Illegals want income without responsibility

To the editor:

Why are there different sets of laws for taxpaying Americans and illegal immigrants?

A Hispanic man driving a large pickup caused more than $1,200 in damage to my car in a retail parking lot. I asked to see his driver's license and proof of insurance. Surprise, surprise. "No comprende, senor."

The police won't come on private property unless there is an altercation. So I wrote the license plate and vehicle identification numbers down and contacted my insurance agent. He wrote the owner. No response. I wrote the owner. No response.

Let's try arbitration. No response. I spend more money at the constable's office. They go to the home three times. Nothing.

After months of trying to collect, my insurance company advises me the party is uninsured and they quit trying to collect.

Now I am out my $250 deductible, plus the cost for the constable, plus time spent.

Too many of these immigrants want all the benefits of America, which they are not entitled to. The only thing they do not want is the responsibilities of living in America.

WALTER E. GUNTHER

LAS VEGAS

Obama and guns

To the editor:

There should be no surprise about Sen. Barack Obama's recent statement that we disillusioned flock cling to our guns and religion.

Sen. Obama has a long history of advocacy for gun control.

As an Illinois state senator, he supported banning the sale or transfer of all forms of semi-automatic weapons (think shotguns, .22s, etc.) as well as banning the sale, manufacture and possession of all handguns. He wanted to obtain mug shots and fingerprints from all gun owners. He voted against homeowners defending themselves from invaders with firearms.

The senator even became a board member of the Joyce Foundation, which provided more than $50 million to gun-ban groups such as Handgun Free America. He has even stated that he believes the Washington, D.C., gun ban is constitutional.

It makes you wonder how he would have felt about the Jim Crow laws that banned freed slaves from owning firearms.

Gary Julian

LAS VEGAS

Barf-o-rama

To the editor:

Your editorials on environmental issues are so pathetically inaccurate and biased that I want to hurl. Did a Mojave green bite Review-Journal Editor Thomas Mitchell on the butt as a child or something?

We know that when your editorial staff blabs about property rights and endangered "weeds," the majority of your readership pops a Viagra and turns up Lawrence Welk. However, those of us with a clue would appreciate it if you'd shut your pie-hole.

ELIZABETH COOK

LAS VEGAS

Start fighting back

To the editor:

The April 18 commentary by Michael S. Berliner on environmentalism includes facts that must be addressed if we are to survive the constant war waged against the world by the environmentalists whose ideology does not value the welfare of the world's population.

Theirs is a party to the destruction of our way of life and possibly the destruction of mankind. They are as dangerous as the Muslim extremists.

In the past 50 years, we have seen the environmentalists gain power with lies and fabrications in their quest. They nearly destroyed the timber industry on the West Coast by using the spotted owl, which was never endangered.

The environmentalists are the reason this country has to import most of its fossil fuels from other countries, some of which are not so friendly to the United States.

They have managed to stop most of the drilling for oil in Alaska and most coastal areas. They have stopped the construction and expansion of oil refineries. They have stopped the construction of nuclear power plants (not one has been built in 25 years). They oppose the construction of coal-fired power plants that have become much cleaner due to new technology, and they are even fighting against wind-powered turbines for energy.

Their constant and destructive ideology is the reason we are now seeing such high prices for gasoline. We could have been energy independent had it not been for the environmentalists' constant battles to stop any progress in many areas.

Members of Congress are not without blame. They were too quick to side with the environmentalists on many issues that are detrimental to the citizens.

While we want a clean world, the destruction of mankind need not be an alternative. Let us be aware of what is at stake and start fighting back.

gerard la bossiere

MESQUITE

Term limits

To the editor:

The Review-Journal's April 13 editorial, "Term limits under attack," was a solid defense of the amendment, but I must respectfully disagree with the "It's the Democrats doing it" aspect of the editorial.

The attack on term limits is not a Democratic Party issue. It's a political class, ruling elite vs. the people issue in which the Republicans are in just as deep as the Democrats.

The anti-term limits faction had every opportunity to make their case. They failed. Overwhelmingly. Twice. Their arguments didn't fly then and they don't fly now.

As for the role the elites expect the Nevada Supreme Court to play? Well, the court has embarrassed both itself and the people of Nevada enough to last a couple of lifetimes and, while the current group seems to be righting the ship somewhat, all they need to do to sink right back into the muck is to invalidate term limits based on a change to the proposal the court itself made, which produced a result the court itself was more than happy to accept (excluding judges from term limits).

Let term limits kick in. Neither the world nor our system of government will come to an end.

KNIGHT ALLEN

LAS VEGAS

Good to be a gangster

To the editor:

Reading current events leads me to believe that, within the Las Vegas Valley, you're probably safer if you're an illegal, weapon-laden gangster than if you're an unruly woman.

The gangsters in their crack houses are sure to be met with concussion grenades and smoke bombs thrown by riot-gear-protected officers maneuvering behind battering-ram vehicles -- and are likely to be brought out alive.

Meanwhile, an angry woman who gets on a police officer's nerves is likely to be shot (Or at least have her face shoved into the pavement, breaking her teeth. Remember that one downtown? Talk about a forgotten, buried story.), especially if the stun gun is back in the glove compartment.

While I wasn't there when Henderson police shot and killed the ice cream lady, it's not too hard to imagine other, non-lethal ways the event could have been handled.

BOB COFFMAN

LAS VEGAS

Dumbing down

To the editor:

As a retired New York City teacher, I had a high interest in the latest Clark County eighth-grade math test scores. New York City's standardized and Regent's examination test scores are equally abysmal with one basic difference: New York knows how to camouflage the fact that its pupils, too, are not learning curricula by dumbing down the tests it administers to its pupils or by lowering the grade necessary for passing.

When American students compete with foreign students, however, there is no getting around the fact that the state of education in the United States is in dire trouble.

David Weintraub

HEWLETT, N.Y.