Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/797829
In statistics, there is a phenomenon called "reversion to the mean or regression to the mean"; this states that the next measured variate will deviate far less from the aver- age, or, in other words "an extreme event is likely to be followed by a less extreme event." Wehavecertainlyseenthat phenomenon demonstrated by the Tweeter in Chief this last week. He went from the extreme of fi- nally begin- ning to sound adult and al- most presiden- tial to revert- ing to his aver- age behavior, and even mean behavior in another sense, on Twitter. He also had a temper tantrum with his staff because his At- torney General had overshad- owed him in the news; the AG had the gall to recuse himself despite the fact Boss Tweet said publicly that he didn't have to do that. So now the whole world sees our President as a juve- nile. Trump's behavior pattern has been consistent over the years; he was a vocal member of the "birther movement" accusing Barack Obama of not being born in the United States. He has attacked Ar- nold Schwarzenegger and gloated when he left Tweets' signature show, The Appren- tice. He has ranted about "fake news." Now he accuses his predecessor of wiretap- ping Tweet Tower. The world must wonder if he understands being Presi- dent does not require focus- ing on these kinds of items. One wonders what he will do if North Koreas contin- ues to be provocative, or probably more importantly to him, more revelations are made about his financial dealings like the recent re- port on his luxury hotel deal in Azerbaijan, or the emol- uments he allegedly has re- ceived from China since be- ing elected. I hope he does not react voluminously to very dignified looking post- ers in downtown New York; those posters quote the words he uttered about approaching women and reaching for in- timate parts of their bodies; the poster attributes those to the President of the United States. I hope he doesn't go ballistic. ••• Driving up and down I-5 I noticed that Assemblyman James Gallagher, who cam- paigned for governmental re- sponsibility, has not taken the responsibility for remov- ing his election signs along the highway. Gallagher is no intellectual slouch, he grad- uated from UC Berkeley and then was top of his class at UC Davis Law School. Speaking of politicians, our less than articulate Congress- man Doug La Malfa contin- ues to ignore calls for a true open house or public meet- ing in our county. He must be afraid of something, or just too busy; most likely he is trying to figure out why the Speaker of the House has rushed the maybe affordable care act without specific in- put from the Congressional Budget Office. As our Presi- dent has said, "nobody knew how complicated health care is." ••• On a brighter note, we had a wonderful time at the open house to mark the opening of a new art center in the clas- sic old bank building on Main Street. There were lots of good photographs, paintings, pottery, unique woodwork and furniture. Many of the artists were there to share their work, and the crowd was friendly. This center could be a draw for people, and will contribute to the re- vitalization of the downtown. It will be open on Thurs- days, Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. You should drop by. ••• We drove down I-5 as the sun was coming up; the ef- fect of the rising sun, the fully blossomed trees and the ground covered with pale blossom petals was eerie, al- most ghost like. On the way home, we drove by an orchard in full bloom with bright yel- low flowers on the ground. I wished I had brought my camera. We are blessed with the beauty around us all year round. JoeHarropisaretired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. JoeHarrop Odds and ends and reversion to the mean Reactiontocolumnist Editor: Regarding Susan Stamper- Brown's column. Wow, what a rant in her column "Bullies with a Russian fetish," which ran in Friday's Red Bluff Daily News. I hope it relieves her frustration with the ever-widening news of Russian ties to the Trump Cam- paign and the President's admin- istration. Can't stop the news. It just keeps coming. Perhaps she can take the ad- vice of some Trump supporters who say that the election is over, he won, stop whining and just get over it. I personally believe that both sides have some hypoc- risy. So, bringing up the Obama era stuff will only cause her to be frustrated some more. Another suggestion is some- thing she or I personally can't bring about — namely that Pres- ident Trump releases his tax re- turns to the appropriate Con- gressional committee to review. If there is nothing sinister, noth- ing further would be released to the public. If it is innocuous, such as not as rich as claimed, or lots of debt, no harm, no foul. However, if there are serious problems such as definite Rus- sian ties or other clear conflicts of interest, the voters and all of Congress should know, don't you think? I personally believe that all the denying fits into the "where there is smoke, there's fire" ad- age. He should clear this up, in- stead of denying, otherwise his administration will be crippled, and his critics will get louder. — Marilyn Zimmer, Red Bluff Multi second language de- emphasis has occurred in middle and high school Editor: A Jan. 20 Daily News article reviewed the single language Spanish immersion program at Sacred Heart school versus the range of languages formerly of- fered in schools. Our parents in the 1915 era had only Latin, German and English language classes. My 1950s high school of- fered Latin, German and af- ter school Spanish. Our four children, in the 1970s era had the option of Latin, German, French, Russian and Spanish. Today, most California pub- lic schools offer only the pri- mary native language of Span- ish and English as a second language. The total immersion pro- gram, between the junior and senior summer of high school, for our four children, was one in Germany, one in France and two in Mexico. The Indi- ana Honors Program for High School students Spanish pro- gram is now in Spain because of the Mexico drug war risks. Each benefited from their language immersion skills, during their work careers, as will those who are fortunate to have dual immersion stud- ies in grade school. The 10 weeks of total immersion, with 30 other Hoosier kids in each program, was highly success- ful because no English was al- lowed by the student, the host family, or the country of lan- guage daytime teachers. Each spent their senior year, fifth year in their primary second language, tutoring others in the language. My work career languages encountered, on about 100 global business trips, were Jap- anese, Chinese, French, Ger- man, Portuguese and Spanish. Although I had taken Latin, French and Japanese classes, post college, the lack of total immersion did not allow flu- ency. A Spanish total immersion class several years ago at age 75 for 40 hours, with no Eng- lish allowed, was valuable only for a rudimentary conversa- tion, as the immersion was only for one week of 8-hour daily classes at a local univer- sity. It is unfortunate that Span- ish, the current primary lan- guage of a majority in many cities, is not joined by immer- sion classes in European, Mid- dle East or Asian languages. We have on many occasions told our children while they were learning other languages, that a language is only the method of communication. A major degree in a marketable skill set is needed with that language skill. — Joseph Neff, Corning Corn beef and cabbage Editor: I'm sitting at the table eat- ing corn beef and cabbage, I stumble upon having too much baggage on me, for I see when I eat corn beef and cab- bage you get packages of green beans that St. Patrick sent for you, which is very odd, for I listen to music on my iPod. My body senses the smell of leprechauns, who bring sham- rocks instead of chicken pox. I have socks that say "Kiss me I'm Irish." I don't fish for corn beef and cabbage, for if it was in my baggage it would be- come rotten, for I put the got- ten in the sunlight hoping that it would fly like a kite. I don't see the shamrock in sight but it's very hard for peo- ple to eat corn beef and cab- bage. — Tesia Coleman, Red Bluff Your opinions Cartoonist's take Whoever said that a week in politics can be a lifetime was living so far in the past, they probably have a drawer full of sock garters. To- day, in the Land of Trump, that time frame has been compressed to an hour. And consid- ering the stormy week we just sur- vived, every one of us ought to have grey hair, be eligible to col- lect three or four social security checks and have all our earthly possessions catalogued in a liv- ing will. Instead of luxuriating in the rave reviews following his speech to Congress that the 45th Presi- dent recited in his newly discov- ered indoor voice, the adminis- tration immediately began reel- ing from rolling disclosures that various members of his staff met with Russians during the cam- paign, the transition and in their dreams. The revelations accentuating the perception of collusion be- tween members of Trump's in- ner circle and our Cold War op- ponents gained a potency that ex- ceeded peppered vodka spiked with Siberian methamphet- amine, and started spilling out like pods of Russian nesting dolls turned upside down. The U.S. attorney general, Jef- ferson Beauregard Sessions III (meaning there were two other guys named Jefferson Beaure- gard Sessions, which is fright- ening enough), recused himself from all investigations, because Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III investigating Jefferson Beau- regard Sessions III would look weird and be way too confusing. Turns out when he said under oath in his confirmation hearing that "I didn't have any meetings with the Russians," what the for- mer Alabama Senator meant to say was he didn't have any meet- ings with the Russians except a couple, that we really don't need to know about, and should keep our noses out of his personal business, dammit. Which is per- sonal. His business, that is. Then a couple more Trumpian underlings remembered they might have, perhaps, met some folks, nice people, who could have been foreigners, and seemed vaguely Russianish, maybe in Cleveland or one of those other rusting Midwestern cities. Or was it Miami? The big question now is how high do the Russian connec- tions go? In other words what did Trump know and when did he know he knew it? To put it an- other way, what didn't he know and who knows that he knew he didn't know and why? Or does he even know that what he didn't know he knew was unknowable at the time, which is now? And most importantly, who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men. The Shadow knows. Especially curious is the fact that Trump insults everybody: the media, the judiciary, the in- telligence community, Meryl Streep, Nordstrom, people who prefer vinegar based coleslaw, but never Vladimir Putin. Which is as suspicious as an AK- 47 with a smoking barrel in your crisper bin. Trump still refuses to admit it was the Russians that hacked the Democratic National Com- mittee. "Maybe it was a 400 pound fat guy on a couch." Hate to see Chris Christie get thrown under the bus like that. Can't be too good for the bus either. Sad. In order to deflect attention from his Russian connection, Donald J. Trump then shocked the world by alleging he had just been told that Barack Obama had bugged Trump Tower. Or perhaps we misunderstood. Af- ter all, Donald Trump is a child of the '60s. Maybe what he meant to say was "Don't you get it man? I don't dig that black cat. Barack Obama is heavy-duty bugging me, man." Will Durst is an award- winning, nationally acclaimed columnist, comedian and former short haul truck diver of plaster molds. For a calendar of personal appearances, visit willdurst.com. Will Durst Russian nesting squalls in the Land of Donald Trump ChipThompson, Editor 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: Daily News 728Main St., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS Joe Harrop Will Durst OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, March 11, 2017 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4