One possible explanation for spree killings
To the editor:
In his Dec. 30 column, Steven Kalas wrote, “spree killings are a pathology unique to our time. … I’m not even close to an explanation. … It is not caused by guns. I know because there have been guns in our culture a long, long time.”
Perhaps Mr. Kalas should have looked at another Sunday column, that of “Game Dork” Doug Elfman a couple of pages behind his. His favorite video games from 2012 include “Mass Effect 3,” where as Commander Shepard “you choose … kill-targets; form alliances and demolish villains.” He also enjoys “Hitman: Absolution,” in which “you portray world class assassin Agent 47.” “Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier” specializes in “taking out bad guys.”
Just maybe we should take a much closer look at the content of violent entertainment, whether Hollywood movies and TV or video games, to which young people, particularly young males, are drawn. Does it come as a surprise that the kindergarten shooter spent a great deal of his time in his mother’s basement with just this sort of attitude-forming “entertainment?”
Let’s connect the dots and maybe begin to put serious control on violence in media – even though the big media interests would certainly defend their economic interests with arguments about their First Amendment rights.
NEAL GRAHAM
LAS VEGAS
Social Security solution
To the editor:
There is a simple, although far from pain-free, solution to the Social Security problem summarized by Glenn Cook in his Sunday column. Repeal the current corporate profits tax and replace it with an adjusted gross receipts tax of 15 percent.
This tax would be paid ahead of everything else, including the payroll tax.
The funds thus collected would then be deposited, not in the U.S. Treasury, but into the reserve accounts of all solvent commercial banks in the United States, who would then make the required disbursements to their depositors. Note that the feds do not have signature authority over these accounts. That will sort of cut down on the co-mingling of funds and unlawful diversions carried out by Congress.
Please remember that private-sector annuities don’t make payouts from incoming annuity purchases. Instead they pay from other sources of revenue. Funding Social Security as I propose would end the Ponzi scheme and make it function by ethical standards, even though it’s tax-supported. That’s a start.
DAVE HANLEY
LAS VEGAS
Jobs program
To the editor:
This whole charade coming from Washington is getting to be quite nauseating.
Democrats and their willing accomplices in the media are doing damage to this country that I fear cannot be fixed. All this talk of making the rich pay more in taxes does nothing to address the magnitude of the financial problems facing our country. We could take all of their wealth and only run the government for six months. This is not arguable. Do the math.
This is hardly the “balanced approach” the president speaks of. What needs to be done will be very painful, and the misery needs to be spread equally. By that I mean there is no reason that anyone who works for the federal government should have that job for life. There are millions of Americans who have lost their jobs since President Obama took office in January 2009. Millions. At the same time, the number of government jobs has increased by hundreds of thousands.
The federal workforce needs to be reduced immediately by 20 percent. The ones who still have their jobs, including senators and representatives and their staffs should have their salaries cut immediately by 20 percent. They should also have their health benefits eliminated and become part of the ObamaCare program. If ObamaCare is good enough for us, it should be good enough for them.
President Barack Obama talks of spreading the wealth? Well, its time to spread the misery caused by him and his party.
MIKE BRYANT
LAS VEGAS
Elect centrists
To the editor:
Jacob Sullum provided rare circumspect and intelligent analysis in his recent column (“Who is too unbalanced to be armed?”) regarding the real complications involving mental health considerations and gun control.
The reality is, our politicians on the far left and far right are too simpleminded to know how to resolve an issue on a practical level. The politicians who actually figure things out tend to be in the center. They were mostly voted out of office by a modern public who want everything to be simple.
Let’s get back to exercising our intelligence and move away from the dumbed-down escapism of the extremists. Let’s start putting the more considerate centrists back in office where they belong.
DERRICK COX
LAS VEGAS
Discipline
To the editor:
I completely agree with Tierney Jacobs’ Dec. 30 letter to the editor. I worked for many years in elementary schools in Michigan and was in many different classrooms. Beginning in the late ’70s, you could begin to see the decline of discipline and behavior, and every year it got worse. It was the beginning of students’ rights and the decline of teachers’ authority. Nobody seemed to stand up and hence, we now have the deterioration of the whole public school system.
Why school administrators and legislators won’t fight to put authority, discipline and dress codes back in the schools is beyond my comprehension.
RUTH FURTON
LAS VEGAS
