OCR Text |
Show THE ZEPHYR AUGUST 1995 convincingly. The consequence of the Gulf War on the heels of the implosion of the U.S.S.RV is that the U.S. is the only superpower left in the world, at least militarily speaking. We are universally recognized as the world's foremost nuclear power, but the Gulf War showed that we have a knockout punch in conventional warfare as well. It is good for the Saddam Husseins and Boris Yeltsins of the world to appreciate that latter fact. As long as we are militarily supreme, there will not be a nuclear war. Our shores will not be invaded, even if we get involved in a conventional war. (By the way - aren't the last two sentences worth paying taxes for?) There will probably not be a world war in my lifetime, as there were in my father's and grandfather's. I think President Bush deserves credit for that fact. He did a good job in mobilizing national and international support for intervening in the Gulf, and I respected his decision to follow the UN mandate and let Saddam Hussein escape the trap. The short term benefit of overthrowing Hussein may have been outweighed by the long term benefits of honoring military commitments to the United Nations. I'm sure the lesson was not lost on the countries in Western Europe and Japan. George Bush showed the United States can be trusted with military supremacy. If we captured Hussein, we would have had difficulty running Irag and containing Iran. It is not good for those of us living in the Western World (and specifically, the western United States) to have unstable people or unstable regimes controlling the vast oil reserves in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. For a politician, George Bush was a man of principle. I leave it for you to decide whether his recent public resignation from the NRA supports my view. In the end. Bush foil victim to the recession, the slick campaign skills of Bill of gratitude Clinton, the presidential aspirations of Ross Perot, and the short half-lif- e in the body politic for a job well done in crisis. PAGE 29 went into a box where it remained untouched for a decade. When I opened the box last month, I spent an hour going through the albums, remembering the people and places that went with the music. And then I started looking for used record shops -and found one in Denver. I loaded up the collection and went to reap my reward. The proprietor looked like an aging Hell's Angel - balding but with a pony-ta- il and tattoos eveiywhere visible. He was a good businessman - he went through a painstaking three-stag- e sorting process and ultimately purchased 20 albums (including all four Joni Mitchell albums) for the princely sum of S20. For the MBA's among you, his resale price was at least $5. The remaining 230 albums were mine to dispose of. I asked him if vinyl was a hazardous substance so that simply throwing them away was illegal (I've been cowed by Zephyr Watchdog propaganda). He said no but urged me to take the records home before I disposed of them. If they were left in a nearby dumpster, the street people would retrieve them and try to resell them to him. And so a half-holater, I unceremoniously tossed Maria Muldaur, Mick J agger, the Flying Burrito Brothers and a host of other holies (and all the good and bad times that were intertwined with them) in the trashbin of history, and went inside to listen to my favorite new compact disc - by Linda Ronstadt. ur VINYL During a recent move (in case you had forgotten, moving is hell), my record collection met its fate. I recall years when those records were prized personal possessions - of greater value to me than my car, my clothes, or my books.Those were the years of the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel and Joni Mitchell. I thought they were artists, and I still enjoy their music today (especially Joni Mitchell who was probably the best lyricist of the bunch). The popular music of my youth was so much better than what young people listen to today - but then I remember my parents saying much the same thing. As much as I loved it, my record collection became obsolete the first time I heard a compact disc sometime early in the 'SO's. I remember Stiles once saying that nothing human beings really need was discovered after 1960 - which I thought strange coming from a man who creates his newspaper on a personal computer. I also use my computer frequently, but I really need to listen to music. The crystal clear sound of a digital compact disc is proof positive that technology improves the quality of life. But 1 didn't do the adult thing that first day 1 heard a compact disc - which would have been to give or throw away my record collection. My unwillingness to discard my obsolete youth was camouflaged as frugality. After all, 250 records had to cost over $1,250 and those were the days when a dollar bought you a Big Mac. Surely those records would be collector's items some day. So my youth (the record collection) If you just want to be able to say, "I saw it..." there's no reason to be particular about choosing an outfitter. Where Quality counts, And it shows. ; i IF YOU WANT TO EXPERIENCE IT... adrift adventures YOUR ONLY OPTION. Qfizn zxcuLvzy fox 2 LtlYlEX "Whitewater River Expeditions, Jeep Tours, Jet Boat Tours " Reservations 92 E. Center open 7 days FINE? DESSERTS 378 North Main Street, Moab. Utah 84532 or (801) 259-859- 4 accepted 259-429- 5 W j |