Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/526644
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 We've known for a long time that Barrack Obama is clueless when it comes to dealing with what's le of Iraq. Nowwealsoknowhe'sstill planless. Our president was in Eu- rope earlier this week at a "Group of Seven" conference, where he met with leaders of the world's seven most indus- trialized economies. During his concluding re- marks he made news when he said his top security advisers were still working on a plan for how to train Iraq defense forces to fight ISIS. "We don't yet have a com- plete strategy because it re- quires commitments on the part of the Iraqis," the presi- dent said. He said the current prob- lem had something to do with the central government of Iraq having trouble recruiting sol- diers. That confession reminded Republicans like House Speaker John Boehner what the president said 10 bloody months ago — that he was still trying to figure out how to fight ISIS. "We don't have a strategy yet," Obama said. When it comes to foreign policy, the president and his hapless crew of advisers have had a chronic "strategerie" problem since 2008. But the deep-down prob- lem Obama has is that he sim- ply doesn't know how to be the leader of the United States. He still thinks it's all about announcing plans and asking the United Nations for permis- sion to act like an American president. Do you remember Ronald Reagan announcing plans for our warplanes to bomb Kad- dafi's house in Tripoli? Or announcing we were go- ing to go into Grenada? Or asking the United Na- tions if it was OK for the United States to do it? You don't remember, be- cause my father knew what we needed to do regarding Kad- dafi and Grenada and he did it. He made his decision and then acted. Checking with the U.N. — or even Congress — to see if it was OK with them was the last thing on his mind. It's called leadership. It's called being the president of the United States and know- ing when to act like one. No American president should ever wait for the U.N. to give him its OK on any- thing. And don't worry about those threats that if we give the U.N. the disrespect it deserves it will move its headquarters out of New York City. It'll never happen, which is too bad, because the U.N.'s corrupt bureaucrats are too at- tached to New York. It's where all their hookers live. So come on, Mr. President. You were elected president. Wake up and smell the White House coffee. You have a lot of leading to do, if it's not too late. Because you and Hillary have been so bad at your jobs, the Middle East has gone back in time a thousand years and collapsed into chaos and war. Iraq has been broken into pieces. Syria and Libya too. Afghanistan will probably be next, as soon you have us leave. The rise of ISIS is already a major disaster and will only get worse. A report recently said it has recruited 25,000 followers from 100 countries. The last thing you should do, Mr. President, is hold a press conference and tell us you still don't have a plan to fight ISIS. When you tell us that, you're basically admitting to the whole world that you are incompetent. The world, sadly, already knows that. So do half of the American people. But why have a press confer- ence and put it on the record? MichaelReaganisthesonof President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of "The New Reagan Revolution" (St. Martin's Press). Send comments to Reagan@caglecartoons.com. Follow @reaganworld on Twitter. Michael Reagan President is clueless and planless Cartoonist's take In a letter to the editor last week, J. Clayton took me to task for suggesting that psy- choanalysis was a question- able pursuit. She wrote: "In Robert Minch's column regarding Stan Statham's men- tion of therapy sessions, Mr. Minch refers to psychoanaly- sis in an arrogant and sneer- ing way. He brags that he has never needed this type of ther- apy; he is very fortunate if this true. Many very trou- bled people have been helped by psychoanalysis. However, Mr. Minch's sneering insult to these people as sheep because they sought help by seeking an analyst or joining a church shows his stupid ideas about receiving counseling." Left to that riveting cri- tique, I offer a mea culpa and agree that my own lack of psychoanalysis experience is a poor reason for my ques- tioning the choice of others. I therefore ask that Ms. Clay- ton reduce my "arrogant and sneering" to a mere "snivel- ing" observation. A familiar adage comes to mind: "Judge not until you have walked a mile in anoth- er's shoes" or words to that ef- fect. Perhaps mental health is akin to all health per se; you don't consider it on a day to day basis until your health is threatened. We awake with the expectation that the day will be lovely and accommo- dating. Any variation of this theme can be a bummer and outside help may be the an- swer. Therefore one should not shrink — no pun intended — from an analyst quest. However, Ms. Clayton's rant spilled over into describing me in lock step with the "godless ALCU," and those who "want to remove even the cross and Star of David from the graves of soldiers" and so forth. She should have restricted her aim at with me with a pel- let gun rather than a shotgun approach to the ills of man- kind. If she persists in all-en- compassing condemnation, she will have to take a number and get in line. ••• Speaking of church as an al- ternative to analysis, Mignon McLaughlin wrote, "Most ser- mons sound to me like com- mercials...but I can't make out whether God is the spon- sor or the product." And Theo- dore Dreiser avowed "If I were personally to define religion, I would say that it is a bandage that man has invented to pro- tect the soul made bloody by circumstances." ••• Good to read that Doug Sale, local athlete, coach and mentor is to be honored at a Wilcox Oaks roast and toast. I assume that master of cere- monies B. Cornelius will keep a rowdy crowd under control, and subject the modest fel- low to a minimum of discom- fort. He is deserving of acco- lade for his accomplishments and by being a role model for youth over his 90 — I'm guess- ing — years. ••• Last week we posed the question, "Why did the city buy police cars with 'Folsom Ford' on the license plate hold- ers." Were local merchants al- lowed to place a bid? As of this writing, we've had no ex- planation, but then perhaps it is classified information. Speaking of law enforce- ment vehicles, it was the plac- ing of the sheriff's name on his county provided auto that eventually led to a recall of three county supervisors many years ago, and the eventual unseating of the sheriff. It was a scary situation as I recall. ••• Regarding the use of robots, one might assume they are close to reasoning by them- selves, and at least perfected to the point where they can navigate all terrain, break through walls and wreak havoc wherever they are in- structed to do so. However, de- spite money awarded by De- fense Advanced Research Proj- ect challenge contests, robot construction and performance has not produced your all pur- pose robot able to leap tall buildings at a single bound and it all comes down to two factors seldom publicly dis- cussed: 1) A robot, as yet, has great difficulty in just walking on uneven terrain and falls down a lot. 2) To perform even the sim- plest tasks, it must often be tethered. You may ask what about those robots that can defuse bombs? Take note they are usually on tracks rather than wheels and, without elec- tric supply, they rely on bat- tery packs for the simplest of tasks. ••• Police logs indicate a woman reported her boyfriend has been missing for about three days. Not knowing the details, I advise her to be pa- tient. If he is worthy of her concern, he will show up. If he does not, then find a flower and pick off the petals to in- dicate if he loves you or loves you not. This method is time tested and will save the po- lice department a costly hunt. However three days' passage of time may be insufficient for results. ••• Death penalty update: Since 1700, the primary method of capital punishment has evolved from hanging to electrocution to lethal injec- tion and in a 2014 Gallup poll 63% of Americans are still in favor of the death penalty. That said, criminals incar- cerated for murder often be- come eligible for parole. For- tunately, they must come be- fore parole boards and these boards are required to get in- put from the relatives of the deceased before setting the perpetrators free to roam the streets again. A parole hearing recently came up again regarding a man convicted of the mur- der of my mother, which oc- curred back in 1987. In previ- ous hearings, parole had been denied. It was once again de- nied recently and our son and daughter were present in Sac- ramento to see that the per- petrator was not set free. They were successful and it is hoped that he dies a natu- ral death in prison as befits the nature of his crime. At the time of his trial, Judge Rich- ard Hultgren, in his wisdom, ruled against the death pen- alty and sentenced him to life in prison. I personally pre- ferred death by torture for the perpetrator, but you know how finicky judges and juries can be. ••• Sign in the obstetrics ward of the hospital: "Research shows that the first five min- utes of life can be the most risky." Underneath someone had scrawled: "The last five minutes aren't so great ei- ther." Robert Minch is a lifelong resident of Red Bluff, former columnist for the Corning Daily Observer and Meat Industry magazine and author of the "The Knocking Pen." He can be reached at rminchandmurray@hotmail. com. I say One should not shrink from psychoanalysis It's called leadership. It's called being the president of the United States and knowing when to act like one. No American president should ever wait for the U.N. to give him its OK on anything. ... So come on, Mr. President. You were elected president. Wake up and smell the White House coffee. Robert Minch StateandNational Assemblyman James Galla- gher, 150 Amber Grove Drive, Ste. 154, Chico 95973, 530 895- 4217, http://ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator. nielsen@senate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown, State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916 445-2841, fax 916 558-3160, governor@governor. ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug La- Malfa, 507 Cannon House Of- fice Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Fein- stein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415 393- 0707, fax 415 393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700 Montgomery St., San Fran- cisco 94111, 510 286-8537, fax 202 224-0454 Local Tehama County Supervisors, 527-4655 District 1, Steve Chamblin, Ext. 3015 District 2, Candy Carlson, Ext. 3014 District 3, Dennis Garton, Ext. 3017 District 4, Bob Williams, Ext. 3018 District 5, Burt Bundy, Ext. 3016 Red Bluff City Manager, Rich- ard Crabtree, 527-2605, Ext. 3061 Corning City Manager, John Brewer, 824-7033 Your officials OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Friday, June 12, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4