Out of the Mouths of American Babes

Out of the Mouths of American Babes
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
May 20, 2022

Seeing is believing; so on Tuesday, I saw, and I believe. Visiting a CVS, a Kroger, a Target, and a Wal Mart here in Westfield, IN, with pictures as supporting evidence, the cupboards are bare and the shelves bereft of precious baby formula.

As is typical, when government touches it, bad things happen. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is a government kickback-monopoly that has not only deleteriously impacted WIC recipients, but full-price paying parents. Abbott Nutrition Company, the producer of Pedialyte, PediaSure, and Similac, is at the crux of the baby formula crisis. Abbott closed its Sturgis, MI plant due to contamination. WIC beneficiaries receive vouchers for the procurement of baby formula from one specific company - a contract awarded by the government, ostensibly to the highest bidder, or in this case, the company offering the largest rebates.

One company, Abbott, accounts for 42 percent of the baby formula in the United States, according to The Wall Street Journal. Most states have their WIC contracts with that company. WIC recipients represent 57 to 68 percent of formula sales, according to the Department of Agriculture. When that one company incurs the problems it is suffering, those problems have far reaching tentacles, as witnessed by the empty shelves around the country.

Now, after the horse has escaped the barn, the Biden administration has decided it’s time to act. Is this what is meant by leading from behind? On Wednesday, May 18, Biden invoked the 1950 Defense Production Act (DPA) which allows the president to mandate “companies to enter into contracts to produce materials considered necessary for national defense,” according to Forbes.com. While clearly not war materials, the lives of our infants are in jeopardy, and that is a priority. The DPA also prohibits hoarding of, and profiteering from such materials. But what can this act encourage that is not already being done? Does the administration think Abbott is intentionally depleting the market?

“Our number one priority is getting infants and families the high quality formulas they need, and this is a major step toward reopening our Sturgis facility so we can ease the nationwide formula shortage,” according to an Abbott statement.

This is the United States of America. No one should ever go hungry in this country, especially our children and most vulnerable unable to provide for themselves. Such monopolies should not exist, for, as has occurred, when one company suffers, all consumers suffer in a quest to find the food needed as more people have fewer options from which to choose.

Additionally, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is now confiscating imported baby formula because there are non-English labels and an issue with the dosing cup. FIX IT! That the United States, the United States, has to import baby formula is both embarrassing and shameful.

Compounding matters, while the shelves in our stores look like vacant lots, at the southern border palettes a-plenty stock-piled with baby formula is at the ready for, wait for it - illegal aliens who have invaded the United States. This heretofore unknown information has been unearthed thanks to the intrepid investigatory work by Congresswoman Kat Cammack (R-FL). Cammack has been a hero and leading from the front, and not just on this particular issue. I would be proud to call her my Congresswoman. 

Any American not outraged by this chicanery, should not call him or herself a real American. This administration, this government, this so-called leader should be ashamed, first for allowing even one illegal to invade the United States, as all predecessors should, then for putting them ahead of even one American in line for such precious resources. Resources, when part of the WIC program, are earmarked for Americans in need - paid for by other Americans - some of means, many not so much. Taking food out of the mouths of American infants is deplorable - in the truest sense of that word. 

This is yet another example of putting America and Americans last - and without proper nourishment, dead last. As is usually the case, the government creates the problem, then takes credit for the solution. Smaller government is better. Less government is also better. The government kickback-monopoly failure regarding baby formula has proven that spectacularly. 

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.

Override Veto Allowing Bio-Males in Women's Sports

Override Veto Allowing Bio-Males in Women’s Sports
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
May 18, 2022

In the May 14-15, 2022 WSJ, Tunku Varadarajan wrote “Trans Sports Give Utah Republicans a Ticket to Override.” The Hoosier State faces a similar fate on May 24 and should be given some attention as well.

Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb should be ashamed of himself for his veto of House Enrollment Act 1041 - a bill designed to protect women’s sports as well as the integrity of Title IX, celebrating 50 years of serving women - biological women’s - safe participation in K-12 sports.

HEA 1041 states that biological males will be ineligible to participate in high school girls sports - public, private, and charter schools. This piece of legislation is absolutely fair in the interest of protecting girls pursuit of athletic excellence and future scholarship opportunities at the collegiate level.

Although the bill, penned by House member Michelle Davis (R-Whiteland), passed both Indiana houses, Holcomb vetoed it on March 21. The House and Senate will vote on May 24 to override Holcomb’s veto. A Constitutional majority of 51 votes in the House and 26 in the Senate are required to override the veto.

That this is even an issue, is shocking, considering the biological disadvantages faced by women in terms of bone density, lung capacity, heart capacity, and general speed. If the science isn’t enough, consider the news being made in Connecticut regarding high school track, and in swimming on the NCAA level, where biological males have shattered records biological females could not approach. Wrong on every level.

The Current in Westfield reported on April 5 that “Holcomb said there has not been a single case of a male wanting to compete on a female team that has completed a process to do so established by the IHSAA.” (Indiana High School Athletic Association) Irrelevant, and a poor excuse by a short-sighted governor.

To read the text of the bill: http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2022/bills/house/1041#digest-heading. To make your voices heard, call House members at 317-232-9600, and Senators at 317-232-9400 prior to the May 24 vote.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.

The Leak is the Crime; Reversing Roe - Perfectly Legal

The Leak is the Crime; Reversing Roe - Perfectly Legal

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

May 5, 2022

The last bastion of integrity in the American government, for the most part, has been the Supreme Court. The American people certainly have not agreed on the outcome of myriad cases heard by the High Court since 1790, but the work of the Supreme Court has ostensibly been scandal free. The integrity of this institution has been shattered by a poltroon devoid of a conscience in the hopes of creating a maelstrom the likes of which will divert attention from the absolute failings of the Biden administration.

At issue is the unprecedented leak of the draft majority opinion penned by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito regarding the Mississippi abortion case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. That this is an abortion case, the opposing sides are apoplectic that the ultimate decision, to be rendered by the end of June, could overturn Roe v. Wade (1973). Such a leak has heretofore been unheard of, attested Supreme Court historians and former Supreme Court law clerks.

As polarizing a lightning rod as Roe is, the greater concern is, and should be, the penetration of the sanctity of the Supreme Court, and what happens in the Supreme Court stays in the Supreme Court, until the justices themselves say otherwise and reveal their verdicts in June on the cases they agreed to adjudicate prior to the opening of the session - the first Monday in October.

It is painfully obvious the leaker is unsatisfied with the potential outcome of Dobbs and hopes the court of public opinion will weigh heavily enough on the minds of the majority for one of them to alter his or her vote, which if at five to four in favor, will flip the script to a five to four verdict in the other direction. Should this occur, the damage to the Supreme Court would be in perpetuity. Leaks of draft opinions would become commonplace knowing that the weak link will kowtow to the pressure of mob justice. This would completely politicize the Supreme Court in ways heretofore unfathomable.

Not only should none of the justices fall victim to such tactics, the Court as a whole must not be intimidated by such unsavory and illegal tactics. While Chief Justice John Roberts has enlisted the Supreme Court’s marshal to conduct an investigation, the tentacles of such search must reach infinitely higher. 

According to Chris Swecker, a former FBI Assistant Director, both the FBI and the Justice Department have jurisdiction in such instances. This culprit must be diligently sought out, fired, charged, and disbarred, preventing him or her from practicing law anywhere in the United States, its territories or commonwealths. As harsh a message as possible must be sent to deter future leaks, and after the cost of a law school education is flushed away, that message should be loud and clear.

Swecker specified two US Codes that have been violated by the leaker. The first, 18 USC 1905, prohibits the disclosure of confidential information. The draft opinion is confidential to the Supreme Court - this is not the final version ready for public consumption. Additionally, 18 USC 641 pertains to theft of government property - including records and/or documents.

That the Biden administration has yet to condemn this egregious act, quite frankly, is not surprising. In fact, White House press secretary Jen Psaki won’t even call for punishment for this dastardly deed, having said that the real story is about abortion, and not the leak. “Our focus is on the content of the leak,” said Psaki, clearly more concerned about preserving the odious act of slaughtering an innocent life, than preserving the integrity of the Supreme Court, its people, and its work.

Already, threats to burn down the Supreme Court, threats of violence toward what progressive woke liberals are calling extremist justices are being heard coast to coast. A pro-abortion organization called Ruth Sent Us, named for the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has not only planned protests at the homes of the six justices they deem extremist, they have made those addresses public. This does not sound like something the late justice would support. Members of Congress are calling the court illegitimate, simply because they do not agree with a potential decision that has yet to be made official. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has called the justices liars and is attempting to exert political pressure upon them to reverse the potential outcome of Dobbs. Senators Bernie Sanders (S-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) have already called for four liberal justices to be added to the Supreme Court.

From the White House, Joe Biden also called the five or six justices in the majority extremists, yet in 2006 said he would not fund paying for abortions as a member of the Senate. Kamala Harris ranted and raved about abortion being the right of women, yet supported a recent successful Supreme Court appointee who could not define what a woman is when asked under oath during her Senate confirmation hearing.

Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life organization, reported, “Biden slipped up today, acknowledging that abortion kills children - ‘choose to abort a child.’ How tragic to see a man, who for decades in the Senate stood against tax funding for abortion, so completely sell out to Big Abortion.”

Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) made it perfectly clear that should Roe v. Wade be reversed, such a decision would not legally end the practice of abortion in the United States, it would merely return to the separate states the power to decide. “It’s Federalism 101,” said Blackburn.

Roe v. Wade was poorly decided in 1973, This case should have never been brought to the Supreme Court in the first place. Abortion is not mentioned in the Constitution and thus should have remained within the purview of the states to determine, as per the Tenth Amendment. The pro-choice and pro-abortion crowds are bemoaning the potential loss of their precious abortions, calling this the end of democracy. The leftist woke progressives are demonstrating their ignorance of how government works, or is supposed to work. Returning the issue of abortion to the states is the constitutionally correct thing to do, and, in the interest of democracy, the most democratic action. Each state can, and should, put the issue of abortion on the ballot for the voters to decide - not the 535 members of the houses of Congress, not the 50 state legislatures, but the millions of eligible voters. That is, in fact, a more pure form of democracy. 

This is what Justice Alito has called for within the 98 page draft opinion. He narrowed his focus specifically to that issue, and only that issue. The overblown hysteria of the far left media, far left politicians, and far left supporters of abortion on demand are spreading rumors that once Dobbs is decided and Roe reversed, the “extremist” court will attempt to rescind gay marriage, interracial marriage (have they met Mrs. Clarence Thomas?), and even reverse Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, KS (1954), according to leftwing talk show host Joy Behar. None of those claims are remotely true. Apparently the new office of misinformation has not opened its doors yet (read: government censorship). Perhaps if those people read the leaked document, which the Supreme Court confirmed is legitimate, their hysteria would be assuaged.

For those who think supporting life is extreme, consider how extreme murdering that same life is.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.