The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 88, No. 266, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 24, 2008 Page: 4 of 12
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OPINION
4A
THE BAYTOWN SUN
Wednesday, September 24,2008
Texas Views
I
Date, time, and place are lost
ft
—Dallas Morning News
by 8 a.m. Sunday. If you do
SEE LOPEZ • PAGE 6A
_
_
—
Recovering
from Ike
Luke Hales
City Editor
MA Bengtson
Community member
Jim Finley is a retired managing
editor for The Bay town Sun.
(Ingrid Bergman), in the midst of
World War II. He is about to send her
away from danger, and probably out
of his life forever. ,
“lisa, I’m no good at being noble,”
Rick tells her. “But it doesn’t take
much to see that the problems of three
to publish any submission.
Send signed letters to:
David Bloom, The Baytown
Sun, P.O. Box 90, Baytown,
FRED HARTMAN
Publisher Emeritus
1950-1974
time, call (281) 425-8066 by
9 a.m. to ensure redelivery.
202-224-2934
713-572-3337
Fax: 202-228-2856
Fax:713-572-3777
comyn.senate.gov/
contact/index.html
Ted Poe,
Dist. 2 Rep.
866-425-6565
866-447-0242
www.house.gov/
poe
Ron Paul,
Dist. 14 Rep.
202-225-2831
979-230-0000
www.house.gov/
paul
Gene Green,
Dist. 29 Rep.
202-225-1688
713-330-0761
www.house.gov/
green
r
I
I
I
I
out Baytown in the late evening and
see neighbors sitting in lawnchairs,
hoping to catch a nice breeze. I want
r - r.
cool air and lemonade. If only it were
possible.
You’ve heard the many stories of
neighbor helping neighbor. It’s hap-
56
4)08 '
3066
Government officials
Federal
George W. Bush,
President
202-456-1111
Fax: 202-456-2326
president©
whitehouse.gov
Dick Cheney,
Vice President
202-456-2324
Fax: 202-456-2461
vice-president©
whitehouse.gov
Kay Bailey
Hutchison,
Senator
202-224-5922
713-653-3456
Fax: 202-224-0776
Fax:713-209-3459
hutchison.senate.
gov/fe-mail.htm
John Cornyn,
Senator
MISS YOUR PAPER?
You should receive your
Baytown Sun by 6 a.m.
notfor publication should be Monday through Saturday and
included. All letters and by 8 a.m. Sunday. If you do
EDITORIAL BOARD
Clifton E. “CWT Clements
Edtor/Pubfoher
Jim Finley
retired Managing Editor
JayEshbach
Community member
At first it didn't really bother me,
but it became increasingly hard to
ignore. On certain relatively slow
news days, the built of the e-mails I
would receive from'readers of the
National Review's
Web site would be
about Google, the
popular Internet
search engine.
Specifically, these
letters would com-
plain about Google's
failure to recognize
certain holidays.
Google - if you
The last thing Galvestonians are thinking
about today is what Ike's destruction means
for the rest of Texas. When your primary con-
cerns are whether you still have a house and
when you'll ever get to sleep in it, you're in no
frame of mind to take the big-picture view.
But the folks managing the state's budget,
insurers with a stake in this hurricane, and
taxpayers and consumers face several grim
realities. Two in particular stand out:
Gov. Rick Perry metaphorically stuck out
his chest and declared that Texas will rebuild
and restore what Ike destroyed. While his
office is still detailing the costs, the effort
obviously centers on Galveston. And for the
record, we believe the state should assist this
historic city. Not only does human compas-
sion suggest a helping hand, but the island
remains a tourist beacon that means tax rev-
enues for the state.
Those costs, however, will upend legislators'
^plans for the next two-year budget, which they
wilTwritenext year. Estimates widely vary,
but Texas could be on the hook for several
hundred million dollars, if not more.
Some money will go to repair roads, bridges
and other basics. The big chunk, however, will
cover the overrun in the state's wind insurance
pool, which legislators created as a last-resort
insurer.
Unfortunately, Ike will soak up all of that _________»'
pool's reserves and perhaps billions more.
Insurers initially will make up the difference,
but they also will get a break on state taxes to
offset their costs. As a result, there will be
fewer dollars for other priorities.
Yes, Texas is running a budget surplus, but
most of that cash is already spoken for. And
there are competing priorities for what's left,
including Mr. Perry's desire for more property
tax Cuts. To shoehorn in Ike's costs, everyone,
including the governor, must make a persua-
sive case why his or her priority deserves
investment. <
Legislators also must recapitalize the wind
pool or force insurers to pay ipore into it. ~
They also should consider dividing the state
into separate insurance districts. Without
insurance, the coast will never get rebuilt
when the next Ike hits.
The Gulfs many refineries largely survived
Ike. Next time, who knows?
We hope that Congress gets that point and
continues extending incentives for companies
to build more refineries. With a strong push
from Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison,
the Treasury Department finally wrote regula-
tions this summer that allow refiners to
receive a tax break if they expand daily pro-
duction by at least 5 percent.
Along with such tax incentives, Washington
needs to make sure environmental regulations
don't make it impossible to build more
refineries. We're not talking about retreating
from protecting the environment but rather
balancing the nation's energy and environmen-
tal needs.
Naturally, most Texans are thinking about
the storm's human impact. We are, too. But it's
not too early for legislators to begin focusing
on Ike's costs and preparing for the next big
storm.
How to reach us
Clifton E. “Cliff” Clements,
Publisher
cliff.clements@baytownsun.com
Sandy Denson, Business Mgr.
sandy.denson@baytownsun.com
Joshua Hart, Circulation Manager
joshua.hart@baytownsun.com
Gordon Gallatin,
Advertising Director
gordon.gallatin@baytownsun.com
NEWSROOM
sunnews@baytownsun.com
What day is it, anyhow?
This is September, isn’t it?
Hurricane Ike has stolen a lot more
from us than trees, and roofs, and
shingles, and fences. He has - tem-
porarily, at least - stolen our daily
lives and how we go about our busi-
ness. Ike has literally swiped our nor-
mal routines and many of the things
we enjoy.
The same world that was spinning at
a billion mph 10 days ago has slowed
to a crawl. No telling when it will
reach that speed again.
My household is luckier than most.
We got our power, our electricity, back
on the Sunday after the storm. We are
grateful.
. In many, many ways I feel deep
guilt. The neighbors just across die
street have no power, no lights, no
cool.
I haven’t a clue as to why this is so.
I don’t know how a light switch
works, much less how electricity is
distributed, r w
In addition to our neighbors, I know
many residents right here in Channel
City and the immediate area - as this
is written - have no power. My heart
goes out to them.
Because it happened to us during
Hurricane Rita - and before that when
Rita’s her old sister, Hurricane Alicia,
hit -1 know what it feels like. I
wouldn’t wish this misery on anyone,
with the exception of Osama bin
Laden and his evil friends.
Even with electricity, my life has
been out of kilter. Sometimes I look at speaking to the woman he loves, lisa
the calendar to see what day it is. I
dread nightfall, because I can keep
fairly busy during the day.
Nonetheless, I have a cool house to
go into at night. Thousands of others
don’t, and I am bothered by this. My
conscience bothers me. Why me?
You can travel by motorcar through- little people [lisa’s husband included]
don’t amount to a hill of beans in this
crazy world.”
Rick understood The Big Picture,
to invite them all over to my house for Me, too.
God bless!
W Saptobn £un
1301 Memorial Drive, P.0. Box 90
Baytown. Texas 77522
77522; fax them to (281) 427-
1880 or send an e-mail to
sunnews@baytownsun.com.
Items featured on this
| page are the views of the
persons identified with each
submission and do not nec-
daily by The Baytown Sun, 1301 Memorial essarily reflect the Views Of
StodP0|B°X tuanSBwtownT The Ba.ytown Sun or its
postage Baytown, x. a(jvertjsers.
material addressed to The
Baytown Sun bearing the
writer’s signature. An
address and phone number
editing, and the Sun
reserves the right to refuse
onds to take their turn.
I also heard about some guy across
town who, immediately after the
storm, was on his roof with a shovel
scooping shingles to the ground. Sad.
Anything for a new roof, I guess.
There is a special place for these
loons, and you know where that’s at.
Except for a few miscues, I believe
the City of Baytown has performed
admirably under perhaps the worst cir-
cumstances this city has ever faced. In
modem times, anyway.
Mayor Stephen DonCarlos and City
Manager Garry Brumback have
attempted to get updated phone mes-
sages out to residents on a regular
basis. I, for one, appreciate that.
Yep, I could be picky about a few
things, as could we all, probably. But
this situation, as bad as it is, reminds
me of a line in the great motion pic-
ture “Casablanca.”
Rick (Humphrey Bogart) is standing
on a foggy runway in Casablanca
noticed a few imbe-
ciles who won’t wait
their turn at intersec-
tions that have no traf-
fic lights. They’re better than you and
me, apparently, and can’t wait 15 sec-
pened where I live and
across the region, and
it’s heartwarming to
see and be a part of.
There have been a few
morons, of course.
____________ There always are.
JIMFINLEV
jfinley1414@
verizon.net
KATHRYN
LOPEZ
don't live on the Internet as I do, and
thus haven't noticed - tends to
change its logo to celebrate special
occasions. Google was very into the
Olympics in Beijing (and has bent to
China's will there, but that's another
story). Google was ecstatic when the
4 first day of summer arrived this year.
It honored Leap Day on Feb. 29 with
a slaphappy portrait of a jumping
frog, and duly marked the 50th
anniversary of the LEGO brick on
Jan. 28. It even celebrated artist
Diego Velazquez's birthday in June,
and regularly marks geeky anniver-
saries like the invention of the laser
on May 16. So, some ask, why not
fly a flag on Memorial Day?
What Google does with its pixels,
of course, is not the biggest concern
in the world by any stretch, even dur-
ing a sluggish news cycle. But I
increasingly started noting some of
the days on which the corporate
behemoth opted not to change its
logo. Couldn't we at least get a bunny
on Easter Sunday? If the likes of
Macy's can recognize that holiday
y without seeming sectarian, why can't
Google? I wasn't looking for a resur-
rected Jesus or even a cross.
This bothered me again this year
on Sept. 11. On that particular
Thursday, Google's logo went unal-
tered. If a ton of terrorist attacks had
murdered thousands of people on
American soil in recent history, I
could understand why Google would-
n't change things up for each occa-
sion. But, since there haven't been --
and since, on Sept. 10, Google had
changed its logo to mark the first test
of Europe's Large Hadron Collider,
the world's largest particle accelera-
tor, I didn't think that Sept. 11 was
too obscure a day to note.
Google, as a private company, cer-
tainly has the right to do whatever it
wants. I can choose to use another
search engine if I'm that annoyed
with how it monkeys with its image.
But like it or not, it occupies an enor-
mous chunk of American and world
culture. To "Google" is a verb that
has entered the common lexicon. And
with great power comes great respon-
sibility.
Which is why 1 was delighted to
hear Google's new policy on abor-
tion. Shockingly, for a company with
such titanic sway, Google has hereto-
fore claimed to be neutral on life-
based issues, while actually hewing
very stiffly to one side - favoring
abortion advocacy and providers.
Sued in the United Kingdom by a
British group called the Christian
Institute, it recently settled out of
court and agreed to run abortion-ori-
ented ads from pro-life as well as
pro-choice clients.
In April of this year, Google had
refused a paid ad from the Christian
Institute that said:
"UK Abortion law
Key views and news on abortion
law from The Christian Institute
www.christian.org.uk."
Google had said that its policy was
to refuse ads that mixed "abortion
and religion-related content."
Previously, if you typed the word
"abortion" into the company's search
engine, the only advertisements that
would appear alongside search results
would be for abortion clinics and
support groups, with nothing from
religious groups that oppose abortion
and offer alternatives to it.
A spokesman from the company
announced, "Over the last few
months, we have been reviewing our
abortion-ads policy in order to make
Itawwn
oSL®
circulation:
needs to
‘search’ its
conscience
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Clements, Clifford E. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 88, No. 266, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 24, 2008, newspaper, September 24, 2008; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1190687/m1/4/: accessed July 11, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.