Newspaper Page Text
The ADVANCE, August 30, 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
Joe Biden Is a Narcissist,
Not an Empath
K' 1
ri
By Ben Shapiro
President Joe
Biden, we keep hear
ing, is a deeply empa-
thetic man. It is that
empathy that brought
him to the presidency
— his deep and abid
ing capacity to con
nect with others. In
“What It Takes,” Rich
ard Ben Cramers de
tailed blow-by-blow
of the 1988 election cycle, Ben Cramer de
scribes Biden’s ability to “connect” as his
greatest supposed skill. This has been the
pitch for Biden for decades: not much in the
way of brains, not a tremendously resource
ful politician, awkward on his feet — but he
cares. In the words of Mark Gitenstein,
Biden’s 1988 speechwriter and a four-decade
adviser, “His ability to communicate with
people in pain is maybe his most powerful
strength.”
Or maybe, just maybe, Biden was never
an empathetic man. Maybe he simply traf
ficked in ersatz empathy, all the while feed
ing his own narcissism.
That story certainly looks more plausi
ble these days.
This week, Biden visited Maui. He did
so nearly two weeks after the worst wildfire
in modern American history killed hun
dreds of Americans. Meanwhile, Biden vaca
tioned in Delaware on the beach, telling re
porters he had “no comment” on the situa
tion; he then jet-set off to Lake Tahoe before
finally heading to Lahaina. Once he reached
Hawaii, he proceeded to explain that he felt
the pain of those whose family members had
been incinerated. After all, he said, one time
he experienced a small kitchen fire. “I don’t
want to compare difficulties, but we have a
little sense, Jill and I, of what it was like to
lose a home,” he jabbered. “Years ago, now,
15 years, I was in Washington doing Meet
the press’... Lightning struck at home on a
little lake outside the home, not a lake a big
pond. It hit the wire and came up under
neath our home, into the... air condition
ducts. To make a long story short, I almost
lost my wife, my ‘67 Corvette and my cat.”
In reality, back in 2004, lightning caused
a kitchen fire in Biden’s home that was put
out in 20 minutes with no other damage.
If this were an isolated incident, we
could chalk it up to Biden’s encroaching se
nility. But it isn’t. After presiding over the
botched pullout from Afghanistan that re
sulted in the return of the Taliban, the mur
der of 13 American servicemembers, the
abandonment of hundreds of American citi
zens and thousands of American green card
holders, and the subjugation of some tens of
millions of women, Biden essentially
shrugged. Then, when faced with the fami
lies of wounded and killed American sol
diers, he attempted to “feel their pain” by in
voking the death of his son, Beau. According
to Cheryl Rex, whose son died in the Abbey
Gate bombing of Aug. 26, 2021, “His words
to me were, ‘My wife, Jill, and I know how
you feel. We lost our son as well and brought
him home in a flag-draped coffin.’”
Biden has cited Beau in similar instances
multiple times.
In the Jewish community, death of a
loved one is followed by shiva, a seven-day
period of mourning. During shiva, mourners
don’t leave their homes; they are instead
cared for by the community, provided with
food and communal prayer. Members of the
community visit the shiva house to provide
comfort.
The first rule of visiting a shiva house:
Don’t talk about your own experiences with
death or pain. It’s gauche and irrelevant and
trivializing.
Yet this is Biden’s first move.
Empathy is the quality of putting your
self in the place of others. But Biden isn’t an
empath. He’s someone who believes that ev
eryone else’s pain is merely a reflection of his
own.
Ben Shapiro, 39, 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 2023 CREATORS.COM.
Transgender bill draws fire
in state Senate hearing
By Dave Williams
Bureau Chief
Capitol Beat News Service
Legislation banning
teachers and other non-
parental adults from talking
about gender identity with
minors without the con
sent of a parent or guardian
drew a parade of opponents
Wednesday, including reli
gious conservatives.
Senate Bill 88, which
was introduced during this
year’s General Assembly ses
sion, would further isolate
already vulnerable transgen
der youths, who commit
suicide at higher rates than
other young people, Jeff
Graham, executive director
of LGBTQ_ advocacy group
Georgia Equality, testified
during a hearing on the bill
before the Senate Education
& Youth Committee.
“This will only add to
the stigma they face and
make life more challenging
and difficult,” Graham said.
Sen. Carden Summers,
R-Cordele, the legislation’s
chief sponsor, dismissed
comparisons of the measure
with the “Don’t Say Gay” bill
Florida lawmakers passed
last year.
“All we’re saying is if
you’re going to talk about
gender [identity] with a
child under 16 years old, you
need to talk to the parent or
guardian,” Summers said.
“It is not [a teacher’s] job to
discuss gender with a child.
That’s a job for a parent or
guardian.”
Kate Hudson of Atlanta,
founder of the non-profit
organization Education
Veritas, said a nationwide
movement in the schools
is actively encouraging stu
dents to consider changing
the gender identities they
were born with.
“It is an intentional ef
fort to dismantle our society
and brainwash our youth,”
Hudson said. “Our children
have a God-given right to an
education free of this indoc
trination.”
But the bill’s opponents
said students cannot be in
doctrinated to be something
they are not and barring
them from talking about
these issues with teachers
can only be harmful.
“If Georgia teachers
aren’t able to interact with
my child ... my child will
go to school isolated and
afraid,” said Jordan Black, the
Gwinnett County mother of
a transgender student.
Some opponents also
argued the legislature should
be addressing more impor
tant education-related is
sues including overhauling
the decades-old K-12 school
funding formula and priori
tizing the needs of schools in
rural Georgia.
“There are other prob
lems in our schools,” said
Mason Goodwin of the
grassroots organization
Georgia Youth Justice Co
alition. “We just got out of
the pandemic. Why are we
focusing on this?”
Religious conservatives
who testified Wednesday
expressed concern that the
bill would apply to private
schools as well as public
schools.
Sen. Ed Setzler, R-
Acworth , a member of the
committee, said the state
shouldn’t be dictating to pri
vate schools.
“I don’t know that we
have an interest in doing
what this bill does,” he said.
The Republican-con-
trolled General Assembly
passed a related bill this year
limiting gender-affirming
medical care for transgender
children, voting along party
fines. A federal judge granted
a preliminary injunction last
week temporarily blocking
enforcement of Senate Bill
140, an order the state is ap
pealing.
Ho„NOte
-forme.'
Are you ready for some
football? Woof Woof
Are you
ready for some
football? I sure
am and it is
about time.
The University
of Georgia, the
oldest state-
chartered uni
versity in the
land and the
last I looked
with 25 Rhodes Scholars to its credit, is
set to defend its two consecutive Na
tional Football Championships next
Saturday against the University of Ten
nessee at Martin Skyhawks on Dooley
Field.
Everybody assumes it will be a
walkover for the Dawgs. UT Martin
plays in the Ohio Valley Conference
along with the Lindenwood Lions and
the Fighting Leathernecks of Western
Illinois, among others. Dooley Field
and its 92,746 fanatics — some well-
lubricated by kickoff — will be a whole
new ballgame.
It is very satisfying to refer to the
place as Dooley Field, in honor of the
late Hall of Fame coach Vince Dooley.
It took years to get it done. A petulant
member of the powerful Board of Re
gents blocked any effort to make it
happen and vowed it never would as
long as he had any say.
And then along comes a guy by the
name of Brian Kemp, who grew up in
Athens, went on vacations with the
Dooley family and was a college room
mate at UGA with one of the Dooley
sons. It seems he got himself elected
governor of our great state. Among a
governor’s prerogatives is naming
members to the Board of Regents. He
“suggested” the board might want to
reconsider the idea and — voila! —
Dooley Field was dedicated in 2019 in
time for Vince Dooley to enjoy the de
served honor. One more reason to love
Brian Kemp.
Speaking ofVince Dooley, were he
still coaching, he would have me wor
ried sick right now over the real possi
bility of UT Martin upsetting the Bull
dogs. Allowing fans to become over
confident was not his style.
I remember listening to him on the
radio the week UGA was set to play
Vanderbilt, not exactly a powerhouse.
Dooley bemoaned the fact that the
Commodores had a punter whose spe
cialty was coffin-corner kicks — mean
ing he could consistently punt the ball
out-of-bounds within the 10-yard-line.
That would require long drives down-
field for Georgia, which he wasn’t sure
they could sustain over four quarters. I
fretted all week long over that possibil
ity. Georgia won by 7 touchdowns.
Today, it is just the opposite. Geor
gia fans exult in two straight national
championships and fully expect a third.
Anything less and the anonymous so
cial media rant-and-ravers with the
fake cutie-poo names will likely be call
ing for Kirby Smart’s scalp. To say ex
pectations are high is an understate
ment. But not for me.
In the good ol’ days when I was at
UGA, those good ol’ days didn’t in
clude football. A four-win season was
the norm. The annual butt-kicking by
By Dick Yarbrough
Georgia Tech was as painful as it was
humiliating. Today’s Johnny-come-
lately fans dismiss Tech as a mere trifle
on the schedule as compared to Au
burn, Florida and Tennessee. Not me.
The scars are too deep. You may judge
the Georgia Bulldogs success as na
tional championships or even SEC
championships. I judge success by one
game, the only game. Beat Georgia
Tech.
I have had season tickets since the
Kennedy Administration, which means
I have seen a lot of football games on
pre-Dooley field. The three best ath
letes I ever saw play were Fran (nee
Francis) Tarkenton, the Hall of Fame
quarterback who provided a couple of
years of sunshine in those dark days
and whose jersey should have been re
tired years ago; Archie Manning, of
Ole Miss, who would gain 10 yards af
ter being chased around the field for 50
yards; and quarterback Preston Ridle-
huber from Gainesville, Georgia, who
may have been the best athlete of them
all.
A piece of trivia: Perhaps you re
member the famous “Heidi game” in
1968 when NBC cut away from the
New York Jets-Oakland Raiders game
in the final moments of a seesaw battle
to show the movie Heidi resulting in a
national outrage from viewers. Preston
Ridlehuber scored the winning touch
down for Oakland with 33 seconds re
maining that most of the nation never
saw.
Admittedly, I am an old fogey, but
I am a bit dismayed at what is happen
ing to college football these days with
the transfer portal, open betting and an
NIL (name, image and licensing) pro
gram that has merit but needs better
governance. The college game is be
coming as professional as the NFL. But
one thing hasn’t changed: My love for
the Red and Black. Go you Hairy
Dawgs! Woof! Woof! (Just beat Tech.
Please.)
You can reach Dick Yarbrough at
dick@dickyarbrough.com or at P.O. Box
725373, Atlanta, Georgia 31139.
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