TSA takes a small, sensible step on blades
To the editor:
Hysteria over the easing of the Transportation Security Administration’s carry-on restrictions is more paranoid than the original edicts after the 9/11 attacks.
Before then, knives with blades longer than 2.36 inches were allowed, and there were no problems that I know of.
Today, hijackers would be stupid to try it. The deranged would be fortunate if they ended up in the hospital, and either way there would be one less lunatic to worry about.
Rather than cringing in fear, we should embrace this little ray of light and hope for more, because average passengers with knives and clubs would make us safer.
FRED BILLELO
LAUGHLIN
Desperate remedy
To the editor:
Sorry to say it, but the Review-Journal’s new online format that premiered this week is really bad. There are links that go nowhere, news articles that are months old, no headlines, etc.
I am so disappointed that I am thinking of going out to buy the hardcopy.
Maybe that’s the ploy — to sell more paper copies.
DENNIS STRANSKY
HENDERSON
Speed demons
To the editor:
Most drivers, even on the surface streets of Southern Nevada, drive 5 to 15 mph over the posted speed limit. If the freeway speed limit is raised to 85 mph, a majority of the traffic will be traveling 90 mph to 100 mph.
Take that to the graveyard.
IAN F. DEVANEY
LAS VEGAS
Expletive not deleted
To the editor:
I have waited to comment on an article in your March 11 edition because I wanted to see if anyone else was disturbed by what was printed. I guess not.
I have to assume that reporter Alan Snel was citing an exact quote from former U.S. Bureau of Land Management official Bob Abbey on the Henderson land mess. However, Mr. Abbey’s use of the f-word did nothing to enhance the story or raise the integrity of the Review-Journal staff.
The reason I am writing is 10 years ago this month, the Dixie Chicks band wrecked their careers by using insulting words at a London show denigrating the United States and its president.
The past 10 years have lowered values and civility. It was, at one time, very important how words were used. Wars have been started by the wrong words. Evidently that’s no longer true. How far have we fallen as a culture and a nation when the vice president can use a vulgar word in public and have it accepted?
How can we be surprised at the lack of education in our schools when we lower our standards instead of elevating them? When we lower the standards, our officials can bow to other countries’ dictators, and here at home, our senators land jobs for their children and no action is taken.
We can’t lead, so let us be mediocre like the rest of the world. What a great concept of a once-great nation.
FRANK WALKER
LAS VEGAS
Other interests
To the editor:
I just received my E-news from Nevada Sen. Dean Heller’s office, and in it he addresses his concern over the Veterans Affairs backlog here in Nevada. The VA has a backlog of over 10,000 claims.
What is our all-powerful Democrat, Sen. Harry Reid, doing about it? He is supposed to have all this clout, yet he doesn’t seem to be worried about it.
Oh, how careless of me. I forgot that this is part of President Barack Obama spreading around the pain of the mythical sequester budget cuts. You know, those cuts that aren’t really cuts, only reductions in anticipated annual increases?
Another thing I forgot: Sen. Reid is more interested in that wind energy project down in Searchlight, and that XPressWest train boondoggle from Las Vegas to California. I wonder which of his sons represents these companies and how much was put into the senator’s campaign coffers? In the meantime, our veterans pay the ultimate price once again.
WARREN WILLIS SR.
LAS VEGAS
