Gold Butte area a treasure worth protecting

To the editor:

After reading your Sept. 27 article "Berkley seeking federal protection for land in county," I felt it imperative to publicly applaud Rep. Shelley Berkley and her efforts to protect the treasure that is the Gold Butte area.

Many people move to Las Vegas for employment, but it is the natural beauty that keeps us here. When they come to visit, my friends are always surprised (as I was) at the vast natural jewels that surround the Las Vegas area. After their first taste of climbing in the Rainbow Mountain and Mount Charleston Wilderness Areas, and watching big horn sheep survey us from above as we take a soak in the hot springs of the Black Canyon Wilderness, the infamous question, "How could you live in Las Vegas?" invariably ceases.

Gold Butte is one of those jewels that keeps me bound to Las Vegas and encourages me to defend the Las Vegas area to those who have seen only the Strip. It's a place where you can marvel at the crimson stone decorated with markings of the people of our past, and contemplate what legacy we ourselves intend to leave. In these times of economic turmoil, political deceit and resource wars, the preservation of such retreats is more vital than ever.

Development is important to Las Vegas' prosperity, but we must find the balance between those needs and the need to conserve our wild areas. I urge Las Vegas voters to support Rep. Berkley's initiative to protect the Gold Butte area.

Adam Hamburg

LAS VEGAS

Maxed out

To the editor:

You have to pay your bills. It is possible for an individual, a family, to max out their credit.

If a person maxes out his credit cards and all other forms of borrowing, what is the answer? Should he be extended more credit? If so, the lender will lose his money. The obvious answer is the person must stop borrowing and pay his debts or declare bankruptcy and have his assets divided up between his creditors.

The same holds true for a nation. If we have finally reached our limit on borrowing, we must either pay it back or declare bankruptcy. The idea that we have reached our limit in borrowing and should therefore plunge ourselves another $700 billion into debt is insane.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson knows the United States government has reached its limit in borrowing. He has even declared the crisis as being caused a by a credit crunch.

We are out of credit! If we are -- and I agree we are -- then we need to act like it. And stop borrowing.

There is no shame in curbing one's spending. There is no shame in tearing up your credit cards and stopping yourself from going further into debt.

Insisting we have a crisis because we are too far in debt and then declaring the solution is to borrow another $700 billion is so insane, so incredibly preposterous, that I can't believe that anybody who believes this has enough brains to stand up and walk.

Dan May

LAS VEGAS

Reforms over rescues

To the editor:

I spent a lifetime in the nuclear/chemical/metallurgical industry. When a well-intended project failed to work as planned, the engineer in charge might hang a few bells and whistles on it. If it still didn't work, more bells and whistles. We called this process "geometric bastardization." Time to start over.

Now we have a subprime mortgage problem, which, coupled with government license, low interest rates and greed, has grown into a capital credit crunch beyond historic precedent since the 1930s. How should we dismantle this bastardization?

A Democratic Congress gave birth to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae as quasi-government corporations, wherein profits would go to stockholders and managers while any losses would be borne by the taxpayer. What a deal! Things rocked along unobtrusively until Congress passed another nightmare called the Community Re-investment Act of 1977, which effectively made it illegal for a bank to refuse a mortgage to someone who could not make the monthly payments.

The banks ignored this ridiculous act until some of them got an idea. They sold mortgages to deadbeats, bundled them up into one financial instrument and sold those securities to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The banks made a small, immediate profit and the taxpayers took the risk. What a deal! It grew like a cancer from 1977, and the patient is now dying.

What should be done? If Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have any useful purpose, they should be completely privatized. Let the wheeler-dealers suffer any losses, not the taxpayers. The Community Reinvestment Act should be repealed forthwith. All socialists should be purged from Congress.

Of course, none of this will ever happen.

ROBERT W. RITCHEY

HENDERSON

Begin the cleansing

To the editor:

I am sure most of us understand that the breakdown of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae institutions was a direct result of the lack of oversight from those who were in charge. This breakdown dramatically affected the entire U.S. economy.

As we know, the country's approval rating for Congress is at an all-time low. I have a suggestion. Our Democrat-controlled Congress is prone to demanding a congressional investigation every time a Republican sneezes in the wrong direction. The Democrats should demand a complete investigation of the failure of these two institutions as soon as the "bailout" issue is resolved. Republicans would gladly cross the aisle to join the Democrats in supporting this investigation.

The investigation should be thorough and complete, leaving no one who was involved spared for any reason. The parties involved -- both from the government and the private sectors -- who committed illegal and immoral acts should be exposed. At a minimum, those employees involved should be forced to resign and forfeit their pensions.

This action is a must if our government wants the American public to ever regain the confidence we once had -- and should never have lost. Let the cleansing begin.

Clarence Lanzrath

LAS VEGAS

Distractions

To the editor:

As the all-powerful Roman empire was collapsing into dust, the citizenry chose to while away their final, moribund hours with extravagant self-indulgence and gladiatorial buffoonery.

Are we ready for some football?

T. WAYNE MORRISON

LAS VEGAS

No smoking

To the editor:

It appears when one or two articles show the devastating effects that smoking bans have on casinos, sports bars and taverns, the nonsmokers squeal like the world is going to end (Sept. 22 editorial, Sept. 25 and Sept. 27 letters to the editor).

But screaming loudly will not negate the fact that the revenues of the gaming industry outside Nevada and the food service industry within Nevada have suffered dramatically just because smoking has been banned in those businesses.

I wonder if some of those nonsmokers would like to take a pay cut of 50 percent. I doubt it. Their attitude seems to be, "It's someone else. I don't care."

There is a place for both the smoking and nonsmoking public in this state and country. Smoking and nonsmoking sections can be separated with signs posted very clearly.

My advice is that Nevada lawmakers immediately repeal the vague, unconstitutional, voter-approved law banning smoking in many Nevada businesses and write a new version that will serve all of the citizens of Nevada, which, in turn will get those employees who were fired from the kitchens, convenience stores and casinos back to work and the food establishments and bars up and running -- and profitable.

BRADLEY KUHNS

LAS VEGAS