Caution: Adopted pet may
have expensive illness
Pets of various kinds are given during Christmas season. Our experience may help others avoid the heartache we had recently.
We have an adult indoor cat who is reaching 18 years of age. Recently while purchasing more cat food we wandered to the adoption area, and saw a most beautiful black adult female cat. She communicated, "I want to go home with you" by turning over and making eye contact. She went home with us.
A few days later we realized she was very congested and was running a high fever. The veterinarian who had previously released her after spaying said $1,000 of treatment would be necessary, and ended up having to leave her at the local shelter. We were told they would treat her and return her to us when she was well. My husband checked often in person, being told each time that she still was very ill.
Last Sunday we went to the pet store to purchase cat food and found the very same cat in the adoption area, still sniffly, and obviously in need of medical attention.
Needless to say, we want others to know of the experience we had, in order to avoid the heartbreak of adopting an ill pet, or adopting a pet that has been exposed to whatever she had, or to other illnesses that may be prevalent.
SHANNON MCRAE
Carson City
Tax system unfair
to alternative schools
I have heard many Nevadans who wish to see tax dollars cut out of our public schools. I even heard one man say that he would love to see school sports taken out of the school budgets. I agreed with him; public school sports programs are wasting our tax dollars.
Nevertheless, we should not cut sports programs until we have eliminated the harmful ones. The free lunch program is a good example of costly legislation that ensures every child in our public schools is fed. Not only is this expensive, it is detrimental to our educational freedoms.
I agree with the angry crowd; Nevada schools are failing us. However, if parents are interested in pursuing educational alternatives, they still have to fund public schools with their taxes. Our tax code is structured so that private school and home school families are punished with the burden of funding a failing education system in addition to the one that they wish to pursue.
I am a home-schooled student who finds this highly unfair. Every taxpayer is indirectly paying for someone else's food and that is absurd. However, parents who pursue educational alternatives are faced with the duty of paying the price for the private and home education of their children as well.
When the government intervened and created a bill that punished educational diversity, then everyone paid for this free lunch program.
ETHAN FOSTER
Reno
Muth needs to take
a history class
It's ironic that Mr. Muth was so eager to take a superintendent to task that he glossed over a few historic notes. For instance, from the end of the Revolution to the signing of the Constitution, America operated under the Articles of Confederation. Ironic because Chuck would have loved living under them.
The federal government was incapable of taxing the individual states. It had no Supreme Court. It didn't even have a president. It was so weak that it could not enforce its laws and so inflexible that one state could halt any attempt at altering the articles. It was also an unquestionable failure.
The federal government and state governments, reduced to printing money with no backing, ran up monumental inflation. It was not until the Articles were abandoned and the Constitution was signed " allowing the federal government to gain tax revenue and other powers " that the America we live in today became possible.
Another historical note that Mr. Muth misses miserably is in his own hero, Mr. Jefferson. It is unquestionable that Jefferson opposed political power in the hands of executives. That is, until he himself was elected to the presidency.
Coming into office with promises of cutting debt and limiting presidential power, along came France with an offer to sell us their territory and effectively double the size of the United States. There was, however, one catch: The Constitution did not say anywhere that the president had such power to make such purchases. Jefferson pragmatically put his ideals aside and assumed power he himself had derided.
You should read your books more carefully, Mr. Muth, and not simply cherry pick the parts of history you agree with. The Founding Fathers were not conservatives. They were liberals, founding a liberal country for a conservative populace. If they had been right-wing ideologues, there'd be a King Washington.
DAVID BUSHEY
Minden
Return scoring odds
to the paper
In the 21 years we have subscribed to your paper, we have never saved more money. As a matter of fact, the savings have made your paper basically free.
Your decision to not publish the scoring odds for college football during the week has taken all the fun out of how I was going to blow my money before games start on Saturday. How cruel is that?
Please visit this issue. Some of this stuff makes the paper fun; in spite of the other news that isn't.
JAMES F. STEMLER
Carson City
Leave Krolicki alone;
investigate ACORN
Democrat Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto has sicced her pet grand jury on Republican Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki for a college savings program he oversaw years ago as treasurer. Nevada Appeal columnist Chuck Muth has pointed out that Democrat Sheila Leslie's highly partisan legislative committee had already investigated Krolicki for this program and found no wrongdoing.
A better use of the grand jury's time would be to find out why the AG and Democrat Secretary of State Ross Miller publicly acknowledged, but never seriously investigated, ACORN's voter registration fraud this election year.
Voters would appreciate knowing if two partisan hacks operating under color of authority covered up the hijacking of Nevada's election process, giving Democrats state and national victories they didn't earn.
LYNN MUZZY
Minden
Keep up the good
work, Chuck Muth
Cheers for Chuck Muth's recent column wherein he performed surgery on Eugene Paslov with such precision that Paslov probably isn't aware of having been drawn and quartered.
I find it repulsive that a so-called administrative educator like Paslov doesn't know the difference between a constitutional republic and a democracy. But then, secular-regressive socialists are always referring to our nation as being a democracy. They reject the word "republic." But they are lucky we are not a democracy, otherwise, they may have been eliminated eons ago.
Anyway, Chuck old boy, keep hammering these public-trough looters every chance you get.
BOB THOMAS
Carson City
Governor's Mansion
lights brought joy
I came to visit my son in Carson City and drove by the Governor's Mansion one evening. For about 15 minutes I sat in my car looking at the beautiful decorations and lights. I forgot for awhile about our bad economy, crime and sadness in the world. How lucky we are to be able to have such a sight to enjoy. When you share such beauty with visitors, many like me will always return to see your seasonal splendor. God bless all of you.
JEAN ABBOT
Sacramento, Calif.