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Show "Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers. ' ' Voltaire, French .rf- - (1694 author-phtiosoph- er T 778) Thursday, February 20, 1992 Tfse Daily Herald V 1 THIS 15 ZZ"' The much ballyhooed New Hamp- - shire presidential primary has come gone. What did it mean? As usus- 'alihat depends on which camp, spin Id&Jor or expert you listen to. Jand so-call- ed Vim. Herald THIS IS GQIilRl&ilt tout ozone. victories belonged to George Pat Buchanan, Paul Tsongas and Bill Clinton. The losers were George 5 J Bush, Pat Buchanan, Paul Tsongas, J tJDlClinton and the three other in the race. : around a campaign which was apparently sunk by the twin sharks of alleged impropriety and media attention to finish a "strong" second in a field which has done little to inspire the masses. He lost because a few weeks ago he was '.n r&ush won because he got 53 percent the man to beat in New Hampshire and offce vote. In November, that would his lead evaporated. considered a solid victory. He lost J gSecause an incumbent president This election year, most of the noise Shouldn't lose 37 percent of the vote to will be about the economy. Voters t i?hallenger within his own party . across the country would do well to Rnrhanan won heeause 37 percent remember the following: The presiof" the vote for a challenger to a sitting dent Bush and all previous George i president from within his own party is more credit than deserved when gets great show of strength. He lost be- - the economy is going well and more i , cause many of the voters who marked blame than deserved when it is not. If 5 thejtoallot by his name indicated to exit and when government helps or hinders J rpoHsters that Bush is the better presi- - the bureaucratic regulations 'ntial timber of the two but they just and economy, have much more direct Congress J ..wanted to lodge a protest vote about than the president. impact 1h9 way the economy has been going. BUsh, Demo-"-jera- ts rf ANY QUESSUOMS? je ..-- a Government bureaucrats can, by Tsongas won because as a charisma-les- s candidate from Massachusetts he their actions, help or hamstring busito'verhauled Bill Clinton to top the ness and industry. Congress and its "tJemocratic ticket. He lost because he counterparts on the state and local levwill now continue to devote time and els pass laws and set budgets. Regard.rriofley to a campaign which appears less of whether George Bush serves ultimately doomed. Voices from with- - one or two terms, those ups and downs iaWs own party are already clamoring of the economy which can be traced to jvjfora "stronger" candidate to step up. federal government actions will largeon ly be the responsibility of Congress, ;N6t many would bet the ranch which has been controlled by Demoin the Kqngas ultimately residing crats since all television was black and I'SVhite House. KElinton won because he turned white. -- SSlT ISIH WGlttHJ mer is sane? Now that's nuts If you believe that, then you believe the jury shouldn't have found him to be sane. Therefore, he shouldn't be sent to a prison for life, since we don't treat insane people that way. "I didn't say that. You don't have to be "I did it," Slats Grobnik said, the ring of triumph in his voice. "I got through the whole thing without knowing what's going on. ' M4 ft. i You got through what thing? "This creep Jeffrey Dahmer in Milwaukee. The trial's over now. He's going to prison. He's going to disappear from the newspapers and the TV, and I got through it all without reading one word about mine Royko TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES him." 0' ( Support 'smoke free' "Editor "ISB 133 (Clean Air Amendments) "son$d by Senator Hillyard is a comprehen sive clean indoor air bill to ensure the elimination of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in restaurants. Its goal is simply to protect public health. While there has been a proliferation of similar or stricter nnhlir health nnlirie in Colorado (Aspen, Snowmass and Cdej, Flagstaff, Arizona and 19 cities in jjfornia (Sacramento, Walnut Creek, San jijouls Ubispo, Belltlower, Palo Alto, Los .Xjaios and Solano County to name a few), ' Utah would be the first state to pass such legislation. Utah has been a leader in a variety of strict .. tobacco control laws banning outdoor - tobacco advertising, free distribution of to-- r hacco products and cigarette vending Yes, other states do look to Utah and not away from Utah when desiring to pass t(bacco control legislation in their home Three cheers Editor: We are fairly new residents of Utah, and having lived in many large and small cities, we feel that the citizens of this area should realize how fortunate they are to live here, where honesty, talent and ability go together in business. Your excellent little paper doesn't have room enough for me to elaborate on the nightmares we have been through in the past, trying to keep new or used autos in good repair. Maintenance shops seemed to After blunbe a good business for in this the same few a of dering through locale, we found International Auto in American Fork and we are extremely impressed. rip-off- s. We were told by more than one shop that the only answer to the repair of our vehicle was a new engine ($2000). International Auto repaired the vehicle for a total of $ 1 85. The vehicle runs great and sounds great. 2 f ' Qur challenge to the "silent majority" of There have been other incidents with them Utatl families is to take action now by calling for which we are satisfied and grateful. A your legislators today to express your desire new experience for us. I say three cheers for Ubreath clean, healthy air in restaurants. If the honesty of International Auto of Ameri0 fjotj. haven't gone bowling in years not be-- J can Fork. caiise of your lack of ability but the smokey Donna Bingham Cedar Hills environment, let your legislator know. Let know that ammonyoyr legislators benzene, ia,; hydrogen cyanide, arsenic and formaldehyde don't belong in any restaurant or in anytowling center. Your action is vital. What's at stake? Your lungs. Your hart. Your health. It's 'time to protect ourselves from smoke that has no safe level of exposure. SB 132 is not ''pddball" legislation. This is public health -legislation that is routine, popular and suc- ,rCs$ful in 23 cities so far. The list is t's time to add Utah to the list. Call .wig-IIrtday for support of a bill that makes good healthy sense. Christine Chalkley Legislative Chair Coalition for a Tobacco-Fre- e Utah Not even one word? I find that hard to believe. "Only the headlines. I had to look at the headlines so I'd know what I wasn't going to read. And when I watched the news, I sat there with the zapper in my hand. The second the guy says, 'and now for the latest in the the Dahmer trial,' zap, I'd be gone. I'd switch over to that Nick station and watch reruns of 'Mork and Mindy' or something." Then you don't know how he lured .... killing and eating people.' I knew all I had to know. The guy was nuts. ' ' No, the jury found that he was not insane. "Yeah, I know. I saw the headline. And my wife told me. She read all the stories. You know how she is about collecting recipes. But just because the jury says he's not insane don't mean he's not nuts. ' ' You seem to be contradicting yourself. "Let me explain. What if I invite you over to the house and I take you in the "Shuttup." kitchen and I say: 'See that big pot? I been Or the way he would use his kitchen to killing guys and cooking 'em in it.' And I prepare showed I deck or you something that would make it, ya." "Zip You're serious. you believe it. You know, leftovers. What would you say?" "You bet I am." You mean after I ran out of your house I didn't realize how squeamish you and down the middle of the street screamwere. "It ain't being squeamish, although ing? "Yeah. What would you say about my that's not the kind of stuff I want to read mental state?" oatmeal. It's over my morning knowing I suppose I'd say that you were, uh, that what I gotta know about and what I don't. If I read every word and watched every you had, uh "You'd say I was nuts, right?" minute of the trial on that courtroom staI I more a would be suppose, something like that. tion, ' ' "So why should I watch TV or read a person? find out what some nut has been to would about know more You paper Possibly. better-informe- well-round- d, ed the difficulty of establishing whether someone is legally sane or insane. "Sure, that's why those TV guys were running out of the courtroom to get on camera to give us every creepy detail. They were thinking: 'We want to enlighten the viewers about the difficulty of establishing one's state of mind when one is But in a court of law, while trying to resolve the question of whether someone is insane, you just can't say he is nuts. You would have to define what you mean by nuts. "That's easy. If somebody does some- thing really nutty, then he's nuts." he's nuts." You seem to be saying that anyone who commits unspeakable crimes is, to use your word, nuts. "Yeah. Some are nuttier than others.'A guy who sticks up a grocer and then whacks him on the head for the fun of it is a little nuts. The guy in Milwaukee, he's real nuts." Then you don't want to lock any criminals up because they are deranged. If.it were up to you, our criminal justice system would be in disarray . "You got it mixed up again. I'm just saying there ought to be separate categories. That way, when someone comes ?in and tries to get off by saying he's insane, the judge could say: 'Nah, you ain't insane. You're just nuts. And if I don't lock a nut like you up for good, then I'll be nuts.'" That's a very loose standard. "No, it's easy. You go up to 100 normal people and ask them' if some savings and loan swindler is nuts. They'll all say that he's just a crook. Then you say: 'By the way, you mind if I eat your leg?' Aid they'll say: 'You must be nuts.' See? It's real simple." It's a good thing for our criminal justice system that you're not a lawyer. "Nah, it's a good thing for the lawyers that I'm not a lawyer. ' ' Government gets in the way of affordable housin By TREVOR ARMBRISTER Editor's note: President Bush in his State of the Union Address proposed several measures to make home ownership e more affordable to buyers. The w and in some ways la are not yet proposals treat the symptoms, rather than the disease. This article examines problems face home buyers. ing Sliest Opinion and drive up prices by as much as 35 percent. "It's a national scandal, "says former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean, chairman of a bipartisan panel that investigated the situation for Housing and Urban Developlow ment (HUD) Secretary Jack Kemp. rates, young many mortgage Despite ownerhome Here are some of the costly regulations are discovering today people Kean and his investigators found. ship is an impossible dream. According to the Census Bureau, 57 Zoning. Last fall, Libertyville, 111., Amerimillion 56 families of persuaded Motorola, Inc., to build a plant percent that would provide 3,000 to 5,000 jobs. cans can't afford to buy a median-price- d Editor: " dismayed to read the article entitled home where they want to live. Nine often But village officials didn't change the mask5ther says son humiliated over book renters are, in effect, frozen out of the ter zoning plan to allow the building of houses. The sit- affordable homes. Exclusionary zoning market for median-price- d -- fees" in the Feb. 13 edition of The Herald. It is a sad commentary on our society uation is particularly acute in California frequently stems from a concern that new when our members feel it is more honorable and the northeast corridor between Boston development may lower property values, to be living on welfare than to be doing and Washington, D.C. But it's spreading increase traffic congestion and create a labor, even if that labor is janitorial fast to states like Florida, Ohio and Illi- need for such expensive services as schools. But restrictions drive up the cost work. This mother needs to realize what she nois. While turbulence in the banking indus- of land, which in turn drives up the cost of is teaching her son. He is going to grow up feeling that all cf his neighbors should be try is one factor, and the increasing costs housing. of land, labor and materials are others, the The permit maze. Back in the 1930s, taxed to pay for his way and that we somesuswhat few him he must is and real the villain give something buyers how owe him Empire State Building was completed satischoke and the that know in little won't more than a year. Today, it can pride He wants. pect: government regulations off the supply of new affordable homes take developers two to five years just to get faction of working and providing for himto him and to society! self. What a loss permits (water, sewer, electricity) for subDistrict School homes. In some California comJordan division I say "hooray" for where a munities, according to Brookings Institufor trying to implement program when fees school economist Anthony Downs, the first tion their earn can students The Daily Herald welcomes letters to the $30,000 of the cost of a new home is their parents cannot afford to pay them. The editor. Address letters to Editor, PO Box directly attributable to governmental perstudents who take advantage of that opporand citizens happier 717, Provo, UT 84603. Letters must be mits and fees. tunity will be better The permit maze sometimes stops housdon't. who ones the signed and include the writer's full name, people than Lani Nelson address and a daytime phone number for ing altogether. In West Windsor TownLehi verification. ship, N.J., the developer of a proposed first-tim- first-tim- Cheers for Jordan Jas .est -- doing?" insane to be nuts." This is not easy to follow. "Look, I know he's nuts, my brother Fats knows he's nuts and if I go down the bar here and take a survey, everybody will say, yeah, sure, he's nuts. I bet everybody on that jury thought he was nuts. Anybody who ain't nuts knows he's nuts. And there are probably some nuts who would tell you Letters policy subdivision discovered that he different approvals from nine separate agencies before construction could begin. By the time the four-yeprocess was over, the market had disappeared, and the housing project was suspended. Unreasonable environmentalism. In their quest to stop development in its tracks, environmentalists cite "wetlands" almost everywhere., They also take advantage of the Endangered Species Act. In Riverside County, Calif., for example, development has been restricted on 81,000 acres while authorities study how much of the area the Stephen's kangaroo rat needs. In Walton County, Fla., in 1991, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concerns about the Choctawhatchee beach mouse effectively shut down one large subdivision before it could get off the ground. And in scrubland along the Southern California coast, builders fear that the described by a California gnatcatcher developer as a "tiny bird with a big attorney" will go on the endangered list. Exorbitant impact fees. In at least 30 states, communities are forcing developto and hence new home buyers ers pay for schools, parks, fire stations, recreational facilities and improvements to roads and bridges used by longtime residents. Nowhere are impact fees more onerous than in Southern California where, says Timothy L. Coylc, director of that state's Department of Housing and Community Development, they can add at least $20,-00- 0 to the cost of a house. That could mean 2,600-un- it needed 1 1 ar $150 to $200 extra in monthly mortgage payments. Overly restrictive building codes. Experts say the technology exists to reduce house the cost of building an average-size- d money-sBut 27 these much as as by percent. measures are frequendy forbidden by local building codes. Chicago's plumbing code, for example, requires metal pipe for many uses rather than the far cheaper and plastic. Chicago developer Salvatore Fer-reestimates that the extra cost for a home is between $3,000 and $4,000. Special venting, pipes and other requirements tack on as much .as $5,000 more. In all, the codes add between $ 0,000 and $ 1 5 ,000 to a $ 00,000 home . Most of the regulations crippling housing were set in place by local and stae governments. What they have to do now is help clear away the thicket. Congress, too, has an important role. Among other things, it should encourage HUD to withhold federal subsidies from communities that resort to discriminatory zoning policies and exorbitant development fees, and overhaul and modernize the Endangered Species Act. Secretary Kemp's report is a call, to arms. "Housing has become the most industry in the United States, and it is being smothered by government. Something must be done about it now," he says. aving simpler-to-insta- ll ra 1400-square-fo-ot 1 1 This article by Trevor Armbrister, a Render's Digest senior editor is excerpted from a longer piece in the March issue o f the magazine. , |