4/19/2006 – Editorials
By Richard Peterson
You might have noticed that we had color on the front page last week.
The color was poorly done. That’s because I don’t know what I was doing. That was my second experience with color separations and the first in which I personally made the color separations. Obviously, I have much to learn about the color process.
I don’t have a teacher and it’s tough to try to get this stuff out of books. There are an infinite number of settings that can ruin the separations. I’m discouraged, but not beaten. After some practice I’ll try again.
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We got through another ice fishing season with no fatalities. I consider that a miracle. However, it seems fishermen are lucky. I can’t remember an ice fishing fatality. That’s even more than a miracle, considering the chances ice fishermen take.
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The National Transportation Safety Board recently divulged it had "covertly" funded a project with US auto makers for the past five years, whereby the auto makers installed black box voice recorders in four-wheel drive pickup trucks and SUV’s in an effort to determine in fatal accidents the circumstances in the last 15 seconds before the crash.
They were surprised to find in 49 of the 50 states and all but one of the Canadian provinces the recorded last words of drivers in 61.2 percent of fatal crashes were, "Oh no!"
Only North Dakota and Saskatchewan were different, where 89.3 percent of the final words were: "Hold my beer, I’m gonna try somethin’."
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Despite what some people say, it is not unpatriotic to differ with the policies of the president in power. Here’s a quote that sums up this idea quite well:
"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about anyone else."
Those words were spoken by Theodore Roosevelt in the Kansas City Star May 7, 1918.
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Here are some truisms which came by e-mail:
A good time to keep your mouth shut is when you’re in deep water.
Anyone who thinks old age is golden must not have had a very exciting youth.
How come it takes so little time for a child who is afraid of the dark to become a teenager who wants to stay out all night?
Business conventions are important because they demonstrate how many people a company can operate without.
Why is it that at class reunions you feel younger than everyone else looks?
Scratch a dog and you’ll find a permanent job.
No one has more driving ambition than the boy who wants to buy a car.
There are no new sins . . . the old ones just get more publicity.
There are worse things than getting a call for a wrong number at 4 a.m. It could be a right number.
No one ever says "It’s only a game" when his team is winning.
How come we choose from just two people for president and 50 for Miss America?
Money will buy a fine dog, but only kindness will make him wag his tail.
One of the quickest ways for a young man to fail in life is to work so hard the boss will think he’s after his job.
If you don’t have a sense of humor, you probably don’t have any sense at all.
Seat belts are not as confining as wheelchairs.
I’ve reached the age where the happy hour is a nap.
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A supposedly true story: After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting from Harare to Beltway had escaped. Not wanting to admit his incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered everyone waiting there a free ride. He then delivered the passengers to the mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies.
The deception wasn’t discovered for three days.