Education cuts are the path toward ruin
To the editor:
Really? Is this what our new governor is proposing? Reducing our public school spending, which is currently ranked 46th in the nation — and has our students ranked last in chances for success?
He then plays chicken by not recommending teacher salary cuts, but instead opting to have the school boards cross that proverbial street while he stands in the shadows. Wow, new leader and new hope for a better Nevada — all squashed within the first month!
What we have, governor, is a failure to communicate. The people of Nevada want a balanced budget, oh yes we do. However, it needs to be done smartly, and no one gets any smarter cutting education.
Nevadans would really like to see a steady trend upward in the state’s national education rankings, producing new opportunities and new jobs in Nevada. Do this — and do it right — and Gov. Brian Sandoval will lead Nevada into the future with its head held high. Fail and you’ll continue the path of futility that has the Nevada economy, its future and our educational system in ruins.
Fred Taylor
Las Vegas
Delaying tactic
To the editor:
For too long the filibuster has been used to obstruct rather than to permit real debate and move this nation forward in solving its critical problems. This month provides a rare opportunity to change the rules governing how business is done in the U.S. Senate.
The filibuster isn’t in the Constitution. It’s just a Senate rule that has, in the last Congress, been abused and promoted rampant obstruction.
The practice permits a mere 41 senators to completely obstruct and prevent debate, blocking an up-or-down vote. That is not what the Founding Fathers envisioned in crafting the Constitution.
Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., and 24 of his colleagues have proposed a strong package to change the Senate rules.
The new rules would end filibusters on motions to begin debate and would force senators waging a filibuster to actually stay on the floor and engage in debate. That would protect the right of the minority to be heard, but also allow the Senate to conduct its business without endless, senseless delays.
The Senate should approve this package when it reconvenes on Monday. I want to see the filibuster rules fixed so that our senators can do their jobs — debate and vote on bills.
Richard Miller
Henderson
Porn obsession
To the editor:
OK. We get it. Review-Journal columnist Doug Elfman is obsessed with porn stars. But must he share it on the front page? We can’t even encourage kids to read the newspaper anymore. And don’t give us that “well-it’s-Las Vegas-after-all” excuse.
Ron Zanoni
North Las Vegas
The writer is pastor of St. Christopher Catholic Church.
Cold shoulder
To the editor:
Saturday’s letter from William R. Fouts is hard to deny because most of its contents are accepted by both global warming skeptics and believers. Earth has apparently been warming by fits and starts for at least 300 years.
What is in dispute is whether or not that warming is unusual. Nearly three decades of study and untold billions of tax dollars spent in research have left this question open. No matter what the current weather is, it is hardly ever unprecedented.
Dire predictions of the past 20 years have gone unfulfilled; the global warming models evidently have little power of prediction other than the already well-established tendency of the Earth to warm.
Given that the climate seems to be behaving as it has for centuries, the reduction of man’s production of carbon dioxide seems an unbelievably expensive solution in search of a problem.
Ed Dornlas
Las Vegas
Needless spending
To the editor:
It seems that all our elected officials know how to do is spend, spend, spend. Every day we have it pounded into our heads about the dire financial condition of the state, and then we have Assembly Speaker John Oceguera spending $32,000 on six pieces of exercise equipment (“Taxpayer workout,” Thursday editorial).
First, how often will this equipment be used, and by how many people?
Second, if you want to get in shape and stay healthy, join a gym and pay your membership dues like the rest of us peons.
Just another glaring example of needless government spending.
Tom Hicks
Las Vegas
On drugs
To the editor:
As an employment recruiter I have been upset lately with the unemployment rate — but not for the reasons you think. More and more candidates I send in for jobs are not getting hired because they can’t pass the drug test.
One of my clients told me recently that 36 percent fail because of drugs. Now why are we paying benefits to people who have an opportunity to work and choose to buy drugs and not work?
Recently a client of mine addressed a room of 300-plus 99ers (people who have been on unemployment for 99 weeks) and told them they were hiring 140 people but applicants had to pass a drug test first. Half of them got up and walked out.
Donna Coleman
Henderson
