Here are my observations and opinions on the news of the day.

MISPLACED CONCERN – Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace reported that the pending tariffs on steel and aluminum was going to be devastating to Americans considering the purchase of a new car. The cost to consumers would be $3 billion based on 17 million cars sold, he exclaimed; a meaningless figure to the average person.

I could hardly hold back laughter when he voiced concern that $175 would be added to the average $30,000 automobile. When you consider that the average car purchase is made over a 64-month period, that puts the increase at just $2.73 a month.

Wallace is simply out of touch with reality. The average American spends $232 a month eating out for heaven’s sake, and 30 million people are expected to lay out about $1,300 for an Apple iPhone X this quarter. And, I would remind Wallace that some 500,000 individuals were willing to plop down $1,000 just to get on the waiting list for a new Tesla.

I wonder if Wallace is concerned about beer sales. The tariff on aluminum could result in a whopping six-cent hike for a six-pack.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m no expert on trade and tariffs, but I do agree with the president that we need to be playing on a level playing field.

AN FBI-FISA FIX? – I’ve been giving considerable thought to the FISA court. Surely, you’ve heard about the phony anti-Trump dossier fabricated by the former Brit spy Christopher Steele.

We know now that the FBI used the dossier to convince a FISA judge to approve surveillance of Trump associates. The FBI not only knew the content of the dossier was untrue, they failed to reveal to the judge that the Clinton campaign and the DNC paid for the development of the dossier.

Now put yourself in the shoes of the FISA judge, having since learned from Congressional testimony and media accounts that you had been duped by that FBI flawed application. Can you imagine not blowing the whistle on the FBI, knowing that fellow Americans were unlawfully surveilled because you were a political pawn?

This may be included in Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s soon to be released investigative report, but the failure of the judges to reveal the fact that the FBI omitted vital information from the application could possibly lead one to believe that the FISA judge(s), too, were part of the deep state effort to bring down the Trump presidency.

I am not one of those black helicopter conspiracy nuts, but with all that we have witnessed in Washington D.C., you have to agree that it isn’t hard to imagine the above scenario.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD THE NRA OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY – While Democrats are quick to say Republicans are in the pocket of the NRA, they would rather people not realize that Planned Parenthood funding of Democrat campaigns is much greater. PP contributed $30 million plus in 2016 to promote Hillary Clinton’s bid to defeat Donald Trump.

And, as Michael Graham recently pointed out in The Federalist, there’s a glaring difference between the NRA and PP: “The NRA doesn’t get $500 million a year in government funding.”

THE CONFISCATING OF GUNS CONCERN – Many gun control activists tout the Australian gun confiscation program as a means for ridding the populace of guns. During her campaign, Hillary Clinton suggested it was “worth looking at.”

While most 2^nd Amendment advocates don’t seriously worry about the government confiscating their guns, a friend recently reminded me of an attempt to confiscate firearms in our history.

On December 29, 1890, federal agents and members of the 7^th Cavalry converged on the Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee Creek to confiscate their firearms “for their own safety and protection.” Nearly 300 Indians, mostly women and children, were killed.

Though the 2^nd Amendment was ratified in 1791, supporters cite the event at Wounded Knee as a reason our right to bear arms must be protected.

“Why does the Left keep losing the gun debate? Because it’s hard to persuade any man or woman to surrender an unalienable right – especially when exercising that right helps preserve the most vital right of all, the right to live.” – David French, National Review

GIVING UP CARBON FOR LENT – In this period when many Christians give up a luxury item, friends often share what they are giving up. While I heard a TV anchor say she had given up alcoholic drinks, a golf buddy jokingly said he was giving up single-malt Scotch.

The Michigan Interfaith Power and Light organization, however, is encouraging Christians to reduce activities that contribute to global warming. “We propose a Lenten Carbon Fest,” said the group’s director Leah Wiste. “We’ve created a calendar that suggests one activity each day that folks can do in order to reduce their ecological footprint.”

The calendar offers such recommendations as using LED light bulbs, eating local food rather than food shipped long distances, forgoing hot water, and driving slower.

THE FLAKE IS AT IT AGAIN – Trying to remain relevant as he closes his career in the Senate, Sen. Jeff Flake (RINO-AZ), recently appeared on CNN with former Obama strategist David Axelrod. He has no compunction to denigrate President Trump as he is used by the anti-Trump media.

“What’s perhaps the most pathetic part of this interview is the part that’s obvious to everyone. Everyone except Jeff Flake,” writes Bre Payton in The Federalist. Members of the media and Democratic operatives, which in David Axelrod’s case, are one in the same, are clearly using Flake to further their own purposes. These purposes are ones that do not help further the cause of conservatism.

“Axelrod and others aren’t actually interested in Flake because they think he is relevant. They are pretending his book and his self-important soliloquies are newsworthy precisely because they aren’t,” said Payton, “Jeff Flake is not the voice of conservatism, nor is he the guy to rally principled Americans…”

I WAS DISAPPOINTED to learn that the voice of Verne Lundquist, who for years was the television voice of the NCAA basketball tournament, will be silenced in the upcoming tourney. Lundquist, who underwent back surgery in November, told CBS he couldn’t call four games in a day.  Most sports enthusiasts have favorites who they like in each of the sports.  I admire the way Lundquist calls basketball.  I wish CBS would have found a way for him to call at least one or two games in a single day.