The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/842616
C-12 Wednesday, June 28, 2017 The Press-Dispatch 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 I'm not a hunter. I haven't owned bird dogs since I was 14, when we gave Brutus and Queenie away and moved to a big city. Nor am I fascinated by guns. You pull the trigger and a bullet comes out the other end, and that pretty much satisfies my curiosity. Going out in the country to shoot at cans or paper targets is not my idea of fun. But politically, I'm usually the most pro-gun person in the room. I won't tell you whether I have guns in my house, or how many, because it's none of your business and – more to the point – it's none of the government's business. I believe, as a wise bumper sticker says, that the Second Amendment is my gun permit. I don't need a clerk's or police department's ap- proval to exercise my Constitution- al freedoms. Anybody who gets into argu- ments with gun control advo- cates has been asked, scoffingly, why on earth a legitimate hunter would need such a large magazine, or such powerful loads, or dum- dum bullets that max- imize trauma to flesh. And I don't have an answer for that ques- tion. I don't know why a legitimate hunter, or even a poacher, would need any of these. Unless that hunter is also a patriot. You can call patriots the militia. (The Con- stitution did.) The militia, in the Constitutional sense, is comprised of ordinary armed citizens with the best interests of the communi- ty at heart. Even now, if your neigh- borhood is threatened by mob vi- olence or by arsonists, the most likely guarantor of your safety is probably not a bespectacled metro- sexual at the American Civil Lib- erties Union but those guys down your street, the ones who ride their motorcycles too fast and let their wives mow the lawn. If that night of resistance ev- er comes, patriots who defend their homes, fami- lies, neighbors or re- public will want to be equipped to win, not fail. The Second Amendment is no po- etic tribute to doomed gestures of valiant re- sistance. It is utterly pragmatic, intended to empower citizens with the genuine ca- pacity to prevail against tyranny. Better yet, it should deter tyr- anny. And I believe that it has do- ne so. Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership ( JPFO) is an organization preoccupied, as you might expect, with the con- nection between disarmament and genocide. Its manifesto is en- titled "Death by Gun Control: The Human Cost of Victim Disarma- ment." According to JPFO's web- Militant Islam is terrorizing Eu- rope, and there is no humane way to extinguish its rage. I am sure there are Muslims living in Eu- rope who want nothing more than to be left alone and be allowed to live their life in peace and free- dom. This is not going to happen. Islam is a 1500 year quasi-po- litical/religious movement; West- ern governments fail to grasp its history; Islam cannot change be- cause its very foundation is a the- ocracy [caliphate]; no religion in the history of mankind has meta- morphosed away from its origins. Historically religions that were submissive to the political will of a conquering empire were some- what tolerated. However, immi- grants do not shed their religious values; they do not assimilate into a dominate culture. Multiculturalists point out that many immigrants that came to America did assimilate; that is not exactly true. The masses that came from Europe were Christian, and they did assimilate into Ameri- can culture. Those who came from the orient for a large part did not, which was in part why the US passed immigration acts in 1921 and 1924 barring Asians. The lack of assimilation by Muslims in Europe cannot be ad- dressed for fear of being labeled a racist and an Islamophobe. Therefore, in France, Germany, and England, the Mus- lim immigrants have carved out enclaves within these people continue their own cultural observances. In doing so, they are becoming a threat to the established polit- ical rule and existing order. I apologize to the snowflakes and multiculturalists whom I have offended. I pray and believe in the words of the song, "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me! At the same time, my eyes see, and I under- stand that the Western world is in a death grip of a clash of civiliza- tions; somebody will win. We have yet to set sail on the Good Ship Lol- lipop. The foundation of Western Civ- ilization rests upon Christianity; all other religions including Islam are incompatible. No amount of di- alogue and wishful thinking will change this. At the center of this cultur- al struggle lies a modern jihad among the youth of Islam. At the disposal of the jihadists are over 120 million young men 18 to 35 years old. In addition, there are about 1.2 billion Muslims around the globe who will in one way or another stand unified in the promulgation of Islam. Sadly, secu- lar Christianity does not have the will to do likewise. Allan Massie at Ta- ki Magazine said it all in his recent post "A War of Cultures:" "Is- lamist terrorism is go- ing to be with us for a long time; there will be more atroc- ities like the one in Manchester, and many more just-as-atrocious attacks in Muslim countries, too. You have to be a super-optimist to believe otherwise, or to suppose that there is any quick and sure way of preventing all acts of ter- ror or eliminating terrorism itself. The truth is we don't know any way of doing either." What Western minds fail to ac- knowledge is that "There is only one language understood [within the Middle East] and that is the language of strength and power." This concept is totally alien to the liberal values that multicultural- ism demand that we embrace. The jihad facing Western civi- lization is not our grandfather's war of nation against nation. This Continued on page 13 Continued on page 13 Continued on page 13 Continued on page 13 Continued on page 13 Minority View by Walter E. Williams The Weekly by Alden Heuring My Point of View by Dr. H. K. Fenol, Jr., M.D. A new twist on teaching economics Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond Still at the crossroads Defending our gun rights Lucid Moments by Bart Stinson American dream is alive and well Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner Almost any time you see the phrase "the American Dream" these days, it seems to be in a negative context. The speaker is either assuring us that it's dead or that it can be salvaged only by a radical redefinition — one that of- ten contradicts the basic principles this country was founded on. So it was heartening to come across two positive references to it recently. One was an op-ed by Sal San- toro, a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives. Its title: "My Dad's Journey to the Ameri- can Dream." In it, Rep. Santoro used the occa- sion of Father's Day to relate how his father, an immigrant from It- aly, came to America at age 15 to build a better life for himself. He couldn't speak English, but in time he became a citizen, got mar- ried, and worked hard as a tailor to support his growing family. He even served his adopted country in World War II. The other positive reference I saw was an article in Forbes. "As the world becomes increasing- ly digital and other nations offer oppor- tunity rivaling ours, many wonder if the American Dream is dying," contributor Brian Rashid writes. "However, Joel Con- tartese, an American immigrant entrepre- neur, can attest that American Dream is still alive and well." Mr. Rashid outlined several les- sons that Mr. Contartese has de- veloped. The bottom line: "His experience of coming to the Unit- ed States and working diligent- ly to better himself and his fam- ily is another inspirational tale of the American Dream offering suc- cess to those who work for it." There's no question that the dream is at least a bit more chal- lenging to achieve today than it once was. Immigrants have long been drawn to our freedoms, whether that meant building a bet- ter life for themselves or a better invention for others. America's business history is full of entre- preneurs who, finally able to pursue their passions, contribut- ed handsomely to the economic engine that is the United States. But things have changed. For decades, our government has been promoting the wrong kind of prosperity, usually for the wrong motives and the wrong people. Special interests have gotten the benefits that we pay for through higher prices, tax dollars and lost jobs. Hobbled by outmoded programs and accumulated layers of regula- tion, our economy has become less free. Government regulation of business should always be ef- fective yet minimal, and it should always err on the side of promot- Greg Caskey is a 27-year-old Abington, Pennsylvania, native who is a social sciences teacher at Delaware Military Academy. The academy is a thriving charter high school in Wilmington, Delaware, that was founded in 2003 by two retired military officers, Charles Baldwin and Jack Wintermantel. Students from all socio-econom- ic backgrounds attend the school, which is doing a stellar job of teach- ing reading, writing and arithme- tic and, just as importantly, moral character and self-discipline. Mr. Caskey is one of the school's standout teachers. He has devel- oped an innovative way of teach- ing the principles of economics to the school's students – a curricu- lum that he calls "HipHoponom- ics," in which he uses original rap music as the basis for his lesson plans. His favorite rap artists are Nas, Eminem, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, The Notorious B.I.G. and Tu- pac Shakur. Being in my 82nd year of life, I don't generally find hip-hop mu- sic or its lyrics that attractive. Part of the reason for my distaste is that it's difficult for me to deci- pher what the performers are say- ing, not to mention the constant an- noying boom boom. I've been told that I benefit from not understand- ing what they are saying. But giv- en my background in economics, Caskey's HipHoponomics music is largely decipherable to me. But much more importantly, it appears to be an excellent technique to ex- cite and enlighten younger peo- ple, who may have alien and hos- tile minds to learning free market economic principles. That's vital, given all of the anti-freedom indoc- trination that so many of our young people receive. Caskey, who likes to refer to himself as M.C. Caskey, is in the process of making his work avail- able for all to see and hear on his website, at https://www.hipho- ponomics.com, and SoundCloud. He's developed an album centered around the 18th-century Scottish philosopher Adam Smith, who is known as the "Father of Econom- ics." Smith is much-maligned. Peo- ple often see him as an advocate for selfishness. But to the con- trary, Smith saw laissez-faire as a moral agenda and free markets as a tool to protect the rights of natu- ral law. So the prelude "Who Was Adam Smith? " starts out with a short discussion by my colleague Dr. Russ Roberts and ends with lyrics highlighting Smith's argu- ments, all set to a hip-hop beat. Then there's discussion of what's called the emergent or- der. It begins with a highly under- standable statement by the great- est 20th-century economist, Nobel laureate Milton Friedman. A fter that, Caskey puts Friedman's ideas to hip-hop music and talk. These ideas serve as the foundation for more HipHoponomics music – on principles such as free trade and comparative advantage, which most economists accept as advan- tageous to a nation. Among important economic ti- tles set to Caskey's HipHoponom- ics music are "Free Enterprise Sys- tem," "New Deal or Raw Deal? ", "What's up with the Fed? ", "The 20s Were The Good Dayz" and "Demand & Supply Bars," and more are in the works. He has even set to hip-hop music a title called "Debatin' the Wage," which features yours truly and Bernie Sanders on the minimum wage. I should note that I had zero involve- ment with it, but I understand that it's pretty good. Caskey's goals are ambitious and laudable. He is inspiring great interest in economics among young people, who typically have little interest in such a rigorous ac- ademic subject. Caskey's goal is to reach the urban student with the relevance of the economic way of thinking. He says, "I want to in- spire zeal for the discipline of eco- nomics among young people, but particularly among urban young people, a historically underserved population, especially in the edu- cational sense." By the way, high schoolers are not the only people who can benefit from the lessons of HipHoponom- ics. I'd recommend it to our politi- Shoply divided Sometimes, shopping is a strug- gle. My wife and I have very differ- ent philosophies on how to shop— deeply fundamental differences in the way we conceptualize the shop- ping experience that can make shopping together nothing short of awkward. Let's start from the beginning. Before the beginning, even. Jill: I'm out of the house! This is so much fun. I have time to kill... Let's go shopping! Me: We're out of cookies again?! I guess I'll have to go shopping... When can I make that happen... Maybe next week? Then, when we reach the store... Jill: I like to head straight for the clearance—that's where the good deals are! Me: Gotta get cookies, gotta get cookies. Once we're inside... Jill: No need to rush or both- er the employees. It's fun to just browse around and see if a good deal pops up! Me: This store is huge... What aisle are the cookies in? You there! Kid! Do you work here? No? Seen any cookies? ...He's gone. Then, we find what we're look- ing for... Jill: What a great deal! This has been a fun shopping trip. Me: Will I get arrested if I eat the cookies here in the aisle and pay on my way out? And in the checkout line... Jill: I wonder if I need anything in this checkout display? Me: I wonder if I should have grabbed two packs of cookies? This pack is gonna be gone be- fore morning. I think you can see where the conflicts might arise. But we make it work, one day at a time. As always, I love to hear from you at aheuring@sgstartimes. com, and have a great week! Here's the weekly list to help you do just that: Book of the week: P.G. Wode- house's Enter Jeeves Album of the week: Eric Clap- ton's Pilgrim Coffee of the week: Boca Java's Mizner Estate Haiku of the week: Don't swat that fly: it wrings its hands. It wrings its feet. -Issa Stay frosty! It seems to me that there is not enough time to do most of the things we need to do, and most of all, the things we don't like to do. I once remember having shared my thoughts about how one's day can be spent in a well balanced way- doing eight hours of sleep, eight hours of work, and eight hours of catching up with things we like to do or don't real- ly want to do. I think the Good Lord wants us to do the best we can each day. However, we human beings try to outdo what He has planned, and thus we get in trouble sometimes. Just like everyone else, as we plan and spend our day each day, we need to be reminded of certain things we ought to remember. We hope that each day that comes is filled with a good pur- pose, no matter how simple or complex it may be. We hope that material things do not enslave us, but rather love and caring is what would prevail in our be- ing, and that we should not lose sight of the purpose of life. I am not certain why I am headed in A rerun from 2007