Letters for April 21, 2011

Player haters

Re “Money, money” (Letters to the Editor, Feb. 24):

I happened to be at the Grand Sierra Resort when the Bassnectar concert happened. I’m a lady six decades beyond the current youth outlook. At first glance, I discerned many misrepresentations in the letter. This was a calculated smear to the establishment.

GSR is an entertainment business. The hall is rented out to various groups. At that point, it was rented to Bassnectar, which happened to have a very different genre of music. Neither the concert nor the GSR could be condemned under the rubric of American capitalistic culture.

Youth exuberance has existed from time immemorial. The youth always demonstrated excitement, ravishment and melodramatic behavior at concerts of the music they loved. In my estimation, a different kind of music should not be unnecessarily attached to the drug culture of today.

This is a pity that the writer blatantly associates youth entertainment with capitalism, chaos, drug overdoses, violence and alcohol.

Doris Moss
Reno

Tax mining

Why is it that Texas and Alaska collect money for the removal of mineral wealth from their state and Nevada can’t? The oil revenue that Texas collects goes directly to their university system that is one of the best in the world. It supports their university hospital system making health care basically free to any who seek it. On the other hand, Alaska provides each of its residents with an annual check of $1,000 or more. By contrast, Nevada should collect $100 to $200 an ounce for its mineral wealth, gold specifically (which is worth $1,300 to $1,400 an ounce), that is taken by foreign-owned gold companies out of state for their own profit. Nevada collects more from car rental revenues than the gold mining concerns, and the car rental agencies are American-owned, while the gold companies are not. Why can’t such gold revenue be collected and directly applied to the university and K-12 school systems, as well as to the state’s Medicare shortfall, freeing up money for other concerns or reduced property taxes to Nevadans? It is inconceivable that such a revenue source goes untapped while the state suffers. If, indeed, a successful higher education system is essential to attracting new business that will provide well paying jobs, why are we contemplating a cut of drastic proportions to this vital system and raising tuition that will make it less likely that the Nevada students go to college? Legislators, show some fortitude and turn back all lobbyists’ attempts to dissuade you from doing the right and reasonable thing. Take Nevada’s share of these windfall foreign-owned gold company profits.

Gary Norris

Jerry Purdy
Reno

Bye, bye American pie

We feudal vassals, who cannot afford decent health care during our terminal years, have just tithed the IRS, knowing that the Teapublican Party, and, regrettably, some Democrats, with the Koch Bros’ blessing, will probably confiscate it or spend it on the Cheney-Bush-Obama illegal wars of choice. Psychopaths exhibit amoral, antisocial, asocial, psychopathic and sociopathic personalities. These people have no genuine concern for our Democratic Republic, and are blithely ravaging our educational, medical, social, etc., systems. They are speciously claiming to be paying off debt, which grew greatly with the Cheney-Bush wars of choice and the stupid tax reductions for the richest Americans. We Democrats want to regain the quality of life our nation slowly and painfully acquired since its inception. Womens’ reproductive and other rights must be maintained, as well as workers’ bargaining rights. A possibly healthful environment is under attack, and the reality of global warming is being denied and ignored.

Walden and Betty Joura
Reno

Does this still work?

I am Dessy Yovo, personal attorney to late Mr. Hendrik (my client) from your country who was a gold merchant here in Republic of Benin. On 24 July 2006, my client lost his life as a result of brain cancer, as confirmed by a medical specialist who was taking care of his illness for over six months before his death. I have contacted you so that you can help to repatriate the funds left behind by my client before they get confiscated or declared not-serviceable by the bank.

My client had an account valued at US$ 6,000,000.00 (SIX Million U.S Dollars). Now I seek your consent to present you to the bank so that the proceeds of my client can be paid to your account. Reply after reading this message so that I will tell you how we can proceed on the claim, and let me have the following information for more details;

Your age
Full name and address
Office and home telephone numbers
Occupation and position:

Kindly call me upon receipt of my mail for a brief discussion and further directive.

Barrister Dessy Yovo
Benin

A tree falls

Re “Tax fairness comes first” (Editorial, April 14):

I appreciate any criticism or feedback on the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada’s work to create more humane solutions to Nevada’s problems. We’re always looking for ways to sharpen our focus and increase our power. But your laying blame for Nevada’s regressive tax structure at our feet is unwarranted.

Our comprehensive tax reports, prepared by leading economists for the 2003 and 2009 Legislative sessions, were all over the regressive nature of Nevada’s tax system. If you look at our website, you can see the lead-in to one of our reports goes to the heart of your criticism:

The Fool’s Gold: The Silver State’s Tax Structure: Inadequate and Inequitable (2009) report details the fundamental unfairness of the existing tax system to poor and working families, while giving tax breaks to big companies and wealthy individuals. It also examines and evaluates a variety of more equitable tax policies which would allow the state government to raise the funds to support schools, infrastructure, and essential services. … If Nevada’s tax system had a motto, it might be “soak the poor.”

Our campaigns on mining and corporate taxes have been based on the premise that while low and moderate income Nevadans pay 8.5 percent of their income in taxes to Nevada, mining and big box retailers pay zero.

That’s hardly the “trees in the forest” approach you suggest.

Bob Fulkerson
Reno

We get it

Re “Play with fire” (Art of the State, April 14):

Even though I have been dead now for just over two decades, and even though I am always happy to see my work performed outside of my Alpine homeland, I could not help being troubled by your review’s continual misspelling of the title character of my play (10 times no less!) currently at the Brüka Theatre. The protagonist’s name is not “Beidermann” but rather “Biedermann,” and, yes, the transposition of the vowels makes a difference. The German noun “Biedermann” denotes a respectable, upright, true-hearted person; hence, the irony in much of the play.

My friend here in “Dichterhimmel” (“poets’ heaven”), Samuel Beckett, is concerned that you will print his drama incorrectly as “Waiting for God-oh!” and thereby blow the punchline to his work as well. We haven’t told Strindberg about this issue, since he gets apoplectic so easily. And don’t get us started on Goethe and Chekhov!

Max Frisch
The Great Beyond

Editor’s note: We regret any confusion this spelling might have caused. “Beidermann” was the spelling used in materials by Brüka Theatre.