Newspaper Page Text
4A
THURSDAY, JULY 20, 2006
OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Don Moncrief
Managing Editor
Battle lines are drawn
The two major political parties -
Democrats and Republicans - have
selected the candidates to repre
sent them in the General Election in
November.
Now the real politicking begins.
Some winners are getting a free ride.
They do not have opposition.
Winners must heal the wounds that
were inflicted in the primaries and work
to get their defeated opponents on board
for the campaign to defeat winners in
the opposing parties.
Some of the charges and counter-charg
es, as well as accusations, may have been
two severe
for complete
healing.
However,
politics is
a strange
business
and most
politicians
accept
things said
about them
by oppo
nents as just
part of the
game. They
get over
them rather
quickly.
Our congratulations to the winners.
Thanks to the losers for trying. It takes
winners and losers in politics. In our
opinion, even the losers are winners
because they had the willingness and
courage to enter the fray.
Now we look forward to the weeks lead
ing up to the main bout in November.
Those obnoxious phone calls
Recorded messages from candidates,
their supporters and politicians
who endorsed them kept telephones
all over Georgia busy during the past few
weeks.
The telephone calls are unwelcome.
Most people receiving them resent the
calls and, often, vote against the candi
dates who are responsible for them.
We have trouble believing that these
calls gain votes. Maybe they do, but it
hard to imagine that they do.
A person can sign up to prevent unwant
ed advertising messages coming to their
telephones, but politicians who wrote the
law made sure they are exempt. So we
can look forward to another barrage of
unwanted, unsolicited political campaign
telephone messages from now until the
General Election.
Stop up your ears.
WORTH REPEATING
“We can not have free government without elections.
And if the rebellion could force us to forgo, or postpone a
national election, it might fairly claim to have conquered
or ruined us.”
- Abraham Lincoln
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Foy S. Evans
Editor Emeritus
Some of the charges
and counter-charges, as
well as accusations, may
have been two severe
for complete healing.
However, politics is a
strange business and
most politicians accept
things said about them by
opponents as just part ol
the game. They get over
them rather quickly.
Gas prices fueling debate
There was a time when I
bought into the expla
nation that the cost of
oil was the overriding factor
in what we pay for gasoline
at the pump.
I have had an eye-opening
experience that has given
me a new perspective on
gasoline at the pump.
There’s no doubt that oil
at S7O or more a barrel has
caused the price of gasoline
to soar. So has the growing
demand for oil in China and
other industrialized nations.
Add it up and the price of
gasoline has to go up and
up.
But something that hap
pened Sunday caused me to
figure that market demands
aren’t the only things affect
ing the prices we pay for
gasoline.
I was in Albany and filled
the tank of my car with gas
oline. When I arrived back
home I saw a sign at a gaso
line station (the same brand
I had bought in Albany)
with the price 22 cents a
gallon less than I had paid
less than a couple of hours
earlier.
How can that be?
Obviously, something
strange is going on here. Or
is it strange?
How can there be a differ
ence in the price of a gallon
/j know the state n.
l test scores are \
\^ own erc • somew * ier^/
Turning a paper clip into a house
On June 13, 1975, I
thought I had made
the greatest trade in
the history of bartering.
I traded my next-door
neighbor, John Bledsoe, one
baseball card of some guy
I had never heard of, for a
real, live turtle.
Over 30 years later, I
think Kyle MacDonald has
me beat.
MacDonald, 26, of
Montreal, Canada, traded
one small red paper clip for
a real, live house - in 14
trades over a year.
It started, as all great
adventures do, with lazi
ness.
“Instead of getting a job
to buy a house, I just played
Bigger and Better (a child
hood barter game) until I
actually traded up to the
house,” MacDonald told
ABC News. “That’s when I
looked down at my desk and
saw one red paper clip and
said, ‘l’ll start with that.’”
His quest for his own
home lasted a year and one
day, ending on July 13,
2006. MacDonald’s trades
started on an Internet web
site, then he created his
own website to solicit deals,
www.oneredpaperclip.com,
Foy Evans
Columnist
foyevansl9@cox.net
of gasoline of 22 cents from
the same company’s gas sta
tions less than a hundred
miles apart?
Simple.
There has to be some
manipulation of the price,
which means that the oil
company is not playing it
straight with the public.
In other words, there is
some price gouging and
manipulation going on here.
If it is happening once,
it clearly can be happen
ing often. And all over the
country. Perhaps all the oil
companies are doing it.
Several other stations
in Albany were charging
the same price that I paid.
Stations of several brands in
Warner Robins were charg
ing the same price that I
saw on the sign when I came
home.
Are the oil companies in
Len Robbins
Columnist
airpub@planttel.net
and in the process, became
a celebrity of sorts, appear
ing on radio and television
programs to publicize his
unlikely trek to homeowner
ship.
Below is the incremental
breakdown of MacDonald’s
trades:
1. One red paper clip for
one fish-shaped pen.
2. One fish-shaped pen for
a tiny doorknob with a smi
ley face.
3. Tiny doorknob with a
smiley face for a Coleman
camping stove.
4. Coleman camping stove
for a power generator.
5. Power generator for a
keg of beer.
However tempting to end
the game there (remember:
MacDonald is Canadian),
1 m
cahoots with each other?
Why do they all go up the
same amount per gallon at
the same time? Why are all
of them in Albany charging
one price and all the stations
here charging approximately
22 cents a gallon less?
How can you explain this?
Does it cost that much more
to deliver a gallon of gasoline
to Albany than to Warner
Robins? Hardly.
So I have trouble believing
that the prices we pay for
gasoline are dictated solely
by the increase in the price of
a barrel of oil. I am inclined
to believe that somewhere
some hanky panky is going
on.
How is it possible to arrive
at any other conclusion?
* * *
The federal government is
planning to require mileage
our young, lazy hero pressed
on.
6. Keg of beer for a snow
mobile.
7. Snowmobile for an all
expenses-paid trip to Yahk,
British Columbia (popula
tion: 200).
8. All-expenses-paid trip to
Yahk, B.C. for a small-panel
truck.
9. Small-panel truck for a
recording-studio contract.
10. Recording-studio con
tract for a year rent-free in
a downtown Phoenix apart
ment.
11. A year rent-free in a
downtown Phoenix apart
ment for a half-day spent
with famous/infamous
rock legend Alice Cooper.
12. Half-day with Alice
Cooper for a motorized Kiss
HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
stickers on new automobiles
to reflect reality.
If this happens, a lot of
people will be surprised to
learn the truth about their
vehicles.
* * *
James Kallstrom, former
FBI agent and antiterrorism
advisor to the governor of
New York, when asked how
the people of this country
would respond to the kind
of attacks Israelis have been
putting up with, said: “Not
so well. We’re a very fragile
society”
* * *
Can you believe that the
United States actually is giv
ing millions of dollars to the
Palestinians, who are trying
to destroy Israel and threat
ening a world war?
* * *
All golfers look forward
to the day they make a
hole in one. Odds on the
average golfer making a
hole in one are 12,000 to
1. North Korea’s Kim Jung
II had never played golf
until recently. The North
Korean press reported that
he had 11 holes in one in
the first 18 holes he played.
Obviously, the game is too
easy for him.
(the rock group) snow globe.
13. Kiss snow globe to
actor Corbin Bernsen, an
avid snow-globe collector,
for a speaking role in a
film Bernsen’s directing,
titled “Donna on Demand”
(not a porno, from what was
reported).
14. Speaking role in
“Donna on Demand” for
ownership of a house in
Kipling, Saskatchewan.
After reading about
MacDonald’s bartering odys
sey, two things immediately
strike me: First, the guy
who traded the keg of beer
for a snowmobile got ripped
off, or was just incredibly
thirsty. And secondly, Corbin
Bernsen collects snow
globes?!? According to the
ABC News report, he owns
6,000 of them. And he’s
married... to a woman... and
she’s not Angela Lansbury.
Nope, I think Kyle’s got
me beat by a mile. The card
I traded on June 13,
1975 ended up being Hall
of Famer George Brett’s
rookie card, worth about
$l5O today. And the turtle
died June 17, 1975.
I should have held out for
a snow globe. I heard Corbin
Bernsen’s a sucker for ‘em.