Letters for June 3, 2010

Check your brain

Re “Hoodwinked” (Film, May 20):

Thank you for trashing Robin Hood. My wife and I actually walked out after about 90 minutes. Why waste any more of my time? You should have taken them more to task for such a pathetic effort. I watch this, and I’m amazed at how you can assemble a talented cast and have all that money, and nobody ever questions how bad the script is during the filming. It’s as if they said, “Let’s do a movie about Robin Hood, but we’re going to throw out everything that anyone ever did about Robin Hood (except for some characters’ names), and we’ll make up something completely different. But we’ll still call it Robin Hood.” I thought it couldn’t get any worse than Costner’s version, but it literally was the worst, most boring, dreadfully written movie ever. It’s on my list of 10 worst movies now. Yes, it bumped Costner’s Robin Hood off. Now it’s up there with Costner’s The Postman.

If there is a worse scene than Max Von Sydow telling Robin about his dad, I can’t recall one right now. Max: “You dad was a stone mason. How do you feel about that?” Crowe: “Great. I feel great about that.” (Or something close.)

Are you kidding me? Don’t you think maybe the actors would have cracked up during the first take and asked, “Are we making a comedy? Or is this now the Dr. Phil Show?”

Dreadful. Just, dreadful. Written by a 10-year-old.

Phil Davis
via email

Lots to do

Re “What’s your fantasy?” (Streetalk, May 27):

Once again someone is whining, “If you’re not a gambling person, there’s not much to do here.” Following are among the many things to do in Reno: Skiing/snowboarding, ice skating, kayaking and inner tubing on the Truckee, hiking, horseback riding, bicycling, museums, planetariums, tennis, movies, Sparks Marina and The Legends, Summit and Meadowood malls, numerous special events, e.g. Hot August Nights, balloon and air races, Pioneer Theater/Broadway shows and, of course, classes and clubs of every type. I could go on to include Lake Tahoe and Virginia City activities. Also, one can enjoy casino shows and buffets without gambling. Duh!

M. Pedersen
Reno

Fire the illegals

Re “Boiling point” (News, May 27):

The one saying missing from this article was “Enforce the laws we have on the books now.” Ten years ago, I worked part-time for a major East Coast company with branches nationwide. They paid very well and were a great company to work for. They had gotten into trouble in one of their Southern branches and were fined a considerable amount of money for having illegals on their payroll, so they did a company and nationwide audit of all employees; if you did not prove you were here legally you were fired. Consequently we lost eight out of the 21 people in the department I was working in, which was a high percentage, but we persevered and got back to full strength within two weeks. The moral of the story is that, yes illegals are taking our jobs, but if you uphold the law, you will not be helping illegals.

Paul Rutt
Dayton

Blame Obama

Yes, Obama’s at fault for the slowness of the BP oil spill cleanup. What’d he do wrong? He listened to an oil company. He believed what they said and accepted their assurances. And here come the Republicans ready to set things right. The Republicans would never blindly follow the dictates of an oil company, would they? Or just swallow their assurances at face value? Of course not. So America can sleep better now, knowing that a political party that’s not afraid to take on Big Oil is waiting in the wings to save the day.

Martin Stiller
via email

Liberal hypocrisy

Re “Politicians need dollar sense” (East of Eden, May 27):

Will there ever come a time when instead of spouting your liberal biases, you can take a look at actual platforms? I’m more than willing to assume that both Democrats and Republicans speak sincerely on what they think is best for the state and country. I happen to believe that liberals are wrong most of the time, but I’m willing to listen to what members of both parties say, but most of all, what they do and how they vote.

Is it really impossible for you to consider that maybe, just maybe Congress spends too much rather than that we are not taxed enough? Can you not for one day stop demonizing the Tea Party or any other conservative group and their opinions?

A candidate of the party that you oppose wears black leathers when riding a motorcycle, what has that to do with her political positions?

Discuss some facts instead of describing Sue Lowden as being of “chickens for checkups fame.” Even a liberal like you, if intellectually honest, could understand the meaning behind an admittedly silly choice of words. The point Ms. Lowden was making is that medical cost can be negotiated with hospitals as an alternative to “National Health-care” that has already been proven to cost much more than predicted by the Obama administration.

To be against higher taxation is hardly a crime, and the majority of the population is beginning to understand that.

The fact that Canadian companies own much of the Nevada mining industry is simply because they chose to invest in Nevada, which creates jobs. No poor man has ever created a job and never will.

Fred Speckmann
Reno

Lowden stole vote

Three years ago, I was proud to be able to support Ron Paul in his bid for the presidency. I ran a caucus in Virginia City, was elected secretary of the Storey County Republican Party, and was also elected a precinct and county delegate. Full of the spirit of democracy, I attended the state GOP convention in April 2008. I hoped to be elected a state delegate and go to the national convention as a Ron Paul delegate. I met hundreds of people with the same political fervor as me at the convention. Like me, many had never attended a state convention and had spent lots of time and money to get there. The speech Ron Paul gave at the convention was exhilarating. His words had most of us on our feet applauding him. After a lot of preliminary “business” that went on for hours, we finally began to vote for delegates from our districts. When the first ballot box was counted, the Ron Paul delegates were winning. There was a huddle up on the dais. Sue Lowden, chair of the state GOP, spoke with Bob Beers, chair of the convention. All of a sudden Beers slammed down his gavel and closed the convention; no motion from the floor, no discussion, no vote, nothing. The lights and sound were turned off, and several hundred people got up and left the room. There was a panic in the dark. Lowden had stopped the delegate voting when it was apparent that she was not going to be able to deliver a delegation supporting McCain to the national convention. Ron Paul’s supporters were winning. Was the convention ever resumed? No! Were delegates ever elected? No! They were appointed by Lowden, and guess who they supported? McCain. What happened to the ballot boxes? They were left in the Peppermill’s safe for over a year because Lowden “couldn’t find the key.” When the boxes were finally opened, long after Obama’s election, who would Nevada have supported at the national convention? Ron Paul. Is Lowden a person who deserves your vote? You decide, but I’m voting for Sharron Angle.

Cynthia Kennedy
Virginia City