Terrorists have choice not to be tortured:
Regarding Jenny Mital's letter about torture, I think she is stupidly wrong!
Let her closest loved ones' lives depend on information held by some terrorist and to save them threaten them by torture. Jenny Mital, would you say "I love you BUT I cannot let them torture them!"
The U.N. says No! Let's get out of the U.N. and the U.N. out of the USA. Don't try telling me we are better than the terrorists. An eye for an eye; just remember any terrorist or prisoner has first a chance to answer any questions asked of them. Their answers can be checked out. It is their choice.
You can go to hell with the rest of the bleeding hearts. 9/11 was no joke. And as a matter of fact your letter is torture to those who lost loved ones.
NICHOLAS PAWLAK
Carson City
Parole board created inmate backlog:
In rebuttal to "safety net" in the Opinion section dated 1-6-08 let me clarify a few things. First, the backlog was created by a dysfunctional parole board and for the last three months a non-existent parole board.
Second AB510 did very little for actually releasing any inmates, when parole eligibility arrives they are denied anyway. In addition, most of these inmates are at conservation camps, they put out fires in this state, work on floods and perform a wide range of services for rural communities.
As far as recidivism, most of the minimum custody inmates are drug offenders, DUI's, and property crimes offenders. They were your neighbors before they were incarcerated and will be your neighbors again.
Most of these inmates have a drug problem that needs to be addressed leading to repeat crimes.
All these inmates in conservation camps will be released one day - would you have them all do life?
MITCH BLASCHE
Humboldt Conservation Camp
Winnemucca
Dog walkers should be aware of animal traps:
While hiking with my dog on Jan. 25 up a four-wheel drive trail in the snow, off of Kings Canyon Road at Longview, my dog's front paw was caught in a steel trap chained to the ground.
Thanks to animal control who hiked up a steep hill, the suffering dog in pain was released from the trap.
Leg traps are extremely cruel, how they can be legal anywhere is unbelievable.
The trap was 20 feet from a regularly used trail, it was set behind some rocks on the north side of a steep hill.
It should be legal to chain the person who set the trap to the same area for 3 days - as the current law allows animals to suffer that fate.
Animal Control said they have found dogs trapped for two days. Please be warned when hiking with dogs, usually more than one trap is set in the same area.
ROBERT JONES
Carson City
Reducing credit card rates would help the economy:
Today I received my credit card statement for January 2008 ... what a surprise. The low interest balance transfer that I had done has expired!
My interest went from $55 dollars a month to $101 a month!
So I immediately got on the phone and tried to lower the interest rate with the card company. I have always made my payments on time and the customer service representative thanked me for that, however my debt to income ratio was too high for them to lower the interest on my card (sounds almost funny doesn't it).
Now of course they are the institution that granted me the original credit, but now I am a credit risk!
Please keep in mind none of my payments are late or overdue, I am paid once a month being on Social Security so the bills are paid prior to the due date.
The Feds lower the interest rate, but nothing is done to provide help to the millions of people that are getting ripped off by credit card companies.
These companies are charging interest that prevents us from paying down those balances!
America is going into a downhill spiral and the banks and lending institutions are to blame for this mess! How many of you would be able to pay down those credit card balances if the interest rate was reasonable?
The government wants to do something to boost the economy and I believe lowering the interest rates on credit cards would do a much better job of helping, don't you?
DENA MCCORMICK
Carson City