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The World and Everything In It
8.21.25 Why immigrants choose America, the shift toward natural food coloring, and a traditional Japanese art form
00:37:47
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- [00:06]
Mary Reichert
Good morning. Illegal immigration is a problem for both the US and the EU but the reasons for that are different.
- [00:13]
Myrna Brown
That's straight ahead. Also today, the push to completely eliminate synthetic food dyes.
- [00:19]
Narrator/Reporter
They've been controversial almost from 1906 when the FDA got its start.
- [00:23]
Myrna Brown
And a cancer survivor picks up a paintbrush and a canvas to heal and finds a new calling.
- [00:30]
Lance Clements
As I start working with my hands, getting back, getting those creative juices going, your mood improves.
- [00:38]
Myrna Brown
And world commentator Cal Thomas on taxes and population changes from blue states to red.
- [00:52]
Mary Reichert
It's Thursday, August 21st. This is the world and everything in it from listener supported World Radio. I'm Mary Reichert.
- [00:59]
Myrna Brown
And I'm Myrna Brown. Good morning.
- [01:03]
Mary Reichert
Up next, Kent Covington with today's news in Texas.
- [01:07]
Kent Covington
After a two week walkout by many Democratic state lawmakers in a long political battle, the House finally had the needed quorum to vote on a new Republican drawn Congressional district map, 88 ayes, 52.
- [01:20]
David Beer
Nays, House Bill 4 passes to engrossment.
- [01:23]
Kent Covington
And that vote went, as expected, straight down party lines. Prior to the final tally, the top Democrat in the Texas House, Gene Wu, had strong words for Republicans while addressing voters directly.
- [01:35]
David Beer
You may not understand gerrymandering, you may not understand redistricting, but I hope you understand lying, cheating and stealing. When they can't win, they cheat.
- [01:48]
Kent Covington
But GOP Representative Todd Hunter said Republicans did win the majority in the state House and that is why they now have the authority to draw the district lines.
- [01:57]
Cal Thomas
Congressional redistricting is allowed.
- [02:00]
Lance Clements
The law allows it.
- [02:02]
Kent Covington
Hunter quoted the U.S. supreme Court saying that to hold that legislators cannot take partisan interests into account when drawing district.
- [02:10]
Cal Thomas
Lines would essentially countermand the framer's decision to entrust districting to political entities.
- [02:20]
Kent Covington
The new congressional map is expected to result in five more GOP leaning districts in the state. Top NATO defense chiefs held a video conference Wednesday to talk about how to provide the security guarantees Ukraine would need as part of any deal that ends Russia's three year war. Vice President J.D. vance was not a part of that conference, but he said yesterday that the White House is looking to Europe to shoulder most of the load.
- [02:46]
David Beer
We should be helpful if it's necessary to stop the war and to stop the killing. But I think that we should expect, and the president certainly expects Europe to play the leading role here.
- [02:56]
Kent Covington
Ukraine says military assurances against the threat of future Russian invasions are critical moving forward. Also on Wednesday, Vice President Vance paid a visit to National Guard troops now deployed in the nation's capital. The troops are supporting local and federal law enforcement now patrolling the streets of Washington. Vance's visit came a little more than a week after President Trump declared a public safety emergency in D.C. and gave the Justice Department authority over D.C. metro Police for 30 days.
- [03:26]
David Beer
I think that we're going to make a lot of progress over the next 20 days. I think that we're nine days into this thing. But if the president of the United States thinks that he has to extend this order to ensure that people have access to public safety, then that's exactly what it'll do.
- [03:39]
Kent Covington
Extending federal authority would require approval from Congress. Critics have called the federal takeover heavy handed and unnecessary. D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters yesterday that her office will cooperate fully with a Justice Department probe examining whether D.C. crime statistics have been manipulated.
- [03:56]
Myrna Brown
But, she added, we know that crime.
- [04:00]
Mary Muncie
Has gone down in our city and it has gone down precipitously over the last two years.
- [04:06]
Mary Reichert
Years.
- [04:07]
Kent Covington
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller joined Vance in greeting the national guardsman in D.C. the head of an Israeli backed humanitarian aid group says Hamas is actively trying to stop desperately needed supplies from reaching the Gaza Strip. John Aker is executive director of the Gaza Humanitarian foundation, an American contractor working with Israel to feed hungry Palestinians. He says the Hamas terror group has forced many of his local workers to move their families repeatedly.
- [04:38]
David Beer
Nearly everyone associated with GHF who has gone public has faced death threats, harassment of their families and vandalism of their homes simply for trying to feed the Palestinian people in Gaza, myself included.
- [04:55]
Kent Covington
He also said the aid distribution sites currently in operation are nowhere near enough and called for an end to hostilities.
- [05:02]
David Beer
We are absolutely pro ceasefire. We welcome any type of a ceasefire. If there have been recent discussions, that's positive.
- [05:12]
Kent Covington
But for now, Israel appears to be ramping up its war on Hamas. Israeli military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defran says Israel will call up another 60,000 reservists by September and another 27,000 will see their current deployments extended. That comes ahead of a planned expansion of military operations in Gaza City. The Pentagon deployed maritime patrol aircraft near Venezuela Wednesday. That follows the deployment of Navy destroyers and submarines along with some 4,000 U.S. marines near Venezuela's coast. It is part of what the Trump administration calls counter narcotic operations aimed at drug cartels in Venezuela, which President Trump has designated as foreign terrorist organizations. It comes just days after Attorney General Pam Bondi announced a $50 million reward for the arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.
- [06:05]
Mary Muncie
Maduro uses foreign terrorist organizations like tda, Sinaloa and Cartel of the suns to bring deadly drugs and violence into our country.
- [06:15]
Kent Covington
Maduro called on millions of the country's militiamen this week to take up arms and be ready. The current US Operations are aimed at blocking fentanyl and other drugs from being pipelined into the United States. Hurricane Erin is still raging over the Atlantic Ocean, well off the US Shoreline, but it is still causing problems along the east coast, triggering storm surge warnings and evacuations In North Carolina, Governor Josh Stein, Our state emergency response team stands ready to quickly and decisively respond to any needs along the coast.
- [06:50]
David Beer
We have already pre positioned three swiftwater.
- [06:53]
Kent Covington
Rescue teams and 200 National Guard troops to various locations on the coast along.
- [06:58]
David Beer
With boats, high clearance vehicles and aircraft.
- [07:02]
Kent Covington
And Iran is causing dangerous rip currents and hazardous beach conditions from Florida to New England. I'm Ken Covington. And straight ahead, comparing illegal immigration data in Europe and America. Plus how some states are shooting themselves in the foot by raising taxes. This is the WORLD and everything in it.
- [07:37]
Mary Reichert
It's Thursday, the 21st of August. So glad to have you along for today's edition of THE WORLD and Everything IN it. Good morning. I'm Mary Reichard.
- [07:45]
Myrna Brown
And I'm Myrna Brown. First up, illegal immigration numbers. For years, Democrats have argued the US should open its doors wider to immigrants. Here's Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez speaking here in 2023. Economically, we need these populations. She says the US doesn't have enough workers, especially as baby boomers retire. And let me tell you, as boomers begin to age and as they enter retirement, the amount of strain and labor it is going to require from, for example, home health care and our care systems overall, we do not have the.
- [08:35]
Mary Muncie
People to sustain that.
- [08:37]
Mary Reichert
But what AOC and other Democrats fail to mention is that the United States already takes in more immigrants than than the rest of the world. World's Josh Schumacher has more on why that's so.
- [08:48]
Josh Schumacher
When it comes to the numbers, it's easy to see just how different illegal immigration is in the United States compared to Europe. In 2023, 450 million people lived in the European Union, but it had an estimated illegal immigrant population of only 1.26 million. That same year, the United States had a population of about 340 million people, so about 110 million less people. But its illegal immigrant population was 10 times higher than Europe's, sitting at roughly 12 million people. Why does the United States have more illegal immigrants? Well, to begin with, they usually have an easier time succeeding here. David Beer is the director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute.
- [09:35]
David Beer
Low skilled immigrants in the United States are much more successful than low skilled immigrants to Europe are. If you look at their unemployment rates, their ability to integrate into society across other metrics, low skilled immigrants just excel in the United States in a way that they do not in Europe.
- [09:58]
Josh Schumacher
That's because the United States has different labor laws than most European countries do.
- [10:03]
David Beer
It's actually much more difficult in Europe to work illegally than it is in the United States for a number of different reasons. One, just for broad labor market reasons, the United States has a lower minimum wage, more flexible labor policies. You can fire people at will, you know, so there it's just easier to hire lower skilled workers here in the United States.
- [10:26]
Josh Schumacher
Now, a common concern about illegal immigration in the United States is the economic drain on government resources. Those include forcing the state to cover the cost of uninsured medical expenses, for pouring more resources in increasingly crowded classrooms, and other pressures on local infrastructure. Yet it turns out that illegal immigrants in the United States aren't nearly as dependent on government welfare as many in Europe are. That's one of the main reasons for the rise in immigration crackdowns there. According to David Beer, the motivation for reforming the system in the United States is much less financial. He says Americans care far more about the fact that undocumented immigrants are here illegally than they do about the amount of resources they do or don't consume.
- [11:11]
David Beer
People in the United States just don't like to see people entering the country illegally violating the law.
- [11:18]
Josh Schumacher
That's not to say that Europeans don't want to uphold the rule of law, but their laws make it more difficult to arrest, detain, and deport illegal immigrants. So many countries in the EU have focused instead on making it less beneficial for them to stay.
- [11:34]
David Beer
David Beer explains, it's the restriction on access to the labor market. It's efforts to incentivize them to leave through financial incentives, cutting them off from social services. So those are some of the mechanisms that are more common in Europe.
- [11:54]
Josh Schumacher
The Trump administration is also trying to motivate illegal immigrants to self deport while trying to promote proper immigration.
- [12:02]
David Beer
And I think Trump fits. I don't like to see illegality, I don't like to see chaos. But I'm not actually against having people come here to work, be an immigrant who's here legally and, you know, contributing to the country. He's less upset about that.
- [12:17]
Josh Schumacher
Compared to the eu, the US Annually deports about twice as many illegal immigrants in total. But by percentage, the EU is deporting much more of its illegal immigrant population per year. Probably the biggest difference between the United States and the EU on the topic of illegal immigration, though, is access. Even though the journey may be equally difficult once here, immigrants can usually get into the country much more easily, leading many to risk the trip. Steven Camerata is the director of research at the center for Immigration Studies.
- [12:50]
David Beer
If it's very dangerous to march through Central America and cross the Darien Gap and then into Mexico, and you have a chance of being, you know, robbed, killed, or raped, you're not likely to do it unless you're pretty sure that when you get to the border, they're going to let you in.
- [13:08]
Josh Schumacher
Those more open border policies in the United States have existed alongside much more closed border policies in Europe, and that means many immigrants who would have an easier time getting to Europe have instead come to the United States. But Camerata says one of the most common reasons people enter the US Improperly is even more practical. They're following friends or family.
- [13:29]
David Beer
People don't want to wake up one day and says, I'm going to America. What happens instead is that they have a brother in America who says, you know what? Things are pretty good here. I'll do it. You can stay with me when you come. They have a cousin who says, look, I can get you a job at the warehouse.
- [13:44]
Josh Schumacher
The fact that the United States has so many illegal immigrants, though, begs the question, why haven't they all been deported before now? Well, there are a couple of reasons, but the first is that there's an incredible backlog.
- [13:56]
David Beer
So in the United States, we have now about 1.4 million people who have final orders of removal.
- [14:03]
Josh Schumacher
Simon Hankinson is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
- [14:06]
David Beer
So they've had all the due process that they're entitled to, often multiple appeals. And they've been ordered, deported, ordered removed by a judge, an immigration judge, but they're still in the country.
- [14:17]
Josh Schumacher
He says another reason is that years of catch and release policies have meant the problem has been getting worse, not better.
- [14:24]
David Beer
If an alien was detained through the duration of their hearing, then there was like, a 99% chance that they were going to be removed because they're detained. Right? You got them right there. You put them on a plane, you send them home. But if the alien is released, the percentage of those removed just plummets down to like, 20% for unaccompanied adults and, like, 2% for families.
- [14:48]
Josh Schumacher
But the Trump administration is trying its best to turn that ship around as fast as it can. It's made massive efforts to remove illegal immigrants eligible for deportation, going after many of those 1.4 million who have as yet unenforced orders for removal. For world, I'm Josh Schumacher.
- [15:11]
Myrna Brown
Coming next on THE WORLD and everything in it. Banning artificial food dyes. Nestle, General Mills and Heinz say they are phasing them out of all their products. And Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Is pushing for a nationwide ban on synthetic food dyes.
- [15:29]
Mary Reichert
The FDA has wrestled with this issue since its earliest days. So why are companies removing them now? And is it really the health victory? Kennedy says it is. World's Mary Muncie reports.
- [15:41]
Kent Covington
You can just tell when kids have artificial colors. It's like they're scrambled. Their brain is scrambled.
- [15:47]
Mary Muncie
Bill Sabo founded Newport Flavors, which specializes in natural flavors and colors. He took artificial dyes out of his company's offerings because he says he saw the effects of artificial ingredients personally in the kids he used to coach.
- [16:03]
Kent Covington
They all had a Gatorade to drink during breakfast. And this boy was an incredibly talented baseball player. But when he would drink that blue Gatorade, we lost him.
- [16:13]
Mary Muncie
The boy wouldn't be able to focus on the game and would start annoying other players.
- [16:18]
David Beer
And so I went back into the.
- [16:19]
Kent Covington
Lab and I created a drink which we still sell to this day, called Reboost.
- [16:23]
Mary Muncie
When he started offering that instead of Gatorade, he says all of the boys behaviors changed for the better. So he and his wife started taking as much artificial dye out of their family's diet as possible and and Sabo started making the switch to natural colors and flavors in his company too.
- [16:42]
Kent Covington
We started embracing things like cherries for red color and hibiscus flowers for red color and beets and turmeric for orange and annatto for yellow.
- [16:53]
Mary Muncie
Natural dyes are a little harder to work with than petroleum based dyes. They're more affected by the acidity of the food you're trying to dye and they usually have a shorter shelf life and some don't tolerate heat as well. It's not a simple science either. If you crush a bunch of blueberries, you'll find their guts are actually reddish purple. But if you put them into something alkaline like a muffin mix, it instantly turns blue.
- [17:20]
Kent Covington
And when you bake that blueberry, the entire blueberry turns blue.
- [17:23]
Mary Muncie
Sabo thinks that companies are open to switching now because more Americans are starting to think like him. Avoiding foods with synthetic dyes. Kraft Heinz announcing today it will remove artificial dyes from US products by the end of 2027. Nestle says it will soon eliminate artificial.
- [17:42]
Mary Reichert
Colors from its US Foods and beverages.
- [17:45]
Myrna Brown
By the middle of next year.
- [17:47]
David Beer
Welch's is the latest of several major.
- [17:49]
Josh Schumacher
Companies to announce it's eliminating artificial food dyes.
- [17:53]
Mary Muncie
He thinks that if consumers continue to be activists with their money, companies will keep changing and it's been a long time coming.
- [18:02]
Narrator/Reporter
They've been controversial almost from 1906 when the FDA got its start.
- [18:07]
Mary Muncie
Jerry Mand is CEO of Nourish Science and adjunct professor of nutrition at Harvard. He's also worked with the Food and Drug Administration. When the FDA first started, companies were using hundreds of food dyes, some with lead and arsenic in them. Within a few years, the FDA had cut the number of allowed dyes down to around 10. Those were determined to be safe for human consumption. But Mann says they only knew so much about the chemicals and their long term effects.
- [18:38]
Narrator/Reporter
If something is an additive, a chemical, a color, and you eat it, you're going to get sick right away and it could maybe even kill you. That's something you can know within days. The question becomes, what about an additive that you're going to feed somebody over their lifetime? What about that? How do you determine the safety?
- [18:58]
Mary Muncie
Right now there are nine FDA approved artificial dyes in the American diet. And the agency recently approved three natural dyes. But that's too many synthetics for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. We're going.
- [19:12]
Cal Thomas
To get rid of the dyes and one by one we're going to get rid of every ingredient, an additive in school, in food that we can legally address.
- [19:23]
Mary Muncie
California, Virginia and West Virginia have passed laws limiting almost every synthetic dye. And 36 other states have proposed some regulations on the additives. Mand thinks these laws will have a big effect because companies won't want to reformulate a food just for a few states and they can't just stop using dyes altogether.
- [19:46]
Narrator/Reporter
We choose food and find it delicious or not based on the colors and flavors. And so colors have always been kind of a key interest in a way to make food seem more attractive and delicious.
- [19:57]
Mary Muncie
Mand says that's why artificial colors are so prominent in ultra processed food. That's basically any food that you can't make in your kitchen.
- [20:07]
Narrator/Reporter
In my work and the years in government, visiting countless food factories and watching food made, you know, I noticed a shift at one point. I see the raw ingredients that went into the food that they were processing and put in packaging. Now when you go into a factory, it is, it's, I don't recognize anything as food.
- [20:26]
Mary Muncie
He thinks these consumables are a bigger threat than artificial dyes. Because people tend to overeat them, leading to obesity. FDA Commissioner Marty Macary agrees.
- [20:38]
David Beer
Now there's no one ingredient that accounts for the child chronic disease epidemic. And let's be honest, taking petroleum based food dyes out of the food supply is not a silver bullet that will instantly make America's children healthy. But it is one important step.
- [20:55]
Mary Muncie
So while Mand doesn't see artificial dyes as the biggest threat to Americans health, he does think removing them may make these foods less attractive to consumers. But not everyone agrees with mandatory. Marion Nestle is a retired professor of nutrition, food studies and public health.
- [21:14]
Myrna Brown
I'm happy to be getting rid of them, but I think if they really want to make America's children healthy again, they have to get restrictions on marketing to children.
- [21:25]
David Beer
A circus.
- [21:26]
Lance Clements
And they've got tricks.
- [21:27]
Myrna Brown
Yikes. Going down, silly rabbit. Tricks are for kids.
- [21:33]
Mary Muncie
She sends a single moment. A mom working two jobs can only resist a begging child for so long. Not to mention these foods are typically cheap and quick to prepare. So far the FDA has maintained that while some people may have problems with dyes, they're generally safe to consume. But it's undeniable that they cause clear harm to at least some people. A growing body of research suggests it's a much bigger issue than many in the FDA and food industry have been willing to admit. For now, Nestle says if your kids are used to ultra processed food, start small and try to get them to eat one thing you eat.
- [22:13]
Myrna Brown
Kids will develop tastes for healthy foods if given the opportunity.
- [22:20]
Mary Muncie
Reporting for World, I'm Mary Muncie.
- [22:35]
Kent Covington
Additional support comes from Ambassadors Impact Network inviting entrepreneurs to access faith friendly financing options@ambassadorsimpact.com from Cedarville University equipping students for professional excellence and Gospel Impact Cedarville Eduardo. And from Eyewitness, powerful audio dramas bringing faith, courage and history to life in unforgettable ways at the letter I witnesspod.com.
- [23:24]
Mary Reichert
Well, Myrna, what in the skibidi is going on with the English language?
- [23:29]
Myrna Brown
Right.
- [23:30]
Mary Reichert
More than 6,000 new words showed up in the Cambridge dictionary. Words like trad, wife, delulu and yep, skibidi. That one means, well, whatever you want it to mean, really. Christian Ilbury is a lecturer on sociolinguistics. He says there's something about short Internet videos that lend itself to this because.
- [23:51]
David Beer
They'Re based on kind of like a limited attention economy.
- [23:55]
Mary Reichert
So not paying attention. So people think up distinctive ways to talk and get noticed.
- [24:00]
Myrna Brown
Yeah. So if you don't know your trad wives from your rizzlers, don't be all dulu. Just look it up. And if none of this makes sense.
- [24:09]
Mary Reichert
To you, hey, ask a teenager. They're fluent. It's the world and everything in it.
- [24:27]
Myrna Brown
Today is Thursday, August 21st. Thank you for turning to World Radio to help start your day. Good morning, I'm Myrna Brown.
- [24:35]
Mary Reichert
And I'm Mary Reichard. Coming next on the World and everything in it, healing through art. Art therapy as its own practice has been around for more than 80 years. It helps people heal in surprising ways. Music, theater, a mural.
- [24:50]
Myrna Brown
Well, Mary, I met a cancer survivor who found his therapy in a traditional Japanese art form a year ago. Lance Clements never imagined he'd be here.
- [25:01]
David Beer
Are y' all ready? Are y' all ready? Are y' all ready?
- [25:05]
Myrna Brown
Clements has joined a few thousand people surrounding an asphalt stage that empties into a marina. All eyes are on a huge blue marlin hanging from its forked tail. It's a surprising part of Clements post surgery therapy. More on that in a minute. Today is the weigh in finale of the Blue Marlin Grand Championship, a four day sports fishing tournament in Orange Beach, Alabama.
- [25:33]
Lance Clements
They got a lot of security here.
- [25:35]
Myrna Brown
68 year old Lance Clements is hoping for the chance to literally get his hands on a marlin, a billfish known for its speed and strength. Clements is a budding Jayataku artist. Jayataku is the traditional Japanese method of printing fish using ink and rice paper. In the mid-1800s, fishermen used it to record their catches. Now it's an art form of its own. Clements is also a general contractor. For decades he's built houses and condos, many along the same beach that hosts this fishing tournament. Last year he started thinking about a career change.
- [26:14]
Lance Clements
It's just not been as satisfying the last five years that we've done it. It's just got to be more stress and my age has something to do with it.
- [26:23]
Myrna Brown
While flipping through a magazine one day, Clements noticed a Jayataku print.
- [26:27]
Lance Clements
I said that looks like something be fun to do. I should try that. And I did. And I was surprised that I could actually do it.
- [26:35]
Myrna Brown
Then In June of 2024, the husband, father and grandfather of eight got sick.
- [26:41]
Lance Clements
Just so happened at the same time frame we found out about this tumor.
- [26:48]
Myrna Brown
Cancer in his esophagus. Post surgery and immunotherapy, Clements is recovering well. He attributes his healing to his faith in God, his doctors and and the time he spends fish printing. Studies show the arts are emerging as an important and integral component of health care. Jill McNutt is an art therapist. I interviewed 15 cancer patients that underwent art therapy. And we found art therapy benefited patients directly. One benefit is known as interactive distraction Bending in that creative and that imaginative will easily help us slip into that flow zone where time disappears. Patients who are going through long, arduous treatments, we don't want to sit there and worry all the time.
- [27:33]
Lance Clements
As I start working with my hands, getting back, getting those creative juices going, you just. Your mood improves.
- [27:41]
Myrna Brown
Clements is still a fish printing novice. The blue marlin fishing tournament will put his knowledge to the test. The crowds, the heat, and the tight security are putting Clement's mission to print one of the blue marlin on site in jeopardy.
- [27:58]
Lance Clements
The captain of the boat is who we're looking for. He's the one that runs the show. Can tell us if we have access to the marlin.
- [28:05]
Myrna Brown
To find a captain who will cooperate, Clements needs to be in the right place at the right time, somewhere between the stage and the marina.
- [28:13]
Lance Clements
Let's see if we can get up close.
- [28:15]
Myrna Brown
Okay, Follow me here.
- [28:16]
Lance Clements
Let's head back to you. Think that's a better spot? Yeah, this is a better place to be. How did we miss him coming in, getting on the boat? I guess we'll go back up to.
- [28:24]
Myrna Brown
Where we were at the next hurdle. Getting the captain's attention as he and his crew haul their catch from the dock to the stage.
- [28:32]
Lance Clements
Captain. Captain. Captain. Captain. You have a second?
- [28:36]
Myrna Brown
How do you know who's the captain?
- [28:37]
Lance Clements
I don't know. I just call them all captain.
- [28:39]
Myrna Brown
After several attempts, Clements spots a crew member having a conversation with another spectator. He heads over and gently interrupts.
- [28:48]
Lance Clements
Have you ever had one of them printed before? I did you a taco print. Oh, okay.
- [28:52]
David Beer
No, I haven't.
- [28:53]
Lance Clements
I would love to do one for you. How much?
- [28:56]
David Beer
How much would it be to do something like that?
- [28:58]
Lance Clements
I'm not in a rush for the money. What I need right now is just be able to have access to the fish for a quick print on it.
- [29:03]
David Beer
Let me do it.
- [29:04]
Kent Covington
You know what?
- [29:05]
David Beer
Let me skip out on this one, but I would like to do that in the future. That sounds cool.
- [29:08]
Myrna Brown
Now it's rejection stings, but Clements says practicing Jayataku has taught him patience and perseverance, traits that have served him from the confines of a hospital bed to the dock of a marina. As more boats return to the dock, Clements keeps pitching. Then.
- [29:31]
Lance Clements
Captain. Captain.
- [29:33]
Myrna Brown
Just like that.
- [29:35]
Lance Clements
I'm a print of the fish. I do enjoy a taco. Oh, yeah.
- [29:39]
Myrna Brown
The opportunity he's been praying for. What do you say?
- [29:43]
Lance Clements
He said, yeah, I Want a print? We're good.
- [29:45]
Myrna Brown
Clements heads toward a 500 pound 12 foot blue marlin laying on a horizontal dolly. Clements is equipped with paintbrushes, ink and fabric. But none of that prepares him for what's coming.
- [29:58]
Lance Clements
Oriato missing and where you live?
- [30:01]
Mary Muncie
I'm local here, yeah.
- [30:03]
Myrna Brown
Yeah, I've been doing fish prints since 08. 2. Fellow fish printers competitors already at work.
- [30:10]
Lance Clements
Yeah, I feel a little nervous about that.
- [30:12]
Myrna Brown
But when it's Clement's turn to capture the print, he's fast and deliberate. He applies the dark non toxic ink on every inch of the marlin.
- [30:20]
Lance Clements
Yeah, this is a Japanese ink.
- [30:23]
Myrna Brown
Then he takes a long white cotton fabric and carefully places it on the inked fish. He firmly presses the fabric into the ink to transfer the image. How much pressure are you applying?
- [30:35]
Lance Clements
Quite a bit. Just like we're pressing somebody's old tombstone. We're making sure we get all the detail with us that we can.
- [30:44]
David Beer
Hey, look at this.
- [30:45]
Myrna Brown
A handful of people have now gathered to watch Clements carefully peel off the fabric. He smiles and insists, inspects his work.
- [30:53]
Lance Clements
I can work with that. We can make a nice painting out of it. I'm proud of it.
- [30:59]
Myrna Brown
Five days later, Clements is hunching over the dining room table. He's filling in and touching up the outline of the marlin. It's the last step before he begins to prime and paint. Clements says immersing himself in his art is as helpful as the immunotherapy treatment he received the day before. He says art helps him focus on something other than cancer.
- [31:22]
Lance Clements
What you're thinking about is how can I recreate, you know, what God has created here? How can I get close to the colors? You can't do it for one thing.
- [31:33]
Myrna Brown
Tuesday, August 12th. Clements is stapling the white canvas over the wooden frame.
- [31:39]
Lance Clements
The final stretch, we get it stretched lengthwise, stapling it down.
- [31:45]
Myrna Brown
This is the same fabric that we.
- [31:46]
Lance Clements
Saw on Orange Beach. Yeah.
- [31:48]
Myrna Brown
It's exactly one month to that very day back in July.
- [31:52]
Lance Clements
We're gonna stand it up and take a look, see how it turned out. You ready? Here we go. It's huge, isn't it?
- [31:59]
Myrna Brown
Yes. Wow. Look at those colors. Brilliant blends of blue cascade over the marlin's back. Silver, copper, and a hint of purple fade into the side and belly of the big fish.
- [32:12]
Lance Clements
It's good, but it's when you look at that next to a fish that just came in on, maybe someone brought up to the boat and you see all the different colors that are in there, you realize that only God can do that.
- [32:27]
Myrna Brown
Clement says his next step is to share the painting with the captain that commissioned it. He says he trusts God with that outcome, too.
- [32:56]
Mary Reichert
Today is Thursday, August 21st. Good morning. This is the World and everything in it. From Listener Supported World welcome to World radio. I'm Mary Reichert.
- [33:05]
Myrna Brown
And I'm Myrna Brown. Here's world commentator Cal Thomas with a little lesson in civics and how humans behave.
- [33:16]
Cal Thomas
During the high inflation days of the Biden administration, many of the less than well off were forced to cut back on their spending, whether it was food, gasoline or in some cases, medication. Some migrated from blue states to red ones, where taxes, housing and prices were often lower. Now blue states are reacting to losing residents not by reducing taxes but by raising them. Their philosophy seems to be they're losing money, so taxes must be raised to make up for the shortfall. The exact opposite should happen, but they are so wedded to tax the wealthy, they can't see any other way. Democrat Maryland Governor Wes Moore signed a bill in May which increases income taxes on residents making more than $500,000 a year. His Republican predecessor, Larry Hogan, touted that his administration cut state taxes by 4.7 billion over his eight years in office. Under his watch, the state's economy moved from 49th to 6th in the nation. Hogan claimed to have left behind a five and a half billion dollar surplus and three billion in a rainy day fund. That surplus is now gone, and it's likely among the reasons why Maryland is experiencing a net population outflow. It's not alone. A Wall Street Journal editorial points out the potential political fallout for Democrats from this modern great migration. Between 2020 and 2024, California lost nearly one and a half million residents to other states. New York wasn't that far behind, losing nearly a million more. Illinois shed more than 400,000. Guess which two states are benefiting the most from this influx of new people? Texas and Florida. These two states gain the equivalent of West Virginia's entire population. Other states to see newcomers include Utah, Idaho, Arizona and North Carolina. The political benefits to these lower taxing states could be seen in coming elections. The Journal predicts Democrats could lose as many as 10 House seats in 2030, the year of the next census. This would likely overcome the gerrymandering California and Illinois are fashioning as they draw districts to give Democrats an even larger advantage than they currently enjoy. For those who don't remember or never took high school civics, here is the way the process is supposed to work. Census Data taken every 10 years determines the number of seats each state has in the US House of Representatives. The House is currently fixed at 435 members. States gaining population may gain seats, while states with lower growth or slower growth or declines may lose seats. No one wants to lose seats. Following the census and apportionment, states redraw their congressional and state legislative district boundaries to reflect population shifts and ensure districts have roughly equal populations. According to the Campaign Legal Center. Independent redistricting commissions separate from state legislatures are then responsible for drawing district boundaries. It doesn't take a political genius to realize the that if people are taxed more on what they've earned, many, including businesses, will look for places that tax them less. Democrats who think raising taxes on the successful will benefit them now may be sowing seeds for future electoral defeats. I'm Cal Thomas.
- [36:42]
Mary Reichert
Tomorrow johnstonestreet is back for Culture Friday, and animated movies are grabbing the spotlight this year, especially those drawing on Asian folklore. Colin Garbarino reviews them. That and more tomorrow. I'm Mary Reichert.
- [36:56]
Myrna Brown
And I'm Myrna Brown. The world and everything in it comes to you from World Radio. World's mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates and inspires. The psalmist writes, Save us, O Lord, our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting, and let all the people say Amen. Praise the Lord. Verses 47 and 48 of Psalm 106 go now in grace and peace.
- [37:36]
Josh Schumacher
Sam.