Red Bluff Daily News

August 29, 2015

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GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIALBOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS Ihavebeenenjoyingread- ing the comic strip Crankshaft; the strip features an older fel- low who dresses in bib overalls and a mechan- ic's baseball style cap; needless to say much of the humor has to do with gener- ational gaps in understanding and experience. The current episode involves an older woman explaining a photo album to young girls who are familiar with Face- book, but not the old days of film cameras, negatives, and printing. They speak of the al- bum as a "paper Facebook" and try to enlarge the pictures by touching them, and they cannot understand the delay between photo shots and ac- tual printed pictures the older woman speaks about when she was their age. This morning I was greeted by a large object in a plastic bag in the middle of the walk- way to our home; it didn't look suspicious, and on close inspection I noticed it was one of an endangered spe- cies, a telephone book. Not an old fashioned phone book, of course, by an YP book with business and government list- ings and lots of Yellow Pages. I am not sure who or what dropped the package on my property; I had received no call asking me to authorize lit- tering. The book was useless if you wanted to call some- one at his or her home, but it contained businesses in both Glenn and Tehama Counties as well of lots of regional at- torneys and medical provid- ers. Other than directories for various organizations I belong to, we have no "real phone books." None of my children have phone books, nor do they wear wrist watches. Time is kept on their cell phones as are the phone numbers of those they need to call. After picking up the "phone book" I went to get a haircut. In the barber chair just before me was Gary Taylor, a long time friend; his wife Lorraine was waiting for him, and the three of us began talking about telephones. It was fun to reminisce. Lorraine mentioned that her mother was a phone op- erator in Oakland; these days the only phone operators we hear about today are those who are standing by for us to order those objects advertised on television which we cannot resist, and many of them work a long way from Oakland. They are not all women. We talked about picking up the phone and asking the op- erator to connect you to a cer- tain number; we talked about party lines (not political party lines), and the need to respect those who shared your phone line with you. As young chil- dren we used to eavesdrop on our party line in an attempt to figure out the identity of the family we shared our line with, but we were not very good at voice detection or the subtle clues an adult might follow. Lorraine recounted how she had shown a grandchild a dial phone and tried to explain putting a finger on a number and dialing. The concept was totally foreign to her grand- daughter. "Why would you want do that," she was asked. She mentioned they had on old wall phone, with a beau- tiful wood case, and a crank on the side to operate the two bells above it, and signal the operator. I told them we had a "Grab- a-Phone" with the original wiring still attached; there is no apparent bell, but the cra- dle does move up and down a little. There is a label on the bottom of the base stating the phone was inspected on De- cember 4, 1914. We wondered what would happen if I con- nected to the phone line…. only in our case there are no phone lines to connect to ex- cept at the modem where the cable comes in to the master phone on our wireless system. A lot has happened to Ma Bell over the last century; ATT has lost its dignity, and been reduced to advertising "high speed Internet" for only $15 a month, and then in a hushed voice telling the listener "when purchased with other qualifying services." Many do not have land lines anymore, and telephones have become multifunctional devices, or "smart phones" often beyond the grasp of people like me or Crankshaft. I am reminded of a quote by Henry David Thoreau about communication in the early 19th Century, well before the instant "communications" we have today. We act, he said, "as if the main object were to talk fast and not to talk sen- sibly. We are eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the Old World some weeks nearer to the new, but per- chance the first news that will leak through into the broad, flapping American ear will be that the Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough." Maybe Crankshaft, grounded in a more concrete and tangible reality, is right after all, and all this instant communication is simply in- stant noise. JoeHarropisaretired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. Joe Harrop Nostalgia rings a bell Cartoonist's take The difference between jour- nalists grandstanding as enter- tainers or "speaking truth" to power has been demonstrated rather vividly lately and Don- ald Trump has been the focus of both examples. Fox News' Megyn Kelly asked straightforward questions de- signed to allow Trump to ex- plain, defend or refute his mi- sogyny. Taking umbrage toward her quoting him, he chose to ex- plain, deflect, play the role of victim and lash out. Megyn stood by her question- ing. She neither fabricated nor took out of context statements made by The Donald. This week, Univision's Jorge Ramos decided he had ques- tions for Trump that were more important than those of his in- dustry peers. He interrupted the process and insisted Trump an- swer his questions as opposed to the questions from other re- porters professionally await- ing their turns at the Iowa press conference. Trump correctly told the re- porter to wait his turn. Ramos repeatedly refused and was es- corted from the room by secu- rity. Trump went on to answer questions from other reporters and, ten minutes later, Ramos was allowed to return, at which point Trump called upon him and engaged Ramos for a much longer time than he did other journalists. Trump's gesture was gracious and firm while their exchange was as heated as one might expect when an ac- tivist posing as a news anchor lectures a candidate during a press conference. Ramos' theatrics generated very little in the way of journal- ism and quite a bit for his rep- utation among Latinos who op- pose Trump. What Ramos did correctly was attempt follow-up ques- tions to unveil the depth (or lack thereof) of Trump's im- migration platform. Where he failed was in making assertions about Trump's positions, los- ing track of his role as a jour- nalist, badgering and debating Trump. Similarly, John King thought he was being "journalistic" at a candidates' forum by asking Newt Gingrich to respond to a story that he reportedly asked his angry ex-wife for an "open marriage." Even worse, this question based on the flimsiest of evi- dence was the first question of the evening, setting a tone for rumor-mongering instead of policy at the 2012 forum. Newt responded perfectly: "I think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office and I am appalled that you would begin a presi- dential debate on a topic like that." Rounds of applause echoed across America and John King earned a legacy no journalist would covet: politically biased hack. Wolf Blitzer became totally unhinged when he reconsti- tuted out-of-context a state- ment Christine O'Donnell made to ask her "yes or no" if she be- lieves evolution is a myth. She replied that Wolf's refer- ence to her conversation about evolution on the Bill Maher show was her position that lo- cal school districts should be allowed to decide how they choose to teach the theories of evolution and creation, not the federal government. Wolf was unhappy with her answer. He wanted to crush her, presuming she doesn't "be- lieve" in evolution, a heresy in his worldview. Frustrated in his disappointment, he barked, "Answer the question!" Blitzer's co-host, Nancy Karibjanian, also ordered, "Answer the ques- tion!" They replaced their expected "holier than thou" moment with a moment of bullying. Ramos' act was similar, barking accusations at Trump, complaining that he has a "right" to ask questions. Trump handled it well. He politely and sternly told Ramos to sit down, that it wasn't his turn, yet, then affording Ramos so much more time that an- other reporter questioned the fairness to other journalists. Since Ramos and Trump each has his ideological sup- porters, both will gain massive approval from their base. Meanwhile, Ramos' audience will have learned only that Trump plans to deport illegal immigrant gang members in the U.S. and that Ramos agrees "a little" that there are some bad people here in gangs. Rick Jensen is a conservative talk show host on WDEL, streaming live on WDEL.com from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. local time. Contact Rick at rick@ wdel.com, or follow him on Twitter @Jensen1150WDEL. Rick Jensen Journalists have become entertainers Another view It's a race to the outside. Avoid the middle like the plague. The goal is to not be one with the pack. Even the most conserva- tive of Republi- cans knows they have to move be- yond the rock- solid, standard- bearer of the party line. Any- body who wants the nomina- tion today has to show some flash, be a rebel, an iconoclast, wear a puffy shirt. Wild and wacky is the new name of the electioneering game. Maybe it was the prolifera- tion of reality shows that con- vinced Americans that real life should be entertaining, but this country now has the same relationship to traditional pol- itics that brass rain gutters have to beachwear. Which is totally okay be- cause plenty of candidates are willing to do whatever it takes, to go so far to the out- side they can't even be seen due to the curvature of the earth. This time around, the presiden- tial wannabees aren't just de- claring themselves outsiders, they're tripping over each other to be anointed the outsidiest. Political neophytes and nov- ices and fledglings and begin- ners and probies and interns and fry cooks are all fine. Ac- tual experience need not apply. Major Bowes would be proud: The Amateur Hour rises again. Which was an olden timey ver- sion of "America's Got Talent," back in the days when whether it did or not was debatable. The only prerequisite a pro- spective office-seeker needs is a resume that fails to include a previous work address in- side a capitol dome. Especially that big one on Pennsylvania Avenue. Like radiation, exposure to "Inside the Beltway" is cumu- lative, and just as malignant. The longer a person embeds within the 202 area code, the less recognizable they become as homo sapiens. A mutated form of Stockholm Syndrome. Something happens to peo- ple in D.C. The combination of exhibition and pageantry amongst historic edifices seems to cause an assimila- tion with these venerable insti- tutions. A calcification. Until it's difficult to tell the statuary from the elected representa- tives. The official diagnosis... Marble Poisoning. The backlash to marble poi- soning has been growing over time but recently has strength- ened to a furious pace. Tra- ditional politicians now have lower approval ratings than used car salesmen whose arms have been replaced with poi- sonous tentacles leaking green venom. As evidenced by real es- tate developer and all around bombastic dude Donald Trump continuing to mesmer- ize the country with his pat- ented brand of snake oil and bluster. The man is like a per- forming frog that sings off- key. A unique act perhaps, but how long before people get bored and move on to the ven- triloquist cricket? Then again, he's not the only rookie making his bones in the bigs this time around. Accord- ing to polls, the major winners in the 1st republican debate a couple weeks ago were the 300,000,000 U.S. citizens who neglected to watch. Hah. Kidding. The big winners were non politicians- Doctor Ben Carson & CEO Carly Fio- rina, hailed for their refresh- ing authenticity. Because they mouthed completely differ- ent clichés than what we've come to expect from the usual suspects. Yes, we're see- ing the rise of the authentic. With a commensurate loss of the competent. But hey, it's a trade-off. Just hope this passion for lack of experience doesn't spread to other professions. Nobody wants to hear: "And now let's meet your endo- crinologist, who previously earned her living as a terrifi- cally inventive pastry chef." Will Durst is an award- winning, nationally acclaimed political comic. Go to willdurst.com for more about the documentary film "3 Still Standing," and a calendar guide to personal appearances such as his hit one- man show "BoomeRaging: From LSD to OMG." Email Will at durst@ caglecartoons.com. Marble poisoning in Washington Joe Harrop Will Durst OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, August 29, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6

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