Blog - Hugh Hewitt

Tuesday, December 9, 2025

Politics, particularly for a nation as wealthy and well-situated as ours, is often more about opinion and personality than it is about capability and good, better, best.  When a nation struggles it needs people that do the job well, when times are basically good, things get silly.  It is not unlike picking the teams for the college football playoffs where there are a lot of teams arguably better than the ones that got in.  Things other than football ability are involved.  But there is one indisputable fact about the CFP – Indiana University beat Ohio State for the Big Ten Championship, earning the number one seed in the tournament along with the conference championship – much to the host’s chagrin.  But back to our politics of government, not football.  Three recent stories tell an interesting tale.. . .

Monday, December 8, 2025

According to the IAEA, the confinement system at Chernobyl no longer functions properly.  Unfortunately, all the reporting I have seen gives no numbers so that it could be determined just how significant the issues are.  The press release from the IAEA on which all this reporting is based does not give any numbers either.  One does not know whether to be terrified or cynical.  One should; however, be overjoyed that Indiana University (previously considered a football doormat) beat Ohio State for the Big Ten football championship Saturday night just past – much to the host’s chagrin.. . .

Sunday, December 7, 2025

I have been a regular listener to the Hugh Hewitt Show since 2001.  That’s a long time to endure the host’s unfailing, loud and unbearable braggadocio regarding the college football team that plays in Columbus, OH.  The host has not lived in Ohio for his entire adult life, just as I have not lived in the place I grew up – Indiana – for my entire adult life.  My connections to the state of my rearing remain as strong as his.  Therefore it brings me great joy, happiness (and no small amount of return fire) to announce that last night INDIANA UNIVERSITY, BEAT OHIO STATE – solidly – FOR THE BIG TEN FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP.  (It was routine in basketball for many years, but not football.)  The Cleveland newspapers and Sports Illustrated are noting just how good IU actually is.  This might just get mentioned in every post moving forward for a while – but on to serious business.. . .

Saturday, December 6, 2025

New article from the increasingly valuable The Free Press excerpts a book that makes the very strong case that the digitization of the classroom is harming student performance – immensely.  The data presented in the excerpt is strong and this make intuitive sense to me.  People learn tactilely and computers rob them of that experience.  Sure it’s cheaper, less messy and less yucky to run a dissection simulation on a computer, but that same student, when confronted with an actual frog carcass might not have a clue how to proceed, despite having gotten a “A” with the simulation. – the simulation is just not that good.  But I think the problems with computers in the classroom run much deeper.. . .

Friday, December 5, 2025

Some years ago I told a friend that was very high on EVs that he could have my (multiple) V-8’s when he “could pry them from my cold, dead hands.”  Growing up in Indianapolis, IN – the center of the motorsports universe – my affection for the internal combustion engine runs deep.  It is about more than speed  it is about wrenches.  Today’s IC engines with their heavy computerization are bad enough, but at least you can still customize, power-add, tweak and fiddle.  With an EV, no such luck – they are a black box.  So it is with great joy that I note the news that the Trump administration has rescinded the ridiculous CAFE standards the Biden administration attempted to put into place and the Senate has voted to block California’s attempt to outlaw IC engine powered auto sales.. . .

Thursday, December 4, 2025

Two major stories are floating around right now that are extremely important, but not getting huge traction.  One is just how the National Guard shooter got in the country and what motivated him.  Lots of investigation and investigation angles.  The other is the breathtaking scandal erupting in Minnesota wherein Somali nationals have immigrated and are bilking the taxpayers out of enormous sums of money.  (None of the links just provided give a complete picture of these situations, just enough to make the point and to serve as a jumping off point for your own look into the problem.)  There is a tendency to want to assign malfeasance to these situations – and there certainly was in the actors proper – but it would require a very large scale conspiracy (in other words an impossible one) for the government actions, or inactions, in these circumstances to be anything other than incompetence – sheer bureaucratic and leadership incompetence.. . .

Wednesday, December 3, 2025

So, the GOP held the 7th district Tennessee special election, preserving its narrow margin in the House.  The reporting is fascinating.  Fox, “With some votes still being counted, Van Epps was headed towards a nine-point victory.”  Mediaite, “Van Epps, a former Army helicopter pilot, secured Tennessee’s 7th District with barely 54% of the vote, defeating Behn in a district Trump carried by 22 points just last year. ”  One report – a decent victory, the other it was a very near thing.  Which was it?. . .

Tuesday, December 2, 2025

It’s funny how things work out.  What we think will never happen does and what we think should happen never materializes.  That’s one of the reasons the social engineering our government too often attempts these days is almost universally a bad idea.  We think we know how things will work out, but we are almost always wrong.  It’s like Dirty Harry said.. . .

Monday, December 1, 2025

We’re all old now, but some of us grew up in the golden age of manned space travel.  Mercury-Gemini-Apollo-Skylab-Space Shuttle are words intimately familiar to us.  It was ever so exciting and adventurous.  As a science geek, I was glued to the TV for every launch and recovery.  In second grade we had what passed in those days for a “portable” (bloack-and-white) TV and we dragged it to school where we spent the day watching John Glenn’s first orbital journey.  But then I got older and was told, much to my disappointment, that the world had higher priorities than space exploration.  My dreams of moon colonies and Mars mission were dashed.  Priorities…. . .

Sunday, November 30, 2025

Quite a fascinating article, by Peter Savodnik appeared in The Free Press yesterday about how many influential public intellectuals are “suddenly” finding faith.  It deserves comment on this First Sunday of Advent.. . .