The liberal attitude on wealth is exposed

To the editor:

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman makes what may be the definitive statement about how liberals feel about you, your money and taxes. Mr. Krugman writes, “And among the undeniably rich, a belligerent sense of entitlement has taken hold: it’s their money, and they have the right to keep it.”

Huh?

That is an amazing statement. I guess if you want to keep your own money and don’t realize that it really belongs to the government, you are a spoiled brat with a bad attitude.

The liberals continue to define themselves for us.

B. DARLING

HENDERSON

In the back

To the editor:

A question that should be asked at the Erik Scott inquest because it is so obvious: Why was Scott shot three times in the back and once in the back of his left arm, another time in his left buttock? How could he have been a threat to the police if his back was to them and, presumably, he was severely wounded if not dead?

Stuart Weiss

Las Vegas

Teachers irrelevant

To the editor:

As the new school year settles in, there’s increasingly more talk about starting merit pay for teachers here. Many teachers have responded by explaining that they have no control over whether or not their mostly apathetic students focus, do homework or even show up at all.

I’ll offer another perspective.

I teach more than 200 honors English students. It’s a foregone conclusion that most of them will develop larger vocabularies, broaden their literacy, and improve their writing skills this year. Most of them will get an “A” in my class. Do I deserve any special reward because of this major, consistent success?

Absolutely not.

The credit for the success of these students lies entirely with the students themselves. Just as the blame for the epidemic of failure in our state lies with those students and their parents who fail, the success of those who excel is exclusively due to their own choice to care.

I’ve never met a teacher who feels any other way.

Jamie Huston

North Las Vegas

Reid fans

To the editor:

I just read that yet another notable Nevadan, George Maloof, is endorsing Harry Reid’s re-election bid. He and other Reid supporters all say that they support Sen. Reid because of all of the good things he has done for Nevada.

Of course, they are not talking about Nevada’s citizenry as a whole, but about the favors he has done for certain special interests in Nevada, including them personally.

Would any of these supporters, including the “Republicans for Reid,” go on record to defend Sen. Reid’s legislative record? Of course they wouldn’t, because the damage he has caused is self-evident.

I believe that many of Nevada’s elites support Sen. Reid for one of two reasons: either to cash in on certain favors he has promised, or for fear of retribution should he manage to squeeze out a victory in November.

Michael Mathews

Las Vegas

Key points

To the editor:

Maybe Clark County needs to hire Barack Obama as its new school superintendent. His statement Monday that the school year should be lengthened by a month and that ineffective teachers need to be removed are key to bringing our schools up to some semblance of proficiency.

This is the only way we should cave in to the teacher union demands for more money.

Taxpayers should support increasing teacher pay in return for more class days and real performance accountability.

Tom Keller

Henderson

Iranian madman

To the editor:

The recent disgusting speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accusing the United States of orchestrating the 9/11 tragedy reminds me of what happened in the 1930s with the Nazis in Germany.

The world ignored the appalling anti-Semitism of the German government and the aggressive stance of the Nazis toward the rest of Europe, and allowed the Nazis to take over the mineral rich Ruhr valley, which they needed to arm themselves to fight against the terms of the Versaille Treaty.

The end result was World War II, which resulted in more than 50 million deaths.

The whole world, including the United States, needs to take an extremely firm stance against this madman and the Iranian clerics who support him, even though he appears to have lost the last Iranian election.

If we don’t learn from history, we will be reliving it.

Tony Spier

Henderson