Letters to the editor 2-4

Telling folks to shut up doesn't help things

Douglas County has a unique problem with the current economic recession. Not only do we have the same unemployment, housing and bank problems as the rest of the country, but unlike other counties, we also are suffering from a declining population while the population of both our country and state continues to increase.

This puts additional stress on the county's economy and budget. This problem feeds on itself. No one wants to buy a home on a street with several vacant or abandoned houses. In addition, buying a house in or near a partially finished new development with huge mounds of dirt and torn up landscaping does not appeal to most people. Who would want to buy a house that can't be resold?

Telling local seniors to keep their mouths shut and quit complaining because Douglas County has the most inadequate senior center and services in the Western United States doesn't help the situation. Most of the senior inhabitants of Douglas County want a vibrant environment for the whole county. They should not be criticized for making suggestions on how to enact improvements.

Many of us grew up during the Great Depression so we have been through this situation before. Also, telling seniors that they are not welcomed in Douglas County does not help to attract new residents and eventually could result in a severe negative impact on our county's economy.

Our county commissioners should look into how to solve our declining population problem before the eventual recovery process becomes extremely difficult. Cutting county services to balance the budget doesn't solve the basic economic solutions. Complaining about the current recession and its causes also doesn't resolve anything.

PAUL LOCKWOOD

Minden

Alternative sources not economically feasible

The fact that development of all these energy alternatives must be subsidized is proof that they are not economically feasible, nor are they reliable.

Windmills will not replace traditional power-generating facilities. It takes hours or days to get a power plant up and ready to go on line when the wind stops blowing. It is the same with solar power when the sun goes down or it clouds up.

Neither solar energy nor wind power are economical. They only work when government grants tax breaks and outright subsidies fund a huge part of the cost. This means transferring the cost to the taxpayers. There are no practical substitutes for hydrocarbon and nuclear energy.

Many costly experiments with wind farms and solar farms have proved exactly that they are pie-in-the-sky fantasies, invented for the politicians pretending to be genuinely concerned about the energy non-problem.

The fact that our "learned" legislators have mandated that utilities must purchase a percentage of their energy from "renewable" sources, no matter at what cost has only increased the price that consumers must pay.

As for coal-fired electrical power plants, they are not dirty as some editorial writers claim. Builders of coal-fired power plants spend huge amounts on scrubbers to remove pollution from the exhaust stacks. Admittedly, some CO2 is released. The CO2 claim is exaggerated by those promoting another agenda such as more government controls and world government. Government has never produced anything but tyranny. To expect government to solve the energy problem is naive. It is government that has caused the problem.

A recent study by Stanford University concluded that they could generate the power for the United States with 750,000 windmills at 2,400 locations. This would cost umpteen trillions of dollars and at least double the cost of the power because of the expense of operating them. It's just silly. It's politics.

MERRITT K. YOCHUM

Carson City

Why didn't I invest in oil stocks?

Can anyone tell me how it works? I read where oil prices have fallen another $5 a barrel, which is now somewhere near $41 a barrel, but the gas prices seem to be getting higher?

Then I see where Mobil/Exxon is showing profits in the billions, and the prices go higher? Am I missing something here?

Also, upon checking gas prices (retail), I found that the highest is in Alaska, at $2.99/gallon, and the lowest is $1.28/gallon, in Douglas, Wyo. This must mean someone from Mobil/Exxon lives in Wyoming?

Oh how I wish I had invested in oil stocks.

PHILLIP K. GREGORY

Carson City

USA showed the way for other countries

Someone missed the point:

A while ago I was in the Army living on an Army base. One day, 60 miles away from our base some radicals tossed a bomb into a place of worship killing four innocent young girls whose only crime was to be different than the bombers. Other people in the same group as those young girls were being hung and shot to death, or were being kidnapped on the street and reappearing dead and mutilated. Ten miles from our base another innocent person was beaten nearly to death with a tire chain for walking into the public library, simply for who he was.

If you think this sounds like Iraq or Afghanistan, like Shia Muslims and Sunni Muslims doing ethnic cleansing, you are thinking correctly, it does sound like that. But this was Alabama in the early '60s.

The gentleman from Minden who thought the Inauguration was "racist" missed the point, in my opinion. Jan. 20 was a celebration of freedom in the United States of America. It was a huge moment. It wasn't the culmination of a racist campaign nor the beginning of a racist presidency. The election, the presidency, are about change, not race.

But this inauguration was a double celebration. Something that will make the history books as being a great moment of the Civil Rights movement in America. Forgive us if we spent that one day celebrating the fact that the United States of America triumphed over prejudice. That is a really big deal! We have done something many nations can only dream about.

I dream of the day when Iraq can elect a Sunni to its presidency in a fair election and when Afghanistan can elect a Shia to president in a fair election. We showed the way.

PAT HUNTER

Carson City