Letters for October 28, 2010

The big lie

Re “Angle offers no evidence for claim” (Upfront, Oct. 21):

It’s not surprising that Sharron Angle and her handlers/funders—start with Karl Rove of Crossroads—would dredge up old lies to accompany the new ones. Now we all wait with dread the repetition of the lies, probably in TV ads bought with their millions invested in Angle. This is the Rovian mind-control strategy starting with G. W. Bush’s first election: Get out the lies and distortions in the media, and repeat them often until listeners start to believe in them. And it works, as we who are calling and canvassing for the Nevada Democrats are witnessing by the feedback from Democrats, Republicans and independents. A good example of this was the Rove-led campaign against John McCain, stating he had a black child, when in fact his daughter is from India and was adopted. These sinister handlers and managers play loose and fast with the facts.

Trudy Miller
Reno

Vote for whom you want to win

Re “Fake votes” (Letters to the editor, Oct. 14):

I was concerned about the comment from last week’s writer about “Fake votes,” to the effect that votes for “none of these candidates” are not counted. I checked with Registrar of Voters Dan Burk. Here is his reply: “The ‘None of these Candidates’ category is counted, and the results are posted for each statewide contest—it only applies to statewide contests—but the winner of the contest for office can never be ‘None of these Candidates’ even if the ‘None of these Candidates’ selection gets more ballots than any candidate. The candidate with the highest number of votes is always declared the winner.”

Sheila Freed
Reno

Or just die

After listening to the debate several days ago between our two major-party senatorial candidates, I have been reflecting on what it might mean to “personalize” our health coverage and Social Security as well as the Veterans Administration. I am puzzled and distressed how anyone can consider such a step.

It means I would be personally responsible for my doctor and hospital bills and my prescriptions unless I or my employer—assuming I were employed!—could afford insurance. If I were one of the millions who would be on my own, how would I afford on my limited income to pay for the $1,200-to-$1,400 in medications I need each month to stay just comfortably healthy? Or would I have been forced to forgo the prostate surgery that saved my life?

And what of those of us who depend upon Social Security to meet basic daily needs of food and housing? Even paying a modest fee to receive advice on how to invest doesn’t guarantee all of us can afford such fees, nor that where we invest will always remain sufficient to sustain us.

What is said of health care and Social Security applies equally to the Veterans Administration. The vast majority of wounded, especially seriously wounded, service personnel are particularly unable to continue personally financing their medical needs.

I urge anyone who considers what is so euphemistically named “personalizing” to think much more realistically about what they propose.

James P. Edwards
Reno

Agreeable Christians

Re “First Amendment vs. First Commandment” (Feature story, Oct. 7):

It’s always funny to see how various Christian sects often try to project an image of agreement on the major tenets of their doctrines, but this 95 percent claim that Rev. Reed asserts is downright laughable, especially when he tries to be inclusive of Jews, many of whom considered Jesus to be a blasphemer and a false prophet. That’s classic! Of course, the many disagreements among Christian sects only serve to highlight the ambiguity of their own Holy Scriptures. This raises the larger question of why an omnipotent deity would intentionally communicate with such utter lack of clarity that intelligent believers with the most sincere of intentions would have such different scriptural interpretations, even to the extent that they would find it objectionable to worship in the same church. Like I said, it’s funny, but only when it doesn’t have an adverse impact on public life. Let’s keep religion behind the closed doors of the asylums we call “churches.”

Gary Marks
Sparks

Jobs for bureaucrats

For months now the media has been awash about folks losing their jobs. It is always distressing that someone willing to work is losing a job, whether in the public or private sector. There just aren’t enough to go around. Why? Well, there are lots of reasons.

First, let’s take a look at government. There are between 25 and 30 million government employees at all levels. The number varies depending on the inclusion of contract workers. Of these millions and millions, many have families. All get generous benefits, retirement and other perks. But, what do they produce?

Factor in the expense of buildings, computers, equipment and other stuff needed to support their work and don’t forget all the 10s of millions on public assistance, and you have an enormous bill to taxpayers.

Then, consider that there are over 500,000 elected officials nationwide, many get paid, have retirement plans and benefits.

One may ask if America is a free country, why are so many officials, bureaucrats, and government workers needed?

Now, let’s not forget the private sector or what’s left of it.

The United States has lost much of its industrial might to other countries; we have become pretty much a service society. In other words, we don’t make as much stuff as we used to, and you can’t have growth based on service and government alone.

If you think about it, one of the major reasons we have lost our economic edge is because of unreasonable union demands. How in the world do you compete with China when unions want less work and more pay for that reduced output?

The good old USA simply isn’t competitive.

What’s the solution?

Well, forget about government. If they actually knew what to do they would have done it already. The solution is to get government out of the way and to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit that made America great in the first place.

We need to create, and with all the laws, rules, regulations, and other restrictions this is almost impossible in the current environment

And yes, there is always hope, but hope doesn’t pay the rent. America needs action!

Bruce Feher
Las Vegas

Sparks arrester

It appears to me that political city “engineers” are having sewage flow problems on busy weekends near the upstream side of the new railroad trench, since several previous sewage lines were removed or altered to lower the railroad tracks through downtown Reno.

So, will new and bigger sewer lines be needed to carry the tourist overflow better toward Sparks from the three major casinos, downtown?

Or, will special “honey bucket” pumping contractors be needed to continue to solve the political stench and health problems in downtown Reno, forever?

At present, special “sewage collection trucks” can be seen behind the Eldorado Casino almost every Saturday night correcting the city sewage engineering problems.

James H. Armistead
Homeless in Reno