Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/103033
6A Daily News – Friday, January 11, 2013 Opinion Gun control 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. Editor: Gun control pushed. A new year brings new leadership. Consider placing a string on a desk. Try to push it then try to pull it. It appears a positive style of leadership is needed now. To favorably resolve the situation with gun control, debt ceiling and taxes requires positive action by Congress and the president now. Steve Kelsey, Corning Muting Obama Editor: During Obama's first campaign, and then the past four years of his re-election campaign, my wife and I mute the TV or Public Radio when his voice or face appears. As half of America, we despise him for the damage he has done to our nation through his deficit spending, higher taxes and low interest rates. As many retirees, returns on stock and bond investments, from saving since our 1957 marriage, is our major income to pay the health care, energy, charity, transportation and food bills. His low Treasury Bond and Mortgage interest policy is the same as a 50 percent tax increase each year since 2009 on investment income of responsible lifetime net taxpayers. With the many electronic devices invented by US engineers, surely a low cost device could be sold that through voice recognition mutes his unwelcome presence on our TV or public radio. Joseph Neff, Corning Corporate welfare Editor: Why do Republicans complain so much about the poor receiving help from the gov- ernment but don't mind corpo- about the over $1.4 trillion rations getting tax payer gone to fight the war Bush started with lies? If you want to money? In 2006 we spent $59 billion talk about monetary waste lets talk about real waste. on welfare programs You who have and $92 billion on Your read my letters know corporate subsidies. that Don Polson and Besides the millions I bitterly disagree Walmart receives in about just about local subsidies, their everything. You employees are costing the government millions might be a bit shocked to learn because Walmart's employee that on the subject of gun conpackage qualifies them for trol we're on the same page. Guns don't kill neither can food stamps. Around 2,400 millionaires they. They don't think, they are received unemployment just immovable objects. Tools checks in 2009. 23 Congress- aren't the problem imbeciles men, or their family members, using them are I would add received $6,140,634 in farm one thing to his recommendasubsidy payments between tions of buying a gun and get1995 and 2011. Mr. LaMalfa ting your permits. And that is knows a lot about that subject. go to a firing range and learn Americans earning more how to use that gun. Gun ownership isn't for than $1 million collect more than $30 billion in government everybody but gun control laws should be restricted to largess each year. And speaking of money felons and nut cases. Orval Strong, Gerber going down the drain, what Turn 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. 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Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224-0454. Commentary Laugh and the world laughs with you In keeping with my New Year's Resolution not to abuse the R word…religion, that is, today's lead topic is humor. It's what makes the world go 'round. To illustrate, we take our lead from the humorists...from Mark Twain to H. Allen Smith to Oscar Levant to Woody Allen. And a humorist isn't necessarily a writer. The cartoonist Booth achieves the epitome of humor by just drawing a series of panels in which an old geezer is watching a pretty young thing walking by his bench in the park…and in the final panel, kicks his dog in utter frustration. Humor can be our life's blood. A sense of humor is a precious thing. If you have it and enjoy it, flaunt it. You might improve the quality of someone's life. However, if you are known to be a humorless person, you are to be more pitied than censured One finds humor in almost every situation…often in the bizarre or the mundane thus possibly activating a pressure valve to keep from giving up in the face of bewildering calamities and staggering injustices of life. On the other hand maybe it just illustrates that it is fun to laugh…and laugh we have for many years. My favorite photo of my father is of him in an old-time swim suit standing on the edge of an Antelope Creek swimming hole. In the picture he is laughing broadly and full of life. So, laugh it up, folks. It is not expensive and not taxable. Who could ask for anything more? *** What is truly not laughable is the continuing number of Notices of Trustee Sales published in the back pages of the DN. Every foreclosure is a horror story for someone who once thought they owned their dream house for life. *** More than 7,500 products bear the likeness of Mickey Mouse, making this loveable rodent's image the most reproduced in the world. The image of Jesus is No. 2 and Elvis is number 3...or so says the U.S. Patent Office. *** Chuck Hagel is being considered to be the next Secretary of Defense. He has explained his overall attitude in these words: "Committing a nation to war, asking our men and women to make sacrifices that no other Americans will ever be asked to make, *** is a deadly serious decision. War is not an A ham actor appearing abstraction." Hagel would in a melodrama makes a be the first to fill this office speech that ends, "The vilin 30 years with lessons lain is coming! It's time to learned from direct combat act!" experience. Perhaps he A member of the audiwould urge this President, ence yells out, "I agree!" or the next, that we should *** refrain from foreign entanLast week's quiz was glement despite the domino answered promptly and theory and all other expediaccurately by L. Brown tions that suggest we need who knew that drug store to provide our "expertise" Robert chain CVS stands for Conin solving the internal probsumer Value Stores, that lems of other countries. H.G. Wells' initials stood *** for Herbert George and The excellent columnist G.P. Wodehouse was short Lee Pitts in the Farm for Pelham Greenville. Bureau News writes of a This week's quiz: The streets in old Red retired farmer who had nothing to do but call Lee very early in the morning hoping to Bluff were named in what manner to indicatch him asleep. Lee saw it as a game and cate those running north and south and those never let it be known that the fellow caught running east and west, what was HAL 9000, him napping. This reminded me of a night and what is GUM? *** owl down Dairyville way who pestered me The great columnist George Will, writwith phone calls night and day. Many of you probably remember this tall eccentric who ing of the University of Notre Dame, notes called himself "Bigfoot." Anyhow, he would that football has not lost its hold on the call on some pretense or other, but I figured campus. A mural on the library overlookhe was lonely and so put up with his calls. I ing the stadium depicts Jesus with both finally had to limit him to certain hours and arms raised and is referred to by the stuthen only at the office. He also pestered C. dents as "Touchdown Jesus." The statue of Larimer who was working at the Daily News Father William Corby, a 19th century presat the time...but Clifford did not have my ident of the university, depicts him with his patience with the old guy, and refused to right hand held straight up and is known as "Fair Catch Corby" And the statue of take his calls. Moses with his index finger pointed sky*** Regarding the recent massacre of school ward is dubbed "We're Number One children in Newtown, TIME reports that Moses." *** there is nearly one gun in the U.S. for every A producer is smitten with a beautiful but American...a figure that makes us the most heavily armed nation in the world. We also less than brilliant young actress. He asks for have a gun homicide rate of 3.2% per her hand in marriage. She doesn't quite 100,000 which is the highest in the world. grasp what he is saying. He adds, "You don't Japan's rate, for example, is 0.6. There, understand. I want you to be the mother of firearms are essentially banned; the only my children." The actress asks, "Really? How many do guns permitted are shotguns, air guns and those used in competition. Even owning you have?" these weapons requires a rigorous backRobert Minch is a lifelong resident of ground check, a battery of mental and physical tests and an annual government inspec- Red Bluff, former columnist for the Corning tion. The NRA says for a nation to employ Daily Observer and Meat Industry such restrictions is designed to deny citizens magazine and author of the "The Knocking the right to defend themselves and will Pen." He can be reached at rminchandmurray@hotmail.com. allow totalitarian regimes. Really ? Minch I Say