A reckless president without a clue

To the editor:

The recent comment by President Obama that business owners did not create their businesses without someone else’s help is only the latest slap in the face to America’s job creators. We are not talking about a small slap either – this was a full windup, leave a mark for a week and have spit fly out of your mouth slap.

Mr. President, with all due respect, and I mean all due respect, you have no idea what you are talking about. Unlike yourself, I have opened and currently run a business. Government is the single largest obstacle that exists for every business in America. Everyone except you already knew that. It’s like being in a rowboat and having someone throw in a 500-pound anchor and calling it “help.”

I cannot remember any U.S. president having such low regard for people who are struggling night and day to salvage what little profit and equity that may possibly remain in something that they have devoted their entire lives to building. Has that occurred to this man? That something a person built over the past 40 or 50 years has been destroyed by this recession? That this same person, after working 10 to 12 hours every day during that period, has lost their retirement and may now have to file bankruptcy when they are 65 or 70 years old? How does a person start over at that age?

Make no mistake about it, this president is a reckless man with a reckless mouth. For a man who has never signed the front of an employee’s paycheck and never tried to navigate the bowels of the IRS employer taxation system, he has a lot to say about people he knows nothing about. Each and every business owner in America knows more about hard work and courage than this man, who has never risked everything he owns, all for the chance to operate his own business and, yes, keep some of the profits if he is successful.

Each time I hear the key phrases like “wealth,” “fair share,” or “pay a little more,” I want to puke. Who is this man to economically divide and then vilify every person in America who has a higher income than his arbitrarily determined threshold? The power to tax does not rest with this man, and yet he jabbers on every single day about who he would favor by continuing their same tax rate, and who he would punish by raising theirs.

The fact that higher taxes would not be needed if he could somehow control his compulsive desire to buy each and every vote in this nation through deficit spending is never mentioned by a fawning press that, even now, is picking through Mitt Romney’s garbage looking for the next headline, but would never dream of asking the president anything more hard-hitting than what is his favorite color or his favorite song, or maybe who he thinks will win the NCAA basketball tournament.

I never thought I would voluntarily close my company, but I am warming up to the idea, I don’t think I can stand much more help.

James Thomson

Las Vegas

Naming names

To the editor:

In his Sunday column, Steve Sebelius makes the morally bankrupt case that Sen. Pat McCarran’s red-baiting, anti-Semitism and McCarthyism could be overlooked, and his name kept on our airport, because of all the wonderful things he accomplished while representing Nevada. (Sen. McCarran’s anti-Asian and anti-black policies should have been on Mr. Sebelius’ list as well).

There were many other giants to whom Las Vegas is also indebted. Brigham Young, who dispatched the first non-Indian settlers to Nevada to develop a livable community for those who would come later. Phil Tobin, who in 1931 convinced the Legislature to once again make gambling legal in Nevada. Bugsy Siegel, who had the vision of a combined high-end gambling and entertainment venue for Southern Californians. Howard Hughes, who purchased the enormous tract of land that is now Summerlin, and who began the transformation from mobster rule to corporate ownership of our resorts.

Scores of other visionaries, such as Steve Wynn, Sheldon Adelson and others were instrumental in converting this sleepy cow town to an international destination.

We shouldn’t name iconic locations after individuals with shady or embarrassing pasts. The new Penn State athletic center should not be named after Joe Paterno despite everything he did for that great institution. The new courthouse in Raleigh, N.C., should not be named after former U.S. Sen. John Edwards. And we should all be ashamed that Las Vegas’ Tule Springs Park was taken over by the state of Nevada so it could be renamed in honor of a convicted felon.

Let me be clear: Pat McCarran was not a convicted felon. But it is doubtful that he ever would have been considered for the keynote speaker’s address to the United Jewish Appeal, the NAACP or the Asian American Democratic Caucus.

Las Vegas International Airport has a nice ring to it. If we decide to rename our airport, Councilman Steve Ross has the best idea going.

Henry Soloway

Las Vegas

Wildlife Scrooges

To the editor:

Marion Brady had a high rate of success in caring for injured hummingbirds, and she had been doing it for several years. She spent her own money and time, never asking for anything – just a good person trying to do the right thing. The July 7 Review-Journal feature story on her was outstanding, and we loved it, but if it had never appeared, Ms. Brady would still be saving innocent hummingbirds.

When the bureaucracy – in the form of Nevada Department of Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents – came upon this kind of selfless public service, they were surely confused, because it’s a rare thing.

But after having a chance to think about it, why not inspect her facility carefully to be sure no birds were being mishandled and then issue her a temporary permit? That would give her time to jump through whatever hoops are necessary to get a full permit.

Most Review-Journal readers were charmed, touched and inspired by the July 7 story about Marion Brady. We were taken by surprise when we read last week that she had been shut down, and we still can’t get a grip on the logic behind it.

Two opinions we’ve heard about why they did it: One, the government wasn’t getting anything out of it because she wasn’t paying permit fees, or, two, there are some Scrooge-types in the Nevada Department of Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Hummingbirds? Bah! Humbug!

Wayne Planck

Jean Day

Las Vegas