The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/63159
OPINION the threat of a nuclear Iran are not enough to occupy the government's time, because the Obama administration is pushing to force Westchester County, N.Y., to create more low-income housing, in order to mix and match classes and races to fit the govern- ment's preconceptions. Behind all this busy work for bureau- Apparently the soaring national debt and crats and ideologues is the idea that there is something wrong if a community does not have an even or random distribution of vari- ous kinds of people. This arbitrary assump- tion is that the absence of evenness or ran- domness—whether in employment, hous- ing or innumerable other situations—shows a "problem" that has to be "corrected." No speck of evidence is considered neces- A century of service walks of life. They might be playing outfield for the Philadelphia Phillies (Shane Victorino). Or hosting the show "Dirty Jobs" for the Discovery Channel (Mike Rowe). Or founding Wal-Mart (Sam Walton). Or even becom- ing president of the Unit- ed States (Gerald Ford). The men listed above You find them in all By Ed Feulner all have at least one thing in common. All achieved the highest honor possi- ble for a member of the Boy Scouts of America: the rank of Eagle Scout. It's been 100 years since the first one was awarded. Since then, more than two million young men have reached this milestone, including my son-in-law. It's one I've seen com- ing for a while now. I've long made it my policy to write and personally con- gratulate every recipient of the rank of Eagle Scout. I do this partly to pay trib- ute to the hard work that goes into this unique ac- complishment, but also because I greatly admire the way in which Eagle Scouts exemplify the ded- ication and selflessness that make a vibrant civil society possible. Researchers at Baylor University recently com- pleted a study that mea- sured the lifelong effects of attaining the rank of Eagle Scout. "We found that the ef- fort and commitment re- quired to earn this rank produces positive attri- butes that benefit not only these men in their person- al and professional lives, but also benefits their communities and the country through the ser- vice and leadership they provide," lead researcher Dr. Byron Johnson said. Sometimes this means Wednesday, April 25, 2012 The Press-Dispatch Observations by Thomas Sowell Mixing and matching sary for this assumption to prevail at any level of government, including the Supreme Court of the United States. No one has to show the existence, much less the prevalence, of an even or random dis- tribution of different segments of the pop- ulation—in any country, anywhere in the world, or at any period of history. Nothing is more common than for peo- C-2 ple to sort themselves out when it comes to residential housing, whether by class, race or other factors. When there was a large Jewish popula- tion living on New York's lower east side, Continued on page 3 Charity and politics The no-spin zone—by Bill O'Reilly averting disaster. Con- sider the case of James Lovell, the head astro- naut who flew the ill-fat- ed Apollo XIII mission in 1970. What was intended to be the third manned space flight to reach the moon came perilously close to claiming the life of Lovell and his fellow as- tronauts when an oxygen tank exploded, seriously damaging their service module. As anyone who has seen the movie "Apol- lo 13" knows, Lovell's leadership and coolness under fire helped ensure that this didn't turn into a national tragedy. Of course, not every instance in which an Ea- gle Scout proves what it means to "Be prepared" makes the national news. Consider what happened as Eagle Scout Phil Mur- dock was piloting a raft of Scouts down the Snake River in July 2010 and one of the Scouts collapsed. According to the National Eagle Scout Association: Murdock thought the boy was having an epileptic sei- zure, but he soon discovered Continued on page 3 the most important is how the Unit- ed States should take care of its poor- est citizens. President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party in general believe that income redistribution is the way to go. Since Obama has been in office, entitlement spending has ris- en 41 percent to about $1 trillion a year. There are currently an astounding 126 separate anti-poverty programs in place. Mitt Romney and the Republicans cans are be- ing asked to decide many things this election year, but perhaps A m e r i - reject the concept of "income inequal- ity" and say that a rising economy should lift all households. The GOP wants the free marketplace to provide income opportunity, not a giant feder- al nanny state. With the nation more than $16 trillion in debt, the Repub- licans have economics on their side. Emotion is another matter. Americans are a generous people. The group Giving USA says that last year we donated almost $300 billion to charity. That largesse was voluntary. When the government decides to take our money forcefully through taxation, things get dicey. And so it is instructive to examine the charitable contributions of the pol- iticians who are driving fiscal policy. In 2011, President and Mrs. Obama's adjusted gross income was $789,674. The first couple donated about 22 per- cent of that to charity. Very generous. But Vice President Joe Biden is an- Gore. As vice president in 1997, Gore donated exactly $353 to charity from an income of close to $200,000. Plus, Gore has all that family trust fund mon- ey. Hey, Al, come on, man. That's just embarrassing. A recent Google study shows that other story. He and his wife donated just 1.46 percent of their $379,035 in- come to charity. Paltry? You bet. And not unusual. Since Biden took office in 2009, he has made close to $1.1 mil- lion. His charitable donations: $16,710. Advice to kids: Don't go trick-or-treat- ing at the Biden house. During his time in office, President and Mrs. Clinton gave generously to charity despite big-time legal bills. So did George and Laura Bush. But Dick and Lynne Cheney topped all of them, giving a whopping 77 percent of their income to charity in 2005: a total of $6,800,000. The all-time miser seems to be Al conservative Americans give twice as much to charity as liberals do. Some researchers believe that's because more conservatives than liberals go to church, and therefore, they are tith- ing. Romney gives a lot of money to the Mormon Church, so there may be something to that. By the way, Rom- ney's campaign estimates that in 2011, the governor and his wife gave about 19 percent of their $21 million income to charity. The bible says, "To whom much is given, much is expected." Obama has paraphrased that while urging high- er taxation on the rich. But there is a huge difference between taking mon- ey away from folks under threat of im- prisonment and charitable largesse. My tax dollars don't count toward my moral obligation, because I must ren- der to Caesar. But otherwise, as Gore well knows, I am free to do as much or as little as I want. Points to ponder—by Rev. Ford Bond written about the unfortu- nate death of Trayvon Mar- tin, a 17-year-old black male in Sanford, Florida, and in time to come, it will grow to a deafening crescendo. Conservative columnist It Is Not Going to Go Away To date, much has been Pat Buchannan writes in a recent column "Obama's Zimmerman Problem: Obama foolishly insert- ed himself into this vola- tile case weeks ago, and in- jected the issue of race. Ex- pressing empathy with the family of Trayvon Martin, Obama flashed a signal of racial solidarity . . . Obama also implied that he shares the liberal perspective that America is a country where black kids must walk in daily fear of white racist vigilantes . . . Translation: The death of Trayvon tells us something is wrong with America." "Off-beat" libertarian col- umnist Fred Reed in a recent column of his "Cops, Race, and Reporters" opined, "A fa- vorite template is: evil rac- ist white cop shoots meri- torious black because the cop hates blacks. This is twaddle. Why is it twad- dle? Because every white cop knows that if he shoots a black, he will first be sav- aged in the local and quite likely the national media. He You pay for Warren Buffet's Medicare A woman's perspective—by Mona Charen around the nation hoping to enrage voters at the injustice that the wealthy pay fewer taxes than the middle class. "Now that's wrong," Obama objected, "That's not fair." It also isn't true. According to the The president is barnstorming National Taxpayers Union, in 2009, the top 1 percent of earners paid 36.7 per- cent of income taxes. The top 5 per- cent paid 58.6 percent. And the top 10 percent paid more than 70 percent. Social Securi- ty and Medicare taxes fall more evenly on all income groups (except the poor) but are lower. Further, Obama had the opportu- nity to repeal the Bush tax cuts he claims to find so odious when his party controlled both houses of Congress, but he chose to extend them instead. This is political demagoguery of a high order, attempting to achieve re- election by whipping up class envy and finding "kulaks" to scapegoat. While it isn't true that the rich are system was a "free-market" system that failed. On the contrary, the pre-Obamacare health system was already badly dis- torted by government. The open-end- ed Medicare entitlement, which pays for every medical expense incurred by the elderly, without regard to income, is an invitation to overuse. Consumers have no incentive to shop for value and thus, have no idea what the care they receive even costs. Medicaid is even worse. Those with employer provid- al Affairs that will tackle all of these issues. Like Paul Ryan, they would transi- ed insurance (about 80 percent of the population), likewise have no incentive to economize on health care consumption or shop for value, since someone else pays the bills. People who do not work for not paying their fair share, it is true that you are subsidizing Warren Buf- fett's Medicare. This is but one of the many injustices and inefficiencies of our current health care system that will only worsen if Obamacare is not re- pealed or overturned by the Supreme Court. The one and only thing that Demo- crats and Republicans agree on regard- ing health care in the United States is that costs are too high and rising at an unsustainable rate, though Demo- crats engage in denial on the subject of Medicare's solvency. Yet with the very next breath, Democrats nearly always argue that the pre-Obamacare health insurance policies. This is partly due to the absence of the tax exclusion of- fered to employers. But two other fac- tors also drive up the cost of individu- al policies and leave too many people without coverage. State-imposed man- dates on insurance coverage—requir- ing those expensive items such as sub- stance abuse programs, pregnancy, childbirth, and other expenses may be part of any insurance package—drive up the cost of insurance. Whereas a pure catastrophic plan could be quite inexpensive for a young, healthy pur- chaser, many states prevent insurance carriers from offering them. Addition- ally, because government is subsidiz- ing so much of the care in the broader health marketplace, prices are higher than they would otherwise be. James C. Capretta and Robert Moffit propose a series of reforms in Nation- large employers face prohibi- tive prices for individual health tion Medicare to a defined contribution or "premium support" model. Each el- derly person (excluding those above 55 at the time of passage) would re- ceive a stipend with which to purchase a health insurance plan. Those who wished to pay more out of pocket for more generous plans would be free to do so. The Ryan plan envisions offer- ing subsidies on a sliding scale—more for the poor than for the wealthy. Why should we be paying for Warren Buf- fet's Medicare? Capretta and Moffit further propose changing the tax treatment of health insurance to provide a tax credit to in- dividuals rather than to employers. In one stroke, this would introduce cost- consciousness to a system that has conspicuously lacked it, as the con- sumers of care would be the ones shop- ping for coverage. The Heritage Foun- dation (yes, that supposed bastion of class privilege) has even proposed of- fering a non-refundable tax credit that would be phased out for the wealthiest. As for those with pre-existing con- ditions who cannot get coverage (a much tinier percentage of Americans than the Democrats would have you believe), high-risk pools can be subsi- dized at a fraction of the cost of Obam- acare. Republicans missed an opportuni- will then be suspended and probably fired, losing both income and years toward re- tirement. An ambitious pros- ecutor will charge him with murder, and in the cities, a black jury will lynch him." Conservative African- American col- umnist Walter Williams in his recent column "Media Dishon- or and Race Hus- tlers" notes, "One doesn't have to be a liberal, con- servative, Dem- ocrat or Repub- lican to see the danger posed by America's race hustlers, who are stacking up piles of combustible ra- cial kindling and ready for a racial arsonist to set it ablaze. Recruiters for white hate groups must love Pres- ident Obama's demagogu- ery in saying that a son of his would look like Trayvon but not saying that Melissa Coon's 13-year-old son, who was set on fire, could have looked like a son of his. After all, the president is just as much white as he is black." The three columnists I have just quoted have point- ed out the ominous cloud of anger that has been generat- ed among the African-Amer- ican community by the race hustlers and the disingenu- ous liberal media. America has grown accus- tomed to being force-fed the MR. AND MRS. FRANK HEURING, PUBLISHERS ANDREW G. HEURING, EDITOR JOHN B. HEURING, ADVERTISING MANAGER The Press- Dispatch Wednesday, April 25, 2012 Entered at the Post Office in Petersburg, Indiana for trans- mission through the mails as Periodical Mail, Postage paid at Petersburg, Indiana. Published weekly. will please give old address as well as new one along with phone number. We cannot guarantee prompt change unless this is done. Postmaster: send changes to Post Office Box 68, Petersburg, Indiana 47567-0068. ty to reform health care in a free-mar- ket direction during the early years of this century. If the court spares us from Obamacare, they may get a rare second chance and thus avoid the ra- tioning, crippling expense and decline in quality for which we are otherwise headed. P.O. BOX 68, PETERSBURG, INDIANA 47567 E-mail—news@pressdispatch.net (604-340) Phone 354-8500 • FAX—354-2014 Pike and Surrounding Cos. ......$ 10.00 $15.00 $25.00 $45.00 Elsewhere in Indiana ................ 14.00 Outside Indiana ............................18.00 19.00 28.00 27.00 43.00 SUBSCRIPTION RATES 3 mos. 6 mos. 1 year 2 years 49.00 75.00 Change of Address—Subscribers changing addresses concept that many whites re- main closet racists and is re- minded of this "fact." The disingenuous media reports that Black parents are forced to give their sons "The Talk" for their own safety. The Talk, of course, is about how white cul t ure/soc i - ety target Black males with po- lice profiling, dai- ly discrimination, and rampant rac- ism. The Black male is an endan- gered species in white America, and the probabil- ity of him being a crime statistic as a victim of white America is appalling. National Review satirical columnist John Derbyshire recently wrote a column for Taki's Magazine entitled "The Talk: The None Black Version." The piece is in re- sponse to the media's re- porting on issues Blacks talk about with their chil- dren. Derbyshire in the in- troduction breaches the top- ic by suggesting this is the talk that he would have with his children in dealing with African-Americans. Because the piece is not politically correct, the main- stream media and disingen- uous liberal thought police swung into action and im- mediately disavowed any Continued on page 3