Silver Dollars & Wooden Nickels: Repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' long overdue

The Nevada Appeal's "Silver Dollar" and "Wooden Nickel" feature recognizes positive achievements from the capital region and, when warranted, points out others that missed the mark.

Silver Dollar: To Congress, for finally doing away with the atrocious policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." The United States was left standing with countries such as Bangladesh, Uganda and Iran in its refusal to allow openly gay people to serve. Every other Western and developed nation allows gay servicemembers. The vote is a welcome end to an embarrassing chapter in America's long and sometimes detoured march to equality for all its people.

Silver Dollar: To Gov.-elect Brian Sandoval, for stating that he will not accept the 6 percent pay raise that by law is due the next governor and constitutional officers.

If they have not announced it already, we expect to hear the same from the attorney general, lieutenant governor, treasurer, secretary of state and controller.

Silver Dollar: To the road crews who were out in those arctic blasts that descended on Northern Nevada last week. We could've used more sand on Lakeview Hill, but for the most part, they kept the roads clear and traffic moving. Thank you for your service to the community, especially at a time when many of us still had lots of Christmas shopping to do.

Wooden Nickel: To Facebook, for a few of reasons. First off, its creator Mark Zuckerberg should not have been Time's man of the year. Surely some humanitarian, teacher or scientist somewhere in the world was more deserving

Second, those Navy pilots should not have come close to accidentally ditching their taxpayer-funded helicopters in Lake Tahoe while trying to get photos for Facebook.

And third, any site that lets old friends post photos of us in bad '80s haircuts for all our current friends and colleagues to see is not advancing technology in any meaningful way.

Some things - make that many things - are better left offline.