Letters for March 18, 2010

That’ll be $500

Here it is election time again! Now we will see signs all over the place and have to hear the same ads over and over again! But really what upsets me the most is the losers on the Sparks City Council are running again. I mean, really? Do Martini, Schmitt, Carrigan have no life that they want to die on the City Council? You cannot tell me they have any new or fresh ideas to bring to the table? Are they that power hungry, or is it about the money from some of the people that keep them in office, like the Lazy 8 project? There is one guy running for mayor, and I think he should get the backing from everyone, and that person is Gene Newhall. Yes, he has run before and came close to winning but, like Carrigan said after the last elections, if it was not for the big bucks from some of their supporters he and Martini would have never won.

Newhall wants to help the seniors, wants to help the Humane Society. He has fresh ideas on where to cut and yes there are places to cut! Plus he thinks the fire department should stay Sparks only and not be included into Reno or Washoe County. Anyway, I have a challenge for Martini, Schmitt or even Carrigan: Why not do the right thing and drop from the elections while you can hold your heads up high. Keep going and all you are going to do is make fools of yourselves.

Beth McBride
Sparks

Born au naturel

Re “She’s having a baby” (Feature story, March 11):

Thank you for sharing your pregnancy experience and congrats on a natural childbirth! These days, pregnancy and childbirth are becoming so medically oriented that women are starting to believe they have little control and cannot give birth without intervention. Though we can all be grateful for the advances of medicine in emergency and special pregnancy situations, it is a shame that so many procedures and interventions—with serious potential complications—are now commonplace. Childbirth is not a medical emergency, despite what mainstream media would have us believe. Women should do themselves and their babies a service by researching their options. We have an amazing variety of childbirth advocates with different specialties in the Reno area. Just to name a few, there are Lynn Anderson, midwife; Sherry Asp, midwife and doula; Tiffany Hoffman, doula, midwife-in-training and prenatal massage therapist; Mandy Colbert, hypnotherapist and prenatal yoga teacher; Jimi Francis and Robin Hollen, lactation consultants. If you are pregnant, do yourself and your baby a major favor and get in touch with any or all of these people.

It would be a fantastic feature for RN&R to highlight these amazing local professionals and the women who have used their services.

Miranda Crown
Reno

All her fault

Re “Abusing Reid” (Upfront, March 4):

Harry Reid was factual when he said unemployment causes husbands to abuse their wives. Harry didn’t explain why.

I was out of work constantly. Scratch my first marriage.

My new wife came home from work one day, as I sat, unemployed, enjoying Days of Our Lives and my 15th can of beer. She stormed into the bedroom without a word, and locked the door. The next morning her boss called because Susan was late for work.

“I want to talk to Susan, now,” he said.

We had a loving confrontation, and I learned that her boss was becoming fond of her.

I think the root cause of the abuse is not the husband’s unemployment but the wife’s employment. Nevada’s spousal abuse rate is 40 percent, and the divorce rates are 15 times higher than any other state. After World War II, wives everywhere entered the workplace. The divorce rate skyrocketed.

Nevada is populated with wimpy “heads of the household” who think they’re macho, and for whom working wives have zero respect.

The Bible describes the husband as the head of the wife and the wife as obedient and submissive. In other words, “Honey, you don’t work for anyone but me.”

John Reese
via email

Put it in a Peepoo

Re “GOP candidates: Bring waste to Nevada” (News, March 11):

Great story on GOP candidates inviting nuclear waste to Nevada! Activists and the state fought collectively for 23 years to keep wastes out of the state, and this new breed of politicians, with complete lack of perception, aim to undo all we’ve worked for. Twenty-three years ago perhaps they were still in elementary school, but they obviously need a quick course in recent Nevada history.

Thanks for reporting Greg Jaczko’s comment regarding the myth that the French have solved their nuclear waste problem. The fact is that the French haven’t solved their nuclear waste problem. And a myth within a myth is that the problem can be solved at all. My personal take on the matter is that the French were merely following the U.S. lead. Now that the United States is no longer leading, look for long delays in France’s and Sweden’s and Finland’s scheduled geologic repository openings (2025, 2020, and 2022 respectively).

Ron Bourgoin
Rocky Mount, N.C.

Junk mail sucks

Re “It’s in the mail” (Greenspace, March 11):

I wonder that you don’t include some mention of the very un-green effects of subsidized postal rates for junk mail. The postal system used to have a very good, green policy: You could write “refused—return to sender” on such mail, and the sender had to pay first-class postage to take it back. Great incentive to take unwilling recipients off the mailing list. That rule was abolished, and now they have no such incentive. I am getting tons of junk mail from senders I have asked repeatedly to remove me from their lists. Again, very un-green. The great majority of snail mail I get these days is of this variety.

Susan Lloyd
Reno

Bob, angry?

Re “Bible stud” (Film, Jan. 21):

I went to see this movie [The Book of Eli] last night, and I came home to check out some of the reviews and try to understand why “the critics” did not like it so much and only gave it 2 stars. Your review was the first one I read.

Your remarks about Robertson and Cameron are inappropriate in a movie review. I don’t want to read about your personal political/religious opinions. I just want to get your professional take on the movie. Did it work or not? Your review was neither professional nor significant. It seemed more like an angry outburst from a frustrated teenager. I’m sorry I wasted my time reading it. But I am glad I saw the movie. I give it 4 out of 5!

Don Wolf
via email

Water wrongs

Re “Water grab damned by PLAN” (Greenspace, March 11):

The legislators that chose not to give in to the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s effort to do an end run around the Nevada Supreme Court will be glad that they did not when the Watergrab-gate story breaks. For less money, now that the cost of desalination has dropped, SNWA could build offshore desalination plants and provide Californians water in exchange for a bigger allotment of the Colorado River. No pipeline, no environmental destruction, and no economic devastation to rural Nevada. The almost $80 million that SNWA spent on overpriced ranches in rural Nevada has been wasted. Oh, by the way, one of those who was on the board of SNWA back when the money was wasted was candidate for governor Rory Reid.

Rick Spilsbury
McGill