Show would despoil new arts center

I was disappointed recently to learn that the Smith Center for the Performing Arts is committed to bringing the Broadway musical “The Book of Mormon” to the center. It’s difficult for me to reconcile the Smith Center’s mission “to build and establish a high-quality performing arts center that is embraced by the community and recognized as a vital force by supporting artistic excellence, education and inspiration for all” with the crude language, crass sexual content and slurs against gays, blacks and people with AIDS that are abundant in this musical production.

“Artistic excellence and inspiration” are not what the performance is about. The Smith Center’s decision to try to bring it to Las Vegas sadly relegates the Smith Center to the “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” level.

Tim Welch

Henderson

Washington idiots

To the editor:

Ted Kennedy and Barney Frank had the “Big Dig” in Boston, while Ted Stevens was building a “bridge to nowhere” in Alaska and altering federal legislation to require a Florida land purchase from a contributor to build a highway exit that wasn’t needed.

Now, on the heels of Sen. Harry Reid’s $99 million pork attachment for a fourth tower at McCarran International Airport, he’s back on the campaign for a useless train from the ghost town of Victorville, Calif., to Las Vegas.

When does the madness stop and how do we rid ourselves of these idiots in Washington who continue spending money we don’t have?

Twenty-five years ago, I lived in the Boston area and saw that fiasco. Five years ago, I lived in Naples, Fla., and wondered why a senator from Alaska was so interested in a freeway exit in Florida.

I don’t want to hear any more about how these projects will create jobs. I want Sen. Reid to explain the cost-effectiveness of spending billions of taxpayer dollars for a project that at best is 50 years beyond its time. People won’t take the Monorail from the MGM Grand to the Sahara, but they’re going to drive two hours from Los Angeles to catch a train to Las Vegas?

David Lyons

Las Vegas

Evil tea party

To the editor:

There is one thing that Sen. Harry Reid is hoping for that would gain bipartisan support: He wants the tea party to disappear. So would Nancy Pelosi and John McCain, along with their allies. The ideologues in both major parties want the tea party to disappear, as it upsets their apple cart.

If not for the tea party, the debt ceiling would have been raised with little opposition. While the deal reached may be a mere juggling of numbers, it has at least brought some of the ugly truth behind political in-dealing to light.

It amazes me that Sen. Reid thought the recent “Louisiana Purchase” made during the ObamaCare debate was good representation. He would concede highway funds so readily? He also wants a high-speed train built to nowhere (read: Victorville, Calif.). The first thought that comes to mind is Amtrak.

I have no doubt Rep. Pelosi wants her private airliner back, as well. At our expense, of course.

I remember just four short years ago that the Democrats were accusing President Bush of using Air Force One for campaigning purposes. It was wrong, and the poor taxpayers were footing the bill. As our president travels across this country in Air Force One or by Bus One, where are the Democrat voices?

If the tea party was born of hard economic times — as political ideologues suggest — then I can make a suggestion: Quit spending away the future for our children and grandchildren. Do that and see if they disappear.

Darrell Welch

North Las Vegas

Get real

To the editor:

In response to your Wednesday editorial, “Broken promises”: Politicians would not make promises they could not or should not keep if people didn’t vote for empty promises rather than our reality. Promising not to raise taxes on the wealthy — like promising not to get a job when you don’t have enough money to pay the bills — is foolish.

Wealth in America has been steadily moved to the upper classes at the expense of the middle class, and our monster deficits are mostly the result of the Bush wars. We need to get real and demand the same from our leadership.

Elizabeth Powell

Boulder City

Water table

To the editor:

The city of North Las Vegas is currently spending tens of thousands of dollars, which it cannot afford, in litigation over the disposal of clean water from a new sewer treatment facility. There is a simple solution to this problem, and it is right under its feet.

In the Las Vegas Valley, there is a water table that has been fairly well depleted. It is no longer used, as water is provided by the Colorado River, Lake Mead, etc.

This depletion has been creating a subsidence in North Las Vegas. The city has spent tens of millions of dollars compensating owners of the property they have condemned. This is still an on-going problem.

So why not just pump the water into the ground so that the water table will rise, thus reducing the probability of further subsidence and potential lawsuits?

Edward Wiseman

Las Vegas

London mobs

To the editor:

The live video of London being burned and looted invariably focused on the feet — and not the faces — of the rioters. It wouldn’t have been PC to reveal what they actually look like; it might be interpreted as racial profiling and really provoked them.

Scattered within this mob, however, were the offspring of some wealthy and comfortably middle-class people. The Daily Mail published some names and faces: a daughter of millionaires, a second-year law student, a ballerina, even an organic chef decided to do some slumming and get in on the action. After all, somebody’s going to get all the stuff, so why not them, too?

They didn’t just loot, they were full participants in the violence. “Mob gear,” including gloves and bandanas, can be purchased so rioters can be at their fashion best.

David Cameron sternly says, “We will find you, we will charge you, and you will be punished.” Really? They decided against the water cannons and rubber bullets? British law and social programs have issued an engraved invitation: “Don’t have your fair share? Take it from others who have more!”

Here in the United States, some of this mob behavior has occurred and may worsen. But citizens and business owners have a means of defending themselves: the Second Amendment. The U.S. government’s nanny state may be issuing invitations, but teen mobs had better think twice before they RSVP.

Wendy Ellis

Las Vegas