Pipeline would doom parts of rural Nevada
To the editor:
I oppose the 300-mile water pipeline from central Nevada to Clark County.
In the beginning there was the Las Vegas Springs. For eons, they served as an adequate source of water until man made an oasis where Mother Nature never meant one to be. The springs dried in the 1960s, but unfortunately this harbinger of water woes was ignored as the tentacles of random growth spread through the valley. Wells were the next step in the water saga, but all too quickly the levels of groundwater began to decline.
From wells it was a short step to the Colorado River -- but that, too, has a limit. Given present climatic conditions, the Colorado River is no longer our money in the bank, and the Southern Nevada Water Authority rapaciously looks to other parts of the state for a bailout.
This is not right. We've been there, done that.
The pipeline is an amorphous solution for decades of mismanagement. Don't let the Southern Nevada Water Authority be the death knell of central Nevada.
Harold A. Steiner
LAS VEGAS
Strip eyesores
To the editor:
In Thursday's Business section, you featured an article about Boyd Gaming's efforts to acquire several Station Casinos properties.
If Boyd has that kind of money available, how about doing something about Echelon, the unfinished eyesore it has left abandoned on the Strip? It is an embarrassment to the city.
Paul Harper
HENDERSON
Hell no
To the editor:
Recently we've heard a lot of Democrats labeling the Republicans as "The Party of No." Curiously, they say this as though it is a bad thing.
I believe for once they should think about what they are saying. Right now we need the Republicans to not only be the Party of No, but the Party of Hell No! Somebody has got to put the brakes on this madness before we spend ourselves into oblivion.
Think of our country as a family. The Democrats are the teenagers, and the Republicans are the parents.
As teenagers, of course they know everything, want everything and see no reason why they should have to earn it. They are cool, fabulous dressers, and have a great sense of humor, assuming for the moment that baggy pants are fashionable and heaving in your friend's car is funny.
The Republicans, on the other hand, are stodgy, boring, lost in the past and stuck with the unenviable task of saying, "No, because we can't afford it."
In reality, we haven't been able to afford a new program for the past 40 years.
In the last decade, the Republicans were put into power basically to say no, to slow down the growth of the government monster. For a brief time they did, but then they were also corrupted by the power. After all, to say no to government growth is to give up power, something pols are loath to do. They morphed into a weaker version of the Democrats. As such, their supporters, along with the independents, tossed them out of office.
For some strange reason the Democrats took this as a compliment. Although the Democrats were smart enough to run as Republicans (fiscal conservatives), once in power they immediately started spending like pols on steroids. Thus the pork-laden, vote-buying, non-stimulus package. And they haven't stopped yet.
So here we are. We need a Party of Hell No, and we need it now.
We have to hope that the Republicans learned their lesson. It's obvious the Democrats haven't.
Gerald Laetz
LAS VEGAS
Right thing
To the editor:
Has Alexis Thiiel never done anything out of the goodness of her heart (Saturday letter to the editor)?
"Going green" does not mean the green you anticipate receiving for recycling. If we want our planet, country, city and neighborhood to be around for our grandchildren, we need to recycle -- because it's the right thing to do. It is certainly not a "waste of time."
Collecting your cans and bottles takes no time at all, and it does make a difference. Who cares if you don't get paid? It's the right thing to do.
K. WILLIAMS
LAS VEGAS
Perceived bias
To the editor:
I would like to comment on the letters written by Dan Beckley and James J. Begley that were published in Sunday's Viewpoints section. These letters castigated, in a humorous way, the conservative columnists the Review-Journal seems to prefer to showcase.
Ann Coulter, Charles Krauthammer, Thomas Sowell, J.C. Watts, Patrick Buchanan and the Review-Journal's own Glenn Cook present their conservative viewpoints week after week with only an occasional article from the other side of the spectrum by a "liberal" voice.
Kudos to the previously named letter writers for their straightforward take on the newspaper's perceived selective opinion writer bias, and a grudging thank you to the Review-Journal for publishing their letters.
Don Shirley
LAS VEGAS
