Letters to the editor 02/25/09

Loading up the truck; heading to Gardnerville

About a year and a half ago after living in Gardnerville for 16 years, we decided to move to Knoxville, Tenn., to be close to our youngest daughter and her family. We put our house in Gardnerville up for sale and bought a new home in Knoxville and away we went. However, with the change in the housing market and the bailouts we have not been able to sell in Gardnerville, which I am accepting as a blessing.

Knoxville is no Gardnerville. People here in Knoxville are not as friendly and neighborly as they are in Nevada. We found that we miss our friends in Gardnerville and our neighbors that have been a part of our lives for over 17 years, so Gardnerville we are coming home.

We are in the process of selling our house in Knoxville and heading home around April or May.

Gardnerville, Nev., we are coming home.

MARLYS FIX

Knoxville, Tenn.

We're inching closer to totalitarian police state

I predict that you will be seeing a lot more references to Internet "child porn" and "online sexual predators" even though these actually represent two entirely different issues. Politicians and the media are already using these two phrases interchangeably.

Furthermore, I suspect the public will soon be completely inundated with alarmist political statements, and related media stories, claiming that this "overwhelming" problem is absolutely everywhere, and simply has to be dealt with. However, the real reason for all of this is rather obvious; we as a society are being none too subtly pushed toward accepting living in a totalitarian police state where everything that anyone says, or does, over any communications medium, will be monitored, recorded and, thereby, be controllable by those in power for our own good, of course.

And, "child porn" is the perfect, knee-jerk, push-button issue that has been proven to cause even the most rational person to abandon any reasoned assessment. That's why politicians love it and have used it, repeatedly, to manipulate the public, so often.

Frankly, this appears to be the entire point of the latest "child porn" legislation and publicity campaign. This isn't being done to catch "child molesters" or to "protect children" or to "aid" legitimate "law enforcement" interests. That is just the thin, public rationalization ("child porn" is already illegal to produce, distribute, acquire, or possess). The simple fact is that, by definition, what is actually being called for, is the creation of the ability, and legal requirement, to preemptively monitor, record and control, in real time, virtually everything that anyone does on the Internet whether or not they are "suspected" of any "crime."

In fact, it is actually technologically impossible to restrict this invasive approach merely to actual "suspects." The only way this works is if everybody is watched, all the time.

Is "child porn" horrible, disgusting and despicable? Yes, absolutely. Is that a rational reason to give up our most basic rights, and privacy and treat everyone as potential-criminals? I'd say, no. And, that's without even touching on the obvious potential abuses of this kind of power or who will actually be wielding it.

RAIFE EDWARDS

Carson City

Non-native animals competing with wildlife

Mule deer and mountain lions are native animals to Nevada. Both have lost some of their habitat. Nevada's mule deer population has decreased by more than 50 percent in the last 10 years.

Mountain lions will continue to eat deer, but much is to be said about the other reasons for the mule deer's decline. We have been experiencing several years of drought.

This can decrease the fawn and adult survival rates. Wildfires have greatly decreased the food available for their existence.

One issue no one has mentioned is the competition for available food. Much of the mule deer's habitat is also the range of wild horses and burros. They eat much of the same food. These animals are not native to this country no matter how long they have been wild. The best way to increase the populations of mule deer, antelope and elk in Nevada is to remove these non-native animals from deer habitat.

THOMAS FINCH

Minden