In 2006, a few days before Christmas, doctors announced my wife had six months to live. She had, they said, a rare form of cancer that had spread to her lungs. There was really nothing that could be done. We had a one-year-old and I had been told my job was coming to an end the same day of the diagnosis. Thankfully, it was a misdiagnosis. Not only did I keep my job, but I kept my wife.

Ten years later, doctors informed my wife they suspected she had a genetic form of lung cancer. Had my wife not been misdiagnosed in 2006, they would not have known about her lung cancer in 2016. My wife has stage four lung cancer. It is genetic. There is no cure. Nine years ago, she was given two years to live. She is still here.

Thankfulness can be a very abstract concept. We are grateful for things. We are thankful for things. We thank people. Often our gratitude comes from random events, seeming accidents and happy coincidences. We don’t often think about a man upstairs guiding our lives, let alone history. Things happen. We are thankful for dodging bullets, unanswered prayers, answered prayers and the kindnesses of random strangers, family and friends.

As we become more successful in life, it is often harder to be thankful for small things. Small things loom large when we are small, starting our career before life explodes into family, debt, career, success and income. Then, many of the acts of kindness, gratitude and thankfulness shrink. A twenty-dollar bill is immeasurably larger and a great act of kindness to a struggling twenty-something than to a well-off forty-something. But it is still an act of kindness. The thankfulness just changes based on where one is in life.

Two months ago, my wife fell down the stairs on the way out to church. She broke her foot. She has been healing from the break only to get hospitalized with an illness. The week after she got out of the hospital, my father got put into the hospital. I am thankful for my sisters who live closer to my parents than me who could tend to them while I tend to my wife. I am thankful for the doctors and the offers of help. I am way more thankful as I get older for the prayers of others than when I was young.

“I’ll pray” is as much a Southernism as “bless your heart” and asking how someone is when you really are not interested in the answer. It is what you say, but it’s not necessarily what you mean. I say it when I mean it, and I am more appreciative as I get older when people really do it. This last month has been a whirlwind for family health, work, professional growth and setbacks. The friend’s casserole or the neighbor covering dinner is far less meaningful now than their heartfelt prayers.

Thankfully for all of them, the sacrifice of time to make room in prayers for other people than self is what I am more thankful for as I age.

We live in extraordinary and bizarre times. We have, right now, as you read this, a robot roaming Mars and a massive telescope in space beaming back incredible images of the edge of space. Online and on television, we have clowns performing for our attention, votes, support, opposition or clicks. Sorting through it all can generate anxiety and a desire to unplug from it all. Why tune in when it is more pleasant to tune out and not think about things? But thinking and engaging is a civic and necessary virtue.

When we do, we should at least consider the small things for which we are thankful, from the small acts of kindness to the random events that just happen. I am thankful for the surprises in life that make me appreciate life still with my wife. In these overwhelming and extraordinary times, do not fail to be thankful. There is still so much to be thankful for.

COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

The post There Is So Much to Be Thankful For appeared first on The Daily Signal.

West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey (R) is demanding a "comprehensive investigation" into an Afghan national, brought to the United States by the Biden administration, who is accused of leaving two National Guardsmen in critical condition following a shooting in Washington, DC.

The post Gov. Patrick Morrisey Demands ‘Comprehensive Investigation’ into Afghan National Shooting 2 National Guardsmen appeared first on Breitbart.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Thursday prosecutors will seek the death penalty against the man accused of attacking two National Guardsmen shot in the nation's capital the day before Thanksgiving.

The post VIDEO — Bondi: Prosecutors Will Seek Death Penalty Against ‘Monster’ in National Guard Shooting appeared first on Breitbart.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is my new hero. Duffy is promoting a “civility” campaign that urges passengers to be polite and dress up rather than wear sweatpants and slippers when they fly. If everyone dresses better, everyone will behave better, Duffy offered.

It’s an idea that could bring smiles to the friendly skies around the Thanksgiving holiday.

During a press conference at Newark Liberty International Airport Monday, Duffy was wearing a suit and red tie. This was an outfit that answered the question: What would President Donald Trump wear?

The good news: Duffy did not propose a business-attire dress code that would be enforced on board.

Duffy ticked through the litany of air travel woes—long lines, brawls at baggage claim, flight delays and cancellations often due to bad weather—that have resulted in an uptick in incivility.

According to the Department of Transportation, there has been a 400% increase in outbursts on planes since 2019. Clearly, the flying public has been getting surly.

One in five flight attendants report experiencing physical incidents on the job.

There’s no law Congress can pass to make people behave more courteously, Duffy acknowledged, but maybe dressing up will encourage fliers to act more adult.

Duffy offered commonsense advice, which he noted most people already observe.

Don’t take your shoes off.

If you’re watching a movie, wear headphones.

Say please and thank you.

Because lines will be longer, “Come a little early.”

Passengers who give themselves more time are more likely to arrive at their destinations with a good attitude, Duffy added.

Confession time: I love to fly. I love going places. I love coming home.

I love people watching in airports. I love to see what people are wearing.

In the terminal, I eavesdrop shamelessly. It’s one of my favorite things about travel.

Sadly, too much of the chatter in airports these days is about how awful flying is, how irksome the airlines have become and how infuriating people find nightmarish cancellations and even minor delays.

And yet, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the percentage of Americans who fly keeps expanding.

In 1971, fewer than half of Americans had ever flown, and only 1 in 5 had flown in the last year. In 2023, fewer than half had flown in the last year, and while 85% of Americans had flown in their lifetimes.

It seems the more people fly, the less of an occasion flying becomes.

I don’t wear cocktail dresses when I fly, but I try to dress well and comfortably. Duffy’s crusade tells me that I can do better.

At the Newark presser, FAA administrator Bryan Bedford took pride when he said, “This week is our Super Bowl.“

(Not that passengers should act like they’re at the Super Bowl.)

The government, Bedford cautioned, will not hesitate to use its enforcement authority for those who break rules.

I’ve seen how that works. Many years ago when there was shuttle service between Washington, New York and Boston, I was on a flight that ended with a fellow passenger being walked off the plane in handcuffs. There was a $10 dispute, and he would not pay his full fare on the credit card trolley, which was the standard way to pay on that shuttle.

I can only imagine what his legal bills were. He probably didn’t realize that passengers don’t have the same rights on a plane that they enjoy on a sidewalk.

So there is one advantage to all those viral videos of air rage episodes: They end with the consequences.

COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

The post The Flying Public Is Getting Surly. Don’t Let It Ruin Thanksgiving appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The suppressor market is experiencing its most significant period of innovation since it went mainstream among civilian shooters. After decades of incremental improvements, manufacturers are finally addressing fundamental design constraints that have limited suppressor performance, weight, and versatility. The trends emerging for 2026 represent a genuine shift in how suppressors are engineered, manufactured, and used ... Read more

The post Suppressor Tech Trends 2026: Materials, Mounts, and Modular Designs appeared first on The Truth About Guns.

REUTERS—From battlefields in Afghanistan to a scenic home in the Pacific Northwest, Rahmanullah Lakanwal had followed a promising path before Wednesday, when U.S. authorities say he shot two National Guard soldiers blocks from the White House.

Lakanwal, 29, drove across the country from his home in the state of Washington, said Jeanine Pirro, U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., at a news conference on Thursday. He lived in Bellingham, a coastal city near Canada’s border, with his wife and five children.

Pirro said he ambushed the two National Guardsmen on Wednesday as they patrolled near the White House. Armed with a powerful handgun, a .357 Magnum, he shot one Guardsman who fell, and then shot them again, before firing multiple times at the second Guardsman, Pirro added.

Lakanwal was wounded in an exchange of gunfire with other Guardsmen before he was arrested and taken to hospital, where he remains under heavy guard. The authorities have not given an update on his condition or a motive for the attack.

Pirro said Lakanwal faces three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed and a charge of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence.

He will also be charged with murder in the first degree if the Guardsmen, who are currently in critical condition, do not survive their injuries, she said.

Earlier on Thursday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News the U.S. government plans to bring terrorism charges against Lakanwal and seek a sentence of life in prison “at a minimum.”

Lakanwal entered the U.S. in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden-era immigration program to resettle thousands of Afghans who helped the U.S. during the war and feared reprisal from Taliban forces who seized control after the U.S. withdrawal. More than 70,000 Afghans have been resettled in the U.S. under the program.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have confirmed that he worked with U.S. partner forces in Afghanistan, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.

Pirro and Patel blamed the Biden administration for improperly vetting Lakanwal.

According to a federal law enforcement dossier seen by Reuters, Lakanwal applied for asylum in December 2024 and was approved on April 23, three months after Trump took office.

Lakanwal had no known criminal history, according to the dossier. He had no documented record of traveling in or out of the U.S. since his arrival in 2021, and he had imported a shipment of household goods from Afghanistan in February.

After working through Wednesday night, investigators seized cellphones, laptops, iPads, and other electronic devices from his house in Washington state, according to Patel.

(Reporting by Julia Harte and Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Nia Williams)

The post What We Know About Afghan National Suspected of Shooting Two Guardsmen Near White House appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The far-left Nation used the Thanksgiving holiday to recast the Pilgrims and Puritans as “radical Protestant doomsday groups” whose “cultish” ideology, it argues, “became the foundation of American culture,” urging Americans to treat the day as “as good a time as any to begin coming to terms with the country’s radical cultish origins.”

The post Far‑Left Nation Mag Trashes Thanksgiving: Says Pilgrims Were ‘Doomsday Cultists’ — ‘Time to Reckon America’s Radical Origins’ appeared first on Breitbart.