THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 6, 1996 TAG: 9605040002
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Failure is vastly underrated as a character-builder.
Consider the Chicago Bulls, who set a National Basketball Association record this year for victories. While most NBA stars are accustomed to being the best players on their teams, from youth leagues on, the three best Bulls developed late. One began his college basketball career as the team's equipment manager. One didn't play organized basketball before turning 21. One was cut from his high-school team as a sophomore. The three know what it's like to want to play and not be allowed. They overcame failure and became stronger for it.
A TV commercial says that if the blues don't kill you they'll make you a mighty man. They made Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and Michael Jordan mighty fine athletes. Tightwad award
Back when Sen. Chuck Robb was running for re-election against Irangate figure Oliver North, the senator committed what many thought was a blooper. ``I would take food from the mouths of widows and orphans,'' thundered Robb in a debate at Hampden-Sydney, if it would help balance the federal budget.
Robb survived that race despite his low rating on the compassion index, and now comes proof that he is as good as his word.
The Concord Coalition, a bipartisan group dedicated to balancing the budget, has ranked Robb No. 1 on its list of senators willing to make tough fiscal choices. Kudos to Robb. Watch out, widows and orphans. Uncle nanny
Everyone's for less government. Except when they want it to play nanny by leading prayers, telling doctors how to do their work or cushioning our lives from cradle to grave - for a price. This week, several Republican congressmen tried to get the government to ban sales of girlie magazines on military bases as inimical to family values - and as a threat to national security! That sounds like overkill to us. Elected moralists should concentrate on balancing the budget, and permit men and women in uniform to regulate their own reading habits.
And then there's the great rhetorical oil slick of 1996. Bob Dole is trying to get political mileage out of a spike in gas prices. He implies a hike in the federal gas tax that President Clinton sponsored earlier is to blame and calls for a rollback. For his part, Clinton tapped strategic oil reserves with a flourish.
Both are helping perpetuate the myth that controlling the price of commodities is (a) within the power of government and (b) part of its job. A little straight talk would be more useful. Fluctuations in oil prices aren't a conspiracy. The law of supply and demand can't be repealed. If prices are being fixed illegally, government ought to act. If not, government ought to butt out and let markets operate. Betting on global warming
Many politicians on the right contend global warming is a figment of scientists' imagination. No steps need be taken to combat global warming, they argue, since it doesn't exist.
But insurance-company officials are beginning to believe. At a recent conference of more than 100 scientists, insurance executives and government officials, the word was that the world is warming, making the weather more freakish and destructive.
Kaj Ahlmann, president and chairman of Employers Reinsurance Corp. of Overland Park, Kan., said, ``Global warming is the most-important issue in the world today.''
So, no matter what you believe, your checkbook may grow warmer as insurance rates increase in anticipation of greater losses from weather catastrophes. by CNB