Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them -- a desire, a dream, a vision.
-- Muhammad Ali

What desires, dreams, visions motivate your life? Or anything else on your minds this morning. Blog lines are up and running.

Have you voted? Will you? Do you like the Top Two format? Discuss any and all of that here.

(In this AP file photo out of Wisconsin, this young hunter is actually with his father, the way we think all young hunters should be with adults.)

From our editorial today:

Washington sets no age requirement to obtain a hunting license, although one must pass a hunter safety course. Neither of those provisions is unusual. Many states allow children to hunt without a license. But half or more of the states require that youthful hunters be under an adult's supervision.

Not Washington. The hunter safety diploma is all it takes.

There was a time when Washington youth could apply for and get a driver's license at 16, just by passing the requisite tests and paying the fee. Then driver education classes came along, and in recent years, Washington has limited the number of non-related passengers who can be in a car with a young driver.

Those changes reflect a common-sense recognition that people in their teens still have some maturing to do and they should be eased rather than plunged into the responsibilities associated with operating a motor vehicle.

Or handling a firearm.

Our edit says 14 is too young to be out hunting without an adult. Agree or disagree? Or tell us some hunting stories.

(Jean-Claude Killy, left, and Prince Albert of Monaco, members of the Olympic Committee, in a 2005 photo. Killy was an Olympic champ in skiing in the 19690s. AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

The best and fastest way to learn a sport is to watch and imitate a champion. -- Jean-Claude Killy

Tuesday morning. Olympics still on. This week's loose thread theme: Champions.

So what cause would you like to champion this morning? On your mark, set, go. Blog lines are officially open.

Took a week off to volunteer as resident storyteller/journal teacher at Camp Sweyolakan on Lake Coeur d'Alene.

It was a great week. But I noted a lot of allergies among the campers -- peanut, nut, bees, etc. Lots of dog tags with warnings.

Which leads me to this ponder. When we were at camp 20, 30, 40 years ago, what did kids with allergies do? Why did there seem to be so much less of it? Blog lines are open.

We've talked before about judges who resign without filling out an elected term, leaving it to the governor or county commissioners to choose a successor. The same concern -- about letting political officials give someone an incumbent's headstart before the voters can have a say -- holds true with the Spokane School Board. Monday's editorial talks about it.

Sunday's editorial notes that state employees may be facing difficult financial times, but so are taxpayers, and maybe now is not the time for their unions to be calling for big raises.

Without question, too many Americans are too eager to sue one another over too many issues. So it makes sense to allow popular deep-pocket targets, such as municipalities, to seek remedies against frivolous litigation. But the city of Spokane has a history of using that method not only to ward off unworthy claims but also to intimidate just about anyone, even those with reasonable claims, from resorting to the courts to pursue justice. Saturday's editorial applauds Spokane Mayor Mary Verner for ending the practice. Do you agree or disagree that this was a proper move?

I hate letting people down -- most of the time.

Yesterday, when I went to my car early in the morning to drive to the gym, I thought it odd that I hadn't been careful enough to close the door all the way. Then I felt a wave of deja vu. I'd seen this before.

My stereo was stolen from the car in March, in the same place, in the carport at my home. I didn't replace it because clearly the burgler(s) know where I live and where there would probably be a shiny new stereo soon. I outsmarted them and have done without a car stereo for the last few months.

As far as I can tell, they didn't take anything this time around, merely strewing the contents of the glove box on the seat. They evidently weren't interested in a pink water bottle, a road atlas or a worn-out beach towel.

Pity I didn't have anything more to their taste.

When I called the crime reporting center, I got a very nice and professional report-taker, but I still felt a little silly reporting a break-in where nothing was stolen. Perhaps I'm an idealist and think that reporting everything will establish a pattern and eventually my possessions will be secure again. (Stifled chuckle.)

How do you respond to minor (but repeat) violations?

The film "Tropic Thunder" has led to some calls for banning certain words (in this case derogatory terms for intellectually disabled people) from certain venues because they detract from human dignity. Today's editorial calls for the increased exercise of free speech rather than its restriction. The laudable efforts of advocates for the disabled, in this instance, should continue, and we believe in the end they will strengthen the cause more than censorship would.

About time there was some good news in the industry. Gannett's stock soared today on news that management made a savvy decision.

So, what was that decision?

Gannett, the biggest U.S. newspaper publisher, announced Thursday that it will chop 1,000 positions, or roughly 3% of its total work force at the newspapers. Some 600 people will lose their jobs, according to the company. Naturally, Gannett's stock soared on the news.

Naturally.

Are you cheering this news? Do you care?

Ethnographers are predicting that by 2042, non-Hispanic white citizens will be outnumbered by groups currently called minorities. No other country is experiencing such a racial/ethnic overhaul.

1. Do you have a problem with this?

2. Should government do something to head this off?

3. Will this make the Inland Northwest a more desirable place to live for those who want to, um, get away from it all?

Utah has turned non-traditional work weeks into a public policy matter by adopting four-day work weeks for non-emergency workers. It's a one-year trial, but you can bet that other governments will be watching closely.

Biggest benefits for the state: Save on energy and fuel costs. Don't have to heat or cool the buildings on Fridays. Vehicles idled for one day.

Some employers are allowing more telecommuting, which achieves some of the same goals.

Other options:

*80 hours over nine days, with every other Friday off.

*Four nine-hour days and a four-hour Friday spent working from home.

*32-hour work weeks (4 eights), with a corresponding cut in pay. Could also be 36 hours (4 nines). Retain full benefits.

When I think of a weekday off with the kids at school, I can get pretty excited. Then I start to think of the other four long days and how I would handle child care, deliveries and pick-ups at activities, dinner and on and on. Might not work.

What kind of work arrangement would you prefer? Do you think government should do as Utah is doing to cut spending?

Today's editorial expounds the reasons pursuing the death penalty is unwise, but they have little to do with how undeniably heinous Joseph Duncan's crime was.

Justice, closure and catharsis are often cited as reasons to pursue executions, but death-penalty cases necessarily delay the payoffs because the courts must be sure that errors didn't lead to such an irreversible punishment. The time and expense are enormous. That's why the state of Idaho has executed only one person since the death penalty was reinstated 35 years ago. The federal government has executed three people since Congress reinstituted the penalty in 1988.

Meanwhile, victims who try to move on with their lives are involved in decades-long sentencing and appeal processes which continue to raise shadows of the past. We hope the end of this phase of Shasta Groene's ordeal is in sight.

Our afternoon loose thread invites your rush-hour musings. What do you want to talk about?

The Washington state Office of Financial Management (in other words, the governor's budget office) has launched a new Web site where you can find information about state agencies' spending and fiscal performance. Check it out here.

Little as I already drove, I have recently cut those miles significantly, for the obvious reasons cited in today's report about the decline in driving this summer. Miles driven by Americans this June were 4.7 percent fewer than last June.

The Chevron near my home has finally dipped back under $4 a gallon for regular unleaded, but I'll probably still ride the bus downtown for symphony matinees. I mean, who really wants to fight for a parking space at the Fox?

UPDATE: I'm pretty sure Gary and I posted on this subject right about at the same time. Great minds think alike and all.

The LA Times has a good editorial with informative links about the silver lining to high gas prices.

1. Demand wanes, which drops prices.

2. Makes U.S. manufacturers think twice about using cheap foreign labor and then shipping products here.

3. Decline in greenhouse-gas emissions.

4. Increased purchase of locally grown produce.

Of course, if Americans react to lower prices by returning to gluttonous ways, the price will rise.

While we enjoy art, and particularly David Govedare's pony sculpture on a Grant County hilltop, we recognize the need for art to take its place in the long line for funding during hard times. This project was conceived as a private community undertaking, and we believe its completion should be the same, despite requests for significant state funding.

Am I the only one who had never heard of South Ossetia before the recent conflict between Georgian and Russian military forces there?

This means I've had some catching up to do over the last few days, and I feel like I need an international relations degree before I can even read a news story that explains what is really going on there. So far it has been "Russian officials say/deny" and "Georgian officials say/deny."

Though Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and others are correct to call for a ceasefire, it will take a while for me to sort out the he-saids and she-saids to know what the heart of the problem is. Both President Bush and presidential aspirant Barack Obama have made clear injunctions to Russia to quit meddling with the sovereign territory of Georgia -- but to me it doesn't look quite that simple.

Meanwhile, thousands are dead or displaced.

What do you do when you hear of such horrors halfway around the world?

John Stucke reported today that the state attorney general has approved the sale of Empire Health Services to Community Health. Now the Department of Health needs to approve as well.

Most people apparently support the sale. Fears that the already-reduced purchase offer won't stand forever seem justified in uncertain economic times. Community Health's offer seems generous and beneficial to those whose health coverage is vulnerable or nonexistent.

In other health news, an Aon Consulting Worldwide survey indicates health care costs will only rise 10 percent overall this year, a smaller increase than the previous six years.

...Yay?

The planned whitewater park on the Spokane River has already undergone changes in response to environmental concerns. Now it's time for Peaceful Valley residents to give their input for how their new neighbor will settle in. We urge them to attend and make the whitewater park a revitalizing influence.

A few days ago, we ran a column by Jeffrey Kluger about "simplexity," the power of small events to change the course of history. Here's an excerpt:

Of all the people blamed for the Iraq war and the failures of the Bush administration, the name of Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig rarely comes up. But maybe it should. Selig has held his job since 1992, but for several years he was technically the acting commissioner, a team owner merely caretaking the job while searching for a permanent replacement. George W. Bush, then part-owner of the Texas Rangers, was candid about his interest in the position. Selig dithered, Bush gave up and soon decided that politics might be a good alternative career.

The Watergate conspiracy might have unraveled no matter what, but it was a strip of tape on a Watergate building office door that alerted a security guard that burglars were about. Jimmy Carter's presidency might have crashed and burned anyway, but it was a crashing and burning helicopter in the sands of Iran during a failed rescue of American hostages that may have sealed his loss in 1980. Carter dispatched too few helicopters for so complex a mission, and during the scramble to get away, one of them collided with a troop plane, killing eight soldiers. A few more helicopters might have meant a successful rescue – and a second term for Carter.

Howard Wolfson, one of Hillary Clinton's campaign advisers, speculated today that if John Edwards had previously been upfront about his affair, Clinton would have won the Democratic candidacy. "My gut tells me that had Senator Edwards dropped out of the race or had this become public prior to Iowa that we would have done better in Iowa," he said.

Without going to the extent of calling Edwards' actions a "small thing," I find it interesting that neither he nor anyone else would have known when it was actually occurring that his affair could perhaps change the course of American (and world) history.

Of course, speculation has a very limited value. But, like Kluger concluded, "History proceeds in a hard march indifferent to what-if games, but simplexity researchers pay them close mind. Candidates who become too smitten with the power and adulation that swirls around them may want to remind themselves of such things as well."

The great thing about loose threads here at A Matter of Opinion is that you can introduce whatever topics you like. I'll start.

After a day at Silverwood from which I came away with a blistering sunburn, I went to CdA Summer Theatre's opening night of "Les Miserables" Saturday night.

It was spellbinding.

I had seen a traveling Les Miz show before, but I wasn't prepared for this homegrown production to be so professionally and creatively staged. The leads were seasoned professionals of course, and my favorite by far was Geoffrey Blaisdell's hauntingly hardened Javert.

The news of Ella's Supper Club closing down wasn't pleasant; I've enjoyed it several times in my two years in Spokane. But the CdA Summer Theatre and the Spokane Symphony (among others) give me hope that even in these hard times the arts won't die. Like everything else, they may be pruned once in a while. But humans can't live without beauty, and I'm privileged to live in an area where natural and artificial beauty are still accessible in such abundance.

(Photo by S-R's Jesse Tinsley: Douglas Webster stars as Jean Valjean in the CdA Summer Theatre production of "Les Miserables.")

Monday's editorial applauds the city of Spokane for its contribution to a cleaner, healthier planet.