The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1238334
The Press-Dispatch Opinion Wednesday, April 22, 2020 B- 9 Court Report FELONY Pike County Circuit Court Dustin B. Thompson charged with count I bat- tery by means of a dead- ly weapon, a level 5 felony, count II resisting law en- forcement, a level 6 felony, count III battery against a public safety official, a level 6 felony, and count IV crim- inal recklessness commit- ted with a deadly weapon, a level 6 felony. TRAFFIC AND MISDEMEANOR Pike County Circuit Court Bernard Eugene Church charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated. CIVIL Pike County Circuit Court Mariner Finance, LLC, successor in interest to Personal Finance Compa- ny, LLC sues Melissa Vest on complaint. INFRACTIONS Pike County Circuit Court Eric R. Carr charged with count I speeding and count II operating with ex- pired plates. Jayden A. Embry charged with driving left of center. Arynn Jo Embry charged with disregarding a flash- ing red or yellow signal. Jacob R. Reimer charged with speeding, exceeding 55 mph. Alexander T. Moore charged with speeding, ex- ceeding 55 mph. through the Holy Spirit. Re- gardless of circumstances, nothing formed can harm your soul and pull you away from the Love of God. Nevertheless, do not fear. The Lord will provide redemption for he said, "And when these things be- gin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemp- tion draweth nigh. Bathe in the glory and peace of the Lord while you think about it! Continued from page 8 ETERNAL I picked up as I listened to various programs via You- tube. "Better to be six feet apart than six feet under." "In our feeling of help- lessness, let's not go into hopelessness." "Do the right thing even if no one is looking. It's called integrity." "If God puts us through it, He'll let us go through it." Have a blessed week. We'll be back to normal life soon. (I hope). Continued from page 8 CHANT lication, many reviewers gave these papers glowing praise. Political scientist Zach Goldberg ran certain griev- ance studies concepts through the Lexis/Nexis database, to see how often they appeared in our press over the years. He found huge increases in the usag- es of "white privilege," "un- conscious bias," "critical race theory" and "white- ness." All of this is being taught to college students, many of whom become pri- mary and secondary school teachers who then indoctri- nate our young people. I doubt whether the coro- navirus-caused financial crunch will give college and university administra- tors, who are a crossbreed between a parrot and jel- lyfish, the guts and back- bone to restore academic respectability. Far too of- ten, they get much of their political support from cam- pus grievance people who are members of the faculty and diversity and multicul- tural administrative offic- es. The best hope lies with boards of trustees, though many serve as yes men for the university president. I think that a good start would be to find 1950s or 1960s catalogs. Look at the course offerings at a time when college grad - uates knew how to read, write and compute, and make them today's curri- cula. Another helpful tool would be to give careful consideration to eliminat- ing all classes/majors/mi- nors containing the word "studies," such as women, Asian, black or queer stud- ies. I'd bet that by restor- ing the traditional academ- ic mission to colleges, they would put a serious dent in- to the COVID-19 budget shortfall. Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. Continued from page 8 COLLEGE the Los Angeles Times published an article on April 10 titled "California's Coronavirus Death Toll Is Way Below New York's. Here's Why." In it, the authors, needless to say unquestioningly, reported that Nich- olas Jewell, identified as "a UC Berke- ley biostatistician," explained why Cal- ifornia had so many fewer deaths than New York: "Just putting those controls in place a single day earlier makes a huge, huge difference in the growth rates," Jew- ell said, referring to California Gov. Gavin Newsom's March 19 lockdown order, whereas New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo waited three more days to lock down New York state. That, according to the expert from UC Berkeley and the Los Angeles Times, explains the "huge, huge difference in the growth rates" between the two states. Then the article added a line that un- dermined its entire thesis: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis didn't impose a stay-at-home order until April 1." Apparently, it never occurred to the Los Angeles Times authors to even look up Florida's death rates. The non- conservative media have been largely worthless during this crisis — intellec- tually vapid, and, along with "experts," the primary stokers of panic. If a few days' delay in ordering the lockdown of a state (or country) makes a "huge, huge difference" in death rates, Florida should have had a worse death rate than New York, let alone California. Yet Florida's death rate is among the lowest in the coun- try: 24 per 1 million — despite the fact that Florida, along with Maine, has the largest percentage of elderly peo- ple (those 65 and over) in any Amer- ican state. And then there is Sweden, the one industrialized Western democracy that did not shut down — engendering in- tense anger from scientists and other "experts," as well as left-wing media (i.e., virtually all major media) across the world. Sweden, which still has its restaurants and businesses open, is far below Spain, Italy, Belgium, France, the U.K., the Netherlands, Switzer- land and Luxembourg — all of which have national lockdowns — in deaths per 1 million. Yes, Sweden's death rate per 1 million is higher than its Scan- dinavian neighbors, Norway and Den- mark, which did lock down their eco- nomic life. But as of the latest report, in the past two days, Sweden, which has almost exactly the same number of people as Denmark and Norway com- bined, lost 20 of its citizens to the coro- navirus, while its neighbors lost 18. The left blames President Donald Trump for our crisis (as if only Amer- ica is undergoing economic ruin and loss of life). If they were honest, they would blame reliance on "experts" and "mod- eling." But they hate Trump more than they love Americans — or truth. Dennis Prager is a nationally syndi- cated radio talk-show host and colum- nist. His latest book, published by Reg- nery in May 2019, is "The Rational Bi- ble," a commentary on the book of Gen- esis. His film, "No Safe Spaces," came to theaters fall 2019. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contact- ed at dennisprager.com. Continued from page 8 LOCKDOWN effort. Fortunately, Ameri- ca had a great team—and duct tape. 2. Miracle (2004). The Cold War was never cold- er than on the Olympic ice hockey rink, where a bunch of American col- lege kids take on the Sovi- et squad, the most feared team in the world. But what do the odds-makers know? The red, white, and blue walk away with the gold. 1. Argo (2012). The Ira- nian revolutionaries heap every humiliation they can think of on the Unit- ed States. They didn't fig- ure on the courage and au- dacity of an American se- cret agent. Keeping it going, Ameri- ca. What's your list of mov- ies that make you want to shout "U-S -A, U-S -A"? And, don't forget. The greatest days of this Amer- ica's next generation lie ahead. Someday, Holly- wood will make movies about them. With God's grace, they will be inspir- ing, too. James Jay Carafano is a leading expert for the Heri- tage Foundation in nation- al security and foreign poli- cy challenges. Continued from page 8 CHANT Katiedid vs... by Katiedid Langrock No news in the new normal Spread the word, not the virus Letter to the Editor To the Editor: Only Christianity provides an- swers to the COVID-19 problems we are facing today. Its time that Chris- tians take off their masks, come out of the closet and go out into the world. It is time we let our light shine to men and not hide it under the basket. This is not time for men under the con- viction of the Holy Spirit to hunker down and stay home. It's time we hon- or Christ's clear command found in Matthew 28:18 -20, "Go and make dis- ciples in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and to teach them to obey all of my commands." Do you know what is far worse than getting the COVID-19 virus? It's spending eternity in Hell because someone obeyed man's law of social distancing and not God's command to go. He has given one command and one play to reach the lost with the gospel. God does not command us to hunker down, stay home and prac- tice social distancing. God's law is to love Him with all our heart, soul and strength and our neighbors as thy- self. Man's law is telling us to ignore our loved ones in nursing homes, hos- pitals and assisted living. We are not to have birthday parties for our chil- dren. They aren't allowed to play with friends, go to school or church. We need to ask ourselves, W.W.J.D? Would Jesus stay home, hunkered down, or would He go and spread the word, touch the sick and heal multi- tudes of their sickness? Are we not called to imitate Jesus and become like him? We have let Hollywood, social me- dia, our liberal universities and our secular left set our agendas. Look at our crime rates, violence in streets, in our homes, schools, the fornications, divorces, lack of respect for our el- ders, young, abortions, alcohol, drug addicts. How is that working out? We need to spread the word, not the virus. It is essential we turn to him. We need to remember sin is the second most powerful force in the world for it sent Jesus to the cross. Only one source is greater, the love of God. Somebody mentioned virtual wor- ship–virtual means in essence or ef- fect but not in fact or name. Virtual focus is a point from which divergent rays seem to emanate, but not actu- ally do so. It's time to fight back with prayer, an upward focus and with our feet planted on the solid rock. So what is the most essential against this COV- ID-19 virus? It's that God lets us nev- er lose that fact or close that door on someone. Rick Cannon Petersburg "You're gonna burn, little birdie! " Perhaps in days prior to COVID-19, I would express concern over my 4-year-old's impaling Peeps from the Easter Bun- ny and roasting them over the campfire while mutter- ing to the melting, bubbling once-bird-shaped gloop, but now? Meh. My daughter has gone fe- ral. She is insisting on pee- ing outdoors. She and my husband stared each other down for a good 30 minutes while he insisted that little girls use the potty and she insisted, as she shook in her chair, legs crossed, that little girls pee in the wild. It was a wonder to behold — quite honestly the best COV-enter- tainment I've seen yet. My friend suggested I not write about the virus this week — that I find something else to talk about, that we need entertainment outside of the vi- rus. But unlike the stand-up on Netf- lix, my comedic life experiences are not produced well in advance. I will, however, do my best. (clears throat) What's the deal with appliances? Just when I need a drink every night (and morning and afternoon), the ice-mak- er in my freezer dies. Guess it's not just the elderly that are at risk. No, no, that's awful. And still all about the virus. OK, let me try again. What's the deal with electronics? Just when I need to sit my children in front of Netflix for 30 hours a day, the comput- er catches a bug and keeps shutting it- self off. Just what we need, to deal with another virus. Nope, nope. What's the deal with moms constant- ly walking past their kids' online Zoom classes in the nude? No need to worry about the virus; the kids are going to die from em- barrassment. Nope. Still discussing CO- VID-19. There is nothing else to talk about. The whole world has nothing else to talk about. We are all stuck at home. We are all balancing work and family and physi- cal health and mental health and pay- ing bills and offering prayers. In the past month, I have been in touch with my friends in Germany, Russia, Australia, the U.K., Macedo- nia, Italy and China. The stories are all the same. There are no new stories. The days are all the same. And we're the lucky ones, because these days, no news is good news. There was some fun to be had in the early days of isolation. Virtual happy hours filled up every evening. My so- cial life, like many others', almost seemed to be on the rise as I caught up with old friends. But that, too, has died down. There is no "new" to talk about in this new normal. All roads, stories and jokes lead back to the coronavirus. My son's teacher just sent a journal assignment: "What is the one word you would use to describe your time in isolation? " I felt my body tense up as I waited for his answer. Was it going to be "boring"? "Yelling"? "Terrible"? "Lonely"? He said, "Feral." We have all gone a little feral, haven't we? Something primal is taking over. Emotions are flooding out of us, the gates of decorum destroyed. There are extreme winds as tornadoes rip down the center of America with waves of yelling and tears. People are breaking local ordinanc- es to go outside. Some are going into nature and down shut-off trails, some to commune with neighbors, some to march against politicians making rules to save lives. My best friend in New York City has been taking walks in graveyards. Other friends have bro- ken out in hives from the stress. Bod- ies are rebelling. Something feral is alight. In our house, it is mostly the camp- fire. Trying to break up the monotony, we've been camping out many nights. We've been eating over a flame. The children have muddied themselves daily catching frogs. My daughter is insisting on peeing outside. My son made a slingshot. His target practice is a picture of the virus drawn in crayon. The washing machine was the latest appliance to break down during isola- tion — just in time for my daughter to wet herself when she's not permitted to pee outdoors. We are all refusing this new normal. But I was told not to talk about the coronavirus. So let me try again. What's the deal with appliances? Just when I need a drink, the ice-maker dies. Well, ain't that neat. Let me try again. What did the marshmallow bird say as it roasted over the campfire? Not a peep. Katiedid Langrock is author of the book "Stop Farting in the Pyramids," available at www.creators.com/books/ stop-farting-in-the-pyramids. Like Ka- tiedid Langrock on Facebook, at www. facebook.com/katiedidhumor.