Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 20, 1994 TAG: 9403310273
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
A. There is. Ratified on May 7, 1992, it says: ``No law varying the compensation for the services of the senators and representatives shall take effect until an election of representatives shall have intervened.'' That means Congress can't vote itself a pay raise that takes effect the same term. The amendment, proposed by James Madison and passed by Congress in 1789, was intended to be the Second Amendment, but it did not receive the required three-fourths approval of the states until Michigan ratified it in 1992.
Q. I heard there was a new program to breed Komodo dragons in captivity. Do the lizards still breed in the wild? Where? What do they eat?
A. A new breeding program in the United States is mass producing dragon chicks in order to restock zoos around the the world. The lizard, the world's largest, is on the endangered species list. They breed outside captivity only in Indonesia, and attack deer, goats, pigs and dogs. They can grow to 10 feet long and around 200 pounds. They've been known to kill humans also. Although their bites can be fatal, the dragon bite may serve to infect the victim, resulting in death from blood poisoning. The Komodo dragons often feed on the bodies of their diseased victims, on the beetles that infest animal dung and even on human cadavers they dig up from local cemeteries.
Q: Did President Franklin D. Roosevelt have to storm the country trying to sell the idea of Social Security, or were his ideas pretty well accepted?
A: Social Security - or ``old-age insurance,'' as it was called during the legislative process - was far from an easy sell. Were it not for FDR's insistence and persistence, against the advice of many of his advisers, it would have died in committee, according to a historical report put out by the Social Security Administration.
Before the Depression, FDR and the New Deal, the federal government's role in the country's economic affairs was minimal, with the prevailing consensus being that a powerful central government should be avoided. Except in times of war, federal spending essentially matched income. That changed when Roosevelt launched massive federal programs to pull the U.S. economy out of its worst slump ever. The constitutionality of this fundamental shift away from government's theretofore limited role was gravely questioned, and it had little support in Congress - or with labor, private business or private insurers.
Q: What is meant by the phrase ``knee-jerk reaction,'' and why is it generally applied to liberals?
A: According to the book ``Plain Words,'' it's one of the least pedantic medical terms. It was coined by the neurologist who discovered that, if you tap a person's knee in a certain spot, it will jerk reflexively. The technical term is ``patellar reflex.'' Journalist William Safire, whose twin specialties are politics and language, defines a knee-jerk liberal as one who automatically, without thinking it through, supports causes favored by the political left. There also is the ``flaming'' liberal, who is the most militant, and the ``professional'' liberal, who is the least committed of the breed. Similar terms applied to conservatives include ``hidebound,'' ``rock-ribbed'' and ``mossback.''
Q: Has the Whitewater investigation into the Clintons' land deal in Arkansas decreased or increased the value of the property? Are the 200 acres of lots and vacation homes in the Ozarks in northern Arkansas more marketable now?
A: In a word, no, according to a real estate agent in the area.
Q: How many whooping cranes are left in the world? Or have they become extinct?
A: Fifty years ago, they were down to a terminal case of 22 birds in the world. Now there are about 250. Most of the wild population spends winter along the Gulf Coast of Texas and summer in southern Canada. Wildlife managers have been trying for 13 years to establish a separate, nonmigrating flock in Florida, but bobcats and other predators wiped out the 14 that were introduced into the marshes last year.
Q: What exactly is the GI Bill of Rights? Is it still in effect?
A: June 22 will mark the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, better known as the GI Bill. Although Congress previously had passed legislation to aid veterans, none provided the scope of benefits of the GI Bill. The famed legislation covered education benefits and guarantees on home loans to GIs - benefits that still exist and have been expanded. Recently, the Veterans Affairs Department announced it had guaranteed the 14 millionth home loan since the legislation was passed.
Q. Short of plague, war or the like, what can we do to decrease the world's population?
A. No doubt your question is in reference to the recent report delivered during this year's meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. There, David Pimentel, an ecologist at Cornell University, warned of an apocalyptic worldwide scene of ``absolute misery, poverty, disease and starvation'' unless we can decrease world population significantly. If current trends in population growth continue, Pimentel said, the standard of living in the United States would decline to slightly better than that of present-day China. Although a decline of between 1-2 billion people during the next century may be difficult, Pimentel said it could be done by limiting families around the world to an average of 1.5 children.
Q. I heard abalone off the coast of California were dying in record numbers. What's to blame?
A. A condition called withering syndrome has killed nearly all of Southern California's black abalone population, and biologists still aren't sure what's to blame. The condition was discovered in black abalone off Anacapa and Santa Cruz islands in 1986. Since then, according to research marine biologists, about 99 percent of black abalone in Channel Islands National Park have died. Apparently, the condition attacks the abalone's foot - the fleshy part that extends beyond the shell. The foot atrophies and shrinks, and the abalone dies within two weeks.
Q. Seeing that the Red Army has basically withdrawn from Afghanistan, why is there still so much fighting there?
A. After working together to oust the Soviet-imposed Marxist regime, Islamic factions have sought control of the nation for the past two years, and observers say fighting is likely to continue indefinitely. Despite fighting in a loose alliance for 14 years to oust the former government, personal rivalries among the groups' leaders resulted in a new war. And recent fighting around the capital city of Kabul is among the worst ever.
Q. Are any presidents buried in the same city?
A. Yes. Andrew Jackson and James Polk are both buried in Nashville, Tenn.; John Adams and John Quincy Adams both in Quincy, Mass.; William Howard Taft and John F. Kennedy both in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va.
by CNB