Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/763026
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, 728Main St., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS Todayisthe46thbirth- day of my son, Cable Andrew Cornelius. If you are actually reading this col- umn you are likely asking yourself, "Who names their kid Cable?" While I would love to blame his mother, I have to ad- mit that naming the kid Ca- ble was my idea. Cable was born in 1970, and in 1970 his mother and I (especially me) were mostly foolish. We thought about naming our firstborn after me, but the wife's father's name was Bill, the wife's name is Billie, and my name is Bill—and hav- ing four Bills at the dinner ta- ble seemed a bit like overkill. Thus, we decided to go in the opposite direction, and give him a name that few, if any others, likely carried. As luck would have it, sometime in the fall of 1970 Billie and I went to a movie at the Rodgers Theater in Corn- ing. The movie we watched starred Jason Robards, and was titled "The Ballad of Ca- ble Hoag." The movie was to- tally forgettable; but in my mind we had hit the jackpot with the name Cable; and, as they say, the rest is history. The kid proudly carried that name until he reached the advanced age of four or five and started socializing with other human beings who were similar in age and social status. Suddenly he picked up additional names such as Ca- ble TV and Cable Car, with an occasional Cable Mable thrown in for good measure. Being wise and astute, Bil- lie and I sort of changed his name to Cabe instead of Cable and that works okay, except most people think it's a typo, and they call him Gabe in- stead of Cabe. The only folks who still refer to him as Cable are mostly close relatives or some of my work colleagues of the early '70s. While we sometimes think he is emotionally and psycho- logically scarred, his mother and I are pretty sure it has nothing to do with his name, whatever it is. Happy birth- day, Cable. We love you very much. •••• Speaking of birthdays, Billie had another one just this last Saturday. For some strange reason she would pre- fer that I not speak or write about it, so I won't. •••• I am a lucky man, because my wife loves to cook, and does it very well. I am also lucky because she keeps a re- ally clean home, and enjoys decorating. Every single hol- iday of the year is celebrated with some sort of holiday-re- lated shrine in the Cornelius household. When you reach the ad- vanced age my wife has now reached, you will find that you own pretty much every- thing there is to own. Compli- cating her particular situation is that her birthday is in De- cember, so not only does she receive stuff she really doesn't need from Santa Claus, she also receives crap she doesn't need for her birthday. Our closets, garage, attic and spare bedrooms are jam- packed with boxes and bins full of every store-bought and handcrafted do-dad and knick-knack ever made. Being the great husband that I am, I really do not mind if she engages in put- ting stuff up only to take it down a few days later. I do however get kind of dis- turbed when she requires my assistance in moving bins and boxes that are located higher than three feet off the ground, or weigh more than 10-12 pounds (all of them). My attitude is that I leave her alone to do her decorating, so it would be nice if she left me alone to watch my sports while napping on the coach. As one might imagine, this is the time of year the wife lives for. The prime time for home decorating begins with Halloween and ends on New Years Day. Every year around the first of October the wife brings out her Wizard of Oz charac- ters, along with various other witches, ghosts and goblins. She rolls out the hay bales and carves pumpkins until her poor little hands bleed. She makes sugar cookies and looks forward to trick-or- treating with her grandchil- dren. As soon as Halloween has ended, it is time to drag out pilgrims and Indians, and the colors and smells of Thanks- giving. It is at this time of year that she often wanders through the house, wear- ing an apron and humming a happy tune. It is Christmas, however, that most stirs her decorat- ing juices. For the past two weeks, she has absolutely worn me out by making me climb up into the attic, crawl under beds, and scrounge through multiple closets so that she might create her own personal winter wonderland. Visit our home this time of year, and you will find a to- tal of five Christmas trees of all shapes and sizes, the larg- est being a stately nine-foot, 1,200 light artificial beauty adorned with over 300 beau- tiful hand picked ornaments with a total appraised value exceeding the cost of our first home. You will find our family room bookshelves overflowing with photos of all four grand- children in their Christmas pajamas, taken every year for the past 12 years. You will find that every piece of flatware, every glass, every cup, every towel, and every roll of toilet paper in the house exudes Christmas and holiday cheer. You will find an exten- sive old time Christmas Vil- lage with churches and horse- drawn carriages and shops and people and dogs, all cour- tesy of Fran's Hallmark after- Christmas sales, circa 1990s. You will find that every nook and cranny of every room is decorated in a special unique way, and you will even find that a trip to the guest bathroom is a special trip in- deed. Most of all, you will find a couple of old folks who wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. •••• Check out the State The- atre Seat Replacement Pro- gram at www.statetheatrered- bluff.com. •••• Coming to the State The- atre: Dec. 16. North State Symphony 2016 Holiday Con- cert, sponsored by the Te- hama Concert Series. BillCorneliusisalifelong resident of Red Bluff, a retired Chief Probation Officer, a champion of the State Theatre and an exceptional athlete. He can be reached at bill. cornelius@sbcglobal.net. William Tells Wheredid the time go? Cartoonist's take "You almost got fired because your company had a holiday party? You're going to have to ex- plain." "Look, where I come from, we call holiday parties 'Christmas par- ties.' Nobody told me I was supposed to avoid anything relating to our country's Christ- mas tradition." "What did you do?" "Well, the owners of my com- pany threw our holiday party af- ter work one evening. Thanks to me and the boys in the sales department, the adult bever- ages were flowing. That's when the Human Resources director threatened to can me." "You were unaware that many organizations no longer serve al- coholic beverages due to liability issues and the fact that some re- ligions and cultures are offended by the consumption of alcohol?" "That's right. As far as I was concerned, we were having a normal Christmas party. That's why I brought a Christmas tree." "You didn't." "Look, I figured everybody would love it, but HR threatened to fire me if I didn't remove it. HR said I was creating a hostile work environment by being in- sensitive to people of other faiths — that even though the Supreme Court ruled that a Christmas tree is a secular symbol, the only acceptable tree would be a 'diver- sity tree' that represented every- body's point of view. But then I got into trouble again." "What did you do next?" "Well, me and the boys in sales had gotten pretty well oiled before HR took our hooch away, and we love to sing when we're liquored up. We started sing- ing Christmas carols like 'Silent Night,' 'Hark! The Herald Angels Sing' and 'The First Noel.' We were working our way through the 'Hallelujah Chorus' when HR called me in again and com- plained that the Christmas car- ols we sang were offensive to members of the staff who were non-Christians. She said I'd bet- ter knock it off or she'd process my pink slip." "You didn't knock it off, though, did you?" "Nope. You see, me and the boys in sales slipped outside to have a few more snorts of whis- key, and when we got back, one of the hottest ladies in Account- ing walked into the room. You wouldn't believe some of the clothing she wears to work — or, to be more precise, the clothing she doesn't wear." "Please don't tell me there was mistletoe." "How'd you guess? The boys bet me 20 bucks I could coax her under the mistletoe and give her a little peck. Silver-tongued devil that I am, I began commenting on how great she looked in her scanty duds when — " "HR threatened to fire you?" "Bingo. The Accounting babe dresses like a pop star and I'm the one who gets into trouble for commenting on her lack of cloth- ing? I don't get it." "I read about similar Christ- mas office-party woes in sev- eral news reports. As our work- force has become more diverse — Americans have so many dif- ferent social styles, religions and points of view these days — more companies are no longer sure how to handle Christmas events." "My company handled it by taking all the fun out of Christ- mas." "Well, in our lawsuit-crazy world, companies are afraid to serve alcohol. And their fear of being insensitive to people of di- verse faiths and points of view is the reason many are abandon- ing traditional Christmas par- ties in favor of dull, generic, day- time events. Though you have to admit you were awfully boor- ish and brash at your Christmas party." "I admit it. But me and the boys in sales have been boor- ish and brash every year. It's just that nowadays, HR will threaten to fire you for it." Tom Purcell, author of "Misadventures of a 1970s Childhood" and "Wicked Is the Whiskey," a Sean McClanahan mystery novel, both available at Amazon.com, is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist. Send comments to Tom@TomPurcell.com. Tom Purcell Office Christmas spirit runs afoul of political correctness My attitude is that I leave her alone to do her decorating, so it would be nice if she left me alone to watch my sports while napping on the coach. Bill Cornelius Tom Purcell A major threat to liberty is the assault on the right to discuss po- litical issues, seek out alternative information sources and promote dissenting ideas and causes such as non-interventionism in foreign and domestic affairs. If this on- going assault on free speech suc- ceeds, then all of our liberties are endangered. One of the most common as- saults on the First Amendment is the attempt to force public pol- icy organizations to disclose their donors. Regardless of the intent of these laws, the effect is to sub- ject supporters of controversial causes to harassment, or worse. This harassment makes other po- tential donors afraid to support organizations opposing a popular war or defending the rights of an unpopular group. Many free speech opponents support laws and regulations for- bidding activist or educational organizations from distributing factual information regarding a candidate's positions for several months before an election. The ban would apply to communica- tions that do not endorse or op- pose any candidate. These laws would result in the only sources of information on the candidate's views being the campaigns and the media. Recently the Federal Elec- tion Commission (FEC) rejected a proposal to add language ex- empting books, movies, and streaming videos from its regula- tions. The majority of FEC com- missioners apparently believe they should have the power, for example, to ban Oliver Stone's bi- ography of Edward Snowden, since it was released two months before the election and features clips of Hillary Clinton and Don- ald Trump discussing Snowden. The latest, and potentially most dangerous, threat to the First Amendment is the war on "fake news." Those leading the war are using a few "viral" Inter- net hoaxes to justify increased government regulation — and even outright censorship — of In- ternet news sites. Some popular websites, such as Facebook, are not waiting for the government to force them to crack down on fake news. Those calling for bans on "fake news" are not just trying to cen- sor easily-disproved Internet hoaxes. They are working to cre- ate a government-sanctioned "gatekeeper" (to use Hillary Clin- ton's infamous phrase) with the power to censor any news or opinion displeasing to the po- litical establishment. None of those wringing their hands over fake news have expressed any concern over the fake news sto- ries that helped lead to the Iraq War. Those fake news stories led to the destabilizing of the Mid- dle East, the rise of ISIS, and the deaths of millions. The war on "fake news" has taken a chilling turn with efforts to label news and opinion sites of alternative news sources as ped- dlers of Russian propaganda. The main targets are critics of US in- terventionist foreign policy, pro- ponents of a gold standard, crit- ics of the US government's sky- rocketing debt, and even those working to end police militari- zation. All have been smeared as anti-American agents of Russia. Just last week, Congress passed legislation creating a spe- cial committee, composed of key federal agencies, to counter for- eign interference in U.S. elec- tions. There have also been calls for congressional investigations into Russian influence on the elections. Can anyone doubt that the goal of this is to discredit and silence those who question the mainstream media's pro-welfare/ warfare state propaganda? The attempts to ban "fake news;" smear antiwar, anti-Fed- eral Reserve, and other pro-lib- erty movements as Russian agents; and stop independent or- ganizations from discussing a politician's record before an elec- tion are all parts of an ongoing war on the First Amendment. All Americans, no matter their po- litical persuasion, have a stake in defeating these efforts to limit free speech. Ron Paul is a former Congressman and Presidential candidate. He can be reached at the RonPaulInstitute.org. Ron Paul War on 'fake news' part of war on free speech OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Wednesday, December 14, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4