Letters for May 31, 2012

You have to wonder

Re “Travus T. Hipp 1937-2012” (Upfront, May 24):

Well, a timely well-written remembrance/obit honoring the positive energy of a unique tribal elder. While Dave McQueen remained comfortably numb at all-news KCBS and Scoop Nisker got Cumulus consolidated, when Ace Young and Paraquat Kelly seemed to just fade away and radiate, Chandler Laughlin III kept on keeping on, analyzing and commenting on the “hip” travesties all around him.

Sometimes you might have wondered about the source of enlightened outspokenness on the X or on the Pig on the Radio, and now you can be sure that the outrageous insights were emanating from a Silver City church and a Red Dog Cabale Creamery alumnus who, these days, is sorely missed.

Rich Zimmerman
San Francisco

Kinda hipp

Re “Travus T. Hipp 1937-2012” (Upfront, May 24):

I visited the Grand Sierra Resort this afternoon and noted a few changes.

I went to play nickel keno and enjoy a beer. I sat at a machine that was next to a large, cleared area that was square with a low fence around it. For some reason, it reminded me of a corral, and the employed walking around it seemed like a herd walking off the farm food with a few laps around the OK Corral.

I am sure it was just my perception today. Felt a little off! More importantly, I made an observation in the bathroom that I thought should be looked at further in the restrooms next to the cashier. The floor is black and shiny and has an excellent reflection of any stall inhabitants and what they are doing. I could be thinking wrong, again. Mentioned last but observed first were these new lampshades that looked like they were made of big loops of oversized cash register tape. Tell all your friends. They are to die for.

In memory of my friend Travus T. Hipp from the Comstock to the waterfront of Sausalito where this Gate 5 girl tied up her skiff. Then back again. Love you.

Sharon Elser
Reno

Darn it!

Re “The secret life of Google” (Feature story, May 24):

This was a great and informative article. The Google campus is an amazing place, and I’ve enjoyed visiting there as well.

Just a minor correction, though: SpaceShipOne is not a NASA vehicle. It was designed by Burt Rutan/Scaled Composites and Mojave Aerospace Ventures, and is notable primarily for being the first successful privately funded manned spacecraft.

Rutan went on to design SpaceShipTwo with Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, who plan to start offering private tourism to suborbital space after the craft has undergone flight and safety tests.

D.J. Tilley
Reno

Use your freedom of voice

Re “Mic check” (Arts & Culture, May 24):

The producers, sponsors and fans of News and Views would like to thank the Reno News & Review for taking the time and dedicating the space to showcase Northern Nevada’s diversity of podcasts.

Collectively, we take this medium—talking into a microphone and recording it with a computer and putting it on the internet—seriously, both as a venue for entertaining banter and as a place for the exercise of free speech.

So, while we indeed discuss “Otterpops and the benefits of Taco Bell while drunk,” as described in the News & Review’s article, we also like to think we do a good job profiling an evolving culture in Reno, with interviews of guests who are helping craft that future. And in that effort, we challenge convention, calling the city’s powers-that-be to the carpet, as with our recent discussion of the city’s proposed food truck ordinance. (Reno City Council member Dave Aiazzi accurately described this conversation as “reductive.”)

Listeners of News and Views come for the discussions of things like the hell that is the parking lot at Whole Foods, or even our popular segment “Letters From Scott Walquist,” but they stay because they believe in freedom … and isn’t freedom what it’s all about?

Jim Scripps and Ryan Jerz
Reno

No hate from conservatives

Re “Hate that” (Letters to the Editor, May 24):

I will ask Craig Bergland a question regarding his letter attacking conservative views: Can you cite one example of a hateful letter or opinion that backs up your premise of hateful commentary by conservatives?

I have asked this of numerous writers in the past and have yet to ever receive a response. Whenever I have written to this newspaper’s letter to the editor section I have always given my email address and will do so again below.

I am not claiming that no conservative has ever written a letter or voiced an opinion that could be described as hateful, but compared to the liberal progressives there is no rational comparison.

I will state that at least in this newspaper the opinions offered by its readers are usually without the usual venom expressed by so many liberal progressives throughout the media.

Your quote of “By your good deeds ye shall be known. Not by your bank balance,” is something we should all keep in mind. Below is an excerpt from a Thomas Sowell Nov. 28, 2006, column:

“A new book, titled Who Really Cares by Arthur C. Brooks examines the actual behavior of liberals and conservatives when it comes to donating their own time, money or blood for the benefit of others. It is remarkable that beliefs on this subject should have become conventional, if not set in concrete, for decades before anyone bothered to check these beliefs against facts. What are those facts? People who identify themselves as conservatives donate money to charity more often than people who identify themselves as liberals. They donate more money and a higher percentage of their incomes. It is not that conservatives have more money. Liberal families average 6 percent higher incomes than conservative families. You may recall a flap during the 2000 election campaign when the fact came out that Al Gore donated a smaller percentage of his income to charity than the national average. That was perfectly consistent with his liberalism. So is the fact that most of the states that voted for John Kerry during the 2004 election donated a lower percentage of their incomes to charity than the states that voted for George W. Bush. Conservatives not only donate more money to charity than liberals do, conservatives volunteer more time as well. More conservatives than liberals also donate blood. According to Professor Brooks: ‘If liberals and moderates gave blood at the same rate as conservatives, the blood supply of the United States would jump about 45 percent.’ Professor Brooks admits that the facts he uncovered were the opposite of what he expected to find—so much so that he went back and checked these facts again, to make sure there was no mistake.”

Perhaps a more “liberal” research into the facts and history of these opinions could enlighten you and the many others who tend to spout this sort of nonsense.

Fred Speckmann
Reno

Editor’s note: We don’t provide letter-writers’ emails to the public.