The Press-Dispatch

January 9, 2019

The Press-Dispatch

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C-10 Wednesday, Januar y 9, 2019 The Press-Dispatch OPINION Submit Letters to the Editor: Letters must be signed and received by noon on Mondays. Email: editor@pressdispatch.net or bring in a hard copy: 820 E. Poplar Street, Petersburg Some people in government don't even need a shutdown to avoid work. Consider how Senate Democrats are handling President Trump's judicial nominees. Or, to be more precise, not han- dling them. Just before the Christ- mas break, The Hill reported, Democrats vowed to "reject any end-of-the-year deal on judicial nominations, signaling they'll toe a tougher line on court appoint- ments amid heavy pressure from the left." Typical politics, you say? Sure, partisanship is found on both sides of the aisle. No one can deny that. But the obstruction going on now with judges isn't a tit-for-tat situ- ation. Consider what happened in 2014, the last midterm election year. As legal ex- pert Thomas Jipping writes in National Re- view: "By the last two weeks of the 113th Congress, the Senate had confirmed 115 of President Obama's ju- dicial nominees, and judicial vacancies were down to about 65. Yet in those last two weeks, the Sen- ate found time to confirm 17 more judges — 15 of them without a roll call vote." That was no anomaly. The Sen- ate has confirmed judges during 10 of the 11 lame-duck sessions fol- lowing a midterm election since World War II. In 2014 and 2010, the Senate confirmed an average of 23 judges. Today, however, with the vacancy sit- uation clearly worse, there's been no year- end push to confirm judges and to clear out some of the back- log. That "heavy pres- sure" is really working. So much so, in fact, that what used to be a crisis magically isn't anymore, even when it comes to what the The Weekly by Jill Heuring Buying baby food: a monologue Looking on the brighter side in 2019 My Point of View by Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. I received a nice set of materi- als from a friend which I think is worth sharing. I'm not sure if these were indeed from Charlie Chap- lin as stated in the article. Here's three of his heart touching state- ments : 1. Nothing is permanent in this world, not even our troubles. 2. I like walking in the rain, be- cause nobody can see my tears. 3. The most wasted day in my life is the day in which I have not laughed. So keep smiling. I al- ways remembered this famous si- lent movies actor for his penguin like gait. And the fact I've never heard him say a bad word. Pun in- tended. Nowadays, there are hard- ly any good movies because vio- lence and unsavory language are often sprinkled a lot and I wonder does it have to be that way? I'm glad there are still just a few good clean and inspiring ones and most often they are box office hits. Does Hollywood not get it? • • • Here's another section from what I received which is worth sharing. The ABCs of life. ABC-Avoid Bad Company. DEF- Don't Entertain Fools. GHI- Go For High Ideas. JKLM- Just Keep a Friend Like Me. NOP-Never Overlook the Poor (Material or spiritual poverty.) QRS - Quit Reacting to Silly Tales. The blossoming of Christianity and its impact upon the world is breathtaking. In the early years between the resurrection of Jesus and the as- cension of Nero to the throne of the Roman Empire [30 to 64 AD], Christianity was treated as a sect within Jewry. Jewry was a protected religion of the empire, though looked upon with derision by the Romans; nev- ertheless, the Jews and Christians were exempt from paying homage to Caesar because the Temple at Jerusalem gave a daily sacrifice "for" him, but not "to" him. For a variety of reasons by AD 64, Christianity lost its protected status [as a faction of Judaism] and became an illegal religion, which meant adherents were committing capital of- fense for failing to re- vere the gods and the Emperor. The church was at odds with the cul- ture of the Greco-Ro- man world which was steeped in violence and pantheism. Chris- tians were considered antisocial and atheists because they did not participate in the cul- tural events of Rome, which cen- tered on the gladiatorial games, the public executions, the trivial- ity of life, licentiousness, and em- peror worship. The Romans Em- pire reeked of death and immorality. Slav- ery was rampant, and life was cheap. The practice of infanti- cide was common and sanctioned by law. If a child was not wanted, it was aban- doned to die [known as "setting" or "cast- ing aside"]. The infirm and sick- ly could be cast out of the home if there were suspicion that they were infected with a plague. Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond In our lifetime Continued on page 11 Continued on page 11 Continued on page 11 Continued on page 11 Minority View by Walter E. Williams The worst enemy of black people Continued on page 11 Continued on page 11 Malcolm X was a Muslim min- ister and human rights activist. Born in 1925, he met his death at the hands of an assassin in 1965. Malcolm X was a courageous advo- cate for black civil rights, but un- like Martin Luther King, he was not that forgiving of whites for their crimes against black Ameri- cans. He did not eschew violence as a tool to achieve civil and human rights. His black and white detrac- tors accused him of preaching rac- ism and violence. Despite the con- troversy, he has been called one of the greatest and most influential black Americans. Many black Americans have great respect for Malcolm X. Ma- ny schools bear his name, and ma- ny streets have been renamed in honor of him, both at home and abroad. But while black Americans honor Mal- colm X, one of his basic teachings goes largely ignored. I think it's an important lesson, so I will quote a large part of it. Malcolm X said: "The worst enemy that the Negro have is this white man that runs around here drooling at the mouth professing to love Negros and call- ing himself a liberal, and it is fol- lowing these white liberals that has perpetuated problems that Negros have. If the Negro wasn't tak- en, tricked or deceived by the white liberal, then Negros would get together and solve our own problems. I on- ly cite these things to show you that in Amer- ica, the history of the white liberal has been nothing but a series of trickery de- signed to make Negros think that the white liberal was going to solve Democrats make matters worse by how they obstruct Trump's judicial nominees Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner Pursuit of the Cure by Star Parker Lucid Moments By Bart Stinson Trump using capitalism to help the poor The Wall: Not so crazy an idea I lived in San Diego near the Mexican border about a quarter century ago, when illegal immi- gration was peaking. Thousands of illegal immigrants rushed northward through our commu- nity every evening. The Border Patrol was out in force, but there were way too many illegals to be apprehend- ed, much less processed, fed and medically screened. De- spite their best efforts, the offi- cers barely made a dent. Jack Bostrum, chief of the San Ysidro international cross- ing, wrote an internal white pa- per during the Reagan adminis- tration that proposed using cut- ting horses to push the massed intruders back across the bor- der without processing them in any way. Somebody inside his organi- zation leaked the paper to the League of United Latin Ameri- can Citizens (LUL AC), who de- nounced him as a bigot and said he considered Hispanics ani- mals. The Immigration and Nat- uralization Service commission- er found it too hot to handle and exiled Bostrum to the Guam of- fice, where he shaved about 10 strokes off his golf handicap, for the remainder of his federal ca- reer. Dogs barked all night and Bor- der Patrol vehicles sped through parking lots. Illegals hid in cul- verts near our trolley stop, and ran uphill to leap onboard just before the trolley departed. My kids witnessed dozens, maybe hundreds, of apprehensions by the Border Patrol on foot, on all- terrain vehicles and sometimes on horseback or in helicopters. Once, my son and I were in- terrupted playing catch in a park when an illegal alien sprang from the bushes and ran between us. At a Little League ball field, our sweet golden retriever bared her fangs and gave chase to a man who had inexplicably vaulted a residential fence and run into center field toward us. She chased him all the way back to the waiting arms of two huff- ing-and-puffing Border Patrol- men who scaled the fence in pursuit. We eventually moved away, and by the time we came back for a visit, everything had changed. The federal govern- ment had built a fourteen-mile wall along the San Diego sector and it worked. It was a two-part barrier with an inner high anti-climb fence to slow them down, a massive high steel barrier, and a no-man's land in between. An Obama of- ficial famously said "show me a fifty-foot fence, and I'll show you a 51-foot ladder." But you have to take turns on a ladder. And that ladder just gets you to the top. A 50 -foot wall would be 50 feet on both sides. Illegal alien apprehensions in the San Diego sector dropped from 202,000 when we lived there, to 9,000 in 2004 after the wall was built. We still needed the Border Patrol—not just law enforcement officers, but weld- ers who daily repaired breach- es by the Mexican "coyotes" who cut holes to accommodate human smuggling. But the wall gave the Border Patrol a fight- ing chance. There's not room here for the full rationale for a wall at our southern border. I would just re- fer you to Sen. Chuck Schumer's excellent 2006 remarks in favor of a 700 -mile wall. It's all on You- Tube. He has changed his position since then. He now ridicules the idea of a wall. Principled patri- otism is exhausting, and in any case his party has bet its fu- ture on importing and natural- izing foreigners to outvote fick- le Americans. Foreign bloc vot- ers are kryptonite to America's noble experiment in self-govern- ment. Build the Wall. All right, here we are. I'm at the store, here to get some baby food. Have to get some delicious healthy baby food. This'll be great, I love picking out food for Amelia. She loves eating so much; I love it. My wallet doesn't love it, but I love it. And I love the baby aisle. The toys are so cute, the babies on the diaper boxes are so cute. Good stuff. Okay, baby aisle, here we go. Past the formula...ah, puffs, let's get some of those, she finally likes them. Hmm...definitely strawber- ry apple. She didn't like blueberry much. Let's try sweet potatoes... apples and cinnamon...oh wait, I'll get a blueberry one for Flannery. Umm...would she like yogurt melts? Flannery didn't like those much at her age, maybe I just won't bother...oh, let's try it, they have to have a little more nutrition than the puffs, right? Now what flavor? Bah, fruit medley, what- ever, this kid eats pretty much anything. Okay, on to the good stuff. Oh great, these are 10 for $10, here we go, let's go. Umm...I guess I should try to get the combination ones, so she's getting as much nutrition in one go as possible, right? Okay, let's see...what are they thinking with these combina- tions...why would you put aspara- gus and green beans in the same jar, they both make you gassy. Okay, okay, apples and pump- kin, let's get two of those. Er...ap- ples and blackberries? Sure, two of those. She didn't like mango very much...but maybe she just needs to try it again? Bah, I don't know, this is so hard, there are too many choic- es! Oh here we go, bananas and grano- la, that's good. Oh, she can eat meat now, let's get these mac and cheese, beef and vegetables jars. How do they fit so many foods in such a tiny puree? Shoot, the ba- nanas and granola isn't part of the 10 for 10, I have to put it back. Oh, here's some good ones..." Four jars later "Oh, I hit my ten, but there's so many more to choose from! I guess I'll get 20, I'm sure we'll get through them all eventually." During Christmas week, Fox News invited me to discuss how President Donald Trump's achieve- ments for black Americans are registering in awareness in these communities. Unfortunately, we didn't succeed in scheduling the interview. It's a subject of enormous im- portance not just because of what the president is doing to the ben- efit of low-income Americans, but also because of how he is doing it — his approach to lifting up those not participating as they should in our prosperity. First and foremost, the Ameri- can economy needed to grow. And we needed to make sure that all Americans participate and con- tribute. Hoover Institution's John Co- chrane points out that the U.S. economy grew 3.5 percent annu- ally from 1950 to 2000. Since 2000, it has barely choked out 2 percent per year on average. Cochrane notes that if the econ- omy had grown 2 percent per year from 1950 to 2000, instead of 3.5 percent, average income in 2000 would have been $23,000 instead of $50,000. It appears that in 2018, because of the Trump tax cuts and deregu- lation, the U.S. economy will have its first year of 3 percent growth in over a decade. Black unemployment, 5.9 per- cent, and white unemployment, 3.4 percent, are at historic lows. And the gap between black and white unemployment has dramat- ically shrunk, showing that blacks are, in an unprecedented way, par-

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