Letters

Cults

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

I’ve got a couple of religious items conflated in my mind today. For one, I don’t sympathize in any way with the people who killed Americans and destroyed property in the Middle East over that Innocence of Muslims videoattack on Islam, but I will tell you this, I get where they’re coming from.

It’s like this. Most of those people live in countries where the government decides what gets published. In order for that video to be made there, the government would have to sanction it. They have no understanding of our system of publication, so they believe our government sanctioned that video. You know how I know this? Because when I listen to how Americans talk about the riots, they can’t understand why these riots would attack our government when it was obviously some nutjob, individual hater who made the video. Lots of ignorance to spread around.

Closer to home, I’m still getting emails on Jake Highton’s June 28 story about atheism, “Are you there God. It’s me, Jake.” The reaction is interesting to me, and seems a bit analogous to the riots. I wrote a column called “Filet of Soul” for four years. I went to a different church, mosque, temple, woods clearing, chapel, stake—you name it—almost every week. I represented every single type of faith that I could find, and I tried to do it without bias, despite the fact I’m not a spiritual guy.

In those four years, I presented something like 200 different sects and belief systems and cults to the public. And in all that time, not once did an atheist write in telling me that the represented belief system was wrong. I’ve written cover length stories about people of faith; never a hateful letter from an atheist.

When you watch the TV news or you read what’s written about people of faith or of no faith in local media, be very attentive. The people who cry “discrimination” or “hypocrisy” loudest are often the ones who should be explaining their own bullshit instead of calling out others.

Dream on

Re “The man who would be prez” (Feature story, Sept. 13):

Obama and Romney have forsaken the American Dream. Adeclaration is an affirmation. Independence means self-government. They could have called the Declaration of Independence, the Affirmation of SelfGovernment! Gary Johnson and Judge Jim Gray are the only choice to Save the American Dream. Colleen McCool Stephenville, Texas

Value voters

Re “The man who would be prez” (Feature story, Sept. 13):

The big picture for the November elections is one about the economy and social values. Under Obama’s economic agenda, we have a growing implementation of socialism where the state is more important than the individual. This is encapsulated in his “spread the wealth” and “you didn’t” comments. He believes the government should control wealth and not individuals, hence his repeated “you didn’t do that” comments contrasted to government planning (internet, roads and bridges). Obama also has implemented a more secular agenda in government with more liberal values. Romney stands for a return to free markets or capitalism, where the individual has more control of his wealth and the government is more limited. Romney also stands for the preservation of traditional Christian-Judeo values. So, we have an economic and cultural war going on that affects all of us, and people are really voting about that, whether they realize it or not.

Ernest Serano Reno

Kill Nevada gambling

Re “Poker faceoff” (Upfront, Sept. 13):

Regarding Party-Bwin and Jim Ryan and the Ultimate Bet scandal: Ask Russ Hamilton about Jim Ryan— the book will be out soon. He and Full Tilt/PokerStars were not investigated. Who do you think got them started with thousands of bots and organized crime? Billions of government-backed student loans lost at online poker, and Nevada is looking the other way. This will be a killer for Nevada gaming. Remember when the late Terry Lanni told you it could not be regulated? Remember when Steve Wynn said, “No way”? Now Sheldon Adelson says, “No way, Jose.” These are very smart men with lots of input. What has changed is they can bring big brother technology so that your gambling is on a chart or graph and that’s the so-called protection. Money now is speaking, not wise gaming. This will not stop collusion, just make them smarter. Why did Nevada not seek to create its own software with the likes of Google, Bill Gates and Apple to create jobs, real jobs? Why not partner with clean corporations for a better Nevada? Please explain how online poker will create jobs. All the software is outsourced to Europe. Truth is it will cost thousands of jobs. Who is going to police the rest of the world when they market to the United States? How come the word “collusion” is not the main topic? Does the gaming control board really understand the word and how it works on a higher level?

Robert Turner Downey, Calif.

Here’s to old friends

It’s about to happen again. Nationwide, Congress has only a 10 percent approval rating, yet we are about to reelect 90 percent of the incumbents! How can this be? The only explanation: 90 percent of us approve of our own representative but want everyone else to elect someone different.

If this continues there will never be meaningful change in Washington. Things will always be the same, right up until our country collapses.

Fellow Americans, we must do something different now. You can only vote for/against, and possibly replace, one of the 435 members of the House. Is your representative really worthy of being sent back to Washington? If he/she has been there for 8 or more years it’s very likely he/she is part of the problem. If one of your choices in November is an eight-plus-year incumbent, seriously consider voting for the challenger. But you say, “The other candidate is a member of the other party, and he’s pro this or that.” A freshman representative of either party will do less harm than an entrenched incumbent. In two years, it will be easier to elect someone different and the country gets a new Congress now! Glen Terrell Arlington, Texas

Editor’s note: I wonder about this, too. I think people generally tend to stay with the horse they know in unsettled times. If this is true at all, one of the best ways for incumbents to get reelected is for them to perform poorly.

Yes. I don’t know. Probably. Nope. Nope, again. Recycle it. Yes.

It’s rumored that a couple of executives from health insurance corporations make near a billion bucks a year, including bennies and platinum parachutes. Here’s what the handy dandy trusty solar-powered pocket calculator says about all that: $3,846,153.85 a day. $480,769.23 an hour. $8,012.82 per minute. $133.55 per second.

So if a health insurance CEO can make as much in four hours as I have earned in my entire lifetime, my questions are: 1. Is he really that much smarter, and work that much harder in half a day than I did in a whole 40-plus years on the job? 2. Why does my health insurance cost so much? 3. Did I get into the wrong profession? 4. Can he lend me 10 minutes of his time? 5. Do you wonder why I hate unbridled/unregulated capitalism? 6. Should I throw my calculator away? 7. Did he just earn $5,000 taking a piss?

Damn.

Craig Bergland Reno

Conspiracy in Libya

Remember back to the Koran burning that caused Muslim riots and the killing of American soldiers. We know that the Afghan advisors warned U.S. officials against it. But, who ordered the burning? The inflammatory video was circulating Cairo University, but, so was word that the Obama raid was a “kill mission” and that “Obama killed Osama” was an American election slogan. The demonstrators at the embassy in Egypt chanted, “Obama, Obama we’re all Osamas, now!”

It was the ambassador there who made the connection to and apology for the inflammatory video. On a 9/11 anniversary, our Libya embassy had no Marine guards and relied upon Libyans for security, and the Marine guards at the Egyptian embassy had no bullets in their guns. Terrorists used sophisticated weapons to capture the embassy not just to take and kill our ambassador but to seize documents identifying our collaborators there. It was after the ambassador made a standard apology that demonstrators turned into rioters, breached the Egyptian embassy walls and hoisted the terrorist flag.

It took President Obama 15 hours to make a public statement, and that was just after Gov. Romney spoke. Where Romney condemned the terrorist acts and criticized the diplomatic apologies, President Obama condemned the video and criticized Romney’s “shooting from the hip.” No one remembers back five years ago when candidate Obama called President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, “Bush’s Pet.” Rash words in that case led to Musharraf’s downfall and political turmoil. In the current situation, we see how timid words, in the face of terror, condone violence and provoke contempt. The State Department continues to condemn the video and, of course, the media follows the president’s lead in criticizing Romney. Do you see a pattern here? This pejorative video is blamed for causing demonstrations at our embassies just as American soldiers were blamed for burning the Korans. No one asks why the embassies were not prepared just as no one asked who ordered the Korans burned. We do know the result of these mistakes— the loss of support for the war effort among Americans and Afghanis and, now, loss of support for American presence in the Mideast and the Muslim world.

Our foreign policy sets us up for failure and the terrorist for success. Michael McCarthy Hayward, Calif.

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THIS MODERN WORLD BIG HE ADERS GIZA 25pt 25k SMALL HE ADERS GIZA 15pt 55k (60% OF BIG HE AD)

BIG HE ADERS GIZA 25pt 25k by Dennis Myers BY TOM TOMORROW What would you ask SMALL HE in the debates?

Asked at Nevada Judicial Historical Society meeting

Patty Cafferata

Attorney/author I want to know how they’re going to create new jobs.

Lynn Bremer

Retiree I think questions about Iran and the whole nuclear situation, some specifics about how each would respond to that.

How they keep power

It’s not often that voters can see the major parties working with media to undermine democracy, but occasionally it’s there, like the wake left after a hand passes through cigar smoke.

This presidential election shows that hand. We live in Nevada, right? We’ve had a massive increase in non-partisan voter registration, right? You know why? Because we don’t like our choices from the two main parties.

Up until Tuesday morning when we pointed out the omission, the Washoe County Registrar of Voters wasn’t listing presidential candidates on its website. That’s forgivable—mainly a technological oversight. But staffmembers didn’t even know who was running; one even provided the false information that it was just Obama and Romney.

For the record, there are four presidential candidates running in Nevada, and each has a vice presidential running mate. For the Independent American Party, it’s Virgil Goode and Jim Clymer; for the Libertarians, it’s Gary Johnson and James P. Gray; for the Democrats, it’s Barack Obama and Joe Biden; and for the Republicans, it’s Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. No Green Party candidates in Nevada, but there is, for now at least, the choice of None of these Candidates.

The major parties would prefer you don’t know that there are other options. Can’t have a spoiler like Ross Perot or Ralph Nader. The Republicans are even suing to take None of these Candidates off the ballot. But curious people know there are other options, so they go looking.

Well, currently the best internet site to figure out who’s on the ballot for president in the state of Nevada, locally anyway, is the Reno Gazette-Journal’s, www.rgj.com/candidates. And it sucks. Inconsistent information across races. Huge holes. Very little context. For example, when a candidate for U.S. Senate from the third-largest party in Nevada says, “The only defense spending you should focus on is arming yourself against the federal government and the police. The feds will disarm you so they can rob you, rape your family, and kill you in the end,” all you can do is wonder what rabbit hole you’ve fallen into.

The Reno Gazette-Journal lists only two candidates for president. No mention of vice presidents. No mention of third parties.

So, aside from the local-focused rag you hold in your hand, where are we independents going to go for information? How about the presidential debates? We could actually get a feel for these people who’ve been frozen out of the mainstream coverage.

At this moment, there are only two candidates for president listed for the three scheduled debates. Those debates are controlled by the Commission on Presidential Debates, which in turn is controlled by the two major parties (chaired by former Nevada Republican chair Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr. and former Bill Clinton press secretary Mike McCurry). The commission imposes burdensome rules on other candidates instead of just letting in any candidate who is on enough ballots to get an electoral vote majority.

And the major news organizations have rolled over for this, instead of pressuring the commission to open up the process. If the major news organizations were truly fair, truly unbiased, they’d champion the right of other candidates to be heard.

But that just wouldn’t do. That wouldn’t do because there is no better way to keep voters uninformed and blindly following direction than just not informing them. Ω Karen Baggett

Retiree I believe they should address the health care issue, particularly what they’re going to do about the rising costs [for] people unable to afford health care, as well as the medical community and help them so they can provide services.

Brad Williams

Historical society director How are they going to work to improve relations with Muslim countries around the world?

Mike Fondi

Former judge You both said you need to create more jobs. How are each of you going to go about creating new jobs for the state of Nevada? What method are you going to use?