According to Democrats we need a federal level energy policy and educational policy, but do we? Before the Comrade Carter administration there was no Department of Energy or Department of Education at the federal level. Carter created both of them.

Things have really gotten better on those fronts since then, huh?

***

Unable to take responsibility for anything, President Obama continues to blame everything on the Bush administration. He blames Bush for running up a $500 billion deficit in eight years with out of control spending.

Well, no. The President cannot spend a dime. Only Congress spends money and you can look it up in the Constitution.

And as a Senator Obama voted for every one of Bush’s budgets which included 19 spending bills loaded with pork. And in December 2005 Obama voted no on a bill to reduce federal spending by $40 billion.

So what’s Obama solution to the $500 billion deficit that he helped congress run up under Bush in eight years -- double it in six weeks! Twenty times it in five years.

***

Vice President Joe Biden bragged about the $1.3 billion for Amtrak in the stimulus package. But it’s not like the $1.3 billion is the end of it. Amtrak gets hundreds of millions in subsidies every year.

Amtrak was created 35 years ago with the idea that it would be come self-sustainable, that is, make a profit. Yea, right. It has lost money every year since amounting to billions.

Imagine if Greyhound or Martz ran their businesses like that?

Biden said every passenger rail system in the world relies on subsidies. So what? That makes it right?

He also said highways get subsidies. Yea the government builds and maintains highways, but Greyhound and Martz and other bus companies pay millions annually in tolls and fuel taxes.

"I’m tired of apologizing for Amtrak," Biden said. "It is an absolute national treasure and necessity."

Is it? Or is it an unnecessary extravagance?

***

I came across a story headlined “Lottery may offer more chances to win millions”. It was about negotiations between multi-state lottery games Powerball and Mega Millions that could lead to an agreement to allow states to sell tickets for both games. If it happens Pennsylvanians would be able to buy tickets for huge jackpots four instead of two times a week.

It would have been more accurate to headline the story: “Lottery may offer more chances to lose millions”, because the only thing the games are guaranteed to do every time -- take millions of dollars of people’s money.

***

A few weeks ago I read a story about three teenaged victims of one of the corrupt judges. The teens went before the judge without representation for minor crimes and were sentenced time in the new juvie, when probation and community service were appropriate.

The newspaper story included a little life story of each of the three and the three stories had something in common, other than the fact that the teens wound up in trouble with the law.

In each case the mothers talked about their kids and what they went through and in each case there was no mention of a father.

Among teens and young adults absent fathers are the best predictor of juvenile delinquency, poor grades and dropping out, drug abuse, alcoholism, promiscuity, hunger, homelessness, unemployment, under employment, etc., you name it.

The out-of-wedlock birth rate for African-Americans in inner cities is 70 percent.

It’s no coincidence that blacks make up 12 percent of the population and almost 50 percent of the prison inmate population. It’s no coincidence that about 8 percent of children in married-couple families were living in poverty, compared to 38 percent of children in female-householder families.

It’s no coincidence that the leading cause of death for African- American women ages 15 to 45 is intimate partner homicide. It’s no coincidence that 10 percent of black people arrested for murder in 2007 were under the age of 18. It’s no coincidence that the leading cause of death for black males 18 to 35 is homicide.

One study I came across concluded that 60 percent of black prison inmates were raised in absent father households or experienced a father in prison.

Another study showed that when absent fathers are thrown out of the equation, there is no difference between black and white crime rates.

So what are we doing about it? Instead of trying to limit single motherhood, we enable it, romanticize it and glorify it.

A story just a few days ago said more babies were born in America in 2007 than in any year in history including during the Baby Boom of the 1950s and that 40 percent of those were born out of wedlock.

But there’s a big difference between babies born to committed partners who are not legally married or to working women with decent incomes and a family support system and babies born to inner city teenage mothers who never know a father or know a string of criminals as substitute fathers.

About the Author

Jack Smiles covers for the Times Leader. Reach him at or jsmiles@psdispatch.com.

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