Yes, give more homeowners options to refinance
To the editor:
It was very interesting to read Danny Tarkanian's Sunday commentary on housing. I agree with him 100 percent. I have been telling my elected officials the same thing. Why can't homeowners who are current on their mortgages refinance?
Even though we are underwater, we should be able to refinance and take advantage of the low interest rates. My pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
Harry Reid was sent back to Washington to help the people of Nevada, and so far there has been no help at all. I voted for Danny Tarkanian for Senate in last year's GOP primary. I even switched my party affiliation to vote for him. I wish more people would have done the same. He would then be in Washington right now working for the people of Nevada.
Remove the 125 percent loan-to-value requirement and let all homeowners have the option to refinance.
Marlene Drozd
Las Vegas
Making peanuts
To the editor:
Professional sports players receive millions of dollars for playing. I don't see why professional firefighters, policing forces, even fighting military -- who all protect our lives -- earn peanuts by comparison.
Can you tell me what is wrong with this picture?
Marlene Dallatore
Las Vegas
County watchdog
To the editor:
Once more I wish Steve Sisolak were my own county commissioner. Kudos to him for having the courage and integrity to push for further investigations of abuses by the Fire Department employees (Friday Review-Journal). These and many other abuses have gone on far too long without oversight.
I also agree with some critics that the managers who allowed this are as culpable as those who perpetrated these frauds. Though such actions will likely make him a target in the next election by the government unions, I suspect that his constituents will see the enormous value in him remaining on the commission.
There are many more sources of waste, fraud and abuse that need ferreting out. Mr. Sisolak is certainly the man for the job. Keep up the great work, Mr. Sisolak. We need six more of you on the commission.
Have you given any thought to cloning?
Mark Craven
Las Vegas
Funny letter
To the editor:
I love humor. That's why I loved Ray A. Cohn's tongue-in-cheek Friday letter, "Why respect Madison's view of Constitution?" Why, indeed. Just because he authored the document, we shouldn't assume he knew the meaning of the words.
We should pay the Federalist Papers -- insight into the reasoning behind the document -- no attention, as they were also written by James Madison along with two of his contemporaries, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. No, everyone knows that former Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower were more enlightened on the meaning of the document than the author.
And to the point Mr. Cohn tries to make that the founders weren't infallible, they acknowledged that fact by giving us an amendment process. That is why blacks aren't still considered three-fifths of a person, or why senators aren't still elected by state legislatures. Amendments to the Constitution are very rare. There have only been 27 in history and the first 10 (the Bill of Rights) were included in the document upon its ratification in 1787. Does Mr. Cohn think Roosevelt or Eisenhower or any recent Congress could have set up a such a wonderful system of government, one that has had so few changes in its history? I guarantee you the new health care bill will see more changes (if the Supreme Court even rules it constitutional) to it than the Constitution has seen.
I believe if the federal government had to adhere to the limits placed on it by the Constitution (the enumerated powers) and politicians had to go through the amendment process to establish things such as Social Security, Medicare, welfare or any of the other social programs we now are crushed beneath, we wouldn't be $14 trillion in debt.
Mr. Cohn, you're such a kidder.
Robert Gardner
Henderson
Who cares?
To the editor:
As Samuel Johnson once put it so well, "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel." This explains my revulsion after reading Jane Ann Morrison's seeming disgust at members of the UNLV men's basketball team not covering their hearts with their hands for the playing of the national anthem.
Ms. Morrison incorrectly wrote that there's a "recommended hand-over-heart protocol" for "The Star-Spangled Banner." Anne Garside is director of communications for the Maryland Historical Society, which houses the original version of the national anthem, and is on record as saying, "Whether you put your hand over your heart, hold your hat at shoulder level or waist level, is really in this day and age irrelevant."
Just like Ms. Morrison's column: irrelevant.
Jon Nachtigal
Sioux Falls, S.D.
