Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/495913
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@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 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 Thiscommunityre- cently lost a character of the very best kind with the passing of Ray Twitchell. I was privileged to work with Ray in law enforce- ment and to have him as a friend and teammate on several city league softball and basketball teams. Ray was truly one of a kind, and we shall miss him greatly. Another Chili Cook-Off has come and gone and as usual it was a roaring success. Thanks to Ron and Shirley Judson for putting Red Bluff on the world-wide chili map a couple decades ago and to the Rotary Club of Red Bluff for sponsor- ing this fun event for the past several years. As I started to say a cou- ple of weeks ago, a steering committee was assembled in early 2010 to explore the po- tential for STFTA to purchase the State Theatre from own- ers Ron Clark and Ben Sale. Participating in that year-long due-diligence process were Christy Forward, Fred Eh- rensvard, Bob Douglas, Marv Locke, Linda Bullock, Steve Judson, Amanda Wigno, Bob Brainerd, Joan Allen, Chip Thompson, John Gentry, Rich Mehling, Jean Moran, Heather Vine, Karen Roy Crockett, J.B. Stacy, Ken Brown, Cindy Brown and Bill Cornelius. As chairman of this august committee I may have made my wisest decision early on by recruiting lifelong friend Karen Roy Crockett to serve as committee, and later STFTA secretary. In almost any business or organization it is frankly far less important who is selected as boss or leader than it is who serves as its principle secre- tary. In my former position as Tehama County Chief Proba- tion Officer, I was more than happy to publicly take credit for any and all successes of my hard working department. I was, however, very much aware that the day-to-day health of the department was more dependent on my multi- talented office managers Carol Hinton and Gail Urban. Such is the case for the State The- atre organization. Karen and I are part of a close-knit group in this com- munity who entered kindergar- ten together at Lincoln Street School in 1950. From almost the very first day we met, we both knew that she was smarter than me. She was the kind of student that, had I sat next to in class, I would have been tempted to copy off her paper. Because she was always in the smart kids class and I was always in the dull-normal kids class, I never had the opportunity to copy her work. As dumb as I was, even I realized that copy- ing off kids in my class would yield no better result than doing the work myself. In the interest of full disclosure, even today I still de- pend on Karen. Be- cause I occasionally conjugate my participles and hang my verbs, I sometimes ask Karen to proof this column as relat- ing to grammar and spelling. So thank you Karen and thank you Carol Hinton and Gail Ur- ban. And for the rest of you bosses out there, get down off your high horse and go tell your secretary how much you appreciate her. She's making you look better than you really are and you both know it. Our first steering commit- tee task was to evaluate the overall condition of the theater building itself. Structural en- gineer Steve Judson, who de- signed the majestic Cone & Kimball Clock Tower, served on our committee. After as- sessing its structural integrity, Steve said that if we were hit by a tornado, the State The- atre with its thick concrete walls might be the only build- ing in town still standing. We consulted with electri- cians, plumbers and HVAC experts who assured us that while these systems would need attention going forward, they were serviceable and should meet our needs for sev- eral more years. We were also pleased to learn that as a result of part- nership agreement between STFTA and private ownership the theater roof had been re- cently replaced and should protect the theater for many decades. After deciding that the the- ater was structurally sound, the committee decided it was time to seek broad based input from the community regarding the advisability of buying a 64-year- old theater in the middle of the worst economic downturn since the great depression. I will share more about these activi- ties in the near future. Coming to the State Theatre: May 9, Anthony Kearns, pre- sented by the Tehama Concert series; May 10 Mother's Day film, Sleepless in Seattle; May 20-21 Tehama County Writ- ing Celebration, Department of Education; May 30 The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, sponsored by Haleakala Walnut Shelling and the Mill Creek Ranch. BillCorneliusisalifelong resident of Red Bluff, a retired Chief Probation Officer, a champion of the State Theatre and an exceptional athlete. He can be reached at bill. cornelius@sbcglobal.net. William Tells Exploring the purchase of the State Theatre Cartoonist's take Militarism and military spending are everywhere and on the rise, as the new Cold War propaganda seems to be paying off. The new "threats" that are being hyped bring big profits to military contractors and the network of think tanks they pay to produce pro-war propaganda. Here are just a few examples: The German government an- nounced last week that it would purchase 100 more "Leopard" tanks — a 45 percent increase in the country's inventory. Ger- many had greatly reduced its in- ventory of tanks as the end of the Cold War meant the end of any threat of a Soviet ground in- vasion of Europe. The German government now claims these 100 new tanks, which may cost nearly half a billion dollars, are necessary to respond to the new Russian assertiveness in the re- gion. Never mind that Russia has neither invaded nor threat- ened any country in the re- gion, much less a NATO member country. The U.S. Cold War-era nuclear bunker under Cheyenne Moun- tain, Colorado, which was all but shut down in the 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, is being brought back to life. The Pentagon has committed nearly a billion dollars to up- grading the facility to its previ- ous Cold War-level of operations. U.S. defense contractor Ray- theon will be the prime benefi- ciary of this contract. Raytheon is a major financial sponsor of think tanks like the Institute for the Study of War, which contin- uously churn out pro-war propa- ganda. I am sure these big con- tracts are a good return on that investment. NATO, which I believe should have been shut down after the Cold War ended, is also get- ting its own massively expen- sive upgrade. The Alliance com- missioned a new headquarters building in Brussels, Belgium, in 2010, which is supposed to be completed in 2016. The building looks like a hideous claw, and the final cost — if it is ever fin- ished — will be well over $1 bil- lion. That is more than twice what was originally budgeted. What a boondoggle! Is it any surprise that NATO bureaucrats and generals continuously try to terrify us with tales of the new Russian threat? They need to justify their expansion plans! So who is the real enemy? The Russians? No, the real enemy is the taxpayer. The real enemy is the middle class and the produc- tive sectors of the economy. We are the victims of this new runaway military spending. Every dollar or euro spent on a contrived threat is a dollar or euro taken out of the real economy and wasted on mili- tary Keynesianism. It is a dol- lar stolen from a small busi- ness owner that will not be in- vested in innovation, spent on research to combat disease, or even donated to charities that help the needy. One of the most pervasive and dangerous myths of our time is that military spending bene- fits an economy. This could not be further from the truth. Such spending benefits a thin layer of well-connected and well-paid elites. It diverts scarce resources from meeting the needs and de- sires of a population and chan- nels them into manufacturing tools of destruction. The costs may be hidden by the money- printing of the central banks, but they are eventually realized in the steady destruction of a currency. The elites are terrified that peace may finally break out, which will be bad for their prof- its. That is why they are trying to scuttle the Iran deal, nix the Cuba thaw, and drum up a new "Red Scare" coming from Mos- cow. We must not be fooled into believing their lies. Ron Paul is a former Congressman and Presidential candidate. He can be reached at VoicesofLiberty.com. Ron Paul The new militarism: Who profits? Bill Cornelius Another view I stumbled upon my father's 1959 income tax return a few years ago. Oh, how I long for the simplicity he en- joyed when he filed his taxes that year. For 1959, my fa- ther paid a measly 5 percent in federal taxes, even though his name wasn't Rock- efeller. How did he do it? It was easy. For a year when the top income tax rate was 91 percent — Presi- dent Kennedy would slash rates a few years later — deductions were many. Even middle-class people like my dad enjoyed their fair share of perks. He was a heavy smoker then — who wasn't — and was able to deduct every penny he paid in cigarette taxes. He was able to deduct every penny he paid in gasoline taxes. If we had such a perk now, the federal government would go broke (that is, more broke than it is now). And he was able to deduct every penny he paid in state sales tax in Pennsylvania, an- other wonderful perk that would save the average Penn- sylvanian a boatload in federal taxes every year. He took a $600 tax deduction for each of his two dependents, my sisters Kathy and Krissy — a lot of dough relative to his in- come. For 2014, the deduc- tion for each dependent is $3,950. On paper that is six times what my father got in 1959 — but if prop- erly adjusted for inflation it would be about $5,500 today. Here's one that grabbed my attention: In 1959, he paid only 2.5 percent of his income to- ward FICA (then, Social Secu- rity; now, Social Security and Medicare). Now the average employee pays 7.65 percent and his or her employer kicks in another 7.65 percent. I, being self-employed, have the pleasure of paying the full 15.3 percent myself. I will write out a sizable check to bring cur- rent the more than $12,000 in FICA contributions I am on the hook for every year. In any event, my father had his fair share of simple deduc- tions in 1959, which helped offset his federal taxes. That helped him keep his total fed- eral tax tab at a measly 5 per- cent. Better yet, his tax form was one sheet of paper printed on both sides. He had no calcula- tor, nor did he need one. He did a test run in pencil on one copy of the form, then final- ized a second in ink and mailed it in; he always got a refund. Which is why I long for the simplicity he enjoyed back then. In 1959, the federal tax code was about 15,000 pages. Today, it is 73,954 pages. Unlike my father, who was able to calculate his taxes quickly, I spend days getting mine in order, so I can hand them off to my CPA, so he can tell me I owe lots more than I feared I would. This year, after all my de- ductions for business and pain and suffering — including the agitations of three rental properties and thousands of dollars invested in a big ren- ovation project — I will pay about 25 percent of my gross income in federal, state and local taxes. I consider myself lucky. Still, I look back fondly on 1959. I didn't pay a dime in taxes that year. I didn't waste a moment getting hundreds of receipts in order and panick- ing when my CPA told me what I owed. I wasn't born until 1962. Tom Purcell, author of "Misadventures of a 1970s Childhood" and "Comical Sense: A Lone Humorist Takes on a World Gone Nutty!," from which this column is an excerpt, is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist. Send comments to Tom at Purcell@caglecartoons. com. My father's 1959 tax return Tom Purcell PRESIDENT Barack Obama (D): The White House 1600Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C. 20500, (202) 456-1111, Fax: (202) 456-2461, Email: president@whitehouse.gov U.S. SENATE Barbara Boxer (D): 112Hart Senate Office Bldg., Washing- ton, D.C. 20510, (202) 224-3553 Bay Area office: 70Washington St., Suite 203Oakland 94607, (510) 286-8537, Fax: (202) 224-0454, email at boxer.senate.gov/ Dianne Feinstein (D): 331Hart Senate Office Bldg., Washing- ton, D.C. 20510, (202) 224-3841, Fax: (202) 228-3954, District office: One Post St., Suite 2450, San Francisco 94104, (415) 393-0707, Fax: (415) 393-0710, email at feinstein.senate.gov/public/ GOVERNOR Jerry Brown (D): State Capitol, Suite 1173, Sacramento 95814, (916) 445-2841, Fax: (916) 558-3160, email at gov.ca.gov/ Write your officials OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Wednesday, April 15, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6