as “lawfare,” is now being mirrored at the local level here in Orange County, where retired federal bankruptcy Judge Lynn Riddle, a liberal Democrat, has taken aim at elected County Board of Education Member Mari Barke, a conservative Republican, by filing a civil lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court asking Barke comply with California’s political financial disclosure laws and seeking monetary damages that Riddle herself will collect if she prevails.

Riddle’s lawsuit is a glaring example of lawfare—a strategic abuse of the legal system to settle political scores. As a former judge, Riddle should understand the importance of preserving the courts for legitimate grievances, not personal or political vendettas. Her actions are not just disappointing, they’re dangerous.

In this case,… Read More

DEI, an abbreviation standing for “diversity, equity and inclusion” is, according to those who promote it, a program to “institutionalize” and “promote” the “fair treatment and full participation” of traditionally “underrepresented groups.” It seeks to find “underrepresented” groups, set up programs to specifically recruit potential employees from these groups, and when it comes to government services, these programs attempt to “identify unique concerns” of these groups and tailor the administration of the government programs to address these “unique concerns.”

The groups are usually identified by their racial background, that is, African American, Hispanic, Native American or Asian and Pacific Islander or by the sexual orientation of the groups. Sometimes these groups are further segmented by racial background and sexual orientation (gay or lesbian African Americans as an example), and the programs of recruitment or service delivery are further segmented and “tailored” thus delivering a different program or service to these segmented populations than others… Read More