Today Cedar Hill (Duncanville, Tex.), Vol. 40, No. 25, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 6, 2005 Page: 4 of 22
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Page 4 • Cedar Hill Today • Thursday, October 6, 2005
OPINION
When they say stay away, stay away
Officials in
the Hurricane
Rita-devastated
area of Beau-
mont told resi-
dents they might
let them come
back to their
homes for a day,
just to assess
damage, pick up
whatever they
can and get on
out again.
Big mistake.
Anybody knows if you let people
in for a day, a lot of them are going to
stay. Despite the misery of their con-
ditions, despite no power, no potable
LOYD
BRUMFIELD
News Editor
water and danger everywhere, people
are protective of their property.
It's the lure of home.
Most people can only stay away so
long until something magnetically
tries to pull them back.
My parents were two such people.
Already out of town when Rita hit, I •
called my mom’s cell phone number
on the Tuesday they were supposed to
be back in town. Knowing that no one
was being allowed back in the city, I
figured they would just spend a few
extra days away.
They’re retired, so it's not like they
had to be back for work.
Surprisingly, when I asked my
mom where they were, she said,
, “Home ”
“Home home?” 1 asked.
“Yes, home.” v
“Well, isn’t it miserable?”
“Yes.”
“You have no power ?”
“No.”
“You have no water?”
“No, we have water. We just can’t
drink it.”
The heat was awful, just like it has
been here until recently. But we have
something they don’t: air-condition-
ing.
My parents aren’t as young as they
used to be. They’re at that age where,
if at all possible, they really should
avoid extreme heat or extreme cold.
“You have to understand, we grew
See AWAY, Page 5
tfpgsir™0*****
LOOK-- I'M
WALKING!
V
Is a financial professional right for you?
DARRYL
FENTON
Financial Focus
When you make
investment decisions,
you’ve got a lot of fac-
tors to evaluate: corpo-
rate earnings, econom-
ic climate, interest
rates, oil prices and so
on.
In fact, navigating
the investment world
can seem like a daunt-
ing task if you’re
going it alone.
So, make it easier
on yourself - and get
the help you need.
When you work with a financial pro-
fessional, you can become a better
investor. Consider the following highlights
of a 2004 survey of investors by the
research firm of Mathew Greenwald &
Associates Inc.
Investors who use a financial profes-
sional:
• Are about 50 percent more likely than
investors without financial professionals
to say they are doing a very good job
managing their investments
• Are more likely to have a financial plan
of action than investors without a plan; <
• Are less Jikely to go more than 18
months without “rebalancing” their portfo-
lios (in response to changes in their per-
sonal situation or the financial markets).
Of course, these are just the findings of
one study - but many others also confirm
the importance of getting financial guid-
ance.
And there are some good reasons
behind these results.
For starters, a financial professional
can help you quantify your goals. . X'
You might know that you want, to retire
at age 60, buy a vacation home and spend
your time pursuing your hobbies - but do
you know how much retirement income
you’ll need to attain this lifestyle?
And do you know what sort of return
you’ll require from your investments to
provide you with this income?
A qualified financial professional has
the tools and expertise to help you answer
these and other key questions.
And if you wanted to explore several
different retirement possibilities, your
financial professional could also illustrate
what you’d need to do, and how you’d
need to invest, to achieve these alternative
outcomes.
Furthermore, once a financial profes-
sional is familiar with your needs, risk tol-
erance and time horizon, he or she can
help customize an investment portfolio for
you.
And through regular reviews, your
financial professional can help you stay
diversified, which is essential to long-term
success.
Because it’s their business, financial
professionals stay current on changing tax
laws and investment rules - and this
knowledge can pay off for you.
For example, you might not have
known that IRA and 401 (k) contribution
limits went up in 2005 - but your finan-
cial professional did.
Finding the right professional
Clearly, it can be to your advantage to
use a financial professional. But how do
you find the right one? Here are some
questions to ask of candidates:
• What are your credentials? Make sure a
prospective financial professional has the
appropriate securities licenses.
• How do you get paid? Financial profes-
sional get paid through fees or commis-
See FINANCIAL, Page 5
Democrats:
Miersjust
might be OK
STEVE
SNYDER
Today Staff
Demo-
crats, don’t
look a gift
horse too
closely in
the mouth.
Do take a
peek, but
then just
vote yes
and elevate
Harriet
Miers to the
Supreme
Court.
That’s unless Miers, whose
legal background to date could
be distilled into a thimble,
turns out to be a stealth hard-
core conservative.
That’s my initial reaction to
a choice obviously driven by
issues of personal loyalty, fol-
lowed by partisan loyalty, far
more than ideology. I wouldn’t
expect Bush to appoint a liber-
al to replace Sandra Day
O’Connor, but given the possi-
bilities, she is better than alter-
natives, at least at first glance.
On a committee that report-
ed to the American Bar Ass-
ociation, she was the chair of a
1998 committee that urged the
full ABA to “support the
enactment of laws and public
policy which provide that sex-
ual orientation shall not be a
bar to adoption when the adop-
tion is determined to be in the
best interest of the child” and
“recommend the development
and establishment of an
International Criminal Court.”
The first is the proverbial
red flag for social conserva-
tives, the second is the same
for the neoconservatives who
fudged us, to put it kindly, into
Iraq. At the same time, she did
attempt, unsuccessfully, to
change the official pro-choice
stance of ABA to being offi-
cially neutral.
Of course, she may well be
third-rate intellectually. A con-
servative Christian in Dallas
who has worked with her said
this, anonymously: “Harriet
worships the president and has
called him the smartest man
she’s known. She’s a pretty
good lawyer. ... This president
can be bamboozled by anyone
he feels close to. If a person
fawns on him enough, is loyal,
works 25 hours a day and says
you’re the smartest man I ever
met, all of a sudden you’re
right for the Supreme Court.”
www. worldmagblog. com/blo
g/archives/018820.html
First, she’s obviously a hack
if she doesn’t really believe
he’s the smartest man she
knows. Second; she is intellec-
tually third-rate if she does
believe that.
And this is not just one
voice. Over at National
Review, the doyen of conserva-
tive punditry, Rich Lowry said
an anonymous voice told him:
“Miers was with an undis-
tinguished law firm; never
practiced constitutional law;
never argued any big cases;
never was on law review; has
never written on any of the
important legal issues. Says
she’s not even second rate, but
is third rate.”
http://corner, national re-
view. com/05 _I0_02 garner-
archive. aspU078 3 20
Arguably, her time on the
Dallas City Council certainly
didn’t show any flashes of
genius.
More good news for
Democrats and independent
progressives, is that:
She was, in essence, preap-
proved by Senate Minority
Leader Harry Reid. Reid likes
the fact that she has never
been a judge, presumably
See MIERS, Page 5
_
“Just Ask” is written by a member
of our staff who fields questions from
members of the community ranging
from politics to social etiquette and
from sports to better grooming habits.
If you have a question you can’t
answer, just ask.
’ m
If we don’t know the answer, we’ll
research it and print it once we have
gotten to the bottom of your problem.
Need to know the best way to
make Bermuda grass grow? Just ask.
Ever wonder why the city manager
doesn’t vote or why the mayor does?
Just Ask
bu n «
Just ask.
Are you just dying to know what
ever happened to (fill in the blank)?
Just ask.
Whether your question is specific
to your community or on a general
topic that can benefit anyone any-
where, all you have to do is ask and
our staff will print your question with
the answer.
Call 972-298-4598, ext. 220 and
leave a message or e-mail
manager@todaynewspapers.net
So get those questions coming in.
After all, the old adage still holds
true: The only stupid question is the
one not asked. And if you don’t ask,
who will?
-wn Go ahead. Just ask.
Sj
II
,
YOUR LETTERS
Send letters to Cedar Hill
Today, do News Editor Loyd
Brumfield, 170I N. Hampton, Suite
C, DeSoto, TX, 75115, or P.O. Box
381029, Duncanville TX 75138.
Fax letters to 972-298-6369 or e-
mail them to cedarhill@todaynews
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jibel Any change that may materi-
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will be confirmed with the writer.
m+m* TiMJay reserves ^
right to accept or reject any letter
without cause
mmmm.
Cedar Hill Today Information
Cedar Hill Today Staff
Richard Collins
Publisher
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Managing Editor
Kim Petty
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Loyd Brumfield
News Editor
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Staff Writers
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Photographers
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Classified ad tales
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Distribute Coordinator
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Lifestyles Editor
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Today Cedar Hill is an independent
newspaper published weekly m the interest
of Cedar Hill. Any erroneous reflection
i^xxi the integrity or reputation of any indi-
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Gooch, Robin. Today Cedar Hill (Duncanville, Tex.), Vol. 40, No. 25, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 6, 2005, newspaper, October 6, 2005; Duncanville, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth623607/m1/4/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Zula B. Wylie Memorial Library.