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The ADVANCE, October 6, 2021/Page 6A
Site Ahumtce
A free press is not a privilege but
organic necessity in a great society.
—Walter Lippmann
COMMENTARY
out of
CONTEXT
A compilation of quotations on a variety of
issues by national, state and regional writers,
well-known personalities, just plain everyday
people and from various publications
collected by the editors of THE ADVANCE.
Quotes for our Times:
Leah Barkoukis, online features edi
tor at Townhall.com: After what a whistle
blower told Jim Jordan, the border crisis is
about to get a lot worse.
"The people who have been busting
their tails, enforcing our law, doing their
job on the border, they're gonna get fired
if they don't take the vaccine," Jordan
said. "Meanwhile, for people who break
the law and come in here, no big deal,
your choice (to take the vaccine), it's up
to you. That is how ridiculous the Biden ad
ministration has become."...
Jordan could only conclude that the
Biden administration's approach to the
border — ending construction of the bor
der wall, stopping the Remain in Mexico
policy, and now firing unvaccinated
agents "is deliberate."
Matt Vespa, Senior Editor at Townhall.
com: ABC edited out Obama trashing
Biden's open border policy.
Of course, ABC did their due diligence
to protect the current Democratic Presi
dent, but Fox News Channel's Jacqui
Heinrich called them out.
"But cut from that interview and pub
lished only in the online article was Presi
dent Obama saying, quote, 'At the same
time, we're a nation-state. We have bor
ders. The idea that we can just have open
borders is something that, as a practical
matter is unsustainable.'"
Greg Gutfeld, host of Gutfeld! and co
host of The Five: What happened to the
adults we were promised in the Biden ad
ministration?
So what is that reality? How about that
anyone vaccinated today can thank
something called Operation Warp Speed
created by someone named Trump.
Biden's reality: blame everyone for every
mistake you make. And not only blame
the last guy in office — but also decent
Americans.
Like the guy who was just trying to steer
his horse! Yep, Joe Biden punishes Border
Patrol for, get this: patrolling the border.
What's next? Punish strippers for stripping?
Soldiers for soldiering? The police for polic
ing? Oh wait. We already do that.
Did you notice that trend? That people
doing their jobs are being punished by
people who don't.
Tucker Carlson, host of 'Tucker Carlson
Tonight': Someone is lying about the Af
ghanistan debacle.
What you watched in the Senate hear
ing today was pure blame-shifting. Joe
Biden's foreign policy is a legitimate disas
ter. No one disputes that. Mark Milley wants
you to know that none of it is his fault. Sec
retary of Defense Lloyd Austin wants you
to know that, too. So does the head of
Central Command, General McKenzie. All
three of them want to make it crystal clear
that the senile guy in the White House did
this. It's his fault, not theirs.
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The Age of Progressive
Misinformation
How does a stupid and
ridiculous lie come to be
embraced and promulgated by
top officials of the United States
government?
Well, as it turns out, it’s
easy.
You start with an easily
misinterpreted news photo that
seemingly confirms the
assumptions of progressive
opponents of immigration
enforcement that the agents
policing our Southern border
are cruel racists.
Then, you work up a
Twitter mob saying that the
photo has captured a tableau of
hideous abuse.
You add open-borders
advocacy organizations and
civil rights groups denouncing
the supposed misconduct in
the harshest possible terms.
You throw on top a vice
president and White House
press secretary who have no
regard for the truth and are
happy to push any narrative
convenient to them.
Finally, as the piece de
resistance, you deploy a
president of the United States
who is too cynical or doddering
to bother with the facts and is
usually following the crowd
rather the leading it and get him
to make a statement endorsing
the ludicrous fictions about the
misleading photo.
This was the path to
President Joe Biden
condemning border patrol
agents on horseback for having
“strapped” Haiti migrants at
Del Rio, Texas, and declaring
that they “will pay” for their
“horrible” and “outrageous”
behavior.
Never mind that there was
no strapping, that the border
agents did nothing wrong
besides trying to enforce a
border crossing while working
for an administration
fundamentally uninterested in
the task, and that there is an
ongoing investigation of the
agents — itself a travesty —
that Biden was pre-judging.
Sawyer Hackett, an
apparatchik running Julian
Castro’s PAC, was an early
proponent of the whipping lie
on Twitter. He tweeted the
picture showing a border agent
on horseback grabbing at the
shirt of a migrant — his reins
flying in the air — and said
agents were “rounding up
Haitian refugees with whips,”
and this represented
“unfathomable cruelty.”
It was, to the contrary,
entirely fathomable and not the
least bit cruel. The agents were,
in a common, long-standing
practice, using horses because
of the difficulty of the terrain
and attempting to block
migrants from entering the
country illegally. They didn’t
have whips and were twirling
reins to control their horses.
Within hours of the photo
creating a stir, these facts were
readily ascertainable.
Even Homeland Security
Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas
defended the agents before
getting the memo from his
superiors that they had become
hated figures to be used as
punching bags.
Days later, media stories
still made reference to the
nonexistent whips supposedly
wielded by the agents.
Advocacy groups simply
willed the whip story to be true,
and for a swath of America —
basically anyone foolish enough
to take what Harris and Biden
say at face value — they have
succeeded.
Despite the haze of
misinformation, the fact-
checkers didn’t descend en
masse. No Twitter accounts
were suspended. All the people
who pride themselves on
purportedly defending
American democracy from
falsehoods and propaganda
spreading on social media (and
there’s unquestionably a lot of
it) stood aside or joined the
pile-on.
Please see Lowry page 8A
GRITTY
America Is
Still Working
The Census
Bureau has just
issued its latest
annual report,
“Income and Poverty
in the United States:
2020,” and American
Enterprise Institute
economist and
blogger Mark Perry
has extracted and
summarized its highlights, as he does
every year.
Perry’s work is always illuminating
because the data shows how much
healthier the country is socially and
economically than anyone would believe
who listens to the naysayers on the left,
who want to transform America into a
giant, socialist welfare state.
Contrary to what we hear from
Democrats and the left-leaning media,
Americans continue to move up and earn
more.
And those who don’t fail to do so for
reasons that are entirely in their control, as
I will explain later.
In 2020, 33.6% of American
households had income of $100,000 or
more, 40.3% had income between $35,000
and $100,000, and 26.2% had income of
less than $35,000.
In 1967, only 10.9% of American
households had earnings of $100,000 or
more (in constant, inflation-adjusted
dollars). That is, from 1967 to 2020, the
percentage of American households
earning $100,000 or more has tripled!
Compared with 1967, the percentage
of middle-income earning households —
$35,000 to $100,000 — has shrunk, 53.9%
in 1967 compared with 40.3% in 2020.
The percentage of middle-income
households has shrunk because more
households have moved into the upper-
income category.
The percentage earning $35,000 has
shrunk from 35.2% in 1967 to 26.2% in
2020.
By Star Parker
Please see Nitty page 8A
Jack Daniel’s
LYNCH
BURG, Tenn.
- This com
munity of
6,336 is “small
town USA”
in the most
graphic of
terms, such as
only one traf
fic light. It has
been a sleepy
little place dating back to the life and
times of its most famous resident,
the diminutive Jack Daniel, who got
the most fortuitous break a busi
nessman could experience when he
was virtually given a distillery by a
preacher man.
In the beginning, one Dan
Call took to the pulpit on Sunday
but during the week, he labored at
his still near Cave Spring Hollow,
which supplies the limestone water
that has made Jack Daniel’s what it
is. The Reverend Call’s congregation
took offense that he led a double life
— preaching the gospel on Sunday
and producing demon rum during
the rest of the week in Moore Coun
ty which, to this day, remains dry.
The preacher had a choice to
make. He couldn’t have his cake and
eat it, too. So he gave up the dis
tillery for the pulpit. This decision
would enrich the successor incum
bent, whose name is famously rec
ognized in more than 150 countries
around the world.
Just as Queen Victoria could not
start her day without a “wee dram”
of Bushmill’s, Frank Sinatra seldom
went on stage without a sip or two
of Tennessee’s most famous sour
mash. One of the distillery’s most
popular brands today is its “Sinatra.”
If you look for it at your local pack
age store, you may get a “sold out”
response — it has become that pop
ular.
Lynchburg is just off the beaten
path of 1-24, the interstate high
way that runs from Chattanooga
to Nashville. The drive takes you
through nondescript scrub trees
into resonating horse country near
Shelbyville, where Tennessee walk
ing horses have been the rage of a
certain segment of the horse set for
years.
It is best not to be in a hurry
when you come to Lynchburg, mak
ing sure you organize lunch at Miss
Mary Bobo’s. This lady was a cel
ebrated teetotaler who lived to be
101. Although passionately commit
ted to abstinence, she, nonetheless,
made a nice living serving those in
the alcohol trade who ate with her
and slept in her boarding house
rooms. The restaurant is so down
home that a hostess, Debbie Bax
ter, pulled up a chair as we enjoyed
our fried chicken and told us about
the history of the establishment and
Lynchburg and also disclosed dis
tillery facts and lore.
In years past, you might have
run into Lynne Tolley, ole Jack’s
grand-niece who remains a Jack
Daniels’ ambassador and is a gradu
ate of the University of Georgia.
This was confirmed by Athens resi
dent, Mike Cheek, former President
of the Brown-Forman corporation,
the parent company of Jack Daniel
since 1956.
When Miss Bobo passed on, the
distillery purchased the property
and now feeds visitors down home
cooking which segues into a tour of
the distillery which is accompanied
by a sampling of the various Jack
Daniel’s products when the tour
ends.
After the tasting, you can pur
chase your favorite label in the gift
shop, the only place in Lynchburg
where you have that option. You
may find, depending on when you
show up, that the distillery, too, may
be out of the “Sinatra.”
The tour allows you to connect
with interesting facts about one of
America’s most famous products.
Worldwide, Jack Daniel’s annually
sells in excess of 14 million cases of
its Cave Spring Hollow tonic each
year.
Jack Daniel’s is pretty much
about the water from the aforemen
tioned limestone waters, which gives
the finished product its distinctive
flavor. It is almost as internationally
known as Coca-Cola, which is often
Please see Loran page 9A
By Loran Smith