ALL THUMBS

BENTONVILLE — Appearing each Saturday, "All Thumbs" is The Benton County Daily Record's take on the people, events and issues deserving a "thumbs up" for a noteworthy accomplishment or good deed or a "thumbs down" for magnificent failure or just general stupidity.

Thumbs up to the decline in our state's jobless rate last month - the first time it had dropped since January 2008.

Arkansas' unemployment rate dropped from 7.4 percent in July to 7.1 percent in August. That doesn't mean that oureconomy is in great health, nor does it mean that the unemployment rate won't rise yet again in the near future. But it's an encouraging sign that perhaps (and we'll knock on wood several times here) the worst of this economic slide is behind us. At the same time :

: Thumbs down to the most recent sales tax reports for northwest Arkansas' largest cities. Sales tax collections for Bentonville, Fayetteville, Rogers and Springdale in July were all lower than they were in July 2008. Bentonville's numberswere the worst, down 24.4 percent from the year before. That's ugly, but we're optimistic that a rebound is coming soon. We hope.

Thumbs down to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. His speech at the United Nations General Assembly's annual meeting Wednesday reinforced why so few people - at least those with an ounce of sense - take him seriously. Amonga slew of gems from his rambling, 96-minute speech (96 minutes!), Gadhafi blamed the United Nations for every war since World War II, called for new investigations into the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, and suggested that swine flu was a tool of destruction engineered in U.S. laboratories. Perhaps that black beret of his was screwed on a little too tight.

Thumbs down to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as well. Another loon, but one much more dangerous, we think, than Gadhafi. During his U.N. speech Wednesday, the Holocaust-denying Ahmadinejad predictably railedagainst the United States and Israel. About the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said, "Thousands of innocent people have been killed, injured or displaced, infrastructures have been destroyed and regional security has been seriously jeopardized." That's interesting, considering that Ahmadinejad leads a country suspected of being a leading sponsor of terrorism in the world, including the Middle East and Afghanistan. Boo to you, Mahmoud.

Thumbs up to Benton County Judge Dave Bisbee and his plan to institute drop-off sites for old, unwanted items such as mattresses, tires and furniture. The first site will open this fall at the County Road Department on Arkansas Highway 102, andBisbee said he wants to open three other sites across the county as soon as possible. The sites will be open each Saturday and will replace the fall countywide cleanup day, which is expensive. We hope people will take advantage of these drop sites rather than leaving their stuff in a ditch somewhere. It would help keep the Natural State a little more natural.