Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/101019
4A Daily News ��� Saturday, December 29, 2012 Opinion Notes from the devil���s workshop DAILY NEWS RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U NTY S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes letters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All 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 cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submitted will be considered for publication. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. Mission Statement We believe that a strong community newspaper is essential to a strong community, creating citizens who are better informed and more involved. The Daily News will be the indispensible guide to life and living in Tehama County. We will be the premier provider of local news, information and advertising through our daily newspaper, online edition and other print and Internet vehicles. The Daily News will reflect and support the unique identities of Tehama County and its cities; record the history of its communities and their people and make a positive difference in the quality of life for the residents and businesses of Tehama County. How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 Woke up at 4 Friday morning and knew there was no point trying to get back to sleep, despite staying up well past midnight the night before. Some mornings are just like that. Not sure what to do with the extra time before getting ready for work, I was certain that I needed to do something besides lay in bed with my thoughts, as this results in the discovery of some fairly obscure trivia to which my friends and coworkers will be subjected the rest of the day. I woke up the dog, turned on the coffee and spent the next few hours typing up ���90 Years Ago...��� entries for the next month and a half of community pages. Obscure trivia averted. Almost. The declining health of former President George H. W. Bush has been in the news the past couple of days and this prompted a discussion with reporter Rich Greene about what time in history had the fewest living former presidents. Of course, with the advent of Google and Wikipedia, such information can be unearthed with just a few mouse clicks these days. But I took a shot based on my noggin and guessed that it would be during Nixon���s second term. Click. Click. Click. Turns out I was right, having a vague recollection that Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson and, of course, Kennedy, were all deceased by the early ���70s and prior to Nixon���s resignation. Rich was quick to point out that George Washington���s terms included no living former presidents. A wise guy, eh? A little more digging turned up four other occurrences of no living former presidents: ��� John Adams��� term following the death of Washington in 1799 ��� Ulysses Grant���s term following the death of Andrew Jackson in 1875 ��� Theodore Roosevelt���s term Fillmore, Franklin following the death of Pierce and James Grover Cleveland in Buchanan. Don���t 1908 think I could ever ��� Herbert Hoover���s wake up early enough term following the to come up with that death of Calvin one on my own. Coolidge in 1933 From the takingAs for the most forthis-too-far departmer presidents alive at ment, there are those a given time, we both who have calculated recalled the photothe maximum number graph from Nixon���s of U.S. Presidents to funeral of Gerald be alive at any point Ford, Jimmy Carter, Chip in history, whether or Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush Thompson not they had yet served as president. and Bill Clinton in attendance ��� a few 545 Diamond It���s 18 and began with the birth of Benjamin years on, in the early Ave. Harrison in 1833. 21st Century, they Unless you conwould be five living sider that it is impossible to say former presidents. Prior to Nixon���s passing, how many potential presidents during Clinton���s first term, are living today... I need to get some sleep. there were also five living ��� Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan Chip Thompson can be and Bush. Not too hard to deduce for those 30 and older. reached at 527-2151, Ext. 112 by email at The third incident of five liv- or ing former presidents happened editor@redbluffdailynews.com. him on Twitter in the early 1860s with Martin Follow Van Buren, John Tyler, Millard @EditorChip Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN ��� Jim Nielsen (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 6031 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319-2102 STATE SENATOR ��� Doug LaMalfa (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 3070 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR ��� Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: governor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE ��� Wally Herger (R), 2595 Ceanothus Ave., Ste. 182, Chico, CA 95973; 893-8363. U.S. SENATORS ��� Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 2240454. Commentary ���Tis the season for secession Sam and I met for coffee on a couple of Tuesdays ago when the chilly fog embraced our town. It was a brisk morning, and my right knee and right elbow were a little colder and stiffer than usual. The warm coffee felt good, and so did the conversation. Sam said, ���According to a local source over 900,000 people, residents from each of the 50 states, have signed a petition to secede from the union.��� I replied, ���That���s less than one third of one percent of the population. So what���s the big deal?��� ���Well,��� said Sam, who should have been a statistician, ���given the average household of about 2.5 persons, those 900,000 signatures could represent about two and half million people.��� ���That���s still less than one percent of the population,��� I responded. I continued: ���So, what will they do? Will they simply renounce their citizenship? I suppose if they use social media they can gather together to create a flash mob, or even form their own country somewhere, perhaps in the middle of the Arizona desert, if Arizona will let them cross their border.��� Sam responded, ���That would make them a pretty small country, about the size of Latvia. Of course, if they were in the middle of Arizona they would not have to worry about foreign invaders.��� ���You know,��� I chortled, ���that���s a good point. Maybe they can talk Arizona into allowing them to live in the dessert there, sort of like the Hebrews returning to the Holy Land, surrounded by hostile folks. They might even get the United Nations might even support their efforts.��� ���How much area would they need?��� I asked. Sam is a whiz on data, and he replied: ���Given the average population density in the United States of 80 people per square mile, they would need about 30,000 square miles, or over one quarter of area of Arizona. Of course they could squeeze together like they do in Macau, with 73,000 people per square mile. Then they would only need about 33 square miles.��� I commented, ���That might be more manageable for Arizona. Of course it would depend on how well they could get along with each other and if they are susceptible to claustrophobia or irritable political syndrome.��� Sam commented, ���The federal government owns almost 40 percent of the land in Arizona; maybe it could just give the petitioners that land.��� Sam then said, ���In Texas they have collected 120,000 signatures petitioning for secession of the state. If Texas secedes maybe the petitioners from the rest of the country could move there.��� It was my turn to be the statistician. I said, ���I understand there are 120,000 civilian federal employees in Texas. (I had done some research.) What would happen to them?��� I then answered by own question: ���My guess is they would either be out of work or transferred. That would create gigantic increase from the current 6.6 percent unemployment to almost 8 percent.��� I continued, ���It is hard to tell what closing the military bases would do, but subtracting the over 130,000 military personnel stationed there from the state economy would have some impact as well. Of course, Texas might want the benefits of signing a mutual defense treaty allowing the rest of us to station troops claimed he wanted to eliminate, there.��� Sam smiled and chimed in, since they would not have anything to do with Texas ���And Texas would not any more. The new have to patrol both its country of Texas could border with Mexico and use whatever taxes it the adjoining states if raised for whatever it they did that.��� wanted. They could sit ���I wonder if federal and laugh at us while civil rights would still we try to make our 49 exist in the new counstate republic work.��� try.��� I asked. ���Then there We chuckled is the issue of whether or awhile, refreshed our not Social Security coffee, and mused deposits would vest, or if about what our flag the Texans��� contribuJoe would look like with tions would be tossed 49 stars, probably into the pot for the rest of seven rows of seven us. Of course Texans��� stars we decided, lives might be simpler although we did come because they would no up with a giant star longer have to worry about the EPA or regulations on made out of 49 individual stars as the use of federal land, the endan- well; we mused about how we gered species act, and other feder- might spend our additional Social al provisions most of us live with. Security money, and we felt Sam, still full of data, interrupt- smug. But then we got serious. We talked about the neighbored with, ���Only 1.43 percent of Texas is federal land, so that hood boy who got mad and took his ball and went home when the should not be a problem.��� Then I remembered that, game did not go his way. We ���Texas receives over $290 billion remembered the long term consein federal spending; this amounts quences made by some we had to over $11,400 per capita. That known with short temper probwould be a lot of funding to make lems, and we reflected on the up, assuming the money goes to many ways that our country the benefit of the state; not only allows for the release of pressure that, but Texans receive $1.19 per through the vote, the petition, the capita in federal funds per $1.00 Congress , and freedom of speech. We agreed that petitions for secespaid per capita in federal taxes.��� Sam added, ���You���ve been sion may actual help release some pent up pressure and allow us to doing research.��� ���Of course���, I responded. chuckle and then go on about our ���Why else have Google on your business making this a ���more perfect union��� as it says in the very computer?��� I started to laugh. ���The Texans beginning of our Constitution. will have a lot to sort out; of Joe Harrop is a retired course Rick Perry would really be happy if he was serious about educator with more than 30 wanting to be a president. He years of service to the North wouldn���t have to try to recall State. He can be reached at those three federal agencies he DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. Harrop