A giant octopus threatens rural Nevada
To the editor:
The Southern Nevada Water Authority's ongoing water grab for 187,000 acre feet and 240 miles of pipeline rights of way in eastern Nevada remind me of the classic movie "Tremors." This 1998 film was set in eastern Nevada. Residents discovered their valley to be infested with gigantic underground man-eating creatures with long tentacles. These people found a way to overcome these slimy subterranean critters.
The water authority has become a giant octopus. This water-loving predator has been heading north, extending its tentacles into almost every valley to satisfy its unending thirst for water.
The Nevada state engineer has granted 18,750 acre-feet annually to the authority in the Cave, Dry Lake and Delmar valleys. But Senior Judge Norman Robison was absolutely correct last month in sending this ruling back to the state engineer for further proceedings because of flaws in the analysis of available groundwater in the three valleys affected.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority should feel this "tremor."
CHARLES E. HANCOCK
RENO
What do we value?
To the editor:
Regarding your Wednesday editorial ("Religious freedom") about the Brittany McComb case, wherein Foothill High School officials turned off her microphone while she was giving her valedictorian speech:
I find it frustrating that the Supreme Court refuses to review such cases. By refusing to look closer at the McComb case, the court gives yet another school administration a win in its diminishment of free speech. One wonders if school officials would have turned off Ms. McComb's microphone had she been Muslim and not a Christian.
The sanctimonious ACLU took the side of the school district on this issue. The ACLU also takes the side of illegal aliens peddling smut on the Las Vegas Strip, it regularly takes the side of atheists in their annual rush to tear down Christmas trees, and it even supported the Nazis' right to parade in Skokie, Ill., a community that boasts many Jewish residents who survived Nazi concentration camps.
If our Constitution can be twisted to protect all of the above characters while at the same time it can be used to throw one innocent girl under the bus because she decides to thank God in a speech, perhaps we as a nation need a little more soul-searching as to what we value in life.
Ron Moers
HENDERSON
Room taxes
To the editor:
I can't believe the ignorance of the tax-and-spend crowd who wanted to sue to collect more hotel room taxes from travel Web sites (Wednesday Review-Journal). Talk about killing the golden goose. These people just don't have a clue as to the unintended consequences of raising the tax bill on the tourism industry, given our current economy.
Approximately one-third of our visitors book online and are encouraged by the lower rates to come into our city to see shows and gamble.
R.A. Salter
HENDERSON
Why are they scared?
To the editor:
The reaction of the liberal media to the reappearance of Sarah Palin on the political stage is remarkable. They are terrified.
During the past presidential election, we had the choice of two liberal candidates -- one burdened by the Bush wars, the Bush bailouts and the Bush economic collapse -- the other promising hope and change and supported by unions and public employees. It's a wonder we bothered voting. Arguably, only the popularity of Ms. Palin made the count as close as it was.
The president's huge agenda has crowded out most other coverage on FOX News and talk radio. The president has wisely advised his party that it might as well vote for his agenda even though much of the public is against it, as Democrats will have rough re-election campaigns no matter how they vote.
What liberals fear most is that the president will succeed in motivating conservatives to take leadership of the Republican Party and offer voters a real choice.
What they don't get is that conservatives are completely fed up with business as usual and will vote for any conservative candidate who shows a reasonable promise of electability. With the help of this president, conservatives finally have real hope of electing candidates who will work to reverse the tide of ever-increasing debt and suffocating regulation and taxation.
To the liberals, Ms. Palin is the face of this hope -- and it scares them.
Ed Dornlas
LAS VEGAS
For the masses
To the editor:
Glad to see the right still dog-piling on elected representatives who are trying to help out the people. The attacks on Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., are typical half-truths followed by outright lies.
Rep. Titus must be doing something right to attract the propagandists on the side of greed and Big Pharma. Gee. The only ones slated to pay the "$572 billion in new taxes" seem to be the folks earning more than $500,000 a year.
Who would that be here in our town? Oh, yeah, the folks funding the ads against Rep. Titus.
I get it. I just can't afford to do anything more than send a letter to the local paper, which hates all us left-wing, pinko commies who just want plain old health care for the masses.
lou gonzalez
HENDERSON
