Democrats continue to double down and pander to the woke demographic whenever they see an opportunity.  These gestures are usually designed to virtue signal and rarely have any significance in terms of political change, however, leftists don’t necessarily pass laws or make declarations because a problem actually exists.  Rather, they do these things in order to encourage false perceptions within the populace.

In other words, equality has been a legal fact within the US for decades, but leftists want people to believe racism is a never-ending battle that requires their perpetual activism and government intervention.  The more they demand “equity”, the more division and conflict they end up inciting. 

Democrat Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro insists that racism is an ongoing problem in his state and he has taken bold action to fight back by passing the “CROWN Act”, a law which prohibits discrimination based on a person’s hairstyle, type or texture.

CROWN, which stands for “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair”, is clearly aimed at placating the black voting base for Democrats in PA and is unlikely to be applied to any other group. 

For example, black female managers wearing wigs and weaves and appropriating white women’s hair styles will never be accused of racism, but a white manager at Taco Bell who fires a black worker for not wearing a hair net properly will probably face civil litigation for discrimination.  Woke laws are meant to create privileges and double standards, not equal protections.  As Shapiro notes:

“Real freedom means being respected for who you are – no matter what you look like, where you come from, who you love, or who you pray to…For too long, many Pennsylvanians have faced discrimination simply for hairstyles that reflect their identity and culture – that ends today…”

“This is going to help people by making sure that, wherever you work, or wherever you’re applying for a job, they can’t look at your hair and size you up – not based on your qualifications and all of the professional development you have and all of your education,” said PA House Speaker Joanna McClinton. “They will not look at your hair and decide you can’t work here. They will not look at your hair and decide you don’t belong in this C-suite. They will not look at your hair and say, ‘you can’t be in the boardroom.’” 

U.S. Rep. La’Tasha D. Mayes, a West Philadelphia native who now represents parts of Pittsburgh, was the lead sponsor on the bill and said the fight will help improve lives across Pennsylvania.  “Hair discrimination has taken confidence from our children, but that ends today,” Mayes said. “Hair discrimination has taken dignity from workers, but that ends today. It has taken access to economic opportunities, hopes and dreams, but that begins to end today.”

First and foremost, no one has a constitutional right to be “respected” for who they are.  No one is entitled to protection from the personal judgments and scrutiny of others.  Respect is earned, not guaranteed. 

Second, there are no hair styles among black Americans that are race specific.  Every style activists claim as racial property for African descendants is present in the history of other ethnic cultures including whites.  For example, “dreadlocks” are found within the Minoan civilization (Greece) as early as 1600–1500 BCE.  Intricate braided styles were common among the ancient Germanic and Norse peoples.

Third, it is virtually impossible to determine if a person is being discriminated against because of their hair, unless an employer openly says “I won’t hire you because of your hair”.  Legislation like the CROWN Act can’t be logically enforced.  Instead, the laws are meant to force employers to walk on eggshells around minority applicants and employees; to pressure companies into DEI hiring by making civil retribution easier.

The likelihood of any person facing discrimination at the workplace because of their hair is minimal.  Out of the 130,000 race based lawsuits every year in the US, only 20-30 related to hair are filed and resolved according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).  A state like PA might not see a single case of actual discrimination based on hair for years to come.       

There is no epidemic of hair racism.  The passage of laws like the CROWN Act are intended to make the public think that such a problem exists when it is actually an oppression fantasy.    

Authored by Kay Rubacek via The Epoch Times,

I didn’t grow up with Thanksgiving. I grew up in Australia, a place that prides itself on being relaxed and irreverent, where national icons range from crocodile wrestlers to movie stars with casual, sun-soaked charisma.

Our culture is fun-loving and independent, summed up in the phrase, “she’ll be right, mate.” It means: don’t fuss, don’t interfere, everyone handles their own problems. It isn’t unkindness; it’s distance. You stay in your lane; others stay in theirs.

Thanksgiving wasn’t part of my world. What I grew up with was a steady, unquestioned criticism of Americans. In art school in Sydney, we were encouraged to enjoy American movies and brands while criticizing Americans as arrogant or self-important. It was such an accepted narrative that no one seemed to ask where it had even come from.

In 2010, when I told friends I was moving my young family to the United States, more than one warned me, almost nervously, “Be careful, you might become like an American.”

I didn’t know what they meant. Why would becoming like an American be a threat?

It wasn’t until years later—after researching the Chinese Communist Party’s global soft-power campaigns and the broader network of anti-American messaging pushed by modern ideological actors—that I understood how much of the world’s casual disdain for Americans had been cultivated.

If you can weaken the idea of America, you weaken the country. And much of the world has absorbed that message without ever meeting the people it is supposed to condemn.

But everything I had been taught about Americans dissolved as soon as I arrived in New York.

My first weeks in Manhattan were exhilaratingly loud, fast, and disorienting, as one would expect. I carried a huge paper map (this was before smartphones with a built-in GPS were universal), turning it around helplessly at street corners. And every single time, someone stopped. “Where do you need to go?” They weren’t looking for conversation. They were already halfway down the block before I finished saying thank you. But they couldn’t walk past someone who clearly needed help.

The impact was even stronger for me when I returned for the next visit with my infant son. He was 11 months old and still in a stroller. Whenever I reached the top or bottom of a long subway staircase with no elevator in sight, juggling bags and a baby, someone always stepped in without hesitation. Every time. Not once did I even ask.

The contrast with Sydney was stark. I remembered navigating the city’s financial district with a stroller and heavy bags, standing at the foot of steep train-station steps as people streamed past. Not a single person stopped, even when I tried to meet someone’s eye, hoping for help. Australians are good people, but the cultural default is: you’ll figure it out. It’s not cruelty. Just a belief that everyone should manage their own load.

Americans, by contrast, have a reflexive generosity that is hard to describe until you experience it. Not chatty, not sentimental, just instinctive help, given without ceremony.

I saw the cultural difference again when my children entered New York’s public schools. The system was far from perfect even back then, but I remember walking the hallway and seeing a poster of U.S. presidents listing not their successes but their failures. The message was simple: failure is part of the journey. Everyone falls before they rise. I remember thinking: This is what I want my children to learn. I took a quick photo of that poster and shared it with Australian friends as one of many examples of positive American life. I’ve kept that image till this day.

Courtesy of Kay Rubacek

In Australia, we have “tall poppy syndrome,” where anyone who stands out too much is cut down. Don’t shine too brightly. Don’t be too confident. America, for all its imperfections, teaches something different: resilience, optimism, and the belief that effort matters more than embarrassment.

What surprised me most, though, was how naturally Americans practice gratitude. I didn’t understand its cultural weight until Thanksgiving.

Growing up, Christmas was my favorite holiday, but after coming to America, Thanksgiving very soon became the day I loved most. There is no pressure to buy gifts; no commercial frenzy. Just a meal, some company, and the simple act of acknowledging what is good.

It took me time to recognize how rare this is. Most nations unify through ancestry, monarchy, grievance, or shared struggle. America unifies through something else entirely: a civic ritual of gratitude. Gratitude is not just a personal virtue here—it is part of the national identity. And that identity, I’ve come to believe, is one of America’s greatest strengths.

As I traveled through more than half the states, I saw enormous diversity—cultural, political, economic—but also a consistent thread of generosity and warmth. Americans can be insulated from the geopolitical hostility that targets their nation, and that may be quite a good thing. Many don’t realize how deeply anti-American narratives have been embedded worldwide. But on the ground (and leaving political divides aside), I have encountered more kindness here than in any other country I’ve ever lived in or visited.

I didn’t move to the United States expecting to stay permanently. I didn’t know what kind of life it would offer my children. But slowly, through these everyday experiences, I began to see what makes America truly different. And Thanksgiving embodies it.

It is not about the Pilgrims, or food, or travel logistics. It is the annual reminder that American identity is built on gratitude: gratitude for freedom, for opportunity, for community, and for the chance to begin again. It asks for nothing but humility. It invites everyone, regardless of background, into a shared moment of thanks.

As an immigrant, that matters deeply to me. Gratitude softens division; it tempers cynicism. It reminds us that liberty is not automatic. And it teaches children—my children—that life’s value isn’t measured only by achievement but by appreciation.

Fifteen years ago, I came to the United States, unsure of how long we would stay. Today, when I sit at a Thanksgiving table, I understand something that I never saw from a distance: gratitude is the strong force that holds this country together. It is what makes America generous. It is what makes America resilient. And it is what makes America home.

I didn’t come to America for Thanksgiving. But Thanksgiving is one of the reasons I stayed.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

In a discovery that dramatically extends the known history of animal navigation, scientists have uncovered what appears to be the oldest direct evidence of creatures using Earth’s magnetic field to orient themselves, dating back roughly 97 million years to the age of the dinosaurs, according to Space.com.

A magnetofossil detected by the team. (Image credit: Dr C.M. Martin-Jones)

The findings, published by Nature, center on unusually large microscopic fossils preserved in deep-sea sediments from the Cretaceous period. These “magnetofossils,” chains of magnetic crystals, bear the unmistakable structural signatures of the same biological compass that allows modern salmon, sea turtles and migratory birds to cross oceans with uncanny precision.

Until now, the earliest evidence of such magnetoreception dated to roughly 50 million years ago. The new fossils push that timeline back by nearly double and suggest the sensory ability arose far earlier in evolutionary history than previously thought.

“We can now say with confidence that some creature alive 97 million years ago possessed a functional magnetic sense capable of supporting accurate long-distance navigation,” said Richard Harrison, a professor of earth sciences at the University of Cambridge and one of the study’s lead authors.

However, the identity of this creature remains a mystery.

The breakthrough was made possible by an imaging technique called magnetic tomography, developed by Dr. Claire Donnelly, a physicist at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids and a co-author of the study. Working at Britain’s Diamond Light Source synchrotron, Donnelly used magnetic fields to map the orientation of tiny magnetic moments inside the fossils.

Traditional X-ray methods had failed to reveal the internal architecture because the crystals are encased in robust iron-rich shells. The new approach, akin to a magnetic version of a CT scan, revealed chains of magnetite particles arranged in ways that closely mirror the magnetoreceptor organs found in living animals.

“That we could resolve the internal magnetic structure at this scale was already remarkable,” Donnelly said. “But to then recognize patterns consistent with navigational magnetoreception in 97-million-year-old fossils was truly thrilling.”

Although many animals are known to sense Earth’s magnetic field, the underlying cellular mechanisms remain among biology’s enduring puzzles. Some species appear to use crystals of magnetite as miniature compass needles while others may rely on light-sensitive chemical reactions in the eye.

“These giant magnetofossils represent a missing link,” Harrison said. “They mark the point where simple bacterial magnetotaxis was transformed into the sophisticated internal GPS that allows animals to migrate across entire ocean basins today.”