Here’s a question for the culture of life folks in the administration of President George W. Bush. Why is it that they spend so much time and energy preventing people who want to die from dying, but so little energy keeping people who don’t want to die from dying?

The administration has gone to court for years to prevent the state of Oregon from enforcing its own voter-approved 1997 law allowing doctors to assist terminally ill patients in dying. The case has finally wound its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where lawyers insist that drug-control laws allow the feds to keep doctors from allowing a terminally ill person to kill himself. (Those laws, of course, are more generally used to impose a whole different kind of misery, via the war on drugs.)

But when the government faces a problem like whether to go to war in Iraq or how to respond to Hurricane Katrina, it seems to be the opposite. Either by acts of commission (lies about weapons of mass destruction) or omission (FEMA bumbling as floodwaters rose) people die. Where is the culture of life then?

Nowhere is this dichotomy more visible than Bush. He interrupted one of his frequent Texas vacations to return to Washington, D.C. to sign a law aimed at keeping the husband of Terry Schiavo from taking her off life support. But when hundreds of poor, minority residents of New Orleans were slammed by Hurricane Katrina, he had time to keep relaxing, and even worked in a round of golf, before getting on the case.

Now, don’t try to tell us that it’s because God is the author of life, and thus the only person eligible to take it. If they really believed that, they’d be like the Catholics: Anti-abortion, anti-war, anti-capital punishment, anti-euthanasia, anti-embryonic stem cell research. We know from history that the current administration is pro-war and pro-capital punishment. So that’s out as an excuse.

Anybody else got an explanation?

The Review-Journal diligently corrects (most) of its mistakes. Sometimes, those corrections make for hilarious reading, other times, they’re just confusing. Today’s definitely falls into the latter camp.

“In the Sept. 22 edition of image, instock contained an error regarding Cadillac’s eyewear line. The car manufacturer does offer its own line — Cadillac Eyewear — which is distributed and imported by Styleyes International. Frames from Cadillac Eyewear are available at The Eyecare Center, Nevada Eye & Ear and the optometrist office of Dr. Merle Barber,” reads the correction, published on page 3A.

OK, then. So, we’re sort of saying we made a mistake — Cadillac Eyewear does offer its own line — and we’re sort of plugging it at the same time. Could we have witnessed the launch of the first sponsored correction? A whole new brand of journalism? Probably not, but this particular correction makes us wonder.

Tax rebate checks are in the mail, and you know what that means: Gov. Kenny Guinn has another chance to rehabilitate his thus-far-tainted legacy. He’s looking to morph from Kenny of the Largest Tax Increase In State History, to Kenny the Tax Rebater.

Thus the gubernatorial news conference Wednesday in which Guinn literally said “The checks are in the mail.” (Although the state had a huge surplus this year, lawmakers at Guinn’s urging sent back a relatively paltry $300 million to taxpayers in the form of checks ranging from $75 to $275, depending on how much you paid in car registration taxes in 2004.)

“This is a historic day in Nevada: the first time the state has returned surplus tax money to its rightful owners, the people,” Guinn added.

Sure, sure. But as governor, Guinn should know that the state of Nevada returns tax money to its rightful owners every day, in the form of state services. Every road, every cop, every firefighter, every county doctor and nurse at UMC, every teacher, every university professor, every airplane runway, every sewer system or water line, every courtroom and every child welfare worker represents the returning of tax dollars in the form of government services.

But Guinn, who’s begun to read from the Republican script as his final day in office approaches, has started to buy into the GOP line, which reads: government bad, taxes bad.

You know how you can tell? State Sen. Bob Beers put out a news release reminding voters that it was his idea to rebate auto-registration tax in the first place. “I am grateful to the governor for joining my fight for this tax rebate, and his leadership and support was critical to its passage when Assembly Democrats dug in their heels to force using these surplus taxes to hire more government employees,” Beers said.

Two things about that: First, Beers did first suggest rebating $100 per auto registration taxpayer, and Guinn jumped at the bait, upping the total to $300. (That’ll show him! I’ll take his idea and go even farther with it!)

Second, Beers dislike of government employees should be read as a dislike of teachers, firefighters, cops, and everybody else who makes life better or safer in Las Vegas. He, and the Republican Party he represents, has been able to separate in the public mind “government employee” and the good people who work hard every day to educate, protect, and serve the rest of us. And we shouldn’t let the Republicans, or Beers, get away with it for one more damn second.