The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/915141
D-8 Opinion Wednesday, December 13, 2017 The Press-Dispatch Pursuit of the Cure by Star Parker A wedding cake and the blessings of liberty Court Report CRIMINAL Pike Circuit Court Gregory N. Barrett charged with unlawful pos- session of a firearm by a se- rious violent felon, a level 4 felony. Eric T. Loveless charged with sexual battery, a level 6 felony. David K. Davis charged with count I possession of methamphetamine, a level 6 felony, count II maintaining a common nuisance - con- trolled substances, count III resisting law enforce- ment and count IV operating a vehicle while intoxicated. Tracie A. Mathews charged with count I ob- struction of justice, a lev- el 6 felony, count II posses- sion of methamphetamine, count III possession of mar- ijuana and count IV posses- sion of paraphernalia. Kenneth Morning charged with count I unlaw- ful possession of syringe, a level 6 felony, and count II possession of methamphet- amine. Administrative search warrant. CIVIL Pike Circuit Court Discover Bank sues Steve A. Scraper on complaint. Glenn E. Landstrom sues Crystal Meece Landstrom for dissolution of marriage. TRAFFIC AND MISDEMEANOR Pike Circuit Court Roni S. Bostian charged with count I possession of marijuana and count II op- erating a vehicle while in- toxicated. Wazzell Irving charged with driving while suspend- ed. SMALL CLAIMS Pike Circuit Court Steve Clifton sues Dave Neidige, Todd Anderson and Alexia Anderson on complaint. Bruce Woodring Auto sues Mario L. Fields on com- plaint. INFRACTIONS Pike Circuit Court Nancy Cummings charged with driving while suspend- ed. Connie Davis charged with speeding, 84 mph in a 70 zone. Nicholas Foster charged with speeding, 92 mph in a 70 zone. Jamie Garth charged with speeding, 84 mph in a 70 zone. Stephanie Henderson charged with speeding, 84 mph in a 70 zone. Marie Lucente charged with driving while suspend- ed. Bobby Rogers, III charged with speeding, 84 mph in a 70 zone. Eric Rumble charged with driving while suspended. Lindsey Taylor charged with speeding, 65 mph in a 55 zone. Waldo Williams charged with no valid driver's license. Bryan Bolinger charged with speeding, 80 mph in a 70 zone. Michael Funkhouser charged with speeding, 80 mph in a 70 zone. Jason Hamm charged with speeding, 80 mph in a 55 zone. Adam Ridenour charged with driving while suspend- ed. Melissa Rivera-Liggin charged with speeding, 80 mph in a 70 zone. ery as an excuse for a war that took the lives of 620,000 Americans confers greater moral standing for the Union. Walter E. Williams is a pro- fessor of economics at George Mason University. Continued from page 7 HYPOCRISY "John and Sarah Jones" are homeown- ers with three children. John is a sales representative who earns $55,000 a year, while Sarah works part-time as a nurse, making $20,000. Under the House's tax plan, their tax bill would decline by $1,033; under the Senate's plan, it would drop by $2,014. Reason: A marginal tax rate cut from 15 per- cent to 12 percent and a higher child tax credit (from $1,000 to $1,600 un- der the House plan, and $2,000 under the Senate one). • A married couple with median earnings of $1.5 million per year. "Pe- ter and Paige Smith" are homeowners with two children. Peter works for a technology startup, and had an unusu- ally good year, earning $1.4 million; Paige earns $100,000 as an accoun- tant. Under current law, the Smiths pay $439,275 in federal income taxes. Their tax bill would rise by $ 87,993 un- der the House plan and drop by $1,313 under the Senate's. Reason: They would lose some or all of their state and local tax deductions, and their in- come is too high to claim any exemp- tions or credits. Under the House plan, their top rate would rise to 48.5 per- cent; Under the Senate's, it would fall to 41.4 percent. However, we need to look at more than just the numbers. We need a tax code that takes less from Americans, yes, but we also need a simpler system that is more transparent. There's a reason that tax preparation is viewed by most Americans as an ar- cane science that must be done by pro- fessionals. The code is thousands of pages long and is ludicrously complex. It confounds even the IRS, with studies showing that Americans don't get the same answer twice when they contact the agency with questions. The tax reform under consideration in Congress isn't perfect. But it will lower taxes across the board and go a long way toward jump-starting Amer- ica's struggling economy. What's not to like? Ed Feulner is president of the Heri- tage Foundation (heritage.org). Continued from page 7 TAX BILL dy said that they were not in contact with each other. Most parents know chil- dren cannot be your friend because your relationship as the parent cannot change. How we interact changes with age, but the linkage as a parent never will. Cassidy eventually recog- nized this truism. In a later interview he said, "I wasn't her father. I was her biolog- ical father, but I didn't raise her. She has a completely different life…She's very talented. It's hard for me to even accept how old she is now." The tag line of Katie's in- terview, "David Cassidy's Daughter Katie Vows to "Never Waste another Min- ute" with Loved Ones" was what her father said about his life. The tweet this came from was, "Words can't express the solace our family's re- ceived from all the love and support during this trying time. My father's last words were 'So much wasted time.' This will be a daily reminder for me to share my gratitude with those I love as to never waste another minute." By his own admission, Cassidy lived the life he charted and found it was full of regrets. And so is life. To live life my way is a curse upon those men caught up in malegate and was recognized by Cassidy in his waning years. Frank Sinatra's magnums opus hit My Way is a song of a fool; yet, it is requested at funerals and memorials. Isn't it strange to suddenly realize actions have conse- quences, even though this is something that is taught to all children from birth? Jesus asked "What would a man give in exchange for his soul? " That is the lesson to be learned. Think about it. Continued from page 7 LIFE said last month. Fortunately for Moore, he lives in Amer- ica, where a presumption of innocence puts the burden of proof on accusers. It puts a premium on evidence. I wasn't there, you weren't there, most of the Alabama voters weren't there, and so—even though this isn't a criminal proceeding— we have to rely on evidence for our inferences about Moore's guilt or innocence of the accusations against him. One piece of evidence that Democrats and swamp Re- publicans found persuasive was an accuser's 40 -year-old high school yearbook, with a complimentary inscrip- tion that she said Moore had written. There was nothing salacious in the inscription, but in any case Moore de- nied writing it. That accuser's attorney, Gloria Allred, is a Califor- nia Democrat who served as a Hillary Clinton dele- gate to the Democratic Na- tional Convention. She dis- played the yearbook, opened to the inscription, at a press conference last month. A f- ter Moore denied writing in the yearbook, and said he doesn't even remember the restaurant where his accus- er said he signed it, Allred was questioned closely about it by various journal- ists. Allred told them she had never asked her client if she actually saw Moore sign the yearbook. She said her cli- ent would be willing to pro- duce the yearbook for ex- pert testing and analysis. But she never handed the yearbook over to a third-par- ty custodian to supervise in- dependent expert analysis. She just hired her own ex- pert, and reported his opin- ion to the press. That's ob- viously not an acceptable substitute, and it suggests that the attorney is worried about her client's evidence. Last Friday, several weeks after vouching for the inscription in its en- tirety, Allred called anoth- er press conference to ad- mit that part of it was add- ed by her client as a notation of its date and location. This was important because the numerals in the inscription don't match other samples of Moore's 1977 handwriting. The accuser said she added "D.A." after the signature, as a note to remind herself who Moore was (district at- torney). She needed a good ex- planation for this because skeptics pointed out that it was implausible that Moore would have signed anything that way. He was an assistant district attorney at the time, and it would be have been buffoonish for him to call himself the district attorney. Moore's attorney sug- gested that his accuser got the "D.A." nomenclature from her own divorce doc- ument issued decades lat- er by Moore, as a judge. It appeared after his signa- ture on that document be- cause "D.A." were the ini- tials of his assistant who stamped the judge's signa- ture. Although alleged vic- tim never appeared in court before Moore, she certainly was provided with the docu- ment dismissing her divorce action. If the accuser's account of Moore's sexual aggres- sion in 1977 were true, you would expect that she would have asked for his recusal from her 1999 divorce case. She and her attorney could have asked to have it heard by a different judge. But she didn't. That suggests that the accusation is younger than the divorce case. The accuser told report- ers that she recounted Moore's assault to her most recent husband before they married. But her adult step- son has undermined that claim. "If she told him, you would think that somewhere along the conversations of talking to his son and talking to his family that he would have mentioned something like that," the Georgia man said. "That's something you don't hide from anybody." He said he couldn't rule out the possibility that she is being paid to ruin Moore's Senate election attempt. I was in Alaska when swamp Republicans suc- cessfully defeated TEA Par- ty Republican Joe Miller, who had beaten their incum- bent in the primary. One in- cident that discredited Mill- er was when one of his se- curity personnel roughed up a reporter at a rally. Lat- er, after Miller was beaten in the general election, the se- curity guy admitted that he had infiltrated the campaign with the intention of helping defeat Miller. Perhaps Ivanka has no reason to doubt the ac- counts of the accusers. But I have. You can only ignore the timing of these accusa- tions with steely determi- nation. Moore has been a contentious, controversial candidate in four statewide elections in Alabama. How could he be in the fight this long without true victims ev- er telling their story to the media or to his rivals? There's a very important election at stake. Moore led in the polls until these ac- cusations crashed over his bow. Democrats and swamp Republicans are united. Would they lie to win? Would they persuade others to do their lying for them? They might. It wouldn't be the first time. Honest skep- ticism is not a vice. Let them prove their cases. Continued from page 7 SKEPTICISM This week, the Supreme Court hears Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civ- il Rights Commission. Jack Phillips, proprietor of Masterpiece Cakeshop, refused to create a wedding cake ordered for a same-sex marriage on grounds that it would force him to create a cake expressing a value opposed to his Christian convictions. The gay men who ordered the cake filed a sexual orientation discrimination claim against him with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, and the Commission ruled against Phillips. It was clear that this was not a matter of Phillips refusing to do business with these men because they are gay. He of- fered to make them any cake they want- ed, just not one designed for a same-sex wedding. Phillips claims his right of free ex- pression under the Constitution's First Amendment. Some not sympathetic to Phillips' claim argue that making a cake is not artistic expression and has nothing to do with speech protected by the First Amend- ment. I'll leave the semantic nuances to the lawyers. I'd rather consider the spirit of the law and our Constitution. According to its preamble, the Con- stitution was established to "secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." We want a functioning and prosperous society in which everyone can live freely. That's the point. I am a Christian, and I believe that ho- mosexual behavior is sinful. But as an American, it is no more my business what is hap- pening in my neighbor's home than it is theirs what is happening in mine. When we move into the public square, our fo- cus needs to be freedom. Not forcing me to accept- ing the values of others nor them mine. We need law that allows those of different views and values to live togeth- er peacefully, mutually respecting the ide- al of human liberty. By this standard, how can we possibly rationalize forcing Phillips to produce a cake against his will, expressing a value anathema to his religion? How can forcing Phillips to do this be understood in any way as securing for him "the blessings of liberty"? Those in favor of redefining and legal- izing marriage between individuals of the same sex had a great victory in the Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex mar- riage. However, many supporters of that decision distort its spirit. It wasn't about forcing all Americans to accept homosex- uality. It was about including this behav- ior under the umbrella of our guarantees of freedom. The gay couple that wants to force a Christian man to make a cake for their wedding, against his deepest religious convictions, does not respect the ideal of liberty in which the Obergefell decision was handed down. If they did, they would respect differenc- es and go elsewhere for their cake — something easily do- ne, According to Pew Research Center, 71 percent of Amer- ican adults are Christians. Among them, 39 percent say the Bible is "the word of God and should be taken literal- ly." Fifty percent of Evangel- ical Christians and 59 percent of Black Protestants say the Bible should be un- derstood as the literal word of God. How can these Christians, white and black, possibly feel that the U.S. Consti- tution secures for them the "blessings of liberty" if, on a whim, a gay couple can walk into their establishment and demand a product that violates their religious con- victions? Especially, when those demand- ing this product or service can easily ob- tain it elsewhere. No, this is not like refusing to serve blacks in a restaurant. The spirit of that behavior is racism, the antithesis of "se- curing the blessings of liberty." At the end of the day, our Constitution is only as good as the goodwill of our citi- zens. Things will only work when the ide- al of "securing the blessings of liberty" is taken seriously and respected by all. Star Parker is an author and president of CURE, Center for Urban Renewal and Edu- cation. Contact her at www.urbancure.org. cell phones started to be available. I re- member purchasing one that was a foot long and heavy. I felt I finally got lib- erated from the inconvenience of the hustle to communicate. I remember the phones at that time were not that reliable because there were still few transmission towers and phone batteries did not last that long. Then fast forward a little more and the phones got smaller and transmission towers started sprouting in many plac- es, and boy, that was a great leap from where we were. For those who remember, we could take fuzzy pictures and do texting and it made us feel so sophisticated. Accessing internet was not that great nor available yet either. Now lets go to the last several years. It is mind boggling how we have come so far from the dinosaur phones to what we have now. The i phones or intelli- gent or smart phones that have so revo- lutionized the way we connect, the way we research things via the internet, the way we store appointments, the way we get reminded, the way we travel using phone GPS, the way we shop, and so. The list is just so long it is unbelievable what we can do with these devices. • • • I have a feature called Siri which I use a lot– just press a button on my i phone and state my question or in- quiry. Within seconds it gives me a re- sponse that is pretty informative and amazing. On practically any subject. My grandkids who play with this program ask silly questions and I am just amazed how it responds back. So I usually grab back my phone and tell them to quit. Now lets go to the drawbacks as to what had happened. It seems like anymore anywhere I go, everybody is holding a smartphone and gets glued to watching whatever. In restaurants, people don't talk anymore it seems. Es- pecially the younger generations do not want to answer the phone except when they get a text message. One time there was a story of two kids sitting in the same restaurant ta- ble on their i phones and were busy texting. Know what, they were tex- ting each other! Wow. How times have changed. So please remember the rule. Control yourself and practice safe text. • • • Some of the pluses. Now lets give credit to our ingenuity and innovative thinking. It seems since the invention of computers and iphones, we have saved a lot of time when fast communi- cations take place about appointments, activities requiring accuracy, ordering goods and groceries, exchanging doc- uments, pictures, finding places, be- ing given directions as we drive, check- ing schedules, connecting with fami- ly, friends, and love ones. And somenot so loved ones. We can store so many documents now that every facet of life can be re- trieved and recorded. The list just goes on and on. There is no telling what our next generation will be able to do— driverless cars which are already op- erating in some cities, advances in our health care and procedures via robot- ics, peeking to the heavens and discov- ering the universe, unearthing the an- cient world and it's mysteries. And the list goes on and on and on. I'm so glad to be in these era but I'm also some- what anxious. I'm sure a lot feel the same way. • • • Let's go to a lighter side of life. A husband went to the Police department to report that his wife is missing. The husband said that his wife went shop- ping and since then has not come home after 24 hours of shopping. The ser- geant told the man he was not that sur- prised, that some women love to shop for 24hours. So the officer asked questions like the wife's weight, height, color of dress, color of hair, color of eyes, her usual habits, and many other lead questions. The husband could not answer most of the questions. He kept saying, "I don't know or I don't remember. So then the officer asked what kind of ve- hicle she drove. Husband said she used his truck, it was a white truck, model F150, King Ranch, 4x4 with eco boost 5.0 liter engine with specially ordered transmission, climate controlled air- conditioning, and that it had many safe- ty features, had leather seats, had Bub- ba floor mats. It had trailering pack- age with special hook ups. It had DVD with full navigation GPS, satellite ra- dio receiver, 23-channel CB radio, six cup holders, a USB port with 4 pow- er outlets. It also had Goodyear wrangler tires, had special alloy wheels , custom run- ning boards, and indirect wheel light- ing. At this point the husband started choking up and had tears in his eyes. So the sergeant kept taking notes and finally said, "Buddy,I understand your anguish. Don't you worry, we will find your truck, whatever it takes." " It will never go on a cold case sta- tus." The husband still in tears then said " I'm offering a reward for finding my wife, for tips call 1-800 -WHO-CARES – because I'm the one who really cares. And for tips regarding my truck- call 1-800 -BIG REWARD. And how's your week? Don't forget to visit Hornady Park and enjoy theChristmas in the Park. Lots of great dedicated people put in a lot of effort into this project. Very impressive! Continued from page 7 CONNECTIVITY