Letters

Decrease the obliquity of the elliptic

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

Man, I’ve got jet lag. I’ve been trying to work all day, but I can’t concentrate. I just got back Tuesday afternoon from a vacation/class in Istanbul, Turkey, that can only be described as epic.

I love traveling abroad. It certainly broadens the mind and gives a real perspective of these United States. The biggest problem is no matter where I go, I have incorrect ideas about the place I’m going to visit. The class had a pretty large amount of advance reading, so I had a lot of accurate historical information, but it’s the modern cultural stuff that made me worse than ignorant, since I thought I actually knew something from watching the news.

Plus that whole Gezi Park, Taksim Square thing blew up basically as I was getting on the plane. At any rate, I’m going to write a longer piece about it in the near future, but in a nutshell, these were some of the best weeks of my life. I had a blast. I met an amazing number of cool people, met a couple of crazy ones, saw more mosques and churches than I can remember, had some beers, saw some protesters, had some beers with some protesters.

The only times I ever felt threatened in this 99 percent Muslim country was when I heard false reports of antiAmerican sentiment or deadly force being used against protesters. To the contrary, people went out of their way to help me, even when I was acting stupidly.

I did get to see how it feels to be under constant surveillance by the government. We were warned about saying too much on our cell phones, in emails or on social media. In fact, a whole big news story about government spying came out while I was there. I also saw real examples of government using the media to tell its lies to the public. And if you think that sounds horrible, the Turkish government is just as bad.

Finally, don’t forget to vote in our Biggest Little Best of Northern Nevada popularity contest. Time grows short. —D. Brian Burghart brianb@newsreview.com

Or the Nevada of the West

Nevada’s motto should be “Mississippi of the West.” We employ Greyhound therapy for the mentally ill, our schools rank 49th. There are only 13 states that incarcerate more people per capita than Nevada, and we have a legislature that continues to demonstrate that the continued receipt of gifts and donations from lobbyists trumps doing the work of the people of this state. The governor? Sunny is just acting in his own self-interest. He clearly has political ambitions beyond governing Nevada, so pandering to the right is what he must do. Expand early voting? Can’t do that! Sign a law closing loopholes in gun background checks? OMG, the NRA might blacklist him. Tax increases are bad unless they are only imposed locally, in which case they aren’t really tax increases. The Nevada Legislature is packed with ALEC zombies and to make it worse, taxpayers foot the bill for their ALEC membership dues. I’m not going to give Democratic legislators a free pass here either. Look at Debbie Smith’s stunt, which will pretty much kill the Legend’s project with her lastminute amendment requiring they build a 300- rather than 200-room hotel. Not to mention that legislators of both parties who were complicit in turning the campaign finance bill into a mockery of its original intent. The Legislature handed NV Energy decades of guaranteed rate hikes without batting an eyelash. I’m pretty sure that stunt will finally make us number one in “something.” But sadly, that something will be us having the highest utility rates in the West, since we are currently number two. I guess the only good thing about this is that the clown car also known as the Nevada Legislature meets only every two years. Just think about the damage that they and Gov. Sunny could do if they were in Carson City full time.

Lynne Black Reno

Cut off where?

Why don’t you news people report about the fact that the city of Reno has cut water off to the homeless in a time of high temps? This is a high desert. What is the City Council trying to do? Are they trying to get your tax dollars and mine lost in lawsuits? The homeless may be poor, but they can still sue the city for committing the crime of cutting off access to water in a desert, or could it be that they don’t care since it won’t cost them anything but our taxes? Shawn Bruce England Reno

Brad’s invalid opinion

Re “Larry Cooper” (In the mix, Jan. 17):

This is a terrible review. If you’ve actually listened to this kid’s album, you’d know that Mr. Bynum obviously did not. The album is a bit lo-fi, but the fact that this kid could achieve a sound like that in mono is nothing short of impressive. The entire thing is a well thought out concept album about love, heartbreak and healing, and flows quite well from the first track to the end. I thoroughly enjoyed every song. This review does it no justice, and I can see that Mr. Bynum did not do his homework but obviously thumbed through the tracks without much thought. This is a very talented songwriter, and this album should be reviewed by someone who’ll actually listen to it. Go listen for yourself, and don’t let this jackwad give you his evidently invalid opinion. Alice Cromper Reno

Can’t see the trees

Re “Seeking lessons from parallel experiences” (The Liberty Belle, June 20):

Just wondering: Is “forest cover becomes less abundant” Libertarianspeak for clear cutting? Ronald Schoenherr Reno

How’s this?

This week is Small Business Week so I would like to throw it out there that Reno/Sparks has an amazing business that isn’t well known because it is brand new. It is called Auto Cycle. It is a car and a motorcycle in one and it is pretty awesome. You can go to their website at autocyclenv.com to find out about these cool tri-mobiles. They even have a Facebook page now, too. You’ll see them at Hot August Nights this year as well as Street Vibrations. Anyway, just check them out and spread the word to this new, local business in the Reno/Sparks area. Jennifer Sullivan Reno

Distracted driving required

Re “Traffic offenses” (Editorial, June 6):

A few weeks back there was a story discussing methods being used for road safety, and their opposite effect. I have recently had an alcohol detection device put on my vehicle. Let me stop here and say this is not an email complaining of unfair punishment. In fact, my DUI saved my life. That being said, I would invite you to research these devices a bit in relationship to that article. The device must be used to start the vehicle, a very great and productive way to prevent drinking and driving. However, you must also reblow into the device randomly throughout your drive. A distraction and stressful situation while driving. If you blow too hard, too soft, not long enough etc., the car will shut down. Also at random times it will “ask” you to pull over and stop the car immediately. In traffic or on the freeway, this situation becomes very dangerous. I could explain more, but I think the idea is there. I thought that a closer and unbiased look at the device by journalists could be interesting to read. Kathrynn Bloodworth Reno

Learn to recycle

Re “Trash talk” (Feature story, June 20):

There is much more to this story. Too bad Jason Geddes is the point man. Too bad as well that it’s another Reno rubber stamp. Waste Management and Reno just use recycling as a feel-good ploy. There isn’t any meaningful signage nor education on this topic. Thus, there is widespread co-mingling and pilferage. Many folks are conscientious about recycling; I see them at Commercial Row all the time. They and many others (who just want to be garbage-fee free) just dump any/ everything they consider “paper” or “plastic” into both green and yellow bins and at the Greg Street, Commercial Row and satellite locations.

Even these “voluntary” drop-offs are grossly co-mingled and contaminated. All sorts of Styrofoam, plastic film, and hard stuff like buckets and chairs gets dumped in. Earth Day “bottle” lessons, my foot! It is simply ingrained Nevada culture to dump and waste stuff. So we have to pay extra for a commercial “sort” (after-the-fact)? I already know how to recycle, and I make the effort. What about thousands of detergent bottles from laundromats? Why not pay delegated homeless to pre-sort after special events?

At Commercial Row, pilferers help themselves all weekend and have for years, while WM complains recycling “doesn’t pay.” An old guy with a shopping cart wanders all over northeast Sparks on recycle days. It doesn’t take a Ph.D. to get a working recycling program going—I have done this for years after school, at work and in communities. I can tell you, most Reno WM customers aren’t “smarter than a fifth-grader” when it comes to sorting or even visualizing re-use. Bah, humbug. Steve Klutter Sun Valley

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ThiS Modern World by tom tomorrow

Where’s Edward? Your summer plans?

Anybody getting Cold War deja vu from this catand-mouse chase of Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who let the cat out of the bag about our government’s deeply Orwellian domestic spying? He’s likely to get caught eventually. In fact, if half of what he said is true, the government can neither afford not to catch him nor to let him go to a speedy trial, which was the case with another American patriot/spy, Bradley Manning, who is being tried for leaking classified documents to Wikileaks.

Let’s not get into the debate of whether these men are American heroes. We’re a newspaper, so our belief that information that improves the American democracy should be available to the public is set in stone. Both these men threw away their comfortable lives for something. And there is no question as to whether their lives were the first things sacrificed.

But can we at least get one thing out of the way? It’s too stupid to be part of the discussion, and the Obama administration’s use of this argument is so intellectually dishonest, it’s got to be pointed out lest they say it enough that people start to believe it.

Edward Snowden’s running to China or Russia or Ecuador is not proof he is a traitor. Snowden is by all measures a smart guy. But he, like the rest of us, has had four years of examples of how this administration treats whistleblowers, and this administration’s penchants for spying on truth disseminators, like journalists. Bradley Manning, for instance, was at least subjected to extreme solitary confinement, which a pre-trial judge found should take time off his final sentence. It’s torture, by a euphemistic name. This is America, and such treatment used to be called cruel and unusual punishment.

There is not a judge in the United States who would say a human being does not have the right to defend him- or herself against physical harm or death. So running to logical places to avoid harm at the hands of the United States government isn’t proof of anything except that the person is neither an idiot nor suffering from a messianic complex that would require him to seek crucifixion.

On the other hand, news outlets have reported that he has said that he specifically took the job in order to get proof of the government’s surveillance programs. It’s pretty hard to use that fact, and the fact that he swore an oath to protect the government’s secrets, to call him anything but a spy. That the accusation is being made by a government that is spying on its own citizens somewhat undercuts its moral power.

Recent disclosures, like Snowden’s, and including those that showed the government monitored Associated Press phone records, clearly show that our government is taking irredeemable steps toward a fascist, authoritarian view of its citizens.

A Benjamin Franklin paraphrase, “Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither,” gets bandied about quite a bit in these post 9-11 years. These days we have to ask what people who gave up liberty but didn’t get security deserve. Ω

Asked at the Vassar Street post office

Maureen Williams

Mother To go camping and paddleboarding, fishing. Vacation at Lake Powell, and later on at Disneyland.

Steve Fittinghoff

Accountant We are going to move from Reno to Sante Fe, New Mexico. Business carries us there. I’m excited about it. I haven’t had a good job experience here this year, and I’ve lived in Sante Fe before. I’m looking forward to going back.

Hashem

Tourist I’m working here in the States. I have arrived a week ago. I’ll work until September, and I want to see America. I want to go to Vegas and California, and back home. I’m working here in a restaurant as a dishwasher. I’m from Georgia [the nation, not the U.S. state].

Stacey Knobler

Physician Work. Maybe a brief vacation. That’s about it. I’m too busy at work for a vacation. Self-employed.

Linda Ridge

Security officer Work. Just do things around town because Reno and Sparks have a lot of interesting things to do in the summer. I don’t plan a vacation because I go to Mexico in the winter.