The Winkler County News (Kermit, Tex.), Vol. 42, No. 103, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 14, 1978 Page: 9 of 19
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.? Page 10, Sec. 1
The Winkler County News, Kermit, Texas
Thursday, September 14, 1978
The Winkler County News
GOLDEN WEST FREE PRESS, INC. KERMIT, TEXAS
109 S. Poplar Telephone 586-2561
Zip Code 79745
Second Class Postage Paid at
Kermit, Texas 79745
M. M. Donosky..............................Publisher
Bill J. Beckham________ ____Vice-Pres. and General Manager
Bert Brewer .......................... Managing Editor
Martha Brewer ..........................Society Editor
| Corey Matheny ..........................Sports Writer
Jane Inskeep .......................Advertising Manager
Marie Butts........................ Circulation Manager
Robert Wingrove...............Mechanical Superintendent
This newspaper is dedicated to the spirit of civic progress; to the
unification of the townspeople in a common, purpose for the I
betterment of our community; to our churches, schools, and
homes that Kermit shall ever be a good place in which to live and
rear our children. And, above all, honesty, decency, justice,
tolerance, faith in Almiglit God — These shall be our citadel.
★
Middle Class & Taxes
Every politician in Congress realizes today that the
middle class American is fed up with high taxes,
government overspending and bureaucratic waste. The
tax cut bill is one indication of the reaction among
them—obviously the nation can’t afford a tax cut now,
with a sixty billion dollar budget deficit looming.
But a tax cut is being voted by Congress. And in
states all over the country, from New England to Texas
and Illinois to Florida, constitutional amendments are
in the works, to limit taxes.
Is all this reaction--largely from the middle
class-justified? Figures speak for themselves. Over-
spending politicians in Congress have for years been
voting more and more costly programs and the tax bite
on those who pay most of the nation’s bill, the middle
class, has constantly gone up.
Inflation has added to the bill for many. The result is
that today the average American middle class taxpayer
is working four months of the year to buy the freebies
given away to so many, and for salaries of the
bureaucracy, which thrives and expands by giving away
more to more.
Meanwhile, the rich often avoid taxes by utilizing
tax law loopholes, which Congress refuses to close.
With $5 million invested in tax-free bonds, one can
enjoy an income of $300,000 a year without paying a
penny of tax. There are other loopholes (which
President Carter has proposed to eliminate).
Thus the situation galvanizing so many Americans
into action today is one in which American middle class
citizens are being “taken” for a third of their yearly
earnings by the recipient classes and big government-
while the rich can avoid all taxes in many cases.
As one columnist recently pointed out, even the
Russian peasant under the czars worked only three
months for Moscow. The Treasury is taking four
hundred billions a year in taxes from the American
people, while the quality of life declines and inflation
robs Americans of savings and earnings. The middle
class is thus revolting. As were Russian peasants, they
are justified in doing so.
Brooke On Kennedy
Senator Edward Brooke (R-Mass) says Senator Ted
Kennedy might be the Democratic presidential
nominee in 1980. Brooke, himself often mentioned as a
candidate for second place on the G.O.P. ticket in 1980,
feels his fellow Bay Stater will get the convention call if
President Carter’s popularity rating remains very low
in public opinion polls.
Brooke was hurt recently by admitting
misstatements in a divorce settlement. Kennedy was
hurt badly a few years back by the accidential death of a
girl he was escorting-which he delayed in reporting.
Brooke apparently believes such scandals are quick-
ly forgotten and the public is indeed forgiving to
popular politicians and celebrities.
While that’s true, 1980’s conventions are two years
away, and it’s traditional for parties to renominate a
president. There is also patronage.
Senator Kennedy’s best chance of getting the
nomination is through Mr. Carter’s withdrawal. That
happened to Democrats in 1968, when President
Johnson, dismayed by the polls and his Vietnam war,
decided not to run.
If Mr. Carter wants the nomination in 1980, he has
his own party chairman, his many appointees, the
power of the office, plus other built-in advantages, and
it will be a very difficult job for any candidate to capture
a majority of delegates, to turn him out of office, and
admit a Democratic administration has been a 4-year
failure.
The Last Battle
What was the costliest battle of World War II for
U.S. forces? The Battle of the Bulge? Pearl Harbor?
Midway? The answer is none of these, but the Battle of
Okinawa.
The looming Japanese surrender anniversary of
September 2nd and the end of actual fighting in
August of the same year (1945) bring to mind the close
of the war in the Pacific and the last and most costly
battle of the war for U.S. forces that summer.
That battle began April 1st, when the first of eight
divisions of troops began landing, against no
opposition, on the 75-mile-long island. What at first
seemed easy turned into grim surprise; the enemy was
underground and waiting, in well prepared concrete
bunkers and defensive positions.
Before the fighting ended months later the Army
and Marines had lost over 7,500 dead and missing, over
31,000'wounded and suffered non-battle casualties of
26,211. U.S. Navy losses had been by far the highest of
any battle--almost 5,000 dead, a similar number
wounded, 36 ships sunk and 368 damaged!
Japanese losses were even more staggering. The
U.S. war machine had wiped out 110,000 soldiers, 7,800
aircraft (mostly suicides) and sixteen warships. It was
the last battle of the war and the bloodiest. But because
it came s<y late, when the outcome of the war was no
longer in doubt, less interest has been attached to it
than to earlier battles. Yet its outcome was a major
factor in convincing many in Japan that the struggle
was hopeless. The atomic bomb made that fate more
obvious.
AN AMERICANIST VIEWPOINT
GRACE HAMILTON
Everyone has heard all
about President Carter’s
newly hired “image
changer”, one Gerald
Raffsoon, who was rumored
to be paid over $50,000 per
year. As far as we are
concerned, the current
vacation trip in the wild,
blue yonder, that is so
highly publicized is another
case of too little and too ,
late. If this is the best Mr.
Raffsoon can come up with,
Carter could have helped his
image by saving the
taxpayers money.
While the Carter family
suffered through the rain
and cold in a silly boat,
trying for some sort of
brand new image, the
taxpayers are at home*
trying to make ends meet in
this inflationary period.
Let’s take a look at one big
item that could be cut to
the bone, thereby saving
billions. Mr. Carter could
improve his image
tremendously if he would
oppose the unbelievable
waste in our foreign aid
program. Congressman Jim
VIRGINIA PAYETTE
Hard Times with Software
Well, they’re getting close.
It won’t be long before I
can stalk into a billing
office and fight it out face-
to-eonsole with the com-
puter.
Growl-for-growl, even, if
it comes to that.
And it just might. When I
think of the time, stamps
and tempers I’ve lost
trying to persuade some
blinking box it had a glitch
somewhere in its dippy
digital core, I might even
ram a credit card down its
electronic throat. (One I
don’t use too often, of
course.)
Because we’re not far
away from the day I can
get my hands on the miser-
able mechanical wretches
who keep fouling up my
monthly bills. Now they’ve
got computers you can talk
to.
Not program. Not crank
up with that mysterious
mumbo-jumbo they call
“software” or input or di-
gital pulses or whatever.
Really talk. With these
new babies you use your
own voice.
The whiz-kids have put
together a complicated
contraption that can be
trained to understand -
and respond to - a vocabu-
lary of up to 1,000 words.
Trouble is, it has to be a
special vocabulary and a
special voice.
Any ordinary outraged
customer (the kind busi-
nesses hear from every
time they send out their
monthly bills) can’t just
walk up to a printer, wave
the erroneous statement in
its display terminal, and
threaten to poke it right in
its chip if it doesn’t clean
up its output.
Not yet. But there is a
computer that works on
“voice data entry,” which
means that it’s trained to
do what one person tells it
to. In the rarefied world of
digital dialogue, that’s
called “isolated word
recognition.”
Like a guard dog that
takes orders from only one
master, this fancy Fido
responds to the one voice
it’s familiar with. (I guess
that means it lies down and
plays dead for any other
set of sound waves.) Tech-
nically, it’s “speaker
dependent.”
-To train this computer,
somebody first reads the
working words into its
microphone, repeating
each word up to 10 times.
This is to get the system
used to the intensity of the
sound, the time it takes to
make it, and a combination
of the two, called the fre-
quency.
Once it has that down pat
it’s ready for taking
orders, which it does by
converting the frequency
into a spectogram, which it
then “digitizes,” or tran-
slates into the “BIT” lan-
guage of binary digits of
ones and zeroes.
(Still with me?)
Next, using the voice-
spectrum analyzer, the
computer sorts these digits
into sound patterns, pokes
around in its memory until
it finds one that matches a
word, prints it out, and
then does whatever it tells
it to.
This can be anything
from collecting data and
classifying and sorting ma-
terials to design work and
quality-control inspection.
Companies who are using
it say it’s great for jobs
where workers’ hands and
eyes are too busy to make
keyboard operation possi-
ble.
Now researchers are
working on how to get a
system that will talk back,
and that’s the one I’m
waiting for.
I want an explanation of
how a certain computer
has managed to foul up one
magazine delivery so that I
get several issues one
month and none the next.
And I want to hear from
another on why it took an
order for a gift subscrip-
tion to a relative with the
same last name, fished
around in its memory bub-
bles, discovered a Payette
already takes the maga-
zine, decided I didn’t need
two, and canceled the
order. (What’s the matter,
guys - don’t you bother
with first names?)
As for statements from
credit-card companies and
department stores ... well,
I’ve got many an elec-
tronic bone to pick with
their machines. Beginning
with the way they mix up
on out-of-town charges,
and the spooky way they
have of losing credit I have
coming from items
returned.
Try and convince ME
Chieftains
Call Shots
Los Angeles
Herald-Examiner— “For
many years labor unions
have spent a portion of their
members’ dues money in
direct and indirect support
of candidates favored by the
union chieftains, without
regard to the individual
wishes of rank-and-file
workers. In many cases,
unions supported candidates
in direct opposition to
members’ wishes. This
practice is particularly odius
in states... without ‘right to
work* protection, where
union dues are compulsory
as a condition of
employment. This means,
regardless of workers’
personal beliefs, they either
pay dues regularly or are
fired.”
* * * *
People only get old;
life is continually new and
full of change.
they only eat electricity.
They gobble up checks,
too, and then refuse to
admit they ever got them.
Even though they’re dumb
enough to spit the canceled
checks back to your bank,
thereby giving you abso-
lute proof of their techno-
logical treachery.
Pay a bill a few days
late, forget to include the
interest charge, and
you’ve got yourself a life-
long pen-pal. Some com-
puters will keep sending
you statements for 12 cents
... 18 cents ... 24 cents until
their fuses burn out.
One time a computer
forgot to send us a hotel
bill, and Old Dad didn’t
realize it. (Listen, with the
way the bills pile up
around here every month,
who’s going to miss one?)
Three years later, we
checked into that same
hotel, got into the room,
and had a call from the
house detective. So you can
see why I can’t wait to hear
what kind of alibi that
malingering machine
comes up with. Old Dad
and I almost went to jail
over that, for goshsakes.
Neither do I buy that old
line about computers being
perfect, that any mistake
can be traced back to a
human error. I don’t be-
lieve that for a minute, and
there are millions of folks
out there with their own
horror stories who’ll argue
that any computer that
sends out bills has a fiend-
ish quirk in its personality
that can never be ex-
plained by microcircuitry.
When they finally per-
fect one that can talk back,
we’U know for sure. And if
it sticks to that human-
error bit, fine. Let it squeal
on the two-legged dumb-
dumb responsible for the
glitches and I’ll take HIM
on.
Paul Harvey
News
The Good People of Sitka
Did I ever mention that once, on a trip to Anchorage,
Alaska, I put the Lear down in Sitka for refueling and
uninvited and unexpected I received the most gracious
welcome imaginable. Refreshments, invitations to go fishing,
mementoes to take home — and it was all done with the easy,
casual kindness of people to whom people are still important.
Sitka, Alaska, had its first mugging recently and the people
of the area were so embarrassed.
Here’s how it happened: An elderly couple from
California, Martha and Lawrence Joseph, got off a tour ship
to visit the picturesque fishing village and Sitka’s Totem
Park.
Two young men accosted them, knocked Mr. Joseph to
the ground, struck Mrs. Joseph and grabbed her leather
shoulder bag and ran with it — and all their vacation spending
money, $200.
Well, the bag was found later in a trailer court - empty.
Police and townspeople were so solicitous and sympathetic.
The Josephs tried to be philosophical about it and got
back aboard their cruise ship which sailed that evening.
rThere had never been such a crime in Sitka before. Never.
The Sitka Daily Sentinel mentioned the incident
prominently. It was not long before the grapevine closed in
on the culprits: two young men, 18 and 17. The two were
charged with the crime — they don’t fool around forever
with such things in Sitka. The young men were appropriately
punished but the money was not recovered.
Down at Harry Race’s drugstore the talk about it led to a
determination to do something about it. They chipped in
dollars and fives and pocket change and pretty sooh had
$100.
Word got up and down the bay front more money started
coming in. Pretty soon there was a total of $200.
Somebody got the address of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph from
police department records and a check was sent to them at
their Culver City, Calif., address.
The check bounced.
What I mean is that the check was returned to Sitka with
this letter from Martha and Lawrence Joseph:
“Dear Sitkans: Receiving your check for $200 gave us one
of the happiest surprises we’ve had in many years. You are
. truly wonderful people. While we are of modest means, we
would feel much better if you would accept return of the
money to be used for whatever is your favorite charity.”
The letter goes on to thank the Sitka Police Department
and Police Capt. Olsen in particular for his efficient and
sympathetic help.
The check for $200 has now been turned over to the Sitka
Visitors’ Bureau. If anybody ever again is similarly
inconvenienced while visiting Sitka, there will be an
immediate remedy.
But somehow I don’t expect anybody ever will be.
Collins, from Texas, says
that since 1946, the United
States has thrown away 537
billion dollars. That is more
than 75% of our current
national debt. This year
Communist Russia will
receive $2 million more in
addition to the $1.2 billion
already handed to them
over the years. It seems that
most of our foreign aid
money goes to our enemies.
Probably because we have
so few friends left in the
world. Our politicians
absolutely must give away
our hard earned money,
apparently.
It is long past time that
our leaders listened to the
angry taxpayers and put. a
stop to the insane waste
abroad as well as at home.
Unless the folks back home
force them to change, we
will be seeing a new foreign
A
aid program for Red China. •
No amount of public
relations work can fool the
people, if they understand
what is happening behind
the scenes. Who is
benefiting from foreign aid?
Not the people who might
really need help. Only 8
cents of every dollar filters
down to them. What can we
do to stop it? Kick the
rascals out next November.
-American Way Features «
Trenton, Ga., Dade
County Sentinel: “Try this
— The next time you read in
the papers about — ‘the
government gave...’ ‘the
government lent...’ ‘the
government supplied...’ —
Just substitute the words
‘taxpayers of the United
States’ for the word
‘government.’”
*
OSHA
Spanked Again
by John F. McManus
Belmont, Massachusetts —- In the decades prior
to the birth of our nation, one of the most
hated denials of fundamental rights were King
George Ill’s Writs of Assistance. Increasing
taxation led to smuggling, and the subsequent
avoidance of taxation led to the Writs, which
gave bureaucrats and soldiers power to search
anyone’s home or business.
Our Founding Fathers hated the Writs of
Assistance and their well-placed sentiment
eventually showed up as Amendment IV of the
Bill of Rights. Everyone should read and digest
the Fourth Amendment, for it is under attack.
The right of the people to be secure in
their persons, houses, papers, and effects,
against unreasonable searches and sei-
zures, shall not be violated, and no war-
rants shall issue but upon probable cause,
supported by oath or affirmation, and
particularly describing the place to be
searched, and the persons or things to be
seized.
Bill Barlow’s Case
Bill Barlow had not only read the Fourth
Amendment, he had posted it on the wall at his
plumbing and heating business in Pocatello,
Idaho. When a compliance officer from the
federal Occupational Safety and Health Adminis-
tration (OSHA) arrived to conduct an inspection,
Mr. Barlow refused him entry because he had no
warrant. And when the OSHAcrat came back with
one, entry was again refused because the war-
rant did not specify probable cause.
Then, Bill Barlow sued the federal govern-
ment. A three-judge federal panel declared the
search provision of OSHA “unconstitutional,”
but the government appealed all the way to the
Supreme Court. On May 23, 1978, the Supreme
Court ruled that warrantless searches were in-
deed unconstitutional, but that demonstration
of “probable cause in the criminal law sense is
not required” by OSHA. OSHA gleefully inter-
preted the decision as a directive that warrants
must be obtained, but merely for the asking.
Weyerhauser Decision
Even before the final Barlow decision,
America’s businessmen had begun to use the
Fourth Amendment to defend themselves
from OSHA’s fishing expeditions. On June 30,
1977, OSHA was denied admittance to a Weyer-
hauser box manufacturing plant in Wisconsin.
When the OSHAcrat returned a week later with
a warrant, but without “probable cause,” he
was admitted “under protest.” Then, Weyer-
hauser went to court.
On July 3, 1978, U.S. District Judge Myron
L. Gordon ruled that it is not enough that
OSHA be satisfied that probable cause for an
inspection exists. He interpreted the Barlow
decision to mean that before ariy warrant can
properly be issued, the judge to whom OSHA
applies must also be satisfied that “probable
cause” exists.
Judge Gordon then voided the! warrant used
in the Weyerhauser inspection, quashed all ci-
tations and penalties imposed as a result of tbe
use of that warrant, and ordered OSHA to
return to Weyerhauser whatever evidence it had
accumulated through an illegal search.
What This Means
Because of the Barlow and Weyerhauser
decisions, businessmen can and should deny
entry to OSHA unless there is a search warrant.
Further, they should insist that any warrant be
issued upon demonstration of probable cause
before the judge, not simply at the request of
an OSHA bureaucrat.
OSHA has had some large holes punched in
it. But it should be abolished. If enough Ameri-
cans become familiar with the Fourth Amend-
ment, and why it was written, the day will soon
come when OSHA will share a grave it so richly
deserves — right alongside King George’s
tyrannical Writs of Assistance.
© 1978 The John Birch Society Features
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Brewer, Bert. The Winkler County News (Kermit, Tex.), Vol. 42, No. 103, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 14, 1978, newspaper, September 14, 1978; Kermit, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1025022/m1/9/?rotate=90: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Winkler County Library.