Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/59529
6A Daily News – Saturday, March 24, 2012 Opinion Shame on you Editor: 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 This is a hard letter for me to write because there are words I would like to use but I know the editor won't allow them to be printed. 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 On Saturday night, March 3, I had the unfortunate luck to have my car parked in my daughter's driveway when some stupid idiots decided, for what- ever reason these hoodlums had, to egg her house. Not only did they damage her property, the completely damaged the trunk of my car. The egg was thrown with enough force to dent and gouge and chip paint off of it. Parents, do you know where your sweet, it wasn't me, little angels are at night or do you really care as long as they aren't interrupting your plans for the evening? I say to you wake up. I have a very good idea who these, words I can't use, are. Words of warning to you if you don't stop your little, funny pranks — do you see me laugh- ing? Now, you will escalate to bigger vandalism and your life with go nowhere as you grow into adulthood. Right now I am one angry grandmother, so I guess that your mission was accom- plished. What a childish, stupid, stupid thing to do. Shame on you. Lois Floyd, Red Bluff Big brother Editor: Dangerous, even deplorable and unsavory conditions can ensue, when we the people take our eye off the ball, i.e. our corrupt, bribe addicted rep- resentatives in Washington, replace it with acrimonious civil war style activity, and choose to eye each other's jugular instead, as a more con- venient and important target. Obviously, one consequence of such neglect has already been demonstrated via the evisceration of our economy by Wall Street, banksters and corporations, the result of which is going to have linger- ing negative effects, here and abroad, for many years to come. Meanwhile, a situation con- siderably more alarming and sinister has been developing under both administrations, and does not bode well for the longevity of our cherished lib- erty and claim to human and civil rights. which is placed in serious jeopardy by promoting the emergence of a security and surveillance state. Of course, an expose is highly unlikely to be served up to the public by our mainstream cor- porate media, yet information is readily available in the pub- lic arena and can, for instance, be easily accessed on the Inter- net Additional sources are James Bamford's trilogy of books about the NSA, his latest titled The Shadow Factory, also Priest and Arkin's: Top Secret America, as well as Annie Jacobsen's: Area 51, from whence most of the fol- lowing information bites have been gleaned, and presented briefly, in short order and no particular sequence: The NSA is in the process of building an elaborate 1 mil- lion-square-foot compound in Utah outfitted with the most advanced electronic equip- ment, intended for internation- al and domestic surveillance. Over 850.000 Americans now have top secret clearance (could one of them be a neigh- bor?) more than 1,200 govern- ment organizations and 2,000 private companies are working on top secret programs at over 10,000 locations across the country, Washington D.C. alone has 33 complexes doing Your Turn top secret work, the equivalent of 22 U.S. Capitol buildings, 50,000 annual intelligence reports are issued by 16 U.S. spy agencies, often unread, law enforcement is using the latest high tech tools to investigate activists and ordinary citizens, drones are not only deployed in Afghanistan, but also criss cross our once friendly skies, along with chemtrail-spew- ing planes, billions of emails, phone calls and snail mail accessed, intercepted and interdicted etc. Suffice it to say this is just a cursory synopsis of a highly complex set of systems, for which lavish funding is provid- ed by an uncontrolled and mostly unreported growing bottomless pit, referred to as the black budget. In addition, the voluminous Patriot Act which passed post 9/11 overnight, unread and uncontested, is menacingly lurking in the wings and poised for implementation at the drop of a hat. Echoes of "Big Brother is watching you" that emanate from Gorge Orwell's grave, are growing louder and should no longer be ignored. Joe Bahlke, Red Bluff 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. Digital changes for the better? Commentary We live in a time where there is little if any time span between events. The 24-hour news cycle makes it impossible for us to put things in perspective before the onslaught of the next big topic. We carry cell phones which tether us to the outside world. Facebook informs us about the details of everyone's life. The speed of light seems to be the only barrier to n even more immediate avalanche of data rolling over us every minute of every day. On our way to see Nellie McKay at Chico Performances the other night, my wife pulled over, stepped out of the car and took a picture of the spectacular full moon with her cell phone, and immediately sent it to our three children. Before we were seated and it was time to turn off our cell phones, we received an email to wit: "Gee, we had a full moon in Pennsylvania tonight too." We had watched the Day of the Jackal the night before our trek to Chico; it was one of the movies we recorded from the Turner Classic Movies channel during the Acade- my Awards week. The film was made in the 1970's but was set in 1962 and recounts a fictional attempt to assassinate Charles De Gaulle, the French leader who had let Algeria have its independence from France. A group called the OAS (not the Organization of American States) was upset about the release of Algeria from colo- nialism, and was plotting the assas- sination of De Gaulle as a retalia- tion in an attempt to take France back from the elites who betrayed the over three million Frenchmen living in Algeria. The events in the movie and the investigative procedures used by the French police gave me many things to think about. First I thought of what I was doing at the time of the story. I was just out of college in 1961 when I visited Paris; the underground stations were well guarded by French gen- darmes who were fully armed with weapons and bandoliers of ammu- nition. The members of the Alger- ian uprising had been bombing subway stations, and there was enough palpable tension in the air that even a naïve 21 year old could feel it. About that same time the Berlin wall had been built and Cold War tension were also high. Of course some things have changed since 1961. The Berlin Wall has come down; the USSR no longer exists; and the nuclear clock has been set back a few minutes. The second thing the movie got me thinking about was how every- day things were different in 1962. In the movie the crime scene pho- tographers took flash pictures, rolled up their film and put it into canisters, which they then gave to motor scooter couriers who took the canisters to a lab where the film was developed and hung out to dry. After drying, the film was printed and the photographs were then taken to the officers in charge of the investigation. Today, of course, we snap digital pictures, plug our camera into the computer, and viola' we have photographs. Or, we just send photographs from our phones to whomever. Today we take for granted that digital tech- nology is an integral part of com- munication, entertainment, and crime scene investigation. In the movie we got other glimpses of how other things used to be as well. Manual typewriters were used to type up reports; dial phones slowly rotated as numbers were called; bicycle and motor scoot- er couriers were used to send written or typewrit- ten messages across town; patrolmen physi- cally picked up hotel reg- istration forms, put them in pouches, and drove them to headquarters where they were individ- ually examined; phones were tapped with record- ings made on reel to reel tape machines; and over 8,000 hand written pass- port applications were manually compared to a vast num- ber of death certificates to come up with any matches for identity theft. The phone books were used to find individuals. Today, of course, passport records are digitalized. We don't dial telephones patiently waiting for the dial to return to the start position to put in the next number; we either use a speed dial number or simply tap the keyboard, or click on the number and hit dial on our cell phones. We no longer have to carry documents from one place to the other; when I registered at the hospital for my recent cataract surgery, every document was processed through a desk top scan- ner and into very accessible files for hospital staff to use. Medical records had been sent to the hospi- tal from various doctors' offices. Facial recognition technology helps us use our surveillance cam- eras more effectively. We no longer just walk to the gate from the entrance to the airline terminal to board the plane; we are scanned and/or patted down. We have allegedly secret Joe Harrop passwords that allow us to access a myriad of accounts and data banks if only we can remem- ber them. We can do most of our banking on line. If we are interested we can buy miniature video cameras and recording devices to spy upon others. We can carry around a plethora of data in thumb drives. If we want to do some genealogical research, we can go on online and access various records. My wife recently traced part of my father's family back to the late 17th century. She did not have to go to old churches to view burial or memorial records, visit cemeteries, or dust off leather bound volumes to find that information. Are all these changes progress? Some would say not because for many of us they just force us into multitasking and shorten our atten- tion span. Others disagree. I am unsure. In 1899 Charles H. Duell, the Director of the U.S. Patent Office, was quoted to say, "Everything that can be invented has been invented." How little he knew. 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.