Newspaper Page Text
4A
♦ WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2006
Muustxm djmmtal
OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Don Moncrief
Managing Editor
In the public domain
According to a leading provider of
Internet domain names and host
ing services, there is a big concern
in the business that domain www.names
may soon run out completely.
To date, they say, more than 70 million
domain names exist and the majority
of all one-word domain names have all
been taken
on a global
scale.
True, to s,ay
there are a lot
is an under
statement.
For example,
if you type
in the first
word in the
dictionary,
“A”, you get -
depending on
which search
engine you
use - up to 20,180,000,000 hits.
If you type in zymurgy, the last word
in some Webster’s, you still get about
200,000.
The shortage, argues the aforemen
tioned leading provider, “has led con
sumers to select alternatives that are
difficult for their potential visitors to
remember, or do not adequately describe
the brands or products. These domain
names result in a lack of robust traffic
to the site.”
That may be but we tend to go on
the old adage if someone “wants it bad
enough ...”
Plus, it doesn’t have to be all bad.
Maybe it means they’ll run -out of
names for “XXX” sex sites (9,189,000,000
search engine results).
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
In need of our prayers
Like many here in our area, I cannot escape the TV or
newspaper, without all of the news concerning Hezbollah
and Israel; but why are we not hearing about the lives of
the people caught in the middle of this vicious
Why are there no reports coming from the Lebanese
side of this mess?
There are many facts that escape the news. For
instance, does your reading public know that Lebanon
was once completely Christian until it was invaded by
Syria about 50 years ago, and even after the invasion it
remains about half Christian & half Muslim?
Also, did you know that the Christians and Muslims
live segregated?
Did you know that Lebanon is about two thirds the
size of Connecticut, and has a small police force of about
10,000, and no real army.
This is probably the reason why they have been unable
to rid their land of Hezbollah, no matter how hard they
have tried in the past.
Also, did you know that many of the casualties of this
current conflict are Lebanese/Christians that have sur
vived previous attacks by Hezbollah and Syria?
The sad thing is that we don’t know all of the facts,
and while we should not allow terrorist actions from any
of these factions, we should also understand that there
are many in the center of this crisis that have nothing
to do with this conflict, and have no way out to safety.
Unlike America, where we can be Irish/German/English/
Armenian, etc., as well as Christian/Jewish/Atheist/
Muslim, etc. as well as an American, not all countries are
like that.
In Lebanon, if you are Lebanese, then you are most
likely a Lebanese descendant of a Christian family, and
live in a Christian area.
If you are Muslim, you most likely came from Syria and
you live in the Muslim areas.
This is a hard concept for us as Americans, when there
is no telling where our neighbor’s descendants came
from, or what church they may, or may not, attend.
Sometimes we need to think outside the box, and look
past the news as our only source of information.
I would ask that in this case you would consider the
thousands of innocent lives that are stranded in their
own country, and caught between these two dueling
forces (Israel & Hezbollah).
They have nowhere to go, no power or water and no
food.
They need our thoughts and prayers more than anyone
in this battle.
Kellie Day, Ft. Valley
Send your Letters to the Editor to:
The Houston Home Journal
P.O. Box 1910 • Perry, Ga 31069 or
Email: hhj@evansnewspapers.com
Foy S. Evans
Editor Emeritus
True, to say there
are a lot Is an
understatement. For
example, if you type In
the first word in the
dictionary, "A", you get
- depending on which
search engine you use
- up to 20,180,000,000
hits.
Climate, science shifts keep it warm
Suddenly, it came to me. Friday, in
the middle of a six-second walk to
my vehicle with my teeth sweat
ing and my skin screaming for relief, I
realized it.
It’s hot.
Really hot, a close, freakish hot, a
kiln of a day when the blink of an eye
is too muth activity.
Memo to those fond of saying “It’s
not the heat, it’s the humidity”:
It’s the heat, Pal, at least 173 degrees
in the parking lot I crossed before I
jumped into my vehicle and set the air
conditioner on “meat locker.”
Is this what they mean by global
warming?
Based bn the science grades from
my transcripts, I broach the subject of
global warming gingerly What I know,
aside from the realization that Friday
was a scorcher and I’ve seen “The
Day After Tomorrow,” is very limited.
Even terms such as greenhouse effect
and chlorofluorocarbons require some
study on tny part.
None of which seems to be a problem
for dozens of other nonscientists who
have staked a political claim on the
planet’s climate change. Everyone from
A 1 Franken to Rush Limbaugh and
many motiths in between is absolutely
sure aboiit manmade global warming.
Some are sure it’s real; nonbelievers
insist its “junk science.”
Of course, without real science, there
is no more reason to believe them than
you would believe me about global
warming and climate shifts.
Then again, many well-meaning,
well-informed nonscientists, after
much study and research, also see cli
mate change as overblown or a serious
threat.
Indeed, A 1 Gore’s film “An
Inconvenient Truth,” while vilified in
Chance encounter makes impact
Last week, I called my wife from
work, asked whether she was sit
ting down, then told her Mickey
Spillane had just died.
“Oh, no,” she said softly.
Jo An, an avid reader, had met
Spillane, the prolific writer of crime
novels, a couple of times over the
years, and on each occasion he had
been friendly and courteous, nothing
like the totigh-guy image he groomed.
By the time cancer claimed him a
week ago at age 88, he had rede
fined the detective novel with his Mike
Hammer books, acted in films and
branched out into other types of writ
ing, including children’s stories.
JoAn first met him when she was 14
and a member of the “world famous
Marching buffaloes” from Baker High
School in Louisiana. The band had
been invited to march in the Rose
Parade for the Rose Bowl Game in
Pasadena, Calif.
JoAn also was a majorette, but in
that year’s parade she would be car
rying her trombone, not her baton. To
fund the trip, 100 teenagers went door
to door selling candy, toothbrushes
(a logical Combination) and cake mix
(three boxes of Duncan Hines for a dol
lar). Then they boarded a train for the
West Coast.
The trip included plenty of sightsee
ing in Hollywood, and one day Spillane
walked into a drugstore where JoAn
and some friends were hanging out at
the soda fountain. He was in town to
appear in the film noir version of one
of his books.
OPINION
a few science circles and by others
unable to separate his politics from his
research, still struck a powerful chord
among hundreds of reviewers after its
recent release.
Still, even some lab-coated, Ph. -
on-the-wall, research-sawy scientists
seem at odds over whether we’re over
heating ourselves.
The World Climate Report, for exam
ple, calls into question those who traf
fic in computer models and dire predic
tions. The WCR calls itself “a concise,
hard-hitting and scientifically correct
response to the global change reports
which gain attention in the literature
and popular press. As the nation’s
leading publication in this realm,
World Climate Report is exhaustively
researched, impeccably referenced, and
always timely.”
In other words, they ain’t buying it.
On the other end of the spectrum,
you might check out the Union of
Concerned Scientists, whose Web site
quotes Dr. Robert Watson when he was
chairman of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change.
Watson said, “The overwhelming
majority of scientific experts, whilst
recognizing that scientific uncertainties
exist, nonetheless believe that human
induced climate change is already
occurring and that future change is
inevitable.”
What’s a sweaty, curious citizen of
JoAn had broken her eyeglasses on
the train, but that didn’t dim her
meeting with the writer, because he sat
down right across from her.
“He was ruggedly handsome at that
time,” JoAn recalled. “I can remember
him giving us advice, like we were at
the threshold of our lives, and we could
go on to become what we wanted to. He
talked about it being an honor for us
to play in the Rose Parade. We talked
about 45 minutes to an hour.”
During those innocent times,
Spillane’s risque books full of blood,
guts, guns and dames were a big deal.
Until that afternoon, though, JoAn
had never heard of Spillane nor Mike
Hammer.
“I asked him what he did. He told
me he was a writer,” she said. “I have
always read a lot, but he told me not to
read any of his books.”
So, of course, she did. Right away.
A boy she had met on the trip bought
her a stack of his novels up to that
time. Her reading probably included
My Gun Is Quick; The Big Kill; Kiss
Me, Deadly; and I, the Jury.
“Remember, I was 14 years old. I
thought they were hot stuff,” she said
Jm l
IwLini mu
-ll- jr HQ*
George
Ayoub
Columnist
Morris News Service
■*:
JmFw
Glynn
Moore
Columnist
Morris News Service
HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
planet Earth to do?
Well, there is always Tom Brokaw.
The former NBC news anchor is
hosting “What You Need to Know
About Global Warming” Sunday night
on the Discovery Channel - about as
nonpartisan as they come.
Perhaps the DC is interested in
informing us so we can make our own
decisions about how we choose to con
duct our planetary lives and who we
give voice to our environmental think
ing. What a concept!
After severed days of research, one
thing is clear, even for me.
Our responses to manmade climate
changes affect economies, lifestyles
and government policies.
We may have one planet but when it
comes to the environment, we have at
least two hardened schools of political
thought - or something approaching
thought.
In play, too, are huge corporations,
some of whom continue to belch gases
and other chemical stews into the atmo
sphere; politicians, a good number of
whom are trying to get elected without
alienating environmentalists or indus
trialists; contemporary society, whose
very being depends on the combustion
engine; and the general public, whose
science grades are probably about as
good as mine.
What’s left is for us to determine if
either school had a position and then
found or fudged the science to fit it
rather than found the science, then
developed a position based on it.
Global warming shouldn’t be confus
ing - especially in this heat and when
so much is at stake.
George Ayoub is senior writer at
The Grand Island (Neb.) Independent.
Reach him at george.ayoub@morris.
com.
of the thrillers whose covers usually
featured voluptuous women in vari
ous stages of undress. “I read all those
books - but I never read any of them
again after that.”
Still, they opened up a new type of
reading material, and she still counts
murder mysteries among her favorite
books.
A quarter-century later, Spillane was
the guest speaker at a chamber of com
merce banquet in our town.
After the chicken supper and his
speech, I dragged an only slightly older
JoAn up to his table.
“Spillane,” I said when we reached
the front of the hand-shakers, “do you
remember JoAn?”
He paused a few seconds before
admitting he did not. After I recapped
their first encounter, he broke into a big
grin and said, in his native Brooklyn
accent, undulled by decades of living in
South Carolina: “Hello dare!”
He told her he had not remembered
the drugstore incident at first because
he was always walking up to young
people and discussing books.
The line behind us grew as they
talked. Then Spillane reached into his
jacket and pulled out a color photo of
himself dressed as a tough-guy gang
ster - an image so unlike the man.
He wrote across it: “Hi, JoAn -- I’m
glad to see you again!” and signed it.
“I was only 14 then,” she said after
thanking him, “but I knew I’d make an
impression on you.”
Reach Glynn Moore at glynn.
moore@morris.com.