X + Y

by Shawn K. Inlow Last Tuesday, July 22, 2025, Elizabeth Elkind of Fox News Digital had perhaps the most authoritative reporting on the story of the day.  You just might never have read it by the way it was laid out. You might be shocked to hear me tossing kudos to Ms. Elkind since you know how I feel about Fox News' cable channel:  23 parts opinion to 1 part news.  But we are after the facts at explusy.blogspot.com.  And if you've been tagging along, then you know we've reduced the equation to Sources + Credibility + Evidence = Critical Thinking. I was threatening in last week's thrilling episode on Evidence to go from the hypothetical to the real world by examining the first major news story that came along.  That story happened to revolve around how the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, R-Mississippi, adjourned the house for summer break rather than be forced to vote on the release of the secret investigative files of the late multi-mill...

The Truth of the Matter - Evidence by Shawn K. Inlow I must apologize to the class.  I've been away for almost a month.  Truth be told, I had a few construction projects going on around the ranch, and, at long last - today - Penelec finally put in our bi-directional meter, allowing our solar array to provide power back to the grid. I talk about that in a column called "Don't Talk About It, Be About It"  over on my site at www.cultureandcriticism.com.  Sidenote: it is FUN to watch your meter run backwards. I hope you all didn't abuse the substitute while I was away.  Let's open up our textbooks and review chapters one and two.  It might be advisable to open up both the following stories in other tabs so you can compare them, since we've been away so long. We've been doing a series here on X+Y called "The Truth of the Matter."  We're after the facts, friends, and they're slippery little shits these days.  The goal is to get everyone tr...