My wife is a wonderful woman, but she has horrible taste in television. She, at times, will acknowledge this shortcoming as “guilty pleasures.”

One of her favorite streaming “programs” is the hospital drama “New Amsterdam.” It’s god-awful. More unreal than reality TV. This woke piece of soap opera pabulum is utterly unwatchable. Every once in a while, perhaps to punish me for crimes I am not aware I have committed, she will turn “New Amsterdam” on the bedroom TV before we go to sleep. When the latest overwrought episode mercifully comes to an end, I ask the love of my life the same two questions: Why do you hate me, and where do I go to get the last hour of my life back? 

At least it’s just an hour. 

In the Covid soap opera, the lockdowners, the “follow the science” preachers, took years from our lives on a foundation of bad science. Some of us knew that while we were in the throes of the endless Covid Red Alert; the rest are learning it these days from the same charlatans who ran the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. 

Testifying earlier this year in a closed-door interview before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, a transcript of which was released this week, former NIH Director Francis Collins confessed that the government’s sweeping social-distancing guidance wasn’t backed by the science we were all supposed to be following. 

‘I Did Not See Evidence’ 

On the face of it, it seems absurd. Why would people make decisions based on what they heard on an app affiliated with China’s Communist government?

Most people don’t view the phenomenon of TikTok influencers through that prism, yet that scenario aptly describes the choices made by millions of Americans each day. Above and beyond the question of whether the app should have anything to do with the Chinese government (and it shouldn’t) lie larger existential questions about the nature of 21st-century society.

Profligacy as Narcissism

A recent Wall Street Journal article examined the effects of TikTok on Americans under 30. The piece featured several disturbing quotes and examples of questionable financial behavior, based largely upon what so-called “influencers” do and say on social media:

One 20-something financial analyst said she uses a budgeting app “to be able to afford the things she feels she has to buy, like Lululemon leggings. ‘Between TikTok and having your friends around you, you’re pressured to buy the things because you want to fit in. … That’s always been the case, but with TikTok it’s more prominent.’” “Some 91% of Gen Zers say they have purchased something they saw on social media, according to a survey from Citizens Pay, a buy-now-pay later service.” “BreAunna Rodriguez, a 23-year-old mom of two in Houston, likes to buy TikTok-popular baby clothes and other small things for herself, including eyelash extensions, coconut oil mouthwash, and a pumice stone that influencers said reduces stretch marks. ‘It’s hard not

It appears the U.S. House of Representatives has entered an era of unprecedented bipartisan cooperation. Within the last month, a rare coalition of Democrats and Republicans voted to approve a rule to advance foreign aid to Ukraine and defeat a motion to vacate the chair and oust Speaker Mike Johnson from his office.

In the past, the Democrats have relished voting against the Republican House leadership while watching the corporate media blame “hard-right conservatives [for] throwing the House and its Republican leadership into chaos.”

With the recent votes, it is clear something has changed in the Democrats’ approach. It is doubtful, though, that the change includes supporting a more conservative agenda. So before getting too cozy with their new allies, House Republicans might find it instructive to learn a few lessons from the similarly bipartisan Texas House of Representatives.

Republicans have dominated Texas politics since 2003 when they took over the Texas House of Representatives. Since then, Republicans have held every statewide office and a majority in both houses of the Texas Legislature. Yet conservatives have often been frustrated over the lack of progress in enacting major Republican priorities.

One of those issues has been the state budget. Since 2003, spending of state funds has increased from $76.2 billion to a projected $233 billion, with spending up 42 percent over the last two years alone. In the 2023 legislative session, the frustration increased as a number of high-priority bills on issues such as school choice, tax cuts, border security, election