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The Lighthouse®

The Lighthouse® is the weekly email newsletter of the Independent Institute.
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Volume 24, Issue 46: November 24, 2021

By Victor Davis Hanson (American Greatness)
The Washington, D.C.-based Federal Bureau of Investigation has lost all credibility as a disinterested investigatory agency. Now we learn from a whistleblower that the agency was allegedly investigating moms and dads worried about the teaching of critical race theory in their kids’ schools. In truth, since 2015, the FBI has been constantly in the news—and mostly in a negative and constitutionally disturbing light. READ MORE »



By Adam B. Summers (The Orange County Register)
November marks National Homeless Awareness Month. The issue is certainly top-of-mind in California, where homelessness ranks among the top problems facing the state in opinion polls, and the topic featured prominently in the recent gubernatorial recall election. Californians make up 12 percent of the nation’s population but account for 27 percent of the country’s homeless, 41 percent of those experiencing chronic homelessness, and 53 percent of the unsheltered homeless. Given these sobering statistics, Californians may be surprised to learn that while homelessness has increased by more than 30 percent in the Golden State over the past decade, it has actually decreased by nearly 9 percent nationwide. Something is amiss with California’s approach, but it certainly isn’t a lack of money. READ MORE »



By Kevin Mooney (RealClearEnergy)
When former President Barack Obama says “We are nowhere near where we need to be” in terms of climate change, he’s not talking about reducing carbon-dioxide emissions. The stated goals of the U.N. Paris Agreement that Obama, and other world leaders, embrace are properly viewed as a proxy for a larger agenda aimed at dismantling American independence and freedom. READ MORE »



By K. Lloyd Billingsley (American Greatness)
Governor Gavin Newsom’s November 10 executive order extends California’s state of emergency until the end of March 2022, as Katy Grimes of the California Globe reports, making the “emergency” effective for a total of more than two years. “Winter is coming, winter is here,” Newsom told a California Forward conference in Monterey, “COVID is not taking the winter off.” Newsom told the conference the winter surge is his “biggest anxiety” and that other states, like countries with colder weather, are already in trouble. Embattled Americans have good cause to wonder about that. READ MORE »



By John C. Goodman (Townhall)
When Joe Biden claimed that his “Build Back Better Agenda costs zero dollars,” the Washington Post gave him Two Pinocchios. Yet if you get your news from the New York Times’ editorial page or from CNN or MSNBC, you might be inclined to agree with Biden. In fact, one definition of a liberal is someone who sees the benefits in every progressive program, but ignores the cost of all of them. What follows is a brief summary of some of the worst examples of this blindness. READ MORE »



By Richard K. Vedder (Forbes)
For all its problems and inefficiencies, American higher education is good, even exceptional, largely because of its structural diversity. Unlike most nations, America has thousands of largely autonomous institutions promoting higher education in thousands of at least slightly different ways. Many nations do not even have a significant private education sector. In America, you can attend a religiously oriented school, schools celebrating wokeness in its many manifestations, institutions that are left-leaning or right-leaning, colleges that are all-male or all-female or predominantly African-American. Vive la différence! as the French say. READ MORE »





  • Catalyst
  • Beyond Homeless
  • MyGovCost.org
  • FDAReview.org
  • OnPower.org
  • elindependent.org