Newspaper Page Text
♦ FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2006
4A
Houston flatly
OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Don Moncrief Foy S. Evans
Managing Editor Editor Emeritus
Fuel for thought
Here’s a true story as noted by one of
our writers.
Two gas stations. • One recently
built. The other just opened a few days ago,
and right across the street from the other
one.
The first, the one already built, in the
short time since it was opened, was noted
always charging just above average for gas
as compared to the rest around town.
Further, about three weeks ago when gas
started coming down and one or two - or
more - stations were noted lowering their
prices to less than $2 a gallon (a short-lived
condition for
the most part),
it was noted
there wasn’t
much differ
ence in the
price at this
one station.
Prices never
got lower than
$2.09.
And that
isn’t to say
it lacked for
customers
because, based
on its loca
tion, it didn’t.
It had sort of
cornered the
market in that
area to a cer
tain extent.
Anyway, just this week, the new station
opened across the street. And the price on
its marquee: $1.99.
And the price advertised on the other afore
mentioned station the same day: $1.99.
That’s right. The same.
Suddenly, after all these months they were
able to match what could have been the
lowest mark in town.
Coincidence? The same distributor? Maybe
in the case of the first. If so in the case of
the second, a connection is not advertised
on either station’s website. And both are
major corporations by the way. ,
First off, we want to apologize to those
stations and owners out there who attempt
to run an honest and reputable business.
We know you’re out there. We’ve met plenty
of you and it’s been our experience there
are more of you than there are of them.
We’re just sorry these - or this “one” may
be more appropriate - may have tarnished
your good name.
But second, this really kind of makes us
mad. We don’t know if there really was any
kind of price gouging going on but the evi
dence certainly points in that direction.
We suppose if there’s any good to come
out of it, it’s knowing that if not for free
enterprise in this country - and the spirit
of competition - there’s no telling what we
might be subjected to.
Letter to the Editor
Overholt needs education
After reading the Saturday Letter to the Houston Daily
Journal by failed, Republican county commission candi
date, Wayne Overholt, I can see many reasons why he lost.
His pathetic attempt to be bipartisan failed. He accuses the
Democrats of being for higher taxes and big government
while totally ignoring Bush’s blatant, huge deficits, the
new Medicare Prescription drug benefit part D, and huge
foreign trade deficits. Plus creating No Child Left Behind.
He ignores the economic successes of the Clinton
administration that actually reduced our national defi
cit and created millions of new jobs. No, he harkens
back to the Carter years to predict the results of the
new Democratic Congress. He likes tax cuts for our
richest one percent, Trillions in our national debt,
and cutting spending on education and Pell grants.
Wayne wants us to stay in Iraq forever despite recent
election results and Rummy’s firing! Six out of 10
Americans voted Democrat and want us out of Iraq.
Overholt has a lot of learning to accomplish before he
runs again for public office. His distorted views of world
history and our nation’s glorious past tell us that he
needs to use our fine, county libraries more often! Then
his views and ramblings might make more sense!
Frank W. Gadbois, Warner Robins
Further, in the past
tew weeks when gas
started coming down
and one or two - or
more - stations were
noted lowering their
prices to less than $2
a gallon (a short-lived
condition (or the most
part), it was noted
there wasn't much
difference in the price
at this one station.
Prices never got lower
than $2.09.
Things for which I am thankful
It was supposed to be about books
this week. Actually, about people
and their favorite book(s). And,
that will come. But, it’s Thanksgiving
weekend, and I have lots for which to
be thankful, and I am thankful. So, for
this week, its “things for which I am
thankful”.
I am thankful to live in a country
where there can be a shift in power
without rebellion and riots and death
in the streets.
I am thankful that there are still
many good people willing to participate
in the increasingly rough game called
“politics”.
I am thankful for the love I had from
four great grandparents: Papa and
Grandma; Grandbuddy and Granny.
No child ever had better.
I am thankful for the memories of
those I loved and those who made me
laugh and those who enriched my life
like Jerry and Seabie, Mr. Glea and
Uncle Charlie, Mr. Knighton, Mr. Hilt
and ‘Fessor, Aunt Lillian and Uncle
Jim, and Uncle Thomas and Uncle
Norman.
I am thankful to live with the most
positive “we can do it woman” in
America - Janice Walker.
I am thankful for quiet hours in the
early morning with a hot cup of coffee,
a good book and time to think and plan
and hope.
I am thankful for those great story
tellers like Bobby Rowan, Marion Pope,
Ed Beckham, James Moore, Connell
Stafford and Chuck Sims. Not so much
for what they say as how they tell it,
and how the stories Pve heard so many
times still “tickle me to death”.
I am thankful for a warm, dry house
and an inside bathroom, a hot shower,
and a good firm bed.
I am thankful for a good night’s sleep
"Yeah, right... next you’ll be telling me they're
talking about dropping the state income tax!"
American press should count blessings
In between breathless condemna
tions of the Bush administration
for stifling its free speech, endless
court filings demanding classified and
sensitive information from the military
and intelligence agencies, and self-pity
ing media industry confabs bemoaning
their hemorrhaging circulations (with
the exception of the New York Post),
my colleagues in the American niedia
don’t have much time to give thanks.
Allow me:
Give thanks we don’t live in
Bangladesh, where you can be put on
trial for writing columns supporting
Israel and condemning Muslim vio
lence. Just ask Salah Uddin Shoaib
Choudhury, editor of Blitz, the larg
est tabloid English-language weekly
in Bangladesh. He is currently facing
a sedition trial for speaking out about
the threats radical Islam poses in
Bangladesh. He has been imprisoned,
harassed, beaten and condemned. In
court last week, his persecutors read
these charges against him: “By praising
the Jews and Christians, by attempt
ing to travel to Israel and by predicting
the so-called rise of Islamist militancy
in the country and expressing such
through writings inside the country
and abroad, you have tried to damage
the image and relations of Bangladesh
with the outside world.” For express
ing these dissident opinions, he faces
the possibility of execution.
Give thanks we don’t live in Egypt,
where bloggers have been detained by
the government for criticizing Islam
and exposing the apathy of Cairo police
to sexual harassment of women. Just
ask Abdel Karim Suliman Amer, 22,
who was arrested earlier this month
for “spreading information disruptive
of public order,” “incitement to hate
Muslims” and “defaming the President
of the Republic.” Ask Rami Siyam, who
blogs under the name of Ayyoub, and
has been outspoken in his criticism of
Egyptian brutality. He was detained
this week along with three friends
after leaving the house of a fellow
blogger. His host, 24-year-old reformist
Muslim Muhammad al-Sharqawi, had
been detained by the Egyptian govern
ment this spring as he left a peaceful
OPINION
Larry
Walker
Colufrmist
IwalkerOwhgb-lawcom
followed by a hard day’s work and a
sweet dog with a wagging tail to greet
me at the end of the day.
I am thankful for much time togeth
er and some time apart. Both are
important.
I am thankful for the beauty of the
point and the covey rise and for their
seeing and saying, “nice shot, very
nice”.
I am thankful for those that are
always there with you, those that “have
your back,” those that you can count
on - no matter how rough it gets. Billy
Bledsoe and “Do Tricks” and Chuck
Byrd immediately come to mind.
I am thankful for a good mother and
father who always - always - set a good
example and never did anything to
embarrass their family.
I am thankful to live in a physically
clean community where churches are
influential and good folks run things.
I am thankful for Nellwin Moore
and her efforts to make Perry the best
Christmas decorated town in Georgia.
I am thankful for memories of
Herman Talmadge and Richard Russell
and Herschel Walker and Lee Martin
and Dwayne Powell and Pierce Staples
and Celestine Sibley.
I am thankful for Florence Harrison
and Herb St. John and E. H. Cheek
and Jeanne Bledsoe. Good teachers.
Great people.
I am thankful for good, honest law
demonstration in Cairo where he had
displayed a sign reading, “I want my
rights.” Sharqawi was beaten in prison
over several weeks.
Give thanks we don’t live in Sudan,
where editors can lose their heads
for not kowtowing to the government
line. Ask the family of Mohammed
Taha, editor in chief of the Sudanese
private daily Al-Wifaq, who was found
decapitated on a Khartoum street in
September. He had been kidnapped by
masked jihadi gunmen. What did Taha
do that cost him his life? He insulted
Islam, and dared to question Muslim
history, the roots of Mohammed and
other Muslims. Before his murder, his
paper was shuttered for three months
and he was hauled into court for “blas
phemy.”
Give thanks we don’t live in China,
the world’s leading jailer of journalists
and Internet critics. Consider Yang
Xiaoqing, jailed for five months because
he reported corruption among local offi
cials in the central Hunan province. Or
Yang Tianshui, sentenced to 12 years
in jail this spring for posting essays on
the Internet supporting a movement
by exiles to hold free elections. Or Li
Yuanlong, a Guizhou reporter for the
Bijie Daily jailed for two years on sub
version charges because he dared to
criticize the ruling Communist Party
on foreign websites. Or any of the
other 32 journalists and 50-plus blog
gers behind bars.
Give thanks we don’t live in Lebanon,
where outspoken writers pay with
their lives. Journalist and Christian
Orthodox activist Samir Kassir, who
was critical of Syrian involvement in
Lebanon, was assassinated in a Beirut
car bombing in 2005. His colleague,
An-Nahar newspaper manager Gibran
Tueni, was killed in a car bombing last
L v
* WM
Michelle
Malkin
Columnist
malkin@comcast.net
HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
partners and the best law staff in
America.
I am thankful for an ice-cold water
melon on a hot July day, a hot bowl of
chili on a cold winter day, and a big
slice of egg custard pie with whipped
cream on top on any day.
I am thankful for old quarterbacks
like Ray Goff and Larry Rakestraw
and Clark Fain and Mike Long and
Buster McConnell and Arthur Clarke
and Foster Rhodes. Some were better
than others, but the older they get, the
better all of them were.
I am thankful for the plumber who
comes when the ‘you know what’ is
stopped up and the electrician who
‘fixes’ the heater in the cold night
and the folks who pick up the garbage
every week.
I am thankful for good, new friends
like Jim Minter and Gene Sutherland
and Randy Moore and great, old friends
like Billy Bledsoe and Jerry Horton
and Bobby Jones and Riley Hunt.
I am thankful for seven wonderful
grandchildren and four great children
and four exceptional in-laws.
I am thankful for those who say, “I
really enjoy your articles” and those
who don’t, and don’t say anything.
I am thankful for the come-back of
The New Perry Hotel - for many years,
Perry’s best-known landmark.
I am thankful for old, true friends
who call or write or email with the
message, “Larry, we miss you in the
legislature”.
I am thankful for the love of reading
and cracking open a great new book
- of how it smells and how it feels and
how it reads.
I am thankful for having so much for
which I am thankful, and I am thank
ful for that great American holiday,
Thanksgiving.
December. Lebanese TV anchorwoman
and Christian journalist May Chidiak
survived a separate car bombing last
fall, but lost an arm, leg and use of one
eye.
Give thanks we don’t live in Russia,
where investigative journalists rou
tinely wind up dead. Last month, unre
lenting reporter and Putin critic Anna
Politkovskaya was found shot dead
in her apartment. In the days before
her death, Politkovskaya had been
working on a story about torture in
Chechnya, according to her newspaper,
Novaya Gazeta. She joins a death toll
that includes Paul Klebnikov, the U.S.-
born editor of the Russian edition of
Forbes, who had been investigating the
Russian business underworld and was
gunned down outside his Moscow office
in 2004; Valery Ivanov, editor of the
newspaper Tolyatinskoye Oborzreniye,
also shot dead after investigating orga
nized crime and drug trafficking in
2002; and Larisa Yudina, editor of
the opposition newspaper Sovetskaya
Kalmykia in southern Russia, who was
stabbed to death by former govern
ment aides.
Give thanks we don’t live in Denmark,
where the cartoonists who dared to
caricature Mohammed and challenge
creeping sharia are still in hiding, in
fear for their lives.
Give thanks we don’t live in Italy,
where a spineless judge bowed to
jihadists and put famed war journalist
Oriana Fallaci on trial for her sharp
tongued critiques of Islam. She suc
cumbed to cancer before they could
exact a vengeful penalty against the
lioness. But they made the price of
“insulting” Islam known far and wide
to the cowering Western media.
Give thanks we live in America, land
of the free, home of the brave, where
the media’s elite journalists can leak
top-secret information with impunity,
win Pulitzer Prizes, cash in on lucra
tive book deals, routinely insult their
readership and viewership, broadcast
enemy propaganda, turn a blind eye
to the victims of jihad, and cast them
selves as oppressed victims on six-fig
ure salaries.
God bless the U.S.A.