Local officials, Carson's speech and other national news

A very special honor is being bestowed upon Cape Girardeau state Rep. Kathy Swan. She is to be recognized as the 2013 Legislative Freshman of the Year at the state Missouri Chamber of Commerce annual meeting Nov. 14 in Kansas City.

Serving on numerous committees, Swan is recognized as an emerging leader. Congratulations.

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I enjoyed the recent Pachyderm program given by new Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Chris Limbaugh. I had not met him before, and could readily see similarities between his expressions and delivery styles of his father and grandfather (federal Judges Steve Sr. and Jr.).

Limbaugh was well organized and gave a fascinating and informative speech on the duties, workload and responsibilities in his job as Cape Girardeau County's prosecuting attorney, including the extremely large workload for the Cape Girardeau office.

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Benjamin Solomon "Ben" Carson Sr., is a retired American neurosurgeon. He is credited with pioneering work on the successful separation of conjoined twins joined at the head. In 2008, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush. After delivering a widely publicized speech at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast, he became a popular figure in conservative media for his views on social issues and the federal government.

The following is a recent article reprinted courtesy of CNS News:

Ben Carson Warns: 'Socialized Medicine is Keystone to Establishment of a Socialist State'

Dr. Ben Carson, the former director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University and Hospital, drew a parallel between Obamacare and "socialized medicine" and cited Communist leader Vladimir Lenin's support for government-run health care as the "keystone to the establishment of a socialist state."

Speaking at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Dr. Carson said that Obamacare "was never about health care. It was about control," and making all Americans "subservient to the government."

He then commented on why the Democrat-dominant Congress in 2010 moved swiftly to pass the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.

"And why did they want to pass it so badly?" said Dr. Carson. "Well, as I said the other night on television, Vladimir Lenin, one of the fathers of socialism and communism, said that socialized medicine is the keystone to the establishment of a socialist state."

"So this is -- this is -- you know, some people have said, oh, come on, you're being paranoid. How could anybody bring up something like that? I would say, if you know anything about history, how could you not bring it up? And, you know, that's the problem."

On Wednesday, Oct. 9, Dr. Carson was interviewed on Fox's "The Kelly File." During that discussion, he was asked about the IRS auditing him after he gave a speech critical of government-run health care. Carson said, "Well, you know, it's not terribly surprising because if you read 'Rules for Radicals' [by Saul Alinsky] it talks about the need to ridicule. It also talks about never having a real conversation with your adversary because that humanizes them and your job is to demonize them. Therefore, we see people saying about those who oppose Obamacare, for instance, that they want older people to die. They want kids to be deprived of food."

"You know, all these things are just straight out of the text," said Carson. "What's interesting is, Vladimir Lenin was one of the founders of socialism and communism. He said socialized medicine is the keystone of the arch to the socialist state. In other words, you've got to get the socialized medicine as the foundation because it gives you control of the people."

"Once you have control of them you can do what you want," said Carson.

When Lenin and Bolsheviks took over Russia in 1917-18, health care became a government-run operation. Today, despite the collapse of communism in Russia in 1991, the life expectancy for Russian males is 63 years and females, 75 years, according to the World Health Organization, In the United States, average life expectancy for males is 76 years, and females, 81 years.

Note: Dr. Ben Carson will be speaking at the Sikeston Field House Feb. 22.

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Quote of the Decade:

"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that, 'the buck stops here.' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better."

-- Then-Sen. Barack H. Obama, March 2006

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Networks blamed shutdown on GOP in 41 stories -- 0 on Dems

Republicans never expected to get a fair shake in the Big Three networks' coverage of the 16-day government shutdown, but the final tally of stories blaming the GOP is stunning: 41 stories blamed Republicans and zero blamed Democrats.

Nightly, 20 million Americans heard "a version of the shutdown story that could easily have emanated from Barack Obama's own White House," said the new report from the Media Research Center.

The report, provided to Secrets, found that a total of 41 stories blamed Republicans for the shutdown. None blamed the Democrats. Another 17 blamed both sides.

In addition, those interviewed by the nightly news broadcasts of ABC, CBS and NBC whacked the Republicans by a six-to-one ratio, said the report.

-- Excerpt from Paul Bedard's column in the Washington Examiner

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An aphorism is a short, pointed sentence that expresses a wise or clever observation or a general truth like the example given below.

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

-- Mahatma Gandhi, statesman

Gary Rust is chairman of the board of Rust Communications, which owns the Southeast Missourian, as well as a member of the editorial board.