Newspaper Page Text
The ADVANCE, August 23, 2023/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 Highly Dangerous
Georgia Indictments
By Ben Shapiro
This week, Ful
ton County District
Attorney Fani Willis
launched a 98-page
missile directly into
the heart of American
politics. That missile
was a 41-count in
dictment charging
former President
Donald Trump and
18 alleged co-con
spirators with violation of the Georgia ver
sion of the Racketeering Influenced and
Corrupt Organizations Act — acts in fur
therance of a conspiracy to commit a crimi
nal act. In this case, the criminal act, accord
ing to the indictment, was “knowingly and
willfully (joining) a conspiracy to unlaw
fully change the outcome of the election in
favor of Trump.”
Whether this amounts to a crime comes
down to the question of whether Trump
himself knew that he had lost the election;
if he believed that he had won, then all the
other accusations about him fall away. After
all, it is not a crime to pursue a spurious le
gal strategy in furtherance of a delusion.
But by charging RICO, Willis extends the
case to people who may have admitted that
Trump lost the election. This accomplishes
two purposes. First, it puts these alleged co
conspirators in serious legal jeopardy, giv
ing them reason to flip on Trump himself.
Second, it may allow Willis to charge Trump
as part of a criminal conspiracy even if he
personally believed he won the election —
after all, case law suggests that co-conspira-
tors can be charged under RICO even if
they didn’t agree on every aspect of the
conspiracy, so long as they knew the “gen
eral nature of the enterprise.”
The Georgia case also presents unique
danger to Trump because it is a state case.
Please see Shapiro page 14A
LETTER TO THE EDITOR...
Dominion Voting
Machines vs.
Paper Ballots
To Whom It May Concern:
We call on our Georgia state legisla
tors to call an Emergency Special Session
to save Georgia elections in time for our
2024 primary and general elections. Judge
Totenberg at The U.S. District Court
found on October 11, 2020, that the Do
minion Voting System, that was used in
the November 2020 election, is unverifi-
able to the voter and in violation of two
Georgia statutes. Our governor and Sec
retary of State are standing firm that they
will move forward with the illegal Do
minion voting machines in the November
2024 Election. Their excuse is that the
machines are safe and accurate, but that
has been proven false by the 96-page Hal-
derman Report.
We want to dump Dominion and put
paper ballots in place. There is no chance
that the paper ballots will cost more than
using the very costly Dominion ma
chines. We recently held a demonstration
by GeorgiansforTruth.org that showed
us the process used to count votes using
Paper Ballots. You can’t tell me that Geor
gia is saving money by spending millions
of dollars using the Dominion machines
that are hackable and give corrupt poli
ticians the opportunity to fix elections.
Paper ballots are the only process we can
use that will show the electorate how they
voted and will secure our election. The
cost of “paper” doesn’t even come close
to what is spent every time the Dominion
machines are used for elections. Please
help us make Georgia’s electoral process
accurate again! Tell your state legislators
that you want to see our 2024 Election
FOLLOW THE LAW!
Thank you for your consideration.
Mary Gebbia
Lowndes County GOP
Dwelling on My Parents
By Joe Phillips
Dear Me
Nada!
Last year I prom
ised to update you on
a couple of goals. As
time rolls around,
you start thinking
about self-improve
ment, and that had
something to do with
it.
I often dwell upon my parents and
some of their peculiarities.
I don't need a picture of my mother
drinking a glass of water at the kitchen sink.
My daughter inherited that posture of her
left hand on her hip holding the glass in her
right.
My father had different names for
meals. What the rest of the world called
“lunch” he called “the noon day meal,” and
“supper” was “the evening meal.”
I don't know where he got that unless
he picked it up as a student at Berry Col-
lege.
My parents loved buttermilk. They
were farm kids, raised milking cows,
churned butter.
Butter was made from fresh whole milk
that was held in a covered churn until it
naturally soured due to the presence of bac
teria.
The cream, which is butterfat, was
skimmed off and placed into a churn where
it was agitated with a plunger until it turned
to butter. The remaining sour milk was
known as “buttermilk.”
My parents liked buttermilk that was
sour and cool. Their favorite supper was
crumbled freshly baked cornbread into a
glass of buttermilk.
I tried to learn to love buttermilk but
couldn't do it. I tried to tolerate buttermilk
and couldn't do that either. However, there
is always some plain yogurt around here.
When school was out, there were a lot
of tender-footed kids gently running
around. Feet toughened up quickly and we
were bare footed except on Sunday.
When school started we were mostly
back into shoes again.
Some adults who worked outside aban
doned shoes. Uncle Guy Phillips went
shoeless while plowing the sun-warmed
Douglas County soil and chopping cotton.
The 1925 drought in Georgia was so
severe, Dog River was down to a trickle.
People sowed turnips in the sand of the
Chattahoochee River and had a good crop.
My grandfather hired Mr. Jim Cansler
to build a dam and mill while the water was
low. Mr. Cansler, my father said, was always
barefoot, even in the winter.
The only artifact of Phillips Mill is a
couple of roads. There are no artifacts of
shoeless boys and girls.
I tried walking to the mailbox bare
footed but came back with only stone
bruises. On the return stroll I stuck to the
grass and came back with chigger bites.
As to the buttermilk, Shelly Berman
had a line on “buttermilk.” He said, “It isn't
the taste that gets you. It's the way the glass
looks when you finish drinking it.”
joenphillips@yahoo.com
From dog bites to pig iron,
danger is all around us
Do you
know what the
most dangerous
job is in these,
the United
States? No, it is
not writing col
umns, although
when you have
been referred to
as a “racist red
neck” and an
“Obama-bedwetting liberal” in the
same week, not to mention a “spiritual
moron” by a God-fearing, love-thy-
neighbor Baptist, this is not exactly a
job for the faint of heart. The humor-
impaired can be a formidable bunch,
and they seem to be growing in num
bers. But I bravely carry on. (Pause for
applause.)
According to research at
JohnFitch.com, a personal injury law
firm in Columbus, Ohio, the most
dangerous job around is Veterinary
Services. Unlike the humor-impaired,
animals can be very unpredictable.
They say veterinary jobs receive the
most injuries in a 40-hour week with
13.8 injuries for every 100,000 work
ers. Dogs can bite you. Cats can claw
you and birds can peck on you, not to
mention someone who brings a cranky
boa constrictor in for its annual
checkup.
The second most dangerous job?
Here is a factoid that will wow the
crowd at your next cocktail party or
church picnic. The researchers at John
Fitch say it is Bottled Water Manufac
turing. Do what? You manufacture
water? I thought water — like air —
came with the territory. Upon closer
inspection, they are talking about get
ting the stuff into bottles, which in
volves machinery and packaging and
stacking. They cite incidents where
pallets of water, some weighing up to
4,000 pounds, have fallen and severely
injured or killed workers. I feel terri
ble that I might be somewhat respon
sible for having bought bottled water
in the past not knowing the risks I was
putting on these people. From now
on, I plan to get my water from the
garden hose like I did as a kid.
The Fitch folks say the third most
dangerous job is Ambulance Services.
I’m going to take their word for it. I
have never seen the manufacturing of
bottled water, but I have seen first re
sponders at work — sometimes, up
close and personal — and I can’t
imagine a more dangerous job. I’m
thinking that when 4,000 pounds of
bottled water falls on somebody or a
vet technician is bitten by a pet pos
sum, the EMTs are going to be the
first call. And they have the third most
dangerous job?
Skiing is said to be the fourth
most dangerous job. I wouldn’t know.
I have never had on a pair of skis in my
life. Given my agility impairment, I
would probably look like the ski
jumper on the old Wide World of
Sports show that never made it down
the chute. Besides, I don’t like cold
weather.
Some of the rest of the John Fitch,
com rankings are obvious. Nursing
By Dick Yarbrough
and Residential Care Facilities rated
fifth most dangerous. The report
notes: “With the amount of equip
ment required in patient care and of
tentimes long hours with little rest,
there is potential for risk and injury
due to the nature of this incredibly
difficult industry to work in.”
Not so obvious, the study says
that the Inland Water Passenger Trans
portation is more dangerous than
working in Correctional Facilities.
That raises an eyebrow. I know storms
can come up on lakes and rivers on
occasion, but is it really more danger
ous than guarding prisoners, many of
whom would gladly inflict bodily
harm on an officer if given half a
chance?
The Fitch list of the ten most dan
gerous jobs in the U.S. rounds out
with Iron Foundries (#8) where mol
ten pig iron or iron alloys is poured
into molds to manufacture castings,
followed by Couriers and Express De
livery Services (#9) because of the
potential in that business for road ac
cidents, bad weather and having to
deal with cuckoo customers.
Last on the list is Mobile Home
Manufacturing, which involves “heavy
machinery, tools and materials that
could potentially cause harm. There is
a multitude of hazards that make these
manufacturing jobs dangerous to
work in.” Not to mention that mobile
homes seem to be the first to go in a
storm, which has got to be frustrating.
If you work in any of the above
industries, I would urge you to be real
careful. I don’t want a parakeet to claw
you or a palette of water to fall on you
or for you to go and break a bone ski
ing or get hot pig iron poured on you
or any of the other above-mentioned
hazards. I need you, dear reader. I
mean, why else would I risk doing
such a dangerous job?
You can reach Dick Yarbrough at
dick@dickyarbrough.com or at P.O. Box
725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139
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