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Reece Terry, publisher
Opinion
Mark Boehler, editor
4A • Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Corinth, Miss.
The fraud goes on Last week the Supreme Court of the United States voted that President Obama exceeded his authority when he granted exemptions from the immigration laws passed by Congress. Thomas But the Supreme Court also Sowell exceeded its own authority by granting the University of Columnist Texas an exemption from the Constitution’s requirement of “equal protection of the laws,” by voting that racial preferences for student admissions were legal. Supreme Court decisions in affirmative action cases are the longest running fraud since the 1896 decision upholding racial segregation laws in the Jim Crow South, on grounds that “separate but equal” facilities were consistent with the Constitution. Everybody knew that those facilities were separate but by no means equal. Nevertheless, this charade lasted until 1954. The Supreme Court’s affirmative action cases have now lasted since 1974 when, in the case of “DeFunis v. Odegaard,” the Court voted 5 to 4 that this particular case was moot, which spared the justices from having to vote on its merits. While the 1896 “separate but equal” decision lasted 58 years, the Supreme Court’s affirmative action cases have now had 42 years of evasion, sophistry and fraud, with no end in sight. One sign of the erosion of principles over the years is that even one of the Court’s most liberal judicial activists, Justice William O. Douglas, could not stomach affirmative action in 1974, and voted to condemn it, rather than declare the issue moot. But now, in 2016, the supposedly conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy voted to uphold the University of Texas’ racial preferences. Perhaps the atmosphere inside the Washington Beltway wears down opposition to affirmative action, much as water can eventually wear down rock and create the Grand Canyon. We have heard much this year about the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Antonin Scalia -- and rightly so. But there are two vacancies on the Supreme Court. The other vacancy is Anthony Kennedy. The human tragedy, amid all the legal evasions and frauds is that, while many laws and policies sacrifice some people for the sake of others, affirmative action manages to harm blacks, whites, Asians and others, even if in different ways. Students who are kept out of a college because other students are admitted instead, under racial quotas, obviously lose opportunities they would otherwise have had. But minority students admitted to institutions whose academic standards they do not meet are all too often needlessly turned into failures, even when they have the prerequisites for success in some other institution whose normal standards they do meet. When black students who scored at the 90th percentile in math were admitted to M.I.T., where the other students scored at the 99th percentile, a significant number of black students failed to graduate there, even though they could have graduated with honors at most other academic institutions. We do not have so many students with that kind of ability that we can afford to sacrifice them on the altar to political correctness. But hard facts carry no weight among politicians as magic words like “diversity” -- a word repeated endlessly, without one speck of evidence to back up its sweeping claims of benefits. It too is part of the Supreme Court fraud, going back to a 1978 decision that seemingly banned racial quotas -- unless the word “diversity” was used instead of “quotas.” Seeming to ban racial preferences, while letting them continue under another name, was clever politically. But the last thing we need in Washington are nine more politicians, wearing judicial robes. (Daily Corinthian columnist Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. His website is www.tsowell.com.)
Prayer for today Heavenly Father, I pray that as I search for the truth I will not be so eager to seek thy mysteries as I am to extend thy ministries. Grant that by thy love I will be guided in comprehending and exalting thy kingdom. May my service bring me wisdom as I obey thy laws. Amen.
A verse to share If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. —1 Peter 4:14
Kris’ birthday coming down FISHTRAP HOLLOW — As soon as the heat dropped below 90 degrees one recent late afternoon – about 7 o’clock, really – I moved the CD player to the front porch, adjusted the fan just so and put my feet up on a coffee table. I played “Sunday Morning Coming Down” and “The Pilgrim” and “The Captive.” My Georgia friend Sharon Thomason, author of an intimate book about country music, had reminded me that a shared musical hero, Kris Kristofferson, turned 80 in June, same month as the iconic author Larry McMurtry. It was hard to believe. Kris is the Paul Newman of songwriters, getting better as he ages and never quitting doing what he does. He has a new album out and continues to perform. I think country musicians may have an advantage over rock musicians in that they don’t look ridiculous singing their songs after they reach age 60. Their songs are more sedate and involve
Rheta Johnson Columnist
less swivel. I have nothing against the Rolling Stones, for instance, but I no longer want to watch the sausage being made. It’s differ-
ent with Kris. For one thing, Kris was born old and wise. The first time I heard him sing was “Why Me, Lord?” over an eight-track player. His voice was so slow and quivery I thought the tape was dragging. That introduction began a love affair that has lasted over 40 years. And Kris did that unfair thing that certain males do. He managed to get better and better looking as the years passed by. His baby face finally matured enough to match his wise voice. When I hear what passes for country lyrics these days, I wonder if any of the new stars have ever listened
to a Kris song. Or a Hank song. Not that just anybody could write like the masters, but one could aspire. One could try to learn. Kris never used gimmicky language that seems to be so in vogue these days. He told stories. Love stories full of pathos and hurt. He reached into his closet and found his cleanest dirty shirt. We could see him doing it. We could taste that beer he had for breakfast. Love, after all, is not bouncy and bright. It doesn’t always come in pretty packages tied up with ribbons. It’s tepid beer, not champagne. And it hurts. How could a teenager plucked from the Mickey Mouse Club and packaged as a superstar know that? No dues, no blues. I heard Kris live in concert twice. Once when he was young and I was younger. It was in the huge coliseum venue at Auburn University, and Kris and his wife Rita Coolidge were together. She was more stylish at the time and got top
billing. “Rita, Rita, Rita!” the crowd demanded when Kris took the stage as the warmup act. I remember feeling bad for Kris, who had written many of the songs Rita Coolidge sang. But it didn’t seem to bother Kris, who took a swig of whiskey in front of God and everybody, and kept singing. I heard him at the Ryman six years ago, just Kris and his harmonica and guitar, singing parts or all of every song he ever knew. It was a brilliant performance, much appreciated by the audience of boomers who knew all the words. I figured it was some sort of farewell tour, but it wasn’t. He’s kept right on turning, for the better or the worse, still searching for a shrine he’s never found. Happy birthday, Kris. (To find out more about Daily Corinthian columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson and her books, visit www. rhetagrimsleyjohnsonbooks.com.)
After Brexit, a Trump path to victory Some of us have long predicted the breakup of the European Union. The Cousins appear to have just delivered the coup de grace. While Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU, England voted for independence. These people, with their unique history, language and culture, want to write their own laws and rule themselves. The English wish to remain who they are, and they do not want their country to become, in Theodore Roosevelt’s phrase, “a polyglot boarding house” for the world. From patriots of all nations, congratulations are in order. It will all begin to unravel now, over there, and soon over here. Across Europe, tribalism, of all strains, is resurgent. Not only does the EU appear to be breaking up, countries appear about to break up. Scotland will seek a second referendum to leave the U.K. The French National Front of Marine Le Pen and the Dutch Party for Freedom both want out of the EU. As Scots seek to secede from the U.K., Catalonia seeks to secede from Spain, Veneto from Italy, and Flemish nationalists from Belgium. Ethnonationalism seems everywhere ascendant. Yet, looking back in history, is this not the way the world has been going for centuries now? The disintegration of the EU into its component na-
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Pat Buchanan Columnist
tions would follow, as Vladimir Putin helpfully points out, the dissolution of the USSR into 15 nations, and the breakup of Yugoslavia
into seven. Czechoslovakia lately split in two. The Donbass seeks to secede from Ukraine. Is that so different from Transnistria splitting off from Romania, Abkhazia and South Ossetia seceding from Georgia, and Chechnya seeking separation from Russia? After World War II came the disintegration of the French and British empires and birth of dozens of new nations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. America returned the Philippine islands to their people. The previous century saw the collapse of the Spanish Empire and birth of a score of new nations in our own hemisphere. In Xi Jinping’s China and Putin’s Russia, nationalism is rising, even as China seeks to repress Uighur and Tibetan separatists. People want to rule themselves, and be themselves, separate from all others. Palestinians want their own nation. Israelis want “a Jewish state.” On Cyprus, Turks and Greeks seem happier apart. Kurds are fighting to secede from Turkey and Iraq,
and perhaps soon from Syria and Iran. Afghanistan appears to be splintering into regions dominated by Pashtuns, Hazaras, Uzbeks and Tajiks. Eritrea has left Ethiopia. South Sudan has seceded from Khartoum. Nor is America immune to the populist sentiments surging in Europe. In Bernie Sanders’ fulminations against corporate and financial elites one hears echoes of the radical leftist rhetoric in Greece and Italy against EU banking elites. And as “Brexit” swept the native-born English outside of multiracial, multiethnic, multicultural, multilingual London, populist-nationalist Donald Trump and antiestablishment Ted Cruz swept the native-born white working and middle classes in the primaries. In Britain, all the mainstream parties supported “Remain.” All lost. Nigel Farage’s UK Independence Party alone won. In the past six months, millions of Democrats voted for a 74-year-old socialist against the establishment choice, Hillary Clinton, as Bush-Romney-Ryan Republicanism was massively repudiated in the Republican primaries. As Trump said last week, “We got here because we switched from a policy of Americanism – focusing on what’s good for America’s middle class – to a policy of globalism, focusing on how to make money for large
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corporations who can move their wealth and workers to foreign countries all to the detriment of the American worker and the American economy.” What might a Trumpian policy of Americanism over globalism entail? A 10 to 20 percent tariff on manufactured goods to wipe out the trade deficit in goods, with the hundreds of billions in revenue used to slash or eliminate corporate taxes in the USA. Every U.S. business would benefit. Every global company would have an incentive not only to move production here, but its headquarters here. An “America first” immigration policy would secure the border, cut legal immigration to tighten U.S. labor markets, strictly enforce U.S. laws against those breaking into our country, and get tough with businesses that make a practice of hiring those here illegally. In Europe and America, corporate, financial and political elites are increasingly disrespected and transnationalism is receding. An anti-establishment, nationalist, populist wave is surging across Europe and the USA. It is an anti-insider, antiClinton wave, and Trump could ride it to victory. (Daily Corinthian columnist Pat Buchanan is an American conservative political commentator, author, syndicated columnist, politician and broadcaster.)
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