The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/616296
The Press-Dispatch Opinion Wednesday, December 16, 2015 C- 7 Katiedid vs... by Katiedid Langrock Mall Santa ASSAULTED stars in and produces The Night Before, a raucous and refreshing new tale on the Christmas Movie. . . Clad in gaudy holiday sweaters, the cast members are all work- ing their own best angles. Rogen spends most of the film high as Isaac, a man convinced he must serve as his pregnant wife's emotion- al rock. From a cocaine-fu- eled diatribe of anxiety in a bar bathroom to a midnight Mass meltdown wearing a blue Hanukkah sweater, he somehow manages to con- vey vulnerability while be- having like a lunatic. It is Rogen's particular gift to seem decent while puking in church." That is supposed to be funny – a Jewish man puk- ing at Midnight Mass in a Hanukkah Sweater? I get it – this is another sophisticated holiday mov- ie spoofing Christmas that will truly become a Christ- mas Classic! The L A Times concludes, "With nods to holiday films like Home Alone, Die Hard, and It's a Wonderful Life; The Night Before knows exactly what it is – a mov- ie to watch every year with friends, a plate of leftovers on your lap, your mood en- hanced by tryptophan or. . . something." John Wesley said many years ago, "What one gener- ation tolerates, the next gen- eration will embrace." In a nation and world captivated by political cor- rectness, why is debasing Christmas and Christianity not considered hate speech? This is sad. We live in a nation that denounces phys- ical terrorism, yet we give a pass to cultural terrorism and give it a thumbs up and five stars. I suggest the next mov- ie from Hollywood incorpo- rate a scene like that with the backdrop being the Wail- ing Wall during Yom Kippur or at the Masjid al-ḤarḤm in Mecca during Ramadan. Any guess what would be the results? A thumbs up or five stars? Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, "And have no fel- lowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rath- er expose them." It is your choice how you celebrate Christmas. Think about it! Court Report Continued from page 6 SPEECH FAILURE Continued from page 6 Continued from page 6 us, we cannot simply declare that war to be over, whenev- er it is politically convenient, as Obama did when he with- drew American troops from Iraq, against the advice of his own generals. That is what led to the rise of ISIS. Our only real choice is be- tween destroying ISIS over there or waiting for them to come over here and start kill- ing Americans. As in other cases, Obama has made a choice that reflects politics and rhetoric, rather than re- ality. Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institu- tion, Stanford University. His website is www.tsowell.com. Scholars shine new light on old truths for fighting poverty Pursuit of the Cure by Star Parker Continued from page 6 CRIB ic trick. A fter that, we took a break for the rest of the day. We're both slowly working on cleaning the house in prep- aration for baby, plus I'm still writing (as you can see) and career-hunting. "Building" the bassinet and stroller came next; the bassinet mer- cifully just needed to be un- folded like a lawn chair, and the stroller needed wheels put on and not much else. We've got a car seat installed now, too, just in case a cer- tain someone shows up ear- ly. They won't let you take a baby home from the hos- pital if you don't have a car seat for her, and we'd rath- er have her grandparents do any needed babysitting. Day two of crib construc- tion was much, much easier than those stupid drawers. For the sleeping area of the structure, we basically just bolted a couple huge piec- es on the side of the chang- ing table, then attached the mattress frame and some decorative bits on the top. There was, however, a mo- ment of horror when we laid the mattress frame into its spot and discovered it wasn't even close to long enough to screw its ends into the ends of the crib frame. Eventual- ly, we figured out that you just had to start screwing and make it bend a little, which (I hope) is much safer than it sounds. They make steel out of strong stuff, or so they tell me. For a finish- ing touch, Jill attached a fun little mobile to the crib so the baby has something to play with instead of sleeping. Now that all our really im- portant baby stuff is out of the box and assembled, I'm feeling a lot better about the prospect of being a father. Our nursery almost even looks like a nursery now. There's still a whole lot up in the air, and most of it is completely out of my control, but in the end, it'll all be for the best. WEAPON Continued from page 6 Democrats' narrative. One of the false notes in President Obama's Sunday evening speech was his re- sort to one of his favorite libels about the American people he purports to lead. He scolded the country for its Islamophobia. "It is the responsibility of all Ameri- cans – of every faith – to re- ject discrimination. It is our responsibility to reject reli- gious tests on who we admit into this country. It's our re- sponsibility to reject propos- als that Muslim Americans should somehow be treated differently." That's not the trouble here. America is an incred- ibly welcoming nation and has opened its arms to Mus- lims along with people from every part of the globe. Far from targeting American Muslims for discrimina- tion, the U.S. has been a ha- ven. Though liberals like to conjure it to slander the U.S., anti-Muslim discrimination and violence have been min- imal in the U.S., even in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. (The most common targets of religious bigotry in America? Jews.) On the other hand, it's on- ly common sense to proceed with caution about admitting thousands of refugees and immigrants from the part of the world that is current- ly aflame with Islamic ex- tremism. That caution, not to be confused with discrim- ination (there is no constitu- tional right to come to Amer- ica), was endorsed just three weeks ago by a large major- ity in Congress (including 47 Democrats). It isn't anti- Muslim to seek to exclude Muslim extremists. Leave it to Trump to lob a stink bomb that putrefies everything. Above all, the great favor that Trump does for Obama and for Hillary Clinton is to focus on personalities in- stead of philosophy. Trump, of course, has nothing to of- fer except personality (even if its charm eludes me). But his emphasis on "getting the best people" is exactly wrong. That's the progres- sive idea – that the best peo- ple know better how to run your life than you do. That's what we've had under Pres- ident Obama. Obama is a failure not because he's stu- pid, or stubborn, or inexperi- enced. He's a failure because he believes in failed ideas. Hillary Clinton believes in all the same myths and shib- boleths. A fter two terms of decline and decay, voters are ready for a different ap- proach, unless someone crashes the Republican Par- ty. Can it be pure accident that Donald Trump is play- ing the role to perfection? Mona Charen is a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Pub- lic Policy Center. Dear Mall Santa, I know you're not the real Santa Claus, but seeing as you are one of his many helpers, I'm hoping you can deliver a message to him. I could write the real Santa a letter, but to tell you the truth – and this is a little embarrassing – I don't exactly know his address. Of course, I could direct the letter to the North Pole, but surely he can't be the only person with an address up north. Am I to be- lieve that the elves never get UPS de- liveries from their elf-mommies? Sure- ly, Amazon Prime ships there. Lots of elves must equal lots of elf mailboxes. Which would explain why Santa struck out about 50 percent of the time when it came to getting me the presents I asked for as a kid. He probably didn't get half the letters. You would think that Santa would have email by now. Or Facebook. Twitter. Something. Anyway, if you could deliver my mes- sage, I'd appreciate it. He needs to know that the malls are giving him a bad name. Not you personally, of course. I thought you were a very lovely Mall San- ta. I mean, yeah, it's kinda weird that your beard resembles that of Saruman from "The Lord of the Rings." Did you have to look like the evil guy? You could have gone for looking like Gandalf and kept the impressive beard length. Kudos to you on the real facial hair, by the way. No, it's not you or your beard at fault for tainting the Christmas spirit and the good name of old St. Nick but rather the folks behind your mall setup. Perhaps I'm naive, but I was under the impression that malls brought in faux Kriss Kring- les, such as you, for the kids. Moms who would never dare to enter a mall around the holidays, such as I, are willing to brave the crazy crowds and risk getting our limbs broken and black eyes to give their precious little ones the chance to meet Santa – or, as we both know, a San- ta helper. Seeing as we're at the mall any- way, we decide to shop, and the mall ben- efits from our visit. Which is why I un- derstood when you decid- ed to take an hour break even though my kid was the only one in line. My son and I walked around and shopped as we waited for you to return. We should have fol- lowed you. Undoubtedly, it would have been educa- tional. Does Santa use the urinal or the stall? Where does Santa eat at the food court? And does he accept the Panda Ex- press samples? Three shopping bags later, we were back in line and greeted by the mall's true holiday spirit. Or lack thereof – ex- emplified by the huge sign saying that parents were not allowed to take any pic- tures with their own devices and by how the photographers refused to take any photos that weren't posed, despite par- ents' requests that they capture the can- did moment when their child would first see and hug Santa. And of course, there was the refusal to take more than four digital shots per kid despite the very short line. And I understand, Mall Santa, that none of this was your fault. You were great in how you asked my son what he wants for Christmas and how – when he simply answered "presents" – you con- tinued to probe despite the obvious eye rolls of the photographers. But can we just address the candy cane issue for a moment? You know what I'm talking about. When none of my son's photos turned out well, I opt- ed not to buy a package, the cheapest of which was $23. Behind me, my son gave you a hug and then looked into the red velvet bag that you kept by your feet. He had seen you pulling out candy canes for all the other chil- dren before him in line. He eyed the bag, eagerly. You made eye contact with the mall photog- raphers. A fter hearing that I would not buy a package, they shook their heads at you. And you, sir, patted my son on the head and asked him to please leave – without a candy cane. So, Mall Santa, do me a solid and tell the real Santa what is going on in the malls of America. I think a lot more folks belong on his naughty list. Like Katiedid Langrock on Facebook, at http://www.facebook.com/katiedidhu- mor. Two of the oldest and most venerat- ed public policy institutes in Washing- ton, D.C., the American Enterprise In- stitute and the Brookings Institution, have produced a new joint report deal- ing with the issue of fighting poverty in America. The report, "Opportunity, Responsi- bility, and Security: A Consensus Plan for Reducing Poverty and Restoring the American Dream," is noteworthy for a number of reasons. One is that it reflects a consensus view between long established Washington institu- tions representing opposite sides of the political spectrum, with AEI be- ing right of center and the Brooking Institution left of center. But also noteworthy is the nature of this consensus. The report focuses on three pillars that need attention: fam- ily, work, and education. That scholars from these two insti- tutions – one on the left and one on the right – agree that the state of the Amer- ican family is of critical importance to the economic well-being of Amer- icans is news. It drives home a point I have been making for years – that so- called values issues, often called "so- cial issues," are indeed economic is- sues. The popularly accepted dichoto- my between economic issues and so- cial issues is invalid. They are of the same cloth. Poverty became a major focus of at- tention in Washington in 1965 when President Lyndon Johnson announced his program known as the "War on Poverty." Like in this new report, Johnson's program emphasized the importance of education, the development of work skills and the availability of jobs and employment in hard-hit communities. But unlike this new re- port, in Johnson's war on poverty there was zero fo- cus on the importance of the traditional American family to fighting poverty and enhancing economic vitality. Why? Because in 1965 the state of the American fam- ily was healthy compared to today and no one would have dreamed where things would go. The traditional values so critical to the nation's welfare were largely taken for granted. As the AEI/Brookings report points out, in 1970, 61.2 percent of women ag- es 20 -24 were married compared to 15.9 percent in 2010. In 1970, 79.7 per- cent of women ages 30 -34 were mar- ried compared to 40.4 percent in 2010. In 1970, 5.7 percent of white babies and 37.6 percent of black babies were born to unwed mothers. By 2010, white out-of-wedlock births rose to 35.9 per- cent and black out-of-wedlock births rose to 72.1 percent. "By 2013," the report states, "at near- ly $107,000, the average married fami- ly with children had nearly three times the income of the average single-moth- er family with children ($ 35,654). Sim- ilarly, between 1974 and 2013, the aver- age poverty rate of single-mother fam- ilies was usually between four and five times higher that the poverty rate of married-couple families." The conclusion: "There now appears to be widespread and growing agree- ment among scholars that the best en- vironment to rear children is the sta- ble, two-parent family." In other words, the great new insight of mod- ern scholars is that the Ju- deo-Christian traditions on which our nation was built work! Johnson's war on pover- ty followed the civil rights movement and the social unrest of the 1960s. Rath- er than concluding that it was necessary to bring what was working in America – tradi- tional values, limited government, per- sonal responsibility – to those parts of the nation that were not working, we ushered in a new era of big-govern- ment solutions. These big-government solutions un- dermined the traditionally successful values and institutions of the country. Little was done to eradicate poverty but much was done to break down the American family and add hundreds of billions in new spending to the feder- al budget. Fortunately, as this new AEI/Brook- ings report shows, many are now wak- ing up. New young leaders, particularly in the Republican Party, are breaking through to shine new light that fam- ily, ownership, and personal initiative and responsibility pave the promising path to rebuilding the broken parts of America. Star Parker is an author and presi- dent of CURE, the Center for Urban Re- newal and Education. Contact her at www.urbancure.org. CRIMINAL Pike Circuit Court In re: interstate probation transfer for James Gerald Decker. TRAFFIC AND MISDEMEANOR Pike Circuit Court Brandon J. O'Bryan charged with unlawful taking of a deer or wild tur- key. Dereck M. Kirchner charged with two counts of check deception. Anthony R. Lloyd charged with four counts of check deception. Curtis N. Johnson charged with count I disorderly conduct and count II public intoxication. Abraham Velazco-Cano charged with count I operating a vehicle with and ACE of .15 or more and count II operating a vehicle while intoxicated. Jacob K. Robling charged with count I criminal trespass; count II disorderly conduct; count III public intoxication; and count IV criminal mischief. Guadelupe Angeles-Mora charged with operating a motor vehicle with- out ever receiving a license. CIVIL DOCKET Pike Circuit Court Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC sues Laura A. Hurst on com- plaint. Wilmington Savings Fund Society, FSB sues Todd Dorsey and Denim Dorsey on complaint. Cynthia G. Vincent sues City of Pe- tersburg on complaint. JP Morgan Chase Bank, Nat'l As- soc. sues Angela K. Henke, et al on complaint. Tiffany Rohrabaugh sues Robert Rohrabaugh for dissolution of mar- riage. Dawn Marie Hall sues Billy Joe Hall for dissolution of marriage. SMALL CLAIMS Pike Circuit Court LVNV Funding, LLC sues Matthew Wills on complaint. INFRACTIONS Pike Circuit Court Tara Schnaus charged with speed- ing, 70 mph in a 25 zone. James Ashworth charged with seatbelt violation. Joy Ashworth charged with seat- belt violation. Ron Borden charged with speed- ing, 49 mph in a 35 zone. Susan Kraft charged with speed- ing, 49 mph in a 35 zone. Ashley Lanning charged with seat- belt violation. John Niederhaus charged with speeding, 79 mph in a 70 zone. Zachary Scheid charged with speeding, 39 mph in a 25 zone. Bradley Simmons charged with count I seatbelt violation and count II driving while suspended. Bradley Stork charged with speed- ing, 49 mph in a 35 zone. Colton Thomas charged with speeding, 100 mph in a 70 zone. Tamara Weber-Merter charged with speeding, 39 mph in a 25 zone. Brooklyn Cates charged with two counts of child restraint system vi- olation. Danny Eversole charged with speeding, 70 mph in a 55 zone. Brian Frederick charged with seat- belt violation. Susan Hinton charged with seat- belt violation. Hilbert Matteson charged with seatbelt violation. Neil Rose charged with speeding, 44 mph in a 30 zone. Peggy Shaw-Vernon charged with speeding, 49 mph in a 35 zone. Patrick Smith charged with speed- ing, 49 mph in a 35 zone. Dzhovid Kamolov charged with speeding, 91 mph in a 70 zone. Thyron Roberts II charged with expired plates. Robert Seger, Jr. charged with speeding, 75 mph in a 55 zone. Jerry Rainey charged with illegal taking of a wild animal. Richard Davidson charged with hunting without wearing hunter or- ange when required. invasion, the American peo- ple in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory." Absolute victory is what we need now. When will we get it? Ed Feulner is founder of the Heritage Foundation (heri- tage.org).