A little over 20 years ago the President of the United States had an improper relationship with an intern in the White House. Conservatives thought this was not a good thing, and sought to have the President removed from office. They were thwarted by liberals who assured us that, despite the fact it occurred during his presidency, it was "only sex"and thus private and nothing we should be concerned with. About 12 years ago, a billionaire - then a private citizen - had an improper relationship with a porn star. The man, as you know, is now President of the United States, and the same voices who defended, excused, justified and softpedaled the charges against a sitting President 20 years have put the pedal to the metal for President Trump, demanding that he be investigated, punished and, perhaps removed, although it happened years ago, when Mr. Trump was a private citizen, and was consensual. So the question is: why, when an elected official behaves immorally with an intern in the Oval Office it is "just sex," but when a President had behaved badly in the past as a private citizen, it is grounds for his removal?
BY JOHN SHAFFER Recent events have provoked many questions in our mind. Let’s go over a few of them.
A little over 20 years ago the President of the United States had an improper relationship with an intern in the White House. Conservatives thought this was not a good thing, and sought to have the President removed from office. They were thwarted by liberals who assured us that, despite the fact it occurred during his presidency, it was "only sex"and thus private and nothing we should be concerned with. About 12 years ago, a billionaire - then a private citizen - had an improper relationship with a porn star. The man, as you know, is now President of the United States, and the same voices who defended, excused, justified and softpedaled the charges against a sitting President 20 years have put the pedal to the metal for President Trump, demanding that he be investigated, punished and, perhaps removed, although it happened years ago, when Mr. Trump was a private citizen, and was consensual. So the question is: why, when an elected official behaves immorally with an intern in the Oval Office it is "just sex," but when a President had behaved badly in the past as a private citizen, it is grounds for his removal? BY JOHN SHAFFER The Canton High School Drama Club presented a wonderful performance of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella. The production was directed by Susan Rockwell, who added another gem to the list of great work that she has led on the Canton stage.
Grace Chamberlain was as sweet and genuine a Cinderella as could be; and Jasmyn Comereski was the perfect Godmother, and her touch for the role and her interaction with the audience were something special. Both ladies also sang wonderfully. The entire cast turned in first-rate performances, and if we were passing out grades for all of the main roles, Grace and Jasmyn, Cody Williams, Curtis Lammy, Esther Martin Jenna Spencer, Heidi Halbfoerster, Sydney Crawford, Isaac Fleury, Grayson Nybeck and Brianna Ellison, each would receive an “A.” The supporting cast also did a great job, and the dances were very good. The sets were top-notch, the staging was imaginative and clever, and the transformation of pumpkins, mice and rats into a carriage, horses and footmen was marvelous. Everyone involved in Cinderella earned their ovations and their bows. This show, and Troy's a few weeks ago, are showcases of the great talent and hard work of the students in our area. BY JOHN SHAFFER President Trump has taken note of America’s trade balance and the decline in some basic industries in America's heartland has proposed steep tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. He believes this is the best way to address the situation. Unfortunately, the President is looking at the problem from the wrong end and has proposed something that will have a negative impact. We have a hint of that with the multi-hundred point drop in the major stock index averages that resulted from the mere announcement of tariffs. The tariff may seek to improve the lot of those in the industries that manufacture steel and aluminum (and they may well do so – at least one steel plant will be reopened in the wake of the President’s decision), but it is likely that whatever benefit that segment of the economy will experience will be more than offset by the negatives felt by the rest of us – declining stock values, increased cost of goods, distortion of the markets, etc.
We won’t dispute that American manufacturing has experienced some steep declines in certain industries, but what if the President had gone about trying to fix the problem by trying to figure out the reasons why those industries are in decline. In other words, why can foreign competitors produce those goods at a lower price? Sure, if those overseas producers are illegally undercutting our markets, or are enjoying subsidies that our producers can’t have, the answer could be to impose a tariff to “level the playing field.” But if our competitors are just exploiting their natural advantages, maybe we should be trying to lower our costs of production. Why have we priced ourselves out of so many industries? By John Shaffer How To Succeed on the stage? Well, It is simple: Take a great show, a great cast, a great director, great musicians, a great stage crew, great props, sets and costumes, and wrap it all up with a love for the theater, and that is just what happened with last week’s Troy High School Drama Club production of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.
This was another in a long string of brilliant musical successes for the Troy High School Drama Club. This year’s show, like last year’s Aida, was very ambitious and challenging, as it is not as frequently performed in high schools, but the cast handled the show with aplomb and played the roles as if they had grown up with them all their lives. The “senior class core” of the Drama Club - Braden Ward, Megan Corbett, Stacie Simpson, Anna Dunbar, Zane Longwell, Grace Lathrop, Megan Everts, Breana Millard and others - all excelled, and this show places a proud exclamation point on their superb high school careers and will strengthen the Troy drama program even more. BY JOHN SHAFFER At least 150 Democrat members of the US house of Representatives have signed onto legislation to ban semi-automatic weapons. Some among them want to prohibit any weapon with a detachable magazine. For years some have wanted to ban handguns. That will leave bolt action weapons, and for those with long memories, those have been used to assassinate some US leaders - so we don't doubt they will be next on the list to ban when the semi-automatics and the handguns are disposed of. Not only that, some legislators, including quite a few Republicans, want to ban sales of certain weapons to people under 21 years of age.
All this is in reaction to the horrendous murders at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school, and this is also an illustration of the progressive urge to “do something” whenever a tragedy, crisis, scandal, disaster, or failure takes place. If it seems that the progressives are constantly trying to “do something,” that is because there always is something bad going on somewhere, and in the immortal thoughts of the pupils of the guru of Community Activism, Saul Alinsky – one should never let a good crisis go to waste. When we confront disasters or tragedies, we should be alert to the risks of stampeding into actions just for the sake of "doing something." Hasty responses often have unintended consequences. Back when Enron collapsed, we got Sarbanes-Oxley, and when the loan market crash led to the financial crisis of 2008 (remember, the one that propelled Barack Obama to the White House), we got Dodd-Frank and Elizabeth Warren’s offspring, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and those three regulatory nightmares have, we contend, inflicted far greater cost on the US economy and banking system and financial system than the crises they were created to prevent. After all, one of the beauties and wonders of the Free Market is that it is self-correcting over time – if there is a crisis or a blunder or a bad decision or the like, the markets will adjust and recover, and usually will be stronger than before. On the other hand, bad regulations, unlike a crash, aren’t merely a one-time thing, but they will inflict their damage perpetually; or at least, until they are changed or amended, but that’s not easy to do. BY JOHN SHAFFER Last week we explained our view of the horrific slaughter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida. A lot has emerged since then that indicates, if not establishes, that the situation was even worse that we knew, and that of all the school shootings or mass killings that have taken place in recent years, this one probably was the most preventable; because there were so many “warning signs” that were not heeded. The words "not heeded” don’t go far enough. There were many warning signs that were ignored or, even worse, swept under the rug.
It is appalling that at least one deputy (the School Resource Officer, no less), and perhaps as many as four, waited outside and refused to enter the building. Unarmed school employees and students did, and armed officers from Coral Gables and other police departments did, and EMTs wanted to but were prevented from doing so; but those armed Broward County deputies did not. They forgot one of the most important lessons learned from the Columbine murders twenty years ago: confront the shooter. Had those deputies done so, perhaps he would have fired at them, but then he would not have been firing at the children. Confronting the shooter forces him to alter his plans, forces him to lose control of the situation, forces him to react to something instead of having his way with unarmed victims. If not common knowledge, this at least is common sense. No, we do not mean crashing through the door as Rambo would, but confronting the shooter; while he is thus occupied, some of those victims could escape to safety, and a way may be found to neutralize him. But the knowledge that people who could have taken action during the shooting failed to do so is not the worst thing that has been exposed; for, despite realistic training and capable weaponry, human fears still haunt the best of us; and can we be sure that we would have “run toward the guns” had circumstances placed us in the line of fire? The deputies who did not enter the building probably should be replaced with ones who will, but no other punishment is called for. |
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