LETTERS: President’s vacation time, golf outings much ado about nothing

To the editor:

The Review-Journal’s jokes about President Barack Obama and his golfing and vacations are getting old. A recent report said the president’s golfing and vacation days amounted to 130 days in six years. That’s less time than Congress is in recess each year. Congressional recesses last longer than the Clark County School District year, and our students learn something.

If tea party followers want to save money and reduce government, put Congress on a part-time basis. Most state governments work on more complex issues in part-time sessions. Allow one year for legislative issues, one year for financial issues. It works.

Our House of Representatives has voted 50-plus times to turn back the Affordable Care Act. Immigration reform has gone nowhere. In fact, this House has passed very few bills. A part-time Congress is a modest proposal.

The record for presidential vacation time belongs to George W. Bush — 490 days on his ranch and 487 at Camp David. He was a true part-time president.

DENNIS M. COLL

LAS VEGAS

Kids and guns

To the editor:

Regarding the story about the gun instructor accidentally killed by the 9-year-old girl (“Girl’s family ‘devastated’ by death,” Sept. 3 Review-Journal):

The girl’s family can save their prayers, because if there was a God, this country would not have the culture of gun worship that it does. This kid’s family is part of that culture.

Any parents who allow a 9-year-old to fire an Uzi, even with an instructor present, don’t have the common sense of a flea. The 9-year-old and any other children this family has should be removed from the home because of child endangerment. If it had been the girl who had been killed accidentally, child protective services would have investigated.

Putting prayer and guns together reminds me of a song popular many years ago, “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition.”

NADIA ROMEO

LAS VEGAS

Reid, Redskins and the VA

To the editor:

It’s amazing that Sen. Harry Reid has time to worry about the Washington Redskins, the Cleveland Indians, the Chicago Blackhawks and more, while Las Vegas veterans go without a therapy pool at the new North Las Vegas VA Medical Center.

The facility was called “the newest hospital” in 2012, and for $600 million for a 1.3 million-square-foot complex, we did not even get a fully functional emergency room. Imagine that. I guess Sen. Reid was too busy with the Indians.

WILLIAM S. FREITHALER

NORTH LAS VEGAS

Gateway drug

To the editor:

On the front page of the Sept. 2 Review-Journal, an article carried the headline: “Is legal pot a gateway to more traffic deaths?” The answer to that question is an emphatic yes.

I became convinced of this a few years back when I took a job as a health educator for Job Corps. In one class, I was showing a film from the State Department that showed the long-term effects of marijuana on the brain. It is like a covering of tar on the brain that affects the judgment center and one’s driving ability.

After viewing it, one student started to laugh. He declared that he always smokes a joint when driving, and he had only one ticket in a year. One week later, he was in the news with serious injuries. Two months later, he returned to class and went straight to my classroom to ask if he could speak to all of my support groups on what marijuana did to him on that near-fatal night.

Has anybody in this state figured out that this danger is compounded with the drinking environment we have here? I believe marijuana should remain for medical use only. Otherwise, this newspaper will have to publish a whole section each day, just on accidents from the previous night.

JAMES GULYNUP

LAS VEGAS

Biblical research

To the editor:

Henry Spalding’s letter contained some haphazard research (“Good deeds, minus God,” Monday Review-Journal). Mr. Spalding referred to the Old Testament authors as “homophobic, woman-hating, slave-trading men.” He went on to say that “goat herders” wrote the Bible 1,800 years ago. Really?

The facts are these: The Old Testament was written by many different authors who were not goat herders. Examples include a king (David), a priest (Ezra), a prince (Moses) and a governor (Nehemiah), to name a few. Mr. Spalding is free to express his anti-Christian views, but as a Christian, I am free to stand up for the God who inspired men to author His Word in the entire canon of Scripture.

ROBERT GARDNER

MESQUITE

Stop online comments

To the editor:

It is truly shameful that the Review-Journal allows readers to post online comments. This is not freedom of the press; rather, it is inciting and hateful. Why does the Review-Journal stand for it, and why doesn’t the newspaper have the means to block or report the comments? Don’t continue to bring your newspaper further down.

HENRY SMITH

LAS VEGAS

Democracy rules

To the editor:

I’m responding to Sherry Hobbs’ letter (“Far-right intransigents,” Aug. 30 Review-Journal), which cited Barbara Hacker-Mazur’s Aug. 24 letter claiming the majority of Americans oppose Obamacare (“Obama takes U.S. in wrong direction”). Ms. Hobbs asked the question: “Since when are the majority of the people always right?”

I have the answer for her: In a democracy, always. Apparently we no longer live in one.

KELLY KALOUSDIAN

NORTH LAS VEGAS