Newspaper Page Text
The ADVANCE, December 28, 2022/Page 6A
Stye Aiiuancg
OPINIONS
“I honor the man who is willing to sink
Half his repute for the freedom to think,
And when he has thought, be his cause strong or weak,
Will risk t’other half for the freedom to speak.”
-James Russell Lowell
editorials
The Left’s Big Pitch:
Embrace a Worse Life in
the Name of Equality
m
By Ben Shapiro
This week, The
New York Times re
leased a long expose
of the shortcomings
of the United King
dom’s National
Health Service. Long
cherished as a crown
jewel of Left-wing
governmental policy,
the NHS has been
plagued by massive
resource shortcomings, requiring rationing
of critical infrastructure and care. Now, citi
zens are waiting up to 12 hours for ambu
lances. “It’s a near-crisis situation that ex
perts say reveals a breakdown of the com
pact between Britons and their revered Na
tional Health Service,” the Times reported,
“that the government will provide respon
sible, efficient health care services, mostly
free, across all income levels.”
There can be only one excuse for such
signal failure to serve the prosperity of your
citizenry: the chimera of equality. This, in
fact, is the clarion call of the Left: that hu
man beings sacrifice well-being and pros
perity on behalf of the cult of equal distri
bution of resources. Klaus Schwab, head of
the World Economic Forum, says as much
in his book, “The Great Narrative”: We
should dispense with economic measures
like gross domestic product (GDP) in favor
of “what matters most: climate action, sus
tainability, inclusivity, global cooperation,
health and well-being.” In fact, says Schwab,
“We might even find we can live with such
a scenario quite happily!” The end goal will
be ending “inequality and the unfairness
that underpins it” by enshrining “universal
provision of social assistance,” which will
require that governments “rewrite some of
the rules of the game and permanently in
crease their roles.”
Closer to home, New York Times colum
nist Jamelle Bouie says the same when he
argues in favor of government nationaliza
tion of all wealth and then redistribution of
that wealth on a per capita basis... every
generation. This would amount to a com
plete rupture of property rights — and this
in turn would mean the end of innovation,
since societies that dispense with property
rights and profit margins regress into stag
nation and then economic collapse. But at
least we will have achieved Bouie’s goal:
equality!
Indeed, members of the political Left
are constantly asking citizens to simply re-
frame their perspectives on prosperity en
tirely. Jerusalem Demsas, writing in The
Atlantic, calls on Americans to rethink
whether homeownership is worth pursu
ing, explaining, “pushing more and more
people into homeownership actually un
dermines our ability to improve housing
outcomes for all.” Indeed, rather than all
aspiring to buy houses and some succeed
ing, Demsas calls for “public investment in
rental-housing quality” as well as govern
ment “rent-stabilization policies.” None of
this will make it easier for anyone to own a
home, but it will make everyone more equal
in their government-sponsored tenancy.
President Joe Biden’s entire economic
agenda is built around the notion of eco
nomic mediocrity rooted in a self-pro-
claimed higher justice. Paul Waldman of
The Washington Post posited this week that
Biden had launched an “economic policy
revolution” rooted in fighting “inequality.”
This would require “more active govern
ment intervention in the economy.”
And we will all learn to love such inter
vention, because it will be done in the name
of a higher value: equality. Not equality of
rights, but equality of outcome; not equal
ity of value, but equality of resources. The
problem with this philosophy is that it re
moves the incentive for all that creates pros
perity: work, creativity, thrift, responsibil
ity. And removing that incentive means
more misery for everyone.
Ben Shapiro, 38, is a graduate of UCLA and
Harvard Law School, host of "The Ben Shapiro
Show," and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a
three-time New York Times bestselling author: his
latest book is "The Authoritarian Moment: How
The Left Weaponized America's Institutions
Against Dissent." To find out more about Ben
Shapiro and read features by other Creators
Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the
Creators Syndicate website at www.creators,
com.
COPYRIGHT 2022 CREATORS.COM.
Election-year politics tops
Georgia headlines in 2022
By Dave Williams
Bureau Chief
Capitol Beat News Service
With the coronavirus
pandemic at last under con
trol, election-year politics
dominated Georgia this
year. Voters reelected a Re
publican governor and a
Democratic U.S. senator
in a wave of ticket-splitting
that drew national atten
tion. Here’s a look at the top
Georgia stories of 2022:
January 7 - The father-
and-son murderers of Black
jogger Ahmaud Arbery near
Brunswick in 2020 are sen
tenced to life in prison with
out the possibility of parole.
The case led the General As
sembly to pass a hate-crimes
bill and overhaul Georgia’s
19th-century citizens arrest
law.
January 10 - The Geor
gia Bulldogs win college
football’s national champi
onship, defeating the Uni
versity of Alabama 33-18 in
Indianapolis.
March 1 - The Uni
versity System of Georgia
Board of Regents votes to
hire former two-term Gov.
Sonny Perdue to become
the system’s 14th chancel
lor. Perdue takes up the post
in April.
April 4 - The Repub
lican-controlled General
Assembly completes the
2022 legislative session,
highlighted by the passage
of bills overhauling the
delivery of mental-health
services in Georgia, allow
ing Georgians to carry con
cealed firearms without a
permit and cutting state in
come taxes by $ 1 billion.
May 20 - Hyundai Mo
tor Group announces plans
to build an electric vehicle
manufacturing plant in Bry
an Couty near Savannah.
Expected to create 8,100
jobs, it’s the largest eco
nomic development project
in Georgia history.
May 24 - Gov. Brian
Kemp trounces former
U.S. Sen. David Perdue by
50 points in the Republi
can gubernatorial primary.
Democrat Stacey Abrams
wins her party’s nomination
for governor unopposed.
July 20 - Ihe U.S. 11th
Circuit Court of Appeals
upholds Georgia’s “heart
beat” bill banning abortions
after six weeks of pregnan
cy. The General Assembly
passed the law in 2019, but
it didn’t take effect until the
U.S. Supreme Court’s rul
ing in June overturning the
1973 Roe v. Wade decision
legalizing abortion.
Sept. 26 - The state
signs an agreement with
water supply systems in
Gwinnett, Hall, and Forsyth
counties guaranteeing water
from Lake Lanier through
2050. The deal closes the
chapter on a major portion
of the tri-state “water wars”
between, Georgia, Florida,
and Alabama dating back to
the 1990s.
November 8 - Repub
lican Gov. Brian Kemp wins
a second term, defeating
Democratic challenger Sta
cey Abrams. Democratic
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock
lands in a runoff with GOP
challenger Herschel Walker.
November 16 - Geor
gia House Speaker David
Please see Williams page
8A
Junior E. Lee takes a
look at Y2KXXII1
The New
Year is upon
us. 2023. It
seems like
only yesterday
that we were
up at midnight
on New Year’s
Eve, 1999,
wringing our
hands at what
catastrophes
might await us at the beginning of
Y2K - the year 2000. It was thought
there could be a problem in the cod
ing of computerized systems that
would create chaos in computers and
computer networks around the world
as the year 2000 made its presence
known. Some even predicted our tele
phone network and power grid would
blow up as a result. It didn’t happen.
As we approach Y2KXXIII, I am still
getting calls wanting to extend the
warranty on a car I don’t own and
Georgia Power is still hosing its cus
tomers.
Had the Yarbrough Worldwide
Media and Pest Control Company,
located in Greater Garfield, Georgia,
been around in those days, I doubt
there would have been all that hand-
wringing. That is because the world
had not yet been introduced to Junior
E. Lee, one of the nation’s preeminent
media analysts as well as a pest control
professional. Junior would have said
that our computers crashing was
about as likely as a Bilobed Looper
singing selections from Handel’s Mes
siah. Junior is famous for his pest con
trol tropes.
There is no other organization I
know of that has a preeminent media
analyst who is also a pest control pro
fessional. Listen to Rachel Maddow or
Tucker Carlson blather on about
whatever and then ask them if they
know the difference between Sicari-
idae and Scutigeridae and see the
blank look on their faces.
I called Junior this week because I
knew you would be anxious to get his
take on what Y2KXXIII has in store
for us. I found him out at Arveen Rid
ley’s place spraying for cow ticks. He
told me he had not yet finished his
analysis of our highly-anticipated
Round-or-Square poll (“You provide
the dough and we will cook the num
bers.”) but there were several trends
developing that he found of interest
and thought you would, too.
First off, Junior E. Lee thinks that
somewhere along about the middle of
August, Donald Trump will have run
out of people to insult and will be
forced to demean Beanie Babies.
(“Pongo is a stupid penguin. Just stu
pid. And fake. Terribly fake. He has
never supported me. Pongo doesn’t
appreciate all the incredible things I
did for penguins during the China vi
rus. He’s a bad penguin. Really bad.”)
As for our current president, Ju
nior says that after trying to locate a
dead congresswoman at a recent
speech and asking a wheelchair-bound
state senator to “stand up, let the peo
ple see you,” don’t be surprised if Joe
Biden compliments Gerald Ford for
all the electric vehicles he is produc-
By Dick Yarbrough
ing at his factory in Detroit.
I asked Junior E. Lee if the poll
showed some interesting trends devel
oping in Georgia. Ever the pest con
trol professional, he said he thinks
woodpeckers will eat an increasing
number of Emerald Ash Borers this
year before they can mess up anymore
of our trees. I told him I knew you
would find that fascinating, but what
about our economy?
Junior said while our state is in
excellent shape financially, the poll
indicates that we can save even more
money. He says we are wasting paint
putting lines down the middle of our
highways because nobody ever goes
north. They all come south. I didn’t
want to offend Junior, but that is noth
ing new.
In the category of sports, Junior E.
Lee thinks the new football coach at
the You-Know-Where Institute of
Technology may have sniffed a bad
bunch of malathion. The guy claims
he is going to “dominate” his oppo
nents, including the University of
Georgia. I asked him what the polls
show regarding that possibility. Junior
said it was about as likely to happen as
a Bilobed Looper singing selections
from Handel’s Messiah. Junior and his
pest control tropes again.
There was so much more I wanted
to ask Junior, but he said he was in a
hurry to get to Aunt Flossie Felmer’s
and poke around in her drawers. He
claims he is looking for fire ants.
Frankly, I think Junior spends too
much in Aunt Flossie’s drawers, but I
don’t say anything. Finding a preemi
nent media analyst who is also a pest
control professional is not that easy. I
mean, can you see Rachel Maddow or
Tucker Carlson crawling around in
your basement, spraying hexaflumu-
ron to try and get rid of termites? I
didn’t think so. Happy Y2KXXIII.
You can reach Dick Yarbrough at
dick@dickyarbrough.com; at P.O. Box
725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139 or on
Facebook at www.facebook.com/
dickyarb.
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