Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/546342
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 Thishasbeenaveryinterest- ing ten days or so. There was a lot to take in. Some was pleas- ant, some was surprising, and others were not so pleasant. One of the lowlights of this week was learn- ing about the public use of hu- man bodily byproducts to make some points. In the Tour de France the leader was sprayed with a volume of human urine as he passed through a crowd. It didn't slow him down, and the culprit has not been identi- fied. I thought this would have been the low point for the week until.... Another culprit who used a bodily byproduct to make a point was clearly identi- fied. Donald Trump was able to dump a bunch of that by- product on Senator John Mc- Cain from Arizona by say- ing he wasn't a hero. Perhaps he thought the accolade was a "trumped up" charge? I asked a friend who felt for the worse from the insult, the cyclist or the senator. He replied that the Senator was a case hardened politician; it was like another fluid to him, just wa- ter off of a duck's back. He felt sorry for the cyclist. Local Congressman Doug La- Malfa, who is not a case hard- ened politician yet, learned it was not fun swimming with sharks as he back peddled and hemmed and hawed his was through a hostile Tea Party meeting in Redding. He was un- prepared and inarticulate when attacked by a series of angry questions based on the strong opinions of those in the audi- ence. At least he wasn't Scot Walker, prepared to go to war on the first day of his Presi- dency, but, then again, he was not John McCain able to deflect gross criticism with truth and courage. We also learned this week that Stephen Hawking and a Russian mogul are going to in- vest $100 million to see if there is alien life in the universe. Of course some of us think the search could start here on planet Earth, and some might even term such alien life using the acronym DONALD. You can pick what the letters represent. There was science in the news this week; we learned a lot more about the former planet Pluto this week. I say former because it was demoted from planet status in 2005 to the dwarf planet category. It turns out Pluto is bigger than we had estimated; it has a relatively young surface, very smooth in spots, not showing the acne of adolescence. It has been ru- mored that it misses being la- beled a real planet. We also learned this week that the famous Loch Ness Monster is most likely a Wels catfish, the third largest fresh water fish, which was appar- ently planted in the lake many years ago. This conclusion is fairly speculative, but more real- istic than the fantastical tourist attraction known as "Nessie." Our family dodged the weather bullet this past week- end. We spent a week at New- port Beach with weather in the 70s, a sea breeze, and five grandchildren. The weather was perfect, the grandchildren a de- light, and the family gathering in celebration of our 50th anni- versary a resounding success. We all truly enjoyed ourselves. Our original plan was to drive from San Diego to Phoe- nix on Sunday night after the family gathering and a side trip to San Diego to Lego Land, and then to Red Bluff, arriv- ing late on Monday night. The trip to Phoenix was necessary to deliver two antique barrister bookcases to our daughter in Phoenix before heading home. We all felt too tired for the San Diego adventure, so we headed out on Saturday. Fortunately we could fit the bookcases in our daughter's family car, so we skipped the side trip to Phoenix, and headed home on Saturday, two days early. Almost immediately af- ter our departure 70 miles of beach were closed because of lightning storms; meanwhile, while we had to use our wind- shield wipers a couple of times over the Grapevine, our daugh- ter's family drove through sandstorms and flash flood alerts on the way home, and our two sons flew home to be greeted by thunder and light- ning where they live. On the day we were originally sched- uled to drive home from Phoe- nix, Highway 10 was closed be- cause a major bridge washed out, and the alternative route would have taken at least six hours longer than the already estimated 13 hour drive. We were lucky. Of course, after a week of mid 70s weather and a sea breeze, the 100-plus degrees of Red Bluff were a big adjust- ment. When we got home we dis- covered a pair of water shoes and a pair of underpants both of which belonged to one of our grandsons. We could tell who because the underpants were Star Wars underpants; the other three boys have dif- ferently themed undies. I took both items to the post office to mail them to our grandson. The clerk asked if there was any- thing hazardous in the package. "No," I said, "we washed the un- derpants before we packaged them." It is good to be home. JoeHarropisaretired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. Joe Harrop Ramblings about the week that was Lie,cheatandcoverup Editor: Nathan Esplanade's letter to the editor July 18 was spot- on but the Mexican immigra- tion isn't the only immigration problem that threatens this country. There is an exploding immigration of Muslims com- ing into this country that most likely is a much bigger threat than the Mexicans. Whether it's the 9/11 hijack- ers that flew planes into the Twin Towers or the lone wolf shooter — Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez — in Chattanooga, their neighbors, in both cases, couldn't believe they could do such a thing because they were such good neighbors friendly and outgoing. Combine that with a Mus- lim friendly president that claims to be a Christian but has a Muslim background and 20 years listening to Jeremiah Wright's hate America ser- mons and you have the disas- ter that we are dealing with today both here in our home- land and worldwide. No mat- ter how horrible the Islamic act of terror, Obama refuses to describe these and other such attacks of terrorism, both here and abroad as "Radical Islamic Terrorism." Six-plus years of lying, cheating and cover-ups, his so-called achievements are all predicated on lies and cover- ups. Obama blatantly lied and placed his lack of character on vulgar display in order to pass ObamaCare. Obama's cover- ups, include but not limited to; Benghazi — The IRS tea-party audit — The Gibson Guitar Raid — Fast And Furious and Solyndra. Disgraced Planned Par- enthood official Deborah Nu- catola is currently employed at Sexual Health Innovations, founded by former Obama White House staffer Jessica Ladd. Senior Obama admin- istration officials sit on the board of the abortion activist group. Deborah Nucatola was hired at the time she was sell- ing aborted baby parts. Lie, cheat, cover-up and consent to the barbaric act of aborting late-term babies so they can harvest their body parts for a profit. Add an ap- pointed staff of Communists, Socialists and other Ameri- can haters and you have the Obama Administration. It isn't any wonder that Don- ald Trump is doing so well in the Republican Party. — Les Wolfe, Red Bluff God Bless the USA Editor: I happen to be an American of Croatian descent. I'm not a Croatian-Ameri- can, often referred to as a hy- phenated-American. Never will be. Don't want to be. This may not seem like a big deal to some, but for me it's pretty darn important. Other examples of hyphen- ated-American titles include Japanese-American, Native- American, Mexican-Ameri- can, Asian-American, African- American, Irish-American and Italian-American, to name but a few. I find such titles unneces- sary and potentially destruc- tive to the fabric of our Nation. And, I'm not alone in my feel- ings. I've been to Croatia once while deployed with NATO forces. Seemed like a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. I feel no particular attachment, emo- tional or otherwise. I don't speak Croatian, am not inti- mately familiar with its cul- ture and traditions, am not particularly up-to-date on its political, social and economic underpinnings and can go weeks, months and even years without giving Croatia much thought. Why then would I wish to be called a Croatian-American? Don't get me wrong. I'm proud of my Croatian roots. But America always gets the place of honor with me. Darn it, I'm unabashedly proud, thankful and blessed to be a citizen of the great- est country in the world. I will not, cannot, split my loyalty between two countries. There shall never be a ques- tion that my loyalty and al- legiance belongs to America. America is my home, where my heart is and my family resides. It's the country I love, the only country. It's the country I am willing to die for should it be necessary. Surely, I cannot say the same about Croatia. It's time to chart a new course. Let's begin emphasizing our common interests and com- mon American heritage rather than the things that make us different. Respect for diversity is a good thing, but not if done at the expense of our Nation's best interests. Let's always put America first. Rather than Irish-Ameri- can, let's instead say American of Irish descent. African-Amer- ican changes to American of African descent. Mexican- American becomes American of Mexican descent. And so on. As President Roosevelt so wisely said, "Our allegiance must be purely to the United States." America, land of the free and home of the brave. There can be no other. There is no other. — Pete Stiglich, Cottonwood Your opinions Cartoonist's take Pop quiz: Which of the fol- lowing was hatched in the mind of George Costanza? (a) The Center for Finan- cial Stability, (b) The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, (c) The Hudson Institute, (d) The American Enterprise Insti- tute. The answer is none. George's invention on "Seinfeld" was The Human Fund, an organiza- tion whose name was so blandly nonpartisan that it just had to be worthy. The four others named above are quite real, operating with ti- tles that intentionally lack dis- tinction. And each contributes opinion articles to major publi- cations. An op-ed in The New York Times calling for a tax on finan- cial transactions was written by Jared Bernstein, identified as "a senior fellow at the Cen- ter on Budget and Policy Prior- ities" and former advisor to Joe Biden. Most likely, few Times readers could explain much, if anything, about Bernstein's cur- rent place of employment, let alone its roots and reason for being. "We are a nonpartisan re- search and policy institute," it's website states. In fact, the CBPP is a progressive advocacy group, founded in 1981 to improve the lives of low-income Americans. To me, that's a meritorious dis- tinction; to others, perhaps, it's a red flag. A book review in The Wall Street Journal by Sally Sa- tel identifies her as "a psychia- trist and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute." The book being examined was "The Biology of Desire," subti- tled, "Why addiction is not a disease." The AEI website uses the terms "private" and "nonpar- tisan" to describe its mission. However, Right Wing Watch is more insightful, stating that AEI is one of the nation's oldest "right-wing think tanks." And what, you ask, is Right Wing Watch? Its site says it is run by People for the Ameri- can Way. Say, what? "Our oper- ational mission is to promote the American Way and defend it from attack." Sounds a lot like the Human Fund. In fact, People for the Amer- ican Way is an ultra-liberal group, founded by Norman Lear, dedicated to promoting progressive causes and candi- dates. So what we have here, as fa- mously noted in "Cool Hand Luke," is "failure to communi- cate." That failure, on the part of special-interest groups, is at least understandable. On the part of news organizations it's unfortunate. A column about sexual abuse in prisons ran recently in USA Today. The writer, Brett M. Decker, was identified as "a director at the White House Writers Group" — a mighty im- pressive name. But describ- ing what? Folks who currently work at the White House? Staff at the White House Communi- cations Office? Turns out this group is com- prised of former White House speechwriters. The mission statement is a beaut: "The White House Writers Group is unapologetically pro-business and pro-markets." So, it's a con- servative group. And, "WHWG combines policy and communi- cations expertise to achieve re- sults critical for clients across a broad range of industries." So, it's actually a conservative lob- bying group. Oh, what a tangled web we weave. Calling themselves the White House Writers Group seems disingenuous at best. And USA Today's decision to identify the organization by name without further explana- tion is hardly a full or meaning- ful disclosure. Peter Funt is a writer and speaker. His book, "Cautiously Optimistic," is available at Amazon.com and CandidCamera.com. Peter Funt The many misleading monikers in the news Joe Harrop Peter Funt OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, July 25, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6