The Buzz: What Charlie Kirk got right about our rights
Published 1:30 am Friday, September 12, 2025
By Jon Bauer / Herald Opinion Editor
One didn’t have to agree with conservative activist Charlie Kirk to appreciate his respect for discourse, even if his wasn’t always civil or respectful. He encouraged a Voltaire-like ethic, asking those who dissented from his opinions — and many did — to step forward for debate.
No one should have to be reminded that violence has no role in our discourse and in our practice of democracy, but we may now need a reminder that fear of violence should not be allowed to keep us from expressing our opinions. Kirk’s memory is honored not by silence but by our continued exchange of perspectives, just with some added emphasis on listening to understand the other.
Or as my preschool teacher Miss Mavis reminded her charges when one of us was angry and felt like hitting someone: “Use your words.”
This one, then, is for Miss Mavis and Kirk:
We don’t talk about Epstein: The controversy over the potential release of Department of Justices files related to convicted sex offender and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein intensified with the release of the financier’s 50th birthday book, which included a purported lewd drawing and imagined dialogue between Donald Trump and Epstein. The drawing features the outline of a woman framing the exchange, including the wish that “may every day be another wonderful secret” and the signature of Trump’s first name at the bottom of the torso. Trump and White House officials denied it was Trump’s signature and the White House insisted he neither drew the figure nor wrote the greeting: “The supposed letter they printed by President Trump to Epstein was a FAKE.”
No wonder Trump broke off his friendship with Epstein: First he “steals” Trump employees from Mar-a-Lago; then he’s writing fake birthday greetings to himself “signed” by Trump just so he can get back at him 22 years later when he’s dead, knowing Trump would promise release of the Epstein files before the 2024 election and then call it all a hoax after he won. He even used the same brand of Sharpie.
Secret Agent Man, Secret Agent Man: Last week House Speaker Mike Johnson attempted to explain Trump’s relationship with Epstein, noting that Trump “was an FBI informant to try and take this stuff down.”
A word of advice to newly rebranded Secretary of War Pete Hegseth: Pete, be careful what you say around the boss. He’s been seen meeting in a parking garage with the FBI’s Kash Patel.
Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room! President Trump was active on the front-lines this week, first signing an executive order to change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, then threatening on social media that “Chicago was about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” and finally claiming that he had “averaged” ending a war a month, first referring to “six wars he had settled” and later that he had “solved seven wars,” though not specifying which wars he had ended.
Picking our battles one at a time: (1) “War” takes fewer thumb-strokes when Trump posts to Truth Social. (2) Trump, an avowed ketchup aficionado, was simply taking sides on the Great Chicago War Over Mustard or Ketchup on Hotdogs. (3) All six “wars” were dust-ups among administration officials; seven if you count the arguments among officials over who was best at waxing lyrical about Trump at Cabinet meetings. (Hands-down, it’s Steve “You are the single finest candidate since the Nobel award was ever talked about” Witkoff, although Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer — “You are the transformational president of the American worker” — was a close second.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that: Recently, the president has taken more of a bystander-like attitude toward the war in Ukraine and Israel’s attacks in Gaza and now Qatar. Trump shrugged off Russian drones violating Polish airspace and directed only mild irritation at Israel for not notifying him beforehand about the attempt to kill Hamas officials in Qatar, which has been attempting to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. Regarding Israel, Trump mustered only: “I was very unhappy about it.” And following Poland’s shoot-down of the Russian drones, Trump asked, “What’s with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones?”
Maybe his comments would hit harder with Valdimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu if he put more of a Jerry Seinfeld-like patter to his comments: “What’s the deal with Vladimir Putin?” or “Oh. Hello, Bibi.”
Let us know when they get to the cinnamon-raisin rock: NASA is excited about a discovery by the Mars rover Perseverance that shows a speckled rock with mineral deposits that scientists said looked like poppy seeds. The deposits of an iron phosphate mineral called vivianite, scientists said, typically form through chemical reactions that involve living organisms consuming organic material, leaving behind the minerals.
That or Perseverance forgot to clean up after spreading cream cheese on its everything bagel.
Dabbing away a wistful tear: Oliver North, 81, and Fawn Hall, 66, primary characters in the Iran-Contra scandal of the late 1980s, were married last month, after reconnecting following the death of North’s wife of 56 years. North, a National Security Council staffer for President Reagan was accused of arranging the sale of U.S. weapons to Iran to fund a covert war in Nicaragua. Hall, his secretary, was suspected of destroying relevant documents to protect North.
It’s not too early to consider gifts for the couple’s first anniversary, traditionally the paper anniversary. Perhaps his-and-hers document shredders?
Email Jon Bauer at jon.bauer@heraldnet.com. Follow him on Bluesky @jontbauer.bsky.social.
