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The cheap politics of acknowledgment: Joondeph’s case against Denver’s plan
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American Thinker, Approved, Commentary, Local

The cheap politics of acknowledgment: Joondeph’s case against Denver’s plan

By Brian C. Joondeph | Commentary, American Thinker Not long ago, I attended a Sunday service at a Methodist church in Denver. Before the service began, the pastor introduced herself, shared her preferred pronouns, and informed the congregation that we were worshipping on stolen Native American land. I remember wondering why, if the land had truly been stolen, the church still owned it. I wrote about it on these pages.  Now Denver’s City Council wants to add another public ritual to official meetings. Not a prayer. Not the Pledge of Allegiance. Not even a moment of silence. A labor acknowledgment recognizing slavery and its legacy. Image created by ChatGPT The proposal is curious for one obvious reason. Colorado ent...
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The stopwatch has no ideology: Why biology defines women’s sports
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Uncategorized, American Thinker, Approved, Commentary, National

The stopwatch has no ideology: Why biology defines women’s sports

By Brian C. Joondeph | Commentary, American Thinker On July 16, 1988, Florence Griffith-Joyner sprinted 100 meters in 10.49 seconds at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. Nearly four decades later, no woman has run faster. But ... On July 16, 1988, Florence Griffith-Joyner sprinted 100 meters in 10.49 seconds at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. Nearly four decades later, no woman has run faster, and her world record still stands. Her 200-meter record, set at the Seoul Olympics later that year, has also stood for almost forty years. Flo-Jo remains the fastest woman who has ever lived. Yet her 100-meter record has repeatedly been surpassed by American high school boys. The current U.S. high school boys’ record is 9.92 secon...
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America First promised fewer wars. Iran is testing that promise
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American Thinker, Approved, Commentary, National

America First promised fewer wars. Iran is testing that promise

By Brian Joondeph | Commentary, American Thinker Five months into the Iran conflict, supporters are asking whether America First still means fewer wars. One of President Donald Trump’s defining campaign themes was refreshingly simple: America should stop fighting endless wars. He repeated that message across three presidential campaigns. Iraq was a mistake. Afghanistan became a twenty-year quagmire. America had spent trillions of dollars, sacrificed thousands of lives, and, too often, had little to show for it beyond instability and nation-building projects that rarely fulfilled their promises. During a 2016 presidential debate, Trump called the Iraq War “a big fat mistake.” Eight years later, while campaigning for a return to the White House, he promi...
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The cost of asking Americans to simply “Trust us”
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American Thinker, Approved, Commentary, National

The cost of asking Americans to simply “Trust us”

By Brian C. Joondeph | Commentary, American Thinker Public confidence collapsed not because Americans asked too many questions, but because too many went unanswered. Science has never required blind faith. Quite the opposite. Science advances by asking difficult questions, testing uncomfortable hypotheses, challenging accepted wisdom, and enabling independent investigators to examine the evidence. Authority alone has never been enough. That is why every scientific paper includes a Materials and Methods section. The goal isn’t merely to announce conclusions. It is to provide enough information for others to reproduce the work, validate the findings, or identify errors. That’s how science earns trust. COVID changed that. Too often, Americans were simply tol...
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Who watches the watchers? Why surveillance technology needs stronger oversight, not less
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American Thinker, Approved, Commentary, National

Who watches the watchers? Why surveillance technology needs stronger oversight, not less

By Brian Joondeph | Commentary, American Thinker Trust is important. Verification is essential. More than 2,000 years ago, the Roman poet Juvenal posed a timeless question: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? — “Who will guard the guards themselves?” or “Who watches the watchers?” The Romans could never have imagined artificial intelligence, facial recognition, or nationwide networks of automated license-plate readers. Yet their question may be even more relevant today than it was three millennia ago. Recent debate over Flock Safety cameras illustrates why. The cameras have become an invaluable law enforcement tool. A stolen vehicle that crosses several jurisdictions can now be identified in minutes rather than days. An abducted child can sometimes be located be...
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How government fueled a nation of conspiracy theorists
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American Thinker, Approved, Commentary, National

How government fueled a nation of conspiracy theorists

By Brian C. Joondeph | Commentary, American Thinker They didn’t just lose the narrative. They lost the country. Five years ago, suggesting that COVID-19 may have originated in a laboratory rather than a wet market could earn someone the label “conspiracy theorist.”  Discussing vaccine injuries could result in a post being removed from social media. Questioning prolonged school closures, forced masking, or vaccine mandates often led to accusations of being “anti-science.” Today, many of those once-forbidden discussions have become part of public debate. That doesn’t mean every alternative theory is correct. But it raises an important question. What happens when institutions repeatedly assure the public that they are unquestionably right, only to revise, retreat,...
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The American Dream is slipping away and socialism is filling the gap
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American Thinker, Approved, Commentary, National

The American Dream is slipping away and socialism is filling the gap

By Brian C. Joondeph | Commentary, American Thinker Not long ago, the American Dream followed a familiar script. Graduate from school, find a job, buy a modest home, start a family, and gradually build a better life than the generation before you. For many young Americans today, that script increasingly feels like historical fiction. A recent survey from Rasmussen Reports reveals a striking generational divide: younger Americans are far more likely than older voters to view socialism favorably. According to the survey, 44 percent of voters under 40 believe socialism is a better system, compared with only 12 percent of older Americans. Recent election results in New York City confirm Rasmussen’s findings.  For Americans who grew up during the Cold War — or ...
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From imminent threat to no threat: Why the Iran narrative suddenly changed
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American Thinker, Approved, Commentary, National

From imminent threat to no threat: Why the Iran narrative suddenly changed

By Brian C. Joondeph | Commentary, American Thinker Not long ago, Iran was described as an imminent threat. Now we are told it wasn’t a threat at all. What changed? Not the facts. The politics. That shift is playing out in real time as the narrative around the Iran war evolves. A recent Rasmussen Reports poll found that a majority of likely U.S. voters believe the conflict has been successful so far. Under normal circumstances, that would invite a sober reassessment. Instead, it has produced something closer to denial. From the beginning, critics warned that confronting Iran would spark chaos across the Middle East, destabilize global markets, and drag the United States into another endless quagmire. Many insisted there was no urgent threat requiring acti...
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Two obituaries, two standards: How media framing shapes the legacy of controversial figures
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American Thinker, Approved, Commentary, National

Two obituaries, two standards: How media framing shapes the legacy of controversial figures

By Brian C. Joondeph | Commentary, American Thinker How corporate media soften tyrants abroad while sharpening labels at home. Death is supposed to clarify a life, not distort it. Obituaries are meant to record history, not rewrite it. But in today’s corporate media, even death cannot escape ideological spin. Consider the recent coverage of Ayatollah Ali Khameini, Iran’s Supreme Leader for more than three decades.  In the Washington Post, readers were introduced to a man with a “bushy white beard and easy smile,” an “avuncular figure” fond of Persian poetry and Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. Some acquaintances described him as a “closet moderate.” A closet moderate? That description might surprise the regime’s political prisoners — ...
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Blizzard of contradictions: Colorado headlines spark climate credibility questions
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American Thinker, Approved, Commentary, State

Blizzard of contradictions: Colorado headlines spark climate credibility questions

By Brian C. Joondeph | Commentary, American Thinker Open the Denver Post and you might experience intellectual whiplash. In one article, readers are warned that Colorado ski resorts face an uncertain future due to climate change, with “less reliable powder days” threatening the industry. Resorts must invest in snowmaking, diversify revenue streams, and brace for a warming planet. Right beside it? A forecast of more than two feet of snow for Colorado’s mountain peaks. Two feet. Screenshot The Denver Post February 16, 2026 // fair use Apparently, the climate crisis is now capable of producing both the imminent demise of snow and an old-fashioned Rocky Mountain blizzard. Sometimes on the same page. This is not satire. It’s modern ...
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