The Galveston Daily News from Galveston, Texas • Page 10

Till FEEDBACK: CattEditor Heber Taylor at 1-800-561-3611, Ext. 245 orsendemaUtoheber.taylor@galmews.com Saturday' March 7, 1998 4 GALVESTON THEDMLYNEWS Your Local News Source Since 1842 On the Worid Wide Web at Us Daugfifay Editor and Publisher Emeritus Doiph TMotson President and Publisher Heber Taylor Editor On Kenneth Starr: It is the ultimate (to date) trivialization of the function of the special prosecutor and a chining offensive against the free flow of information in a democracy. Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr has turned the power of his Whitewater grand jury from questions of sexual peccadillos to a star chamber probe to find out who said what and when the special prosecutor. Starr grilled presidential aide Sidney Bmmenthal and private investigator Terry F. Lenzner in an effort to find out how derogatory information on Starr's office was disseminated to the news media The use of the grand jury to backtrack to the source of published news accounts is disconcertingly reminiscent of Richard Nixon's leak-seekers in the Watergate The leak-stemming level to which the Starr investigation has sunk further damages the credibility of the probe so that anything it does from here on out will be viewed as partisan politics.

Starr's Star Chamber inquisition into one side of the news leak- fest should end. Albuquerque Journal On Demjanjuk case: The U.S. Justice Department still may have a strong case that John Demjanjuk served as a.Nazi death-camp guard during World War thus should have been denied entry to the United States four decades ago. At this point, however, Justice officials have shattered their credibility. That, in essence, was the conclusion of U.S.

District Judge Paul R. Matia. The judge restored Demjanjuk's U.S. citizenship more than 20 years after the Justice Department filed an initial lawsuit against tile Ukraine native Claiming he was'Tvan the Terrible," a notorious guard at the Poland. Demjanjuk lost his citizenship in 1981.

He was later extradited to Israel, where he stood trial for war crimes and was held until 1993 when the Israeli Supreme Court ruled there was insufficient evidence to prove he was Ivan the Terrible. What rightly outraged Matia was the Justice Department's withholding of evidence that should have been shared with the defense, including statements of witnesses who couldn't identify Demjanjuk as Ivan. The judge argued that the lawyers "acted with reckless disregard for their duty to the court." (Ohio) Beacon Journal On taxing the Internet Government officials may not know much about the World Wide Web (as witness the approval of the Communications Decency Act), but they do know about money. Today in this country, there are 30,000 separate taxing authorities, according to an estimate produced by President Clinton during an appearance in San Francisco on Thursday. And you can bet that in just aboufc every one of them, elected and appointed officials are smacking their lips at the prospect of taxing commerce on the Internet.

The sheer number of taxing authorities who'd likg a cut presents a huge problem in deciding who to taxand how to tax and who gets the money. But, that's also complicated by questions of jurisdiction. When someone buys something on tiie Web, who should pay the tax to whom? And how much? And where does the money get collected? Spending such a potential windfall is one thing; getting it to be spent is quite another. The president acknowledged as much when on Thursday he said he backs legislation that would put a moratorium on Web taxation for five years. The president's acknowledgment concerned not only the complexities of the issues, but also the need to get cyber-commerce off the ground.

Eetailing is just coming into its own on the Web. For one thing, retailers themselves are just now understanding the opportunities that are available. For another, many consumers are still a little jittery about buying something on the Web using a credit card, since security of online transactions is not 100 percent assured. Cyber-commerce nevertheless is coming on strong, so strong that, in truth, it may not need government protection for five years. And we predict that well before five years have come and gone, traditional retailers will be calling on government to tax Web commerce just as a way to level the playing field and to slow down the growth of online buying and selling.

Five years in "cybertime" is an eternity. Just look back at happened in the past five years. Five years ago, virtually no one had even heard of the World Wide Web, much less used it. Five years ago, modem speeds were so slow that anyone logging onto the Internet had to sit for long, long minutes to get anything other than text Five years ago, "cyber-commerce" was not even a word in the English language. Wired magazine called this a "quaint sideshow" to a larger drama taking place while the Senate talked about revisiting the decency act.

Itfs not quaint at all. If indecent. Fate Times Records News IT'S THE COVER-UP STUPIP Believers should make informed conclusions omeday, religion is going to have to catch tip to science again. This is not a new concept, of course. Periodically, old ideas give way to new ones as science makes fresh discoveries.

It was once believed that the Earth was the center of the universe, that it was flat and that the sun revolved around it. Ptolemy, GaUileo and others were given a very hard time when they first reported their discoveries, partially because of Biblical stories such as Joshua commanding the sun, rather than the Earth, to stand stilL As new truths are discovered, religions '-usuallyfnanagp to adapt ideas Mto jtheir theology, saying that was what the Bible really meant in the first place. Christians now eat pork and shellfish, for example, wear clothes of mixed fabrics and allow women to speak in church, even though all of those things are forbidden in the Bible. For several years now, scien- VAL RICHARDSON tists and others have been saying that homosexuality, far from being a choice made by im-. moral, godless people, is a birth predisposition.

But for some reason, many preachers and Christians seem to find that" verity a threat to their own best interests and have waged a very unholy war against those with diverse sexual orientations. Their arguments have not been logical, but that is almost always true with respect to prej- "udice. (Keep in mind that there are numerous passages in the Bible that seem to condone slavery, yet few people would try to use that argument today.) The greatest misinformation currently disseminated by churches and TV evangelists is that God hates homosexuality because it is an "abomination." The following are a few of the "abominations" mentioned in the Bible: shepherds (Gen. creeping things (Lev. a scant measure (Mic.

incense (Lsa. a proud look, a lying tongue, a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations and a false witness (Prov. divers weights (Prov. scorners (Prov. and that which is highly esteemed among men (Luke Conscientious believers would do well to study, 'What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality" by DA Helminiak and other works before jumping to uninformed conclusions.

described herself as a former fundamentalist mbifstee, Criss' endorsements raise serious questions Susan Criss' political ad on page All of March 6 paper would be laughable if it were not so deceitful. Endorsements of any kind are questionable enough. Those engineered by close family members (as the first two in this ad were) are even more suspect. I am an active mainstream Democrat. I am also president of the Galveston County Democrats Club.

I have never heard of a club or organization by the name "The" Mainstream Democrats of Galveston County." So, the obvious questions are: When was the organization "Mainstream Democrats of Galveston County" formed? and where do they meet? And, most importantly, have they filed as a PAC with the Ethics Commission in Austin? Integrity and good judgment are important character traits in all candidates. Letters policy The Galveston County Daily News welcomes letters of up to 150 words, and guest columns of up to 500 words, on any public issue. Guest columns must include a photograph of the writer. Any letter that exceeds the word limit will not be considered for publication. Any guest column that exceeds the word limit or does not include a photograph will not be considered for publication.

We publish only original letters or guest columns addressed to The Galveston County Dairy News. An address and daytime phone number must be included so the author's identity can be verified. No letters or guest columns will be published until authorship is confirmed. Those who write letters are asked to limit their entries to one per month. All letters and guest columns are subject to editing.

The Daily News reserves the right to decline publication of any submission. Lack of them cannot go by unnoticed. Jane Johnson President Gaiveston County Democrats Club It's time to set the political record straight Lef get a few things straight regarding the reporting on my candidacy. The League of Women Voters graciously took the blame and personally apologized for the listing in The Daily News' Voter's Guide that stated Sandra Kelly was unopposed for Galveston County Eepub- lican party chair, a position she fills as an interim appointment as voted by 70 percent Chris- tian Coalition controlled executive committee. But it is the function of the party chair (my opponent) to supply candidate information (correctly) to the League of Women Voters.

The Daily News did print a correction in oneof those lesser- read, little boxes. I entered this race to regain some of the leadership back to the party majority, but it is an additionally burdensome task when these damaging factors are at play. Dick Cheney Republican chairman, GaSveston County Precinct 466 Note: Cheney is a candidate for Galveston County Republican Party chairman. 7T0SSE FU6H75, UNK-ffNCe, ANPHIGHTAft- rrACROSS metAii, WKPS. ZMNCFT (VHSNYOU ASKING Letters inspire Miss Lillian, me I want to tell you about a good book, although I haven't read it all Hie only excuse I have for telling you about it now is that I plan to keep reading it for another 10 years.

If a collection of letters written by Boy Bedichek and members of his family. Pm reading a letter or two a day. Bedichek was always one of myheroes. It would be a mistake to call him a writer, if you're going by what he did to pay the bills. For years, he ran the University Interscholastic League, the organization that sets up high-school competitions in everything from football to debate.

But Bedichek was one of those rare people who are not defined by what they do for a living. He was a thinker and a storyteller. And there was something about the quality of his thought I always admired. Thafs why Tve got the book beside my bed. I dip into it regularly, just to see what Bedichek had to say about Greek myths, Gandhi, racism, mockingbirds or dogs.

He talked about all those things with menlbers of his family, as you can see in The Roy Bedichek Family Letters," published by the University of North Texas Press inDenton. Bedichek dreamed of being a writer. He dreamed of shucking his day job and running off to an island in the South Atlantic to write books. Bedichek, of course, never escaped having to work. And he wrote letters and short essays, rather than books, sneaking in the writing after work.

"While he never reached the South Atlantic, he did reach New Mexico once. After graduating from the University of Texas, Bedichek worked on his father's farm and continued to date Miss TjiTHafij his college sweetheart. The farm was in Eddy, and each weekend Bedichek walked 20 -miles to Waco for a date. It was, for those days, a long-distance romance. In 1908, Bedichek told Miss Lillian he was going to New Mexico, then a territory, to claim a homestead- He said he would send for her when he could.

Not having money, Bedichek got on a bicycle and peddled across West Texas. He sold the bike in El Paso and bought a train ticket to Deming, on toward the Arizona border. When he'd claimed a homestead, he built a one-room cabin. He furnished the place with a stove that stood on three legs and a brick. He got a dog named Bo who was mean enough to keep the coyotes out of the cabin.

When these preparations were complete, he wrote for Miss Lillian. It's still a little surprising to me that she came. But she did. And I guess she liked Bedichek's letters, maybe even more than I do. Heber Taylor Is editor of The Daly News.

His ernal ad- 1 dress is heber.tayiorGgalvnews.