This week, a few things that bug me.

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In the O.J. Simpson cases - both criminal and civil - the defense continually painted the L.A. detectives as inept bumbling fools who mishandled evidence and botched the investigation.

But at the same time they painted those same investigators as devious, cunning, industrious people who were capable of planning and carrying out an elaborate plot to frame poor O.J.

Aren't those mutually exclusive characterizations?

Also, O.J.'s defenders spent a lot of time trying to convince jurors that the blood evidence in the case wasn't reliable. That DNA is just junk science and jurors couldn't be sure that the blood really was O.J.'s.

But at the same time they were telling jurors the cops were sprinkling O.J.'s blood around.

Aren't those mutually exclusive theories?

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President Clinton, prior to his election in 1992, promised us a middle class tax cut. After he was elected he said we couldn't have the tax cut because the deficit was much worse than he thought. But that wasn't true because before the election he said the deficit was worse than it actually was.

Then, just last year during the budget debate, he said the Republicans were bad people for proposing a tax cut. He said the tax cut would "line the pockets of the wealthy" at the expense of "the poorest Americans."

But just this week President Clinton proposed a tax cut in his 1997 budget. It will go to mostly the same income brackets as proposed last year and it will be paid for largely by reductions in the growth of Medicare.

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With all this talk of balancing the budget, President Clinton this week proposed a budget where deficits actually rise from $107 billion last year to $125 billion this year.

The president predicts that by 2001 and 2002 there will be no deficit and actually a surplus. But those predictions are based on optimistic economic expectations. And two-thirds of the president's $338 billion in budget "savings" (that's what we call cuts now) don't occur until 2001 and 2002. That, of course, is after the president is out of office and has absolutely no say in the budget process.

All administrations do this - project budget "savings" that they know will probably never be realized. It's nothing new. But it's not very honest, is it?

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County Commissioner Eddie Creighton continues to oppose spending tax dollars for recreation. I wonder if they feel that way in Brown County?

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Jack Wilhite has shown an interest in seeking the county council seat to be vacated by Ernie Wiggins when he takes over as mayor. Two precinct committee people will appoint the new city council member. Problem is, the two precinct committee people are Jack Wilhite and Rosalee Spear. That means Wilhite would be appointing himself to the city council. That happened once before when precinct committeeman Gene Brumfield appointed himself to fill a vacancy created when Dr. Russ Heyde left the council. Wilhite apparently hasn't decided what he's going to do yet. I hope he decides to step aside. I think appointing yourself to an elected office skirts the intent of local governing.

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A company called Skye\net, from Elkhart, is running classified ads in our paper offering unlimited Internet access in Warsaw.

The way they are able to offer that is because they have a local POP (that's point of presence - a local phone number so subscribers can obtain local access to their service). Generally, that would be OK. Any for-profit company can come in here, open an office and start up an Internet access business. But the circumstances surrounding Skye\net are different.

Their POP is made available to them through the local library. See, Skye\net made a deal with the local library. They offered the library Internet access via a big, thick phone line known as a T1. A T1 sucks data in real fast. If a regular phone line is a soda straw, a T1 is a firehose.

For access to this T1, the library pays Skye\net $500 a month.

So Skye\net, via the library, gets a POP in Warsaw plus $500 a month of taxpayer dollars. Then Skye\net offers local service to anyone who wants it - via the local library. When you call to start service, they tell you that a portion of your subscriber fees go back to the library.

If a portion of local Skye\net subscriber fees go to the library, that means the library essentially is selling Internet access.

I have no problem with the library having Internet access. If they put 100 online terminals in their building that would be great. That way, everyone in the community could have access to the Internet - at the library.

But I don't like the idea of a tax-supported entity selling the same services as private businesses.

And I don't like the idea of tax dollars being used to subsidize the efforts of a for-profit, out-of-town business in direct competition with existing local businesses. [[In-content Ad]]