In case you missed it | Costly perceptions

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COSTLY PERCEPTIONS

We have to weigh in on what George Will said about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s unwillingness to release additional tax returns.

Will said, “The costs of not releasing the returns are clear, therefore he must have calculated that there are higher costs to releasing them.”

Amen, brother. We are seeing similar resistance among certain Boulder City Council members in releasing accurate financial disclosure information that was not included on their forms.

And now, for some reason, 2011 financial disclosure forms for candidates appear to have been removed from the city’s election website, in favor of blank pages prepared for the November 2012 election. At least we can’t find them anymore, and neither can gagged political gadfly Seth Brigham.

Again, it just looks bad, especially during a time when our city government’s transparency is being called into question.

CHINESE CLOTHES

So the U.S. Olympians’ uniforms were made in China, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is calling for them to be burned and replaced with American-made apparel.

Burned? Like books? Well, it’s these kinds of things on which politicians should make up their minds. Either we’re going to circle the wagons and keep jobs in this country, or we’re going to answer the other familiar call and produce college graduates (workers) who can compete in the realities of a global marketplace. You can’t have it both ways.

Sure, it would be nice to say that the threads our Olympians will be wearing in the London Games were made in the good old U.S. of A., but at the same time, isn’t a basic tenet of our American free-market capitalist system to reward those who can find ways to make cheap goods? Would it be intrusive government intervention, which many reportedly detest, to mandate that our athletes’ uniforms be made in a more patriotic (and expensive) manner?

Granted, it was a major faux pas to have these outfits made outside the country, but can’t we set aside petty, unsportsmanlike nationalism in the spirit of the Games?

NO SCOUTING BOYS

On to the Boy Scouts. Scout leaders have reportedly held a secret meeting and decided to uphold their ban against gays.

Um, what century are we living in? Luckily, some enlightened individuals, including Boy Scout board members Randall Stephenson of AT&T and James Turley of Ernst & Young, are working to reverse this ridiculous policy.

Really, how do they police this kind of thing? Teach how to tie a knot, but avoid the part about the rabbit going around the tree and down the hole? Start scrutinizing how scouts whittle sticks? For the record, here’s the BSA’s policy: “While the BSA does not proactively inquire about the sexual orientation of employees, volunteers, or members, we do not grant membership to individuals who are open or avowed homosexuals or who engage in behavior that would become a distraction to the mission of the BSA.”

Nope, sure wouldn’t want any “distractions” from important work like tying neckerchiefs and sewing on badges.

It’s time to teach our kids — whether they are in Scouts or not — that one’s sexual orientation has nothing to do with their ability to succeed.

Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com