The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1065926
The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, December 26, 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 A century ago, life without elec- tricity wasn't hard to imagine. But today? There's hardly an aspect of daily life that doesn't rely on a steady supply of it. And in an instant, it could all grind to a halt. That probably sounds like the set-up to a new science-fiction se- ries. In fact, quite a few T V shows and movies have used such a prem- ise. But this one is all too real. Ask the U.S. Air Force, which re- cently released a report on the dan- gers of an electro-magnetic pulse, or EMP — a report that confirms the findings of a major paper re- leased earlier this year by The Heritage Foundation. Such a pulse could cripple anything that relies on the electro-magnetic spectrum. EMPs can be generated by a so- lar flare — basically, a burst of in- tense radiation from the sun. So- lar flares occur all the time, but they're generally low-intensity, so few of us notice them. The effects of a larger one, however, would be far harder to overlook. There isn't much we can do about the sun. But when it comes to the other most like- ly cause of an EMP — the explosion of a nuclear weapon miles above the Earth's sur- face — it's a different story. Concerns about EMPs are nothing new, by the way. More than 50 years ago, the U.S. govern- ment wanted to test what such a pulse could do. So in 1962, a nucle- ar weapon was detonated at high altitude on an island in the Pacific. The resulting EMP damaged several U.S., British and Russian satellites. It also blew out street lights and knocked out phone ser- vice almost a thousand miles away in Hawaii. "Electronics of that era were much more resilient to electro- magnetic pulses than those of to- day," writes defense expert John Venable, an Air Force veteran. "Smartphones, com- puters, ATMs, nucle- ar power facilities, and virtually every other facet of our day- to-day lives now re- ly on electromagneti- cally sensitive circuit cards." In short, the same electronic wizardry that brings so much ease to our routines also makes it incredibly easy to disrupt those routines. Not for a few hours, mind you, but for weeks or months. Life as we know it would stop on a dime. We'd be deprived of our T Vs, smartphones and computers, of course, but the damage would be far worse than that. Think of what an EMP would do to hospi- tals, power stations, food supplies, transportation – you name it. The ensuing chaos would be a night- Changes in the sounds of Christmas My Point of View by Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. I have attended several chil- dren's Christmas programs in different schools the last several years and have noticed a subtle change in the contents of the pro- gram. Years ago it was enchanting to hear the children sing the tradi- tional songs such as Silent Night, Joy to the World, Away in a Man- ger, O Little Town of Bethlehem, We Three Kings, Noel and many oth- ers that evoked memories of the scene in Bethlehem. Then grad- ually the traditional songs slowly faded away and now we hear songs mostly focused on Santa Claus, Ru- dolph, the Christmas tree, Happy Holidays and some that I'm not too familiar with. I'm not sure if I'm the only one who feels this way but years ago when I attended the children's Christmas programs, I left feel- ing uplifted and unexplainably enchanted. Now after hearing the new trends, I felt a strange feeling of something is missing and kind of empty and I'm less mesmerized. Around me, people seem to look less elated and bubbly. This is not to criticize the effort put in by everyone as the children had worked hard to practice and the voices continue to be beautiful. But indeed things have changed. Fortunately though, I'm glad the traditional Christmas songs can still be heard in the airwaves and I hope that the progressive or liberal sectors of our society do not ban these songs in the name of political correctness. That will be the day. • • • Now, when I do hear songs like Grandma's Got Run Over by a Rein- deer or I Saw Mommy Kissing San- ta Claus, I feel a mix of embarrass- ment and ill humor. The nations of the world are be- coming interlocked; this has not always been the case. In the an- cient world beyond the national frontiers were long distances and hostile terrain, which made good neighbors. Visitors to a neighbor- ing nation and the occasional im- migrant were expected to abide by the culture of the host nation, and then assimilate. For Christianity, the foundation of Western Civilization began to flourish during the height of the Roman Empire, which was a cos- mopolitan empire to a point. Under Roman law, the subju- gated people of the Empire were free to travel and migrate where they pleased but were not afforded the protections of being a Roman Citizen. This is of upmost impor- tance when trying to understand why the preaching of Christiani- ty, specifically that Christ Jesus rose from the dead bodily, found opposition. For the most part, Roman au- thorities considered Christianity a sect of the religion of the Jews. When Christians were brought before the local authorities, they were accused of preaching a "new god," which was a capital offense under Roman law. For the most part, threats, beatings, and short im- prisonments were the rule; not for preaching a "new god," but for disrupting the public order and peace [this would change after Nero became Caesar and the Great fire at Rome in AD 64]. Fast forward to 2018 and it is un- deniable that we are becoming an amalgamation of nations similar to Rome, but their overarching laws do not favor Christianity, and as a whole, the faith is no longer a cul- tural staple nor afforded any pro- tection. The populous of several Europe- an nations have begun to realize that their national identity is be- ing swallowed up by the demands of universalism and are in open re- bellion. The World Order is trying to merge all people into one. This will result in the erasure of na- tional identity, which includes ethnicity and religion. The Elit- ists among the nations scowl at such a notion of cul- ture being grounded upon ethnicity and re- ligion. But dismissing one's own ethnic iden- tity and religion is a new idea that is not rooted among the an- cients, philosophy, or natural law. There are stirrings in France that may have implications for all; if not, they serve as a warning to all what the United Nations has in mind for the people of the world. In a stinging rebuke, French President Macron was accused of treason in an open letter by sever- al French Generals and a former Defense Chief for signing the UN Global Migration Pact on Decem- ber 13, which was signed in Mo- rocco by 164 nations [the United States was not a participant]. General Antoine Martinez, along with former French Minis- ter of Defense Charles Millon and 10 other high ranking officers have Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond Men have forgotten God Continued on page 12 Continued on page 12 Continued on page 12 The Weekly by Alden Heuring Dashing through the season Minority View by Walter E. Williams FDA policies kill Continued on page 12 Continued on page 12 Among the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's responsibilities are approval and regulation of pharmaceutical drugs. In short, its responsibility is to ensure the safety and effectiveness of drugs. In the performance of this task, FDA officials can make two types of errors — statistically known as the type I error and type II error. With respect to the FDA, a type I error is the rejection or delayed approval of a drug that is safe and effective — erring on the side of over-caution — and a type II er- ror is the approval of a drug that has unanticipated dangerous side effects, or erring on the side of un- der-caution. Let's examine the incentives of FDA officials. If FDA officials err on the side of under-caution and approve a drug that has unantici- pated dangerous side effects, the victims of their mistake will be highly visible. There may be con- gressional hearings, embarrass- ment to the agency and officials fired. It's an entirely different story if FDA officials err on the side of over-caution and either disapprove or delay the approval of a drug that is both safe and effec- tive. In that case, the victims will be invisi- ble. They will have no idea that their suffer- ing could have been eliminated, or in the case of death, their loved ones will have no idea why they died. Their suffering and/or death will be chalked up to the state of medicine rath- er than the status of an FDA drug application. Their doctor will sim- ply tell them there's nothing more that can be done to help them. The FDA officials go scot-free. Let's look at some of the histo- ry of the FDA's erring on the side of over-caution. Beta blockers re- duce the risk of secondary heart attacks and were widely used in Europe during the mid-1970s. The FDA imposed a moratorium on approvals of beta blockers in the U.S. because of their carci- nogenicity in animals. Finally, in 1981, the FDA approved the first such drug, boasting that it might save up to 17,000 lives per year. That means that as many as 100,000 peo- ple died from second- ary heart attacks wait- ing for FDA approval. (http://tinyurl.com/ ydxpvd54). Those people are in the "in- visible graveyard," a term to describe peo- ple who would have lived but died because the cure that could have saved them was bottled up in the FDA's regulatory process. Today, the Phoenix-based Gold- water Institute is leading the bat- tle to bring some sanity and com- passion to the drug approval pro- cess. It recently published a paper by Mark Flatten, titled "Studied to Death: FDA Overcaution Brings Deadly Consequences." Flatten examined the FDA's approval pro- cess and made some important recommendations. Flatten criti- cized some FDA practices, say- ing, "Instead of having to prove a Counter the electro-magnetic pulse threat Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner Pursuit of the Cure by Star Parker Trump's important new Africa strategy President Donald Trump contin- ues to take bold steps, recapturing America's exceptionalism at home and leadership abroad. These important developments are too often getting drowned out by relentless noise in Washington, where the media obsess over many issues concerning this president except those most relevant to his job — his performance leading the nation to excellence. A good example is the superla- tive new initiative just announced by National Security Advisor John Bolton establishing a new A frica strategy. The initiative echoes the foreign policy vision Donald Trump articu- lated in his inaugural address. That is, that America's relation- ship with the nations of the world should be defined first by our na- tional interests. "We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone," he said, "but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to follow." The A frica initiative is driven by three components: expanding and building new trade and commer- cial ties; containing radical Islamic terrorism and violent conflict; and assuring that American aid dollars are used effectively. Among the concerns of the ad- ministration are aggressive moves by Russia and China into A frica, whose approach is far different than ours. Corrupt regimes are an enor- mous problem in A frica. Both Rus- sia and China see corruption as an opportunity for commercial gain by buying off regimes and building debt dependence through loans. For instance, China, according to Bolton, is moving to take over the national power and utility com- pany of Zambia to cover billions of dollars of debt. The best-known public mea- sure of corruption is the Corrup- tion Perceptions Index published annually by Transparency Inter- national. Countries are graded 1 to 100, 100 being corruption free — which, unfortunately, is nonexis- tent. The average global score is 43. The U.S. score is 75. The aver- age score in A frica is 32. China's scores is 41 and Russia is 29. It's clear that neither is mo- tivated to further A frican develop- ment by cleaning up corruption. Quite the opposite. However, disinfectant is not just the morally right thing to interject into A frican politics; it's also the economically right thing to do. Plenty of research and experi- ence point to the single most pow- erful potion for economic develop- ment and prosperity — economic freedom. Economic freedom means lim- iting the size and scope of govern- ment, maintaining a reliable sys- tem of law and courts that protect property and contracts, keeping regulation to a necessary mini- mum, allowing citizens to trade freely abroad and keeping the na- tion's currency stable. Average per capita income in nations that rank in the top 25 percent of economic freedom is $40,376. Average income in the bottom 25 percent is $5,649. According to the World Bank, average per capita income in the 48 countries in sub-Saharan A fri- ca was $1,464 in 2016. It's no accident that A frican na- tions that are the most economi- cally free also have the highest per capita incomes, such as Bo- tswana, $7,596, and Seychelles, $15,505. These also are among the least corrupt countries in A f- rica according to Transparency In- ternational scores. It stands to rea- son that corruption is minimized when citizens have more freedom to do their own business and politi- cians have less power to interfere. However, most A frican nations woefully lack economic freedom, which is why there is so much cor- ruption and incomes are so low. The Trump administration is right on target in advancing both American and A frican interests by Looking back now, it feels as though just minutes ago I was eat- ing turkey and pumpkin pie, but here we are at the end of Advent and the start of the Christmas sea- son. Those who face death often speak of time dilating: every mo- ment an eternity to consider your choices, your regrets... But I've had just the opposite. The days flow past me like a stone in a spring river, and I sit with just enough time to consider how fast it's all going as the current shapes me. We've just moved back into our house after eight weeks living with family during a big renovation; the girls seem to be much older than they were the last time I blinked; and Christmas is upon us. Flannery and Amelia now en- joy taking baths together, playing with toys together (though Flan- nery is dead set against sharing), and dancing together. We have family coming in from out of town, and this year we'll be able to spend at least a little time with everyone over the holidays... We are truly,truly blessed beyond what we deserve, no matter how fast the days fly by. This Christmas I want to wish all of you readers the very best. Make time to help someone. Make time to drink cocoa with someone. Make time to be silent with some- one. And may you all find some- thing beautiful and fleeting in the year to come. Merry Christmas!