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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 HOW TO SUBMIT LETTERS We encourage readers to submit letters to the editor. Letters should not exceed 350 words and must include the writer’s name, address and telephone number. All letters printed in The Home Journal will appear with the writer’s name and hometown - we do not publish anonymous letters. The news paper reserves the right to edit or reject letters for reasons of grammar, punctuation, taste and brevity. Letter writers are asked to submit no more than one letter per person per week. We cannot guarantee that a letter will be printed on a specific date. The Home Journal prefers that letters be typed. Letters to the editor are published in the order they are received as space permits. A Journal employee will call to verify the author of each letter. There are three ways to submit a letter to the editor: E-mail it to hhj@evansnewspapers.com, mail it to The Houston Home Journal at P.O. Box 1910, Perry, GA 31069, or drop it off at 1210 Washington St. in Perry - between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. 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.