Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/403660
AccordingtoanarticleintheSeptember22 issue of The New Yorker, Utah has set out to fix a problem that's o en thought as unfix- able: chronic homeless. In2005thestatehad almost 2,000 chroni- cally homeless people. Most of them had men- tal-health or substance- abuse issues, or both. At the time, the stan- dard approach was to try to make homeless people "house ready:" first, you put people into shel- ters or halfway houses, and then put them into treatment; only when they made prog- ress could they get a chance at permanent housing. Utah, though, embraced a differ- ent strategy called "Housing First." It started by just giv- ing the homeless homes. In so doing, the state determined that whereas it costs the state $43,000 a year for the aver- age homeless person's conven- tional care, Housing First's costs were reduced to $17,000. Maybe this is a program for California, and perhaps even for Tehama County. How- ever, this happened in Utah. Thanks to the precepts of the Mormon Church. Utah takes care of its own. Not advocat- ing, you understand, just re- porting. That said, the Mormon Church is currently explaining why their followers are urged to wear church approved un- derwear which are "worn daily by devout adult Latter-day Saints as a reminder of their commitment to God to live good, honorable lives." I am not making this up. ••• Kitchen tips from all over: The missus, noting that silver- ware was not being cleaned to her satisfaction in the dish- washer, instructed me to put the spoons, knives and forks in the basket upside down. This apparently did the trick and she now feels she is up for an- other party in which guests would not exhibit bad man- ners by rubbing the silver- ware with their napkins be- fore scarfing down their food. However, I found an unex- pected benefit by inserting the eating utensils upside down. It is easier to separate them when returning them to the kitchen drawer. Give it a try. ••• An Associated Press story in a recent issue of the Daily News was headlined "Most of man's body eaten by black bear." I don't know about you, but I'd prefer a watered down report- ing of the event. The victim's family probably felt the same way. In this case, a little knowl- edge is a disgusting thing. It verges on the tabloid. If the story finds its way to magazines arrayed to catch the eye of a Walmart shopper at the check- out stand, it will probably tell us what part was eaten, but we re- ally don't want to know And speaking of provocative news stories, the 10th Annual Focus Film Festival is going to feature a blind downhill bike racer. How would you like to relax and witness that race on a leisurely Sunday afternoon? There would be more tension than a dozen SF Giants play- off games. And then we have recent po- lice logs in which a caller re- ported that a nude man was walking on the side of the roadway at 99W and Gyle Road. I say that as long as he was walking facing traffic, let the poor guy be. ••• Our favorite Pope appears to be making headway in the matter of taking a softer stance toward homosexuality. The Synod of Bishops conven- ing in Rome recently issued a report stat- ing, "Homosexuals have gifts and qualities to of- fer the Christian com- munity." We knew that, but their report contin- ues: "Are we capable of welcoming these peo- ple, guaranteeing to them a fraternal space in our community?" This would be a good start in my book, although sources say the question is at odds with that found in the good book. Can we expect a re-write soon? ••• How is it that re-runs of "NYPD Blue," available on Di- recTV station 500AUD, with- out commercials, are far su- perior to present day cop dra- mas? As J. Balke is always telling me with the stuff he forwards, "Check it out." ••• I don't follow the pronounce- ments of those in Congress or those running for same, but have heard that Ron Paul makes speeches that make sense. When former Labor Sec- retary Robert Reich called for the government to force young people to spend two years ei- ther serving in the military or performing some other type of government-directed commu- nity service, Paul responded, "Giving the government power to decide our moral obliga- tions is an invitation to totali- tarianism. Mandatory national service is not just anti-liberty, it is anti-American. The very worst form of national service is, of course, the military draft, which forces young people to kill or be killed on government orders." One could argue the Axis in WWII forced the U.S. to arm and defend itself, but then Korea and Vietnam made a mockery of the necessity of a draft. ••• Heard over radio station KNBR after the S. F. Giants shellacked the Kansas City Royals Tuesday night in game 1 of the World Series: "The Royals really had their nuts kicked." Does this usher in a new era of permissiveness, or has radio always been allowed a longer leash when it comes to report- ing events? And speaking of the SF Gi- ants, in case you didn't notice, they took the first game of the World Series. The Royals took the second. The plot thickens. ••• A man tried to sell his dog to a neighbor. "This is a talking dog and he's yours for five bucks." "I don't believe you," said the neighbor. "There's no such thing as a talking dog." Just then the dog looked up dolefully and said, "Please buy me, sir. This man has been cruel to me. He never takes me for a walk, he buys me the cheapest dog food and makes me sleep in the garage. He doesn't realize what a special dog I am. I swam the Atlantic Ocean two years ago and went to the North Pole last year." "You're right," said the neighbor. "Why are you sell- ing him?" The owner replied, "Because he's such an awful liar." RobertMinchisalifelongres- 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. Isay Utah's approach to homeless issue Cartoonist's take Whiners. Bounders. In- grates. Talking about the in- cessant griping and sniping currently buzz- ing over long overdue Repub- lican reforms re- quiring citizens to produce a gov- ernment issued ID before cast- ing a vote. From the outcry you'd think the GOP was organizing competitive kitten clubbings. Again. Oh for crumb's sakes, set- tle down, people. It's just an ID. You need one to fly or buy or fly or even take out a library book. What is wrong with ensuring the integrity of the electoral process? This isn't voter sup- pression, it's voter protection. Which is why in the great state of Texas, it's easier to buy an automatic weapon than register to vote and a gun per- mit is considered proper ID but a University student ID, not so much. Because the 2nd Amendment trumps the 14th, 15th & 19th Amendments. Al- ways has. Always will. Simple math. And no, not even paid inves- tigators could find more than 30 examples of voter fraud in the entire country over the last 15 years, but that doesn't mean it isn't happening. You can't see gravity either, but all your fancy liberal scientists agree that's going on all the time, right? Same thing here. Only different. And what responsible citi- zen doesn't have a driver's li- cense? Do you really think people who aren't allowed to drive should be able to vote? Have you taken a bus lately? What's next? You going to open up elections to homeless people? You know what they're going to vote for: free whiskey. These series of incremen- tal electoral fine- tunings are intended to curtail chicanery, not democracy. That the indi- viduals most impacted are the young and the poor and the elderly, who can reliably be counted on to vote Democratic — is just a coincidence. Besides, most of them don't pay taxes. In this country, the patri- otic thing to do is encourage the givers, not the takers. Oth- erwise, you're not supporting the troops. And yes, steps are being taken to reduce abuses caused by early and weekend voting. Why? Because easy voting is Un-American, that's why. In order to impart the grav- ity of the situation, casting a ballot should be a burdensome chore. Which is why in poor districts the polling places are few and far between. Most of them don't have jobs; what else do they have to do? The more standing in line, the less muggings. Or perhaps voting on a Tues- day is inconvenient for you. Well, nobody said Democracy was supposed to be conve- nient. You might want to think about moving to some place where only one name gets placed on the ballot — like North Korea. Doesn't get much more convenient than that. Face it, the problem isn't not enough people voting: its too many people voting. Time to go back to literacy tests and poll taxes. Restricting the vote to white male Protestant land- owners. They're the ones who run the country. The ones with the most to lose. Oh sure, the constitution states that voting is a right, but it's also a privilege. Barna- cles don't determine where the whale swims, do they? Freedom isn't free. And the rich have the resources to pay for elections. We could set it up so the more they spend, the more votes they get. Un- til eventually the guy with the most money ends up run- ning things. That's they way they did it in Europe and they turned out okay. What the hell, we're at least halfway there. Will Durst is an award- win- ning, nationally acclaimed po- litical comic. Go to willdurst. com for more about the docu- mentary film "3 Still Standing," and a calendar guide to per- sonal appearances such as his hit one- man show "BoomeRag- ing: From LSD to OMG." Email Will at durst@caglecartoons. com. He will be performing Sat- urday, Nov. 15 at Red Bluff's State Theatre. Call 529-2787 or visit statetheatreredbluff.com for information. Will Durst One man, one vote Sounding off Alookatwhatreadersaresayingincommentsonourwebsiteandonsocialmedia. Onlyonepersonhasdied,butwhois picking up the tab for sanitizing the area where he was staying and his health care while he was in the hospital. Who is picking up the tab for the care and quarantine of all the people that have come in contact with the infected patients, be it here or in West Africa. Les Wolfe: On a letter to the editor regarding the appearance of the Ebola virus in the U.S.A. Mark is a fantastic chef. I will definitely be having dinner there before the concert. Bill Tobias: On a preview of the Western Open Fiddle Championships 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 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 Robert Minch Will Durst Assemblyman Dan Logue 150Amber Grove Drive, Ste. 154, Chico 95928, 530895- 4217 Senator Jim Nielsen 2634 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, 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 Building, 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 And what responsible citizen doesn't have a driver's license? Do you really think people who aren't allowed to drive should be able to vote? Have you taken a bus lately? What's next? You going to open up elections to homeless people? You know what they're going to vote for: free whiskey. OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Friday, October 24, 2014 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6