Show The Herald Journal 19M Logan Utah Thursday January 26 Our View 1983 price index is cause for hope Talk about food news Did you read the press reports on the consumer price index report released this week? The report indicated that consumer costs rose only 31 percent in 1983 the lowest rate of inflation since the early 1970s And for the first time in years private and government analysts agreed that inflation was kicked in the teeth last year For example: Food juices in 1983 rose only 27 percent the smallest increase since 1978 energy prices actually declined 03 percent the best news since 1963 home heating oil prices declined 109 percent the biggest drop since 1943 and gasoline juices fell 16 percent Natural gas prices increased by 52 percent nationally but even that is good news when you consider that natural gas prices increased 254 percent in 1982 according to the report ' Economists called the new data everything from “outstanding" to a "remarkable economic achievement” and attributed the good news largely to abundant crops which helped contain food juice increases an excess jwtroleum supply which helped keep heating oil and gasoline prices low and only a slight increase in the cost of labor After years of gloomy economic forecasts and developments it is refreshing to at last see Indications that the economy is indeed improving at least for most consumers There is of course always a tradeoff one man's good news is generally another's bad news Beef and pork producers did not have an exceptional year in 1983 and that is reflected in the small increase in consumer food prices Likewise we suspect some producers of petroleum may not have been pleased with the glut of oil on the market But few most consumers 1983 appears to have been a food year In our view the consumer juice index report indicates there may indeed be a bit of light flickering at the Expense doesn’t bother Pentagon - WASHINGTON The Pentagon’s notorious for officers are purchasing giving defense contractors every penny they ask for — no matter how outrageously the contractors overprice what they sell to the armed services Even when the defense contract Audit Agency catches a particularly gross overcharge the purchasing officers negotiate a settlement with the ineptitude of an American tourist let loose in an oriental end of the tunnel Letters to the Editor Vietnam To the editor: It's probably true that US domestic disarray contributed to our failure to achieve any kind of success in Vietnam But to blame it all on that is to miss the jMint I think The whole thing was engineered to fail from the start It was set ' right upon a sagging foundation back in ’56 when John Foster Dulles shunted the elections because he knew we'd lose When we erected a flimsy facade of a popular government more a Hollywood set than a substantial basis for our supreme purposes I really do think that any purpose must have a humane foundation to last The Soviet Union appears to be an exception to that principle but that system is not a good example for us Their society is by no means on the verge of collapse but it sags quite a bit I think for lack of a humane basis Creativity is stifled almost all innovation in any technology comes from the West Life is made unnecessarily dreary Alcoholism is epidemic My principle criticism of the Reagan administration is that it's too monolithic has the world laid out in black and white terms For all Its preaching the gospel of over-simplist- ic it’s gone a long way toward Sovietizing US foreign policy in its looking toward military strength as a solution to all ills Afghanistan and Vietnam both should have taught us that brute force can win every battle and lose the anti-Sovietis- m war Our purpose in Central and South America are I think seriously sagging for lack of a humane basis We really didn't care about the jeople of Vietnam Their country was just the stage for us to fight communism The people there were secondary When they should have been the primary consideration Charles Ashurst receive two identical copies — two yean In one Many companies have changed locations or names or have two different names for the same company and questions concerning a transaction an crisscrossed in he computer to add to the foulup This is happening to many persons Quantity must requin an assistant for the robot operator Written permission should be required from an individual before seizure of his name by a computer advertiser The person should also receive written instructions on how to nmove Us name — not a flashed address on TV When then is a computer power shortage on a ston computer manual on the same machine should be available to avoid a standstill of everyone and evMathematics could erything then be applied from the human brainpower Computers were to cut cost and to improve efficiency Is the unnasonable inenase in the price of soap due to installing computer equipment that added to the unemployment? Computerisation is being exploited to the point of capturing a child’s mind causing eye problems destroying our constructive human productivity and thinking Computers seem to be mugging the utilities the communications and travel We are being robbed of improvements and efficiency that were develn oped by intelligence The improvements were to make a better life a better Cod-give- civilisation Even the politlciains can leave their vote in a computer their presence is not required The computer has magnified and intensified the status of control over our lives invaded our privacy is depriving us of righteous freedoms Let us use the computer on a restricted basis so that humanity will not become immobile and impotent Let us reserve some of the work and the thinking for human performance Pearl Gardner Logan Smithfield Computers Writer happy TO to conversion the editor: To the editor: The deluge of advertising via the computer is overloading the post offices and the mailmen Most of the delivery is discarded and the taxpayers pay to haul it away I receive mail: Mr Ethl Mr Pearle evidently the computer has not been perfected to distinguish sex If I have a paid subscription I receive notice that it is due next year I write to correct the error and then two-ye- ar I did hear a tape on which County Commissioner Charles Shelton stated that you can’t educate the public My letter to the editor Jan 12 I am happy that Commissioner Shelton clarified his statement in his letter to the editor on Jan 19 "that folks could not be educated in the time frame that was set up" So now we See LETTERS on page 19 v baiaar That's why I’m keeping a watchful eye on the negotiations over a proposed contract with Texas Instruments Inc to supply infrared viewers for Army tanks Texas Instruments thinks the job is worth almost half a billion dollars But the overburdened auditors disagree My associates Donald Goldberg and Jock Hatfield have seen an internal review of the proposed contract The auditors discovered what they termed — with masterful understatement — "several significant weaknesses" in the way Texas Instruments estimated its costs on the contract The auditors wrote: “We have questioned 1161828775 of the 1479741625 proposed by the contractor” That's more d of the total contract prothan Jack Anderson the taxpayers past that the questioned probably be settled favor of Texas Instruments Investigators for the Senate Unfortunately for experience indicates cost proposals will overwhelmingly in Governmental Affairs Committee headed checked by Sen William Roth contract settlements for the years 1966 through 1982 Here's what they discovered: R-D- el On average for every dollar questioned by the auditors the Pentagon contract officers managed to haggle the contractor down only 19 cents in the final contract During 1982 the negotiators succeeded in shaving off a pitiful 10 cents for every dollar questioned That was the year Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger boasted of achieving major savings in wood-panel- green-carpeteMerry-go-roun- d Pentagon expenses Contract negotiation is no penny-ant-e game Hundreds of millions of dollars could be saved if the contract costs questioned by the auditors were One reason the contracting officers don't do better may be that they realize their efforts would be futile The contract apjmala board — to which contractors turn when they disagree with the auditors — routinely finds in favor of the contractor So why bother trying? Whatever the reason an investigation by the General Accounting Office shows that contract officers generally ignore the Defense Contract Audit Agency's reviews when bargaining over price Here's what one recent GAO assessment said about the contract for the controversial M- tank : -l one-thir- posal The hideaway buffet is on the ground floor of the Old Executive Office Building next door to the White House The room with d in windows frosted has fixtures gold light the doors so nosy passersby can't intrude on the diners' privacy “We found that the M- -l contracting officer did not take prompt and effective action on 23 audit reports issued from February 1980 through August 1982" These reports questioned a total of about $44 million in costs The GAO investigators found that only about 3 percent of the audit agency's resources go toward contract reviews that the auditors are routinely denied important contractor records for their reviews and that the auditors are regularly given little time and a heavy workload when making the reviews PERK OF THE WEEK: While the Reagan administration cuts back on school lunch programs to save money the White House provides staff members with an elegant little dining room that has run as high as 93 percent over budget ed The little staff restaurant was closed during the Ford and Carter administrations but was reopened in October 1981 to White House provide a place for bureaucrats to eat or hold meetings It was expected that at least 80 staffers a day would use the place But it has averaged only about 40 even though Ed Meese the White House hunger expert held a luncheon there late last year to boost patronage mid-lev- el As a result of its under-us- e the dining room has lost money hand over fist During its first eight months of operation the deficit ran to 93 percent For the first 11 months of 1983 on sales of $54643 it showed a deficit of $32615 or 60 percent Prices for the buffet lunch were raised recently from $592 to $675 (the actual cost of a full meal is about $9) but the General Services Administration's inspector general has recommended that it be close if it can't break even UPDATES: Last year I nominated two Labor Department investigators for the congressional Excalibur Award for outstanding service Wesley Walker and Fred Femme had risked their necks getting the goods on mobsters who controlled New York's Fulton Fish Market They have now received the awards Last Dec 17 I reported that Internal Revenue Service official Gerald Swanson had been issued a letter of reprimand because of “potential embarrassment” to the agency — allegedly caused by Swanson’s refusal to cut a deal on taxes and fines owed by former Nevada bordello owner Joe Conforte It was a bum rap for Swanson but the IRS brass has since informed him that it will not withdraw the reprimand as he had requested 1M4 united Feature Syndicate Inc Scars valuable chips in surgery poker LEWISTON — A young colleague of mine is pregnant for the first time and there are days when she feels like she’s entered in the Maternity Olympics She never expected pregnancy to be so competitive Other women quiz her on how she's doing No matter how she answers they top her “Have you had a lot of morning sickness?" they ask She answers that yes there was a day or so there when she did have a slight case of the upchucks To which the questioner resjwnds “Well not me I never had a queasy moment the whole time I know other women really get sick when they’re pregnant but I never have My mother says she’s never seen anyone who stayed as well as I did" But if they ask her the question when things have been going well and she answers that no she hasn't been all that ill the questioner will top that too “Well you wouldn't believe how sick I got" they tell her "I practically lived in the bathroom all nine months I know other women don't suffer nearly as much for their babies as I did for my Joey but boy did I suffer My mother says she's never seen anyone who suffered the way I did” It'a the same on everything Everything that happens or doesn't happen to my pregnant colleague is an excuse for another event in the Maternity Olympics Before she started to show so much women would tell her how much more they Bill Hall The Lewiston Tribune fUCf “I mean I was really huge” Now that she’s beginning to look like a candidate for Basketball of the Year she hears only that other women didn’t get “anywhere near that huge” And then there’s puffing on weight It's either: “Well sure you're putting on weight but that's nothing I put on 78 pounds — in nine months!" Or “Well I didn't put on any weight at all I wore my old jeans the day I came home from the hospital My mother was amazed" Another even in the Maternity Olympics is the Guilt Trip If she mentions that her husband is going into the delivery room with her her opponent counters “Well I wouldn’t put my husband through that trauma" Or if she says that her husband isn't going into the delivery room her opponent smashes her serve with “Well my husband insists on being there because he showed than she does Husband-in-the-Delivery-Roo-m loves me" She hasn't won a match yet and of course the competition is far from over Wait until she gets into the Labor Game They'll hit her with “I was in labor for 27 days" Or if she has a long labor it will be “I was in labor 15 seconds I had the baby l between hands at my regular Wednesday afternoon bridge game” But this only her first child She'll get the hang of the Olympics another time around To be honest I don’t feel that sorry for her All she's doing is having a baby It's not as if she were having a hernia operation the way I did Boy was I sick at first And that was just when the doctor told me how much the operation would cost Mom said she’d never seen anyone get quite so sick while being told what an operation would cost This all reminds me of another colleague who recently had her gall bladder removed and proudly showed her scar — the mark of her suffering and courage — to everyone who visited The truth is she doesn’t know what courage and suffering are or a scar either I've had bigger scratches on my little finger and didn’t even bandage it My hernia scar is big It looks like the zipper on a sleeping bag Mom said ahe's never seen anyone auffer through a scar so big And you won’t believe this but my colleague with the missing gall bladder actually presumes to boast that they had her up and walking within hours after the operation They had me up and walking during the operation! Frankly the Maternity Olympics is child's play I’d much rather play Surgical Poker That involves telling my opponent who is missing only one gall bladder that my operation was for a double hernia I'll see her gall bladder and raise her two hernias |