Time for Nevada casinos to pay their fair share

To the editor:

Here we go again. In his Friday letter, Larry Whyte complains that teachers should stop asking for more money. Perhaps if Nevada paid their teachers a living wage they would stop complaining.

Maybe Mr. Whyte should work along with my wife, (a special-education, early childhood teacher) during her many 60-plus hour weeks writing individual education plans for each one of her students. These have to be done (at a minimum) of twice each school year.

Maybe if the casino industry paid its fair share of taxes we wouldn’t have to have massive budget cuts this year. Casinos in the rest of the country pay considerably higher rates than they do in Nevada. I can’t wait to sign the petition to raise taxes on casinos so teachers can get a decent wage.

Please go away, Mr. Whyte, with your neo-con rhetoric.

ALAN DAVIS

LAS VEGAS

Chicken Littles

To the editor:

It is interesting that the environmental Cassandras continue to preach their message of human-caused doom, as Ellen Goodman does in her Friday commentary.

— Massive hurricanes were predicted due to global warming. The past three hurricane seasons, however, have been mild, with no major hits on the United States.

— A review of the data has shown that the warmest year of the 20th century was 1934, not 1998.

— For the past decade, the ocean temperatures have fallen slightly.

— The increase in global temperature during the past 50 years has also been recalculated to show that it is half as much as previously reported.

— The ice thickness in Antarctica has increased.

— There has been record cold in Argentina, New Zealand and parts of Europe. Scientists who participated in the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have come forward to criticize the hysteria over man-made climate change.

— Al Gore’s film has been shown to be replete with flaws and misinformation.

Despite all of this, and more, the Climate Nazis are still trying to impose their will on the United States and the world.

The issue of climate change is complicated and not well-understood. However, if all research is driven by the agenda of the Chicken Littles, if conflicting data is ignored, and if scientists with opposing views are ostracized, we will all pay a dear price.

Stan Ames

HENDERSON

Tax game

To the editor:

I would appreciate it if all the liberals who think our taxes are too low would simply make voluntary donations in the amounts they think they should pay. Then maybe the rest of us could keep the money for which we worked.

To make up for the rest of us who are already overtaxed, they could scrap the Millennium Scholarship that was promised to not cost us a nickel. That would save some of the budget — and then we could use the tobacco settlement revenue to pay for the health care costs it was supposed to fund.

Robert Raider

HENDERSON

No surprise

To the editor:

Why does it not surprise me that Nevada is the fastest-growing state in the union (Review-Journal, Thursday)? Why does it not surprise me to find the next four fastest-growing states to be Arizona, Utah, Idaho and Georgia?

Simple.

These five states promote entrepreneurial growth, have less burdensome rules and regulations, have lower taxes and more of a self-reliance attitude on people to provide for themselves. It’s called rugged individualism.

In short, less government meddling promotes economic growth, which provides more jobs, which in turn attracts more people.

Look at the five bottom states — New York, Vermont, Ohio, Michigan and Rhode Island — and you will find overburdensome rules and regulations, slow economic growth and overtaxation to fund local government spending that has created a dependent class. In short, too much government meddling.

Proving once again capitalism, when left to its own devices, does work.

In the words of a former Texas U.S. senator, "When there are more people in the wagon than there are pulling, it is a disaster waiting to happen." I would say that certainly applies to the bottom five states.

Louis Frederick

NORTH LAS VEGAS

Volunteer work

To the editor:

I read your Dec. 23 article on volunteerism with great interest. Nevada had a very poor ranking in terms of volunteerism and community involvement. I can say a few things about that.

Having moved here from the Midwest about six years ago, I gradually became very disappointed with what I saw in that regard. My first-hand involvement with charities, union activities and civic groups made the tepid volunteerism rate very clear. And of the people who do volunteer here, they are sometimes overworked and their generosity abused.

I now volunteer very selectively.

Of course, the transient nature of Las Vegas is part of it. There is also much apathy and distraction. You will also see some greedy and cynical elements here.

When I built my house four years ago on the west side of Las Vegas, there was a big piece of land earmarked to be a church property. Months and years passed and we kept waiting for the church construction. Abruptly, there began construction of houses in the allotted space. The greed factor, given the super-high real estate prices, dictated things.

And that makes my final point. Places of worship are ideal bases of operations for volunteer groups and charities. There you will have plenty of parking and a meeting space. You may even get office and warehouse space. So the greedy developers made a few extra bucks and my community lost in countless, unseen ways.

LES WIMMER

LAS VEGAS

Show ID

To the editor:

The current cacophony contributing to costly judicial contemplation concerning voter ID laws brings to mind a convenient curative action employed by an individual attempting to cash a check at a local bank. When asked if he could identify himself, he produced a mirror and said, "Yes, that’s me."

Who are the power-hungry individuals who are so fearful of assuring that the person voting is the person on the registry?

Political power grabbers need only to look into the mirror and honestly say, "Yes, that’s me."

Robert S. Tobias

LAS VEGAS

Drug scandal

To the editor:

The steroid scandal is getting out of hand. Now Steve Garvey wants asterisks against all the records set by steroid users. But the asterisks are meaningless and will have no interest to future baseball fans.

After the player strike in the 1980s, baseball was dead. The home-run hitters brought the game back to life and made it worth watching again. So they used steroids. They knew what they were doing.

Baseball is not just a sport, it is entertainment. Should there be an asterisk against the Beatles for writing "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" while on LSD? Or, for that matter, what about the scores of rock stars who wrote music while under the influence of drugs?

Let the government concentrate on more important issues and leave the sports stars alone. They brought pleasure to millions of fans and should be appreciated for that. If they broke the law and lied about it, they should be punished. So be it. But an asterisk?

Len Ferman

HENDERSON