9/24/2008 – Editorials
By Richard Peterson
I want to add something to the editorial by Eliot Glassheim which appears at the top of this page.
By attending the meetings of the county commissioners, I see how the county struggles in the face of high fuel prices. Because of the cost of fuel, graveling this year has been restricted to only those roads that are in such bad shape they are in danger of becoming impassable.
The county has to get some additional funds to keep the road system operating.
If these measures pass, there won’t be a dime of money coming from the state. I think there’s a good chance counties will get desperately needed funding from the state if the measures are defeated because the majority of counties in the state are experiencing the same problem. Townships also need help. Townships are so broke they can’t afford to do any graveling. Something has to give here.
The counties and townships will have no choice but to increase property taxes to keep the roads in halfway decent shape. It’s certain there will be property tax relief if the measures are defeated. If the measures pass, look for your property tax to increase because that’s the only place counties and townships can get the funds they need to keep the road system operating.
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The gun issue is dead. We’ve been hearing radio ads in favor of Obama saying that both McCain and Obama will support the right to own guns.
Democrats have come around on this issue and have dropped any efforts at a national law banning the ownership of guns.
The issue is dead for two reasons:
1) The US Supreme Court in June issued a landmark ruling that the Second Amendment guaranteed that individuals have the right to own guns. This was a definitive answer to the question which has been debated for many years. In effect, the Supreme Court took the issue off the table.
2) Public opinion is solidly behind the court’s ruling. Politicians who try to fiddle with the individual’s basic right to own a gun aren’t going to be in office long and they all know this.
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A woman went to the emergency room and was seen by a young and relatively new doctor.
After about three minutes in the examination room, the doctor told her she was pregnant.
She burst out of the room and ran down the corridor screaming.
An older doctor stopped her and asked what the problem was. After
listening to her story, he calmed her down and sat her in another room. Then the senior doctor marched down the hallway to the first doctor’s room.
"What’s wrong with you?" he demanded. "This woman is 79 years old, she has three grown children and several grandchildren, and you told her she was pregnant?!"
The new doctor continued to write on his clipboard and without looking up said: "Does she still have the hiccups?"
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Here are some things Bob Hope said:
On turning 70 — You still chase women, but only downhill.
On turning 80 — That’s the time of your life when even your birthday suit needs pressing.
On turning 90 — You know you’re getting old when the candles cost more than the cake.
On turning 100 — I don’t feel old. In fact I don’t feel anything until noon. Then it’s time for my nap.
On giving up his early career, boxing — I ruined my hands in the ring . . . The referee kept stepping on them.
On never winning an Oscar — Welcome to the Academy Awards or, as it’s called at my home, Passover.
On golf — Golf is my profession. Show business is just to pay the green fees.
On presidents — I’ve performed for 12 presidents and entertained only six.
On why he chose show business as his career — When I was born, the doctor said to my mother, "Congratulations! You have an eight-pound ham."
On receiving the Congressional Gold Medal — I feel very humble, but I think I have the strength of character to fight it.
On his family’s early poverty — Four of us slept in the one bed.
When it got cold, mother threw on another brother.
On his six brothers — That’s how I learned to dance. Waiting for the bathroom.
On his early failures — I would not have had anything to eat if it wasn’t for the stuff the audience threw at me.
On going to Heaven — I’ve done benefits for ALL religions. I’d hate to blow the hereafter on a technicality.
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"Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."
— John McCain in the current issue of Contingencies, the magazine of the American Academy of Actuaries.