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Canada Didn’t Scream—It Just Stopped Spending in America

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 How a quiet boycott exposed America’s new vulnerability—and why ski resorts were the first to feel it The boycott you don’t notice is the one that works Canada didn’t rage. There were no burning flags. No viral protest videos. No dramatic speeches about sovereignty. No threats of retaliation echoing through parliament halls. Instead, Canadians did something far more effective. They stopped booking. They didn’t cancel trade. They didn’t close borders. They didn’t announce sanctions. They simply chose not to spend discretionary money in the United States. Quietly. Calmly. In a way that doesn’t show up on highways or at border crossings—but does show up on balance sheets. And the first places to feel it weren’t factories or ports. They were ski resorts. Why ski resorts are always the first casualty Ski resorts live on optional money. Nobody needs a ski holiday. Nobody has to renew a season pass. And nobody is locked into American mountains when Canada has plenty of snow, slopes, and ...
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Palestine on Our Tongues, Biharis in Our Blind Spot | Pakistan’s Moral Contradiction

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 Pakistanis speak passionately about Palestine. The language is moral, historical, and emotional. Displacement is condemned. Occupation is rejected. The right of return is treated as sacred. Yet there is another displaced Muslim community, far closer to our own history, that barely enters our national conversation: the Bihari Muslims stranded after 1971. This contrast raises an unavoidable question. Is our solidarity universal, or is it selective? Who Were the Bihari Muslims? The Bihari Muslims were Urdu-speaking migrants from India who, after 1947, moved to what was then East Pakistan. Many did so out of loyalty to the idea of Pakistan and its promise of Muslim political security. When the civil war of 1971 led to the creation of Bangladesh, Biharis were viewed as collaborators with the Pakistani state. Thousands were killed. Many more were pushed into camps. Their citizenship status became disputed overnight. For decades, large numbers of them lived in statelessness. Some were la...
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Cyrus the Great and the Jewish Return to Zion: History Before Balfour

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 In 539 BCE, the most powerful man on earth was Cyrus the Great, King of Persia. He ruled the largest empire the world had yet seen, stretching from Central Asia to the Mediterranean. When his armies entered Babylon, they inherited not just a city, but a system built on conquest, exile, and cultural erasure. Among Babylon’s captive populations were the Jews of Judea, forcibly exiled decades earlier after the destruction of Jerusalem and the First Temple. What conquerors usually did next was predictable. Deportations. Forced assimilation. Identity wiped clean. Cyrus did the opposite. He ordered the return of displaced peoples to their ancestral homelands and the restoration of their religious sanctuaries. For the Jews, this meant permission to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their Temple. The policy was announced publicly and confirmed in writing. It was not symbolic. It was logistical, protected, and funded. This return became known in Jewish memory as Shivat Zion — the Return to Z...
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When Pork in School Cafeterias Becomes a Culture War

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 When Pork Becomes a Loyalty Test Every few months, the same question resurfaces. It sounds harmless. Almost administrative. Should pork be removed from school cafeterias out of consideration for Muslims? The answers arrive fast. Angry. Absolutist. Louder than the question deserves. What is striking is not the conclusion. Most people say no. What matters is why they say no, and what else sneaks into the conversation along the way. Because this is not really about pork. It never is. A Policy That Barely Exists Let’s begin with a simple fact that rarely appears in these debates. USDA – School Meals and Special Dietary Needs https://www.usda.gov/food-and-nutrition/national-school-lunch-program/special-dietary-needs There is no widespread movement in the United States or the UK demanding the removal of pork from public school cafeterias. No national Muslim council. No coordinated campaign. No policy proposal moving through legislatures. Most Muslim families already manage dietary restr...
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America’s Secular Constitution Isn’t Anti-Faith. It’s Why Faith Survives Here

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 By the grace of God we always will be a Christian Nation.” One sentence. That’s all it took to light a match under America’s long-simmering anxiety. Some heard reassurance. Others heard exclusion. A few heard a warning bell. What followed—across Facebook threads, comment sections, and cable panels—wasn’t really a debate about Jesus or Christianity. It was a fight over something far more fundamental. Power. As someone who loves America precisely because of its secular Constitution, I find this moment revealing. Not because faith suddenly appeared in public life—it never left—but because the country seems confused about what faith is protected by and what faith is endangered by. Faith shaped America. The Constitution protected it. Let’s clear the fog. Yes, religion—largely Christian moral thought—shaped early American culture. The Founders referenced God, Providence, and a Creator. Churches were social anchors. Biblical language was common. None of that is controversial. What is oft...
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America Isn’t Leaving the World. It’s Arguing With the Idea of It.

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 A viral post circulating on Facebook claims that the United States is preparing to withdraw from all international organizations, including NATO and the Paris Climate Agreement. The language is dramatic. The implications sound historic. The evidence, however, is thin. There is no executive order. No Congressional vote. No official statement from the White House or the State Department. Yet the post exploded. Not because it was confirmed, but because it resonated. That reaction, not the claim itself, is the real story. The rumor matters less than the mood behind it The post uses familiar social-media phrasing. “Reportedly.” “Could be.” “Historic shift.” This is not how policy exits actually happen. Withdrawing from international treaties and alliances is slow, legalistic, and often contested in courts and Congress. It is paperwork, not performance. But the comment section tells a different tale. Thousands applauded the idea. They framed withdrawal as “sovereignty,” “strength,” and ...
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America’s Immigration Problem Isn’t the Border. It’s the Employers

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 In the United States, immigration enforcement is often presented as a battle over borders. Images of handcuffed workers dominate headlines. Raids are framed as restoring order. But the question most Americans are not encouraged to ask is simpler and more uncomfortable: why does enforcement almost always stop at the worker and rarely reach the employer who hired them? This gap is not accidental. It is structural. Undocumented labor did not appear spontaneously. It exists because American businesses demand it, benefit from it, and in many cases quietly depend on it. From agriculture and construction to hospitality and food processing, entire sectors rely on workers who have little leverage, limited legal protection, and few alternatives. Enforcement that ignores this reality does not solve a problem. It preserves it. What the Law Actually Says Under U.S. federal law, employers are prohibited from knowingly hiring undocumented workers. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 e...
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