Critics should give Obama a break

The presidency of Barack Obama has, unfortunately, reinforced one of my long held beliefs: That a large number of Americans have an intelligence level equivalent to a frozen pizza.

I say this because of the enormous number of totally false accusations that have been heaped upon our president. These have ranged from the mundane — he’s a communist, he’s going to take our guns — to the totally idiotic, such as he’s going to outlaw the flag or he’ll get rid of Congress. How can anyone with a functioning brain believe such asinine garbage?

We all have the right to dislike and criticize our president. But I believe he deserves some credit for the positive things that have occurred during his terms. Some examples: thousands of American soldiers haven’t died in needless wars; the most despicable terrorist has been eliminated; and our economy is far from ideal, but we aren’t in a horrible depression. In addition, inflation has been minimal, corporate profits are up, the stock market has seen fairly steady increases and unemployment has seen steady decreases.

For those who might have forgotten, we lived through the opposites of these examples under our previous president.

I will end with a few words of advice: Don’t rely solely on highly ideological media sources and websites for your information. They aren’t synonymous with truthfulness. And don’t assume that everything your neighbors and co-workers say is accurate. People have a tendency to ignore facts they don’t like. Remain skeptical of what you hear until you have enough reliable evidence to prove or disprove these statements.

Jon Meese

Golden Valley, Ariz.

Lifetime subsidy?

The Friday banner headline in the Review-Journal’s Business section, “Solar customers could get some relief,” is misleading. It’s the 98 percent of NV Energy’s customers who seek relief from rooftop solar subsidies.

Isn’t the New Energy Industry Task Force, a panel re-established by Gov. Brian Sandoval — wink, wink, nod, nod — really his homage to rooftop solar investor and billionaire battery mogul Elon Musk? What great wisdom does this panel possess that far exceeds that of the Nevada Public Utilities Commission, the board specifically chartered to set utility rates?

Solar City and other purveyors must have done an excellent job of masking the obvious rate-setting issues from purchasers — who probably didn’t want to know, anyway. Hello? There never was any net-metering-for-life rebate guarantees. Why would any purchaser have assumed so?

Large-scale solar, not rooftop, is the near-term future. Regardless of what Mr. Musk does with his residential lithium battery backup systems, there is no evidence that the existing power grid will ever become unnecessary. If rooftop solar is a cost-effective technology, why can’t it stand alone financially without the federal tax subsidy and ratepayer-subsidized net-metering credits?

I hope that rational thinking overcomes this poorly disguised, politically expedient, ploy to pacify Mr. Musk and the residential rooftop contingent. Rooftop solar owners should be given a fair shake — perhaps setting net metering at 10 percent over wholesale rates — but certainly not 11 cents per kwh forever.

Richard Rychtarik

Las Vegas