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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 CHARLESTON,S.C.>>Sen.TimScott,who evidently has not received the memo explain- ing that politics is a grim and bitter business, laughs easily and o en, as when, during lunch in this city's humming downtown, he explains that South Carolina's Lowcountry is benefiting from what are called "halfbacks." Thesearemigrantswho moved from Northern states to Florida in search of warmth but, finding high prices and con- gestion, then moved halfway back, settling in South Carolina. Doing so, they have located in the state where, Scott believes and history suggests, the 2016 Republican presidential nom- ination will begin to come to closure. Since picking Ronald Reagan over John Connally and George H.W. Bush in 1980, South Caro- lina's Republican primary elec- torate has sided with the even- tual nominee every four years, with the exception of 2012, when Newt Gingrich from neighboring Georgia was re- warded for denouncing as "de- spicable" a journalist's ques- tion during a debate here. This year, South Carolina votes just 10 days before the selection of convention delegates acceler- ates with the March 1 "SEC pri- mary," so-named because five of the 12 primaries that day are in Southern states represented in that football conference. The Human Snarl, aka Don- ald Trump, is leading polls here, where South Carolin- ians share the national consen- sus that, in Scott's mild words, "however it is today is not the way it should be." But it re- mains to be seen whether Re- publicans will vote for Trump while so warmly embracing the senator who is his stylistic antithesis. Scott is "an unbri- dled optimist" (his description) who thinks Republican chances in 2016 depend on whether their nominee is an "aspira- tional leader" or someone "sell- ing fear." Scott's un-Trumpian demeanor is both a cause and an effect of his popularity: He was elected with 61 percent of the vote in 2014 to complete the term of a senator who resigned. Which is why 13 of the Repub- lican presidential candidates have eagerly accepted his invi- tations to hold town meetings with him. He took Ohio Gov. John Kasich to Hilton Head because it has so many Ohio- ans, some of them halfbacks. All the candidates covet Scott's endorsement, which will hap- pen only if, as the Feb. 20 vote draws near, polls show a close race, perhaps a four-point dif- ference between the leaders. This could be a choice be- tween two of Scott's Senate col- leagues, Florida's Marco Ru- bio and Texas' Ted Cruz. If, he says, South Carolinians choose well — "not sending indepen- dents fleeing in the opposite di- rection" — America will be en route to a Republican presi- dency. Scott, 50, became a con- gressman by defeating in a Re- publican primary the son of Strom Thurmond, the Dixie- crat presidential candidate in 1948 and then eight-term U.S. senator. In 2013, Scott became the second African-American Republican senator since Re- construction (Ed Brooke of Massachusetts was the first), and today he and New Jersey Democrat Cory Booker are the Senate's only African-Ameri- cans. Henry Olsen of the Eth- ics and Public Policy Center in Washington, whose specialty is conservative politics, says that among the four states that vote in February (the others are Iowa, New Hampshire and Ne- vada), South Carolina's elector- ate "best mirrors the nation's." Writing for National Review Online, Olsen says the state's primary electorate closely re- flects the national balance among the GOP's four factions — "moderates and liberals" (32 percent), "somewhat conserva- tives" (32 percent), "very conser- vative evangelicals" (28 percent) and "very conservative secu- lars" (6 percent). Iowa, says Ol- sen, favors candidates who are very religious and conservative, New Hampshire favors moder- ates, Nevada favors conserva- tive seculars. Here, however, a dominant cohort is that which Olsen calls the national party's "ballast" — the "somewhat con- servatives." South Carolina's primary 11 weeks from now will be as distant from the state's 1980 primary that chose Rea- gan as Reagan's first pres- idential victory later that year was from Franklin Roo- sevelt's last victory in 1944. And when South Carolina voted in 1980, the huge and still growing Boeing plant in North Charleston, the Mer- cedes plant in North Charles- ton and the BMW plant in Spartanburg were still in its future. As were the half- backs who are another reason South Carolina no longer has stereotypical Deep South de- mographics. And why whichever Re- publican wins here will have done so in the first 2016 con- test that approximates the electorates of the swing states that will determine the 45th president. This fact must be deeply satisfying to Nikki Haley, 43, South Caro- lina's Indian-American gov- ernor, and to Scott, who was born 44 days after enactment of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that made all of this possible. GeorgeWill'semailaddressis georgewill@washpost.com. George Will SouthCarolina's predictive power Cartoonist's take We are once again con- fronted with mass shootings, this time right here in Califor- nia. This is ap- palling. It seems endless. The NRA says guns don't kill people, people kill people. How- ever, in the case of all random sense- less killings the weapons of choice do not appear to be pitchforks. They are invariably automatic pistols or assault rifles that deal out misery and death to any in their wake. I believe in the reg- istration or banning of all au- tomatic weapons. For this I am branded a liberal. Well, that's OK. Some of us need to get on record with this statement. Can- didates running for President need to get on this wagon. They will alienate some conservative voters and Tea Party members, but it is the civilized thing to do. The candidate's stand may re- sult in political suicide but this is preferable to condoning mur- der by allowing the crazies to arm themselves. And speaking of the nut cases and those re- sorting to murder to make their statement, the media does us all a great disservice by printing these manifestos. We don't need to know why. We don't even need to know who. Keep the perpetrators in obscurity, which are their just desserts. However, our concern may be short lived because a local let- ters to the editor writer R. Bill has cautioned us that "This county is a hotbed of evildoers from all walks of life, and that there is less than 90 days to the midpoint of the hour of judg- ment and the books are open." He further states, "It is time to pull your pants up, splash some cold water on your face and get your eyes open." So, as we say in the real estate business, time is of the essence, at least accord- ing to Mr. Bill. ••• Prior to the carnage in San Bernardino, I started off the week in a quest for a subject worthy of local scrutiny, and then was blessed with the Tues- day columnist's effort. Whereas he has effectively dismissed D. Trump for his "lat- est self-created outrage," he ap- parently defends presidential contender Ben Carson as "being one of the world's foremost lead- ers in a highly specialized field of neurosurgery." In Carson's bi- ography we learn that he cer- tainly has been effective in his contribution to the rare field of separation of conjoined twins, a subject many don't even want to contemplate as we have sub- sequently learned that the sep- arations have often resulted in tragic results. But the real question regard- ing Ben Carson's vocation is, does it qualify him to run for President? As he admits, he is running "…because God is call- ing me to do it." As he is a Sev- enth Day Adventist, he holds several beliefs that go beyond conventional wisdom such as the Egyptian Pyramids being constructed by the Biblical pa- triarch Joseph for the storage of grain and that the earth is only thousands of years old as opposed to the scientific view of billions of years. We have also learned to question his ve- racity — i.e., the West Point in- vitation mis-rememberance — plus, as a practicing vegetar- ian, in the Vegetarian Times magazine decades ago, he ex- pressed certainty that meat eating would fade away by 2010. Therefore, one could con- clude that many of his beliefs do not enhance his run for the Presidency On the other hand, religious statements from charismatic candidates have not stopped citizens from voting for them in the past …and he does make an effective presentation. How- ever, one gets the feeling that he would be better off promot- ing the 10 inspirational books he has written than promoting, for example, world peace. ••• Nice and concise quote in The New Yorker: "Anyone who dares to look past the comedy of Don- ald Trump's surreal tweets and Ben Carson's end-times rumina- tions will notice the politics of perpetual fear is, in our times, the stuff of non-fiction." The latest on the highly con- troversial subject of global warming comes from a recent article in Scientific American. It states there is no cohesive, consistent alternative theory to human caused global warm- ing. Some blame global warm- ing on the sun, others on orbital cycles of other planets, others on ocean cycles, and so on. But there is a 97% expert consen- sus on the cohesive theory that is overwhelmingly supported by the scientific community. Whereas there have definitely been warming and cooling pe- riods on earth over the eons… this time around it appears the overwhelming evidence points to humans as the prime caus- ative agent. ••• Dave Roberts is off to a ques- tionable start as the new skip- per for the L.A. Dodgers. Ac- cording to the Daily News, af- ter being welcomed by Dodger greats such as Don Newcombe and Maury Wills, Dave, as the news conference concluded, "warmly grasped the head of the 89-year-old former pitcher Newcombe…who then passed out and was taken to a hospital by ambulance for further exam- ination." Easy does it, Dave. Speaking of baseball, it will be interesting to see how Dave Roberts handles Yasiel Puig, the Dodger outfielder who has great potential but questionable ma- turity. Knowing of the prob- lems he has created for the or- ganization, it is thought that he might send the combative Puig packing. If that happens, I sug- gest he be sent to a team man- aged by Dusty Baker. He would straighten the fellow out I bet. ••• Kid speak: The teacher asked Maria to find on the map North America. She did and then the teacher asked "Who discovered Amer- ica" and the class answered, "Maria!" When the teacher asked how Glen spelled crocodile he replied "K-R-O-K-O-D-I-A-L." She re- sponded "No that's wrong." Glen then said, "Maybe it's wrong but that's the way I spell it." When the teacher chastised Clyde with "Your composition on 'My Dog' is exactly the same as your brother's. Did you copy his?" Clyde replied, "No sir, it's the same dog." When she asked Donald the chemical formula for water, he said "HIJKLMNO," and when she replied "What are you talk- ing about?" Donald said, "Yes- terday you said it was H to O." 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 Another mass shooting, closer to home George Will The Human Snarl, aka Donald Trump, is leading polls here, where South Carolinians share the national consensus that, in Scott's mild words, "however it is today is not the way it should be." But it remains to be seen whether Republicans will vote for Trump while so warmly embracing the senator who is his stylistic antithesis. Scott is "an unbridled optimist" (his description) who thinks Republican chances in 2016 depend on whether their nominee is an "aspirational leader" or someone "selling fear." StateandNational Assemblyman James Gallagher, 2060 Talbert Drive, Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 895-4217, http://ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634Forest Ave.,Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879- 7424, senator.nielsen@ senate.ca.gov GovernorJerryBrown, State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916 445-2841, fax 916 558- 3160, governor@gover- nor.ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug LaMalfa, 507 Can- non House Office Build- ing, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415 393-0707, fax 415 393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700 Montgomery St., San Francisco 94111, 510 286-8537, fax 202 224-0454 Local Tehama County Su- pervisors, 527-4655 District1,SteveCham- blin, Ext. 3015 District 2, Candy Carl- son, Ext. 3014 District3,DennisGar- ton, Ext. 3017 District 4, Bob Wil- liams, Ext. 3018 District 5, Burt Bundy, Ext. 3016 Red Bluff City Man- ager, Richard Crabtree, 527-2605, Ext. 3061 CorningCityManager, John Brewer, 824-7033 YOUR OFFICIALS Robert Minch OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Friday, December 4, 2015 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6