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(Site Ahuattce The ADVANCE, September 27, 2023/Page 7A
A free press is not a privilege but
organic necessity in a great society.
-Walter Uppmann
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:
Betsy McCaughey, Ph.D, a former Lt.
Governor of New York State and author of
"Beating Obamacare": Biden lays a booby
trap for a Republican president.
It's a gravy train, paid for by John Q Pub
lic. That's sickening enough. But it's even
worse when these civil "servants" put their
own leftist leanings ahead of the president
and public they're paid to serve.
Bravo to the GOP candidates pledging
to take on the deep state — replete with
deadbeats and lefties — and return gov
ernment to the people. It's a worthy fight.
Shame on Biden for protecting bureau
cracy instead of democracy.
Not in America.
Byron York, chief political correspondent
for The Washington Examiner: The Mystery
of the Missing F-35.
Now, the Pentagon needs to inform
Americans precisely how this incident hap
pened. Was it pilot error? Was it equipment
failure? Some other factor? Given the tax
payers' obvious interest in the functioning
of the armed services, and given the ex
tremely serious public safety issues involved,
the report should be absolutely transparent
about what happened. Most of all, it should
answer the question: "How in the hell do you
lose an F-35?"
Matt Vespa, Senior Editor at Townhall.
com: Kamala Harris' 'Climate Anxiety' re
marks concerning young adults has to be a
joke.
"Vice President Harris argued Tuesday
that young people are experiencing "cli
mate anxiety" that causes them to rethink
major future plans like having a family due
to the environmental impact."
No, ma'am. That's not true. Who briefs
the vice president? I doubt any staffer with
half a brain would tell her it was fine to trot
out this misinformation. It's the state of the
economy. And if it's not the economy, it's
questions about childcare. Polar ice caps
melting and other talking points from the
Green Warriors aren't part of the discus
sion regarding family planning with young
Americans. The desire to have kids is strong
among younger Americans; they're just
waiting.
This woman is a disaster. Even on the
little things, she creates a mess.
Carol Roth, former investment banker,
entrepreneur, and author of the new book
"You Will Own Nothing": While you struggle
with inflation, smug elites say, 'Let them eat
cake!'
The Federal Reserve and the govern
ment have worked together to legally
plunder your wealth. They have extracted
wealth from Main Street and transferred it
to Wall Street. They have put your Ameri
can Dream at risk, they have not acknowl
edged their mistakes and they have no
plans to address any of the foundational
issues, from bad energy policy to outra
geous debts and deficits, that would fix our
foundational economic issues over the long
term.
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the Becoming ‘A
NITTY ^ Country I Do Not
GRITTY Recognize’
If there is
one overriding
theme of the
Biden years, it
is the
systematic
degradation of
American
freedom,
pushing the lives
and freedom of
private citizens aside as government
expands and takes over.
This is done under the rubric of
the left that “government knows
best.”
Day by day, we are becoming
what the late Supreme Court Justice
Antonin Scalia described as “a
country I do not recognize.”
In a new paper published by the
Committee to Unleash Prosperity,
Casey Mulligan, professor of
economics at the University of
Chicago and former chief economist
of the president’s Council of
Economic Advisers, estimates the
current and future costs of new
regulations imposed so far by the
Biden administration as close to
$10,000 per household.
Per Mulligan, although the
largest single area of new regulatory
costs comes from fuel economy and
emission standards, they still only
account for one-third of the total
costs. The rest come from “health,
labor, telecommunications and
consumer finance regulations.”
In a paper published last year by
Mulligan with Stephen Moore, they
estimated that Biden administration
policies, driven by climate change
dogma, to shut down the oil and gas
industry have resulted in 2 to 3
million barrels per day less of oil
production and 20 to 25 billion cubic
feet of less natural gas production
had these policies not been in place.
Mulligan and Moore estimate the
cost of this foregone energy
production to the U.S. economy is on
the order of $ 100 billion per year.
Now we have the latest move by
the Biden administration to remove
millions of acres of land in Alaska
from oil and gas drilling and
development.
This includes blocking nearly
half of the National Petroleum
Reserve-Alaska, the largest expanse
of public land in the country, and
canceling seven leases issued during
the Trump administration in the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
These moves may leave President
Joe Biden’s climate change dogmatists
happy, but less so Americans who
care what they pay for energy.
Alaska’s Sen. Dan Sullivan and
Wyoming’s Rep. Harriet Hageman
have introduced the Energy Poverty
Prevention and Accountability Act
that requires cost-benefit evaluation
from federal agencies on energy-
related policies that assesses the
impact of policies on affordability of
energy on Americans, particularly at-
risk communities.
There is no question about the
impact on the cost of living of all
Americans as the Biden
administration tilts at climate change
windmills.
Oil prices and gasoline prices are
now at 12-month highs.
Biden climate/energy policies
have also found their way into the
current auto strike.
Despite the United Auto Workers
being a traditional stalwart supporter
of the Democratic Party, so far UAW
president Shawn Fain has not
endorsed Biden.
One of the issues is government
mandates on automakers to move to
electric vehicles. Estimates are that
production of EVs requires about
30% less labor. Therefore, these
mandates threaten long-term
economic security of auto workers.
The likely solution will not be
backing off these mandates but
subsidies and mandates to support
union jobs in EV production.
This means even more
government. More government
controlling our economy, more
government controlling our lives.
It is all a kind of backdoor
socialism. But rather than increasing
government control coming from
some abstract ideology, we get the
same result from belief that
“government knows best.” The result
is armies of government bureaucrat
micromanagers controlling our lives.
Let’s recall our own Declaration
of Independence, which states our
founding based on individual rights
— life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness — and “that to secure
these rights, governments are
instituted among men ... that
whenever any form of government
becomes destructive of these ends, it
is the right of the people to alter or to
abolish it.”
It is time for Americans to act to
restore our free nation while we have
a few breaths of freedom left.
Star Parker is president of the Center
for Urban Renewal and Education and
host of the weekly television show "Cure
America with Star Parker." Her recent
book, "What Is the CURE for America?" is
available now. To find out more about
Star Parker and read features by other
Creators Syndicate writers and
cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate
website at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS.COM.
By Star Parker
John Fetterman makes the U. S.
Senate safe for disgraceful slobs
John Fetterman’s Senate legacy
is now set — he’s the guy who made
it possible to dress like a slob.
What the Missouri Compro
mise was to Henry Clay, what the
Second Reply to Hayne was to Dan
iel Webster, what the Civil Rights
Act of 1957 was to Lyndon Johnson,
Carhartt sweatshirts and baggy
shorts will be to John Fetterman.
The Pennsylvania senator is the
poster boy — if self-indulgent slop
piness is your thing — for the Sen
ate dropping a dress code that re
quired senators to dress in business
attire when appearing on the Senate
floor.
Fetterman briefly complied with
the rule by making the sacrifice of
putting on a suit and tie after he was
first elected. Then he reverted to his
standard uniform that makes it look
like he just arrived after sitting on
his couch, surrounded by empty
pizza boxes, watching football games
all weekend.
There’s business casual, then
there’s Fetterman’s garb. It wouldn’t
be acceptable at many fraternity
events around the country. Philadel
phia Eagles fans dress more carefully
on game days. If he showed up at al
most any service or working class
job in America dressed this way, his
supervisor would give him a stern
talking to and insist that he have
more respect for himself, his col
leagues, and his customers.
But, as it happens, he’s only a
United States senator, so he can wear
whatever he damn pleases.
When the history of the decline
of American institutions is written,
the jettisoning of the Senate dress
code may not be more than a foot
note, yet it will deserve mention.
It has long been remarked that it
matters how we dress. Mark Twain is
sometimes said to have written (in
what’s actually a paraphrase),
“Clothes make the man. Naked peo
ple have little or no influence on so
ciety.”
It turns out that slovenly people
do, however.
The business suit as we know it
had its origins in the court of British
King Charles II. Then, the 19th-
century British trendsetter Beau
Brummell made an important con
tribution by simplifying the outfit.
After various twists and turns, by the
mid-20th century in the United
States, the modern suit had arrived.
As an article in The Atlantic notes,
“It appeared on everyone from cab
drivers to business executives, and
made all appear polished and profes
sional.”
The unraveling began several
decades ago with the advent of
Causal Friday, which eventually
spread into Casual Everyday.
The Senate giving way to this
ethos after a couple of centuries of a
higher standard is a sign of the times.
We no longer reliably produce
people willing to conform them
selves to the norms and expectations
of their institutions; personal brands
are considered more important. And
the leaders of institutions tend to
lack the courage to insist on rules
that may no longer be fashionable,
even if they still serve an important
function.
It’s not that John Fetterman is
going to be a better or worse senator
depending on how he dresses —
he’ll be a party-line vote regardless.
But his dress speaks to how he re
gards his position.
This would be obvious in other
contexts. If someone shows up at a
funeral or a wedding in jeans and a
T-shirt, it is taken, understandably,
as a sign of disrespect, as an unwill
ingness to make the basic effort to
acknowledge the solemnity of the
occasion.
A session of the Senate isn’t as
fraught and meaningful as a wedding
or a funeral, but it should be consid
ered an event of some consequence.
The history of the body stretches
back to the beginning of the repub
lic, and it is invested with consider
able power. Dressing appropriately
acknowledges this; dressing as if it’s
a bowling alley disregards it.
Would we take a judge as seri
ously without his or her robes? Or
an officer of the law without his or
her uniform?
Fetterman has won this battle,
but at the price of beclowning him
self and his institution — not that he
cares.
Rich Lowry is editor of the National
Review.
(c) 2023 by King Features Synd., Inc.