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6A Daily News – Saturday, January 21, 2012 Opinion D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Changes straight. Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer's home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. Mission Statement We believe that a strong com- munity newspaper is essential to a strong community, creating citizens who are better informed and more involved. The Daily News will be the indispensible guide to life and living in Tehama County. We will be the premier provider of local news, information and advertising through our daily newspaper, online edition and other print and Internet vehi- cles. The Daily News will reflect and support the unique identities of Tehama County and its cities; record the history of its com- munities and their people and make a positive difference in the quality of life for the resi- dents and businesses of Tehama County. How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 Rule of law Editor: Let's see if I have this The Red Bluff-Tehama County Daily News is no longer daily. My original subscription, over 47 years ago, was to an afternoon paper, which is delivered to my house about 6 a.m. except Saturday when it is often a couple of hours later. It gets more confusing when I mention to a friend that I read such and such "in the paper this morning" and she will not get hers delivered until mid to late afternoon. The insert grocery ads have been delivered the day before the sales start. Now, some readers will get theirs several hours after the sales start. The same for their Select TV which lists some sports programs as early as 7 a.m. on Saturday mornings. What's next? Alice Jackson, Red Bluff Editor: Mr. Bird had the silly notion our government was based on laws which everyone was subject to. I guess our courts finally straightened him out. Just because someone is accused of defrauding the pub- lic out of thousands of dollars doesn't necessarily mean that that person should be called upon to defend the charge, especially if he is a State Assemblyman. No, the question of Mr. Nielsen's residency should never have come up, so say the powers that be. That is why in all their court battles Mr. Nielsen never had to present one shred of evidence that he actually lived in Gerber. And the courts consistently refused to hear Mr. Bird's arguments or look at the evidence that he did not. the law. It must be nice to be above Orval Strong, Gerber Biomass fiasco Editor: Another President Obama tax funded favoritism towards a biomass company has resulted in a $225 million loss for private investors and taxpayers. Bank- ruptcy of a company called Range Fuels is another example of government failure as a venture capitalist supporting favorite, wind, solar, battery. electric car, biomass, and ethanol programs, wasting our tax dollars. Range Fuel did not produce one drop of the promised biomass fuel before bankruptcy. Red Bluff editorial page writer Orval Strong's proposal to use hemp to produce bio- mass fuel is another example of misguided expectations of lower cost alternative fuels. Currently biomass fuels costs triple that of convention- al oil, coal, and natural gas fuels. This is after a half centu- ry of government funding. Your Turn Finally tax subsidies to pro- duce inefficient ethanol from corn has ended. We would all benefit if the state and federal subsidies for solar and wind energy would end. If these alternative energy sources were eco- nomically feasible, private venture capi- talists will invest their own dollars rather than wasting our tax dollars. Government alternative energy programs should be limited to university research. Finally the US has entered an era of being totally self sus- taining with domestic natural gas, imported Canadian and domestic US oil, and 300 years supply of US coal that pro- vides 80 percent of Midwest power. By 2020 energy scientists expect that 15 percent of US electrical energy will be pro- duced by private enterprise wind and solar venture capital- ists, without government sub- sidies. Joseph Neff, Corning Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 6031 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319-2102 STATE SENATOR — Doug LaMalfa (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 3070 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: gover- nor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2595 Cean- othus Ave., Ste. 182, Chico, CA 95973; 893-8363. U.S.SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224- 0454. Much ado about some things Commentary There were lots of odds and ends in the news and elsewhere to think about the last few days. I received an invitation to accept $200 for opening a quali- fying account with Chase Bank. The bank must desperate if they are making that kind of offer. In the old days banks gave away toasters and paid real interest rates. These days "CD" does not stand for certificates of deposit, but currency devaluation. I won- der if that $200 is my share of the Chase federal bailout money. There was an ad in the local paper for First Love Tattoos, a Red Bluff local inking parlor; if most of us had had a tattoo when we were first in love, we would always wear long sleeves or incur substantial debt for the painful removal of our first love's name. Much has been made by jeal- ous Republican candidates about Mitt Romney's "vulture capitalism" experience. While not necessarily endorsing any candidate, I believe having a President who has been battle trained to make difficult and even controversial decisions is probably a good thing. Surviv- ing in the District of Columbia takes more than a candidate who is warm and fuzzy and allegedly more like us. The SF Chronicle headlined that the Pacific Gas and Electric Company broken the law by destroying records, violating safety standards , misusing des- ignated funds, and not faithful- ly following required safety pro- cedures. The Public Utilities Commission will be imposing a stiff monetary penalty. Many of us wonder if the Public Utilities Commission, itself, should be charged with neglect, malfea- sance or collusion. There has been a lot of dis- cussion and concern about the Strait of Hormuz. The strait con- tains the sea route for approxi- mately 15.5 million barrels of crude oil each day. This amounts to about 35 percent of the world's seaborne shipments. The concern is that Iran might close the strait or that military action between the U.S. and Iran might effectively close it as well. If someone were to design an extremely vulnerable crude oil supply system on purpose, that person could not create a supply more vulnerable that what we already have. Mean- while we continue to give lots of lip service to becoming energy self-sufficient. In Egypt Mohamed El Baradei, once the darling of western journalists during the "Arab spring" in Egypt, has pulled out of contention for that country's presidential race because he is convinced that the military will only allow token control to any "civilian" govern- ment. Someone once said, "Egypt is an army that has a country, not a country that has an army." That person was right on target. Only a hop skip and a jump away in Pakistan the premier is claiming that the country has to chose between democracy and military dictatorship, a harsh choice given the splintered poli- tics of that country. Pakistan, a nuclear power, is a difficult sort of ally to the U.S. It is fragment- ed with vast regions which are essentially ungovernable by the central government. It worries about its neighbor India, unoffi- cially condones terrorist acts against that country, harbors var- ious terrorist groups, and tries hard to maintain its dignity. When we think about the bene- fits of democracy on the one hand and remember the reality of Pakistan on the other, we are reminded that there are some preconditions that have to exist before democracy can work. John Edwards. who was fairly good at sounding pious and almost self righteous while running for Vice President, and who later had an affair of the heart while his wife was suffering from ter- minal cancer, apparent- ly has a real medical heart condition. He was whole heartedly looking forward to clearing his name from accusa- tion that he had misused cam- paign funds. Now he will have to suffer from the heartache of a delay in the trial because his car- diologist says Edwards has a heart condition requiring surgery. In California we had a sur- prise in Sacramento when the proposed Governor's budget was posted on line five days before it was scheduled for release. This didn't upset many except the Governor, however, because the various interest groups had already written their statements in reaction to the budget, sight unseen. In something that is possibly "just coincidental" with an elec- tion year, President Obama has recommended the elimination of the Department of Commerce and combining its functions with other agencies and depart- ments, thus making dealing with the government easier, and sav- ing a considerable sum of money. (Rick Perry is alleged to have responded, "I think I thought of that first, but I can't remember for sure.") The President is giv- ing the Republicans, who have used the "no" word in record numbers recently, a Joe Harrop chance to say "no" to against shrinking gov- ernment right now and "no"to make doing business with the gov- ernment any easier. Isn't politics a good spectator sport. Scientists hinted last week that they may have evidence of the so-called "God particle", also known as the Higgs boson. News media likes calling this particle "the God particle" because it attracts read- ers. Most readers do not know it was the media that gave the Higgs boson that name. A few years ago a reporter was inter- viewing a physicist about this particle which is so critical in proving the standard atomic model; the physicist said "We are having trouble finding that God damn particle." It has been called the God particle ever since. That's the power of the media, even stronger than sci- ence. Joe Harrop is a retired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net.