Color and background-color warnings

Hello,

I notice that when I validate my CSS files, I get a warning if for any given
element I specify a color without a background-color, or vice versa. I don't
see any rationale for this in the W3C CSS1 Recommendation
(http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1#color-and-background-properties) -- in fact,
since color inherits and background-color defaults to "transparent" there's
no need to specify them explicitly for each element, it seems to me. 

Adding "color: inherit;" and "background-color: transparent;" eliminates the
validator's warnings, but why is this necessary?

With all best,

Erik Rieselbach

Pfizer HQ Graphic Design
212.573.1582
erik.rieselbach@pfizer.com