The Press-Dispatch
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The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, October 17, 2018 C-11 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 With nerves still raw from the wrenching confirmation process of now Supreme Court Associate Jus- tice Brett Kavanaugh, speculation whirls regarding what the political implications will be. Worth considering is where the racial lines will be drawn. Among the more aggressive voices from the Democratic side of the Senate Judiciary Commit- tee fighting to derail the Kavana- ugh nomination, were two of the most prominent black Democrats in the country — Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California. The presidential ambitions of both are known and transparent, and they clearly viewed these hear- ings as a platform to advance their national personae. What might these two black sen- ators tell us about the direction of racial politics in the country? Both, in my view, point to a core redefining of the black presence in the Democratic Party. Although A frican-Americans have been a reliable voting base for the Democratic Party since the mid-'60s, blacks have never been defined by the liberalism of that party, particular in recent years. One point of deep division is re- ligion. A frican-Americans are among the most religious demographics in the country and self-identified Democrats are among the least. According to Gallup, 51 percent of Republicans self-identify as "highly religious" compared with Last Sunday was Bread For The World Sunday and churches were asked to participate in helping feed the many who hunger throughout the world. Health experts determined de- cades ago the minimal caloric re- quirements for life. For a typical adult man it is around 1,500 calo- ries; women need about 1,200 calo- ries. Be mindful this is to survive. To maintain body weight and health double the amount. In some of the poorest areas of the world, the ca- loric intake is less than 2000. The Developed Countries of the world have a high standard of living so there is no rational or legitimate reason for anyone going hungry. These countries have social safety nets for the underprivileged. Still in the Americas segments of the pop- ulation struggle with hunger]. The UN released fig- ures in 2017 that show "The world currently has a third more rice and wheat in storage than it is expected to consume." The problem of hun- ger is not supply. World agricultural supplies exceed the demand. Never in the history of the world has the quanti- ty of food been so high and price so low. However, the statistics are de- ceiving. A few years ago, Reuters posted these two headlines within hours of each other: "Grains Piled On Runways, Parking Lots, Fields Amid Global Glut" and "Risk Of Mass Starva- tion Rising Rapidly In A frica And Yemen." If this is true then why do people risk starvation? Globalists claim it is due to overpopulation, but the carrying capac- ity of world agriculture is double the current world population. The UN states the cost to end would hunger is at 30 Billion dol- lars annually. The latest figures from the World Food Program in- Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner Will Kavanaugh realign racial politics? The military serves the nation well Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond Living bread Smartphones and our modern life My Point of View by Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. I have often wondered if I am beginning to feel what everybody else is experiencing about cell phones. They have been called ma- ny names—iPhone, mobile phone, cellular phone—and however you call it, it is just so difficult anymore to live without it. It practically is what everybody looks into first thing in the morn- ing and at the end of the day I bet it's the last thing many check out too. How did we ever live without this device in the remote past? Now don't get me wrong, it's not a bad thing when used wise- ly. I believe this device has saved us a lot of time, it has made lines of communication much clearer. It has helped us learn things faster. It has made us shop items more conveniently. I noticed I used to write my reminders on a diary, now I enter them into the phone's calendar system and I have saved myself a lot of headaches in track- ing appointments and things to do. When I have some documents to store temporarily, I take pictures of them and once I'm done with them, I just delete them and trash them. Years ago I used to carry a heavy camera for taking pictures and a number of times I would ac- cidentally leave the camera some- where to my dismay. Now I don't have to drag these expensive giz- mos, since cell phones take great pictures with excellent quality, and many times I can share the pic- tures so easily and quickly with Continued on page 12 Continued on page 12 Continued on page 12 Continued on page 12 Minority View by Walter E. Williams Real economics Continued on page 12 A widely anticipated textbook, "Universal Economics," has just been published by Liberty Fund. Its authors are two noted UCL A economists, the late Armen A. Al- chian and William R. Allen. Edi- tor Jerry L. Jordan was their stu- dent and later became a member of President Ronald Reagan's Coun- cil of Economic Advisers, as well as the president and CEO of the Fed- eral Reserve Bank of Cleveland. Professor Alchian was probably the greatest microeconomic theorist of the 20th century, while Professor Allen's genius was in the area of in- ternational trade and the history of economic thought. Both were tena- cious mentors of mine during my student days at UCL A in the mid- 1960s and early '70s. "Universal Economics'" 680 pages, not including its glossary and index, reflect a friendly chat I had with Professor Alchian dur- ing one of the UCL A economics de- partment's weekly faculty/gradu- ate student coffee hour, in which he said, "Wil- liams, the true test of whether someone un- derstands his subject is whether he can ex- plain it to someone who doesn't know a darn thing about it." That's precisely what "Univer- sal Economics" does — explain economics in a way that anyone can understand. There's no economic jargon, just a tiny bit of simple mathematics and a few graphs. Chapter 1 introduces the funda- mental issue that faces all of man- kind — scarcity. How does one know whether things are scarce? That's easy. When human wants exceed the means to satisfy those wants, we say that there's scarci- ty. The bounds to human wants do not frequently reveal themselves; however, the means to satisfy those wants are indeed limited. Thus, scarcity cre- ates conflict issues — namely, what things will be produced, how will they be produced, when will they be pro- duced and who will get them? Analyzing those issues repre- sents the heart of microeconomics. Alchian and Allen want your study of economics to be "interest- ing and enjoyable." They caution: "You'll be brainwashed — in the 'de- sirable' sense of removing errone- ous beliefs. You will begin to sus- pect that a vast majority of what people popularly believe about eco- nomic events is at least misleading Pursuit of the Cure by Star Parker Being an American means tak- ing certain things for granted. Chief among them: A strong mil- itary. Even the most historically illit- erate citizen is at least dimly aware that we have a world-class fighting force that protects America and its allies from some very serious threats — one that, among oth- er things, defeated Nazi Germa- ny and Imperial Japan, held back the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and hounded today's terror- ist groups. In short, we're safe. We always have been, and we always will be. Right? It all depends, to be perfectly frank. Mind you, that's no commentary on the bravery and dedication of the men and women in today's mil- itary. They do a terrific job, and we should be very proud of them. The real problem is that they've been ill-served by their bosses in Congress. They've been under- funded and overstretched for far too long now. You can get all the sobering de- tails in the 2019 "Index of U.S. Mil- itary Strength," which was just re- leased by The Heritage Founda- tion. The only non-governmen- tal and only annual assessment of our armed forces, it takes a com- prehensive look at each branch, along with the threats we face worldwide. The bottom line: On a five-rat- ing scale of "very strong, strong, marginal, weak, and very weak," the overall rating for our military is "marginal." When you consider what a vital- ly important job our military does — one that literally means life or death for hundreds of millions of people here and around the globe — that's shocking. But how could it be otherwise? For far too long, we've been plac- ing more demands on our troops. They're in the 17th year of a long war on terrorism — one that, de- spite its successes, shows no real signs of abating. Yet until recently, we've also been cutting defense spending. That has forced our military, in turn, to cut training. They've had to rely on planes, tanks and other equipment that should have been retired years ago. In other words, we've been ask- ing them to do more with less. That's a formula for disaster. So how does one best judge the right size, strength and capability of our armed forces? The Index ed- itors use a formula long embraced by successive presidential admin- istrations, Congresses and Depart- ment of Defense staffs: the abili- ty to handle two major wars at the same time. This is why readiness issues rarely become apparent to the pub- lic — until it's too late. It's like a household living paycheck to pay- check with no savings or line of credit. Everything seems OK until an emergency comes along. For now, the Index editors say, our military is likely capable of meeting the demands of a single major regional conflict while also taking care of its other ongoing re- sponsibilities. However, they add, "it would be very hard-pressed to do more and certainly would be ill- equipped to handle two nearly si- multaneous major regional contin- gencies." Fortunately, things have im- proved somewhat, thanks to the Bipartisan Budget Agreement of 2018. That helped stabilize fund- ing for this year and 2019. But, the editors note, "they have not overturned the Budget Control Act that otherwise caps defense spending and that, absent addi- tional legislative action, will reas- sert its damaging effects in 2020." In short, the recent change in funding is a welcome first step. But we're talking about reversing a trend that is years in the making. As the editors note: "Without a real commitment to increases in modernization, capacity, and read- iness accounts over the next few years, a significant positive turn in the threat environment, or a re- The Weekly by Alden Heuring Corn maze I'm going to go ahead and jinx it now: the heat waves are done for the year. We can all settle in- to a lovely, chilly autumn... And autumn, of course, means corn mazes! Corn mazes are a delightful way to get lost in a pretty fall evening. You can bundle up and go corn- spelunking with the whole fami- ly, bring a date, or even challenge the corny labyrinth by yourself. Though of course there are plen- ty of mazes in our area, the con- cept is also quite popular in east- ern England, where there's even a "Maize Maze Association" that allows corn farmers to post their mazes and other fall attractions on a public board that's easy for tour- ists to see. When you're preparing to tack- le a corn maze, you'll want to be dressed for a long stretch outdoors, and it's important not to be in a hurry. If you simply rush through to "beat the maze," you're miss- ing one of the most en- joyable parts of the ex- perience: the feeling of being lost in a friendly place. Take your time mo- seying about, and see what sur- prises the maze has in its dead ends. You could even employ the classic maze-conquering tech- nique of placing your left hand on the wall and walking the whole maze without taking it off. This is a proven method that will get you through almost any labyrinth, but it has the bonus of usually taking you through almost ev- ery twist and turn the maze has to offer - so you won't miss something because you took all the cor- rect turns. Finally, there's the satisfaction of com- pleting a journey at the end of every corn maze - and, at most maze sites, there's food and more fun waiting for you at the end, too. I hope to challenge a maze or two myself this autumn - hope to see you in the fields! Have a great week! Making sense of mortality Lucid Moments by Bart Stinson Continued on page 12 We had a death in the family over the weekend. Well, not real- ly. But it seemed like it. My son's dog Roxy died of natural causes, at age 14. He had Roxy before he had a wife, before he graduated from college, before he served in Iraq and A fghanistan, before he had kids. None of his kids remember life without Roxy. He bought her on the street, from a guy with a box of puppies and a pedigree from the "Mexican Kennel Club" that we now agree was probably a fraud. But it was impossible to regret buying Roxy. He said Saturday that she was a once-in-a-generation dog, that we won't see another one like her. That's partly because he was able to pour himself into the dog as if she were an only child when he was single, before he married and had children. But also be- cause she was protec- tive, freakishly intelli- gent and had an unerr- ing memory. She used to walk my six-year-old grand- daughter to a friend's house about three blocks away, return home without her, and then get sent back later to bring her home. She would walk alone to the house, bark through the fence for her to come out, and escort her home. My wife didn't believe it, and fol- lowed at a distance to see it for her- self. Years earlier, when my son lived with several room- mates in a large house, Roxy fig- ured out the garage door opener and let herself out for after- noon romps through the neighborhood. She had the pres- ence of mind to hide the remote control device under a burlap sack after using it to open the garage door. Once when I hadn't seen her in about four years, I got out of the