The findings of Tim Moffitt’s study committee are out, and is it any wonder they recommend that the City of Asheville fork over control of the water system? My assessment of the rightness and wrongness of ownership by any party is that the water system is a huge, covetable asset. People want it, but then they work backward to come up with a watertight story about why it is good for the people. Big water users can come up with good reasons to keep the price down. The debate over the last ten years has provided good insight into how people respond to little bits of information. Legislators go with the flow or pressure. Some blatantly act like victims of lobbyists, while others can speak rationally. Conversations on the subject, mistaken to be attempts to dig for the deeper truths, have turned out to be attempts to form alliances. Special interest groups can take a sentence and run with it.