The World and Everything in It: January 15, 2025

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Good morning!

Confirmation hearings for the Trump cabinet resume today. Most will go smoothly, but a handful may not.

HEGSETH: I’ve led troops in combat, I’ve been on patrol for days. This is not academic for me. This is my life.

NICK EICHER, HOST: That’s ahead on Washington Wednesday.

Also today, WORLD Tour.

And a historic family home and community lost to the Palisades fire.

GANAGE: I think the dispersion is going to be very unique, because people have completely lost their community.

And later, is there such a thing as too much free speech? Commentary from WORLD Opinions’ Brad Littlejohn.

MAST: It’s Wednesday, January 15th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Lindsay Mast.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

MAST: It’s time for news now with Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Wednesday confirmation hearings » On Capitol Hill … cameras and microphones will be packed into Senate hearing rooms this morning … with more than a half-dozen confirmation hearings scheduled today for President-elect Trump’s cabinet picks.

Those will include secretary nominees: Kristi Neom for Homeland Security, Sean Duffy for Transportation, Chris Wright for Energy, and Marco Rubio for Secretary of State.

RUBIO:  It's a tremendous honor, uh, to the president would place his confidence in me in a position of such importance. Um, it's also a tremendous responsibility. 

Other nominees on the hot seat today include attorney general nominee Pam Bondi and John Ratcliffe for CIA Director.

Hegseth hearing » Yesterday in the Senate …

WHITTIKER: Good morning, the committee will come to order. [gavel strike] The Committee on Armed Services has convened this hearing to consider the pending nomination of Mr. Pete Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense.

Hegeseth, a veteran of both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars … said Trump chose him to get politics out of the Pentagon.

HEGSETH:  It's time to give someone with dust on his boots, the helm, a change agent, someone with no vested interest in certain companies or specific programs or approved narratives. 

Hegseth vowed that his only special interest … will be the war fighter. But the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Jack Reed, countered …

REED:  And your goal, as I see emerging, is to politicize the military in favor of your particular positions, which you've outlined extensively.

Democrats have accused him of holding discriminatory views against women … after his past remarks about women serving specifically in combat roles.

Hegseth assured lawmakers that he respects every female service member … and said all troops will be treated equally.

HEGSETH: Yes, women will have access to ground combat roles, given the standards remain high.

He said his only concern is that physical standards for specific roles are not lowered in the name of inclusivity.

We’ll have much more on that hearing later in the program.

LA fires » Firefighters around Los Angeles are preparing to attack flare-ups or new blazes.

The National Weather Service issued a rare warning that dry winds combined with severely dry conditions created a “particularly dangerous situation.” And authorities warn that any new fire could quickly explode in size.

Los Angeles City Fire Chief Kristin Crowley

CROWLEY:  We are carefully managing our operations to ensure that we can quickly respond to any new fires, in addition to the increased call volume across the city of Los Angeles. I urge, and everybody here urges you to remain alert, as danger has not yet passed.

That warning comes a week after two massive fires broke out … which have now destroyed thousands of homes and killed at least 24 people.

LA County Sheriff Robert Luna said crews have had the grim task of searching for human remains.

LUNA:  We have searched approximately 3, 654 properties in the Altadena area thus far. Yesterday, we searched 1, 800 properties in Eaton.

LA fires/Law enforcement » Luna also said authorities have also arrested dozens of people for curfew violations, looting, and illegally flying drones in impacted areas … which can interfere with emergency operations.

And Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell told reporters …

MCDONNELL:  Officers responded to a radio call of an arson suspect at the location who had ignited a nearby trashcan, uh, which was extinguished by the L. A, uh, City Fire Department. Citizens directed the officers to the suspect location where he was then taken into custody without incident. 

McDonell said police have arrested three people since Sunday for deliberately starting fires.

Mencer/Blinken on ceasefire talks » In the Middle East, negotiators say they’re closer than ever to a ceasefire deal between Israel and the terror group Hamas...

U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken:

BLINKEN: The United States, Qatar, and Egypt, put forward a final proposal. The ball is now in Hamas' court. If Hamas accepts, a deal is ready to be concluded and implemented.

Under the latest ceasefire framework, Hamas would release dozens of hostages.

Israel believes the terror group may still be holding more than 100 hostages in Gaza.

South Korea Yoon » In South Korea, hundreds of law enforcement officials entered the residential compound of impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol just hours ago. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: This was the government’s second attempt to detain Yoon over his imposition of martial law last month. Hundreds of anti-corruption investigators and police officers could be deployed in a potentially multi-day operation to apprehend him.

The impeached president has been holed up in his residence for weeks … with his security forces and lawyers resisting law enforcement.

Prior to his removal from office, Yoon justified his declaration of martial law. He said pro-communist "lawmakers with loyalties to North Korea" had infiltrated the government.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

I"m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: more on Tuesday’s confirmation hearing with Pete Hegseth. Plus, one family’s loss in the Pacific Palisades fire.

This is The World and Everything in It.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 15th of January.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Time now for Washington Wednesday.

The incoming Trump administration has roughly 4,000 political positions to fill … and 1 in 4 of them require a thumbs-up from the Senate. Today confirmation hearings for secretary of state and attorney general get underway … but likely the most controversial started yesterday in the Senate Armed Services Committee. The hearing for the new president’s choice to head the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth.

MAST: Here now with more on the hearing is Washington Bureau Reporter Carolina Lumetta.

CAROLINA LUMETTA: Confirming a cabinet position requires only a simple majority vote in the Senate…not the sixty votes required to pass legislation. With a narrow Republican majority, though, it only takes three dissatisfied GOP senators to hold up a nominee. And Trump’s top-level picks bring some baggage…particularly his pick for Secretary of Defense. Here’s Republican Committee Chairman Roger Wicker.

WICKER: Let's get into this allegation about sexual assault, inappropriate workplace behavior, alcohol abuse, and financial mismanagement during your time as a non-profit executive. I should note that the majority of these have come from anonymous sources in liberal media publications, but I want to give you an opportunity to respond to these allegations.

Pete Hegseth comes with a slate of conservative credentials. He attended Princeton University through a Family Research Council fellowship, and wrote for a conservative student magazine. He was commissioned as an infantry officer in the Minnesota National Guard and served in Iraq. He has led two nonprofits, Vets for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America. After further military service in Afghanistan, Hegseth joined Fox News as a contributor and has written five books on the military and conservative values. He left active duty in 2021.

HEGSETH: I've led troops in combat. I've been on patrol for days, I've pulled the trigger down range, heard bullets whizz by, Flex cuffed insurgents, called in close air support, led medivacs dodged IEDs, pulled out dead bodies, and knelt before a battlefield cross. This is not academic for me. This is my life.

Trump has said Hegseth is a Pentagon outsider who can cut through the bureaucracy. But Hegseth’s lack of experience leading large organizations also concerns senators…like Michigan Senator Gary Peters.

PETERS: Did you drive costs down in a 50-person organization? Let me tell you, we've got to drive costs down dramatically in a organization of 3 million people and hundreds of billions of dollars. Acquisition reform, you bring that up. Have you had experience in acquisition reform?

HEGSETH: I've written about and studied on acquisition reform for quite some time.

PETERS: Have you actually done it?

HEGSETH: Because what we need in the hands of our warfighters better changed 'cause we're not doing it well right now.

PETERS: It better, and we need people who have experience actually doing that.

While Hegseth met with every Republican on the Armed Services Committee prior to the hearing, he only met with one Democrat…ranking member Jack Reed. Several other senators told me that he never followed up with them or only offered a meeting after the hearing. Here’s Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire.

SHAHEEN: And one reason that I wanted to meet with you was because I thought it would be really helpful to better understand your views on women in the military because you've made a number of surprising statements about women serving in the military.

Senator Shaheen and others asked about Hegseth’s written and broadcast statements in which he says women should not serve in combat roles. He deflected…and Senator Elizabeth Warren followed up to ask him about his apparent change in position.

WARREN: Just 32 days after your last public comment saying that women absolutely should not be in combat, you declared that "some of our greatest warriors are women," and you support having them serve in combat. So help me understand, Mr. Hegseth, what extraordinary event happened in that 32 -day period that made you change the core values you had expressed for the preceding 12 years?

HEGSETH: Senator, again, I very much appreciate you bringing up my comments from 2013 because for me, this issue has always been about standards. And unfortunately, because of some of the people that have been in political power over the last four years—

WARREN: Excuse me, Mr. Hegseth, let's just stop, let's just stop.

Republican Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa came to Hegseth’s aid, parsing out the difference between not wanting women in combat roles and wanting to prevent fitness standards from being lowered to accommodate more women in combat.

ERNST: But for the young women that are out there now and can meet those standards, and again, I'll emphasize they should be very, very high standards. They must physically be able to achieve those standards so that they can complete their mission. But I want to know, again, let's make it very clear for everyone here today, as Secretary of Defense, will you support women continuing to have the opportunity to serve in combat roles?

HEGSETH: Senator, first of all, thank you for your service as we discussed extensively as well. It's my privilege. And my answer is yes, exactly the way that you caveated it.

Lawmakers also took issue with Hegseth’s personal life. Hegseth has divorced twice, with infidelity cited in court documents as the cause. He has admitted to having a problem with alcohol, and in 2017 he was accused of sexually assaulting a woman at a Republican women’s conference in California. He was not charged in that case, but evidence filed indicated he was heavily intoxicated. Last year, he paid an undisclosed amount in a confidential settlement with the woman. In private meetings with senators, Hegseth insisted that he’s changed his ways. Here’s what North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer told me:

CRAMER: I was skeptical. I wanted to talk to him. In fact, I was the one that insisted that I hear him tell me and and others that promises not to drink well, drink out any alcohol. … I believe in redemption… I don't know if he's willing to repent, but as the secretary of the secretary of defense, you have to have a clear-eyed, 24-hour-a-day, sober secretary. And he did make that pledge.

Hegseth repeated that pledge during his testimony. But that did not comfort Democratic senators on the committee, including Mark Kelly of Arizona.

KELLY: Summer of 2014 in Cleveland, drunk in public with the CVA team.

HEGSETH: Anonymous smears. 

KELLY: I'm just asking for true or false answers. An event in North Carolina, drunk in front of three young female staff members after you had instituted a no alcohol policy and then reversed it. True or false? 

HEGSETH: Anonymous smears.

In one particularly testy exchange, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia accused Hegseth of lacking the character to lead the military.

KAINE: You've taken an oath like you would take an oath to be secretary of defense and all of your weddings to be faithful to your wife Is that correct?

HEGSETH: I have failed in things in my life and thankfully I'm redeemed by my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The public gallery was full of veterans supporting Hegseth. Navy veteran Scott Stoyan flew in from Augusta, Georgia.

STOYAN: There are some questions with Pete. Okay, guess what? There's questions with me, too. There's questions with everybody. We probably not all acted in a nun-like fashion, okay? But but guess what I'm also forgiven and Jesus Christ is my savior and You know, there's probably some sticky things up there, but I believe that Pete is remorseful… I mean that's just something to be respected.

Senate Republicans say Hegseth’s plans on what to do to reform the Pentagon will get their vote. Particularly, members focused on ending diversity, equity, and inclusion programs under the Biden administration. Here’s Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri:

SCHMITT: The Department of Defense spent over five million man hours on quote, unquote, counter extremism and diversity training, what you and I might call woke training or DEI.

Hegseth connected the dots.

HEGSETH: The more troubling aspect is how many training hours that takes away from a company commander or battalion commander or a wing commander who's out there trying to maintain their force, which is already constrained because of what the Biden administration has done to the defense budget and defense capabilities.

Hegseth said as an Pentagon outsider, he’ll surround himself with people smarter than he is to advise him. But any program not contributing to what he called “maximum lethality”… is on the chopping block.

HEGSETH: what race you are, your views on climate change, or whether you are a person of conscience and your faith should have no bearing on whether you get promoted or whether you're selected to go to West Point or whether you graduate from Ranger School. The only thing that should matter is how capable are you at your job.

The Senate Armed Services Committee will meet again on Monday - Inauguration Day - to vote on Hegseth’s confirmation. President-elect Trump wants as much of his cabinet in office when he is inaugurated as possible. But the process through the Senate has slowed over the years. Only two of Trump’s nominees were approved by inauguration in 2017. President Joe Biden only had one by his first day.

Today, Senator Marco Rubio faces the committee he normally sits on: Senate Foreign Relations. He’s considered to be an easy shoe-in for the next Secretary of State. Barring delays, 13 nominees are scheduled to have their hearing in the next two weeks.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Carolina Lumetta in Washington D.C.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD Tour with our reporter in Africa, Onize Oduah.

SOUND: [SINGING]

We begin today’s World Tour at celebrations in the North African nation of Sudan.

Soldiers and civilians danced in the streets of the key city of Wad Madani on Sunday, one day after Sudanese armed forces recaptured it from rebel forces.

Wad Madani is less than a hundred miles south of Sudan’s capital of Khartoum. It is a major crossroad, linking several states through key supply highways.

Fighting began between Sudan’s armed forces and rebels from the Rapid Support Forces—or RSF—in April 2023. The violence has killed more than 28,000 people and sent millions of others fleeing in what’s now the world’s largest displacement crisis.

Adil Ali is one of the displaced residents who celebrated the recapture.

AUDIO: It took a long time to do it but it happened. We were displaced for over a year and we've lost everything when RSF took over Madani, but now we can start from the beginning and return home.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the RSF and its allies have committed genocide in the conflict.

SOUND: [AIRPORT]

Paris-Pakistan flights — We head next to Paris, where a Pakistan state-owned airliner made its first descent in over four years.

The flight took off from Islamabad and arrived in Paris on Friday.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency suspended the airline’s authorization back in June 2020 over safety concerns after one of the airlines’ planes killed nearly 100 people after plunging onto a street. The Pakistani airline also faced allegations that nearly a third of its pilots had falsified their licenses.

Abdullah Hafeez is a spokesman for the airline. He says the safety analysis has been strict and the airline has proven it’s ready for business once again.

ABDULLAH HAFEEZ: One has to understand the fact that they were very stringent, they were very strict in actually analysing the safety parameters of that airline, and they found it to be at par with any best service in the world, so in that sense, now with the certification that we have, I think the apprehension should not be there, and PIA is a safe airline.

Pakistan International Airlines is still barred from operating in the United States and the United Kingdom.

SOUND: [STREET]

Mayotte Storm — Next, to Mayotte, one of the poorest oversea regions of France. Mayotte is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, situated between Madagascar and Mozambique.

Tropical Storm Dikeledi passed about 60 miles south of Mayotte, bringing heavy rains and prompting the highest alert level. The damage was not as severe as last month’s Cyclone Chido.

The cyclone killed at least 39 people and injured more than 5,000.

Massa lives on the island.

MASSA: [FRENCH] I'm afraid, I'm afraid. We're only in the middle of the rainy season, so we don't know what's going to happen between now and February or March.

She says she’s worried, since the rainy season is far from over. Mayotte is densely populated with more than 300,000 residents.

SOUND: [PROTEST]

El Salvador protests — We end today in El Salvador where protesters are demanding the release of some of those arrested under the president’s war on gangs.

About 2,000 people joined the march in the capital of San Salvador on Sunday.

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele launched his war on gangs back in 2022 as homicides escalated. Authorities have swept up more than 83,000 people in arrests since then.

Sebastiana Avelar said security forces detained her husband in 2022 and her son nearly a year later.

SEBASTIANA AVELAR: [SPANISH] It's something heartbreaking to live without them, not knowing how they are; I don’t know anything about them.

She says she’s heartbroken living without knowing how they are faring.

President Bukele has said his administration has released some 8,000 innocent people.

El Salvador documented a record low of 114 homicides last year.

That’s it for this week’s World Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Oduah in Abuja, Nigeria.

NICK EICHER: Belcastro is a picturesque little village on the tip of the Italian boot, and it’s giving illness the boot by making it illegal to get sick.

TORCHIA: [Speaking Italian] Yes, good morning everyone, the reason for the ordinance is that we have a medical emergency station present in the territory, on municipal premises, where we all pay the utilities at the expense of the municipality, but the service is not provided to us.

That’s the mayor explaining his tongue-in-cheek ordinance banning ill health. He’s saying this town has healthcare in name only—so his decree is less a joke and more a plea for help.

The nearest hospital is 30 miles away. It’s accessible only by a slow, winding road. And the lone doctor? Off duty on nights, weekends, and holidays.

So until something changes, Belcastro’s unofficial motto is clear: stay healthy, or you may need a lawyer too.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Today is Wednesday, January 15th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: the California fires.

Currently more than 6,000 personnel are fighting the Palisades and Eaton fires. Dry conditions and high winds are driving the intensity and spread. Together those two fires are likely to become the most costly in the history of LA County.

MAST: Many families say it’ll be impossible to rebuild. WORLD’s Mary Muncy talked to one family who lost more than just their home.

GEORGE CRANDELL: She said, ‘Yeah, well, you know, I had my bag packed, and I just did the normal evacuation thing. But I never thought this was the big one.’

MARY MUNCY: George Crandell spent his childhood in the Pacific Palisades. He’s talking about his 87-year old step-mother Yvonne who now lives in the family home he grew up in.

CRANDELL: This was the fifth time she had to evacuate.

Over the last 15 years, Yvonne has kind of become used to evacuations. Last Tuesday afternoon she left with her important documents and the clothes on her back—thinking she’d be back in a couple days. But on Wednesday morning, she got a notification on her phone that the fire alarm in the house was going off.

CRANDELL: Overnight, everything got wiped out.

Yvonne is devastated. So much so that she declined to speak with us. The house has been in the family for five generations—the centerpiece of extended family gatherings for nearly 75 years.

CRANDELL: In the late 1940s my grandparents and my parents moved to Southern California.

Crandell was only three or four years old when his parents walked out onto a bluff overlooking the Santa Monica Bay.

CRANDELL: They walked out there and he said, ‘Babe, this is it.’ He picked up the ‘for sale’ sign and put it in the trunk of his car.

No one else was going to get that property.

Pacific Palisades was founded in 1922. It began as a Methodist retreat. It was a place for retired missionaries and pastors to buy houses or little lots.

CRANDELL: And they were made so they'd be affordable for the for the retiring church people

Crandell’s father and uncle built a one-story, ranch-style house with a big yard that overlooked the bay. There was a big magnolia tree in the back yard and his grandmother put in brick paths around it and along the bluff.

KEENA GANNAGE: I mean, that was my first home.

Keena Gannage is George Crandell’s daughter. She lived in the house until she was ten.

GANNAGE: It had that old charm, just because it was such an old home and had been kept nice.

Gannage and her kids also lived on the property on and off in 2008.

GANNAGE: And our children all began to have that same connection to the home and property because of that time, and it became a very special place for them.

Throughout the years, many generations shared the home, but none of them did much to change it.

GANNAGE: I grew up on the same property with my grandparents and my great grandmother.

AUDIO: [Sound of piano playing]

Gannage remembers her great-grandmother sitting on the couch in the living room and walking the paths with her cousins and Thanksgiving ending in everyone around the self-playing piano.

AUDIO: [Sound of birthday party, singing]

A few years ago, Gannage had her 50th birthday at the house.

GANNAGE: It wasn't a fancy house. It wasn't, you know, it wasn't anything about the house itself. It was what, what, what the house and property facilitated. And that was what was special.

While the house had remained relatively untouched, the town changed around it. George Crandell once again:

CRANDELL: The older bungalow houses were being transformed into huge places that took up most of the lot with Mansions…

Mansions that have now gone up in flames.

FOX: We do continue our coverage of the wildfires that are burning across California…

WGN NEWS: Thousands of families have lost their homes this week.

FOX: We are watching a house burn down and it never gets any easier and our hearts go out to the folks who call that house a home.

The Palisades fire started on January 7th. In the eight days since, the fire has scorched more than 23,000 acres. It’s destroyed nearly 1,300 homes and structures and at least eight residents have died in the fire.

Now, a 6pm to 6am curfew remains in effect and tens of thousands of people have evacuated the area.

GANNAGE: I think the dispersion is going to be very unique, because people have completely lost their community.

Many of the area’s wealthy residents may have the resources to rebuild, but that takes time—time that many of the old timers probably can’t invest.

GANNAGE: You won't have the the old influence of the people who've been there for generations coming back, it's likely to be all, you know, more new residents, or all new residents, and because the home would never be able to be built nowadays the way it was back then.

As for the Crandell family, George says they likely won’t rebuild and his step mother Yvonne isn’t sure where she’ll go.

CRANDELL: I expect a lot of people won't return, and it will take years and years and years before that community starts to look like a community again. It was just sort of like something got erased.

And regardless of how many do return, Crandell says that he doesn’t think it will ever be the same. But they’re grateful for the memories that the fire could not destroy, and they look forward to making new ones—wherever that may be.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, January 15th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast. Up next, WORLD Opinions contributor Brad Littlejohn wonders about limits to free speech.

BRAD LITTLEJOHN: Today, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton. Without any idea who the parties are, many Americans would probably reflexively side with the “Free Speech Coalition.” After all, isn’t free speech what we are all about as Americans? If told, however, that in this case the plaintiffs are a lobbying group representing pornography websites known to profit from child sex trafficking and rape, we might rethink our reflexive sympathies. Can there be such a thing as too much free speech protection?

In recent years, many Christian conservatives would have been tempted to answer “No,” seeing censorship as a major threat to our freedom to argue our viewpoints and practice our beliefs. And yet, as George Will once famously said, “the most important four words in politics are ‘up to a point.’” Even free speech, it turns out, can be taken too far, and the current case before the Court is Exhibit A of why and where we must be prepared to draw some lines in the sand.

The form of speech that most deserves protection is political speech, speech in which we as citizens offer a substantive viewpoint on what our society ought to do or how our rulers ought to govern. Indeed, this is what our Founders seemed chiefly to have in mind with the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Not only does the text situate free speech within the context of political petition, but note the crucial article “the freedom of speech.” What does that article mean?

It tells us that the Founders were not making a sweeping philosophical declaration in thin air, but were seeking to ensure that our Constitution maintained an already-understood sphere of freedom, an existing body of legal rights around speech. This body was found in the English common law which was taken up into American law, and which always recognized that there were some kinds of speech—obscenity, incitement, sedition, or libel—that did not enjoy automatic protection.

In recent decades, our Courts have dramatically broadened “free speech” protections. We have ceased to worry about whether the speech was contributing to public debate, or even whether it was making truth claims at all. “Speech” was expanded to include all forms of “expression,” including images or performances. An adult entertainer can now claim First Amendment rights for “self-expression.” With the line between speech and action so far blurred, we might ask why outright prostitution is still illegal—why can’t they be free to “express themselves”?

At the same time, in keeping with a general cultural trend to treat any inconvenience as an oppressive burden, plaintiffs have routinely succeeded in arguing that any regulations that might make speech even just a bit more difficult are a “restriction” on speech. So, for instance, in the present case, the requirement that adults undergo anonymous age-verification before accessing hardcore pornography, we are told, “burdens adults’ access to protected speech” and is therefore unconstitutional.

The great irony is that this grave constitutional concern about “burdening access” has emerged at exactly the same time that it is easier to access pornography—and indeed, all kinds of offensive speech—than ever before. The Founders imagined a world where, even when offensive or immoral speech was permitted, you could always avoid it by staying home. Today, it invades the home through a dozen digital portals, so that parents are reduced to playing whack-a-mole in a futile effort to protect their children from the most obscene content imaginable.

Who exactly is being “burdened” in this scenario? Pornographers, or the most vulnerable amongst us?

I’m Brad Littlejohn.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: Trying to protect minors from harmful online material using age-verification…we’ll consider some of the benefits and unintended consequences. And, the debate over H1-B visas. That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio. WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

Jesus said: “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!” —Matthew 18:7.

Go now in grace and peace.

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