The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1433624
The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, December 1, 2021 D-5 private com- pilgrims. prob- con- Gar- cattle parcel of be- incentive to the Shared because no conserve. fenc- rancher That proper- own- con- the dollar expand- high- care, sub- vehi- re- take gov- col- you forgive this killed the everything. Colony, pil- proper- would flourishing." distribut- not themselves. Ber- American with the near- died Amer- them, all commons. crops incentive sell food had "injus- division was the and and con- con- much been to food, might and might property. and made all much other- Brad- willingly ones they inability." land, surplus call corruption," ev- they prosperity. thankful for Me Hucksters, Became makers have proposed leg- islation to offer subsidies to chipmakers, and industry reps are fanning out on Cap- itol Hill to nail down support. One American tech CEO summed up the situation by repeating the advice offered by then-White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel at the height of the 2008 finan- cial crisis: "Never let a good crisis go to waste." Only the most intrepid de- fender of economic freedom dares stand athwart this surge yelling "Stop." A similar push is underway in Japan and Europe and, per- haps most consequentially, in South Korea. South Korea already leads the world in the memory chip side of this in- dustry. Its effort to catch Tai- wan in the production of mi- croprocessors is very cred- ible—as well as curiously unburdened by the securi- ty concerns posed by the ac- tive threat out of Pyongyang. The downside for Taiwan in all of this is obvious. A global effort is coalescing around the need to move semiconductor production out of Taiwan. This cannot be good for Taiwan's econo- my in the long run. Not only does it constitute an assault on Taiwan's industrial crown jewels, but the ultimate and inevitable crash in prices cer- tain to follow so many coun- tries pursuing self-sufficien- cy is going to hurt, too. Twenty years ago, Craig Addison coined the term "silicon shield" to describe the deterrent effect that Tai- wan's role in the semiconduc- tor industry has on China's dreams of unification. "Chi- na will have to think long and hard," he said, "before taking any military action to disrupt or destroy Taiwan's econo- my." The current consensus around the threat to Taiwan has turned this assessment on its head. The concentra- tion of microchip production capacity in Taiwan is coming to be seen more as provoca- tion of China than deterrent. More importantly, if defense of Taiwan becomes primari- ly a matter of global supply chain security, then once it is no longer so central to the world's supply of semicon- ductors, the world will have less stake in its fate. The defense of Taiwan is important to the world for many reasons. Chinese bel- ligerence gives its support- ers a good opportunity to ad- vertise them. Overemphasiz- ing Taiwan's role in the global supply of electronics, howev- er, could backfire in a major way. Those who care about Taiwan's security should be very careful with how we talk about it. Walter Lohman is Director of The Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center. He over- sees the think tank's oldest re- search center. Court Report FELONY Pike County Circuit Court Randy Eugene Anders charged with count I burglary resulting in bodily in- jury, a level 3 felony, count II strangula- tion, a level 6 felony, count III domestic battery and count IV domestic battery, prior, a level 5 felony. TRAFFIC AND MISDEMEANORS Pike County Circuit Court Jahkeya C. Neily charged with posses- sion of marijuana. Kasey Dale Eversole charged with count I interference with the reporting of a crime, count II battery and count III disorderly conduct. Billy J. Moore charged with count I re- sisting law enforcement and count II pos- session of marijuana. Joshua L. Harper charged with posses- sion of paraphernalia. Bryan Robinson charged with posses- sion of marijuana. Dakota S. Madden charged with driv- ing while suspended, prior. Ryan R. Brown charged with posses- sion of marjuana. CIVIL Pike County Circuit Court Chelsea Jones sues Jessica Adams for dissolution of marriage. SMALL CLAIMS Pike County Circuit Court Keith Traylor sues Rod Hudson on complaint. INFRACTIONS Pike County Circuit Court Kayla C. Hill charged with speeding, exceeding 55 mph. Dustin A. Stafford charged with vehi- cle with contents escaping. Terence L. Easton charged with speed- ing, exceeding 55 mph. Madison R. Asbell charged with speed- ing, exceeding 70 mph. Andrew M. Phillips charged with speeding, exceeding 55 mph. Shishir V. Bukkasagaram charged with speeding, exceeding 70 mph. Heather L. O'Brian charged with speeding, exceeding 55 mph. Cynthia Sandoval charged with speed- ing. Kaesha M. Keeker charged with oper- ating a motor vehicle without financial re- sponsibility. Nicholas W. Mitchell charged with speeding, exceeding 55 mph. Angela M. Bulthuis charged with speeding, exceeding 70 mph. Haven M. Roy charged with operating with expired plates. Benjamin W. Glaser charged with speeding. Luke D. Isom charged with speeding. of the entitlement state since the 1960s, and maybe ever." We have two competing views in America today. One sees private property, indi- vidual freedom and personal responsibility as the answer to our problems. The other sees it as the source of our problems. The first view I call Amer- ican. The second — well, if not communist, certainly it is not American. Please, Senators, do not confirm Saule Omarova to oversee our nation's bank- ing system. Star Parker is president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education and host of the weekly television show "Cure America with Star Parker." BANKS Continued from page 4 DILEMMA Continued from page 4 Dear Rusty: I lost my wife seven years ago. I was told that I could possibly col- lect 30 to 35 percent of her benefit as a widower benefit when I turned 60. I will be 61 soon. Would it make sense to pursue this if it is true? I am still working full time. Would this affect my ability to col- lect Social Security on my own account once I retire? Signed: Working Survivor. Dear Working: Survivor benefits for a widower can be paid as early as age 60 if you have not remarried prior to that. But col- lecting a survivor benefit before you have reached your full retirement age (your "FR A", which is age 67) creates some oth- er considerations you should be aware of: • Your survivor benefit will be based upon the SS benefit your wife was enti- tled to at her death. Taken at your FR A you'd get 100 percent of the SS amount your wife was entitled to at her death, but if taken any earlier than your FR A the survivor benefit will be reduced. • Taken before your FR A, your sur- vivor benefit will be actuarially reduced according to the number of months pri- or to your FR A it is claimed. The reduc- tion amount is 4.75 percent less per full year earlier than your FR A, and that is a permanent reduction. If you take your survivor benefit at age 61, you'll get 71.5 percent of the SS benefit your wife had earned up to her death. • Since you're not yet re- ceiving your own SS retire- ment benefit, you can take your survivor benefit first and allow your personal SS retirement benefit to grow. Assuming your personal SS retirement benefit will be more than your survi- vor benefit, you can switch from your survivor benefit to your SS retirement bene- fit at any time after you are age-eligible to do so (age 62). You can also, if you wish, choose to continue your survivor bene- fit up until your personal SS retirement benefit reaches maximum at age 70. At age 70 your own benefit will be 24 per- cent more than your FR A benefit amount. • If you claim the survivor benefit be- fore your FR A and you are still work- ing, you'll be subject to Social Securi- ty's "earnings test" which limits how much you can earn before SS takes away some of your benefit. The earnings lim- it for 2021 is $18,960 (the 2022 limit is $19,560) and if your earnings from work exceed that amount, SS will take back benefits equal to $1 for every $2 you are over the limit. So, although you can claim a survi- vor benefit from your deceased wife now (and allow your own SS benefit to grow), practically speaking you may not be able to get a survivor benefit if you are working full time and earning con- siderably more than the annual earnings limit. In other words, the penalty for ex- ceeding the earnings limit may entirely offset the survivor benefit you are enti- tled to. If you're over the earnings limit by only a small amount, you'll only lose benefits for the number of months need- ed to repay what you owe. And for clari- ty, in the year you attain FR A the earn- ings limit goes up by about 2.5 times and the penalty is less ($1 for every $ 3 you are over the limit), and once you reach your full retirement age there is no lon- ger a limit to how much you can earn. To avoid the earnings test, you could al- so choose to wait until your FR A to max- imize your survivor benefit and then wait until age 70 to claim your maximum SS retirement benefit. Regardless of when you claim your sur- vivor benefit, your own SS retirement benefit won't be affected. Your SS retire- ment benefit, which will replace your smaller survivor benefit, will be based solely on your lifetime earnings history and the age at which you claim it. To submit a question, visit website (amacfoundation.org/programs/so- cial-security-advisory) or email ssadvi- sor@amacfoundation.org. Should I take my widower benefit now? Social Security Matters By Rusty Gloor els policies. Bill McGurn of the edito- rial board of the Wall Street Journal recently wrote a must-read piece noting that "Milton Friedman may get the last laugh" due to Biden's reckless policies. Friedman will be again vindicated. But a lot of us are not laughing at the damage to our country and our financ- es. We are crying. Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at FreedomWorks and a co-founder of The Commit- tee to Unleash Prosperity. His latest book with Arthur Laffer is "Trumponomics." FRIEDMAN Continued from page 4 FEASTING Continued from page 4 the Romans in chapter sev- en that we cannot help being sinners. We have no power to escape its desires. Some- times we even find pleasure in sin. Death is the penalty for the soul that sins! Humans are born into a satanically controlled world. A lifetime of hurt and dis- appointment follows. Christ came to show us a better way. To see clearly is to think so- berly and humbly about our fate. Saying yes to Jesus does not magically erase a hu- man's sinful nature. Paul tells the Galatians "And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." A Christian cannot expect to be victo- rious while watching hours and hours of immodest, im- moral, or violent T V pro- grams, movies, and games. Jesus said, "Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness" Luke 11:34. Studies say that "47% of Christians say that pornogra- phy is a problem in the home. 50 % of all Christian men and 20 % of all Christian women are addicted to pornography. What are your eyes feasting upon? Jesus has convinced and convicted us of our sinful nature. He has promised to forgive us and give us eter- nal life. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says before we judge others, we should get the beam out of our eye first and then we can clearly see the problem of our neighbor. John Bradford made a simi- lar observation in 1553. Upon seeing criminals being led to their execution remarked, "but for the grace of God, there go John Bradford! " Christians still hoard past grievances, failures, wrongs, tribulations etc. Paul says we need to "Put to death there- fore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impuri- ty, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idola- try... now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, mal- ice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth," Co- lossians 3:5 -8. The cares of life such as what will we wear, eat, and where will we live, and mak- ing the mortgage and boat payment weigh us down. Je- sus has the solution to los- ing this weight. "But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown in- to the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of lit- tle faith? Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? Or What shall we drink? Or What shall we wear?... your heavenly Fa- ther knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you," Matthew 6:30 -33. The tough reality is Jesus has "Intervened," for our own good. Do not be discouraged, "For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith," 1John 5:4. Get more from giving this year with a gift subscription to e Press-Dispatch. By delivering the latest local news updates, shopping deals, announcements, events and entertainment each and every week, it's the gift that keeps on giving. 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