Letters to the editor, Oct. 29, 2015

Animal hoarding is a way to cope

I am writing today in response to your article about hoarding animals ("Animal hoarding often leads to social isolation," Oct. 15 View). It states how people use animals as security blankets. The person also feels as if they are helping the animals. To be totally honest, I adopted a dog from Happy Home Animal Sanctuary almost four years ago because I was so depressed. I felt alone and worthless. I now have three dogs. But let me explain something: Trying to get help is virtually impossible. Doctors tell women it is hormones; neurologists tell you bad things happen, pull up your big girl panties and deal with it; and work fires you because you miss work. What does one have left? That's right — their non-judgemental, unconditional loving pet. People don't hoard because they want to build a wall; they hoard because people built a wall around them.

— Janet Bowman, Las Vegas

Las Vegas should follow China's example on traffic incidents

I have offered the solution to this issue to Clark County, the Road Warrior, and all of these folks practice creative avoidance instead of simply and inexpensively solving the problem. China reduced all intersection accidents by more than 39 percent by simply placing a special clock type sign above the light about the size of a basketball score board. This clock turns green when the light turns green, then counts down the seconds before the light will turn red. It can be seen a quarter of a mile away, then it turns red, telling the driver how many seconds before the light will be green.

I Googled the sign company in China, and these things are reasonable.

But getting somebody off their dead butts to do something in this city is a joke. There is no motivation for someone to do something creative, even on a trial basis.

People in the U.S. have a bias against solutions to problems not invented here. We, as a result, develop complex solutions for simple problems, while the rest of the world and China, in particular, come up with simple solutions to simple problems.

An example: NASA spent $17 million to develop an anti-gravity pen for outer space. When a Russian cosmonaut was asked how they solved the problem, he held up a .05 cent pencil.

I really get annoyed when I read articles in the paper about "Report ranks Las Vegas fourth in red-light running cities" (Oct. 15 View).

Why don't you tell Las Vegas Traffic Engineer Mike Jamssen or Metro Traffic Lt. Leonard Marshall to call me? Because cameras and building exclusive left and right turn lanes and bus turnouts is too expensive and still won't slow drivers down.

This a warning to those guys. I'm going to find a TV station or politician with the guts to interview me on this issue, and by the time I'm through, every person who loses a life in an intersection will be after the heads of those who say, "Gee, that's interesting," but... .

Las Vegas would make national headlines by reducing these incidents by 39 percent by just using simple common sense.

— Pat Moore, Las Vegas