Thanks for asking me for evidence

Thanks for asking me for evidence

By Walter E. Williams

During the early years of the Reagan administration, a Washington news conference was held for me for my first book, “The State Against Blacks.” Before making summary statements about the book, I offered the reporters assembled that they could treat me like a white person. They could ask me hard, pressing questions. They could demand proof of the arguments that I was making.

People such as former NAACP President Kweisi Mfume and former Chairman Julian Bond and the Rev. Al Sharpton can make ludicrous statements. An intimidated news media just swallow the nonsense. They are probably afraid to challenge, lest they suffer guilt feelings of racism or be seen as racists for demanding that a black person back up his comments with facts.

You say, “Give us some examples of ludicrous statements.” Sharpton, commenting on black history, said, “White folks was in caves while we was building empires.” Mfume said of George W. Bush, “We have a president that’s prepared to take us back to the days of Jim Crow segregation and dominance.” Bond said, “The Republican Party would have the American flag and the swastika flying side by side.” When those statements were made – and after other utterances of nonsense – I did not hear of any reporters demanding evidence. Racial etiquette or politeness requires that no pressing questions be asked of liberal blacks.

A number of people have made angry responses to statements made in my column a fortnight ago in which I pointed out that liberal Democrats claim that conservative Republicans have launched a war on women as a part of their overall mean-spirited agenda. Assault, rape and murder are the worst things that can be done to a woman. I said: “I would be willing to bet a lot of money that most of the assaults, rapes and murders of women are done by people who identify as liberals or Democrats, particularly in the cases of murderers. Most crime, except perhaps white-collar crime, is committed by people who vote Democratic.” People have demanded to know what my evidence is. There are bits and pieces of evidence that show that most murderers are people who politically identify as liberals or Democrats. Whether these people also vote their preferences is not so evident.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice report “Homicide Trends in the United States, 1980-2008,” blacks accounted for 52.5 percent of homicide offenders from 1980 to 2008 (http://tinyurl.com/mb29bfa). It appears to be a fact that most murders are committed by blacks. The next fact appears obvious: Most blacks identify politically as liberals or Democrats. In fact, the 2008 and 2012 elections showed that at least 95 percent of blacks were Democrats. If one adds whites and Hispanics who also identify politically as liberals or Democrats, I think there is no question that liberals and Democratic Party sympathizers commit most of the murders in the U.S. None of this is to say that whites are crime-free. Whites are a greater percentage of our population and commit most of every type of crime except homicide and burglary (http://tinyurl.com/bzyzpk6).

I’m pleased that readers have demanded proof from me about my comments. Similar proof is not demanded from liberals who accuse Republicans of warring against women. I would ask several questions. Do Republicans include in this attack their mothers, wives and female children? What are the weapons Republicans use? Are failing to believe in late-term abortion and wanting to require parental knowledge and permission prior to a minor’s receiving birth control medication or an abortion tantamount to warring against women? Finally, are Republican women involved in the war against women?

Far more important for me in all of this is that liberals unintentionally treat me like a white person. Unlike their response to other blacks, they demand that I back up my statements. For that, I thank them.

Franklin Roosevelt , a Democrat , introduced the Social Security (FICA) Program.

Franklin Roosevelt , a Democrat , introduced the Social Security (FICA) Program.

He promised:

1) That participation in the Program would be completely voluntary,.

It is no longer voluntary.  

2) That the participants would only have to pay 1% of the first $1,400 of their annual incomes into the Program,

Now 7.65%    On the first $90,000. 113,700.00

3) That money that participants elected to put "voluntarily" into the Program would be deductible from their income for tax purposes each year,

No longer tax deductible.  

4) That money which participants paid would be deposited into an Independent "Trust Fund" rather than into the General Operating Fund; and therefore, would only be used to fund the Social Security Retirement Program, and no other Government program.

Under Johnson the money was moved to  The General Fund and spent.  [Now this is where somebody should have been impeached or gone to jail for fraud and   malfeasance of office.]

5) That annuity payments to retirees would never be taxed as income.

Under Clinton & Gore , policy was established that up to 85% of your Social Security can be taxed.  

Since many of us have paid into FICA for years and are now receiving a Social Security check every month -- and then finding that we are getting taxed on 85% of the money we paid to the Federal government to "put away" -- you may be interested in the following:  

Q: Which Political Party took Social Security from the Independent 'Trust Fund' and put it into the General Fund so that Congress could spend it?

A: It was Lyndon Johnson and the  Democratically controlled House and Senate.

Q: Which Political Party eliminated the income tax deduction for Social Security (FICA) withholding?

A: The Democratic Party.

Q: Which Political Party started taxing Social Security annuities?

A: The Democratic Party with Al Gore casting the 'tie-breaking' deciding vote as President of the Senate, while he was Vice President of the U.S. 

Q: Which Political Party decided to start giving annuity payments to immigrants?  

(AND MY FAVORITE):  

A: That's right!
Jim my Carter  and the Democratic Party.

Immigrants moved into this country,   and at age 65, began to receive Social Security payments! The Democratic Party gave these payments to them to get votes, even though they never paid a dime into it!

Then, after violating the original contract (FICA), the Democrats turn around and tell you that Republicans want to take your Social Security away!

What makes these facts really crippling to our nation is that uninformed citizens believe it!  

If enough people receive this, maybe a seed of awareness will be planted and maybe changes will evolve. 

 

It's worth a try. How many people can YOU send this to? Actions speak louder than bumper stickers.

Free exchange of ideas has left campuses

Free exchange of ideas has left campuses

By Kathleen Parker
Trigger warning: This column will include discussion of ideas that may conflict with your own. Those accustomed to reading or listening only to liberal commentators may not be aware of “trigger warnings” and “safe zones” on college campuses.

It seems that mostly conservative sites and writers are concerned with the increasingly draconian suppression of free speech on college campuses. But then, it is mostly conservative writers and speakers who are treated as though they’re bringing the Ebola virus rather than contrarian ideas to the sensitive ears of what we may as well name the “Swaddled Generation.”

A trigger warning is usually conveyed on a sign carried or posted near the auditorium where a speech is to be given, alerting students to the possibility that the speaker may express an idea that could trigger an emotional response. A discussion about campus rape statistics, for example, might cause a rape victim to suffer. This was the case recently at Georgetown University when Christina Hoff Sommers, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and author of “Who Stole Feminism?,” was greeted by sign-carriers warning: “Anti-Feminism,” with the room number of a “safe space.”

Students elsewhere have taken their trigger-phobia a step further, urging professors to add warnings to syllabuses alerting swaddlers to the possibility that a course might prompt uncomfortable thoughts. At Rutgers University, a student proposed flagging F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” as potentially upsetting owing to “a variety of scenes that reference gory, abusive and misogynistic violence.”

Protections against unpleasant thoughts can only be arranged by managing unpleasant speech. Thus, anyone who dares question any of the communally collected “understandings” of proper thought, presumably embraced during share-time and group hugs, won’t be celebrated as a curious mind but condemned as a “hater.”

Now there’s a winning debate argument. If you’re 5.

Such playground rhetoric is, nevertheless, effective, first by intimidating and ultimately by silencing. Hence the title of Kirsten Powers’ new book, “The Silencing: How the Left Is Killing Free Speech.” Powers, a columnist, self-proclaimed liberal and Fox News contributor, has opened one extra-large can of whompum with this book, which is filled with examples of free speech suppression, especially on college campuses and by the liberal media.

It is one thing for conservatives to condemn the narrow mindset of some liberals. Less easy to ignore is when a fellow liberal does it.

There’s nothing quite like discovering that the affections of one’s “friends” were conditional upon one’s concurrence.

Too often in debates about free speech, we get hung up on exaggerated examples or scenarios, such as the recent Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest, which was provocation for its own sake, or pornography, the purpose of which does not pertain to the loftiest of human realms.

What Powers and others are confronting is far more subtle and sinister – the suppression of ideas. Colleges and universities often boast of their diversity in terms of race, sex, gender or sexual orientation, but too often they fail to encourage diversity of thought.

This can be correctly seen as cowardice, manifested in the disinvitation of that relatively rare species, the conservative commencement speaker, who this year is outnumbered by liberals six to one at the top 100 universities, according to one study. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last year withdrew as commencement speaker at Rutgers after faculty protested. And Brandeis University canceled its plan to honor Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a fierce critic of Islam and a women’s advocate, at its commencement following protests.

Into this dark, narrow tunnel, a tiny light has begun to seep.

Last week, Purdue University followed the University of Chicago’s lead in January by issuing a statement of principles of free expression. Both “guarantee the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn. ... It is not the proper role of the university to attempt to shield individuals from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive.”

Praising Chicago’s example, Purdue President Mitch Daniels laid out the stakes in a telephone interview: “If universities want to embarrass themselves with their behavior, allowing people to be shouted down or disinvited, that’s their problem. But if they’re spawning a bunch of little authoritarians with an inverted view of our basic freedoms, that’s everybody’s problem.” Let’s hope other colleges and universities follow suit – and soon. Otherwise, someone will be forced to write the obvious next book, “Dictators in Diapers.” Would that it were instead: “The Unswaddling: How Universities Fought Back to Restore Free Speech.”

The true black tragedy

The true black tragedy

By Walter E. Williams

Hustlers and people with little understanding want us to believe that today’s black problems are the continuing result of a legacy of slavery, poverty and racial discrimination. The fact is that most of the social pathology seen in poor black neighborhoods is entirely new in black history. Let’s look at some of it.

Today the overwhelming majority of black children are raised in single female-headed families. As early as the 1880s, three-quarters of black families were two-parent. In 1925 New York City, 85 percent of black families were two-parent. One study of 19th-century slave families found that in up to three-fourths of the families, all the children had the same mother and father.

Today’s black illegitimacy rate of nearly 75 percent is also entirely new. In 1940, black illegitimacy stood at 14 percent. It had risen to 25 percent by 1965, when Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action” and was widely condemned as a racist. By 1980, the black illegitimacy rate had more than doubled, to 56 percent, and it has been growing since. Both during slavery and as late as 1920, a teenage girl raising a child without a man present was rare among blacks.

Much of today’s pathology seen among many blacks is an outgrowth of the welfare state that has made self-destructive behavior less costly for the individual. Having children without the benefit of marriage is less burdensome if the mother receives housing subsidies, welfare payments and food stamps. Plus, the social stigma associated with unwed motherhood has vanished. Femaleheaded households, whether black or white, are a ticket for dependency and all of its associated problems. Ignored in all discussions is the fact that the poverty rate among black married couples has been in single digits since 1994.

Black youth unemployment in some cities is over 50 percent. But high black youth unemployment is also new. In 1948, the unemployment rate for black teens was slightly less than that of their white counterparts – 9.4 percent compared with 10.2. During that same period, black youths were either just as active in the labor force or more so than white youths. Since the 1960s, both the labor force participation rate and the employment rate of black youths have fallen to what they are today. Why? Are employers more racially discriminatory today than yesteryear? Were black youths of yesteryear more skilled than whites of yesteryear? The answer to both questions is a big fat no.

The minimum wage law and other labor regulations have cut off the bottom rungs of the economic ladder. Put yourself in the place of an employer, and ask: If I must pay $7.25 an hour – plus mandated fringes, such as Social Security and workers’ compensation – would it pay me to hire a worker who is so unfortunate as to possess skills that enable him to produce only $5 worth of value per hour? Most employers view that as a losing economic proposition. Thus, the minimum wage law discriminates against the employment of low-skilled workers, who are most often youths – particularly black youths.

The little bit of money a teenager can earn through after-school, weekend and summer employment is not nearly so important as the other things he gains from early work experiences. He acquires skills and develops good work habits, such as being prompt, following orders and respecting supervisors. In addition, there are the self-respect and pride that a youngster gains from being financially semiindependent. All of these gains from early work experiences are important for any teen but are even more important for black teens. If black teens are going to learn anything that will make them a more valuable employee in the future, they aren’t going to learn it from their rotten schools, their dysfunctional families or their crime-ridden neighborhoods. They must learn it on the job.

The bulk of today’s problems for many blacks are a result of politicians and civil rights organizations using government in the name of helping blacks when in fact they are serving the purposes of powerful interest groups.

THINK TWICE BEFORE GOING TO COLLEGE

THINK TWICE BEFORE GOING TO COLLEGE

by Thomas Walsh is a Mason resident. 

One hundred years ago, only 10 percent of the U.S. population had a high school diploma – none of my grandparents graduated from high school. In those days, you could graduate from high school, get a job at a bank, and, 35 years later, become bank president.

My parents graduated from high school. My dad could have attended college on the Montgomery G.I. Bill after World War II, but family legend has it that my mother refused to move 75 miles away from her parents. It was left to me to be the first in my family to get a higher education.

My timing was perfect. Fifty years ago, universities were considered to be only for the elite. Very few – 3 percent to 4 percent – of high school graduates earned a bachelor’s degree. It made no difference what your major or GPA were – you were a college graduate.

I had a “nothing degree” and a modest GPA. I was hired by IBM – the Google of the day, and had a very successful career in information technology. Ironically, I had never seen a computer before I was hired.

Fast forward to today. About one in four high school graduates – 23 percent – will earn a bachelor’s degree.

Given the rise in the number of alums and the impact of the Great Recession of 2008, there is a serious imbalance between supply and demand of suitable jobs.

Recently I was doing volunteer work in a suburban high school that sends 80 percent of its graduates to college. I shared the supply and demand numbers with the principal. His response was, “We certainly don’t want the students to hear that.” Prospective employers can pick and choose from a vast army of applicants, and they aren’t going to hire many art history majors with a 2.3 GPA.

College today is a competition.

According to the Department of Labor, about half of graduates with a bachelor’s degree are not going to get a good job. The game has changed.

Here are the new rules for high school graduates:

There are exceptions, but you will probably need some kind of credential to get a good job.

Unless you are in the top 10 percent of your class, think twice before choosing the traditional four-year degree as that credential. (The master’s is rapidly becoming the standard for a good job if you are following the traditional college route.)

If you think you are up to the competition at the traditional four year college, choose a rigorous, marketable major and work hard to get good grades. (If your passion is “puppeteering,” try to resist the urge to choose this as your major.) Otherwise, consider alternative credentials. You don’t need a traditional four-year degree to make a good living in computer programming. See Udacity.com as one example. The trades – welders, plumbers, etc. – cannot find enough applicants. Check out Mike Rowe at profoundlydisconnected.com. Do you want to be an airline pilot? The military will train you for free.

Whatever credential you choose, avoid excessive student loan debt ($20,000 is a lot of student loan debt).

There are thousands of good jobs available that don’t require a bachelor’s degree because many parents and students start with the wrong objective. Focus on becoming financially self-sufficient instead of which colleges accept you.

Don’t join panic, just pay attention

Don’t join panic, just pay attention

By Daniel W. Nebert is professor emeritus in the Department of Environmental Health at Cincinnati College of Medicine.

The media constantly strive to increase newspaper and magazine circulation and the number of radio listeners and television, online and podcast viewers. One effective way to achieve this goal is to exploit the theme: “Should I worry?”

For example, after World War II was the “flying saucer scare.” Worry about an invasion from outer space certainly sold more newspapers and magazines and increased television news-watching. This concern also led to the government-funded program Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI).

In the 1940s and ’50s, some were convinced that fluoridation of drinking water was a “communist conspiracy.” Fear-mongering has remained sufficiently strong even today in some communities so that fluoride is still not added to city water supplies –despite medically-proven benefits that children drinking fluoridated water have fewer dental cavities due to strengthened enamel.

In the late 1940s began the fright of “nuclear winter,” promoted by Carl Sagan and others. Explosions of multiple nuclear bombs, causing numerous city-firestorms and excessive atmospheric soot, might block sunlight and lead to climate cooling.

In the 1960s came “zero population growth,” endorsed by Paul Ehrlich and others. By 2000, if Earth’s population continued to increase, the planetary food supply was predicted to become depleted. Some followers of this political movement actually decided on having fewer children because of this fear.

Between 1950 and 1970, cooler weather prevailed in the U.S. and Europe, compared with the 1930s ’40s. “Global cooling” became a concern. Major articles in Time (1974) and Newsweek (1975) magazines proposed that Earth might be entering a new Ice Age. Yet, by 1978, the cooling trend of 1945-75 had disappeared.

In 1975, Wallace Broecker, geochemist at Columbia University, was credited with first using the term global warming, in a Science journal article. In 1988 the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) held its first meeting, which marked the beginning of global warming hysteria. Satellite measurements of extremely accurate worldwide surface temperatures began in late 1978, which did show warming of several tenths of a degree, until 1997 – this coincided with the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize awarded jointly to Al Gore and the IPCC for “creating awareness of global warming.”

For the past 18 years, however, no further statistically significant increases in global surface temperatures have occurred – while fearmongering of “rising carbon dioxide levels” and “climate change” has continued to this day as a political agenda in the media. Wind and solar power, heavily subsidized by governmental funds because they are not otherwise cost-effective, have been championed by environmentalists.

Then came the “Y2K Bug,” fear that all computers worldwide would simultaneously crash, when changing from Dec. 31, 1999, to Jan. 1, 2000. The “computer glitch that scared the world” never materialized.

There are other topics of concern. Childhood vaccinations causing autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) or attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Consumption of commercially- prepared food, or food containing preservatives, rather than “organic” foods, resulting in cancer. Exposure to genetically modified foodstuff causing cancer. All of the above, and many other things, are proposed to be responsible for dramatic increases in childhood ASD, ADHD, asthma and obesity seen today in Western societies.

On a daily basis in the media, each of us is free to choose: “Should I worry?” or “Should I ignore all the hype?”

Perhaps being aware of these issues is acceptable. Being consumed with panic over these issues is not healthy.

The rise of the Islamic State was horrifying, unexpected, shocking. And perhaps predicted by the Bible itself.

Revelation's 6th trumpet about to sound?
Carl Gallups riveting readers as events align with prophecy

The rise of the Islamic State was horrifying, unexpected, shocking.

And perhaps predicted by the Bible itself.

Christians around the country are noticing contemporary events are lining up with prophecy, especially the terrifying warning of a great war to come. Author Carl Gallups says Christians need to face the possibility that the "trumpet days" of Revelation already are here, and the sixth trumpet may be about to sound.

Gallups details his views in "Final Warning: Understanding the Trumpet Days of Revelation." Even a brief introduction to his work reveals startling correlations between Bible prophecy and contemporary reality.

Gallups notes: "The sixth trumpet vision (found in Revelation 9:13-21) speaks of a great war, bigger than anything the world has seen to date. The prophecy declares that this war will take place in the area of the Euphrates River – in the veritable heart of the Middle East. Bible students sometimes refer to the war of the sixth trumpet vision as The Coming World War III.

"This 'coincidence' is simply too large to ignore. The Euphrates River begins in the mountains of northern Turkey and runs down through Syria, then through Iraq and into the Persian Gulf. This entire area just happens to be the current hotbed of the geopolitical focus of the world and the main stomping grounds of ISIS. These particular nations along the Euphrates, and the ones that surround them, are all major players in today's terror climate and Middle East upheaval."

He said, "Added to the prophetic mix is the fact that the sixth trumpet vision speaks of the vastly spiritual nature of this particular war (four angels being bound at the Euphrates River for this day and hour). Many cannot help but think of the Islamic, Israeli, and Christian connections to the brewing disaster scenario in the Middle East at this very moment."

Not surprisingly, Christian leaders and eschatological experts find Gallups' work invaluable.

But Gallups sees his role as straightforward. He is simply presenting the evidence as he sees it.

"I want to spiritually and physically prepare the church for the possibility of some tough times ahead," he said.

If the current state of the Middle East is any indication, they may have already begun.

Today's Left: Socialist Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

The Socialist Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

 by Richard Rothschild 

 “Social Justice” dispenses with real liberty and justice in order to enforce a socialist ideal.

In my previous article on “Social Justice”, I began to expose the “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing.”  I am referring to noble sounding, but ill-conceived government initiatives that insidiously displace individual rights and freedoms with collectivist goals.   This can be expected as evidenced by the fact the insignia for the Fabian Socialists is a wolf-in-sheep’s clothing.

Certainly, everyone wants “justice”.   Our Pledge of Allegiance ends with the words, “with liberty and justice for all.”  

However, the mischief begins when the word “SOCIAL” is inserted in front of the word, “JUSTICE”.

America was founded on the concept of liberty and justice for each and every individual, and our declaration begins with the premise that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Although we are created equal, there are no guarantees of equal economic outcomes under our free enterprise form of economy and government.  Find a country where everyone is economically “equal”, and I’ll show you a government where nobody has any freedom.

The Social Justice movement works from the basic premise that global free-market capitalism is “unsustainable,” and is the source of all evil because it does not lead to equal outcomes.

I know what you’re thinking, whoa commissioner, you had me until then…  but it sounds a little over the top to me.   You want evidence.

Okay, let’s start with the various definitions of social justice that seek a form of egalitarianism.  i.e. Equal outcomes for all.

Next we have Mr. Obama’s promise to fundamentally transform America.   Transform into what?

Have you ever seen the Common Core Transformative Matrix?   Of course, you should be asking the question… transform our students from what into what?  Well, it looks somewhat like a four leaf clover.   The topmost leaf has the destination.

Want to know what it says? I’ll give you some hints.  It doesn’t say “God”.  It doesn’t say, “The Constitution.”  It doesn’t say, “America.”

It says, “Global Citizen.”

So what’s a Global Citizen?  It is a euphemism for a godless government-state citizen that places the collective above liberty; above free-enterprise; and above God.  It targets vulnerable children that are not yet convicted to the principles of individual liberty and unalienable God-given rights.

Don’t laugh.  It’s happening as we speak.  I know as a fact that an exercise called the “Privilege Walk” is being taught throughout our colleges, and within local public schools.  Students are lined up side by side and asked a series of 25 race-baiting and subtle but anti-Judeo/Christian questions that go something like this:

If you are a white male, take one step forward.

If schools are closed during holidays that align with your religion, step forward.

If you are a minority, take a step backward.

If your parents do not have a college degree, take a step backward.

In the rotting carcass of failed progressive-left federal education doctrine, class envy, anti-white bias, anti-achievement exercises are presented as a means of promoting Social Justice.  In reality, the Privilege walk is little more than a classic anti-white male, anti-capitalist exercise, designed to evoke negative emotions against those that have enjoyed individual success.   As Obama said, “If you own a business, you didn’t build that.”  If you own a successful business, you should bend the knee and pay homage to the collective and your government.

It is classic Marxist class warfare… subtle but effective.

Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged, perfectly indicts this mentality, “The smallest minority on earth is the individual.  Those that deny individual rights cannot claim to be defender of minorities.”    Yet, that is exactly what the Social justice movement does.   It strips individuals of self-identity and treats them as members of a victim-class.  This is called “Identity Politics.”

If you’re lucky enough to belong to a group that is in political vogue with politicians, you may reap government benefits, or even a college admission.

If you belong to the wrong group, which usually consists of either Caucasian males, or business owners, you’re in trouble.  Supporters of free-market capitalism are “unsustainable.”

So go ahead… Take the Privilege Walk, and feel guilty.

STRIKE A BLOW AGAINST CORPORATE WELFARE

STRIKE A BLOW AGAINST CORPORATE WELFARE

Baylor Myers is Ohio state director for Americans for Prosperity

In the past week, Ohio Gov. John Kasich and U.S. House Speaker John Boehner of West Chester Township both weighed in on the future of the Export-Import Bank. This time last year, few politicians – let alone Americans – could tell you what this federal agency does. Today, with the bank’s charter set to expire in less than two months, it’s one of the most talked-about issues in Washington.

No wonder. Many lawmakers now recognize Ex-Im as the corporate welfare slush fund that it is. In theory, the bank is supposed to use taxpayer money to boost American exports. In reality, it spends tens of billions of our hard-earned tax dollars propping up a tiny number of multinational corporations with massive profit margins, supporting only 0.7 percent of Ohio’s exports in the process. Rarely will you see a more obvious example of special interests feeding at the taxpayer trough.

Fortunately, a growing number of representatives and senators don’t think Washington should spend our tax dollars this way. They’re now willing to let Ex-Im’s charter expire June 30.

Kasich is now on board with letting Ex-Im expire. As for Boehner, he’s almost there, but not quite.

The governor was unequivocal: “I’d get rid of it.” Boehner, on the other hand, expressed a desire to see the bank disappear, but also warned that its sudden expiration could cost “thousands of jobs.” He then urged his colleagues in the House to come up with a plan that either reforms the bank or “winds it down,” rather than eliminate it outright.

His fears are understandable, but they’re also misplaced. It turns out the bank isn’t really supporting jobs anyway – and it’s actually destroying some, too. According to the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan federal agency, Ex-Im supports a job in one industry at the expense of a job in another. Ultimately, employment stays the same across the wider economy.

That’s what happens when the federal government tries to pick the economy’s winners and losers. And with Ex-Im, there are many losers.

The bank’s mission is to help foreign businesses purchase American products. Yet this necessarily gives some overseas companies in one industry a competitive advantage over American firms in another industry.

Some of this hits close to home.

Look at Ex-Im’s support for foreign airlines. In the Cincinnati area, one of the biggest losers is Delta Air Lines, which must compete with Ex-Imfunded airlines in Asia and the Middle East. According to the Air Line Pilots Association, American taxpayers’ unwitting support for those airlines has ultimately cost at least 7,500 American jobs.

This helps explain why more and more lawmakers, at both the state and federal level, oppose Ex-Im. Yet perhaps the biggest reason is that the bank is a blatant example of corporate welfare. In the last 10 years, it has used nearly $215 billion in taxpayer money, most of which benefited a tiny number of companies. In 2013, for instance, nearly two-thirds of its financial support helped only 10 multinational companies.

Unsurprisingly, those same companies are the ones now lobbying Congress in a last-ditch attempt to keep the taxpayer cash flowing.

It’s time for Congress to end this.

If our legislators in Washington let the Export-Import Bank expire this summer, they would strike a powerful blow against corporate welfare.

Kasich is on the right side of this issue. Now it’s time for Boehner to join him in putting Ohio’s interests above special interests.

EXPORT-IMPORT BANK CREATES LOCAL JOBS

EXPORT-IMPORT BANK CREATES LOCAL JOBS

by David L. Joyce is president and CEO of GE Aviation

Unless you compete globally and sell U.S. products abroad, you may be unfamiliar with the financing power of an institution called the U.S. Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im).

The Ex-Im Bank’s charter expires June 30. Without reauthorization by Congress – which has authorized the bank many times previously – funding for this critical agency will expire.

I feel compelled to express my views on how important this institution is to Greater Cincinnati and to communities across our great nation.

Ex-Im is a federal agency that provides critical financing and loan guarantees for international sales of U.S. industrial products. Over the past two years, Ex-Im has generated more than $1.7 billion of returns to our government, while reducing our budget deficit and promoting jobs here at home.

Many nations competing with the U.S. (59) provide export credit assistance to stimulate foreign sales. China’s export bank provided more than $430 billion in loan guarantees for Chinese goods sold worldwide last year; Canada provided more than $90 billion; and France, Germany, the UK and Italy combined for more than $170 billion. In comparison, the Ex-Im Bank in the U.S. provided $27 billion.

So why is this so controversial? A vocal political faction believes that providing financing and loan guarantees for our international customers are not necessary. Even some politicians in our area, where the Ex-Im Bank promotes tens of thousands of local jobs, call for its demise.

This would impact GE Aviation and many smaller companies in the Tristate. Almost 60 percent of GE Aviation’s revenues last year were generated from international sales. In the next five years, that figure jumps to 75 percent. We compete and win around the globe, and bring those orders to the U.S. to manufacture using U.S. workers. The Ex-Im Bank is an essential ally in many of these foreign sales campaigns.

Unfortunately, this issue has become politicized to the point where the facts are sacrificed for the sake of a news headline.

Critics call Ex-Im “crony capitalism” for big U.S. businesses, although four out of every five transactions Ex-Im supports are to small- and medium-size businesses. They say Ex-Im is “high risk” even though its default rate is only 0.175 percent, comparable to that of the largest commercial banks. Or, that it is a “drain on taxpayers,” even though over the last two decades, Ex-Im has generated $6.9 billion in returns for U.S. taxpayers after accounting for all costs.

There is no disputing these facts. Ex-Im supports 1.3 million U.S. jobs, including tens of thousands in Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky, without costing taxpayers a dime.

Ohio has made remarkable progress emerging from the financial crisis, and we are restoring and “reshoring” critical manufacturing jobs. In our Southwest Ohio facilities, GE Aviation has invested more than $400 million since 2013 on the strength of international sales while supporting 9,000 jobs. We also spend more than $1.2 billion each year with hundreds of Ohio suppliers. The Ex-Im benefit also extends to rural counties, such as the $160 million investment since 2007 in our Peebles facility, which provides high-paying jobs to Adams County. Our people are proud members of their communities, dedicating more than 50,000 volunteer hours each year in Greater Cincinnati alone.

Our region has progressed too far to let political grandstanding put our exporting power at a steep disadvantage.

When government officials become more concerned about their “rankings” by well-funded political action groups and ideological “D.C. think tanks” than the well-being of the constituents in their districts, it’s time to call on them to reconsider their priorities.

Obedient black lives matter, too

Obedient black lives matter, too

By Walter E. Williams

Before we examine the issue of police shootings of blacks, I would like to start the conversation with another question. Here it is: If a person chooses to stand on railroad tracks in the face of an oncoming train, who is responsible for his being run over? And if many people meet their maker this way, what would you recommend as the best way to reduce such deaths? Would you focus most of your efforts on train engineers, or would you counsel people not to stand on railroad tracks in the face of an oncoming train?

In principle, the answer to these questions might help with the issue of police shootings in general and particularly those of blacks. First, the Ferguson, Missouri, case: Having robbed a liquor store, the person is walking in the middle of the street and blocking traffic. A police officer tells the person to get out of the street. What would you suggest the person do? Would you suggest that he ignore the police officer’s instructions, push the officer as he attempts to get out of his vehicle and afterward attempt to take the officer’s pistol?

In the case of the New York City death of Eric Garner, what would you recommend? A person is illegally selling cigarettes. The police try to effect an arrest. What would you recommend that the person do? As the police try to take the person into custody, would you advise the person to swat away the arms of the arresting officer, to tell the officer “Don’t touch me!” and to continue resisting arrest?

What about the shooting of Walter Scott by a North Charleston, South Carolina, police officer? If an officer makes a traffic stop, would you advise that the driver flee so as to avoid arrest?

Let me be clear: I am justifying neither the behavior of police officers nor the deadly outcomes of their confrontations with these three black men. Similarly, I would not justify the behavior of a train engineer or the outcome a person experiences standing on the train tracks in the face of an oncoming train. I would counsel a person not to stand on railroad tracks in the face of an oncoming train. Similarly, the advice that I would give to anyone of any race in dealing with police is: Follow the officer’s instructions. Do not resist arrest or attempt to flee. Do not assault the police officer or try to disarm him. Had this advice been taken, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Walter Scott would be alive today.

Criminal activity is a major problem in many black communities. That means many black citizens will have some kind of contact with police officers, either as victims of crime or as criminals. One of the true tragedies is that black politicians, preachers and civil rights advocates give massive support to criminals such as Brown, Garner and Scott. How much support do we see for the overwhelmingly law-abiding members of the black community preyed upon by criminals?

The average American has no idea of the day-to-day threats and fears encountered by the law-abiding majority in black neighborhoods on account of thugs. In addition to giving threats and instilling fears, criminals have turned many black communities into economic wastelands where there is a lack of services that most Americans take for granted, such as supermarkets, other shops and even home delivery. Black residents must bear the expense of having to go out of their neighborhoods to shop or shop at high-cost mom and pop stores.

The protest chant that black lives matter appears to mean that black lives matter only if they are taken at the hands of white police officers.

The Ancient Greeks’ 6 Words for Love (And Why Knowing Them Can Change Your Life)

The Ancient Greeks’ 6 Words for Love (And Why Knowing Them Can Change Your Life)

Looking for an antidote to modern culture's emphasis on romantic love? Perhaps we can learn from the diverse forms of emotional attachment prized by the ancient Greeks.

Today's coffee culture has an incredibly sophisticated vocabulary. Do you want a cappuccino, an espresso, a skinny latte, or maybe an iced caramel macchiato?

Eros involved a loss of control that frightened the Greeks.

The ancient Greeks were just as sophisticated in the way they talked about love, recognizing six different varieties. They would have been shocked by our crudeness in using a single word both to whisper "l love you" over a candlelit meal and to casually sign an email "lots of love."

So what were the six loves known to the Greeks? And how can they inspire us to move beyond our current addiction to romantic love, which has 94 percent of young people hoping—but often failing—to find a unique soul mate who can satisfy all their emotional needs?

1. Eros, or sexual passion

The first kind of love was eros, named after the Greek god of fertility, and it represented the idea of sexual passion and desire. But the Greeks didn't always think of it as something positive, as we tend to do today. In fact, eros was viewed as a dangerous, fiery, and irrational form of love that could take hold of you and possess you—an attitude shared by many later spiritual thinkers, such as the Christian writer C.S. Lewis.

Eros involved a loss of control that frightened the Greeks. Which is odd, because losing control is precisely what many people now seek in a relationship. Don't we all hope to fall "madly" in love?

2. Philia, or deep friendship

The second variety of love was philia or friendship, which the Greeks valued far more than the base sexuality of eros. Philia concerned the deep comradely friendship that developed between brothers in arms who had fought side by side on the battlefield. It was about showing loyalty to your friends, sacrificing for them, as well as sharing your emotions with them. (Another kind of philia, sometimes called storge, embodied the love between parents and their children.)

We can all ask ourselves how much of this comradely philia we have in our lives. It's an important question in an age when we attempt to amass "friends" on Facebook or "followers" on Twitter—achievements that would have hardly impressed the Greeks.

3. Ludus, or playful love

This was the Greeks' idea of playful love, which referred to the affection between children or young lovers. We've all had a taste of it in the flirting and teasing in the early stages of a relationship. But we also live out our ludus when we sit around in a bar bantering and laughing with friends, or when we go out dancing.

Dancing with strangers may be the ultimate ludic activity, almost a playful substitute for sex itself. Social norms may frown on this kind of adult frivolity, but a little more ludus might be just what we need to spice up our love lives.

4. Agape, or love for everyone

The fourth love, and perhaps the most radical, was agape or selfless love. This was a love that you extended to all people, whether family members or distant strangers. Agape was later translated into Latin as caritas, which is the origin of our word "charity."

C.S. Lewis referred to it as "gift love," the highest form of Christian love. But it also appears in other religious traditions, such as the idea of mettāor "universal loving kindness" in Theravāda Buddhism.

There is growing evidence that agape is in a dangerous decline in many countries. Empathy levels in the U.S. have declined sharply over the past 40 years, with the steepest fall occurring in the past decade. We urgently need to revive our capacity to care about strangers.

5. Pragma, or longstanding love

Another Greek love was the mature love known as pragma. This was the deep understanding that developed between long-married couples.

Pragma was about making compromises to help the relationship work over time, and showing patience and tolerance.

The psychoanalyst Erich Fromm said that we expend too much energy on "falling in love" and need to learn more how to "stand in love." Pragmais precisely about standing in love—making an effort to give love rather than just receive it. With about a third of first marriages in the U.S. ending through divorce or separation in the first 10 years, the Greeks would surely think we should bring a serious dose of pragma into our relationships.

6. Philautia, or love of the self

The Greek's sixth variety of love was philautia or self-love. And the clever Greeks realized there were two types. One was an unhealthy variety associated with narcissism, where you became self-obsessed and focused on personal fame and fortune. A healthier version enhanced your wider capacity to love.

The idea was that if you like yourself and feel secure in yourself, you will have plenty of love to give others (as is reflected in the Buddhist-inspired concept of "self-compassion"). Or, as Aristotle put it, "All friendly feelings for others are an extension of a man's feelings for himself."

The ancient Greeks found diverse kinds of love in relationships with a wide range of people—friends, family, spouses, strangers, and even themselves. This contrasts with our typical focus on a single romantic relationship, where we hope to find all the different loves wrapped into a single person or soul mate. The message from the Greeks is to nurture the varieties of love and tap into its many sources. Don't just seek eros, but cultivate philia by spending more time with old friends, or develop ludus by dancing the night away.

Moreover, we should abandon our obsession with perfection. Don't expect your partner to offer you all the varieties of love, all of the time (with the danger that you may toss aside a partner who fails to live up to your desires). Recognize that a relationship may begin with plenty of erosand ludus, then evolve toward embodying more pragma or agape.

The diverse Greek system of loves can also provide consolation. By mapping out the extent to which all six loves are present in your life, you might discover you've got a lot more love than you had ever imagined—even if you feel an absence of a physical lover.

It's time we introduced the six varieties of Greek love into our everyday way of speaking and thinking. If the art of coffee deserves its own sophisticated vocabulary, then why not the art of love?

Roman Krznaric is an Australian cultural thinker and cofounder of The School of Life in London. This article is based on his new book, How Should We Live? Great Ideas from the Past for Everyday Life (BlueBridge).