Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/290181
Greg Stevens, Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor Editorial Board 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 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@red bluffdailynews.com Phone: 530-527- 2151 ext. 112 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 Don't sweat the national debt. That's the ongoing word straight from the top. Hey, the debt's just a number, anyway. And too big a one to grasp. Besides which, as President Obama keeps pointing out when the subject of the debt comes up, annual deficits are decreasing. Now would your president lie to you? Wait. We withdraw the question. Let's ask the numbers guy in - stead — Doug Elmendorf, di- rector of the nonpartisan Con- gressional Budget Office. Is the Prez telling it like it is, Mr. CBO Director? Yes he is, says the director, shuffling his charts and graphs. He's telling it like it is, um — technically speaking. The defi - cit in 2009 was $1.4 trillion. For FY2014, the deficit is projected to drop all the way down to $514 billion. So then, the national debt is melting away right before our very eyes, just as the Prez sug - gests — right? Um, not exactly, says the CBO director. Smaller deficits still grow the debt, the director explains. They just grow it at a slower rate. So the monstrous, record- size debt is not actually being paid down, as the Main Man and some Democrats are say - ing? Uh, that's correct, says the director. But at least it's good news the debt is growing at a slowed- down rate, right? Um, good news for right now, says the director. You mean there's a catch? Well, says the director, yes, sort of. Annual deficits as a per - centage of the national econ- omy will drop back down to around the historic average in 2015 — and "then rise again," significantly exceeding the his - toric average by around 2022 or 2024. Say, who is this Elmendorf guy, anyway? One of those right-wing Looney Tunes? One of those flat-earther Republi - cans? His bio says he's a Prince- ton and Harvard man. A former economist at the brainy Brook- ings think tank. A top-level guy at the Treasury under Presi- dent Clinton. Maybe the White House had better put the gumshoes on him all the same. Meanwhile, let's continue to grill him in hopes of getting some reassuring an - swers. Since we're talking numbers here so vast they're incompre- hensible, do they really matter? Does it really matter that the debt is $17.4 trillion and count- ing — $54,839 per man, woman and child? That a stack of $1,000 bills would have to go 63 miles high just to reach just $1 trillion? That 1 trillion seconds would be 31,546 years? That a trillion is a million millions, ten to the 12th power? That a tril - lion is a lot, and 17.4 trillion is a lot more? That the annual in- terest on the debt ($415.6 bil- lion, 2013) is closing in on the amount spent on the military ($682 billion)? Does any of this really mat - ter to anyone other than Tea Party hellions decked out in Revolutionary-era garb waving around "Don't Tread On Me" flags? The CBO numbers guy in - sists it does. He says the debt is going to have "serious negative consequences" where it affects people's lives directly — siphon - ing off money for investment, economic growth and jobs. Wizards of Oz never like to have a Toto yapping at them as they manipulate the magic le - vers behind the curtain. And the CBO director surely is starting to seem like a yap- ping Toto to the current Wiz- ard of Oz manipulating the magic levers behind the cur- tain. Isn't there something that can be done about that annoy- ing pest yapping away outside the curtain? You can bet on this: The Wizard of Oz's people are working on it. Not on the debt. On the mes - senger with the annoying num- bers. This editorial was originally pub- lished in the Trentonian (NJ). Editorial The numbers guy on our national debt Cartoonist's take One of my favorite Booth cartoons shows a writer on his rickety front porch sitting in front of his typewriter, and sur - rounded by 12 dogs of various shapes and sizes. He is apparently suffer- ing from writer's block… and his wife is saying from the open doorway, "Write about dogs." The missus cut this cartoon out of The New Yorker magazine many years ago, and it is usually dis - played near where I sit and com- pose my pearls of wisdom. As of this writing, it is 7 o'clock on a Sunday evening, and rather than write about dogs and the absence of Murray Clyde from the photo in this column (sigh), I am writing about cats. Wet cats. The cats are wet be - cause I have aided and abetted them in their wetness. What hap- pened was this: We have 11 cats, which accord- ing to said missus are way too close to our house. The cats are supposed to be at the barn, but somebody has been feeding them at the shop on the other side of the carport…and they tend to stray near our front door to the extent that the missus says that either they go... or she goes. To demonstrate constructive action, the person who has been feeding the cats has taken sev - eral steps to convince the cats they are not welcome. These are mostly feral cats. They have either strayed from other households in Antelope where they were mistreated or inadequately fed, or they were born down in our old barn, and found living close to our house, in our shop area, more to their liking. A fenced area contains a pre- fabricated small shop which we placed upon 4 x 4s thus provid - ing, inadvertently, safe haven un- derneath for cats. To discour- age safe haven, we have placed chicken wire along the bottom of the shop. Secondly, the person who has been feeding them expensive cat food, has fashioned a series of trays on a 2 x 6 board and moved it further away from the shop each evening with the hope that the cats...no dummies these, will eventually find themselves down at the old barn for their evening scarf down. However, with the in - cessant recent rains, they must eat out in the el- ements until they, and their cat food, arrive at the shelter of the barn. Until then, when it rains, they get wet. Thus, cats will be moved, the missus will stay and a domestic crisis has been averted. • • • Speaking of cats, recent po - lice logs in the DN revealed that "a 92-year-old man reported that because the 88-year-old woman he lived with was having a bad day, she was refusing to let any - one eat at the residence...includ- ing the cat." The SPCA should hear about this at once. The 92-year-old can fend for himself, but a kitty cat can't. I speak with authority on this matter. • • • As revealed in D. Polson's col - umn, I can't envision him in a cow- boy hat taking lessons in country western line dancing. I guess, de- spite Tea Party affiliations, this malady could affect anyone. • • • Unclear on The Concept De - partment: Article on front page of the DN indicating a Gerber man attempted to flee from dep- uties on an orchard tractor. Of the many tractors I have driven over the years, none would I have considered to flee upon if pur - sued by Johnny Law. A horse or burro perhaps, but never a trac- tor. • • • Our favorite Pope, Francis, is apparently admonishing the Mafia for its bad behavior, and is quoted as saying that if they don't mend their ways, "...there is still time (for them) to end up in hell." However, the Mafia's con - duct over the years, suggests their time has run out on avoid- ing hell fire and damnation. • • • Retired bullfighter Joe Baumgartner has been name Grand Marshall of the Red Bluff Roundup parade, and there couldn't have been a better choice to honor this fellow and his exceptional career. I assume he is in good health and will lead a long and active life in years to come. However, it seems that those chosen as Grand Marshall often expire in a few short years, but then I haven't seen an in- depth analysis. Maybe it's just an example how time flies when one is having a good time. • • • An example of an obituary none would wish to have at - tached to their name was con- cocted by writer David Von Drehle in TIME, about a recently departed soul. "Fred Phelps, pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church, was a colossal jerk. He lived a long life in which even his few admirable achieve - ments (a series of civil rights cases he filed as an attorney) stemmed from a deeply dis- agreeable personality. He was the kind of person no one wanted to be around." I don't know Mr. Von Drehle's sexual orientation, but Phelps, who allegedly displayed signs reading "I HATE FAGS" and "GOD HATES FAGS," was cer - tain to arouse the wrath of many. • • • Last week's quiz was first an- swered correctly by Fred Boest who knew that the first line of letters are drawn with straight lines, the second lower case with curved lines...and the final let - ters are all Roman numerals. This week's quiz: What is the most often spoken letter in the English language, what is the only major vowel that, when spo - ken, begins with a consonant, and of all the letters in the al- phabet, which one is spoken with more than one syllable? • • • I was at the bar the other night and overheard three very hefty women talking at the bar. Their accent appeared to be Scottish, so I approached and asked, "Hello, are you three lass - ies from Scotland?" One of them angrily screeched, "It's Wales! Wales you bloody idiot!" So I apolo - gized and replied, "I am so sorry. Are you three whales from Scot- land?" And that's the last thing I re- member. Robert Minch is a lifelong resident of Red Bluff, former columnist for the Corning Daily Observer and Meat Industry magazine and au- thor of the "The Knocking Pen." He can be reached at rminchandmur- ray@hotmail.com. i say Reigning cats and dogs does it really matter that the debt is $17.4 trillion and counting — $54,839 per man, woman and child? Sounding off A look at what readers are saying in comments on our website and on social media. leland yee is typical of the democrats that control the California legislature. Great column don. les wolfe: Facebook comment on Don Polson's weekly column Hmmm... ronald reagan, oh yeah, that guy. unconstitutionally circumvented procedure and law. Supplying weapons to the major terrorist state of the time. Full amnesty for illegal aliens. Substantial government growth. and signed into law that Social Security was mandatory tax rather then a voluntary contribution. Mike bachelor: Facebook comment on Don Polson's weekly column Common sense has prevailed in Deer Trail, Colo., and for that we have voters to thank. Residents went to the polls Tuesday and overwhelmingly shot down a ludicrous proposal to issue drone-hunting licenses. At the same time, they voted out of office Mayor Frank Fields, who favored the drone- hunting idea that put the small town on the map — and not in a good way. Deer Trail had become a national laughingstock over the idea that it would sell $25 drone-hunting licenses to peo - ple who would then aim for the unmanned aircraft. The vote was the culmination of a long dispute over the pro - posal, which divided the town's board of trustees, 3-3, in an Au- gust vote. While some contended the idea had the same mixed sup- port among voters, the actual tally showed otherwise. Sev- enty-three percent of those who went to the polls voted against it. Fields said the measure al - ways was intended as a money- raiser for this tiny town, 55 miles east of Denver, not as a protest of government surveil - lance methods. Regardless, it was a silly idea that deserved the fate that vot- ers dealt it. This editorial was originally pub- lished in the Denver Post. Editorial Town's voters right on target in sinking drone-hunting idea Robert Minch OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Friday, april 4, 2014 » MORE AT FaCEbook.CoM/rbdailynEwS AND TwiTTEr.CoM/rEdbluFFnEwS a4