Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/549408
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 Trump can't help being Trump. He says outrageous or dumb things about immigrants or his fellow Republican pri- mary candidates five times a day. But no one— noteventhe liberals of the mainstream media — really takes Donald Trump or what he spews se- riously. No one thinks the billion- aire's mix of egotistical blo- viating and off-the-cuff pol- icy positions represents the Republican Party or conser- vatism. Mike Huckebee and Rick Perry are a whole other story. They're not clowns. They're ex-governors. They're supposed to be serious can- didates for the Republican nomination for president. Yet last week, they each said something dumb as Trump. Perry's statement, at least, was made, more or less, in defense of the Second Amendment. But in the wake of last week's theater shooting in Lafayette, La., he said that the way to prevent future shootings would be to en- courage moviegoers to take their guns into the theaters. I'm a fervent Second Amendment guy. And I agree with Perry that gun-free zones are always a bad idea because they attract the well- armed crazies who want to commit mass murders. But even I wouldn't want to go into a movie theater where everyone was packing — especially a John Wayne or Clint Eastwood movie. Especially in West Texas. Gov. Perry should have held his Texas tongue. All he did was make himself — and by extension the GOP — look like he was exploiting a trag- edy to make a political point about gun rights. Then there's Mike Hucka- bee. What he said about the ef- fect the Obama administra- tion's nuclear deal with Iran was going to have on the state of Israel caused a na- tional political hissy fit. Huckabee was right on tar- get when he charged that the president's foreign policy "is the most feckless in Ameri- can history" and that trust- ing the Iranians was "naive." Where he got himself in trouble was when he said the Iran deal was so bad it "will take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven." Huckabee's Holocaust ref- erence was not the real prob- lem. As the leaders of some Jewish American groups pro- tested, the real problem was his premise that the state of Israel is a weakling that can't defend itself from Iran. Israel counts on our sup- port, but it can take care of itself if it has to. It has a strong government, a strong leader and a strong mili- tary, not to mention lots of tanks, jet planes and scores of nukes. Israel's leaders also have something else — courage. They're not afraid to act decisively or preemptively when their nation is threat- ened, as they proved 35 years ago when their jets bombed Iraq's nuclear research facil- ity. Huckabee's Holocaust rhet- oric was tut-tutted by some other Republican candi- dates who thought it was too strong. Hillary Clinton and other phony Democrats, plus the usual liberal crybabies in the media, made faces and agreed that it was "offensive" and "out of line." What Huckabee said didn't hurt his already slimmer- than-slim chances, but he hurt the GOP team. He set up an easy layup for the Democrats so they could rise up in fake outrage and paint all the other Republi- cans as nuts as Trump. Perry and Huckabee are desperately trying to boost their low poll numbers to qualify for next week's "Top 10" primary debate. They tried to out-trump Trump. But all they did was cause trouble in their own ranks and give Democrats a boatload of fodder that will be used against the GOP next fall. MichaelReaganisthesonof President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant and the author of "The New Reagan Revolution" (St. Martin's Press). He is the president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. He can be reached at Reagan@caglecartoons. com. Follow @reaganworld on Twitter. Michael Reagan Candidates being as dumb as Trump Cartoonist's take A Russian billionaire, Yuri Milner, is investing big bucks in a program designed to tell us if there are intel- ligent beings out there in space. Giant radio tele- scopes will be trained on vari- ous locations in space to deter- mine if any ex- traterrestrial has been trying to contact us here on earth. I am in favor of this venture, for ever since I was a kid, I have wondered that if we indeed could make contact with a dis- tant planet, would inhabitants there worship a god? However, with age comes certain aware- ness. They certainly would wor- ship a god if the ETs had the power of recall. As far as I know, only hu- mans here on earth have the ability, specifically, to know that they are alive but will eventually die. As such, they have a fear of death, but as believers in a deity, they can thwart death through the du- bious promise of "everlast- ing life through the auspices of (insert name of deity in vogue at the moment)." For the uninitiated, everlasting life comes via one's progeny. In this manner, a little bit of us lives on and on. ••• Would you be able to admin- ister CPR if you came across an unconscious person who appar- ently had just suffered a heart attack? Latest edict from The American Heart Association says you should first call 911, and then administer CPR. You no longer need to give mouth to mouth resuscitation but merely place both of your hands on the person's chest and press down in the center of their chest to the tempo of the song "Stayin' Alive." Whoa! I remember the song but can't recall the beat. What then? Ask a bystander if he knows the song and the beat? Seems like the Heart Associa- tion could come up with some- thing with which we might all be familiar. I'm thinking of a marching band rendition that we have all heard. "On You Spartans" or perhaps the Cal or USC fight songs? This could be a matter of life or death. ••• J. Angelo forwards thoughts for the day from which I have abstracted a few of the less con- troversial: "A gun is like a parachute. If you need one, and don't have one, you'll probably never need one again." "It is said that the poor keep getting poorer — yet they have things that people in other countries only dream about." "Seems we constantly hear about how Social Security is go- ing to run out of money. But we never hear about welfare or food stamps running out of money." That's because we would have a riot if first of the month checks failed to be delivered to needy hands. RM ••• News flash: "National Hot Dog and Sausage Council Hon- ors Cleveland Indians with Best Hot Dog in Baseball Award." I assume this refers to the tasty treat rather than an outfielder who likes to show off his catch. ••• Advances in Alzheimer's re- search reveal that 1 in 3 se- niors die of some kind of de- mentia. Two new drugs that soak up amyloidal plaques that are indicative of Alzheimer's show early promise. However, women with mild cognitive impairment decline twice as fast as men do in memory and thinking skills. Also, a cogni- tive reserve created by intellec- tual skills can compensate for deteriorating nerve networks in dementia. Ergo, how well you did in school can be a good predictor of Alzheimer's later in life. Uh oh. ••• A reader who identifies him- self as "old guy" asks when the old causeway leading east to Antelope was demolished. Sources say the I-5 Freeway by- passed Main Street's 99 E at the end of 1965, and therefore the causeway would have ceased to function and would have been demolished some time after that, at the state's or the coun- ty's leisure. Speaking of the old cause- way going across the Sand Slough, years ago, today I can stand at the end of the street in front of the Antelope Vet- erinary Clinic, close my eyes, and envision the entire old causeway going east. It gives me a feeling of deja vu, for there was a time, in the 1930s, when Dave Sale, Bard Saun- ders and I would walk out to Dave's home — still stand- ing on Gilmore Road — and instead of taking the cause- way, we would turn off to the south and walk along the sand dunes to his place. It was a fairly long trek, but what was time to us in the old days? Speaking of the Sale House, a Giant Yard Sale will be held there today and tomorrow to benefit Path and the women and children protected therein. ••• A wit reports on global warming and subsequent cool- ing trends in weather pat- terns. He states that between 20,000 and 90,000 years ago there was a mile thick Lauren- tide Ice Sheet covering New York… and comments "try watching a Yankee's game un- der those conditions." He also deduces that Mother Nature is trying to kill us. "Perhaps she will get us with an earth- quake…or perhaps by sending tremors just to misdirect us while she lowers a much big- ger boom on our heads… such as a meteorite." Shall we pray, or just wait for advice from outer space? ••• The New Yorker maga- zine asks if the Supreme Court needs a code of conduct. Jus- tices Roberts, Breyer and Alito all own substantial amounts of stock in companies on which they have voted. ••• A woman with a baby was in a doctor's examining room, waiting for the doctor to come in for the baby's first exam. The doctor arrived, examined the baby, checked his weight, and asked if the baby was breast-fed or bottle-fed. "Breast-fed," she replied. "Please strip down to your waist," the doctor ordered. She did. He then kneaded and rubbed both breasts in a very professional manner, and then, motioning to her to get dressed, said, "No wonder this baby is underweight. You don't have any milk." "I know," she said, "I'm his Grandma, but thanks for the exam." 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 Would extra terrestrials believe in a god? They tried to out- trump Trump. But all they did was cause trouble in their own ranks and give Democrats a boatload of fodder that will be used against the GOP next fall. Sounding off A look at what readers are saying in comments on our website and on social media. Red Bluff needs a fresh start. Most that area will be washed-out a er El Niño floods the river. Robert Walstead: On an armed robbery that was reported Tuesday on Gilmore Road. Yay! About time. I can't even go into the current library — mildew-type smell keeps me away even though I love the library. Sheryl Turner: On county's plan for remodel of Daily News building for new library. Robert Minch StateandNational Assemblyman James Gallagher, 2060Talbert Drive, Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530895-4217, http://ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530879-7424, senator. nielsen@senate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown, State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916445-2841, fax 916 558-3160, governor@governor. ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug LaMalfa, 507Cannon House Of- fice Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415393- 0707, fax 415393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700Montgomery St., San Francisco 94111, 510286- 8537, fax 202224-0454 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, Richard Crabtree, 527-2605, Ext. 3061 Corning City Manager, John Brewer, 824-7033 Your officials OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Friday, July 31, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6