For the week of September 3 - 9, 2003

Contradiction, inconsistency or what?

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As mutt owners around here know, the U.S. Forest Service has a strict leash law at some trailheads requiring dogs to be in tow until reaching a magic unleashing spot.

It’s not that dogs are safety threats. The Forest Service wants poop-free trailheads, although it wrongly assumes that all dogs can hold it to the lawful perimeter before squatting, even on a leash.

Contradiction: The Forest Service poop rule ignores horses that leave larger piles in trailheads, as well as sheep leaving their own fecal trail en route to grazing areas, plus sheep dogs that get a free pass outright on the leash rule.

Unwary dog hikers could be ticketed if their mutts roam free at the trailhead, even if they’re strolling through horse and sheep manure.

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America’s free enterprise economic system encourages entrepreneurs and captains of industry to increase profits to reward themselves and investors.

That even includes moving manufacturing operations out of the United States and overseas, where labor costs are lower.

Contradiction: But as CEO salaries increase, thousands of American workers who produce the goods lose their jobs. Factory jobs have shrunk every month for three years—from 17.3 million to 14.6 million, about one job in six and averaging $54,000 a year.

Meanwhile, CEOs at 50 corporations with the most layoffs in 2001—a total of 465,000 workers—had their pay increased an average 44 percent for putting workers on the streets, according to the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy.

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During his futile 2000 presidential quest, U.S. Sen. John McCain’s POW days in Vietnam and Navy service were always in the news—with photos, old newsreel footage, books about his life, interviews about the pain of confinement at the Hanoi Hilton, references by media interviewers to his "hero" military days?

Inconsistency: McCain tells U.S. News and World Report it would be unseemly for Sen. John Kerry, wounded three times and decorated for gallantry twice in Vietnam, about citing his military experience in the presidential campaign.

"I think Americans want modesty, and if it appears as if you're trying to use some past accomplishment, particularly one in combat, to further your own political ambitions, it's a little dangerous because the whole reason for your serving in the military is to ensure the safety and future of others and not yourself," according to McCain.

Huh? How come Republican McCain exploited his military career for politics but finds it a no-no strategy for Democrat Kerry?

As for extolling modesty, McCain watchers might call this a case of do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do.

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President Bush is preparing to ask Congress for "tens of billions" of more dollars for operations in Iraq.

Contradiction: He claimed Iraq’s oil would pay for the war and occupation.

Was that cut from the same cloth as discredited claims that Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction were an imminent threat and justified the invasion?

 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.