Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/355874
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@red bluffdailynews.com Phone: 530-527- 2151ext. 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 Doyouhavepersonalis- sues? Do you want to seem in- telligent, well informed and on-top-of-it-all without hav- ing to bother to put in any ef- fort or time to see whether your assertions are accurate? If so, then join the trend that's all the rage in the 21st cen- tury: show indignation now and worry (or, more likely, don't) about accuracy later. And, for heaven's sake, never EVER worry about "nuance." The following cases are not from The Onion, and weren't created by New Yorker satirist Andy Borowitz: CASE ONE: That photo of the movie producer Ste- ven Spielberg, after he "went" hunting. At issue: a photo of Spielberg on the Jurassic Park set smiling, sitting in front of a dead dinosaur. He was then denounced as "despica- ble," and called other unprint- able names online. Reality: di- nosaurs have been extinct for (ahem) a while. Now someone has posted a photo of him next to a dead ET. How long be- fore "murderer" denunciations pour in? The Spielberg photo spoofs the controversies over Kendall Jones, a Texas cheerleader who posted photos on Facebook of her alongside big game ani- mals she killed, and 17-year- old Axelle Despiegelaere from Belgium. Despiegelaere won a lucrative L'Oreal modeling gig after a photo of her cheering her country at the World Cup went viral and charmed mil- lions. A photo her on Facebook holding a rifle next to a dead animal in Africa surfaced, and sparked outrage. L'Oreal didn't expect this branding when they hired her, so they de- clared her work for them com- pleted, and dumped her. She deleted the page. CASE TWO: The Texas pol- itician trying to save his com- munity from a bus of migrant children who actually weren't. There's an old joke about the stupid racist who went to an anti-illegal immigrant rally and yelled out: "Go back to Af- rica!" Life imitated joke when Arizona Republican congres- sional candidate and state leg- islator Adam Kwasman got ex- cited about positioning him- self to show the world (and voters) that he opposes mi- grant children settling in his community — only to find out later the kids on the bus he said were immigrant kids were campers going to a YMCA camp. He was at a protest near an area expected to be a shelter for the arriving kids when he spotted a bus, and Tweeted: "Bus coming in. This is not compassion. This is the abro- gation of the rule of law." He told a TV reporter on cam- era: "I was actually able to see some of the children in the buses. The fear on their faces.... This is not compas- sion." The reporter then in- formed him that the kids (re- portedly laughing and tak- ing cell phone pictures of the media) were actually YMCA campers. Kwasman assumed a bus arriving was the bus and the kids he saw therefore must have been migrant kids. Still, this much must be said in his defense. If the kids had been wearing yarmulkes he wouldn't have reached that conclusion (I think). He ex- pressed compassion for the kids. And he never yelled "Go back to Africa!" CASE THREE: My website The Moderate Voice's raging emails. On the left they say they'll never visit again be- cause we run Michael Rea- gan's column. But many other posts disagree with Reagan. On the right they say you can't be moderate because posts criticize Rush Lim- baugh, conservatives and the Tea Party. But Limbaugh, con- servatives and the Tea Party are trying to purge moderates from the GOP. A reader who I learned writes a diary for a liberal blog called the site right wing due to a conser- vative website widget — the same widget that runs on Po- litical Wire (a centrist news aggregator), Crooks and Li- ars (a liberal site) and Hinter- land Gazette (a center to cen- ter-left site). These days, many people ob- sessed with ideology, party or issues put their mouths or key- boards in gear before they put their brains in gear — if they ever get around to doing that at all. That's the style: assume and attack. Who cares about facts? If it makes you feel good — and scores with those who already agree with you — run with it. JoeGandelmanisavet- eran journalist who wrote for newspapers overseas and in the United States. He can be reached at jgandelman@the- moderatevoice.com. Joe Gandelman Inaccurate political rage is all the rage That's the style: assume and attack. Who cares about facts? If it makes you feel good — and scores with those who already agree with you — run with it. CongratulationstoCorning baseball players Editor: I was just reading the Daily News article about the Corn- ing 15-16 year-old Little League team winning the state champi- onship. How wonderful. I'm so excited for them. It must be something in the Northern California air, Te- hama County in particular, that creates great athletes here. Each and every one of those players and coaches deserve a big hug. Good luck in the West Re- gional Tournament. — Barbara Benefield, Red Bluff Register, research and vote in November Editor: In the past few years voter turnout has been dismal. In June, Tehama County had a 29.81% voter turnout. We have over 13,000 people in Tehama County that aren't registered to vote, according to the Secretary of State's website. This is reprehensible, and in no way sends a message to our government or local officials about how satisfied we are with them. People don't want to bother voting during a primary elec- tion, feeling like it's not that important. It is important, we voted for people that represent us, making laws and decisions that basically control our lives. For people that don't know; we voted on Senate, Assembly, Gov- ernor, Lt. Governor, Secretary of State, Controller, Treasurer, Attorney General, Insurance Commissioner, Board of Equal- ization members — the state's elected tax commission — and Superintendent of Public In- struction. We have ballot measures in both primary and general elec- tions. Measures affect all of us throughout the entire state. It's important to read and re- search every measure. The Of- ficial Voter Information Guide does not give enough pertinent information. Our local water boards, school boards and city councils are extremely important. These positions will be on our Novem- ber ballot and I sincerely hope that you will research the can- didates running before you vote for them. If you want to make a differ- ence get involved, contact the Tehama County Elections Office and ask for the contest list for the General Election. You will find openings for city council, water boards and virtually ev- ery school district in the county. Make a difference, step up to the plate, run for a position. You can help our county by be- ing a part of the decisions that affect every essential part of our lives and that of our fami- lies. If you aren't willing to vote and protect your rights and your freedoms, you might just lose them. — Patty Smith, Paskenta Parental responsibility doesn't end outside of home Editor: Really. Mr. Nichols is su- ing because his daughter was murdered taking a short cut through a hobo jungle? Just where does the parent's responsibility end. It doesn't. For God's sake give us taxpay- ers a break. The school teaches reading, writing and arithmetic. It's the parent's responsibility to teach common sense. I feel for Mr. Nichols. Truly. I've never lost a child. Thank God, so I can't say I know how he feels but I see no reason that I should feel his loss in my pocket. We, as a society are go- ing to be stuck with caging and feeding the animal that caused all this pain for a very long time as it is. When I was attending Red Bluff Union High School I worked out a deal with my PE teacher. I would suit up, run the "grinder" and take a shower and in return I didn't have to play his silly games. Before his alarm went off in the morning I had already herded up, milked and fed 20 cows. And while he was hav- ing his afternoon toddy, I did the same thing again. I needed a rest period, but the run was good too and after my shower I went to the library and did my homework. The "grinder" is where Marysa Nichols was mur- dered. Times change. Society changes, but somewhere we have to accept responsibility for our own actions. It's not all so- ciety's fault. I won't be on that jury. This letter will probably ensure that. So Mr. Nichols won't have this "no" vote to contend with. — Fred Boest, Red Bluff Citizens should fear public sector union growth Editor: One in three public employ- ees are now unionized versus a declining one in 15 for the pri- vate sector. Taxpayers should fear pub- lic sector unionization. Union dues for political lobbying pre- vents the 89 percent who are non-union from having fair representation in the Sacra- mento and Federal govern- ment. Unions prevent the firing of incompetent teachers and other salaried and hourly employ- ees. They own the public school boards and most state legisla- tors with their ability to pay for elections. Unions foster inefficiency in the private and public sector. Every public employee should have a right to work without paying union dues for liberal politics. — Joseph Neff, Corning Your opinions Cartoonist's take Bust out the gin and tonics because this is shaping up to be one heck of a long hot sum- mer. Weather- wise and politics-wise. All over the world, hostilities are flaring like out of con- trol wildfires. While here at home, it's the words that have grown from fiery to scalding. And the only way to describe the actions — incendiary. Impeachment and lawsuits and child immigration are all raging hot topics. The partisan sweltering also includes the 2016 presidential sweepstakes, which is heating up like an egg frying on a chrome bumper in a Death Valley parking lot at high noon in August. The usual and unusual sus- pects on the Republican side are spending enough time at the Iowa and New Hampshire Humidity Fes- tivals to qualify as part time mosquito repellent reps and if they aren't, they should be, because they're going to need all the extra money they can get. This marathon is going to be as expensive as it will be ugly. And that's saying some- thing. Meanwhile, the plot thins. Paul Ryan is busy figuring out how to reinstitute debt- ors prison. Mike Huckabee is checking the Bible for loopholes. Marco Rubio is taking deodor- ant baths in order to convinc- ingly deny climate change. In Florida. And that Rand Paul fellow is simply a feuding fool. He finally patches up a blistering squab- ble with Chris Christie, then goes and starts a new one with Rick Perry that quickly heats up to Def Con 4 levels with both belligerents spitting like rudely awakened cobras. And no mon- goose in sight. Sounds like he just doesn't like governors. All this torrid internecine warfare has led party moderates to call for Jeb Bush to get into the race. And he might, but first he has to get mom's permission. After all, it was Barbara who as- tutely diagnosed the national fe- ver known as Bush Fatigue. If the Jeb were elected, that would make the last five Pres- idents: Bush-Clinton-Bush- Obama-Bush. Like a club sand- wich. With the Bushes as the white bread. And how apropos is that? This family is whiter than Justin Beiber's Nova Sco- tia Fan Club. Like cauliflower and mashed potatoes on a pa- per plate with a side of leeks white. Other big money interests are running Romney up the flagpole to see if anybody salutes. But so far: not a lot of looking up. Be- sides, the former Governor of Massachusetts claims to have no interest. Which pretty much de- scribes the problem with his last campaign. On the other side, to call Hill- ary Clinton a prohibitive favor- ite for the Democrats is like im- plying that Shar Pei puppies are cute. She's a virtual lock. Just like she was in 2008. Her new book, "Hard Choices," which sounds more like Bill's handiwork, ends with "The time for another hard choice will come soon enough." Hmmmm. What could she possi- bly be talking about there? Pick- ing names for the new grand- child? The biggest problem for the Democrats is a lack of Hillary alternatives. Even LeBron James has a back up. What if the for- mer First Lady goes on the DL? Karl Rove claims her fall a cou- ple of years ago was responsible for brain damage. And the guy who escorted Dubyah into the Oval Office should be trusted on this. He's probably familiar with the symptoms. Email Will at durst@caglecar- toons.com. Visit to willdurst. com to find about more about his new CD, "Elect to Laugh" and calendar of personal ap- pearances. Will Durst Prepare yourself: T-minus 28 months and counting Will Durst OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Thursday, July 31, 2014 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6