Intrusive laws ripe for potential abuse
To the editor:
I am relieved that the primary seat-belt law and the Big Brother, red-light camera law will not be passed (Saturday Review-Journal). I am not happy that the intrusive cell phone and texting bans will soon be law, though.
I also expect that even though the repeal of the motorcycle helmet law has a slim chance of passing, the Nanny Staters will prevail. Have any of these pompous, self-righteous legislators ever been almost killed on a motorcycle because of decreased peripheral vision, diminished hearing and sweat pouring down their faces in 115 degree heat while suffocating in a full-face helmet?
All of these bad laws merely end up as smokescreens for cops to get what they really want: an excuse to pull people over to fish for more lucrative ticket revenue and quota fulfillments.
A friend of mine was just stopped for having a burned-out license plate light. The cop forced the driver and the passenger to submit to breath tests.
Police departments are looking for any chance to increase revenue, and allowing them to stop us for almost any reason just erodes our rights and gives them a license to harass us.
Look for more racial profiling and more illegal searches, all in the name of keeping us safe from ourselves.
J. Collier
Henderson
Tax code
To the editor:
Monday's front-page article on the fairness of the tax code reported that the top 400 taxpayers in 2007 earned, on average, $345 million each that year. That equals $138 billion for 12 months. Our current deficit is $1.34 trillion, year to date. A 100 percent tax on these high earners would still leave $1.2 trillion unfunded for four months.
How many taxpayers would have to pay 100 percent of their income to cover Washington's spending?
Taxing will not pay off our debts.
Roger Snyder
Henderson
Bad man
To the editor:
How totally disappointing that Sunday's Review-Journal editorial, "What recovery?" chose to use quotes from the conniving and cold-hearted former senator Phil Gramm.
Mr. Gramm has a few big strikes against his credibility. It is well-documented that Mr. Gramm's political influence in Washington was directly responsible for the banking deregulation that ultimately led to the devastating housing meltdown. He also was responsible for enabling credit default swaps, which further pushed this country's economy to the brink of destruction.
To add insult to injury, he is quoted in 2008 as calling suffering American victims of the economy he helped destroy a "nation of whiners." He's OK, though -- he set himself up quite nicely with all of his political clout.
This is not a person your newspaper should use as a source of authority for evaluating the job President Obama is doing, trying to manage and undo the mess Mr. Gramm helped create.
Syd Rabin
Las Vegas
Alarm clock
To the editor:
Before I went to work each day, I was awakened by an alarm clock. A simple solution to wake these drowsy air traffic controllers is to install a device that will sound an alarm when a call comes from an incoming plane. Surely, with all the high-tech stuff that's out there, someone could come up with such a device, saving money and, possibly, lives.
Natalie Shurtleff
Las Vegas
