Sulphur Springs News-Telegram (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 112, No. 149, Ed. 1 Sunday, June 24, 1990 Page: 2 of 40
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A-2—THE NEWS-TELEGRAM, Sulphur Spring*, T*xa*. Sunday, Jun* 24,1990
editorials...
WMJ2
An ode to the
lazy, hazy, crazy days
Is this the first official weekend of summer? It seems
like it’s been blistering hot for eons.
And whatever happened to spring? Remember, we
lg through the
ped into the Turkish bath.
were wading through those monsoons and suddenly step-
to do this summer and
We all have so many things
there’s already little time left. Here are some suggestions
if you need to set a priority on your time for summer..
Definitely Do
Cut the grass. Unless, of course, you want to incur the
wrath of the resident supervisor who does your laundry.
Go on several picnics. It seems the pork-and-bean in-
dustry and family picnics were invented at about the same
time. But the combination is still fun.
Go for power walks. If you’re going to be hot, you
might as well go all the way. When your heart starts
pumping hard, your lungs are pounding and your quad-
raceps are on fire, it helps to complain about the weather.
Perhaps Do
Go to a Rangers game. Unless the club makes a rather
spectacular turn-around, this season is already a lost
cause. That means plenty of seats are likely to be avail-
able and you won’t have to worry if you show up without
a ticket on a hot summer night.
Go fishing. Fishing is really a spring sport. Still, you
can catch perch and crappie in the summer and there may
even be a large bass in Lake Fork foolish enough to move
into range.
Absolutely Avoid
Playing tennis. If God had intended people to play ten-
ds in 100-c
ms in tuu-degree weather he would have instructed the
stork to deliver them decked out in a pair of white shorts.
Water ski. They say there are those who enjoy this. But
this is a form of swimming, and swimming is still swim-
ming.
Going cam
usually lias to have the draft?
ping. If it’s so great, how come the Army
have
Pitch for your company or church softball team. If you
i haven’t done it before.
don’t know why, you
Wish You Could
Go whitewater rafting. If you live in Texas, you have to
drive a considerable distance, of course. But then again,
perhaps that makes you appreciate it more.
Go sailing. If you have a friend or a relative who owns
a sailboat, you are a lucky person.
Relax. There’s never enough time for this.
The opinion page
a-
Disaster looms at Houston
By Robert Walters
TEXAS CITY. Texas (NEA) -
Even a casual observer can quickly
sense the anguish of the people living
in the communities bordering Galves-
ton Bay, the San Jacinto River and the
Houston Ship Channel by observing
the signs posted throughout the area.
First, there are the “HC” signs at
the edge of many roadways. They
identify the special routes designated
for trucks carrying hazardous cargo
ranging from lethal industrial chemi-
cals to toxic waste.
Then, there are the “Warning"
signs posted on the chain-link fences
surrounding the storage tanks, flare
stacks and catalytic crackers operat-
ed by Union Carbide, Amoco, Mara-
thon, GAF and lesser known firms
such as Sterling Chemical and Hill
Petroleum.
Finally, there are the “For Sale"
signs in the front yards of so many
area homes — an indicator that their
owners can no longer cope with the
chemical waste pits adjacent to hous-
ing developments, the acrid odor of
unknown compounds released from
industrial units directly across the
street from child-care facilities and
the constant threat of deadly fires or
explosions.
Along the banks of the 50-mile-long
network of waterways that links
Houston with the Gulf of Mexico is the
densest concentration of petrochemi-
cal plants and oil refineries in the na-
tion. Half of the country’s petrochem-
ical products and 15 percent of its
refined petroleum products are pro-
duced here.
While consumers everywhere bene-
fit from that work, those living in the
area pay a high price in terms of un-
remitting threats to their health and
safety. Along one stretch of Interstate
45, for example, seven waste pits con-
taining styrene tars, heavy metals
and other lethal compounds are situ-
ated directly across the highway from
a middle-income neighborhood.
“This is one step up from midnight
dumping," says one concerned moth-
er, Bebe Lising. She is among a grow-
ing number of area residents critical
of what they characterize as an unre-
strained and irresponsible petro-
chemical industry.
Those critics claim that producers
determined to maximize profits cut
corners, endangering both plant
workers and those living nearby. This
charge is rejected by the American
Petroleum Institute, which says “first
and foremost, the industry’s abiding
concern is the safety of its workers.”
Last year, API named Phillips Pe-
troleum the safest company in the in-
Robert
Walters
willful safety violations. Phillips de-
nies those charges, but, if Phillips is
dustry. The award was made only
months before a devastating series of
explosions and fires at a Phillips pet-
rochemical plant in the Houston Ship
Channel community of Pasadena,
Texas, killed 23 workers and injured
about 125 others.
The federal government’s Occupa-
tional Safety and Health Administra-
tion fined Phillips $5.7 million, alleg-
ing that the firm was guilty of 566
nies those charges,
the best, the episode raises questions
about safety standards elsewhere in
the industry.
The most recent calamity occurred
about 50 miles offshore in the Gulf of
Mexico in mid-June. A Norwegian su-
pertanker carrying 38 million gallons
of crude oil was wracked by a series
of explosions and fires.
In Texas City, a massive 1987 spill
of 15 to 25 tons of hydrofluoric acid at
a Marathon Petroleum plant pro-
duced a cloud of toxic vapors that
hung over the city, required the evac-
uation of 3,000 panicky residents and
drove 800 people to area hospitals for
treatment of burning throats, eyes
and skin.
In 1947, Texas City was the scene of
one of the worst industrial disasters in
the nation’s history: A freighter load-
ed with ammonium nitrate fertilizer
caught fire and exploded at a Mon-
santo dock.
More than 550 people were killed,
3,000 were injured and $67 million
worth of damages were sustained.
Nobody expects a recurrence of that
calamity, but accidents of smaller
size are occurring with disturbing
frequency.
Indeed, now almost commonplace
in the area are plant fires, barge ex-
plosions, accidental releases of lethal
chemicals and the purposeful dump-
ing of arsenic and other toxic sub-
stances into the tidal estuaries that
sustain rich seafood beds.
© 1W0 NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN
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EROTIC PICTURES OR SING
EXPLICIT m LYRICS OR..
Why is IRS always right?
By Jack Anderson
and Dale Van Atta
IRS subsequently uses to go after a
Deregulation seems to work
By William A. Rusher
Back in 1980, when Ronald Reagan
was elected president of the United
States, I felt that we conservatives
had at last achieved the ultimate tri-
umph. When he was re-elected four
years later by a still greater margin, I
felt like somebody who has won the
Irish Sweepstakes twice in a row.
Then in 1989 the world of Soviet
communism started falling apart like
the one-hoss shay — a development
that I had always known was theoreti-
cally inevitable, but had certainly
never expected to live to see.
It seemed as though there was
practically nothing left to look for-
ward to — but that just shows how life
can fool you. Imagine how I felt on
Sunday, June 10, when I turned to the
editorial page of my New York Times
and read the title of the first editorial:
lilillijom fi.
Rusher
only honorable way out for Marty
Tolchin is ceremonial hara-kiri.
'Re-regulate? Not on Your Life.” Di-
ly belov
rectly below it was a sub-head: “Tri-
umphs on the Road, on the Phone, in
the Air”.
The editorial’s text was true to its
title. Acknowledging that “deregula-
tion doesn’t work perfectly", and
promising to recommend needed
“safeguards” in a future editorial, the
Times nonetheless reviewed what it
considers, on balance, the success of
deregulation in air and surface trans-
portation and the telecommunica-
tions industry, and concluded: “De-
regulation has been a triumph. That
flies in the face of traditional liberal
reliance on government regulators to
protect ordinary consumers.... (But)
the evidence is compelling: Re-regu-
lation would be dead wrong.”
Now, The New York Times editori-
al board is a large body, and I
wouldn’t want to say that there had
never previously been a kind word for
deregulation on the paper’s editorial
page. But it is absolutely fair to say
that the Times is, in general, a firmly
libetal publication, and that its ap-
pearance on this side of this particu-
lar question is therefore very definite-
ly news.
As a matter of fact, in recent years
one of the Times’ most highly regard-
ed Washington reporters, Martin Tol-
chin, has made a cottage industry out
of citing instances in which Ronald
Reagan’s deregulation policies alleg-
edly did more harm than good — a
contention he flogged so hard that he
finally wrote a whole book on the sub-
ject. In view of the Times’ editorial,
however, it would appear that the
How did this astonishing editorial
come to be written? As already noted,
on the Times’ editorial board there
are many mansions, most of them in-
habited by passionate liberals. But
here and there a relative moderate
can still be found, and even one or two
rare spirits who have been known to
entertain, now and then, a vagrant
conservative thought.
It would appear that one of the lat-
ter made an end run and actually
reached the goal line — which in this
case is the mind of Times publisher
Arthur Ochs (“Punch”) Sulzberger.
Speaking personally I will admit, as
a frequent user of the commercial
airlines, that I have considered the de-
regulation of that industry one of the
heavier crosses I felt obliged to bear
as a conservative columnist.
But don’t forget the Goddess of Lib-
erty. Fares, routes and schedules now
faithfully reflect how many passen-
gers really want to fly between two
given destinations, with the result (as
the Times notes) that both competi-
tion and safety have actually in-
creased, while fares are down by an
fai
average 18 percent. This latter fact,
in turn, explains why airports are
more crowded. What is needed are
more and bigger airports, not re-regu-
lation. Deregulation is a howling
success.
WASHINGTON - In June 1988,
Alex Council of Pfafftown, N.C.,
killed himself, blaming his fate on the
Internal Revenue Service. He left a
note for his wife Kay: “I have taken
my life in order to provide capital for
you. The IRS and its liens which have
been taken against our property ille-
gally by a runaway agency of our
government have dried up all sources
of credit for us. So I have made the
only decision I can. It’s purely a busi-
ness decision. I hope you can under-
stand that. I love you completely,
Alex."
The Councils had been fighting a
running battle with the IRS for nine
years. Four months after Alex Coun-
cil’s death, Kay Council went to court
using the money from his life insur-
ance, and she beat the IRS. The judge
barred the IRS from collecting the
$300,000 in taxes, penalties and inter-
est that it claimed the Councils owed.
Tangling with the IRS does not nor-
mally have a fatal outcome. But
many taxpayers who square off with
the tax man experience losses and re-
percussions that last a lifetime. Chal-
lenging the fearsome monolith, even
when you know you are right, can be
overwhelming and, in some cases,
impossible.
A congressional investigation re-
cently concluded that the IRS wrong-
ly assessed penalties to 1.5 million
taxpayers in 1988. The IRS admitted
that was true and vowed to do its best
to clean up the bookkeeping errors
that led to those unwarranted
penalties.
But that is little consolation to tax-
payers who think they have paid their
due and fail an IRS audit anyway. If it
happened to you, would you accept
defeat and pay the money or would
you stand up to the IRS?
Jack
Rnderson
delinquent taxpayer. Incredibly, an
oft
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m.____*
If you chose the latter, plan on
spending plenty of money. Congress
passed a Taxpayers' Bill of Rights
two years ago making it easier for
you to go to court and stop the IRS
from bleeding you dry when you know
you are in the right. Tax court is one
place that you are guilty before prov-
en innocent, and the law still makes
taxpayers come up with the court
costs.
Some senators recognize the ad-
vantage the IRS has and they have
tried to shift the odds toward the tax-
payer. Most recently Sen. William
Armstrong, R-Colo., introduced a se-
ries of “Fair Play for Taxpayers
Bills.” They provide for taxpayers to
get their expenses back if they win
their cases, allow taxpayers to sue
the IRS for carelessness and make
the IRS pay the same interest rate as
the taxpayer would on disputed taxes.
Armstrong told our reporter Paul
Zimmerman that the IRS can be
“very coercive.” He added, “Even if
you win your case in court, you lose
by paying court costs.”
One provision in Armstrong’s plan
would put an end to a bit of IRS skull-
duggery — the use of tax accountants
to rat on their clients.
The IRS uses between 750 and 900
“controlled informants” a year —
people who spill information that the
estimated 20 of those informants are
tax accountants.
Unlike lawyers, accountants are
not bound by confidentiality require-
ments with their clients. The Ameri-
can Institute of Certified Public Ac-
countants deplores the practice, but it
happens anyway.
A St. Louis man recently discov-
ered, after he was indicted by a feder-
al grand jury on six counts of tax eva-
sion, that his accountant had gone to
the IRS with the damning informa-
tion. In return, the accountant got a
break on his own tax problem.
SANCTIONED WITCH HUNTS -
The Navy’s obsession with sexual
preference is a scandal. The latest in-
stance is the maligning of a dead gun-
ners mate, Clayton Hartwig, on the
USS Iowa. The Naval Investigative
Service labeled him a homosexual
and said he deliberately blew up the
Iowa gun turret in despair over a ho-
mosexual crush. Some members of
Congress are talking about abolishing
the NIS as a result of the botched in-
vestigation.
MINI-EDITORIAL - The Bush ad^
ministration has tried to put a happy
face on the environment, but Mother
Earth still isn’t having a nice day. The
White House Council on Environmen-
tal Quality recently issued a sugar-
coated report stressing all the pro-
gress made toward cleaning up the
environment since the first Earth
Day 20 years ago. Bush is looking at
the glass as half full instead of half
empty. We admire his attitude, but
not his efforts.
Copyright, 1*90, United Feature Syndicate. Inc.
A few other secondhand concerns
By Lewis Grizzard
Everybody is wonrying about sec-
ondhand smoke, which — studies
now show — can kill you.
Lewis
Grizzard
What I want to know is, how far
away? If somebody smokes a
cigarette in Michigan, could the
smoke get blown to, say, Florida, and
Clarence P. Woodley, a retired hog
farmer from Arkansas, get a whiff of it
and leave Mrs. Woodley, the former
Hattie Jane Haines of Red Rooster,
Texas, a premature widow?
OK, so previously owned smoke is
no danger at 900 miles. What about
down the street then?
What if Arnold Smortz of 117
Mesopotamia goes out in his back-
yard and cracks open a cold one and
lights a Marlboro? Is Freda Gilmire at
110 in any sort of danger?
If so, will smokers be drummed out
of neighborhoods?
And allow me to ask this question
as weD: If secondhand smoke is
dangerous to our health, what about
secondhand other stuff?
I've got some examples:
* Secondhand Booze Breath: What
if you’re sitting next to a hardware
salesman from Keokuk on a flight
from Denver to Chicago.
It's been a bad month for screw-
drivers and this guy is belting down
the scotches, one after another.
You’ve got to be at your kid’s dance
recital a half-hour after the plane
lands.
Are you going to breathe in Mr. Lug
Wrench’s scotch-ladened exhales and
show up at the recital reeking of
drink?
Try explaining that to your wife.
“I can’t believe you got drunk on
the plane before your own daughter's
dance recital,” your wife will say.
You reply, “I haven’t been drinking.
I was sitting next to this guy who
drank 15 scotches during the flight,
and I was the innocent victim of
Secondhand Booze Breath.”
If that flies, Greyhound buses will
soon have wings.
* Secondhand Stupidity: The guy
who sits next to you at work hasn’t
had a decent brain wave in years.
He thinks pro wrestling is real,
gives half his salary to Oral Roberts,
thinks the Atlanta Falcons will have a
great team next year and loaded up
on junk bonds.
You sit right there next to him for
eight hours a day. What if some of
that stupidity rubs off on you?
What if one day you start believing
the Rev. Al Sharpton is legit?
* Previously Owned Bimbosity: It’s
sort of like secondhand stupidity,
except only women get it You hang
out a couple of weeks with Marla
Maples and you think Donald Trump
is going to give you a hotel, too.
* Secondhand Bad Taste: Your
neighbor wears belts that match his
shoes and socks, belches a lot, forgets
to put the toilet seat down, and makes
a sucking, slurping sound when he
eats soup.
Next thing you know you could be
ordering your music collection from
TV, wearing black socks with your
shorts, calling everybody you meet,
“dude,” and picking up your steak and
gnawing on the bone at Waffle House.
* Secondhand Liberalism: You are
driving through Massachusetts and
suddenly you break into a chant,
“Run, TeddyjYdn!”
* Previously Owned Disregard for
the Environment: You go visit your
brother-in-law, who doesn’t know the
first thing about recycling or global
warming. Two days later, you take a
job with Exxon.
The message here is clear: You can
run, but you can’t hide from the habits
and flaws of others. You use Dial. If
everybody else did, there would be no
such thing as Secondhand B.O.
© 1090 by Cowles Syndicate, Inc.
Berry's World
0 1990 by NEA. Inc.
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plethorpe’s ‘XYZ Portfolio' with background
music by 2 Live Crew?”
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Keys, Clarke. Sulphur Springs News-Telegram (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 112, No. 149, Ed. 1 Sunday, June 24, 1990, newspaper, June 24, 1990; Sulphur Springs, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth823847/m1/2/: accessed August 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Hopkins County Genealogical Society.