Wednesday, September 12, 2012 The Anadarko, Oklahoma, Daily News Page Five

EDITORIALS AND COMMENTARY

How 'bout NOT texting and driving that .....
JIMI HENDRIX was quoting Sri Chinmoy when he said, "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." GUESS WE shouldn't hold our breaths on that one. AT THE very least, people could employ simple courtesy like when a vehicle is backed 3/4 of theway into the street, the approaching vehicle could wait a few seconds rather than veer into the path of the oncoming traffic. SINCE THE early days of motor vehicles, drivers have learned the human body is no match for rolling metal. This theory is almost tested everyday in lots of close calls. A HAIRDRESSER mentioned to us she no longer has to "curl hair." "I JUST put my clients in the window and let them watch the traffic." should make it easy for parents to talk to their kids about the dangers of texting and driving. There is also a place on that site where drivers of all ages can pledge not to text behind the wheel. The company's efforts are based on some startling statistics. Research by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that drivers who text are 23 times more likely to be in an accident or nearaccident. The National Safety Council says more than 100,000 crashes a year involve drivers who are texting. Those statistics alone should be enough to convince you to put your phone away while driving, but what if I told you, mom and dad, that you are being watched? By DREW EDMONDSON According to a national teen Preach. Practice. Convince your kids not to text driver survey commissioned by AT&T, 77 percent of teens have and drive. Children are back in school in seen their parents text and drive. communities large and small all We tell our kids not to do it, but across Oklahoma. It's an exciting, many parents don't listen to their and often hectic, time of year. Par- own advice. It's the "do as I say and ents are shuttling kids to band con- not as I do" method of parenting. Maybe, instead, we should praccerts and ball games, and running tice what we preach. errands in between. Like their parIn that same AT&T survey, 62 ents, students are rushing about too; rushing to class, to practice, to a percent of teens said reminders from their parents not to text and part-time job. We get busier and busier, and drive would be effective in getting multitasking seems to be the only them to stop the dangerous practice. way to get it all done. While society If actions truly speak louder than may celebrate those among us who words, how many kids would reseem to effortlessly address multi- frain from texting and driving if ple tasks simultaneously, there's at mom and dad resisted the urge too? So, keep preaching, but start least one place where a singlepracticing too. Join with your kids minded focus is not only best but a must, and that's behind the wheel of in taking AT&T's pledge by logging on to www.itcanwait.com . an automobile. Recognizing this, AT&T recently Talk about the statistics. Commit announced an "It Can Wait" pledge yourself to never text and drive. Remember, your kids are watchday set for Sept. 19 to bring awareing. ness to this important public safety Edmondson, a former Oklahoma issue. The initiative comes complete with its own website, full of attorney general, is now in private survey results and statistics that practice.

KEEP IN MIND THAT THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 15 BROKEN.

Election 2012 Medicare vs. ObamaCare

By Dr. WILLIAM HAMILTON On August 12, 2012, Stephanie Cutter, Mr. Obama's deputy campaign manager, told TV viewers "You bet Obama cut Medicare by $700 billion!" Actually, Ms. Cutter (folks, I did not make up this name) erred in that the cuts of which she spoke so proudly were $716 billion. But hey, what's $16 billion to seniors needing Medicare? Now, please repeat after me: Medicare is not a welfare program. Medicare is funded by a combination of payroll taxes paid by employees and employers, premiums users pay for certain parts of Medicare and by general-fund tax

Central View
By

Cheating the voters

San Angelo Standard-Times The fallout from last year's colossal redistricting flop continues. Last week a federal court in Washington, D.C., delivered an outcome that should have been obvious to Republican lawmakers as soon as they wrapped up their handiwork in the spring of 2011 the judges said the way the Legislature drew congressional districts discriminated against minorities. Texas gained four U.S. House seats in the next Congress because of its growth over the last decade. Hispanics accounted for 65 percent of that growth and blacks 13.4 percent, yet the Legislature crafted new districts in such a way that minority candidates were unlikely to benefit. The judges further said the lines drawn by legislators removed the "economic guts" from congressional districts represented by blacks. The decision apparently (the qualifier is necessary because confusion and uncertainty has marked the process since the start) won't affect November's elections. Candidates are running in districts crafted by another federal court after judges derailed the Legislature's remap, which is the one skewered in last week's ruling. Texans would be more likely to live in districts drawn with their interests and needs in mind rather than the politicians'.

William Hamilton
revenues paid by the 50-percent of us who pay federal income taxes. If you live to age 65, you begin to get some of your money back in the form of medical care. In the context of the current presidential election, is it important whether Medicare lives or dies? Let's check the numbers: There are about 41 million seniors receiving Medicare benefits and another 61 million baby boomers who, at age 65, will start receiving Medicare benefits. That's 102 million Americans who have a deep and abiding interest in the continued existence and improvement of Medicare benefits. But concerns about the future of Medicare involve more than just today's seniors and baby-boomers. The preservation of Medicare is a multi-generational issue because Medicare makes it possible for the young mothers and fathers of today to be able to save for the education of their youngsters, or pay on their mortgage, or continue their own education rather than have to set aside savings to care for the increasing health-care needs of grandpa and grandma. But is Medicare perfect? No. According to forbes.com, unless steps are taken to make Medicare more fiscally sound, Medicare will run out of money by the year 2024. So now, this election comes down to the question of trying to sustain and improve Medicare or replacing Medicare entirely with ObamaCare. Sensing an opportunity to sell more supplemental insurance, AARP, as usual, has thrown its members under the bus. Just like AARP did in 1988 when AARP endorsed curtailments of Medicare that were so unpopular that 16 months later the House voted 36066 and the Senate voted 99-0 to restore the Medicare cuts. For Americans over age 55, the GOP plan maintains Medicare just

SEAL's book
The Buffalo News For anyone who values both the First Amendment and the nation's right to defend itself, the publication of a former Navy SEAL's book on the raid the killed Osama bin Laden presents a conundrum: Where do you strike the balance between fundamental rights and compelling duty? There are at least two answers, one clear, the other as dark as a mountain cave. Here's the easy one: Former Navy SEAL Matt Bissonnette shouldn't have written the book. Owning a right doesn't mean you always have to exercise it. Couples understand this concept well. Just because something is true doesn't mean that saying it will be wise or useful. A right to do something presupposes a choice: You have the right to do it or not to, as you see fit. Another example, closer to home for those of us who work for newspapers: The First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of the press offers newspapers tremendous freedom on what they choose to print, but not everything gets in. Editors constantly weigh concerns about appropriateness, reliability, accuracy, fairness, libel and other matters before printing sensitive information. So here's the question about Bissonnette: How much consideration, if any, did he give to the matter of appropriateness before spilling the beans about a subject that is simultaneously riveting and sensitive? Did he evaluate the risks to national security and to his former colleagues, still carrying out dangerous missions? Did he ask for anyone's advice before submitting the work for publication? Or was this just a payday? The Pentagon not always trustworthy on this kind of matter says the book, "No Easy Day," contains secrets that may provide enemies with dangerous insights into classified U.S. operations. That was the case the military made when the New York Times began publishing the Pentagon Papers, which showed that the government was misleading the public about the Vietnam War. The Times published, despite government threats, and it was good that it did: Claims that the paper was betraying secrets were true only insofar as voters knew things the government preferred it didn't. Bissonnette's book, while about a compelling subject, does not appear to provide details that radically undermine the public's understanding of events. Details are different from those provided by the Obama administration, but the question is whether a member of the armed forces of the actual team that rid the world of bin Laden should be so cavalier about his duties to his comrades, to the SEALs, the Navy, the Pentagon and the country.

Filmmaker is defiant
LOS ANGELES (AP) An Israeli filmmaker based in California went into hiding after a YouTube trailer of his movie attacking Islam's prophet Muhammad sparked angry assaults by ultraconservative Muslims on U.S. missions in Egypt and Libya. The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three American members of his staff were killed. Speaking by phone Tuesday from an undisclosed location, writer and director Sam Bacile remained defiant, saying Islam is a cancer and that the 56-year-old intended his film to be a provocative political statement condemning the religion. Protesters angered over Bacile's film opened fire on and burned down the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi. Libyan officials said Wednesday that Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed Tuesday night when he and a group of embassy employees went to the consulate to try to evacuate staff as the building came under attack by a mob firing machine guns and rocket propelled grenades. In Egypt, protesters scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy in Cairo and replaced an American flag with an Islamic banner. "This is a political movie," said Bacile. "The U.S. lost a lot of money and a lot of people in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we're fighting with ideas." Bacile, a California real estate developer who identifies himself as an Israeli Jew, said he believes the movie will help his native land by exposing Islam's flaws to the world. "Islam is a cancer, period," he said repeatedly, his solemn voice thickly accented. The two-hour movie, "Innocence of Muslims," cost $5 million to make and was financed with the help of more than 100 Jewish donors, said Bacile, who wrote and directed it. The film claims Muhammad was a fraud. The 14-minute trailer of the movie that reportedly set off the protests, posted on the website YouTube in an original English version and another dubbed into Egyptian Arabic, shows an amateur cast performing a wooden dialogue of insults disguised as revelations about Muhammad, whose obedient followers are presented as a cadre of goons. It depicts Muhammad as a feckless philanderer who approved of child sexual abuse, among other overtly insulting claims that have caused outrage. Muslims find it offensive to depict Muhammad in any manner, let alone insult the prophet. A Danish newspaper's 2005 publication of 12 caricatures of the prophet triggered riots in many Muslim countries. Though Bacile was apologetic about the American who was killed as a result of the outrage over his film, he blamed lax embassy security and the perpetrators of the violence. "I feel the security system (at the embassies) is no good," said Bacile. "America should do something to change it." A consultant on the film, Steve Klein, said the filmmaker is concerned for family members who live in Egypt. Bacile declined to confirm. Klein said he vowed to help Bacile make the movie but warned him that "you're going to be the next Theo van Gogh." Van Gogh was a Dutch filmmaker killed by a Muslim extremist in 2004 after making a film that was perceived as insulting to Islam. "We went into this knowing this was probably going to happen," Klein said.

the way it is now. For Americans under age 55, the Republicans say new funding mechanisms are needed so that the life of Medicare can be extended to 2024 and beyond. Voters who refuse to accept changes as to how Medicare is funded will just have to hang their hats on ObamaCare and hope bureaucrats like those who run the postal service and Amtrak know what they are doing. Some Medicare costs could be reduced if physicians were not forced to order sometimes unneeded medical tests for fear of frivolous lawsuits filed by those creepy Tort lawyers advertising on TV. In 2011, the GOP-controlled House Judiciary Committee reported out H.R. 966, The Lawsuit Reduction Act, which supports meritorious lawsuits but would impose sanctions against attorneys who file meritless law suits. Knowing the Democrat-controlled Senate will not pass curbs on trial lawyers, the bill sits on file in hopes that come January, 2013, a GOP-controlled Senate will send it to a Republican president for signature. Clearly, a lot rides on November 6, 2012. William "Bill" Hamilton, longtime featured columnist for USA Today and former paperboy for THE ANADARKO DAILY NEWS is a Distinguished Graduate of the U.S. Naval College and a Distinguished Research Fellow at the U.S. Army War College. He was also educated at the University of Oklahoma, George Washington University, the University of Nebraska and Harvard.
2012. WILLIAM HAMILTON

World Datebook
21

THE FIRST AMENDMENT

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. (The Supreme Court ruled that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applies the First Amendment to each state, including all local governments.)

Wednesday, September 12, 2012 Today is the 256th day of 2012 and the 85th day of summer. TODAY'S HISTORY: In 1609, English explorer Henry Hudson entered the river that would later bear his surname. In 1974, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie was removed from power by a military coup after 58 years of rule. In 1992, space shuttle Endeavour embarked on the 50th NASA shuttle mission. TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS: H.L. Mencken (1880-1956), j ournalist/critic; Jesse Owens (1913-1980), Olympic athlete; Ian Holm (1931- ), actor; George Jones (1931- ), singer; Barry White (1944-2003), singer; Joe Pantoliano (1951- ), actor; Ben Folds (1966- ), musician; Yao Ming (1980- ), basketball player; Jennifer Hudson (1981- ), actress/singer; Andrew Luck (1989- ), football player. TODAY'S SPORTS: In 1979, Boston Red Sox bomber Carl Yastrzemski became the first American League player to reach career totals of 3,000 hits and 400 homers. TODAY'S FACT: Dr. Mae Jemison, the science mission specialist on the Endeavour in 1992, was the first African-American woman in space. TODAY'S QUOTE: "The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom." -- H.L. Mencken TODAY'S NUMBER: 45 -- minutes it took track legend Jesse Owens to break three world records, and tie a fourth, at a college track meet in 1935. TODAY'S MOON: Between last quarter (Sept. 8) and new moon (Sept. 15)
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Bible Thought
The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will. Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts. To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice. A high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin. The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; but of every one that is hasty only to want. The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death. The Proverbs 21:1-6

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