I’m not going to litigate the &#8220;Cornell Seven&#8221; case here.
There are police interviews, text messages, conflicting accounts, and serious allegations. Everyone has already picked through the evidence and decided what they think happened inside that fraternity house.
If you want to know where I stand on that part, my colleague Chloe Trapanotto has a pretty good hot take you can watch <a href="https://x.com/ItsAllPoliticss/status/2105368863932047823">here</a>.
But come back, because my hot take is about the parents.
Why are we still paying for our kids to join fraternities and sororities?
The woman at the center of the Cornell case says she was drugged and sexually assaulted by multiple men at the Chi Phi fraternity house. Whatever you think happened that night, Cornell’s own numbers on Greek life should make every parent uncomfortable.
In Cornell’s 2025 survey, 52% of undergraduate women affiliated with Greek life who responded said they had experienced sexual assault since arriving at the university. Among women who weren’t affiliated with Greek life, it was 29%. The survey had a low response rate, so no, that does not mean 52% of every sorority at Cornell has been sexually assaulted. But Cornell’s own task force highlighted the difference. It also found that 20% of reported assaults occurred at fraternity chapter houses.
I have a daughter and a son.
There is not a chance in hell I’m paying for either of them to join one.
We spend their entire childhood warning them about alcohol, drugs, peer pressure, dangerous situations, and making stupid decisions that can change their lives. Then they turn 18 and somehow parents are expected to write another check so they can join a social club where drinking and parties are a pretty significant part of the culture.
Make that make sense.
And yes, I know there is value in some of it. People make lifelong friends in Greek life. They find a community away from home.
I’m sure plenty of people met the person who later helped them land a job. But as a parent, I still have to look at what I’m paying for and ask whether it’s worth it.
It&#8217;s also worth asking if Greek life — what that looks like in terms of priorities, goals, and skills — matches not only what employers are looking for, but what makes for a nourished soul. What happens if a college student invests time and money building a &#8220;network&#8221; they end up not using? There&#8217;s no guarantee a graduate even uses his degree in his eventual career, let alone a Greek affiliation.
And when it comes to shaping a whole person, are questions like where to get the best deal on a keg or what outfit coordinates with the school colors more crucial to personal development, or is exploring your faith or deeper questions about humanity a better use of your time? College used to be about preparing young people to enter society as better-developed, well-rounded people, not about how many stories you can accumulate about Saturday night ragers or reprimands from the House Mother. And if it&#8217;s structure or discipline your kids are after, might I suggest the nearest military recruiting office?
I’m not so sure about paying thousands of dollars for my kid to spend more time at parties, around more alcohol, in a culture where Cornell’s own numbers show Greek-affiliated women reported sexual assault at a much higher rate than their peers. And if I have a son, I’m supposed to pay for him to put himself in that same environment where one drunken night can blow up his life too?
Why would I pay extra for any of that when those are the exact years my kids could be getting a head start on becoming adults?
And I say this as someone who desperately wanted to join a sorority.
I went to a tiny liberal arts college where Greek life was basically the social life. It was also, truth be told, where I started wondering whether liberals and I were actually living on the same planet.
I wasn’t raised in some conservative bubble. My parents are Democrats. One of my sisters is very far Left. Our family group chat is exactly as enjoyable as you’re imagining.
When I got to college, though, I wasn’t thinking about politics. I was thinking, &#8220;How am I going to make friends?&#8221;
I found a little group of girls pretty quickly, and they were all joining the same sorority. I wanted in.
But of course, one upperclassman who just happened to be the Queen Bee of the popular sorority didn’t like me.
So that was that. And yes, I was devastated and embarrassed.
Fast forward, and now I should probably send her a thank-you card.
My friends suddenly had meetings, mandatory events, mixers, themed outfits, and rules about which fraternity they were partying with that night. Think &#8220;Mean Girls,&#8221; liberal arts college edition, except you’re paying dues for the privilege.
And that’s what I still don’t understand.
Everyone who loved Greek life will tell me, “You’re not paying for friends. You’re paying for connections.”
Are you?
Because I didn’t pay for either.
Once I got over feeling left out, I put my time into broadcast journalism. I landed internships at networks in New York and London. I met lawmakers. During spring break senior year, I spent five days driving to local television stations with résumés in my car, walking through the front door and asking if I could see the news director.
Sometimes I made it past the receptionist. Sometimes I didn’t.
By graduation, I was the only person in my class with a job already lined up in my field.
So forgive me if I don’t think my parents needed to pay a sorority to help me network.
Looking back, I didn’t miss out on four years of college. I got a four-year head start on my life. While my friends were spending hours every week on meetings, mixers, and sorority obligations, I was figuring out how to get someone at a television station to hire me.
And parents are paying real money for this.
At Cornell, costs vary by chapter, but some run into the thousands before housing and dining. For spring 2026, Pi Kappa Alpha listed $3,200 in current-member dues and a $2,300 initiation fee. Alpha Delta Phi listed $4,850 in dues and $2,700 in other new-member fees.
“They’re adults. You can’t tell them they can’t join.”
Correct.
But you can tell them they can pay for it themselves.
If I’m financing school, my daughter isn’t joining a sorority and my son isn’t joining a fraternity.
Although that assumes I’m financing a four-year college in the first place.
I’d rather my kids go to trade school.
We’ve watched tuition explode while universities built massive bureaucracies that have nothing to do with teaching kids how to make a living. DEI has become its own campus industry. We watched speakers get shouted down and political activism seep into classrooms. Parents are expected to hand over tens of thousands of dollars and trust that the people teaching their 18-year-olds share their definition of an education.
Not so fast.
Gallup found in 2026 that just 23% of Republicans had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in higher education. Cost, political agendas, and concerns about what colleges are teaching were among the reasons Americans gave for this lack of confidence.
I get it.
If my son wants to become an electrician, make good money, and eventually start his own business, I’ll be thrilled. If my daughter finds a trade she loves and can start her adult life without drowning in student loans, I’ll help her pack.
If either wants a career that actually requires college, fine. We’ll have that conversation.
But I’m done with the idea that every successful 18-year-old needs four years on a college campus.
And I’m definitely not paying extra to extend my kid’s adolescence with four more years of mixers and house parties when they could be getting a head start on an actual life.
At 18, I thought getting rejected from that sorority was awful.
It turned out I had more time to work, intern, make actual connections, and figure out what I wanted to do with my life.
That queen bee did me a favor.
My kids won’t have to wait around to see if theirs does too.
If I’m paying the bill, there won’t be a rush week to begin with.

scream queens

Why The ‘Cornell 7’ Story Didn’t Actually Start Inside A Frat House

campus fraternity

cornell university

higher education

opinion

sexual assault

Grown adults are acting like the children they never bothered to have. And the toy industry is making a killing off it.
After years of liberals telling young people that marriage is a trap, children are a burden, and giving up a little freedom for somebody else is practically a death sentence, people are taking their advice.
Well, congratulations. We&#8217;ve got adults who don&#8217;t want the responsibilities of raising children but are apparently more than happy to keep buying the toys made for them.
A new report from market research firm Circana found that households without children now account for more than half of U.S. toy sales. Grown-ups are buying LEGO sets, collectibles, trading cards, and whatever else reminds them of being eight years old.
We also have grown adults dressing up as animals and calling themselves furries. Apparently, some people don&#8217;t even want to act like humans, let alone adults. And now we&#8217;re surprised that childhood has become such a lucrative business?
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
~Today’s adults increasingly behave like the children they never have~ feels like a rude thing to say about people. And yet:
“Toy sales among adult-only households have now outpaced households with children for toy sales, growing 16% through June, equivalent to 55% of total toy… <a href="https://t.co/LU2sOrSrlH">https://t.co/LU2sOrSrlH</a>
— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) <a href="https://x.com/DKThomp/status/2102408766264111367?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 22, 2026</a></blockquote>
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I&#8217;m not saying everyone who buys a LEGO set needs to grow up. I don&#8217;t care if you collect Pokémon cards or have a room full of Star Wars memorabilia. And not having children doesn&#8217;t automatically mean someone is avoiding responsibility. Plenty of people want families but can&#8217;t. But I do think we&#8217;ve created a culture where being an adult sounds so miserable that people would rather spend their money trying to feel like children than actually have them.
Think about the way the Left talks to young people: Don&#8217;t get married too early. Don&#8217;t have kids until you&#8217;ve traveled and done everything you want to do. Don&#8217;t let anyone interfere with your freedom. Find yourself. Protect your peace.
At what point are you supposed to stop finding yourself and actually build a life? And why have we decided that building a life around somebody other than yourself is such a terrible thing?
I have two children, and they&#8217;ve been traveling since they were three months old. I didn&#8217;t change how I enjoy my life, but now I enjoy it a million times more because they&#8217;re along for the ride.
And here&#8217;s what really gets me. The same people telling adults to embrace their inner child seem hell-bent on making actual children grow up overnight. Little kids are being introduced to adult conversations about sexuality and changing their gender before they&#8217;ve even figured out who they are. They&#8217;re being told the planet is dying and that it&#8217;s somehow their responsibility to save it. Can we let them learn to tie their shoes first? Apparently, childhood is something to be protected only after you&#8217;ve already lived it.
Yes, having kids means you play with toys together. My daughter and I set up scenes in her dollhouse, rearrange furniture, and play dinosaurs. I genuinely enjoy it. Sometimes I&#8217;m more invested in where the furniture goes than she is.
But I&#8217;m not playing with her toys because I want to be a little girl again. I&#8217;m playing with them because I&#8217;m her mother. I want her to have a wonderful childhood. I also want her to grow up believing there&#8217;s something worth looking forward to afterward.
Instead, we&#8217;ve created an entire market around selling childhood back to people who have already lived it. Toys “R” Us is planning to open 120 new standalone stores across the country. Adult collectors are a growing part of the toy market, and companies have every reason to pursue customers with considerably more spending money than children.
Entrepreneur and virtual reality pioneer Palmer Luckey made an observation about LEGO that stuck with me during his recent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-its-good-for-your-kids-to-play-video-games">Punch interview</a> with Ben Domenech, “Why It&#8217;s Good For Your Kids To Play Video Games.”
“The company is building collectible knickknacks for adults,” Luckey said.
He criticized LEGO&#8217;s increasing reliance on specialized pieces that make sets less configurable than they used to be. Older bricks gave children more freedom to build whatever they imagined. Some newer sets are designed around creating a particular object that an adult can assemble and display.
I thought about my daughter dumping out her toys and deciding what we&#8217;d build that afternoon. She would never try to build something based on the picture on the box. She&#8217;s actually the opposite and has her own vivid imagination. And that&#8217;s part of what makes playing so wonderful for children. They get to create something entirely their own.
If adults have become such valuable customers that companies are changing toys to suit them, I think it&#8217;s fair to ask what happens to the kids. But I&#8217;m even more concerned about what happens when we convince those kids that adult responsibilities are chapters in life to avoid.
Why do we talk about marriage and children almost exclusively in terms of what they take away?
I hear plenty about how expensive children are. I know. I buy the diapers.
I hear that marriage requires compromise and that parenthood means you can&#8217;t just do whatever you want, whenever you want.
All true.
But where&#8217;s the enthusiasm for what those things can give you?
Being a mother has demanded more of me than anything else. My time isn&#8217;t entirely mine anymore. I make decisions every day based on what my children need. I wouldn&#8217;t trade that life for the freedom I had before it.
Before I say what I&#8217;m about to say next, I want to make something very clear: I had the best childhood thanks to my wonderful parents. But my favorite chapter of my life has been marriage and kids, and honestly, I wish I&#8217;d started sooner.
I don&#8217;t want my daughter growing up believing that the best years of her life are the ones before anyone depends on her.
I want her to know that loving someone enough to sacrifice for them can make life better than she ever imagined. That building a family isn&#8217;t the end of her happiness. It only makes you happier. That being needed by someone you love can be a privilege.
We&#8217;ve spent so much time warning young people about the cost of responsibility that I wonder whether we&#8217;ve forgotten to tell them what it&#8217;s worth.
At some point, I think we ought to ask whether we&#8217;re building the lives we wanted or just buying back the childhoods we miss.
I want my daughter to enjoy every minute of being little. One day, she won&#8217;t need me to sit on the floor and play dinosaurs with her.
I hope by then I&#8217;ve given her plenty of reasons to be excited about growing up and buying toys for her own kids someday. Because as wonderful as Christmas morning was when I was little, nothing compares to experiencing it as a mom and watching the magic through my children&#8217;s eyes.

We’ve Got A Generation Of Peter Pans. Guess Who’s Cashing In.

declining birth rate

lego

marriage

parenthood

toy industry

I had to read this sentence twice:
“A lot of early miscarriages happen as part of a natural process of discarding ‘errors.’”
Discarding &#8220;errors.&#8221;
We&#8217;re talking about unborn babies. A life created by God.
I’m a mom of two, and maybe that’s why I was honestly disgusted when I read it.
I’ve taken the pregnancy tests. I’ve stared at the faint line, wondering if it was actually there or if I was imagining it. And then took about 20 more tests after the first one. I’ve sat through the early ultrasounds waiting to hear a heartbeat. I know the excitement. I also know the fear that comes with realizing how much can go wrong and how little control you actually have, especially for someone who has a type A personality like me.
But at no point did I think of what was growing inside of me as some potential &#8216;error&#8217; my body might need to &#8220;discard.&#8221;
That was my baby.
And I think it says a lot about how we’ve gotten to a place where writing about unborn human life this way can be passed off as clinical or scientific. DISGUSTING.
The <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/the-unsettling-ambiguity-of-early-pregnancy?_sp=de48b8af-cff3-4a8b-937a-5042a9ce6cc6.1789661986742">New Yorker piece</a>, which discusses anthropologist Kate Clancy’s book “Pregnancy Interrupted,” spends a lot of time talking about the uncertainty of early pregnancy.
Yes, there is a ton of uncertainty!!!
Doctors can get gestational age wrong. I know that firsthand. I had two different doctors give me due dates that were two weeks apart. Measurements can differ. Standards for diagnosing a miscarriage can even differ depending on where a woman lives.
The article itself points to research involving pregnancies classified as having “unknown viability.” About one-fifth of those pregnancies eventually turned out to be viable.
So doctors don&#8217;t always know.
Which is one of the main points of the article.
And then, somehow, we go from acknowledging how much we don&#8217;t know about an unborn child&#8217;s future to describing embryos as &#8220;errors&#8221; that can be &#8220;discarded.&#8221;
I&#8217;m sorry, but that&#8217;s sick. Yes, SICK. Actually, I’m not sorry.
And I think there&#8217;s something much bigger going on here than a couple of gross words.
The more I read, the more the baby seemed to disappear altogether. Pregnancy became something happening to a woman’s body. A medical condition.
Where did the baby go?
Because ask basically any woman who desperately wants a baby what happens when she sees two lines on a pregnancy test.
She doesn&#8217;t wait for somebody to officially declare the pregnancy “viable” before she starts imagining a future.
First, I thanked God. Try calculating my due date. Of course, I wondered if it&#8217;s a boy or a girl and didn&#8217;t know how I could possibly wait another day without knowing. Then came the names. How old will my baby be at his or her first Christmas?
Then, I start worrying about everything I ate, drank, lifted, touched, or even looked at in the past two weeks.
Maybe the woman comes up with some elaborate way to tell her husband. Or maybe she&#8217;s like me and has absolutely no ability to keep something like that to herself. I start screaming with excitement, blurt it out loud, and then tell everyone and anyone. And I mean anyone. I’d probably roll down my window and tell the random driver next to me if given the chance.
The relationship has already started.
I am my baby&#8217;s mother.
And God forbid the woman miscarries, nobody needs to sit her down and explain to her that she lost something.
She knows exactly who she lost.
Nobody would dream of telling a grieving mother that her body successfully “discarded an error.” And if you do, you are a psychopath.
But use basically the same language inside a discussion about reproductive biology and suddenly we&#8217;re supposed to nod along because it sounds scientific.
No! Words matter.
And there was another line in the piece that was also vile.
After going through the biological and environmental reasons a pregnancy might end, the author writes that pregnancy can also be interrupted “by a woman’s choice.”
Just like that, miscarriage and abortion wrapped up in the same word.
“Interrupted.”
A woman losing a baby she desperately wanted did not “interrupt” her pregnancy in the same way another person intentionally murdered an innocent human being God created.
And pretending they fall under the same language doesn&#8217;t make them the same thing.
It’s just trying to make abortion sound, what? Nicer? Sick.
And have you ever noticed how fast the language changes depending on whether the baby is wanted?
Think about how normal people talk about desperately wanting to get pregnant: We throw baby showers. We post ultrasound pictures. We decorate a nursery. We talk to the baby, my baby.
We put our hands on our stomachs when the baby kicks. I actually had my hand on my stomach 24/7 — you know, the same way, dare I say it, narcissist Meghan Markle was ridiculed for doing. It’s probably the only thing I can relate to her about. Sue me, but I loved it.
Nobody walks up to an excited pregnant woman and says, “Actually, you&#8217;re experiencing a developing medical condition of uncertain viability.”
Why? Um, because that would be INSANE.
We know what she means when she says, “my baby.”
But suddenly, when abortion enters the conversation, nobody wants to say “baby” anymore. It&#8217;s an embryo or a fetus. Abortion is a “choice.” Now apparently it&#8217;s an “interruption.” Funny how that works&#8230; right?! Actually, it&#8217;s anything but funny.
And yes, I know that miscarriage is natural. I know chromosomal abnormalities are a major reason miscarriages happen. I know there are pregnancies that, tragically, will never result in a healthy baby being born.
None of that means we have to talk about the child who dies as if he or she were a defective product.
If doctors themselves don’t always know what’s going to happen, you’d think we’d be a little more careful with the way we talk about the baby.
Maybe a little humility is warranted.
We might not know whether that baby is going to survive. That doesn&#8217;t mean the baby isn&#8217;t there. I don&#8217;t understand why we&#8217;re acting like those are the same thing.
Like every woman, I didn’t know anything about either of my children when I first found out I was pregnant.
I didn&#8217;t know what they would look like. What their personalities would be. Whether they would be healthy. Would I make it through nine months without something going terribly wrong? I didn&#8217;t even know if I&#8217;d make it through the first trimester.
But here&#8217;s what I did know. I knew they were THERE.
And from that moment on, I wasn&#8217;t the only person involved anymore.
That’s the part that disappears when pregnancy becomes nothing more than a condition happening to a woman’s body.
The baby disappears from the language. And once the baby is gone, I guess you can call what happens next whatever you want.
And suddenly we’re back to talking about “errors” being “discarded” and pregnancies being “interrupted.”
Motherhood does begin with uncertainty. And it doesn&#8217;t exactly get better from there.
First you&#8217;re worried about every little thing during pregnancy. Then the baby arrives and you’ve got 10,000 new things that can terrify you. Then they&#8217;re toddlers and climbing on things they absolutely should not be climbing on while you&#8217;re yelling, “GET DOWN,” for the 47th time that day.
The fear about what you’re worried about changes as they get older. But they&#8217;re still your kid and always will be.
That&#8217;s why that sentence about &#8216;discarding errors&#8217; makes me so angry.
An unborn child is NOT an error.
A miscarriage is NOT a successful disposal of defective material.
And a woman who loses her baby didn&#8217;t simply have a pregnancy that was ‘interrupted.’
We’re talking about an innocent human life that God created.
So&#8230; start talking like it!

Foetus ultrasound

I Read Two Words About Unborn Babies That Stopped Me Cold

abortion

miscarriage

motherhood

new yorker

pregnancy

I know writing this is going to generate some not-so-nice comments, so let&#8217;s just get it out of the way: I&#8217;m a beige mom. I do not want my house covered in fire-engine red, electric blue, highlighter yellow, and that particular shade of green apparently reserved exclusively for children&#8217;s plastic toys. I don&#8217;t understand why becoming a mother was supposed to mean surrendering every room of my house to something that looks like a preschool classroom circa 1997. And before anyone starts typing furiously: My children are fine. Actually, they&#8217;re more than fine. They&#8217;re spoiled rotten.
I&#8217;m a mom of two: a four-year-old girl and an almost three-month-old baby. We have toys. So many toys. We have colorful toys, too. I simply don&#8217;t want every single thing my children touch to look like a rainbow threw up on it. Which is why I have a bone to pick with Little Tikes.
Of course, now that my daughter is four and I have already purchased virtually every toy a small child could possibly require, Little Tikes decides to release its gorgeous &#8220;Cloud&#8221; line. White. Beige. Soft, muted colors. Where were you people four years ago?
When my daughter was younger, finding a basketball hoop or play structure that didn&#8217;t come in Ronald McDonald colors was practically an archaeological expedition. And when you did find one? Prepare to refinance your house. Parents who have gone searching for &#8220;aesthetic&#8221; toys know exactly what I&#8217;m talking about.
Take children&#8217;s brand Smol, which bills itself as &#8220;a fun company with good taste.&#8221; Its products are beautiful. Slides, sensory tables, and a basketball hoop that won&#8217;t make your living room look like a Chuck E. Cheese. There&#8217;s just one small problem: A chic basketball hoop can <a href="https://www.playsmol.com/collections/play/products/basketball-hoop">run</a> you around $200.
Would I ever spend that much money on a white basketball hoop just because it was aesthetically pleasing? Absolutely not. Did I put it in my cart multiple times? Absolutely.
Thankfully, somewhere between &#8220;add to cart&#8221; and &#8220;check out,&#8221; the functioning portion of my brain would wake up, smack some sense into me, and remind me that I was contemplating spending hundreds of dollars so my toddler could miss baskets in a more aesthetically pleasing environment. I resisted.
And now Little Tikes strolls in years later with a beige-and-white basketball hoop for <a href="https://parade.com/living/little-tikes-cloud-collection">around</a> $35. That&#8217;s less than a quarter of the price of the luxury baby items I stared at for years.
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What took so long? To be clear, this isn&#8217;t a hit on Little Tikes. Quite the opposite; I love Little Tikes. Its stuff lasts forever. I love the look of those gorgeous wooden outdoor toys as much as anyone, but plastic wins outside. It survives rain, mud, toddlers, forgotten juice cups, winters, and whatever unidentified substance your child has smeared across it. Hose it down and move on with your life.
Little Tikes just needed better colors, and I told it as much for approximately four years. I emailed the company multiple times asking some version of: When are you going to make white and beige toys? Or at least give us colors that don&#8217;t assault the eyeballs? Give me a light pink. A sage green. A soft blue. Anything.
Every time, I&#8217;d get a polite response along the lines of, &#8220;Thank you, we&#8217;ll take that into consideration.&#8221; Well, apparently the company did. It only took four years. You&#8217;re welcome, America.
But here&#8217;s the part of the beige-mom debate that drives me crazy: Somewhere along the way, not wanting a neon orange slide in your family room became evidence that you&#8217;re depriving your children of a childhood. I&#8217;m not a bad mom because I don&#8217;t like obnoxiously colored toys. My daughter has colorful things. I just prefer those things to have a home when we&#8217;re done playing with them. If a toy is going to permanently live in my family room, kitchen, or backyard, yes, I&#8217;d rather it not scream &#8220;DAYCARE&#8221; from across the street.
And that&#8217;s not just about being picky. Not every family has a designated playroom where they can close the door on the Fisher-Price explosion. Plenty of parents live in apartments, city homes, townhouses, or smaller houses where the living room is also the playroom. Why shouldn&#8217;t they be able to buy a play kitchen or basketball hoop that can sit in the corner without taking over the entire room? If I want to invite my girlfriends over last-minute, I don&#8217;t want to perform an emergency evacuation of every toy my children own. A little beige camouflage goes a long way.
And no, I don&#8217;t buy the argument that my daughter&#8217;s imagination is somehow suffering because her toys aren&#8217;t fluorescent. My child could entertain herself with three sticks, a tissue, and a rock. Her imagination has always amazed me. I bought her a dollhouse (the black and white one from Joanna Gaines&#8217; Hearth &amp; Hand line at Target) when she was about one, and by two years old, she was creating elaborate little scenes that made me wonder what exactly was happening inside that tiny head. She&#8217;d position everyone, invent relationships, create stories, and keep herself occupied forever.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1179951" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/IMG_7450-300x225.jpeg" alt="" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/IMG_7450-300x225.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/IMG_7450-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/IMG_7450-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/IMG_7450-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />.         <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1179947" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/IMG_7446-300x225.jpeg" alt="" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/IMG_7446-300x225.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/IMG_7446-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/IMG_7446-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/IMG_7446-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />         <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1179941" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/643FE1BD-B75D-4304-9B25-AEFA9EC044CB-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/643FE1BD-B75D-4304-9B25-AEFA9EC044CB-225x300.jpg 225w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/643FE1BD-B75D-4304-9B25-AEFA9EC044CB-432x576.jpg 432w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/643FE1BD-B75D-4304-9B25-AEFA9EC044CB-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/643FE1BD-B75D-4304-9B25-AEFA9EC044CB-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/643FE1BD-B75D-4304-9B25-AEFA9EC044CB-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/643FE1BD-B75D-4304-9B25-AEFA9EC044CB-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" />    <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1179943" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/CEBA5F8D-CF9D-48D1-A46B-5E869450BD9A-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/CEBA5F8D-CF9D-48D1-A46B-5E869450BD9A-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/CEBA5F8D-CF9D-48D1-A46B-5E869450BD9A-768x576.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/CEBA5F8D-CF9D-48D1-A46B-5E869450BD9A-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/CEBA5F8D-CF9D-48D1-A46B-5E869450BD9A-2048x1536.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />.                                    <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1179945" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/F4D87B3E-E34B-4712-85C7-CCBE420077E4-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/F4D87B3E-E34B-4712-85C7-CCBE420077E4-225x300.jpg 225w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/F4D87B3E-E34B-4712-85C7-CCBE420077E4-432x576.jpg 432w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/F4D87B3E-E34B-4712-85C7-CCBE420077E4-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/F4D87B3E-E34B-4712-85C7-CCBE420077E4-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/F4D87B3E-E34B-4712-85C7-CCBE420077E4-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/F4D87B3E-E34B-4712-85C7-CCBE420077E4-scaled.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px" /></div>
We also never relied on screens to entertain her, and I&#8217;m incredibly thankful for that now. She learned how to be bored and then figure out how not to be bored. She can entertain herself. She can sit nicely at a restaurant. She can turn practically anything around her into a game. None of that required a neon green plastic table.
I&#8217;m not trying to raise beige children. I&#8217;m not banning color. I&#8217;m not standing over my daughter with a Sherwin-Williams swatch and confiscating anything above a certain saturation level. I just don&#8217;t understand why children&#8217;s toys spent decades operating under the assumption that kids can only experience joy when an object contains every color of the rainbow simultaneously.
Children bring enough chaos into a house on their own. There are Goldfish crumbs in places that defy physics. Someone or something is always sticky. If I can make even a small portion of that chaos sage green instead of radioactive lime? I&#8217;m going to.
And apparently a lot of other parents feel the same way. For years, &#8220;aesthetic&#8221; children&#8217;s toys were treated like a weird luxury niche. If you wanted something in softer colors, you had to hunt for it, pay more for it, or accept that the primary-colored version was your only reasonable option. That&#8217;s changing. Mainstream toy companies are finally giving parents something incredibly simple: choices. And that&#8217;s all I ever wanted.
If you love the classic red, yellow, and blue toys, buy them. Fill your house with them. Build a primary-colored kingdom. Your kid will have a blast. But so is mine with whites, dusty pinks and sage greens. My daughter isn&#8217;t experiencing some color-deprived childhood because Mommy prefers neutrals. She has imagination. She has creativity. She has plenty of color.
She also has grandparents. Trust me, she&#8217;s getting enough neon.
So yes, I&#8217;m a beige mom. Get over it.
***
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

GettyImages-1448124582

I’m A Beige Mom. Get Over It.

home decor

lifestyle

parenting

“We’re gonna be in search for a downed plane.”
Those chilling words over emergency dispatch audio kicked off the nighttime search for Wisconsin Republican gubernatorial nominee Tom Tiffany and his pilot after their powerless plane crashed into Lake Wausau in Wisconsin and began sinking beneath the water.
The radio traffic captures the uncertain minutes that followed as first responders scrambled Saturday night to figure out where the plane had gone down and, more importantly, where the two men had gone after getting out.
Tiffany was heading home from the La Crosse County Lincoln Day Dinner when the single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza lost power as it approached Wausau Downtown Airport shortly before 9 p.m. Pilot Leonard “Len” Boltz had only seconds to react before making an emergency landing in the lake.
Tiffany and Boltz survived the impact and were able to call 911, but there was another problem almost immediately: the plane was going under.
Dispatchers knew the two men planned to get out and swim, but then contact with them disappeared.
“I was talking to the pilot. It sounds like they made plans to swim to the nearest shore after it went under and then I lost contact with them. I believe his phone is underwater so they may be swimming south I believe.”
That meant rescuers were now looking for two men somewhere in the dark water, with the plane itself sinking out of sight.
And this was no small pond. Lake Wausau stretches across roughly 1,900 acres, giving rescuers a massive area to contend with as they tried to pinpoint where Tiffany and Boltz had ended up.
The conditions weren’t exactly on their side either.
Temperatures were already dropping Saturday night and were headed toward the 50s, with overnight temperatures expected to fall to around 50 degrees.
Meanwhile, Tiffany and Boltz were in the lake waiting for rescuers to find them.
Crews were sent toward the area where a witness reported seeing the aircraft go down as boats joined the search.
Then came the call everyone had been waiting for.
“We have two victims in the water. We’re just pulling them out now.”
Dispatch quickly checked that there was nobody else left to find.
“Are all victims accounted for?”
The answer was exactly what rescuers wanted to hear.
“Yes, it’s two on board.”
Both Tiffany and Boltz were pulled from the water and taken to Aspirus Wausau Hospital with minor injuries.
Tiffany later revealed just how quickly the flight had gone from routine to terrifying.
“Len said to me, ‘We are going down. Pull your seatbelt tight,’” Tiffany recalled Sunday. “And that’s exactly what I did. I gave it a yank and pulled it good and tight.”
Tiffany said they hit the water roughly 10 seconds later.
The impact sent his head into the dashboard, leaving him with a gash above his right eye that required 12 stitches. Boltz also suffered cuts and needed four stitches.
After checking on each other, the two men escaped through the passenger-side door as water began filling the aircraft. 
Tiffany searched for his phone but couldn’t find it. Boltz still had his and called 911.
The two climbed on top of the plane and waited as it slowly sank beneath them. Tiffany said they could see emergency lights appearing around the lake, but help had not reached them before the aircraft disappeared underwater.
With nothing left to stand on, they started swimming.
Tiffany said they made it roughly 100 to 150 feet before reaching a higher spot in the lake where the water was about five feet deep.
“I said to Len, ‘Let’s just stay right here until help can come,’ because we could see the sirens,” Tiffany said.
The gravity of the close call appeared to hit Tiffany as he recounted what happened Sunday.
“We are just really fortunate,” Tiffany said. “We’re really fortunate that God was looking after us last night.”
Tiffany credited Boltz’s experience with keeping the crash from becoming far worse. The retired Air Force pilot raised the plane’s landing gear before hitting the lake, a move Tiffany said may have prevented the aircraft from flipping.
“We’re fortunate the plane didn’t flip,” Tiffany said. “I just take that to the skill of the pilot.”
The two men were rescued by a Wausau Fire Department airboat shortly after 9 p.m., roughly 15 minutes after the plane went down.
The single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza remained submerged Sunday as the Federal Aviation Administration investigated what caused it to lose power.
Tiffany, meanwhile, said the crash, which comes less than two months before he&#8217;s set to face voters in Wisconsin’s governor’s race, would not keep him off the campaign trail.
“This will not deter me in my efforts that I started a year ago to become the next governor of the state of Wisconsin,” he said.
Tiffany has represented Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District in the House since 2020 after previously serving in both chambers of the Wisconsin Legislature. He grew up on a dairy farm in western Wisconsin and later became a small-business owner, operating a Northwoods excursion business with his wife, Chris.
Tiffany is now the Republican nominee for governor and will face Democratic Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley in November. President Donald Trump has endorsed Tiffany in the race.
Crowley responded to the crash by saying he was relieved Tiffany and the pilot were safe and wished them a speedy recovery.

tiffany_lake

Hear Desperate Search For Battleground GOP Candidate After Plane Crash

2026 midterm election

david crowley

plane crash

politics

tom tiffany

wisconsin governor election

“God was watching over us tonight.”
That’s how Wisconsin Republican gubernatorial nominee Tom Tiffany described surviving a plane crash Saturday night that ended with him swimming out of a sinking aircraft in Lake Wausau.
<div id="attachment_1177349" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1177349" class="wp-image-1177349 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/Bluegill-Bay-County-Park_D984BF45-5056-A36A-08B2A4B17E38EF36-d984be3a5056a36_d984c5c4-5056-a36a-08a910e9ce9c65ff.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="768" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/Bluegill-Bay-County-Park_D984BF45-5056-A36A-08B2A4B17E38EF36-d984be3a5056a36_d984c5c4-5056-a36a-08a910e9ce9c65ff.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/Bluegill-Bay-County-Park_D984BF45-5056-A36A-08B2A4B17E38EF36-d984be3a5056a36_d984c5c4-5056-a36a-08a910e9ce9c65ff-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/09/Bluegill-Bay-County-Park_D984BF45-5056-A36A-08B2A4B17E38EF36-d984be3a5056a36_d984c5c4-5056-a36a-08a910e9ce9c65ff-768x576.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />VisitWausau.com</div>
Tiffany was heading home from the La Crosse County Lincoln Day Dinner when the plane he was traveling in lost power as it approached Wausau Downtown Airport.
The pilot was forced to make an emergency water landing in Lake Wausau.
Tiffany said they called 911 after landing, but soon had to get out of the aircraft as it began sinking.
“As the plane began to submerge, we exited the aircraft and swam to a shallow area, where we waited until emergency responders reached us by boat,” Tiffany said.
Making the ordeal even more harrowing, temperatures in Wausau were already in the low 60s Saturday night and were expected to plunge into the upper 40s overnight.
The two waited in the water until emergency responders arrived by boat. Both Tiffany and the pilot escaped with only minor injuries and were taken to Aspirus Wausau Hospital.
Tiffany thanked the pilot, the Wausau Fire Department, and all of the first responders who rushed to their aid.
“I want to express my deepest gratitude to the pilot, the Wausau Fire Department, and all of the first responders who came to our aid so quickly. They got us safely off the water and transported us to Aspirus Wausau Hospital, where we received excellent care. Thankfully, both the pilot and I sustained only minor injuries,” Tiffany said.
“God was watching over us tonight, and I am incredibly grateful to be here in the hospital with my wife, Chris, by my side. An experience like this reminds you just how precious life is.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
While returning home from the La Crosse County Lincoln Day Dinner tonight, the plane I was traveling in lost power as we approached the Wausau Downtown Airport. The pilot made an emergency water landing in Lake Wausau.
After landing, we called 911. As the plane began to…
— Tom Tiffany (@TomTiffanyWI) <a href="https://x.com/TomTiffanyWI/status/2099000759450837456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 13, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The crash comes less than two months before Tiffany is set to face voters in Wisconsin’s governor’s race.
Tiffany has represented Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District in the House since 2020 after previously serving in both chambers of the Wisconsin Legislature. He grew up on a dairy farm in western Wisconsin and later became a small-business owner, operating a Northwoods excursion business with his wife, Chris.
Tiffany is now the Republican nominee for governor and will face Democratic Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley in November. President Donald Trump has endorsed Tiffany in the race.
Crowley responded to the crash by saying he was relieved Tiffany and the pilot were safe and wished them a speedy recovery.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I’m grateful to God that Congressman Tiffany and no one else was hurt in this horrifying incident, which could have been a tragedy if not for the heroism of the pilot.
I wish them and the Congressman a quick recovery and that they can find solace with their loved ones. <a href="https://t.co/WUcbFU8FY0">https://t.co/WUcbFU8FY0</a>
— David Crowley (@DavidCCrowley) <a href="https://x.com/DavidCCrowley/status/2099013085470380290?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 13, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.x.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

US-POLITICS-VANCE

Battleground GOP Candidate Survives Overnight Plane Crash Over Lake

wisconsin

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll submitted his resignation to President Donald Trump on Monday after reportedly butting heads with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for months.
The Wall Street Journal first reported that Driscoll is expected to leave the Pentagon in the coming days, potentially ending the tenure of a key player in Trump’s military overhaul at a time when the United States is already juggling a war with Iran.
Driscoll wasn’t exactly a background player in Trump’s Pentagon.
The Army veteran has helped carry out the administration’s push to put readiness and lethality back at the center of the military. He was also trusted with an assignment that had little to do with his official Army job when Trump sent him into the Russia-Ukraine diplomatic fight last year.
Then there’s Vice President JD Vance.
Driscoll and the vice president go way back. They were classmates at Yale Law School and remain close friends, a relationship that reportedly became another source of tension between Driscoll and Hegseth.
His resignation lands at a particularly busy moment for Hegseth’s Pentagon. The United States is six months into the Iran war, and American forces came under Iranian missile fire over the weekend after the U.S. struck Iranian launchers near the Strait of Hormuz.
Driscoll’s potential departure would also be the latest change at the top of the Army. Hegseth fired Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George earlier this year. George had worked closely with Driscoll.
The White House, meanwhile, made clear there’s no bad blood on its end.
“Secretary Driscoll has been highly effective in advancing President Trump’s agenda to Make America Strong Again at the Department of the Army,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said.
Kelly credited Driscoll with providing leadership during major military operations, restoring the Army’s focus on “readiness and lethality,” and helping with negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.

Trump Pays Respects To Four US Army Members Killed In Iran War

Trump’s Army Secretary Makes Surprise Move After Reported Hegseth Clash

dan driscoll

jd vance

pentagon

pete hegseth

There are a lot of conservative companies that love to talk about family. Have children. Have more children. Motherhood matters. Family comes first. Children are a blessing, not a burden.
I agree with all of it. But after working for one of the biggest conservative news organizations in the country, I learned there can be a pretty enormous difference between preaching those values and actually practicing them.
I know this because, before I had children, I was part of the problem. Then I became a mom. Suddenly, I understood what it felt like to worry that your child might make a noise during a Zoom call. I knew the panic of trying to work while also being a mother, terrified that someone might decide the two couldn&#8217;t coexist.
At my former workplace, working mothers were talked about in a negative light if their children appeared on Zoom or if they were caught working from a laptop at the playground while their kids played during the summer. Imagine that for a second. A mother isn&#8217;t skipping work. She&#8217;s literally sitting at the playground doing her job, laptop open, while simultaneously making sure her children have a summer. That was a problem.
&nbsp;
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1164555 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/D6CCF4C6-01A7-457F-943F-F5D19877AF50-1-432x576.jpeg" alt="" width="432" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/D6CCF4C6-01A7-457F-943F-F5D19877AF50-1-432x576.jpeg 432w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/D6CCF4C6-01A7-457F-943F-F5D19877AF50-1-225x300.jpeg 225w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/D6CCF4C6-01A7-457F-943F-F5D19877AF50-1-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/D6CCF4C6-01A7-457F-943F-F5D19877AF50-1-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/D6CCF4C6-01A7-457F-943F-F5D19877AF50-1-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/D6CCF4C6-01A7-457F-943F-F5D19877AF50-1-scaled.jpeg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 432px) 100vw, 432px" /></div>
One former colleague was frequently working from her laptop while caring for her children. She was pushed out. There may have been fine print and official explanations surrounding her departure, but I was told by very senior people involved that her inability to secure childcare was at the heart of the problem. So much for practicing what you preach.
Then there was maternity leave. When I had my first child, she suffered several health issues during her first three months of life. I was a brand-new mother trying to navigate doctors, sleepless nights, and the overwhelming realization that this tiny human depended entirely on me. And I was contacted about work. Numerous times. On maternity leave. Instead of being allowed to focus entirely on my newborn, I had work stress hanging over me too.
Fast-forward to today, and I&#8217;m writing this with my baby sitting on my lap. I now work at The Daily Wire, and I&#8217;ve never felt more empowered to be a working mother. If I need to step away to feed my baby, nobody interrogates me. If I need to take my kids somewhere or give them some one-on-one time, I can do it. I&#8217;m not made to feel guilty about it. In fact, it&#8217;s encouraged.
And here&#8217;s something that might surprise people: One of my biggest advocates for putting motherhood first isn&#8217;t another mother.
It&#8217;s my direct report. A father. Imagine that. A man who can celebrate the work I do while also celebrating the fact that I&#8217;m a mom. He doesn&#8217;t treat motherhood as an inconvenience he has to work around. He reminds me that it&#8217;s more important than anything happening on a homepage that day.
I&#8217;ve been told numerous times that nothing I do at work will ever be more important than being a mother. And here&#8217;s the funny thing: That mentality doesn&#8217;t make me want to work less. It makes me want to work harder.
I realized that one morning at 2 a.m. I woke up to feed my baby and, like any exhausted mom, planned to get him back to sleep right after, and hopefully get myself back to sleep too. Then I looked at my phone. Senator Lindsey Graham had tragically and unexpectedly died. Suddenly, there was major breaking news to cover. So when the baby finished eating, I didn&#8217;t go back to sleep. I grabbed my laptop and got to work. And strangely enough, I felt blessed.
There I was in the middle of the night, exhausted, with my baby next to me, and I got to be the person awake to cover one of the biggest stories of the day while most Americans were still sleeping. I wasn&#8217;t annoyed that I had to work. I wasn&#8217;t frustrated that I was awake. I felt lucky that being a mom was the reason I happened to be awake when my team needed someone.
Nobody told me to cover breaking news at 2 a.m. I wasn&#8217;t scared of what would happen if I didn&#8217;t. I did it because I wanted to. And that difference means everything.
My colleagues have been a blessing from God, too. I&#8217;m surrounded by mothers whose children are older than mine, women who have already survived the sleepless nights and toddler meltdowns I&#8217;m living through right now. They check in on me. They remind me I&#8217;m not alone. And they make sure I know that when motherhood feels overwhelming, I have women around me who have been there and are ready to listen.
Recently, I had an absolutely brutal night with both of my kids. I woke up exhausted and defeated and happened to see a tweet about postpartum struggles from a coworker. She hadn&#8217;t written it for me. She probably had no idea I needed it. But I did. Her words pulled me up that morning more than she&#8217;ll ever know. I sent her a message to thank her for being so real and told her that what she&#8217;d written was exactly what I needed to get out of bed and keep going that day.
&#8220;If you ever need a mom to chat with give me a call!!&#8221; she told me.
Now that her children are older, she can look back and see what can be nearly impossible to see when you&#8217;re in the trenches with little kids. The sacrifices were worth it. Sometimes that&#8217;s exactly what another mom needs to hear.
And maybe the biggest difference between my two workplaces can be summed up by something as simple as a child wandering into the camera. At my old job, I would panic if my four-year-old made a sound during a Zoom call. I would find myself getting angry with her for being a completely normal four-year-old because I was scared of how my managers would react and did react if it happened. 
Think about how backwards that is.
At The Daily Wire, when my colleague Tim Rice had one of his young children climb onto his lap during a live appearance on &#8220;Wired In,&#8221; nobody freaked out. Host Cabot Phillips celebrated it.
&#8220;We practice what we preach,&#8221; Cabot said. &#8220;At the Daily Wire we love children.&#8221; He called children &#8220;a gift&#8221; and &#8220;a blessing from God.&#8221;
That moment stuck with me. A toddler climbed onto Dad&#8217;s lap while Dad was working, and everyone kept going. Nobody shooed the child away. Nobody acted embarrassed. Nobody treated being a parent like some unprofessional secret that needed to be hidden from the audience. That&#8217;s what being pro-family actually looks like.
Being a working mother shouldn&#8217;t require pretending that you stop being a mother between 9 and 5. Children make noise. Babies need to be fed. School closes. Babysitters cancel. Kids wander into Zoom calls. That&#8217;s life.
A company can put &#8220;family values&#8221; in a mission statement. It can publish a thousand articles about the importance of motherhood. But you learn what an organization actually believes when a baby cries during a meeting.
For years, I thought being a great employee meant making sure nobody could see that I was also a mom. Now I work somewhere that has taught me the exact opposite. I don&#8217;t have to choose. Being given the freedom to put my children first has made me more dedicated to my career than I&#8217;ve ever been.
The Daily Wire gave me my family life back. And in doing so, it made me enjoy working again. Every day I wake up thankful that I get to be part of this mission without sacrificing the most important mission I&#8217;ll ever have: being a mom.
***
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

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The Choice Working Mothers Should Never Have To Make

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That six-digit code you race to copy before it expires could eventually be a thing of the past.
A new technology rolling out across America’s three biggest wireless carriers could allow banks to verify customers without sending them a text message at all.
Glide.id launched a public beta of <a href="https://www.glide.id/blog/magicalauth-beta-launches-on-ios-and-android-across-all-three-major-u-s-carriers">MagicalAuth</a> this month across AT&amp;T, T-Mobile, and Verizon on both iPhones and Android devices. The technology is meant to replace the familiar security codes Americans receive when logging into bank accounts and other sensitive services.
Instead of sending a temporary number that customers have to type in themselves, MagicalAuth uses a cryptographic key tied to the SIM or eSIM already inside a phone. According to Glide, that allows the carrier network to help confirm the correct device is being used without sending the customer a code.
That also means there’s no six-digit number sitting in a text message waiting to be stolen.
Scammers have found plenty of ways to get their hands on those codes. Some pose as bank employees and simply ask victims to read the number back to them. Others use fake login pages or SIM-swap schemes to gain access to a victim’s phone number.
There’s plenty of money at stake.
Americans reported $15.9 billion in fraud losses in 2025, according to the <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/03/ftc-testifies-joint-economic-committee-agencys-efforts-combat-fraud">Federal Trade Commission</a>. Imposter scams topped the list of reported fraud and accounted for more than $3.5 billion in losses.
Glide says its system also checks for recent SIM changes, which could help flag a potential SIM-swap attack before a newly activated SIM is used to access an account.
But don’t delete your text messages just yet.
The technology may be available across the three major carriers, but individual banks and other companies still have to adopt it. Glide says it is currently wrapping up initial pilots with major financial institutions and fintech companies.
It also won’t stop every scam. A fraudster could still impersonate a bank employee or convince someone to transfer money voluntarily.
But when it comes to stealing that little six-digit number from your phone, scammers could eventually have one less trick to work with.

Over the shoulder shot of woman holding her phone on an escalator

Rushing To Grab That Six-Digit Login Code Could Soon Be History

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“Oh, bother.”
The voice behind one of the most lovable gloomy characters in childhood is gone.
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<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1166817 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/p_winniethepooh_19638_8181e2f7-384x576.jpeg" alt="" width="384" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/p_winniethepooh_19638_8181e2f7-384x576.jpeg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/p_winniethepooh_19638_8181e2f7-200x300.jpeg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/p_winniethepooh_19638_8181e2f7.jpeg 540w" sizes=" (max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" /></div>
Peter Cullen, the legendary voice actor who brought Eeyore to life in “Winnie the Pooh” and gave Optimus Prime his unmistakable commanding voice in “Transformers,” died Wednesday at his Los Angeles home.
He was 85.
<div id="attachment_1166811" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1166811" class="wp-image-1166811 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-1258472234-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-1258472234-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-1258472234-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-1258472234-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-1258472234-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-1258472234-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-1258472234-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-1258472234-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Nina Westervelt/Variety via Getty Images</div>
Cullen’s family said he died peacefully, surrounded by his loved ones.
You might not have known Cullen’s name growing up. But you definitely knew that voice.
Cullen started voicing Eeyore on “The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” in 1988, turning the perpetually pessimistic, droopy-eared donkey into a character generations of kids knew instantly.
“Hello. Thanks for noticing me,” Eeyore would say in that unmistakably low, defeated voice.
Cullen once recalled that he could get an immediate reaction from children simply by slipping into the Eeyore voice.
But Eeyore was just one part of Cullen’s massive career.
Long before the “Transformers” movies became billion-dollar blockbusters, Cullen was Optimus Prime.
<div id="attachment_1166807" style="width: 906px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1166807" class="wp-image-1166807 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-456407014-896x576.jpg" alt="" width="896" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-456407014-896x576.jpg 896w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-456407014-300x193.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-456407014-768x494.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-456407014-1536x988.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-456407014-2048x1317.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 896px) 100vw, 896px" />FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images</div>
He first voiced the leader of the Autobots in the 1980s animated series and returned to the role decades later when the franchise hit the big screen.
And there was a reason Optimus sounded the way he did.
Cullen said he modeled the character after his older brother Larry, a decorated U.S. Marine who served in Vietnam. Cullen remembered his brother coming home quieter and stronger, and he drew on that when he was asked to audition for a hero who happened to be a truck.
Cullen’s voice was everywhere. He worked on “Chip ’n Dale Rescue Rangers,” “Voltron,” and “Knight Rider.” He even created those creepy clicking sounds coming from the alien creature in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Predator.”
His family asked fans to honor his life by serving their communities and leading others with compassion, integrity, and loyalty.
Cullen leaves behind four children and decades of characters that aren’t going anywhere.
And for everyone who grew up with that gloomy gray donkey in the Hundred Acre Wood, there’s really only one thing left to say: Thanks for letting us notice you, Eeyore.

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The Voice Behind A Beloved Disney Character Has Died

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The WNBA has a rule saying only women can play. What it doesn&#8217;t have, at least publicly, is an explanation of what exactly makes someone a woman.
Enter Enes Kanter Freedom.
The former NBA player is putting that question to the test after ESPN reported that multiple sources around the league said he and fellow former NBA player Royce White are not eligible to play in the WNBA.
There&#8217;s a reason two former NBA players suddenly want into the women&#8217;s league.
Both men have declared themselves women and eligible for the 2027 WNBA Draft. The move is meant to force the league to confront a question that has been hanging over it for weeks.
Who qualifies as a woman under WNBA rules?
Article XIII, Section 1(a) of the WNBA&#8217;s collective bargaining agreement states: &#8220;Only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA.&#8221;
That&#8217;s it.
<div id="attachment_1164645" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1164645" class="wp-image-1164645 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2291740286-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2291740286-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2291740286-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2291740286-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/GettyImages-2291740286.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Michael Reaves/Getty Images</div>
The agreement does not go on to define the word &#8220;woman,&#8221; and the WNBA does not have a publicly available policy governing the eligibility of transgender or intersex athletes, according to ESPN.
So when Fox News host Laura Ingraham pressed Freedom Monday night on whether he is actually a transgender woman, Freedom turned the question back to the league&#8217;s rules.
&#8220;Listen Section 13 right Uh Article 13 Section 1 says if you identify as a woman then you&#8217;re allowed to play,&#8221; Freedom said.
Ingraham asked whether that meant he was identifying as a woman.
&#8220;I identify as a woman, sure, yes,&#8221; Freedom responded.
Freedom&#8217;s description goes further than what the CBA actually says. The agreement does not state that simply identifying as a woman makes someone eligible. It says only that players who are women may play, without publicly explaining how the league determines who meets that requirement.
And that&#8217;s the loophole Freedom is trying to expose.
&#8220;But right now if you identify as a woman you&#8217;re allowed to play and I am identifying as a woman and I am I should be allowed to play it,&#8221; Freedom told Ingraham.
The WNBA didn&#8217;t find itself answering questions about transgender athletes because of Freedom, however.
That started with Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham.
Cunningham set off a national debate earlier this summer when she spoke out against men competing against women and girls.
&#8220;I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans. And I&#8217;m like, I never once said that,&#8221; Cunningham told ESPN. &#8220;I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn&#8217;t have to go against biological men.&#8221;
Cunningham later described her position as &#8220;common sense.&#8221; Her comments turned what had largely been a broader political debate into a very real WNBA headache.
Protests and counterprotests began following the Fever on the road. Other players weighed in. The league was suddenly facing questions about who should be allowed to compete in women&#8217;s basketball.
There was just one problem. There wasn&#8217;t actually a transgender player attempting to enter the WNBA.
Freedom and White decided to change that.
Freedom played 11 seasons in the NBA, while White was a first-round NBA Draft pick in 2012. Both men declared themselves women and eligible for the 2027 WNBA Draft, transforming a largely hypothetical debate into a direct challenge to the league&#8217;s eligibility language.
Freedom then took the fight courtside.
He attended Sunday&#8217;s Indiana Fever game against the Chicago Sky wearing a black shirt that read, &#8220;WOMAN noun. adult human female.&#8221;
<div style="max-width: 728px; margin: 0 auto;"><iframe style="aspect-ratio: 9/16; max-width: 400px; display: flex; justify-content: center; width: 100%; margin: 20px auto 5px; border: 0;" src="https://player.mux.com/TMTKtXKteHDCxQz6oBaKDMrd7URWmpe7?metadata-video-content-type=short&amp;metadata-video-id=73efe821-ca0e-4417-80dc-647423e38ce1&amp;metadata-video-stream-type=on-demand&amp;metadata-video-title=Break%20it%20up%2C%20ladies!%20%F0%9F%8E%80&amp;poster=https%3A%2F%2Fdailywireplus-v2.imgix.net%2Fimages%2Fshorts%2Ffc30d436-4bbc-4233-97e7-a3986300c3df.png&amp;autoplay=false&amp;accent-color=%23DB3D3B&amp;primary-color=%23ffffff&amp;secondary-color=%23000000" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div>
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During a timeout late in the third quarter, Sky guard Natasha Cloud confronted Freedom, and Freedom took several steps toward the court before security intervened and escorted him from Wintrust Arena.
&#8220;I just got kicked out of a @WNBA game for supporting WOMEN!&#8221; Freedom wrote afterward. &#8220;Let that sink in, AMERICA!&#8221;
A day later, ESPN reported that sources around the league said Freedom and White would not be eligible to play.
ESPN also reported that there are currently no cases requiring the WNBA to make an eligibility determination and that the league plans to continue researching and reviewing the issue. No known transgender woman has played in the WNBA.
That leaves Freedom with essentially the same question he started with: if the WNBA says he isn&#8217;t eligible, what exactly is the rule that makes him ineligible?
Freedom said he&#8217;ll follow it if the league spells it out.
&#8220;If they ever come out and say &#8216;Okay we are changing the rules,&#8217; I respect their decision,&#8221; Freedom told Ingraham. &#8220;I will, you know, follow the rules.&#8221;
For now, the league&#8217;s written rule remains remarkably simple: only women can play in the WNBA.
Freedom&#8217;s challenge is just as simple.
Define one.

Enes Kanter Freedom Responds After WNBA Says He’s Not A Woman

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Mark Ruffalo’s fight with Paramount may be new. His fight with Israel definitely is not.
The “Avengers” star spent the weekend denying accusations that he invoked “antisemitic tropes,” but a trail of Ruffalo’s own posts shows his criticism of Israel stretches back more than a decade.
The latest fight started after Paramount accused Ruffalo of invoking “antisemitic tropes” while he attacked the company’s proposed merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.
Ruffalo had shared a video of former Oracle CEO Safra Catz discussing technology the company made available to Israel following the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks. Ruffalo went after Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, whose son David runs Paramount, and warned that the technology could eventually be “used on you.”
“Look how she revels in what we now have come to see as a genocide, which was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle,” Ruffalo wrote.
Paramount wasn’t having it.
“We are, as always, troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute,” the company said.
Paramount also called Ruffalo’s use of words like “genocide” and “apartheid” in connection with the corporate fight “a bridge too far.”
Ruffalo pushed back, calling the accusation that he is antisemitic “appalling and fundamentally dishonest.”
“Criticizing the actions of the Israeli prime minister, a military technology contract, or the executives who supply it is not the same as criticizing Jewish people,” Ruffalo said.
But Ruffalo’s posts about Israel go back years.
In 2014, he questioned accusations that Hamas was using civilians as human shields.
“Do you honestly think these people, these fellow human beings, would use their own children as shields?” Ruffalo wrote to another user. “Use your heart.”
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<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1163859 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-24T085600.439-1024x300.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="300" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-24T085600.439-1024x300.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-24T085600.439-300x88.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-24T085600.439-768x225.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-24T085600.439.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
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Days later, Ruffalo shared an article claiming Hamas had not kidnapped and murdered three Israeli teenagers.
“Wow. It Turns Out Hamas Didn’t Kidnap and Kill the 3 Israeli Teens After All,” the headline Ruffalo shared read.
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<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1163861 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-24T085744.359-1024x300.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="300" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-24T085744.359-1024x300.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-24T085744.359-300x88.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-24T085744.359-768x225.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-24T085744.359.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
&nbsp;
And when criticism started flying over his Gaza posts, Ruffalo had an answer for that, too.
“Empathizing w/ Gaza does NOT make me anti-Semitic, nor pro-Hamas or anti-Israel,” Ruffalo wrote. “It makes me human.”
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<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1163867 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-24T085911.366-1024x341.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="341" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-24T085911.366-1024x341.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-24T085911.366-300x100.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-24T085911.366-768x256.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-24T085911.366.jpg 1053w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
&nbsp;
Fast forward to 2021 when Ruffalo was calling for sanctions against Israel and comparing the country to apartheid-era South Africa.
“Sanctions on South Africa helped free its black people,” Ruffalo wrote before calling for sanctions on Israel to “free Palestinians.” 
He repeated the comparison days later while posting about Palestinian deaths in Gaza.
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&nbsp;
Then Ruffalo walked it back.
Later that month, the actor apologized for posts suggesting Israel was committing “genocide.”
“I have reflected &amp; wanted to apologize for posts during the recent Israel/Hamas fighting that suggested Israel is committing ‘genocide,’” Ruffalo wrote.
He called the characterization “not accurate,” “inflammatory,” and “disrespectful.” Ruffalo also acknowledged something else about the rhetoric.
“It’s being used to justify antisemitism here &amp; abroad,” he wrote.
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<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-1163885 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-24T090440.415-1024x341.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="341" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-24T090440.415-1024x341.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-24T090440.415-300x100.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-24T090440.415-768x256.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/Untitled-design-2026-08-24T090440.415.jpg 1053w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
&nbsp;
The apology, though, didn’t stop Ruffalo from continuing to weigh in on Israel. In November 2023, Ruffalo went after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Netanyahu discussed civilian casualties in Gaza.
“They aren’t ‘collateral damage’ either,” Ruffalo wrote, referring to Palestinians. “They are human beings who happen to have been born there and live there and most of those human beings are stuck there.”
&nbsp;
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Ruffalo has continued criticizing Israel and its handling of the war in Gaza in the years since. Now, the word he publicly apologized for using in 2021 has made another appearance.
Five years after Ruffalo called his “genocide” characterization inflammatory and acknowledged that it was being used to justify antisemitism, he is using the word again. Only this time, Paramount is accusing him of invoking “antisemitic tropes.”

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Mark Ruffalo Denies He’s Antisemitic. His Own Posts Tell A Different Story.

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