Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/406903
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 Sometimesourgovern- ment's almost impossible abil- ity to complete a big, com- plicated proj- ect seems more like a bad dream than reality (i.e. Obamacare). Our Golden State of Califor- nia is now try- ing a really big project again. Maybe it is not as important to Tehama County as it is to our metropolitan areas, but it could help a majority of Cal- ifornians. It is called now called High Speed Rail. I first heard of it decades ago when it was called the Bullet Train. In 2006 I was privileged to moderate a gubernatorial de- bate between incumbent Gov- ernor Arnold Schwarzeneg- ger and his challenger Trea- surer Phil Angelides. As part of that debate, I asked a ques- tion that I hoped would evoke more emotion; "Do you sup- port building a bullet train in our golden state?" Because I could not hear a disagreement as I listening to their answers, I followed up with; "It sounds to me like you both have very similar positions." Then Ar- nold and Phil quickly and al- most simultaneously rushed to say that each of them was the first to support such a new concept for California train travel. Then, I enjoyed watch- ing them both scramble as they tried to convince our viewers that their support was the first and the strongest. That debate was more than a decade ago, and now again perennial Governor Jerry Brown wants high speed rail done as soon as feasible. It ranks very high on the Gover- nor's get it done list. After all, the first high speed rail actu- ally began a long 50 years ago in Japan. Many countries al- ready have it. Germany, China, Spain, Japan and France have fast long distance lines with a proper number of stops and very high speeds that go at least 150 miles per hour. China has already reached out to sell its high speed trains to Cal- ifornia. A dozen firms from around the world are expected to compete for our business. Recent opposition has even suggested such a train could not move through the Te- hachapi Mountains without hitting insurmountable ob- stacles. Even I can remember identical opposition when the California Water Aqueduct and the I-5 highway were con- structed in the 1960s through those mountains. The whole bullet train project became realistic in 2008 when Cali- fornia voters authorized al- most $10 billion to build it, but unfortunately the cost continues to soar. Today's planned route would connect Los Angeles with San Fran- cisco and allow for future ex- tensions to Sacramento and San Diego. Citizens of our great north state would have to begin traveling in one of those four cities. As a matter of fact, a first portion of this fast rail is al- ready underway in downtown Fresno as a large excavating machine began taking down a derelict building in September. Nearby Madera is also part of that portion. As you probably know, San Francisco and Los Angeles are in constant traffic gridlock. Maybe it's long since time to get off the streets and onto the rails. I think it would be a more pleasant journey and bring our golden state properly into the 21st century. On my oc- casional trips to Los Angeles, I for one would get on the bul- let train. Since our golden state now seems to be improving on its never ending unbalanced bud- get cycles, I now favor giving Californians this better and faster way to travel most of the length of our state. I think most people would really like to see this happen, if we can get the costs under con- trol. Some say the final cost of this train will be $68 billion! However, we would then have an improved "state of the art" rail system. It is a tough call. Again, I like it. However, please take a deep breath and tell me what you think by emailing me at StanStatham@ gmail.com. Thank you. StanStathamserved1976-1994 in the California Assembly and was a television anchor at KHSL-TV in Chico 1965- 1975. He is president of the California Broadcasters Asso- ciation and can be reached at StanStatham@gmail.com. Stan Statham Take on the bullet train Unless you've been hiding un- der an asteroid, you've proba- bly heard about "Religion and Extraterrestrial Life: How Will We Deal With It?," the new book by David Weintraub, professor of astronomy at Vanderbilt Uni- versity. Weintraub's book shares space on the shelves with a volume by two Vatican astronomers, "Would You Baptize An Extra- terrestrial?" If this catches on, we'll probably also see "Mitch Albom's The Five Um, Er...Peo- ple??? You Meet In Heaven" and "50 Shades of Gray, Pulsating Masses." With scientists discovering new potentially life-support- ing planets right and left, Wein- traub feels theologians should be proactive and plan now how to react to react to inevitable (?) contact with aliens. The author makes a big deal out of the divide between the re- actions of the Bible-thumping "literalists" and the more liberal, open-minded religions. The for- mer are guided by the scripture that reads "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth — and then imposed this big honkin' ZONING OR- DINANCE." Of course the latter have their own problems apart from flying saucers, like hang- ing onto clergy. ("Oh, you didn't realize we were speaking MET- APHORICALLY when we said the parsonage came with utili- ties paid...") Weintraub is fascinated with the way certain religious people (particularly Roman Catholics) would handle the topics of Orig- inal Sin and redemption if some alien race NOT descended from Adam and Eve popped up. I don't know; rather than disillu- sioning people, it could actually push them to live better. ("You mean I really have Plagiarized Sin, or Cheap Knockoff Sin? For- get that! It's the strait and nar- row for me from now on!") I'm not sure what sort of sins aliens would commit, anyway. When you can replicate don- keys and wives with the press of a button, it's a little pointless to covet your neighbor's. The Koran, Weintraub says, makes several mentions of other worlds — each with their own prophet and religious expecta- tions. So the "72 virgins" thingie has variations. ("Of course I'm a virgin —I'm a cloud of electro- magnetic particles. I'm trying to work my way up to passionate hand-holding.") Weintraub thinks Mormons should be ecstatic at the pros- pect of alien contact, since their teachings include the existence of other worlds. In fact, a recent poll shows that 85 percent of Mormons hope that aliens come down, spread peace, share med- ical knowledge and zap those Philistines at "South Park." Weintraub thinks Jews would roll with the punches on the is- sue of extraterrestrial life. More likely, we would hear shouts of "Have you seen the shipping and handling charges for the bar mitzvah gift???" and "You think I'm circumcising THAT???" Adherents of Eastern reli- gions that emphasize "oneness with the universe" will suppos- edly be simpatico with the ver- ification of alien cultures. Of course if they get a wave of con- verts, some of them will still have trouble finding peace. ("Does this nebula make me look fat?") Secular forces are practically salivating over the arrival of aliens. They long to hear some wise, ancient race assure us that we evolved from primordial ooze by chance, that there is no Supreme Being, judgment or af- terlife. Contact may bring surprise confessions, though. ("I was cleaning out the glove compart- ment and found some unauthor- ized souvenirs that SOMEONE picked up the last time we were here. There's this really big boat and a burning bush and some other stuff. *Sigh* Klaatu the Klepto. Heaven help him.") Danny Tyree welcomes reader e-mail responses at tyreetyrades@aol.com and vis- its to his Facebook fan page "Tyree's Tyrades". Danny Tyree Sharing the pew with little green men Joe Gandelman The live TV coverage on CBCNN brought back memo- ries of another assassination -- the assassination of JFK. A funeral procession punctu- ated by drumbeats and bag- pipes. Only this time, a coun- try's grief focused on Corporal Nathan Cirillo. Only this time, the haunting image of a child that'll be reproduced forever was Carrillo's 5-year-old son Marcus, bravely walking in the parade, his life changed forever. Just as Canada's course has changed forever. When Michael Zehalf-Bi- beau killed the unarmed 24-year-old Cirillo standing guard at the National War Me- morial, and then stormed Par- liament Hill, it was in what police conclude was an "ideo- logical and political" act -- the second of two sucker punches from radical Islam. Two days earlier, a sympathizer of the terrorist group ISIS ran over and killed Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent in the prov- ince of Quebec. Pundits in Toronto's su- perb local newspapers and on airwaves talk of a "loss of in- nocence" for the 147-year-old country, a claim that's as in- accurate as saying 9/11 was a "loss of innocence" for the U.S., or that the 2008 Mumbai ter- rorist attacks that took 164 lives was a "loss of innocence" for India. But was it an event that will set in motion transfor- mations? Yes. The Globe and Mail column- ist Lawrence Martin notes that the twin murders' tim- ing will strengthen Prime Min- ister Stephen Harper: "It may be short in duration, but pat- riotism is overflowing in this land right now," he writes. "In times like these, people want a strong man. Security becomes a top-drawer issue. It all plays perfectly to the politics of Mr. Harper, who is being lauded for his handling of this crisis." He points out that it seemed like only yesterday when Harp- er's decision to have Canada join the air battle against ISIS, and his warnings that Canada was a terrorist target, were be- ing ignored or pooh-poohed. Meanwhile, Canadian am- bassador to the United States Gary Doer has been trying to put out a media firestorm in his assigned country. Pundits on Fox News and other ideologues are vastly inflating the num- ber of Canadians fighting with ISIS to bolster their claims that Canada is a bee's nest of Mus- lim terrorism and a danger to the U.S. They inaccurately sug- gest the two killers of Cirillo and Vincent could have easily crossed into the United States. "But neither had a passport. What part of that don't you get?" Doer told The National Post. "Part of my job is to say 'You shouldn't be pointing fin- gers: you should be looking in the mirror if you have a prob- lem.'" Good luck, with that, Mr. Ambassador. If America is the land of the free, it's also now the home of predictable and tiresomely trite political ideo- logues. For instance, in a blog post, Republican Mike Huck- abee simply couldn't control himself, and had to point at Parliament sergeant-at-arms Kevin Vikers' shooting of Ze- half-Bibeau to slam gun con- trol. "So if you're keeping score, once again: a would-be mass murderer who might have wiped out half the Canadian government was not stopped by sharpened flagpoles. He was stopped by a good guy with a gun," Huckabee the Hack wrote. The Conservative govern- ment here is now looking into ways to handle and con- tain its citizens who back, sup- port or join terrorist groups. It will likely seek additions to the pending "Protection of Can- ada from Terrorists Act," which would be the first major na- tional security revision since 1984. Today, citizens of the United States' biggest customer are having a conversation about checks and balances while con- sidering giving police broader powers. "The strongest counterattack we can make upon the Islamic State...will be to make cer- tain that the Canada of yester- day will continue unchanged, for, if necessary, the next sev- eral decades," Toronto Star col- umnist Richard Gwyn wrote. "It's as considerable a chal- lenge as we've ever faced. If we do it right, we'll be leading the world." Canada's nickname is "True North Strong and Free." It'll be struggling to keep that nick- name as it moves further into what promises to be a brutal, ultra-violent, terrorism-plagued 21st century — as it responds to its wake-up call. Joe Gandelman is a veteran journalist who wrote for news- papers overseas and in the United States. He has appeared on cable news show political panels and is Editor-in-Chief of The Moderate Voice, an Internet hub for independents, centrists and moderates. He also writes for The Week's online edition. He can be reached at jgandel- man@themoderatevoice.com. Canada's terrorism turning point As you probably know, San Francisco and Los Angeles are in constant traffic gridlock. Maybe it's long since time to get off the streets and onto the rails. I think it would be a more pleasant journey and bring our golden state properly into the 21st century. With scientists discovering new potentially life-supporting planets right and left, Weintraub feels theologians should be proactive and plan now how to react to react to inevitable (?) contact with aliens. Stan Statham Cartoonist's take OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Thursday, October 30, 2014 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4