Letters to the Editor

Blue Collar Comedy makes sense and is funny too

I came across a few Jeff Foxworthy comments a while ago and thought they were appropriate and worth sharing.

You have to show identification to get on an airplane, cash a check, buy cigarettes or booze, get a library book to go, yet not to vote for people to run the government.

So requiring ID and TSA body search isn’t racist, why is it racist for voter ID?

Confiscating law-abiding citizens’ weapons/guns used for self-protection yet they have multiple armed guards for themselves. Why?

Like Jeff says, we live in a nation founded by geniuses but now run by idiots.

I believe he’s right, don’t you?

Henry Hurlbut

Most Democrats have views like Groucho Marx, and not of Karl Marx

Today’s “conservative-Republicans” have done a masterful job of brainwashing and hoodwinking many Americans into believing that the national Democrats are now some kind of “socialists.”

We now have a #1 best-seller on the non-fiction list titled “American Marxism” (written by Mark Levin) with a picture of a hammer and a sickle on the cover. This would be laughable if it wasn’t so pathetic. Because with respect to their political and economic views, most of my fellow Democrats have views that are closer to those of Groucho Marx than they are to Karl Marx.

Please read the article titled “Bernie Sanders Isn’t A Socialist” by Paul Krugman which you can find online.

It appeared in the February 13, 2020 issue of the New York Times. Krugman won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Economics, so it is safe to say that what he says about this is much more credible and believable than what a right-wing “Fox News” fanatic and extremist like Mark Levin says.

Sincerely,

Stewart B. Epstein

The country is certainly not what it used to be says Pahrump Valley Times reader

What is happening to our country? Thinking back to the time that I grew up in, the 1950’s, I hardly recognize it. Back then we had families where the men worked, women raised kids at home. Now kids are handed off to school, day care, or a babysitter. Everybody is doing their thing and families spend very little time together.

We worked instead of finding some government to support us. We did not have psychologists inventing things that they had to treat people for. I never heard of PTSD, ADHD or Bipolar and, I never knew anybody that had to have a service animal with them 24/7 to maintain their sanity.

Back then government was not so divided when Ronald Reagan was president, Tip O’Neil was speaker. They were on opposite ends of the political spectrum but would always come to the center and got things done. Now whoever has a majority takes the “my way or the highway” approach. Defund the police, now there’s a great idea, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that less police means more crime, and that’s exactly what’s happening in all cities mostly led by liberal Democrats, that have adopted the defund policy. They now realize their mistake and want to re-fund and re-build their police departments.

The problem is lack of personnel. Officers have resigned or retired and finding new recruits is challenging, police officers are not respected, underpaid and sometimes charged with a crime because someone made a video of them making an arrest that became violent. While less police means less security for all of us, Nancy Pelosi and other politicians are spending taxpayer money for their personal security.

Immigration - I am not anti-immigrant, in fact I am one, born in England, my family applied for a visa to come to America in 1958, after being vetted, vaccinated, and finding a sponsor, the visa was granted. Even back then there were illegals, when caught they were bused back across the border. Fast-forward to the present, we have hundreds of thousands walking in as if the border doesn’t exist. These are not vetted in any way, we know nothing about who they are, what their intentions are or what they’re bringing into the country. Many of those tested have COVID, so the untested probably do too.

So, while American citizens are advised to get vaccinated and wear masks, the illegals can access any part of our country and spread this deadly disease. Our fearless leader, Mr. Biden, made a huge error in judgement when he reversed the Trump policy of keeping them in Mexico until they were vetted.

I may be living in the past, but we had a simpler, less stressful life and didn’t need appointments and reservations to do anything.

George Cross

No excuse for frustrating experience at area DMV says reader

I wish to give a few thoughts on the DMV in Pahrump. I am in total amazement that we have come so far in the computer age and cannot cure the problems of the aforesaid DMV.

You go up there at 7 a.m. and stand in line for an hour before the door opens. Once you get in, unless you are one of the first 10-15 people, you could be there for several hours only to find that you do not have the proper documentation.

You then go home and attempt to obtain the aforesaid documentation and then you start the process over. This can be a two or three times or maybe longer process. You cannot convince me that this cannot be corrected.

When we switched over from chauffeur’s license to CDL (nothing but a money grab) I did my part and went with my current license and all of my paperwork to the DMV in Henderson to switch over. I got there early and stood in line like a good little soldier. What confronted me was a nasty, surly woman who I would not hire as a floor sweeper. I spent 24 hours of being insulted and humiliated at the hands of a person who couldn’t even shift gears in the truck I drove. After finally being approved by this thing that filled in as a DMV clerk, I was issued a license. Needless to say I was not a happy truck driver. As I walked out the door she said at the top of her lungs, “There goes another happy customer”, all the time laughing hysterically.

THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THIS. Most of this could be done on the computer. Please people in charge, fix this problem. If I ran for governor on fixing this problem alone, I would probably be elected by a landslide.

In closing, I would like to say thank you for all the people who read my ranting are supporting me. Since my experience with my CDL, I would like to say that the caliber of people at the DMV has improved greatly. Further, the people in the Pahrump DMV are usually very pleasant and it is not their fault. It is the system and its distrust of the public. God bless each and every one of you and God bless America.

Stacy L. Riney

America is not a perfect country, but then who is?

Where does it come from, what does it mean, and most importantly how is it lost? Anyone who has traveled to what’s called “developing” countries and paid attention to the average people there and see their daily lives, usually realizes how many things we just take for granted here. Most of these places have people that their ancestors have been there for centuries, most times way longer than the USA has been a country - why is their existence so meager?

There are many that would argue it’s because we’ve taken advantage and abused others to get what we have, and there is a level of truth that can be reasoned, but I’d argue it’s been drastically conflated.

Anyone who has ever studied the history of mankind sees the norm historically has been from dominance and tyranny, from blood lines, religion, and “might makes right” form of who rules and who is subjugated.

As a country, I believe we are subject to all the human nature flaws and failings the rest of the world is subject to without exception, but we were fortunate enough to become a nation formed by a group of diversified flawed men that were strongly influenced by the “Age of Enlightenment” that questioned nearly everything that was just considered “normal” for centuries. Important things like ‘who gets to rule and why? And things like, are there limits to power?

I’m well aware that their human nature flaws are examples of their failures such as the issue of slavery, which was the “spirit of the age of the time”, even for those countries that may have formally banned it in their countries before we did but still allowed it to continue in many forms around the world even in their colonies.

There is little doubt they essentially “kicked” this and other issues that were in direct opposition to their writings, for other generations to deal with. It’s very easy to look at any part of history through today’s lens, but very difficult to fully understand things that were going on at any given time in history that had direct influences on that time. So no, we are not a perfect country and will never be, but I’d challenge anyone to show me which one is and then question, why aren’t you making every effort to get there? That only seems logical to me.

Ronald Reagan said: “Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction. It must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation for it comes only once to a people.” Thomas Jefferson said, “Put reason firmly in its seat,” also, “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite essentially preserving our survival as a free people.”

I’d add a truth - factual education that includes the flaws but also the great accomplishments.

David Jaronik

Reader: Recent verbal attack on first lady unwarranted

Well, the political slander has taken place. I am the daughter of a white-supremacist-incognito. Only we know that they are views. We are both elderly boomers. No, I did not vote for Mr. Sisolak as Lord of Nevada. Our commissioner Cox lobbed a racial (mixed with LOTS of class envy and class resentment) accusational insult at Nevada’s first Asian-American first lady. Upon review of the evidence, reluctantly, I am forced to concede that the political barrage on our first lady was, both unjustified and unwarranted. Apologies to Mrs. Sisolak.

Lately, I have eaten a lot of political crow. But, I wish that a becalmed Mrs. Sisolak and an equally becalmed Mrs. Cox could have sat down together at a table. That would have been the first step. Step number two would have been, with respect and honesty in their hearts, they could have aired their aggravations with each other. In my opinion, that would have been a superior teachable situation for our young.

Janice Gilmour

Too close for comfort to California says reader

More than 50 years ago, back when my vision was really superb, I stood on Kyle Canyon Road and looked toward Railroad Pass. I could see the vehicles traveling on U.S. 93 and 95, heading toward Boulder City. I was able to identify the vehicle - cars, trucks, pickups, pickups with travel trailers and buses, not by brand but by size. I had two things going for me - perfect vision and perfect environment. When the ‘Henderson Fog’ lifted, I had unlimited vision..

Here we are, more than 50 years later, and we have progressed with unlimited environmental restrictions, laws, conditions, and this day the visibility is about two, maybe three miles.

Then you ask, “What could cause all of that smoke?” Answer, “It is California again.” They will never learn. Yellowstone was not even a clue to them. They have played with Mother Nature so often that 60 or so years of fuel has accumulated, even in the cities (Santa Barbara, for instance), and when a fire gets started, it becomes practically impossible to extinguish. All of those bits of information came out of the Yellowstone, when we almost lost Yellowstone Park completely. “What does California do”, you query. The response, “Why the same thing they have done so many years.”

I have heard that anyone, or any group of folks that do the same thing over and over, expecting different results, have a problem. California is sending their smoke to Nevada. Has everyone forgotten the battle cry, “Nevada is not a dump!”, and, “Not in my backyard!” Yet we have smoke so heavy in Amargosa Valley, my breathing became so labored, short of breath and coughing so hard, that for a moment I was not sure I would stop coughing, or continue breathing. Californians are such hypocrites. They portray themselves as the saviors of the nation, when in fact they create environmental catastrophes of monumental proportions. They are so suave and urbane that we should consider ourselves fortunate that they allow us to breathe the same smoke that they create.

The time has long since passed for our governor to file civil and criminal complaints against the state of California. Who can forget that California created a law that forbade the flow of cigarette smoke across property lines? Will Sisolak ‘step up to the plate’ and defend Nevada and Nevadans against the damage (health hazard) caused by California?

I find it quite difficult to have much sympathy for someone or group that continues to do the same dumb thing and get the same disastrous results, year after year. Then go before our nation and beg for support (money) from the rest of the nation that practices proper forest protection. The arrogance and contempt demonstrated toward Nevada/Nevadans is intolerable, but California will send ever more pollutants our way.

Wayne Brotherton Sr.