Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/392281
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 ItwasdownrightexcitingtoseePresident Barack Obama give that fierce and steadfast speech in front of the United Nations Gen- eral Assembly, rallying the world against terrorism. See, GOP. He can be tough when the situation calls for it. Matter of fact, he's probably the most bel- ligerent of all the Nobel Peace Prize Winners. Ever. Finally nailed what America secretly wants — a swagger- ing pacifist. Love the hu- manitarian airstrikes. The best part was get- ting to see the Great Facil- itator actually facilitate. After almost six years in the White House, it's got to feel good to stretch your legs like that. Suck sand, Mitch McConnell. Obama was always more suited to the position of President of the World. He could very well finish up his career as a Jimmy Carter sort of free-range ambassa- dor, now with only half the self-righteous martyrism. One minor quibble. His obstinate insistence on calling the band of roving terrorists ISIL. From their chaotic beginning, we, the public, were told they an- swered to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS. But recently, a plethora of confusing monikers have popped up: ISIS, ISIL, the Islamic State and the League of Extraordinarily Cretinous Toad Buttwipe Lizardsticks. Don't know where that last one came from. Oh, wait a minute; that was mine. The religious pirates' self-professed choice is IS, or the Islamic State, which seems the absolute worst option since they are nei- ther very Islamic nor a state. A group of UK Mus- lims has asked the British government to call the ma- rauding assassins, the Un- Islamic State, and Secre- tary of State John Kerry regularly refers to them as "the enemy of Islam" but that appellation is as likely to catch on as calling tele- vision, "the enemy of liter- ature." Laurent Fabius, the French Foreign Minister, calls them "Daesh," which is an anagram of their Ar- abic name. He goes so far as to call them "the Daesh cutthroats," which the exe- cutioning organization has complained is disrespect- ful. Seriously? How can you whine that what you do is disrespectful? Isn't that your problem? Ain't that always the way? Murderers who go out of their way to televise beheadings so they can be- come famous for cutting throats suddenly hate be- ing called cutthroats. Well, maybe you should have thought of that before get- ting kicked out of Al Qa- eda for being too radi- cal. And hey, American In- telligence Community, shouldn't that have been clue one? Their brutality is ob- viously intended to in- still fear, so the best way to respond is to laugh at their ridiculous primitiv- ism. The way Daesh is pro- nounced (Di-esh) is faintly reminiscent of "douche" so perhaps it would be fit- ting to call these butch- ers the Daesh Bags. Then their looting and pillaging and slaughtering would be known as extreme Daesh Baggery. And since they claim to be exponential factor fun- damentalists, an even bet- ter way to irritate them would be to hang them with a sobriquet that has a pork component. The Slaughtering Sausage Heads or the Awful Offals. Bacon Bandit Boobies. Pigs in a Blanket. The Killer Swine. Still prefer the League of Extraordinarily Cretin- ous Toad Buttwipe Liz- ardsticks, but realisti- cally, that's probably not going to catch on either. Too hard to fit in a head- line. Could shorten it as LECTBL, pronounced "Lectbull." But you're right. Still needs work. I'll get right on that. Will Durst is an award- winning, nationally ac- claimed political comic. Go to willdurst.com for more about the documen- tary film "3 Still Stand- ing," premiering at the Mill Valley Film Festival on Oct. 4 and a calendar guide to personal appear- ances such as his hit one- man show "BoomeRaging: From LSD to OMG." Email Will at durst@caglecar- toons.com. Will Durst The Daesh bags of Iraq and Syria Cartoonist's take The local Chapter of the Ro- tary Club was founded in 1905 in Chicago by Paul Harris. To- day there are, by one account, more than 29,500 Clubs worldwide. The Club was named for the na- ture of the organi- zation which ini- tially moved from various locations about the city — hence, they ro- tated. The symbol, which adorns the Cone & Kimball Plaza at Main and Walnut was designed initially as a wagon wheel and later, in 1922 adopted as a 24- cog and 6-spoke design with a keyway in the center. In the 1930s, the local chap- ter was composed of prominent business and professional men such as Dentist Fred Godbolt who was around at the club's formation as he was dubbed "Number One." They appeared to be a fun loving group where all pretense was dropped and fines were levied for innocu- ous reasons. Once, as a guest, I heard the imperious Superior Court Judge Curtis Wetter de- scribed by the gregarious El- mer Zuckweiler as "having his nose in the public trough." The Judge took this good naturedly, I think. My father was briefly a member but soon resigned as having more important things to do, and our daughter Mara- lyn was the first female member of the group. When the Cone & Kimball building burned to the ground in 1984, my office sold the D.R. Mann lot to Mr. Barrett from Healdsburg, whose widow even- tually sold to the Red Bluff Ro- tary Club. They, the club, took out a mortgage to purchase the lot. A local C & K committee was formed to plan for a park- like setting and to retire the mortgage by selling inscribed bricks, which line the walkways to this day. Then, with more public do- nations, and a hefty $250,000 grant from the state, the tower replica was erected. It was as- sumed, at one point, that after the plaza was completed, the plaza would be turned over to the city as part of its park sys- tem. However, with very little investment of its own, the Ro- tary Club sensed a PR moment, placed their sign on the base of the tower and it became a Ro- tary project. In 2003, the club honored, with the prestigious Paul Har- ris Award, four members of the plaza committee for their work: Venita Philbrick, Nancy Rob- ison, Dave Kinner and yours truly. The unsung heroes who beautified the plaza grounds were, among others, the per- son who paid for the grass sod and the Red Bluff Garden Club, whose fine gratis plantings can be viewed to this day. In 2012, noting there was still no evidence, other than the tower replica, of the glory days of Cone & Kimball, I proposed to donate the bell — given to me by D.R. Mann — that once hung in the original tower, and mount it on the lawn with an appropriate plaque and photo at a site approved by the club. With sloth-like decision mak- ing, the project stalled. How- ever, we moved forward by commissioning Triple D's Metal Fabrication to construct a van- dal proof support for the bell. Once completed, Glynn Phelps Masonry was consulted to con- struct a brick façade about the support, but Glynn thought the bricks would be defaced over time by lawn sprinklers, and once again the project stalled. I proposed doing away with the bricks but this fell upon the deaf ears. At this point, Greg Stevens, publisher of the Daily News and Rotary president at the time, pledged to see the bell project through to fruition. However, this tree has yet to bear fruit. We ordered a plaque with an embedded C & K photo, which was put in the hands of Rotary. They eventually au- thorized Phelps Masonry to go ahead with a brick façade. Dave Kinner, of Kinner Con- struction, has volunteered to construct a mounting for the plaque. If all goes well, in our lifetime, we will witness the plaque, with a photo of the grand old building, that once adorned the site. Although contributions from the public made the plaza pos- sible, ultimately the credit goes to the Red Bluff Rotary Club whose support made it all hap- pen. They hold title to the prop- erty and have seen the project through to completion. Their motto is "Service Above Self." Dr. Fred Godbolt would have been proud. ••• T. Dolling objected to my re- marks in last week's column re- garding V. Philbrick and the C & K Plaza. He recalls her activ- ity in a more positive light. ••• Police report: "17200 block of Mohr Road: A caller reported Tuesday that he came home to find a man walking down his driveway with his saddle." I see this as merely a re-enactment of the classic movie "Stagecoach" in which John Wayne is walk- ing down a dusty road with his saddle slung over his shoulder. Everybody wants to be a John Wayne once in their life. ••• Sightem: A van inscribed with the name of a Bay Area charter school parked in front of 750 Main and disgorged 18 teenagers and two adults. It was reminiscent of the clown routine at a circus. As a citizen and busybody, I sensed a safety hazard and called the police. A half hour later a policeman showed up, but by then the van had departed and could not be pursued on the freeway because local police would be out of ju- risdiction. Perhaps he might have called the Highway Patrol. ••• A well dressed man entered a plush bar. The bartender asked, "What drink can I get for you?" The man replied, "Nothing, thank you. I tried liquor once, didn't like the taste, and haven't had a drop since." The bartender was perplexed and, with a friendly gesture, pulled out a pack of cigarettes. "No thanks," said the gent, "I tried them once and didn't like the taste and haven't smoked one since." "Well," inquired the bar- tender, "Why are you in this bar?" "Oh, I'm just waiting for my son" said the gent. "An only child I presume?," said the bar- tender. Robert Minch is a lifelong res- ident of Red Bluff, former col- umnist for the Corning Daily Observer and Meat Industry magazine and author of the "The Knocking Pen." He can be reached at rminchandmur- ray@hotmail.com. I say Red Bluff Rotary then and now Their brutality is obviously intended to instill fear, so the best way to respond is to laugh at their ridiculous primitivism. Sounding off A look at what readers are saying in comments on our website and on social media. Use this building to house the homeless. Alfred Cushman: On the listing for sale of the Daily News' building on Diamond Avenue. We saw these two the day before this happened so sad. RIP Shae Danilla Smith. Huraina Nippert : On pedestrian being struck and killed on Antelope Boulevard Tuesday. Robert Minch Will Durst Assemblyman Dan Logue 150Amber Grove Drive, Ste. 154, Chico 95928, 530895- 4217 Senator Jim Nielsen 2634Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530879-7424, senator.nielsen@senate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown State Capital Building, Sacra- mento 95814, 916445-2841, fax 916558-3160, governor@ governor.ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug LaMalfa 507Cannon House Office Build- ing, Washington D.C. 20515, 202225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415393- 0707, fax 415393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer 1700Montgomery St., San Francisco 94111, 510286-8537, fax 202224-0454 Contact your officials OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Friday, October 3, 2014 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4