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PAGE 4A —THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL. THURSDAY. OCTOBER 15. 2009 : ..t- ■^5 n ■'3 : & m Ji ■a. Opinions Frankly Speaking frankgillispie671@msn.com By Frank Gillispie Obama, Democrats creating too much political friction Friction can be a good tiling, and it can be an agent of destruction. It takes friction to smooth and polish objects and ideas. The crankshaft in your engine has to be highly polished to avoid wear and distortion. A small stone can be polished into a jewel for your ring or pendant. Your wood furniture can be buffed into a deep shine. All this takes friction. But friction can also be harmful. If you let grit or sand enter your engine, the friction it creates can destroy the crankshaft causing the engine to seize up. Air friction determines the maximum speed at which an airplane can travel. Friction from your shoes can gradually strip away the finish from your floors. Friction can waste energy. If your tires are not properly inflated, the extra friction with the roadway damages your car’s mileage. Accumulation of dust on the blades of a fan will reduce the flow of air from your heater. In the late spring of 1908 a massive explosion in Northern Russia, known as the Tunguska Event, was caused by friction from the air acting on an invader from deep space. The asteroid or small comet hit tire atmosphere at an extremely high speed, and became so hot, so fast that it exploded in the air destroying thousands of acres of trees below. So. What does this have to do with today’s events? Friction can occur in non physical ways, such as politics. Our two-party political system creates significant amounts of friction between their ideas and pians. Usually this is a good tiling, as the friction from the party in the minority helps to shape and polish the legislation from the majority. The result is usu ally policies that are beneficial to and approved by most citizens. But that is not always the case. In the past, political power has been evenly divided between the two groups. As a result, friction from the opposition party can bring the efforts of the rufing party to a virtual standstill. In these cases, government grinds to a halt and important things are left undone. Today, the greater risk of political friction is a clear possibility. The Obama Administration is try ing to push major changes through Congress at a rapid pace. These high-speed efforts are generating high levels of political heat that could result in a massive explosion. Clearly, the fallout from such an event would be damaging to our nation for years to come. In order to avoid a political Tunguska Event, President Obama and Iris liberal Democratic sup porters need to dramatically slow their push for reform, allow their ideas to fully develop, and then be polished and shaped by the friction from tire conservative Republican opposition. That is tire only way programs satisfactory to the majority of Americans can be achieved. Physicai friction by tire atmosphere caused a mas sive explosion over Russia that destroyed thousands of acres of trees. Political friction in Washington D.C. could cause a policy explosion that will destroy the careers of hundreds if not thousands of politi cians. Which will it be? We will probably know by this time next year. Frank Gillispie is founder of The Madison County Journal. His e-mail address is frank®frankgillispie. com. His website can be accessed at http://www. frankgillispie.com/giIlispieonline. The Madison County Journal (Merged with The Danielsville Monitor and The Comer News, January 2006) P.O. Box 658 Hwy. 29 South Danielsville, Georgia 30633 Phone: 706-795-2567 Fax: 706-795-2765 Email: zach@mainstreetnews.com ZACH MITCHAM, Editor MARGIE RICHARDS, Reporter/Office Manager BEN MUNRO, Reporter/Sports Editor MIKE BUFFINGTON, Co-publisher SCOTT BUFFINGTON, Co-publisher FRANK GILLISPIE, Founder of The Journal. Jere Ayers (deceased) former owner of The Danielsville Monitor and The Comer News Periodical postage paid at Danielsville, Georgia 30633 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Madison & surrounding counties $19.75/year State of Georgia $38.85/year Out-of-state $44.50/year Military personnel with APO address $42.50/year Senior rate $2 off all above rates College student discount rate $2 off all above rates POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: THE MADISON COUNTY JOURNAL P.O. Box 658, Danielsville, GA 30633 A publication of MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. The strangeness of time When you’re a kid, eternity is some sort of cousin to fifth grade — at least I felt like the two were on the same endless branch of a family tree. And I felt suspicious of this golden privilege of “adulthood” that I’d sup posedly one day reach. Grownups tell children that "one day you’ll be an adult and then you can do it your way,’’ but as a kid, I remember questioning the truth in that, feeling that, in fact, time stood still, unchanging as grade school. I was what I was, a kid, as I would always be. It’s strange to recall that hopeless feeling of being trapped in an eternal fifth grade, the idea that I’d never get beyond bookbags, homework and meal money. Because a quarter century has since passed. And somewhere in those years, I got my wish, eventually crossing the line into adulthood. Perhaps that status comes with grad uation, a first vote, or a first "yes, sir’’ directed at you, not from you. Certain events stand as flagpoles in the sands of gradual change. There are those constant reminders that yet another year has passed, the surprise I feel when someone seems to step directly out of a Little League In the Meantime zach@ mainstreet news.com By Zach photo into a wedding announcement. "UGA students keep looking young er and younger,” I said to my dad, not ing how I feel older and older when I venture onto the Athens campus. "Yeah, well, it only gets worse,” he said. Perhaps the acceleration of years shouldn’t surprise any of us. We know that as we grow older each year becomes a smaller fraction of our life. For instance, a year represents 10 percent of a 10-year-old’s life, two per cent of a 50 year-old’s existence and only one percent of a 100-year-old’s time on the planet. Doesn’t it make sense then, for years to seem shorter and shorter in the context of our lives? The famous psychologist William James wrote that the same span of time may seem entirely different for different creatures. "Suppose we were able, within the length of a second, to note 10,000 events distinctly, instead of barely 10, as now: if our life were then destined to hold the same number of impressions, it might be 1,000 times as short,” said James. "We should live less than a month, and personally know nothing of the change of seasons.” In James' scenario, a life may be shorter, but just as full, because more experience, more impressions, have been packed into a certain amount of time. It’s interesting to think of butter flies or cats or dogs in this regard. Is such a fullness of experience true for creatures with a shorter lifespan than humans? I read an interesting article in The New Yorker by Dr. Oliver Sacks, who spoke of patients afflicted with neuro logical disorders. He noted that brain injury can lead patients to believe that very little time has passed, when, in fact, hours have ticked off the clock. Sacks spoke of one patient who would sit in the hallway, motionless for hours "with his right arm often lifted, sometimes an inch or two above his knee, sometimes near his face.” “When I questioned him about these frozen poses, he asked indignantly, ‘What do you mean, ‘frozen poses’? I was just wiping my nose,”' Sacks took a series of photos over several hours and determined that the patient “was wiping his nose but was doing so a thousand times more slowly than normal.” We all hear the ticking of the clock, but such perception is relative to our condition, our age. And we have a scientific theory that shows us that time itself is not as simple as we think, not necessarily a pure linear movement. It can bend. Einstein showed us that objects travel ing at different speeds can observe different times, the theory holding, for instance, that an astronaut who travels at a great speed through space won't age as quickly as those on earth. That's truly mind-boggling stuff. But you don’t need a PhD in phys ics to recognize the puzzling nature of time in our everyday lives. It surely speeds up for us all. If you don’t see that, then you’re probably in grade school waiting on the bell. Zach Mitcham is editor of The Madison County Journal. Mitcham You’ve got a friend at the PSC Starting now and for years to come, many Georgians are going to see increases every month in their elec tricity and natural gas bills. A few dollars here, a few dollars there, these little increases will add up to very impressive totals for the state’s two largest utility firms: $175 million for Atlanta Gas Light and $1.6 billion for the Georgia Power Co. That’s a lot of money coming out of the pockets of Georgia consumers. The remarkable thing is that Georgia Power and Atlanta Gas Light will get that revenue without even filing for a rate increase with the agency that supposedly regulates them, the Public Service Commission. There was a time in the not-too- distant past when a utility film that wanted to raise its rates first had to file an application with the PSC. The utility would be required to disclose the financial and marketing data that supported its request to raise rates. It would have to make a plausible argu ment that future customer demand made it necessary to build more power plants or gas pipelines. The PSC would - in theory anyway - digest those numbers, detennine a fair return on investment to the utility and a reasonable cost for its customers, and then set a rate for the company to charge. It wasn’t a perfect The Capitol Report tcrawford@ capitol impact.net. By Tom Crawford system, but the voters who elected PSC members at least had an indirect say in the rates they had to pay. Those rules largely don’t apply anymore. Because of changes in the law passed by a business-friendly Legislature and new rules adopted by a utility-loving PSC, there's hardly any need for the companies to bother with the grunt work that goes into a typical rate case. If Georgia Power or Atlanta Gas Light want to jack up their rates now, all they need do is announce to the PSC that they’re going to add a “sur charge” to their customers' monthly bills. They can be sure that three of the five commissioners - Doug Everett, Stan Wise, and Bubba McDonald - will vote to approve the surcharge. Commissioner Chuck Eaton sometimes straddles the fence, but often votes with the Everett-Wise- McDonald axis. The one commis sioner who actually considers the impact of higher prices on recession- plagued families is Bobby Baker - who usually finds himself on the losing end of a 4-1 vote. The PSC majority is so deeply in the hip pockets of the utilities that it’s become a joke. As a commis sion insider once remarked, “The lobbyists spend so much time in Stan Wise’s office they ought to be paying rent.” The recent debate at the PSC on a surcharge requested by Atlanta Gas Light was typical of how things work these days. Atlanta Gas wanted to add some new pipelines to its network but didn't want to be bothered with the chore of filing for a rate increase, so it asked the PSC to approve a surcharge of 95 cents a month for residential bills and $2.85 a month for business customer bills. The PSC majority, of course, favored the surcharge, but McDonald went one step beyond. It’s not fair to business customers, he said, that they should have to pay more than residential customers. He proposed an amendment to require residences and businesses to pay the same amount of $1.18 each month after the surcharge is fully phased in. Baker pointed out that McDonald's proposal would require a widow liv ing on Social Security to pay the same monthly surcharge as the Walmart down tlie street that takes in millions of dollars a month and consumes much more natural gas. "The customer who uses 10 therms per month is going to pay the same exact amount as the customer who uses 100,000 therms per month,” Baker noted. "Everybody's favorite whipping boy is Walmart,” Wise retorted. “As fun as it is to beat up on a Walmart or a Kmart or whoever the whipping boy is, we all have to pay.” Wise, McDonald and Everett voted for the McDonald amendment to give large business customers a price break at the expense of consumers. McDonald summed it all up with probably Hie most truthful statement he has ever made in four decades as a politician. "The residential customer is gonna’ get it one way or the other,' ’ McDonald said. He’s absolutely conect about that. Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol Impact’s Georgia Report, an Internet news service at www.gare- pon.com that covers government and politics in Georgia. He can be reached attcrawford@capitolimpact.net. Letters to the Editor Disappointed with Comer’s failure to pick up debris in Royal Oaks Dear Editor: I am writing to express my disap pointment with the city of Comer for failing to pick up debris for tax- paying city residents in Royal Oaks Subdivision. At the September Comer town hall meeting, when I asked for debris to be picked up in Royal Oaks, the city council informed me that the track may not be in running condition when debris needed to be picked up. I was also informed that I wasn’t the only one in Comer that needed debris picked up. I informed the council that I am aware I am not the only person in Comer, but I am the only one in the Comer council meeting asking for a debris pickup day to be scheduled. I attended the Comer council’s meeting again Oct. 5. When it was Royal Oaks’ time to speak, I asked the city council about getting a debris pickup day scheduled once a month. I asked them if a certain day could be set — such as the second Tuesday or third Thursday — every month. I was told that debris could only be picked up in a portion of Royal Oaks’ Subdivision — the parts considered “Phase 1 and 2.” I asked the council why, and I was told the builder Tim Seymour hasn't dedicated Phase 3’s streets to the city of Comer yet. I informed the council that I pay city taxes and should be able to get debris picked up from my lot in Phase 3. The council told me they would be trespassing if the debris track came down into Phase 3 of Royal Oaks. I informed the council again that I pay city taxes, along with other neighbors in Phase 3 and that the city of Comer provides water and sanita tion pickup in Phase 3. So how is getting debris pickup any different than other city services already performed in Phase 3? The council informed me again that the builder needs to dedicate Phase 3 streets to the city of Comer. I asked them what needed to be done and was then informed again by the committee that the "builder” needed to get Phase 3 dedicated to the city of Comer. I asked again where I could find information on what needed to be done by Mr. Seymour to get Phase 3 dedicated to city of Comer for my own information as a citizen of Comer. I was told that the “builder” needs to get the information. I agreed, but asked again where I could find information on what Mr. Seymour needs to get done to dedicate Phase 3’s streets to city of Comer. I was finally given Jim Baird's business card as a contact for information on getting Phase 3 dedicated to city of Comer. I do not believe it should be so difficult for a taxpaying citizen of Comer to have debris picked up by the city government, which provides that service to city residents. Sincerely, Marsha Royston Comer Thanks for supporting fund-raiser Dear Editor: The Comer Woman’s Club would like to thank everyone that purchased a ticket in support of their most recent annual fund-raiser drawing, which was held at the Madison County Fair. The winner of this year’s prizes were: Lyn Kellum, Joan Lurwig, Nancy Seymour, Marion Brown, Tammy Parker, Megan Hancock, Max Sartain, Anne Threlkeld, Kent Burden, Fran Cantrell and Amy Baker. A special thanks to the following Madison County businesses for their help: First Madison Bank and Trust, Fox’s Pizza, Madison County Florist, Carmine’s Pizza Time, Blue Bell Gallery, Merchant’s and Farmer's Bank, Compadres Mexican Grille, Ku’ Foodlane and Possibilities Consignment Furniture. We would also like to thank Betty Crumley for the lovely handmade quilt. The proceeds from the fund-raiser will enable the club to complete certain projects for the com munity. Sincerely, Pat Hancock for the Comer Woman’s Club Thanks to Rotary for building ramp Dear Editor: We would like to thank the Madison County Rotary Club for constructing a ramp at our home in Hull last week. They were good, helpful and caring to us and we so appreciate their efforts. Sincerely, Lance and Lillian Thomason Hull